Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

New weapon lines and abilities and some real costumes based on races. I don't understand we we can't get more racial clothing in the game.

Don’t quote me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if later down the road the styles of the class sets became “class-specific styles.”

About new weapon skill lines and abilities, I agree.

We have yet to receive Alteration Staves, Illusion Staves, Conjuration Staves, and Mysticism Staves, and they wouldn’t even need to revise old motifs to implement them, we could use the pre-existing staff motifs.

the class set styles are available in update 40 from the endless archive.

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

New weapon lines and abilities and some real costumes based on races. I don't understand we we can't get more racial clothing in the game.

Don’t quote me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if later down the road the styles of the class sets became “class-specific styles.”

About new weapon skill lines and abilities, I agree.

We have yet to receive Alteration Staves, Illusion Staves, Conjuration Staves, and Mysticism Staves, and they wouldn’t even need to revise old motifs to implement them, we could use the pre-existing staff motifs.

the class set styles are available in update 40 from the endless archive.

Really? I wasn’t able to find them on PTS.

Were they class exclusive?

I think so. You get them from the Endless Archive, I think?

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

New weapon lines and abilities and some real costumes based on races. I don't understand we we can't get more racial clothing in the game.

Don’t quote me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if later down the road the styles of the class sets became “class-specific styles.”

About new weapon skill lines and abilities, I agree.

We have yet to receive Alteration Staves, Illusion Staves, Conjuration Staves, and Mysticism Staves, and they wouldn’t even need to revise old motifs to implement them, we could use the pre-existing staff motifs.

the class set styles are available in update 40 from the endless archive.

Really? I wasn’t able to find them on PTS.

Were they class exclusive?

they're from the endless archive like i said.

maybe they won't be possible to get until update 41 i don't know if they've dropped for anyone on pts, but they're in collections as far as i know

I'd rather see Crossplay added on the tenth anniversary.

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

@Twohothardware, why would one be exclusive from the other?

• Cross-play is a system that allows more people to play together.
• Spellcrafting adds content to the game.

Each effect different aspects of the game.

It's clear some people in this thread don't understand what is sellable, marketable, monetized content and what is considered quality of life, base game, long term improvements.

Apples and oranges.

The game has been around long enough that we understand what their DLC structure looks like.

Chapters are structured purposefully in a way that is designed to bring back old players that have either taken a break or quit the game and bring in new players yet to experience what ESO has to offer. How can ZOS entice these players to pay 75% of the price of a brand new triple A game for what is essentially an update to a 10 year game?

So to that effect, how exactly would they "sell" cross play? The answer is they wouldn't and they can't. For starters, it would have to be a base game improvement that effects all players. Secondly, if that somehow replaced a new feature that we would normally get with a chapter, then existing players, players on break/quit and new players now get less value from their purchase. Why not just come back to ESO and play for free?

ZOS has to create a new marketable system mechanic every year with their chapter because it's essentially their chance to re-release the game as "new" despite being 10 years old. Players returning also means an increase in reoccurring revenue because most people end up subbing for ESO + or purchasing crowns if they're interested in the game, since they just made a big purchase for the chapter, they're more likely to "invest" their time and money into ESO.

This is why historically, they followed up the chapter release with a light content dump for 2x dungeons. Gives them time to work on bigger updates and fix anything that maybe broke from the chapter. Also gives new and returning players a quick new content fix following their chapter purchase, which is why this gap in updates every year is so short.

It's easy to see why they dropped the 2x dungeons in favour of bug fixing now that the game has 10 years worth of dungeons, trials, quests, and chapter content. A new player has infinite things to do nowadays and I'm sure they're overwhelmed with possibilities, the last thing they need is 2 new dungeons when everything is new to them. Vets certainly have more than enough and complain about playing them once they farmed them after the first week.

Historically again, they gave the zone dlc for free either through an event or login bonus coupled with an arena every 2 years. During COVID they broke that 2 year cycle. To see them change that zone dlc to a free base game Endless Archive, made total sense and shouldn't be surprising. The main objective was always to make you keep playing when people start to fall off a few months after the chapter, not to purchase the DLC with crowns which barely anyone does due to ESO + access.

After those 2 quick updates, the big gap happens from Nov - March. About 5 months, this is the largest downtime for content each year because ZOS knows their market. This is when they lose players to school, work, halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas, new years, all the new movies and new games that come out during this time. They push mild events to keep current players engaged, while they spend the extra downtime on working towards the next chapter full force. This is also why dlc 1 of every year in March, is only 2x dungeons and usually contains bigger base game improvements. They've noted before that they don't like doing things like CP 2.0, hybridization or the big 20s dot changes in U35 during chapters, so they reserve them for the DLCs where the least amount of players are active to not confuse the player base.

