Studio Director’s Letter: 2025 & Beyond

TaSheen

Sakiri wrote: »

Tallon_IV wrote: »

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

• Visually improving base game zones with updated textures and art assets, starting with the "starter islands" - these should start rolling out in March 2025 

This is really great to see. I remember a while back you said you guys didn't want to do this because of the "Redguard armor debacle" so I'm really glad to see you've changed your minds.

the what debacle?

TaSheen wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Tallon_IV wrote: »

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

• Visually improving base game zones with updated textures and art assets, starting with the "starter islands" - these should start rolling out in March 2025 

This is really great to see. I remember a while back you said you guys didn't want to do this because of the "Redguard armor debacle" so I'm really glad to see you've changed your minds.

the what debacle?

The original Redguard light chest was "tweaked" because of "too much boobs". Actually, I really would have preferred it to anything currently extant.

You know, I was here at launch and have absolutely no memory of this.

And there's no such thing as too much boobs.

Well.... for the most part I agree with your last sentence. You can google the difference between the original and the one we have now. It's too late for me to mess with at this point. If you haven't found it by tomorrow, let me know, I'll dig it up.

peacenote

Tandor wrote: »

I can't help but roll my eyes when I see some players stating that updating the UI, updating the older and completed zones with improved visuals and new content, adding a new Craglorn-style zone with increased overland difficulty generally, and laying out at last some concrete ideas for fixing the biggest problem in the game, namely Cyrodiil performance, are all clear indications that the game is going into maintenance mode! Really?

My first reaction personally was that the list of changes is actually a list of all the things that players have been asking for, so putting an end to the other regular complaint that the developers never listen to the playerbase.

I welcome pretty well all of it, subject to the following qualifications:-

1. Things like added UI features and increased overland difficulty need to be optional.

2. Announced intentions are one thing, delivery is another. I'm optimistic about the intentions, but let's see how the delivery pans out.

3. While I welcome the concept of experiments and listening to feedback etc, that requires a far greater degree of communication than we've seen hitherto. In particular, there needs to be far more effective two-way communication on the PTS forum.

4. I hope that the Seasons will offer a lot more than just a gimmicky name for yet another "Daily Golden Login Pursuits Endeavour Event" style content.

So in summary, it was a fascinating read, heralding a change in direction that promises a lot, but we'll see how well it is delivered and what the level of communication about it all is as it moves forward.

I agree with essentially everything you've said here; almost all of it was what I came to say so I have little to add. I probably am a bit more skeptical on the experiment piece (because almost nothing ever seems to be rolled back, ever, even if it didn't fix the intended problem) but am a bit more optimistic about the Seasons (because if content can come out when it's ready it could address a really key issue of devs not being able to apply feedback from PTS because of delivery deadlines)... but overall completely agree. I don't read maintenance mode intent here, and I think the strategy seems promising, but very cautious about execution (especially for things like harder overland), just based on history and some things left unsaid/acknowledged in the letter related to the ideas being raised. But all we can do, really, is wait and see right now!

VoxAdActa

Returning to the original Wailing Prison tutorial area for all new players - this has already launched, but we will be regularly tweaking it to improve the experience

I know this is a weird thing to focus on, but I just came back after a couple of years on hiatus and I was pissed to be back in the Wailing Prison on my new character. All of the other tutorial zones were better. Primarily because all of them had an armory room right at the start, where I could pick whichever weapons I wanted to start leveling immediately. Futzing around in the Wailing Prison trying to get a feral shriven to drop a second 1h is torturous, and god alone knows how long it'll take me to find one in the starter zone after. My last alt had 2 hours under her before she found her first resto staff.

Increased overland difficulty

This is a tough one. When I'm playing a character that can solo any DLC wb short of dragons and can clear out a Summerset geyser all by herself, it's hard to remember the first days on Tamriel. Wearing Night's Silence and Ashen Grip because that was the best I could craft (and sometimes finding a fifth piece of overland gear before out-leveling the first piece), having to start a fight with a one-scroll enemy from sneak for that big opening critical (or else I might get beat down), not knowing that max stam or max mag influenced my damage and instead speccing into an evenly-spread set of attribute pools.... it wasn't smooth and it wasn't pretty.

