I wonder what the ban keywords will be this time. I find it very annoying to see all the "removed by moderator" messages replace legitimate questions as the chat rolls by.

sans-culottes wrote: »

I am curious to find out what is planned.

I find myself very curious. I may have cheated a little and peaked at the presents before Christmas but my hope is there will be much more. I find the idea of Solstice very interesting. I also hope to hear about the long awaited and much discussed overland difficulty. That's a can of worms I won't open beyond saying I hope Zos lands the plane, so to speak. I know for myself, some kind of difficulty option, maybe with varying degrees, would be ideal. Keyword option. Anyway, I will be at work tomorrow at 3 Eastern but I am moving my lunch from 230 to 330 and I know it'll be on my mind for sure. Good luck to us all lol.

I’m just excited for change to be frank.

Having the same formula over and over again becomes very stale, which is dangerous for a live service game as is evident by our declined playerbase here. Hopefully this change of structure will bring many back and excite the masses! I’m sure excited to see what they have cooking, albeit cautiously excited.

I think there was a missed opportunity here to really push ESO+ as something other than just a crafting bag. If that's all it is, free ESO+ promotions are enough for a lot of ppl. They can just stuff the bag full at those times and coast on it the rest of the time.

Putting this content into ESO+ and then spreading that over the year (so you need to stay subscribed) could have been a bigger overall boost to revenue and more stable. And would have garnered a much more positive response from ESO's most loyal supporters, which are long-time subscribers. Getting more people to sub and stay subbed would surely outweigh the lumpy content pass revenue, and I suspect this one is going to bomb. But who knows.

The lack of clarity regarding the Season Pass and ESO+ feels either a little intentional or else a massive misstep, and the Subclassing has me tremendously worried because after U35 I lost a lot of faith in how really in tune the Devs are with their own game, at this point. It just feels like they're biting off too much when I look at their performance over the past year or two, particularly in balance.

This is the first time I haven't instantly pushed the button when a new Xpac (ok, Season Pass) hits.

That's no small thing, nor is the fact I'm changing my sub from year to monthly.

I can't imagine I'm alone in this feeling or response.

Art refresh of other base zones wasn't mentioned so now we have great looking starter zones and dlc zones but the main zones could really do with the same work i spend so many hours in capital cites etc and would love if these got the same refresh as started zones did. Some old mob models too like original werewolves, normal wolves and bears etc including warden summon bear, would also be amazing, especially as we are now getting what would have be a chapter halfed and called a season, we used to get a chapter zone plus a story zone. so 2 zones now we down to half a zone every 6 months, and after checking solstice out on pts its not a very big half of a zone. (i did notice its way cheaper to buy so thats a plus side)

Also companions ?? this was stated to be a system that would be added too not just more companions but added to again nothing mentioned, just that we weren't getting anymore this year.

I love us getting new quests in existing zones etc and can see full updates on quests in zones we already have and this is great with returning characters etc, and reason to return to older zones.

I'm not a fan of PVP but did actually enjoy vengeance and the changes that were made as you didn't have to have a super pvp build just to have a bit fun.

It is time to see what was done

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

Turning the Page on Chapters 
we are putting Chapters aside and will be focusing on new types of content, and a new release philosophy. More on that below. DONE.

we are going to have new zone-based content launch in 2025 - but you'll have to wait until April to hear the specifics about how it is different. Stay tuned! I am not sure. Can somebody recall what new zone-based content is?

Introducing Seasons  
Freeing up the dev team from needing to adhere to a strict annual cycle means we will be able to have teams launch content when it is ready throughout the year and not work to a date in June DONE.

A new focus on change and experimentation  
Here are some of the ideas that we are working on, some of which you may see on the live servers as tests in 2025 and beyond. Some of these will be tests and some will be improvements based on player feedback: 

• We need to seriously address Cyrodiil performance. Our (ambitious) goal is to return it to the concurrency levels we supported in 2014. 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. IN PROGRESS

•  Increasing the difficulty of standard overworld combat NO?

• Improving the overall feel of combat with animation, FX, and potentially audio work DONE

• Experimenting with more zones like Craglorn (although not as large in area or scope), created exclusively for high-end group and soft-group content with associated gear chase NO?

• Adding and refining tools to make guild recruitment, interaction, and management easier and more logical MAYBE?

Concentrating on new and returning user experience 
Here are just a few of the items planned to improve the new and returning user experience – some of these will launch in 2025, some afterwards:  

• A new patcher, with improved visuals and performance (PC only) Is it about launcher? I closed launcher but it is still in processes. Every time I close the game, launcher freezes for a couple of minutes. FAIL.

• 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 IDK

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

• Not showing new players prologue quest or Chapter quest compass pins. The jury is still out on how Stuga will feel about this IDK

• Sprucing up the game's PC UI, which is long overdue for a modern visual upgrade DONE

• Other map and UI systems (still in design/idea stage) to make returning to the game more seamless and get you back into the action quickly Something was done

Continuing to tell great stories
Yes, I guess.

Wasn't sold on the way this content was presented, and the first time I didn't participate in new content.

The letter leaves me unconvinced, as do the recent changes to the game that have left the experience feeling janky (animations). Combat feels like it's from an earlier game, writing oversimplifies what could have been a complex story with multiple choices and outcomes (Necrom/West Weald finale)

Syldras wrote: »

"Freeing up the dev team from needing to adhere to a strict annual cycle means we will be able to have teams launch content when it is ready throughout the year and not work to a date in June"
"Improving the overall feel of combat with animation, FX, and potentially audio work"
"Continuing to tell great stories"
Can be disputed.

"Sprucing up the game's PC UI, which is long overdue for a modern visual upgrade"
Was mostly badly received.

"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"
Yes, they did replace the last one with the old one again.

"Not showing new players prologue quest or Chapter quest compass pins."
It was on PTS where I last played a new character, but for him, Davon's Watch was still cluttered with all kinds of prologue npcs with quest markers.

Considering that many things that were announced as improvements ended badly, I'm worried for next year.

I'm also worried for next year. This letter reads as a way to give us less and make us pay more. So in that, they were successful. They also found a way to decrease the quality of many things along the way, so bonus points, maybe? We don't need to rehash all the bad points of this year, but something in the letter stands out to me. Freeing up the dev team from chapters. It's my opinion that we need to call that a wash. This transition year showed that without the rigid structure of the yearly release cadence, they went right down. I understand the complaints of chapters being stale and wanting new things but it looks like they are unable to do fresh and new right. Points for trying, and keep trying but this year was such a mess that they need to have a showstopper year. A real banner performance in 2026 to get it back on track.

I really hope that the 2026 directors letter lays out a real road map that gives us an idea of the great content to come and dispenses with the self congratulatory back patting typical of the last guy. We've seen this new leadership to be unafraid to take real responsibility and transparency. Even knowing that that transparency would surely cause a firestorm. So here's to 2026. I think we're all ears.