Confirmed: more 'year-long story' style content coming after Elsweyr. (Please no, you can do better)

MLGProPlayer

_Salty_ wrote: »

I don't like it. For the first time in 4 years I've stopped playing ESO snd started spending money on Black Desert Online. There is finally another option on PS4. At least the developers at Peal Abyss are straight up selling quality of life and cosmetics and the DLCS are free. I dont have to spend a penny on BDO if I don't want to.

There is plenty of criticism you can levy at ZOS, but Pearl Abyss is at least 100x worse. BDO features blatant P2W mechanics and a complete lack of content. The game is a soulless grind fest designed to empty your wallet.

Danikat

The only problem I see with this approach is that they continue to dump new players into the latest chapter, even when they themselves consider it to be the middle, rather than the begining, of the storyline.

If they're going to do year-long stories where all the releases link together then they need to either start new players at the begining of a storyline or (my preference) in a single location shared by all new starters which introduces them to the game as a whole and then directs them to their choice of storyline. Not simply drop them into a chapter, skipping what ZOS set up as an introduction to that story and expect them to pick up the pieces and make sense of it with no guidance.

maboleth

I think this post is WAY more diluted and extended infinitely for this kind of topic.

Personally, I like 1y story mode. It's much more interesting, mixing quests, solo and dungeons together. I'm a soloer myself. You can easily find 3 other people/friends for dungeons to accompany you during your dungeon questing.

However, everything could be solved with a menu, offering several starting points for new players with one (or few) recommended or default ones, explaining what each of these starting points represents and why.
This was recommended after Morrowind, but now should be essential, as the years go by and stories progress further.

So ZOS, like you did with the skill points adviser, please make starting-menu positions for new players. Shouldn't be hard to program.

Eliahnus

jainiadral wrote: »

Bad news Solo players don't actually see half of the story because it's gated behind group content. Difficult, mechanic-heavy group content. I'd hoped this approach during Elsweyr was an abberation. To find out ZOS is doubling down on story gating is disapponting, to put it mildly. I don't have an issue necessarily with tying the chapter and zone content together, but shoving group dungeons into the whole process is exclusionary and unfair.

+1

Additionally, you can only unlock half of the house you get in Elseweyr.

If I read between the lines, ZOS does this because it's easier for them and less work.

Commancho

Wait so this game has a story? Seriously, when I look at walls of text in this thread I can't resist impression that they contain more capitals than dialogs in the main quest line. Followed by a fact that I had better adventures when doing Cyrodill or overland with friends than when I was doing these poorly scripted quests pretending to be RPG part of the game.

HappyLittleTree

While i like the idea of having a connected storyline i agree that having to spend an entire year in almost the same enviroment is kinda boring, they can add some variety in these connected stories by sending you to other regions because there may be a person or group of people that could help getting that job done and add some extra content to explore

MornaBaine

After reading through some of the various arguments I have to say I still agree with the OP. I don't do dungeons. I find doing any content more than 3 times annoyingly monotonous. I find gear grinds and obsessively testing my damage output boring and tedious. I play ESO for the story, for the lore. I prefer quests over dungeons. But the rewards from quests have remained incredibly lackluster ever since the game's creation. When, because of dungeons, we're only getting 2 ZONE DLCs a year, to have them just be another part of the latest chapter is really disappointing. They should absolutely be DIFFERENT cultures from the latest chapter. Give us some novelty! Some new and different stories to explore! The Bretons and Nords have been incredibly shortchanged so far. I'm over the kitties. Let's move on please!

SydneyGrey

I hate that they gated some of the story behind dungeons. I hate doing dungeons, and I know if I do them I'll be rushed through by my group and not be able to enjoy the story anyway. I can screenshot every bit of dialogue really fast so I can read it later, but that's about it.
I like that they're continuing the story in southern Elsweyr, though.

