Devs interview with Massively about upcoming content! (non-scribing/gold road story thread)

spartaxoxo · January 2024

Below is a summary of the things they stated, organized into what's coming, what's on the to-do list, and what's planned. For the full information in its proper context, please read the whole article. They also discussed the Gold Road chapter a bit, but I left that part out as there are other discussion threads for the Gold Road story, scribing, etc.

https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/elder-scrolls-onlines-gold-road-chapter-takes-players-back-to-oblivions-best-city-on-june-3/

Things that are coming up!

1. Food and Potion hybridization with U41!
2. Infinite Archive will be expanded on, but no spoilers yet!
3. Siege Stacking (part of their effort to reduce inventory pressure without just adding more slots)
4. Continued work on pvp performance. Something PvP related but NOT related to Cyrodiil. “PvP is definitely a big part of our future.”
5. Just going to directly quote the article here "ZOS says years 1-9 were all about figuring the game out, figuring out what the game is and who wanted to play it. Ten and beyond is about more content and improving the game tech and making it all more accessible – and that includes more basegame improvements."

Things that are on their to-do list
2. Story Mode for dungeons (but not happening anytime soon)
3. Improvements for guilds
4. Further work on pvp performance

Things they are saying there are currently no plans to-do.
1. Major sweeping overhauls
2. Puzzles that gate progression. They want to do better puzzles, but they will continue to be easy.
3. Harder overland

Honorable mention

1. ZOS knows we want cross-save but they won't promise anything.

What do you guys think?

LunaFlora · January 2024

sounds awesome!
i am especially happy about "Ten and beyond is about more content and improving the game tech and making it all more accessible – and that includes more basegame improvements."
more accessibility makes me happy.

food and potion hybridisation and more infinite archive updates are good too.

super happy that story mode for dungeons is on their to-do list, even if it's not happening anytime soon it's lovely to know.

i don't go to Cyrodiil often, but Siege stacking is so useful! I'd definitely use them more often.

Destai · January 2024

Good interview, thanks for sharing!

I’m happy with their direction, especially around relieving inventory pressure. There’s so much work to do there, so I can imagine they have some challenges ahead.

I think if they can move armory slotted gear to its own inventory, do something about treasure maps and surveys, it would go a long way.

TaSheen · January 2024

Interesting article. Thanks for linking it @spartaxoxo.

I think it's time I ran the Necrom questline (so I started it today). There's a lot of stuff in the article that I just don't really have an opinion about. As long as I can get by most of the chapter quests without issue, and hopefully don't die over and over and over again to the story quest bosses (like I did in Blackwood and High Isle), I'll call it a good thing.

Scribing seems like the kind of fun I'll really enjoy - like I still love and enjoy antiquities and the Psijiic quest line.

OtarTheMad · January 2024

Thanks for sharing! All that is really good info.

Nihilr · January 2024

spartaxoxo wrote: »

* Food and Potion hybridization with U41!
* Infinite Archive... expanded on...
* Siege Stacking...
* Continued work on pvp performance. Something PvP related but NOT related to Cyrodiil...
* Story Mode for dungeons (but not happening anytime soon)
* ZOS knows we want cross-save but they won't promise anything.

* Food and potion hybridization!! I hope they just reduce the total recipes. So much redundancy... I understand writs, and culture related dishes for immersion, but it's kinda out of hand.
* IA was expected. Also expect the same with Scribing in the future too.
* Siege stacking! Related: Furnishings bag maybe next with the Q3 housing feature?

* PvPer's should be happy. But I'm sure we'll hear tons of "I'm not going to get excited until we know exactly what it is." blah blah. lol
* STORY. MODE. Yes. Needed for solo/co-op players (ahem, my husband and I). Most anticipated feature out of all of this.
* Cross-saving will be perfect when they discontinue older consoles for data transfer!! This allows them to grow without weakest system memory holding back the whole game. Awesome.

