No more story quests for a whole year

spartaxoxo

Kendaric wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Kendaric wrote: »

We only know the plan for this year though...

I'm cautiously hopeful we may get something in Q 1 next year, especially as it will be ESO's 10th anniversary.

They said this is the new content cadence going forward. So, unless they decide to change something drastically, this is also going to be the content cadence for next year too.

So it will basically be:

Q 1 yet another dungeon DLC
Q 2 the new chapter (yay!)
Q 3 QoL/fixes again
Q 4 new system (whatever that may be)?

I really wish they'd return to their Morrowind/Summerset cadence.

Yeah. That's what they are doing. They want the next few years to focus on systems rather than story content. So the story content is going to be mostly relegated to the chapter. I have no idea what the new system would be next year but my guess would be something PvP related. They haven't hinted either way but the end of this year should conclude the server performance projects they have repeatedly said must happen before anything can be added to pvp proper. So I wouldn't be surprised with it finally done that Q4 next year will be a pvp system.


Regardless of what it ends up being though, I wouldn't hold my breath for more story. Because it's pretty clear this is all the story we're getting until next year, and then that will be all the story for that year too.

TaSheen

I don't have any interest in dungeons - but considering the Ouroboros logo, it would be logical to expect an "endless dungeon" to have some relationship to that logo.

I suppose it's not feasible to actually set it up like an Ouroboros, but it would certainly be more intriguing that "just a dungeon"....

LanteanPegasus

I'm on the fence about this new content policy.

If they actually need the longer time between releases to get back to (much) better writing for their quests and NPC dialogues and their excellent design and detail for good-sized zones (like it was up to and including Elsweyr/Dragonhold) I'd be allright with getting less zones (and, following that, stories/quests etc.). Not happy about it (because they could do it before, so they should be able to do it now as well), but accepting that I pay for high quality with the lost quantity.

Unfortunately everything about their new marketing doesn't look like that to me.
The great, big new feature being an endless dungeon of all things sounds like the exact opposite, in fact. Lots of reusable assets, and a program-implement-and-forget mechanism to cobble together an endless stream of completely generic kill-next-thing hamsterwheel "content" sound like the laziest (and cheapest) possible way to create a time sink for players without any meaning besides "how far can you get".
The return to Morrowind in Necrom - reusing zone design. Scrivener's Hall - a whole dungeon of reusing existing Daedric designs (environment and creatues) with exactly one interesting idea (the Ritemaster and his books).
Bal Sunnar actually felt quite inventive to me (I usually only do DLC dungeons once, viewing them as another quest and location to explore), I'll give them credit for that, but that was only half a DLC.

I haven't bought Necrom so far. With zero interest in the new class, Hermaeus Mora, or yet another Daedric realm, and not that much in Dunmer, for the first time I'll wait for the big discount in autumn.
But if it is true that the main story feels like being only half finished, or hanging in the air, or like a cliffhanger (as mentioned in another thread), then that's a sign their writing isn't as good as it was before. Their "Daedric War" storyline spanned several chapters, and that was great, but each chapter stood on its own, having a climax and an end to their individual story, and only hinting at a bigger picture that was revealed over time, but not forced to the forefront until it was time to finish it. Necrom quite blatantly wields the "the universe is at stake here" club (at least in some trailers), and that doesn't bode too well for subtle storytelling over the course of multiple individual adventures.

I'll wait and see what next year will bring, though, when they actually did have more time on their hands to prepare the next chapter. Maybe then we'll see the raised quality, and if we do, I'll be fine with the new rhythm.

Regarding competition - there may not be another MMO equivalent in sight (no idea about that), but in September there will be Starfield. Quite a few ESO players (like me) came here not from MMOs (wouldn't touch any other MMO), but from the TESO single player games. And those games are so great because of their play-how-you-want, open world, lots of quests and exploration, design your own character mentality. Which Starfield uses as its biggest selling point. It is Bethesda, doing what TESO players love them for, in space. So at least for a certain segment of players this will be competition. (I know I can't wait!) Of course being a single player game it is finite, so maybe most will be through with it by June next year, ready for another ESO chapter. Considering that, maybe the absence of story content in November was just evading the confrontation.

colossalvoids

My opinion is that there are a lot of people not getting what they want every year, or years after years, it's fine sitting one out if other stuff is still coming even if it's not your cup of whatever.

