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Old Player Back - What I've Seen

MattAmandaDiabloub17_ESO
I've scoured the internet and postings to find anyone that may have played ESO at launch, been disappointed, but have come back to see how great it is (or how bad it is, either way). I hadn't found a whole lot of those posts, and while I considered starting my subscription again I was left with no real hope and a bit of mystery knowing that my $15 this month could potentially be a waste of money. I'm a huge Elder Scrolls fan in general though, so I wrestled and wrestled with the thought as I played my highly modded Skyrim (again). Eventually I brought myself to do a New Years resolution and take the plunge again just to see what's happened. This post is mainly for the folks that still aren't sure if it's worth coming back, maybe you're like me and trying to figure out if it's worth it or not and you're not finding a definitive post from the right person. Of course, I might not be the right person either, but I'll do my best!

First off, these observations and suggestions are without any of the new patch changes in mind. I've read a lot of negative things on the champion and veteran mash-ups, and I've read a few positive things about it. As always in these games, it's important to always take a step back, give the game a while, and see what happens. I remember playing WoW on day one and being disappointed, and I remember the devs nerfing my poor Warlock on a constant basis as well. Regardless, I'm sure that ZOS has gotten the full picture about what Veteran levels mean to people by now, so we'll see. Regardless...

Oh, and one more thing - Keep in mind that these are the observations of someone that is a HUGE Elder Scrolls fan, ever since Arena. I've played them all, and I've enjoyed them in their own way. Morrowind is still my favorite, because nothing can stack up to the shear amount of lore and freedom that it provides. But, a heavily modded and heavily immersive Skyrim is fun to play as well.

So... My $15 was spent, I already had the client setup, so I was in Tamriel. I deleted my existing character and started anew so I could really enjoy anything better that was there. Character creation proved to be much the same, no big thrills there. In fact, the whole beginning of the game was basically the same as I remembered. The one biggest thing of note was that nothing crashed and everything worked the first time just fine. I finished all the prep quests and was ready to journey out.

Landing in Daggerfall, I remembered that ESO had built in the option that you can choose not to play the tutorial islands/areas if you so chose. I chose to, because I remember those well and it would give me a good frame of reference. From here, I'll just give some basic observations that I've had when doing my "tutorial islands" and beyond and also some suggestions at the end.

One thing I noticed after some considerable play time was the shear balance of the game. When I first began playing at beta and launch then shortly after, the balance seemed completely off. Some quests seemed harder than they should be, others may have been too easy, gear was tough to find as loot, crafting materials were easy to come by but rendered such little materials. As far as I can tell, these problems have been stomped out. Questing is fun, that's the best I can describe. They've balanced it and used some dynamic level tricks in order to facilitate a better feeling of Elder Scrolls. Some quests still seem to use the usual "quest is this level, it's green", but I've run into a lot of quests that dynamically change with player level. For instance, your mage/fighters guild quests seem to follow a dynamic change, which is far better than just throwing it at you at level 7/8/9 and saying that "Here, these are level 11". In the end, this style just makes things more fluid and allows you to quest a lot more at your current level, I was fairly impressed.

Gear finding is much better than it was. Just loot in general really... I've found much more armor since I've been out and about along with weapons, some just sitting around for the taking. I've also had a surprising lack of recipe drops, which is a happy change. I remember playing before, I'd get 2-8 of each early recipe from containers, and that made the creating of foods and beverages seem cheap. Now, with the lack of recipes, it really makes me excited when I do find one and I'm sure it helps a bit on the AH for selling them.

Speaking of gear finding, crafting has been improved. I was in shock after I mined 3-4 ore nodes and disassembled several pieces of equipment that I was left with 50-60 iron ingots. This was at level 2/3/4, and I was able to craft an entire set of armor myself. Back at beta and launch, unless you farmed like crazy you wouldn't be able to do that with regular play. It seems all crafting has been changed this way and it's awesome. Another thing I noticed was that the enchanting stones are now VERY glowy, and you can see them from a good distance. The last thing to mention about crafting is that there are crafting writs to be had now, of which the character is able to do some recipes and be gifted with a map that leads to even more ore deposits. All in all, crafting seems to be very well done and more up to spec of what I'm looking for in this game. Basically you can craft if you explore, not just if you farm.

