Official Discussion Thread for "The Road Ahead – June 4th"

GTech_1

I wish I was, but no, I guess I enjoy my "alting around" too much. I haven't touched VR content yet.
I have 3 lvl 4's (all 3 factions, ready for leveling), 2 level 6's (AD and DC), 1 level 24 (AD), and 1 level 48 (EP).
I haven't done much at all on the Covenant side yet, so I don't know much about the status over there. The Dominion and Pact sides, however, used to be riddled with bots, hackers and spammers. That is no longer the case, from what I have seen.

christopher_griffinub17_ESO

Theoriginalubiety wrote: »

I was thinking while I was playing, how about making the transition to night mean something. Have beasts or enemies that only appear at night. You could also make the transition and duration of the time of day/night last longer as well.

How about a super rare boss per area that pops with some super rare drops. Also about some actual hidden areas (such as a dungeon or ruin) that doesn't show on the map that makes it seem like I'm actually adventuring.

I agree that "night travel" on roads and paths should be become more dangerous (i.e. Bandits, beasts, etc.). Even the idea of being "robbed" (losing items) if you lose in an encounter with them would make one think twice before engaging a higher level attacker. Traveling in the more remote areas of Tamriel should be more dangerous! (IMHO)

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

dracobains_ESO wrote: »

3) bugs... little bugs most patient people endure easy enough and they happen in all games. Significant bugs which impede progress should never occur at the rate they are in ESO. Having a robust beta may have prevented a significant number of them and I am really confused as to why so much was not ferreted out by their internal control group. With those individuals using all of the exploits to level overnight to end game and everyone else stammering about waiting for a certain quest to get fixed to move on to the next zone, it appears beta was merely a self serving exercise not a time that was used to help the game. This is the public perception and it is an ugly one which furthers the frustration when players endure these numerous broken quests.

to be fair - the huge issues with the phasing technology only came to light in the stress tests.

Sorry, that can't possibly be true, it's part of the system design which is entirely predictable on paper alone, you don't need to actually play the game to know this is inevitable that two people in a group can't play together if one has completed the quest while the other hasn't.

The entire point of phasing as ZOS have used it is to provide permanent changes to the world (eg. the saving of a village) once you complete a quest, so it's entirely obvious the person who's completed it won't see the same world state as the person still working on it, hence by design they can't 'group up'.

Nothing about this was unknown or needed 'stress tests' before it was realised this is WAI.

Moreover, even in content where world state doesn't matter forced soloing of content is also clearly a design 'feature' and so all those stuck on, say, Molag Bal will forever stay stuck as ZOS designed the game to prevent anyone helping.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

Kililin wrote: »

GTech_1 wrote: »

Brocklin wrote: »

Until something is done to get rid of all the bots, & people running exploits, I won't be back in game. Kinda sucks as this COULD be a very, very good game, but I really think they could care less so long as people keep filtering in money. They have been saying for weeks now that they are handling the issues with bots, spammers, exploits, yet nothing has been done. Thus far it's been a waste of money. Rather than pushing out more content, fix the current issues so your community actually stays around. If things aren't fixed like they claim to be working on these issues, this will be the absolute last Bethesda/Zenimax game I buy.

I am against bots / hacks just as much as you are, and probably just as aware of them. I recognize the "behavior" rather easily, and I am in game quite often, probably too often, really.

A while back, the number of bots in the game were rather extreme.

With that said, it has been so long since I last encountered a bot in the game, that I honestly cannot remember how long it has been. I truly believe, from my own experience, ZOS has this particular issue well in-hand.

ESO still has its flaws, some of them rather glaring, but bots and hacks no longer seem to be among them.

Maybe you are in VR areas now?

You beat me to it.

That said, I usually take my VR character to Bal Foyen when muling to my other account and since the last patch I've noticed on the run from the Wayshrine to the Argonian town (forget its name) that the Jute, Iron and Maple nodes are often up or else the characters farming are clearly 'legit' characters, I've not seen a level 3 pathing bot (or tele-bot or pos-hack bot) sucking up all the nodes.

