Recommendations for Elder Scrolls Online I: Large Scale Issues - Progression, Balance, Large-Scale Improvements

This is a set of recommendations for an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) called The Elder Scrolls Online, or ESO. It is a player review that will be mostly be comprehensible and possibly interesting only to players and developers of that game. If you were looking for something erudite or insightful about current events, this isn't it. This is in the nerdy, geeky hobby category.

This isn't a full review, or broad or general review. I don't pretend it is impartial and it doesn't include every suggestion or criticism I personally have. It addressed the things that, were I to be able to hand deliver this to the people who make the game, would be my biggest concerns at the moment. It is laid out as a set of steps. It is flawed and biased. And it doesn't have the benefit of knowing what is actually discussed at the game studio in question. 

Perhaps it might inspire something better even if nothing else. But, when I get a certain type of idea in my head, whatever topic they may be about, it's best I write them down, even if they go unread or unheeded.  So to any dev that may wander by, take what is useful and leave the rest.

The issues directly or indirectly addressed include: game balance, game vitality, game growth, and fun. Or, how I would improve the game.

To jump to a particular topic, the six steps are:

Step One: Inversely-linked statistics, checks-and-balances, and greater build diversity

Step Two: Make the champion system and champion point levels meaningful

Step Three: Reforge the crafting system

Step Four: Roulette counter to RNG

Step Five: Training/Practice Grounds

Step Six: Craglorn necromancy

Step Seven: This questline is too bumpy--fill the plotholes 

 

Please proceed...

 

Untitled, Part One: The Body

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This is part of an original fiction series using an altered version of an established continuity, commonly known as fan fiction. No claim is made to ownership of the original content used for inspiration, and no permission is granted to republish this new work elsewhere. The story takes place in an alternate timeline of Tamriel from the The Elder Scrolls series of games.
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The Body

Phan-xu stared at the body. It was not one of her kind: no scales, no prognathous snout, not even a tail. She had seen dead bodies before. Birds, small lizards, even aged members of her own people who had returned to the soil. But never had she seen anyone, living or dead, who wasn't one of her people.

The sun was low in the sky and all was quiet except for the buzz of the insects busying themselves on and around the corpse. Phan-xu stayed at a distance. The sight was intriguing but unsettling, and scavengers would soon be drawn to that spot. Large birds were already pecking at it. In the marshlands bodies disappeared quickly, and interested beasts such as snapjaws would not pass up an additional meal that might be lingering about.

The sight of death never failed to fascinate Phan-xu. Worse still was seeing an injured animal and knowing it would struggle in pain before its end. Members of her village would put such animals out of their misery, but Phan-xu was certain she could never bring herself to do it. The talk of birth and death and the endless cycle of life didn't change how she felt about such things. Each moment had its own meaning and value, even if it was one of desperation and misery.

The smell had brought her here, to this small hill in a clearing. The pungent, disturbing odor of death. She had expected to find one of the  larger animals native to the area, such as those they used to guard to village or to carry their goods. Those sometimes passed away from illness or injury rather than falling to predators. On one occasion she had managed to edge close enough to the body of one of the more ferocious beasts that roamed those parts to touch it. She had been scolded for her carelessness, a lesson which still had enough strength to overcome her curiosity about this new discovery.

The basket she had been carrying to gather leaves and berries sat idly behind her. She was old enough to go out on her own now, and she felt pride in that. She sat looking at the stranger and wondered why they had come here. Outsiders were rare and considered dangerous nuisances. Her people still told stories of the many troubles the outsiders had caused them, the grief. After the world changed, her kind retreated to their homeland and took up a simpler way of life. Phan-xu had heard of camps where some of her people traded news and goods with outsiders under the protection of warriors, but the camps were nowhere near her village.

A zizat bird called out as a light rain started, abandoning a piece of rotten fruit a few feet from Phan-xu. The rain changed the weight of the scents in the air, disturbing and dispersing them. Drops ran down Phan-xu's brownish-green face, and she wondered what it would have been like to live in the world that had been, unaware of the presence that crept toward her.

To understand the pro-all-guns-anytime-anywhere movement in the US pay attention to Young Earth Creationists

Humans understand the world and experience reality in narrative form, and they use personal and cultural stories to relate and react to their inner life as well as what is going on around them. So understanding why they see things the way they do involves understanding the story that guides them in a particular case. Or you could just label them according to your own story and dismiss their point of view, in which case there is nothing more to think about or know.

To understand that movement in the US that is for having any and all types of guns available to them anytime they want them, understanding the stories that shape their view on guns is important. Many such stories involve the belief that the Constitution was intended to give them such access, and that it is key to being safe from criminals, terrorists, foreign agents, or a tyrannical domestic government.

You could try arguing that the Second Amendment refers to well-organized militias, so if you want assault rifles join the National Guard. Or you could try arguing from a historical perspective that the militias referred to were for rounding up escaped slaves, or that for over one hundred years the Second Amendment was not interpreted to mean anyone could have a gun anytime and anywhere.

You could try, and you would probably fail.

If you want to appreciate why, pay attention to debates with Young Earth Creationists.

Decentralized religious elements in contemporary post-industrial cultures

Or, Why Religious Experiences Aren't Always Religious (a.k.a. Enjoy the Power and Wonder of Stories)

Listen to, rather than watch, the following video and follow along with the posted-lyrics:

Ula menida tula oh (Hoary Arbor, Lord of Light)
Tela omnida tula ei (Thine advent quelleth creeping night)
Ona ramuhda deme os (The wicked burn, their pyres bright)
Nola tulama tela ei (Smote by Levin's blinding might)

Soul without a name, heed my call
Sin doth stain the hearts of us all
The worm hath burrowed deep and hath grown
Soon he too shall reap what is sown

Step into the storm, know its mercy
Let the wind and the rain crash down over thee
Lightning bright, thunder bold
Guiding us forevermore

Soul fallen from grace, ware thee well
Judgment thou must face, thine own hell
The worm stirreth within, black as night
Breeding deeper sin, foul its blight

Soul, thine end is nigh. Take mine hand
All life must return to the land
Lingered hath the worm, overlong
Purge thy flesh of fear and be strong

Step in from the storm, praise its mercy
Let the sting of the rain ne'er stray far from thee
Lightning bright, thunder bold
Freeing us forevermore

Now lift thine heavy head and vanquish thy sorrow
Lightning doth strike
Thunder doth roll

Now turn thy gaze ahead and look to the morrow
Lightning shall strike
Thunder shall roll on

Did you spot the religious elements? Are you sure go you them all?