shadoza wrote: »

My concerns regarding the layering of overland is that it will not resolve the issues with highly-powered players interfering with new and low-powered player activities.

It does though, at least for some people. You're arguing against something that helps resolve your issue.

I like to quest and want to be able to enjoy the quests in this game. When I quest, I have no meaningful choice but to quickly kill everything around me. I don't want to kill mobs that quickly. And you have communicated that you don't want me to kill mobs that quickly. Allowing me to take more damage from mobs and deal less damage to mobs will stop me from killing mobs so quickly. I want a system that lets me go from a high powered player to a player that is being challenged. That way I can enjoy the same exact experience as the lower power player.

Not wanting to encourage vet players to use such a system is arguing against allowing vet players to lower their power level.

Hugie wrote: »

I was shocked! [sarcasm] to hear the developer in charge of the Vengeance "test" mention that its U49 incarnation scheduled for early 2026 aims at balancing outgoing damage/healing caps for their simplified abilities.

If Vengeance were truly a performance test, there'd be no need to worry about its combat balance

You test performance by ramping up what is available, as they have been doing - adding more and more skill lines. The next phase of that is then seeing how that performance operates with different parameters. When someone does damage - that's a calculation, when someone heals that damage that's another calculation. If the damage is too high and the healing is too low you'll get skewed performance data because people will be dying too quickly.

RW was decent without procs. It has lower online compare to CP campaigns, but still, it was able to gather 2-3 yellow and 2-3 red groups (alongside with randoms) to push 1 bar of blues at Ash as last emperor keep with hundreds of kills on each side during entire 40 minutes encounter. And I experienced 0 lags with at least 60 + 60 vs 20 players battle. So why proc sets was returned is a big mystery for me

One thing I noticed is that a Sorcerer subclassing a Necromancer and placing tombstones around just looks like a Necromancer. And a Sorcerer subclassing an Arcanist and beaming around just looks like an Arcanist. I think a Sorcerer should look like a Sorcerer no matter which classes they are subclassing.

Finedaible wrote: »

Wait.. was there even any new grimoires or class sets announced?

Nope. The entire Livestream was a tour of Solstice, details about the Writhing Wall event, and Vengeance testing.

I was shocked! [sarcasm] to hear the developer in charge of the Vengeance "test" mention that its U49 incarnation scheduled for early 2026 aims at balancing outgoing damage/healing caps for their simplified abilities.

If Vengeance were truly a performance test, there'd be no need to worry about its combat balance -- nor would there be a justification to invest considerable dev resources in new UIs, or new systems (perks), or new inventory tabs, or any of these enhancements being invested in this misguided game mode for lazy, casual players who are unwilling to engage with the depth of ESO's existing PvP.

Passing Vengeance off as a test has always felt pretty disingenuous to me for this reason. Do the developers really think we're that stupid? (Don't answer that. Many of us are.) What began as a "can we even do this?" exercise in validating performance assumptions/hunches has clearly morphed into a "omg, it's working -- this is how we fulfill our OG vision for massive warfare in Cyrodiil!"

Well, to that I say: if that's how you see it, you are making a big mistake and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Solving performance at the expense of character expression, build diversity, and theorycrafting to such a massive extent is absurd!

The short spurts of Vengeance on live server may still be "tests" insofar as they are testing new functionality re-introduced to Cyrodiil, but please -- respect our intelligence and stop pretending that Vengeance as a concept is a "test". It's obvious to anyone paying attention that Cyrodiil as many of us know and love today will soon be eclipsed by this ill-conceived experiment.

I understand that eradicating lag in Cyrodiil is the goal. I understand that making PvP more accessible to new players is also a priority. It's just sad that ZoS' approach here is to go completely counter to the studio's other mantras: play how you want! (Except in Vengeance.) Subclassing is the new shiny way to play out your power fantasy! (Except in Vengeance.) These "hard-coded" templates, loadouts, generic gear, morphless skills are NO REPLACEMENT for the depth of customization that ESO players have grown to expect with their characters over the past 10 years. Please stop pretending otherwise.

Sincerely,
A long-time Cyrodiil enjoyer and Vengeance hater

I concur with a lot of the issues above. We have been hearing some variation of “we have cool things coming in the future, we’ll tell you later!” for quite a while now, and it’s getting a lot harder to ride the hype train on promises of surprise alone… especially when so many surprise reveals lately have fallen very short of expectations.

I hope the team considers that a January reveal event will be a good idea this year, and that they actually reveal something we can be excited about, even if it’s something that will release later. I keep thinking back to the Necrom reveal where we were introduced to the Arcanist Class - it wasn’t dropping until June, but the prospect of a new Class alone was so exciting, and the devs were talking about some of the skills and you could feel the excitement coming through the screen. It was all I could think of for months. That reveal alone sold me the Chapter and I preordered it instantly.
Compare to the January reveal event this year, and we got “but the new Season Pass! But we’re not telling you what’s in it until April!” And then we find out the new ‘feature’ is basegame so our purchase didn’t even get us anything beyond one more zone…

After the disappointments of “a housing feature!” (which was just half of an addon PC has instead of the increased limits people are desperately begging for), and “a PvP feature!” (which was replacing the unpopular BGs with a differently unpopular version while not touching Cyrodiil), and then the infamous letter, and then the new transition year which is leaving players wanting… I really hope that we get information of something more concrete to look forward to, and soon.

