Tales from the Tinfoil hat

Haxnschwammer

Hi all!
This is a summary of some thoughts I had about TESO. Some are likely, some are wild guesses.
Some is background information, some is well.. stories, some is history.
Add your own thoughts and stories if you want, I can't do anything against it anyway.

First the huge downloads for updates.
Why do we need to download gigabytes of data? The answer is SCRUM. SCRUM is
a development method. It works like this: A recurring timeframe is defined after which a whole working model
is build. Including everything. Things are not finished or complete, but what is there is working.
For example think of building a car.
week 1 : frame is there but loose, tyres won't turn, seats are raw metal, engine is just a block of metal
week 2 : frame still loose, tyres turn, but no air, seats have canvas, engine is ready but no fuel or starter yet
week 3 : frame fixed, tyres turn and are filled with air, seats are cozy, engine needs fuel but can be used
After every week a model is presented to the customer/head development. At this stage changes are easier to make.
Like you see that a trunk is missing, you can add it now easily, later you would have to move much more parts.
Developing is much more agile. Downside is you need to build a whole model with everything incomplete, unfinished, whatever.
Back to TESO. Every update contains everything. Even unready, unfinished, planned, stopped, reworked....
That's why imperial city is already in the game files. Cash shop items have been in files for 8 months, spell crafting is
there, too. And that's why updates are so big. Because unusable crap has been pushed to game files.
And with every little change the whole thing has to be downloaded again and not once when it is finished.
Oh, btw. the current updates are small which indicates another thing: They truly don't work on anything because of consoles.
Another thought: French version has been much larger last update. Maybe it was a language overhaul?
Don't know about that...

The sub issue.
Game is doing bad. TESO has been forced to go F2P/B2P. There are no official numbers on subs because they were so bad.
Oh well. Meanwhile I believe it was planned all along. You see the partnership with that F2P-company was 2 months after launch.
Their only business model is making games F2P. Contracts of this size needs a lot time to prepare. So the decision to
go F2P was made at least at launch time when no sub numbers have been there.
That subs on consoles would be higher has been known all along. It would have been astounding if Microsoft would go back
on online fees for a single game. Additionally all the lies while going F2P. Removing boxes and timecards from shops?
Oh, just normal business. Removing 6 month sub? Nobody wanted those.
F2P was long planned and prepared. That's why there was all the silence. Customers cry out for answers and get ignored?
Nobody does this without knowing exactly what he's doing.
"Super Research" (a company trading in data) estimates the first year income to over 100 million. And that's without
console sales. Sure it's just a guess but if you sell guesses you must be good at it. That's the reason I think ZOS
don't tell numbers. Not because they are bad, but because they are doing well. The whole "subs are low, they had to go F2P"
would be obvious wrong. In short I believe ZOS planned to milk PC players with subs, pre orders and then turn to cash shop.
Console players are more used to DLC and cash shop. So they will be milked with cash shop items. And Pay to Win.

Cash shop items
Well, there it is, the cash shop. Only cosmetic and convenience. No Pay to Win. For now.
What do people pay for? Sure the one or another wants a guar or a tiger and pays for it. But in the long run?
People like to show off. Be the best. To stomp down others. To win. However possible.
Right now we have people in forum who cry for a lot of stuff. Race changes, faction changes, class changes.
And moooooooore and faaaaster XP! Most of them don't ask for fluff. For housing or such. The loudest crys are for
quick possibilities to change to the FOTM (flavour of the month) build or to join the winning side.
Those things will be added to the shop. Maybe not now or next month, but they will. Just because people will pay for them.
Some of the items in crown store have been removed. Of course they "might" come back again. If people are
willing to buy them. Or others before they'll removed. Just another marketing trick.

Why different Megaservers?
EU, US, OK, with latency being a bad thing in competitive games it's understandable that there are different ones.
XBOX? PS? Why not Asia?
OK, For asia I don't think ESO would be liked. No anime *** ehr, I mean comic style girls, no korean MMO grind (You
really think ESO is a grind?), an so on. It's a different play style. I doubt it would be a success.
But why not join consoles the PC servers?
A fresh restart. No hordes of new console warriors against swarms of VET leveled PC Masterrace keyboard junkies.
That's also the reason why copies to consoles have been so limited.
Different versions of the game. There is a serious bug, it gets hot fixed within 2 days. On consoles downloads have to be
approved by the providers. That means a delay. Imagine people on consoles have the opportunity to use a glitch
or normal game changes for a few days. You remember when forward camps have been removed and EU players stockpiled them
because they had a day more? Imagine they have been on the same server...
There are good reasons to separate servers, although I would prefer 1 giant megaserver.

