Open Letter From The Noore to Zenimax Addressing Unresolved Issues Driving Players From The Game

zhevon

Its quaint to think a GM would actually show up in ESO; rumor has it that they actually exist. I've never seen one.

dcincali

Nazon_Katts wrote: »

In lotro, back in the days when it was precious and new, it took just a few kills of a mob with a bugged loot-table to have a GM pop up right next to you. They would inform you the mob in question drops inappropriate items and the process of farming it is considered an exploit and you'd be facing a ban, if you didn't stop.

If the death recap screen can give feedback in numbers and who inflicted them on the player, then it can do the same automatically for GMs in the case there are numbers beyond a certain threshold. Then all they would have to do is the above.

That would require GM's to play there own game and you know AA is in open beta right? Bet we could find a few over there.

Nazon_Katts

Yeah, some bean-counters probably figured that GMs are just an expense factor not generating any direct profit and just did away with them. You and I know they're an integral part of community building and creating a positive reception, essentially being the everyday 'face' of the company. All the while the suits keep staring at spreadsheets still wondering why numbers are dropping where they were supposed to rise.

Docmandu

Nice writeup. Agree with many points.

Anyway I'm also throwing in the towel, tomorrow is the last day of my sub. Main issue, every but really every game play session you run into bugs like weapon's locking up, crash to desktop, wrong weapons showing in your hands, doors not working, and a zillion other things.

I was willing to put up with many of these issues, but lately it's getting the best of me.. and then reading about yet another VR bump incoming, was the last drop for me.

I enjoyed my time in the game and was glad some other game got really close to the RvR, DAoC brought us.. 1001 little bugs (papercuts) and the gear grind direction the game is taking is my main reason of leaving.

See you in a couple of months maybe

Talcyndl

So did the Noore re-roll as AD?

Dleatherus

dbetterton_ESO wrote: »

So did the Noore re-roll as AD?

always been AD - that was decided back in Nov 2012 when we first formed the guild

D.

Talcyndl

Dleatherus wrote: »

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dbetterton_ESO wrote: »

So did the Noore re-roll as AD?

always been AD - that was decided back in Nov 2012 when we first formed the guild

D.

My bad...confused you guys with another guild. Carry on...

Nazon_Katts

So, any news on this? Or did it vanish in the Palace of Ignorance like so many before?

Dleatherus

Nazon_Katts wrote: »

So, any news on this? Or did it vanish in the Palace of Ignorance like so many before?

other than Jessica's response early in the thread i haven't heard a thing back either publicly or privately

to be candid, though i was hoping for something, i was far from expecting it, since that would reflect a company that engaged and responded to its paying clients in an appropriate and timely manner

given that this thread was written because ZOS's responses's have been anything but that, it was a shot in the dark at best

guess it missed its target and time for me to personally stop wasting ammo

D.

Nazon_Katts

Kinda disheartening, ain't it. I suspect it's indeed some weird corporate policy, probably by BethSoft since all Devs from their published games could be categorized as rather tight-lipped, that's preventing any meaningful communications.

I wonder how many more subs they must lose till they reevaluate their stance on this. They already lost a few customers right here in this thread, which they probably could have convinced staying just a little while longer, if only they talked to us in an open and honest manner.

MMOs are community driven and a social experience and the developer should be part of this, not detached from it. Otherwise it can never grow into something people will proudly call their home.

JLB

ZOS,
Is it that hard to fix obvious bugs/bad mechanics/unbalance issues? I mean, you have them all over the forums. Take note of what players say. Postpone an Update if needed. Fix all the urgent stuff first.
I want to keep loving this game, but my patience can also be perma CCed.

Makkir

I just noticed that the Zenimax Board of Directors include Jerry Bruckheimer and Cal Ripken Jr. Kinda neat

Nazon_Katts

Yep, people seem to forget or don't even know how big they really are. That, however, does come with downsides as well.

