Sounds wayyy too similar to GW2...open grouping...everyone wins...skills attached to weapons.

I think it will be another one of those "great for the masses, terrible for MMORPG fans" games.  

And the immersion will be killed if they have the different stories creating different permanent effects, yet anyone can group with anyone regardless of what they chose....it would be impossible not to. 

Originally posted by Randayn

Sounds wayyy too similar to GW2...open grouping...everyone wins...skills attached to weapons.

I think it will be another one of those "great for the masses, terrible for MMORPG fans" games.  

And the immersion will be killed if they have the different stories creating different permanent effects, yet anyone can group with anyone regardless of what they chose....it would be impossible not to. 

The game started off as a WoW clone.

Now it sounds like it's trying to clone GW2.

This game is not being made with passion or respect, it's being shat out by a big studio following whatever is "in" at the time, and NO MMO that has done that has EVER been a success, much less decent to play.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Zylaxx

 

No SKyrim did not do great without them.  Skyrims combat sucked as does all combat in TES RPG's.

 

I am sorry but beinbg limited to left and right mouse clicking for combat might be fun to you, but as an MMO, you need SKILLS AND ABILITIES, and the hotbar is the only effective and easily accessible way to grant them.  SUre you could do like SKyrim and press sprint + Forward for a power attack, or strafe left/right for a side swing, but that is BORING and stupid.  Hotbars are the best PERIOD.

ugh.I long for te mmo that limits skills or abilities. So contrived except when one takes spells into account.

Give me an mmo where it's only the mouse click and then perhaps hitting a directional key like in Oblvion or Skyrim and that to me would be a step forward.

Not boring and stupid. simple and elegant.

Ya'll need to read better :) TESO has both (at least right now) right+left click w/ charging up like Skyrim, and a 6 ability hotbar.

I've never played an Elder Scrolls game before, but this actually sounds like I would enjoy playing it with my buddies. The main factor that sent me away from the other ones was the fact that they were single player only, I like to play games with my friends and share the experience. Now that it is going to be online, I'm very much considering this as a game I would play when it releases. Also, I like the idea that players can use any weapon or armor as any class/role and I can be my bow wielding mage.

Originally posted by Galadourn
so targeting in combat is not tab-select but directional, like Skyrim? If that's so, the game is immediately many scales up in my expectations.

Same

Sounds to me like they're taking everything that makes The Elder Scrolls series different and homogonizing it into something very similar to the current 'standards' in the genre.  Basically trying to make the game recognizable to the average mmo gamer who are used to classes and hard-coded factions and fixed-target combat.  What will happen is fans of the series, or gamers wanting a sandbox game, will be turned off, and all those average gamers they're trying to appease will do what they always do in playing for a few weeks and then moving on.  In trying to please everyone, they'll please no one.

And yeah, I understand the reasoning behind having overly-gushing positive reviews to appease the average mmo-site reader, but see above, the same effect applies.  At this point this site compromises any and all integrity by no longer being remotely objective or critical; everything sounding like it's written by a lobbyist for the gaming industry or PR agent from the game company.  I guess they're happy to rely on the endlessly rotating turstyle of casual gamers/readers that just want to hear happy things about the products they already love.  Which leaves a site with nothing but fanboys, instead of being happier with a smaller, but dedicated group of gamers that stick with the site for the long term and actually discuss things in more depth than "omg looks awesome WoW killer for sure!". 

 And so too, I feel this is the similar direction of this abortion of the Elder Scrolls franchise.  Instead of having a product with a smaller scale be more respected and gain more dedicated followers over time (ala EVE), this game will shoot for the moon and end up so far short nobody will end up playing it long term (like so many other terrible games that try to appease everyone only to fizzle out almost instantly). [mod edit]

Thanks a lot for the article!

I have 2 questions, if you don't mind. Both of them are about the combat system:

1. So if I read it right, you can't attack or use your abilities, unless you target something with the reticule? Unlike in DCUO (or even GW2), where you can swing whenever you want.

2. Can you move while attacking?

They really need to drop phasing, it's a horrible system.

And praising the game for letting you have a last name, really?

There ARE a few decent things about this, and it seems they've given up thumping their chests and mentioning Wow constantly. The megaserver sounds like a neat idea. But I fear any social server will be crippled by instances and phasing.

A few issues though, about the WRITER of the article.

First, they said this was all pre-alpha. I guess that's the new term for pre beta? Because beta is the new term for free preview? THIS IS NOT PRE ALPHA. Pre alpha is NOT playable.

Second, this gem. "For instance when you enter a Public Dungeon like Crow's Wood in Morrowind (an instanced area that has its own story, missions, and multiple players and parties can enter at once), you’ll likely want to group up so you can work together easier."

