Regarding "Racial Abilities/Traits"

I'm seeing a whole lot of people thinking that somehow either Bretons will be useless, Orcs will be the best tanks, Dunmer will be the most versatile of all the races, etc etc etc.

People, this is an MMO not a single-player game. One which is strictly concerned with PvP. I HIGHLY doubt that they will give ANY race even a noteworthy advantage in any regard to others. This is a game in which there are 9 races, and to make it to where one entire faction is subjected to being a limited type of classes is preposterous. If that were the case, you'd get barely ANY warrior classes for the bosmer, merely because they have the best archers or whatever.

THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN. Not to mention IT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. Any online game that subjects any specific race with a noteworthy advantage in stats or abilities WILL ALWAYS FAIL. Nobody wants to play a game in which one race rules them all.

Apologies, but people are constantly bringing up this poppycock of "bretons aren't worth anything" or "dunmer are better mages duurrr" - You sound ridiculous! There won't be nor should there be ANY noteworthy advantages for playing any specific race.

I'm not saying there won't be perhaps some racial traits or abilities. An orc might get some minor bezerking ability or something which helps him out at the start. However, in any MMO a faction's races should NEVER have an affect on the outcome of a player's strengths or weaknesses. It works in single-player games sure, but when you add a level of diversity that TES has along with a PvP based game you only end up with a MAJOR flop.

not the point of the threads.
we know there wont be any huge difference.

Its mostly faction rambling.

i like racial abilities and attributes for stroy, for building the world and lore.

you dont need to learn the history of the argonians nor do you have to see there appearance to know they best live in a jungle/swamp you can see this is there racials (water breathing and immune to disease).

I do not take it into account on how i should play my character! i play games to live out a fantasy, i want to play a heavily armored, mace and shield wielding lizardman who smashes his enemies for 'just' reason. even if the argonians stats hindered them from doing this i for one would not care

I, for one, would be severely hurt if Argonians couldn't breath underwater.
Why not have those little passives, like khajiits have Claws, so better unarmed. Bosmer and Argonians are 50% resistant to disease, etc?
That's not gonna force you into a role, and that's definitely not game breaking!
Why not add those...
I mean, don't add the Racial skills, sure, or the Racial starting stuff, or whatever, but why not the really small little passives?

exactly, it's adds flavour if all the races are different in ways other than appearance

(March 9th 2013, 12:36 PM)Sordak Wrote: not the point of the threads.
we know there wont be any huge difference.

Its mostly faction rambling.

This.

I think the only difference they said is that races will start with a bonus to either health, stamina, or magicka.

EG.
Altmer, Breton, Dunmer +1 Magicka
Nord, Orc, +1 Health
Argonian, Khajit, Redguard (Bosmer? Makes more sense as stamina than health, but then so does khajit) +1 Stamina

(March 9th 2013, 12:44 PM)quib Wrote: i like racial abilities and attributes for stroy, for building the world and lore.

you dont need to learn the history of the argonians nor do you have to see there appearance to know they best live in a jungle/swamp you can see this is there racials (water breathing and immune to disease).

I do not take it into account on how i should play my character! i play games to live out a fantasy, i want to play a heavily armored, mace and shield wielding lizardman who smashes his enemies for 'just' reason. even if the argonians stats hindered them from doing this i for one would not care

I second this. My main will probably be an Altmer decked out in heavy armor who slashes foes apart with a sword.

(March 9th 2013, 01:47 PM)Knightmare Wrote: I think the only difference they said is that races will start with a bonus to either health, stamina, or magicka.

EG.
Altmer, Breton, Dunmer +1 Magicka
Nord, Orc, +1 Health
Argonian, Khajit, Redguard (Bosmer? Makes more sense as stamina than health, but then so does khajit) +1 Stamina

The Khajiit would likely have a health bonus as they are the "warrior units" of the Dominion. That would even it out.

Quote:People, this is an MMO not a single-player game. One which is strictly concerned with PvP

Were does the "strictly concerned with PvP" come from ?
There is 1 PVP area, that no-one has to even visit in their entire gaming experience. There is a world of dungeons that are PVE not PVP and there is crafting.

