The Elder Scrolls Online: MMORPG

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by daeron55

so who knows how the combat system going to work or how the balancing system is going to be like

Funny that, TES games were never "balanced". It was a single player game, it was never about being balanced against anything. Humans were never meant to fight one another on equal grounds.

So they are either going to have imba gameplay that follow the TES spirit, or nerfed gameplay that is balanced but boring.

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Funny that, TES games were never "balanced". It was a single player game, it was never about being balanced against anything. Humans were never meant to fight one another on equal grounds.

So they are either going to have imba gameplay that follow the TES spirit, or nerfed gameplay that is balanced but boring.

Um... single player games still require balance so that the challenge and difficulty are fair. It's just less of a priority than in multiplayer games.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Tokkan

Um... single player games still require balance so that the challenge and difficulty are fair. It's just less of a priority than in multiplayer games.

Not at all, there is a reason we have difficulty selections in Skyrim. Everyone have their preference in difficulty, there is no "balance" in a single player game.

The second you ask for game balance, you speak of multiplayer competitive environments.

[Rising Dragon]

And even with "difficulty balance", there's always been ways to cheat the system. Usually with alchemy and enchanting hand-in-hand. Which you can be sure won't happen in TES Online.

[cronnoponno]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Funny that, TES games were never "balanced". It was a single player game, it was never about being balanced against anything. Humans were never meant to fight one another on equal grounds.

So they are either going to have imba gameplay that follow the TES spirit, or nerfed gameplay that is balanced but boring.

There are certain neglections towards balancing that ruin the gameplay.


What good is the frost magic in Skyrim? 90% of everything resists ice, and Stamina is a worthless stat, as long as you have a tiny smidgeon of it you can power attack and so can your enemies. The entire mechanics towards ice magic are worthless in vanilla Skyrim.


A lot of enemies in Skyrim have ridiculous bonuses to MP that make it extremely uncommon for you to completely drain their MP pool before you end up doing enough damage to kill them, the entire gameplay mechanic of electricity is borderline useless, it's only good for being an instant projectile.

Fire has no downside, and a lot of the enemies in Skyrim are weak to fire, the dragonborn DLC fixes this but that is an afterthought to the game, fire has very little downsides to it and is inherently stronger with a (useless) DOT effect.

Bleeding, a unique effect to axes, is pretty useless(even though it is the most useful specialization perk) because a HUGE pool of enemies in the game resist bleeding and it does useless amounts of damage.

Ignore defense is laughable, very few enemies in Skyrim have a worthwhile armor rating that warrants needing to ignore defense.


The serious neglect in the balancing of Vanilla Skyrim is taken to extreme levels, it pretty much ruins many playstyles(unless you play on super easy mega casual mode) and many of the mechanics that we were promised in Skyrim ended up being really pointless, I mean don't even get me started on how pathetic critical hits are, when you stop caring about balance so much that you make game mechanics that have pretty much no use or effect there is a problem.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

You complain about frost magic? Because magic is even more broken in Oblivion. And don't even mention Morrowind.

Frost magic being weak is accepted. It makes sense consider the location. Funny thing, is that many popular mods create spells that are even more overpowered than the game allowed in vanilla. It isn't about balance, it is about what made sense. Frost magic is weak because you are crazy to want to be frost mage in Skyrim. You might as well try to poison an Argonian.

...Then again, leaked pics seem to suggest you can poison Argonians in TES online. Good thing they are declaring it non-canon now.

[cronnoponno]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

You complain about frost magic? Because magic is even more broken in Oblivion. And don't even mention Morrowind.

Frost magic being weak is accepted. It makes sense consider the location. Funny thing, is that many popular mods create spells that are even more overpowered than the game allowed in vanilla. It isn't about balance, it is about what made sense. Frost magic is weak because you are crazy to want to be frost mage in Skyrim. You might as well try to poison an Argonian.

...Then again, leaked pics seem to suggest you can poison Argonians in TES online. Good thing they are declaring it non-canon now.

Frost magic had useless mechanics entirely. Before Skyrim came out, it was made clear that each element has a special meaning and use to it. Frost Magic specifically depleted Stamina, but depleting Stamina is entirely worthless, it's a pathetic element in an area where they'd obviously try honing it even more, and there's no point in it even being in Skyrim at all. It's useless content, only there if someone REALLY insists on playing a weaker style.

I also agree that a majority of magic overhauls in Skyrim are ridiculous, I saw a trailer to one where someone was spamming meteors as if his hands were machineguns, destroying an entire field, but that's just as ridiculous as an impotent gaming mechanic.

