Studio Director’s Letter: 2025 & Beyond

blktauna · April 8

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.

Syldras · April 9

There has been so much info beforehand about the upcoming content this time (also on live server: the jubilee cake description, the achievement list, the login screen...), it reduces the hype somehow. Of course I'm still curious about seeing pictures and about details like new systems or additions to old systems (I'm especially wondering whether there will be more companions or whether they'll finally add new quests to the old ones), but compared to the last few years... Let's say I enjoyed it more when we had been given some riddle to interpret and speculate about and the reveal stream was an actual surprise.

twisttop138 · April 9

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.

GatheredMyst · April 9

twisttop138 wrote: »

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.

The fun thing about peeking before Christmas here is that the glimpse we got only felt like a taste next to the things stated in the letter earlier in the year.

That means things are still, potentially, very interesting

Cooperharley · April 10

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.

srmalloy · April 10

LamiaCritter wrote: »

Please, do not turn this into a FOMO nightmare where stuff is on pointless, needless timers that can pressure us into log in for the sake of 'metrics'.

Turning it into a FOMO thing may run up against fallout from the EU's recent enforcement action singling out Star Stable Online, which states that the EU views specific monetization strategies in the form of in-game currencies as being designed to manipulate and deceive customers into spending more money on the game. There is as yet no suggestion as to how or when the EU intends to spread this action to other MMOs, but there is more than enough hate and discontent coming from MMO publishers to create a huge cloud of FUD about what this will mean going forward, and we're going to have to sit back and see how the various MMO publishers ultimately work out what their response is going to be to this.

Pevey · April 11

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.

gc0018 · April 19

"Introducing Seasons"

How about adding a feature to cancel the preordered season? As well as refund of ESO+ based on used time?

I am so stupid to just pay a half year subscription and preorder, then I realize something call subclass comes out and which seems like going to ruin everything.
I would rather have my money back and wait to see if the game survives then make the decision.

The_Meathead · April 19

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.

Syldras · April 19

Let's say it's interesting that, when there was the first clear diminishment of new release content (it was the Greymoor year - so after the releases of Morrowind, Summerset and Elsweyr which are still considered to be the best releases by many until today), ZOS explained it with working (especially coordination between teams) being more difficult momentarily due to Covid.

They also promised that things will return to the old level after Covid, btw. Let's say: It's been a while...

It's all still on the website, in the news articles, in particular in the end-of-year letters and chapter reveal posts.

axan22 · April 22

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.

Displaced_Salad · April 25

Every year the promises. Every year they're either not delivered upon or half-baked at best. There are bugs from release because new content heaped on old code, with no fixes at the time, plus rotating staff make fixing things a practical impossibility. New bugs going unfixed have less of a pass, and demonstrate the priorities at work.

I'm sorry to be the cynical sad sack, but this is the same stuff we hear every year, and while there have been SOME positive changes, they've not delivered by and large. Of course, no change is going to please everyone. But what really NEEDS to be done is a shut down, and a thorough code cleanup, no matter how many people get peeved, in order to ensure the game continues to function. It means profit loss in the short term. It means possible loss of players. It's also the cost of doing business, and whomever came up with this brilliant idea should have learned, and implemented, systems to offset these issues. A transaction requires both parties provide, and one half of this transaction isn't doing a great job.

imPDA · 9:22AM

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.