SeaGtGruff · January 2024

spartaxoxo wrote: »

3. Siege Stacking (part of their effort to reduce inventory pressure without just adding more slots)

Yes! And stacking of Runeboxes and Treasure Maps, too, please!

ArchangelIsraphel · January 2024

Wow, that is a HUGE amount of items from the usual wishlist we see on the forums every day! I'm more excited for the games future than I ever have been before.

I'm especially happy about siege stacking, my poor inventory can have a break. This is glorious.

Billium813 · January 2024

spartaxoxo wrote: »

1. Food and Potion hybridization with U41!

This is a difficult one for me. I hate how many recipes exist that are totally pointless. The problem is that even brand new players aren't using the low level recipes. NO ONE has any REASON to ever use them. It's another 2014 design that has gone nowhere and it's kinda sad.

But I REALLY don't just want them to remove a bunch of recipes by condensing them to both Magicka and Stamina for hybridization too! I love that there are a ton of recipes and it makes the world feel full! Instead, I'd rather they just make recipes more like Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl. Give fringe benefits to fishing or looting or harvesting or move speed or pick pocketing. Something other then just Health/Stamina/Magicka and Sustain.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

3. Siege Stacking (part of their effort to reduce inventory pressure without just adding more slots)

Thank god. This is long overdue. I hope they keep Siege as in-game items (and not some kind of collectible or something), but allowing them to stack will be sooo nice finally.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

4. Continued work on pvp performance. Something PvP related but NOT related to Cyrodiil. “PvP is definitely a big part of our future.”

Kind of disappointed they aren't looking at Cyrodiil. It's just really stale content at this point and needs a couple new mechanics. Volendrung was a nice addition, but I really want them to add more things to the zone. More REASONS to go to places other then Keeps and Keep Resources. My idea was like NPC caravans to protect between owned Keeps, or NPC Siege groups that slowly advance on enemy keeps and can be protected. There's just a lot of deadspace in the zone.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

5. Just going to directly quote the article here "ZOS says years 1-9 were all about figuring the game out, figuring out what the game is and who wanted to play it. Ten and beyond is about more content and improving the game tech and making it all more accessible – and that includes more basegame improvements."

Wonder what THEY mean by "basegame improvements"... I immediately think of base game zones and dungeons. But I think they probably mean more free content like IA. Not that I'm not happy they release more free stuff, but they REALLLY need to clean up base game zones. It's been 10 years and several zones are falling to pieces.

katanagirl1 · January 2024

Siege stacking though - once you pull it out and use it and put it back, they no longer stack.

I save mine because I buy a lot of siege and don’t want to waste AP.

SilverBride · January 2024

I am curious what the Infinite Archive changes will be. This excites and scares me at the same time.

I'm also excited about story mode for dungeons. I hope this includes all dungeons.

SeaGtGruff · January 2024

Idea for all of those old recipes that hardly anyone ever uses except for completing daily Provisioning writs:

Create a new Provisioning skill called "meals" where the ingredients called for by the "meals" recipes are themselves low-level food and drink items crafted by the player.

Examples:

Meal "Chicken-and-Corn with Lager"
Ingredients:
- "Chicken Breast" (Level 1)
- "Roast Corn" (Level 1)
- "Golden Lager" (Level 1)

Meal "Pork-and-Plantains with Chai"
Ingedients:
- "Roast Pig"
- "Banana Surprise"
- "Mint Chai"

Probably wouldn't want to go above a certain Level with the ingredients or else it might be too OP.

FluffyBird · January 2024

"Figuring game out" for 9 years sounded more like "people that were doing stuff left the company and now we have to figure out what in Oblivion they made and how it works".

I mean... changing vision? Sure? "Figuring out"? Should have been finished way earlier.

Springey · January 2024

They should put "Converting the Vossa-Satl and Mire Drum Mementos into looping emotes" on #1...

TheImperfect · January 2024

I'd like to be able to do something with recipes that I already collected other than selling, gifting or destroying.

