Official Discussion Thread for "The Road Ahead - August 20"

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official discussion thread for the blog article The Road Ahead - August 20. We hope you enjoyed this latest update from our Game Director Matt Firor!

SG_Celerrimus

AHHH FINALLY YAY!!!!!!

Hypertionb14_ESO

i would like to add my voice to the plea for help on PTS. so far the time i have been on there i have seen three other people!

Not convinced, The PTS is the place to go to put to test Theory crafting on builds and actually test their viability. not only will you get to see if your ideas for endgame builds are useful, but you might even find a cool surprise while doing it.

Attorneyatlawl

" In the future, we plan to add some kind of incentive for helping us test new content, so keep your eyes open for details."

Works for me... you want to give me something for doing things I already do, I won't complain .

EDIT: Also want to note I am glad you guys are taking extra time to consider the impacts the champion system would have on the game in the longer term and not just rushing it to completion, thinking about what it would do now, and putting it live.

demonlkojipub19_ESO

The only thing that awed me from this road ahead was the possibility of the champion system removing soft caps. It will probably only raise the cap by like 30, for armor/spell resist, when its all said and done tho, but its nice to hear.

Would have been great to get some more details on what will be done about balancing classes and builds. Maybe in next months road ahead . . .

Denaia

I am quite interested in the loyalty system. I hope it's only cosmetic though, but I am all for gaining new stuff for playing the game longer then someone else. I always enjoyed getting something new every year in other mmo's.

rendolpheb16_ESO

Keep up the hard work ZoS. The game is going in the right direction.

Enjinir

TL;DR:

Update 4 and Eu Server Migration happened.
Update 5 may have some Combat System Tweaks.
Please report bugs and play PTS.
Loyalty Program is coming at some point.
Leaderboards will be reset and may be based on points in the future.
Things still without a solid timeframe: Facial animations, improved grouping, fixes to player separation issues, Imperial City, Champion System, Justice System, Spellcrafting.

On a bright note, ZOS has two new trademarks to add to "Soon(TM)," with the newly introduced "In a While (TM)" and "Later (TM)"

ericprydz82ub17_ESO

They really need to get busy on having character copies on the PTS instead of templates if they A: want more people testing, B: want better results with fine tuning trials

Attorneyatlawl

ericprydz82ub17_ESO wrote: »

They really need to get busy on having character copies on the PTS instead of templates if they A: want more people testing, B: want better results with fine tuning trials

It takes about 10 minutes to set up a reasonably well-built toon on the PTS right now thanks to the templates. If people won't even do that, what are the chances of them going to an account page and doing some kind of character copy process?

cyclonus11

When can we expect jewelery crafting? There was talk about it, then it all died off. I need to know what to do with all this jewelry I'm hoarding for decons.

arkansas_ESO

I'm all for the loyalty program, but can we keep the rewards pretty lore-friendly? I don't think Ice Wraiths are the type to become domesticated easily, if at all.

k9mouse

ericprydz82ub17_ESO wrote: »

They really need to get busy on having character copies on the PTS instead of templates if they A: want more people testing, B: want better results with fine tuning trials

I was thinking the samething, I can I test crafting at upper tiers with my "Live" server char that I spend all time on? It is not enough time to do the research again on the PTS server to test out crafting and give feedback.

Just import my current char(s), will help a lot and better way to test content on the PTS server.

Madval

Fabulous ! Better and better !

epoling

It seems like there should have been some acknowledgment of the growing restlessness concerning so much new content being group only. It is nice that ZOS is taking care of the folks who can / will group, but by ignoring the folks who for one reason or another aren't in that camp they are shooting themselves in the foot. I am not yet to the point to worry about it, but one reason I am leveling slowly is to avoid being stuck in the VR levels with nothing to do but try and group.

Lord_Draevan

"More Craglorn quests"
...

Do you really want to hurt me...

In all seriousness, more group quests we can look forward to spending weeks and weeks trying to find a group for since all anyone wants to do is grind or Trials. Or Arena, since that's there now. But questers like me are in for another long, long wait... the rest looks great, but more Craglorn quests, not so much...

Arabth

Thanks for a good game too bad you could not deliver what you did say you would. Ended sub after reading

KhajitFurTrader

I'm thrilled about what's in the pipeline, and I'm very exited about what the Champion System's going to turn out. Take your time, balance and polish it as you see fit, as we (and the game) can only benefit from it.

Thank you for your tremendous, continued effort you put into your game, and keep up the good work!

I'm here to stay! ^_^

Maverick827

Why did it take so long to write that?

