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• [COMPLETE] PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – November 11, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EST (14:00 UTC)
· Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – November 13, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – November 13, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
Thoughts on ESO Problems, with possible Solutions ( Contains SPOILERS )
Ok a more constructive approach,
First highlight personal play experience:
Collected every skyshard took no time at all as you pick them up when you do content, went to cyrodil at v10 and went to a campaign we fully controlled and picked up them all in one round trip was very easy to do. Reached top in all crafing lines, again was very easy to do as you can easily level by breaking down equipment and researching traits as you level. The only crafting line that required me to team up with another player was enchanting and that was hard to level but still have it at 43 currently,
Ran every dungeon as they appeared like most people once you run the first dungeon you hang on and run all 3 in the current map chain. never ran them more than once as there is no reward or reason to do so, even the xp gained inside is useless for grinding. Ran Vet dungeons first lot at V5, then I ran the others when I hit V8 ( as the xp boost when v8 makes it worth grinding in wayrest ).
I have a full set of Worm Cult, Saviours Hide, and Ebony Armor. Complete V10 dungeon sets.
I have 3 characters Max Sorc, Max DK, and a Templar in Deshann ( first veteran area for me )
NOTE: While I am a player who has ran all the content, do not shoot me down as being one who rushes to the end etc etc ... instead consider that I have a very solid perspective on what the game is capable of at the moment and where content works and where it breaks down as I have plenty of experience with it and more so than most.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Second highlight problems as I see them:
Crafting:
Its easy to achieve max level and requires no partnerships to increase it, with the only exception being enchanting.
The sets are interesting but there is nothing there that a player MUST have.
No reason in game currently to craft that I have found besides personal gear, no crafting quests, no crafting factions, no higher aspirations for dedicated crafters. In short nothing to continue to work towards.
Questing:
While the first faction normally lvl 1 to Veteran 1 ( 50) is great with pacing, skill progression, and character growing in power after that the game starts to decline rapidly.
The player notices no increase in power and strength in other factions that is comparable to the first faction even though they both contain the same amount of content.
The grind to reach veteran ranks by doing the quests is horrible and is hurting the game.
The endings for completing separate factions are depressing and leave the player with a bad taste in their mouth
Each lvl in veteran ranks gives no skill point ( I know its minor, but when you consider the blow to a players psyche in that he gains a level but all he gets is a higher soft cap increase that's miniscule gaining a skill point still FEELS like a level up and for that reason because its missing I feel its a problem)
When you play with a friend there are huge issues with quests bugging out due to phasing, or due to hand ins breaking the code. To explain if you both have to hand something in, and player A does it while player b is on the way, player a gets the quest but player b can no longer interact with the quest giver and must re-log. Then after a re-log they can hand in the quest and continue. This causes massive headaches and why I played most of the game solo.
Once a player reaches endgame and all quests are completed, there are no faction shops, there are no faction daily quests, there are no hunting quests in short there is nothing to continue to play towards or for.
Dungeons:
The level design is great, they are fun but nobody runs them more than once problems are...
Quests can break and bug frequently, this can happen if a group member starts the quest before all members are in the dungeon, or again if player a hands in a quest point while player b, c or d are not near enough so they miss the quest update and can no longer continue the quest. In both cases all party members must leave the dungeon, abandon the quest AND reform the party. This again causes so much headaches and annoyance that players don't bother to run them again when they don't have to.
Once a dungeon is ran one time there is no reason to do it a second time, no extra XP bonus, no faction reward, no dungeon token system, no daily chain its a terrible waste of content
No rewards for needed classes, as tanks and healers may be in short supply the game offers them no incentive to run a dungeon more than once.
PVP:
So many issues here between lag to missing the main central theme of cyrodill itself.
The biggest pain for me was the terrible, terrible grind. PVP levels so slowly that its just of putting to play it at all. This is a personal opinion and PVP is not one of my main loves, still this is a problem as if PVP levels moved along better it would give players more incentive to join PVP as it stand at the moment only those who love to PVP will continue to do it, This effectively kills of a large percentage of PVE players who would otherwise PVP more often.
Currently with the lag, player class imbalance, exploits, nerfs and many other issues PVP is only for those who love it.
I only scratched the surface but I find these to be the larger issues currently. I know there is lots more wrong with the game but most of that is technical and bugs and balances.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Third some suggestions on improving the game:
Crafting:
Add a crafting faction to the game, this can give quests at different levels that will reward a player with hard to attain crafting mats and award them with tokens. These tokens can then be grind-ed to unlock better more powerful and desirable crafting sets that will be in HIGH demand. This will give crafters a goal to work towards and reward them for their efforts and time spent.
