Game News The Elder Scrolls Go Online

[Stabwound]

btw, isnt it strange that now suddenly they can implement the whole continent, where earlier they said it was impossible? due to technical restrictions?

i am expecting even smaller world with "huge" cities of 4 huts and a castle.

I can't remember the source, but I read something about the game world being about the size of Skyrim.

So yeah, I can't wait to explore a 1/10th scale size Morrowind and Skyrim!

 

[Sul]

Yes, everything is a dream (or kapa as Paarthurnax in Skyrim calls it). The Godhead already tried to wake-up, or do you think that Alduin the World-Eater was just a big bad dragon wanting to kill people just for the sake of it? Even Paarthurnax says that Alduin was there to bring the next kapa (or dream), he just not anticipated a Dragonborn to show up that somehow was also CHIM, a sentient part of the dream.

Out of curiosity, what evidence is there that the Dragonborn reached CHIM? I hear this quite often, but I never hear of any evidence. The only people I know of who have reached CHIM are Talos, Vivec, and possibly the Nerevarine (since the Lessons of Vivec seem to be written for him).

A game that features Elder Scrolls lore that is actually integrated into the story (not in a hamfisted way) would be quite interesting. So, naturally, it will never happen.

The fact that he is the player character and thus has the power to shape and control the dream (quicksave/quickload, construction set, console commands, etc...). Same for Talin, the Agent, the Apprentice, Cyrus (ascended to become the HoonDing like Tiber->Talos after he was "killed" by Vivec), Nerevarine, Master Tunnel Rat, Hero of Dawnstar, Hero of Shadowkey and Champion of Cyrodiil (ascended like Cyrus and Tiber to become Sheogorath/Madgod, confirmed by himself on Skyrim).
There's also that thing about CHIM being like a black hole on the Elder Scrolls, the only way to know there's one is by the fact there's nothing there at all on an ocean of infinite pasts and futures, this is the way the Moth Priests know when there'll be a prophecy like the one of the Dragonborn.

btw, isnt it strange that now suddenly they can implement the whole continent, where earlier they said it was impossible? due to technical restrictions?

i am expecting even smaller world with "huge" cities of 4 huts and a castle.

I can't remember the source, but I read something about the game world being about the size of Skyrim.

So yeah, I can't wait to explore a 1/10th scale size Morrowind and Skyrim!

What? By the scans seems like they aren't going to create a seamless world like Morrowind or Skyrim, instead they are doing cities with the surrounding area.

 

[Tigranes]

Why does TES lore so sound so fucking cool compared to anything you ever see in any of the games?

 

[zeitgeist]

It would be nice, too, if there were different languages. And it just scrambled your text if you tried to talk to someone of an opposing race.

You could learn each other's languages, and perhaps there could be a Common speak, though you'd have to train it by using it over the course of the game, or visiting a talent trainers.

This exact system existed in SWG, but it was too easy to learn languages from other players (it happened instantly), so all it amounted to was new players being slightly confused until someone taught them all the languages at once, and then it was useful just for roleplaying reasons.

 

[Toffeli]

Why does TES lore so sound so fucking cool compared to anything you ever see in any of the games?

It doesn't.

 

[Sul]

Why does TES lore so sound so fucking cool compared to anything you ever see in any of the games?

It doesn't.

What do you mean by "It doesn't.

"?

 

[Turjan]

btw, isnt it strange that now suddenly they can implement the whole continent, where earlier they said it was impossible? due to technical restrictions?

i am expecting even smaller world with "huge" cities of 4 huts and a castle.

Isn't that a limitation by specific engines and/or the capabilities of consoles? Both limitations don't apply here.

Why does TES lore so sound so fucking cool compared to anything you ever see in any of the games?

Yes, it's sad. I would like to see the Tamriel of the first Pocket Guide to the Empire and of some of the ingame books.

 

[Stabwound]

What's sad is that there could potentially be a really fun Elder Scrolls MMORPG. Potentially. Except they're shitting on the opportunity with some horrific WoW clone.

Even if they did some Frankenstein job and combined the existing land masses for Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim and made an MMO out of that with further expansions, it would be potentially fun. But no, it will be a tiny piece of shit with 1/10th scale provinces.

It was obvious that this game was going to happen at some point, but I thought they would at least do it in Elder Scrolls style, not WoW style. Holy fuck.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Why does TES lore so sound so fucking cool compared to anything you ever see in any of the games?

