Official Discussion thread for "A Look Back on 2015"

Tandor · December 2015

It started out as a great game for me, and it's got better all the time - great work guys, hope you have some quality time with your families and come back fully refreshed to make it even better still! Happy Christmas and a healthy and peaceful New Year!

NobleNerd · December 2015

Merry Christmas ZOS!

That said, the game has improved since the horrible launch. Unfortunately with each improvement and change there has been at least 2-3 issues or broken mechanics. Hopefully with your look back on 2015 you figure out how to implement changes and features without breaking others for 2016...... ALSO..... fix the lag!

bobkidd73 · December 2015

I played during Beta and the free weekend, I love what I see. I will be purchasing tomorrow, can't wait. Oh... don't worry, I won't file a law suit for addiction. I am looking forward to it. Happy Holidays everyone!

toxikh.earth89neb18_ESO · December 2015

all i want from 2016 is to reduce the skill effects so the server wont be so laggy because it ruins all the pvp experience, unable to swing my sword or cast my ultimate (take flight) is frustrating, or when u get hit im like full hp and in half a second im dead, i could have dodged or blocked... if it was for me i would make this game only phisical dmg based. This game has everything i dreamed of while i was a kid and i still got hopes.
Again please make cyrodill less laggy for crying out loud

Zaldan · December 2015

Darkonflare15 wrote: »

@zaldan Yay thxs for stating the negatives. Like we do not have enough of that already or that we are clueless about it. Hooray to our great comunity for reminding us everyday that nothing is perfect.

@Darkonflare15 ZO$ are aware of the positives by the number of people who pay/play the game but without constant reminders of what they're doing wrong there's going to be no improvement and it may still be too little way too late.

Pensola · December 2015

Thank you for another fun year in Tamriel, ZOS.

I look at the list of things done and I feel like time has flyed by! I mean, did PS and Xbox launch only in the summer? It feels like it has been going so fast!

I have loved your Crown Store, especially the latest items! There have been many times I have had to discuss in my head what to buy and what save for! Some of the prices are a little crazy, especially when they are dyed versions of previous items, but then again, they are luxury items.

I hope you will keep the great connection with the community like you have done, and I look forward to future lore in Tamriel!

I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

randolphbenoit · December 2015

Merry Xmas!

Feynn · December 2015

Join you in raising a glass of mead? Pah! Pass the juniper draught instead!

In all seriousness, well done on a really great year, ZOS! The Orsinium DLC in particular was absolutely fantastic, and it really sets a high bar for all your future ones. We all have great expectations for 2016! (or 2E584, as we like to call it in the roleplaying community)

One thing that I have really enjoyed seeing is the fact that you have not only introduced new amazing zones, but you have also quietly revamped some of the old ones. For example, I remember the original Ilessan Tower dungeon in Glenumbra: when the game was launched it was just a solo dungeon like all the others, but when I ran it again more recently on a new character I noticed you have altered it drastically, making it much more interesting and unique. This gives me hope that in the future you might consider remodelling some other original areas of the game as well, especially the ones which are most used by roleplayers but which for one reason or another are below the new standards that you are setting for the DLCs (for example many of the areas in Wayrest, like the Cloudy Dregs, the Mages Guild Hall, the Chironasium, King Emeric's Castle, the Fighters Guild Hall, etc. etc.) The EU roleplaying community would really be extremely grateful for a revamped Wayrest - it is after all the capital of the Daggerfall Covenant, it can't possibly look any less majestic than Orsinium, right? What a shame would that be for the High King!

Whatever the new year might hold, we are all very excited and grateful for this truly amazing game. On behalf of all EU roleplayers, I believe I can say "thank you, Zenimax!" And merry Saturalia from the good people of Wayrest!

kkravaritieb17_ESO · December 2015

Moar lag plz not enough lag in PVP.

kkravaritieb17_ESO · December 2015

And plz buff zergs even more they definately need it ... the more people the more fun.

Saturn · December 2015

You've done a lot for the game, no doubt about it and it's really made the subscription worth it again with the two recent expansions to the universe. But I now haven't played the game regularly for about a month, because I honestly just got bored of the pledges/daily quests and their chorelike nature, for no real purposeful reward and when it comes to endgame there is too little to do.
There are currently 3 trials. Most people can sleepwalk through AA and HRC, yet struggle with SO, they were still fun to do once in a while mind you, but then you took away the weekly reward incentive (perhaps the only incentive to still do them) and changed the leaderboards in a major way (the leaderboard for AA/HRC/SO can only fit 8 groups and a third of the 9th group as it is now) and there has been no real explanation why, which is weird and frustrating.

PvP is also lacking (which is a big issue when PvP is one of the most prefered Endgame features in MMOs), don't get me wrong the Imperial City was a great addition, but it is already abandoned for the most part. The PvP in ESO as it stands has been reduced to a laggy zergfest, even more so than before. Now the only real way to beat an organised zerg is to bring a bigger group (I know this is going to be changed, but it is a big problem that has been almost advocated with some of the recent changes like AoE caps, ability to purge DoT effects from siege, etc.). The strategy has effectively left the war.
Also I can't help but feel like ESO could use some sort of instanced PvP, it would ensure balance (instead of 20v4, which are very common odds in Cyrodiil), it would encourage skilful play and strategy (if the instanced pvp was 12v12 for example). A lot of other MMOs do instanced PvP well, but lack an interesting combat system. ESO has incredible combat, but in Cyrodiil that is obscured by lag and constant unbalanced fights, which results in the majority of players having no idea how to fight 1v1. There could be a lot of TES lore based gamemodes, like instead of Capture the flag, it could be an Elder Scroll. Or you could have teambased domination type gamemodes, where the objective would be to hold on to a Daedric Prince's artifact to get points. Or it could be something else entirely. It is not like the ESO team isn't creative.
Further, instanced PvP could lead to Arenas like 4v4 or 2v2, which could lead to ranked matchmaking, tournaments and other interesting stuff that would really add to the longevity of the game. Just look at how intensely people rivaled across NA and EU due to Dragonstar Arena when it was relevant. That sort of stuff is what keeps a game alive.