Questing:
Give the quests in the veteran zones a faction token system, so that by actually doing quests the player is building up a store they can use to purchase things from a faction store. This way at least they are no longer completely meaningless.
Give the players a skill point for leveling a veteran rank, its minor but I believe it makes a player FEEL like they have achieved something and currently in the game 12 extra skill points are meaningless in terms of making a player OP as most have lots spare in any case. The goodwill earned is a much higher gain I think.
Fix the grouping issues, the main purpose of an MMO is to play together, currently that is such a pain to do.
Give higher XP rewards for quests in veteran ranks, this will mean that players can quest to gain levels, currently in the game players just do the main lines for skill points and then bolt for craglorn as the grind is awful. As players are not running the games quests anyway this is a much better system.
The story MUST change, currently when you finish a faction you visit cadwell and one conversation and that's it. ANY game designer worth their salt understands that you must give the player more after accomplishing so much with the story as it stands I can see its a problem so the story must change here is a suggestion.....
After defeating Molag Bal and meeting Meridia she can sense an evil shadow like an echo, she feels that during the events leading to this point something may have gone unseen in the other factions. She sends you forth as her agent carrying her light back to the beginning of another factions start to find where this unseen force has hidden itself. After each map area is complete you further a quest line and must complete a new quest with Meridia.
Once you reach the faction ends the shadow appears taking you to a climactic battle where you must face a powerful foe, defeating this enemy grants you a new skill line from merida. However this evil you defeated has indicated that the other faction was also likewise infected and you must to to do battle with this other echo. Also the game lets you see something you character has missed... Meridia is weakening as if her lights is being somehow lessened by the shadow....
Once you have defeated the final echo the real threat has been revealed. Meridia has been overcome and her light consumed by the shadow. Now you face the great climactic battle where meridia herself could be utterly destroyed unless you the champion of all three factions can take what you have learned and defeat the final enemy.
That will give the game a LOT more credit and will be much better received in the gaming community.
Dungeons:
Fix the grouping and quest breaking bugs.
Use the undaunted as a token faction giving players a reason to run them over and over
Give needed classes xp boosts for running dungeon content as an incentive
Create end game dungeons v12 to enter, make them hard to cater to the end game community and give rewards suitable enough to make them attractive to run.
These are just some suggestions but I believe they are all valid and currently missing from the game.
First highlight personal play experience:
Collected every skyshard took no time at all as you pick them up when you do content, went to cyrodil at v10 and went to a campaign we fully controlled and picked up them all in one round trip was very easy to do. Reached top in all crafing lines, again was very easy to do as you can easily level by breaking down equipment and researching traits as you level. The only crafting line that required me to team up with another player was enchanting and that was hard to level but still have it at 43 currently,
Ran every dungeon as they appeared like most people once you run the first dungeon you hang on and run all 3 in the current map chain. never ran them more than once as there is no reward or reason to do so, even the xp gained inside is useless for grinding. Ran Vet dungeons first lot at V5, then I ran the others when I hit V8 ( as the xp boost when v8 makes it worth grinding in wayrest ).
I have a full set of Worm Cult, Saviours Hide, and Ebony Armor. Complete V10 dungeon sets.
I have 3 characters Max Sorc, Max DK, and a Templar in Deshann ( first veteran area for me )
NOTE: While I am a player who has ran all the content, do not shoot me down as being one who rushes to the end etc etc ... instead consider that I have a very solid perspective on what the game is capable of at the moment and where content works and where it breaks down as I have plenty of experience with it and more so than most.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Second highlight problems as I see them:
Crafting:
Its easy to achieve max level and requires no partnerships to increase it, with the only exception being enchanting.
The sets are interesting but there is nothing there that a player MUST have.
No reason in game currently to craft that I have found besides personal gear, no crafting quests, no crafting factions, no higher aspirations for dedicated crafters. In short nothing to continue to work towards.
Questing:
While the first faction normally lvl 1 to Veteran 1 ( 50) is great with pacing, skill progression, and character growing in power after that the game starts to decline rapidly.
The player notices no increase in power and strength in other factions that is comparable to the first faction even though they both contain the same amount of content.
The grind to reach veteran ranks by doing the quests is horrible and is hurting the game.
The endings for completing separate factions are depressing and leave the player with a bad taste in their mouth
Each lvl in veteran ranks gives no skill point ( I know its minor, but when you consider the blow to a players psyche in that he gains a level but all he gets is a higher soft cap increase that's miniscule gaining a skill point still FEELS like a level up and for that reason because its missing I feel its a problem)
When you play with a friend there are huge issues with quests bugging out due to phasing, or due to hand ins breaking the code. To explain if you both have to hand something in, and player A does it while player b is on the way, player a gets the quest but player b can no longer interact with the quest giver and must re-log. Then after a re-log they can hand in the quest and continue. This causes massive headaches and why I played most of the game solo.
