ESO's Future Landmass Content Model

APGaming · July 12

With the future of ESO rather uncertain, many of us are wondering what content might look like going forward. Recently, I know people have been satisfied with the shift away from the Chapter model, which freed up the development team to make great changes to the game, but this shift left some players with less of their favorite part of the game: regularly exploring new parts of Tamriel.

ESO has become the single best way for an Elder Scrolls fan to explore the vast and beautiful worlds of the franchise, and since 2023, the team has slowly been reducing the amount of new zones added to the game. It started with no Q4 Story DLC Zone, and now there is no more Q2 Chapter Zone. I don't expect content to ever pick back up the way it used to be, especially not in light of recent events, which is what got me thinking about how ZOS can continue to add to the world in meaningful ways.

Below are four different ways (these have mostly been done by the team before) for ZOS to bring us regular story and exploration content at a lower development time, while still mixing in the occasional brand new zone:

Existing Zone Refresh:
Take an existing zone and find "dead space" (not accessible) to add new locations and a new storyline, while updating the graphics and atmosphere of the zone.
Past Examples: Glenumbra (Thieves Guild Sequel), Bal Foyen, Bleakrock Isle, Betnikh, Stros M'kai, Khenarthi's Roost
Future Candidates: All remaining Alliance Zones

Existing Zone Inward Expansion:
Expand an existing zone from within by evaluating "dead space" (not accessible) to see how much of an expanse can be added to the zone. If a patchwork or swaths of land is able to be added then the zone can expand inwards. This can allow for new sidequests to appear in the newly added areas, and the new main quest to take the player between the "old zone" and the seamlessly added new area without going through a loading screen in the open world.

There are no past examples of this. Imagine if the mountainous regions of Summerset became traversable hill country with settlements and quests.

Future Candidates: Summerset (only 60% of the Isle is currently accessible), Vvardenfell (the areas around Red Mountain and Sheogorad are not accessible)

Existing Zone Outward Expansion:
Expand the physical size of a zone beyond its current world map borders. In this case, a completely new expanse is added to the existing zone in a direction on the world map (similar to Upper and Lower Craglorn or Western and Eastern Solstice). This area is able to have new hub cities, but still has a seamless transition with no loading screens in the open world. This would only happen to smaller zones, most of which make a case for outward expansion.

Past Examples: Craglorn, Solstice

Future Examples: Telvanni Peninsula (towards Firewatch), Southern Elsweyr (towards Torval, Corinthe, and Alabaster), Murkmire (towards Soulrest), The Reach (towards Jehanna), Blackreach, Clockwork City, The Deadlands, Fargrave, Coldharbour

The Occasional New Zone:
Completely new zones, regardless of size, are added to the world map on a less regular basis than before. Similar in size and scope to the Chapter/Zone DLC system of the past, players experience a new story with new side quests in a new location.

Past Examples: Any Q2 Chapter or Q4 Zone DLC

Future Examples: Winterhold, Telvanni Isles, Khefrem, The Shivering Isles, etc.

I'd love to hear if anyone else in the community has ideas about how Tamriel could see expansion/densification as the development team gets back on their feet and continues delivering quality Elder Scrolls experiences.

I'll close with a massive thank you to Zenimax Online Studios and anyone who contributed to the world of this game over the past 20 or so years of development. This is a special online RPG and living world you created. You gave me a beautiful escape from reality whenever I needed it.

LunaFlora · July 12

i think that all sounds like good ideas.

Renato90085 · July 12

Those places are actually accessible by some means..
but yes,if they can update old zone,it pretty good

Gagoimaliu · July 12

Honestly it always felt weird to me that Valenwood was four different zones but Summerset was only two zones (Auridon and Summerset proper) so I think your idea of going back to old zones and making inaccessible parts explorable with new quests and hubs might actually be a way to make the place feel bigger.

Go back to old zones, give them a refresh, maybe make some hubs bigger with new quests, open up inaccessible zones, add more stuff to them. Old zones not being as important isn't that big of a problem in ESO as it is say in Warcraft, because we have stuff like the new Thieve's Guild questline and dynamic encounters, which is a good step in that direction of making zones always be used for something.