Going back to chapter content. A new class has always been a staple of MMO's for this very purpose and it's why doing 1 every 2 years (previously) was a great structure for ZOS. I consider COVID the dark ages, when they broke that 2 year cycle with a 4 year gap between Necro and Arcanist

Since things seem back on track, no one should be expecting another class for 2024, but 2025.. sure.

What could they actually do for 2024 given the information we know?

• Low chance of it being another class given their track record.
• 10th anniversary, needs to come out swinging.
• Needs to appeal to new and returning players.
• Given their statements in 2022, should expand upon the existing game and zones, similar to how Endless Archive repurposed most of the enemies and bosses for new content.
• ZOS received lots of flack for the more casual, niche nature of Tales of Tribute and Companions.
• Content zone will most likely prey on Elder Scrolls IP nostalgia as much as possible given the fact that this is a 10 year anniversary.
• ZOS expressed that they won't ever make pay gated PVP content again, most games including COD and Battlefield learned to not do this either because it destroys queue times by separating and locking out your players. They instead release new maps for free with the hope that you'll purchase a battle pass or gamble your money on loot boxes.

To all that.. I think the most obvious answer is Spellcrafting + Northern/Central Skyrim.

I think it's very telling that they made a point of taking their time covering all of Skyrim with different sections that could be filled in across multiple chapters. I can't think of any better way to introduce spellcrafting other than with the College of Winterhold before the collapse.

I think those 2 things together would crush the marketing aspect. Even people not into MMO's, but into Skyrim (the most popular ES game to date) would see the marketing material as really intriguing. Especially when you put it like "Revisit the College of Winterhold in Skyrim before it's destruction to learn ancient secrets to create any spell and play ESO how you want!"

All that being said, that is best case scenario. Playing devil's advocate, they could easily fumble by creating a 10th anniversary chapter for a zone the general public has never heard of, with a mechanic just as niche as the previous examples like farming or a pokemon catch em all type of RP thing to do... But even with all my scepticism I can't see that happening.

Even if they don't do spellcrafting in the way I hope, I think at the very least they would make a new guild skill line ala Psijic Order, hopefully a bit more interesting than that or more than 1 line to play with.

I really want new weapons too, but I think that is less likely these days with hybridization and how it wouldn't really be beneficial for all players, where as a universal skill line would. There is also some issues with a new weapon. I've seen people talk about motifs, which can be remedied by focussing on more staves or 1H + magic, since the motifs already exist... however, I don't see people mention how it would mess up loot tables, currently, you either have access to a dlc or you don't, the loot table is accessible or it isn't. With new weapons, the expectation when talking about a chapter is that it would be sellable content, which means if you didn't have the chapter, you would be locked out of a portion of the loot table for ALL aspects of the game since we would expect them to update all sets with the new weapons.

I really can't see them introducing a barrier like that, I think it would be much more likely that a new weapon would be base game content for DLC 4 like how Endless Archive was for 2023. So again, I don't see that happening for a chapter, which really narrows down what it could be.

I'd ask for rolling-back One Tamriel.
- Have your alliance mean something again.
- Have your level mean something, instead of just being a race-to-endgame.
- Have the story line mean something again. Is this a role-playing game, or a fancy Diablo?
I'm sure I won't get anyone to agree with this wish, especially Zenimax. They're convinced that making all the content the same brings in more new players.

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Hopefully one day we’ll receive a look into Overland difficulty that finally addresses that problem. I’m also a firm believer that an Overland difficulty update would pair great with Spellcrafting, as it would send you all across Tamriel looking for parts to spells.

Those are two of the worst things that could ever happen to this game.

I can't think of anything that would do more to revitalise my interest in this game as spellcrafting. So many problems I have with the game could be fixed if I were allowed to just make my own spells and play the way I want (within reason of course, so no OP spells, etc).

People say this is impossible to balance, but I think they lack a lot of imagination. Obviously a spellcrafting system wouldn't be a free-for-all where you can make whatever ability you want with whatever stats. The devs are more than capable of thinking of good ways of capping the system so that it remains engaging without being overpowered.

But this really would change how I approach this game, throwing all my complains about necromancer out the window as I could just make the necromancer skills I want/like myself. Same with daedra worship, or any other number of possibilities. Are you a daedra-worshipping nightblade? Now you can make a summoning spell for a flame atronach or scamp instead of being forced to play as a sorcerer if you want to commune with daedra.