The Road Ahead - July 8, 2014

Hadria

Hopefully I'll be able trick my ride with candy apple green I'm good

Venatoreo

Scaling ultimate abilities with either weapon or spell damage is a huge step in the right direction.

There still remains the issue of class abilities though, for example how will a stamina build dragon knight's searing strike stack up to a pure magika build searing strike? It can't, not in the current state of things.

As things are right now, pure magika builds have equally the same fire power from both class and weapon abilities where as with the new ultimate abilities fix, class abilities with a stamina build will still pale to their pure magika counter parts.

Stamina builds will still be at a further disadvantage due to dodging and blocking requiring the use of stamina. So one resource, doing twice the work.

So while the recent update and the ultimate ability scaling update are definitely a much needed step in the right direction, the issue still remains that of class abilities not scaling with a pure stamina build, and that with stamina builds, the resource itself will be used double time.

Another suggestion would be to remove the restrictions on armor and weapon passives so that once leveled up, and having skill points put into them, the passive will persist regardless of what armor/weapon type is equipped at the time. Not only will it give the player the FULL freedom of being whatever they wish to play, but also it may help with stamina regen issues, or for players who do wish to be a heavy armor wearing caster toting a giant two handed sword.

Madval

Damn ! As always, fabulous !!

HippieTheGreat

Ok these are cool. Character customization is always a welcome thing. Happy to see the dyes and guild stuff.

I have no idea if this has been asked, since we are at 3 pages already, but will the new veteran system we are talking about introduce new ranks or is this a type of alternate advancement system?

RazielSR

PLEASE...This can't be happening...that colours are HORRIBLE!!!

THIS IS ELDER SCROLLS!!!! WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????

Seriously, sorry for the caps, but this can't be real. This is gonna absolutely destroy the TES franchise seriousness. I understand you should add new colour possibilites, but cmon that pinks and blues!!! NO PLEASE NO!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOO!!


The rest of the letter is great. Anyway, could you please let us know if when you talk about the changes in phase 2 and 3...one can think that is better to park your pre-veteran char until this happens? Is there gonna be some changes about the story or some new quests in the other faction zones?

Aziz006

Finally some awesome update waiting us. Changes in ultimate abilities is especially exciting. When it comes to stamina builds, there were always some effective stamina builds out there but people don`t share it. And there are people(such as me) who doesn`t use melee build only because of low ultimate gain.

Nazon_Katts

@Blackwidow white-knighting is a very creative interpretation of the term. Keep it up @Laura, we most certainly need that out-of-the-box thinking!

Elebeth

So did anyone else noticed that "iron man" is wearing Dwemer motif armor

Blackwidow

No pink in TES. Nope, none at all.

GnatB

gibous wrote: »

Custom dyed armor sounds great, but I don't like the idea of candy-colored armor dyes. Should be more earth-toned. The visual appeal of this series is that it's not terribly cartoony and works toward some kind of realism.

I think that's something many people would disagree with. IMO there's a reason one of the first mods out for es games always seems to be a texture revamp that alleviates the drabness of the shipped color palette.

I'd argue most people play ES games in spite of their drab colors, not because of them. (of course, in the non-online games, it's always been easy to simply mod the game to give it a more vibrant look if you so choose.)

Halorin

This is all exciting, though I am still unsure about making veteran rank difficulty as easy as 1-50.

I beg you, though. Please, please, PLEASE give us an option to hide shoulders. Either that or implement an appearance slot for all slots because most of the shoulder armor looks oversized and bulky to me.

I liked the early tiers of Breton light armor shoulders, and then it inexplicably changes to something far less appealing to me.

Sotha_Sil

Can't wait to see :

http://eso-fashion.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/04/Daedric-Calcinium-Front-CloseVR21.jpg

in black and red !

It's getting exciting !! Let's hope it will work well.

Laura

Blackwidow wrote: »

No pink in TES. Nope, none at all.

You can't compare a daedric prince (especially a daedric prince of madness) to what you find in nirn... that is a stretch.

Your cicero comparison was destroyed so I guess you are desperately searching for a new thing to lean on?




sure

I'll bite anyway.


It is still slightly muted and its more of a purple to me (and when did this become about the color PINK anyway) the problem is the saturation

The problem is that there is a particular style that people come to expect from elder scrolls. A certain grit to it that you don't really see in other titles.

You know as well as I do there will be people running around looking as ridiculous as they possibly can.. do you really want to see that? At what point do you stop feeling like its an elder scrolls game...

Blackwidow

OMG, there is light blue color in that armor! ESO has been destroyed!

Lyall84

Zhoyzu wrote: »

This is a joke right?

"Here are some other character and ability topics we’re looking at for potential balance changes and tweaks:

The survivability of werewolves and the balance between their strengths and weaknesses may receive some adjustments."

"May receive". so what you're telling me is that you believe werewolves are fine as is and may or may not be looked at. Cause nothing in ESO screams broken like werewolf. But ZoS says its working as intended so it must be fine....


WW isnt something you can gradually change. Just overhaul the damn thing already as you couldnt do any worse then it is now (except when ESO had launched, it was worse).

Gradual changes arent going to help the players test it unless you give werewolf a larger timer. Instead of giving players 30 seconds to see if the transformation even works or not and only get to test for 30 seconds at a time if they can find enough testing conditions in 30 seconds.

