A lot of what I read about for TES:O has to do with the "MMO-ifying" of The Elder Scrolls single player games. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the single player "features" (there is plenty of room to add features NOT in TES single player games) and see if they would "fit" in an MMO setting. Consider the following and ponder if they would work in an MMORPG,

Character Creation

• 10 Provinces with 10 races with 10 starting cities/areas to choose from.
• Racial Abilities.
• 8 Attributes to further define a character.
• 3 Figured attributes (health, stamina, and magicka).
• 3 Skill areas (combat, magic, stealth) with maybe 7-10 skills based in each.
• Primary, Major, and minor skills for the players to chose.
• 21 Classes (7 each from combat, magic, and stealth) players can choose from as a quick base for their characters with the ability to create their own class.
• 13 Birth signs (1 for each Tamriel month) to further detail a character.

Combat

• 2 hands, 2 mouse buttons.
• Tap right mouse click, attack with right hand.
• Tap left mouse click, attack with the left hand.
• Shift+Mouse click and you block.
• Hold+Click button for power attacks.
• Click both buttons for... ? (Special ability, maybe?)
• Attacks use stamina.
• Spells use Magicka.
• Duel cast spells for greater effect.

Character Advancement

• Advance by using skills.
• When a set number of skill advancement occurs, gain 1 character level.
• At character level-up, add points to attributes, with more points available to those skills used to level up.

Crafting

• Smithing for arms and armor and jewelry.
• Alchemy for potions and drinks.
• Enchanting for magical items.

Spells

• 6 or 7 schools of magic.
• Many basic spell effects within each school.
• Create new spells with differing effects and magnitudes, limited by a player's magicka.

Factions

• 11 Imperial Guilds.
• 5 province specific guilds in each province. (5 Dunmer Houses in Morrowind, for example.)
• Vampiric Clans.
• Werewolf Clans.
• Players join guild/factions for quests/stories.
• Guilds can be opposed to other guilds. (Tribunal Temple - Imperial Cult)

Questing

• No XP. Just skill gains.
• Faction based with many regular non-faction NPCs or items, too.
• Journal entries that have details about quests.
• No quest markers?

General Gameplay

• All 10 provinces to explore.
• All 10 races to interact with.
• Quests with multiple ways to accomplish them.
• Puzzle, Mystery, Murder, Fight, Collect, Diplomacy, Acquire/Recover Item Quests.
• Dark is Dark. Make light spells and sources matter again. Let the Khajiit's Night Eye racial ability matter!
• 1st/3rd Person views.

Housing

• Have Guild rewarded housing.
• Have player built housing.

Would any of these "features" ruin an MMO?

Are some of these features "risky?"

Tweaking on the existing systems would certainly need to be done, and maybe some of the above just would not work with "massive" amounts of players in the game. Overall, though, I just don't buy that "This is an MMO!" response.

ZOS has here an IP that can break many MMO stereotypes. I see them skulking back to the "familiar and known" comfort zone, though.

Honestly a lot of these are RPG elements, not "single-player". However I am very much on your side. I think people are making a big stink about anything that literally isnt Skyrim with other people. It's perfectly okay for an MMO to, well..... act and feel like an MMO. Haha. That should have been in everyones expectations from the start. Is this just a multiplayer TES game? No. Is this another generic MMO we're tired of? I really don't think so either. This game seems to have amazing potential and it would be a shame if people bashed it for behaving like the MMO it is. We still have Bethesda thinking up TES: VI, so no worries I think people need to understand what ESO is trying to do and not be upset its not doing "multiplayer Skyrim" :/

Edit: And another thing. I see what you're doing here and I applaud it. While these may be RPG elements, not SP, it is a giant list of aspects that make this game TES. There seems to be a lot of inflammation (and imho overreaction) about ANY feature that isn't, by a general consensus, seen as "TES". Its not another SP TES game so why should it follow all of those features we love about the previous TES games? Once again I repeat: People need to get their expectations in check. Making an RPG into and MMO isn't simply allowing massive amounts of people to play that once SP experience with other people. That's just ridiculous. Starting to ramble, but bottom line is you can't get that upset for an MMO acting like an MMO, because you don't want it to act like an MMO. Haha.

