ZeniMax Online Studios and Bethesda Softworks’ upcoming MMORPG title, The Elder Scrolls Online, is back in the news with the company explaining how they're looking to balance the game’s class choice with character progression.
In a new blog post, Bethesda discussed how it plans to tackle the challenges that arise when developing classes.
The new explanatory blog post from Bethesda offers a closer look at the number of design decisions the company has taken regarding the game, and how they will have an impact on the kind of character that players can choose and develop.
The post reads: “Being both an Elder Scrolls game and an online RPG, we’ve faced some unique challenges. In Elder Scrolls games, your character can do anything—and, after much adventure, almost everything. In multiplayer games, though, it can be important to stand out from the crowd. How would we preserve a distinct Elder Scrolls feel but give still everyone the opportunity to develop an identity?”
The post describes how after choosing their respective classes, each character can progress its abilities by spending skill points whatever skill lines they wish. While most of the skill lines are available for everyone, a few of them are only exclusive to certain in-game classes.
“Your class is an important decision to make, but it doesn’t chain you to any one playstyle. Every class has three of its own skill lines, each with different skills that are thematically related to the class. Combine those three with the many, many other lines available to every character, and each member of a particular class can be wildly different from the next,” the post adds.
The post also confirms that players who feel that they have opted for skill lines that are not working out as expected, will have the ability to correct their mistake, alongside extra options for those who progress their characters to more advanced stages, like morphing.
“Many of the best ideas in game development come from late-night, coffee-fueled discussions, and one of the even deeper customizations in the skill line system came from just such a session, when one of our developers asked the revelatory question, ‘What if our skills … evolved?’”
“This is where ability morphing came from, and it stuck as another choice you’ll get to make. Once you’ve used a particular ability enough, you’ll be asked to morph it—to choose between two paths, each of which add something new to that ability,” the post concluded.
The Elder Scrolls Online is currently set for a 2014 release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
