Elder Scrolls Online opens beta signup

[KentState]

Has anyone else had problems with submitting the form. I type in the captcha and the button becomes clickable, but doesn't do anything but gray out when I click on it.

 

[Mem]

Has anyone else had problems with submitting the form. I type in the captcha and the button becomes clickable, but doesn't do anything but gray out when I click on it.

I guess you can double check you filled it all in and ticked the NDA agreement box,also refresh the captcha and type in the new word.

I used Firefox and it was fine .

 

[diesbudt]

One method that has been used with, for instance, City of Heroes, is to introduce the "Side-Kick"/"Mentor" mechanic which will scale-up or scale-down members' powers in your group. The problem really expands when this is put into open-air areas, where 2 disparate levelled characters may not be grouped up and are trying to accomplish the same quest.

I don't know that I want a "solution" to this problem. If you can go absolutely anywhere from Day #1 and be successful in an MMO, it takes away a lot of the incentive/reward for levelling up and advancing your character.

Yea, that was the point I was getting at. Linear in an RPG, which is role-playing which means story is a major factor in the game, has to be held up to some amount. Now there can be some sandbox mode stuff, like which city you quest first (like in other elder scrolls games) but the later story stuff and harder stuff needs to be done last, otherwise the story doesn't stay straight.

Add in as I said before if it never feels like your character gets stronger because of enemy scaling, well that destroys one of the "addictiveness' MMOs bring, which is not a smart business decision. People love the feeling of getting more powerful/better. But when things scale, people do not get this pleasure.

I enjoyed Guild wars 2, I really did. But when no matter what zone I was in, since my level scaled (down) to the zones highest level, it wasn't as great a feeling. Like even though I put all that magic training and awesome ability into getting lv 60, this intro zone still kills me if I am not careful.

Yes some people would love complete sandbox, but the business model is not supported by the little research done on why people like MMOs and such.

 

[sourceninja]

Has any company ever continued making single player games for a property they turned into a MMO? AKA is skyrim the last Elder Scrolls game?

 

[darkewaffle]

Has any company ever continued making single player games for a property they turned into a MMO? AKA is skyrim the last Elder Scrolls game?

Final Fantasy, sure. But there have only been a handful of games (2 or 3?) that were developed as MMOs out of single player series in the first place anyway.

 

[Martimus]

Has any company ever continued making single player games for a property they turned into a MMO? AKA is skyrim the last Elder Scrolls game?

World of Warcraft was successful, so it made a lot of sense for Blizzard to continue developing for that game rather than a fourth Warcraft RTS. This MMO stands about as much chance of being successful as I have of winning the lottery. So unless they sank so much money into this failure waiting to happen that they go bankrupt, or it is so horrible that it ruins the Elder Scroll franchise name, then I would assume Bethesda will come back to their bread and butter sooner than later.

 

[Daverino]

I still want to know why there's a Breton Ninja in the trailer.

 

[Piano Man]

Having only started playing Elder Scrolls with Skyrim, I really was impressed with the graphics, and story. However, the combat system was awful and made you feel totally constrained. Plus the game was just broken because it became way too easy with profession perks. If they can fix those two things, then this game will be amazing.

 

[diesbudt]

Having only started playing Elder Scrolls with Skyrim, I really was impressed with the graphics, and story. However, the combat system was awful and made you feel totally constrained. Plus the game was just broken because it became way too easy with profession perks. If they can fix those two things, then this game will be amazing.

I think you ment to say, if they fix those 2 things, the next installment single player is amazing. they have to do a lot of different things to make an amazing MMO.

i feel they would be more successful using a whole new title/story/etc.

 

[Grooveriding]

Having only started playing Elder Scrolls with Skyrim, I really was impressed with the graphics, and story. However, the combat system was awful and made you feel totally constrained. Plus the game was just broken because it became way too easy with profession perks. If they can fix those two things, then this game will be amazing.

This is my biggest worry about this going MMO. The combat/engine in ES games is to put it mildly.. garbage. It's clunky, laggy and not at all smooth in the feeling of your physical inputs to the computer translating to what you see on the screen.

If the plan is for the combat system in the MMO to mirror this, it's going to be a write-off out the gate. MMOs need a smooth, visceral and quality engine to play well. The gold standard for this is World of Warcraft. Try playing some of the other MMOs out there and they feel clunky in comparison engine wise.