AzuraFan

I don't think they could keep up the one chapter/one story DLC per year schedule forever. But it does mean they'll lose players who are here primarily for story and exploration. Players like me. At least for a time. The risk is that once we stop regularly playing, we might never come back.

This is especially true this year, with Baldur's Gate 3 in August, Starfield in September, and a backlog of other single-player games in my Steam library that I'm itching to play. I'm enjoying Necrom, but even though I'm taking it slowly, I'll probably complete the content before the end of June.

I switched my ESO+ from annual to monthly in anticipation of this year's single-player releases, when I expect to cancel it for a while at some point. I was doubly glad I did so when Firor announced the new content drop schedule, because I can see myself playing for a little while after I complete the Necrom content, but not for a whole year.

The big question for me is whether I'll still care about ESO when the 2024 chapter is released. I guess I'll see.

FantasticFreddie

WithMyLaserGun wrote: »

I am very happy to sacrifice some story for some QOL improvements and bug fixes. We have been asking them to do this for years, and to stop making stories that end with the purchase of a DLC. They're finally listening and it's great.

For me, this is entirely dependent on if they follow through and actually fix stuff.

TaSheen

FantasticFreddie wrote: »

WithMyLaserGun wrote: »

I am very happy to sacrifice some story for some QOL improvements and bug fixes. We have been asking them to do this for years, and to stop making stories that end with the purchase of a DLC. They're finally listening and it's great.

For me, this is entirely dependent on if they follow through and actually fix stuff.

Yeah....

markulrich1966

we have seen a shift in the last years.

Story content getting less focus.
Replaced by new systems to keep people busy, like Antiquities, and most important: Events.
Each new chapter adds a new zone event, plus we soon will have 10th anniversary. I guess this year will be packed with events.

I personally miss new good story content, but I miss it since after Elsweyr already, because the stories thereafter were not great. Even skip Necrom this time after the decline of the last years.
So I will continue what I usually do, mainly dailies, events, with some breaks now and then (Fallout 76 Seasons, certainly Starfield too) to avoid another burnout from the repetitive content (had one already so took 5 months of complete break).

NotaDaedraWorshipper

TaSheen wrote: »

My opinion is the same it's always been: I was VERY happy when they adopted the year-long story sequence. And VERY unhappy they've gone back to this.

I'm happy for the class. That's about it.

They didn't "go back" to anything. We didn't use to only get a chapter for story and then nothing else. There used to be chapter and a smaller zone/story dlc, which both had full stories with proper endings.

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

I feel like some people are conflating year long stories with more story content // no year long story and less story content. These aren't mutually exclusive. For instance, 2017 was not a year long story but had story content in both Q2 and Q4. Same with 2018. (The daedric war arc or whatever it's called was not a year long story, Murkmire was standalone, Wrothgar was standalone, TB and DB were standalone.)

I just want to make that clear. Personally I would like story content in both Q2 and Q4 but I thought the year long stories were huge downgrades to stories that weren't strictly stuck into a year, shorter or longer.

I would be ok with no story in Q4 if the replacement were something cool. The endless dungeon doesn't appeal to me at all though, so I'm a little bitter because of that.

Couldn't agree more. It seems that we are just getting less now without anything to make up for it.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

I absolutly hate the new release schedule.
Eso+is now worthless as it only give al2 dougeon a year and nothing else. I only get to play the chapter in june and nothing else. Sorry but the repeatable content in this game isnt fun enough to go on an entire year on it. At least there is many other game to play in the 10 month content drought

phaneub17_ESO

10 year anniversary. No coincidence.

Gray_howling_parrot

Even the people that say they're here for the story, are you really that excited? We finally got some political intrigue with high isle but then they transitioned straight back into an "end of the world" scenario with galen & then so again with necrom. It's just lazy writing honestly and pretty dry. Im going to be much more excited about systems than I do about THIS story telling theyve been doing recently. It's extremely stale

Snaggel

I am okay with taking a break from ESO storylines for a while. After playing through every quest, chapter and such, you start to notice a lot of repeated patterns. If I were to take a longer break from the grind of the game itself, I'd love to come back to a more intergral and functional game that isn't as bug riddled as it is now.

TaSheen

Jaustink wrote: »

Even the people that say they're here for the story, are you really that excited? We finally got some political intrigue with high isle but then they transitioned straight back into an "end of the world" scenario with galen & then so again with necrom. It's just lazy writing honestly and pretty dry. Im going to be much more excited about systems than I do about THIS story telling theyve been doing recently. It's extremely stale

It's a dichotomy for me. Contrary to what most are posting I LOVED Blackwood (excluding Deadlands) and High Isle/Galen. I had and have no interest in Morrowind/CWC/Summerset - missed me completely. And thinking about them trying to re-implement that "daedric war arc" sort of three year content leaves me.... not happy at all.

I also loved Elsweyr (though - I just couldn't complete it because the bosses are too hard due to my mega-ping.... which is really sad.... and not at all the game's or ZOS's fault of course!)

And it's looking like the boss situation in Necrom is also going to be an issue; not to mention the DAMNED Seekers.... Holy crap. I don't care ANYTHING about whatever people want from the Seekers so WHY am I getting pulled into combat I have absolutely no way of living over??? All I'm trying to do right now is just get the stupid CE treasure maps! AUGGHGH!!

Eh.... sorry for going ballistic....

MyKillv2.0

Bummed, yes.

I am also very curious to see what the game looks like a year from now with no content for twelve months. I cannot think of very many instances where a MMO provided less content and the results were any shade of positive.

Lugaldu

LanteanPegasus wrote: »

The great, big new feature being an endless dungeon of all things sounds like the exact opposite, in fact. Lots of reusable assets, and a program-implement-and-forget mechanism to cobble together an endless stream of completely generic kill-next-thing hamsterwheel "content" sound like the laziest (and cheapest) possible way to create a time sink for players without any meaning besides "how far can you get".

A very good description. Personally, I really don't understand what should be exciting about an "endless" dungeon, where the corridors and monsters change every time you enter it, in comparison to the endless repetition (grind) of various other dungeons in the game. The setting (probably Apocrypha style) will always be the same in the basic concept and just the opponents will change. In the end it is and remains a hamster wheel. I just don't see the incentive.

colossalvoids

Lugaldu wrote: »

LanteanPegasus wrote: »

The great, big new feature being an endless dungeon of all things sounds like the exact opposite, in fact. Lots of reusable assets, and a program-implement-and-forget mechanism to cobble together an endless stream of completely generic kill-next-thing hamsterwheel "content" sound like the laziest (and cheapest) possible way to create a time sink for players without any meaning besides "how far can you get".

A very good description. Personally, I really don't understand what should be exciting about an "endless" dungeon, where the corridors and monsters change every time you enter it, in comparison to the endless repetition (grind) of various other dungeons in the game. The setting (probably Apocrypha style) will always be the same in the basic concept and just the opponents will change. In the end it is and remains a hamster wheel. I just don't see the incentive.

We literally have no idea how it will be implemented and if people's description were even remotely right on that front. People trying to be optimistic as there are similar end game systems in other games that were proven to be good and captivating enough so the hope is that if that's even just a copycat, it's a good one.

There are other concerns though because of the game's nature, like what's actually new would it bring to the table, is it simply enjoyable experience, what the limitations are, if it is rewarding enough and even what they can potentially make a reward in such a game where you're already have enough of sources for literally anything and having our gear system where it's pretty problematic to make something interesting or unique (we're not in arpg after all, everting is fixed and standardised).

Danikat

At least in the short term I suppose it's actually good for me because I haven't been keeping up with the new releases and it means there's less to buy. When I started there were 4 DLCs in a year to pay for. Then it went down to 1 "Chapter", 1 story DLC and 2 dungeons and since I don't play dungeons that much I only needed the other two (I don't use ESO+ so buying a chapter is no different to buying a DLC for me). Now I'm down to just 1 purchase per year (not counting crown store items obviously) and the slower release schedule will give me time to catch up.

But that means less money from me for ZOS and when I do catch up less time spent playing ESO.

Vandellia

Honestly Dungeon crawling has totally lost its luster/sheen for me. I would rather see more single player content then the absolute hassle that finding a decent party and desire to run more dungeons. I personally like decent content story lines a lot more then the cruddy card game(to me a hate rather then even tolerate thing) or lets go add some fussy mechanic dungeon that has crappy armor or is generally a waste of my time and effort for the reward it yealds...

Hurbster

Good, I can finally catch up.

If it ends up in an improvement in the dreadful storytelling we have had for the past few years, totally worth it.

SeaGtGruff

I'm looking forward to the new endless dungeon, as well as the QoL changes. It remains to be seen whether I'll engage with the endless dungeon on a regular basis, since that will depend on how much fun it is for me, not to mention how difficult. As for the rewards, I don't always play specific content for any reward it might drop, because sometimes the struggle to complete the content is the reward ("the journey is the destination" sort of thing). But considering how important the rewards are to the majority of gamers, I would imagine that ZOS has some nice carrots in mind to give everyone some incentive.

Add me to the list of players who need to catch up on older content. I've still got High Isle and Firesong to play through on my main-server main, and I'm not going to play through Necrom until after I've completed those. On my alt-server main, I've only just completed the zone storyline for Craglorn, and still have a lot of side quests and other zone content to complete before moving on to the next zone-- the Imperial City, whose storyline I've never even completed on my main-server main. And I've got a half dozen alts on both servers who haven't completed their home alliances' storylines-- and that doesn't even count the new Arcanist characters I've yet to create. So I've got a lot of stuff to keep me busy in the game for a while.

As far as questing through storylines and side quests, that's definitely something that can keep me compulsively playing a game, even if I'm already well-acquainted with the quests. I've been experiencing that a lot in my current replay of Oblivion.

kaushad

I’d rather have a Q4 DLC. Preferably two self contained, small zones, but one a year wouldn’t be awful.

For example, I consider Murkmire one of better DLC. And it leaves room for several more DLC in Black Marsh which could have their own new themes.

Whereas with chapters, we get a large regions of Tamriel where the theme is split by dragons, daedra and megalomaniacal Cyrodiils who turn out to have Breton ancestors at the last minute.

Jaustink wrote: »

Even the people that say they're here for the story, are you really that excited? We finally got some political intrigue with high isle but then they transitioned straight back into an "end of the world" scenario with galen & then so again with necrom. It's just lazy writing honestly and pretty dry. Im going to be much more excited about systems than I do about THIS story telling theyve been doing recently. It's extremely stale

I’m here for story DLC, but not really for stories. I like some playable stories in TES and I daresay that most of those stories in are in ESO. But that’s the likes of the Farmer’s Nook story, not main quests. I want to explore the world and play different roles.

When I tried Necrom on PTS, the main quest was the last thing I attempted, partly because I wanted to hear what everybody at the usual Kurog’s funeral post-climax had to say, but also because I don’t care as much about the big secret that could end the world as I do about Dunmer burial customs, that place where Mora keeps shipwrecks or what a brutish psycho St Vorys was and how increasingly few of the locals care about him.

Jarl_Ironheart

The year long adventure has never been a thing I enjoyed. I feel like ZOS was rushing to churn stuff out and didn't have time to really flesh things out. I hope now that they've gone back to the older model they will be able to really make new content great and have time to fix a bunch of bugs. I want another DLC like Orsinium, that to me was the best dlc this game ever got.

BasP

I don't mind the departure from the year long adventure, though the Q3 and Q4 updates we'll get instead have to be decent of course. As for this year, I'm definitely looking forward to the Endless Dungeon and I hope it'll be fun. More QoL improvements and bug fixes are always welcome too.

Luke_Flamesword

To be honest, stories and quest became quite weak and schematic, so I'm glad that instead of more filler quest, we will get some new systems, which will last more than few days. I'm also tired of all these delve/wb boss grinding with new motifs, so it will be nice to have something completely different than just smaller version of chapter.

LunaFlora

i am excited for the future and i like that this year is different

Aka_

This year will definitely be really slow around Fall-Wintertime. I am looking curiously at the next year and how that could play out. That feels like a "make or break" year for the game, I think. For now, I'm taking the new content very slowly and re-enjoying storylines while also planning on catching up on endgame content and trials.

Lugaldu

If I think about it further... After all, not only is there no new story content for a full year, but also no new areas to explore. Right now I'm realizing again that that's a big part of the pre-release anticipation and then the fun - exploring new territory.

All in all, it feels like an extreme shortage of content.

ixthUA

Lugaldu wrote: »

All in all, it feels like an extreme shortage of content.

I am playing a chinese mmorpg that gets new content releases every few months, for 11 years by now. However, a fully developed character there costs over 100k usd, and this price goes way up with horizontal progression.

CameraBeardThePirate

Welcome to the world of PvPers.

PvPers haven't had any new content since the release of the Istirus Outpost BG map.... in Update 19.