[SERIOUS TALK] Are you satisfied with ESO added content?

JiubLeRepenti

Yo guys,

I’ve been wanting to do this thread for a very long time. I need to get your opinion about ESO’s future and how the game has evolved over the last few years.

I’ve been playing this game for almost 8 years now. Like many others, I discovered it with the announcement of the Morrowind Chapter in 2017 (which made me start the game a few months before its release). I now have between 6,000 and 7,000 hours on the game, and I think I have achieved most of what the game has to offer in PvE with 75% of achievements acquired (I don’t do PvP, so that’s why it’s not even higher). Still missing a few trifectas though.

For a few years now, my feelings about the added content the devs have been offering us always left me with mixed feelings, more negative than positive. But I think the best word to describe how I feel about ESO now is frustration.

As I mentioned, I’ve spent thousands of hours in ESO, so I literally love the game. I even think it has some serious advantages over other MMOs in specific areas like housing, outfitting, etc. But I have this overall feeling that the game has been stuck in a loop for several years now.

I mean… It’s always the same. Exact. Thing. Every time. For each new chapter, you know you’ll get:

• 18 skyshards
• 6 delves
• 2 public dungeons
• 6 world bosses
• 1 trial
• 3 craftable sets
• Etc.

And you’ll tell me, “Yeah, but each chapter brings a new mechanic,” and I’ll answer, “Do you think this mechanic will keep you busy for a full year until the next chapter?” I really feel like each chapter is 90% similar to the previous one. And it takes me only a few days to complete the new map and all its quests.

It’s the same for events. The exact same ones each year. New Life Festival, Jester’s Festival, Witches Festival, Zeal of Zenithar, Jubilee… With, for each of them, 95% of the same rewards year after year. I also feel like the game isn’t bringing enough new high-level content for endgame players. The only thing we get year after year is a new trial and a few dungeons (and the last two dungeons were, in my opinion, stupidly easy—I got the speedrun + HM achievement in two runs). This goes hand in hand with a general lowering of difficulty (mainly since hybrid builds in 2021, imo).

And I won’t even mention the PvP players (since I’m not one of them), but it seems they haven’t seen new fresh content in years. The only thing keeping me on ESO is housing and the videos I started making about it. Otherwise, I think I would have left the game for good a few years ago.

Speaking about housing, I can’t overlook the new "feature" that will come with U43… We’ve been teased about it for months, and in the end, we’ll get a new window that allows us to visit other players' houses (first, I’ve never seen this as a major requested feature by people doing housing, and second, it would literally take a few days for any modder to do something similar).

To summarize, I feel like this game currently suffers from a huge lack of ambition:

• A lack of ambition for endgame players
• A lack of ambition for PvP players
• A lack of ambition for people doing housing
• Etc.

In the end, I feel like the only “happy” people who are satisfied with the direction the game is taking are more in a “roleplay” mindset, who like to dive into quests, lore, etc.

So here I am, with my 6,000+ hours in the game, my CP2400, my 20 characters, and my 75% achievements… I don’t know what to do in the game anymore. I just feel like the game doesn’t have anything else to offer me, and that the lack of ambition from ZOS won’t bring me exciting new content. I was previously talking about feeling frustration towards the added content. And this is because I could make a very long list of things the game could improve (I know some of them would be technically challenging for devs, but many could be easy to implement, imo):

