is the game still themeparkish?

Luftwaffen

I played ESO early on after release  but it felt really theme park and bland for an MMO version of the most open ended sandbox single player franchise and I quit shortly after , it just felt like a average theme park with elder scrolls lore .... has this changed ?  and how is the pvp 

JDis25

much less themeparkish now. Although, all PvP is still in Cyrodil and Imperial City.

Lord.Bachus

The game feels much less themepark then any of the other main AAA MMO's close to the feel i get from Black Desert....  However, there is a huge amount of story available, but much less linear then in any other MMO's ...   

having PvP and PvE sepperated is a good thing.. for players like me... PvP is a choice, and its good this way..  

not just the world design, but also the semi class design feels much more sand boxy then other games.. 

Akulas

Tried the free 3 days. I was a caster in heavy armor just because I could be. Seems sandboxish with what you can do with your character. Eager to explore more if Steam trading cards wants to play nice or my neighbours want their lawns mowed.

Lord.Bachus

The more i think about it, the less linearity i see in this game... 
it allows you to be what you want and to do what you want and not feel
punished for choosing to do so. 

For creating my ultimate mmorpg, eso would be a good start to build uppon
what eso prooves is that a story based mmorpg can still feel sandboxy

Sure, there should have been many more skilltrees by now
think about melleeschools(where you could train with a grandmaster to get access to new skills)
or the 8 old magic schools from early es games and d&d 
or just 8 schools from the divines, from which you have to choose one/character
and there should really be more skills on the bars/or a 3rd weapon independent bar or maybe both

but in the end the actuall combat sytem itself feels quite good these days.
very much action/reaction based much more then other systems
and the annimation cancelling adds a form of skill to it.
somehow the combat feels much better then at release and with the blocking/bashing/dodging its much more realistic then any other MmO, sure annimations are not yet perfect, but to me the system nowerdays feels hugely improved over the early days. 

What i do miss is whats missing in all MMOs these days, is the good old eq faction system, where you could be kos on sight by doing the wrong things..  sure there is the thieving system in eso, but is that enough? 


Eso definately hits a lot of my boxes..  mostly because its way less linear then many other mmorpgs.  To ke this not being linear indeed gives the game a sandboxy feeling. However, this is while growing my character..  but how does the game feel with a fully geared maxed out character?

Giznat

There's a lot less freedom when it comes to endgame PvE. With that said, there's specific gear sets and builds and for the most part you're expected to be running them or a variation of them. The whole caster in heavy armor with a flame staff dies at max level outside of running solo or niche builds for specific situations. Endgame PvE is great with the right group and a lot of issues come down to its clunky combat system and whether or not you're good at weaving/animation cancelling if you want to do competent DPS at endgame.

Veteran content and hard-modes can be very challenging (more so the DLC dungeons, the original ones even in Veteran are a cake walk). Champion points also continue to be an issue as far as balance goes and you'll never be as good as someone who's capped on them, though you start to catch up around 300 CP's (the difference can still be pretty massive when it comes to two people of similar skill but 300CP vs capped).

Personally, I've always found the game to be a better solo player game that happens to have multiplayer attached to it if I so wish. A lot of the freedom and sandbox-esque feeling goes away once you start to dig your claws into end-game. However, it's a lot of fun the first time through.

Octagon7711

Not to many games I can be a master thief, master assassin, vampire. 

klash2def

I will continue to say this in ESO threads: ESO with its flaws for my money is the best MMO on the market.

edit: go play it if you haven't

Lord.Bachus

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Lord.Bachus said:

sure there is the thieving system in eso, but is that enough? 

The thieving/murder system in ESO is still nothing short of amazing. I've been waiting for such a system in a MMORPG since a long time. Thieving, murdering, but WITHOUT negatively affecting other players. And the story lines of both the thieve guild and the assassins are fantastic too. I was sometimes feeling like I was playing Assassin's Creed in a MMO, and the feeling was great.

I understand, but if the feeling is so good, wouldnt it be nice to have more of these sytems in place, where your actions have consequences, and doing the wrong things gets you hunted down like a rat

Iselin

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Lord.Bachus said:

sure there is the thieving system in eso, but is that enough? 

The thieving/murder system in ESO is still nothing short of amazing. I've been waiting for such a system in a MMORPG since a long time. Thieving, murdering, but WITHOUT negatively affecting other players. And the story lines of both the thieve guild and the assassins are fantastic too. I was sometimes feeling like I was playing Assassin's Creed in a MMO, and the feeling was great.

