Official Discussion Thread for "Studio Director’s Letter: 2020 Retrospective"

ZOS_SarahHecker

This is the official discussion thread for the blog article "Studio Director’s Letter: 2020 Retrospective"

Read a letter from ZeniMax Online Studio’s Director, Matt Firor, on The Elder Scrolls Online’s challenges and triumphs in 2020.

VaranisArano

"introduce fewer new systems"

Well, that's one way to put the kibosh on a lot of speculation for the new Chapter. No spellcrafting, if I have to guess.

Honestly, I'm fine with a leaner Chapter with less new gameplay features as long as its priced accordingly.

Ghostbane

Thank you for your honesty! Transparency and expectations are always appreciated.

May 2021 be a better year for everything and everyone.

Nairinhe

Ok, who of you skeeving horkers asked for

more time overall to stability and game performance and less time to new game systems

, hm? Jk, this game needs it, if that's really what they are going to do.

But "yay!" to the acknowledgement of this year's issues.

Ellimist_Entreri

Thank you for all the hard work releasing content and fixing bugs during these trying times! Keep up the great work on an amazing game!!!

ectoplasmicninja

I had COVID in March and then was WFH for the first eight months or so of the year. ESO was my pastime, my social outlet, my only real escape from emails and Teams meetings and the four walls of my house. My fiance also turned out to be a [redacted] so even my relationship did not survive this year. I'm so, so grateful to have had this game to carry me through the rough ride that was 2020. I really needed it.

ESO has its flaws and I would really like to see not just added stability (I get kicked from the server pretty often for some reason when using a wayshrine) but more depth to quests and NPC development. That expansion of the lore and super cool worldbuilding is what mostly drives me. But I really appreciate what we do have, and I know the development team is working with all the same struggles as the rest of us.

Thank you for everything ZOS, see you guys on the other side in 2021.

Olauron

I am looking for content, not the systems, so I don't really lose anything, even though Antiquities system was rather interesting. But that system was not as self-sufficient as Housing system, so it is hard to engage with it on a constant basis.

Tommy_The_Gun

"Each of our four Update launches were marred by errors and problems of various types. Patches to fix those issues sometimes led to more problems. Obviously, this is unacceptable, and we will be addressing this as a team throughout 2021."

Pretty much... It would have been a great year, but bugs & patches that fail to fix stuff (that patch notes claim they fix) is exactly as you have said - unacceptable, and cast shadow on what could have been a great experience.
I am still missing a skill point that seems to be permanently lost due to a bug and was not refunded... It kinda holds me up with doing Markarth story quest - as those give skill point as a reward and may confuse ESO support that said almost month ago that they are investigating this... and is silent up to this day

BohnT2

Can we get this kind of communication more often?
No one expects everything to go smoothly all the time, we can't expect perfect balance or even decent balance but having the devs actually state that they know about problems and are willing to take a step back from decisions makes all those things a lot more bearable.

I'm convinced that people wouldn't mind missing out on a DLC per year if they get an honest apology for why the planned schedule didn't work out, it would also be a lot less frustrating than getting content that feels rushed and unpolished.

iamkeebler

I wanted to say thank you for the honesty in this article and admitting that the rigorous release schedule was a bad idea as quality of gameplay tanked because of it. As a long time player I look forward to 2021 and hope y’all are kinder to your developers this coming year so we can continue to get content for a game we all love (and content that isn’t system breaking). Hope everyone at ZOS has a wonderful holiday and gets some time to relax before the 2021 grind kicks back in.

Calm_Fury

Finally some communication. I still think this should have been addressed like this much sooner, but still, late is better than never.

I'm still a little disappointed that you recognize the content schedule was frenetic but still say it will keep the same next year (which, by all indications, still look like it will require WFH for most of the year). Hopefully the "introduce fewer systems" means that those patches, specially the dungeon ones, will be very small to decrease the surface are for bugs.

But still... I still wish the team would try to do less to catch up a bit.

I still love the game, but the bugs have decreased my will to play by a lot recently. I am really rooting for ESO, though.

The_Lex

So, the schedule was too frenetic for the circumstances...but you’ll continue the frenetic schedule under the same circumstances?

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

It would be nice to have an addendum for existing bugs and work in progress.
For example:

- The current ongoing crashes
- The state of the performance improvements (last we heard it was just a 'more in 2021' - but this letter makes it sound like no real plans for it in 2021 either with less system changes?)
- News on the CP rework / levelling system (hopefully we will hear more on this in Jan?)