Because it's text and no game will match your imagination. :spongebobrainbow.jpg:

 

[Havoc]

Why does TES lore so sound so fucking cool compared to anything you ever see in any of the games?

Because it's text and no game will match your imagination. :spongebobrainbow.jpg:

More like "Our gamers are too stupid for this. You can have it in ingame books. - Zenimax".

 

[Mother Russia]

This will suck 4 sure. Bethesdafags will buy it on day 1 though.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I doubt even bethfags go for it. Maybe half million Wow fags and that's it. This game would have treaded water ala SWtOR a couple years ago but it's too late now. Zenimax is doomed, and I couldn't be happier. They deserve this fate after they buttfucked devs like Obsidian the way they did. Damn what a fuckup. It's hard to believe even THESE shortsighted publishers would have green lighted this garbage. Goddamn this shit is so hilarious. The whole story and VO thing was done to death by TOR. Everything else is a Wow ripoff. Don't they get how 2007 they look? This is old hat for fucksake. 3 factions? Good idea if the rest of the game didn't suck ass. I know Codex tastes differ from the mainstream, but this shit is a failfest. I wouldn't even be surprised if it got canceled, although I'm secretly hoping for something akin to Tabula Rasa or Hellgate London. Let these dumbasses burn, since this is whats they've had coming for years. Of course, the best part is the utter bile Todd Howard must be swallowing right now...HAHAHAHA!

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Yeah, I'd like to imagine what Todd Howard is thinking. He did a good job with Skyrim, and it wasn't his fault Obsidian got dicked around with New Vegas. Howard's been working on the Elder Scrolls games for a long time now. It must burn knowing he has no say over whether or not the parent company does an MMO. Would be like Activision doing a Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo game and not involving Blizzard or Chris Metzen.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I hated Oblivion, but I'll admit I liked Skyrim quite a bit until it became another "good for what it is" title. I got about 100 hours from it though, so bravo to Todd. I still feel like this is a strange sort of karma he's had coming his way for quite a while for some reason.

 

[Stabwound]

If this game was in development for 5 years, I guess at that point 5 years ago creating an Elder Scrolls MMORPG in the WoW-clone style might have seemed like a good idea. Imagine the butthurt devs after working on this festering turd for 5 years while countless games in the same style die off, while games that actually innovate like Guild Wars 1/2 become much more popular.

They've probably invested too much money into this to just secretly cancel it and pretend it never existed, so they had to reveal it and be prepared for the internet-wide ass rape to follow.

An MMORPG in the Elder Scrolls style could have worked. It would have been different enough from WoW-shit games that it might have held its own niche crowd and been popular. This abomination... just no.

 

[Brayko]

Would be like Activision doing a Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo game and not involving Blizzard or Chris Metzen.

Would not happen, Blizzard does their own thing whilst Activision gets its cut from the profits. The day Blizzard starts to slow their profits is the day Activision will actually poke their nose in, but I see your point.

Also, fuck Howard! He's the biggest decliner in gaming yet suddenly he has lots of apologists just because Skyrim was a little better than Oblivion. Fuck that shit, I'm more inclined to watch a ES MMO sink and the rest of them following suit.

 

[LeStryfe79]

To be fair, I thought Skyrim had at heart many a good gameplay decisions. The removal of stats, for instance, were an actual incline when compared to their horrid purpose in previous TES games. However, I can never forgive the lack of freedom presented in the game when I wasn't even allowed to dispatch annoying minor quest related NPC's from said world. Never has my level of immersion felt so assaulted and molested as when my Orcen Berserker-Thief was forced to mend his cutthroat ways so some dipshit Lady was allowed to better rule her people. Fuck that shit mightily to the infinite degree. I'm never playing an Elder Scrolls game again, if for no other reason than on principal of free gamesmanship. Fuck you Todd. Fuck you Bethesda. Also, fuck you Zenimax. It was nice knowing you!

 

[TheCatsofSanktPetersburg]

snip

It's hard to list the things that make TES lore feel so special from everything else, but one of the things that I really appreciate is how streamlined it feels. There aren't any different elements glued together so that you could have broad appeal. Instead every bit of it seems connected and centralized on common themes. The politics, the individual stories, the different points of view the theology and cultures are there for their own porpoise, yet they seem to push each other forward with surprising synergy.

