Dear developers,

After seeing other posts where people have stated they've been encouraged to post their suggestions on the forums I'm writing you this letter here in hopes that by doing this you will somehow, someday, address concerns and include wishes into the game. I'm a late 30s professional that's been playing TES and MMO games for quite some time and would describe myself as a "hardcoe casual" and "completionist" player. Meaning I often spend a lot of time playing games (and tend to focus on one game at a time for many years) but don't usually focus on one aspect of a game, such as progression raiding or climbing a PVP ladder and like to do everything I possibly can on one character. I enjoy the social aspect of MMOs but tend to spend most of my play time soloing and focusing on small personal goals, such as crafting, roleplaying, exploring, or working on achievements. For example, in WoW I spent the better part of a year doing the PVP grind for the Conqueror title and almost the same amount of time in LOTRO working on a massive meta-deed for a cool Moria title and mount. Why did I do that? Roleplaying. Having those titles fit into my character concept and enriched my personal gaming experience.

What are my wishes?

1. Character impact- I would like to see my character influencing the world in some small way. You've already implemented this with NPCs recognizing quest actions/consequences, which is awesome. However, I'd also like to see the decisions I make for my character's skill progression and quest actions build something of a reputation among NPCs as well. I fondly remember the first time I heard an NPC in Morrowind say "Aren't you the one they call the Nerevar?". That was a simple act of recognition which really enhanced my play. In TESO I think it would be cool to have NPCs of a certain profession, such as Smith, Alchemist, Enchanter, whatever recognize a PC's achievement in that skill. "It's an honor to do business with a Master Smith such as yourself" and/or give favorable pricing, aka Speechcraft but based on proficiency in a craft.

2. Roleplay support- One of the things I love most about TES games is the way the games allow a player to carefully craft and hone an avatar to match a mental ideal of who/what that character is. Adding the social interactivity possibilities inherent in an MMO creates chances for roleplaying, either individuall/imaginatively or corporately, that I think are unmatched in current MMOs. That being said, there are some design elements that would support the RP community and greatly enhance RP in the game.

Cosmetics~ Rather than make cosmetics an endgame (50+/++) feature, implementing a cosmetic system from the beginning would be very helpful. Of all the games I've played LOTRO has, by far, the best cosmetic system in any game. The designers gave players the option of having a wardrobe to store items for cosmetic use, multiple outfit slots for quick change, and gave us the freedom to equip any non-weapon/non-shield item cosmetically. This seemingly small thing (probably not from a programming perspective) has not only created a mini/meta-game/hobby of collecting and fashioning incredibly creative costumes (BIG time sink); it has also allowed players to represent their avatar in a way that matches their mental image of the character. I would like to see TESO contain such a system that also includes cosmetic weapons and shields. Concerns about cosmetics in PVP are quite valid and Turbine has addressed that by making cosmetics no appear in their PvP area. If this is not a feasible option at the current time, please consider including an option for quick change of entire outfits when not in combat.

Player/Guild Housing~ From what I've read this is something that has been considered for future content updates. I'd like to put my two cents into the pot. It would be very cool to have some Hearthfire-esque mechanism whereby a player can purchase land and build a custom house/shop/keep/shack on that land. If it's not practicable to do this in the open world, please consider making housing instanced and allowing players to give other players permission to access their homes. I envision a housing instance reflecting expansion of a town where people have started building a suburb around the town/city outside of the main city walls in ever-expanding rings. A system like this would allow guilds to purchase land together and make their own neighborhood within the greater community. This would create an environment that I believe would encourage, rather than discourage, social interaction. I imagine block parties, crafting fairs, and the like happening all over the place.

Titles~ The addition of titles reflecting in-game achievement can be a strong motivation for players to experience content they might otherwise ignore. I'm not usually a big fan of PVP, but I did a lot of it just to get a title for RP use. I've seen that you'll be including PVP ranks/titles in TESO; thank you! Please also consider adding titles for finishing quest lines, killing a certain amount of monsters (Gooberface The Troll-Hewer), and mastery of skills "Gooberface, Master Smith" or "Gooberface, Blademaster". Titles are also a good means of recognizing player achievements and motivating players to keep spending time in game working on things.

3. Crafting- Please make sure that crafting is relevant at all levels of play. It's disheartening to have crafting skills included only to make world/instance/raid drops or PVP earned gear be much better than what a player can make. Likewise, crafting that ends up being a simple grind through sub-par low level gear to get to the useful stuff at endgame is a big put off. Similarly, creating a gear system based on item level and/or creating a gear-gate based on being able to only get the highest end gear through one means is an unnecessary restriction and often leads players to missing out on experiencing content because they didn’t grind out gear from previous content. Ensuring players have the ability to gear themselves at a level appropriate for all levels of content, from entry level to enough to contribute at current end game can only enhance players’ experiences.

Implementation of a strong crafting system can give players the freedom to spend time in game how he/she wants. If someone prefers to grind dungeons to get gear drops, by all means, let them! Personally, I prefer not to run the same dungeons over and over and over and over again in hopes that the RNG sees fit to give me the chance to roll on an item. I would much prefer to spend the time out in the world exploring and gathering materials to make an item equivalent to a dungeon drop. The same goes for raiding. Please ensure that raiders get some sort of unique equipment that readily distinguishes their achievements without requiring players to grind raids either for random gear drops or crafting materials needed to make the highest level of gear or experience end game content.

