Bethesda to Announce Elder Scrolls MMO in May

SelfDestructPro

I've been wanting to go back to Morrowind for some time now.  And I always thought Elder Scrolls would make for an awesome MMO.  Can't wait.

TruthXHurts

Originally posted by ElderRat

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Brenelael

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Ganathar

Ok, so how exactly would the system work? What restrictions would you place and how would the skill trees be designed? Should skills like smithing simply become professions or part of your leveling like in the other Elder scrolls games?

So many questions :P

I'd have the standard skill up system  ( use a skill to increase it like one hand edge, blunt, etc. ).

Then have the perk system on top as the main diversifier.

Sure, everyone can get their one hand, two hand, magic, etc. skill to 100 ( or whatever the cap number is on skills.

In that area, everyone is the same.

But then the perks kick in and require you to choose advanced skill from your limited pool of points. Like Skyrims perks, or AA in current mmos.

So say with every y base skill at cap, you can handle most basic mobs plus craft low tier items, use basic spells, etc. You basically are a jack of all trades with all base skills maxed.

Now, you want to be one of the heroic figures who can run in and save the day when that big dragon boss comes flying into town, or go diving in those scary dungeons at the edge of the world? Then use your perk points to give yourself the edge in combat.

Or do you want to be the one crafting that high end armor that will be provided to those heroic figures, and make a pretty penny? Then use your points to max one or two perklines in the crafting skills so you can read those high end recipes and make that gear.

Or maybe do a bit of both. Use perk points to max your one handed or your fire magic line and the rest to max out your leather making or blacksmithing perk line. Now you can provide support in those big fights while also helping supply those full tier crafters.

 

The point is, with a class system you're basically confining everyone to picking one specific area of expertise, which of course leads to them wanting to max that one area of expertise. That's a guaranteed incentive to use the flavor of the month build.

With a classless system, sure you'll have those who'll do the same thing. I realize you can't completely eliminate that style of play.  But you're also opening the doors and providing a choice for those who want to do their own thing.

And to me, THAT is the important part of any "sandbox" game. Choice. Not the EAware SWTOR ( and every other themepark game on the market )  proclamation of choice which is nothing but the illusion of choice, but real choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sincerely hope they set it up this way Zorvan but my fear is still that they will feel the need to modify the mechanics to such a degree that it will lose what makes The Elder Scrolls what it is at it's core. This is what killed SW:ToR for me personally. They turned it into "WoW with Cut Scenes" and totally lost everything that made the KOTOR games great in the process. I fear TES may do the same thing in the pursuit of the WoW golden ring. This would alienate most of their existing fan base resulting in the game failing hard. I hope the guys at Bethesda and Zenimax are smart enough to see this.

 

Bren

Well, unless their Board is deaf, dumb, and blind, there's been no shortage of examples from EAware on how to totally burn your fanbase. But, like you, I'm not going to hold my breath on this one until I see the end result in action. I've personally been on the side of those who would prefer TES stay a singleplayer franchise. But I'll give it a shot provided they don't take the easy way out.

With Skyrim sales of 10 million+ copies, I'm hoping they know enough to stick to what works.

I am old - 60 - . It takes what 7 years or so to start, code, and implement a MMO?  I hope I can play t but I also hope they continue to make single player games that I can enjoy.  For me,  5-7 years is too long from now to worry about.  Hope all you younger players get what you want tho.

Can we please get this man a quality MMO before he kicks the bucket?!

ElderRat

Originally posted by TruthXHurts

Originally posted by ElderRat

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Brenelael

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Ganathar

Ok, so how exactly would the system work? What restrictions would you place and how would the skill trees be designed? Should skills like smithing simply become professions or part of your leveling like in the other Elder scrolls games?

So many questions :P

I'd have the standard skill up system  ( use a skill to increase it like one hand edge, blunt, etc. ).

Then have the perk system on top as the main diversifier.

Sure, everyone can get their one hand, two hand, magic, etc. skill to 100 ( or whatever the cap number is on skills.

In that area, everyone is the same.

But then the perks kick in and require you to choose advanced skill from your limited pool of points. Like Skyrims perks, or AA in current mmos.

So say with every y base skill at cap, you can handle most basic mobs plus craft low tier items, use basic spells, etc. You basically are a jack of all trades with all base skills maxed.

Now, you want to be one of the heroic figures who can run in and save the day when that big dragon boss comes flying into town, or go diving in those scary dungeons at the edge of the world? Then use your perk points to give yourself the edge in combat.