• Change the events or bring new ones, since they're often (always?) the same year after year;
• Provide different music during battles (always the same);
• Allow players to choose their own wallpaper for the game's home menu;
• Add the possibility of having skill and attribute point reset stations in your home;
• Add trial-related events (e.g. sell raid boss sets as for style page dungeons, etc.) in order to push trial group finder activity;
• Give back the same number of transmutation stones as its cost to create an item when you deconstruct it;
• More NPCs diversity (children, old men, beggars, more itinerant NPCs, etc.);
• Make transmutation stones available for deconstructing Mythical items;
• Change hair color without using a token;
• Add Ray Tracing (possible?);
• Introduce capes as some mods allow it in Skyrim;
• Create new mounts with new assets instead of offering 20 Welvas with different skins;
• Increase the difficulty of dungeons outside DLC, which have suffered from the DPS increase;
• The same goes for the overworld: increase the overall difficulty and include dangerous enemies;
• Diversify sources to obtain a same lead;
• Provide more interaction with certain housing objects (chests of drawers, cupboards, sideboards that are currently useless, for instance);
• Allow to skip mobs in dungeons (not always possible, see the first boss entrance at Coral Arie);
• Fix the crosshair that sometimes shows you everything but the thing/player you're targeting;
• Allow duels and Tales of Glory invitations to count in PvP/Tales of Glory level progression;
• Review the RNG of certain leads;
• Fix persistent crashes on PC;
• Offer a better housing tool inspired by the Immaculate Construction addon, to make it easier to build structures;
• Also for housing, review the placement grid system;
• Adapt the Infinite Archives system and enable saving after a cycle/allow to skip first cycles when you did them several times before;
• Fix the bugs that keep you in combat when enemies no longer appear on the compass or have been killed;
• Lower the price of certain tokens, or even completely remove them, such as the name change token. This should be free;
• Ajust the number of assignats received from master writs;
• Allow more mounts to be purchasable from stables;
• Be able to kill guards;
• Offer real texture upgrades, especially for armor and weapons;
• Share game & player/account statistics;
• Allow in-game romances (like in Skyrim);
• A chat channel for friends only (as for guilds);
• Be able to report a player for abusive trial abandonment or introduce a "reputation" system;
• Use AI to translate other languages (Russian, Chinese, etc.) towards your mother tongue;
• Offer seamless transition between zones (WoW-style, with no loading times);
• Increase/diversify the number of notable rewards obtainable through quests and game content (mounts, mansions, skins, polymorphs, etc.);
• Add a free camera mode for screenshots or video captures (and let the player to hide other players).

But enough talk. I would like to know how you feel about it. Do you agree? Disagree? Partially agree? Do you share the same feeling, or do you think the game is taking a good direction?

Cheers,

Jiub

AvalonRanger

Mixed feeling about it

[SERIOUS TALK] Are you satisfied with ESO added content?[/b]

I'm player before launching day in 2014. I used to be a beta test player.

Well, I'm satisfied with PVE story based contents very much each of new DLC released as
one of ElderScrolls fan. Volume is good enough also.

But I can't feel any of major combat innovation of ESO from 2014.

Yes, we have CP and many of new gears, and got several new class.
But this "too much dated meta character build style game" never changes.

The "meta"..."meta" never changes.

I'm tired of this "monotone" combat style of ESO.　
And Scribing skill line also couldn't solve this problem.
That was just another painful grinding fatigue..(T_T)

AzuraFan

Mixed feeling about it

I have mixed feelings. I disagree with you that people who primarily quest are satisfied. We lost the Q4 DLC. Also, the annual chapter contains around the same amount of questing as a Q4 DLC. So basically we've gone from one chapter and one DLC a year to a single DLC.

That's why it's difficult not to feel unsatisfied, both as someone who really enjoys story and questing, and as an ESO+ subscriber who's getting less for my sub.

Having said that, I understand that ZOS could not continue to pump out chapters and story DLCs forever. At least not annually. No other game does that, as far as I know. So at some point, content production had to slow down.

Unfortunately, it has slowed down with no reduction in pricing to the annual chapter, and no reduction in pricing, or alternatively addition of benefits, to ESO+. In short, we're paying the same for less.

I think ZOS created the expectation that we'd get story content every year, and so perhaps it didn't want to move to every two years with with a really beefy chapter. Or perhaps the game is now in "produce easy content and repeatable systems" mode, meaning it's not in maintenance mode, but it's not in the same mode it was a couple of years ago. I can't say. All I can say is the content party is over.

So, mixed feelings. Disappointed that ESO story/quest releases will never be what they used to be, but understanding that the annual content production train couldn't last forever. But also miffed that ZOS is still charging the same for annual chapters and ESO+.

TaSheen

Yes, I'm very satisfied with it

I'm happy with the game and its content overall. Some releases I'm happier than others (hate EP races and content, don't play it; love everything else and play it fanatically). Love housing, not very good at it. Not thrilled with combat in any game any more - I'd love to have a god mode so I could just wipe the floor with mobs so I didn't have to think about it. I enjoy questing, fishing, just exploring, "picking flowers" and other farming.