If this game feels and plays like their Creation Engine it's going to be epic fail imo.

 

[diesbudt]

This is my biggest worry about this going MMO. The combat/engine in ES games is to put it mildly.. garbage. It's clunky, laggy and not at all smooth in the feeling of your physical inputs to the computer translating to what you see on the screen.

If the plan is for the combat system in the MMO to mirror this, it's going to be a write-off out the gate. MMOs need a smooth, visceral and quality engine to play well. The gold standard for this is World of Warcraft. Try playing some of the other MMOs out there and they feel clunky in comparison engine wise.

If this game feels and plays like their Creation Engine it's going to be epic fail imo.

(they are using the same engine as Rift)

Another thing is, combat will have to do almost a complete 180. Because MMO has to have playability amongst the masses. And if there is to be any skill difficulty, adding in actually aiming the arrows, and slashing the weapons/watching stamina, would be too difficult to go beyond the normal crowd.

Another huge issue was their "video" showing some simialr battle scene most MMOs put out now. Not really showing anything story wise about what is happening, why heroes are needed, and not even any voice acting/narrator speaking over the combat. I was not impressed at all.

 

[Wardawg1001]

I signed up and am holding out hope that this will be better than the stuff I have seen. Given what garbage has been released recently, my expectations are pretty low.

I need someone to surprise me with something awesome!

What exactly has been released about this game that you consider garbage?

 

[Wardawg1001]

I still want to know why there's a Breton Ninja in the trailer.

I admit I wasn't watching THAT closely, but my initial impressions were that the ninja guy was one of the Elf races, and the magic using lady was probably a Breton. Unless there is some kind of facial features to indicate otherwise that I just didn't notice, I don't know why you would assume anything else.

EDIT: I take that back, after re-watching it, the magic lady clearly has pointy ears (which you would generally assume to be an Elf). Still, why exactly can't a Breton be a rogue?

 

[Wardawg1001]

World of Warcraft was successful, so it made a lot of sense for Blizzard to continue developing for that game rather than a fourth Warcraft RTS. This MMO stands about as much chance of being successful as I have of winning the lottery. So unless they sank so much money into this failure waiting to happen that they go bankrupt, or it is so horrible that it ruins the Elder Scroll franchise name, then I would assume Bethesda will come back to their bread and butter sooner than later.

Bethesda is only publishing Elder Scrolls Online, development is being handled by another studio entirely. Don't quote me on this but I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that Bethesda itself has already begun development on the next single player installment for the Elder Scrolls series. There is no reason to believe that even if ESO is wildly successful, Bethesda would simply give up on their flagship IP.

 

[Wardawg1001]

(they are using the same engine as Rift)

Another thing is, combat will have to do almost a complete 180. Because MMO has to have playability amongst the masses. And if there is to be any skill difficulty, adding in actually aiming the arrows, and slashing the weapons/watching stamina, would be too difficult to go beyond the normal crowd.

Another huge issue was their "video" showing some simialr battle scene most MMOs put out now. Not really showing anything story wise about what is happening, why heroes are needed, and not even any voice acting/narrator speaking over the combat. I was not impressed at all.

They are not using the same engine as Rift. They used the Rift engine during very early development phases while they were still working on building their own custom engine for the game.

And who says adding any kind of skill is too difficult for the normal crowd? What a ridiculous assumption. This kind of idiocy is exactly why companies continue to make WoW clone after WoW clone. Durrr people can't handle anything more than click targetting with an action bar. This type of gameplay is only pre-dominant in MMO's, plenty of games succeed just fine without it, and a little bit of skill based activity in MMO's is exactly what is needed to break away from this stupid trend of WoW clones. Some games have already begun the transition (TERA, Darkfall), and while they are by no means WoW-killers, who the fuck says they have to be? Can't a game be fun and successful without 10 million subscribers?

 

[StinkyPinky]

So have they started sending out invites yet?

 

[KentState]

I don't believe so just yet. I was highly likely to get in according to their little graph but who knows.