Lore and immersion tells me that there are obvious benefits that certain races will have.
(Under the ORC speil ) from official TESO site

Quote:As the greatest smiths in Tamriel, their weapons and armor are prized by warriors everywhere.

That tells me that an ORC should have a racial bonus to blacksmithing.... ? yes? and that an ORC should be able to craft better weapons and armor than an Argonian.

This is just a guess, but I look for starting racial bonuses that wont be overly effective at end-game. This is to keep some of the balance and prevent the cry of any one char being OP. Im sorry people, but I kinda doubt that there will be water-breathing as a racial trait. I could be wrong though.

As far as ESO being strictly concerned with PvP, this isnt acurate. They have said that it will be heavily PvP focussed, but not "strictly". Its still an MMORPG. The are MANY parts of the game focussed on PvE. I understand what you were saying @"Kilivin", in regards to balance. You just shouldve chosen a better word than "strictly". :)

IMO we'll see racial skills similar to GW2. For example, an Argonian could have the option to slot Histskin in a class skill slot. Perhaps adapted to a heal over time that cleanses poisons (as clearly complete immunity from the single player games would be broken in an MMO.) It would simply differ from a class heal in that it wouldnt heal more upfront, not better just different. It wouldn't necessarily be better than a class based heal, but rather be anti-poison and suited for sustain builds that make use of spike heals and more for a 30 second heal over time effect.

In this way it potentially opens up options your class might not have, or functionality in specific situations, but wouldn't inherently be better than a class skill you could slot instead.

(March 9th 2013, 06:09 PM)Balkoth Wrote: This is just a guess, but I look for starting racial bonuses that wont be overly effective at end-game. This is to keep some of the balance and prevent the cry of any one char being OP. Im sorry people, but I kinda doubt that there will be water-breathing as a racial trait. I could be wrong though.

Undead have an extension to breath-holding in WoW.

Besides, it's not that big of an advantage. There are spells and potions that give a nearly indentical effect.

I highly doubt the average player would choose to be an Argonian over his or her favorite race for the sake of a trait as negligible as waterbreathing.

HOPEFULLY, this game wont be another WoW (no offense to you), so I refuse to compare them. Also we have no idea whatsoever which spells and potions there will be yet. Besides, I was just guessing because there will be no under water areas or water combat, and hence no need for water breathing.

I DO look for them to attempt to balance any racial bonuses though, since thats the nature of MMOs. So, I wouldnt expect anything noticable.

(March 9th 2013, 06:47 PM)Balkoth Wrote: HOPEFULLY, this game wont be another WoW

God forbid it ends up as a super successful MMO that supplies regular content updates and changes the genre.

(March 9th 2013, 11:26 PM)Knightmare Wrote:

(March 9th 2013, 06:47 PM)Balkoth Wrote: HOPEFULLY, this game wont be another WoW

God forbid it ends up as a super successful MMO that supplies regular content updates and changes the genre.

That wasnt meant to offend anybody ( I notice you left out the statement directly after that, where I said "no offense..").
Theres alot of us that had our fill of that game a LONG time ago and are looking for something else though. Very few serious MMO players still play it, except those that havent played it long enough to become bored with it yet. The ONLY thing WoW did for the genre was to bring some people to it that hadnt tried it before. Taking ideas from other games and putting them together differently, isnt changing the genre.

Im not going to be drawn into an arguement of whether its a "good" game though. Everyone has their opinions. Go ahead and enjoy. Nobody is stopping you. My post had absolutely nothing to do with WoW, unless you take my statement out of context, as you did.

Now back to the topic at hand--

Almost all MMO haw racial bonuses, its quit possibly what they will do it give starting "bonus" to every race, like orc gets bonus to BS and Dunmer gets bonus to Mele combat and Destruction magic, etc, but eventually every race can get to max point so its not that relevant to end game. And i hope they will get some out of combat and not that much relevant ability's, like water berating for Argonians or taming temporary weak beasts for Boosmer, sure its fun in solo play but would be completely useless in competitive PvP and PvE.