You know what would make this a truly unique and stand-out mmorpg?

Functional sailing ships, naval battles, and ocean going trials. Like that vaporware game everyone says they are going to switch to. If it ever comes out.

Naval Combat: An Open Letter to the ZOS Microsoft? Team

In this era of microtransactions and “games as a live service,” publishers are no longer just competing for customer dollars, they are competing for customer attention, as well. To remain competitive, increase profitability, and extend the life of the live service, online games continually need to innovate and improve. With the upcoming maybe someday release of TES 6, ESO will especially need innovative new content both to differentiate itself from its newer sister title and to provide a reason to bring players back from it. This letter identifies an avenue of innovation untapped by the other major mmorpgs.

The tall ships moored in the ports of Tamriel are beautiful to behold. And more importantly, they are inspiring. How many players have seen those assets and thought to themselves; “I wish I could sail that!” How many of you have thought the same thing?

Admittedly, adding player-controlled sailing vessels along with new compatible map areas, naval encounters, ship-based pvp, and nautical trials would be a herculean expense. But I'd be willing to pay for it. I'd happily pay the value of a full-price game and then some. And I'll bet other players will, too!

A new sailing ship mechanic would bring the following benefits to both ZOS and the player base:

ZOS Benefits

First: History has shown that adding additional game play types are successful in both attracting and retaining players in the long term. When the usual pledges and trials get boring, players can put on their feathered tricorns and head to the coast.

Second: There are no other modern major sailing mmos with a healthy population. In fact, there are very few sailing games in general, and they all suck. Adding a full-featured “pirate ship game” into ESO has awesome marketing potential for bringing back former players and attracting new ones.

Third: Remember how successful the Housing update was in terms of player interest and crown store sales? Imagine another update with that same potential. People will want to buy ships, customize ships, hire npc crewmen, and then upgrade all of them. And think of the costumes and motifs, not just for the players, but for their npc crews, as well!

Fourth: It is technically feasible. Star Citizen has shown it can be done on an FPS engine. Twice. And they did it the hard way. Since ESO has no compunctions against loading screens, in theory it should be easier here. Furthermore, Star Citizen implemented a hideously complex 3-D flight regime. ESO only needs to fudge in enough two-dimensional sailing mechanics to spice up a fantasy mmo.

Fifth: There is already a built-in fundraiser for the platform. Advertise a sailing expansion on the crown store. Rake up the cash the following morning and take it in wheel barrows to your favorite engine-modding sweatshop in India, Sri Lanka, or Texas. The ZOS in-house staff can work on the writing and assets while the engine gets rebuilt. You might even be able to license some of the ship assets from other studios. I understand Game Labs has a sailing game that might be foundering....

Sixth: This would be an excellent opportunity/excuse to beef up or even replace the core engine. You know what I am talking about *cough*Cyrodiil*cough*cough*. I don't mind subsidizing an engine upgrade to get working pirate ships.


Player Benefits

First: New Combat Mechanics for ESO! Imagine World of Warships, but with sails instead of smoke stacks. Imagine a Cyrodiil-style sea map where everyone fights from aboard ships. We could have ship-mounted ballistas, catapults, and billowing steam cannons. Imagine npc boarding parties following your character onto the hostile decks of enemy vessels. And salvage, too. And the booty....

Second: New Sandbox Mechanics! Because if it's one thing Elder Scrolls fans love, it is the infinite sandbox. We could have a whole ocean of new content. Diplomacy and/or navigation mini-games to open new parts of the map, naval crafting (hulls, siege engines, sails, ropes, powder, etc), colony building, and, of course, open world piracy!

Third: Off-map zones. A whole slew of new lands away from the existing map (and lore) would be opened up with the potential for new races, flora, and fauna. This is also an excellent way to handle new instanced areas like dungeons, pvp areas, and trials.

Fourth: New questing opportunities. New types of quests. New motivations to do quests.

Fourth: A new way to handle repetitive content. There could be weekly quests that randomly open entire unmapped islands full of new daily quests. Imagine a different pool of multiple dailies every week of the month.