The gap between new players and old players isn't all about CP and gear, it's about knowledge. I didn't know Hundings or Julianos even existed for at least the first month. I didn't know weaving was a thing. I didn't know you could put enough points into alchemy passives to give potions 100% uptime. I hunted down all the skyshards using only the clues from the achievement window because I didn't know what a map add-on was. I didn't know why anyone would take 1 point of stamina or 1% more speed on a horse when they could get more inventory slots instead. And a thousand other things that make going through the overland on an alt a complete breeze now.

Then there are people like my dad, who just want to cruise around in a cool world and do quests, and who aren't interested in learning the systems (it took me over a year to convince him to carry and eat food, because it was "too complicated").

And then for me as I am now, I worry that "increased overland difficulty" will just mean making overland mobs have 2x the hp, like in Craglorn. They're not any more dangerous (outside of Group Areas), they just take longer to kill and might get a couple extra hits in.

Suggestions

You didn't really ask for these, or probably even say the word "Suggestions," but I'm adding it anyway.

When you get around to revamping Direfrost Keep, can you ditch the buttons that make it so I can't solo it? Maybe also look at the last boss of Blackheart Haven for the same reason. I can solo just about any 4-man dungeon, including most of the DLCs, but I'm stuck having to group for those piddly little base game normals. (Also, make Direfrost 2 please!)

Can you make The Prophet walk and talk faster? I have to do all those quests on every alt because they're a skill point faucet, but I am so tired of waiting for him to limp his way around while tallllllking sooooooo slooooooowly.

Put weapon and armor racks just outside of our cell in Wailing Prison. Please, for the love of all that's holy. And if I'm a moron and there's already one I've just missed three times in a row, make it more obvious?

Werewolves need love.

Edited because I just got to an outfit station and thought of it: Can we please please please stop making armor with weird flappy bits on the crotch, and tone down the ones that do have them? We're at a point where the crotch flags on chest pieces are clipping into the crotch flags on leg pieces in way too many style combinations (that would otherwise be really cool).

Jaraal

peacenote wrote: »

I probably am a bit more skeptical on the experiment piece (because almost nothing ever seems to be rolled back, ever, even if it didn't fix the intended problem)

Yeah, I can count on one hand the number of times they've rolled back something they pushed to Live. They usually announce that changes have to go through some long, arduous approval process, and that they can never roll things back because of the code they already spent months changing, and that rolling things back 'could break the new code in unintended ways.'

So, that's definitely one that I'll have to see first hand before getting too excited about it.

Supreme_Atromancer

I'm very excited to hear about visual improvements to basegame zones with better textures and art assets!

I also think its a fantastic idea to continue stories in existing zones, and utilizing the classic TES organizations more going forward.

I hope that if we're going to be spending more time in the base game zones that ZOS now has the opportunity to go "all in" on bringing those zones up to the stunning visual quality and good design principles that post basegame zones have.

Really looking forward to 2025 in Tamriel.

KingNutella

My cautious optimism peeking through again -

I sincerely hope this adds true depth, quality, and pleasant longevity to already existing lore, stories, and systems. I think this aspect can be an overall positive thing for sure.

I do hope that while we continue to see the game expand (there is still much to explore), this can be a real opportunity to deliver on depth and consistency. Another commenter said something along the lines of making the game deeper, not wider. I mostly agree with this.

I just hope the monetization is fair
Really wish this detail was included in the letter.

Servadei

SilverBride wrote: »

I don't know how these seasons will work but I don't want to pay for content in a zone I already paid for previously. So I hope it's not like that.

That ship sailed long ago. We already have to buy DLC dungeons in existing zones, so there's precedent. If ESO seasons are going to be like seasons in other games, then expect to pay up.

KingNutella

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Thank you for all the great questions so far, everyone. We are keeping a list to help inform what we need to answer and explain more later. And we will. One thing we do want to clarify today are the questions about seasonal content. Our plans are not to remove content such as quests, stories, and new areas like some other games do when a season is over.

Thank you for the clarification!! To follow-up, does this include rewards too?

SilverBride

Servadei wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I don't know how these seasons will work but I don't want to pay for content in a zone I already paid for previously. So I hope it's not like that.

