Official Discussion Thread for "ESO – The Year Ahead"

LearnThis

I know I read about the character customization but I did not see the word "race" in there. Was there a reason that was not spoken of or at least mentioned?

As a few before have said, I too am sad to read the VR changes are happening during the second quarter and not sooner.

Thank you for the informational update.

Bloodfang

Saturn wrote: »

Sidenote: The ~9 months between Nov 2014 and August 2015 was a pretty significant content draught for ESO, which will hopefully never happen again now that you are on track to releasing big content batches quarterly.

Update 5 -> November 2014
Update 6 -> March 2015 (4 months)
Update 7 -> August 2015 (5 months)

There was never 9 months of content drought.

craigr02

I'm upset the vr ranks will not be taken away sooner. I was looking forward to that change, and using my new toon. Not having to level him up to vr 16 like my other, which will probably take me until the next quarter. I also wonder about the getting skill points too. They only talked about Skyshards alliance war and quests. They did not mention when your character levels, in his case when you get another 10 champ points. I also did not like that they did not mention race in changes as well.

DEPRE5SED

What about the earned skill points from vet levels 2 through 16? Will all those still be obtainable?

Dominoid

Possible look of nameplate implementation:

MaxwellC

A bit disappointing in the lack of upcoming class changes that I believe were to come out with thieves guild update. I'm bored of not being able to make use of my DK abilities and am tired of having to mix up CP due to ultimate/skills scaling off different CP even though it's stamina based.

Jayne_Doe

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

Ghanima_Atreides wrote: »

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

Indeed; will current VR characters have theirs removed? It seems like the only way to avoid a permanent advantage on the part of the established player base although I dread the raging that will come with it...

I am afraid though that if they remove those 15 points it is gonna destroy lot of builds. They should transfer those also to the champion system. Till CP 160 you gain one attribute per 10 CP.

Don't forget the skill points - there's 15 of those too. I like your proposal of blending them in to the Champion system. I saw another idea of providing 2 SPs/APs at levels 5, 10, 15, etc., but that would only take care of 10 of the points.

I'd rather see them figure out another way to earn those points rather than remove them. For someone who doesn't PVP, I'm missing out on SPs from Alliance Ranks as well as the Cyrodiil skyshards. Don't want to lose 15 more!

Rozyn

I'll be the one casual to bring up housing lol. Great to hear this is still coming at some point, I'd just like to request that it isn't some super end-game feature that's so expensive no one can afford to enjoy it. Housing gives a sense of belonging to a game world in a way that few other features do. It makes me feel like a citizen rather than a visitor and I really dig that about other games with it. The sooner you can get that feeling, even if it's just an inn room, the better!

Dominoid

davidtxr wrote: »

More stuff to make the game lag even more ! The end is nigh

I think you're confusing FPS with lag. All SCT, nameplates, etc are handled exclusively on the client and require no client-server communication which doesn't affect lag positively or negatively.

ZOS_RichLambert

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

You will now earn the extra attribute/skill points while leveling up from 1-50. Here's a quick chart to help explain it better

Level - Bonus Attribute/Skill Points
5 - 1
10 - 2
15 - 1
20 - 2
25 - 1
30 - 2
35 - 1
40 - 2
45 - 1
50 - 3
Total 16



Note: This is different than what I posted in November last year. We've been iterating on the design for a bit now and this is a much more straightforward approach.

Dominoid

[Post Removed]

Rich clarified skill and attribute points with VR removal.

Jayne_Doe

ZOS_RichLambert wrote: »

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

You will now earn the extra attribute/skill points while leveling up from 1-50. Every 10 levels you will get 2 of each instead of 1. At 50 you will get 3.

Note: This is different than what I posted in November last year. We've been iterating on the design for a bit now and this is a much more straightforward approach.

I assume this is also the case for skill points?

EDIT: sorry, just re-read your post, and saw that you said "two of each."

Elsonso

ZOS_RichLambert wrote: »

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

You will now earn the extra attribute/skill points while leveling up from 1-50. Every 10 levels you will get 2 of each instead of 1. At 50 you will get 3.

Note: This is different than what I posted in November last year. We've been iterating on the design for a bit now and this is a much more straightforward approach.