The Vision

I am not advocating for another maritime-flavored fantasy mmorpg expansion where players use ship-like immobile objects to teleport from island to island. I think we have all seen enough of that over the past couple years. I am not talking about a ship-themed rail shooter either.

For this vision to work, we're going to need fully functional mobile objects that players can board and walk around on. These ships will also need to be destructible by sections similar to the structures in Cyrodiil. And crucially, the wind direction/strength should heavily influence the ship's speed depending on direction of travel.

All of the ship functions would be accessible by work station interfaces and would have an npc operating them by default. When a player wants to operate the work station, the npc would step aside:

-Siege weapons would function very similarly to Cyrodiil, but with each one being a permanent work station at a designated point on the ship. Each would be a destructible object.

-Each mast would have a work station where the sails could be trimmed to either maximize speed or minimize potential for wind damage (based on the current wind direction). The sails/rigging could also be repaired at this station, or replaced with sail types more advantageous to the current winds.

-The tiller/ship's wheel workstation would steer the ship. It would also have UI elements for wind direction/speed, compass heading, and waypoint heading. This station would also be able to designate priority targets for the siege engines. Additionally, the player would be able to switch to 3rd person view from this station. Ideally this would function as a sailing simulator, with the ship's heading, sail type, and the wind rewarding proper heading, jibing, and tacking with improved performance.

-The navigator station would host the navigation mini game for opening new areas on the map and would also be able to designate way points for the helmsman.

-The carpenter workstation would be used to effect/direct npc repair parties on the ship.

In every case, npc performance at the work stations would be mediocre at best, with npcs only shooting at designated targets, slavishly following way points at the helm, and rigging the sails for maximum safety with the cost of minimum performance. This would give the ship owners motivation to find other players to operate their ship's workstations and give the operating players a chance to really shine.

There could be a variety of ship sizes and classes available, from dinghies to frigates to massive cargo galleons. Of course, each race and alliance could have a distinct style of naval architecture similar to the armor system. Ship customization would include basic colors and alliance/race heraldry for hulls and sails by default. More complex heraldry, scrollwork, and mast heads could be made available through the crown store or as achievement rewards. Npc crewmen could be dressed up with crown store uniform upgrades as well.

The ships could be used not only to convey characters to new questing areas, but also as quest hooks themselves. There could be shipboard missions for cargo hauling, fishing, whaling, monster slaying, mapping, escorting, patrolling, interdicting, blockading, privateering and pirate hunting.

Further Details and Random Suggestions

-Rather than having ships parked along every available coastline like Ultima Online, or summoning them from thin air like the current mount system, ship owners would be able to summon and board their vessels at certain designated areas, like docks or beached rowboats along the coast. Other people could then use the “Travel to Player” function to board the ship owner's vessel.

-Falling in the water would start a 1-minute timer for the original ship (or another one) to come back and pick up the player before the slaughter fish and shrieking eels arrive.

-Ship upgrades and repairs would require a new form of currency; gold bullion. This would be awarded by naval quests and by boarding hostile vessels in combat and subduing their crews. This currency could also be used in future expansions for building and upgrading player-controlled colonies and trade ports.

Conclusion

This is an opportunity to fill an unoccupied niche. The Housing update has already illustrated the benefits of adding new game mechanics, and there are superb monetization opportunities here. “Pirate Ships” and all they entail are a guaranteed marketing winner in any medium. Thanks to the fine folks at Cloud Imperium, we know an FPS engine can be modded to accommodate large multi-crew vessels. And thanks to the fine folks at Blizzard we know exactly how not to implement island exploration.

Imagine the new ships to sail, new coasts to explore, and new pvp opportunities. Imagine the new landscapes, color palettes, and shading. Imagine stormy seas and alien sun sets, massive tentacled sea beasts and exotic native peoples. Imagine a new Chapter for Elder Scrolls Online called; “Assault on the Akaviri Coast,” or maybe “Sailing the Tsaesci Sea,” or perhaps... “The Pirates of Pyandonea?”



You know what else I would love to see as a new system?

Pokemon style pet battles using cosmetic/companion pets. Like that other game we all came here from.


You know what I really don't care for?
Using other classes' skill trees. That sounds like a low/no effort way to destabilize the game (further).