State of the Game

Felarrond · April 2014

What's everyone think of the state of the game so far? Here's my heartfelt and honest review.

1. The game is fun... WHEN I can play it. It took me 3 hours to get logged in this morning. I often get disconnected during zoning. I often get disconnected while adventuring in a single zone.
2. I like the feel of the game, the TES vibe, but for an mmo there are several game staples that are simply missing.
3. I feel like I'm playing a singleplayer TES game with other people stealing my kills and invading my areas because there's no real need for a group, and should be more instancing in the game so I can adventure with the people I want to without having to compete for every resource and kill with 999 other people in the same pixilar mile as me.
4. I won't discuss whether or not a subscription fee is warranted for the game, but seeing as it is, this is the first game I've EVER seen that required you to preauth the entire amount of a months subscription to activate your "free" 30 days. Most games charge $1 hold to do this, why has zenimax done different?

All this being said, when I am able to play, I do have fun, but with all the stuff that's missing, all the bugs and my general inability to stay connected to the game, I'd have to give the game 2.5 stars out of 5.

I really hope ZoS works on the issues with the game, or I won't be subbing after my paywalled initial free 30 days.

Laura · April 2014

I think most of that will even out over the coming days especially 3.) i'm already feeling it. 4 I agree on but I'd still give the GAME 4.5/5 stars (losing half for some bugged quests) though the communication and the forums........ not so much

I have had no issues with disconnects or logging in though.

hamletsbatb14_ESO · April 2014

And as to the kill stealing...anyone who does damage to the mob gets credit for it, so you can't really ks in this game.

Felarrond · April 2014

hamletsbatb14_ESO wrote: »

And as to the kill stealing...anyone who does damage to the mob gets credit for it, so you can't really ks in this game.

Yesterday when a higher level was doing more damage, I was getting 3 xp for kills that should have been giving me 60+ so there's something buggy there.

Felarrond · April 2014

Laura wrote: »

I think most of that will even out over the coming days especially 3.) i'm already feeling it. 4 I agree on but I'd still give the GAME 4.5/5 stars (losing half for some bugged quests) though the communication and the forums........ not so much

I have had no issues with disconnects or logging in though.

I can't give it above a 3 because of all the staples that are in most mmos are simply not present here, simple things:

- The ability to sell your goods to others that are not in a guild you're in, like Auction Houses (yes I can realize you can be in multiple guilds).
- Group or Small Group instanced content is ALMOST non existent.
- Rewards for guilds other than a guild bank/store capped at a certain amount of members.
- The chat system is fairly watered down.
- Many of the animations aren't very good in combat.
- CE/Preorder bonuses available to all characters on your account.
- Combat difficulty on normal trash mobs is way too weak. I could solo level 15s at level 8 and 9.

I'll think of more, but this is just an initial "review" perse.

Bars · April 2014

man they have a lot of stuff 2 fix ,game bugs/guilds/FORUMS/chat in game/lag I get in game . I am thinking of not subbing till the first patch and see whats fixed and whats not, but it is a good game don't get me worng but could be better:)

hwesterbergb14_ESO · April 2014

I completely agree with the OP. This game feels like a single player game that they slapped some multi-player abilities into. It is not remotely fleshed out as an MMO and heck, it's even MORE limited than Skyrim on ability use, etc. I mean, 6 abilities? Come on... No auction house?? The interface is pure crap.

I honestly don't see this game lasting for years as an MMO in its current state.

Felarrond · April 2014

hwesterbergb14_ESO wrote: »

I completely agree with the OP. This game feels like a single player game that they slapped some multi-player abilities into. It is not remotely fleshed out as an MMO and heck, it's even MORE limited than Skyrim on ability use, etc. I mean, 6 abilities? Come on... No auction house?? The interface is pure crap.

I honestly don't see this game lasting for years as an MMO in its current state.

It definitely needs some work, at least in my opinion, to not be Free-To-Play by the end of the year.

Just missing too much to be a serious contender for anything buy die hard series fan and fanboys who will not complaint about anything in the game. Don't get me wrong, it can be fun to play, but I just feel like it was rushed due to their need to recoup money so they pretty much felt like "we don't need this stuff in here yet for people to pay for it" and may add it later. I may let my free month expire and come back in 6 months and see what happens.

krapmyself · April 2014

I'm tired of the random roll backs. those suck.

