PLEASE, give the community something.

Maximis_ESO

@ZOS_GinaBruno‌
@ZOS_PaulSage‌
@ZOS Any Employee

I have been playing ESO on and off for over a year now and I have enjoyed it greatly.

It does have some up and downs though and from a lot of playing I have come to some conclusions that I hope you can give us some insight to.

I recently started a post that was talking about possible reasons the game isn't doing so well. Now I'm not out to hate the game but I'm also not a strict fanboy. I love the ES IP and don't want the game going F2P because that is my worst fear.

I will no longer play the game if it goes F2P because I'm constantly being coerced into buying items and not play the game. That is besides the fact though.

Back to the main point, I have done so many things in the game. Grinded in Craglorn, PVP'ed in Cyrodil and quested through the faction lands and explored extensively. However, the main thing that I come across is people not being happy.

I have gone from 14 RL friends playing this game to 1. None of my guilds have any active members, all of them were once at 500 members with close to 100 people on at peak times.... now its down to about 15.

The thing that most players seem to want is options. Currently we are coerced, not forced to go to other factions lands to do their quests in order to level through our VR. This is a bad move, it killed my faction pride. I'm no longer with the Ebonheart Pact..... I'm just some other member of the DC.

Many of my friends and I came to the game for the AvA, which really fun btw but we are disappointed. We assumed that the 50+ and 50++ content would be an alternate way to advance to VR10. The Dev team made it sound like you would have lots of options to level.

To me, it seemed like VR would be achieved through dungeons, and questing/exploring in Cyrodil and if you wanted to you could go do the other factions lands if you were interested in the story/lore etc. But it is the opposite.

After discussing these issues with many people in grind groups I have come to the conclusion that I can't be the only one that is disappointed with the lack of options to level in a reasonable amount of time. I'm not asking for a hand out, I don't want it to be easy but I would like some options. PVP is very slow, the quests currently give me about 1/4 what a storyline quest gives me, player kills don't give a lot, etc. XP is slow.

On top of all that VR content is difficult for may average players, not everyone is able to play with friends and not everyone wants to play with people. This become a huge problem when someone that is a very average players goes to the VR zones. They become discouraged and quit, this is why I see so many VR 1-3 in my guilds that are no longer active.

All I'm asking for is options, grinding and busting through the main story seem to be the only effective way to level and it has driven a lot of people off. No ones seems to do side quests which are very interesting but they don't have a reason to, xp is too low and not worth the time you put into them.

I'm not out to hurt feelings or bash the game. I want the developers to be aware of the things I have noticed and see that there is a problem. If you have experienced this, or have friends that have post something so that we can get a response from the dev team. I can't tell my friends or guild mates that it will get better because I don't know if it will.


Many people, including myself have no idea what is going on, what the plan is, or when to expect something to change but one thing is for sure..... a change is needed and any information would be appreciated. I'm always trying to support and get people to play the game but its difficult because they only seem to enjoy the first 50 levels.

adowen_ESO

I agree 100%...things have got to change before bringing out new content. I have seen many forum posts that are similar and I myself have suggested alternative ways to level up-but I have heard nothing.

adowen_ESO

A lot of my guilds are dead now as well- with a large majority of the people quitting around VR2

bg22

"Sorry, we're closing this thread bc you didn't say this game was superduperawesome. We appreciate your feedback, but we really don't give a ***."

*Pew pew* *Shoots broom of Thread Closed* *Rides broom into the sunset as man-dress flaps in the wind*

vyndral13preub18_ESO

Agreed. I'm enjoying the game, and the VR content. I'll probably enjoy it through another character. But 2 at most is all I could handle. We need options. The first two options look at are dungeon and AvA xp, since they are currently in game. Maybe some variety to the dolmans to make grinding them not so bad

Maximis_ESO

bg22 wrote: »

"Sorry, we're closing this thread bc you didn't say this game was superduperawesome. We appreciate your feedback, but we really don't give a ***."

*Pew pew* *Shoots broom of Thread Closed* *Rides broom into the sunset as man-dress flaps in the wind*

Lol, I hope this doesn't happen. I just want some answer and I think the rest of the community does too. I figure if we talk about it enough, they will come around.