The general feel of the game is FAR more polished than I remember. It still has some ways to go, but they really have done a lot over the past several months to make it a fairly solid Elder Scrolls experience. I have suffered no crashing or broken quests in my first 10-15 hours of the game, which is amazing compared to what I was seeing at launch. There are some more suggestions that I'll share, just in case devs really do peruse the forums and use our ideas (I know that didn't always seem like the case, but you never know).

First, I've seen other folks mention more crafting, and I think that would be welcome right along with player housing of some sort. A Hearthfire type of addition would be fun, collecting our materials to craft something other than armor or weapons. Also, along to go with tailoring we should have some sort of "dress sets", something to craft to set each player apart a bit. Lord of the Rings Online has a pretty nifty cosmetic system, maybe we could utilize something like that to change ourselves up every now and then. The dye addition is great, but this would make it even more important. Allow the cosmetic system the ability to add faux backpacks and other accessories and we'd be in business, looking like TRUE adventurers. Another craft could be some sort of farming to go with the player housing, nothing intense at all but just a method to grow a few plants to use in our cooking recipes. It's worth noting that I don't think ESO should go the way of ArcheAge in crafting, just have a few extras in there to mix things up a bit, that's all.

Another thing I would like to see added: CLOAKS. This is a small yet big thing to me, as I add cloaks to every Elder Scrolls game. One thing they never seem to add are enough, maybe one or two at best - luckily we have things for Skyrim like Cloaks of Skyrim and Winter is Coming to facilitate our cloak needs. I think cloaks add a lot to the world and to the characters, things like burlap cloaks, furry cloaks, etc. Yes it may sound stupid, but it's important. This could also be entangled somehow with a cosmetic system I would think.

I know that the justice system is coming and it will add some great RP abilities to the game, so they've got that thought right for sure. I assume with that we'll be hauled off to jail by NPCs or killed off by PvP bounty hunters of sorts, very interesting.

Well, that is basically all I have. Like I said, I couldn't find any posts really going into detail on how the game is now vs launch, so hopefully this will help a person or two understand why it's important to spend that $15. ESO has made enough changes that I will definitely continue to subscribe and finally enjoy the game I bought almost a year ago. There is still a ways to go, but they have made enough changes that I really feel like logging on and exploring just as I have in previous The Elder Scrolls titles.
  • AlnilamE
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    Welcome back!
    The Moot Councillor
  • Samadhi
    Samadhi
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    Welcome back and glad to see the improvements made so far have been favourable to you. :)

    There is more on the horizon.

    Have guild members planning to return when 1.6 drops; it is good to see other players who are satisfied with ZOS' progress.
    "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." -- the 14th Dalai Lama
    Wisdom is doing Now that which benefits you later.
  • SLy_Kyti
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    Welcome back. Good to see that you've embraced the changes positively.

    I have played since early beta, and been lucky enough to have good friends return to the game recently. Its a mixed bag to them so far, finding the mobs/ bosses are too easy now, ridiculously easy so they can solo world bosses several levels over them...and trading the bad for good- a more stable game ( mostly but not the last few weeks), numerous bug fixes and more class balances. While Cyrodiil is more stable, usually, it can now be totally crashed by zergs spamming abilities. So, yeah, mixed bag.
    - While I am completely delighted my guildies have returned I still cringe at how much is still broken. It feels, to me, like launch should have been beta ( beta felt like alpha to me) and now we have a releasable game today. I could have waited with them and parked my night blade until now, saving the $100 in sub's and played something else while ZOS got its crapolla together. I wish I had waited, rather than looking at my glass half full and sipping it slowly.
    - In fact I recommended that others wait until 1.6 is live, patched and stable before returning or if they can't wait, to only level as far as 50 since higher achievement points will not accrue or be credited until after 1.6. So, said the game will be rebooted, so to speak in v1.6 with huge upcoming changes you might want to be aware of as well.
    - Timewise it looks like 1.58 next Monday, v 1.6 on pts a week or so after that, and 1.6 hopefully sometime in February for the live server, after patches to it ( existing code will be indubitably broken when 1.6 releases onto the live server) the time to return to the game , humbly opined, is March or April. Yeah, a year after launch.
    - Good luck in Tamriel.
    Master Crafter: Almost all motifs
    GM~ Blades of Old Tamriel NA/AD
    Member~ NZAD
    Member~ Blades of Vengeance NA/AD
    -Tamriel College -Amazing Deals of Nirn-
  • spryler
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    Welcome back!