Eris · April 2014

My opinion of the game:

1. It is fun.
2. I have not experienced connectivity issues.
3. There are lots of people around.
4. I've been having fun exploring and questing.
5. I often get sidetracked by crafting nodes.
6. My backpack is full of materials, so I craft a lot.
7. Having on-level gear is pretty easy because of 5 and 6.
8. I just hit level 10 adventuring most of the weekend.
9. Exploration has slowed my questing, but that's okay.
10. No lag.
11. No kill stealing because some damage means equal share of the kill.
12. Yawn, it's dinner time but I'll be back after.

So in closing, life is good, no complaints, sorry for those who do, but happy for those who don't. Enjoy life, it's only a game.

Phalsadoom · April 2014

IMHO of the State of this Game is that it needs a lot of Help!

The Elemental quest near Daggerfall has German audio voice overs

Random UI bugs cause restarts in order to fix (had to use chat command /quit to shut the game down).

Game has low drop rate for recipes, and mostly just junk in chests and other interactable objects.

Mounts are ridiculously expensive for the speed boost they give. Cheapest is 17.5k for 15% increase. Not that gold is really hard to get, spending that much for such a paltry speed increase is for people that want vanity appeal, not mechanics. They most likely bought the Imperial version of the game anyway.

Repair cost are a bit steep for lower level gear costing in the hundreds if you die multiple times try to kill a boss mob.

Summoned Demon pets tend to de-spawn a lot while traversing in and out of instances.

Treasure lock picking is nice for the mechanics of it, but why put a timer on it? I had one stolen from me because I failed to get it picked in the amount of time it gave, and another player ninja'd it away because I had to wait on a cooldown period. This I can foresee as becoming a problem very quickly.

All in all I like the game because I'm a big fan of the RPG games of the same genre(Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim). I think this game has been rushed to launch, and lacks many staples people who play MMO's come to expect. Therefor I do not see myself playing this game beyond the 30 days free play unless there are some major changes made soon, which I seriously doubt will come to fruition in that time period. To all those that like the game as it is, enjoy, good luck and happy hunting in your adventures.

Peace

Phalsadoom

jdkorreckpreub18_ESO · April 2014

Phalsadoom wrote: »

Mounts are ridiculously expensive for the speed boost they give. Cheapest is 17.5k for 15% increase. Not that gold is really hard to get, spending that much for such a paltry speed increase is for people that want vanity appeal, not mechanics. They most likely bought the Imperial version of the game anyway.

You're missing a main benefit of a mount, inventory space.

Censorious · April 2014

Eris wrote: »

My opinion of the game:

1. It is fun.
2. I have not experienced connectivity issues.
3. There are lots of people around.
4. I've been having fun exploring and questing.
5. I often get sidetracked by crafting nodes.
6. My backpack is full of materials, so I craft a lot.
7. Having on-level gear is pretty easy because of 5 and 6.
8. I just hit level 10 adventuring most of the weekend.
9. Exploration has slowed my questing, but that's okay.
10. No lag.
11. No kill stealing because some damage means equal share of the kill.
12. Yawn, it's dinner time but I'll be back after.

So in closing, life is good, no complaints, sorry for those who do, but happy for those who don't. Enjoy life, it's only a game.

^^this. I have some criticisms but it's a new game and needs to be polished before it can shine.

Tavore1138 · April 2014

If they fix the quests that are bugged quickly this is a solid fun game and the first MMO that has tempted me into playing in a long time. I'd been put off over the years by... well... bad experiences with people behaving like [censoredbleepingbleeps] & games that encouraged people to do so... I play games for fun not to add to stress levels so was quite wary of getting into an MMO for a series I have loved for decades.

1. Love crafting & finding inventory management an entertaining challenge.
2. Love the TES world and the chance to adventure through more than one province at a time.
3. Love being able to do spur of the moment co-ops with other players to take down the big beasts.
4. Love sharing the PvE world without worrying about being stabbed in the back by some griefer.
5. Much against expectation am also loving Cyrodil - from the fun of charging around in a group on horseback, unlimbering the siege engines and sacking a keep to the fun of stealthing around killing or being killed.

I guess ESO is the best of both worlds - a solid PvE game with the option to go PvP at your own risk.

weresloth · April 2014

About the absence of an auction house:

this is the first game where crafting actually seems useful and a viable way of acquiring gear. I think that has partly to do with the absence of a regular auction house / trading post.

