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

Kililin

staticone wrote: »

Fuxo wrote: »

Duration of PvP campaigns is 90 days. Not 180. Difficult to trust anything in the article :-)

The following is a direct copy-paste from:
\ Home News Announcements The Road Ahead – June 4th
The Road Ahead – June 4th
..."PvP Campaigns

We are now two-thirds of the way through the 90-day duration PvP Campaigns we launched with..."

Which article are you referring to?

changed bei ZOS, see comment earlier in this thread

Reece82 wrote: »

I concur that the VR content is a little weak and the VR9-VR10 zones are virtually empty. I also do not care much about the storyline in the other 2 factions. With that in mind, I'm shocked that people are struggling to level through it. With 1 additional questing partner you should be able to knock out almost anything but dolmens and a few world bosses. This is an MMO, if you don't have at least 1 friend, you're in the wrong genre honestly.

We're 2 months in and some of you are saying "too little too late". I look back at plenty of other MMOs including WoW and you didn't see a ton of content released within 2 months of the game going live. What in the world has created such unrealistic expectations?

I am thankful that the whiners on here are a small cross-section of the ESO community. As someone already mentioned, a small group of people can create a mountain of hateful posts and whining rants. It really makes me wonder if they're being paid to stick around in a game they hate playing. The irony is they are the ones paying.
Not to take away from the constructive posts asking legitimate questions and providing feedback.
The game has its flaws but I'm astounded over the absolute rage and hatred towards ZOS. Some of you need to unplug and do something else for a while.

It is not about content, it is about broken mechanics and content stretching with VR's.
The amount of criticism in this forum has reached a level that is not normal for a mmorpg, there are very few defenders of what zos is doing.
You also see it ingame, i am in 5 Guilds and there are so many people who are not online for more than a week.

It is not a small cross section, this game has problems.
Denial does not help.

staticone

This may be the wrong place for this, sorry. Move it where it belongs if you like, I was just musing and forgot to look for a better place to post this.

We need more in the way of PC companions, like the Sorcerers get.
Each class should have some kind of an NPC, like, but definitely not, Lydia. You know, something that works like Lydia was supposed to.
The botters seem to love Sorcerers, because the "pet" fights off any threats, while the bot just keeps on raking in the materials.
Sorcerers also get a number of pets. I've seen three with one character, and they are nearly impervious as they waltz through dungeons. The rest of us just have to deal with higher numbers of combatants as we level.
A night-blade could use a companion to "make distractions", "watch their back", many things without breaking RP.
A DK, since you are going to trim them anyway, could use a little help too.
I'm sure that in the future, you will tighten up the reigns on the already OP Templar, so even they could use a "buddy".
You could send them away to sell your junk, leave them at home to protect your home and household, run to a Wayshrine to summon them to help you with that last dungeon that kicked your butt, You could even spend some points to level up their skills in crafting, so that they can have new sets of armor, or new potions ready for you when you check in.

These would make life a bit easier for those of us who enjoy solo play. You could even place a restriction that requires them to "go home" or "go to a tavern" when you group up so they don't OP multiplayer sessions. Maybe allow them into a group if there are only two or three players, so they can make you a bit less of a pastry for the over-the-top PvPers.

Just a thought.

Glissando

Please do something to scale NB skills with stamina...

Stop ESO from being The Elder Staff of Light Armor...

martinhpb16_ESO

Thanks for road ahead update:

looking forward to:

- Itemisation - yes yes yes ! But in order for us to envy those items we need to have an optional inspect
- dyes - great thanks. would be nice if you could expand he outfit system so that we can choose to wear individual armours as cosmetic
- NB updates - thanks for listening. Please fix the NB melee lag in cyro
- new dungeons and new content, great, thanks
- EU megaserver, megatastic!