This is a good idea and it gets rid of the "Champion Rank is just another name for Veteran Rank" issue.

code65536

[Delete]

Slylok

Great news! Tons of amazing upcoming content! So exciting!

Though I am disappointed I didn't read " PvP Arena coming soon " and " Complete redesign of Cyrodil into a PvE zone ".. The redesign would be because Arenas would kill off large scale PvP anyway and Cyrodil would be wasted... IMO its potential was / is already wasted.

Murmeltier

Ok, "Longer term, expect to see information about systems like a character customization shop so you can change your character's gender, appearance, name, etc.", sounds good.

But i dont read anything about the Racechange, is this coming too, or do you have this canceled? It is a big Thing and should stand in the Text too.

Saturn

Bloodfang wrote: »

Saturn wrote: »

Sidenote: The ~9 months between Nov 2014 and August 2015 was a pretty significant content draught for ESO, which will hopefully never happen again now that you are on track to releasing big content batches quarterly.

Update 5 -> November 2014
Update 6 -> March 2015 (4 months)
Update 7 -> August 2015 (5 months)

There was never 9 months of content drought.

March's update was Update 6, which besides the overhaul of how the game works only had the Justice system, which is "meta content", meaning it adds nothing new but expands upon existing things = we all f**ked around with it for an hour and then most of us got bored.

ZOS_RichLambert

@Jayne_Doe - Yep! (edited my original reply to remove any confusion)

craigr02

One other question, will they unbind, bound drops. I'm having a heck of a time putting sets together because of this! There's several sets I want to try, but getting it vr 16 has been an issue. It sucks, when I know my buddies have it, and are just deconstructing it since they don't need it! Fix this!

Woodoochill

Well I thought u talked about PVP arenas and duels later in 2015 but there is not a single word about it. I'm not sure what thats supposed to mean.

Faulgor

Have to say I'm a bit disappointed seing the Enforcer system getting axed, Spellcrafting being on the back burner and the barber shop delayed once again.
With all these upcoming game systems stopped in development or getting delayed, I'm wondering what we are going to actually get instead? The article could have focused a bit more on that. The only noteworthy news we got were bad

Hope you will have something actually new for us on Friday at ESO Live.

Enodoc

ZOS_RichLambert wrote: »

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

You will now earn the extra attribute/skill points while leveling up from 1-50. Every 10 levels you will get 2 of each instead of 1. At 50 you will get 3.

Note: This is different than what I posted in November last year. We've been iterating on the design for a bit now and this is a much more straightforward approach.

@ZOS_RichLambert Are you removing some points, or have you miscounted? That only accounts for 6, and there are 15 points at stake. You need 2 points every 5 and 3 points every 10 to cover them all.


Edit: This comment is void because Rich updated his original to clarify.

ZOS_RichLambert wrote: »

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

You will now earn the extra attribute/skill points while leveling up from 1-50. Here's a quick chart to help explain it better

Level - Bonus Attribute/Skill Points
5 - 1
10 - 2
15 - 1
20 - 2
25 - 1
30 - 2
35 - 1
40 - 2
45 - 1
50 - 3
Total 16

Note: This is different than what I posted in November last year. We've been iterating on the design for a bit now and this is a much more straightforward approach.

Dominoid

Saturn wrote: »

Bloodfang wrote: »

Saturn wrote: »

Sidenote: The ~9 months between Nov 2014 and August 2015 was a pretty significant content draught for ESO, which will hopefully never happen again now that you are on track to releasing big content batches quarterly.

Update 5 -> November 2014
Update 6 -> March 2015 (4 months)
Update 7 -> August 2015 (5 months)

There was never 9 months of content drought.

March's update was Update 6, which besides the overhaul of how the game works only had the Justice system, which is "meta content", meaning it adds nothing new but expands upon existing things = we all f**ked around with it for an hour and then most of us got bored.

Don't speak for me.

Jayne_Doe

Enodoc wrote: »

ZOS_RichLambert wrote: »

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

You will now earn the extra attribute/skill points while leveling up from 1-50. Every 10 levels you will get 2 of each instead of 1. At 50 you will get 3.

Note: This is different than what I posted in November last year. We've been iterating on the design for a bit now and this is a much more straightforward approach.