It is kind of worrying to see that less systems will be developed considering some area's of the games already have almost no changes made to them outside of general 'combat changes' (mainly PVP related). Does this mean another year of no additional PVP content?

Overall there's been positives and negatives but we're still here and playing and wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

jaws343

The_Lex wrote: »

So, the schedule was too frenetic for the circumstances...but you’ll continue the frenetic schedule under the same circumstances?

I don't think it was the schedule exactly, it was the mechanics they introduced within the schedule and the scope of changes they attempted. At least, that is what I got from this. So reducing the scope of changes and the introduction of new systems, like antiquities or the vampire skill line, will allow them to still introduce new zones and dungeons and content, but provide the team more time to fine tune the lingering issues and ensure that new issues aren't introduced in an overwhelming manor.

hexnotic

Thank you for highlighting some of the issues that the game has been struggling with! Being honest and open about the situation is totally the right move, so I am very happy to see an article like this from you guys!

Everyone here loves this game. We want to see it grow to unreasonable proportions, and for it to be healthy as well! The community that you've built will be much more understanding if honest communication is had about the issues, and seeing something like this makes me feel even more hopeful for the future of TESO!

FaceDancer

The_Lex wrote: »

So, the schedule was too frenetic for the circumstances...but you’ll continue the frenetic schedule under the same circumstances?

The schedule for the last year was too frenetic not only for the 4 dlc per year but more for the content on those dlc, wee have the collection system, they try the two passengers mounts and the antic sistem from greymore and those were only a few things.

techyeshic

Somehow I feel like it's the same thing every year. "Happy with what we accomplished. Bugs and performance are unacceptable, but we're working on it.". Last year, it was the performance improvement plan. This year it's less new systems to focus on performance and bugs.

What is it with game development where we hear about over working their talent to rush releases and promising to change, only to find yet another release where that's the case? A lot of amazing work goes unappreciated because of all the issues from being rushed.

jaws343

techyeshic wrote: »

Somehow I feel like it's the same thing every year. "Happy with what we accomplished. Bugs and performance are unacceptable, but we're working on it.". Last year, it was the performance improvement plan. This year it's less new systems to focus on performance and bugs.

What is it with game development where we hear about over working their talent to rush releases and promising to change, only to find yet another release where that's the case? A lot of amazing work goes unappreciated because of all the issues from being rushed.

I'd like to imagine that, in 2019, ZOS had no clue a global pandemic would hit the following year and suddenly force their entire workforce into a work from home method that drastically changed their ways of working.

relentless_turnip

I for one appreciate the honesty and more direct communication.
I am also more than happy to have far less content next year if it means a better performing game.

All I want from next year is much better performance and proc sets to be far less potent. Preferably a proc sets scale the same way as skills to create some cohesion when building.

jaws343

techyeshic wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

techyeshic wrote: »

Somehow I feel like it's the same thing every year. "Happy with what we accomplished. Bugs and performance are unacceptable, but we're working on it.". Last year, it was the performance improvement plan. This year it's less new systems to focus on performance and bugs.

What is it with game development where we hear about over working their talent to rush releases and promising to change, only to find yet another release where that's the case? A lot of amazing work goes unappreciated because of all the issues from being rushed.

I'd like to imagine that, in 2019, ZOS had no clue a global pandemic would hit the following year and suddenly force their entire workforce into a work from home method that drastically changed their ways of working.

[Quoted post was removed]

They clearly say they aren't introducing new systems next year in the article. New content, zones/dungeons sure, but not systems. So it certainly would appear they are planning a more scaled back set of updates comparatively.

The_Lex

FaceDancer wrote: »

The_Lex wrote: »

So, the schedule was too frenetic for the circumstances...but you’ll continue the frenetic schedule under the same circumstances?

The schedule for the last year was too frenetic not only for the 4 dlc per year but more for the content on those dlc, wee have the collection system, they try the two passengers mounts and the antic sistem from greymore and those were only a few things.

Good points

SantieClaws

Well this one does not really do dungeons so without new systems that does not really indicate a lot to keep this one busy in 2021.

Now if instead you could just make treasure maps stackable perhaps and have them drop more often as random loot well then that might keep this one busy for at least a litle while.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

DarcyMardin

Your honestly and directness is very much appreciated — thank you! It’s been a difficult year for most of us, but I have, as usual, been happy to relax and unwind with ESO. Thanks for keeping it all together during the pandemic. Let’s raise a glass to the prospect (not too unlikely, I hope) that 2021 will prove to be better for us all.

FrancisCrawford

The_Lex wrote: »

So, the schedule was too frenetic for the circumstances...but you’ll continue the frenetic schedule under the same circumstances?