Or do you want to be the one crafting that high end armor that will be provided to those heroic figures, and make a pretty penny? Then use your points to max one or two perklines in the crafting skills so you can read those high end recipes and make that gear.

Or maybe do a bit of both. Use perk points to max your one handed or your fire magic line and the rest to max out your leather making or blacksmithing perk line. Now you can provide support in those big fights while also helping supply those full tier crafters.

 

The point is, with a class system you're basically confining everyone to picking one specific area of expertise, which of course leads to them wanting to max that one area of expertise. That's a guaranteed incentive to use the flavor of the month build.

With a classless system, sure you'll have those who'll do the same thing. I realize you can't completely eliminate that style of play.  But you're also opening the doors and providing a choice for those who want to do their own thing.

And to me, THAT is the important part of any "sandbox" game. Choice. Not the EAware SWTOR ( and every other themepark game on the market )  proclamation of choice which is nothing but the illusion of choice, but real choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sincerely hope they set it up this way Zorvan but my fear is still that they will feel the need to modify the mechanics to such a degree that it will lose what makes The Elder Scrolls what it is at it's core. This is what killed SW:ToR for me personally. They turned it into "WoW with Cut Scenes" and totally lost everything that made the KOTOR games great in the process. I fear TES may do the same thing in the pursuit of the WoW golden ring. This would alienate most of their existing fan base resulting in the game failing hard. I hope the guys at Bethesda and Zenimax are smart enough to see this.

 

Bren

Well, unless their Board is deaf, dumb, and blind, there's been no shortage of examples from EAware on how to totally burn your fanbase. But, like you, I'm not going to hold my breath on this one until I see the end result in action. I've personally been on the side of those who would prefer TES stay a singleplayer franchise. But I'll give it a shot provided they don't take the easy way out.

With Skyrim sales of 10 million+ copies, I'm hoping they know enough to stick to what works.

I am old - 60 - . It takes what 7 years or so to start, code, and implement a MMO?  I hope I can play t but I also hope they continue to make single player games that I can enjoy.  For me,  5-7 years is too long from now to worry about.  Hope all you younger players get what you want tho.

Can we please get this man a quality MMO before he kicks the bucket?!

ROFLMAO, thanks.

Mike-McQueen

You have to admit though that their eq system would work incredibly well in a full loot game. You'd still be pretty effective coming back out the gate wearing full steel with a matching claymore. Darkfall managed to pull it off albeit poorly but they didn't have the $ behind them either. If they don't do full loot I'm hoping for permanent item degradation with every death. At least then items will circulate in and out of the game and the economy will have a chance.

TruthXHurts

Originally posted by ELE3551

You have to admit though that their eq system would work incredibly well in a full loot game. You'd still be pretty effective coming back out the gate wearing full steel with a matching claymore. Darkfall managed to pull it off albeit poorly but they didn't have the $ behind them either. If they don't do full loot I'm hoping for permanent item degradation with every death. At least then items will circulate in and out of the game and the economy will have a chance.

Seriously without at LEAST item decay it will be a nightmare. Imagine how cluttered your storage areas get on the other TES games. Now multiply that by 1 million.

BereKin

I hope they will stay true to there origin and make great mmo, and not to be another disappointment like so many others nowdays. They got everything to make it a success: a potential, experience, setting have deep and rich story/lore......  Well, will have to wait and see if it going to be like that. Keep fingers crossed.

 

 

Brenelael

Originally posted by PyrateLV

I hope Bethesda realizes that they are going to have to complete the game themselves.

Community wont be able to Mod and tweek an MMO to make it better

What if they somehow figure out a way that the community can in some limited function? I know it's never been done before but if anyone can figure out a way and make it work Bethesda can. This would be pretty awesome if players could create their own content and upload it. Of course there would have to be some kind of approval process to keep out the crap and the stuff that would totally break the game but this would be an awesome feature that would set this MMO apart from the rest.

 

Bren

AlBQuirky

Kind of defeats the purpose of announcing in May, don't ya think?

This looks another SW:KotR-type scenario. Depends on how they handle it. Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim are all story driven games. SW:TOR showed that story driven scenarios don't work so well in the MMO genre, in my opinion.

If they take out the story and have a sandbox MMO, it could turn out to be something...

Khaeros

Originally posted by PyrateLV

I hope Bethesda realizes that they are going to have to complete the game themselves.

Community wont be able to Mod and tweek an MMO to make it better

 

I spend too much time making Bethesda games playable.  The joke will always be that Bethesda will have to pull new hires from the community in order to get the game complete after an unfinished launch.

 

They would have to pay me really well for that, though.  Bethesda bug exterminator is a full time job, trust me.