IviRo · July 12

APGaming wrote: »

With the future of ESO rather uncertain, many of us are wondering what content might look like going forward. Recently, I know people have been satisfied with the shift away from the Chapter model, which freed up the development team to make great changes to the game, but this shift left some players with less of their favorite part of the game: regularly exploring new parts of Tamriel.

ESO has become the single best way for an Elder Scrolls fan to explore the vast and beautiful worlds of the franchise, and since 2023, the team has slowly been reducing the amount of new zones added to the game. It started with no Q4 Story DLC Zone, and now there is no more Q2 Chapter Zone. I don't expect content to ever pick back up the way it used to be, especially not in light of recent events, which is what got me thinking about how ZOS can continue to add to the world in meaningful ways.

Below are four different ways (these have mostly been done by the team before) for ZOS to bring us regular story and exploration content at a lower development time, while still mixing in the occasional brand new zone:

Existing Zone Refresh:
Take an existing zone and find "dead space" (not accessible) to add new locations and a new storyline, while updating the graphics and atmosphere of the zone.
Past Examples: Glenumbra (Thieves Guild Sequel), Bal Foyen, Bleakrock Isle, Betnikh, Stros M'kai, Khenarthi's Roost
Future Candidates: All remaining Alliance Zones

Existing Zone Inward Expansion:
Expand an existing zone from within by evaluating "dead space" (not accessible) to see how much of an expanse can be added to the zone. If a patchwork or swaths of land is able to be added then the zone can expand inwards. This can allow for new sidequests to appear in the newly added areas, and the new main quest to take the player between the "old zone" and the seamlessly added new area without going through a loading screen in the open world.

There are no past examples of this. Imagine if the mountainous regions of Summerset became traversable hill country with settlements and quests.

Future Candidates: Summerset (only 60% of the Isle is currently accessible), Vvardenfell (the areas around Red Mountain and Sheogorad are not accessible)

Existing Zone Outward Expansion:
Expand the physical size of a zone beyond its current world map borders. In this case, a completely new expanse is added to the existing zone in a direction on the world map (similar to Upper and Lower Craglorn or Western and Eastern Solstice). This area is able to have new hub cities, but still has a seamless transition with no loading screens in the open world. This would only happen to smaller zones, most of which make a case for outward expansion.

Past Examples: Craglorn, Solstice

Future Examples: Telvanni Peninsula (towards Firewatch), Southern Elsweyr (towards Torval, Corinthe, and Alabaster), Murkmire (towards Soulrest), The Reach (towards Jehanna), Blackreach, Clockwork City, The Deadlands, Fargrave

The Occasional New Zone:
Completely new zones, regardless of size, are added to the world map on a less regular basis than before. Similar in size and scope to the Chapter/Zone DLC system of the past, players experience a new story with new side quests in a new location.

Past Examples: Any Q2 Chapter or Q4 Zone DLC

Future Examples: Winterhold, Telvanni Isles, Khefrem, The Shivering Isles, etc.

I'd love to hear if anyone else in the community has ideas about how Tamriel could see expansion/densification as the development team gets back on their feet and continues delivering quality Elder Scrolls experiences.

I'll close with a massive thank you to Zenimax Online Studios and anyone who contributed to the world of this game over the past 20 or so years of development. This is a special online RPG and living world you created. You gave me a beautiful escape from reality whenever I needed it.

Originally, before Rich took up his leadership role, Summerset was supposed to be like Craglorn; the initial plan was to release one part of Summerset first, followed by a second part – as confirmed by an old ESO beta map. As far as we know, the storyline for Summerset was also supposed to be much more expansive. But ZOS chose a different path and began scaling back the locations. I would have preferred it if we’d been given locations like Craglorn – large ones, packed with content, but revealed gradually. To be honest, I only liked the Quest system at the very beginning; afterwards, I began to question the idea itself as I learnt more and more about how everything was originally intended to be.

Pixiepumpkin · July 12

All I know is that I miss chapters. I miss seeing the Elder Scrolls world being fleshed out in game. I don't want to play the same stuff over and over and over. I'd like to experience new content inside of new zones.

I am starting to get the feeling that moving away from Chapters had less to do with what the community wanted and more to do with not spending the resources to flesh the Elder Scrolls universe out anymore in game. Very confusing.