I thought these two factoids about bounties published in the anniversary event announcement were interesting:

• Highest unpaid bounty: 248,655,731 gold
• Highest paid bounty: 362,324 gold

I wonder how long it takes for the 250 mil gold bounty to come down to zero

The rest of the list:

• Total number of monsters killed: 15,881,472,493
• Total number of players killed: 1,346,033,201
• Total number of Soul Gems used: 1,183,836,570
• Total number of quests completed: 2,064,266,404
• Total number of items crafted: 7,415,834,454
• Total number of achievements earned: 1,145,234,018
• Most popular race: High Elf (14.98% of all characters)
• Most popular Alliance: Ebonheart Pact (36.33% of all characters)
• Most PvP Kills by Alliance: Ebonheart Pact (122,490,253 kills)

Lord.Bachus

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

The amount of available content is beyond phenomenal, and very varied too.

Yes..  as a casual playing trough a whole zone takes a week.. thats over 20 hours played... just questing and exploring.. and thats witouth dungeons nor pvp...  

Margrave

Still love me some ESO! It's great for a casual gamer like myself!

gervaise1

Luftwaffen said:

I played ESO early on after release  but it felt really theme park and bland for an MMO version of the most open ended sandbox single player franchise and I quit shortly after , it just felt like a average theme park with elder scrolls lore .... has this changed ?  and how is the pvp 

It has matured with age with a number of significant changes some mentioned above.

For one you can try it out again without having to subscribe. 

Secondly you can now go where you want - it took on the mantle of the single player open world. Wasn't to everyones liking but the option to "stick with the script" is still there so a win win imo.  

To achieve this they introduced a system of scaling. Again not to everyones liking and not something that everyone understands. In simpe terms your character is scaled up - or down - to the level that all mobs are at. Note: there are still easy mobs, mob swarms, boss mobs etc. Just because they are all the same level doesn't make them all the same difficulty.

The scaling resulted in some saying "there is no progression". As @Giznat says above however Champion Points (CPs) make a huge difference - CPs being something else that broadly mirror the system of progression that is in the single player games. As commented choices do diminish as you progress if you want to be at the cutting edge but the choice to wear heavy and cast spells remains.  

In short a lot has changed. (Craglorn redesign if that was even in when you last played? The game has several updates before its relaunch). Its also become very alt friendly because of how CP gains are reflected mirrored across characters - which is good if you want to try a different class. 

If you try it again then the base game you have is huge. So no need to buy anything for some time. 

If you still don't like it you don't like it and that is that.

If you decide you like the changes though and at some point want to check out the new content there are DLC combo-packs, the new DLC comes with Morrowind etc. - get them in any order or not at all. The open world nature of the game allows you to do that.

Scot

Strangely they have not taken the game and turned it on its head, spending a couple of years to turn it into a sandbox or anything like that.

But loads of new content from what I hear.

Mardukk

Luftwaffen said:

I played ESO early on after release  but it felt really theme park and bland for an MMO version of the most open ended sandbox single player franchise and I quit shortly after , it just felt like a average theme park with elder scrolls lore .... has this changed ?  and how is the pvp 

I couldn't stand the lack of freedom or risk vs reward, when the game launched.  The level scaling helps with freedom and the thieving/murder system adds some risk vs reward.  The gear system still sucks, universal crappy mob loot tables and having no bazaar/AH is a big negative.  Also it is still too quest based, they could use some Dynamic Events, but the game has definitely improved.

gervaise1

Luftwaffen said:

  and how is the pvp 

Forgot to cover this part of your question.

What the game launched with - RvRvR with siege weapons etc. to help you capture castles, shrines etc. taking place in timed campaigns was tweaked. The main changes being with how long campaigns last (there are longer and shorter campaigns) and the criteria for entry (some for newbie characters, established, full skills allowed etc.) So the basics are the same but with more variety. Its not uncommon for there to be a queue to enter - usually not that long - so sides are pretty balanced. (Although if one side becomes truly dominant with the bonuses that that brings those campaigns may just wind down.)

One of the DLCs, Imperial City - available on its own or in a 4 pack (it is also included in the Gold edition of the game but as you have the base game already you don't want this. IC is a mixed PvE/PvP area. Some serious boss mobs, quests and craft stations - attractive enough to bring PvE players in; objectives to fight over and hold above ground and below lots of twisty sewers and small areas. Can be skin tingling. Some of the tough PvE boss mobs patrol down there as well! Small scale PvP; 1 on , duos etc. The terrain limits the size of the groups basically.

And more recently Battegrounds were added - with the Morrowind expansion. PvP for small groups working as teams.


The comment about "Dynamic Events" in the post triggered another comment: Festivals have been added that take place at different times of the year; the number of Festivals continues to grow. And did I mention that Housing has been added as well......