Beilin_Balreis_Colcan · January 2024

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

3. Siege Stacking (part of their effort to reduce inventory pressure without just adding more slots)

Yes! And stacking of Runeboxes and Treasure Maps, too, please!

... and crafted items (armor, jewelry, weapons).

old_scopie1945 · January 2024

Story Mode, deffo.

Elsonso · January 2024

Thanks for the link.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

1. Food and Potion hybridization with U41!

Makes sense. When you only have one stat, and it doesn't matter which one it is, food and potions for specific stats are no longer needed.

Most of the food, drink, and potion consumables in the game are unused, anyway. They just need the Glorious Chicken Dinner Smoothie that boosts the stat and stat recovery and we can drop all of the others.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Something PvP related but NOT related to Cyrodiil. “PvP is definitely a big part of our future.”

Well, that either means battleground modes or something new, then. I have already heard people say that a Battleground mode is not something they want. Either way, I am sure that a "believe it when we see it" will prevail.

SilverBride wrote: »

I am curious what the Infinite Archive changes will be. This excites and scares me at the same time.

Probably new visions and verses, along with new side quests, and maybe a new arena platform. They will probably add in new bosses from the annual dungeon DLC, too.

Freilauftomate · January 2024

From the linked article: "During the press and influencer preview stream ahead of the show, Lambert answered multiple questions about the chapter and the future of the game"

Can someone please help me find this "preview stream"?

I don't really care about trailers and shows. I am way more interested in interviews that actually answer important questions.

Elsonso · January 2024

Freilauftomate wrote: »

From the linked article: "During the press and influencer preview stream ahead of the show, Lambert answered multiple questions about the chapter and the future of the game"

Can someone please help me find this "preview stream"?

I would guess it is not public. Based on what Nefas said, it was just for the press and a few streamers. That leads me to assume that this content was expected to be passed along, not consumed directly by the end users.

VDoom1 · January 2024

From that list I am quite excited about siege stacking. I'm quite certain that a lot of players, especially players who do a lot of Cyrodiil PvP have a very crowded inventory with siege weapons.

Also curios what improvements will be coming in the future.

Personally I'd love some sort of preview of furniture crafting recipes. So you can see what a chair looks like, before you learn the recipe.

KlauthWarthog · January 2024

While I do appreciate the stuff in the list, the lack of "glyph stacking" stands out like a sore thumb.

francesinhalover · January 2024

“PvP is definitely a big part of our future.”

Oh nooo

Pvp needs to be separate from pve

Freilauftomate · January 2024

Elsonso wrote: »

Freilauftomate wrote: »

From the linked article: "During the press and influencer preview stream ahead of the show, Lambert answered multiple questions about the chapter and the future of the game"

Can someone please help me find this "preview stream"?

I would guess it is not public. Based on what Nefas said, it was just for the press and a few streamers. That leads me to assume that this content was expected to be passed along, not consumed directly by the end users.

The gaming press tends to leave out all the interesting parts and likes to focus more on advertising. It's very rare to find an interview where hard questions are being asked and answered.

And i find most streamers (and content creators) way too time consuming and annoying to watch.

It's kind of a shame that customers are kept in the dark about so many things that would be interesting and important to know.

Darkstorne · January 2024

Story Mode for Dungeons - I think this one is pretty simple tbh. Allow us to take a full party of Companions with us into dungeons. Normal mode is already pretty easy to solo, and allowing three Companions to join us in solo mode would mean we can have a full setup of DPS, tank, and healer, and a guaranteed ~30k DPS before the player's DPS is factored in. It also provides a solid reason for us to level and gear multiple companions rather than picking only one of the 6 (soon to be 8) available and ignoring the rest.

This exact model already works really well in FF14 and is incredibly popular among solo players there. ESO already has the hard part done for this (the companions themselves) and just needs to figure out a system for letting us choose to use multiple at once in group-designed situations (still limit to one in overland content). Then just tweak the few dungeons that have progression locks currently due to group puzzles.

