Official Discussion Thread for "Welcome to 2017"

James-Wayne

Chapters, called it!

Big win for Casual players today!

WhiteCoatSyndrome

So as I have no interest in Dungeons it looks like my pile of Crowns will be useless for a bare minimum of half the year. Okay then. Of course Zeni has changed their yearly cadence every year so far so I won't hold my breath that they'll stick to this schedule for next year.

I'm still glad I cancelled my sub back when the Crates hit and this article hasn't changed that.

GorraShatan

@ZOS_GinaBruno - can you confirm if it will be possible to buy Morrowind with Crowns, even if it's a lot of Crowns?

thegreybetween

GorraShatan wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno - can you confirm if it will be possible to buy Morrowind with Crowns, even if it's a lot of Crowns?

From the official announcement FAQ HERE:

WILL THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: MORROWIND BE PURCHASABLE IN THE CROWN STORE?

No. The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind is not a DLC game pack, and will not be available in the Crown Store to purchase. You'll need to purchase a copy from a retail store or as a separate digital download.

Artis

Tandor wrote: »

I can't believe that after we've been clamoring for ages for an additional character class there are people who just want to switch their fully-developed character to the new class instantly rather than play through it with a new character and actually learn about the different skill-lines as they unfold. It's not like you've got to repeat old content for it all, there's the whole of Morrowind to tackle from character creation onwards.

As for the change in the release method, I'd hope that with the explanation that's been given a lot of the critics will be more supportive, but perhaps that's being unduly optimistic! I do think the explanation would have been better given last week rather than today.

Eh no, we were clamoring for ages so that the new class is not added. In fact, we were asking since beta to have all classes removed or at least add a class respec (but blocking other class skill lines once you invest a point in one of them. Kinda like vampires/werewolves where you can only be 1 of 2).

We don't mind "learning" new skills. What we mind is that our progress is completely reset if we now want to main this new class and there's no indication of any sort that we already completed some of the achievements (and some of them are grindy and weren't fun to complete and were only completed once so we have them. that's how completionists are).

We finally made peace with only being able to play one character and chose the class we liked and now they add another one? Will we have to deal with this feeling every year - that we are missing out and are trapped playing one character (which might stop being fun at some point, too)? And another issue is that some of us already used all character slots.

Cously

I like you put the update content in an organized fashion. I can organize my finances to better support the game and not hurt for money in real life. Thanks for the heads up.

As for suggestions, I'd say the player base can be split in PVE, PVP and RP. Would be nice to see each dlc aimed at each group and the Chapter aimed at all three.

I do believe you can maintain a healthy player base that way. And as a personal request:

Please add more sizes for pvp. Such as 1x1, 2x2, or even 12x12. I suppose you will test the waters with these Battlegrounds, I hope the idea takes flight. PVP only have one goal and is killing the enemy in the end, what makes all different are the sizes of the matches, I think you could explore it a lot with minimum effort and add tons of replayability to it. Duels are nice but to fight in an actual arena with loot and renown, maybe even players watching, would be fantastic.

PVE is at a good spot size wise, I'd still say add Arenas for two people to cooperate. I'd say the majority of players hang around 1 best buddy, wife/husband, child, etc, so adding something competitive for two people would improve the fun greatly as it wouldn't feel so lonely (VMA) or in need to rely so much on two extra people (VSDA).

Finally, you gave us RPers the best we could ask, our very own space in Tamriel. Of course we want more! So guild halls should be your next goal in that department. It doesn't make sense to allow us 500 guild members but 24 player cap inside the house. I hope and trust that means you plan to sell us guild halls that will hold 100+ people, which I'm fine with. Please develop on that, not only guild meetings but tons of open server events can be held like feasts, festivals, tourneys, etc. That would really expand the player base and virtually eliminate the current complaints such as trolls, shared space, etc.

Despite the bumps on the road all these years (tarnishing the master class Dragonknight!) I still trust you ZOS, to the point I'll put my money on your future and my mouth to advertise your game. The fun trumps the cons so far.