I'll be here forever - or until the servers shut down. At my age, forever's not really a long time....

OsUfi

Other (please explain)

You've been playing a game for 6,000+ hours over 7 years. That's a lot of hours in one game. Most of the changes on your suggested list will never happen for a variety of reasons. I would hope you've had your moneys worth so far out of this game, focus on the enjoyment you've clearly had in it, and then move on and find a new game to enjoy.

RomanRex

people like repetition. until they don’t anymore.

Tensar

No, I'm very disappointed with it

We have the same content since years. I saw this loop when Summerset was released.

But now we have even less content, the story is worse.

[snip]
[edited for baiting]

JiubLeRepenti

No, I'm very disappointed with it

OsUfi wrote: »

You've been playing a game for 6,000+ hours over 7 years. That's a lot of hours in one game. Most of the changes on your suggested list will never happen for a variety of reasons. I would hope you've had your moneys worth so far out of this game, focus on the enjoyment you've clearly had in it, and then move on and find a new game to enjoy.

This bold part of your message is something I'd like to point out and dig a bit.

Why couldn't they bring some of these changes? I can hear when it comes to technical limits, but some of them could easily be put in place.

For instance, the items limit in housing. Devs always explain it's due do technical limits (for both old gen machines and game engine limits). But you can easily counter it if you see that, in housing, a bowl or a spoon has the same "item value" than a huge glowing, floating and animated item that makes 10 meters width.

So instead of automatically take refuge behind the "technical limit" argument, why wouldn't they split small and non-animated items from the others so you can put far more of them?

Personofsecrets

Yes, I'm quite satisfied with it

Always needing something new is a flaw. I challenge those who have such sentiments to think a little more and find the thing to work on.

Did you get all of the books? Did you find all antiquities? Did you use all of the furniahing plans? Did you get a high score?

JiubLeRepenti

No, I'm very disappointed with it

Personofsecrets wrote: »

Always needing something new is a flaw. I challenge those who have such sentiments to think a little more and find the thing to work on.

Did you get all of the books? Did you find all antiquities? Did you use all of the furniahing plans? Did you get a high score?

Antiquities are almost done yes. I just miss these leads, otherwise I have all furnishings and all mythic items:

For the motif pages, I also have almost all of them (98%):

Also, I've achieved all maps like this:

And I've achieved all the non-repeatable quests ingame.

I also automatically unlocked the skin you get from completing each main quest of each region:

For the furnishing plans I can't see how far I am to complete it, but since I don't see anything buyable under 300k in guild store I assume I have most part of them.

colossalvoids

No, I'm very disappointed with it

If thinking strictly about my personal experience and people around my circle.

I've started in HotR patch precisely because Morrowind and back then updates and content felt way more meaningful, game wasn't as "solved" also as of now. It actually felt like elder scrolls despite being an mmo, the genre that I didn't really liked back then. Everything went downhill since, sadly. From obvious writing and combat to minor things like overall polish (or lack of), lore inconsistencies and overall feel of uninspired and stagnant on arrival additions. Surely things might improve when the team would be fuller again after their new project will launch but I'm doubting it rn as it seems they're insisting that everything is fine and game doing great so that might be our new reality for the foreseeable future. It's no longer my "main game" and I really don't see it coming back with team we're having at the time.

PDarkBHood

Yes, I'm quite satisfied with it

I have to admit I do like the ESO added content for the most part. I like the new land and scribing, plus the added grind (which is what we pay for in games like this!!). I do absolutely hate the new PVP content that is coming in the 4th quarter. It is a complete waste of time, money and effort that they are producing such content, and it will be *** upon by most users - a prediction based on how toxic the PVP crowd can be. I also do not like the new housing feature, probably not use it, but I do understand some people like it and that is fine, just not for me. The other content barely makes up for it, but I do like most of it.

TaSheen

Yes, I'm very satisfied with it

Do we even know what the new pvp feature is yet? Did I miss an announcement?