    In response to your cloak comment, it has been discussed before. Apparently it would be very very difficult to make realistic looking cloaks in this game. It is possible, but the amount of lag it would add to PVE and PVP would be significant.

    The reason this is a problem in ESO is because the graphics are so good and the character movement so precise. Adding a realistic cloak that moved and flapped with the character correctly as he/she moved around or dodge rolled would take a lot of bandwith.

    In case you were wondering why they haven't added them already.
  • MattAmandaDiabloub17_ESO
    Ahhh well thanks! Never saw this before, makes sense, though it's still sad :smile:
  • The_Great_Maldini
    The_Great_Maldini
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    Welcome back. I have also played since late Beta and early access. I have enjoyed my playing experience. I have learned over the years to not become emotionally invested in an MMO as it cause frustration, disappointment, and adversely affect your gaming experience. If you need help with anything, look me up in-game.
  • Nestor
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    Some quests still seem to use the usual "quest is this level, it's green", but I've run into a lot of quests that dynamically change with player level. For instance, your mage/fighters guild quests seem to follow a dynamic change, which is far better than just throwing it at you at level 7/8/9 and saying that "Here, these are level 11".

    A couple of updates ago they made the forced solo instances scaled to the player. So the Main Quest, Mages and Fighters are now level scaled. The world instance quests are still leveled according to the zone they are in, or the part of the zone they are in.

    Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.

    PakKat "Everything was going well, until I died"
    Gary Gravestink "I am glad you died, I needed the help"

  • AlexDougherty
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    Welcome Back.

    I've been saying since forever just to be patient and things will get better. And for the most part they have been, the odd bug re-emerges after a patch, but the game has been improving.

    Greatest improvement to me is the speed at which enchanting levels up.
    People believe what they either want to be true or what they are afraid is true!
    Wizard's first rule
    Passion rules reason
    Wizard's third rule
    Mind what people Do, not what they say, for actions betray a lie.
    Wizard's fifth rule
    Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self
    Wizard's tenth rule
  • phairdon
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    Came back a week ago, after a four month break. The only disappointment for me was the veteran zones still being dead. In fact, probably worse than 4 months back. Otherwise, I have just continued leveling vets & alts and enjoying myself without any glitches or quest bugs.
    Your immersion is breaking my entitlement. Buff Sorc's. Darkshroud the cremator Death by furRubeus BlackFluffy knight BladesThe Fat PantherPsijic Fungal SausageFlesheater the VileCaspian Rafferty FernsbyArchfiend Warlock PiersThe Black BishopEvil Wizard Lizard (EU)Neberra Vestige Fajeon (EU)Salanis Deathstick (EU)Blood Mage Alchemist (EU)
  • ers101284b14_ESO
    ers101284b14_ESO
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    phairdon wrote: »
    Came back a week ago, after a four month break. The only disappointment for me was the veteran zones still being dead. In fact, probably worse than 4 months back. Otherwise, I have just continued leveling vets & alts and enjoying myself without any glitches or quest bugs.

    Some of them where populated until ZOS said that leveling through gold and silver wouldn't matter. Now they are dead again.

    Welcome back everyone!!!
  • phairdon
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    phairdon wrote: »
    Came back a week ago, after a four month break. The only disappointment for me was the veteran zones still being dead. In fact, probably worse than 4 months back. Otherwise, I have just continued leveling vets & alts and enjoying myself without any glitches or quest bugs.