That ship sailed long ago. We already have to buy DLC dungeons in existing zones, so there's precedent. If ESO seasons are going to be like seasons in other games, then expect to pay up.

That isn't my only option.

RoseTheSnowElf

--So, how is this content going to be released, what exactly am I going to pay for?

Because right now the set up was 1 time payment for a chapter and all the new bells and whistles during the big release month.


--The letter says something about more information in April. Is there not going to be a big global reveal in January?


--And this:

So, we will be experimenting with a Cyrodiil campaign where all classes will have PvP-specific (and more performant) skills that replace the standard player skills with the expectation that we can support more players per campaign.

▪︎ Campaign, as in an entire Campaign month of experimenting for ALL (4 atm) campaign servers, or a single campaign server will be the experiment and the others stay the same? Ex. Blackreach will be the experiment, Gray Host will stay the same. Similar to the No-CP no-Procc Camps.

RomanRex

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Thank you for all the great questions so far, everyone. We are keeping a list to help inform what we need to answer and explain more later. And we will. One thing we do want to clarify today are the questions about seasonal content. Our plans are not to remove content such as quests, stories, and new areas like some other games do when a season is over.

Seasonal, expiring currencies are also unwanted in my opinion.

I just read about them from someone else’s description of FO76 and they sound horrific. Highly FOMO and grindy.

Paying just to have the “privilege” of accessing that seasonal experience would be a nightmare.

Ardaghion

VoxAdActa wrote: »

Returning to the original Wailing Prison tutorial area for all new players - this has already launched, but we will be regularly tweaking it to improve the experience

I know this is a weird thing to focus on, but I just came back after a couple of years on hiatus and I was pissed to be back in the Wailing Prison on my new character. All of the other tutorial zones were better. Primarily because all of them had an armory room right at the start, where I could pick whichever weapons I wanted to start leveling immediately. Futzing around in the Wailing Prison trying to get a feral shriven to drop a second 1h is torturous, and god alone knows how long it'll take me to find one in the starter zone after. My last alt had 2 hours under her before she found her first resto staff.

Increased overland difficulty

This is a tough one. When I'm playing a character that can solo any DLC wb short of dragons and can clear out a Summerset geyser all by herself, it's hard to remember the first days on Tamriel. Wearing Night's Silence and Ashen Grip because that was the best I could craft (and sometimes finding a fifth piece of overland gear before out-leveling the first piece), having to start a fight with a one-scroll enemy from sneak for that big opening critical (or else I might get beat down), not knowing that max stam or max mag influenced my damage and instead speccing into an evenly-spread set of attribute pools.... it wasn't smooth and it wasn't pretty.

The gap between new players and old players isn't all about CP and gear, it's about knowledge. I didn't know Hundings or Julianos even existed for at least the first month. I didn't know weaving was a thing. I didn't know you could put enough points into alchemy passives to give potions 100% uptime. I hunted down all the skyshards using only the clues from the achievement window because I didn't know what a map add-on was. I didn't know why anyone would take 1 point of stamina or 1% more speed on a horse when they could get more inventory slots instead. And a thousand other things that make going through the overland on an alt a complete breeze now.

Then there are people like my dad, who just want to cruise around in a cool world and do quests, and who aren't interested in learning the systems (it took me over a year to convince him to carry and eat food, because it was "too complicated").

And then for me as I am now, I worry that "increased overland difficulty" will just mean making overland mobs have 2x the hp, like in Craglorn. They're not any more dangerous (outside of Group Areas), they just take longer to kill and might get a couple extra hits in.

I feel that the Prophet after getting out of the prison should give beginner's a better set of armor and weapons in that coffer. I'd suggest a 5 pc. lvl 4 "Wailing Prison" set with small bonuses to magick, health and stamina and with the training trait. Then a selection of weapons with a 1 pc bonus. A set like that might last longer in an overworld with higher difficulty.

I can't see ZOS making major changes to overland, probably trash mobs with an extra 5-10% extra health and mana. I wouldn't mind if delves had 10% and public dungeons had maybe 15% extra. Their skills would also hit harder than today with the delve/public dungeons bosses being slightly tougher.

