Hello from the Lead Gameplay Designer

Gythral

If this first patch since your announcement post that you are in control is anything to go by, the future does not look rosy!

@ZOS_RobGarrett

Enslaved

Its good patch

perolord

Holla mr. Rob.

Nice to meet you. Anyhow, lets get to the point

We did get a minor pvp update, which is pretty cool, buuuuut.....

Why o why, we do not get more pvp content?

There are so many options... we have siege weapons, why not medium/small map for 20vs20vs20 or 10vs10vs10 - 3 castles, whoever takes the castle first win? For example... Or same group 1 castle, which group takes castle and holds it for 2 minutes wins?

Too bad, that PVP is so underrated, because PVP brings many players in, all PVP-ers like to play PVE here and there.. but not all PVE players want to PVP..

NoTimeToWait

Posts like this make me enthusiastic about the future of this game. Thank you, Rob

Universe

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

SlippyCheeze wrote: »

Welcome, and thank you for stepping up into the harsh glare of publicity. Since you were at Riot, I'm sure you heard GhostCrawler talking about the less fun times it'll bring, as well as the good ones.

If I may, I'd suggest the most important change to make to this is to tell us, explicitly, how you want the community to talk to you. I suspect that you probably don't want a nice @ZOS_RobGarrett tag every time someone is grumpy about any aspect of gameplay. By being explicit, at least there is some chance that the appropriate community norms will be established.

It'd also be a big help, selfishly, if you laid out what makes for good and useful feedback from your perspective. I, uh, could also say that there are a few things I'd like to see changed, but as "not a ZOS employee", I'd like to know how to make my "just a player" feedback as useful as possible ... and of course, "as convincing as possible"

When it comes to giving feedback, the only hard rules are those stated in the Community Terms of Service. That being said, off the top of my head, a few pieces of advice are:

• Avoid speculation and assuming intent, but feel free to ask about it.
• Clearly described, and well researched, problems are usually more valuable to us than proposed solutions.
• Don't forget to acknowledge changes and additions you enjoy. This is not about giving us praise but rather helping us identify success and successful patterns.
• Don't be a jerk. =P

So no private messaging ?

Nolic1

Congratz on the job and will see how things go sorry just being honest.

ZOS_RobGarrett

ak_pvp wrote: »

Welcome @ZOS_RobGarrett

Are you the one we scapegoat and grumble at when angry?

I doubt any response I provide to that question would meaningfully change the outcome. =P

I will say, however, I'll largely stick to topics that fall within my sphere of responsibility. For example, it wouldn't make sense for me to dive into a nuanced discussion about lore.

geonsocal wrote: »

and howdy rob...welcome aboard sir...

hope to see you out there in cyro (ps4/na/vivec)...what are you - like cp 100 or something, in which case - i really hope i see you out there

Yeah, my console character is currently about CP 90. Prior to that my PC character was around CP 500. Also, while I do log into ESO pretty much every day it's not the only game I play. I'm a big believer in designers being broadly played since there are a lot of games out there tackling interesting design problems. You never know where inspiration may come from.

Hammy01 wrote: »

Do you pvp at all and if so do you like BG's or Cyrodiil? I for one love Cyrodiil but I really think it needs some new life breathed into it (ie - new and exciting objectives for groups of all sizes).

I try to experience all types of activities in the game since the Gameplay teams, to varying degrees, contribute to all of them. I did recently spend a larger portion of my game time in BGs and Cyrodiil during Midyear Mayhem, and still regularly chase that first win of the day bonus in BGs. I also played Dark Age of Camelot back in the day, so Cyrodiil was immediately familiar to me.

@ZOS_BrianWheeler and I regularly have conversations about Cyrodiil and how we might improve the experience. While I'm not going to make promises or talk specifics at this time, I will say you are not alone in your general assessment.

Peekachu99 wrote: »

Thanks for chiming in. My question: are there any plans to work on UI features, social features (group finding interface) and other much needed tools? Especially on console (which you’re now on), the lack of functionality is crippling.

Whatever do you mean? Our UI is perfect! PER-FECT!

But seriously, the UI team is always looking for ways to improve the experience on both PC and console. Once again it wouldn't be appropriate for me to describe efforts-in-progress or future plans in detail, but we agree there are opportunities to streamline the social experience of ESO.

LegendaryMage

@ZOS_RobGarrett Would you be the right man to send links to quality of life videos to?

kylewwefan

Hi Rob. Cool we can talk directly with one who works with the team!

Try going to a few guild traders looking for say, Minotaur daggers motif.....then we’ll reconsider the Per-Fect ui thing. Lol

Also, the buffs/ ability trackers thing was definitely a step in the right direction, but they get extremely convoluted when many things are a going on. It be nice to have more control over them.

