Reddit AMA w/ ZOS Devs for Update 12 & One Tamriel [9/23 @ 4pm]

ZOS_GinaBruno

This Friday, September 23rd, we’ll be hosting an AMA on the ESO subreddit from 4-6pm EDT in celebration of the upcoming release of One Tamriel and reaching 80,000 subscribers on the subreddit! Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join to ask the team questions about features and content in Update 12. Joining the AMA will be:

• Matt Firor, Game Director
• Rich Lambert, Creative Director
• Brian Wheeler, Lead PvP Designer
• Eric Wrobel, Lead Combat Designer
• Jeremy Sera, Lead Content Designer
• Mike Finnigan, Dungeon Lead
• Phil Draven, Lead Systems Designer

We hope to see you there!

Edit: Here's a link to the thread: https://ds.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/546mo4/welcome_to_the_one_tamriel_eso_ama/

Cazzy

*slaps cheeks with excitement*

Armitas

I'll be at work, can someone ask good mDK questions? Or could I submit one here?

MissBizz

Armitas wrote: »

I'll be at work, can someone ask good mDK questions? Or could I submit one here?

@Armitas They respond direct to questions asked in the appropriate thread, which in the past does not get created until the actual AMA starts. Maybe ask someone else to ask a question for you? (or time your breaks at work just right )

Happy to see another AMA!

Wow

Cant wait!

UltimaJoe777

Gina, let me just get this question out of the way now because you are going to get bombarded with it anyway:

Why did Zenimax double the damage on an Ultimate that did lackluster damage and lasted 10 seconds at the cost of 250 Ultimate only to drop that duration to 6 seconds and leave the cost unchanged? Yes, I speak of Elemental Storm. Is it because of the changes to Elemental Rage?

Pallio

Or any question about the terrible rng in endgame drops EVERYWHERE, undaunted key to vMSA.. etc. When will some kind of token/retraiting option be put in the game?

rhapsodious

Welp, time to prepare the notepad. Hoping you guys can answer a lot of the questions and not get gag-ordered.

Mojmir

they're hosting the American music awards?

Pandorii

What an impressive panel of people right there!

anitajoneb17_ESO

My question :

"back in the days" (around version 1.5) , at "max level", a "bad" player was doing 4-5K DPS, a good player was doing 8-9K DPS and an excellent player managed to pull 12K.
"nowadays", at "max level/531CP", a "bad player" pull 4K (yes you meet them in PUGs), a good player pulls 20K and an excellent player pulls 35-40K DPS.

The range has evolved from 1:2.5 (roughly) to 1:5 or 1:6. (I know the game is not all about DPS, that's just one measurement unit among many others, but nearly the only one objectively available to us players).

You capped CPs in order to reduce the gap between players, but the removal of soft caps still allowed the power creep.

We can see you're supplying a whole range of difficulties for players to choose from (VMoL, vMSA, then the DLC dungeons, VDSA, then the old dungeons who will - so you said - remain easy even in their vet version. There's a little bit of everything for everyone, but there isn't much to do if you want to play at any given difficulty level. For me and my guildies at the moment, all we have is the 4 DLC dungeons and VDSA. Anything else is either too hard (vet trials, vMSA) or too easy (overland bosses, anything "normal mode").

Because there are so many gaps between players, and so many different levels of difficulty in the content, we end up with very little to do. Which is a pity and a waste in such a huge game.

Thoughts ? Working as intended ? If not, plans ?

NB : I'm talking strictly PvE here but I'm quite sure this has consequences in PvP too - except people in PvP will blame it on the gear, or better, their opponent's gear

olsborg

For the love of god someone ask if alliance change is coming to the crown store in the future, they said in some liveshow a while ago that the only "change" not coming to the crown store is class change... so hoping they will add alliance change sometime soon.

babedenny

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

"nowadays", at "max level/531CP", a "bad player" pull 4K (yes you meet them in PUGs), a good player pulls 20K and an excellent player pulls 35-40K DPS.

Is that sustained damage? I can get 30-40 with crit in a short fight, but not sustained in a lengthy boss fight. Just trying to figure out how well I'm doing.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

No Loremaster?* :'(




*(Yes I know this is for update 12 and there's no new questline/area in it. I need my Lore fix regardless.)

Dominoid

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

No Loremaster?* :'(




*(Yes I know this is for update 12 and there's no new questline/area in it. I need my Lore fix regardless.)

https://youtu.be/g7Ek0VWXimA

https://youtu.be/0COBoiKw4Oc

timidobserver

babedenny wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

"nowadays", at "max level/531CP", a "bad player" pull 4K (yes you meet them in PUGs), a good player pulls 20K and an excellent player pulls 35-40K DPS.

Is that sustained damage? I can get 30-40 with crit in a short fight, but not sustained in a lengthy boss fight. Just trying to figure out how well I'm doing.

It really depends on whether you are stamina or magicka, what you are fighting, how long you are fighting it, what buffs your group is giving you, and whether it is pure single target or if there are any add mobs involved.

IMO, being able sustain 30-40k in pure single target for 3-4 minutes+ is pretty good on a magicka build but less good on a stam build.

Magicka_DK

Bet @Burning_Talons is gonna love this since he is banned on here

anitajoneb17_ESO

babedenny wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

"nowadays", at "max level/531CP", a "bad player" pull 4K (yes you meet them in PUGs), a good player pulls 20K and an excellent player pulls 35-40K DPS.

