Personal reasons for not buying Elsweyr

Cruxanero

Let me start this thread by saying that the reason for creating it is purely to let ZOS/whoever is interested know of why this will be the first chapter I won't be buying. I know it's far too late to make changes to the Elsweyr chapter, but maybe it will be helpful as feedback for future chapters already. I'm not mad or disappointed at all, on the contrary, I'm very excited for the base game changes that will come with this chapter. Still, there just isn't enough incentive for me to buy it, and I just wanted to explain what is missing exactly.

Up until now, I had preordered every single CE for Eso the day preorders where avalaible without even thinking twice. That includes the original CE edition from 2014 and both Morrowind and Summerset CEs for my main account, as well as the digital Summerset CE for my second account. I'm also a yearlong subscriber, and will likely remain that for as long as this game will last. Still, I'm not interested in Elsweyr at all and have absolutely no problem with waiting to play it until it will be available for very cheap or even free. Here are the main reasons I made this decision:

1. No physical collector's edition
That's likely the most important reason for not buying the chapter at all. Even if I would be absolutely not interested in any of the content from the chapter, I'd still preorder the physical CE, and be it just for the statue and the artbook. Sure, ZOS is saying that they want to release some Elsweyr related merchandise throughout the year, but here it might be possible I won't even be able to buy it. Bethesda store sometimes doesn't ship at all outside the US, and if they do it is at least 20 dollar in shipping fees alone on top of the price. Not even for me an artbook would be worth that much. With the CE I could just buy it from the local Amazon page, would receive it all nicely bundled and with the chapter on top of it. The main incentive to buy the CEs though were the physical items, and not the chapter itself. I enjoyed playing battlegrounds at Morrowind release and was glad I could start jewelry crafting immediately, but I waited with playing the actual zone content anyway, since I'm a slow story player that likes immersion and don't feel the need to see everything immediately, when I know I can also play it a couple months later when I have the time and am in the mood for it. And that directly leads to the secondary reasons I'm not even buying the digital editions:

2. No new gameply features except a new class
Even though I always enjoy trying different play styles and classes (13 level 50 chars at the moment, on two accounts with about 900 and 400 CP each), the only character I really care about is my main. I played every Elder Scrolls single player game as him (there I really only play a single character for all the years I spend with each game...), he's the only character I play the story with, and he's a DK. Even if I had the possibility to change that, I wouldn't want to. All the other characters are only means to have some additional fun at endgame and play something else occasionally in PvP and PvE. I'd love to add some necromancers to their ranks, but I don't have a problem to wait for that, since it doesn't influence what I'm playing with my main anyway. Morrowind and Summerset offered additional incentives in the form of battlegrounds, jewelry crafting and the psijic skill line, which were all useful and fun on my existing toon(s). Elsweyr has nothing to offer in that regard, or at least nothing that we know of right now.

3. The continuous story throughout the year
Now that may sound like a positive point, but let me explain why it's a detrimental factor to me. Starting the story with a dungeon DLC means before even setting a foot in Elsweyr, ideally you'd have played both dungeons before. I don't have a problem running DLC dungeons, even on vet. Even though that's not my primary interest in the game I've completed all current DLC dungeons with guildies on vet at least once, and even farmed some of them for sets or the motif drops. Still, running a dungeon with a group is completely different to how I play when I want to play the story. Then, I play alone, and only alone. Even with a group of guildies that know that I want to see the dungeon story, it's not the same feeling. When I actually explore a dungeon, I go through it in first person view, I look in every corner, read every book that lies there. Even with just one person helping me with that, I feel bad and rushed for wasting 2-3 hours of their time (because that's about how thouroughly I explore, read and take screenshots when I play the dungeon story...). Even when they continously assure me they don't mind it, there's still this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I should read a bit faster and hurry up. Therefore, I stopped doing dungeon quests in a group and ignore the dungeon quest on my main char until I'm able to solo the normal mode of this dungeon. Until now, that was working great. Even if I couldn't solo a DLC dungeon from the start, since they only included side story lines I could return anytime to it and try again. Now, I'll have to wait with playing Elsweyr until I could play the dungeon storys anyway, so why even buy zone access until I accomplished this?