Maximis_ESO

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Agreed. I'm enjoying the game, and the VR content. I'll probably enjoy it through another character. But 2 at most is all I could handle. We need options. The first two options look at are dungeon and AvA xp, since they are currently in game. Maybe some variety to the dolmans to make grinding them not so bad

Yeah, right now in VR land.... exploration offers ZERO (0) xp. Makes me not want to explore..... Dolmens needs to be worth more for sure.

Right now, Cyrodil is a big waste of space. There are tons of caves and towns to quest at but the reward for doing so is so minimal that no one wants to and it just becomes a dead zone.

I know they said they have plans to a Darkness Falls type dungeon but they need to push that through quick. That is a huge incentive for PVP. It brings PVP and PVE together. PVP to get to the PVE dungeon which only your alliance has access too. It also balances AvA because the winning team goes into the dungeon, lowering their population etc. but this is for another thread lol.

Goibot

If they would stop with the easy way out in the vet levels by giving us quests that actually support our alliance instead. With it like it is you loos all immersion in the story. Also there doesn't need to be so many either. With it like it is, it just becomes a boring quest grind. If I want to see and experience the other alliance I would make an alt to do them.

Maximis_ESO

Goibot wrote: »

If they would stop with the easy way out in the vet levels by giving us quests that actually support our alliance instead. With it like it is you loos all immersion in the story. Also there doesn't need to be so many either. With it like it is, it just becomes a boring quest grind. If I want to see and experience the other alliance I would make an alt to do them.

That is exactly how I feel and that is what I was planning on doing. I loved in DAOC how I could play Albino for months and then switch alliance/factions and it was a completely different game. Sadly, I can't do that anymore. More quests to support your faction would be awesome. Even if they added PVE quest lines with good stories throughout Cyrodil to support your faction would be awesome.

Goibot

Maximis_ESO wrote: »

Lol, I hope this doesn't happen. I just want some answer and I think the rest of the community does too. I figure if we talk about it enough, they will come around.

You want answers? This is ESO were talking about. They are really short on providing any insight on where they are going with this game. They are pretty quick with the stealth/undocumented changes too.

Mablung

If you want answers head over to reddit and post something super sweet about the game but includes what you have stated above, but 1000x nicer and sweeter.

You will rake in the upvotes and a Zenimax employee will promptly reply.

Loco_Mofo

Great post, very constructive. Mods should pass this onto devs *wink wink*

Mescalamba

Well, there probably isnt any plan.

My best estimation is "milk it and leave it". At least seems that way..

Sure they added one dungeon recently, not complaining about that, but a lot of game is ready for re-design, instead of expansion.

Cyrodiil..

That dungeon idea made me thinking. Would be nice if there were properly done dungeons in Cyrodiil (which would allowed even cross-faction groups) and gave enough XP/stuff to grind it a bit.

Also if quests there were "full" like in PvE. Cyrodiil could be way more alive.. and also kinda "end-game content".

Designing good dungeon isnt rocket science..

cisadanepajsuxrwb17_ESO

Game's out for only its 3rd month. U claim u have been playing on and off for a year. Betas dont count as the actual game. In betas ur still supposed to be frustrated and that would be ok for the devs to make that mistake.

And why do people really love to slip in a f2p discussion? I am sure even the devs cannot see the far flung future clearer more than any of us do.

Evergnar

Solid post Maximis_ESO. I hope they take a look at what you said.

Ser Lobo

Agreed with a lot you said, Op.

I had real-life friends in game, too. While I'm an old hat at MMO's and ESO is shining by my experience, my friends weren't caught in the experience. Three major issues came up:

- The issue with being unable to group and do quests. As has been said repeatedly, grouping should be made available for every part of this game, immediately. Find a way to balance the fights and make them adjust to the players later. First, let us share our leveling experience, as it gets awfully lonely.

- Veteran ranks are where we lose players. Difficulty hike, fewer levels, betraying character focus AND no additional reward? I've seen so many players leave after reaching VR1 or 2 that it's obvious. I love that we can do other area content on all characters. I do not like how I'm required to do VR content else I'm lost in PvP due to the power gap (which should never have existed).

- Housing, companions, wives. Things that have become staples of the TES series, and are mysteriously left out of ESO. Maybe this isn't a priority for performance sake, but ZOS is running a subscription based game, and maintaining houses and relationships (even with NPC's) can keep many players entertained while they wait on that new dungeons.



