Well if you think over doing blue fog lighting is good,i don't. There is really very little in that screen. You can try again,i don't hate the game,just that picture is not as good as you think. 2 colors blue and brown and i don't see any shadows at the entrance where it is lighted. Character model looks very low poly,and it's gear looks bland as well,yeah not very good work in that pic.
Let's see your amazing screen shots, critic. Jesus, some people exist just to bring other people down.
It's more realistic and gritty than in most games, some people may not like it and prefer high fantasy models with spikes everywhere and weird colors. I like both when properly adapted to the setting, and in ESO, it works well.
I don't think it's case of not wanting it to look realistic, it's just havin the armour look little less flat, it's a non-issue tbh :P
Overall the game look amazing and this is certainly something that won't stop me playing. The captured and improved the Es world amazingly well since release.
ESO's graphics are okay, but they are also a bit dated, when you compare it to games such as BDO, where the quality of the graphics is significantly higher it tends to highlight the difference in generations.
ESO's graphics are okay, but they are also a bit dated, when you compare it to games such as BDO, where the quality of the graphics is significantly higher it tends to highlight the difference in generations.
BDO definitely has some of the best graphics of the whole MMO industry, there's no doubt about that, but when it comes to art style I prefer ESO. BDO is sometimes a bit too "Asian little girls with short frilly skirts" for my taste in some classes. My Maehva is thankfully not affected by that.
While some might disagree, i do think they could remove the tamer class entirely without detracting from the game in any way But you are correct that the game does have quite a few 'asian' influences, which is to be expected given the origin of the game, fortunately it doesn't do it to the extent that games such as Blade and Soul do, for which i am very thankful.
I ran across this video in the ESO forums. Probably not worth watching the whole thing but you should watch it at least until the first fight.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Man those screens are beautiful. Forgot how good this game looks, music is just as good. Have to resist the urge, starting to find other games to play and cant add another back in right now!
Secondly, I almost decided to redownload this game based on your screenshot but then i remembered how lonely it is, in that you don't really need/have to group with anyone at all in this game to get to endgame. I re-downloaded it in the past after it went ftp with my level 50 character and i remember it being somewhat empty and messaging random ppl to figure out what to do. I think the answer from multiple ppl was that solo grinding X mobs in X cave was the best thing i could do.
So I think this game is awesome if you view it as a solo rpg and full of tons of story, lore, quests, awesome settings if you can get around the solo part of it. I remember me and a friend tried to play it and we even ended up going separate ways after about 5 minutes because it was just more efficient to level and quest that way hahah.
but again, based on your OP, this game is full of great stories (lonely ones at that though <sniffles>) I mean yes, you can go into that portal into a strange dimension/world to rescue someone or do some quest, but chances are you'll be doing it alone almost 100% of the time.
Your social experience in any modern MMO tends to be based on your guild(s) not PUGs.
But there is Cyrodil and the battlegrounds (which you can queue for as a group at this point) and dungeons and various group content, and I see people doing overland content in small groups constantly.
If a player is lonely doing ESO, it's because you don't make friends and that's your choice. I recommend finding a large friendly guild -- OR FIVE since you can join five at once. Out of five guilds, perhaps you can find other people to run with you?
I mean, this is not just a note to you if at all (you obviously know how you feel), but to other people who might be discouraged by your post from trying the game out. Personally I like to run a lot of the content solo, but I get asked to run with others and I rarely turn them down.
I tend to run DPS, so there's a real surplus and I'm not super elite, so I'm not top of the team picks, and that's fine with me, I'm not ambitious to have BIS on everything, I'm pretty casual. There is so much content, and I am a crafter/trader/explorer type.
But if I run into something where I haven't been able to get through something in overland due to being mechanics challenged -- rare in one tam where the environment scales to your level -- I've never had issue getting backup.
The fact is that you can level to cap entirely without doing the single person RPG that is the overland quests, basically. Or you can level to cap entirely without doing battlegrounds or Cyrodil, just playing it like several interwoven ES RPGs (on separate or one toon, since one tam). It's designed that way, to offer team and/or solo experiences. If you don't like the solo experience, go play the team or zerg (and there are also solo options for) PVP and PVE stuff. Weren't you aware of these options?