RouDeR

The bad side
* Only the first DLC of the year will be "exiting" and fresh.
* Lazy ass content without new end game PvE/PvP additions (like the upcoming DLC) > pure cash grab

The good side
* Easier to develop so this means that there will be more time for bug/fixes and performance adjustments.

Reistr_the_Unbroken

Isn’t part of a house a reward for doing a dungeon or something?

But yeah after a while of nothing but more Elsweyr I’m at the point where I just want it to be over already.

Numerikuu

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

What amuses me is that if they keep going with year-long stories with no one-offs in between, then the theoretically-climatic finish will always be the mini-zone expansion and never the big Chapter, just like this year.

Yeaah... this. Unless they drag out this dragon *** for another year (god no... please... no...)

I preferred the different stories and zones. It was interesting seeing a new land and added much needed variety. Morrowind--CWC--Summerset despite following the same story theme was done right imo, but if they choose to stick to the same damn place for an entire year... nah. Nope. Stale. Boring. Lazy. Not interested.

If you're struggling to get things done on time or your team is struggling, maybe... just maybe... spend some of that crown crate money on hiring more staff to work on your game?? You know, since you're 'killing it'.

bakthi

VaranisArano wrote: »

The best thing ZOS could do to fix the above is to give us a choice of starting tutorial so new players can decide to jump into new content or preserve the chronology.

I would love this, for multiple reasons:

- I started in April, so the Morrowind tutorial is the oldest one I've gotten to play through, and I only got to do it once.
- I've only gotten to do the Summerset tutorial twice, versus 7 times for the Elsweyr tutorial.
- I did in fact insist on playing all zone stories "in order" (per the excellent guide posted in these forums), so if given a clear choice, I would have picked the O.G. tutorial for my first character.

(and yes, I am that person who never skips the tutorial. I still like the cart ride in Skyrim, no matter how many times I've started that. Morrowind/Oblivion had nice intros as well, though I've only done those once each.)

I have 10 characters now, 1 from each race, with a variety of roles (2 healers, 2 tanks, some mag+stam DPS). I didn't really intend to make more, until/unless ZOS released a new class, which could be years. But...as much as I like the Elsweyr tutorial, it might be interesting to visit the old ones...might just have to buy another character slot or two earlier than planned.

zaria

maboleth wrote: »

I think this post is WAY more diluted and extended infinitely for this kind of topic.

Personally, I like 1y story mode. It's much more interesting, mixing quests, solo and dungeons together. I'm a soloer myself. You can easily find 3 other people/friends for dungeons to accompany you during your dungeon questing.

However, everything could be solved with a menu, offering several starting points for new players with one (or few) recommended or default ones, explaining what each of these starting points represents and why.
This was recommended after Morrowind, but now should be essential, as the years go by and stories progress further.

So ZOS, like you did with the skill points adviser, please make starting-menu positions for new players. Shouldn't be hard to program.

I agree, would prefer to drop the new starts entirely just have them as an extension of the prologue quest but to late to change this now. However I guess most new players start with the base game. Still say you dropped out years ago and come back because of Elsweyr it will be confusing. More so that it messes up the flow like how you can assist Tharn while he is locked up in coldharbor, yes they avoided the obvious bug. if Elsweir prologue is active you can not do the The tharn speaks.

_Salty_

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

_Salty_ wrote: »

I don't like it. For the first time in 4 years I've stopped playing ESO snd started spending money on Black Desert Online. There is finally another option on PS4. At least the developers at Peal Abyss are straight up selling quality of life and cosmetics and the DLCS are free. I dont have to spend a penny on BDO if I don't want to.

There is plenty of criticism you can levy at ZOS, but Pearl Abyss is at least 100x worse. BDO features blatant P2W mechanics and a complete lack of content. The game is a soulless grind fest designed to empty your wallet.

I agree that it is pay win. It's pretty obvious. But I'd rather spend my money on progression than dropping $100 plus for a virtual house or $40 for a rare mount or even scam crates. Now they have gated story content behind 2 dungeon DLCs a year.

Unless you love grinding and can sacrifice the right goat to RNG you will need to pay real money to compete right away at BDO. and that's OK.

