Official Discussion Thread for "The Road Ahead - October 16"

ZOS_JasonLeavey

This is the official discussion thread for the web article "The Road Ahead - October 16." We hope you enjoy the latest update from ESO Game Director Matt Firor!

Artighur

Look more like a "The Road behind" than a Road Ahead. We do not need a post to tell us what you guys did in the game we are currently playing, we want you to share the plan you have for the game in the future.

In a format like this, it's worthless.

seanolan

I have to agree. Not a single bit of plans we haven't heard before, nothing more than a month (less maybe) ahead, and most of it what has happened already. Reads more like a "Last time, on ESO..." TV synopsis.

MorHawk

Artighur wrote: »

Look more like a "The Road behind" than a Road Ahead. We do not need a post to tell us what you guys did in the game we are currently playing, we want you to share the plan you have for the game in the future.

Exactly what I came here to say. You guys know that we're champing at the bit for the various systems that have been promised (champion/justice/spellcrafting etc), but not only are the big ones left unmentioned, there is literally nothing in here about the future other than "console versions and 6-month reward are coming".

Nazon_Katts

I've got to agree, this was more a rehash than a road ahead and not what I had expected. And it read not like a producer's letter addressing the community, but seemed to have been slapped together just to have something to publish.

Just like with your game update releases, I'd rather see you taking your time to deliver something more substantial and of better quality than just trying to hit dead lines.

HippieTheGreat

Agreeing with above posts. Nothing said here that was not said last month. Couldn't even give us a hint at anything coming in the next few months?

Sleep

If Matt himself plays on live servers he'll know the crashes in Cyrodiil Campaigns.

LonePirate

At least consoles were mentioned so there is still life in the game and a coming dawn for those players.

For me the most interesting part was the mention of the six month loyalty reward. I wonder if those will be distributed before or after the six-month subs expire in early November. I also wonder what I am going to do with the two new pets they send as the reward given that we received one new pet for the three month reward.

LtCrunch

As much as I look forward to these, this one was a pretty big departure from what we're used to and isn't worthy of the title "Road Ahead". There is very little information about future plans or when we can expect to see some of the new systems that are highly anticipated. Matt dropped the ball with this one.

Skelfish

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I learned that pets will be in their own collectable ui. I didn't read that in the Update 5 patch notes.

Drazhar14

What a useless article. It just summarized what we already know from the forums. There weren't even any ETA's given. Just "soon" over and over again. On the positive side, I guess it's a good source of information for people who don't pay attention to the forums at all.

One question, among many, is will the collectibles UI be shared account wide, or on a per character basis? It would make more sense for an account wide system. If it is a per character basis, if I have collectibles and trinkets stored on an alt character, will they become bound to that character's menu, or will I be able to transfer them back to my main character?

Jorvag_Black_Briar

@Skelfish It was said on the Guild Summit, and reported on the communities for us.

By the way, yea.. kinda agree with the others. Personally, maybe it would have been better to do it after Update 5, leading some clues about what we would have expected on Update 6 and so on.

But, after all, congratulations for the work you are doing every day! ESO will grow better month after month.

Hypertionb14_ESO

Artighur wrote: »

Look more like a "The Road behind" than a Road Ahead. We do not need a post to tell us what you guys did in the game we are currently playing, we want you to share the plan you have for the game in the future.

In a format like this, it's worthless.

beat me to it...

the road ahead should be updates on the imperial city work or the champion system

Lord_Draevan

So... any ETA on when update 5 will be live for the regular users? Next week? Two weeks? Next month?

rsciw

"The client crash bug that affected some of you during the last couple of weeks was hotfixed recently"

No it wasn't. There was a patch, but certainly not fixed...

Arandear

I do enjoy these "The Road ahead" Articles, would of been great to have some information for a little over a month ahead, BUT I am happy with what was said regardless.

Daenerys

I think this is The Road Ahead that they forgot to post in September.

ThisOnePosts

Community Leaders? I'd like to fire them and have a voting process as whoever you are assuming to be Community Leaders is feeding you a lot of false information (sure these upcoming changes I like overall, but in general regarding many topics amongst the forums).

Other than that, I am looking forward to what seems like daily challenges that can involve trophies and the likes! This was a suggestion I made some time ago! I'm not sure how it will play out as I didn't try it on PTS yet, however if it's anything like my suggestion via /feedback then I am definitely looking forward to it! Those dailies in games like Halo: Reach, GW2, etc.. actually added replay value. This could be something great for ESO if done properly.