I would also like to see
- all guild mail
- improvements to social interaction, optional nameplates - with name/ title / guild (for those that want it), chat that dosen't fade, an AH (yes I think this is ultimately more social than trade guilds)
- if we are stuck with guild stores, please make it a useful ui with proper filters.
- more options for levelling vet,quest grind is pants for some people.
- my med armour stamina build dw/bow NB needs some love - you see I don't weild a staff.

steveb16_ESO46

AstroCat wrote: »

Where is the alternate VR leveling system for those of us who do NOT want to have to play the other 2 factions with one character?

This is gonna be the deal killer for me if they do not give us some real VR1-VR10 content other than the 2 other faction quest lines.

Quite. they said that they had been listening to what was being said about the problems with VR and they would be coming up with proposals. Nothing here addresses the concerns that were being expressed.

And the biggest concern was - the whole thing is nonsense. It doesn't just make no sense it is anti-sense. Okay - there's a big segment of players who don't care about character and story. They just want to be challenged. They don't care that they've gone from defeating demi-gods to desperately fending off mud crabs while getting kittens out of trees or whatever.

Good for them.

But there's clearly a whole bunch of us who went - WTF? You want me to do what now? Nope - not happening.

That's also going to be a big market segment and what this 'map' is saying is - there's the door.

I genuinely expected them to come back an say what we all know - yea - this was a stop-gap because we didn't have what we planned ready. We'll be extending your faction story into the other areas.

But it look like this is it. You either accept that you've gone from Hero To a Traitor Less Than Zero and get on with dealing with the inexplicably super-powered skeevers and the like or you don't play.

I really don't think ESO is anywhere near good enough to casually discard a good chunk of its player base in this way but good luck to them I guess. They'll need it.

Jabbar

Just make it so AoE ults can't stack over one another. Problem solved.

Also buff my nightblade faster or I'll fight someone.

Dissentinel

Logan9a wrote: »

I'd like to see dying be an individual craft rather than a 'select your armor color'.

If you look at the background of that image, the player seems to be at some sort of dying station. Maybe there will be a profession for it?

NordJitsu

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

What has you most excited for ESO's future?

Literally nothing in that article was the least bit exciting.

christopher_griffinub17_ESO

How about decreasing our field/range of view in dungeons?

In reality we wouldn't be able to see 100% down a dungeon tunnel. Maybe allowing players to see 8-12 meters under normal conditions. When It comes to lighting in a dungeon allow them to be lit by:

a) torches or braziers with braziers casting light further than torches,
b) an enhanced "magelight" spell which casts light even further or
c) by natural light leaks rough cracks, ceilings, etc.

I believe this would effectively enhance the feeling of venturing into the "unknown" for players.

Logan9a

christopher_griffinub17_ESO wrote: »

How about decreasing our field/range of view in dungeons?

In reality we wouldn't be able to see 100% down a dungeon tunnel. Maybe allowing players to see 8-12 meters under normal conditions. When It comes to lighting in a dungeon allow them to be lit by:

a) torches or braziers with braziers casting light further than torches,
b) an enhanced "magelight" spell which casts light even further or
c) by natural light leaks rough cracks, ceilings, etc.

I believe this would effectively enhance the feeling of venturing into the "unknown" for players.

Honestly, I get enough of the feeling of journeying into the unknown without them shutting off the lights. If you want to make it spookier for yourself, try turning the brightness on your monitor down when you go into a cave. That should do it.

dracobains_ESO

Mostly fluff which is fun and needed but I was hoping to hear something more substantive for NB stam builds.

Love your pvp model but you need to get the Stamina builds addressed. Would love to support the game and will keep an eye on your progress. If this ever gets addressed I'd love to resub.

rysmith25

Yeah, this is a total bs update. As if the last update wasn't bad enough. Look at how many things they broke. Holy jesus, I understand the need to add new content, but hire more staff and fix the game. It's ridiculous that I pay $80 at launch and $15 a month for a game that barely works.

1.) Liberation of Northpoint - It is a main quest line in Rivenspire. It is currently impossible to finish. Without finishing it, you can't continue to the main quest line in the next area. This is completely unacceptable, it has been 2 days now, and I haven't been able to finish it. I've called, I've sent bug reports, nothing has helped. Hell last night, I couldn't even send a bug report, only the search for FAQs was available, lmao.

