Great potential, but still a long way to go
Using the popular theme of Elder Scrolls RPG single-player game series that started back in ’94, The Elder Scrolls Online (TESO) is an MMORPG planned for release in mid to late 2013. Zenimax Online Studios, the developers of TESO are aiming to make this game attractive not just for Elder Scrolls fans, but also for MMO enthusiasts.
WoW killer is an exaggerated term used too frequently every time a new MMO is about to appear. A new, high-quality MMO can be successful without relying on drawing in WoW subscribers. There are plenty of non-WoW gamers out there for a newly launched MMORPG to gain a respectable player base. Anyway, since TESO's release date is approaching, there is plenty of information about the game to help anyone decide whether the game is worth a try or not.
Players will have the possibility to choose from three alliances, each with three different races. Also, character creation offers a multitude of tweaks that allow designing truly unique character looks, from Cheek Bone Size to Ear Height. Elder Scrolls Online will include large-scale PvP battles, dungeons, a improved crafting system for a healthy, sustained economy, flexible character options concerning combat play-style and armor looks, interesting areas to explore, "smart" monsters that work together making more dangerous, harder to kill opponents and many other appealing features.
The Synergy and Finesse systems
Synergy is a special system that encourages players to interact with the abilities of each other to make them more powerful or add new effects to them. This allows faster team kills and other benefits that you can read about below. To make PvE combat more appealing, in-game NPCs will also use Synergy adding an extra challenge for the attacking players.
Finesse is another system implemented in Elder Scrolls Online that rewards players for delivering high-quality effort during combat. Any successfully performed action such as attacking, blocking, dodging, interrupting...etc. will be rewarded finesse points. Another way to gain finesse points is using the Synergy system. Players will gain more gold, loot and experience based on their amount of finesse. Last, but not least, using an Ultimate Ability will require finesse points, so gathering more of them will allow the player to use his Ultimate more often.
The Mega Server Concept
Zenimax, the studio that develops Elder Scrolls Online is implementing new technology that will allow all players to exist on a single server. So you might be wondering what would happen in a strategically important area at the moment when thousands of players will be there simultaneously? The answer is simple: It won't happen.
The Mega Server will have multiple "worlds" where the players are split to ensure a healthy population, yet not that big to become a crowded lagfest. So, the multiple instances will prevent overcrowding but how will this affect the social aspect of the game?
Well, let's say you are in an instance and the rest of your guild/friends are in another. You can easily join them by selecting their channel. While the game will automatically balance the populations of different channels it does allow players to manually change their channel.
But there's more to it than just number. The Mega Server pays attention to the players' interests, frequently visited locations and interactions with other players when deciding how to populate its channels. This ensures you will have better chances of finding people for group activities and make new friends.
If this concept proves functional, it will solve some important problems, which other MMOs have had or are still having. First of all, there won't be any need to balance the population on multiple servers, since it's inevitable that some might become over or under-populated in time. Secondly, the social aspect is greatly improved since all the players will be grouped on just one server.
The only remaining problem, concerning population will be faction balance. Let's hope that the guys at Zenimax will be able to find a solution for this issue too, since they've been so resourceful so far.
The game's release date is still unknown, so check out the latest TESO News to be among the first to know it.
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