The Elder Scrolls Online

Bondurant_sl said:

The megaserver feature is quite confusing, it feels a lot like Guild Wars 2 server infrastructure. Does anyone got a clear view about that ?

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They haven't explained it in detail as far as I know. They mention shards but what that means is anyone's guess.

I support the idea of a megaserver. I think all mmo's should go that route. GW2's version didn't go far enough imo, they should have everyone in overflow servers for PvE and just separate people out for WvW.

GW2 wanted competition between servers for WvW thats the only reason they went with the setup they have. Server identity and so on to foster community and competition. That even kinda worked in the first months if you think back to the thread on FoH. The shiny just wore off. GW1 (I know, not an MMO) actually didnt have servers at all for their shared areas but 'districts' that you could freely switch around between. Pretty much what you suggest there. I agree with that too, I think the time zone and server boundaries need a reason to be in the game. If you cant think of a good reason while developing your server architecture etc then make one mega-server where people can choose who to play with.

Grim1_sl said:

They haven't explained it in detail as far as I know. They mention shards but what that means is anyone's guess.

I support the idea of a megaserver. I think all mmo's should go that route. GW2's version didn't go far enough imo, they should have everyone in overflow servers for PvE and just separate people out for WvW.

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Completely disagree. A mega server dilutes community. Community is the vital ingredient MMO's have lacked for years. Somewhere along the way people forgot what drew people to MMO's in the first place and that was the sense of living in a big world along side other people. Unless you've got some awesome new feature that draws communities together it is a massive no-no in my books.

People need to feel apart of something especially in the MMO genre. A mega server essentially will do what LFR and LFD did too WoW. It's not personal anymore it's too broad to be. The village to city metaphor is always a good one.

I stated it quiet a while ago but if they were going to make an Elder Scrolls MMO they should have created servers of about 400-500 people. 4-5 zones that were ran by player factions. Each Zone has a King. If you didn't want to bring PvP into it. Simply make the requirements of keeping each zone PvE based. Best PvE guild runs the zone. Each zone ranks from smallest to largest. Each guild can only control one zone each. Giving the smaller guilds a chance to run the smaller zone. The smallest zone can only be run by guilds with 40 people and under. Have more people then 40 and you progress to competing for the next zone. That's a real Elder Scrolls MMO. Guilds would merge and fight. Alliance would be formed and broken. People would backstab etc etc.

The community argument is valid but in today's mmos it really doesn't mean much except in a global sense. In EQ, server communities were king and they still exist today, but that is the exception, not the rule.

More important is the fact that even WoW has serious issues with unpopulated servers, community means jack all when you can't find a group or raid the latest content. Forcing people to stay on an empty server to support some nebulous idea of community is a mistake. As every mmo has found out after the inevitable server mergers. GW1 had a really interesting community in spite of the fact that it was a complete mega server, the same is true with EvE. The idea that a mega-server kills community is false.

And you can still create smaller pockets of community within a mega-server if that is something the devs want. All it takes is slower travel like EvE or restricted shards with separate rule sets (RP, FFAPvP, etc.). Rift with it's free transfers is a kind of mega server with restricted shards.

GW2's version was supposed to create server communities but it failed in the PvE arena. Most people just go to a guest server where all the action is. Low level areas are desolate. WvW promotes server community but that is only for the players who partake of it. For PvE player's, GW2's "community" is global and that's fine.

Yea what Grim said. Players 'personal goal'-driven attitude killed communities.

If you want to make a game with communities you have to make the gameplay require cooperation in most/every aspect. That's just not a part of mainstream MMO gaming, with even the last bastion (raiding) being worn down by raid finders. Anything else you might have needed another player for 5 or 10 years ago is long dead: crafting interdependance, class-unique abilities (rez, buffs, summon corpse, port, bind), group interaction for xp (a dungeon instance is just a race to the bottom while pressing damage skills). You have to understand that such a game isnt in the works though, and would be very niche.

Meanwhile, for mainstream products there is really no point to having servers that have no purpose but split your playerbase up, and most games would probably be fine with 1 server these days anyway (TOR and its ilk).

This shit just got announced for the PS4 lol. This could really turn it around for TESO.

Edit: Live on the Sony press conference, by the way.

Kind of explains alot actually, suprised I didnt see it commin.

Also, no DRM which is way better news than TESO to PS4.

TESO wouldn't be possible on Xbone as Microsoft has no interest in support an MMO business model and sharing profits on their system whether it be F2P, Subscription, or whatever else.

Coming to Xbone too it seems.

http://www.gamesradar.com/elder-scro...ne-coming-ps4/

Wow, if it does, I'll def eat crow. But I just read a bunch of articles where MS said they just weren't interested in that.

TESO is pushed back to Spring 2014. At least according to the new vid I got from them in my email. Also yeah, it's going to Xbone and PS4.

StoiCynic_sl said:

Coming to Xbone too it seems.

http://www.gamesradar.com/elder-scro...ne-coming-ps4/

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Literally the only way they could have turned me from a guaranteed sale to a "Fuck you, Zenimax" was to cave to the console kids. I'm out, and Utnayan, you may happily enjoy knowing that I am eating a huge ass crow, right now. Crazy shit.

At least they're realizing 2013 wasn't going to happen, not with what they've been showing off. Not that they can fundamentally change the game in the added 6 months, but still.

2014 makes much more sense. It was obvious from how little info is actually out there that they weren't ready.

The problem is that they now have to compete with Destiny and The Division. From the videos we've seen, they are soooooooooo far away from that just from a visual point of view.

Different games, different audiences. The Division looks amazing, Destiny looks ok, but both are shooters. There is some overlap in those who will play all those games, but isn't the same as having say TESO launch the same month as WildStar.

I'm just talking from a presentation point of view of the UI, animations, graphics, environments. I'll ignore gameplay for now. Then again, we've seen more gameplay from the two shooters than we have from TESO.