I've seen you few times in the game, and thought that your character looks awesome with this polymorph and name

When this crate season started, I previewed items in it. I buy polymorphs only if I like their voices, so I thought: "Nice details on the model, but I need to know how it sounds like". Then I saw other player wearing this polymorph, and asked him to perform some emotes. When I heard the iconic laugh of Molag Bal from him, I just opened the store and purchased it for 400 gems... Using this polymorph returned me to being active in ESO again, because everything I do I do as Molag Bal on vacation Epic battles, or silly situations, or hilarious roleplay - it's all so interesting when using this polymorph. I never knew I needed this item, and now I can't imagine playing without it!



I also left feedback on it, including few missing sounds and missed opportunities such as adding this laugh somewhere too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjRMo0Bx3Nw

Not only it's very expensive item, it also represents very famous entity in the game - it can only be done once, so it should be perfect in all features.
So when I read PTS patch notes, which stated "When equipped with the Illusive Molag Bal polymorph, some small adjustments were made so that you will now sound even more like the Daedric Prince himself!" - I was so excited! I thought that the feedback was heard, so our Molag Bal will actually get few missing sounds added (some attacks, "giddy up", angry), and maybe even that satisfied laugh too (would sound epic on damaging Ultimates such as Dawnbreaker, and the same voice should have been on Break Free as well).
I installed PTS and tested light/heavy attacks with this polymorph. "Hmm, that voice doesn't match Molag Bal... So weird." Then I used /laugh to see if they added something there - and I was devastated. Designers simply removed the recognizable voice from the image of the most famous ESO character

Battle voice cries of Molag Bal were originally used for Illusion polymorph. They all can be heard in the end of main quest, and in Barathrum Centrata (Imperial Sewers).

1. That is not "small adjustment" as mentioned in patch notes, that's complete removal of the voice of Molag Bal! New voice would be nice for some other unreleased polymorph, but not for already existing recognizable character.
2. Replacing the voice of polymorph is removing 50% of the cosmetic item's functionality! Such thing is absolutely against the official policy of not altering any cosmetic item unless it was bugged/broken. And based on what we hear from Molag Bal in quests and Dolmens, this voice was working as intended - it really helped to immerse in proper roleplay as Dark Father.

Effectively, Molag Bal polymorph was removed from my gameplay, because I have no reason to use it now with unrecognizable generic evil voice. I logged in, confirmed that there is no longer proper voice, and unequipped this polymorph until this is fixed, hopefully.

Cosmetics is my end-game. I get huge dophamine by observing beautiful mounts/hearing sounds which I like. Getting no new mount every ~2 months is content starvation for me To explain the impact of nice cosmetic item removal: imagine if Arcanist class was suddenly removed from the game. Yes, we lived many years without it, but since it's addition to the game many players tried and loved it. It's unthinkable to just remove it. That's how unthinkable is such drastic change to cosmetic item!

My PTS feedback on this unwanted change was ignored by developers

Even if I ask for refund, the harm done to my game enjoyment is huge. I can't buy anything even remotely as fun as this polymorph (with old voice, of course). Giving such awesome item and removing it is heartbreaking!

Please, revert this change soon! Help players to get back to enjoying their harmless roleplay as Molag Bal!
@ZOS_MattFiror

I, too, find myself disappointed by the changes but after my experience with the 'Grim Focus Permaglow' conundrum it seems to me that the only sane course of action is to forget that I acquired the polymorph until either I stop finding it vexing, they sunset the servers or I move on from ESO, whatever happens first.

I do however wish you luck in your endeavour; the fact that it seems hopeless to me doesn't mean that is not justified.

Try @ZOS_Kevin - Gina's moved on to some other department (something to do with "content creators" IIRC). Maybe Kevin can pass stuff on.

Thank YOU @ZOS_Kevin!

not a fan of changing up something like this down the road on a cosmetic that cost a LOT of gems!

So having to experience the change personally, I don't like it. Feels cheap to change something when people have paid gems or endeavors for an item.

I mentioned this in the other thread but the change feels jarring. Pretty much everyone who has played ESO's knows Molag Bal's voice even if you haven't done the main quest you probably done at least 1 dolmen and heard a line from him. The new voice sounds nowhere near like him.