2.) Guild Store - an absolute joke. I can't find the items I want. Where are filters that work? Where is an item search function that works? The add on for this sucks. Why do I have to back out of conversation just to get a general search to work? Major issue, needs to be optimized immediately.

3.) Guild bank - Don't even get me started about this. I've spent over 50 hours of wasted time now in the guild bank, waiting for it populate, or waiting for it to process previous request or just sort the items. Why aren't items stacking in the guild bank? Why does it freeze up after you quickly dump 10 items in the guild bank, and you have to wait for previous request? I hate the guild bank. Please fix ASAP

4.) Combat lag for switching weapons. I've gotten killed many of times because I press weapon switch, nothing happens, I press it again, then I'm back to my original weapon, and I've missed about 3 seconds of available combat ability pressing time. Combat lag in general needs to be tightened up. Its not terrible, but could be better.

5.) Veteran leveling is ridiculous. I finished all the quests in Glenumbra and 2/3s of the quests in Stormhaven, and I'm barely at 20% through rank 2. Something is wrong there. You need to get your algorithm people back to the drawing board on that formula because leveling VRs takes a stupidly long amount of time.

So, forget about adding pretty colors to impress the kiddies, and make the damn game playable, or people that were planning on being long term subscribers are going to be playing something else. Watchdogs is looking pretty sweet right now.

Jowrik

Fuxo wrote: »

It is not about content, it is about broken mechanics and content stretching with VR's.
The amount of criticism in this forum has reached a level that is not normal for a mmorpg, there are very few defenders of what zos is doing.
You also see it ingame, i am in 5 Guilds and there are so many people who are not online for more than a week.

It is not a small cross section, this game has problems.
Denial does not help.

Unlucky 5 guilds you have there. The reason there are 'very few defenders of what ZOS is doing' is simply that they don't bother posting here or even watching the forums. I know I didn't when I played almost any other game. I only wanted to play the game so that's what I did.

Jowrik

rysmith25 wrote: »

Yeah, this is a total bs update. As if the last update wasn't bad enough. Look at how many things they broke. Holy jesus, I understand the need to add new content, but hire more staff and fix the game. It's ridiculous that I pay $80 at launch and $15 a month for a game that barely works.

1.) Liberation of Northpoint - It is a main quest line in Rivenspire. It is currently impossible to finish. Without finishing it, you can't continue to the main quest line in the next area. This is completely unacceptable, it has been 2 days now, and I haven't been able to finish it. I've called, I've sent bug reports, nothing has helped. Hell last night, I couldn't even send a bug report, only the search for FAQs was available, lmao.

2.) Guild Store - an absolute joke. I can't find the items I want. Where are filters that work? Where is an item search function that works? The add on for this sucks. Why do I have to back out of conversation just to get a general search to work? Major issue, needs to be optimized immediately.

3.) Guild bank - Don't even get me started about this. I've spent over 50 hours of wasted time now in the guild bank, waiting for it populate, or waiting for it to process previous request or just sort the items. Why aren't items stacking in the guild bank? Why does it freeze up after you quickly dump 10 items in the guild bank, and you have to wait for previous request? I hate the guild bank. Please fix ASAP

4.) Combat lag for switching weapons. I've gotten killed many of times because I press weapon switch, nothing happens, I press it again, then I'm back to my original weapon, and I've missed about 3 seconds of available combat ability pressing time. Combat lag in general needs to be tightened up. Its not terrible, but could be better.

5.) Veteran leveling is ridiculous. I finished all the quests in Glenumbra and 2/3s of the quests in Stormhaven, and I'm barely at 20% through rank 2. Something is wrong there. You need to get your algorithm people back to the drawing board on that formula because leveling VRs takes a stupidly long amount of time.

So, forget about adding pretty colors to impress the kiddies, and make the damn game playable, or people that were planning on being long term subscribers are going to be playing something else. Watchdogs is looking pretty sweet right now.