As it stands right now the playerbase of ESO is like an ocean, it ebbs and flowes between DLC releases, but is still steadily losing loyal players.
I have played ESO since January of 2014 when I joined the closed beta and of all the awesome friends I have made along the years, only ~30% of them still play the game. A lot of people have moved on because the game lacked solid endgame (meaning PvP and PvE), even if a lot of other features were really good by MMO standards.

ESO was voted "MMO of the year" by MMOrpg.com, but look at the competition for this year, there barely was any. Next year there will be a lot more capable competition and ESO will have to work hard to still be relevant by then.

I would like to end this wall of text by saying that I absolutely adore the game, I've played it way too much, but we who love the game and play it A LOT are also the ones most exposed to the flaws and lack of features.
Probably not the place to write something like this, but it makes me kind of sad that I'm still thinking, "Wow, this game has so much potential." Because that's exactly what I thought 2 years ago. I'm just wondering if that potential will ever be fulfilled.

ragespell · December 2015

Zaldan wrote: »

Where to start?

At the beginning sounds good..
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Criminal behavior was introduced to Tamriel when we released the Justice System in March.

Shame we only got part of the Justice System.
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Also in March, we published the Champion System to enhance your character development.

Failed attempt to remove Veteran Ranks, made even worse by the inadequate diminishing returns and catch-up mechanic requiring ZO$ to add another limit and catchup mechanic.
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Once the dust settled from console launch, we opened the Imperial City for battle in September

I'd love to know how much this was an attempt to fix PVP performance by creating half a dozen sub zones to spread the same player count across and how much it was an actual attempt at a PVP DLC considering it's a neutered version of what PVP players were expecting. Might just be that I always find myself in Imperial City when it's practically empty.
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Of course, there were many other improvements and additions to the game including dungeon scaling for existing dungeons, the single-player progressive challenge Maelstrom Arena, two new dungeons, subtitles, controller support for PC, and so much more

Maelstrom Arena, the crowning jewel of a paid for content with so many bugs/exploits the leaderboards are a work of fiction and still doesn't work properly and wont for months yet. I tried the PC controller support and it was awful, how people can play on console with that UI I don't know, so many of the keybinds not showing up in settings even though they're there.
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We've seen over a million comments posted on our official forums over the past year alone!

Does that include the reasons people can't play? Though a lot of the reasons I've seen appear to be the smame ones with different wording, does that count?
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We also have a massive million-dollar sweepstakes for players.

Or we don't, as a lot of player found out. Would love to know what percentage of your player base you alienated with that particular promotion, couldn't come up with something more/all your players could get behind?
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With the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood on their way in the first half of next year, you have a lot to look forward to

Yep that's how long we'll be waiting for any major bug fixes too still amazes me you think keeping players waiting months for bug fixes is acceptable.

2016 is gonna be "Interesting"

Why do you play?
They deliver the best they can. If they could do better they would. There is no need that people like you that probably have accomplished nothing in their life (let alone a game of this magnitude) spit on the work of others

ShadoPanauin · December 2015

I hope that in the 2016 look-back (if there is one) we can say that we got rid of AOE caps. Please be able to say that.

Anyway, merry xmas!

bluebloodb16_ESO · January 2016

We had a fantastic and social guild on the Xbox One, and I made a lot of friends ! We were one happy family ! But then the bugs got introduced with the Imperial City DLC, especially bugs with the guildbanks. Those bugs were so frustrating that many left the game. Complaining to support got us the most weird answers, so everyone got the intention that Zenimax was obscuring these problems. The bugs stayed there for over a month which resulted in lots of frustrations. They only got solved (mostly) with the introduction of Orsinium. But the harm was already done. Many people left the game since the bugs continued, and lots of new games got introduced. So our guild crumbled down to a few active members. The people who left got to other games and never came back. Luckilly we had a guild facebook group, so we still stay in contact with eachother. Members who left all got the same reasons : frustrations about bugs and loading screens in the ESO game, so they left and started playing Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Rise of the Tombraider, Battlefront, etc. When they had finished those games, one would expect they would come back for Orsinium, but the harm had been done clearly, and people weren't motivated to play a game again that got them frustrated. For me the limit was reached when some members got frustrated about a dying guild and started looting our guildbank like vultures to transfer those items to another guild (using the looted items like an entry fee to that other guild). Instead of guilds coöperating together, some guilds started hostile takeovers ! Not the social playing I always have aimed, and we got in our fantastic guild once.The final blow was Zenimax introducing "Play to Win" ! This contest is only for some countries, but not for everyone. Since I'm from Belgium, and the contest is not possible in our country, it felt like discrimination, so Ieft the game to. ESO had so much potential, but Zenimax let it die because of wrong decisions. First about the bugs, and the ignoring and lying about it, and then because of this discriminating contest. We also have the eso+ members monthly crowns which never got paid in time. Zenimax, you are the only one to blame about the crumbling and dying of this game. I suggest you make it possible to let different alliances group together; not quite lore friendly, but a solution to let the few players left in the game play together. I think none of us guildmembers will buy a Zenimax game ever again.

CamBam370 · January 2016

Looking forward to THIS YEAR

nimander99 · January 2016

This year will be even better, I have inside sources and they tell me stuffs coming. Lots of stuff and we like stuff!