Official Discussion Thread for "Welcome to 2017"

Abeille

Ilsabet wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

Ilsabet wrote: »

Frondale wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

Preyfar wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

"Each ESO Chapter will feature a self-contained story and zone that can be experienced by itself without needing to travel out to the main game."

Does it mean the main story won't continue? Is Darien lost forever?

Say it ain't so!

Yeah, that's kind of confusing what they said about continuing the story. Perhaps there's story related quests there that continue IN ADDITION to regular quests, and the story quests only apply if you've finished the main storyline (such as when the Prophet appears).

This would be great!

I have to admit, I was ever so excited when I saw the Prophet appear at the end of completing Wrothgar.
Speaking to Darien's friend and he had a juicy tid bit about Darien.

We have grown to love these characters and to follow on with the story is something alot of us want. I think we will get our wish too.

I always have to smile when I see @Abeille lobbying to rescue Darien. One of the throughlines of my main character's headcanon (and the entire reason I started writing a headcanon for her) is that she was in love with Darien by the end of her alliance storyline. So the events of Coldharbour hit her very hard and she still hasn't really gotten over what happened. I haven't played through Wrothgar yet, but I highly anticipate her reaction to finding that letter. I also have to figure out how to justify getting her into the Gold Coast to see Gabrielle when she's really not the innocent-murdering type.

At any rate it would be an awful big letdown to give us all of those teaser hints over multiple DLCs and then never do anything with him again.

While my main character who is doing the main quest in-character is not "in love" with Darien, she does love him very much, but more like a buddy cop sort of thing (same for Raz, for example). Darien is one of the few character she would go to Oblivion and back to save. Well, not "few", I'd say there are about a dozen characters that she would go to Oblivion and back for, now that I think of it.

Anyways, she isn't the murdering type either, so she just went to Anvil with Captain Jimila and happened to bump into Gabrielle when visiting the city. So how about that for your character too, maybe? My character didn't do the DB quest line, though, I have a DB character for that.

Either way, #SAVEDARIEN. Verandis would be good, too. My other sweethearts are safe for now.

Yeah I had some major feels when I had to make that choice about Raz, but for different reasons more akin to the buddy cop thing. It did make for another good headcanon writeup though.

I was hoping there was a way to get there without actually joining the Dark Brotherhood, so that sounds good to me. I'm biding my time on buying it, but I know there's a person you can talk to like I did with Quen to trigger the whole introductory Thieves Guild questline that got me to Hew's Bane the first time. So if I can circumvent that and get there without having to actually join the DB that'll be good.

And yeah I was highly disappointed that Verandis never came up when we got to Coldharbour. I mean I guess I understand that it wouldn't make sense for non-DC characters, but it seems like a no-brainer for that to be a followup to the Rivenspire questline.

#darienfangirlsunite

You can circumvent that, you can take a wayshrine straight to Anvil if you wish. There isn't a lot to do if you are not doing the Dark Brotherhood quests, though. The last quest of the DLC, which is the hook to Vvardenfell, is only available after you finish the DB quest line
You can do as I did, take your non-murderous character there and do only the few quests that are available without touching the Dark Brotherhood's quest line, but I recommend doing the quest line with another character on that case. Especially because you are missing out on Elam Drals (now THAT'S someone one of my characters has a crush on), who is one of the best NPCs in the game, if not the absolute best. If you have no character that can do this kind of quest line but has a spare character slot, make a throw-away character just for the DB quest line, it is well worth it.

QueenGraprovia

sbanned_519897 wrote: »

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.

I cancelled my sub a long time ago as I seen this coming. You should do the same.

Karacule_Fairystar

I hope before they launch big stuffs, in the least they could upgrade the game's architecture from dx11 to something more advanced.
This is my only wish

Ilsabet

Abeille wrote: »

Ilsabet wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

Ilsabet wrote: »

Frondale wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

Preyfar wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

"Each ESO Chapter will feature a self-contained story and zone that can be experienced by itself without needing to travel out to the main game."

Does it mean the main story won't continue? Is Darien lost forever?

Say it ain't so!

Yeah, that's kind of confusing what they said about continuing the story. Perhaps there's story related quests there that continue IN ADDITION to regular quests, and the story quests only apply if you've finished the main storyline (such as when the Prophet appears).

This would be great!

I have to admit, I was ever so excited when I saw the Prophet appear at the end of completing Wrothgar.
Speaking to Darien's friend and he had a juicy tid bit about Darien.

We have grown to love these characters and to follow on with the story is something alot of us want. I think we will get our wish too.