@ZOS_RichLambert Are you removing some points, or have you miscounted? That only accounts for 6, and there are 15 points at stake. You need 2 points every 5 and 3 points every 10 to cover them all.

Thanks, Enodoc! I was just looking at that again and thinking the same thing.

driosketch

ZOS_RichLambert wrote: »

ArvenAldmeri wrote: »

What will happen with those attribute points we got for veteran ranks?

You will now earn the extra attribute/skill points while leveling up from 1-50. Every 10 levels you will get 2 of each instead of 1. At 50 you will get 3.

Note: This is different than what I posted in November last year. We've been iterating on the design for a bit now and this is a much more straightforward approach.

Is my math wrong? That only seems to account for 6 out of the 15.

Lord_Wrath

I hope ZoS can continue this communication with us. I missed the Road Ahead articles, and im hoping this isnt the only one for the year!

leandro.800ub17_ESO

I hope we get more details on next zone

-Skills and Passives ?
-Dailyes asociated with new sets (by stealing)
-Trial ?

ThatNeonZebraAgain

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

ShadowHvo wrote: »

other features we are working on include scrolling combat text (which will go live with the Thieves Guild DLC in Q1), character nameplates,

Please PLEASE ensure this is 100% optional, and give everyone the option to -not- let others see their character nameplates.

And I really hope that you guys won't neglect the importance of the visual response in the game because of scrolling combat text. There are many of us here who're playing for the Elder Scrolls Experience, and I want to see visually on screen what is going on with effects and abilities, and I have absolutely no desire to be forced into focusing on a bunch of text scrolling down the screen.

Nameplates will have toggles so you can choose to turn them on or off. The same goes for scrolling combat text. (And both will be off by default.) We're dedicated to ensuring players have enough visual feedback during combat to play with SCT turned off.

What about implementing a Chat Tab for combat text? I would LOVE an official combat log, but I absolutely hate cluttering up my screen withing neon flying crap.

OtarTheMad

I saw that someone posted the same question as I was typing mine and ZOS answered it, sounds good.

EDIT- Thanks for the update by the way, I am so excited for the upcoming updates and I am glad we finally have some real content to chew on.

SECOND EDIT- Have you thought of putting the spells linked to Spellcrafting into other skill lines that may be released like: Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, College of Winterhold etc.? I think adding these spells would give it more of an ES feel to the game and expand diversity.

ThatNeonZebraAgain

Divinius wrote: »

We will not be adding in the previously discussed PvP component of the Justice System. We caveated this many times - as I said at the ESO QuakeCon presentation in 2014, it was always going to be very difficult making it fun, but not exploitable. When introducing new systems to the game, our number one goal is to make sure that we don't introduce new problems. Having players enforce justice on the criminal activity of other players has the potential to introduce imbalances and other issues that greatly outweigh any potential gameplay benefits. The game's central concept of "PvP in PvP areas and be safe in safe areas" needs to stay the way it is.

Thank you, thank you, for finally officially killing that horrible idea. I love you.

In terms of the overall design direction of the game, it's very sad that they are canning the PvP part of the Justice System. All of the low hanging fruit complaints about the system that everyone gets so scared about (e.g. camping lowbies when they loot desks) are easily avoidable with smart design. Think about what such a system would represent: a constantly evolving and actually meaningful player experience, where your actions in the world matter. Making player actions matter in the shared space of an MMO world is an area where the game genre needs to innovate. With this system, as well as Spellcrafting and Housing, among others, ESO had a chance to start straddling the line between theme park and sandbox in a unique way, and also get an edge over upcoming MMOs that are building more sandboxy worlds and bringing the challenge back to MMO gaming.

To me, it seems like spellcrafting and PvP justice system are the remnants of pre-B2P design direction that prioritized player-driven, dynamic (as opposed to grindy, easily parsable, and monetized) gameplay. As such, it sounds like finishing them would be more work than they would stand to generate in revenue because, in the game's current economic model, 'short-term' transactions are valued more than 'long-term' subscriptions. On one hand, if they implemented these two big, combat-focused systems into the base game it would not generate any significant new revenue like DLCs do. On the other hand, if they somehow monetized them, it would likely condemn the game to pay-to-win status. Seems like a lose-lose for ZOS with either direction, though at least that would mean they still seem to be still avoiding the P2W abyss.