Copy paste message? You're not saying anything new here. *classified as rant*

Anastasia

Decalin wrote: »

I'm actually a little concerned about the direction this seems to indicate the game is going.

New group content / trials and super special leet loots to grind for in them to make the minority of the player base feel superior to everyone else. And a new dye system that appears to also gate by specific achievements, which looks like the popular colors will also be behind the group stuff.

Still no content to get VR 11 and 12 without grouping or grinding an insane amount.

Nothing to address the fact that "play your way" is now pretty much go resto/dest staff with light armor or go home for the majority of people.

The above also takes a nice step towards invalidating crafting other than upgrading dropped gear.

I have been pretty optimistic about the game up till now, but it looks like we may be going to follow the generic MMO raid / loot grind. Problem is, this has been done, very successfully, in many other games, and I don't think its what people were expecting with ESO. Yes, there will always be some who want the good old days back where an MMO was all about grouping all the time, and those who want to play and never actually interact with another person. Either way could be done game was designed that way from the start, but you cant keep both the "hardcore" / raiders, and the solo / casual mob happy by making the first part of the game something only the casual group enjoy and the end game something only the hardcore group enjoy.

Personally I sit between the two stereotypes, and I'm still having a lot of fun doing the quests in the VR zones, but less and less of the people on my friends list are logging in now. There is still so much potential for this game, but I really don't think that following the generic MMO formula is going to work here, if I want that, I have many other games I can go back to that already do it very well, and most of them are F2P at this point...

---

Overall I disagree with you based on the vision for the game which was promo'd prelaunch for a LONG time as well as interviews right around the time of launch and after which clearly showed/detailed there would be some solo content but that the emphasis was on grouping and also PvP interwoven. And that is exactly what they gave us - a lot of solo content prior to level 50 and more reason/need for grouping and interesting PvP action all along.

I feel like the devs of this game followed through with exactly what their vision was planned to be and while accepting input and suggestions from current players is always a good thing in mmo's, entirely refocusing on a different vision or changing the primary framework of the gameplay is not.

Generic is the farthest description away from the facts for TESO. It is familiar enough to be user friendly, yet has enough areas which have been done differently to provide variety. I like the fresh take. Just gotta remind myself to be patient for the staff as they are actively working on bugs and fixes etc. Ya gotta be flexible as an mmo company these days, but flexibility does not equate to morphing completely away from your design intent.

Good Journeys!

purple-magicb16_ESO

Now that TES artist fans have had time to submit some fan concept artwork, they should take a look at these and develop some new motifs for clothing and armor. The sky's the limit.

christopher_griffinub17_ESO

Logan9a wrote: »

christopher_griffinub17_ESO wrote: »

How about decreasing our field/range of view in dungeons?

In reality we wouldn't be able to see 100% down a dungeon tunnel. Maybe allowing players to see 8-12 meters under normal conditions. When It comes to lighting in a dungeon allow them to be lit by:

a) torches or braziers with braziers casting light further than torches,
b) an enhanced "magelight" spell which casts light even further or
c) by natural light leaks rough cracks, ceilings, etc.

I believe this would effectively enhance the feeling of venturing into the "unknown" for players.

Honestly, I get enough of the feeling of journeying into the unknown without them shutting off the lights. If you want to make it spookier for yourself, try turning the brightness on your monitor down when you go into a cave. That should do it.

Oh, if it were that easy! This wasn't about making it "spookier" as much as it was about making it realistic. In reality, if someone saw mobs waiting down a corridor I doubt they'd even enter it!

I guess I remember the days when you couldn't see 10 miles in advance there were a group of orcs waiting to pounce on me. It's like we've forgotten what the word "challenge" means. All players want to do is get through it as quickly and easily as possible. If you think my suggestion would make things harder, don't ever try to play "Dark Souls".

Pangnirtung

What ever happened to the solo veteran areas that were mentioned a few months ago?

Right now the upper VR levels are all group oriented. Many of us prefer the solo play style.