Neizir

YAY THANKS GINA
Looking forward to the new loyalty program!!

ZOS_GinaBruno

ericprydz82ub17_ESO wrote: »

They really need to get busy on having character copies on the PTS instead of templates if they A: want more people testing, B: want better results with fine tuning trials

Soon™. Really!

Maotti

Hey Gina! Will gametime card users be eligible for the loyalty system aswell?

Csub

k9mouse wrote: »

ericprydz82ub17_ESO wrote: »

They really need to get busy on having character copies on the PTS instead of templates if they A: want more people testing, B: want better results with fine tuning trials

I was thinking the samething, I can I test crafting at upper tiers with my "Live" server char that I spend all time on? It is not enough time to do the research again on the PTS server to test out crafting and give feedback.

Just import my current char(s), will help a lot and better way to test content on the PTS server.

Everything is level 50, you have 5 million gold and 120+ skillpoints.

Audigy

Attorneyatlawl wrote: »

ericprydz82ub17_ESO wrote: »

They really need to get busy on having character copies on the PTS instead of templates if they A: want more people testing, B: want better results with fine tuning trials

It takes about 10 minutes to set up a reasonably well-built toon on the PTS right now thanks to the templates. If people won't even do that, what are the chances of them going to an account page and doing some kind of character copy process?

The PTS setup is a bit tricky, we need two full clients for this. A our EU or US client and B the PTS client.

Not sure how this could be made better, most games I know still use that system but I honestly don't have 2x 50GB disc space

If I could just jump on with my current client I sure would do this more often

Thanks for the Road Ahead, I like reading those little reports from time to time

TheHumanFloyd

These are so great. I love reading The Road Ahead!

technohic

Update 5 is intriguing for as little that is said. Combat updates. I have a feeling people will expect a LOT out of that.

Guar

Wow! Very exciting features to look forward to! I appreciate the fact that Zenimax is taking the time necessary to make sure that every change is going to be a good one, instead of just releasing it and then eventually making changes! I am very excited for the future of ESO and I will definitely help out on the PTS!

MorHawk

I too would like to have seen more specifics on balance, and far more importantly bug fixes. This damage scaling bug is getting insane.

That said, championiness seems to be coming along nicely. Easily the highlight for me was the last paragraph about your priorities. Flaws get top priority, improvements second, and new toys last. Good call.

HippieTheGreat

Good to see the road ahead. Kinda sad the justice system and spellcrafting are regulated to "later" though. Really waiting on those 2 systems.

Nice update though, looking forward to seeing whats coming.

Sakara

This section made me laugh -
"The European megaserver successfully moved to its permanent home in Frankfurt a few weeks ago. Many of you playing from Europe immediately reported far lower ping times and less latency along with a generally better gameplay experience"

And many many more put in many complaints about a totally unplayable game with awful glitches and freezing happening. It is fixed now, but ignoring the problem doesn't fill me with confidence in the developers.

Also i mirror the concern in lacking PVE content. The problem boils down to 3 types of people who came to the game -
* Those who played previous Elder Scrolls games and love the lore of the series and wanted more of that
* Those who come from other MMOS looking for a new type of game
* Those whove done a bit of both, but may sway towards the first or second.

Yes, the initial game is very much towards the PVE player, That's because it is set in a game world where it is ALL about story. Now there may be plenty of MMO players who feel like they have to grind through the first ten levels before they can get into cyrodiil and play PVP quests, but that's what Elder Scrolls is.
I feel though for the pve player, the ones who play for the story, that once you get to veteran out goes any solo gaming unless you go into the other faction storylines and really that isnt good enough , as someone coming from the storyline side i created a new character for each faction in order to play it as i felt properly from the side of each faction.
I'm not against grouping, i've enjoyed what little i've been able to do but as a poster says above, it's getting very hard to find people to group with, when the majority want to do the arena or grind options.
So..with that, i really hope the more solo play pve is expanded more so in the near future as im running out of story to play by myself.

Elsonso

Thanks for the Road Ahead.

This pretty color wheel thing for Champion Points tells me that the person who created the Skyrim constellation UI has finally joined the ESO team, though.

Loyalty rewards are just a way to keep people subscribed. Loyalty programs do nothing to retain dissatisfied people and are not a factor for buying the game. They are specifically designed for people who let the subscription lapse with the intention of renewing it at a later date. In this, they seem to be addressing something that Blizzard said a while back that subscribers tend to cycle, alternately subscribing and then letting the subscription lapse.