I always have to smile when I see @Abeille lobbying to rescue Darien. One of the throughlines of my main character's headcanon (and the entire reason I started writing a headcanon for her) is that she was in love with Darien by the end of her alliance storyline. So the events of Coldharbour hit her very hard and she still hasn't really gotten over what happened. I haven't played through Wrothgar yet, but I highly anticipate her reaction to finding that letter. I also have to figure out how to justify getting her into the Gold Coast to see Gabrielle when she's really not the innocent-murdering type.

At any rate it would be an awful big letdown to give us all of those teaser hints over multiple DLCs and then never do anything with him again.

While my main character who is doing the main quest in-character is not "in love" with Darien, she does love him very much, but more like a buddy cop sort of thing (same for Raz, for example). Darien is one of the few character she would go to Oblivion and back to save. Well, not "few", I'd say there are about a dozen characters that she would go to Oblivion and back for, now that I think of it.

Anyways, she isn't the murdering type either, so she just went to Anvil with Captain Jimila and happened to bump into Gabrielle when visiting the city. So how about that for your character too, maybe? My character didn't do the DB quest line, though, I have a DB character for that.

Either way, #SAVEDARIEN. Verandis would be good, too. My other sweethearts are safe for now.

Yeah I had some major feels when I had to make that choice about Raz, but for different reasons more akin to the buddy cop thing. It did make for another good headcanon writeup though.

I was hoping there was a way to get there without actually joining the Dark Brotherhood, so that sounds good to me. I'm biding my time on buying it, but I know there's a person you can talk to like I did with Quen to trigger the whole introductory Thieves Guild questline that got me to Hew's Bane the first time. So if I can circumvent that and get there without having to actually join the DB that'll be good.

And yeah I was highly disappointed that Verandis never came up when we got to Coldharbour. I mean I guess I understand that it wouldn't make sense for non-DC characters, but it seems like a no-brainer for that to be a followup to the Rivenspire questline.

#darienfangirlsunite

You can circumvent that, you can take a wayshrine straight to Anvil if you wish. There isn't a lot to do if you are not doing the Dark Brotherhood quests, though. The last quest of the DLC, which is the hook to Vvardenfell, is only available after you finish the DB quest line
You can do as I did, take your non-murderous character there and do only the few quests that are available without touching the Dark Brotherhood's quest line, but I recommend doing the quest line with another character on that case. Especially because you are missing out on Elam Drals (now THAT'S someone one of my characters has a crush on), who is one of the best NPCs in the game, if not the absolute best. If you have no character that can do this kind of quest line but has a spare character slot, make a throw-away character just for the DB quest line, it is well worth it.

Yeah, I kinda wanted to have an in-character reason to go there rather than just porting on in. Taking the boat over will work just fine. And my Khajiit is already an assassin who enjoys killing people, so she'll be happy to join the murder club.

I've toyed with the idea of some kind of breakdown that would lead Ilsabet to go off the rails a bit, but unless the events of Wrothgar really mess with her, that probably won't happen. Somewhat amusingly, she came pretty close to "eff it, I hate everyone" territory after certain events in the Rift, but then she went to a big drinking party and she's okay now.

Is there any way to justify the DB activities for someone who wouldn't normally justify murdering innocents? Like can you only kill people who kinda deserve it?

Abeille

Ilsabet wrote: »

Is there any way to justify the DB activities for someone who wouldn't normally justify murdering innocents? Like can you only kill people who kinda deserve it?

Well, for starters, you need to kill an innocent to get in
You also have to kill people who are faithful to the Eight Divines and are badmouthing the Dark Brotherhood, which I do not find to be a good reason to kill someone, but I suppose that's debatable when it comes to games.

And a lot of the contracts you have to grind for DB experience have very bad motives for killing someone ("this person is too happy, it annoys me, kill her friend so she will shut up for a while"), but you can pick only the contracts you want, it will just take longer and you will miss out on some of the best lines in the game (the contract-giver has something around 30 unique commentaries, one for each unique contract).

Taonnor

Turelus wrote: »

So if I am understanding this correctly.

ESO+ will still gain access to DLC's released 3x per year.
Additional chapters will have to be purchased (at minimum) for £30 extra a year.

Although I'm not super enraged it does seem like with the additional £30 a year on chapters ESO+ is being devalued a lot.

£83.88/year for ESO+ (free DLC)
£29.99/year for new chapters.
Total Cost: £113.87

£29.99/year for new chapters.
£32.98/year for 7,000 Crowns (Based on rough estimate from current pricing 1st DLC [Large 3,000 Crowns], 2nd DLC [Small 2,000 Crowns], Dungeon DLC [1,500 Crowns])
Total Cost: £62.97

That's almost double the cost with ESO+ for 10% bonuses, materials bag & extra furniture spaces and 18,000 crowns to spend in the store.