Once a player reaches endgame and all quests are completed, there are no faction shops, there are no faction daily quests, there are no hunting quests in short there is nothing to continue to play towards or for.
Dungeons:
The level design is great, they are fun but nobody runs them more than once problems are...
Quests can break and bug frequently, this can happen if a group member starts the quest before all members are in the dungeon, or again if player a hands in a quest point while player b, c or d are not near enough so they miss the quest update and can no longer continue the quest. In both cases all party members must leave the dungeon, abandon the quest AND reform the party. This again causes so much headaches and annoyance that players don't bother to run them again when they don't have to.
Once a dungeon is ran one time there is no reason to do it a second time, no extra XP bonus, no faction reward, no dungeon token system, no daily chain its a terrible waste of content
No rewards for needed classes, as tanks and healers may be in short supply the game offers them no incentive to run a dungeon more than once.
PVP:
So many issues here between lag to missing the main central theme of cyrodill itself.
The biggest pain for me was the terrible, terrible grind. PVP levels so slowly that its just of putting to play it at all. This is a personal opinion and PVP is not one of my main loves, still this is a problem as if PVP levels moved along better it would give players more incentive to join PVP as it stand at the moment only those who love to PVP will continue to do it, This effectively kills of a large percentage of PVE players who would otherwise PVP more often.
Currently with the lag, player class imbalance, exploits, nerfs and many other issues PVP is only for those who love it.
I only scratched the surface but I find these to be the larger issues currently. I know there is lots more wrong with the game but most of that is technical and bugs and balances.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Third some suggestions on improving the game:
Crafting:
Add a crafting faction to the game, this can give quests at different levels that will reward a player with hard to attain crafting mats and award them with tokens. These tokens can then be grind-ed to unlock better more powerful and desirable crafting sets that will be in HIGH demand. This will give crafters a goal to work towards and reward them for their efforts and time spent.
Questing:
Give the quests in the veteran zones a faction token system, so that by actually doing quests the player is building up a store they can use to purchase things from a faction store. This way at least they are no longer completely meaningless.
Give the players a skill point for leveling a veteran rank, its minor but I believe it makes a player FEEL like they have achieved something and currently in the game 12 extra skill points are meaningless in terms of making a player OP as most have lots spare in any case. The goodwill earned is a much higher gain I think.
Fix the grouping issues, the main purpose of an MMO is to play together, currently that is such a pain to do.
Give higher XP rewards for quests in veteran ranks, this will mean that players can quest to gain levels, currently in the game players just do the main lines for skill points and then bolt for craglorn as the grind is awful. As players are not running the games quests anyway this is a much better system.
The story MUST change, currently when you finish a faction you visit cadwell and one conversation and that's it. ANY game designer worth their salt understands that you must give the player more after accomplishing so much with the story as it stands I can see its a problem so the story must change here is a suggestion.....
After defeating Molag Bal and meeting Meridia she can sense an evil shadow like an echo, she feels that during the events leading to this point something may have gone unseen in the other factions. She sends you forth as her agent carrying her light back to the beginning of another factions start to find where this unseen force has hidden itself. After each map area is complete you further a quest line and must complete a new quest with Meridia.
Once you reach the faction ends the shadow appears taking you to a climactic battle where you must face a powerful foe, defeating this enemy grants you a new skill line from merida. However this evil you defeated has indicated that the other faction was also likewise infected and you must to to do battle with this other echo. Also the game lets you see something you character has missed... Meridia is weakening as if her lights is being somehow lessened by the shadow....
Once you have defeated the final echo the real threat has been revealed. Meridia has been overcome and her light consumed by the shadow. Now you face the great climactic battle where meridia herself could be utterly destroyed unless you the champion of all three factions can take what you have learned and defeat the final enemy.
That will give the game a LOT more credit and will be much better received in the gaming community.
Dungeons:
Fix the grouping and quest breaking bugs.
Use the undaunted as a token faction giving players a reason to run them over and over
Give needed classes xp boosts for running dungeon content as an incentive
Create end game dungeons v12 to enter, make them hard to cater to the end game community and give rewards suitable enough to make them attractive to run.
These are just some suggestions but I believe they are all valid and currently missing from the game.
3
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drogon1✭✭✭✭Very good suggestions OP.
The OP obviously cares about the game to draft this lengthy post (so fanbois refrain from flaming please).
Edited by drogon1 on 4 June 2014 13:041