Official Feedback Thread for Dark Brotherhood

Mix

In response to some of the comments read so far in this thread:

I love the Sacraments and love that the quest circles are so randomly big. Several times I have found my target in rooms that are invisible on the map until you step into them. I didn't have too much trouble with lantern mobs as there are baskets and places to hide while they go past. They do walk slow but I haven't found them to be too irritating to navigate. I like that if an npc is annoyingly standing in my way I can just assassinate them too and go on searching for my target.

I never found a problem with the exit door so I can't help out there.

I agree that it shouldn't be all or nothing for the bonus objectives. There should be a few tiers of rewards so if you only miss the timer you don't get the "thank-you, try again" reward.

Personally, this DLC feels very different than TG for me. I stole a lot of things prior to TG release, then with TG I could steal even better/do repeatables for extra gold from stealing things/passives that help with stealth/stealing things. But TG is very selfish, you steal to make you rich and as a side-bonus make the guild 'look' good. I haven't really enjoyed the Heists so far because the reward isn't very useful and not only are the lantern npcs there but you have to watch all the others pathing patterns too and it is timed from the start so if you encounter an npc that is standing next to the chest you need and you wait and wait and they don't path away...you're screwed for the timer. I also think that the traps should glow inside the Heists just like they do everywhere else.

With DB there is a definite cult/religion to it, you complete the tasks to gain the favour of the family, the Night Mother and Sithis (which I guess you can say is also personal gain but adding the religious aspect to it, the fanaticism, the dedication changes the feel for me). I enjoy the Sacraments a lot. First, the timer doesn't start until AFTER you kill your main target, this lets the player locate the secondary objective(s) and the main target AND plan their escape by becoming familiar with the lantern users and obstacles. (and you can kill any other npc that happens to be blocking your path, you don't have to wait on them to complete a pathing cycle around the room. Oh, and you have an Alert Level so that you get 5 chances to not ruin that objective whereas with Heists it is get seen - lose time (and if you want the best reward this usually means abandon quest and re-try)

I also found the Sacrament instances didn't properly reset if you did back-to-back Sacraments in the same one.

I forget who now, but someone above mentioned that they didn't like having to wait DAYS to get the needed Skill line rank to progress. The Contracts given by the book by Elam are repeatable multiple times/day. They gave me 5 rep each for the kill single target objectives and I didn't check to see if the Killing Spree objective gave the same or not.

I made a thieving set for the pre-made I tested with (Night's Silence - no movement penalty while sneaking) just like i have for my main on live. I fully agree that slow-sneaking + any objective is pretty tedious, but you aren't expected to mow through the mobs in a Sacrament or on a Contract, so wearing an alternate set of gear is definitely a good idea. On live I also wear Nightshade (decreased detection radius) which also helps out. Honestly, the only use I see for the Sithis' set rewards is to make a "Murder" set, then if you do get seen and have to fight another npc after using Blade of Woe on the first you get a nice buff! Also, from the pieces I have seen the Sithis set is the armor that the Dark Brotherhood members are wearing. You don't NEED medium armor, I made Night's Silence in Light on the pts and it worked fine. The TG passives for sneaking are quite similar to the medium armor passives.

There is a definite feel when you are done with the DB quest line that in future DLCs you could see more DB quests and I hope ZoS does tie that in and add more Sanctuaries as we go on.

I also wish we could revisit the Black Marsh Sanctuary - I play an Argonian and I want to see more/experience more Black Marsh. Also, that Sanctuary was badass looking!

wolfsilver

Not sure if this happened for anyone else, but when you first talk to the speaker, I found that his mouth didn't move at all as he spoke, and his line delivery felt a little delayed. But everything else seems to be working fine. I'll let you know if I encounter any more faults as I progress through the story line

jknight201

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Dark Brotherhood. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes:

• Did you find that all the quests were working correctly and as expected?
• How did you like the Blade of Woe?
  • Did it function as you expected?
  • Did you find any exploits while using it?
  • Did it feel good functionally as a synergy?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

1. Quests

So far they have worked as expected, but I have not gotten very far into the DB questline.

2. Like the Blade of Woe?

Yes! It is a whole lot of fun (I guess that's the point) but... something is going to have to be done to temper people's ability to use it. Anvil and Kvatch are just charnel houses with everyone on the PTS outright murdering everyone they possibly can. If that goes to Live... the major cities are just going to be littered with bodies, and while that will be fun for the first hour or so... it will really change the feel of the cities.

3. Did it function as expected?

Yes and no.