Ambros123

Sigh.... another great company heading down the road to mediocrity.  Didn't they learn from SWTOR?  Is there going to be any good single player RPG gaming companies left?

Eir_S

We know what game will receive "Buggiest game of the Year".  I love Bethesda's games, but I can see so much technical difficulty ahead for this one.

Jakdstripper

Originally posted by Khaeros

 

 

I spend too much time making Bethesda games playable.  The joke will always be that Bethesda will have to pull new hires from the community in order to get the game complete after an unfinished launch.

 

They would have to pay me really well for that, though.  Bethesda bug exterminator is a full time job, trust me.

 trust me, with a minimum of 1,000,000 subscribers at 15$ raking in 15,000,000 $ a month they should have NO trouble hiring a more people....

even with half that many subscribers the game would generate 85 millions a year only from subscriptions.

 

the ONLY thing they have to do is make sure they don't screw it up. then again i said the same exact thing about TOR....:S....

 

 

it's sooo easy.  forget about content and fluff at the beginning, just make sure your core features and core mechanics are solid and work well. you can always add, you can always increase your fan base.

JUST MAKE SURE WHAT YOU PUT OUT IS SOLID AND TRUE TO THE IP.

we will wait for content, we will wait for features, but for god's sake make it feel and play like the ES series.

 

 

eyeswideopen

Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

If I'm not mistaken, Todd Howard has been quoted saying that he does not like Multiplayer games.

So I'll believe this announcement when I see it.

He and his team make TES games for their own enjoyment.  As he says "We make the games that we, as gamers, want to play ourselves."

 

I am not a fan of Todd Howard.

Todd Howard says a lot of shit just to say it, or to boost sales.

His latest gems included the Skyrim pre-release staements of things like "new engine" and "on the fly patches".

He's Bethesda's Erling Ellingsen.

vaultbrain

Im not too sure about this. As it stands now, the single player RPGs that TES has consisted of have been masterpieces which have been staples in the RPG genre for years now.

Being able to transfer all of the things that made TES amazing into an MMO is going to be tricky. Players are going to expect customizable characters, skills, abilities, equipment, full loot, wide open world and sandbox style roaming. To date, no MMO has been able to successfully impliment these aspects, not since UO.

And, considering how EVERY SINGLE GAME COMPANY OUT THERE always ends up following the EQ/WoW model for their MMO's, Bethesda will probably end up following suit and turning an Elder Scrolls MMO into yet another WoW clone where we are stuck running instances, grinding levels and gear, grinding faction points, taking part in pointless battlegrounds, and end up just doing the same crap we do in every other WoW clone out there.

I would like to be proven wrong, believe me. Oblivion got me hooked on TES and since then Ive played every game. I would love nothing more than to finally have an MMO that gives the same level of freedom offered in the single player games. But to do so, Bethesda is going to have to travel the path already littered with the corpses of cames such as Darkfail, Moron (Mortal), ShadowBane, and the countless other MMOs who wanted to offer sandbox play, but never even made it out of development.

So, while the hope is there, its reluctant to say the least. If the game lives up to expectations, then I'll gladly sign up and pay a monthly fee. If not, then Fallout 4 had better be epicly kick ass for Bethesda to redeem themselves in my eyes.

Paradigm68

The problem is they'd need to match the graphical bar set in Skyrim for a MMO environment.

PheerMeeh

well, if they have enough time and money, then i can see this becoming something amazing. But the problem is, i don't know if they'll be given enough time and money. Especially an elder scrolls MMO?! a single player elder scrolls already takes a lot of damn time. The modding community won't be able to finish up theirgame for them this time either lol. 

even with all this i am still pretty happy about this. its almost like a dream come true for me and im sure a lot of other people. i've been burned many times before, so i won't get overhyped over this and start expecting impossible features and crap lol. i hope they do a much better job than bioware though.. in tackling their first MMO.

kilun

Originally posted by Bainwalker

Dear Besthesda,

 

I am one of your MANY fans strictly because of TES.  If you so much as change a single element of what makes TES such a great series of games just to cater towards the mass market of MMORPG player "Retards" you will have lost a long time fan.  Those features include...

 

Important

 

- FPS style combat

- Sandbox by DESIGN

- Open world

- Skill system instead of basic "Levels"

- Interactive world (NPCs)

 

Not so much but would like to see

 

- Every item is able to be picked up like in the SP games

 

If you so much as even consider making this MMO a themepark you may as well just stop now.  This world needs a good Sandbox MMO with FFA PvP.  We should be able to kill anyone any where... however there should also be a system in place so that it doesn't become a slaughter.  Every world has laws and a force to maintain said laws.