We all have our personal thing we’re desperately hoping for (mine is that I will buy the next pass sight unseen if we’re getting a new Class), but the anticipation is making us all antsy. And the more we’re given leave to speculate and hype ourselves up, the harder we end up falling when what we get doesn’t live up to the hype.

Hugie wrote: »

I was shocked! [sarcasm] to hear the developer in charge of the Vengeance "test" mention that its U49 incarnation scheduled for early 2026 aims at balancing outgoing damage/healing caps for their simplified abilities.

If Vengeance were truly a performance test, there'd be no need to worry about its combat balance -- nor would there be a justification to invest considerable dev resources in new UIs, or new systems (perks), or new inventory tabs, or any of these enhancements being invested in this misguided game mode for lazy, casual players who are unwilling to engage with the depth of ESO's existing PvP.

Passing Vengeance off as a test has always felt pretty disingenuous to me for this reason. Do the developers really think we're that stupid? (Don't answer that. Many of us are.) What began as a "can we even do this?" exercise in validating performance assumptions/hunches has clearly morphed into a "omg, it's working -- this is how we fulfill our OG vision for massive warfare in Cyrodiil!"

Well, to that I say: if that's how you see it, you are making a big mistake and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Solving performance at the expense of character expression, build diversity, and theorycrafting to such a massive extent is absurd!

The short spurts of Vengeance on live server may still be "tests" insofar as they are testing new functionality re-introduced to Cyrodiil, but please -- respect our intelligence and stop pretending that Vengeance as a concept is a "test". It's obvious to anyone paying attention that Cyrodiil as many of us know and love today will soon be eclipsed by this ill-conceived experiment.

I understand that eradicating lag in Cyrodiil is the goal. I understand that making PvP more accessible to new players is also a priority. It's just sad that ZoS' approach here is to go completely counter to the studio's other mantras: play how you want! (Except in Vengeance.) Subclassing is the new shiny way to play out your power fantasy! (Except in Vengeance.) These "hard-coded" templates, loadouts, generic gear, morphless skills are NO REPLACEMENT for the depth of customization that ESO players have grown to expect with their characters over the past 10 years. Please stop pretending otherwise.

Sincerely,
A long-time Cyrodiil enjoyer and Vengeance hater

He also said that the same test you're talking about will happen alongside Grey Host. The vibe I got from that is that the end result would be a completed Vengeance mode alongside Grey Host if possible.

Punches_Below_Belt wrote: »

How can they not understand that unless we get a paycheck from ZOS, we don’t care what the corporate structure is, what their job title is, what their job responsibilities are? We didn’t tune in for a LinkedIn round table.

If your position is relevant to why you are avoiding answering my questions and not fixing the QoL issues by all means slip it in. Otherwise, give me information I need or want to play the game.

I’m also kind of sick of the reveal/not a reveal game. If we cared about spoilers we wouldn’t be tuning in. Why would I want to watch you run around for half an hour trying to avoid spoilers?

They always seem more interested in entertaining each other than answering questions . I’m also always secondhand embarrassed by how badly they play their own game.

Some things I did learn today that I had always suspected. The second half of Solstice is no more interesting than the first.half. The “season pass” was a shrinkflation cash grab and they weren’t going to reveal it until as late as possible i.e. this stream. “This is a transition year” How about you transition twenty dollars back into my account? They think recycling assets, call backs and milking played out aspects of the game are fooling the players and a positive experience that they can continue to ride for another twenty years.

Perfectly stated. My growing list of friends that never log in also agree.

I stopped watching their live streams after the PvP Q&A when they answered only easy, silly questions. Difficult questions are never addressed and the reveals give no meaningful tidbits or sneak peaks. It gives the impression that ZOS cares only about new players and does not have a desire to retain older players.

This game is hemorrhaging "old" players and with them goes vast amounts of information. PvP is in the worst state since I've played ESO and don't even get a bone. Vengeance tests do not count - that was the reason for the seasons, so experiments can happen. That shouldn't mean nothing else happens, particularly with these long-standing and game-breaking bugs.

I would like to remind @ZOS_Kevin that players are desperate for change. They want to be engaged, feel listened to (not heard), and to feel like game development is making progress. Several patches now have gone in the complete opposite direction - how long are we supposed to wait for positives? People complain because they love the game. Those that don't just disappear without a trace.

Ruj wrote: »

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

My point is just that you guys really *are* gonna have to come through on the "bigger things are coming" part eventually.

Midnight's selling feature is 10K housing item limit.

<gasp>