True Sandbox Game

LordDragonSlayer · March 13

At this point in time, why not just redo the game and make it a true Sandbox type game. Get rid of all Skill Lines and Passive Combinations as well as Racial Passives. Rename Racial Passives to Character Trait Passives. Going forward, when a character is created, they can choose any race and then up to 4 or 5 Character Trait Passives and one of those must be an experience increase one.

The Skill Lines would be replaced by just Skills and all Skill Line Passive's would just be replaced by Skill Passive's. The Skills are leveled like they currently are and can be morphed. The cost to cast is based on the higher of mag or stam or health depending on the skill. Skill Passive progression is level based. The Skill Passive's can be based on gear type, Skill's, and max or min resource. Crafting would be its own separate system and would follow the current path with the addition of new crafting lines, link Tinkers or something else.

By this method I could make an Argonian Tank with current Nord, Redguard, Imperial, and Breton racial abilities increasing experience with a Sword and Board.

Just a thought is all

LunaFlora · March 13

but why?

Soarora · March 13

It’s an over 10-year old game, how about we stop changing core systems? This suggestion would be all the problems with subclassing but worse as every character would have access to every buff/debuff, leaving us with one (1) “correct” way to play.

LordDragonSlayer · March 13

@Soarora Completely disagree. You can limit the number of passives and skills a player can have so they cannot be over powered. As far as one correct way to play, that is already the case. I would venture to say that 99% of the prog trial groups before the DK changes were made of subclassed Arcs for dps, subclassed DKs and/or Necros for tanking, and subclassed Wardens and/or Templars for healing.

Now most trial groups dps will be DKs because it is the flavor of the month. Next month it will be Wardens, then the next, then the next, and so on. In the end, Arcs which is ZOS's their favorite class will be the most powerful class again. Next people will be complaining about how powerful Arcs are, then maybe subclassing will get a boost. Then people will be complaining about that.

Personally, I am tired of ZOS messing with my builds. I liked my pure class DK tank, then I liked the subclassed DK/Arc/Ward tank better, now I hate both because they both suck. There is no reason at the moment to be a pure DK or even a DK with subclassed skill lines tank. The way the DK skills and passives for tanking were broken up makes no sense and it is not encouraging.

@LunaFlora, why not. Everyone is looking for a change to this game.

In addition, it can be open world pvp but you have to be flagged to participate.

ESO_player123 · March 13

Let's keep at least something that gives an identity to a character. And a big NO to open world PvP unless it's restricted to areas away from cities and quest locations.

master_vanargand · March 13

The current subclasses are fun.
They remind me of SWG, which I used to play.
If the pure classes get buffed, we'll finally have true freedom.
With the removal of daily quotas and other requirements, the game has finally returned to the fun sandbox-style MMOs of the past.

Necrotech_Master · March 13

if you want that much of an overhaul, might as well just try another game lol

theres no way they will overhaul a 12+ year old game to be something completely different like that

katanagirl1 · March 14

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

if you want that much of an overhaul, might as well just try another game lol

theres no way they will overhaul a 12+ year old game to be something completely different like that

I hope so.

I don’t know why so many newcomers want to completely scrap this game.

Deserrick · March 14

The racial skill idea would be an improvement, especially for races whose passives were changed after the character was created.

The skill idea would be a bit difficult to create the conditions for to grant the same idea of synergy without making the passives useless, but it does seem like an even freer form of subclassing, which could allow for more character expression.

jaekobcaed · March 14

... ESO is already pretty sandboxy. Sure, it's not as much of a sandbox as SWG or RuneScape, but you still generally have the ability to play however you want, just like the main TES games. The classes already offer insane levels of freedom with the ability to use any gear you want, join guilds, etc. That, on top of the other sandbox aspects of the game, let you effectively play how you want within the reasonable boundaries of the RPG side of the MMORPG acronym.

As a long-term MMO player who is now only actively playing ESO (and RuneScape here and there), I absolutely despise how this genre has become more about builds, minmaxing, raids, PVE grind above roleplaying, as the acronym includes. ESO is one of the very few MMOs out there today that genuinely feels like an RPG just as much as it is an MMO and I don't want that to change.

Deserrick · March 14

jaekobcaed wrote: »

, I absolutely despise how this genre has become more about builds, minmaxing, raids, PVE grind above roleplaying, as the acronym includes..

Same. A lot of great roleplay skills were changed for the sake of balancing the line or class as a whole, and the OP's proposed changes could lead to reverting some of those changes that moved it away from some of the RPG/roleplaying feel.