Where an auction house is available, it gets flooded with the byproducts of people leveling their crafting skills and trying to recover part of the costs by underselling their production on the AH.

That, though, leads to a paradox like: more often than not it's less expensive as a crafter to buy said byproduct of other players instead of crafting your own gear, which makes crafting rather useless.

For this reason, I think the absence of an auction house is a conscious design choice on Zenimax's part, rather than a feature which was planned but hasn't made it to launch.

Felarrond · April 2014

weresloth wrote: »

About the absence of an auction house:

this is the first game where crafting actually seems useful and a viable way of acquiring gear. I think that has partly to do with the absence of a regular auction house / trading post.

Where an auction house is available, it gets flooded with the byproducts of people leveling their crafting skills and trying to recover part of the costs by underselling their production on the AH.

That, though, leads to a paradox like: more often than not it's less expensive as a crafter to buy said byproduct of other players instead of crafting your own gear, which makes crafting rather useless.

For this reason, I think the absence of an auction house is a conscious design choice on Zenimax's part, rather than a feature which was planned but hasn't made it to launch.

I can't agree with your logic here, at least not from my end. I think that with their being trade guilds the way there are, the guild stores available for larger guilds only, it destroys any sort of cohesive argument that there isn't any sort of auction house to reduce the price of crafted goods, it's there, it's just watered down and intra-guild only. If you're going to make it available, then it may as well as not be available extra-guild.

rawne1980b16_ESO · April 2014

The game itself is great. It's the first MMO in a long time i've found myself enjoying.

It's just the damn bugs that annoy me.

It's like an old coffee table at the minute. It needs a hell of a lot of polish before it will shine

It needs a bit of work before I can justify paying monthly for it anyway.

Felarrond · April 2014

rawne1980b16_ESO wrote: »

The game itself is great. It's the first MMO in a long time i've found myself enjoying.

It's just the damn bugs that annoy me.

It's like an old coffee table at the minute. It needs a hell of a lot of polish before it will shine

It needs a bit of work before I can justify paying monthly for it anyway.

Exactly my thoughts. Glad to see I'm not insane and the only one thinking that way.

Moraisu · April 2014

It's 16:25 GMT and the Server is unavailable for Maintenance, It's hard to relay my opinion when I can't seem to play the game, the Maintenance schedule needs to be adjusted for European players...

Thybrinena · April 2014

Laura wrote: »

I think most of that will even out over the coming days especially 3.) i'm already feeling it. 4 I agree on but I'd still give the GAME 4.5/5 stars (losing half for some bugged quests) though the communication and the forums........ not so much

I have had no issues with disconnects or logging in though.

I'm not religious but Amen to that!!

weresloth · April 2014

Felarrond wrote: »

I can't agree with your logic here, at least not from my end. I think that with their being trade guilds the way there are, the guild stores available for larger guilds only, it destroys any sort of cohesive argument that there isn't any sort of auction house to reduce the price of crafted goods, it's there, it's just watered down and intra-guild only. If you're going to make it available, then it may as well as not be available extra-guild.

I think being fragmented the way it is and not as easily and universally available as it is in other games is what makes their version of an auction house a lot less detrimental to the viability of crafting.

Felarrond · April 2014

weresloth wrote: »

Felarrond wrote: »

I can't agree with your logic here, at least not from my end. I think that with their being trade guilds the way there are, the guild stores available for larger guilds only, it destroys any sort of cohesive argument that there isn't any sort of auction house to reduce the price of crafted goods, it's there, it's just watered down and intra-guild only. If you're going to make it available, then it may as well as not be available extra-guild.

I think being fragmented the way it is and not as easily and universally available as it is in other games is what makes their version of an auction house a lot less detrimental to the viability of crafting.

Not with it not even having a dent on Gold Sellers. Auction Houses can hurt some mmos, but they also serve to regulate the market by making goods available to an entire-faction and make it so that prices even out and become fairly standard. I've seen run away auction house prices, and I've seen economies that were broken until auction houses in some games were implemented. It's all how they're used.

Cherryblossom · April 2014

The State of the Game, as it's not been out very long 4 days! It's difficult to say, I expect bugs. The game is going to have down time due to fixes.
I want them to do these fixes so I don't mind the maintenance.
However I think the game is being damaged by the lack of communication from Zenimax.