I also think these changes should only apply to the base game. DLC and chapter mobs/bosses are already harder than the base game. I remember exploring, many years ago, with my wife early on thinking we could take on SnapJaw. We got crushed hard and quick. I've seen WB in some chapters reach 5 million health. The problem for new (and old) players is some of these zones have few people taking on the same bosses, you can request help in chat but none may show up.

emilyhyoyeon

Frankly the Visually improving base game zones with updated textures and art assets, starting with the "starter islands" - these should start rolling out in March 2025 is the only thing I can confidently feel good about, everything else I'm wary about because I don't really know how it's actually all going to manifest.

As long as ESO will continue to be available to play I'll be happy for the most part. I just like TES games.

MrCaptainPants

Please let the overland difficulty increase be an optional slider/toggle, for reasons already spelled out in many other posts. I like it just fine the way it already is. If my relaxing casual playtime becomes a frustrating grind, I'm out.

merevie

I'm sorry WHAT?!!

You are deleting our builds and group dynamics rather than fixing performance at server end?

Spend. Money. On servers.

Grimmhawk

JoeCapricorn wrote: »

I'm a glass half full fellow. Or, at least right now, a glass 1/4th full but it is with a heavily peated Port Charlotte 10yo single malt.

I don't think this is nearly the "end" of ESO, not even close, but maybe a change in pace is just what the developers need in the background. They did unionize not too long ago, and perhaps a yearly Chapter schedule was introducing periods of crunch. A looser schedule could be all that Matt is referring to. And guess what? Happy developers make happy gameplay. I support that.

But there will come a day when ESO might face its sunset era. I hope not for a long time. But when that does come, I really hope in the interest of game preservation that it is somehow put in the hands of the community. That it doesn't just... vanish.

There's a very old MMO that is still going after 27 years, and though it has changed hands a few times, it's still online. I never played it, and I never got the chance to because my dad never wanted to pay a subscription fee. Back in 1997 that was unheard of! Ultima Online would have been my first MMO otherwise. It still enjoys thousands of concurrent players and I've seen videos of people talking about getting started in it - in 2024! I really hope the same for Elder Scrolls Online.

And I hope an in-person anniversary event on the East Coast of the United States is reconsidered because I was kinda hoping to go to that myself.

UO didn't start out having a subscription ,it wasn't until EA bought out Origin that the subscription started. I beta tested and played for a few years ,up until they released the god awful 3rd Dawn 3d expansion that all of us beta testers didn't like and they started the subscription plan. It was around then that there was an influx of player ran shards.

merevie

PS Will you be charging us to access current zones you change, like Craglorn, in 'season passes', like New World?

Assuming you mean a similar 'gear chase' to what Amazon does.

Sarannah

GatheredMyst wrote: »

I also really don't get people who are saying the game is going into Maintenance Mode. It's like they didn't read the letter. We were just promised:

1: A much requested change to overland content difficulty.
2: A redesign of the game's UI
3: An updated patcher
4: Expansions to key functionality
5: New art across the oldest content in the game.
6: New combat feel/animation/effects/audio work?

All of that is a *ton of work*, and we're still getting new zones, new stories, and new quests? I think what people who are screaming about this are *meaning* to say is that "I don't know when i'm going to get new content that *matters to me*, so the game must be dying."

1: Just tweaking some numbers. And will have zero impact on gameplay, as players race through mobs anyways. The only people this will affect, is players like me, who kill everything. And that is not a positive effect when players run mob trains through my aoe's and it becomes more tedious due to 'hard' overland. All mobs should be able to stop players first, before they even touch overland difficulty(guard's grabs/stucks/pulls/dismounting/etc).
2: The elder scrolls are actually famous for it's minimal UI. Any changes will only make it more bloated and less elder scrolls like.
3: Something we see for two seconds and click "Play" on. May as well NOT have a launcher at all and go straight to the login screen.
4: Have to give you this, I am not in a guild. So this could be useful to some players.
5: Risky, as they could mess up the old zones. While the same time could be used to spend on designing new zones and new content. Strange choice, though I am glad if they do this right. If they only do parts, it is going to look ugly, or if they forget to update the NPC models it is going to look ugly. Many things can go wrong here, and this only feels like tweaking existing content.
6: Yeah, U35 gives me the vibes of: "Please don't!". I would rather have them expand on the combat with new races and classes and new skilllines. There is absolutely no point to doing this to existing classes at all.