So maybe ZOS did finally put some anti-bot detection in. I'm not counting my chickens though until I get to start another alt in the next day or so.

SootyTX

ShedsHisTail wrote: »

Aenthel wrote: »

Sadly, still not a single word about 90% of the skills that are NOT Light Armor or Staff...

Yeah, I read that and was suddenly very concerned that the Devs were struck with the same Class-based tunnel vision as the bulk of the forums.

The balance issues aren't so much with the classes as they are with Weapon and Armor skills.

THIS

As a heavy and medium armor using, stamina build focused player of DKs and NBs, it is absolutely NOT the class that is the problem, it is the massive imbalance toward magicka regen and insane ease of generating ultimate.

I still feel tentative going into a pack of 3 or 4 normal mobs at VR levels, while the guys in pajamas carrying sticks happily gather up 15 or 20 and kill them in half the time.

jmrathbun

One improvement I'd like to see. Looting items is sometimes easy and sometimes harder... matters of visibility and access... but it seems there's no better reward for finding the harder items. I'd like to see more attention to making the harder items more rewarding.

Ozzalin

1st, remember that this is an MMORPG that requires "Monthly Subscribtions"

2nd, if you're a vet at MMOs, remember what happened to all the other games with subs? Lack of additional content.

Dye? Yes it is an amazing idea.
But In July?... Now this is where ESO will start to go downhill and fast.
2 months of waiting, for update 3, and when it'll be released we'll get a dye system.

My question is, and i'm 100% honest.
Are we gonna wait 2 more months for a dye system, and pick up weaps on the ground as an update? then 3 more months of subs for a new dungeon? then 6 more months for what then?

Where are the Thieves Guild promised during beta?
The Brotherhood guild as well? How about crime and punishment system?
And the Pickpocket ability you announced guys? Players Kiosks for us to open our own stores to finally get rid of the infamous broken search system in guild store?

In 2015? or 2 or 3 years from now maybe?
My fear is a real one and it has a name: "Free to play"

I'm the leader of House Volkihar guild, and we had in the last month more closed accounts that i can count, same in all 4 big trading guilds i was with, players all left.
The 2 big trading guild i am with now, need to recruit all the noobs and clean tons of innactive accounts as we speak to keep the numbers up.

Big new MMORPGs are coming fast, and to keep a community together nowadays, you need to have BIG updates coming on a regular basis with a LOT of content especially in a monthly fee based game like ESO, or players will go play something else.

Dye system in 2 months wont do it for a lot of your subscribers.
2 months waiting in an MMO these days is an eternity.
Pray for ESO not going free to play.
I've seen that too many times in countless games.
i'm not a big fan of F2P myself, especially when you have a jewel in your hands guys.
Keep that in mind. ESO is a wonderful game, which means you should work
10 times harder to make it bigger and improve it.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

Ozzalin wrote: »

if you're a vet at MMOs, remember what happened to all the other games with subs? Lack of additional content.

Been playing one for 10 years, still paying a sub. it has no F2P option and there's no sign it will: FFXI. Had a full expansion year before last and there's an active on-going development of new content and updates to existing stuff.

And while it's too early to be sure, I see no prospect of FFXIV going F2P either, certainly not in the timescale you're clearly inferring here.

Ozzalin

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Ozzalin wrote: »

if you're a vet at MMOs, remember what happened to all the other games with subs? Lack of additional content.

Been playing one for 10 years, still paying a sub. it has no F2P option and there's no sign it will: FFXI. Had a full expansion year before last and there's an active on-going development of new content and updates to existing stuff.

And while it's too early to be sure, I see no prospect of FFXIV going F2P either, certainly not in the timescale you're clearly inferring here.

FFXI and XIV are "Japanese games"
And one if not "The" only exception to the rule with EVE online.
Both still strong with monthly subs.