The majority of this stuff is already confirmed to be in the game. The only thing different here is classes and the way skills work and then the whole faction lock thing that plagued this forum a few months back. The 4 starter classes we have are pretty much blank slates, more like Skyrim's classless system with pretty names and a few different skill lines. Skills do level up by use, but that doesn't add to your overall level, they use Arena's basic XP-rewards for doing things. The game's plot revolving around the three-faction war in Cyrodiil is why there is no 10 races interacting all over the continent; not because that is unfavorable in an MMO, but because the designers just wanted it that way.

Oh, and guilds. Well, there's always room for expanding in patches. Though, I don't see how they could make all those guilds you want without becoming repetitive. That would takes ages to write.

The majority (51% or more)? Can you please link me to this information you have on the game? I would like to learn more about these features. Not being snarky, I really want to learn.

[EDIT]

Most of the groundwork is already laid out for ZOS. I know porting over to the new engine and polishing is not easy, but a lot of the ground work is already done.

Can't say that anything you propose would be impossible, there are a few things that would be awkward however. Player-built housing would be amusing, but a nightmare to implement within the game-world... things would need to be phased up the wazoo to avoid Tamriel coming to resemble a Brazilian 'favella'. It would maybe be possible in the form of a social "Home" feature outside the game proper: i.e. exit the game to your "Home", where you could perhaps store things and invite friends over. I haven't seen any mention of such a feature being developed however.

Having a whole raft of developer-created guilds (You seem to be suggesting sixty-six of them right out the gates!) would seem to be a bit of a drain on resources also. The sheer number of NPC's that would need scripting and voice-acting... heck, if each had only five members we're talking three-hundred plus... that would be a strain within an AAA single player game, and they would need updating/refreshing an online game being an online game. Best to leave the business up to player guilds, rather than create a shallow army of guild NPC's.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1443440-the-comprehensive-eso-mechanics-thread-100-sourced-information/

I also forgot you mentioned player housing. They said that won't be in at launch, but if a lot of people want it they'll fit it in later. That should be a confirmation then, because everybody wants it. We just have to wait and see how loyal ZOS is to their fans post-launch.

http://tamrielfoundry.com/development-faq/

If you want to learn more about the games features.

What the 'leperchan' said... and excellent site, and pleasant forum.

Agreed, pressman There would definitely need to be some tweaking going on!

Housing I pictured in my mind like a store front. A player could purchase a house in town of varying sizes. Each house has a static "front" that each player uses to enter their house. The inside would be an separate instance. By "player built", I was thinking that the player could set up the floorplans (where the kitchen, living space, bedrooms go) of their houses from defined options, then furnish and decorate away! Who knows, that probably would not work...

Yea, the guilds got kind of out of hand quickly. But with 10 provinces, I did not want to "short" any one province, yet include the Dunmer Houses

Heck, they were in development for 4(?) years before ever mentioning the game. Had they seen TES:O similar to this, maybe more of these features could be in place? At least considered?

I know nothing will change for TES:O. It is too late for anything major. I just find myself wondering, "What if..." lol

Not necessarily... online games are nothing if not plastic, all kind of things can change: Region-locking was originally set-in-stone and was then chucked out with the announcement of "50-plus" content, same goes with first-person, it was in, then it was out, then it was in again big-time. Being an online game, much else can also change post-launch. This is probably why most Zen. publicity flacks seem to have the phrase "...not at launch... but who knows?" tattooed on their palm for quick reference. So yeah, over time, NPC guilds may accumulate update by update; and player housing, perhaps in a 'Second Life' or 'PlaystationHome' type form might well turn up if the demand was there. Heck, they might even allow players to set up a "favella" of motley buildings if the idea amused them.

Both links in my siggy

@Ace Kalmera: I have read through that great post a few times. Just read through it again. I don't see "a majority" of the listed features included in-game. ZOS is being very "mum" on many, many aspects of the game.