Columba

Makkir wrote: »

I just noticed that the Zenimax Board of Directors include Jerry Bruckheimer and Cal Ripken Jr. Kinda neat

two people who know nothing about running video games.

Makkir

They're also looking for a community director
http://jobs.zenimax.com/requisitions/view/199?source=Indeed.com

Nazon_Katts

Makkir wrote: »

They're also looking for a community director
http://jobs.zenimax.com/requisitions/view/199?source=Indeed.com

Better late than never, I suppose.

PlagueMonk

An impressive post to be sure. Makes me almost proud there is a banana out there with some scruples. At the very least you have my respect.

To add/expound on your issues:

Communication - I saw a lot of communication a few months ago both on the forums and in game. CSRs even responded in mins in-game on a Friday night.....but that has stopped. Don't know why but a lack of communication has been shown to cause rifts between the players and the devs which usually equals players leaving.

Exploits - I'm all for harsh penalties for exploiters but Zenimax's track record in solving these problems has thus far always led to the exploit being removed at the expense of the players. (which is why it now costs gold to /stuck and why you can only do it twice an hour).

I wish a bit more thought would go into solving problems that both removes the exploit and doesn't hurt the players.

Campaign Balancing - I believe there should be 3, 30 day campaigns. You will then not be allowed to have more than one home per faction. This would allow alts of different factions to each join a home campaign (and then of course one guest).

I also think that while helping the underdog is good, the current low pop/low score bonuses are the wrong way to go. Instead of giving the underdogs free points, they should instead make it more difficult for the top dog to take that factions keeps/resources.


AP Farming/suicide travel - This is an abhorrent practice and why, if I suicide (yes, I have done it...he who is without sin and all that jazz before finger pointing), I do so with discretion however (and rarely).

I was even berated this weekend for attempting to gather together a group to try and take the suicide resource. The idiots would rather allow the enemy to have those resource points (and the AP farming not to mention a leg up on retaking said keep) than suffer some inconvenience. It's very sad and something I disagree with.

Also killing the enemy should not be a single kill every 24 hours. Just halve the AP they get for each successive kill while increasing the reward of the person killed for killing that opponent (maybe +15% more AP per time you were killed with a cap of +65%)

Emperor Farming- As someone who will never be Emperor since I don't have the time to devote 24/7 to it, I am all for gaining the bonus another way, even if it will take a while. Call it a "Battle Scarred Vet" bonus.

Macros - Seeing some of the macros people run to "help" them play is appalling. I'm all for cosmetic macros and maybe allowing the display of damage but draw the line at any macro that gives you a distinct advantage over someone not using it.

I saw some disgusting macroing this weekend.....A DC player had set up a macro inside the door of a resource tower to pour oil continuously when someone entered. I caught on when I ran upstairs and the bot just blindly kept pouring oil without any other movement. I quickly dispatched said bot and they never flinched.

Macro abuse has got to be curbed.

Postern Doors - What can I say but it's BS to run up to a door and have it not work. Something that SHOULD have been fixed months ago. Very sad and exploitative when the enemy knows it wont work, thus creating a gank point.

Death Penalty - Ala DAoC. All for it. And to add to that the death penalties should stack if you are killed again within the recovery period.

Players should also be worth less when killed if recovering.

Death should come at a price to make you not WANT to suicide.

I will say though that if you are rezzed by another player your should come back at full health since this does take real effort and time (and a gem) to accomplish. Really wish Templars had access to an actual rez spell in their skills and a lesser one on the resto staff.


I would also like Vamps and vamp skills to be addressed. Right now you get some MAJOR advantages for being a vampire with very little consequence (and hence why the majority of the PvP pop are vamps). This also means that if you choose not to become a vamp, you are in essence gimping yourself.

Being a vampire should be an "option" for gaining different skills, not necessarily better ones.

Then in short..........

