14 DAY TRIAL // Despite arriving two years later than Skyrim, the upcoming The Elder Scrolls Online will use more stylized graphics in order to make sure that it does not run into the technical limitations of the MMO genre.
Jared Carr, who is the art director working on The Elder Scrolls Online, told Game Informer that, “We’re not really at the technical state with MMOs to be able to pull off photorealism. Our target is 200 characters on screen for our massive battles. That puts us at technical limitations, as far as polygons and textures and things like that, so there’s no way we’re going to get photo realism.”
Creating a simple, yet beautiful style is one of the core pursuits when it comes to the Elder Scrolls MMO, and the developer says that all the game environments will be created by hand, in order to be given a distinct look.
“A lot of MMOs, a lot of games, use procedural methodology to lay stuff down quickly. And we’re not doing that. Our artists go in and hand-place all of the grass, place every tree by hand. That’s where we get that unique look and feel for every environment”, Carr concluded.
The team at ZeniMax Online, which existed since 2007 and which has since laid down the core elements of The Elder Scrolls Online, will be able to work with the developers who created Oblivion and Skyrim and use their own assets as inspiration for the new MMO.
Bethesda will continue to release DLC for Skyrim as The Elder Scrolls Online is being developed.
The MMO will allow gamers to choose from one of three factions, each with three starting territories and races, in order to fight the Imperial forces and their undead armies and save the freedom of the continent of Tamriel.
The Elder Scrolls Online is set to arrive on the PC during 2013.