But i've been playing MMOs since Everquest 1.
Most of all the games i've played ended up the same because of the same exact problem. Subscription based without real big content updates fast enough.

Now you only have 2 choices after a short while.

#1- the game goes Free to Play:
LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online)
AoC (Age of Conan)
TSW (The Secret World)
SWTOR (Star Wars the Old Republic)
RIFT, Everquest 2 etc etc etc....

Or #2- They're flushing the game after a while.

There are a LOT of new MMOs that are coming out very soon.
Some of them are massive, huge and will have twice the content of ESO, and this directly at launch.

I am not questioning ESO game in itself.
I love ESO, its an amazing and wonderful game.
But i do fear that they wont be able to deliver the big updates fast enough to keep an acceptable number of subs for them to have a lucrative game.
Then free to play option will probably step in sooner than we might think.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

Ozzalin wrote: »

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Ozzalin wrote: »

if you're a vet at MMOs, remember what happened to all the other games with subs? Lack of additional content.

Been playing one for 10 years, still paying a sub. it has no F2P option and there's no sign it will: FFXI. Had a full expansion year before last and there's an active on-going development of new content and updates to existing stuff.

And while it's too early to be sure, I see no prospect of FFXIV going F2P either, certainly not in the timescale you're clearly inferring here.

FFXI and XIV are "Japanese games".

LOL, you're getting desperate to prove your point.

They're NOT 'Japanese games' in any way except they have Japanese as ONE OF FOUR LANGUAGES, you could equally say they're ENGLISH games. You clearly haven't a clue what you're talking about when it comes to these two games.

Keep trying to prove that ESO will eventually have to go F2P .. oh, BTW, I didn't mention WOW either because that would have killed your argument stone dead.

DrPainZA

Do we know when the EU Servers would be migrated more or less, other than "On one fine summer's eve"??

Audigy

My 12 cents,

•Itemization – we’ll add gear that’s harder to acquire but more worthwhile. We're looking at gear that will make others envious when you’re wearing or wielding it—both in appearance and in stat boosts. To do this, we’ll adjust soft caps so that they don't kick in quite as quickly. We have to be very careful about how much we adjust numbers, because the greater the variance, the more people can hurt their intended builds.

The question here is, what does "harder to acquire" mean? Does hard actually mean hard or just "more time, more raiding" like at WoW?

I would love to see the best items available for everyone and not just 5% of the playerbase as that only leads to Elitism. Let people craft those items after a huge quest chain, let people find books to unlock these chains, let players gather vary rare materials needed for the crafts while adventuring in the open world, caves etc.

Many MMO´s make the mistake to hand out the top loot only for raiders, but this is a pretty bad system, as those that get these items only get them for their time and "premade" play style but not for actual skill or better said intellect.

•More content - We're going to continue providing more content on a regular basis. Veteran Dungeons, areas like Craglorn, Trials, and etc.

I would like to hear a bit more about that. What about the Dark Brotherhood, housing, Crime system ... ? Is it coming soon or are those rumors about 2015 & 2016 true?

What you mentioned are only dungeons and raids and I do know from the forum crowd here, that only a small part of the community would use that content. There are many MMO´s that offer that type of content already, I honestly think offering something else is key to survive in that huge MMO world.

We are now two-thirds of the way through the 90-day duration PvP Campaigns we launched with, so we’re starting to think about additions and changes to the Campaign system, as shown by the new shorter-length Campaign we launched with Update 1.

I am a bit worried how these changes are supposed to look like. Are we talking about minutes, hours or days?

Back at WoW we had a 24/7 pvp zone, that zone was lowered to 5 - 10 minutes. I would honestly be a bit angry if you go the same way there. In my opinion these huge battles should last a few weeks.

silence

Maybe I only oversaw it, after all I have not been online for almost three weeks, but what about the Quad Core problems? Are you able to address the issue´s that our CPU´s are not fully utilized and all the rendering happens on one single core?
What about Mantle or a performance patch?

Sorry if I missed an announcement there, but in the official news I couldn't find anything regarding this.