They seem so afraid to upset the apple cart when it comes to balance yet light armor is out of whack compared to medium and heavy. NB's get a mild tweak because they don't want to upset the status quo. How about us getting a break for a few weeks like some other over-powered classes?

flyinghorsefarmb14_ESO

Personally, some days I prefer solo play and was rather disappointed with Craglorn. I do like the dungeons and group content but I would really love it if you could intersperse at least a few areas that reflect your previous content when you release new content. I know I am not alone in this as in guild and even zone chats there are often discussions about the lack of solo content in Craglorn. All agree that variety keeps most interested. I find myself on days I am not feeling all that social leveling alts or farming materials, however this is already becoming old. I am looking forward to new content that does contain some love for those of us who some days really don't feel like joining others.

purple-magicb16_ESO

...also they should allow players to name their weapons (after a certain level) and make the names unique. Maybe only on vet status weapons with a degree of improvement (not necessarily legendary status but a greater degree of improvement)? And allow for multiple effects on weapons, only attainable by either going to a high level enchanter or becoming a high level enchanter yourself. Also, there should also be a cross-crafter class that combines enchanting and blacksmithing - arcane smithing? That would be way cool!

Ragnar_Lodbrok

I just want to say **** zeni and their nerfs to dks and tanks and crafting. Any more promises is zeni going to break?

purple-magicb16_ESO

...maybe the high level enchanter could be part of a quest?

Logan9a

christopher_griffinub17_ESO wrote: »

Logan9a wrote: »

christopher_griffinub17_ESO wrote: »

How about decreasing our field/range of view in dungeons?

In reality we wouldn't be able to see 100% down a dungeon tunnel. Maybe allowing players to see 8-12 meters under normal conditions. When It comes to lighting in a dungeon allow them to be lit by:

a) torches or braziers with braziers casting light further than torches,
b) an enhanced "magelight" spell which casts light even further or
c) by natural light leaks rough cracks, ceilings, etc.

I believe this would effectively enhance the feeling of venturing into the "unknown" for players.

Honestly, I get enough of the feeling of journeying into the unknown without them shutting off the lights. If you want to make it spookier for yourself, try turning the brightness on your monitor down when you go into a cave. That should do it.

Oh, if it were that easy! This wasn't about making it "spookier" as much as it was about making it realistic. In reality, if someone saw mobs waiting down a corridor I doubt they'd even enter it!

I guess I remember the days when you couldn't see 10 miles in advance there were a group of orcs waiting to pounce on me. It's like we've forgotten what the word "challenge" means. All players want to do is get through it as quickly and easily as possible. If you think my suggestion would make things harder, don't ever try to play "Dark Souls".

You must be a much better player than I. Given how often I am getting 'punked' in this game, I need nothing to make it harder.

Although I personally have been able to advance into the VR's, I'd like them to instead of dimming the lights to work on the bugs that seem to be holding many others back. But that's just my opinion. Sure, it's easy to say "Well, if they haven't been able to fight the boss because he's bugged they should just make a new character or quit entirely" but I'd like to see them get some of the programmers time to make it possible for them to fight that fight. I'm sorry to disagree with your priorities.

Takeda_Shingen

You wrote: "The Dragonknight is still a bit stronger than intended, and we’ll be making some small changes over time to the class. Our intent—no matter what you read on the internet—is not to nerf DKs into Oblivion (so to speak), but to continue tweaking them until they are in line with the survivability of the other classes."

What I may suggest is that if the players with a class in-game are satisfied Do Not Do anything, just fix any other class which has problems. Because in the end you will realize that you have just made more unhappy players...

In order this game to win and have satisfied people you must realize what it matters is that everyone must be satisfied with any class he will choose and it doesn't matter "..until they are in line.."

With my poor useless NB I am not, so take this in consideration and don't make the same mistake over and over to all the classes.

Logan9a

Wouldn't it be cool if a developer posted something in this thread? Just a "I find these comments interesting" type of post? Just to show they were...read?