I'm still here, and very happy. But that doesn't mean I can't see where I feel ESO has done wrong. I honestly feel that ZOS can and does accept criticism and ideas from us, as I've seen many pieces I've championed already hit the game.

If they fixed these three above concerns? I don't know what game out there would come close, considering the immersion and attention to detail ESO already offers.

Maybe the forth (that I personally have no weight in because it doesn't bother me) is freedom in how players level, whether through PvP, grinding, dungeons or quests.

Maximis_ESO

cisadanepajsuxrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Game's out for only its 3rd month. U claim u have been playing on and off for a year. Betas dont count as the actual game. In betas ur still supposed to be frustrated and that would be ok for the devs to make that mistake.

And why do people really love to slip in a f2p discussion? I am sure even the devs cannot see the far flung future clearer more than any of us do.

I'm sorry but the beta I was in was very small scale. Few to no bugs and was very similar to the build of the release of the game. Few ability changes and few quest changes. I realize the game has only been out for 3 months and I'm not asking for a quick fix. I just want to be involved in the loop and I feel that right now we get very few to any updates about the game.

I do want to say that a lot of improvements have been made though as far as optimization, options, etc. Lots, hopefully they improve still.

Blackwidow

I know it's crazy, but the year we had in beta was very stable as far as classes and skills. No balancing the whole time. Tons of bugs, but no balancing.

There were dead on promises that there would be no nerfs.

There was LIVE help in the game 24/7. There was an actual live chat in the bug section and you could actually talk to a GM if you had problems.

The GMs swore they would have the best in game help in any MMO ever. With that tool, it was easy to believe. Turned out, the day ESO went live, they removed that feature.

The game they were selling to the beta testers is not the game we got when it released.

Maximis_ESO

Blackwidow wrote: »

I know it's crazy, but the year we had in beta was very stable as far as classes and skills. No balancing the whole time. Tons of bugs, but no balancing.

There were dead on promises that there would be no nerfs.

There was LIVE help in the game 24/7. There was an actual live chat in the bug section and you could actually talk to a GM if you had problems.

The GMs swore they would have the best in game help in any MMO ever. With that tool, it was easy to believe. Turned out, the day ESO went live, they removed that feature.

The game they were selling to the beta testers is not the game we got when it released.

I can see why they removed the option but it was a great option. They wouldn't be able to do it though given the staff they have and the people playing the live game now.

Blackwidow

I asked a few months before release if they were going to be able to handle live chat with the launch.

The GM said it would not be a problem at all. With all the sales they would hire a large staff to handle in game live chat.

Days after release I asked why it was removed. They said it was a bit buggy, but should be back in the game in a week or two.

lies.

drogon1

8 of us began playing ESO (all of us old-timers from DAOC). I am the only one left. None of us reached VR content.

The reason was simple: we normally leveled doing instanced group content - flashpoints, dungeons - and PvP. (We drink and play and overall have a hoot over mumble playing MMOs.) But after we realized how little character progression we were making, we discovered that dungeon XP was bugged. Right? 1xp for this has to be a bug, right? We were floored to discover it was working as intended.

So we all tried to do quests - which we did solo because there was no point in grouping for such content - and we slowly lost connection to the game. PvP xp was sloooow, and we were falling further and further behind. Holy crap that guy is a Vet (we were levels 20s still lol). In the end, the game became a single player experience, not the party that we were used to in MMOs.

So they left for Wildstar lol (I was the only one to buy a 3 month sub).

I really like this game, but ESO needs to listen to its player base, like the OP (all good points). Players need options - an MMO needs to be responsive to different styles of play if it hopes to hold on to a stable, diverse and large player base. To make matters absurd, much of the content is already in game to do this: it's the rewards that are absent.

If you remove XP from dungeons, for example, you basically remove a whole swath of the game that people would pay a sub to enjoy. Even more disturbing is that - in the case of dungeons - this was apparently done to control bots. The irony. Ridding the game of bots is a good thing for the game, but removing whole playstyles from the game to do so is short-sighted.

XP in the game seems to be overly rewarded for activities (quest completion) that cannot be botted, and nerfed to oblivion for bot-doable activies (apparently dungeons, grinding, etc.). Try to get the bots without damaging the game experience for your players - or soon enough you won't have any players, or bots, or anything at all in the bank.

