- Freeform character development, any system from Daggerfall to Skyrim will do. No set classes.
- Primary combat focus is on first person, third person being optional.
- No mandatory factions. Players may join existing factions/guilds but are not obligated to do so.
- World free to explore without boundaries, gear or level checks.
- Grouping is optional.
- No instanced dungeons. No channels/phasing.


The player will not play the 'main hero' as is usual in other MMO's. His fate will be intertwined with the Elder Scrolls, but only as a potential which may or may not be recognized untill it's fulfilled by the player himself, by his choice and his ability to determine his own fate.

Players may dissappear into the masses, joining existing factions (ala empire vs stormcloaks in Skyrim), or they can make a name for themselves by taking control or otherwise taking advantage of the freedom the game provides.

Think EVE Online here, where no player is treated as a hero from the getgo by the game, or at any other point. If a player wants to be a hero or villain, they have to show that. There is no fixed quest line to follow, no fixed grinding path to get there.



Gameplay is balanced around smallscale combat in the initial stages. PvP is allowed everywhere. Large scale PvP may happen around territorial conquests or guild/faction battles.

The death penalty is very hard to accomplish - by necessity, an MMO requires a respawning mechanic for players. How to accomplish this in TES? Well, one option would be to not call it death, but unconsciousness. Your 'deaths' may be recounted by an increasing number of scars, signifying the amount of times one has been knocked down. Permadeath may be an option for players in high positions or certain situations to get around the lack of immersion at no one being able to "die".



Modding will be impossible to do in an MMO, at least not the kind people have been getting used to. The best the devs can do here is invite modders and players around for suggestions and practical examples, keeping up a constant dialogue with the community aswell as keeping an eye on what's popular in the singleplayer games (other than balance changes).

However, villages and towns may be player regulated per server, allowing for a certain degree of customization by a larger group of players. Adding homes (ala EQ2) or other buildings, or defenses against rivaling factions or players is an option. Certain areas may be designated for players to claim and build on in certain prefab ways, striking a compromise between no modding and full modding which is still regulated by the devs and GM's (think SWG/EVE).

A single server design will be impossible for any kind of land-based game to maintain unless the landmass is sufficiently large to hold everyone. However, this creates problems in starting areas and hubs which may need ot be instanced by necessity. A segmented community may be best here, implementing a happy medium between a single server environment and small servers with caps of ~100 people in any one place. This entirely depends on the budget and time available for designing the world. Most likely a compromise will have to be struck here to keep the worlds small.

This might however be a good thing as players can identify with their community much more, given the freeform factions and landscape customization later on. This can be done in such a way that the lore in general can be maintained and content can be developed singularly rather than adapting to different servers, where the happy medium between full and no modding hits a sweet spot for both players and developers.






In fact, one such MMO was already in the works a long time ago. However, it was marred by difficulties from an inexperienced and very small development team and a fraudulent publisher (Dark & Light). The proof of concept already exists, albeit executed poorly. Given time i would have hoped Zenimax/Bethesda to achieve something similar with TESO, though it seems they already went the DaoC/WoW clone route.

I really wonder what the initial meetings were about and how exactly the current version came to be.

Completely agree with most of what you said. I'd love to see an MMO based around standard TES mechanics, in a world the size of Daggerfall (at least the region, within the game of the same name). There would be so many opportunities for players it wouldn't be funny... actual role-playing, exploring, dungeon diving, raids, etc, without people stepping on each other toes and getting crammed up.

I would disagree with "No ...phasing" though, at least given my experience of what it are. Phasing allows the world to actually change around you permanently, so you're not seeing the same scenes repeat over and over in the same area. It's kind of dumb if, say, you need to get supplies to help someone escape, and despite getting them supplies, they never leave. Phasing would allow them to leave, so you don't see them anymore but other players are still able to do the quest, wouldn't it?

After writing this there's a lot more than I thought I would post, so if you wish just skip it all feel free. Cheers

Alright, the basics questions to start off:

- Crafting?
- Is the fighting going to be different?
- Are there going to be classes/presets like in Oblivion?
- What is the graphic style going to be?
- Is it going to be open-world as it has been in Elder Scrolls for a while now, or is it going to be just multiple instances started from a central quest hub/city?
- Is there going to be Horse Armor?
- Where is it taking place?
- What platforms?
- PvP Arena/battlegrounds?