Basically everything they named is either not important, has no impact, is just tweaking numbers, or is largely inconsequential and a weird choice to do. In my previous reply I named a few things that would actually make a positive impact on the game when done, these things are not doing any of that.

Coerfroid

I really do appreciate the honesty in stepping forward and admitting that the creative power is just no longer sufficient to sell a new chapter story each year. That takes courage and is frankly preferable to releasing lackluster content.
Still, the storytelling used to be the figurehead of the Elder Scrolls brand and for many players the excitement for new content was the main reason to stick with the game.
Polishing up the existing base-game zones is indeed overdue and appreciated.
We will see what this actually means.

However, I am quite concerned about the future of the games monetarization. No more chapters to sell takes away a chunk of yearly revenue and one begins to worry that DLC (read: Seasonal content releases) may no longer be part of the subscription model. We will have to wait and see, how the new models will look like.

colossalvoids

Danel_Vadan wrote: »

[Snip]

Funny how we all perceive it so differently, like some claiming maintenance mode begins and different subset of people saying it's an exit from the maintenance mode it was in for the last few years. Time will tell ultimately.

[Edited quote]

BlueRaven

colossalvoids wrote: »

Danel_Vadan wrote: »

[Snip]

Funny how we all perceive it so differently, like some claiming maintenance mode begins and different subset of people saying it's an exit from the maintenance mode it was in for the last few years. Time will tell ultimately.

It’s “maintenance mode”.

They are going from big impressive chapter expansions (remember when they sold collector box sets?) to “bit sized content” (their words).

It’s “maintenance mode”.

[Edited quote]

Mayrael

Overland content difficulty - Finally! I've been waiting for this since One Tamriel. If it's implemented well—making encounters more engaging by requiring blocking, dodge rolls, and break free mechanics, rather than just mobs with more HP—this is a reason for me to be excited.

Cyrodiil - I feel like our (players') imagination might have run a bit wild here. Personally, I think the purpose of this change isn't to redefine balance but to actually address problematic skills - just like Matt wrote. I believe the main focus will be on ball groups and generally on AoE skills with complex effects.

Seasons - The most important aspect here, in my opinion, is the cost and payment structure. I hope we won’t be forced to buy seasons four times a year at the price of a chapter each time.

The matter of new and returning players - For a very, very long time, ESO has been focusing on this group of players. While I don’t mind making it easier for them to get into the game, it would be nice to also acknowledge the veteran players who have been supporting the game for years through its ups and downs. I hope you'll keep your promise and work on resolving the persistent issues in the game that have been reported for years.

jcaceresw

RomanRex wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Thank you for all the great questions so far, everyone. We are keeping a list to help inform what we need to answer and explain more later. And we will. One thing we do want to clarify today are the questions about seasonal content. Our plans are not to remove content such as quests, stories, and new areas like some other games do when a season is over.

Seasonal, expiring currencies are also unwanted in my opinion.

I just read about them from someone else’s description of FO76 and they sound horrific. Highly FOMO and grindy.

Paying just to have the “privilege” of accessing that seasonal experience would be a nightmare.

I left Fallout 76 about two years ago. Planned to return back but the changes to the seasons made me back off. I also spent lots of real money in that game and lost the in-game items I bought with that money because of their inventory bug that still haven't been addressed.

colossalvoids

BlueRaven wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

Danel_Vadan wrote: »

Elder Scrolls Online: Maintenance

Funny how we all perceive it so differently, like some claiming maintenance mode begins and different subset of people saying it's an exit from the maintenance mode it was in for the last few years. Time will tell ultimately.

It’s “maintenance mode”.

They are going from big impressive chapter expansions (remember when they sold collector box sets?) to “bit sized content” (their words).

It’s “maintenance mode”.