After my complaints, some positive words as well!

It will focus on player customization systems like armor dyeing, guild insignias and tabards,

That's a really nice addition, glad you guys work on this as it really enhances the game experience in an MMO.

Hopefully you can find a good way to unlock colors, symbols etc. so that there is a bit of a prestige behind someone in a specific armor so to speak.

Boomjackal

What happened to the PVP Dungeon they promised? For the hardcore PVP players this update is very disapointing more PVP content and focus please and I speak on behalf of the PVP community we dont care about dungeons and being able to change the colour of our armour we just want to kill each other, Battlegrounds/wargames on a smaller scale would be nice with different maps to get out of the lag of cyrodil from time to time and competative Ranked arena play. Dont get me wrong this is a great game and cyrodil is awesome with no lag and would like to thank you for the hard work it has taken to produce this game however the team that is in charge of PVP for ESO you need to stand up to your boss and demand that we can see your ideas for the near future.

steveb16_ESO46

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

to be fair - the huge issues with the phasing technology only came to light in the stress tests.

-
Sorry, that can't possibly be true, it's part of the system design which is entirely predictable on paper alone, you don't need to actually play the game to know this is inevitable that two people in a group can't play together if one has completed the quest while the other hasn't.

Yes it can. I am referring to the wholesale and somewhat random breaking of any quest that required spawnings of some sort. It came completely out of the blue on the scale it was experienced.

Also you got to remember the testing was very limited in numbers and scope.

The 'not being able to group' because of phasing was partially WAI. I think it came as a total shock to them that people wanted to group up outside of the narrow circumstances Zen wanted to let people group up.

It seems not to have occurred to them that this was an MMO and so it might be an issue. The stress test beta I think was a shockingly rude awakening from the comfortable PTS slumber.

They had a howling gale of feedback on that from the stress tests and have real problems dealing with it because the phase technology has real problems dealing with people being at different stages on different paths.

Hypertionb14_ESO

ZOS you NEED to focus on stamina ability balancing.

Brakebeater

Would like to see cloaks, capes, etc to go along with color/customization palette in this update.

drakevalianceub17_ESO

Nefar wrote: »

Meh -- Nothing that will make me resub.

Then why are you Trolling the Forum of a game you dont like and you say isnt worth your money?

gaearon

Now, I don't know the size and extent of Zenimax's development team, but I'm quite impressed by the rate through which they fix bugs, and release new content. You've got to remember that software development takes time, as it's more than just writing code: asset creation and management, deployment strategies, training and documentation, testing and quality control, project management and item priorization ... to name a few things.

Behind all of the things that's going on, there's a brigade of people willing to work late into the night, during the summer vacation months, to deliver new content to us. That's actually quite awesome.

So... great update, guys!

DeLindsay

- Further class balancing = will NEVER end, in ANY MMO.
- Ultimate spamming = is a problem period, it should NEVER have any reduction to cost (make WW a toggle), remove the sets that reduce it.
- PvP Campaign changes = if it improves the experience I'm all for it.
- Additional content via new Experts = thank you.
- FOV slider = could be amazing or meh.
- More Interaction = what a TES game should be, but there NEEDS to be consequences also.
- Armor Dye = yes please, the more in depth the better.
- Itemization = sounds good on paper, time will tell.
- Vet Ranks = more "points" to spend sounds great, if it actually makes each Rank better than "oh hey I made all new gear and it added 10 armor and 1 damage, woot!"
- Even more content = I'm always happy with added content, however I'd like to see existing issues fixed with a higher priority than new content tbh.

drakevalianceub17_ESO

DeLindsay wrote: »

- Further class balancing = will NEVER end, in ANY MMO.
- Ultimate spamming = is a problem period, it should NEVER have any reduction to cost (make WW a toggle), remove the sets that reduce it.
- PvP Campaign changes = if it improves the experience I'm all for it.
- Additional content via new Experts = thank you.
- FOV slider = could be amazing or meh.
- More Interaction = what a TES game should be, but there NEEDS to be consequences also.
- Armor Dye = yes please, the more in depth the better.
- Itemization = sounds good on paper, time will tell.
- Vet Ranks = more "points" to spend sounds great, if it actually makes each Rank better than "oh hey I made all new gear and it added 10 armor and 1 damage, woot!"
- Even more content = I'm always happy with added content, however I'd like to see existing issues fixed with a higher priority than new content tbh.