What comes next?
This is was I initially thought will happen:

---

ZOS already said Consoles in June and then nothing for a while and then ...something...
What I think will happen is this:
They want a console launch as smooth as possible because they *** up PC start. There have been worse, but it
wasn't good. Bugs, bot swarms, exploits. Almost all resources goes to polishing console client. But also for server.
I expect a huge update with several bugfixes shortly before launch, giving it 1 or 2 weeks to catch the new bugs.
After a while there will be 1 (one) DLC for PC players. But a small one, maybe Hrothgar, maybe a new trial.
This will keep players busy while consoleros crawl through content.
After two months there will be a big one, Imperial City. Then Cockwork city, thieves guild/brotherhood,...

---

Hah! Console launch was before I made this public... So launch was/is bad. So many bugs and issues...
Login issues like at PC launch. The really *** up third launch... can't find any words for that...


Animation cancelling
Also called attack weaving. I don't want to spill out how bad this is, (it's very bad). Just a, well, historic view.
First, animation cancelling works roughly like this:
You press "1", skill starts, after 1.1 seconds you can use another skill. Or you use AC
press "1", skill starts, use bash/block after 0.2 seconds, use light attack.
You can raise your damage per second (DPS) with this method. Look somewhere else for more details.
Well AC was not intended. At some point players found out about it and used it. At first ZOS stated its not intended, that
using AC is in fact an exploit. They won't ban people because accidental using of AC with normal blocking is so common
and there is no way to distinguish them. The said they fix it soon.
After a while they said they can't because it affects the core of the combat mechanics. So it will take time.
Then there was silence. A long silence. They realized they can't fix it without a complete rebuild. But that takes
too much resources, so they changed to "working as intended". They still want to get rid of it, though.
If they really recommended AC they would teach you the basics in the tutorial or at least mention it.
This way they have the possibility to fix it. Sometime. Or leave it. Whatever.
They don't like it. But they don't loath it enough to fix it. I think it will be here for a long time.
Oh, funny thought, if it's really intended, like a few claim, would you like bosses to cancel their animation?
No more telegraphs showing their attacks? Even the powerful ones? You just drop dead and see, "oh it's been on
hulk mode, I should have moved away If I'd been able to see this"

Veteran Ranks and why they will be removed
Well, in the beginning during beta it was clear you make a char and play your faction. At level 50 you are
max level and your journey is over. You can fight in cyrodiil against the evil other factions.
But then players wanted to play the other factions as well with their "main" char. And ZOS listened to them.
Now, after your zone is finished you can join "Cadwells' siler and gold", the other factions. And to get more
levels (progression) the Veteran Leveles have been introduced. A side effect was that now alot more skyshards and skill
quests have been available. Making the full leveled even more powerful.
But now players wasn't happy, they cried about the grind, the boooring questing, and so on. ZOS realized that
players in beta are mostly dedicated players, but most others just want to reach max level as fast as possible to reach "End Game".
In other games you level and at max level you do hard dungeons over and over again to get shiny gear.
But ESO had no such "end game". Many grinded and exploited to get to "end game", not realizing that they were
skipping the actual game. Now there are trials and such, but not the huge and rewarding raids they know from
different games. And Cyrodiil, that one region that could be the "End game" is suffering from huge problems.
Progression was replaced with the Champion point grind. But the unloved vet ranks remained.
They planned to remove them before console launch (why have them rush through them to take them away the next patch?) but
failed to do so. They will be removed, but nobody knows when. Or is allowed to tell us.

They gave up on PVP
No, they didn't.
PvP was their endgame, the one thing that makes this game epic. 100 vs 100 vs 100 at the same time.
It was not a marketing lie, in the beginning this was actually working. But many bugs and quick fixes
and latency and massively AOE and AOE checks cause that freaking lag. If they knew how to fix it they
would have already done it.

Huge Map
Ever been to Cyrodiil? Noticed the different landscape? If not, Cyrodiil is huge. In PvE you walk up a hill with
10 steps, you can see the bandit camps from the quest town and so on. In Cyrodiil landscape is at least 10 times bigger.
Cyrodiil was intended to have hundreds of player in it, hiding and sneaking around. You can't lead an assault group or have
a full grown siege in PvE size. Single Fortresses have the size of PvE Towns.
Here you appreciate a speed horse! And speed buffs!


Ok, enough from me now. Add jour own thoughts, share your wisdom.

P3ZZL3

I'm just going to say +1 for all that typing

Ranique

"First the huge downloads for updates."
Size has been going up within expected parameters as the updates. most of it was there when the game launched. So no scrum (or atleast not much).

"The sub issue."
I'm honest with you. I'm very much against subs. I played the beta. I loved the game, but disliked the sub. Arenanet at the front and later others, have proven time after time that a sub free model is doable, and not just out of desperation. It is not that I'm a cheapskin. I actually pay more on the game then people paying for a sub. But I just refuse to pay to have access to that what I payed for.
I compare it to this. If a company develops a car that rides without putting anything in and is just as good as any other car, would you still drive a car that needs gas or electricity?? Subfree games are possible and viable profit models for gaming company's, so why not?. the only thing wrong with ZoS here is that they tried eating of both plates. they should have called the first year a paid preview. Much more inline what the first year was (in more then one way).