- Bat Swarm is way too powerfull and why every vamp runs it (and why nearly every death I suffer in PvP includes a 1k+ bat swarm on it)

- Dark Cloak is still horribly broken. It seldom wipes negative effects (love being invisible with slow or unstable core on me ) and I often find myself popping out of stealth less than a second after going invis.

- Fix talons. It is still being used to perma CC people. Sucks to die with a full stamina bar just trying to escape.

demonlkojipub19_ESO

Its not the vamp, its the build using the vampirism, one they have yet to balance with the other build. Rest is good.

Armitas

Makkir wrote: »

They're also looking for a community director
http://jobs.zenimax.com/requisitions/view/199?source=Indeed.com

After reading the Job description I am very excited about this.

LonePirate

Armitas wrote: »

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Makkir wrote: »

They're also looking for a community director
http://jobs.zenimax.com/requisitions/view/199?source=Indeed.com

After reading the Job description I am very excited about this.

The most shocking thing about that job description was the mention of a Quality Assurance team. My jaw dropped as I was convinced the ZOS devs did all of their own testing and no formal QA team existed.

Agrippa_Invisus

LonePirate wrote: »

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Armitas wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

They're also looking for a community director
http://jobs.zenimax.com/requisitions/view/199?source=Indeed.com

After reading the Job description I am very excited about this.

The most shocking thing about that job description was the mention of a Quality Assurance team. My jaw dropped as I was convinced the ZOS devs did all of their own testing and no formal QA team existed.

My jaw dropped when you assumed there was testing.

frozywozy

@Dleatherus‌, thank you so much for your input. I have the feeling this is gonna be very helpful to resolve the most important issues we had since launch.

If you allow me I would like to also add two major problems that me and my people have been experiencing since launch.

• There are several kinds of ability locks going on at the moment. Most of them can be fixed by doing several methods we found out bashing our keyboard. For example, you could press escape twice, press enter twice, swap weapon, roll or sometimes /reloadui to fix the issue.
  
  1. I have had one happening since several months ago that I haven't found any way to fix it yet. It happens several times a day and I already sent bug reports about it. All abilities lock mid battle and then I am unable to roll, mount or cast anything for a fair 20-30 seconds. Also, during that period of time, when moving, I am sprinting and losing stamina no matter if I hold the sprint keybind or not.
  2. Another one happens when you cannot interract with any door. Your "E" button will just gray out when you click it. You must swap weapon to fix this issue.
  3. Another one happens when only specific abilities will gray out. For me it would be Invasion and Flame Lash (abilities that require a target I presume). Even in range of an enemy, the ability stays gray out for 20-30seconds.
  4. Another one happen when you get knocked on the ground and your body floats around for a 20-30seconds. Haven't found any way to fix this other then waiting. I heard from several sources that the cause of this issue happens when you get hit from templar spears while you have immovable up (not confirmed).
  5. Last and not the least, during intense periods of lag, most skills get locked and delayed for considerable period of times.
• The combat bug has been very frustrating for every healer in Cyrodiil since the launch. I heard rumors that healing spring was causing this problem and haven't heard of any fix incoming anytime soon. Sometimes I can travel all the way from one keep to another not agroing any hostile target in my way and I will stay stuck in combat for a good 5mins. For example, my records are traveling all the way from Sejanus to Drakelowe or Bloodmayne to Alessia.
  
• Windows Crashes are a big issue aswell at the moment. I get one per hour and I have a beast computer. Sometimes when it happens, I must go into 6-7 Cyrodiil loading screens in a row to get back in.
  
• Also, just to add to the macro section of your post. Here is a very good example of what an archer can cast in a one second delay. Oh yes, it all happens in one second and not more :
  
  
  
  
• Finally, you may also want to look into the Flame Lash scaling damage. Here is a good example :
  
  
  

I personally think that fixing Communication, Ability locks, Door bug and Combat bug is the key to build a very strong and promising community.