You should add 11,000 Crowns separatly purchased to your second calculation to compare both cases. Which difference it is then?

gard

I feel betrayed by ZOS regarding this ESO+ DLC bait and switch thing.
You win though ZOS. You've already gotten my money (though you won't be getting any more ESO+ sub money.)
I'm even buying the Morrowind DLC despite the scorn I feel towards ZOS, mainly because I enjoy time spent with my guildmates.

Love the game, depise the developers. I guess that pretty much sums it up.

alexkdd99

So as was suspected eso+ has definitely lost value. You are no longer releasing 4 dlc a year for subscribers. Instead you are taking 2 of those dlc and making subscribers pay for it in the form of a chapter.

So you are doing 1 big content release in place of 2 smaller ones, but this somehow means eso+ just loses out on it.

shadoza

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Just wondering how those who believe the Chapters should be included in the Plus membership would react to having the membership adjusted to include the Chapters:

Increase the monthly sub to $18.99, include free Chapters and add 500 Crowns to the bonus (2,000 total instead of 1,500.)
The added $4.00 monthly fee to the sub would cover the cost of the Chapters over the 12 months and the added 500 crowns will make the rounding up feel better. The downside would be the same with DLCs; if you stop subbing, you would have to purchase the chapter to keep playing it as you would the DLCs.

EpiphanyPhoenix

I find that this actually makes me feel ripped off.

ESO+ is to include all DLC and 30 hours is DLC (I mean Orsinium is bigger than 30 hours) yet, no, lets cash grab.

This honestly seems hypocritical of Zenimax.

Other MMO's have done what Zenimax is now doing. SWTOR has housing and has gone a "Chapter" route and it was utter disaster. I don't want to see that again and honestly I don't want to play it again.

I find One Tamriel makes the game too easy. It was like WoW after Burning Crusade.

I appreciate that Zenimax is a company that has to earn money but the statement that more are playing the game than ever before (so probably more subscribers and more sales of product) tends to mean that there is money coming in to keep the lights on, the servers running and hopefully content coming out.

While I would prefer "real" content rather than game experience changes (I mean you have a large chunk of map that is available to you) I know that takes time and effort by a lot of people and I've purchased with crowns the DLC to date just in case I wanted to stop subbing and this announcement makes me want to stop subbing, in fact it really makes me want to stop playing.

Best of luck with what history has shown will be a train wreck waiting to happen. I truly hope that isn't the case and that everyone else who wants to pay for DLC while still giving monthly money to Zenimax for what now, a craft bag and a small XP and gold increase, enjoys your "Chapters".

Faulgor

Last year, it was mentioned in the Road Ahead article that Spellcrafting wouldn't make it for 2016, but they still wanted to do it.
This year, it hasn't even been mentioned anymore.
Could we at least get an update on whether Spellcrafting is still on the development list? I'm not asking for a release date, but when the PvP component of the justice system was removed from consideration, we were at least informed.

It's like being worried about a friend and not being able to reach him.
Could Spellcrafting give us a call, please?

Luperion

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Tyrion87 wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno Any word/insight on a potential gear cap increase? It is a huge deal for many players...

Actually just posted in another thread, but we do not plan on raising the gear cap with Morrowind.

Could you provide a link to that thread please? I too am extremely keen for the gear cap to be raised to 500.

Thank you.

Miaura

Thankyou ZOS! Two of my top dreams for Eso coming true, Vvardenfell and housing!
And a nature/animal pet class is in my top wishlist for any good rpg, wonderfull!
Housing only 3 days away, so sweet....

Personally I like the idea of chapters if they are large and very well done like I bet Morrowind will be, but I also agree with people who worry that chapters lessens the value of ESO+ somewhat.
Still, happy to see that regular DLC will continue to be added.
And extremely happy that Homesteads is a free DLC and your houses are yours to keep, no nasty tactics with ingame gold rent or sub only like some other mmos.

Had a little tear trying to get out of my eye after watching the Morrowind trailer, seeing Vivec and red mountain, and hearing the Morrowind theme start playing... Also, that picture of Balmora ! Good times ahead.

Riga_Mortis

Ditch the sub altogether and put the craft bag in the crown store already.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Ilsabet wrote: »

Is there any way to justify the DB activities for someone who wouldn't normally justify murdering innocents? Like can you only kill people who kinda deserve it?

