Confirmed: No race change, no racial rebalancing, only "tweaks" to certain races

Junkogen

So, according to ESO Live and a couple posts by ZOS, the next big patch that will include Imperial City will not include a racial rebalancing or race change option in contrast to what we have been told in the past. There will however be "tweaks" to Orcs, Khajiit, Nords, and Argonians. This means that something is probably being done to the robust passive. However, it's uncertain what kind of "tweaks" will be done to the Argonians racials.

How do you all feel about this? What do you think these tweaks will entail? Why the flip-flopping on race change?

nastuug

miked83b14_ESO

I just want an in-game appearance change feature. Whether it's with Crowns or Gold I don't care.

Aett_Thorn

Did the Devs ever say that the race change option was going to come at the exact same time as the racial tweaks? I always thought that they had said it would come after the racial tweaks. I don't think it's as much of a flip-flop as it is just making sure that the races are mainly balanced before they allow for race changes.

Xendyn

How do you all feel about this?
*sigh

What do you think these tweaks will entail?
No clue, anything would be pure speculation at this point. All I can do is remain hopeful for my poor Argonian Templar, who was made before they changed the racials last time and borked my plan.

Why the flip-flopping on race change?
Cause ZOS

lsneakl

miked83b14_ESO wrote: »

I just want an in-game appearance change feature. Whether it's with Crowns or Gold I don't care.

As with almost anything it should be both as an option.

Also imperial city is pretty exciting in the next big patch.

mikey27

K?

We saw this last thursday, 5 days ago..
Clickbait title

Furor

They did say they were going to implement the racial tweaks before allowing racial changes completely.

"We talked about this a bit in last Friday's ESO Live, during our Ask Us Anything segment (around the 45:45 mark.) We are planning some small tweaks to racial passives in our next major update (with Imperial City.) After that, we'll reevaluate. Long-term we may consider putting race changes in the Crown Store." - ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Personofsecrets

I play an orc, so though I would love to lose the health regen and speed boost for something useful (like more base stats), I am concerned that they could get worse.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

This thread title is deliberately misleading, and frankly untrue. Please refrain from doing that. Seriously, rumor-mongering is not helpful to anyone.

To clarify, we have not said "No race change, no racial re-balancing." We have stated (both here on the forums and in ESO Live) that we are starting with small adjustments to existing racial passives, first.

UrQuan

Aett_Thorn wrote: »

Did the Devs ever say that the race change option was going to come at the exact same time as the racial tweaks? I always thought that they had said it would come after the racial tweaks. I don't think it's as much of a flip-flop as it is just making sure that the races are mainly balanced before they allow for race changes.

Yeah, that's what I remember hearing too.

Junkogen

Furor wrote: »

They did say they were going to implement the racial tweaks before allowing racial changes completely.

"We talked about this a bit in last Friday's ESO Live, during our Ask Us Anything segment (around the 45:45 mark.) We are planning some small tweaks to racial passives in our next major update (with Imperial City.) After that, we'll reevaluate. Long-term we may consider putting race changes in the Crown Store." - ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Exactly. Previously they had said that they would rebalance the racials in the next big update and include a race change option as it would be unfair if a race were to become a good mage race, or something to that effect. That, to me, is different from that latest update which you quoted.

Junkogen

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

This thread title is deliberately misleading, and frankly untrue. Please refrain from doing that. Seriously, rumor-mongering is not helpful to anyone.

To clarify, we have not said "No race change, no racial re-balancing." We have stated (both here on the forums and in ESO Live) that we are starting with small adjustments to existing racial passives, first.

I wasn't trying to be misleading at all. This is what I gathered from what I've read and saw on ESO Live. I'm not rumor mongering. I'm just confused and frustrated.

Tandor

I've never agreed with race changes, so would oppose them being available through the crown store although I can understand the commercial attraction of that option.

If there are problems with racial passive balancing, then address it through adjustments to racial passives. That's the correct approach in my view. If they then want to make race changes available then so be it, but they are right not to introduce race changes before they've fixed any balancing issues, that would rightly be seen as promoting commercial gain as a means of addressing development failures, and it's just flat-out wrong.

Cervanteseric85ub17_ESO

They never said the next major update would include a race change option, then only said changes were coming to the racial passives.

UrQuan

Junkogen wrote: »

Furor wrote: »

They did say they were going to implement the racial tweaks before allowing racial changes completely.

"We talked about this a bit in last Friday's ESO Live, during our Ask Us Anything segment (around the 45:45 mark.) We are planning some small tweaks to racial passives in our next major update (with Imperial City.) After that, we'll reevaluate. Long-term we may consider putting race changes in the Crown Store." - ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Exactly. Previously they had said that they would rebalance the racials in the next big update and include a race change option as it would be unfair if a race were to become a good mage race, or something to that effect. That, to me, is different from that latest update which you quoted.

Where did they say anything about it being in "the next big update"?

Lord_Draevan

As long as they don't implement an Alliance change, I don't mind a race change.

Furor

Junkogen wrote: »

I wasn't trying to be misleading at all. This is what I gathered from what I've read and saw on ESO Live. I'm not rumor mongering. I'm just confused and frustrated.

Well, you just got an official (Albeit smack-down ) response from ZOS. I hope that cleared up any confusion.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom Awesome.