Columba wrote: »

Agreed and thank you. I would add the impulse monkeyspam to this list. Badly broken design.

Sadly, it may be too late. 90% of my original guild is gone! fed up with the bugs and unaddressed cheating. The word on the street and in the community is not favorable.

This crew has designed a decent game, but they simply are not executing well. gW2 was not as well designed, but it runs much better.

Rallick71 wrote: »

Half the issues would be fixed if Batswarm had it's cost doubled (if not trippled) and Impulse didn't do more damage than Single target abilities.

It is very easy to counter impulse spam, most organized guilds know it already, just inspect every class mechanics into details and I'm confident you guys will figure it out.

Kypho

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

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Ziz wrote: »

It's a *** joke "passed it along to the Dev team" this *** has been around for a year.

To be clear, this is not the first we're hearing of any of this and many of the points already have fixes or solutions in progress. We just wanted to make sure The Noore know we're passing this post, which they clearly put a lot of time and effort into, along to the individuals who can make the fixes and improvements they're calling out.

I think dear ZOS, you lost the trust of the players. Time for evidences, less promises. And all that is NOT ALL THE ISSUES. Ballance the classes, but fix class bugs first.

OrangeTheCat

I read the whole thing. I applaud you. Well done. I hope ZOS listens.

One question though: is your '.' key broken? :P

Dleatherus

hrmm - i may have spoken too soon in terms of no response, but am not at liberty to say anything just yet

stay tuned

D.

Nazon_Katts

Dleatherus wrote: »

hrmm - i may have spoken too soon in terms of no response, but am not at liberty to say anything just yet

stay tuned

D.

Don't worry, they took their merry while to respond.

But seriously, I'm glad they got back to you - and hopefully to the rest of this community soon as well.

Good job!

GreyPilgrim

In thinking about your post on the campaign imbalance, and the difficulty of fixing this.

Simply condensing the number of campaigns, or making campaign switch costs extremely high does nothing to address what seems to be the core imbalance issue, that there are simply more PvPr's playing for AD than the other factions.

As long as the player base is unbalanced, the non-dominant factions are going to constantly find themselves at the losing end of a campaign. And the dominant faction is going to find itself at the long end of a waiting queue.

So I might suggest that in addition to some of the measures suggested here, or as an alternative, that ZoS offer some kind of temporary alliance switch option. This would be aimed exclusively at the dominant faction, be on a 1st come 1st serve basis, offer a specific number of switchovers to the underdog alliances (based on the numbers ZoS should be generating by constantly montiroring the campaign pops, as they claim to be doing), and only be allowed for vet level characters, so that it can't be as easily exploited to prevent it from working.

However, what I don't know is if there enough people actually willing to make the switch. But without a closer balance on alliance faction numbers, most of these PvP fixes will do little to address campaign domination and swapping.

ZOS_BrianWheeler

Just a quick update and while we can't comment on every note in here, we are currently discussing options with the Forward Camps as that is a primary issue noted in many posts.

Campaign adjustments are always going to be on going and monitoring the population dictates how many campaigns we open or close. We will see how the changes from Update 4 go with the removal of the Veteran Campaign, introduction of a new 30 day and the adjustments to Haderus.

Also note the Postern doors have been going through several test runs internally and on live with some internal clients and things look promising to get those finally working reliably. I know this has been a rough issue and hopefully after a few more tests we can get this up to live for everyone!

MorHawk

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

We will see how the changes from Update 4 go with the removal of the Veteran Campaign, introduction of a...

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌, looks like you have an unfinished thought there.

Garion

MorHawk wrote: »

show previous quotes

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

We will see how the changes from Update 4 go with the removal of the Veteran Campaign, introduction of a...

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌, looks like you have an unfinished thought there.

I imagine at least part of it will be introduction of a "new 30-day campaign". The fact he used a comma and not 'and' does suggest there may be more again though.

Edit - he's fixed it.