Also playing a role a bit:
The german digital CE is even 10 Euro more expensive then Summerset was, despite offering less than it (not even taking the bad dollar to euro conversion rate into account here...). No, thank you.
No appearance preset save function. I have already two characters created with the background of being necromancers, even though I made them sorcerers instead. I wouldn't mind recreating them from the scratch and leveling them again, problem is I can't. There's no way I'll get their look exactly how it is now, and I'm a perfectionist in this regard. Even though I'm not a roleplayer I still have a background for them in my mind. Ok, they are all just supporting characters for my main (his parents, siblings, children, grandchildren...), but still. I wouldn't mind leveling these two characters again as necromancers and buy an apperance and name change for their current sorcerer incarnation, but well... class change would be even more comfortable, but we all heard ZOS stance on that (really? not at all? not even with a cooldown of only one class change per year and account?)

Now, that was quite long, but I did my best to summarise my main critical points. I could write so much more, and of course there are also things I'm excited for: more character slots, I'm long capped on my main account. CP changes, please make them offer convenience features (faster harvesting, crafting passives,...) instead of the power creep they are now.
But this post is long enough already.

TL/DR: The main reasons are: Not interested (yet) in both major features (new class and zone access), and no physical items to still buy it in spite of that.

profundidob16_ESO

and within the first month after release you'll have bought the expansion anyway...cu in Elsweyr !

wolf486

Main reason I *might* not be buying Elsweyr is cost. My ESO+ sub runs out about a week or two before it's released. Getting both would cost me close to $200. I do kinda want the Necro class. I've been playing Necro in Diablo 3 and it's lots of fun....even though I know ESO Necro will be nothing like it. Otherwise Elsweyr location wise does nothing for me.

Dracane

I also felt a little.... let down. I think the biggest troll, was when they announced 1 new system for Wrathstone. While in the end, we did not get a new system. We only got 2 quality of life features, one of them being long overdue. Map Guide and Guild Store search.

So where is the new system ? This year seems to be a bit less ambitious than the ones before.

I am still going to get everything anyway. Once they said, that the Khajiit need our help to remain strong for the Dominion, my duty was clear. For my queen, I will ignore all the Necromancer pests and obstacles.

gepe87

You gonna buy it when people say that Necro Class is OP.

Dracane

gepe87 wrote: »

You gonna buy it when people say that Necro Class is OP.

All the Warden-Templar raids that are roamning the landscape will be busy recruiting the new OP class.

Merlin13KAGL

wolf486 wrote: »

Main reason I *might* not be buying Elsweyr is cost. My ESO+ sub runs out about a week or two before it's released. Getting both would cost me close to $200. I do kinda want the Necro class. I've been playing Necro in Diablo 3 and it's lots of fun....even though I know ESO Necro will be nothing like it. Otherwise Elsweyr location wise does nothing for me.

It's $65? $40 for the digital upgrade, and $15 for a months' ESO+

You don't have to ESO+ sub all at once.

Tommy_The_Gun

I will wait for the PTS patch notes. What I will see there will determine if I am going to support the game futher or not. Mostly I am interested in racial passives changes. As for the necromancer for now I am gonna ignore it as it most likely will be OP / broken P2W class.

Cruxanero

profundidob16_ESO wrote: »

and within the first month after release you'll have bought the expansion anyway...cu in Elsweyr !

I can definitely say that won't be the case. Mainly because I wouldn't get the preorder mount then, and therefore would feel obliged to wait for a much cheaper deal.

What I can't rule out with 100% certainty though is that I won't still preorder the CE sometimes between now and june, mostly depending on what may be revealed at E3 and other occasions. But if all the new features are known already, I certainly won't, there's nothing in it I can't wait for.

gepe87 wrote: »

You gonna buy it when people say that Necro Class is OP.

Don't care for OP, I play what is fun for me. When you're not insisting to be top of leaderboards you can make a reasonable enough build for every class.

Canasta

I have Morrowind, Summerset and Murkmire

Played about 25% of Morrowind, and never actually visited Summerset or Murkmire.
Also never tried the Warden class

I still play the game a lot, I just never got round to visiting these places yet. Im more into the group dungeons and Cyrodiil and levelling up alts these days.

So on that basis, will probaby also skip this one for a while

rage607

I completely agree with all points.
Point 3 is also a problem, because you don't know where the game/story is heading.
If I buy a part of something, I would like to know how the rest is like.

wolf486

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

wolf486 wrote: »

Main reason I *might* not be buying Elsweyr is cost. My ESO+ sub runs out about a week or two before it's released. Getting both would cost me close to $200. I do kinda want the Necro class. I've been playing Necro in Diablo 3 and it's lots of fun....even though I know ESO Necro will be nothing like it. Otherwise Elsweyr location wise does nothing for me.

It's $65? $40 for the digital upgrade, and $15 for a months' ESO+

You don't have to ESO+ sub all at once.