They should make it just like Overload for a Sorcerer. Toggle on once you meet activation cost, and consume ultimate per second instead of a second timer. That way any ultimate generated in wolf form increases duration instead of devour. Then they should change Devour to work EXACTLY like NPC werewolf devour, where it is just a channel performed on a corpse where they get health per second while eating until 100% health or interrupted. That would solve all the duration issues with the ridiculous costs, and greatly help with the survival. Especially if the healing per second from the changed devour was something close to 10 to 15% max health per tick.

Naru_D_Wynn

can we get a shoulder toggle like we have with helmet pls ? as the screenshots from your internal testijng show some looks just make more sense without massive pauldrons :P

someuser

You had me at, "It’s time for another update on what we’re up to at ZOS..."


GREAT additions! I am super excited over a few things. Guild uniforms, global (er alliance wide) kiosks, more armor types / armor paint kits, better rewards, addressing the boringness that is the post 50 grind....

THIS IS WHY SUBSCRIPTION GAMES rule over F2P models. I promise everyone here, we would not be getting this level of content if Zenimax went the micro transaction route.

Keep up the good work!

Malpherian

Matt (Or any ZOS person) Can we get a Confirmation that you will be fixing the Daedric armor? or not?

Nazon_Katts

I'd take a pink, fitting helmet over those buckets any time. But then, only real men wear pink!

stabbykitteh

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*]The effectiveness of Templars is being evaluated, particularly some specific builds that may be underperforming when compared to similar builds for other classes.

My squishy bowplar likes the sound of that

gibous wrote: »

Custom dyed armor sounds great, but I don't like the idea of candy-colored armor dyes. Should be more earth-toned. The visual appeal of this series is that it's not terribly cartoony and works toward some kind of realism.

Agree with this 100%. I love your game, because right now it feels like an Elder Scrolls game. Bright pink things running about will put a serious crimp in that...

Blackwidow

Laura wrote: »

It is still slightly muted and its more of a purple to me (and when did this become about the color PINK anyway) the problem is the saturation

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Flaming]

The problem is that there is a particular style that people come to expect from elder scrolls. A certain grit to it that you don't really see in other titles.

There is a particular style that some people come to expect.

This is an MMO, so all people's expressions should be allowed.

As others have said, the mods in TES games to have more colors is a popular one.

You know as well as I do there will be people running around looking as ridiculous as they possibly can.. do you really want to see that?

Yes, but i am not closed minded as some.

I like people to be able to express themselves.

At what point do you stop feeling like its an elder scrolls game...

When there was no underwater swimming, no housing, tiny banks, no law system, no thieves guild, no open world to explore, etc.

So more colors will not bother me.

Postumus

Stamina builds. Weapon Skills. Armor fixes. Melee balancing. Stamina scaling of class skills.

At least half of the effort put into class balancing could have been avoided by dealing with these issues, and further changes to classes without addressing these issues will probably just mean rollbacks to balance changes when they ARE addressed.

Most of what has been done so far for balance has just leveled the playing field between light armor wearing, magicka stacking, staff using builds of different classes. The other 80% of possible builds in the game are what need love right now.

Gilvoth

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Fun with Armor Dyes

—it was a lot of fun, and it shows the lengths to which you can change what your character looks like just by applying different colors.

so, this, is what all the new lighting was for and what caused pvp to almost die and ....

ok, im starting to get a picture of what might be happening in the developers minds and i am not happy, not happy at all

ZOS_TristanK

Hi, everyone. We appreciate your feedback about the contents of this month's Road Ahead article, but we would like to remind you to please keep all posts in line with our Code of Conduct. If you feel that a player has violated our Code of Conduct, please alert the moderation team using the report feature. Our team will be happy to take a look. Once you have reported a post, please refrain from replying to it in the thread. This does complicate our ability to appropriately moderate and encourages the thread to derail.

Danisheraser

Increadible how people worry about colors when zenimax is about to make this game into another walk in candyland.

Could you (devs) please give us more information about the veteran changes?? I am probably one of the few who hate this easymode path you take. For me, and I know for several others in my guild, this ruins the whole challenge and thrill of the game. Besides why even have vet dungeons, if those who are going to do them, will insta-die because they cant adapt anymore??

Please give those of us, whoever is left, a few answers to this problem. For me it is either game over or game on

Blackwidow

I'm glad that they are going this route.

radiostar

Don't forget blue and purple--as in recipe drops!
And maybe some from the hirelings.

jonpaul

Just to start, I am really liking what I am hearing from the Road Ahead and can't wait to see where it takes us.

The debate on the side of the "state of the game" is quite entertaining though. It almost sounds like:
1) We are supposed to have a horribly difficult time playing the game where it wasn't hard enough to begin with, but should actually have been made harder (I know, that's an exaggeration but you get the sarcasm)

2) And there are no colors in this world, only drab clothes and blandness. Actually all armor and clothes should be void of color completely. This is a world without color

C'mon, I like a little bit of fun in the games I play, if I'm not mistaken this isn't real life here.

Malpherian

Blackwidow wrote: »

OMG, there is light blue color in that armor! ESO has been destroyed!

This armor set destroys ESO all by itself, even black and red it is.... [snip]

[edited for profanity bypass]

ShedsHisTail

You guys realize that these:


Were some of the most sought after colors in the Ancient World. That bright colors were a sign of nobility and wealth and purple, specifically, was among the most valuable of all because it was so difficult to make.

Just because Elder Scrolls has always been kind of muddy, doesn't mean it always has to be . . . Or that this muddy look even makes any sense.