Alright, there's a few questions just to start off, now here's for my personal hopes/speculation on what might be in it.

- As for the Open World/ Instanced World:

I hope it's like this, we have our own personal open worlds with the depth and expanse as Skyrim. (Or possibly all the provinces?) Everyone plays on the same map and can see the same thing for a map layout. But- we're not all in the same world at once. We have our versions of the map with our own personal events, story, and fights taking place. When we come into view of a town/city players can start to fade in and out, basically like a channel in any other MMO, and we can interact with each other, challenge each other to fights, trading, commerce, the normal MMO deal. But when we're in this space we can also look around for other players to include into a party and travel with, much to be expected from an MMO. We settle on a state of a plan and set out, all now instanced into the same world at all times.

- Combat: (These are rough ideas mind you, and what I'm hoping for.)

I want and hope that it's going to be much the same as Skyrim's was. That combat was fluid and well done, it was a great visceral experience that you could almost feel in your hands when you landed blows or cast magic at a foe. I really don't think changing it in any way would make it better, save for one formula; the way Tera Online has done it. You still have your sword and shield, but you have to direct it like in Skyrim, and your attacks are centered in the the area you're looking. If it's a stabbing attack it has to be right down the middle on the target, or with magic or an arrow you need to predict where it will land. Much the same as previous Elder Scrolls games, but with the Tera element you'll be unleashing different kinds of attacks with different effects etc as they come out. You might have a kind of whirl-wind attack where you spin and unleash damage in every direction, or you might have an attack that is structured to hit from a certain direction, such as a downward-right strike that, if a bandit is holding a weapon in a parry, or a shield in a certain position, you can try to by-pass it and land more damage than if it was just blocked. Which leads to this; Depending on where your attacks land on the enemy, on an armored or un-armored segment, that changes the amount of damage.

- Diseases: (Lycan and Vampire Speculation.)

There's two main diseases in the Elder Scrolls Universe that we either completely love, or completely hate. Vampirism and Lycanthropy. Each one is very distinguished to a certain play-style, at least as of Skyrim. Vampirism catered more to the Arcane users whilst the Lycans were very hard hitters, and this is easy to understand, yet, how will these two play out in this MMO setting? What are going to be the strengths and weaknesses, how are they going to act differently than previous renditions? Well, here's what I hope for. Vampirism-infected players can have the ability to turn players that they go up against, as the same with Lycanthropic players as well. Each has a small chance, through combat, to infect other non-diseased players who, much the same as ES lore before must rid themselves of it after combat. Through prayer, potion, or otherwise. Onto the basis of combat for these two though, for the depth of these kind of characters has the potential to be greater than most.

Vampire: They have specific blood attacks that are able to ensnare, infect, curse (DOT, damage over time), and control other beings/players. They have a secondary bar that must be monitored to be able to execute these attacks: Blood. (I know, not predictable at all, right?) To fill this bar they must either siphon life from their victims, attack them in melee, or some other kind of specific event or contact must be made.

Lycans: I'm presuming the lycans to much as they usually have been, up-close, strong, tearing, destructive, vicious bastards. Their strength and agility are their main points, being able to move about, hit hard and get out of the way if needs be. They might possibly be able to pick up surrounding items and utilize them as weapons against their foes? Bashing the against the ground. Their stat bar that they would have to watch most is a fury bar, much like a warrior in WoW or any fighter in general, it builds up as they attack with normal attacks and when they are hit. From this bar and from that energy they are able to use these abilities to pick up things, etc. and to also jump into the air, dodge, roll, or stop incoming attacks, possibly disarm their opponents, as well as tossing their opponents aside or, like in Skyrim, utilizing special roars to create fear, or lower attack damage from enemies, things of that nature.