Xsorus

I'm going to tell you why I like this

Because I played Warhammer Online..and I saw what happens to games that don't release "Expansions"

Knowing that they plan on releasing an Expansion every year with a new Release on the Store Shelf makes me happy

Zaldan

As for Cyrodiil: we know that performance (both server and client) is often not up to par, to put it mildly. These problems particularly plague Champion-ranked Campaigns and, coupled with some of the balance issues and bugs that are still present, result in an often-frustrating experience for some players. We will be addressing this in 2017 – from Champion System performance to class/armor balance to client/server performance in large battles. This is a priority for us, but as these issues are extremely complex, we will be re-thinking how some of the systems in the game interact with each other; changes of this magnitude cannot happen quickly. We are not taking this lightly – change needs to happen. We will have lots more information on Cyrodiil balance and fixes shortly, but right now, we are focusing on investigating and testing different options.

Been hearing this *** for two years now, save it

Elsonso

Xsorus wrote: »

I'm going to tell you why I like this

Because I played Warhammer Online..and I saw what happens to games that don't release "Expansions"

Knowing that they plan on releasing an Expansion every year with a new Release on the Store Shelf makes me happy

I am happy about these Chapters, but I would be a lot happier if they were every other year.

As I said elsewhere, annual Chapters will make ZOS rush to complete them. When ZOS does not have a lot of time to finish things, we get a Homestead that is missing some expected features. I get they spend a lot effort on Homestead, but that does not mean they shouldn't have taken longer to get a few more features in place for the initial release.

QueenGraprovia

What if we don't want to play as a warden? Can our current characters play through this latest Morrowind? Also as a beta tester at the very beginning on pc and transferred over adding expense to expense, Matt promised us something special!! 2years on and we're still waiting

tinythinker

QueenGraprovia wrote: »

What if we don't want to play as a warden? Can our current characters play through this latest Morrowind? Also as a beta tester at the very beginning on pc and transferred over adding expense to expense, Matt promised us something special!! 2years on and we're still waiting

Warden will simply be a new class on the character creation screen. Take whatever character you want to Vvardenfell. It's just a big new zone.

Elsonso

I did not see this mentioned, but Balmora looks awesome.

pema

I'm still interested to hear what eso plus members can look forward to when morrowind is released.

and what about the spriggan crown crates, and dwemer crown crates... will they be following up?
And will dwemer crates only be available to peeps who buy morrowind?
With that will there be crown crate offerings just for morrowind owners???

QueenGraprovia

Artis wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

I can't believe that after we've been clamoring for ages for an additional character class there are people who just want to switch their fully-developed character to the new class instantly rather than play through it with a new character and actually learn about the different skill-lines as they unfold. It's not like you've got to repeat old content for it all, there's the whole of Morrowind to tackle from character creation onwards.

As for the change in the release method, I'd hope that with the explanation that's been given a lot of the critics will be more supportive, but perhaps that's being unduly optimistic! I do think the explanation would have been better given last week rather than today.

Eh no, we were clamoring for ages so that the new class is not added. In fact, we were asking since beta to have all classes removed or at least add a class respec (but blocking other class skill lines once you invest a point in one of them. Kinda like vampires/werewolves where you can only be 1 of 2).

We don't mind "learning" new skills. What we mind is that our progress is completely reset if we now want to main this new class and there's no indication of any sort that we already completed some of the achievements (and some of them are grindy and weren't fun to complete and were only completed once so we have them. that's how completionists are).

We finally made peace with only being able to play one character and chose the class we liked and now they add another one? Will we have to deal with this feeling every year - that we are missing out and are trapped playing one character (which might stop being fun at some point, too)? And another issue is that some of us already used all character slots.

I'm a pure sorc. Always have been and always will be. I'll never use swords, bows or mace. Therefore this new warden doesn't appeal to me in the slightest!

QueenGraprovia

pema wrote: »

I'm still interested to hear what eso plus members can look forward to when morrowind is released.

and what about the spriggan crown crates, and dwemer crown crates... will they be following up?
And will dwemer crates only be available to peeps who buy morrowind?
With that will there be crown crate offerings just for morrowind owners???

