The 3 big Cs.

1. How do you guys think customization work?
Like any other ES game? Defaults? Advanced?

2. How will classes work?
Will they be chosen right when you start the game?
Or will they be chosen freely while playing the game?

3. What will the currency be called? And how will it be handled?
Will there be just one main currency, or various, like a higher coin, then a lower coin, etc.

Give me your input everyone.

1) Not sure exactly on how that is going to work...

2) I liked how Everquest 2 was at the beginning of it's days where you chose a general class then it got more specific the higher level. Like I chose healer instead of rogue and warrior, then I chose druid instead of priest and some other choice, then finally I chose warden instead of fury. I hope that is how they do it.

3) There will possibly be 3 sets one being the lowest, one middle and one highest. Not sure what they are going to name it though..

For classes:

If they use a more "streamlined" system like most MMOs, I actually hope they go with Final Fantasy Tactics style mingled with Disgaea.

Pick a class. Select the abilities/skills of that class you want to learn. And then things like weapons, armor, etc have a "usefulness" to them in conjunction to the class. For instance a Warrior would learn Sword skills faster than they would learn Hammer skills.

I do like the classes idea. What you're saying though is, if I were to be a warrior, I would pick what weapon I wanted to learn the fastest?

Seems kind of confusing. It quite possibly be like that... But I see them heading in a different direction with it.

Somewhat.

Disgae used a system where each class could use every weapon, and every weapon had abilities that were learned from using said weapon. However each class gained exp for each weapon differently based on an S-D system (S, A, B, C, D) with S being the fastest and D being the slowest.

So, for example, you could make a Mage who used Unarmed (fists) but the skill would be a D level skill, meaning you'd learn the skill very slowly, while if you equipped a Staff (S level) you'd learn Staff skills extremely fast.

I see where you're getting at. As cool as these classes and skills sound and seem, I really do hope they follow up and maybe create their own kind of skill system and classes. It doesn't really seem to fit in with ES.

The system described (FFT + Disgaea) actually would mimic TES as it currently is quite well.

Hm.. really? I'm still a bit confused. Are you talking like Skyrim?

Any TES.

Prior to Skyrim TES games had classes you could select (or create) based on major and minor skills.

Final Fantasy Tactics had a Job Class system that had a Job (like Knight) that came with a list of skills that you could purchase (learn), for instance the Knight ability "Weapon Guard" which allowed you to parry an attack with your weapon.

This mimics TES fairly well because you could learn only what you wanted to learn. In TES you can be of the Warrior class (in Skyrim or prior) and level up "Heavy Armor" by using it.

While FFT didn't level up abilities through use, you could easily alter it to the TES formula, especially if you linked it with Disgaea like I mentioned.

I am guessing each province will have its own coinage, hopefully. At the very least there would be 3 types for each faction. I think Septims were the first universally used coinage in TES so since this is before their empire it would not make sense for universal coinage.

I see what you're saying now. Well this could be possible. Either that, or something a long the lines of every time you level up, you have points to upgrade which ever skill you want, which was also in skyrim. That being said, I think that would be a fair system.

This will probably be a double post but let me give a perhaps better visual example:

We'll go with the Final Fantasy Tactics Wizard linked with the Disgaea Sword and Staff weapons.

Wizard Skills (I'll shorten it for space):

Fire - Fire spell
Ice - Ice spell
Bolt - Lightning spell
Poison - DoT spell
Counter Magic - When hit with magic immediately counter with the spell used
Magic Attack Up - Increases magic damage

So, altering it to fit TES, instead of buying each ability like you do in FFT, you could simply do what TES does:

Use Fire, it increases in skill. The more you use Fire, the more powerful it gets.

Then things like Counter Magic and Magic Attack Up could be Perks as we have them now.

As for the weapons, like Sword and Staff, we'll do it just like Skyrim:

The more you use them, the more damage they do and you can select Perks or even abilities for them. So you could actually have an ability/skill list for each weapon as well.

Make sense?

Yes. I get it now. But seeing as that system is currently on Skyrim, since the new upcoming ES is going to be MMO, I wonder if they'd make a switch and change it?

Just a note, I'd expect the character customization options to be more like WoW's than the single-player RPGs. No, this isn't to further "copy" WoW, it's a matter of performance and server load. There's no way that current server/network technology and average people's computers can load, transfer, and then display dozens of characters with all of the customization options in say, Skyrim. Too much will have to be read from the server for it to keep it, too much information to be sent to users, and too much for users' computers to render.

This system wouldn't be too hard of a switch, because it's already molded well to the class system that RPGs generally use.

You're right. Now that I think about it, an MMO can't run Skyrims type of customization. It would have to be quick.

Possibly. I don't know, I can't see it happening though. I'm trying to envision it and I see something different happening. But who knows, I'm just another person. We'll have to wait and see.

Ayup. It works so much better with "face1/skin2/eye7/hair5/hairCo3/misc2" than every one of the hundred-some Skyrim options.

That would be quite interesting actually.. I different currency for each province. I really like that idea.

Yep. Either way, as long as they make the faces look good.

Yeah, that all is client side. All the server sends is strings that correspond to the textures to be displayed. Said textures can be any rez they want.

So it all depends on the server to show good detail?

Kinda.

All the server does is tell the client(user-end software) what texture(s) to be displayed on the character. How big the texture is does not affect server-end performance. It can be 1x1 pixels or 4096x4096: It'll be the same amount of load on the server.

It's up to Zenimax Online to decided what resolution textures will be used, and to place them in the client files.

I sure hope that they'll pick something suitable for the user, and the computer.