The first info they released was "3 Faction PvP." Since I am not a PvPer, I was soured right off the bat. I freely admit this. That was the direction they chose to take with the game. With every new tidbit of information, I see less TES and more MMO being revealed, when in reality, TES is quite MMO friendly as it is. ZOS just decided to not take that route. They wanted a DAoC type PvP game first, then an MMO, then a TES game.

With all due respect, TES:O could be a great game. They chose to set this in the TES IP and with that decision came "expectations" because they wanted to draw from the TES fan base. In my eyes, they are failing a lot of TES fans. Set this game in anything other setting, and it may be properly looked at, with no "expectations."

I never had any interest in playing Dark Age of Camelot when it was out. I was OK with this in TES:O, for a bit. Then I read more and with almost every tidbit of info ZOS releases, I see less TES involved. In my opinion, ZOS could have rocked the stagnant MMO world. They chose not to. In my opinion, they took "the safe" route, which in all honesty I cannot blame them for. They are first and foremost a business. Risks are usually frowned in businesses.

To end on a positive note, I am impressed that they figure 15 hours to reach 10th level. If true, this bodes well for the game in my opinion.

[EDIT]

Had the time for level backwards

As much as I am looking forward to ESO, you definitely described, IMHO, a much more interesting MMORPG for my personal tastes.

I was quite surprised they sort of reinvented character progression. I thought they could have saved a lot of trouble by tweaking morrowind/oblivion and skyrim systems together while catering little to fit in the current MMO standards.

UI: I still believe locking in weapon choices and casting was a terribly poor idea. It's like -- hey we have cool customization here, ok ...now what can we do to ruin it? just lock them players to certain weapons, nothing shouts cool as much as weapon switching.

That really is my point. So much TES has in place, ZOS decided to forgo or outright change, all "in the name of MMO" game play. I just don't see that.

No real mystery... bearing in mind that the bulk of the Zenimax team are former MMO developers, led by mister DAoC himself, not Beth. developers, for them a more TES-like system of character advancement would be a case of "re-inventing", not the contrary... same probably applies to a lot of other features.

I feel like ALL of those points could successfully exist in an MMO. I wish more MMOs had at least half of those available.

Would LOVE to see quests with multiple ways to accomplish them, and Puzzle, Mystery, Diplomacy, aspects in quests.

A good point and I find myself wondering, do these developers even understand TES games? Were these people the best choice for this MMO?

They probably do but making an online TES game in the way you said would be really risky. Even the singleplayer games are really expensive and to have 10 provinces and ppl running around would cost A LOT and you never know if it could pay itself back.

What is that Class thing so many peoples talking about? There are a Soft Class selection in this game. Well .. and? How is that different from TES? There are more TES Games WITH an soft Class system then without. Daggerfall, Arena and Morrowind had like what?.. 20 Classes you could chose?

Sometimes it seems there are some Peoples just played Skyrim and now think thats the one and only Elderscrolls Game ever.

You can't make your own classes and you can't use the 3 skill lines the other classes have. Thats why ppl complain about the current classes, they aren't anything like in the older games + some of them have really stupid names

@Ashtaar

Aren't the houses in EQ2 and Rift in an instanced area?

Dont know about Rift but yes they are instanced in EQ2. Its still a very good System there.

But i like Vanguard Housing the most. Its not instanced and looks really cool. And you have to work together to build a House.

Can only speak for myself, but personally was hoping for an 'Oblivion'-style "custom" class system, indeed when TESO was announced I had sort of assumed that was the route they would follow. One supposes having a set of 'tagged' classes makes life simpler in an MMO context... creating "raiding" groups and so forth... but being able to throw away the template if you so wished, and set up your character line-by-line would have been a nice addition. Of course we really know nothing with re. the class-system yet... but it would be a shame if it was too MMO-hand-holdy.

As far i did understand the Classes you just get several Class skills but everything else is up to you. You could still play a Full plate Mage with 2 Axes if you like that..

It was very similiar to Daggerfall as much i remember. You could pick a class but it just gave you some different Staring Abilitys. The rest was up to you.

I really think thats ok. But i can also understand your point of view.

But i also seem some posts (Mostly on Youtube) like "WTF?!?!? Classes in a TES Game? Thats not TES like! I hate TESO already !!111"

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