Please read all before commenting!

People enjoy the single player Elder Scrolls game on the PC because of the variety of things you can do on the PC such as modding! with moddings you can turn the game into your liking and it really adds tons of enjoyment into the game.

Elder Scrolls Online is an MMORPG, yeah I understand, I understand that the developers are afraid that some mods will give an advantage playing field in PvE and PvP but doesn't addon do the same? World of Warcraft doesn't allow modding because it is an MMORPG and yet they allow addons that give a person an advantages! an example would be "Deadly Boss Mods" is an addon that displays timers and warnings of a raid bosses spells and abilities! not just for raid bosses, but they have one that displays timers and warnings of a PvP players spells and abilities!

Now here is my suggestion as to how it could work! I will be comparing this to a program called Tmorph! anyone know of Tmorph? it is a popular program that you can use on World of Warcraft that allows you to change the appearance of your characters, including gears, hairs, and even race! When you do change your appearance, only you can see that changes! other players cannot see the changes that you've made with Tmorph! instead they see your default appearance! For example, say I have a steel longsword, using Tmorph, I can change the appearance of steel longsword into a bronze longsword! but other players cannot see the bronze longsword only I can, instead they see the steel longsword.

Most of fans favorite mods are mods that give new texture/graphics, new hairs, new looks, new skins, new faces, new eyes, new fan-made race, tattoos, piercings, new armor models that replace original and the list goes on and on. How is that going to give someone an ingame advantage? how is me using mod to change the appearance of my characters going to give me an ingame advantage? Now, just like Tmorph, they could make it work. If I use a mod for this new hair that I want to have that isn't available within the game, other players cannot see the new hair, instead they will see the default hair just like the Tmorph program, and in this case it does not have any affect at all to the onlline play. It doesn't give the person a slight advantage over the other person that isn't using the mod. You could say its only cosmetic.

Please make ESO moddable! it could work and it will work.

Nexus mods has over 150,000 different mods if you add all the mods from gamesas's game! so you can clearly see that modding is a big part of gamesas's game and it should stay that way. Just like Curse, I'm sure Nexus Mods can make sure that no mods will give an uneven playing field! the website itself is great and it even made it sure that their mods will not work on a pirated game.

btw I haven't gotten beta invites yet, still checking almost everyday.

1. UI addons will be supported.

2. Graphics replacement ... doubtful. It isn't a bad idea from the player's point of view, but it will put a hole in their cash shop ambition.

They are allowing UI modding to a degree and that's it.

While modding an MMORPG could be done, they've decided to focus on other aspects of the game instead of something that could potentially need a lot of policing.

What's to stop someone modding textures to make other players stand out or make a wall texture transparent?

And I just checked. According to threads on the official WoW forums. Use of Tmorph! is a bannable offence. So facepalm worthy example there.

Adding a mods should only work if the mods comes from a website that the admins are willing to check if the mods are fair or it can come from the game website itself should the company be willing to do so, and you are right Tmorph is a bannable offence! so you're saying modding shouldn't be in the game even though it is a big part of gamesas's game?

It is the first time for everything, if it doesn't work they could still say no to it but give it a chances and see what happen.

So instead of selling skins in the cash shop, they have to create a process to accept mod submission, review the mod and distribute it.

I don't think the business development manager is exactly thrilled at the idea.

Again, from the player's point of view it could be fun/reasonable. But if you put yourself in the game director's shoes, you will be very hard pressed to justify it to the senior management.

Mods will not prevent the developers from selling skins in their cash shop! this game is a pay to play games $15 dollars a month and they'll be getting plenty of money, since Modding is a big part of their game, shouldn't they be willing to do whatever it is to make a lot of players happy? even though it is hard? beside, the developers of other games don't review curse addons, they trust curse admins to review it for them and they trust them so they make them do all the works. The developers do what they do, they just need to get it from a trusted website like curse.

You should see some of the things modding can do the Skyrim! look at truevision enb, you will be so amazed!

Yeah, it comes down to this. The time, personnel, resources and money focused on doing this would be better off being spent on making more content for the game without them having to split efforts to also deal with stuff from the community. Especially when 90% of the stuff from the community will be terrible and often a default texture or model with a bit of blue on it.

Also, this is Zenimax Online's game, they are not Bethesda Game Studios, if ZO have chosen not to have to deal with mods, thats up to them and too be honest for an MMO I agree with that.

In order for a mod to work, EVERYONE has to have it. So in order for you to get that new hair style, or that new Daedric armor retexture, EVERYONE has to have it in order for them to see it. Further, game's don't play well when they look to find something and its not there, so making something like a new hair style appear as a generic style to those that don't have it kinda defeats the point of character customization, no? There is no feasible way to practically make modding at such a scale work.