I usually sub to ESO+ with the 6-month sub ($95), however with the one year sub now I was leaning towards that ($173), plus $70 for the collectors ed. of Elswyer. So either $165 or $243. Then again, I might just stop ESO+ after it expires. Crafting bag is the only thing I really want/need from it.

mairwen85

Point 3 resonates with me the most...

It means sub or purchase DLC on top of the Chapter to get the full story. I am a subscriber, will stay a subscriber, but it's a move I am at odds with.

eklhaftb16_ESO

Cruxanero wrote: »

No appearance preset save function. I have already two characters created with the background of being necromancers, even though I made them sorcerers instead. I wouldn't mind recreating them from the scratch and leveling them again, problem is I can't. There's no way I'll get their look exactly how it is now, and I'm a perfectionist in this regard. Even though I'm not a roleplayer I still have a background for them in my mind. Ok, they are all just supporting characters for my main (his parents, siblings, children, grandchildren...), but still.

There's a workaround for this that you might find useful.

You need to have a character customization token. Race change token will do, too. It was said on the stream that everybody will be getting one per account for free. You can also wait for your characters to be copied to PTS and get one token for free in the PTS store.

Now that you have the token, use it to open a character customization and screenshot the sliders. All settings for your character can fit into roughly six screenshots.
Now, cancel the customization, that way you get to keep the token for the future use.

Go create a new character. Open your screenshots in the background using some image viewer software that can be switched into fullscreen. Now, alt-tab between the game and the screenshot to get your sliders exactly right. Input the name and create your new character with the old look. Enjoy.

Bloodystab

Can fully agree with point 1 and 2

This Chapter have nothing to offer for people who play 1 character. I will probably just equip new Set from Trial and that's all about "Progression"

Can we get New skill lines, more skills in current trees or more Morphs?

Cruxanero

mairwen85 wrote: »

It means sub or purchase DLC on top of the Chapter to get the full story. I am a subscriber, will stay a subscriber, but it's a move I am at odds with.

I hadn't even thought about this yet, since I'd never even consider to play the game without subscribing. But it's true: unless they'll have the dungeon DLCs for Q1 and Q3 as daily login rewards some month in the future, there's no way to play the complete chapter story without subscribing or purchasing every DLC on top of that, if you want to see the complete story. And even with a the DLCs as login rewards, not everyone who'll want to play the story in the future might get it. If you want to look at it negatively, that's a really clever scheme of selling dungeon DLCs to story players, which would otherwise not be interested in it (or even deliberately avoid dungeon DLCs for easier random dungeon queues).
Sure, earlier story lines were also connected (best play Morrowind before Summerset etc.), but it was never advertised as a feature and new characters even start in the latest substory.

eklhaftb16_ESO wrote: »

There's a workaround for this that you might find useful.

You need to have a character customization token. Race change token will do, too. It was said on the stream that everybody will be getting one per account for free. You can also wait for your characters to be copied to PTS and get one token for free in the PTS store.

[...]

That's a really great tip I might use in the future! I already wondered what to do with the race change token (they're all dunmers. all of them!), and that it would likely sit in my account for an eternity. That means it will be a handy function for my future toons/class changes.
Would still be great if there was a less complicated way, but it should work reasonably well (getting the face/body shape slider on the right point of the triangle would be the most complicated, but should be doable). Now I only have to think of fitting backgrounds for the chars I'd like to change (two sorcerers and one DK)... but I have likely more than one year time for that anyway. They've had "wrong" classes for years now, some months more or less won't hurt.

adriant1978

eklhaftb16_ESO wrote: »

Cruxanero wrote: »

No appearance preset save function. I have already two characters created with the background of being necromancers, even though I made them sorcerers instead. I wouldn't mind recreating them from the scratch and leveling them again, problem is I can't. There's no way I'll get their look exactly how it is now, and I'm a perfectionist in this regard. Even though I'm not a roleplayer I still have a background for them in my mind. Ok, they are all just supporting characters for my main (his parents, siblings, children, grandchildren...), but still.

There's a workaround for this that you might find useful.

You need to have a character customization token. Race change token will do, too. It was said on the stream that everybody will be getting one per account for free. You can also wait for your characters to be copied to PTS and get one token for free in the PTS store.

Now that you have the token, use it to open a character customization and screenshot the sliders. All settings for your character can fit into roughly six screenshots.
Now, cancel the customization, that way you get to keep the token for the future use.

Go create a new character. Open your screenshots in the background using some image viewer software that can be switched into fullscreen. Now, alt-tab between the game and the screenshot to get your sliders exactly right. Input the name and create your new character with the old look. Enjoy.