"Why different Megaservers?"
Besides your (correct) arguments another one. A multiplayer game always has some competition in it, even out of PvP. I don't think anyone in skyrim cared so much bout gold in thier pocket as the average ESO-player. the reason is simply cause social interaction changes peoples behaviour and (specifically young male) players are going to show off to eachother. This social effect makes it that different controls and advantages/disadvantages when chatting, means that people will loose that silly social game cause of platform and the "loosing" platform will become less popular.

"What comes next"
I disagree with you that we dont get a lot for a while. The big mistake they made with the PC launch was that the game wasnt ready and they promised a lot. But cause the launch was a dissaster (when it comes to bugs) they had to postpone a lot of that stuff. So they now are working with roadmaps (the last from december 2014). The current roadmap was (basically): Tamriel unlimited/patch 1.16 and console release. It was (first in a long time) a realistic roadmap and they did exactly what they promised. Now the console doesn't have huge ass bugs (there are some, but they aren't too big and will likely be fixed soon enough), they can continue and publish the next plans. I expect a new roadmap till december 2015 in the next 4 weeks. This doesn't mean that they are starting on things. As said, lots of imperial city, is allready in the dat-file. they likely had the roadmap allready there, but it had a big but. It looked like: "We plan on A, B and C IF the console release goes relativly smoothly" now the IF is gone, they can put it on the table.

"Veteran Ranks and why they will be removed"
I disagree that veteran ranks are unloved. The main issue I'm seeing with them is the grind and the limitation to group content. Just as I dislike forced solo content (why can't I experience something epic like defeating Molag Bal with my friends??!!), I also dislike forced group content (why should someone who is grouping be better at this game and have better stats then me??). The issue is "forced". As they remove the "forced" part of veteran ranks in future DLC's, the veteran rank system will also get better. The only issue there is again graclorn. Either they make the new DLC an area where you are forced to solo (which would again be not appreciate by yours truly) or they scale it for solo purpose (but allow groups) and it will be a much easier road to vr14 then craglorn, making that zone deserted. The solution is the actual reward (championpoints). When doing Craglorn/dungeons you should be rewarded with things that makes you a better group player (better tank, better healer, better dps). When doing solo-content, you should be rewarded with things you need as a solo player (better jack of trade). So I don't believe that veteran ranks should be removed, and don't think it is needed. but the rewards (championpoints) should.

"They gave up on PVP"
I agree. looking at my other favourite game (GW2's world versus World) it is an issue with the entire format. The reason it is a more pressing issue in ESO is cause of how the game as a whole is designed. I'm going to get a bit technical. But GW2 pulls it off better (far from perfect) cause the game is not so graphically detailed. Don't get me wrong. I find it a stunning game, but it is cause of what I call the Van Gogh approach to the artwork. GW2 is drawn "simple" with rough pencil strokes to make it a nice piece of art, while keeping it graphically low. the result is that massive open world PvP battles is not a battle of who has the better machine. I find it hard to see a solution, but there are solutions. GW2 had implemented a few and it is where ZoS should look for inspiration. As an example I would say the default character model. When you are playing in large scale battles, every player around you (foe or friend) gets the same simplistic model. how many depends on your machine. On mine it happens that only the 10 people closest to me look like they alsways look, while the rest is all looking exactly the same. You don't need to see someones skin colour to kill them right?? It is not a perfect solution and it is technically difficult, but it helps.

Junipus

You've pretty much condensed everything people knew or predicted into one thread about 3 months too late.

Although kudos on condensing it for the new players to bring them up to the same level of knowledge as those who have been here longer

Rook_Master

Nice post, but slow down on the coffee dude.

ThatNeonZebraAgain

What F2P company did ZOS partner with? Got any link to a source for this (asking because I never heard about this angle)? I agree that the B2P (not F2P) switch was planned at least since October 2014. If you recall, one of the first screenshots of a Champion constellation from last fall showed a passive that allowed feeding your mount more than once a day. There was a minor outcry of how useless such a passive was, and Gina replied that they had already taken that ability out of the constellation. And here we are today with a monetized Crown Store version of that ability.

daemonios

Ranique wrote: »

I actually pay more on the game then people paying for a sub. But I just refuse to pay to have access to that what I payed for.

So you think your $60 or whatever the game cost you has already paid for the ongoing maintenance and development? This is NOT a single-player game that ends when you kill the final boss. The sub model is the most honest way of paying for an ongoing service. Non-sub models rely on the cheapest marketing tricks to fool people into spending at the very least the same amount as they would if there had been a sub, but preferably much more than that, and theoretically there's no limit to how much money you can throw at it. It's inherently dishonest IMHO.

Lord Xanhorn

TLDR