ZeniMax - The Elder Scrolls Online Announced

Originally Posted by Kostaz
Wow, that's all new to me. Shame for the missed opportunity. Cheers for that.

Sadly many sequels and other rpg projects over the years were cancelled or changed. I remember when inside sources said KOTOR 3 was in the works and it turned into TOR instead.

Not to mention that if everything that happens in TOR is considered cannon there's little room for a Kotor sequel even by another studio many years down the line.

Oh goody, another soulless, cookie-cutter theme-park MMO.

Aside from the name and lore, I'm not seeing how this will in any way be an Elder Scrolls game. In any case, not my cup of tea. Moving along…

I won't never, ever go into any MMO that has PVP. I'm actually glad it is so much limited within DDO.

UGGGHHHHH! Not looking forward to any of this nor do I think it will even ship next year.

However, I'm kind of surprised they kept it a secret all these years- +1 to them for that I guess. There have been vague hints popping up here and there for years that they kept squashing.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I won't never, ever go into any MMO that has PVP. I'm actually glad it is so much limited within DDO.

I never do PvP myself but keep in mind that most games isolate it completely. They may have a PvP only server for full PvP and in the PvE it is completely 100% optional. Few games these days have mandatory PvP.

I play a lot of MMO's and the only ones I avoid are the mandatory PvP ones. But many games are extremely fun even with PvP - you just don't have to join in that. Just pointing out that you usually have the option on whether you want to participate or not.

Well, at least they are trying to make group combat different than the standard MMO "holy-trinity" pattern.

I wish to explore Tamriel, not some facsimile that has dorks and griefers kiting Daedra into n00bs while screaming "Go St. Louis!!!!! LOLOLOLOL". That is certainly not what I want to spend my spare time on. So unless they create a whole instance of Tamriel for me and a few friends, I really can't be bothered.

What I'm actually worried about is what the above article (see news posts for may 4) discusses: dilution of the TES brand. What if the Zenimax suits misinterpret a middling/failed online game and decide that the single player games are on their way out (because, of course, the fans of TES will move in lockstep).

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Well, at least they are trying to make group combat different than the standard MMO "holy-trinity" pattern.

Nah, pretty much every MMO since Everquest has said the same thing, and they have all done it anyway one way or another.

You mean you don't believe Zenimax, or don't believe in the possibility?

Originally Posted by wolfing
Nah, pretty much every MMO since Everquest has said the same thing, and they have all done it anyway one way or another.

Everquest actually had a quadrity, not a trinity and few a MMOs don't use the trinity (Champion online, Guild Wars 2).

Kind of want. Curious khajit ='.'=

Given how KotOR 2 turned out maybe 3 was no loss.

Originally Posted by Kostaz
Not to mention that if everything that happens in TOR is considered cannon there's little room for a Kotor sequel even by another studio many years down the line.

Yeah - very glad at least that it's set 1000 years in the past during a blank period of history so it doesn't have to coexist within the same narratives as future single player TES games. Probably why its easy to ignore Redguard and Battlespire.

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
Given how KotOR 2 turned out maybe 3 was no loss.

I always hear the same thing are you sure we played the same game. There are mod created patches with most of the restored content. People always blame obsidian when Lucas was the reason for the end product.

It's just like NWN2 where you either love it or hate it. No middle ground. Whatever I had no problems with both games and have played them many times.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I always hear the same thing are you sure we played the same game. There are mod created patches with most of the restored content. People always blame obsidian when Lucas was the reason for the end product.

Its just like NWN2 where you either love it or hate it. No middle ground. Whatever I had no problems with both games and gave played them many times.

I liked KOTOR 2 - it did get a bit mangled towards the end though. That book (Rogue Leaders) gives some better insight into how it ended up rushed and why Lucas Arts was so keen on getting it out as quickly as they could. But yeah that developer-publisher relationship definitely had an effect on the quality of the product.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Sadly many sequels and other rpg projects over the years were cancelled or changed. I remember when inside sources said KOTOR 3 was in the works and it turned into TOR instead.

Development of KOTOR 3 and TOR started roughly the same time. KOTOR 3 was being developed by an in house team within Lucas Arts games division. Then LA went through a major overhaul, lots of people got fired, including the head guy who decided to release KOTOR 2 early, and a bunch of their in house developers. At the time KOTOR 3 was not very far into development compared to other games other teams were working on, so the project got canned.

Originally Posted by DarNoor
For those concerned about the single player games. I don't see how this will affect them.

It has to do. Geography of the province matters so much in a TES game it determines the narrative flow.

Even when limiting to 3d times, the technological advancement of graphics might justify by itself a complete overhaul of Morrowind/Cyrodiil provinces. Because visual ideas could not be properly implemented in those days.

Skyrim on the other hand is another story. Sure, graphics will improve but already, certain elements are secured and Skyrim geography can not be redone as much as the others.


As I understood it, the online project will encompass the whole continent and will be exclusive to PC, meaning that they are done with console limitations.

The expected result is that they are going to give a face or visuals to every province geography, and visuals that will last considering the graphics technological stage.

The end result is that you will already know the visual feel of any province they are going to use for the next SP TES game. They will probably play with the time shift to show the evolution of the continent but many geography landmarks have to be preserved to maintain consistency.

This might be checked when compared Skyrim and Skyrim online when the game is out.

Obviously, there will be a split between players with players who will prefer to discover the geography of a province originally through a TES SP game while others will rejoice about finding out the multiple differences showing the evolution of the continent.

But it remains that this online endeavour will influence deeply the TES SP series as geography matters so much in this series.

Another consequence is that they might also speed up the developpment of TES SP as the bone structures of a province are already developped.

I'll be interested to see how the geography is handled too. What about Ayleid ruins in Cyrodiil, the Dwemer ruins in Morrowind and Skyrim, etc? Those basically need to exist in the same spot, even back in the 2nd era.