 

[Wardawg1001]

Meh, the 'chance to get in' bar is probably (very) misleading, you really didn't have to put a lot of info in there to max it out. I suspect just about everyone who has a real interest in playing the closed beta managed to max it. Also, they released some info about their beta testing strategy, it will be a series of mini-tests where they bring the servers up for a short period of time and try to test specific aspects of the game, and invites will be to specific beta events (though I suspect at least a few of the invites will be for multiple/all of the events). So even if you are 'highly likely' to get in, it may only be for a one weekend event or something like that. As it draws closer to open beta this may change, but that won't be for a while.

 

[diesbudt]

They are not using the same engine as Rift. They used the Rift engine during very early development phases while they were still working on building their own custom engine for the game.

And who says adding any kind of skill is too difficult for the normal crowd? What a ridiculous assumption. This kind of idiocy is exactly why companies continue to make WoW clone after WoW clone. Durrr people can't handle anything more than click targetting with an action bar. This type of gameplay is only pre-dominant in MMO's, plenty of games succeed just fine without it, and a little bit of skill based activity in MMO's is exactly what is needed to break away from this stupid trend of WoW clones. Some games have already begun the transition (TERA, Darkfall), and while they are by no means WoW-killers, who the fuck says they have to be? Can't a game be fun and successful without 10 million subscribers?

You do not understand business then.

From the dawn of MMOs, they were difficult and hard. You had corpse runs that could take a long time to complete (with a stat penalty) if you didn't attune to specific places along a very long quest. Which means you could lose half yoru stuff. You had quests and monster with so little direction it was more or less a point and go forth adventure type games. You lost xp, and other great things upon death. They only appealed to those who were interested in something like that.

Bring in the Generation with WoW, Rift, SWTOR. The games got easier, and started appealing to the masses. Which is always a smart business decision. Do i want 1 million people playing my product complaining about every little detail, or do I want 50,000-100,000 who like the game I made?

Also, let us not forget. Aiming arrows, and swords would put a higher skill cap on a game, and would drastically reduce the players when they realize this because they will get fed up not being good because it is not easy. Many of the current MMOs allow some leeway with bad/slow/old/very young players (aka the masses).

Also, they are using the rift engine. Not just for development. That they felt was the best engine they could use for MMO purposes, as their engines they have created are more tuned to single player sandbox games (fallout, Elder scrolls. etc.) [And all the gus they even have on just single player games with that engine] (They are also using the rift engine because their personal sandbox engine is graphic intense, and they are trying to dumb the graphics down a bit so you do not need a very strong computer to play it)

The only thing Elder scrolls online will have that will be worth anything, is the same situation KOTOR --> Swtor had. That is story. The rest will be bogus/generic (as seen with some small releases of footage and what I have heard from sources in gameplay).

MMOs are in a rut. They will never be "NEW" until they get away from the RPG genre. MMOShooter, MMOstrategy, MMOpuzzle, MMOwhatever. Until then it will be always like Call of duty: black Ops 7219. Or whatever iteration we are at of MMOs being the same.


--------

And I will point out one thing the "little bit of skill based activity in MMO's is exactly what is needed to break away from this stupid trend of WoW clones", fyi if those games didn't require skill why is every player not completed with endgame? Why can player A do 2x the damage done than player B if the same class and same gear?

Skill exists in those MMOs, may not be as much as you want. But they exist, whether you agree or not.

 

[sushicide]

Yikes, when did they announce the game is going to use Gamebyro? I was glad Hero Engine was dropped since it's a piece of crap, but now they're gonna use something rather outdated and scales poorly?


edit: Oct 2012 screenshots do look like Rift

edit-edit: http://www.bubblews.com/news/112818...ects-with-directx-11-exclusive-tech-interview nevermind, they're using an in-house one that actually supports multi-core, that's good news at least.

 

[SMOGZINN]

if those games didn't require skill why is every player not completed with endgame? Why can player A do 2x the damage done than player B if the same class and same gear?

Skill exists in those MMOs, may not be as much as you want. But they exist, whether you agree or not.

The answer to your question is that it takes lots and lots and lots of online time and dedication to doing repetitive actions along with a little ability to follow directions. It does not require skill, unless you count "Do quest X 30000 times" or "On my mark hit skill x" as a skill.

PVP requires some skill, but even it is mostly dominated by those that can do quest X 30000 times and hit a button when someone tells him to.

 

[diesbudt]

The answer to your question is that it takes lots and lots and lots of online time and dedication to doing repetitive actions along with a little ability to follow directions. It does not require skill, unless you count "Do quest X 30000 times" or "On my mark hit skill x" as a skill.