 

TES + MMO = Best MMORPG I could ever ask for... but only IF in the transition TES doesn't stop being itself at heart.

 

 Hate to break it to you, but FFA PvP doesn't make any sense.  If someone kills you, the story ends and you have to reload.  On that factor alone, it has to be a permadeath game.

There is no way in any way could this transition to a playable MMO with the SP:RPG experience.  It may follow some lore and be set in the same area, but it would no way follow the same game play.  TES is based on a single person saving the world, not based on a group of bums doing it.

sketocafe

Bethesda simply isn't capable of making an MMO. hopefully someone else under zenimax gets it.

stealthbr

I think what I am most skeptical about is the mixture between a twitch/skill-based combat system and an entirely open and seamless world in an online scenario. Is it even possible without massive lag, hit detection issues, etc?

enticle

I remember a few years after morrowind came out, I finally got around to playing it. After finishing up and getting bored with the game, I started to think about how great it would be if they made a mmorpg out of it. I sort of got the answer with darkfall, which I still enjoy once in awhile (can't wait for 2.0.)

I don't even feel the least bit excited hearing about this game, every recent mmo has been a major let down for me. There is just so many things that can go wrong turning this franchise into a mmorpg, and they will screw it up somehow. Hopefully they don't follow suit with what TOR has recently done and hopefully it's some sort of sandbox and not another linear game.

 

Edit:

 

Originally posted by stealthbr

I think what I am most skeptical about is the mixture between a twitch/skill-based combat system and an entirely open and seamless world in an online scenario. Is it even possible without massive lag, hit detection issues, etc?

 

Darkfall has done a pretty damn good job at that for a small indie company, if they can do it there's no reason a huge company with lots of funding couldn't. But will they take the risk of actually doing something different, possibly revolutionary? No one else will, all we've seen being released lately is the same rehashed crap with a few different features.

eyeswideopen

Originally posted by enticle

 

Originally posted by stealthbr

I think what I am most skeptical about is the mixture between a twitch/skill-based combat system and an entirely open and seamless world in an online scenario. Is it even possible without massive lag, hit detection issues, etc?

 

Darkfall has done a pretty damn good job at that for a small indie company, if they can do it there's no reason a huge company with lots of funding couldn't. But will they take the risk of actually doing something different, possibly revolutionary? No one else will, all we've seen being released lately is the same rehashed crap with a few different features.

Darkfall is not an example of showing a dev doing a "damn good job" at anything.

enticle

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by enticle

 

Originally posted by stealthbr

I think what I am most skeptical about is the mixture between a twitch/skill-based combat system and an entirely open and seamless world in an online scenario. Is it even possible without massive lag, hit detection issues, etc?

 

Darkfall has done a pretty damn good job at that for a small indie company, if they can do it there's no reason a huge company with lots of funding couldn't. But will they take the risk of actually doing something different, possibly revolutionary? No one else will, all we've seen being released lately is the same rehashed crap with a few different features.

Darkfall is not an example of showing a dev doing a "damn good job" at anything.

Clearly there's many issues with darkfall and it's far from perfect (why the game is basically dead,) but I'm answering his question. Yes darkfall has done it, so yes it is possible.

kinkyJalepeno

I think I just spooged in my jeans. PLEASE don't fuck this up dev's !!

Requirements

1. Sandbox

2. No levels

3. Classless

4. Minimal instances (world open as possible)

5. All core game mechanics intact (especially the perks)

6. Decent ragdoll physics and not pre animated deaths.

7. P2P

8. NOT browser based

9. Front kick ala Dark Messiah Might and Magic

10. Upgraded crafting system

11. Best equipment crafted

12. Boss mobs and raid bosses drop materials for the best crafted gear or lesser equipment if aapropriate for the mob type

13. GW2 style PvP (my personal preference)

Will be very interesting to see how they handle lore wise, how the world is full of dragon-born ??  Also, how are they gonna handle the magic and shouts etc?  Theres some insane spells/shouts/perks that would render a character a PvP griefing killing machine and rather OP such as the attacks from stealth and thieving abilities.

Interesting times and very exciting if this rumour turns out to be true.  Will deffinitely be keeping my eyes open for news on this one.

Quirhid

Nothing ruins a promising RPG than making it into an MMO. Look what they did to my KotOR!

skullquaker

Originally posted by reignjuste

 WTF diablo III release date,baldur's gate enhanced editions and now ES Online anouncement.

Seriously WTF is going on here?

we get all this  awesome news . then world ends in dec