While I love the animations, there are significant issues with character alignment and placement between the attacker and victim, significant issues on the speed of the animation (it looks... "rushed" and it looks like it's skipping frames - even though my fps is generally >60 fps). The blood spray is a nice touch, but then no blood on the ground, on the victim or on the player (or the blade). The animations often use my equipped weapons and not the Blade of Woe. I'm just assuming these are "polish" issue before release.

It can be finicky to activate at times, even when I have line-of-sight to a target and am in sneak. It also often chooses the "throw the dagger" animation even if I'm standing right next to the target, which is kind of silly.

The murder-crime detection seems to be buggy. I have been detected murdering people with the Blade even though there were no other NPCs around. Anywhere. I've also gotten away with murdering people right in front of guards/witnesses and not getting bounty. I have not taken all the DB passives either, so not sure what's going on here. It should be more clear and consistent when you can and cannot get away with murdering a target. Maybe do the check at the very start of the kill animation? Or when the player synergizes?

4. Exploits?

None that I noticed.

5. Good functionality as a synergy?

So-so. It can be finicky to use. Or it blips in and then is gone depends on detection. There is a bug where you enter stealth and the eye closes and you're invisible for an instant and then are immediately detected. You get the sound and the synergy and then it goes away. That feels unpolished.

6. General feedback

Nothing else.

WhiteNoiseMaker

I can't speak for having gotten very far into the DB questline yet, but as test feedback I have a few comments.

I too rolled a new template character, because for some reason, my Vet Character Import from Live is only level 36, as if the import was taken from last month when I started playing ESO.

Trying to accomplish anything that requires travel without having access to all zones' wayshrines makes the game difficult to test under limited RL time conditions, it's just painful and makes me want to log off because I don't want to replay the main quest again. I can't try and re-create the gear conditions I am familiar with and wouldn't be able to test under a common frame of reference because the template set boxes are very limited. I can't craft anything endgame-related in PTS because it would take me weeks to research the needed traits, even if I could access the correct zones.

Right now these factors are making any sort of detail oriented comparison testing impossible, as without a degree of familiar operation, the whole experience is incomparable to the point of being a fresh playthrough with no benchmarks to contrast.

duzhe

Did you find that all the quests were working correctly and as expected?
i haven't finished it yet but no, they were not. details to follow.

How did you like the Blade of Woe?

Nice.
Did it function as you expected?
Usually yes. Had a few issues with being detected by the victim at the moment of assassinating it.

Did you find any exploits while using it?

The problem was, that I got bounty for being detected by the dead victim. Not sure, if it's an exploit or my sloppyness.
Did it feel good functionally as a synergy?
not sure what you mean by this

Do you have any other general feedback?
yes i do. i had a few issues with quests.
1. Hrota Cave / a quest to slay the Wispmother Exulus. Everything in that cave respawns in less than a minute including Exulus.
2. A lesson in Silence quest. After defeating the Grand Sermonizer and everyone else in the final chamber i was about to leave the Sanctuary when smth invisible attacked me. I tried AOE and direct damage but could see where the attacks where coming from, please see the screenshots attached.

Ra'Shtar

I didn't know where to put this but the light armor akaviri helmet makes your face take the color of the armor and it looks really disgusting its like i'm a protagonist in a kids tv show from the 90s called Gold Cat the Wizard.

Ra'Shtar

I also want to add that the reward of doing the repeatable quests in the the Dark Brotherhood sanctum are very underwhelming and there is 0 reasons to do them once you max the skill line.

ycodryn

Dear developers do something about this damn Blade of Woe and Vampire feed. Make an option to disable feeding, I never used that damn option anyway or make another key binding for bow.

Dubhliam

The run animation of the Assassin personality gets reverted into a regular running animation while under the Major Expedition buff from activating Retreating Maneuver.
It's actually the unsheathing that does that.
Guess the personality only has a sheathed animation.
EDIT: unsheathing your weapons reverts the walk animation, but applies it again when sheathing.
If however I have the Major Expedition buff on me, even with my weapons sheathed again, the walking animation remains default (not personality). This even prevents the walking animation from reverting to Assassin style after the buff has expired.
EDIT: unsheathing by weapon swap also prevents the animation to revert to Assassin walk.

Dubhliam

There are some issues with sound (particularly NPC speech) while in Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.

It seems the waterfall sound takes priority over the speech, and the first speech they say when interacted with is always muffled.
EDIT: it seems to deteriorate with time

Tib

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Did you find that all the quests were working correctly and as expected?