No.

The key distinction between "systems" and "content" here is that content modularizes a lot more easily than "systems". There's art and dialogue and music and so on, and different people can work on different parts with only moderate amounts of coordination.

But things that involve actual software development are much knottier. Bugs are easy to introduce but hard to fix (especially without introducing new ones). You incur "technical debt" in that you're on the horns of a dilemma in which either:

• You need to redesign/recode parts of the system, at no immediate benefit to the user OR
• Devote more effort to developing any stable, shiny new features than you would have to if you first took time for the fixes.

And throwing more resources at the problem (human or computational) helps less than you'd wish.

techyeshic

jaws343 wrote: »

techyeshic wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

techyeshic wrote: »

Somehow I feel like it's the same thing every year. "Happy with what we accomplished. Bugs and performance are unacceptable, but we're working on it.". Last year, it was the performance improvement plan. This year it's less new systems to focus on performance and bugs.

What is it with game development where we hear about over working their talent to rush releases and promising to change, only to find yet another release where that's the case? A lot of amazing work goes unappreciated because of all the issues from being rushed.

I'd like to imagine that, in 2019, ZOS had no clue a global pandemic would hit the following year and suddenly force their entire workforce into a work from home method that drastically changed their ways of working.

[Quoted post was removed]

They clearly say they aren't introducing new systems next year in the article. New content, zones/dungeons sure, but not systems. So it certainly would appear they are planning a more scaled back set of updates comparatively.

I misread. Thought they said since they were 6 months ahead, 2021 would continue to have the new systems. He actually said that the slow down will continue the first half of 2021.

Still hope it's more successful than last year's performance plan.

luen79rwb17_ESO

It's actually something worthy of praise now that you mention it. Big kudos to ZOS on that regard. It's definitely a huge effort keeping up with content during a pandemic and working from home.

"we will devote more time overall to stability and game performance and less time to new game systems"

But sadly, this statement is the closest thing you can translate to "we're de facto implementing a soft maintainance mode". Especially if you consider that the "performance route" has been around for 2 years now. That sentence just means "more of the same performance focus but with less content".

Rehdaun

You are missing one key component. Honest communication and timely updates. As you know many of us were pretty angry with the recent introduction of game-breaking bugs, some of which still exist. An attempt was made to keep everyone informed by posting a sticky thread that focused on the most broken components and thankfully some of them were fixed.

However, some weren't, like the blue screens, hangs and crashes. Now that the sticky is no where to be found, buried deep in the forum archives, we are left to only a couple of posts that, after a day or two, also get buried. Why not be honest, post the bugs for everyone to see, make it easy for us to see progress. Update us with progress updates.

That's what we want, you all to be honest and to keep us updated and not to force us to dig through days, weeks, months of posts to figure out what's still broken.

Cireous

I remember in an interview a little while back, they mentioned that the Champion Point System rework was likely returning in (early?) 2021. I have a feeling that this might be the new system they are quashing for now.

I imagine some systems are still going to be introduced or they wouldn't have said so in as recent a post as the Gates of Oblivion reveal. Unless, they are already backtracking on that.

No new systems at all would be super disappointing for myself.

crjs1

Appreciate the honesty and it makes sense that learning from this year they are scaling back next year in terms of new systems. I am guessing we can kiss good bye to the champions point rework

Sarannah

Thank you for writing this. Hopefully the ongoing issues will be resolved quickly for those who experience them. Happy holidays to you all at ZOS, and all players.

As a player, this was a great year for TESO. Lots of new content releases, which was awesome. And quite a lot of cool events.

There are just two main things I would like to know about how ESO is evolving, going forward: Will there ever be a skill-point catch-up mechanic for new characters? And, what are ZOS's plans with CP?

maboleth

luen79rwb17_ESO wrote: »

It's actually something worthy of praise now that you mention it. Big kudos to ZOS on that regard. It's definitely a huge effort keeping up with content during a pandemic and working from home.

"we will devote more time overall to stability and game performance and less time to new game systems"

But sadly, this statement is the closest thing you can translate to "we're de facto implementing a soft maintainance mode". Especially if you consider that the "performance route" has been around for 2 years now. That sentence just means "more of the same performance focus but with less content".

Not so. They will be working from home in foreseeable future and had to reassign and change their plans for 2021, so obviously new content as per usual, but less QoL changes and more focus towards what we already have - IMO, it sounds good!

Thanks Matt! All the best to you and the whole ZOS team! You guys rock! Thanks for making ESO one of my favourite games ever.