For the Future I would like to see.
Better Guild Interface
Better Grouping Tools

I like the combat system ( I didn't at first) I like the fact that my combat skills are situational and I have to carefully choose what I'm going to use.

You can't kill steal, if you think you are getting gimped on the xp /bug report!

There are lots of public Dungeons and mini bosses you can group up for, some of which you could solo if you want, but it is far more fun to join up with others around you.

I believe they have the makings of a good game, I will reserve my actual judgement until the end of my first free 30 days.

The only thing that is turning me off the game currently is Zenimax's failure to communicate.

dumbo · April 2014

Personally, the D3 AH 'fiasco' made me wonder whether an AH is actually good for a game. It's hugely damaging to the loot metagame...

Otherwise:
- I don't like the prevalance of stun/knockdown in PvE. As a serial abuser, it probably shouldn't be this easy. Mobs should get temporary immunity.
- a lot of aspects of the game don't scale properly with population. (anchors are usually pretty trivial - no-one ever dies, caves are often 'lolworthy', ditto world bosses [partly due to stun/knockdown etc]).
- cave bosses are being farmed. (when they aren't, the caves can work really well).
- the game is a bit too "spammy". Resource recharge seems quite high, too many abilities are 'instant damage', and since I know my resource will replenish before the next fight... I just spam everything.
- enchantments seem broken.
- difficulty spikes are "quite large".

But, in general, I like it.

Raice · April 2014

1. This stuff will be ironed out. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
2. Meh... This stuff was discussed before the game was even released. Here's the deal - this isn't the same game you've always been playing. This is a different game. And besides that, whatever it is you're wanting - there's probably an add-on for it.
3. The secret to having fun in a group is to just group up. I swear - MMO after MMO after MMO I hear this same complaint, "There's no reason to group. This is a solo game." And the answer is to simply group up with someone. But no one ever does because, "But I won't get my XP!" Which is true. But then you gotta think about the fact that you're killing things about 5 times as fast with even one extra person, which means you're gaining XP five times as fast - and you still get all your Quest XP.
4. I didn't pre-pay anything. I simply put in my information. That's all that happened. And why are people still complaining about a subscription. How is this game NOT worth a subscription? Seriously. From your perspective - what IS worth a subscription? I just don't understand people these days. You've got a beautiful, well crafted, original, and for the most part, smooth MMO on your hands - and you're STILL not convinced it's worth a subscription. You guys are one day going to get it: subscription based MMO is better for you as the customer.

Felarrond · April 2014

Raice wrote: »

1. This stuff will be ironed out. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
2. Meh... This stuff was discussed before the game was even released. Here's the deal - this isn't the same game you've always been playing. This is a different game. And besides that, whatever it is you're wanting - there's probably an add-on for it.
3. The secret to having fun in a group is to just group up. I swear - MMO after MMO after MMO I hear this same complaint, "There's no reason to group. This is a solo game." And the answer is to simply group up with someone. But no one ever does because, "But I won't get my XP!" Which is true. But then you gotta think about the fact that you're killing things about 5 times as fast with even one extra person, which means you're gaining XP five times as fast - and you still get all your Quest XP.
4. I didn't pre-pay anything. I simply put in my information. That's all that happened. And why are people still complaining about a subscription. How is this game NOT worth a subscription? Seriously. From your perspective - what IS worth a subscription? I just don't understand people these days. You've got a beautiful, well crafted, original, and for the most part, smooth MMO on your hands - and you're STILL not convinced it's worth a subscription. You guys are one day going to get it: subscription based MMO is better for you as the customer.

I'd be much more inclined to feel that the game was worth a subscription of ZoS took the time to prove they care about their customers. To be honest that's probably my biggest turn off so far.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy playing the game when I can and am able, a lot of network issues had prevented me from enjoying the game at all up until know and I spent over a week trying to get ZoS to look into from one IT professional to another, they ignored the basic requests and went through entirely canned response after canned response. I was left on my own to troubleshoot connection issues that they could have helped me solve in an hour with proper response to my support requests.

As for the pre-paying thing, it's the nature of the fact that the authorization against peoples accounts was hidden, but that's a ball of wax for the dozen threads that exist on the topic.

They have a decent game that could become a great game, but only if they quickly learn what it means to become an MMO company, at the moment they continue to make poor decision after poor decision and have yet to embrace methods to show their customers that they care about their customer remotely near as much as they care about their corporate bank accounts.