Most of my time in ESO was spent either grinding for gear or CP or playing PvP. Which is exactly what BDO is.

bluebird

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

I literally got a post downvoted to -20 on Reddit for saying it was disappointing we didn't get a trial or arena in Q4. Apparently "no one plays that content and DLC are better without it". I guess people are cool with paying the same amount of money for less content.

Wow, that reflects rather poorly on Reddit and the type of people who use it, apparently. Even if somebody isn't extremely excited for some content (e.g. if someone isn't into furnishing and crafting at all, or if someone doesn't run trials) everybody should still be able to acknowledge that less content is worse for the game in general.

RouDeR wrote: »

The good side
* Easier to develop so this means that there will be more time for bug/fixes and performance adjustments.

That's the issue though. The zone leads aren't the people re-coding the group finder. Performance improvements are long overdue and should have arrived as a free update ages ago, but it wasn't held back because the art teams had too much to do before. So just because ZOS are finally investing the necessary dev time into re-coding much of the broken features of the game, it doesn't mean that totally unrelated content developer teams should make half the content they used to.

Reistr_the_Unbroken wrote: »

Isn’t part of a house a reward for doing a dungeon or something?

Yes, two wings of the Hall of the Lunar Champion (an Elsweyr house) are locked behind two different DLCs.
In Morrowind, people could buy 2 whole houses for ingame gold.
In Summerset, people could buy 1 whole house for ingame gold.
In Elsweyr, people get 2 / 4th of a house, and need to buy both Scalebreaker and Dragonhold to unlock 1 whole house.

The same with the story. The culmination of the Elsweyr Chapter (which ended on a cliffhanger with Kalgrontiid) only unlocks if you also do Dragonhold. (Dragonhold, which in itself has very little to offer since it's 80% a copy-paste of Elsweyr assets, has no new Arena or Trial, no new crafting, no new furnishings.)

So yeah It's a little transparent that the 'year-long story' gimmick was introduced to force people into buying more DLCs throughout the year if they want to get the full content that should have come with the Chapter alone (i.e. a full house and a story conclusion), while also reducing the quality and quantity of content in the other DLCs at the same time (since nobody would ever buy Dragonhold for itself as it offers no new content while Murkmire and CWC did, both in assets, crafting styles, furniture and PvE instances). Which is why this year is so insulting from a player's perspective.

randomkeyhits

So if you sub but don't buy the Chapters as they come out, you get exposed to all the follow up but not the main story set up?

Is this to push people to get the Chapter when it hits rather than wait for it to transmogrify into an ordinary DLC?

Honestly not feeling this new direction, for me it feels all rote and formulaic, nothing like the early years of ESO.

Aptonoth

Sounds great to me. I am a big fan of coherent storytelling and while Elsewyr is not the best they have done its still really good and gives you more time to learn and care about characters in the DLC if its one big coherent theme to it all. I don't necessarily think dungeons should directly tie into main plots maybe simply secondary or share a theme with the setting IE dragon focused dungeons or Euraxian undead ect. I know how hard dungeons are for people even easy ones lol.

Other than that I agree with everything they said. Looking forward to next year. Hoping for Black Marsh expecting Skyrim.

Shewolf075

I felt like such a mug buying into the "Elsweyr" chapter to only find out I'll have to pay more money to get the other half of the story as I stopped my membership. If I don't complete Dragonhold DLC then I'll never unlock the finale of Season of the Dragon. This is damn right disgraceful. The cake is a lie.

kind_hero

I agree with the OP!

I noticed many people got bored with Elsweyr, not that it was bland, but it was to much! Khajiit got more attention than any culture until now.

Also it looks like a very pragmatic approach for the devs, but it isn't the best one because the players want diversity and fun. Milking one chapter one year is lazy.

My impression is that the lead devs are more interested in the quick action part of the game, with story just as a side thing, while the ES games were always about stories, NPCs, exploration and character development, less about combat (which was important but secondary to all)

So no wonder...