PUBLIC DUNGEONS AREN'T INSTANCES. An instance is the OPPOSITE of public. I think the word you were looking for was "ZONE". It's how all good dungeons are made in all good MMOs. No instancing. A zone, open to everyone.

Why is EVE the only game that can still get server architecture right? I'm sorry, but "zone clone" needs to go away already. The single most immersion-breaking thing in MMOs today is being moved to Bleakrock_Channel_03 when your friends and everyone else is in Bleakrock_Channel_01 and Bleakrock_Channel_02. I can forgive this in highly-instanced themepark games, but in a TES game? Sorry.

Persistence is a huge part of what gives TES games life. I don't think you have persistence in this type of architecture and design. As much as I appreciate what they are trying to do in other aspects of the game, they dropped the ball here imo.

Personally I always loathed phasing.  MMOs are supposed to immerse you in the world and now you have parts of the world that are totally different than the person sitting in the room next to you?  Ugh.

Instancing I can at least wrap my head around.  Phasing is just such a cheap ploy to make people think the world is changing when it isn't changing at all.. it's a cheap illusion.

I'd take an instance over phased world any day.  I feel phasing is breaking the community up even more... and TES is going to have instancing (zone copies) AND phasing together?  Why not just play a single player game? :/

I had some hope that maybe this would be worth playing but the phasing is honestly a deal breaker for me, someone who plays MMOs with other people.

Originally posted by Dartoxer

Thanks a lot for the article!

I have 2 questions, if you don't mind. Both of them are about the combat system:

 

1. So if I read it right, you can't attack or use your abilities, unless you target something with the reticule? Unlike in DCUO (or even GW2), where you can swing whenever you want.

 

2. Can you move while attacking?

 

 

 

1.) Yep. But the "not able to attack" part is temporary for this build.  In future builds, you will be able to swing and miss and so forth.  

2.) Yep. You'll want to to avoid incoming attacks, though charging up a strong attack roots you in place.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

They really need to drop phasing, it's a horrible system.

And praising the game for letting you have a last name, really?

There ARE a few decent things about this, and it seems they've given up thumping their chests and mentioning Wow constantly. The megaserver sounds like a neat idea. But I fear any social server will be crippled by instances and phasing.

 

A few issues though, about the WRITER of the article.

First, they said this was all pre-alpha. I guess that's the new term for pre beta? Because beta is the new term for free preview? THIS IS NOT PRE ALPHA. Pre alpha is NOT playable.

 

Second, this gem. "For instance when you enter a Public Dungeon like Crow's Wood in Morrowind (an instanced area that has its own story, missions, and multiple players and parties can enter at once), you’ll likely want to group up so you can work together easier."

PUBLIC DUNGEONS AREN'T INSTANCES. An instance is the OPPOSITE of public. I think the word you were looking for was "ZONE". It's how all good dungeons are made in all good MMOs. No instancing. A zone, open to everyone.

Hey DavisFlight,

The "pre-alpha" is what they referred to the build as.  I used it because they did.  As to the "Public Dungeons" thing, that's the same.  They call Crow's Wood a Public Dungeon.  The game uses zoning to split up the regions of the world.  Think of Public Dungeons as a "zone", if that helps.  There will be "private" dungeons that are privately instanced for your group.

Originally posted by Dakirn

I had some hope that maybe this would be worth playing but the phasing is honestly a deal breaker for me, someone who plays MMOs with other people.

Hey Dakirn,

I can say that the phasing as you go through the story was jarring.  But they maintain that you'll be able to group with your friends no matter what path they take through the main storyline.  How they do is?  I assume you'll just "join" your friends through the UI.  Definitely not the best solution, but at least you can do it.

Didnt notice anyone asking

Is housing in? is it instanced? Will it be right up there at launch or is it a typical we might half assed add it after launch?

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by Dakirn

I had some hope that maybe this would be worth playing but the phasing is honestly a deal breaker for me, someone who plays MMOs with other people.

Hey Dakirn,

I can say that the phasing as you go through the story was jarring.  But they maintain that you'll be able to group with your friends no matter what path they take through the main storyline.  How they do is?  I assume you'll just "join" your friends through the UI.  Definitely not the best solution, but at least you can do it.

Thats not a solution though. Its like they were brainstorming and though how cool it would be if the world changed based on your actions but then after they did it someone reminded them they were  making an MMO not a single player game.  I do not see how they pull this off honestly and do it well.

Originally posted by yorkforce

Didnt notice anyone asking

 

Is housing in? is it instanced? Will it be right up there at launch or is it a typical we might half assed add it after launch?

I believe it's in the "after launch" box, I'm sad to say.