Elder Scrolls Online DevsTalk Combat Mechanics

Written by: Jason Winter (@winterinformal) | June 1, 2012 3:11 pm

28 Comments

Want to feed your Elder Scrolls Online need but don’t want to sit through PC Gamer‘s epic 17-minute video with three members of the dev team?

Don’t worry, we’re here to give you the Cliff’s Notes version of the interview, which focuses largely on some of the ways the dev team is making the game’s combat vibrant and interesting. Here are the highlights:

Lead Gameplay and Combat Desinger Nick Konkle started us off by describing the team’s overall goal for the game:”We really want everyone to have fun playing it… if it was derivative of one thing or the other [Elder Scrolls or MMOs], I think it would only be fun to one specific set of people.”
Re-emphasizing the game’s minimalistic UI, Creature Combat Designer Maria Aliprando stresses that your cue to get out of the way will be the giant raising his club to squash you — not some esoteric or distracting UI element.
Style will apparently count, too, as players can accumulate Finesse throughout a fight, and the better your Finesse at the end of a fight, the more rewards you’ll get.
Hey, do you like cross-profession combos in that other game? Well, you’ll get them in TES Online, too. Konkle describes both the idea of lighting a patch of oil on fire and of a warrior spinning through a field of fire to spew out fireballs.
And if simply taking keeps isn’t good enough for you — blow them up! OK, you can’t quite reduce the whole thing to rubble, but as Designer Brian Wheeler explains, keeps will have some destructible elements that will have you screaming “Oh my god, that was cool!” in a comically high-pitched voice, just like he does at the 8:36 mark.

Just one warning — you might want to turn away before the 15:30 mark. Oh, those poor bunnies…

Elder Scrolls Online DevsTalk Combat Mechanics

1:34

Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online Releases A New Trailer: Gathering And Exploration

The newest trailer from Elder Scrolls Online gives us a look at gathering and exploration.Read more »

23 comments
2:05

Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online Trailer – Journey to Coldharbour

The God of Schemes plans to merge Tamriel and Oblivion!Read more »

20 comments
0:37

The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online Unveils the Ogrim

Check out the newest Elder Scrolls Online creature reveal, the Ogrim!Read more »

8 comments

http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Sanchez/100003130430158 Alex Sanchez

Jason’s mic/audio is crackling so bad its almost painful to list to /:
http://twitter.com/ookamiwing Phillip Rushing

I love that Skyrim video. After a long fight with a dragon, you die because some guy forces you to talk to them while the dragon has [----] much health left.

TESO likes to copy things
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1788280827 Liam Gallivan

Elder scrolls online is bulletstorm?
http://twitter.com/Virg_Ilio Virg_Ilio

Seriously, cross profession combos are not so new to RPG games and I think it shouldn’t be so hyped as a major feature of certain game and regarded more as a combat mechanic. What Guild Wars 2 is doing that is new is actually including a hitscanning ranged mechanic that tracks the projectile and not only the spell effect. If Elder Scrolls MMO wants to do anything intresting I would say get away from the WoW style of things, try to find something original and expand on that like RIFT’s soul system or Guild Wars 2′s action orientated combat or even Terra’s fully fledged action combat.
- Old Ben
  
  > What Guild Wars 2 is doing that is new is actually including a hitscanning
  > ranged mechanic that tracks the projectile
  
  “Hitscan” refers to weapons with projectiles that move at infinite speed (i.e., shots that hit instantly). In GW2, this applies to rifles, pistols, and a few spells.
  
  For attacks with slow projectiles (which I think is what you’re referring to), GW2 uses a clever mix of (client side) predictive aiming and (server-side) AoE checking to simulate collision detection, but if you watch combat frame by frame you can see that several projectiles that “miss” (visually) actually still do damage.
  
  Physically accurate collision detection (like TF2 does for grenades, arrows and rockets, for example) would put a huge load on an MMO server, where thousands of players can be shooting projectiles at the same time.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    How about the mechanic for out of range spells/attacks. GW2 allow abilities to fire, even if the target is out of range.
    
    I have noticed several Elementalist attack instant damage the target, but the slow moving spell interacts with the environment along the way. Grasses seem to sway when a spell passes through the area.
    - Old Ben
      
      > Grasses seem to sway when a
      > spell passes through the area.
      
      Purely visual effects (grass moving, drawing the actual projectile, flame trails, etc.) can be handled by the client, it doesn’t put any load on the server. The server just needs to transmit the position of the spell, and each client takes care of the animation. If another player sees a slightly different animation, there’s no problem.
      
      The thing that _must_ be decided by the server (and identical in all clients) is whether the spell hits or misses (because if the clients could decide that, it would be trivial to cheat and make all your spells hit – a simple network filter could fake that information).
      
      > GW2 allow abilities to fire, even if
      > the target is out of range.
      
      If you fire a single-target attack (ex., pistol shot) at something that is out of range, the game just renders the spell firing in the direction of the enemy, and it will miss (with an “out of range” message). However, if the spell has an AoE component, it will hit the ground at the maximum range, and then it will check if something is within range, so you can effectively hit enemies that are just a little beyond the projectile’s range (because you’re not hitting them with the projectile itself, you’re hitting them with the AoE effect the game creates when the projectile hits the ground).
Revanhavoc

I have to say crouching is now essential in my MMO.

Swim was the new Jump.