Two questions regarding the repeatable contracts.
On my AD char I haven't been able to accept a single quest which sends me to an AD zone. Is this intended or some kind of a bug?
And secondly, Gold Coast contracts. I know there is a murder spree for Gold Coast, but is there a regular contract quest as well?

potirondb16_ESO

Hi @Zos,

I'm doing this for a quick review of the DLC, I didn,t wanted to thrash other player experience by adding a negative review on the general forum but since this is the ''official'' thread for feedback here I go.

So first, this review is targeting the overall DLC design/orientation since Orsinium.I'm also not talking for other but simply for myself.

First thing I hated as I came into the DLC, it's EMPTY. The Gold Coast is even emptier then Hew's Bane and while there use to be things to look at in term of design and pathways Inside Hew's bane this one fall flat. Nothing in the map stand out, it's another regular zone.

Comment: You really have to stop the casual design system ! I believe the next expansion is a swamp, please don't make it look like the other swamp. Hew's Bane was nice because it was unique, same with Orsinium or Imperial City, they had Something new to look at this one is boring.

Second, why can't we complete the mainstory line in peace ! it's been the second time we've been thrown at doing dailies all the time in order to increase our reputation among the ''DLC GUILD''. IT'S BORING ! Please, if I wanted to do dailies alone, on my side, I would go play a solo game. If I wanted to grind gear because it's part of a bigger strategy ok, but if it's not !!! why on earth would I do theese daily !

I mean even in thieve's guild, the guild was dead, there was not a peon to lift a shovel and even at that point they still needed me to go to there aunties house to steal a chandelier... come on ! The vestage has become a vestiige !

Comment: Take into account that not every player like mini-game, I mean CandyCrush for 5 minutes it's nice but taking a full day of CandyCrush ! You need to stop putting emphasis on the dailies.

In Orsinium the daily system is nice and it's also not mandatory, it's why it's still going on today because player had stuff to do and were never limited by that option so it didn't felt as a chore. PLUS it was multiplayer !!! which was also interesting. since Orsinium World boss were the first real one, nowaday world boss are weaker then the one there use to be in Orsinium that's for sure and that's lame.

Third, ... well I don't even botter to have one.

Recap //

Please take more attention to the overall design of the environnement for the next dlc and try to make it look Epic. Don't focus on a daily system to increase overall playtime Inside the DLC just focus on giving people what they want for doing it instead of crappy set, remember that we are not playing a Template when we enter a DLC, might help you understand the issue.

And please ! please ! stop focusing on solo content and OBLIGE yourself to create at least a certain amount of group content per DLC !!


Have a nice one, sorry for the harsh review but I just feel like I got acces to a weaker version of thieves guild.

Minotor are really well done btw ! gratz to the designer/team on those !

Malpherian

On the smuglers den I couldnt even get to the main target she was in a room under the main area which had no entrance. I spent 3 hours stealthing around checking every single wall nook and cranny and could never get to her.

NVm finally found the tourch too bad the rest of the den is bugged on alert.

Katahdin

I can never get out of Smugglers Den before the overseer arrives even if I run half the way.
The timer is WAY too short.

Len3000000

I love stealth games, but....

- The overall layout of these quests are fine although I dislike the timed missions.
- Blade of Woe is an excellent addition, and seems to work fine. Although sometimes, when you are "hidden", then initiate the B of Woe, the animation takes you into a "detected" spot. I've accumulated many bounties from this.
- The synergy of the quests, unfortunately for me, are absolutely ruined with the respawning enemies. In "The Smugglers Den", a quest that should have been fun, I made it to just before "Lucky" when an enemy I killed less than 1 minute ago spotted me from behind. I killed him, then proceeded, thinking it was a glitch. It was no glitch, just a broken mechanic of this game which is most unfortunate. In these "stealth" missions, being alone is preferred, and if your alone there shouldn't be ANY respawning. I can understand the need for it with multiple players, just not here, as it breaks the game and takes the realism away. I ended up giving up on stealth and just hacking my way through, accumulating a 2500 bounty.

Thieves Guild missions are interrupted and sometimes ruined when another player alerts guards when your executing stealth, but in Dark Brotherhood, when your alone in these assassination quests, there should be no interference from a game mechanic that's meant to balance a game with multiple players, like respawning. I came away from that mission with no feeling of "it's my fault, and I could do better", instead it was more like "what the heck could I have done?" I know that other players likely don't have a problem, but it seems to be a matter of chance, or maybe when someone else enters the same dungeon. This should only happen when it's a multi-player area.

I've had to deal with respawning enemies in many areas, but learned to take advantage of it and farm rewards. It has no place while sneaking and stabbing. In the "Smugglers Den" mission I had a guy respawn right in front of me (the lantern guy right before the last 3 enemies, including the target).