The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind is the next Chapter of ZeniMax Online Studios’ award-winning online RPG, The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). This new adventure will return Elder Scrolls fans to the legendary island of Vvardenfell, the same iconic environment featured in Bethesda Game Studios’ genre-defining open world RPG, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.




Introducing an enormous new zone, a new player class, more than 30 hours of main story content, a new Trial, and a new three-team, 4v4v4 PvP mode, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind will be the biggest addition to The Elder Scrolls Online yet, offering a new adventure for ESO veterans as well as a fresh Elder Scrolls saga for players new to the game.





KEY FEATURES:

A New Elder Scrolls Online Chapter For Everyone




The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind redefines the traditional MMO expansion by delivering vast new content and features that are equally accessible and fun for both existing and new ESO players.




• New Players: New players can jump into The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind and start a new character without having to complete any previous ESO content. And, since the original ESO game is included with The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind, new players will have instant access to hundreds of hours of additional adventures throughout Tamriel.

• Existing Players: ESO veterans will be able to upgrade and immediately journey to Vvardenfell to start the new epic adventure. With the power of October’s One Tamriel update, existing players will find level-appropriate content from the moment they step onto the island of Vvardenfell, regardless of level. Existing players can also choose to create a new character and begin anew.

• Haven’t played ESO in a while?: The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind is a great chance to jump back in with your existing characters, or with a completely new one. Because ESO has no required subscription, you can just reinstall the game, log in, and start playing again.




Return to Morrowind

Vvardenfell is the largest zone added to The Elder Scrolls Online since launch and utilizes the same geographic footprint as The Elder Scrolls III, including all key points of interest from the classic game. Players will embark on a dangerous journey through legendary locales in Vvardenfell, 700 years before the events of The Elder Scrolls III, from the docks of Seyda Neen, to the volcanic Ashlands, to dense, mushroom-filled forests, and through the glory of Vivec City, still under construction in this time period.




New Class – The Warden

Players will harness nature-based magic to master the powerful new character class - The Warden. The Warden is the first new class since launch of ESO, and true to ESO and the Elder Scrolls franchise, the player will have the freedom to select from a number of abilities that enable a variety of play styles. The Warden also introduces a devastating new combat ally – the War Bear – a ferocious fighter will stay by the Warden’s side through the most intense battles.




An Incredible Elder Scrolls Story

Set roughly 700 years prior to the events of The Elder Scrolls III, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind will take gamers on a sweeping adventure through the legendary Vvardenfell, featuring iconic locations, characters, and storylines that will instill nostalgia with longtime Elder Scrolls fans and extend ESO’s narrative into a new chapter. Morrowind is in dire peril and it’s up to player heroes to help Vivec, the legendary warrior-poet and Guardian of Vvardenfell, solve the mystery of his mysterious illness, regain his strength – and save the world from ultimate destruction.




New PvP Mode -- Battlegrounds

The Elder Scrolls Online is renowned for open world PvP battles, pitting hundreds of players in a massive battle for supremacy in Cyrodiil. The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind will introduce a new PvP mode – Battlegrounds – intense 4v4v4 battles in arena-like environments. Players take the battle to the Ashlands to claim their place among the fiercest and most accomplished combat veterans in Tamriel

Obsidian3

I'm excited with the new system, and am glad I can role a new warden and play Morrowind from level 1. Are we ever going to get a level cap increase and maybe some new abilities! Loved the weapon ultimates, but our current skill lines are getting stale.

kyle.wilson

GorraShatan wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno - can you confirm if it will be possible to buy Morrowind with Crowns, even if it's a lot of Crowns?

the way they worded the eso+ dlc it cant be sold in the crownstore. Because if they did, they would be legally required to give it to eso+ members free.

-Access to DLC game packs available in the Crown Store and character progression bonuses available for the duration of membership. Any progress made using the progression bonuses during the time of membership will remain.

sbanned_519897

I'm very displeased that there's going to be a yearly DLC at $40, that cannot be bought with crowns. ESO+ members are just getting dragged along now... We better get some nice stuff for our $15/mo soon or people are going to stop paying it, or leave the game altogether because they feel scammed when they supported you for so long. I've been paying since launch, except for those 7 months where I couldn't play because of a bug causing me to crash on login load screen. You guys have already made plenty of questionable decisions, and I'm not entirely certain I'll be recommending this game to anybody for the next few months until you prove that you care about us players, and not just how much cash you can wipe your ass with every day.