Aenra

While i agree with the "nothing new part", i'm personally happy they did it. It's called being consistent. They started it, well that they continue it. A pause would have looked worse (why, is everything alright with the game, what changed, but you did it last month, etc).

They may have already shed some light on their plans during the summit, however not everybody gives a (self censored) about guild summits unless they are already subbed or at the very least already keeping their eye on ESO. So there's a good chance people currently not playing got informed about plenty of positive things. Nothing lost, something possibly gained.

On a side note, here's to hoping the next summit has people we voted to go in our stead, rather than whom they thought they should have brought ^^
Here's to hoping that the next Road ahead will have more PvE, less PvP, and definitely no more dailies. Really

Firestar1992

I was playing around on the PTS last night and I've got to say, I approve of what I've seen of Update 5, especially the crafting writs. When I first started playing, I was so confused about how crafting works that I made it all the way to Veteran before I really got it, and now I've had to go back and try to work my skills up. It's nice to have quests that specifically teach you how to do it; they could add in the researching part of crafting, because that is exceptionally important, and they completely skip it.
I also noticed the more animated faces. The lip syncing still isn't perfect, but it is remarkably better than it has been.
I haven't been able to test out much of the Undaunted stuff, because in all my hours playing I never saw another player to group with. But it does sound good; gives you a reason to go back to the dungeons and gives you more rewards for them.

Ragefist

uhm, thank you for the recap Matt, can you share some of the plans for road ahead as well?

SantieClaws

This road ahead is more of a mud track honestly. How about something a little more solid?

tinythinker

Aenra wrote: »

While i agree with the "nothing new part", i'm personally happy they did it. It's called being consistent. They started it, well that they continue it. A pause would have looked worse (why, is everything alright with the game, what changed, but you did it last month, etc).

They did pause, deciding to skip The Road Ahead for last month, and I am guessing that only made the annoyance over the non-news people are complaining about here at least a bit worse.

As for that complaining, I don't mind not being given hard ETAs, because if there is some unforeseen reason why the estimate cannot be met for a new game changes or content, the frustration expressed is very intense. On the other hand, some notion of "about" how near or far away some features in development appear to be from going live, or even hints about previously unheard of features, would have gone over well.

Lastly, calling the players at the guild summit "community leaders", in conjunction with referring to them at said summit as (part of) "the 1%" (as in the most knowledgeable about, influential concerning, and/or skilled at playing the game), will certainly rub some folks the wrong way. I doubt any favoritism was implied. Still, reactions to messaging and perception are hard to control. The anxiety over the "vet/noob", "elite/nobody", "popular/unpopular" dichotomy in gaming seems to be perilously easy to spark and impossible to completely quell.

viktorlundgren_39b16_ESO

Aw man, I reaaally hoped for the Dark brotherhood and Theif Guild quests/armor to be released this update together with the Justice system ..

Oh well. Looking forward to this update anyway.

Nazon_Katts

tinythinker wrote: »

Lastly, calling the players at the guild summit "community leaders", in conjunction with referring to them at said summit as (part of) "the 1%" (as in the most knowledgeable about, influential concerning, and/or skilled at playing the game), will certainly rub some folks the wrong way. I doubt any favoritism was implied. Still, reactions to messaging and perception are hard to control. The anxiety over the "vet/noob", "elite/nobody", "popular/unpopular" dichotomy in gaming seems to be perilously easy to spark and impossible to completely quell.

I read that particular part as "their respective communities' leaders", since most of those gals and guys - as nice and as well in the known as they might be - certainly do not lead me anywhere. A rather unfortunate wording, considering they've been facing accusations of favoritism and fostering elitism, but not that bad really. Think the lack of new information made most people read past that anyways.

tinythinker

Nazon_Katts wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

Lastly, calling the players at the guild summit "community leaders", in conjunction with referring to them at said summit as (part of) "the 1%" (as in the most knowledgeable about, influential concerning, and/or skilled at playing the game), will certainly rub some folks the wrong way. I doubt any favoritism was implied. Still, reactions to messaging and perception are hard to control. The anxiety over the "vet/noob", "elite/nobody", "popular/unpopular" dichotomy in gaming seems to be perilously easy to spark and impossible to completely quell.

I read that particular part as "their respective communities' leaders", since most of those gals and guys - as nice and as well in the known as they might be - certainly do not lead me anywhere. A rather unfortunate wording, considering they've been facing accusations of favoritism and fostering elitism, but not that bad really. Think the lack of new information made most people read past that anyways.