I am pretty sure the team that handles bugs is separate from the team that adds new content.

xillix666

What happened to guild improvements, thieves guild, and dark brother promises during the major UPDATE release that never happened?

snowsong

Hello. Patch v1.1.3 seems a great improvement as far as logging in. The bots and spammers are so much less now too. Thank you for dealing with those things. One of the major things about ESO that so many people i talk to, say praise for; is about the beautiful graphics and artistic design, both environmentally and with the Player Characters and NPCs. I really have to commend the Art department and anyone else involved that decided how things would look in the game. Really, the game is just beautiful! I love the ability to individualize so many aspects of features, in character creation too. The Character Creation aspect of this game is superb. It is especially great to see that in ESO it is possible to make such attractive Mer/Elves in an Elder Scrolls game. I was also so delighted when i saw the Bosmer/Wood-Elf areas of Tamriel, like Elden Root. The Tree-Huts and the whole design is so imaginative and pleasing to my mind. As an Elder Scrolls fan, i am enjoying the ES LORE and the ES feel to the game also. This is a wonderful game, although I know there are some glitches to work out in a newly released game like this.

As far as complaints that were addressed, thank you for working on the group phasing issue. For example, ESO Patch Notes Read: "We’re also starting to re-work many quests in the game so we can greatly reduce the chances of you being separated from your party in different "layers" as you explore Tamriel"
The ability to group is one of the most important issues for an MMO, so thank you for acknowledging this.

I just want to give a few ideas, in response to the psychology of complaints and suggestions. It is not my intention to offend anyone, but rather to offer a few ideas for possible consideration.
1.) It seems that most people may be happier if instead of nerfing down something that some others think is unbalanced against their class-- the imbalances were addressed by buffing their weakness upwards more fairly for all-- instead of lowering others down to the lowest common denominator. More people will usually be upset, if something good they had liked is taken away or reduced -- to balance something -- than if those who felt lacking were lifted up instead. It is hard to take things away from those who are liking something -- than to just give somebody else something they would like also to balance things. I understand that it seems you give back a skill-point spent on something that is later nerfed, but players build up around their choices as they go along and so many will still feel like somebody is tipping over their apple cart, so to speak. For example, instead of having one group unhappy, you will then have two, if the solution is seen as nerfing one class to please another. If things are given or earned and then taken away, it is just human-nature for people to become uneasy about what will happen next -- instead of happily excited. Just something to consider.

2.) Something that also might help players, that would be more easy to implement, than some demands -- is to simply allow more spell slots (aka active ability slots). Why only one through five, instead of at least one through nine? I know there is weapon-swapping at level 15 where we can add different things to another weapon or ability bar, but that is not the same thing. There is so much fun to be had with the abilities we earn and being able to try them out better -- if only there were at least not those possible slots going to waste. With all the skill lines and guild skill lines, we need more slots to be able to be more creative in trying out different abilities from each, without giving up something else we really need or want. Both ability bars could easily have nine slots each, and there would still be many abilities we may have to think hard to choose between. Further, having more slots could benefit all classes, races and alliances.

3) Another thing that could make people happier is to allow more free inventory space, particularly in a game where there is so much gathering and crafting etc. This can easily make it less tedious or frustrating for many, and so more fun.

I know you have many people asking for lots of things, some of which are justifiable or reasonable, and some maybe not so much. Yet these are just a few ideas that could lift spirits. They may seem like small changes, but they could make a big difference in morale. There is just so much good about this game, that people could be enjoying more. This really is a wonderful game, and i think you have many subscribers who will stick by you as the game grows. BTW Thanks for all your hard work and creativity that goes in to it all.