- Next we have PvP that comes to mind:

Battlegrounds/Battles:

Alright, my mainstay in any MMO, besides story, has always been good PvP and this game has the potential to have some of the best yet. With what Elder Scrolls is known for it could turn out to be some of the most in-depth battles of any MMO to date. First though, I want to talk about how PvP would actually be implemented. The usual formula with games like Warcraft, Aion, Rift, and other more recent games is Battlegrounds. Two teams combat for control of flags, of capture points, the usual. This is very possible in the Elder Scrolls MMO as well, there could be certain resources that a certain mercenary group is looking to claim and the other team, another merc group, or possibly guards depending on the situation, is called in to defend it. That's just one idea, there's multiple others running through my head, possible Siege events, etc. The list goes on.

Duels: Dueling is another idea that's been implemented in many games before, and again, it has great potential in this game. Perhaps you're representing your guild in the area and a rival guild comes up to you or starts causing trouble, ideally you'd want to settle it in a suit of armor and a call to honor. So why not? Challenge other players to duels, for money, for reputation, or just for kicks.

The Arena!: Yes, that grand arena we all know and love, we want it and we want it bad. Take a team of three or so and enter against other players or different scenarios. You could face captured beasts and monsters, packs of wolves, or just death-match gameplay. All the while in the stands other players are placing bets on the winner and watching you rank up through the arena. There could be an Arena Grand-Champion, much like Oblivion, challenge him to battle, take off his head, usurp his seat and watch the change in power. The only rule of the arena is that there are no rules, once your foe is dead take from them what you will and move on.


World PvP: You are out on a quest and another adventurer fades into your sight, you see him from a distance with an arrow drawn in your direction and are unsure whether he is aiming for you or just at something you cannot see. You draw closer and he looses his arrow straight at you, right at your knee. You deflect it with your shield and charge him head on, cutting him down for trying to make you a guard of Whiterun. At the same time you two could have worked together but he chose to shoot first and die first rather than approach the situation with diplomacy.

- Guilds/Politics:

Guilds have been an integral part of the Elder Scrolls for years, many have rose and fell with the tides of time and it is you who now begins a charter. What will your guild achieve? Will you be mercenaries out to take any job they can? Will you be scholars and arcanists, looking for the true seat of power? Will you be working behind the lines to usurp the power of the other guilds? You may control the markets of trade, but a very cunning thief has snuck into your warehouse which was unguarded for a moment's notice and all that you had worked for is now gone, your guild is bankrupt and you have nothing left.

There is a great possibility that different guilds could face off in the fields, one has influence in on city while another has influence in another city, all you feel fit to do is fight. A Guild Battle is declared and players from both can now see each other in the world and it is now up to your footmen and spellcasters to settle the dispute. First of each guild to reach 0 reinforcements or attain more kills is the winner. You can gain more reinforcements through special quests and dailies, or through recruiting more members under your banner.

Control: In various regions there are mines, shipping routes, outposts; all of them are vital to your power. The more of them you control, the more of them that you upgrade and pay towards, the more you can make out of them and the more your influence grows as a guild. Power is fickle at best and there will always be constant battle for them.

- Crafting!:

Swords and boards, iron and steel, maybe even some skooma too? Yep it would be nice to craft them all and get them all onto the market. But for that to be done you need to collect or control the materials for it. To do so you might sign out a contract from a big-name guild to gather resources from their mine, or just find it out in the world for yourself. Reap what others sow, or sow it for yourself and protect your crops from harm or theft. There's much that can be done when you imbue steel with magic, but is that really your strong-point? Contract out that task to other players who can do it for you.

- Perks!: Are they coming back?

So, if perks are coming back, as I hope they will, I take it that we're going to need to be specializing again into certain areas. Blacksmiths will be blacksmiths, enchanters are enchanters, locksmiths, armorers, weapon-smiths, it all depends on what you choose to do. Can you change your perks later on to fit into another roll or are you stuck with what you have and must choose carefully. There's a lot of possibilities with this as well.

But not just crafting perks, what about the battle perks? Are you an ice-mage, fire-mage, arcane? Are you a berserking warrior, a stout defender or just a mercenary? Are you a thief or an archer. Or... Are you a combination of these things? It's the fundamental question of Elder Scrolls. What are you?

The same goes with the aforementioned Diseased. Are the Lycans going to have special perks that they can spec into? Are the Vampires?

- Closure-

Yeah, I thank you for taking your time to read all that if you have, quite a lot to write but I just have so many ideas right now. Comment what you think, keep in mind all that was speculation, and add on whatever you wish. I'm eager to see what other people think.