    Some of them where populated until ZOS said that leveling through gold and silver wouldn't matter. Now they are dead again.

    Welcome back everyone!!!

    Yes. Gathered as much with so many discussions about the upcoming champion system. Not concerned about it myself. Going to continue leveling my veterans.
    Your immersion is breaking my entitlement. Buff Sorc's. Darkshroud the cremator Death by furRubeus BlackFluffy knight BladesThe Fat PantherPsijic Fungal SausageFlesheater the VileCaspian Rafferty FernsbyArchfiend Warlock PiersThe Black BishopEvil Wizard Lizard (EU)Neberra Vestige Fajeon (EU)Salanis Deathstick (EU)Blood Mage Alchemist (EU)
  • AlexDougherty
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    phairdon wrote: »
    Came back a week ago, after a four month break. The only disappointment for me was the veteran zones still being dead. In fact, probably worse than 4 months back. Otherwise, I have just continued leveling vets & alts and enjoying myself without any glitches or quest bugs.

    That's because people are waiting for 1.6, we know that we get the same Champion Points for a VR1 character as a VR14, and we don't want to kill off the quests that will give us the xp needed for Champion Points.

    Once 1.6 rolls out the VR levels will fill out again.
    People believe what they either want to be true or what they are afraid is true!
    Wizard's first rule
    Passion rules reason
    Wizard's third rule
    Mind what people Do, not what they say, for actions betray a lie.
    Wizard's fifth rule
    Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self
    Wizard's tenth rule
  • Tomg999
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    I've been playing since Beta, and while I haven't left & come back, I recently re-rolled a few subs in the DC which I hadn't run thru since very early on. I am struck by how much easier it is now. I keep finding myself in quests, areas, and dungeons and thinking - "weren't there a lot more mobs here last time I was here?" I do understand that I am a better player & better equipped this time, but I clearly remember there being many times more bad guys when I ran through before.
    The non-vet areas are sure crowded with players, though. The Daggerfall bank on a weekend night is like Woodstock. I suspect it is because many folks, like myself, are creating alts that they like in anticipation of the one time 1.6 CP bonus.
  • seanvwolf
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    We had cloaks in DAoC (ESO's spiritual predecessor) and it looked pretty tacky in my opinion, though I would assume that choosing to wear either a tabard, cloak or a mix of the two would be pretty popular and show some variety. Not to mention have a way to hide unsightly mud flaps.
    Edited by seanvwolf on January 7, 2015 2:19PM
  • AlexDougherty
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    seanvwolf wrote: »
    We had cloaks in DAoC (ESO's spiritual predecessor) and it looked pretty tacky in my opinion, though I would assume that choosing to wear either a tabard, cloak or a mix of the two would be pretty popular and show some variety. Not to mention have a way to hide unsightly mud flaps.

    Yeah, I don't mind them on Heavy Armour, and sometimes they work on Medium Armour, but Light Armour really needs the Faulds/Tassets removing.
    People believe what they either want to be true or what they are afraid is true!
    Wizard's first rule
    Passion rules reason
    Wizard's third rule
    Mind what people Do, not what they say, for actions betray a lie.
    Wizard's fifth rule
    Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self
    Wizard's tenth rule
  • Lord_Kreegan
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    If you are "for real", then welcome back (and my compliments on your ability to write coherently). You're not the only player from Beta and release who left, took a break, and then came back. But, IMHO the game still has a long way to go before it's where it should be.

    [Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories]
    Edited by ZOS_UlyssesW on January 7, 2015 9:26PM
  • Valije
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    ZOS has earned a fair share of notoriety in its use of shils and phony posters.

    I want more information about this. I hope you can provide it.
  • ZOS_TristanK
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    As others have said, @MattAmandaDiabloub17_ESO, welcome back to Tamriel! Thank you for taking the time to put together this post about where you think we've improved and what you'd like to see going forward.
    There are some more suggestions that I'll share, just in case devs really do peruse the forums and use our ideas (I know that didn't always seem like the case, but you never know).
    We may not always respond, but you can be assured that we are constantly reading and considering threads. :)
    The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited - ZeniMax Online Studios
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    Staff Post
  • Gorthax
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    Valije wrote: »
    ZOS has earned a fair share of notoriety in its use of shils and phony posters.