It's not a sandbox, it's a themepark that presents a variety of activities to engage a variety of players, and assumes that MMO players both want a variety of activities and get bored easily.
And of course, any studio assumes that we will bitch moan and complain at the drop of a hat. But there's nothing they can do about it.
Also to be honest, I'm grateful for most any game that doesn't make my female toons fight half naked or in high heels, and has an adjuster at character creation that allows me to not have DDDDD mammaries (especially on an egglaying species, lol...). For those of you who want the armor to be amazing, I am a retired marketing VP, and I do some very fun stuff with dye stations, and have a few random costumes on my bank alts or collections for when I can not stand how I look.
The original Morrowind single player game was moody and sepia tint, and it took imagination to add color to that world. But I'm old enough that I grew up with black and white TV, lol. This game I think leans a bit too much on that atmosphere for their modern audience. That engine was trying to optimize for performance -- something they lost sight of by Skyrim I think, heh...
But this engine leans heavily on java, and there is no optimization they can do for assets that is efficient particularly in the cities. I find the performance to be awful on a machine that is within spec but not high end, particularly in cities and groups, and have to adjust settings radically for group content vs solo. This is a 2014 ROG desktop, it's not some office desktop, but it is aging and not much upgraded.
I am honestly worried about the promised transmog system, in that it's going to make loading crowds in cities so much worse, and any group content even harder on older rigs.
Fixed income here. I am not going to just throw money into my rig without cutting other things. But that's how the industry works -- I need to figure out how to soup this thing up seriously soon.
Sometimes I wonder if ESO didn't plan for their success in terms of this engine, though, because it doesn't seem to scale to their crowded cities in the superservers. They have some decisions in their future.
ESO's graphics are okay, but they are also a bit dated, when you compare it to games such as BDO, where the quality of the graphics is significantly higher it tends to highlight the difference in generations.
BDO definitely has some of the best graphics of the whole MMO industry, there's no doubt about that, but when it comes to art style I prefer ESO. BDO is sometimes a bit too "Asian little girls with short frilly skirts" for my taste in some classes. My Maehva is thankfully not affected by that.
The problem with BDO graphics is that there is so much of it. If you could turn some of it down (vegetation), it would be even better. Sometimes, less is more.
Technology stands still for noone, it doesn't take that long really for games to start looking dated, and it has been a few years since ESO released after all, at least its not as bad as SW:TOR, i dropped into that game recently after having been playing BDO, patch wednesdays yay, and i couldn't believe how clunky the character controls were, nor how 'old' the graphics looked. It doesn't take much playing the newer games to make the older games look even older, just take Eve Online, its a 2003 game but they regularly update visuals for ships etc. Recently they improved planets and stations and they are always working on how to make things look more impressive when exploding.
Yeah, that is a bit of a surprise to me if true. Then again Secret World, and maybe other FC games, use ActionScript in the UI. You can tell too. It's one of the things that annoy me most about playing the game. Weird quirk I know.
Wel IDK whether it does or not but I do know that some actions cause the game to hitch: whenever someone joins or leaves one of my guilds for example, the game hitches for a second. It can get annoying if I'm in the middle of an intense fight in a dungeon and the guild leader decides to cull the inactives.
Also several add-ons - Master Merchant being the worst offender - can cause the FPS to dorp to single digits when it's doing some intensive database update. When my MM is doing its daily update I just know to sit there and wait for the minute while it does it since the game becomes unplayable.
So some UI and add-on functions can impact performance severely.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Its just not my style I guess, I find all of these average at best. Then again, high level FF14 gear blows me away with its looks, now that is what I call gorgeous.
Edit: Just to show the difference in style (not to say these are ' better' although IMHO they are):
Yeah, that is a bit of a surprise to me if true. Then again Secret World, and maybe other FC games, use ActionScript in the UI. You can tell too. It's one of the things that annoy me most about playing the game. Weird quirk I know.
WoW uses LUA and it has never been a problem. The main code is still in C++.