Goren

Mixed feeling about it

What I like about Scribing, Tales of Tribute, Companions and Antiquities is that these features can be maintained with new content, so that's interesting. However, the zone quests never feel compelling to me due to the low overland difficulty downplaying every threat which in turn diminishes the immersion. I also feel like One Tamriel and the year long story arcs don't fit well together because of how the npcs don't recognize you from previous adventures if you didn't play it in the right order. Every quest is also very straight forward leaving no room for actual roleplay.

Overall though, I haven't been exhilarated for any chapter or dlc ever because they feel the same.

The base game also receives no upgrades such as new weapon skill lines. One hand and magic and the other schools of magic wouldn't even require new weapon models and new motifs. They also don't work on their animations, for example, the player character holds a two handed axe the same as a two handed sword. New housing items for the base game homes are also not added.

To me it feels like zos is very prudent in terms of making money. They could upgrade older quests to make it actually feel like a dynamic one tamriel, upgrade older animations, introduce new weapon skill lines and all that but I feel like they are very hesitant to do so because that doesn't give them money right away. Instead, they introduce new features, tie them to chapters and keep investing in them to make it more compelling to buy. The antiquity feature is a great example for that.

Sarannah

Mixed feeling about it

Have mixed feelings as well, as I am primarily a quester. Lesser future questcontent, I do actually notice this and miss those nice little zones. However, the new systems and new companions usually keep me happy! The game itself is awesome though, and I have soooooo much I still want to do, that I could play for years and never run out of things to do. Adding the insane grinds(scripts/ancestral motifs/etc) kinda pissed me off, as I feel the game does not need such grinds to keep people playing. Players were already playing before those grinds. These grinds only takes me away from the parts of the game I do want to play. Basically they annoy me!

That said, as a first point ESO needs some overarching infinity/endless systems besides achievements that keep progressing and grant excitement while playing. This is very important! Systems like:
-Endless CP's gaining: Millions of CP's should be possible, with the same exp curve we have now. Players should never be able to reach the limit! This way CP's can always be a motivating factor for players, has status amongst players themselves, and will keep players busy for decades to come.
-A rebirth system: Only available at level 50, resets just your character level to level 1 but adds a skillline from another class, rebirth can be done as many times as one wants to change the previously added skillline into a different added skillline. This both keeps people playing and leveling the same character while at the same time grants some weird/crazy combo's due to skillline choice. Keeps everything fresh/new, no matter how much time has passed.
-Exciting drops: Random 'item' drops that make us jump from joy when they drop, which can come from anything like mobs/nodes/chests/heavy sacks/questrewards/etc but remain valuable for some reason. Like how ink drops, but with something valuable as to how ARPG's can have exciting unique item drops. Maybe unique items for ESO could be a thing? Or maybe a lucky coin that can at large amounts grant special items at a vendor?(similar to infinite archives's fortunes but gainable from the entire game) Anyways, not quite sure what I'd want to drop or why, but it has to feel special for the player. This will keep players excited to play, no matter how much they play/have played.
(Note: The infinite archive was a cool infinite system, just not overarching/always usable/always progressing.)
(Side note: It seems the above point is describing exactly what the OP is looking for: always something new and exciting to do!)

Next point: The way ESO is set up needs to be bigger, with more account 'space': More character slots, more inventory space, more bank space, more furniture slots, more races, more classes, etc.

To me not having overarching infinity/endless systems and little account 'space' is holding ESO back the most. As those are important reasons for players to keep logging in every day, to keep enjoying themselves in ESO every day. Getting players to log in daily with login rewards and daily endeavours is only going to hold players until they get sick of those things, as they have no real pull on players. These things only seem cool from a non-player/new player's side, but not for active players as they see the shallowness behind it.

At the moment I am barely spending any money on ESO, as I feel the game is becoming more of a chore than an enjoyable gaming experience. Basically causing these mixed feelings the topic is talking about.

With that said, ESO is still awesome and I will keep playing for years to come. The 10th year anniversary is granting us many goodies. And there is always something to do in-game!

PS: I know I am quite outspoken on the forums if I dislike something, but that is only because I love the game and want to see it improve. I think we all want that, but we all have different ideas on how to achieve this.

AvalonRanger

Mixed feeling about it

JiubLeRepenti wrote: »

To summarize, I feel like this game currently suffers from a huge lack of ambition:
A lack of ambition for endgame players
A lack of ambition for PvP players
A lack of ambition for people doing housing
Etc.