    I want more information about this. I hope you can provide it.

    yea I second that, I have never once read a post from someone who worked at ZoS and pretended to be a player. If this is true I need evidence not just hearsay
  • Elsonso
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    Gorthax wrote: »
    Valije wrote: »
    ZOS has earned a fair share of notoriety in its use of shils and phony posters.

    I want more information about this. I hope you can provide it.

    yea I second that, I have never once read a post from someone who worked at ZoS and pretended to be a player. If this is true I need evidence not just hearsay

    Hearsay. To some people, the world is a dark dark place. People who bring light are scorned.

    If anything, ZOS employees appear to be ethical and honest.

    (Now, of course, this now makes me a ZOS employee, which I am fine with as long as I don't have to move to Maryland)

    Edit: No, I am not a ZOS employee.
    Edit of the Edit: or of Bethesda (any Bethesda) or Zenimax Media
    Edit of the Edit of the Edit: Also, no relationship to anyone who is, nor do I personally know anyone who is.

    (However, if anyone from ZOS wants to be my friend....)
    Edited by Elsonso on January 7, 2015 8:33PM
    ESO Plus: No
    PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
    XBox EU/NA: @ElsonsoJannus
    X/Twitter: ElsonsoJannus
  • Ahdora
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    I suppose we should all be careful in the future to be at least mildly incoherent in our postings, so as not to be accused of being a shill.

    LOL.

    Anyway, welcome back to the game OP. I hope you continue to enjoy your adventures in Tamriel. It's nice to see someone who appreciates the good aspects of the game, which are many.
    Heals With Stick, V11 Argonian Nightblade Healer, NA-EP
  • Gorthax
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    As others have said, @MattAmandaDiabloub17_ESO, welcome back to Tamriel! Thank you for taking the time to put together this post about where you think we've improved and what you'd like to see going forward.
    There are some more suggestions that I'll share, just in case devs really do peruse the forums and use our ideas (I know that didn't always seem like the case, but you never know).
    We may not always respond, but you can be assured that we are constantly reading and considering threads. :)

    @ZOS_TristanK‌ replied to this thread so that means it is confirmed that TristanK IS @MattAmandaDiabloub17_ESO‌

    /endforumlogic

    :P
    Edited by Gorthax on January 7, 2015 8:37PM
  • Morshire
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    Welcome back @MattAmandaDiabloub17_ESO‌. I can see where having not played for some time and coming back would seem that ZOS has made some improvements. They have. I am not going to take that away.....Ah to heck with it, welcome back OP and hope you continue to enjoy the game. ;)
    Follow me if I advance, Kill me if I retreat, Avenge me if I die.

    When this immediate evil power has been defeated, we shall not yet have won the long battle with the elemental barbarities. Another evil, it may be an invisible adversary, will attempt, again, and yet again, to destroy our frail civilization. Is it true, I wonder, that the only way to escape a war is to be in it?

    If I die, you are forgiven, If I live, I will kill you.
  • Spottswoode
    Spottswoode
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    Proud Player of The Elder Bank Screen Online.
    My khajiit loves his moon sugar.
    Steam Profile
    Libertas est periculosum. Liberum cogitandi est haeresis. Ergo, et ego terroristis.
    Current main PC build:
    i7 3770 (Not overclocking currently.)
    MSI Gaming X GTX 1070
    32gb RAM

    Laptop:
    i7-7700HQ
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    Secondary build:
    i3 2330
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  • Robocles
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    First... welcome back.

    Second... remember, if you laud the game with a bunch of subjective comments, you'll get a nice comment. If you disparage the game with some specific issue, you won't get the time of day.

    Welcome back to Tamriel. Like a lot of us, you will stay for the exact reason you stated early in your post: You have loved the Elder Scrolls franchise (I've played them all, too... Daggerfall has always been my favorite, but that could be what it was at the time).
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