Westcoast14_ESO

ESO, via a mix of bugs and intended design was launched with pretty bad play balance. For there to be build diversity (making "play the way you like" meaningful), the current progress towards class balance is desperately needed.

That said, ZoS needs to clearly communicate the direction they intend to take the classes. The combination of I. the ability adjustments and II. the current and previously provided communication regarding the changes and class direction is dousing the motivation to invest in developing a character. That is disastrous for an MMO's longevity. It guts the emotional driver for engaging in progression.

Compounding this is the build system is not particularly intuitive, the feedback of players get is frankly ****, and the tool tips are inadequate and often outright wrong. This is particularly bad since the endgame has a progressively smaller number of viable builds. The complaints of "I played build x from 1-50 and had a good time, and now I'm at a wall are legion". For players new to the game or even worse new to MMO's, its not so much "play as you like" its more like "choose the flavor of your future disappointment".

The game has a lot more in common with the shortcomings of The Secret World than I would like to admit (it also has many of the strengths of TSW, not that those strengths kept TSW from going down in flames). Fortunately, unlike Funcom, ZoS still has the development staff to fix things, and hopefully that will continue into the indefinite future.

For retention, please address the issues that are disincentivizing players investing time in developing characters (this is the main driver for MMO's, to survive ESO has to stop disincentivising progression).

ferzalrwb17_ESO

rysmith25 wrote: »

1.) Liberation of Northpoint - It is a main quest line in Rivenspire. It is currently impossible to finish. Without finishing it, you can't continue to the main quest line in the next area. This is completely unacceptable, it has been 2 days now, and I haven't been able to finish it. I've called, I've sent bug reports, nothing has helped. Hell last night, I couldn't even send a bug report, only the search for FAQs was available, lmao.

Seriously this is broken again?

This was broken at launch, fixed, broke again and, I thought, fixed. You will be able to get it to work eventually. If it's the same bug (guy at the cemetery bugs out?).

There's a trick to it but I can't remember it. Someone just has to do it and reset the NPC for the instance you're in and it'll be fixed. You can pick up the main questline for Alik'r by just travelling there but you miss out on resolving the story in Rivenspire - and there's a bit more after Northpoint. So keep trying.

Bromburak

They aware of DK and NB issues and they deal with it on a long term.
They want to adjust soft caps and they improve stats on gear.

I don't have anything to add, if they continue with this direction i am more than happy.

Heraclea

Westcoast14_ESO wrote: »

The game has a lot more in common with the shortcomings of The Secret World than I would like to admit (it also has many of the strengths of TSW, not that those strengths kept TSW from going down in flames). Fortunately, unlike Funcom, ZoS still has the development staff to fix things, and hopefully that will continue into the indefinite future.

That's an interesting analogy. There's a sense in which exploration based gaming and power-based gaming don't mix well. Secret World was an explorer's game that became offputting because it turned too hard along the way. Nothing annoys an explorer like being forced into deadly combat every five steps, and possibly being made to retrace their steps. For too many people, including myself, the game lost interest somewhere on Blue Mountain.

Of course, the Elder Scrolls franchise is in some sense the ultimate explorer's franchise. It was bound to disappoint by being too hard to explore in.

Logan9a

Heraclea wrote: »

Westcoast14_ESO wrote: »

Nothing annoys an explorer like being forced into deadly combat every five steps, and possibly being made to retrace their steps. For too many people, including myself, the game lost interest somewhere on Blue Mountain.

Of course, the Elder Scrolls franchise is in some sense the ultimate explorer's franchise. It was bound to disappoint by being too hard to explore in.

Agree on the combat and retracing the steps part.

Until a major MMO is made which allows actual 'player made content' (like for example Minecraft but hopefully with curved things) you won't have a true exploration game. I'd love to see someone just decide to spend several months churning out a huge interesting swamp. Players can then go by and rate it 1-10. "Well, I think we will bypass this swamp, it's got a three rating from 8235 people but I've heard about one that has the same number of votes and has a solid 7. We should go see that." Eventually lame stuff is dropped, good stuff added and the world grows.

It's a dream I have.