ZeniMax Online Studios’ Studio Director Matt Firor talks about another big year for The Elder Scrolls Online and some of the even bigger changes coming to the game in 2025 and beyond.
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We need to seriously address Cyrodiil performance. Our (ambitious) goal is to return it to the concurrency levels we supported in 2014. So, we will be experimenting with a Cyrodiil campaign where all classes will have PvP-specific (and more performant) skills that replace the standard player skills with the expectation that we can support more players per campaign
Source: Studio Director’s Letter: 2025 & Beyond – The Elder Scrolls Online
Hmm… Well would you just look at that? Who could have identified that core problem? Oh! Me!
The biggest problem with the game seems to be the PVP part. PVE and PVP are completely different games, but they both use the same skills and gear, and both “halves” of the game suffer for it, despite the innumerable tweaks and hacks they try to use to help the situation. I don’t think there’s a future for this game without making a cleaner break between the two modes than currently exists.
Source:Fine, I’ll Make My Own Forums | The Mind of David Krider,
Combat in ESO is a mix of HUNDREDS of variables on your character, a lot of which are being intermixed with everyone you’re fighting WITH, and everything you’re fighting AGAINST. Calculated and resolved EVERY SECOND. Every set, every skill, and every mythic in the game is another thing to add into an equation that’s got to be THOUSANDS of conditions long, with scores of tiny little if-then corner-case scenarios.
Every new addition to the game has added another 3 zone sets, a couple more craftable sets, dungeon sets, trial sets, mythics, and now scribed skills with — as they brag — 8,000 different combinations of effects. It’s become a runaway problem as they try to squeeze more “monetization” out of the expansions. It’s no wonder PVP performance keeps getting worse.
It’s already bad enough in trials. You can see the game choke on everything that’s happening for 12 people at times. In Cyrodill, you might be talking about 50 people in a large battle, and it’s worse. They’ve got to make a significant separation between the two modes.
To be sure, it will make the current PVP lovers — who have mastered the dozens of things you need to stack and all the play style tricks you need to employ to make bombing or ball grouping work — insane with fury. The question is whether or not it will bring more casuals into the mix than sweats who quit.