Thank you for your letters.

I would like you to address the monetization system you have now. It is very difficult to get new players to join game, when the game first needs you to buy it, then sub every month if they want basic QOL system on. On top of that there is the gambling with loot crates. Please remove them. Just have a crown store for cosmetics like all honorable games do. Don't make people, put money in items they don't get.

My friend saw me streaming the game, bought it. Premium, all chapters 80 hecking euro, ready to do switch from WoW to ESO. Then he noticed, still have to pay sub to be able to enjoy the new shiny game. Then still needed to put 30 euros, to get a merchant to be able to handle the inventory. I don't want to trick my friends to play this game, it is utterly embarrassing.

And it is so sad, bc I have 6000h in the game, and I love so many aspects of it.

You have put world events that need groups to finish, like the Deadlands walking boss, or the Blackwood portals. Usually there is never people to help.
We need more players! You get more players when you have a fair system in all parts. Be inviting. Don't trick people. People will bring the money in when they wanna support the game. Be that game.

I am happy that you have started to do changes. This is also urgent. We need more players. We wanna be proud to tell others we play ESO, and invite friends to join all the wonderful adventures Tamriel has for us.

I have been looking forward to this letter, and I'm pretty pleased with a lot of things:

• I saw this news post advertised everywhere today. The social media/mod team has their ducks in a row, and that is really nice to see. While the algorithms obviously realize I like ESO, it was almost uncanny how often I saw this put in front of me. We asked for you to communicate, and I feel VERY MUCH SO like you've not just waited, but REACHED OUT to me.
• The letter is from 3 very significant people. I appreciate getting to know *the team* better, not just 1 person who is going to take it all on their shoulders.
• I am especially glad to see that Nick started "with a moment of honest reflection," and it felt that way. We all know how this year's events were received by the community at large. Hiding that or brushing it off would've been disingenuous. Putting it off until the end would've felt like hiding it in the footnotes. Instead, you put it front and center, but you didn't just tuck your tail between your legs either, you offered real solutions for the future, reiterated what we've asked for, and mentioned real examples of what is already in-store for the future.
• Nobody likes a negative Nancy, and so it was also nice to see some real hints at what the future livestream and communication avenues hold for the community. I am looking forward to the upscaled overland difficulty SO MUCH I can't even put it into words! AMAs and additional communication opportunities are real examples of what we've requested, and that's fabulous.
• I know this is corny but... this letter felt personal. It felt like you cared about me reading it. It feels like you guys care about the game too... in Jo's section especially. I am excited to try new things, EVEN IF THEY FAIL, and I'm excited to have a team that wants to try. I want ESO to last a really long time, and that won't happen if new things aren't tried.

Thank you for your hard work and thank you for sticking with it even when we bluster and get frustrated. It really feels like our current team wants to create a wonderful future in Tamriel, and I'm excited to see it!

I am optimistic,because is I hear new dev group try to do good change
I still don't know what is,but it first time I can feel they excite

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/69117?newnew

Finally we have a clue what is going on.
Thank you Susan. (I would tag, but I have no idea what her @ZOS name is)

I’m extremely excited to see how this plays out.

Cautiously optimistic!

generally make more investment in the core game experience instead of just chasing the next big thing. We hear you. We agree.

This is concerning for me. I have little interest in slapping makeup on Deshaan if it means we don't get actual new areas to explore.
We'll have to wait til January to hear more, but my expectations are limited now.

laurajf wrote: »

2. Bad RNG for aspects of the game I enjoyed, creating a need for grinding (housing recipes, mats), artifact hunting. Limited play time means grinding with bad RNG means I was rarely getting anything I was after.

Yes, yes, yes! The only time I've come close to shutting down the game and uninstalling is when I've been chasing a lead for ages and it just won't drop. I'm not asking for easy, but if someone has done something a crazy amount of times and they still aren't being rewarded, why would they keep trying and playing? A pity system might be difficult because of having to track so many items, so maybe improve the drop rates? Or have a regular rotating time period where leads and such have an increased chance of dropping in a set of zones? Anything to make players feel that they'll be rewarded within a reasonable amount of time for the effort being put in.

Another way might be to consider the amount of time and effort involved to get a lead, and make the drop rates proportional to the effort. The greater the effort, the higher the drop rate. So end boss leads in dungeons - high drop rate. Delve boss leads - lower drop rate than leads from dungeon bosses. Etc.

Historically, this game has had a problem with rewarding players for time invested. It would be nice for that to ease up a bit.

MincMincMinc wrote: »

I'm sure if seige/oils was the simple answer to ballgroups there wouldn't be so many complaints about ballgroups. Seige is literally a joke now a days. You have your own problems to work on if that is what you or your group is dying to. Seige is telegraphed so easily, movement speed is nearly double what it used to be, players can literally be immune to soft cc 100% uptime. The only oils ever hitting you are ones you or your shot caller choose to stand in.

Really if I was to attribute the complaints to anything it is that zos replaced most play/counterplay core mechanics with set procs over the years. Players have to use item sets to disable core mechanics like roots and snares for example and then just worry about a select few meta gear sets that addons can detect for you. IMO having more play/counterplay mechanics enforced through the core skills or skill system is much healthier for the game than requiring people to go farm niche gear. (this doesn't drive dlc sales though) GvG was much more fun back in the day when groups actually dissected and pulled each other apart with player input. Now its more like a disjointed feeling where sets are entirely driving combat. Even having to rotate coordinate rapids isnt a thing anymore and it is replaced by snow treaders.

Honestly to boil it down further old eso felt more like a fighting game where the items and builds supplemented the actual combat system skill inputs you did. Now eso is more like a trading card game where your skills/inputs supplement your trading card set output.

This is correct and a good summary. Ballgroups now shrug off siege. Of course they are usually very mobile in keeps, so oils are useless. Cold fire is very powerful vs pugs, but is almost completely shielded now by ballgroups. Many ballgroups don't bother to take down doors, they let pugs on their or the opposing faction do it, then they run in and start their run-around-the keep game for 45 minutes.

Proc sets ruined the game, even though I use them happily myself. Vengeance was much more like combat circa 2108 before the monstrous proc set inflation, which is why I enjoyed it.

Your graph above was completely correct. Power per added player should be a linear effect, or additive. For example, 12 pugs put together has a power of approximately 12 if they are not coordinated (ie 12x a single player). Ideally, a coordinated group should have an additive power plus a variable. Eg 12+X, X being the factor added by coordination.

But ZOS has made group power exponential, in parabolic form. So: 2= power of 2^2)= 4, 4 = 4(^2) = 16, and 12 = 12(^2) = 144. It may not be strictly exponential at 12, ie there might be a plateau as you say, and it might be multiplicative for a 12 man, eg 12x4 = a power of 48 But this explains why many 4 man groups now are hard to kill by 10 or 15 pugs. It also explains why a good 12 man can run around a keep vs 40+ pugs and never die until they jump off the wall when it's their bedtime.

Again this is why vengeance was refreshing for a while, goods groups had a small but notable advantage.

It all comes down to preference. A lot of players prefer to play in god mode with insane defense/offense, max run speed, everything at once, no balance.

Also economics plays into this, godmode sells , pay to play, as has been noted many times

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

do you notice a trend...

The trend is painfully obvious, hopefully someone @ZoS takes notice but I'm not holding my breath!!