*How could this be done? Component drop frequency and/or material upgrading. Say it takes a certain quantity of Pure Fire Atronach Essence to make an Infused Ebony Ingot; mobs in dungeons and raids could drop the pure essences directly, or drop a higher number of plain FAE, than Fire Atronachs out in the open world. This is where a crafting skill that allows a player to refine raw materials comes in. Refining will allow a player to choose whether or not to run dungeons/raids to get the materials or go find them out in the landscape, while still recognizing the effort it takes to earn them in a raid/dungeon.

*Corollary to above- Please recognize the competitive and often greedy nature of many MMO players and ensure that resources in the landscape aren't so limited that a couple people scouring an area can keep it clear of resources for everyone else, aka WoW. Not everyone has the time or inclination to run circuits gathering resources or killing mobs for hours and hours. A level of resource limitation is good for an economy, but creating a situation where a small percentage of the player base can effectively corner a market and jack prices up to levels that aren't affordable for the majority of players is detrimental, not productive. LOTRO implemented instances where there was a set goal as well as a relative abundance of gather-able materials. Players could run those to have private access to crafting materials yet at the same time had to contend with mobs to keep the instance from being a quick snatch and grab; effectively throttling-down unreasonable resource gathering.

Gathering, improving craft skills, and character level- Please make craft skills independent of character level and allow one character to gather all types of raw materials. Having to level multiple characters to have access to zone or level-gated raw materials is one of the most frustrating aspects of MMOs for me. I have no issue with spending hours gathering or going between characters to craft (in fact, I enjoy the mindlessness at times) and am not asking for a single character to be a one-stop shop. What I would like to see is the ability to gather anything and everything on one character then distribute the raw materials among my crafters AND give those crafter characters the ability to improve their crafting skills independently of character level or combat/non-crafting skill progression.

Concerns~

The one mega server per region concept worries me a bit, to be honest. In other games players have been able to separate themselves into similar communities based on server type: PVP, RP-PVP, PVE, RP, etc. This self segregation has, in general, created environments where players who prefer one type of play can gather. It's also created unique personalities among servers. For example, Server X may have a reputation for being the home to the most cutthroat and hardcoe PVP and progression raiding whereas Server Y may be known as a family or casual-friendly place. The communities on those different servers have tended to police themselves and create unique cultures that attract like-minded players. This, in my experience, is a good thing for a game.

With TESO having all players on one giant server raises some concerns with me. It means players won't have the choice of seeking a wider community of like minded people with the same play style. The "care bears" will have to deal with the frustrations of playing with the "hardcoe" and vice versa. Add a mostly open world experience to the mix and I'm worried these frustrations will cause people to give up on the game or not play it at all. Let's be realistic, there are people who enjoy making other peoples' gaming difficult, aka griefers, or simply people who are inclined to exclude other players from their group when killing important mobs en masse.

*Open dungeons- Spawn camping and kill stealing could potentially run rampant. Even though it's been stated players that "tag" a mob will get some XP and loot from it, the thought that a large group of players could sit in a dungeon and essentially farm it to the exclusion of others is troublesome; especially if there is a quest mob or some sort of important/rare crafting material drop. What's to stop a player or group from coming in and clearing lower level open dungeons quickly or spawn camping the mobs that drop the best loot just to spite other players?

A huge seconding on cosmetics; I played LOTRO for four years and the best thing by far about the game was it's incredible outfit system. Also, in LOTRO they had a system where you could take .ABC files of music and play them in-game on various instruments, this would be really awesome too.

Everything OP said looks good to me.

I, too, am a "hardcoe" casual gamer... I game for multiple hours every day, but sometimes that time is spent re-arranging inventory, gathering crafting materials, taking screenshots of sunsets, etc.

My main concern at this point is the Open World / Mega Server nature of the game, which unfortunately is likely impossible to change at this point in development. I can easily imagine the frustrations that griefers will be able to inflict in this system. An easy solution would be to swap to an alt who is hopefully not in an area that is ~also~ under siege by griefers, but the potential would always be there.

I don't want ALL instances --- even though I play solo, I like being around other players' characters, even offering help against a tough foe, or helping someone in over their head, or offering advise or directing someone to some difficult to find location/object in the open world. But in an always open world, it's too easy for people to step on each others' toes. Even if you get credit for defeating a boss, for example, that other people were already fighting when you reached the final room, your experience of that quest has been broken --- you didn't get to see what the earlier people had to do to ~summon~ the boss, for example. Perhaps there were interaction dialogs or earlier fights that you missed, but since the other players completed those parts, sure, you get credit for defeating the boss and the quest ends/advances... but you missed out on the true intended experience of the quest. So, some degree of phasing or instancing would be needed to ensure that you get to experience the game the way it was intended.

This was very well-written. Nice post.

NauticalPhasmid I like you. You can stay.

Very nice ideas. Although I don't think griefing will be something we'll see much of with the current set-up. Maybe some harassment in chat and some loot-camping/ganking but that's easily dealt with.

Also Welcome to the forums here is your FISHY STICK: http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

No I will never ever let that go.

Mmmmm, fishy sticks. Thanks for that. I'm hungry because someone stole my sweet roll.

The ONE single thing I fear about continuing on the megaserver route is not being able to transfer into an instance that is less/more populated. I do not want to walk into a forested zone and immediately see 200 people running around as if it were Black Friday in Smurf Village. However I also do not want to walk into a difficult zone, ask in chat if people would like to party, and get nothing but silence. At the moment, I have't heard any news commenting at all whether we'll have any kind of control over zone instances.