Mablung

Blackwidow wrote: »

I asked a few months before release if they were going to be able to handle live chat with the launch.

The GM said it would not be a problem at all. With all the sales they would hire a large staff to handle in game live chat.

Days after release I asked why it was removed. They said it was a bit buggy, but should be back in the game in a week or two.

lies.

I remember this and I want to say there was discussion on the forums about it.

poodlemasterb16_ESO

bg22 wrote: »

"Sorry, we're closing this thread bc you didn't say this game was superduperawesome. We appreciate your feedback, but we really don't give a ***."

*Pew pew* *Shoots broom of Thread Closed* *Rides broom into the sunset as man-dress flaps in the wind*

I have seen them do that nowhere. Some threads that get stupid get shut down, but in general, they leave em' alone.

NadiusMaximus

Just thought....wow TES games were the standard go to for Game of the year.
This may be the first that wont be?

Loco_Mofo

cisadanepajsuxrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Game's out for only its 3rd month. U claim u have been playing on and off for a year. Betas dont count as the actual game. In betas ur still supposed to be frustrated and that would be ok for the devs to make that mistake.

So you're saying we never left beta?

Maximis_ESO

poodlemasterb16_ESO wrote: »

bg22 wrote: »

"Sorry, we're closing this thread bc you didn't say this game was superduperawesome. We appreciate your feedback, but we really don't give a ***."

*Pew pew* *Shoots broom of Thread Closed* *Rides broom into the sunset as man-dress flaps in the wind*

I have seen them do that nowhere. Some threads that get stupid get shut down, but in general, they leave em' alone.

Yeah, it isn't terrible but it does happen. I don't think any game was worse than GW2 though. They would destroy your thread if you mentioned one thing that was negative about the game when it first released. Trust me, all mine were deleted lol.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

cisadanepajsuxrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Game's out for only its 3rd month. U claim u have been playing on and off for a year. Betas dont count as the actual game. In betas ur still supposed to be frustrated and that would be ok for the devs to make that mistake..

Some of us think we're still playing the beta, at least in beta an update came out and didn't break more than it fixed.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

drogon1 wrote: »

So they left for Wildstar lol (I was the only one to buy a 3 month sub).

Guess that can happen if one's friends are the FoTM kind.

Loco_Mofo

Maximis_ESO wrote: »

poodlemasterb16_ESO wrote: »

bg22 wrote: »

"Sorry, we're closing this thread bc you didn't say this game was superduperawesome. We appreciate your feedback, but we really don't give a ***."

*Pew pew* *Shoots broom of Thread Closed* *Rides broom into the sunset as man-dress flaps in the wind*

I have seen them do that nowhere. Some threads that get stupid get shut down, but in general, they leave em' alone.

Yeah, it isn't terrible but it does happen. I don't think any game was worse than GW2 though. They would destroy your thread if you mentioned one thing that was negative about the game when it first released. Trust me, all mine were deleted lol.

Oh god the ANet mods... I was banned from that forum within a couple months. Wonder if they hired the same crew to look after the Wild Star forums... I swore I would never purchase another NCSoft product after GW2.

Maximis_ESO

Loco_Mofo wrote: »

Maximis_ESO wrote: »

poodlemasterb16_ESO wrote: »

bg22 wrote: »

"Sorry, we're closing this thread bc you didn't say this game was superduperawesome. We appreciate your feedback, but we really don't give a ***."

*Pew pew* *Shoots broom of Thread Closed* *Rides broom into the sunset as man-dress flaps in the wind*

I have seen them do that nowhere. Some threads that get stupid get shut down, but in general, they leave em' alone.

Yeah, it isn't terrible but it does happen. I don't think any game was worse than GW2 though. They would destroy your thread if you mentioned one thing that was negative about the game when it first released. Trust me, all mine were deleted lol.

Oh god the ANet mods... I was banned from that forum within a couple months. Wonder if they hired the same crew to look after the Wild Star forums... I swore I would never purchase another NCSoft product after GW2.

Yep, it was absolutely terrible. You couldn't even offer constructive feedback or they would have it hacked off. It could be why the game is still pretty bad and hasn't seen many major improvements since I have left.

It also might explain why my character was bugged for 3 months straight or why I was never able to complete quests for the 4 months that I played it haha.

david271749

@mcdonalds please give me hamburgers.