ComboBreaker88

No mention of guild features? Guild management or progression? Yeah... figures.

CloneTrooper699

Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »

makeyurself wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno any chance we will be able to make any of our current characters switch to the Warden class? What about increasing the character limit beyond 12?

I'm going to be honest here.

I am not usually a fan of of such mechanism, but would happily pay £15 to change my main to a Warden once Morrowind launches.

I mean even unlocking Mount Upgrades on a new toon will take half a year, I'd seriously like to avoid that if possible. Skill points don't bother me as much, there's plenty of them to earn as you level a new toon.

I don't think they should have character class swaps but the mount upgrades are super annoying, I think they should do mount upgrades across all character shared, (increase the cap from 60 to 100) and then reimburse everyones gold who have purchased mount upgrades for multiple characters. The mount upgrades are the only reason I don't like playing new characters.

Getting a character to level 50 takes nothing (3 days with champion points and training gear), the only trouble is the skyshards, lorebooks and pvp skill lines that have to be leveled, but I can live with that.

Rohamad_Ali

My Feedback on the Welcome to 2017 Announcement


The only part of this road ahead that caught my interest was Cyrodiil improvements . I'm not into Dunmer or the Marrowind expansion . Since the battlefields are stuck inside their I'm not interested in trying those either . If they were base game battlefields I would of stayed to try those but I'm not a fan of capture the flag and FPS style zones . I'm not into wardens either so I'm just going to leave my feedback and see if next year something I'm interested in comes along .

Thank you for warning about what subs and crowns do cover before the new stuff came out . I don't need a sub now as the paid theme park pass to try stuff first was all I liked about it . I'll participate in base game content occasionally and look for improvement in Cyrodiil as noted .

Sausage

New Chapter per year sounds so great.

letsdothedungeonslow

@ZOS_GinaBruno

When are you planning to fix the CONSTANT and CHRONIC problems with lag and other bugs?

In other words, thanks for the announcement about all the new stuff you're planning to bring in, but are you gonna fix what you already have at some point?

Or just make the broken game bigger without patching the holes?

Katahdin

I like the idea of fewer, larger and more meaty content additions once a year with some smaller additions in between instead of more frequent, smaller things that take us a few days to get through.

If they were having a hard time keeping up with a quarterly content schedule then its a good change.

I know the gaming industry can be brutal on employees in terms of schedules and deadlines on things. Maybe this change can alleviate some of the pressure for ZoS employees and increase their real world QOL too.

Hopefully this will give the team time to work on more fixes and QOL things instead of trying to rush quarterly content.

Lord_Wrath

Im most excited, especially the confidence in tackling cyrodill issues! I like the idea of balance tweaks and such each quarter, definitely better than once a year.

menedhyn

I'm reasonably happy with this announcement and with the direction they are taking, based on what interestes me in the game. I'm comfortable with the introduction of 'Chapters' and I can see how this might open up some significant areas of Tamriel for us to explore (i'm looking at you, Elsweyr). Homestead (awesome) and Morrowind (beyond awesome) will certainly keep me busy. Though not specific to the Road Ahead article, i'm also encouraged by the reemergence of ESO Live. Please do keep this up - regular, periodic communication is desperately needed.

I'm really happy to see the Warden class introduced. Really happy. I'm lucky in that my main, who in my head was always meant to be 'druidic', has only recently been created and so I can postpone his progression and start afresh. Others will be desperate for class change, and rightly so.

However...

1. The benefits of ESO+ really should be re-examined. They now appear out of date and don't offer the same value to many people.
2. The 'limited time' availability of Crown Store items still irritates me, as does the withdrawal of items.

Anyway, here's to another year of wandering Tamriel.