"Lack of ambition....A lack of ambition for PvP players"

"Correctly say, it's a lack of care for the people who hate ESO style PVP contents."

For me, I'm not totally PVP hater, but I really hate ESO combat design regardless PVP or PVE.
I'm not MMO specialist, so I don't know MMO average. But I felt that ESO combat doesn't have multiple
approach for beating opponent team or enemy compared with contemporary action game.

Most of contemporary AAA action game including both PVE and PVP have multiple combat aspect.
But in the ESO, most of it focused on "penetration" and "damage burst" kind of tactics.
Simply say, character mech only game= "boring monotone fossil game".

So, the PVP contents become always very optional or even "unnecessary contents" for the ESO.
ESO PVP can't make money for the contents developer currently.

Consider this point, PVE have a better game design rather than PVP contents recently.
Especially newer trial of GoldRoad DLC has interesting visual impression and mech.
Still bit abstract visual design though, but mirroring mech is not character "meta" only tactics.
It already has multiple combat essence than "Cyrodiil" and Imperial CIty.

Technically say, ZOS already can build multi task combat system.
Why don't you blow "meta building maniac people's mind" by those creation?

Soarora

No, I'm quite disappointed with it

ZOS destroyed the game with the combination of AWA, U35 (and other “raise floor, lower ceiling” moves), and continued silence. There is no returning to how things were and that disappoints me.
Perhaps it has always been this bad and I’ve woken up to it, but the prices for things are ridiculous yet endgamers of multiple types get roped into buying every DLC for their gear or for the features.
I ultimately am angry at Gold Road’s story, though it isn’t the first and won’t be the last story I don’t like. But we’re paying full game price for stories that could’ve been much better written.
And the 2 dungeons this year… were an incredible let-down. They are both too easy, even on HM. I’ve already seen people with Lucent Citadel trifecta as well.
So TLDR; this year’s content has been a very sad burger for questing and for group PvE.

angst

Hell naw, the raiding content in this game is so little. 1 raid and 2 dungeons a year is simply not enough, especially when they're pretty easy like they were this year. West weald overland is a joke, the story is just the usual boring talk to this npc, kill this 30k hp boss and talk to another npc (as always). They should probably start focusing a bit more on repeatable content and actually adding rewards for doing the hard modes and trifectas, a (most of the time) *** title/not even radiant apex quality mount is not enough to justify progging a 12 man raid for 40+ raid days (or even more for the worse groups, *** I've seen swash progs go for 70-80 days, same with mindmender). Solo content is also just non existent, infinite archive has some insane potential but it's just so repetitive and you don't really want to touch it after you've spent a couple hours in there. Thankfully pve is not as bad as pvp is but it would really be hard to beat pvp

ZOS_Icy

Greetings all,

After removing a few off topic posts, we would like to ask everyone to keep posts on the subject at hand, as well as keeping things civil and constructive.

Thank you for your understanding.

G1Countdown

No, I'm very disappointed with it

As I write this, 71% of the people who responded to this poll said they were on the spectrum that they were having mixed feelings to completely disappointed with the direction of the game when it comes to the content plan. I concede that at the moment only 43 individuals responded as of yet.

I just don't see myself financially supporting this game if we are going to end the DLC that was a major part of the development plan. We used to get 2 dungeons, a chapter, 2 more dungeons, and then a dlc at the end of the year. And now, the only thing guaranteed is the chapter. How do you support a product that doesn't produce a product?

reazea

No, I'm very disappointed with it

My beef is they fed us all that hot air about fixing PvP and it's only gotten more broken, and with smaller group sizes and way, way lower population caps.

Drammanoth

No, I'm very disappointed with it

You know, when Blizzard noticed that they were doing poorly, then and only then did they begin to listen to people.

I have the weirdest feeling that ZOS will not experience such a decline, ergo our wants and desires will not be met.
[EDIT] spelling mistake.

JiubLeRepenti

No, I'm very disappointed with it

Drammanoth wrote: »

You know, when Blizzard noticed that they were doing poorly, then and only then did they begin to listen to people.

