I've put together a few points that I think would make the game what most of us were expecting. Immersion is not a story. Immersion is more the lack of a story. The freedom to do whatever it is I want to do and then dealing with the consequences, positive or negative, should I choose to exercise that freedom.

Open World

• The freedom to walk openly from one end of the world to the other. Simple enough.

?Factions

• ??Do not allow any race to start in another faction. Instead create a faction standing system that allows characters to grind rep if they want to switch sides. This should be repeatable but the process should take time and dedication to discourage repeat turn coats.
• Faction standing could also influence pvp flagging in different territories.

?Combat

• More Skyrim, less GW2. I want to feel my weapon hitting the target. And if I want to use a special ability without a target why can't I?
• Ability to attack who or what I want. If I want to attack a guard belonging to my own faction I should be able to. That guard should then be able to put me in my place and if he cannot faction standing changes would apply. As for the guard a decent respawn timer isn't much an issue. Quest givers could be exempt.

Death

• Fear of death is immersive. I need to know that dying will at least potentially cost me something. In pve a loss of experience and for pvp potential theft of an item seems like a good place to start.
• Run naked to your corpse. I know this seems harsh but until you've known the excitement of a naked corpse run through dangerous territory you haven't really gamed.

Now I am sure I am forgetting something but i feel this is a good enough place to start. If you can't tell I'm just tired of MMO homogenization and constantly being babied. That more than anything else breaks immersion for me. And if you're one of those people that wants it all given to you now (preferably through a cash shop) then flame away and just know that you're part of that crowd that has helped to ruin what online gaming once was but hopefully can be again.

i was fully immersed in the game but then again i view immersion much differently than many on this forum does.

Why do people feel the need to bring horrible mechanics into something that's supposed to be fun ?! How are dire consequences of death supposed to encourage pvp and pve ?!

Beta ruined playing other games for me at the moment.

I need to invent a time machine to move myself to early access openining.

It's almost like no one remembers that every single game that did this are extreme niche games, because no one will want to own high end gear if it'll be lost, or continue to level up if they keep losing experience.

I guess you're not much for gambling then?

i think his first point is horrible but the naked corpse run is fine. its adds a bit more to death which i think would be good. the death penalty now is too light as in there really is not one

i agree 100%. i cant play other games now. i hope they are happy with themselves.

Honesty, naked corpse runs would be awesome. You die, you have to get back to your body or you suffer the current durability loss to equipment and perhaps an XP loss to have it teleported back to you.

That means if you run back you have no penalty other than time lost in doing so.

Thankfully, you're not designing this 96% finished game.

I support you. Unfortunately this kind of radical game design is a niche these days. We can hope some devs would launch a game with two servers, one with the standard MMO template and the other with what you're describing.

I agree with you for the most part, but I've given up. Most people don't want the difficulty level I do. RIP naked corpse runs.

I do disagree with the notion that story is antithetical to immersion. Morrowind had a strong storyline, and it was one of the most immersive games I've played. On the contrary, I find open-ended sandboxes without stories to lose immersion because of their aimlessness. It's hard to feel like a part of the world without a purpose.

Not sure how it would help immersion if you see a lot of naked people running around in mass fights. I think it would horribly ruin immersion and would look hilarious and sad at the same time.

Oh I agree. Seems a little late now.

Because with out loss there can be no gain. Without loss there can be no sense of achievement if everything is handed to you with out you having to work for it. That's why.

I was totally immersed in the game but I guess that's in the eye of the beholder. I can however see some of your points and can see how they might be helpful especially the faction stuff. But I satisfied with what we have and what will come. Oh and dear lord naked corpse running days of EQ1...the horror lol but was good times.

No you're right. I love the story being there. I just feel it's used as a major crutch.

I think some people are just closet naturists.

• After the starting area, you can walk wherever you want. It's the only isolated area of the game- that's been discussed before.
• I didn't need to do anything special to play any other Elder Scrolls game as another race. Don't tell me how to roleplay my character- If I was born an Altmer in the Ebonheart Pact, that's my story.
• Combat will continue to be tweaked as the game progresses. It's a beta test.
• Death causes item degradation. It does cost you something.
• I've never had to run naked to my corpse in any other Elder Scrolls game, why should I start now?

I find it funny you're talking about MMO "homogenizing" the experience when this game is already harder to play than Skyrim was. The crafting system has a chance to fail at making items, it's more complex and requires more work, and the dungeons require more thought than just spamming mouse clicks as you pause to drink 80 health potions to get you back to full. This game is going to require more strategy and offer more challenge than the main quest in the last Elder Scrolls game.

naked corpse runs has never hurt my immersion in a game before. i just lole how the immersion trump card comes out in every topic. i wonder, how is instantly respawning with everything more immersive? i mean being resurrected kinda breaks immersion if you think about it but even if you could come up with a lore friendly reason why you come back to life why would you still have everything your corpse was holding? immersion makes no sense in this argument as the entire topic of death and Resurrection breaks immersion

I really enjoyed your point. However I would hope the fear of loss would lead to less death via more of a tactical approach.

The durability loss upon death has to be the biggest joke when it comes to death penalties.. It's not really a penalty, it's soo insignificant that it's not even worth mentioning.

Death penalties only matters if they make you fear dying and make you punch a hole in your wall if you DO die.

Take EVE as an example of this

In the current market it doesn't have that effect. It simply makes people not participate in things that have a high risk of them dieing.

Fear is a fickle mistress. You didn't play Darkfall, did you?

Fear of loss meant most players most of the time just ran around naked.

And the "hard core" PvP game became a nudist colony.

• Except other starting areas or am i wrong?
• Your story and everyone else that is preordering...in fact that is what I was going to do exactly. They set the parameters with a faction war and then chose to break them.
• Agreed
• Oh my. How terrifying.
• Because you don't get to load your game anymore?

Fortunately for me I never mentioned any of what you added here at the end.

i think the minimum death penalty a game should have is a corpse run and durability loss. that should be the base to start. i get people are really against xp loss in games so i understand why game companies did away with that. it never bothered me much though. guess i was just used to it