Taonnor

thegreybetween wrote: »

Thank you very much for the insight into the new content structure. Personally, I think it makes a lot of sense from a business-model perspective (much moreso than your awkward Crown Store push of late), and I find it quite reasonable as a player. This new content scheme binds more of your revenue stream to the quality of the content you are creating, rather than to purely superfluous cosmetic systems, which not only incentivizes you to create content that we're willing to pay for (good for players) but also makes that revenue much more dependable (good for you) than the gamble that is the increasingly exploitative Crown Store.

From a value perspective, I think the system is more fair than the knee-jerk outrage seems to warrant. Let's break it down:

One Year of Full ESO Access
- ESO Plus: 6-month subscription = USD$77.94
- ESO Plus: 6-month subscription = $77.94
- Q2 Chapter Release, Collector Upgrade Edition: $60
Total Annual Cost: $215.88
Average Monthly Cost: (215.88/12) = $17.99

And what do you get for your $18/month?
- Full access to an already vast and robust game world featuring hundreds of hours of content
- A massive new "chapter" update featuring new systems, regions, and play modes each year
- Two new content patches per year (the scope of which is uncertain in light of chapters, but precedent has been good)
- A dungeon-based content patch, which has limited appeal but likely adds new loot/motifs as well
- Full ESO+ privileges: Increased housing item caps, crafting XP/gold/research buffs, costume dyes, etc.
- The Crafting Bag. Seriously, this is almost worth the cost of a subscription alone (IMO)
- 18000 Crowns to use as you see fit - Cosmetic goodies, locking down a DLC you love if you intend to un-sub at some point, gambling for goodies in RNG boxes, etc. That's equivalent to an 83% rebate in in-game currency (if you're inclined to purchase Crowns anyway)
- Periodic fix, QoL, balance, maintenance, and other updates

The same $18 in your entertainment budget gets you what? A movie ticket and some popcorn. A couple of hot, new indie games on Steam that you play for a month and then forget about. 3/4 of a Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription. A badass bacon cheeseburger and a pint. Mmmmm...

Yes, we're being asked to fork out money. Yes, this new scheme is a departure from the previous system where all of the above cost only $12.99 per month. But they're also upping the scope and quality of the content we're getting and working hard to grow Tamriel into a truly vast and immersive experience catering to a wide variety of players. That is definitely worth something.

I'm happy to see a move to relate the price we pay to the content we get. I'd much rather give them $60 for a massive glut of exciting new content (and a bear-summoning class...c'mon!) than the same $60 for a new mount skin and a pack of RNG boxes. Knowing that they're putting the money into making Tamriel a place I want to spend my time makes me far more willing to help out the development of this game by continuing to support it with my wallet.

I, for one, am happy to support our new content-creating overlords.

Perfect written! Love it.

olsborg

How about a crafter update soon? More specificly how weak the crafted sets at the crafting stations are compared to the dropped sets included with 1T. And how about motifs, why bother purchasing motifs from crownstore etc if you cant make your BiS gear from dungeons look like that?

sebban

So here's what this actually means:

Instead of 4 DLCs per year that are included in ESO+ we get only 3 DLC per year and have to pay €40 for the fourth DLC. They have effectively made ESO+ less valuable.

Will they include things in the "chapters" that could have easily been a DLC instead? Yes.
Could battlegrounds been a DLC? Yes.
Could the new Trial been a DLC? Yes.
Will coming DLCs have less content than before? Probably, as they have to include more stuff in chapters to make them "worth it", which means less content for DLCs.

ZOS doesn't cease to impress me with their ability to charge more and more money for less content.

It's quite ingenious actually. They make sure that the chapter has something for everyone, to make sure everyone pays up. Quests and story stuff for the casuals, battlegrounds for the PvP crowd and a Trial for the PvE raiders. If they released each thing separately, people on average would pay a lot less.

Birdovic

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

timidobserver wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno
Looking forward to hearing about the Cyrodiil performance changes that Matt mentioned. Is that coming with the expansion or a later update?

Neither - you can expect to see some changes to Cyrodiil before Morrowind. We'll give everyone more details a little later, and will give certainly everyone a heads up before any changes occur.

Does this include daedric artifacts and the new Dwemer Siege Weapon?