Phasing

GattacaGaming

I'm hoping to get an official response regarding the phasing in this game. I remember reading a post where Zenimax had talked about changing the way phasing works. I was hoping something would be done in this patch, however reading the patches notes tells me otherwise.

I've played many MMO's starting at Vanilla EQ. Out of all the MMO's this one by far has the craziest phasing and grouping system I've seen. I have many friends who play this game and a few family members. As of now i'm forced to level up 5 different characters just to quest with them because they all have different playtime's than me and each other. I do a quest or 2 ahead of them and poof i'm in a different phasing and can't help them with that quest. Sure I can travel to them if their leader and (hopefully) be put in their instance but its not guaranteed to work, nor should I have to. The higher level I get the more I feel like i'm playing a single player game. PvP is different as there is always a zerg to join.

90% of my leveling comes from questing and map completions. I run every dungeon as they come available but I only run them once because after the initial quest its just not worth the time as the exp is so bad. So my grouping is really limited by running these dungeons as phasing for quests and map completions is really borked for me and my friends. Its not fun or productive. This is an MMO yet the game is telling me otherwise.

I know some of you maybe don't see the issue here, however I come from an older MMO generation where Community and grouping play an integral part of the game and my overall positive experience. You can throw all the fancy quest dialog and story telling, graphics and cutting edge game mechanics at me, but having no one to share it with makes me sad.

BaddLarry

Like it or not, this isn't really an MMO. It's more like some weird single player game with some MMO parts splashed in for good measure. On one end, it's great because you get to see areas change when you complete things, but on the other you're locked out of the ability to aid those of a lower level than you. I don't really see them changing this as it appears to be an integral part of the gameplay.

xramirez535b14_ESO

BaddLarry wrote: »

Like it or not, this isn't really an MMO. It's more like some weird single player game with some MMO parts splashed in for good measure. On one end, it's great because you get to see areas change when you complete things, but on the other you're locked out of the ability to aid those of a lower level than you. I don't really see them changing this as it appears to be an integral part of the gameplay.

I'm certain they won't change it but there should be atleast a way to join your friend's instance to help them out.

Innocente

ESO is actually a Single Player game with Multi Player options in certain areas. It is Lobby Based, but you have no choice as to the Lobby you are tossed into. Back in development, the developers stated flatly that ESO was NOT an MMO; they backed off of that and subsequently sold it as such. However, it is really not an MMO.

It could have been; the tech was there in the Hero Engine to share all questing regardless of phases or stages. SWTOR has great quest sharing; even personal stories can be shared.

BaddLarry

xramirez535b14_ESO wrote: »

I'm certain they won't change it but there should be atleast a way to join your friend's instance to help them out.

Actually, I'm more concerned about phasing from a different aspect. I'm tired of going into quests and having them completed by 100 other people. I just did the Kwama dungeon quest in Grahtwood and I walked straight through the entire thing. Everything was dead straight up to the boss. I hit the boss two times and it was dead because a ton of other people were attacking it as well. These guys were not bots, they were all players. So I completed a dungeon with almost no effort. This kinda kills the whole "challenge" aspect of it for me.

GattacaGaming

Innocente wrote: »

ESO is actually a Single Player game with Multi Player options in certain areas. It is Lobby Based, but you have no choice as to the Lobby you are tossed into. Back in development, the developers stated flatly that ESO was NOT an MMO; they backed off of that and subsequently sold it as such. However, it is really not an MMO.

It could have been; the tech was there in the Hero Engine to share all questing regardless of phases or stages. SWTOR has great quest sharing; even personal stories can be shared.

Well that's disappointing. I should of done more research before I purchased the game. I assumed it was an MMO and I love the TES games. Have played them all multiple times and still play Morrowind.

Bottom line then It's failure on my part for not doing enough research before purchasing the game. This game would be so much more fun if phasing wasn't the way it was. That's subjective or course as some people will disagree.

SoulScream

I canceled over the phasing issues. I like the game and I would bet this gets fixed and I will subscribe again sometime. What cemented my decision was the last dungeon run I did. It took an hour to get our group in the same phase plus other bugs. The group leader bug got us several times. Sometimes we could invite a member then group leader functions would stop working and we couldn't invite the rest.

Rocksteady

Not to sounds like a cry baby but.... I really would like to play with my friends. I'm sure it'll get better when I hit the new group based content but the way phasing is, it scares me when they try to release anything group oriented simply because I can't really do anything with the group I want to play with since they might be a little ahead of me or vice-versa.

TESO, the online game where you can't play with your friends because "it's not an MMO"

EDIT- Also, the only "not MMO" thing about this game is the combat system... The rest is an MMO regardless of what they call it. Hell if it's not an MMO why am I paying standard MMO sub fees for it?

Badovinatz

BaddLarry wrote: »

Like it or not, this isn't really an MMO.

See, this is something I would like seen addressed by the devs and recognized by everybody in the "This is an MMO" crowd. It seems like when the conversation is revolving around item drop rates of items and the bot and gold seller problem, the most common statement is, " big whoop, this is an MMO." . When people start wanting starts wanting more UI and more phased "public" instancing, the "This game is NOT a real MMO" crowd pops out of their hole. In the big scheme of things, either the devs needs to address in no uncertain terms if this game is geared to being a CO-OP game, or a full blown MMO. It causes too many hard feelings and misunderstandings.

GattacaGaming

Badovinatz wrote: »

BaddLarry wrote: »

Like it or not, this isn't really an MMO.

See, this is something I would like seen addressed by the devs and recognized by everybody in the "This is an MMO" crowd. It seems like when the conversation is revolving around item drop rates of items and the bot and gold seller problem, the most common statement is, " big whoop, this is an MMO." . When people start wanting starts wanting more UI and more phased "public" instancing, the "This game is NOT a real MMO" crowd pops out of their hole. In the big scheme of things, either the devs needs to address in no uncertain terms if this game is geared to being a CO-OP game, or a full blown MMO. It causes too many hard feelings and misunderstandings.

Agreed

GattacaGaming

I remember putting in a ticket awhile back. 2-3 weeks ago asking about the phasing issue and basically saying the same thing in my original post. I've since deleted the response I got from them but they essentially told me that If I wanted to quest with my friends then I would have to only level that character when my friends are online, and to level another separate character when their offline

This is a pretty big issue for me personally. I was waiting to cancel my account until Craiglorn hit because I was seeing if they were going to address the phasing issue. Now It seems I'm just going to cancel and wait and see if they can address it. I got hit with the bank bug 3 times, I can handle the bots and bugs. All that didn't stop me from unsubscribing. The only thing I can't handle is the phasing =( and its not even a bug... its a design choice that they decided to implement.. which further confounds me.

edited for spelling

Phaedryn

GattacaGaming wrote: »

I remember putting in a ticket awhile back. 2-3 weeks ago asking about the phasing issue and basically saying the same thing in my original post. I've since deleted the response I got from them but they essentially told me that If I wanted to quest with my friends then I would have to only level that character when my friends are online, and to level another separate character when their offline

This is a pretty big issue for me personally. I was waiting to cancel my account until Craiglorn hit because I was seeing if they were going to address the phasing issue. Now It seems I'm just going to cancel and wait and see if they can address it. I got hit with the bank bug 3 times, I can handle the bots and bugs. All that didn't stop me from unsubscribing. The only thing I can't handle is the phasing =( and its not even a bug... its a design choice that they decided to implement.. which further confounds me.

edited for spelling

Yep, cancelled here as well...

BaddLarry

Badovinatz wrote: »

BaddLarry wrote: »

Like it or not, this isn't really an MMO.

See, this is something I would like seen addressed by the devs and recognized by everybody in the "This is an MMO" crowd. It seems like when the conversation is revolving around item drop rates of items and the bot and gold seller problem, the most common statement is, " big whoop, this is an MMO." . When people start wanting starts wanting more UI and more phased "public" instancing, the "This game is NOT a real MMO" crowd pops out of their hole. In the big scheme of things, either the devs needs to address in no uncertain terms if this game is geared to being a CO-OP game, or a full blown MMO. It causes too many hard feelings and misunderstandings.

Ha ha...got me there.

I would be one of the people that will tell you that item drop rates being low should be a part of a game that's designed to be paid for monthly because they don't want to rush through all the content and get all the spiffs in 40 hours like a traditional Elder Scrolls game. In that respect, yes...it does resemble an MMO. The only areas where it doesn't follow the MMO aspect is with the grouping and market. Honestly bots should have a hard time with this game for all the non-MMO elements it has. There's no reason to buy a ton of gold from anyone as there is no real market to buy from. Even in the guild I belong to the highest priced item goes for around 3000g. Even at level 25 I can afford that. I've even seen people selling Daedric Motifs for 5000g and again, this is something I could afford while being the most casual player.

ESO is a game where you should enjoy the content and the story. It's not like the typical "fetch" online game and unfortunately the difficulty isn't such that you really need anyone to help you out. Besides even when you don't want help there are actively 18 people running around you killing all the things in your quest so if you find yourself unable to progress you're either very unlucky or playing at 4:25AM EDT. My friend was level 24 while I was level 11 and he just stopped playing his main until I could catch up. This isn't unheard of because if you were playing Lineage 2 a level 95 character couldn't help a level 80 character with anything other than money and gear. You can still do that here.