TheMagicalSpiff

Awesome!! Looking forward to the update. Keep up the good work, guys.

masotmnb16_ESO

I couldn't be more disappointed with the updates I've just read, as veteran solo content seems to be unaffected. Sure, the idea of giving better veteran rewards sounds good, but how about actually creating real veteran solo content, instead of forcing us to grind every quest, dungeon and WB in the game to get to VR10?

1-50 was downright amazing, I loved every minute of it. Ever since I've hit VR1, I've regretted getting a 3 month subscription. (Oh, and thanks for the upcoming DK nerf, veteran mode certainly wasn't frustrating enough as it is) I want to love this game and I hope things improve, as I'm a huge fan of Tamriel and the Elder Scrolls series. But if solo veteran content stays as it is, when my subscription is up, I'm sad to say I won't renew it.

steveb16_ESO46

masotmnb16_ESO wrote: »

I couldn't be more disappointed with the updates I've just read, as veteran solo content seems to be unaffected. Sure, the idea of giving better veteran rewards sounds good, but how about actually creating real veteran solo content, instead of forcing us to grind every quest, dungeon and WB in the game to get to VR10?

Quite. You can put lipstick on a pig but it remains a pig. But it's no use complaining. They intend ESO to be a single-focus hard core combat grinder and if you're part of the market that's fine. If you're not there are many other MMO's that offer more and different gameplay.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

masotmnb16_ESO wrote: »

I couldn't be more disappointed with the updates I've just read, as veteran solo content seems to be unaffected. Sure, the idea of giving better veteran rewards sounds good, but how about actually creating real veteran solo content, instead of forcing us to grind every quest, dungeon and WB in the game to get to VR10?

1-50 was downright amazing, I loved every minute of it. Ever since I've hit VR1, I've regretted getting a 3 month subscription. (Oh, and thanks for the upcoming DK nerf, veteran mode certainly wasn't frustrating enough as it is) I want to love this game and I hope things improve, as I'm a huge fan of Tamriel and the Elder Scrolls series. But if solo veteran content stays as it is, when my subscription is up, I'm sad to say I won't renew it.

Totally agree, there's no reason the VR levels need to be the horrible grind they are with over-buffed mobs making every quest just painfully slow and tedious .. not to mention the boss fights that are impossible for some builds.

I 'get' that ZOS wanted to drag out the process, yet they then introduced Craglorn with its broken Anomaly Crystal mechanic that they nerfed to Oblivion only after many had abused it to get VR1-VR12 in two days.

I took a 6 month sub., given what we've seen and what we've been told we'll see I don't expect to be renewing.

As you said, 1-50 is amazing, pity after that it's a fair implementation of a 1990s group-or-die XP grind.

Blinks

If NightBlades don't get a decent fix in this next patch I'll be extremely disappointed ZOS, you've had long enough to do something besides nerf and fix quests people can get through the game even if the odd one is buggy. Start fixing class abilities, passives and armour and I think you'll find a lot more people come back to the game if not playing more often because they're happy with their class.

LonePirate

Why are delves being reworked? There is nothing wrong with them so don't waste critical developer resources on them. I would much rather have that time spent developing new content like a new zone for all players rather than a retooling of existing content that is fine as is.

cigarsmoker

Nightblades do not need incremental changes over time. WE NEED A HUGE MAJOR UPDATE.

AelyinESO

I would to hear about Veteran Content like:

• New Skill Lines, exclusive for Veteran Players (exclusive for classes)
• About Veteran Difficult (Mobs).
• About Low Vet XP gained.
• More Attributes Points for level gained in Veteran Experience.
• Story Line for Veteran Players? (new)

Knows Issues:

• About Stamina Address Issue, when dev's will show us any kinda of information about this "urgent" fix?
• About Templars, when we will have any information about it?

Please @ZOS_GinaBruno can you help if any information about it?

Thanks Guys!