Console: First impressions coming from PC

spoqster

These are just my notes after playing for a few hours on XB1.

Bugs

• Frequent short freezes on Xbox, game does not feel fluent overall, very stuttery.
• Random crashes, such as on clicking on loading screens, voice chat, clicking on "campaigns".
• Problems logging in, oddly it works with most characters but not with individual ones.

Slow pace overall.

• Everything seems slow and takes long. I played for a few hours and didn't accomplish much except for a few quests.
• Traveling is slow, because walking is slow, running is slow and cumbersome.
• Riding is slow because it takes so long to mount the horse, and again the sprint control.
• Wayshrine travel is slow because of all the zooming and long load times.
• There should be some kind of list of favorite or recent wayshrines.
• If ZOS sticks to this zooming thing, they need to either allow players a one click zoom out or stitch the zones together so we can move over freely.
• I am already tired of having to constantly open the map because there is no minimap.
• Inventory management is slow.
• Selling takes time because you have to sift through everything, constantly making decisions on what to keep and what not to keep. You never have more than 20 items in your field of view.
• You'll likely have to set aside an extended amount of time after every dungeon run/every few quests to sort out your inventory.

Social

• There is no chatter, no talking. I expected more of a market place atmosphere in the towns and especially banks. It feels a bit lonely as is.
• Nobody seems to be using the group finder tool (yet?).

Guilds

• How do I advertise my guild?
• Currently I only see the option to invite random people I find in my zone.
• There should be a list of all available guilds

Inventory

• No trash, no rule-based auto-categorization of items.

Interface

• I have no way of telling if my crafting is done, which items are needed for researching and so on. I literally have to go to the crafting station to find out. Research Assistant is sorely missed.
• I don't see the tasks of the crafting writs while I am in the crafting interface. Very annoying. Even if I set the particular crafting quest active, it is not shown.
• When you receive a quest reward there is no hover overlay that tells you what it does. You have to accept and then go back into your inventory to inspect it.

Controls

• Seem vaguely fluid so far, although I haven't tried maximizing dps much, e.g. animation clipping, etc.
• Running is really troublesome. Those joystick buttons should not be used for anything.

Endgame
Now this is a unique perspective fresh players can't have. How well does the console version hold up in typical endgame scenarios?

• Gear switching - Upon deciding to venture into Cyrodiil I realized I had to switch to my PVP loadout. Manually. Uff. And that also means I have to manually switch to my tanking gear if I want to do the daily afterwards. And if I want to help out friends as a DD, then I'll have to switch to manually switch to my DD loadout. And afterwards I have to manually switch to my PVP loadout again. Uff.
• Inventory/interface - Going to the bank with my v14 that used 140/170 inventory slots with my bank being 90% full is just a disaster. I don't even want to think about what I am going to do until I have access to a guild bank again, where I can offload all the raw mats, consumables and gear I still want to research. Case in point is getting at least 15 hireling mails from across my characters every day.
• Bank interaction - I have an addon on PC that automatically stores the items in the bank which are already deposited there. So, let's say I have tempers of all kinds in my bank, every time I open the bank, all the tempers I have on my char are stored in the bank. Re-stacking the guild bank manually will be torture.
• Verbose combat - Combat is missing any kind of feedback on your damage values, your dps, your buffs, etc. Without it combat may be just too random to really keep more serious players interested in the game.
• Bank space - Not enough room to store all crafting items and a few personal items.

Valymer

Sounds like all those people that clamored for a "streamlined, barebones, immersive UI" got what they asked for.

(not at all saying you were one of those people, but they are out there)

Phaoryx

Considering you came from PC, you've obviously experienced addons. Reading over half your list, it just seems like things that addons took care of... Such as having to manually change skills (wykkyd's outfitter). There aren't and probably won't be addons for console. That's one of the things you signed on for when you switched.

...deal with it?

parpin

hmm..if you can not use your bank addon then what about other addons like AUI..i am using it on pc version and it is really helpful..can you use it on consoles as well??

spoqster

Phaoryx wrote: »

Considering you came from PC, you've obviously experienced addons. Reading over half your list, it just seems like things that addons took care of... Such as having to manually change skills (wykkyd's outfitter). There aren't and probably won't be addons for console. That's one of the things you signed on for when you switched.

...deal with it?

Hey, I'm not criticizing per se. Just sharing my notes, because I figured it may be interesting for other players, and especially for the developers.

But I do believe that the interface is missing too many things to be fun at endgame. It was the same with Skyrim, btw., loads of fun and very simple to use for the first 20 levels. Then it got progressively worse. By the time I was level 50 I spent more time organizing my stuff than actually playing. In an MMO this effect is worse.

I am not calling for a massively crowded interface. It's easy to make a crowded interface that let's you do a lot of things. It's also easy to design a simplistic interface that disallows important actions. The real challenge is to create a simplistic interface that still allows you to do everything you need to do. And ESO fails in that regard.

spirit657

im enjoying the game so far....im playing as a sorcerer and really love the spell combat....what the differences are compared to pc cant say but from what ive seen so far i think eso is really cool.....in the long term if the matchmaking works well i will be very happy....but at this stage id say its too early to tell since its the first couple of days since release and most people playing wouldn't have even unlocked group dungeons yet....:)

Tiveria

Console is better right? JK

It's just a cash grab the pc has been on the short end of the stick for six months I mean come on how could
console not be perfect?