Crouch is the new Swim.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Byrne/100001642673542 Michael Byrne
  
  Hell…if it’s Final Fantasy XIV Jump is the new Jump.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco
  
  i’m a huge purveyor of /jump
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001569774867 James Burke

The guy got a level up with very little hp and stam, yet he took a pot. /sigh
jayremy

I hope they are going to push to action combat I would like to say “like Tera” but no not really, Tera I think with the combat physics was a little under par. Maybe more like Vindictus, however I feel its going to be only some in between again of GW2 and action combat games. Just how GW2 was like 25% more action combat than WoW, but 75% away from being action combat but in between still.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506728308 Julian F’n Mugnieco
  
  well, the “giant raising his club” if straight from TERA. it’ll be 50/50 tera/GW2 style. not that i’m saying they are blatantly stealing from those games, but there’s obvious OBVIOUS inspiration there.
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

Isn’t it a bit too soon to be talking about this game and its mechanics?
CCLemon77

I hope they have 1st Person view and combat.
I hope their UI isn’t has clunky as the one in the PC version of Skyrim.
Skyrim’s weakness was it’s UI (especially for the PC version). They need to accomodate mappings and layout that fits well for PC MMO players as well.
- jayremy
  
  I think it is going to be 3rd person, at least designed that way, not sure if it is a done deal 3rd person and that exclusively. I wouldn’t necessarily desire 1st person much, however I think they should include it in their game, at least making it able to be played in first person like Skyrim was (at least without being totally gimped). It honestly wouldn’t be to hard to accommodate to both either, its mainly a visual change on the user’s end.
  
  100% agree on the UI, for a triple A game it was horrid and barely acceptable as a single player game, in a MMO it is going to be much more important.
http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

Does keep destruction imply keep construction? So all the keep locations are determined by players rather than the game designers.
Sharuko

I was never a fan of the game when I first heard about it. But now the more I hear about the game the more I like it. Seems like TESO is making a lot of great innovations that will change how we play MMOs. I especially love the 3 factions and love the DAoC like PvP with those factions.
- Jay
  
  Hmm yet you say GW2 is a rip off because of WvW… Sharuko, your hypocrite is showing. Glad you found something to be positive about, other than Tera…
  - jayremy
    
    Can you please not ignore the point of the post for the sake about arguing other non-related posts in other places and times?
    - Jay
      
      Aren’t you doing the same thing…
      - jayremy
        
        This isn’t about GW2 or Sharuko, he made fair points on this article and coverage. Stop insisting on continuing needless flame wars and don’t get him started again.
        
        This is about TESO, Sharuko didn’t go off topic… yet, and I can agree with him here. I like the TESO direction, excluding what we don’t know on the combat.
      - Jay
        
        They mentioned “GW2″ right in the video… The features he was praising were the same features he trolls on about GW2 having, so I think my comment had merit. You want to keep peace, I have np with that, but don’t point the finger at me for the troll war.
        
        ESO has some nice ideas, I don’t think they’re different enough to pay a sub for, but I doubt the game will be awful. Seems like more of a cash in on TES name, but only time will tell. Hopefully it turns out great, because as a gamer, I’d like to see more great games.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jan-Lappalainen/882015623 Jan Lappalainen

I live the elder scrolls games and I think Bethesda are digging a hole for themselves with this mmo, everything I hear about it sounds like another generic mmo – nothing like the elder scrolls games we are used to. All the hype on how it will be unique sounds like an unconvincing salespitch
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jan-Lappalainen/882015623 Jan Lappalainen

a fallout mmo would be more interesting
http://www.facebook.com/elias.rowan Elias Rowan

I like that they aren’t promising anything new with this MMO. Or claiming that it will be anything completely different than what we’ve seen but rather that they are saying they’re revisiting things that players, when they talk about MMORPG’s from back in the day , say they used to enjoy and mixing those with the lore and RPG aspect of TES and the currently rising in popularity minimal UI, small hotbar, and deck system (back to when MMORPGs were 3+ players sitting around a coffee table even).
They aren’t saying “You’re gonna wanna play this game because we’re blowing the world with our incredible new game mechanics and combat!”. They’re saying “All the shit you like, we’re gonna mix it all up and give you an awesome, well loved, world to boot.”I totally get that a lot of players are looking for the MMORPG that changes everything… but this one is sounding pretty good to me.*Sounding*
Now they need to stop talking about the gameplay and give us some videos!
- CCLemon77
  
  Going back to some of the basics that us older MMOers enjoyed back in the day are welcome. They may be able to pull it off especially since the game has such a big following. WoW IMO would never have been as popular as it was if there weren’t a whole slew of World of Warcraft(non-mmo) games that preceded it. This helped establish a strong lore and strong customer base/fan base. Bethesda has this with Elder Scrolls, and provided they don’t F it up, their MMO may be indeed a success, despite the tons of other MMOs already on the market.
http://profile.yahoo.com/7MPGC5FCQJZGFKICKCMALR3AYY Eric

ZeniBeth would prolly do a lot better for their mmo if they didnt put The Elder Scrolls name on it.
The game does sounds promising enough, but it sounds nothing like an elder scrolls game other than in the most generic sense. Also that screen shot makes me want to cry. That world looks like a cheap imitation of Cyrodiil and that monster looks like it was photoshopped in from some scifi-horror fps.

Elder Scrolls Online DevsTalk Combat Mechanics

Elder Scrolls Online Releases A New Trailer: Gathering And Exploration

Elder Scrolls Online Trailer – Journey to Coldharbour

The Elder Scrolls Online Unveils the Ogrim

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Sign in to your account