Good luck!

Catsmoke14

Speaking of "Quality of Life" (as someone above did), many of us posted a desire to have "bards" available for installation in our houses, as well as other NPCs beyond the rather unpleasant "soul-shriven" NPC currently offered.

It seems that soon we will be getting not "bards", but rather "music boxes".

Do you have any contact with such "QOL" issues?

Valrien

thomas1970b16_ESO wrote: »

be equally successful however they choose to play.

Translation: Anyone can do well no matter how awful they are

Sharee

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

I also played Dark Age of Camelot back in the day, so Cyrodiil was immediately familiar to me.

Good to hear!

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

@ZOS_BrianWheeler and I regularly have conversations about Cyrodiil and how we might improve the experience. While I'm not going to make promises or talk specifics at this time, I will say you are not alone in your general assessment.

One thing that i'm missing in cyrodiil that was big in DAoC: the sense of "this is my homeland, and you are the invader". You had to sail to attack the enemy land. Having a keep under attack was an epic event. Losing a keep caused a realm-wide uproar.

Cyrodiil on the other hand feels like whack-a-mole in comparison. Take keep here, retake there, who cares. People often don't even know which territory is supposed to be their home. Keep walls are wet toilet paper, and keep captures are measured in seconds. For a fellow former DAoC fan, that's just... no.

Sandman929

Thanks for the intro! Always happy to see more communication from ZOS staff.

ZOS_RobGarrett

Shadowmaster wrote: »

@ZOS_RobGarrett What would you say is the biggest challenge to implementing some of your ideas?

For starters, whether or not something is my idea really isn't all that important. Great ideas can come from anywhere and, from my perspective, the job of a designer is to act as a collection and filtering point for ideas, and shepherd them into reality.

But I would say one of the hardest things about game development is prioritization. There are near limitless things we could be doing at any time but, with finite resources (mostly time and people), we often have to make difficult choices about which things are the most important to tackle. The factors surrounding these choices also aren't always as obvious as you might think, but we do our best to deliver a great experience within those constraints.

JD2013

@ZOS_RobGarrett

Can we have Spellcrafting please?

LordSarevok

Good morning @ZOS_RobGarrett ,

First off welcome! I am sooooo excited that you are playing primarily on console and can see the issues we have. The pure quality of life ones like I myself struggle with, here are a few examples;

1) I am almost to Grand Master Crafter status. Some motif's I am missing only one page. I literally have to go and search for hours on end through each page of purple motifs on each trader. I have an actual headache each time. I'ts making me want to give up.

2) Hunting anything for alts... Skyshard's and Mages guild book hunting. Just two examples of a system that is just too painful to complete on all alts. Get the tablet out, find a site, hope the info is right, get near the area, spend eternity looking for the tiny blue glow, rinse and repeat.

And here are some positive examples;

1) Jewelry crafting!
2) Trait change (I'm looking at you sturdy Alkosh shield that evaded me forever!)
3) Keeping events on the horizon!

Anhedonie

@ZOS_RobGarrett welcome to ESO. I'm excited to see what you can do with this game. Maybe, I even might come back. Fresh blood and thinking is really needed in ESO right now. I wish you best of luck.

Sandman929

I don't want to give Santa @ZOS_RobGarrett my list of all the toys I want, but if you're playing on console, it'd be great to pay attention to the little QoL benefits that PC players have through add-ons, and hopefully bring some of that love to the standard UI for all of us to enjoy.
(group ulti tracker...Santa)

Varana

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

But seriously, the UI team is always looking for ways to improve the experience on both PC and console.

You have a UI team???

(Sorry, couldn't resist. )

Anyway, nice to meet you, good luck, and have fun.

dsalter

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

Hey everyone!
I was a little nervous in the beginning of the show if you couldn't tell. =P

I've been working in games for 15 years, most recently having spent 7 at Riot Games working on League of Legends and several smaller games in the LoL universe. I joined ZOS in January and started playing ESO about a year ago. Obviously many of you have been playing the game much longer and have acquired a wealth of knowledge and expertise during that time. ESO is a huge game, and I won't claim to have the same depth of knowledge as someone who's been actively playing since beta.

ehh your only human.
if you did infact work on some of league then you might have more balance knowledge than the old team, no offence to them but balancing was never their strong point, most games have slight shifts, Zenimax has landslides, so as gameplay guy this job should be quite a ton easier to spot problems.

Violynne

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

But I would say one of the hardest things about game development is prioritization.

Is it possible to share some insight on how this prioritization is managed?

I think we can all agree we've seen plenty of improvements over the years, but it seems frustrating when some improvements seem to get the higher priority while more critical ones seem to ... fall to the bottom of the list.