I think the difference is that ESO uses LUA also for some of its core functions not just for UI add-ons.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
1 and 5 are ok but that is just terrain stuff,in a 3d live world it should be showcasing architecture and of course lighting but almost impossible to absorb lighting in a picture.I draw mild conclusions on lighting but not accurate ones,i would have to be in game.
BTW i don't hate ESO at all,i would rate it in the top 5/6/7 games of all time,and i would even understand a rating of top 3,although i wouldn't agree with top 3 lol,i would understand it.
Just like in gaming and with these pics,i dissect a LOT,it is because i go way way back to when i was making maps and attempting to make a game,so i understand every last aspect from sounds/music to lighting etc etc. As well there is an important aspect about game environments,a picture migth not look good however i do understand the author might be trying to create a certain atmosphere,more about it's purpose than winning any picture contest,so just because i say a picture doesn't look good does not mean it might not serve a great purpose in the game setting.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Honestly wish I could get into this game. I love TES, love MMO's....but this game just doesn't grab me at all.
... character customization is just so horribly bland.
Can't be serious. There's more character development variations possible in this game than in most if not all other class based theme parks.
While there is a certain amount of truth in that, the reality to me seems to be that choice of weapons to use and race has more impact/meaning than the 'class' chosen as its likely that only one or two abilities will really be all that useful, so you end up choosing between swords, 1handed or 2 handed, bows, or magical staff combat, the rest is pretty much akin to traits, they allow for a certain amount of 'variation' but i wouldn't say they were all that significant compared to weapon choices which is where the real 'class' determination seems to be made.
Honestly wish I could get into this game. I love TES, love MMO's....but this game just doesn't grab me at all.
... character customization is just so horribly bland.
Can't be serious. There's more character development variations possible in this game than in most if not all other class based theme parks.
While there is a certain amount of truth in that, the reality to me seems to be that choice of weapons to use and race has more impact/meaning than the 'class' chosen as its likely that only one or two abilities will really be all that useful, so you end up choosing between swords, 1handed or 2 handed, bows, or magical staff combat, the rest is pretty much akin to traits, they allow for a certain amount of 'variation' but i wouldn't say they were all that significant compared to weapon choices which is where the real 'class' determination seems to be made.
It varies a lot class to class and whether you're trying to stretch a class into something unique at higher levels.
Most builds will typically use 4, maybe 5, weapon abilities out of the 12 slots including ultimates. I can tell you that most of mine (and I have 2 of each at the CP cap) have a pretty even distribution: about 1/3 class skills, 1/3 weapon skills and 1/3 "other"... other being PVP or guild skills.
You can force the issue if you want to try something different but if you're interested in maxing out your build you'll likely end-up with that 4:4:4 ratio more often than not.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Comments
Let's see your amazing screen shots, critic. Jesus, some people exist just to bring other people down.
Overall the game look amazing and this is certainly something that won't stop me playing. The captured and improved the Es world amazingly well since release.
But you are correct that the game does have quite a few 'asian' influences, which is to be expected given the origin of the game, fortunately it doesn't do it to the extent that games such as Blade and Soul do, for which i am very thankful.
https://md.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/6ryl4j/media_finally_ive_found_a_new_set_i_like_aaaand/
https://md.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/6kbaf1/i_have_returned_after_an_eternity_away_from_you/
https://md.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/6h3kl3/transliminal_violet_is_my_favorite_dye_in_the_game/
_______________________________________________
My character wearing Warrior's Poet and Willow's Path (what I could find on sale, lol):
cite ESO Fashion complete list
I ran across this video in the ESO forums. Probably not worth watching the whole thing but you should watch it at least until the first fight.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Your social experience in any modern MMO tends to be based on your guild(s) not PUGs.
But there is Cyrodil and the battlegrounds (which you can queue for as a group at this point) and dungeons and various group content, and I see people doing overland content in small groups constantly.
If a player is lonely doing ESO, it's because you don't make friends and that's your choice. I recommend finding a large friendly guild -- OR FIVE since you can join five at once. Out of five guilds, perhaps you can find other people to run with you?