King Bozo

Pc players will care but non playing pc gamers don't miss anything. A true console player does not miss stuff they are not aware of imo.

wrlifeboil

That's why the draw for console players would be Elder Scrolls. Not traditional mmo endgame.

It will be interesting to see how Cyrodiil goes. How are the campaigs going? Are lots of level 10s in the non-vet campaigns?

spoqster

wrlifeboil wrote: »

That's why the draw for console players would be Elder Scrolls. Not traditional mmo endgame.

It will be interesting to see how Cyrodiil goes. How are the campaigs going? Are lots of level 10s in the non-vet campaigns?

The campaings were empty, but it was 2 to 3 am on my server (EU). I was glad to see we already have an emperor though after 24 hours.

nimander99

So pretty much if you had addons on console you'd be happy? That's basically what I'm reading.

olemanwinter

Honestly, I don't understand why anyone would want to play a game like this on console. Everything you describe and more....I took as a given.

spoqster

nimander99 wrote: »

So pretty much if you had addons on console you'd be happy? That's basically what I'm reading.

I don't really want addons, I am just afraid the interface is not good enough, or put differently, the game is too rich for the interface. It's a brilliant interface if the game stopped at level 30 or maybe 50 and you had only one character.

What it comes down to is that the game gives you all these things, all this loot, all these crafting options, all these ways to build you character, the freedom to play different roles and so on. But they don't give you the tools to make use of these options in sensible way.

If they are after the Skyrim business model it's fine. They'll sell their copies and players will enjoy the show up to the early vet ranks when they will get frustrated for various reasons and move on to the next game. But if they want to create an MMO that will exist for years to come and be a rival to WoW, then they're going about it the wrong way.

Inactive Account

LOL!!!!



You so funny.




You though you would be special....!!!!!

amatic

How is it a cash grab?..it was supposed to release at the same time as pc.
Your just salty as pc has been bumped.

Tiveria wrote: »

Console is better right? JK

It's just a cash grab the pc has been on the short end of the stick for six months I mean come on how could
console not be perfect?

Kalifas

spoqster wrote: »

nimander99 wrote: »

So pretty much if you had addons on console you'd be happy? That's basically what I'm reading.

I don't really want addons, I am just afraid the interface is not good enough, or put differently, the game is too rich for the interface. It's a brilliant interface if the game stopped at level 30 or maybe 50 and you had only one character.

What it comes down to is that the game gives you all these things, all this loot, all these crafting options, all these ways to build you character, the freedom to play different roles and so on. But they don't give you the tools to make use of these options in sensible way.

If they are after the Skyrim business model it's fine. They'll sell their copies and players will enjoy the show up to the early vet ranks when they will get frustrated for various reasons and move on to the next game. But if they want to create an MMO that will exist for years to come and be a rival to WoW, then they're going about it the wrong way.

This game is going to flourish as a story centric mmo. The problem is as great as the story is. The majority of the game is spent in those deep systems you speak of and in communion with other players. With the way systems are being non mmo motif, this game needs to go to the skyrim with friends spectrum. Why group with 16 other players in a raid if common grouping amenities are absent? There is too much data and manipulating of that data in an mmo that can't be single playerized in the mmo format. Without all that extra bells and whistles I'd probably have more fun playing solo or with my woman.

I don't like spending hundreds of hours out of the game studying the game's intricacies in my mmos. It's ok in single player games where economical and deep systems aren't as prominent and so much time progressing is needed.

Rust_in_Peace

90% of your problems are because you can't use addons anymore.

Well, what did you expect? It's the console version.

Ralpko

Do you really need an addon in pc to see the damage you inflicted? or can that be seen in a system chat? I'm enjoying the game on console so far, but it is really frustrating to not know how much you're hitting a mob or another player. I think it would be a really nice adition to have that asap on consoles.

Merkabeh

As a console only player (only in mid 20s for my 2 characters I am playing right now) I agree with almost all of this; I haven't had to do any gear swapping or skill swapping for different roles really yet because I am still leveling, but I can imagine what a pain that will be with the way these menus work and what our options.

Nice list OP!.

CtrlAltDlt

Hi guys, sorry i didnt have time to search so just wanted to ask if console players are able to see damage they do?

VoidBlue

juan0316 wrote: »

Hi guys, sorry i didnt have time to search so just wanted to ask if console players are able to see damage they do?

no, they cant.

if this wasa true MMORPG theyd have a tab on the text chat box that shows "battle numbers" damage given/taken and healing.

but since this is some weird non MMORPG they didnt add it to game and they didnt add text chat to console version.

dday3six

King Bozo wrote: »

Pc players will care but non playing pc gamers don't miss anything. A true console player does not miss stuff they are not aware of imo.

Most console players are exposed to PC gameplay, and the majority of Youtubers and Streamers use Addons. Also we have examples like FFXIV which has what I would call a more flushed and polished UI.

CtrlAltDlt

Thats a shame, imo thats a fundamental piece of every mmorpg, especially TESO with its deep class build system. How are we supposed to test builds???

I really hope they address this..