Don't even need to read the post to point this out - there's no such thing as a perfect game. There is always room to improve and evolve. Other than that, I like the pitch. It's a good start, but the game would need to grow and evolve from there.

Very good additions. Thanks for the input!


If only you were the manager at Zenimax ;p

Agree with a lot of the OP, particularly the freeform character development part. That's something that's been lacking in a lot of MMOs.

The game would be perfect for me if they add a sense of wonder in the world and make players actually feel like exploring. Vanguard did this quite well, although other issues let that game down.

Working on it. We'll see where I end up in five to ten years.

This would in fact create the most atrocious big-name MMO to date. Seriously. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to balance such a system? Look at Skyrim and all of its predecessors. They were terribly unbalanced. If you're playing single-player, that's fine because you're the only person and all that a better build will do is make it easier. If you're in an MMO, you compete against other players and thus a certain build or group of builds will still arise. Classes just do that job for you.


When you have thousands of players, many having sub-par pings, playing a game, the kind of dynamic combat that Skyrim offers is hard to replicate effectively. Not an awful idea, of course.


Also not a bad idea.


Well every world has to have boundaries of some sort. And it'll be hard to make an interactive multiplayer game in which the NPCs scale to each player's level, why is why so many MMOs opt for level-based zones.


What's the point in a massively multiplayer game if you aren't going to focus on multiplayer? Maybe the reason WoW is so successful isn't just because it was the first, but because it continues to insist that players must work together to reach higher end content. MMOs that focus on story and single-player stuff too much fail because MMO players don't care as much about that.


You'd be surprised how fast the game would get old if you couldn't rerun dungeons. And without instancing, anybody can ruin your dungeon-crawling experience.

The idea of communal building of cities is okay, but you also have to realize that it practically opens the door for communal griefing. You can't trust a community of anonymous players to work together on something like that. You can hardly trust them with raids/dungeons.

Finally, world-wide PvP is an awful, awful, horrendous idea. Not because PvP is stupid, but because some players prefer to work with, not against, other players. PvP servers, sure. Worldwide PvP on all servers? Not a chance in hell.

What you're asking for is a single-player Elder Scrolls game that just happens to have a thousand other players. Which is, first of all, almost impossible to practically implement, and, more importantly, completely contrary to what an MMO is. A good MMO shoves multiplayer down your throat. It isn't "Oh, here's your friends, if you want to you can go dungeoning but you don't have to", it's "Here's some allies, here's some decent gear, now if you want to see the endgame you'd damn well better start making friends so you can win". The entire purpose of an MMO is that it is massively multiplayer.

I agree with you on much of that, however there is a few things that must be understood. An MMO-RPG is just that, it's two parts to a whole. There are those that enjoy the MMO half, to socialize etc., and those that enjoy and RPG experience.

I love both parts, but I don't want to be with friends -all- of the time, nor do I want to be in just an RPG all of the time. The option should be set that you simply do want to be left alone to explore, pillage and plunder on your own. Any good developer knows that there's different people to cater to at any given time.

Now on the section of character development. Yes, there is a lot of work that would have to go in to creating a balanced system for that, but in my opinion I think it could be done with some well-spent time and testing. There are many things, many perks, abilities, spells, etc. that could be implemented to counter and repel other players with various playstyles coming toward you yelling at the top of their lungs. A wise player will know what to choose and an unwise player will be at a disadvantage. But what kind of game is it when you know what to expect around every corner? It's hardly exciting at all. To test out various ways to defeat certain kinds of players and slight mixes would be an incredibly exciting venture, in my opinion. You could break upon the shields and wards of an enemy team time and again and be thrown to the side, yet change one small thing about your talent or perk build and you can then by-pass the entire problem in the first place. Over time players adapt to different conditions, just as humanity has over millions of years, for this kind of adaptation to have to be taken on by a player it could be extremely interesting and rewarding. Like solving a puzzle that took you hours to complete you will receive a great sense of pride in your work, but soon find the downfalls of your new system and again adapt.

This is just what I'd personally enjoy, however, but still; it can be implemented and implemented well. Live and learn.