Take attacks from lightning and inferno staves. For over a year, people have mentioned the issue the attacks aren't firing off and/or targets are being lost.

Yet, the latest Natch Potes shows no indication this has been addressed.

Prioritization is important. I get that. But call me skeptical to believe fixing a rune cage timer is higher priority to those very sorcs who can't even hit their target.

Minno

Welcome!

Which class do you enjoy playing the most in PVP? :P

ZOS_RobGarrett

Universe wrote: »

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

When it comes to giving feedback, the only hard rules are those stated in the Community Terms of Service. That being said, off the top of my head, a few pieces of advice are:

• Avoid speculation and assuming intent, but feel free to ask about it.
• Clearly described, and well researched, problems are usually more valuable to us than proposed solutions.
• Don't forget to acknowledge changes and additions you enjoy. This is not about giving us praise but rather helping us identify success and successful patterns.
• Don't be a jerk. =P

So no private messaging ?

The biggest problem with private messaging is efficiency. We have a limited amount of time to respond to an enormous amount of feedback on the forums, and private messages serve an audience of just one.

On a related note, this was one of the big motivators for establishing the Class Rep program. A large portion of feedback on the forums is associated with combat, and the program allows us to receive that feedback in a more distilled format. We are very pleased with how it's going so far, but it's still early and we (both devs and reps) are actively exploring ways to make it work better.

Peekachu99

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

ak_pvp wrote: »

Welcome @ZOS_RobGarrett

Are you the one we scapegoat and grumble at when angry?

I doubt any response I provide to that question would meaningfully change the outcome. =P

I will say, however, I'll largely stick to topics that fall within my sphere of responsibility. For example, it wouldn't make sense for me to dive into a nuanced discussion about lore.

geonsocal wrote: »

and howdy rob...welcome aboard sir...

hope to see you out there in cyro (ps4/na/vivec)...what are you - like cp 100 or something, in which case - i really hope i see you out there

Yeah, my console character is currently about CP 90. Prior to that my PC character was around CP 500. Also, while I do log into ESO pretty much every day it's not the only game I play. I'm a big believer in designers being broadly played since there are a lot of games out there tackling interesting design problems. You never know where inspiration may come from.

Hammy01 wrote: »

Do you pvp at all and if so do you like BG's or Cyrodiil? I for one love Cyrodiil but I really think it needs some new life breathed into it (ie - new and exciting objectives for groups of all sizes).

I try to experience all types of activities in the game since the Gameplay teams, to varying degrees, contribute to all of them. I did recently spend a larger portion of my game time in BGs and Cyrodiil during Midyear Mayhem, and still regularly chase that first win of the day bonus in BGs. I also played Dark Age of Camelot back in the day, so Cyrodiil was immediately familiar to me.

@ZOS_BrianWheeler and I regularly have conversations about Cyrodiil and how we might improve the experience. While I'm not going to make promises or talk specifics at this time, I will say you are not alone in your general assessment.

Peekachu99 wrote: »

Thanks for chiming in. My question: are there any plans to work on UI features, social features (group finding interface) and other much needed tools? Especially on console (which you’re now on), the lack of functionality is crippling.

Whatever do you mean? Our UI is perfect! PER-FECT!

But seriously, the UI team is always looking for ways to improve the experience on both PC and console. Once again it wouldn't be appropriate for me to describe efforts-in-progress or future plans in detail, but we agree there are opportunities to streamline the social experience of ESO.

Mmkay. I like you already since you actually took the time to pop back into your own thread and answer (as best as you could) a broad range of concerns.

Honestly, regarding how to create a proper Social UI just look at something like WoW or FFXIV and then tailor it to the uniqueness of ESO. There’s nothing wrong with refining a winning formula—indeed that’s what made WoW the Goliath it is today. People want broad feature-sets. More is always better. Less is never good. What we have now is a group finder that works on a very basic level with too many caveats to mention. Getting people engaged in content—especially ESO’s amazing dungeons and Trials—has a barrier of entry that shouldn’t be simply accessing the content; i.e. shouting in zone as if we’re in 1999 playing EQ We need better options for communication and forming our own groups. We need better incentives for fulfilling our roles within groups (those Undaunted boxes aren’t worth the time it takes to decon, sorry). Normal Trials should be added back to Activity finder, too. They were there for a while, then removed somewhere around the console launch, and they’re great training wheels for group composition and how to be a dps/ healer/ tank/ buffer/ whatever.

Those are my ideas for what I’ve seen makes for highly socialable and successful games. Again, thanks for popping back in. Really hope you find a good home here. All the best to you and the team.

Finviuswe

Grats on being the lead of the team of a game with one of the mor unique combat systems out there I've seen.

For the relatively minor criticism the combat system of this game does receive, I'd say almost none of it is actually justified.

agrr70

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to take an opportunity to introduce myself here on the forums. I'm the Lead Gameplay Designer on ESO, overseeing the Systems, Combat, PvP, and User Interface teams. Some of you may have seen me on ESO Live last month. I was a little nervous in the beginning of the show if you couldn't tell. =P

I've been working in games for 15 years, most recently having spent 7 at Riot Games working on League of Legends and several smaller games in the LoL universe. I joined ZOS in January and started playing ESO about a year ago. Obviously many of you have been playing the game much longer and have acquired a wealth of knowledge and expertise during that time. ESO is a huge game, and I won't claim to have the same depth of knowledge as someone who's been actively playing since beta.

I do, however, play pretty much every day (I recently switched from PC to console to get better visibility into that experience) and scan the forums and Reddit when time permits. I also lean on the knowledge and experience of the great teams and people here at ZOS who've been hammering on ESO for about a decade. To be clear, my role here is less about making specific changes or improvements to the product and more about helping our teams improve how we work and communicate, both with each other and with you - the players. That being said, I'd be lying if I said there aren't specific aspects of the game I'd like to improve.

My intent is to start posting here on the forums more regularly and, in time, provide more insight into how we think about Gameplay design. My days are already pretty busy (it turns out shipping an update every 3 months leads to a pretty aggressive development schedule!) but I will engage when I can. I'm also certain Gina will find opportunities to poke me for a response.

ESO is a great game. I wouldn't have joined the team if I didn't believe that, and it's exciting to have a hand in shaping the game for the coming years. I'm happy to be here and am looking forward to hearing from you!

Won't hold my breath on regular communication or ever seeing Cyrodiil sorted out..............................................just more hats and recoloured mounts .

Sevn

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

But I would say one of the hardest things about game development is prioritization. There are near limitless things we could be doing at any time but, with finite resources (mostly time and people), we often have to make difficult choices about which things are the most important to tackle. The factors surrounding these choices also aren't always as obvious as you might think, but we do our best to deliver a great experience within those constraints.

I am so keeping this for future discussions. Every time there is a complaint thread about overland being too easy and it's suggested ZOS redo the entire overworld or something equivalent for the handful of OP players who avoid endgame content but are still seeking a challenge I find myself trying to explain this very notion, time/resources are finite. They seem to think otherwise.

dimensional

ESO_GOD wrote: »

Grats on being the lead of the team of a game with one of the mor unique combat systems out there I've seen.

For the relatively minor criticism the combat system of this game does receive, I'd say almost none of it is actually justified.

100% agreed. Most people whining about combat on here simply have nothing better to do. The emotional reactions are almost always exaggerated and just turns me off from even engaging in conversation.

Sarannah

Welcome,
May I suggest some basic user interface QoL features I would like to see:
1: In the deconstruction crafting menu for all crafts, give us a checkbox to only show inventory. Shifting through 300+ bank items whenever I want to deconstruct a found item is a major hassle. **Very late edit: same for research, only show inventory.**
2: In the enchanting deconstruction menu, when we have multiple glyphs to deconstruct, the overview blocks the view for which components were gained when deconstructing when we have multiple items to deconstruct. Meaning we can not see what we get out of it.
3: A 'sort by set' bank/inventory option.
4: When we have two of the same item, one in inventory and one in the bank, in the deconstruction menu it is impossible to see which is which. Show the currently selected item's location(inventory or stash icon top right) in green or something.
5: On timed skills, like DoT's and other time-wise effects I would love to see a sort of grey background on the skills themselves going down clockwise to when the full timer ends. So we know when a timed skill ends and we have to re-cast it.

These are just some annoying things I've noticed since I returned to ESO.

Thanks!

PS: I know some of these features are available with mods, but these are game QoL's that should be in the base game in my opinion.

Universe

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

Universe wrote: »

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

When it comes to giving feedback, the only hard rules are those stated in the Community Terms of Service. That being said, off the top of my head, a few pieces of advice are:

• Avoid speculation and assuming intent, but feel free to ask about it.
• Clearly described, and well researched, problems are usually more valuable to us than proposed solutions.
• Don't forget to acknowledge changes and additions you enjoy. This is not about giving us praise but rather helping us identify success and successful patterns.
• Don't be a jerk. =P

So no private messaging ?

The biggest problem with private messaging is efficiency. We have a limited amount of time to respond to an enormous amount of feedback on the forums, and private messages serve an audience of just one.

On a related note, this was one of the big motivators for establishing the Class Rep program. A large portion of feedback on the forums is associated with combat, and the program allows us to receive that feedback in a more distilled format. We are very pleased with how it's going so far, but it's still early and we (both devs and reps) are actively exploring ways to make it work better.

Thank you for clarifying the matter