It wouldn't be time consuming! it is just a mod! its like Curse Addons, they allow the admins on curse to review the addons to see if it is fair and the developers trust them! for modding it can be the same! it doesn't take 2 months to review a mod!

Please read the rest of my first post before commenting, but I'll just reply anyway! the mods will work because you can only see the things that was change from the mods! other players cannot! this is one of the topics I suggest on the first post! and, mods don't need everyone to have it! and saying it defeats the purpose of character customization doesn't make sense at all! the developers will make in game shops for cosmetic features that not EVERYONE will have.

When I last looked into mods for WoW, which was admitedly quite some time ago, the general understanding was that Blizzard tolarated (as in discouraged but did not punish) texture mods because they only affected the modder and basically only changed the paint color. Anything that changes meshes is an entirely different matter. If all that was happening was people adding sci-fi armor and naked pixil boobs that could double as beanbag chairs, the devs would probably just do a facepalm and ignore it. However, It's far too easy to give yourself a wildly unfair advantage if you can alter the shape of objects in the game. Making rare items into giant neon signs or removing walls so you can see what's on the other side and whatnot.

I don't expect any MMO to be open for modding specifically because it opens the door to abuse and cheating, and I see no reason TESO would be any different.

Most of the time a mod in a multiplayer game replaces an already existing object. So for example, turning "Blacksmith Outfit1" into a wedding dress. That's why it only affects the client with the mod and not the whole population.

1. I use real vision enb.

2. Frankly I like the idea. There are games with market places where user created content can be sold to other players with the developer taking a cut for maintaining the system and providing ongoing review process of the submissions.

3. I just wouldn't place too much hope of them coming up with something like this at this stage of development so close to launch.

Actually, cosmetic outfits, everyone can see. Even those who haven't bought them from the shop. Buying it from the shop unlocks it's use, it doesn't unlock it and then download the textures etc. They are technically already on your system as part of the game files.

As Echonite says, if only you can see it, what then is the point? You can't show off your new outfit to anyone.

If modding isn't allowed, it still doesn't erase the fact that people will try to mod the game! but not a lot of players will be using mods if it isn't allowed as they will feel unsafe about it!

it will work, they just have to find a way and I did suggest a few things of how it could work!

just because other mmorpg doesn't allow modding, it doesn't mean ESO shouldn't! it is a big part of gamesas games and if they can make it work!

Modding are just like Addons, addons give in game advantage and in this case, I suggest modding to be only cosmetic features in which you can only see the changes that the mod did, other players cannot! and the mods will be reviewed from a trusted website just like Curse addons which is reviewed not by the game's developers, but by Curse Admin.

You can't show off your new outfit to anyone in the Single player skyrim game and yet people still use mods! a lot of people actually! its just for looks! who cares what others think! you may not see the point since you probably never used mods before! also I never said nobody can see cosmetic outfits!

The UI is the only moddable aspect, and so it should be, nothing else in an MMO should be moddable, there may be mods developed similar to DBM that you can place on the UI.
Graphics changing mods? Never going to be allowed.

Tmorph isn't supported by Blizzard in any way. Its actually against their TOS.

I doubt ZOS would go down a different route for the same reasons Blizzard doesn't.

How then do you distinguish between the harmless cosmetic changes and the exploits, from a developer's point of view?

I don't know how to respond to that, there is no reason to back up anything you just said there.

The game should only accept mods that comes from a trusted website! that trusted website will have admins that will review the newly designed mods made by players to see if it is fair game! you can distinguish a harmless cosmetic changes because the changes isn't affecting anyone, and the exploits does! and if a player has a mod that didn't come from that trusted website, then it will not be allowed.

Back to what I said about it should only be coming from a trusted website, the trusted website will not allow an exploit mods because their admins check and review the mods before it can be used within the game, it is similiar to the curse addons.

Reserve

Mods and MMO's don't mix well. Never will.

limited-multiplayer games can work because that's a small amount of people who all have to have the same mod(s), but it would never work out on an MMO.

Those types of cosmetic costumes and whatnot are already in the game files, thus EVERYONE has them. Access to those files/outfits/etc is what separates those from mods, which not everyone has, nor has access to.

Showing off your character in an MMO is an essential part of the cosmetic economy. People pay tons of in game money for items to improve their character's look. IE Guild Wars 2 and their dyes. If you can't show off your look, then there is no point to it. In a single player environment, it is expected that you cant show off your look with many people outside of pictures.

Using a "trusted" site has its own issues attached, like who will pay these people to review mods? gamesas? Not likely. Modding brings them no direct profit, thus they will never monitor it, just as they don't do now with Nexus.

Texture changes, sure, those could work, but how to you make sure no one uses them in a cheating way? This is already a touchy topic for World Of Tanks and weak point texture replacers. There is no practical way to know if someone is using such things.



The practicality of mods in an MMO environment are simply not worth the cost or effort in any stretch of the imagination.