» Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:53 am So the Elder Scrolls is very much known for its monster varieties throughout all of its games. There's so many things that want to kill, crush, and eat you throughout the world that it's fun to kill them right back! There's mudcrabs, daedroths, minotaurs, ogres, zombies, bears, cliffracers, ghosts, dragons and the list goes on!
What's awesome as well is that they all have a distinct way of trying to end you and have different stats to accomplish that.
In Skyrim, a sabercat is a fast creature that pounces at you and tries to maul you viciously through fast hitting attacks with its claws. A frost troll on the other hand is a slow monster that hits hard with clumsy attacks while slowly regenerating lost health; but it's weak to fire! So with the sabrecat you're trying to block its attacks and then ram a sword through its head while with the troll you're trying to keep your distance while hitting it with firebolts. If you're a mage fighting the sabercat you may be saying "Oh no! It's too fast and is mauling me! This is hurting!" while as a warrior fighting the troll you may be saying "Argh! It's regenerating its health and is bashing through my blocks! My spleen!" While difficult battles depending on the enemies they're facing, they're not impossible to win with a bit of finesse.
A mage would dispatch the sabercat by slowing it down with frost spells so they may finish it off from a distance. While fighting a troll they'd switch to firespells and barrage the thing so it can't hit them with its hard hitting melee.
A warrior would be aggressive versus the sabercat by blocking its initial pounce then keep it stunned as he cuts it down. While fighting a troll they'd step in and out of its slow clumsy swings, attacking it when there's opportunities.
So variety in the monsters and their fighting methods is fun and adds excitement into the Elder Scroll series.
MMO Monsters
Now onto monsters found in MMOs. They're mostly static and all hold the same stats. This includes their attack speed, movement speeder, damage per hit... sometimes they have a single skill to add variety such as a fireball or a negligible DoT but overall nothing too exciting. In MMO games, fighting a level 20 crab monster is the same as fighting a level 20 ogre. They may look different but fighting them is exactly the same. They run at you at a normalized speed while hitting you rhythmically for a set amount of damage every few seconds. It's very predictable and you dispatch them with the same method every time.
The mage would attack by spamming fireball a few times, and the warrior would attack by just charging in and swinging his weapon. Dead monster every time in the same way.
So uniformity in the monsters in MMO games isn't so fun. It may lend to the idea of a "grind" where you're killing things the same way over and over again. I'm assuming this is common because animating and designing a variety of monster A.I's is often considered "resource consuming" when it's easier to make everything have the same fighting method.
ESO Monsters?
It'd be great if Elder Scrolls Online can have the variety of ways monsters fight found in the Elder Scroll series. I don't believe anyone ever compliments MMO on how fun it is to kill individual mobs found throughout the game. I know some classes would have advantages of fighting certain monster types over others, and there may come a point when you're strong enough to fight every monster in a similar way. But I believe that's better than fighting the same thing with a different look from level 1 to max.
Elder Scrolls Online may in fact already be on this track. They've talked about how groups of enemies employ strategy and tactics during battles although I am unaware if this unique method of fighting extends to enemies on an individual level. They've talked about how they're trying to avoid very UI elements, such as if an enemy is about to use a heavy attack-- instead of seeing a cast bar filling you'll see the animation of them charging the attack up. This may be an indirect hint at something more than what other MMOs offer.
The end goal I'd like to see is for there to be a monster in front you and have to quickly form a strategy in order to defeat it rather than repeating some attack formula. It would keep the game dynamic and avoid the static pitfalls found in other MMOs.
Additional Side Notes: I hope there's some unexpected enemies in the game that make you go "Oh snap!" Like running into a rare werewolf at night or having a highwayman stealthed along the road, jumping you as you draw close. Would keep you on your toes and add excitement in the wandering aspect.
Short version: Variety in fighting individual NPCs is fun and not found in other MMOs.