I get that your probably wanted to add a whole voice set since you were already recycling Molag's combat sounds anyways and he doesn't have one for every action like Break Free, but I can live with that. I "paid" for Molag Bal cosplay not some random Dremora voice or something that could fit some other Daedric Prince like Sanguine (I'm not sure he even has a canon voice aside from the Skyrim one). On that note, why didn't you give this to one of the old polymorphs that's been lacking a few sounds like Solstheimstone Incarnate.

Personally I want a reversion, I don't know if you couldn't get the old voice actor for Bal back or not but if you really want to do this, just hire the guy back to do a few lines.

You would expect that after the Grim Focus perma glow/Gloambound weapons issue that ZOS would approach these kinds of changes a bit more carefully.

People pay real money for some of these cosmetics. I don't care what reasons ZOS has for changing them, but they should at least offer refund options when drastic changes are made.

Should players be concerned that the next Poly with custom voice might get ''adjusted'' after they purchase it?

Thanks everyone for helping to bring official attention to this problem! Let's hope that this change will be reverted!

To the designer(s) who've created new voice: the voice itself is good job, and it should be used for some new polymorph in future Just don't change Molag Bal and any of existing/non-bugged cosmetics like this ever again

Dragonredux wrote: »

I get that your probably wanted to add a whole voice set since you were already recycling Molag's combat sounds anyways and he doesn't have one for every action like Break Free, but I can live with that. I "paid" for Molag Bal cosplay not some random Dremora voice or something that could fit some other Daedric Prince like Sanguine (I'm not sure he even has a canon voice aside from the Skyrim one). On that note, why didn't you give this to one of the old polymorphs that's been lacking a few sounds like Solstheimstone Incarnate.

Personally I want a reversion, I don't know if you couldn't get the old voice actor for Bal back or not but if you really want to do this, just hire the guy back to do a few lines.

With access to many clean voice samples of Molag Bal in the game and modern technology, I think it's possible to create few missing sounds for Molag Bal Illusion polymorph. Of course, the actual voice lines done by the actor can never be surpassed, but I just want to get the recognizable character's audio back

This polymorph has a short scream assigned to Break Free, but you don't hear it because this ability is bugged for more than 2 years now. All the years before it became bugged, our characters were performing powerful screams when breaking free. Now, they just quietly "sigh" when breaking free, which is awful and makes the combat feel awkwardly silent Besides aesthetic enjoyment and adrenaline from those battle cries, that scream used to be the reliable indication if my character actually broke free in the middle of battle with lot of visual noise...

You can hear how our characters should sound when breaking free only in two ways (that I personally know of): Dawnbreaker ultimate, and /rollingpin emote.
So, Molag Bal Illusion polymorph's Break Free scream (in original version) is powerful, but short. It's ok if they fix the Break free audio, at least it's his voice. But my personal opinion is that he should laugh in the face of those who tried to dominate him with their crown control effects That's why I propose to use this cool laugh as Dawnbreaker/Break Free line. The short scream can be moved into one of angry emotes - as original polymorph didn't have any voice for that at all.

I also think that the new voice (which is mistakenly assigned to Molag Bal now) would sound good on the Sanguine polymorph, but I was hesitating to say that, so I'm glad that you did! I played Skyrim more than 10 years ago, so I don't remember Sanguine's voice there. But Molag Bal has different voices in Skyrim and in ESO, so there should not be a problem if in ESO Sanguine would have a new voice...

As for Solstheimstone Incarnate, it's one of the best polymorphs in ESO (in both appearance and voice), please do not mention it like that! I use it on my main character now. It has nicely edited voice (for all actions/emotes) which really fits the icy monster image:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUEMVjH7DBk

It only has simple human whistle when summoning a mount, but it's like 1% of his total functionality. Some other polymorphs also have simple whistle when calling their mount. Edits to voices for this action would be welcome, but overall this icy creature sounds great! If his voice was replaced, I would absolutely create a thread on forums with the same displeasure as I have for the voice change of Molag Bal Illusion

TheKaan wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

If others have feedback on the Molag’s Polymorph, please sound off here. Feedback is helpful for the team to assess. Thanks, all.

The suggestion that ZOS are ripping people off by changing a polymorph voice is silly. They didn't spend time and money to spite anyone.

Moreover, some of the original audio was weak. Casting Dawnbreaker sounded like you'd just stepped on an elderly crow, and many jokes were made about it. Now it sounds hilariously aggressive. Much more bang for your buck.

I feel bad disagreeing with the original post, and understand the appeal of taking McDowell's voice with us wherever we go, but I'd like the other side to be heard too. This was not a downgrade.

There will of course always be people on either side of things when there are two options to choose between. The problem here is that many people bought this poly (or bought crates with getting it being one of the goals) while it had the original sound effects. I don't think there's many people claiming it was specifically done to spite us, but it does mean the thing we bought no longer functions in the way we expected and that made us want it in the first place. I'm pretty sure this is a valid complaint.

The new voice in isolation is fine, but it is not Molag Bal. To many of us that is a downgrade.

It's not as if there aren't enough tracks of the original voice to GenAI a new set of lines in the same 'voice' You're owned by GenAI central now zos, make use of the tools.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi folks, just wanted to give a quick update. The team has been looking into feedback in the thread and taking it into consideration to see if there is a happy medium that can be found. They are also going to take a look at process and see how changes like this can either be avoided or better explained if they happen. The intention is always to try and make things better and not a nefarious switch. That being said, we understand where some are coming from with frustration in the change.

This will take some time to evaluate what can be done at this point, as the process is not a simple switched back to pre-U43. For transparency here, the earliest we'll hear back on where the team lands on this is post-U44. Again, if you have any strong feelings one way or another about the audio for the Molag Bal Polymorph, please let us know in the thread for the teams consideration. Thanks!

ZOS had a previously and explicitly stated policy of not making these sorts of changes. Ever. After a debacle many years ago. Why this policy seems to have been disregarded in this case is a clear failure of internal processes. The only acceptable solution is to revert it.



SoundFx should absolutely be considered "live art"

Even though I don't personally own the Polymorph, I agree with the OP's perspective completely.

However, when it comes to assets they don't already have ("giddyup, for example), if ZOS were to use AI tools to generate those assets in McDowell's voice without his express permission, they could and should be sued. So careful what you wish for.

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi folks, just wanted to give a quick update. The team has been looking into feedback in the thread and taking it into consideration to see if there is a happy medium that can be found. They are also going to take a look at process and see how changes like this can either be avoided or better explained if they happen. The intention is always to try and make things better and not a nefarious switch. That being said, we understand where some are coming from with frustration in the change.

This will take some time to evaluate what can be done at this point, as the process is not a simple switched back to pre-U43. For transparency here, the earliest we'll hear back on where the team lands on this is post-U44. Again, if you have any strong feelings one way or another about the audio for the Molag Bal Polymorph, please let us know in the thread for the teams consideration. Thanks!

ZOS had a previously and explicitly stated policy of not making these sorts of changes. Ever. After a debacle many years ago. Why this policy seems to have been disregarded in this case is a clear failure of internal processes. The only acceptable solution is to revert it.



SoundFx should absolutely be considered "live art"

It seems pretty clear that this policy has been quietly abandoned. See the thread on the Grim Focus permaglow.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi folks, just wanted to give a quick update. The team has been looking into feedback in the thread and taking it into consideration to see if there is a happy medium that can be found.

While the reply is appreciated, I don't think any of us see how there can be a happy medium. People who want the original sounds restored simply want the original sounds restored. People who favour the new sounds will continue to favour the new sounds. It's not as though an option will be added so we can switch sound profiles for this one poly, or as though we'll be given a second free poly that looks the same with the other sounds.

Many players, myself included, believed there was an understanding art assets would not be changed. Yet here we are. The player base has struggled to feel real trust in the development process for a long time now and things like this, relatively minor as it may be in some ways, chip away into what trust remains. Can I now trust anything I buy from the crown store or try to get from a crate to remain as it is? It doesn't feel like it.

Metafae wrote: »

[snip]

If that's the case then all they need to do is say as much. I'm quite sure almost everyone unhappy about this would be much more understanding of the situation if this was confirmed as true.

[edited to remove quote]

Agree with above, it's very likely a legal issue.