I fluffed it as 'it wasn't really her, it was a dro-m'Athra pretending to be her, and then she bound it into her service after Raz (she's an Eye) tipped her off after his visit to the Gold Coast.' Mao-dro is rather unhappy at his current predicament. XD

zZzleepyhead

@ZOS_GinaBruno Why isn't IC a separate population/campaign? They don't impact each other in any way and just cause population imbalance inside the city and out in Cyrodiil.
Make IC Great Again!

probablyafk

The addition of Chapters, along with the recent crown crates and player housing, are all extremely similar to the development path that SWOTOR took over the last four years. This is dissappointing. It feels like the world of the Elder Scrolls has been appropriated.

Elsonso

probablyafk wrote: »

The addition of Chapters, along with the recent crown crates and player housing, are all extremely similar to the development path that SWTOR took over the last four years. This is dissappointing. It feels like the world of the Elder Scrolls has been appropriated.

Well, the gaming industry does tend to be inbred, freely using ideas from other games, where they can get away with it. The players are, as well, constantly drawing comparisons between Game A and Game B. I think that both sides, dev and player, can get stuck in a rut where they forget that Game A is not Game B. Developers, by peering at the desk across the aisle to copy homework answers, the players, by trying to compare to games like they are equals.

moiraleafcull

maboleth wrote: »

Jeremiah87 wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert

I'm sorry but the DLC delivery cadence as you guys call it is a sad attempt at covering up a new money making scheme.

Nobody is forcing you to be an E+ subscriber. The game won't kick you out. If you are a subscriber because of the DLC content - you're totally wrong. It's easier and more cost effective to just buy the crowns (esp. on the sales day) and buy the DLCs yourself. Further, you are subscribing every month for a DLC that comes every 3+ or so months. You are wasting your own money if you think like that.

What E+ does offer are all other things. First and foremost - the crafting bag. That feature is worth every single $. Then, you get 1,5k of crowns per month to spend willingly on anything you want. You don't have to spend it on DLCs, you have a piece of mind. All DLCs unlocked. Then you have all other cosmetic colouring stuff, 10% xp boost and so on. Last but not least, you know that with E+ you are supporting the game you love and care about.

THAT is what makes E+ worth, not DLCs.

No...a crafting bag is not worth E+. I can do the same with alts and a guild bank.
I have one account with 28k of crowns on it which attests to how crappy the "cosmetic coloring" stuff is.
The XP boost is totally not needed...I can CP level to the max with relatively little effort to get screwed on the CP points whenever they boost the cap, and so on. So...unless you are a crate gambling junky...there is ZERO value to E+ going forward.

moiraleafcull

thegreybetween wrote: »

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

Yes...lets break it down...and this from someone who has subbed from day 1.
- Full access to an already vast and robust game world featuring hundreds of hours of content - What part of free to play did you miss.
- A massive new "chapter" update featuring new systems, regions, and play modes each year - NOT. This will not be purchasable with crowns.
- Two new content patches per year (the scope of which is uncertain in light of chapters, but precedent has been good)
This is debatable. What do you consider good? Certainly a dungeon DLC is not worth $40 (quarter of a years sub) which is nearly the cost of a Chapter.
- A dungeon-based content patch, which has limited appeal but likely adds new loot/motifs as well. - As you pointed out...LIMITED APPEAL. And they are all camped for gear grinding anyway.
- Full ESO+ privileges: Increased housing item caps, crafting XP/gold/research buffs, costume dyes, etc. - Say what? I have all this on my un-subbed accounts.
- The Crafting Bag. Seriously, this is almost worth the cost of a subscription alone (IMO). No its not...did quite fine with alts and a guild bank before this.
- 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). - Seriously? Per another post...one of my accounts has 28k in unspent crowns, that's how worthless crowns are but hey...if you can afford to throw away money on crates, have at it.
- Periodic fix, QoL, balance, maintenance, and other updates. - The track record here is abysmal over the past year, ask anyone who PvPed from day one...Oh wait...you can't because most of them left because of the lags, bugs, inept balancing and...this comes with F2P.

So...really? Again...no...reason...to...sub.
Save your money...buy crowns when you actually want something that you can buy with crowns and spend your cash on "Chapters" that you want to play.

The biggest reason not to sub is because what was advertised at the time is not what subscribers are getting.

Auraia

As for Spellcrafting, I've lost hope. If the frost magic skill line was added to a class, the other skill lines that were to come with Spellcrafting will end up as other classes, like a Necromancer. In a way, it makes sense with how Zen has been managing the addition of skill lines. Only passives with small DLCs, and active skill lines that they won't have to tweak too much because they'll only be available through a new class that will limit interaction with already established active skill lines. I'm very disappointed, but it was unavoidable. It seems the game is hard enough to balance as it is to make both PVE and PVP crowds happy. We may get some Psijic or Necromancer DLC, but I'm betting on the next chapter...