Is that sustained damage? I can get 30-40 with crit in a short fight, but not sustained in a lengthy boss fight. Just trying to figure out how well I'm doing.

Yes it is. Elite players can sustain 40K+ damage in a sustained fight of over 5 minutes. You can see it in their videos. Some stam players even reach 50K sustained damage. It is doable. Only by the 1% top players though. In a structured raid group environment with optimized buffs and debuffs (combat prayer, elemental drain, spell power cure, worm cult, warhorn, etc etc). Such figures also require a Maelstroem weapon.

At the moment I'd say 15-20K is average/normal, 30K is very good, 10K is bad. You shouldn't think you suck just because you do 15K-20K. The content is doable with this kind of DPS anyway.

Vorcil

Why is there such a huge disparity between stamina and magicka users and why is it biased toward stamina users?

KingYogi415

Magic uses have more survive ability, and utility then stam.

You need a stam for raw single target DPS, you need magic for huge aoe damage and group buffs.

Being not the same is what make end game balanced.

altemriel

question: will ever the lag in Cyro get fixed?"

Arthur_Spoonfondle

altemriel wrote: »

question: will ever the lag in Cyro get fixed?"

Along with the ridiculously long log-in times and interminable loading screens, no.

Elsonso

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

My question :

"back in the days" (around version 1.5) , at "max level", a "bad" player was doing 4-5K DPS, a good player was doing 8-9K DPS and an excellent player managed to pull 12K.
"nowadays", at "max level/531CP", a "bad player" pull 4K (yes you meet them in PUGs), a good player pulls 20K and an excellent player pulls 35-40K DPS.

Thoughts ? Working as intended ? If not, plans ?

NB : I'm talking strictly PvE here but I'm quite sure this has consequences in PvP too - except people in PvP will blame it on the gear, or better, their opponent's gear

The real problem is that 4k-8k DPS is perfectly fine for overworld, so players who get there think they are doing fine. Heck, someone who does 12k on a good day can read a book and do light housework while soloing delves, public dungeons, and overworld bosses.

My real question for One Tamriel is that now we have all monsters the same level and all characters are scaled to the same level. Is the power differential going to stay the same between normal and excellent players?

Wish I could be there to get answers like this.

Restlnpeace

when will one tamriel update 12 come out ?

Mortehl

Restlnpeace wrote: »

when will one tamriel update 12 come out ?

October 18 consoles. Sooner on PC.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

@Dominoid : Cool, thank you!

Phinix1

Dominoid wrote: »

https://youtu.be/0COBoiKw4Oc

I have so much respect for the work you guys do.

Recently I have found myself commenting how after more than two years, this game just keeps getting better every time you play it. I've never felt that way about an MMO before. So many of the design choices just hit it out of the park when it comes to building your character and "plotting a course" through the world.

I also feel you are the only company out there to make the B2P model really work in a way that was both profitable AND essentially "non-toxic" and well-received by the community, incentivizing subscription without punishing people for not, so huge kudos for that as well.

Also, the sort of writing you do in these types of games requires a higher level of creativity I truly admire, as you are incorporating the imagination of the players interacting with these choices into the dialogue options, trying to foresee possible interpretations and connections they might make while leaving things subtle and open-ended enough to "fit" and maintain continuity regardless of the path that is ultimately chosen.

I remember recently doing an Orsinium quest in where you are asked to recover a gold pendant for a member of a wrecked diplomatic envoy, only to find another female member of the crew later claiming it was hers, stolen by her erstwhile lover on the voyage to Wrothgar. The way the options were presented combined with the visual character design, placement, AND voice acting all came together to create this whole inner backstory about how the rogue sent my character to retrieve the amulet as an act of redemption, knowing he couldn't fight off the Rieker but wanting to do something kind for the person he had come to admire too much to leave a casual mark.

The whole thing just clicked and the result were NPC's that felt like real, living entities in an immersive, believable world. That is quite the creative achievement.

The "guts" of the game keep evolving as well. Tiny changes like the heal at the end of the Magicka DT main DoT were a stroke of genius. Such a simple change allows for a whole new flow of combat supporting the melee caster role perfectly. The NB cloak morph that guarantees a crit on the next attack is another of my favorites, particularly for my Bosmer archer. The addition of weapon ultimate will add a whole new level of character/playstyle customization that I really can't wait to play with!

Oh yes, questions...

Well the main thing I have been wondering lately was sort of answered in the above video. You guys seem really passionate and like you love what you do and plan to keep doing it and that is just wonderful to hear.

The Orsinium DLC in particular is just an absolute masterpiece, and I am extremely hopeful for more of that sort of cultural exploration and story content with tons to delve into and loot and "Jesus the Horkers actually know where to stand without overlapping each other and OMG the loons..." XD

Keep up the outstanding work ZOS. This really is the greatest "game" I've even played.

Pinja

So does this include eso live questions/questions posts here, or just those from the purged & or console supporters on reddit?

Smasherx74

Everyone should just ask about the RNG Boxes, and tell ZOS how much they hate it.

Necrelios

I don't know if I'll be able to make it, but I feel like someone should ask about jewelry crafting. With sets dropping for all slots, I feel like it's a good opportunity to revisit this subject.

UltimaJoe777

Smasherx74 wrote: »

Everyone should just ask about the RNG Boxes, and tell ZOS how much they hate it.

I think that point has been plenty proven already lol