UrQuan

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

As long as they don't implement an Alliance change, I don't mind a race change.

I'd be fine with allowing an Alliance change if they did it right. The only way I think it would work well, though would be if you had the option to change only after completing Cadwell's Gold, and if there was a significant cooldown on it (at least a month) so that even at that point you couldn't just keep Alliance-hopping.

nastuug

So is their goal to make every class evenly balanced with watered down passives? What sort of tweaks would we be talking about?

Nestor

I would not change the race of my characters so this is not needed for me.

UrQuan

Nestor wrote: »

I would not change the race of my characters so this is not needed for me.

Likewise. I chose the race of each of my characters based on the concept that I had in my head for that particular character. Any changes to the racials won't change my concepts for my characters, and I would never change one of their races. But then, I'm not a min/maxer - in fact, I will even pick non-optimal gear over better gear if I don't like the way the better gear looks on my character.

kevlarto_ESO

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

This thread title is deliberately misleading, and frankly untrue. Please refrain from doing that. Seriously, rumor-mongering is not helpful to anyone.

To clarify, we have not said "No race change, no racial re-balancing." We have stated (both here on the forums and in ESO Live) that we are starting with small adjustments to existing racial passives, first.

Thank you for that, it is always good to put out these fires before people think they are the truth.

Junkogen

UrQuan wrote: »

Junkogen wrote: »

Furor wrote: »

They did say they were going to implement the racial tweaks before allowing racial changes completely.

"We talked about this a bit in last Friday's ESO Live, during our Ask Us Anything segment (around the 45:45 mark.) We are planning some small tweaks to racial passives in our next major update (with Imperial City.) After that, we'll reevaluate. Long-term we may consider putting race changes in the Crown Store." - ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Exactly. Previously they had said that they would rebalance the racials in the next big update and include a race change option as it would be unfair if a race were to become a good mage race, or something to that effect. That, to me, is different from that latest update which you quoted.

Where did they say anything about it being in "the next big update"?

I'll have to find it, but I could swear it was in one of the ESO Live's.

Acrolas

Whatever happens tomorrow, be sure to eat your veggies today.

Junkogen

nastuug wrote: »

So is their goal to make every class evenly balanced with watered down passives? What sort of tweaks would we be talking about?

Not sure. It's all speculation at this point, hence the thread. It's open for discussion.

LillyAngel

Junkogen wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

This thread title is deliberately misleading, and frankly untrue. Please refrain from doing that. Seriously, rumor-mongering is not helpful to anyone.

To clarify, we have not said "No race change, no racial re-balancing." We have stated (both here on the forums and in ESO Live) that we are starting with small adjustments to existing racial passives, first.

I wasn't trying to be misleading at all. This is what I gathered from what I've read and saw on ESO Live. I'm not rumor mongering. I'm just confused and frustrated.

Why do you even start such a pointless post? Seriously, 70% of all the posts on game forums are created by people who have nothing better to do. Get life people.

PBpsy

ZOS said that they will make small gradual changes and adjustments.We know however a bit about the history of the game and how ZOS makes gradual adjustments that strive to not destroy play styles and such.We therefore know that this means, that soon argonians will be the most OP race in the game.They will not be argonians anymore though but flying unicorns from outer space and will be able to summon Molag Bal to do their bidding.

HobnailedBoots

LillyAngel wrote: »

Junkogen wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

This thread title is deliberately misleading, and frankly untrue. Please refrain from doing that. Seriously, rumor-mongering is not helpful to anyone.

To clarify, we have not said "No race change, no racial re-balancing." We have stated (both here on the forums and in ESO Live) that we are starting with small adjustments to existing racial passives, first.

I wasn't trying to be misleading at all. This is what I gathered from what I've read and saw on ESO Live. I'm not rumor mongering. I'm just confused and frustrated.

Why do you even start such pointless posts? Seriously, 70% of all posts on game forums are created by people who have nothing better to do. Get life people.

90% of the complaints are from the same 0.00009% of the player base. P

HobnailedBoots

I'm enjoying the game, fwiw, ZOS. Carry on.

firstdecan

Furor wrote: »

Junkogen wrote: »

I wasn't trying to be misleading at all. This is what I gathered from what I've read and saw on ESO Live. I'm not rumor mongering. I'm just confused and frustrated.

Well, you just got an official (Albeit smack-down ) response from ZOS. I hope that cleared up any confusion.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom Awesome.

Given ZoS' track record, that's hardly a smackdown. After all, the game has remained a subscription based service to give us the updates we deserve, and Veteran Ranks are now a distant memory.

I realize @ZOS_JessicaFolsom has to toe the company line, but the company line is frequently hype and empty promises. The fact of the matter is that race changes, much like 'barber shop' appearance changes, have been sought after for quite some time, and there's been zero movement on any of it. Nothing the OP stated is inaccurate, and the response is simply a PR manager responding to manage community perception. Don't get me wrong, I'm not faulting or condemning Jessica in any way, but what she posted is at best hopeful intentions, and at worst deliberate obfuscation of available facts (propaganda). There is no current intention to allow race changes, although they are 'thinking about it.' That is the canned response to demands someone has no intention of fulfilling, anyone with a four year old has used this tactic. And much like a four year old, it's probably a good enough response because in a few weeks there will be another complaint of the week on forums.