Lirkin

I'm disappointed I would much prefer to play a game that allows me to pay a monthly fee and play all of the content.

I don't group so I have not been able to play the high level dungeons and will not be doing PVP so that leaves me out of that part of the game.

I guess I will be looking into new online games instead of paying to separate chapters in this game since I have not been real happy at the direction of this game. I feel like I am being forced to play this game in such a way now that it seems more of a chore.

I don't like the One Tamriel because I don't feel like I am making any progress but being required to upgade gear constantlh and amd not seeing any real effect and I still can't play all content with all of my characters.

I don't mind a new class but would prefer the current classes get fixed first.

I hate that the classes are constantly changed because of PVP imbalances and feel like the first thing the should do is to separate the skills for PVE and PVP before making any changes and then balance that PVP and PVE separately.

I recently came back to the game after a half year of and find all of my characters need a complete over hall and the cost are prohibitive in good and cash. I can't see what to chose until I pick and try it and then have to do a complete respect because I can't just change the skills one by one. Also not most of my characters are magic but need to be stamina for them to do what I want. They should have all been reset when the changes took place and there should be a place for me to see the details of how everything works now I won't make future changes and find out that they need another respect because I don't know the details of how everything works.

I think it is stupid that the weapon classes have magic skills and now to really use weapons should be stamina based. I don't what a stamina sorcerer or a magic rogue that uses daggers and need high stamina for them to do good damage. I would like the standard classes to work without having to make a rogue that wears cloth and uses a staff. If others want to do that I am find with it but give me the option to be a real rogue like in other games.

Sorry I went of topic but I just wanted to mention some of the things I am already disappointed in with this game.

I was going to subscribe some more after this subscription runs out but I am not sure now.

wizzerd_lg_ESO

This game was off to a questionable start when it launched, trying it seemed to be just like other major MMOs, following the thinking that emulation of success would equal success. I'm glad you've developed the confidence to step out away from the crowd of WoW clones and bee your own game, be the game Elder Scrolls is meant to be. With the opening of "travel restrictions" for players, and the removal of level-gates from content, you have taken major steps towards being the game I've wanted to see.

I wish you folks had gotten the Star Wars license. Bioware does some awesome work, and they're great people, but but what is being done with this game is what I wish I could be playing in a galaxy far away.

asmcintb14_ESO

So, a year and 6 days as of today since y'all mentioned a DirectX 12 patch was in the works. Where the hell is it? Why have we heard nothing since then? Why isn't there even the most vague mention of it in this blog post?

This is by far my biggest gripe with you guys. I could give a damn less about the content updates, I just want to know when the game will work the way it should on systems with weaker CPUs, and you people have given us no information on that whatsoever in a year. A simple "shut up, it's coming when it's coming" would be less frustrating than the continuing silence!

Someone throw us a bone already!!!!!

Aldmera

1) Have you thought about including more available character spaces per account with Chapters since you are including another class with this chapter and possibly others in the future?

2) Do you plan to decrease what ESO+ members pay with the decrease in included DLC supply, introduce more 'perks' for subscribing, or do nothing?

3) Can you please explain the crown store item cost increases vs. the amount of crowns ESO+ members receive per month.

4) Please list out all the current perks of being an ESO+ member and if they are/will ever be/could possibly be purchasable piece-meal through the crown store, Bethesda Store or in-game.

I believe right now,

• DLC= Purchasable
• 10% Experience boost= Purchasable
• 10% Gold Boost= Not purchasable
• Craft bags= Not Purchasable
• Crowns= Purchasable

SirCritical

Summoning thread from Oblivion

Waiting for news about the next DLCs.

Cookiestealer

Cookiestealer wrote: »

Preyfar wrote: »

Goodbye, Murkmire... =/

Why? Murkmire is still on the map.

See? Ha-ha

Cadbury

Huh. 2017 was a wild and crazy ride, amirite?

TheGreatBlackBear

We were all so innocent and hopeful back then

Cadbury wrote: »

Huh. 2017 was a wild and crazy ride, amirite?

MornaBaine

TheGreatBlackBear wrote: »

We were all so innocent and hopeful back then

Cadbury wrote: »

Huh. 2017 was a wild and crazy ride, amirite?

You're not wrong. I was sooo excited for housing. *sigh*

Oh and when I believed DLC was going to always be like Wrothgar. Not 2 cheap dungeons I'll never play and only 2 new "zones" not nearly as interesting or in depth as Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood.