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• Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
Feedback for the new Gold Road Chapter
ThelerisTelvanni
✭✭✭
Since I did not see an official one, I made this feedback thread.
I over all liked the new Gold Road chapter and you can see how much effort went into the chapter. Yet I can’t help myself to feel that on so many occasions the team slightly missed the mark.
But why did I feel that way despite liking the chapter? After all Skingrad and an Aylied themed chapter have long since been on my wish list! So I was super happy to see them come true! But as so often the devil is within the detail.
So first of all let's talk Skingrad! And Imperials.
The town Skingrad itself is pretty and I like the general architecture. What however irritates is the scale of the building interiors! They are so BIG! I understand that because of the 3rd person camera, we have everything scaled up a bit. I understand that Skingrad is a wealthy city. But comparing the buildings with Alinor for example shows that they have far bigger rooms, a far higher ceiling and that despite the Altmer being considered extravagant and luxurious as well as them being the tallest race! I feel like some of the artists lost the feeling fore scale with a lot of the interiors. Especially with Beragons living room being almost half the size of the Alinor throne room. The rooms therefor feel kind of strange to me.
In terms of furniture Skingrad/Imperials are kind of lacking a middle class furniture. You have this gold and red noble furniture and the wooden green lower class one where color is already getting off. There is totally missing a middle ground! And it does not help that the furniture is sometimes totally dwarfed in over sized rooms...
That aside I think the art team has done a great job with Skingrad and the Imperial Style! I especially love the new fortress style that includes some parts that are reminiscent of the old oblivion exterior sets. Great attention to detail! As well as the new legion gear! I hope we get that as a crafting style later on!
It is a shame we were not able to enter the castle! But we got Sutch!
Let's talk Bosmer next!
I personally did not need the Dawn Wood and a Bosmer settlement on the Gold Road. But I have to say that the Bosmer are a logical choice as Aylied blood runs at least within some of them. Yet they look just like regular Bosmer to me. And not only in the city where they are 50-50 traditional Bosmer and those Bosmer hunting the Aylied ancestors glory. Also those that follow Ithelia are somewhat not feeling any different than regular Bosmer. Bosmer needed some love for a long time now and the new Bosmer stuff looks good. But I was missing a bit more distinction between those 2 Bosmer groups.
From the wannabe Aylieds to the real ones.
I am super sad that we did not get a new Aylied gear set! This was a golden opportunity! Sadly it was missed.
But maybe that is not that bad, since a lot of the new Aylied structural parts and most of furnishings have the problem that they have appropriate iconography, yet somehow miss the elegant shapes I expect of Aylied stuff. A lot of the furniture is just some taped together boxes, totally lacing the elegant curves you usually see in Aylied design. The additions made in the Blackwood chapter were fitting in as if they were part of the original design from TES4 Oblivion. So it is especially sad to see that drop in quality/deviation from the original style.
Speaking of TES4 Oblivion it was sad that the original Aylied ruins were not used as a baseline that was added upon when creating the new/old Aylied locations. I had loved to explore the original ruins or parts of them with some new areas as well. Especially the lack of the pillars where Welkynstones reside upon as well as the stones themselves felt alienating. They were everywhere in TES4 Oblivion! Also no Valarstones around was strange...
And those big trees that had Welkynstones (?) growing on them somewhat felt like they needed some lore explanation! Or did I miss that? I mean those trees looked good (the 2d branch tree aside) but lore please!
It somehow feels like all the Aylied lore was reduced to yeah they were all followers of Ithelia and without her everything was lost.
But that brings me to my main problem: Ithelia! (Spoilers ahead)
At first things sounded good to me, but some points do not seem to fit in with her. The by far biggest point is the end fight! How does the player without help defeat a supercharged deadric prince?! Just like any other bandit or beast around the world?! Here something about the power scaling was totally off/broken! And the "Ithelia leaves for an alternate realty/path where no magic/deadric power exists"?! Magic is the foundation of the Elder Scrolls Universe! That part was like poor writing and a rather bad story resolution! It made no sense in the existing deeper lore at all. At least to my understanding. There were other parts of the story around her that were rather strange. Like the shard marshal first giving the staff to the Bosmer king instead of holding on to it or restoring Ithelia completely like it later happened.
And on top of the lore problems there are also some art choices that bothered me. She looks human, but she does not look like a Nord, Imperial, Redguard or Breton. She also does not look like Altmer, Bosmer or Dunmer. She looks just like some American woman with colored hair, tatoos and some crystal wings. Not fitting within the world she is placed in. She also had no Deadra locking akin to her, making her an oddity that feels completely out of place.
I think she was rushed and needed more time in the concept phase. Rushing something like a deadric prince however can hardly be justified! To be honest I did expect the team to do better, since they always seemed to take the proper care when it came to the per existing deadric princes. The lack of care on something that important as a new deadric prince is a huge disappointment.
The West Whiled
Honestly I was expecting more of the native wildlife we encountered in TES4 Oblivion. All the bugs, dodos and so on felt kind of strange to me. But I loved the autumn colors in the zone! As well as all the small villages and all the Aylied ruins.
The Wild Burn
It just gives me nothing. Yes it was justified in the lore, but to me it felt like wasted nice locations in an already rather small zone.
The Dawn Wood
Like I said, I did not need this but the seeds with Aylied and deadric magic were an interesting idea. And the callback to the original TES4 lore that stated that Cyrodiil was a jungle was also a nice lore node. And it felt like a nice modernized Valenwood area.
Housing
I was praying for a vineyard in the hills over Skingrad with few on the city and some Aylied ruins! I was so happy when I saw the vineyard! And so disappointed to not get this or any other nice few...
I was also hoping for a nice city house in Skingrad. Not getting one was quite the letdown.
It was also a huge letdown to see that we did not get another Aylied home and so few Aylied furnishings for housing. I had loved to get my hands on all the original structural pieces as well as the Blackwood ones. And despite them not fitting in as well, also the new Gold Road stuff. There are also some good ones among the new! I like especially the new urns. And I had loved to get my hands on some of the big trees! The one with branches that feel like almost a 2d tree we can get, however somewhat irritates me.
The new RAID!
The zone looks cool. The enemy's fit. A lot of cool mechanics! I LOVE the new raid! My first vet run where we were figuring out the mechanics was the most fun raid I did in years! I have no idea how this holds the test of time, but the first impression was just awesome!
Edit: Since I forgott to mention it: Scribing!
As much as I like the Idea of some sort of spellcrafting coming into the game, the disappointed I am with the questline to unlock it. Sadly it was not the promised adventure to find ancient magical secrets, but instead a boring/annoying grind of recycled content. At least for me. Sorry to say so I had my hopes up.
So thanks for reading. There is good and bad within the new chapter and I hope my feedback helps the team to improve.
Edited by ThelerisTelvanni on 7 June 2024 15:22 I over all liked the new Gold Road chapter and you can see how much effort went into the chapter. Yet I can’t help myself to feel that on so many occasions the team slightly missed the mark.
But why did I feel that way despite liking the chapter? After all Skingrad and an Aylied themed chapter have long since been on my wish list! So I was super happy to see them come true! But as so often the devil is within the detail.
So first of all let's talk Skingrad! And Imperials.
The town Skingrad itself is pretty and I like the general architecture. What however irritates is the scale of the building interiors! They are so BIG! I understand that because of the 3rd person camera, we have everything scaled up a bit. I understand that Skingrad is a wealthy city. But comparing the buildings with Alinor for example shows that they have far bigger rooms, a far higher ceiling and that despite the Altmer being considered extravagant and luxurious as well as them being the tallest race! I feel like some of the artists lost the feeling fore scale with a lot of the interiors. Especially with Beragons living room being almost half the size of the Alinor throne room. The rooms therefor feel kind of strange to me.
In terms of furniture Skingrad/Imperials are kind of lacking a middle class furniture. You have this gold and red noble furniture and the wooden green lower class one where color is already getting off. There is totally missing a middle ground! And it does not help that the furniture is sometimes totally dwarfed in over sized rooms...
That aside I think the art team has done a great job with Skingrad and the Imperial Style! I especially love the new fortress style that includes some parts that are reminiscent of the old oblivion exterior sets. Great attention to detail! As well as the new legion gear! I hope we get that as a crafting style later on!
It is a shame we were not able to enter the castle! But we got Sutch!
Let's talk Bosmer next!
I personally did not need the Dawn Wood and a Bosmer settlement on the Gold Road. But I have to say that the Bosmer are a logical choice as Aylied blood runs at least within some of them. Yet they look just like regular Bosmer to me. And not only in the city where they are 50-50 traditional Bosmer and those Bosmer hunting the Aylied ancestors glory. Also those that follow Ithelia are somewhat not feeling any different than regular Bosmer. Bosmer needed some love for a long time now and the new Bosmer stuff looks good. But I was missing a bit more distinction between those 2 Bosmer groups.
From the wannabe Aylieds to the real ones.
I am super sad that we did not get a new Aylied gear set! This was a golden opportunity! Sadly it was missed.
But maybe that is not that bad, since a lot of the new Aylied structural parts and most of furnishings have the problem that they have appropriate iconography, yet somehow miss the elegant shapes I expect of Aylied stuff. A lot of the furniture is just some taped together boxes, totally lacing the elegant curves you usually see in Aylied design. The additions made in the Blackwood chapter were fitting in as if they were part of the original design from TES4 Oblivion. So it is especially sad to see that drop in quality/deviation from the original style.
Speaking of TES4 Oblivion it was sad that the original Aylied ruins were not used as a baseline that was added upon when creating the new/old Aylied locations. I had loved to explore the original ruins or parts of them with some new areas as well. Especially the lack of the pillars where Welkynstones reside upon as well as the stones themselves felt alienating. They were everywhere in TES4 Oblivion! Also no Valarstones around was strange...
And those big trees that had Welkynstones (?) growing on them somewhat felt like they needed some lore explanation! Or did I miss that? I mean those trees looked good (the 2d branch tree aside) but lore please!
It somehow feels like all the Aylied lore was reduced to yeah they were all followers of Ithelia and without her everything was lost.
But that brings me to my main problem: Ithelia! (Spoilers ahead)
At first things sounded good to me, but some points do not seem to fit in with her. The by far biggest point is the end fight! How does the player without help defeat a supercharged deadric prince?! Just like any other bandit or beast around the world?! Here something about the power scaling was totally off/broken! And the "Ithelia leaves for an alternate realty/path where no magic/deadric power exists"?! Magic is the foundation of the Elder Scrolls Universe! That part was like poor writing and a rather bad story resolution! It made no sense in the existing deeper lore at all. At least to my understanding. There were other parts of the story around her that were rather strange. Like the shard marshal first giving the staff to the Bosmer king instead of holding on to it or restoring Ithelia completely like it later happened.
And on top of the lore problems there are also some art choices that bothered me. She looks human, but she does not look like a Nord, Imperial, Redguard or Breton. She also does not look like Altmer, Bosmer or Dunmer. She looks just like some American woman with colored hair, tatoos and some crystal wings. Not fitting within the world she is placed in. She also had no Deadra locking akin to her, making her an oddity that feels completely out of place.
I think she was rushed and needed more time in the concept phase. Rushing something like a deadric prince however can hardly be justified! To be honest I did expect the team to do better, since they always seemed to take the proper care when it came to the per existing deadric princes. The lack of care on something that important as a new deadric prince is a huge disappointment.
The West Whiled
Honestly I was expecting more of the native wildlife we encountered in TES4 Oblivion. All the bugs, dodos and so on felt kind of strange to me. But I loved the autumn colors in the zone! As well as all the small villages and all the Aylied ruins.
The Wild Burn
It just gives me nothing. Yes it was justified in the lore, but to me it felt like wasted nice locations in an already rather small zone.
The Dawn Wood
Like I said, I did not need this but the seeds with Aylied and deadric magic were an interesting idea. And the callback to the original TES4 lore that stated that Cyrodiil was a jungle was also a nice lore node. And it felt like a nice modernized Valenwood area.
Housing
I was praying for a vineyard in the hills over Skingrad with few on the city and some Aylied ruins! I was so happy when I saw the vineyard! And so disappointed to not get this or any other nice few...
I was also hoping for a nice city house in Skingrad. Not getting one was quite the letdown.
It was also a huge letdown to see that we did not get another Aylied home and so few Aylied furnishings for housing. I had loved to get my hands on all the original structural pieces as well as the Blackwood ones. And despite them not fitting in as well, also the new Gold Road stuff. There are also some good ones among the new! I like especially the new urns. And I had loved to get my hands on some of the big trees! The one with branches that feel like almost a 2d tree we can get, however somewhat irritates me.
The new RAID!
The zone looks cool. The enemy's fit. A lot of cool mechanics! I LOVE the new raid! My first vet run where we were figuring out the mechanics was the most fun raid I did in years! I have no idea how this holds the test of time, but the first impression was just awesome!
Edit: Since I forgott to mention it: Scribing!
As much as I like the Idea of some sort of spellcrafting coming into the game, the disappointed I am with the questline to unlock it. Sadly it was not the promised adventure to find ancient magical secrets, but instead a boring/annoying grind of recycled content. At least for me. Sorry to say so I had my hopes up.
So thanks for reading. There is good and bad within the new chapter and I hope my feedback helps the team to improve.
5
-
I agree with your "missed the mark" comments. I would say for others who might read this, don't waste your hard-earned money. Wait until it goes on sale for less than $20, because that "might be" what it's worth. Two quests you can't complete due to bugs, and the main story line just gets dropped! Incomplete! I'm sorry, not even a cliff-hanger, just dropped!
Increased difficulty on every public aspect of the zone, for no reason; you can no longer hope to complete a Dolmen on your own.
The much-hyped scribing system is "nothing more than a Gold-Grab." The only beneficial skills you can create, take two seconds to cast and are ground effect skills. Both worthless - and they tease you with a couple of free starter Grimoires, then want to charge you 50,000 Gold for all the rest, just to see if you even like the new skill. In addition, you have to complete ridiculous quests/riddles 5 times just the earn the full ability to scribe, and THAT'S FOR EACH OF YOUR CHARACTERS! BORING! Take your gold, rinse, repeat.
It's also a very small zone and over with before you know it. Come on guys, you're better than this! NEW CONTENT, not re-using old content for cheesy riddle quests! You haven't created anything decent since Blackwood. Well, High Isle was okay.1 -
ThelerisTelvanni✭✭✭Papalapagas wrote: »Two quests you can't complete due to bugs, and the main story line just gets dropped! Incomplete! I'm sorry, not even a cliff-hanger, just dropped!
Please note that in order to complete the main quest line, you also need to complete the Necrom main quest line on the same character. Just as it was in the past with the chapter and the zone DLC at the end of the year.
Edited by ThelerisTelvanni on 24 August 2024 07:182 -
Syldras✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭ThelerisTelvanni wrote: »Please note that in order to complete the main quest line, you also need to complete the Necrom main quest line on the same character. Just as it was in the past with the chapter and the zone DLC at the end of the year.
I just want to add: Plus both chapter prologues.@Syldras | PC | EU
The forceful expression of will gives true honor to the Ancestors.
Sarayn Andrethi, Telvanni mage (Main)
Darvasa Andrethi, his "I'm NOT a Necromancer!" sister
Malacar Sunavarlas, Altmer Ayleid vampire2 -
SkaiFaith✭✭✭✭✭
✭@ThelerisTelvanni your first paragraph about Ithelia is what I agree the most; I feel like I'll carry the burden of disappointment for so long... And your architecture points were insightful, but question: weren't you in love with Leftwheal public dungeon "houses" architecture as I am? Oh how I would love a home there, also for the sky and crystals...
I've waited to express my opinion on scribing but now I would say: I think it's more well done than what many comments make it look like!
On console, I already have 3 characters which have learned all scripts - I'm not aiming to unlock everything on every character (11 atm) so I don't find it too tedious; scripts are also easy to earn since you can just run through Mages, Undaunted delves and Fighters... And they aren't too expensive after you've unlocked them once. (The first grimoire purchases can be hard on new players, but I see it was intended as a little gold sink)
Inks will get cheap on the market over time; I have something like 80 farmed and 80 bought. They can fly pretty fast if you like to experiment, but I like the fact they have such a value because it feels like it gives added, higher value to the skill you created: there's a beautiful satisfaction when you're able to scribe a skill that lets you make "WOA!"; some are really cool, both visually and as power/effect.
Sure Scribing can improve and I'm sure it will, but to me is one of the strong points of Gold Road.A: "We, as humans, should respect and take care of each other like in a Co-op, not a PvP 🌸"
B: "Too many words. Words bad. Won't read. ⚔️"1