I've done this but it's really clunky and time-consuming. Can't believe it would be so hard for them to add an option to save the slider settings to a file that could then be reloaded. Would be a lovely little QoL improvement in case any devs are reading.

luen79rwb17_ESO

Well everyone's got their own tastes and personal opinion but I totally disagree with you. For my tastes and in my opinion this year they're doing so many things right I will be preordering this chapter!

1 year full story arch is as good and compelling as a TV series. Necro class, dragons and the innovative implementation of both. Great!

ZarkingFrued

You guys dissect this crap and really think that every single DLC has to have the same amount of everything. Reminds me of a 3 year old crying that something is "not fair". THEN DONT BUY IT. They should make guild trader search only available if u own the new chapter 🤣😂 seriously tho. They don't owe you anything. Buy the product, or dont. No one needs to read a novel on why you didn't buy the new ESO expansion.

Bloodystab

If You defend something You are FANBOY if you don't like something You are Hater & Crybaby.

You can't have opinion on the internet those days

myskyrim26

Ok. Do we need to know this?

Vizikul

You could also drop your ESO+ for 3 months and spare that money to buy the new chapter.

Hixtory

myskyrim26 wrote: »

Ok. Do we need to know this?

Yes, so they (besides numbers) get the real reasons why people like OP and me are not getting this chapter right away, they are focusing mainly on getting new players while us who have been playing for years have no real benefit to buy it right away.

For 60 usd, to get everything previous and new?, while I have to pay 40 and they are not even giving the complete cosmetic stuff, no ty, I'll wait a sale for this one

Cruxanero

ZarkingFrued wrote: »

You guys dissect this crap and really think that every single DLC has to have the same amount of everything. Reminds me of a 3 year old crying that something is "not fair". THEN DONT BUY IT. They should make guild trader search only available if u own the new chapter 🤣😂 seriously tho. They don't owe you anything. Buy the product, or dont. No one needs to read a novel on why you didn't buy the new ESO expansion.

I clearly stated in the very first sentence that it's only an explanation for interested people why the chapter doesn't offer anything compelling enough for me personally to buy it. I actually thought that people would at least read one sentence before going to "DON'T LiKE? DON'T BUY, BUT KEEP QUIET!"

But why I'm actually replying: In case it wasn't clear enough in the post already, I don't expect every chapter to have the exact same amount of everything as every chapter before. But I expect a chapter I want to buy to have at least ONE feature I want to have immediately without waiting for a cheaper deal, and explained why that isn't the case with Elsweyr in contrast to every chapter before.

Vizikul wrote: »

You could also drop your ESO+ for 3 months and spare that money to buy the new chapter.

Aaaand it's not about the money, I could easily afford it. But thanks for your suggestion.^^

Giraffon

Just buy it. If you didn't have internal conflict about it you wouldn't have posted a short story.

Sanctuary_Reaper

I will be getting it, no 2 ways about it, i just havent decided which edition as yet.

Having played Necromancer in D2 & D3 i cant wait to play Necromancer in ESO, i know it will be different, i dont think anything beats D2's Necromancers, but i feel they will have learned from lessons past with this new class.

Cruxanero

Giraffon wrote: »

Just buy it. If you didn't have internal conflict about it you wouldn't have posted a short story.

Why is it so unbelievable to people that someone can be completely fine and sure about a decision that was made, and just wants to give feedback to the sellers on why their product isn't attractive to them and what they could change in order to make it more appealing in the future?

Sure, I'm not only writing this because I'm bored, it is a selfish interest. If they take at least something of the feedback to heart maybe the next chapter will be more interesting for me, which is the main motivation for stating these points.

nemisan

No physical collectors edition...

JadonSky

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

I will wait for the PTS patch notes. What I will see there will determine if I am going to support the game futher or not. Mostly I am interested in racial passives changes. As for the necromancer for now I am gonna ignore it as it most likely will be OP / broken P2W class.

I love the story so either way i'm going to buy it.

But i do Agree with you, I worry what they might do with racial passive and that fact he was not even willing to discuss them means its probably a big change they know will impact a lot of people. Also I was kinda ticked with how he answered some of the questions like when they asked about the Necromancer attracting NPC's and dueling in a town. Answer: "Don't duel in towns...." like really thats where almost everyone duels.

Then getting all disgruntle about the data mine. Like dude it happens every time your about to launch something.

Kagukan

Already pre ordered. All the new content sounds very exciting to me.