General:Creating ESO: Maw of Lorkhaj

The original article was posted here on March 2, 2016.

thumb|500px|center|''We take you behind-the-scenes in the creation of ESO's fourth 12-player Trial, Maw of Lorkhaj, in our latest Creating ESO!''

When we set out to create Maw of Lorkhaj, we first turned to the existing lore of The Elder Scrolls series for a suitable setting, story, and theme. We wanted to find a special something that we could take hold of, enhance, and really bring to life. When we started exploring the dro-m'Athra, we knew we'd found exactly what we were looking for. We've previously seen the dro-m'Athra in ESO, but haven't really explored much with them. Creating a new Trial gave us the perfect opportunity to dive deeper into the lore and show where these creatures come from, and what kind of impact they could have on Tamriel.

So, who—or what—are the dro-m'Athra? They are Khajiit who have been swayed by Lorkhaj, the Moon Beast, their souls forever corrupted by the Bent Dance. These otherworldly creatures and their Bent Dance are the antithesis of the Khajiit, who prefer their music and dance to be elegant and beautiful. Music and dance are at the heart of the Maw of Lorkhaj story. As you play through the Trial, you'll hear some new songs that are performed (and were recorded) completely in Ta'agra, the Khajiit language.

With the dro-m'Athra theme decided, the location easily fell in place. Nestled deep in the mountains of Reaper's March, south of Do'Krin Monastery, is an ancient place that was previously known as the Temple of the Seven Riddles. The temple was once a pilgrimage destination for the Khajiit, where they could seek enlightenment and worship Jone and Jode in peace. Unbeknownst to many, the temple was also built upon a great seal meant to hold back the Khajiit's ancient enemy, the dro-m'Athra. 

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The temple design itself came about from intense study of the Khajiit culture, and how a secluded mountaintop monastery might look and feel. There were also some real-world ancient Tibetan architecture inspirations. Throughout the temple, we wanted to invoke the symbolic aspects of the Maw and cat. In the first room, for instance, you'll see this as you look at the mountainous vista—we designed it in such a way that it resembles a cat's mouth with teeth. As you explore the Maw of Lorkhaj, you'll find the theme continued with intricate Khajiit and moon phase embellishments on the floors, walls, and doors.

With the design theme and world building set, we teamed up with our Concept Artists on a color study to produce a thematic color palette. They looked for examples of what we wanted to do with abilities and ran with it. This was a huge help for our visual effects (VFX) artists later in the project, as they had a wealth of concept artwork to draw inspiration from. As a result, throughout the Maw of Lorkhaj you will see a unified color palette with the same hues used for ability, monster, and environment effects. Watch this short video for a glimpse inside the Maw of Lorkhaj:  The temple design itself came about from intense study of the Khajiit culture, and how a secluded mountaintop monastery might look and feel. There were also some real-world ancient Tibetan architecture inspirations. Throughout the temple, we wanted to invoke the symbolic aspects of the Maw and cat. In the first room, for instance, you'll see this as you look at the mountainous vista—we designed it in such a way that it resembles a cat's mouth with teeth. As you explore the Maw of Lorkhaj, you'll find the theme continued with intricate Khajiit and moon phase embellishments on the floors, walls, and doors.

With the design theme and world building set, we teamed up with our Concept Artists on a color study to produce a thematic color palette. They looked for examples of what we wanted to do with abilities and ran with it. This was a huge help for our visual effects (VFX) artists later in the project, as they had a wealth of concept artwork to draw inspiration from. As a result, throughout the Maw of Lorkhaj you will see a unified color palette with the same hues used for ability, monster, and environment effects. Watch this short video for a glimpse inside the Maw of Lorkhaj: 

(The video can be found here.)

With a game that has been out for over a year, we have an abundance of data and player feedback to draw from—this helped inform our design decisions and goals. We went back to the drawing board for this Trial and really drilled down on the design elements we felt would make a compelling, well-rounded experience.

First and foremost, we realize that all the hard work that goes into creating a Trial is wasted if only a small portion of the community is able to experience it. Our answer to that problem was to give Maw of Lorkhaj a Normal mode. We've had Normal modes for dungeons in ESO for some time now, but Maw of Lorkhaj is our first Trial to have a Normal and Veteran mode and level-scaling based on the group leader. These two systems effectively allow players of any level and skill to experience the Trial, and get rewarding loot appropriate to their level. We've tuned the Normal mode Maw of Lorkhaj encounters in such a way that it should be possible to complete them with a pick-up group—and you can do so at any level thanks to level scaling. It's similar in difficulty to Normal-mode Maelstrom Arena.

Veteran mode, on the other hand, provides some of our most challenging group content; it's guaranteed to keep even the most seasoned players on their toes, literally. Content that is hard just to be hard or has unforgiving chance elements doesn't constitute fun, though. It was our goal to make the content both extremely challenging and fun. In Veteran-mode Maw of Lorkhaj, learning the fight mechanics, making tactical encounter decisions, and working as a team is required for success. 

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Another core mechanic that we thought was due for a much needed update was the Soul Reservoir system. This was a challenge mechanic in previous Trials and Arenas; we found it didn't feel good to hit that limit and have to start all over. We also heard the feedback that deaths should matter in Trials. We replaced the Soul Reservoir system with Vitality, which now gives you extra points on the leaderboard for lives remaining—this really opened up the Trial to a larger number of people. Now, if your group wants to spend time simply learning a boss's mechanics and experimenting with strategies, you aren't so harshly penalized.

With this Trial, one of our primary goals was also to refine our encounter building techniques. We've noticed that a predominant strategy in the previous Trials was to ignore fight mechanics in favor of stacking and burning down monsters by spamming area-of-effect abilities—this quickly became the easiest (and often fastest) strategy. While we're not opposed to that strategy being used in some fights—there are actually some encounters with lower-health enemies in this Trial where that tactic works well—we find it more fun when you have to move and think during encounters. One of our mandates was to make every fight in the Maw of Lorkhaj more engaging. From the Bannerman to the Ogres to the Bosses, we think we were able to strike a good balance between fun and challenging and accomplish our goals. 

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We'd be remiss not to mention the loot—what's a dungeon or Trial without cool loot? The toughest encounters should have some of the best, most recognizable rewards, and Maw of Lorkhaj spoils are no exception. The dro-m'Athra-themed item sets that come from this Trial are not only stunning, but they also provide better group-based PVE bonuses. This PVE-specific item set bonus is a new style of itemization we're introducing in the Thieves Guild update. We've also increased the weekly loot drop rates, so you have a higher chance of getting those coveted pieces you want.

We've applied everything that we've learned from the past year to Maw of Lorkhaj—it's truly our most ambitious group content to date. Whether you've played every Trial in ESO, or have yet to step foot into one, we hope you'll give it a try!