PVP requires some skill, but even it is mostly dominated by those that can do quest X 30000 times and hit a button when someone tells him to.

So throwing a football over and over as you grow up to throw it better means throwing a good football isn't a skill?

A skill is anything that can scale and be judged. There is skill in those games. Otherwise again, everyone would be perfect from day 1.

Also shooting/aiming an arrow or sword over and over and over is no different in a game... As that is just as repetative. All games that have combat becomes repetitive. Hence why MMORPGs will always be repetitive. (because there is always a best way to do something)

 

[SMOGZINN]

So throwing a football over and over as you grow up to throw it better means throwing a good football isn't a skill?

Maybe you don't understand.
If I sit in my front yard and throw that football at a target 1 million times, odds are I will be one hell of a good football thrower.

I can sit in WOW and hit 1 to cast fireball 1 billion times and never perceptibly get any better at hitting 1 to cast fireball, not get any better at targeting fireball (since the game auto-targets), nor do any more damage with that fireball. The game might make me better at some of those things, but no better then any other level X fireball tosser. There is no real skill there.

A skill is anything that can scale and be judged. There is skill in those games. Otherwise again, everyone would be perfect from day 1.

Okay, there is a tiny bit of skill. It takes a few hours to be perfect. After that it is mostly about time put in, a little luck of the drop, and the ability to pay attention to what is going on in game.

Also shooting/aiming an arrow or sword over and over and over is no different in a game... As that is just as repetative. All games that have combat becomes repetitive. Hence why MMORPGs will always be repetitive. (because there is always a best way to do something)

There is more skill in games that make you aim. You have to practice using your controls to follow your target, to predict how they are going to move, adapt to changes. MMO's take all that away. When I cast fireball the game randomly determines if it hits or not, and if so the damage is also randomly determined. Nothing I do can really effect that.

 

[diesbudt]

Maybe you don't understand.
If I sit in my front yard and throw that football at a target 1 million times, odds are I will be one hell of a good football thrower.

I can sit in WOW and hit 1 to cast fireball 1 billion times and never perceptibly get any better at hitting 1 to cast fireball, not get any better at targeting fireball (since the game auto-targets), nor do any more damage with that fireball. The game might make me better at some of those things, but no better then any other level X fireball tosser. There is no real skill there.



Okay, there is a tiny bit of skill. It takes a few hours to be perfect. After that it is mostly about time put in, a little luck of the drop, and the ability to pay attention to what is going on in game.



There is more skill in games that make you aim. You have to practice using your controls to follow your target, to predict how they are going to move, adapt to changes. MMO's take all that away. When I cast fireball the game randomly determines if it hits or not, and if so the damage is also randomly determined. Nothing I do can really effect that.

If just pressing 1 was all in a game liek WoW, then you would be correct.

However combat these days require on the fly thinking with kiting/movement/stacking with group/spreading out from group/self heal if healer is unable to/ etc.

They are all mixed, and since each fight is not the same, the "rotation" will never be the same fight to fight, and learning how to maximize it on each fight is a skill.

It may not be the same as a skill in learning a life skill like woodworking, or throwing a football. But it is a skill.

And pressing a complex rotation (which they have gotten somewhat compelx since day 1) is no different than aiming over and over. It is similar, just that the "skill bar" for aiming is higher, to the point it will be less appealing to the masses. Otherwise they are "equal" in skill, just takes longer to get good at aiming well constantly.

Plus they commented they had to change so many things in an interview from the single player versions I bet there is no aiming mechanic, and other things being removed are like pickpocketing and stuff like that. (which is why i said they should have just done a whole new story instead of using Elder scrolls)

 

[pathos]

hrm, just read this thread, haven't bothered to click any links, but I immediately had 2 questions that need answers.

When the servers open on day 1, will there be 100,000 people busting out of jail at the same time?

and

Will the character models be as hideous as the single player games?

As much as I've loved the elder scrolls games, dating all the way back to arena, I have never liked the character designs. The elf races look especially sad. All simian brow, cone headed mutants

Well, the elder scrolls has gone multiplayer 1 time before (although not an mmo) - battlespire. And, anyone old enough to actually remember that game, knows their track record so far is 0 for 1.

Lets hope this game doesn't suck quite as bad as battlespire did.