I mean, this is not just a note to you if at all (you obviously know how you feel), but to other people who might be discouraged by your post from trying the game out. Personally I like to run a lot of the content solo, but I get asked to run with others and I rarely turn them down.
I tend to run DPS, so there's a real surplus and I'm not super elite, so I'm not top of the team picks, and that's fine with me, I'm not ambitious to have BIS on everything, I'm pretty casual. There is so much content, and I am a crafter/trader/explorer type.
But if I run into something where I haven't been able to get through something in overland due to being mechanics challenged -- rare in one tam where the environment scales to your level -- I've never had issue getting backup.
The fact is that you can level to cap entirely without doing the single person RPG that is the overland quests, basically. Or you can level to cap entirely without doing battlegrounds or Cyrodil, just playing it like several interwoven ES RPGs (on separate or one toon, since one tam). It's designed that way, to offer team and/or solo experiences. If you don't like the solo experience, go play the team or zerg (and there are also solo options for) PVP and PVE stuff. Weren't you aware of these options?
It's not a sandbox, it's a themepark that presents a variety of activities to engage a variety of players, and assumes that MMO players both want a variety of activities and get bored easily.
And of course, any studio assumes that we will bitch moan and complain at the drop of a hat. But there's nothing they can do about it.
The original Morrowind single player game was moody and sepia tint, and it took imagination to add color to that world. But I'm old enough that I grew up with black and white TV, lol. This game I think leans a bit too much on that atmosphere for their modern audience. That engine was trying to optimize for performance -- something they lost sight of by Skyrim I think, heh...
But this engine leans heavily on java, and there is no optimization they can do for assets that is efficient particularly in the cities. I find the performance to be awful on a machine that is within spec but not high end, particularly in cities and groups, and have to adjust settings radically for group content vs solo. This is a 2014 ROG desktop, it's not some office desktop, but it is aging and not much upgraded.
I am honestly worried about the promised transmog system, in that it's going to make loading crowds in cities so much worse, and any group content even harder on older rigs.
Fixed income here. I am not going to just throw money into my rig without cutting other things. But that's how the industry works -- I need to figure out how to soup this thing up seriously soon.
Sometimes I wonder if ESO didn't plan for their success in terms of this engine, though, because it doesn't seem to scale to their crowded cities in the superservers. They have some decisions in their future.
I self identify as a monkey.
It doesn't take much playing the newer games to make the older games look even older, just take Eve Online, its a 2003 game but they regularly update visuals for ships etc. Recently they improved planets and stations and they are always working on how to make things look more impressive when exploding.
https://www.gamemodi.net/
― George Carlin
Also several add-ons - Master Merchant being the worst offender - can cause the FPS to dorp to single digits when it's doing some intensive database update. When my MM is doing its daily update I just know to sit there and wait for the minute while it does it since the game becomes unplayable.
So some UI and add-on functions can impact performance severely.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Edit: Just to show the difference in style (not to say these are ' better' although IMHO they are):
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
BTW i don't hate ESO at all,i would rate it in the top 5/6/7 games of all time,and i would even understand a rating of top 3,although i wouldn't agree with top 3 lol,i would understand it.
Just like in gaming and with these pics,i dissect a LOT,it is because i go way way back to when i was making maps and attempting to make a game,so i understand every last aspect from sounds/music to lighting etc etc.
As well there is an important aspect about game environments,a picture migth not look good however i do understand the author might be trying to create a certain atmosphere,more about it's purpose than winning any picture contest,so just because i say a picture doesn't look good does not mean it might not serve a great purpose in the game setting.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Below is a picture of my character fighting a Daedric Demon - this was just before she changed her looks.
Just love the richness of the colors in this game. Reminds me of paintings by great fantasy artist like Whelan, Parkinson, and Elmore.
Most builds will typically use 4, maybe 5, weapon abilities out of the 12 slots including ultimates. I can tell you that most of mine (and I have 2 of each at the CP cap) have a pretty even distribution: about 1/3 class skills, 1/3 weapon skills and 1/3 "other"... other being PVP or guild skills.
You can force the issue if you want to try something different but if you're interested in maxing out your build you'll likely end-up with that 4:4:4 ratio more often than not.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED