Abuse Early, Abuse Often - The Crucial Key to Playing ESO

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

This variant of the old phrase seems to apply to ESO in spades.

In Craglorn we see yet again what ZOS have done repeatedly since launch:

1) release ill-tested and thought-out content

2) the few players able to play this content on day 1 see how to abuse the poorly-considered mechanics and manage to gain a massive lead on everyone else

3) ZOS see this and their knee-jerk reaction is to inflict a skull-crack with the nerf-bat.

4) the vast majority who weren't able to abuse early and abuse often are left doing a huge-ass grind trying to catch up.

ZOS, have you ANY CLUE how demotivating this is? Not content with trying to force people into groups to do content no one wants to do you then destroy the one aspect of Craglorn that appealed to people because it avoided the mind-numbing VR grind few choose to do because they enjoy it.

/golfclap

Wavemoore

I wasn't surprised they closed it down, but I understand what you are saying. I did grind anomalies from VR9 to VR11. And while I was group up during the grind I saw the same comment over and over:

"Man, it's sad that this is more entertaining than VR questing"

And at the time I agreed!! By VR9 I was soooo sick of the VR quest content that the grind was a relief. This is coming from a quester. I've never liked grinding, so the impact of VR is real, and negative.

I think the folks at Zenimax have this grand vision that they are struggling to implement from paper to gameplay. The idea to force grouping in Craglorn is an example of that. You get the guys saying hey, this is an MMO, you should expect to group.

Okay, well, spend a few minutes in Craglorn spamming LFG for quest xxx and you'll soon find that approach isn't going to be all that easy. So folks take the obvious shortcut.

The other part of that is finding 3 others who happen to be on the same exact steps of the quest that you are. Even in guild that's a challenge.

But to your original point, it does seem to be true that so far the releases have just helped the exploiters stay at cap and ahead of the curve while the nerf hammer keeps the masses at bay.

ZiRM

ZOS has always rewarded the exploiters and continued to do so with craglorn.

crislevin

I felt the Craglorn was rushed, they put it out as "much-needed" content because they are losing on the normal content.

They force people to group in Craglorn, but can't fix the grouping mechanism.

This decision also makes a new zone practically inaccessible for many, many, many solo players.

Hammerswarm

The fact that Anomalies were so popular should have been a clue to Zenimax that their current veteran rank model is terrible.

really I am suppose to play through the whole game, 3 times, to get to the VR 12 content which is suppose to include "end game" raiding?

The problem is that the veteran levels don't feel like a reward. Going from level 1 to 50 progressed my character; there was a story I was invested in, areas to explore, and a reason to keep going.

VR seems like I am grinding out levels so that I can participate in the end game content. The "rewards" seem to be lacking at best as the best gear is crafted, so I am really just leveling up so that I can wear gear that I've already crafted. to play through "experiences" that are incentivized to be done quickly and repetitively(trials).

Where is the option for long PVE dungeons with technical and difficult fights based on sustained tanking, damage, and healing?

Why isn't veteran content distributed evenly between veteran levels so that each level feels like a stop along the way instead of a long climb to the point where veteran content becomes accessible?

Zepheric

There are other grinds you know? Still ways to get ahead without questing etc what is this thread about? Don't you know these type of people have existed since the beginning of MMO time.

Valn

I actually agree with Wave, i enjoyed grinding the anomalies than doing vr questing

kaosodin

Nothing is perfect. If you can do better, do it. To many arm chair programmers.

If your not having fun.... roll on....... personally is makes me sad to see so many people who expected perfection from day one. Its un realistic..... after 60 days, if there are no improvements, than I will roll out also

But lets be fair.... your boss gave you 90 to see if you could handle the job you have.

ipkonfigcub18_ESO

I am a fan of solo questing
I am a fan of grouping for events/dungeons

I am NOT a fan of Crag at all.

dracobains_ESO

kaosodin wrote: »

Nothing is perfect. If you can do better, do it. To many arm chair programmers.

If you can afford to bankroll me I would be happy to design one.

Ragnar_Lodbrok

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

This variant of the old phrase seems to apply to ESO in spades.

In Craglorn we see yet again what ZOS have done repeatedly since launch:

1) release ill-tested and thought-out content

2) the few players able to play this content on day 1 see how to abuse the poorly-considered mechanics and manage to gain a massive lead on everyone else

3) ZOS see this and their knee-jerk reaction is to inflict a skull-crack with the nerf-bat.

4) the vast majority who weren't able to abuse early and abuse often are left doing a huge-ass grind trying to catch up.

ZOS, have you ANY CLUE how demotivating this is? Not content with trying to force people into groups to do content no one wants to do you then destroy the one aspect of Craglorn that appealed to people because it avoided the mind-numbing VR grind few choose to do because they enjoy it.

/golfclap

Dont forget to add that unless you are light armor and staff you are doing it wrong.

Ragnar_Lodbrok

kaosodin wrote: »

Nothing is perfect. If you can do better, do it. To many arm chair programmers.

If your not having fun.... roll on....... personally is makes me sad to see so many people who expected perfection from day one. Its un realistic..... after 60 days, if there are no improvements, than I will roll out also

But lets be fair.... your boss gave you 90 to see if you could handle the job you have.

No one expected perfection, they just expect competence from the devs.

Maverick827

kaosodin wrote: »

Nothing is perfect. If you can do better, do it. To many arm chair programmers.

If your not having fun.... roll on....... personally is makes me sad to see so many people who expected perfection from day one. Its un realistic..... after 60 days, if there are no improvements, than I will roll out also

But lets be fair.... your boss gave you 90 to see if you could handle the job you have.

This is not programming. This is design. A person without the technical knowledge commenting on how easy fixing a bug would be is "armchair programming." We create terms like this to highlight the distance between an educated person and an uneducated person.

While there is an art to game design, ultimately the point is to create systems in which players have fun, and this is not a learned field of study. Players know whether or not they are having fun. Thus, the gap between player and designer is not as far as the gap between player and programmer. A player commenting on design holds more weight than a player commenting on programming.

crislevin

ipkonfigcub18_ESO wrote: »

I am a fan of solo questing
I am a fan of grouping for events/dungeons

I am NOT a fan of Crag at all.

true to that, somehow the heavy handed and botched design of the Craglorn earns no love from anyone, and rightfully so.

crislevin

dracobains_ESO wrote: »

kaosodin wrote: »

Nothing is perfect. If you can do better, do it. To many arm chair programmers.

If you can afford to bankroll me I would be happy to design one.

give me 100 million, I will go out to learn C++ now.

Makarion

It's depressing, since I've met some cool people in ESO, but perhaps it's becoming time to shut the account down for a few months and see whether they implement something fun to do beyond level 50. Alts aren't an option to keep enjoying the game, since VR made sure we've seen the content already (baffling stupid idea, that), and there's no dailies. Dungeons are very unrewarding, if you can even find people to do them with. All the PVP campaigns I have visited were as dead as a dodo. That leaves more or less roleplay - and there's better media for RP if that's ALL there is to do.

NerfEverything

The players with access to the PTS found all the exploits, kept them to themselves, and exploited them like crazy as soon as craglorn went live.

Thank god Zen opened up the PTS to everyone, because the people they had previously given access to were as*holes

Ragnar_Lodbrok

NerfEverything wrote: »

The players with access to the PTS found all the exploits, kept them to themselves, and exploited them like crazy as soon as craglorn went live.

Thank god Zen opened up the PTS to everyone, because the people they had previously given access to were as*holes

It will still be the same.