I have the weirdest feeling that ZOS will not experience such a deline, ergo our wants and desires will not be met.

This is also what I'm afraid of.

Stamicka

No, I'm very disappointed with it

I haven’t liked the direction of ESO for a long time now. In terms of content, I wish there were more Arenas added rather than dungeons, some actual PvP content, and meaningful overhauls. At this point though, I realize that ESO is a cozy game. I don’t expect them to add stuff I like because the developers have a different vision for the game than they originally did.

Unfortunately I’m at the point where even if they added new content that appealed to me, the core combat and performance issues keep me from sticking around. Even if they added a new well designed PvP zone tomorrow I wouldn’t stick around for long. New content doesn’t change the fact that hybridization made the combat boring and homogenous, there’s too many sets in the game, the balance is bad, the time to kill is too high, and the list goes on and on. We’ve now had years of bad combat changes stack up. Until some major complaints are addressed with the core game, new content barely matters.

chessalavakia_ESO

Other (please explain)

The current formula in my view isn't ideal but, I think much of the issues are more about execution than the formula.

I'd argue much of this is from trying to balance too many conflicting interests at once resulting in the resources being stretched too thin.

bmnoble

Yes, I'm quite satisfied with it

I have experienced the glacial release of content in SWTOR, while ESO is not perfect at least you know your getting stuff on a regular schedule, would not say no to more content but it can be a heck of a lot worse than what it is currently.

spartaxoxo

Mixed feeling about it

I really like Infinite Archive. I thought Necrom was just okay and I haven't bothered with Gold Road. Scribing was a letdown due to excessive grind for ink. I am not looking forward to PvP. I am happy for PvPers but that doesn't leave myself personally much to do this year.

Overall, it feels like the content this year was really lacking. I think the new content cadence is overall not a good thing.

Rkindaleft

Mixed feeling about it

I wish I had voted disappointed about it in hindsight, particularly because of this year.

I think the zone looks pretty, but Gold Road is basically a Q4 Zone DLC with a couple of extra features made into a chapter. I'm really not a fan of the price given the noticeable reduction in content and the fact that most of the content outside of the quests there are designed in a way to keep you doing the same thing for ages (Scribing) or is straight up just a tedious time sink (invulnerability phases on world bosses and incursions.)

The PvErs only get 1 Trial and 2 Dungeon HM (which this year most people got the achievements for in a couple of days, the dungeons were not challenging) a year now instead of 4. The overland questers missed out on a chapter sized zone and don't get their Q4 DLC anymore either.

I'm glad PvPers are finally getting something in Q4, however if it's on the scale of what Housing is getting in Q3 it may as well just be a slap in the face too.

AvalonRanger

Mixed feeling about it

Just please do something to improve this hopeless combat design of ESO.

1, ZOS had better check "BattleField" PVP playing movie at the Youtube. I know BattleField is
military theme game, and it's very different theme from ESO. But there're must be good hint to consider
multiple task based combat game. Let's stop the "extremely meta" now. That's keep killing ESO combat.

2, And addition. ZOS had better remove the "PVP de-buff wall". And rebuild the game by united rule and basis
for both PVE and PVP. "Only in the dungeon...only against players", the game doesn't need this type of "meta
wall". It's more like "temporary bug fixer patch", not fundamental solution at all.

3,Scribing skill line is not game changer at all. DON'T MAKE THIS TYPE CONTENTS anynore.

AvalonRanger

Mixed feeling about it

Soarora wrote: »

...I ultimately am angry at Gold Road’s story, though it isn’t the first and won’t be the last story I don’t like. But we’re paying full game price for stories that could’ve been much better written...

Just my personal curiosity though, "which part of GoldRoad DLC story do you dislike"?
Personally, I was enjoying story aspect of GoldRoad (Cuz I'm Science Fiction fan).
So I want to hear your opinion.

TaSheen

Yes, I'm very satisfied with it

AvalonRanger wrote: »

Just please do something to improve this hopeless combat design of ESO.

3,Scribing skill line is not game changer at all. DON'T MAKE THIS TYPE CONTENTS anynore.

No. Scribing is fun, and while it's not everyone's cuppa, you don't get to give orders to ZOS about what not to do in future.