I don't know if TES lore will ever become as popular as LOTR lore, but I have no doubt that the great writers of the future won't feel in the least embarrassed to mention games like Morrowind or PS:T as a main source of inspiration.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

If this game was in development for 5 years, I guess at that point 5 years ago creating an Elder Scrolls MMORPG in the WoW-clone style might have seemed like a good idea. Imagine the butthurt devs after working on this festering turd for 5 years while countless games in the same style die off, while games that actually innovate like Guild Wars 1/2 become much more popular.

They've probably invested too much money into this to just secretly cancel it and pretend it never existed, so they had to reveal it and be prepared for the internet-wide ass rape to follow.

An MMORPG in the Elder Scrolls style could have worked. It would have been different enough from WoW-shit games that it might have held its own niche crowd and been popular. This abomination... just no.

This is marketing Shit. I agree with Stabwound! Elder Scrolls stood well on its own, without robbing mechanics and becoming a crappy WoW clone. It's perfect for an online game, and terribly poor as a single player game if you consider the NPC's have about as much personality as some pieces of cardboard, hence replacing NPCs with player choices would make perfect sense.

 

[TheCatsofSanktPetersburg]

Just looked at the screenshots. I need to lie down...

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Well, the Dragon Break (that one when Tiber uses Numidium, the dwemer mecha, to create the Empire) fits perfectly for a MMORPG scenario, so no complaints about the lore.
TES would do a very interesting sandbox Ultima Online-like MMORPG but lets be realistic, it will be a "WoW-killer" that tries to copy every aspect of it's nemesis, from gameplay to the cartoonish art direction. And don't forget about the PVP only on arenas far away from the PVE carebears that prefer to play an online game like a singleplayer game and the extremely controlled environment where any kind of competition and hostility is censored.

Sounds perfect, sign me up for an Argonian Maid X Nord Rapist hybrid STAT.

 

[Daemongar]

This is marketing Shit. I agree with Stabwound! Elder Scrolls stood well on its own, without robbing mechanics and becoming a crappy WoW clone. It's perfect for an online game, and terribly poor as a single player game if you consider the NPC's have about as much personality as some pieces of cardboard, hence replacing NPCs with player choices would make perfect sense.

I can't get over how good TES could have been, as you point out. Let players start all the same, then pick a star-sign at level 5, a class at level 10, or let them select their own class like in all other TES games. Then let them do their own thing based on adding a few points to their main skills, a few points to secondary skills each level. Don't know how balanced it would be, but it would not be WoW.

Every level they could add a point to language skills instead of combat skills to build up their language knowledge, if they choose to do so. So 1 point in language skills allows you to understand 10% of Kajit. 2 points = 20%, whatever. Or you could advance by way of use. This would allow rounding out a character and individualizing it, in a non-combat way. You'd give up points in heavy armor to learn other languages, which is OK. I'm tired of FPS MMRPGs anyhow.

This could only work in a non-xp game anyhow, as you can't get to high levels in any game unless you can fight. TES is non-xp, so they have the freedom to make it as creative as possible. Give players partial levels for praying at all the wayshrines, or converting people to the worship of Vivec, or discovering what became of the Dwarves, but not by fighting through the Boss Daedra Prince (tm) to figure it out.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

This is marketing Shit. I agree with Stabwound! Elder Scrolls stood well on its own, without robbing mechanics and becoming a crappy WoW clone. It's perfect for an online game, and terribly poor as a Esingle player game if you consider the NPC's have about as much personality as some pieces of cardboard, hence replacing NPCs with player choices would make perfect sense.

I can't get over how good TES could have been, as you point out. Let players start all the same, then pick a star-sign at level 5, a class at level 10, or let them select their own class like in all other TES games. Then let them do their own thing based on adding a few points to their main skills, a few points to secondary skills each level. Don't know how balanced it would be, but it would not be WoW.

Every level they could add a point to language skills instead of combat skills to build up their language knowledge, if they choose to do so. So 1 point in language skills allows you to understand 10% of Kajit. 2 points = 20%, whatever. Or you could advance by way of use. This would allow rounding out a character and individualizing it, in a non-combat way. You'd give up points in heavy armor to learn other languages, which is OK. I'm tired of FPS MMRPGs anyhow.

This could only work in a non-xp game anyhow, as you can't get to high levels in any game unless you can fight. TES is non-xp, so they have the freedom to make it as creative as possible. Give players partial levels for praying at all the wayshrines, or converting people to the worship of Vivec, or discovering what became of the Dwarves, but not by fighting through the Boss Daedra Prince (tm) to figure it out.

