We know that Elder Scrolls will have large, open, explorable areas and public dungeons for players to delve into.
In traditional MMOs, areas such as these are filled with large amounts of monsters and things to kill. Generally this is to supplement the large amount of players tackling these areas. These generic MMOs give you ‘kill 10 of x’ type quests, and mobs each give a flat amount of experience, no matter the difficulty for the individual player. So large fields filled with mobs are necessary. In the Elder Scrolls games, players are used to large expanses of open explorable areas dotted with challenging enemies, much more similar to realities wildlife and the wilderness of the real world. If this game is anything similar to an ES game I’m sure there won’t be many, if any, ‘kill x amount of y monster’ quests.
If TESO carries the same experience leveling as the traditional games, where successful use of your abilities gains you experience, having large amounts of mobs won’t be a necessity.
It would be possible to dot the land with higher quality (high health/challenging mobs, of course with some difficulty scaling for the guy alone in an area at 2 a.m.) mobs that generally require more people to tackle. So the developers now have a medium where they can make almost every enemy encounter a challenging and intimidating experience.
Just imagine how a boss encounter would feel with this system. I simply bring this up for immersion’s sake, as having several dozens of monsters in the same field seems silly to me when we now have the ability to move away from this flooded feel that other MMOs feel the necessity to provide. With this system, players will want to work together more often when there are more people around them, and with the instancing systems the solo player should still be able to separate himself if he/she wants. Also these ideas and following questions are mainly in regards to the wildlife of TESO, not the mortal humanoids in dungeons and public areas.
Now I challenge you as a TES or MMO player, would it be necessary to have large fields filled with mobs similar to traditional MMOs?
Should monsters be less frequent and more difficult (more health/higher armor, values/challenging mechanics, etc.) to accommodate more players, yet still retain immersion of a true wilderness? If yes, in the circumstance of a dungeon filled by one or many players so both groups are given a challenging and rewarding experience, should there be difficulty scaling for public dungeons and open areas? If no, please explain why there would still be a requirement for such a system that overflows areas with monsters? Your opinions are appreciated.