I agree about the wording issue in terms of messaging and perception, yet concern about that wording had already brought up in here (which is why I addressed it along with other complaints) and popped up elsewhere quickly (see the comments starting a few slots down from the OP), and this concern was an issue from the time the summit was announced and even follow-up assurances and explanations apparently haven't satisfied many vocal critics. My comment simply named one of the long-standing sources of such division and discord in communities like this. I do appreciate how you read the comment made ("leaders in their respective communities"), but again, it was already being interpreted in a harsher light.

For the record, I do not support the view that ZOS cares more about (the opinions of) some players than the rest. I think I understand what they tried to do at the summit, as those who have widely viewed websites, blogs, and so on, as well as those who have invested a lot of time in learning the game and are parts of larger in-game groups, might be better suited to share what they learned with others. They appear to have tried to get people with different interests from varied locations to be more representative of the broader fan base. I assume that they wanted to hold the summit to address complaints about not engaging enough with the community, and honestly, those who've been in a college classroom know that a lecture-discussion session with only twenty students has a different feel and depth of coverage than just having an instructor lecturing at 100 students who are busy taking notes, with the odd question taken now and again, or just relying on a recorded lecture sent to 500 students through the internet.

As for the main complaint so far in this thread, while I would have loved some teasers of undisclosed changes or relative ("sooner than expected", "a little later than planned") ETAs for already disclosed changes in development, I honestly would rather Mr. Firor focus on his primary job of overseeing the big picture planning and creation of new content and guiding the direction of the game as a whole than worrying over how the wording or content of the latest "Road Ahead" will be received. If we get some cool tidbits, that's definitely welcome, but ZOS seems to have been spoiling quite a bit of potential "Road Ahead" material lately with venues such as the Guild Summit and episodes of "ESO Live!" Which isn't a complaint, to be clear. I'd rather have those reveals sooner, anyway, rather than waiting for a short note from the game's director.

Nazon_Katts

I agree, although I do think it isn't really the issue at hand. ZOS belongs to a billion dollar company and thus they should have access to all the people they need to take care of their business. I expect the PR folks are already working on giving it a different spin, since they should be very well aware of how they're perceived by now.

What I'd like to question is, if a monthly issue of "The Road Ahead" really makes sense or what it's purpose should be? The title suggest information of things in the future currently not known, the fact it's written (or signed by) Matt lets people expect a producer's letter in a more personal tone, but what we got here was more a monthly newsletter (not a bad idea, per say).

So it's about expectation management as well. And with that in mind, a monthly road ahead doesn't seem to be feasible, since you've go to have something to talk about, actually. And that's something you probably won't have every month, at least not in the extent needed to fill the article with live and wonders, so-to-speak.

So I'd rather have a monthly newsletter in the form we got today from our CR gals and guys, a producer's letter from Matt at certain times (the game's anniversary, major expansion, really hot topics, holidays, etc) and the road ahead when there's actually something new to see far down, preferably from different Devs.

tinythinker

Nazon_Katts wrote: »

[A] monthly road ahead doesn't seem to be feasible, since you've go to have something to talk about, actually. And that's something you probably won't have every month, at least not in the extent needed to fill the article with live and wonders, so-to-speak.

So I'd rather have a monthly newsletter in the form we got today from our CR gals and guys, a producer's letter from Matt at certain times (the game's anniversary, major expansion, really hot topics, holidays, etc) and the road ahead when there's actually something new to see far down, preferably from different Devs.

Right, yes, and even I'm OK with just having an amped up "ESO Live!" on a more regular/frequent basis, with special guest episodes featuring individuals like Mr. Firor, Mr. Sage, the Almighty Konk, or Jason Leavey's Hair, who stop by to share especially exciting hints or reveals about future changes and features. Mr. Firor's segment, when he appears, could still be called "The Road Ahead". The monthly newsletter could be a re-cap of recent news and announcements for those who don't follow along as closely to every bit of gossip breaking news.

thatkidjanzee

Firestar1992 wrote: »

I was playing around on the PTS last night and I've got to say, I approve of what I've seen of Update 5, especially the crafting writs. When I first started playing, I was so confused about how crafting works that I made it all the way to Veteran before I really got it, and now I've had to go back and try to work my skills up. It's nice to have quests that specifically teach you how to do it; they could add in the researching part of crafting, because that is exceptionally important, and they completely skip it.

Same here, I got through VR14 but still very confused or have no/ little knowledge about crafting stuffs... all I am doing was deconstructing haha!!

Cody

so... what about the dark brotherhood and the thieves guild?

PRX_Arkellius

well, there goes 2 minutes of my life i will never get back. I knew all this about two weeks ago...