It would make more sense for Stamina to deplete if Stamina had debuffs on the character depending on how much is missing, it wouldn't do much damage because, yeah it's Skyrim..but lowering their combat abilities would give it a meaningful and special use that would enhance gameplay and add a purpose and new type of challenge to the game. You can't get that simply from toggling difficulty.

[Jazzrat]

Considering PvP combat will be an important pillar of the gameplay, I think there will be much better balance than Skyrim. Important thing to note is that TESO isn't made by the same studio as Skyrim so whatever history Bethesda Game Studio have with gameplay balance is pretty pointless in discussion with TESO.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

Considering PvP combat will be an important pillar of the gameplay, I think there will be much better balance than Skyrim. Important thing to note is that TESO isn't made by the same studio as Skyrim so whatever history Bethesda Game Studio have with gameplay balance is pretty pointless in discussion with TESO.

Well yeah, I did say that for the first time, "balance" mattered in a TES game. I am just pointing out that it would affect the game in major ways, in terms of player freedoms. Many a time you were given the choice to break a TES game, and it is truly up to you. But with Online they would have to keep everything tighter. It is a consequence of multiplayer.

[Chaos2Frozen]

The Elder Scrolls Online won’t require PlayStation Plus

...Xbox One users, on the other hand, will need an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription to play the game.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

The Elder Scrolls Online won’t require PlayStation Plus

Sony mentioned before that they had no intention to charge Gold fees for multi-player games that were either F2P or has a subscription fee already. They know nobody wants to pay for something twice.

[Chaos2Frozen]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Sony mentioned before that they had no intention to charge Gold fees for multi-player games that were either F2P or has a subscription fee already. They know nobody wants to pay for something twice.

Always-Online games as well I think- I could have sworn I heard that they're not doing it for Destiny...

[sa547]

The other day SOE announced that they were ending support for some older games, and will soon shut down those servers; not surprisingly those games had a smaller player population and according to SOE it wasn't economically viable to maintain the servers and it was the end-of-life stage.

[Keroko]

Remember when the devs said they chose a subscription platform to avoid putting content behind paygates?

Well, they've chosen to slightly forget that.

Want to play as an Imperial? Better pre-order.

Want to play a Redguard working under the Aldmeri Dominion? Better pre-order.

Want to have a mount when you start the game instead of whenever the actual game lets you? Better pre-order.

And just when things were starting to look up, too...

[Jazzrat]

Originally Posted by Keroko

And just when things were starting to look up, too...

I don't think TESO was ever in a positive light amongst gamers and media since it's announcement. Even SWTOR was atleast well received early on. TESO would certainly be an interesting MMO launch to see not for the game itself but the reaction and media surrounding it.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

I don't think TESO was ever in a positive light amongst gamers and media since it's announcement. Even SWTOR was atleast well received early on. TESO would certainly be an interesting MMO launch to see not for the game itself but the reaction and media surrounding it.

Well, things were slowly starting to turn around. Combat started to look more and more like a TES game (which ironically then started the complaints of how slow and sluggish the combat was) and less like ye olde WoWclone. People were starting to become genuinely interested.

Then they pull this.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Remember when the devs said they chose a subscription platform to avoid putting content behind paygates?

Well, they've chosen to slightly forget that.

Want to play as an Imperial? Better pre-order.

Want to play a Redguard working under the Aldmeri Dominion? Better pre-order.

Want to have a mount when you start the game instead of whenever the actual game lets you? Better pre-order.

And just when things were starting to look up, too...

Pre-order bonus is now shady to me. It seems they want you to buy the game sight unseen, because they are aware that people will not like it when they actually get to see the reviews.

In fact I suspect they are front loading all the DLC they were reserving for later, into the Imperial Pack, because they don't think anyone would be buying it in 6 month's time.

[Kyero Fox]

Its 80 bucks for digital... sad... I'd say it's worth 60 or 70 while the normal version costs 50.

[lightbringer]

Are you guys really surprised? The whole of TESO is a money grab, they want a part of the MMO pie just like everyone else. So it makes sense to add these kinds of things at the beginning, where interest from gamers will be highest. They should've stuck to offline where they were doing quite well, TESO seems like it has a good chance of destroying them financially once it bombs (and I'm certain that it will bomb, as brand is not enough to carry an MMO these days).

[sa547]

Nope. The fan backlash is large and vocal, and I had enough of a sober experience playing an MMO years ago, getting burned from grinding, from being fragged, and forking over lots of money just to gain more levels.

Which is why I still play Skyrim and making mods for it.