Exactly this. Though I'd have players of different races start in different provinces.

And I might implement a sailing feature, if they included the entire landmass, since part of the Elder Scrolls takes place on different isles. Could be interesting, if they even implemented fishing off sailing vessels to pass the time while sailing between landmasses.

Players could catch different types of fish, with ranging buff effects, as food that boosted experience, or regained health points. The occasional piece of loot could be pulled up, such as "message in bottle" type quests, or gold pieces, health potion, etc. Basically a sailing mini-game, as I imagine real in-game time would pass in sailing vessels. Of course, this is Elder Scrolls, so you could probably just murder the crew of the ship and explore the vessel and then be done with it if you don't like minigames. Then plunder their loot.

The only thing they'd need is non-linear dungeons, and I'd be set.

You'll have to forgive me, but since Daggerfall, dungeons have been too tiny. Oblivion got the size right, but then Skyrim gimped it by having most dungeons unravel like balls of string, in one direction, and one direction only. Morrowind, of course, was too tiny, though the custom landmass was interesting. Every dungeon felt cramped in size.

Really, Elder Scrolls seems to focus on exploration, anyway.

With as cheesy as story and dialogue are, I'd just have vendors sell items and forget plot and dialogue altogether. Who cares. It's about maxing out a character and finding the most elite gear, like most MUD's back in the text-based days of Telnet dungeons. In fact, players could trade items through the barter option, and maybe implement gambling in the arena, and that's it. I wouldn't take away towns, but I would let players take the role of most NPC's, with only basic shopkeepers, and no crappy fed ex questing, just exploration for the sake of teaming up and levelling.

I really don't need any good incentive to explore a dungeon if the world is compelling, and the loot intriguing enough. A few puzzles, and SOLD. I'm easy to appease, yet so few games bother... W.H.Y.?

Also, if they included different languages, findable maps would be a MUST. Rather than expose the entire landmass at once, make people find separate maps with different dungeons, provinces, and so forth, and then have an automap that exposes that landmass when the map is found.

Dark Souls really got it right. Minimal plot, dialogue, in open world games. If you're going to bother, you have to make the story tighter than a ball of swiss cheese. Nobody bothers with a cliche anymore!

 

[Grimlorn]

The problem with Bethesda making a MMO is that Elder Scrolls games aren't known for their good combat so of course they will have to do a WoW clone. They have no successful combat model to draw from. Another thing is their games are bought because of the interesting worlds they create and the freedom that comes with doing what you want. This kind of stuff won't last in a MMO. Combat and grouping is much more important in a MMO than questing and building an interesting world. And since it takes so much money and time to develop a MMO, no one is trying anything different and we get all these WoW clones. I doubt Blizzard will be able to generate the same success with their new MMO. WoW was just a one hit wonder that got lucky and interest was generated in it because it had 10 million subscribers.

 

[RK47]

Good ideas

Nice. I like that. But I doubt it'll ever happen. The MMO market is still stuck on the combat and forgot the RP component.

(qK) (Mesmerist) Will there be multiplayer in Morrowind?
(qK) AND in relation
(qK) (S_A_M[Gamekapocs]) How can we play over the net? Through an existing system (bnet, zone, ..), your own servers, (qK) or only TCP/IP? Or anyone can install a program to his server, like quake or UT?

(KenRolston) Nope.
(todd[Bethesda]) Sure.
(todd[Bethesda]) Oops. I mean no.
(KenRolston) You LIAR!
* GT_WormGod snickers
(Pete) No. Not on release, not three months after, no no no

(Chris) Any plans for multiplayer as an add-on?

(todd[Bethesda]) Sure.
(todd[Bethesda]) Oops I mean no.
(GT_WormGod) only in a rerun
(KenRolston) Oh, what a liar he is.
(Maverique) he smiles so innocently tho
(todd[Bethesda]) Already done. it's a secret. We have hotseat play. One person moves, while the other turns...all on the same computer!
(KenRolston) We ARE doing a MMORPG. We just are eliminating all the tiresome other players.
(KenRolston) We don't want to play with Nude4Satan.
(GT_WormGod) um, thanks Ken
(todd[Bethesda]) OK. There is NOOOOOOOO Multiplayer. No kidding here. We're concentrating on single-player. There are better games out there for multi-play. Better to have one great game, than 2 average ones.
(KenRolston) Or, alternatively, we cna go into the editor, name all the NPCs "kid_nekkid," then go smack the living shit out of them.