Last "impressive" chapter was like what, Elsweyr? They're cutting corners with each year that's obvious, but telling that this now is maintenance mode compared to even this year we're in it's disingenuous at best, we are in the mode for years already if quality decline is considered it, most of the year we're getting fed events, that's it. We're still getting some quantity (chapter) but the quality of it is not there, at all. So swapping things around might be a good thing there, we can't measure it without any details, they've even used word seasons without meaning usual gaming seasons, apparently.

Even by mentioning new guild quests and continuation of stories it gave me way more interest than any new landmass can bring at this point being so disappointing. Depends on a bite size, if that's an old q4, one slashed in half, in there, one quest, 20 quests? We have no idea yet.

moosegod

While I am hopeful on this new direction I wish they were forward about how they plan to monetize the "seasons" since they are abandoning the yearly $50 chapter update. It sounds like maybe there will be a "battlepass" equivalent to buy into. If they have a season about crafting or something, will there be a premium golden pursuit line based on crafting goals? Or will they be focusing more on the crown store? If they release a new system like scrying, will that be purchased through the crown store? If in the crown store, will it be part of ESO+ like dungeon DLCs? We need to know more on this aspect as it is causing worry amongst some players.

LukosCreyden

Its interesting.
A lot of the stuff they mentioned in the letter has been things people have asked about for YEARS.
PVE and PVP separate balancing, more challenge to the overworld, some graphical updates, a new zone like craglorn.
It all sounds really, really good so far.
Now, tonsee it put into action, that will be very interesting.

Some sentimentnhere and there that claim that the game is dying, or going into maintenance mode. Would be nice to see this year prove this sentiment to be inaccurate.

Tandor

merevie wrote: »

I'm sorry WHAT?!!

You are deleting our builds and group dynamics rather than fixing performance at server end?

Spend. Money. On servers.

They already did that.

BlueRaven

colossalvoids wrote: »

BlueRaven wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

Danel_Vadan wrote: »

Elder Scrolls Online: Maintenance

Funny how we all perceive it so differently, like some claiming maintenance mode begins and different subset of people saying it's an exit from the maintenance mode it was in for the last few years. Time will tell ultimately.

It’s “maintenance mode”.

They are going from big impressive chapter expansions (remember when they sold collector box sets?) to “bit sized content” (their words).

It’s “maintenance mode”.

Last "impressive" chapter was like what, Elsweyr? They're cutting corners with each year that's obvious, but telling that this now is maintenance mode compared to even this year we're in it's disingenuous at best, we are in the mode for years already if quality decline is considered it, most of the year we're getting fed events, that's it. We're still getting some quantity (chapter) but the quality of it is not there, at all. So swapping things around might be a good thing there, we can't measure it without any details, they've even used word seasons without meaning usual gaming seasons, apparently.

Even by mentioning new guild quests and continuation of stories it gave me way more interest than any new landmass can bring at this point being so disappointing. Depends on a bite size, if that's an old q4, one slashed in half, in there, one quest, 20 quests? We have no idea yet.

Yeah, it went from something proud like Elswyr to a ”pay per quest” model.

There is not much smaller they can go.

tom6143346

I guess we will see how excited people and / or relatively new players will stay , when a group of high hp Khagotis will attack them while they just want to harvest the silk unable through lack of knowledge and can’t get out of the combat 😂 For me it doesn’t matter but there are a lot of people out there, which struggle even with base enemies encounters. And based on the past nothing ZOS worked on, was really smoothly . Not judging here anyone !

Syldras

moosegod wrote: »

If they have a season about crafting or something, will there be a premium golden pursuit line based on crafting goals?

Of course we don't know yet, but I think it's possible that the golden pursuits would always be related to the latest new content? So if there would be a new small questing area, then there might be goals like "do 10 quests on the new map" or even some specific ones. Or if there's a new class, the tasks could be related to the new class skills.

A concept that I personally don't like that much, to be honest, as it's time-limited. We already had something similar several times this year where we had to meet some requirements to be able to claim some item in the crown store for free. Especially when it was about finishing the scribing questline, I felt I had to rush through it just for the achievement to get the crown store thing, while I would have prefered to take it slower and also to do the Gold Road main story first that was released on the same day. I prefer to be able to play at my own pace and decide for myself what I do at which time, instead of having any kind of time restrictions (even if it's just missing out some rewards for not doing prescribed activity x until the deadline).