FelisCatus · January 2024

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Below is a summary of the things they stated, organized into what's coming, what's on the to-do list, and what's planned. For the full information in its proper context, please read the whole article. They also discussed the Gold Road chapter a bit, but I left that part out as there are other discussion threads for the Gold Road story, scribing, etc.

https://massivelyop.com/2024/01/18/elder-scrolls-onlines-gold-road-chapter-takes-players-back-to-oblivions-best-city-on-june-3/

Things that are coming up!

1. Food and Potion hybridization with U41!
2. Infinite Archive will be expanded on, but no spoilers yet!
3. Siege Stacking (part of their effort to reduce inventory pressure without just adding more slots)
4. Continued work on pvp performance. Something PvP related but NOT related to Cyrodiil. “PvP is definitely a big part of our future.”
5. Just going to directly quote the article here "ZOS says years 1-9 were all about figuring the game out, figuring out what the game is and who wanted to play it. Ten and beyond is about more content and improving the game tech and making it all more accessible – and that includes more basegame improvements."

Things that are on their to-do list
2. Story Mode for dungeons (but not happening anytime soon)
3. Improvements for guilds
4. Further work on pvp performance

Things they are saying there are currently no plans to-do.
1. Major sweeping overhauls
2. Puzzles that gate progression. They want to do better puzzles, but they will continue to be easy.
3. Harder overland

Honorable mention

1. ZOS knows we want cross-save but they won't promise anything.

What do you guys think?

They need to add class change for QoL

SilverBride · January 2024

VDoom1 wrote: »

Personally I'd love some sort of preview of furniture crafting recipes. So you can see what a chair looks like, before you learn the recipe.

We can do that now. Just choose the recipe and click "R" to preview it.

This is how it works on PC, not sure about consoles. I don't believe this is from an add-on because I don't know any of mine that include that feature.

LunaFlora · January 2024

yea the basegame of eso has the option to preview furniture plans.
it's the square button on PlayStation and i believe x button on Xbox and when using a controller on PC.

Jammy420 · January 2024

Taking ten years to figure the game out sounds like a cop out to me, sorry not sorry. It took ten years of neglecting pvp, faceroll overland difficulty, disrespect to the community, to the veteran players, and to a ton of players in general, to get to the playerbase we have now, sure, but let us not sugar coat it.

Just excuses and posturing imo.

Jammy420 · January 2024

Nihilr wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

* Food and Potion hybridization with U41!
* Infinite Archive... expanded on...
* Siege Stacking...
* Continued work on pvp performance. Something PvP related but NOT related to Cyrodiil...
* Story Mode for dungeons (but not happening anytime soon)
* ZOS knows we want cross-save but they won't promise anything.

* Food and potion hybridization!! I hope they just reduce the total recipes. So much redundancy... I understand writs, and culture related dishes for immersion, but it's kinda out of hand.
* IA was expected. Also expect the same with Scribing in the future too.
* Siege stacking! Related: Furnishings bag maybe next with the Q3 housing feature?
* PvPer's should be happy. But I'm sure we'll hear tons of "I'm not going to get excited until we know exactly what it is." blah blah. lol
* STORY. MODE. Yes. Needed for solo/co-op players (ahem, my husband and I). Most anticipated feature out of all of this.
* Cross-saving will be perfect when they discontinue older consoles for data transfer!! This allows them to grow without weakest system memory holding back the whole game. Awesome.

If they didnt have a track record of ignoring pvpers in the pts, and all around, maybe we wouldn't be so skeptical. Cause and effect.

XSTRONG · January 2024

LunaFlora wrote: »

yea the basegame of eso has the option to preview furniture plans.
it's the square button on PlayStation and i believe x button on Xbox and when using a controller on PC.

Am I the only one thinking preview for Leads needs to happen?

If you get a lead you can press square to see the furniture or Mythic, now when I just get a random lead drop somewhere i rarley scry it.