To be honest, like someone said before, I hope the next chapter is Skyrim, and it needs to be wonderfully done to keep veteran players interested. I started to become less interested in the game because of all the odd nerfs and clunky combat they are giving us...

vilio11

bluebird wrote: »

[

• The dungeons of the Scalebreaker DLC heavily reused Elsweyr assets, and barely look any different from an Elsweyr delve or Public Dungeon.
• Southern Elsweyr is a copy-paste of Elsweyr assets (apart from a handful of exceptions), while CWC and Murkmire both had a unique look and style created for them.
• Southern Elsweyr also doesn't have any new furnishing styles and blueprints, while both CWC and Murkmire did.
• Dragonhold also doesn't add any Trial or Arena, while CWC added the Asylum Sanctorium trial, and Murkmire added the Blackrose Prison arena.

.

The sad part is that they promise us that Southern Elsweyr will have different architecture than Nortern Elsweyr

p_tsakirisb16_ESO

What I do not see here are all those forum criers from 2014, demanding that ZOS has to open the world and not been one character linear story, and three alliance linear stories (like it was in 2014).

But no, they demanded everything to be removed and open. Fast forward to 2019 there are cries to bring back linear storytelling.

Decide what you want for heaven sake.

True ZOS should have a radio button to pick the tutorial or skip it, but all this bashing about new players and how the year long story missions are bad, is pure insanity.
Get a life ffs.
Many of us like the "year of the Dragon" theme and want to see that next year if possible with another series of DLCs and expansion.
Enjoy the game and nobody stops you to play the game as a coherent linear story as it was in 2014. NOBODY.
Skip the tutorial, jump to the nearby portal and off to speak to the hooded figure.

Those of us who have done the whole storyline from start to end, want to see eg Razum-Dar etc from the past as the game has involved.
(is mentioned in somewhere in to the east of North Elswyer)

Personally my biggest argument is that the Wailing Prison questline (old tutorial) is been streamlined with parts cut off.
But doesn't mean i throw the toys out of the pram like many you do above.

Adapt or leave.
And if you leave can I have your stuff?

bluebird

p_tsakirisb16_ESO wrote: »

What I do not see here are all those forum criers from 2014, demanding that ZOS has to open the world and not been one character linear story, and three alliance linear stories (like it was in 2014).

But no, they demanded everything to be removed and open. Fast forward to 2019 there are cries to bring back linear storytelling.

Decide what you want for heaven sake.
<snip for length>

You probably didn't read the posts (which is fair enough, they are quite long and detailed ) but as a a result your complaint doesn't really make sense.

The story of the 'Season of the Dragon' is more linear than previous years, since parts of Elsweyr's conclusion is locked behind playing through Dragonhold first. Also, just because the game allows you to be 'open' and jump in wherever you want doesn't mean that it's not a linear story. For example jumping into the Summerset tutorial doesn't mean that Morrowind didn't come before Summerset linearly, which is still true for Elsweyr. The only free options are self-contained fully fleshed out storylines like Orsinium, Thieves Guild, etc.

So far from being an improvement on either the Orsinium/TG/DB or the Morrowind/CWC/Summerset model, the story of the 'Season of the Dragon' is more restrictive, but nobody was asking for more restrictive storylines. You could play Murkmire and Dragon Bones completely independently from Summerset; but this year playing just Dragonhold or just Wrathstone makes no sense because they tie into the year-long story and if you want to see the ending of the storyline you need to play Elsweyr too, as well as the following DLCs.

In addition to paywalling a chunk of content behind extra DLC purchases, this year's DLCs came with less content than earlier years. So 'let us choose our tutorial' is not the main issue with the 'Season of the Dragon' by any means, the tutorial is just one aspect of the discussion, specifically in response to the devs' claims that writing a year-long story makes it easier for new players to jump in and know what's going on (it doesn't, it's the opposite).

Jeremy

bluebird wrote: »

So, this post is a case against the year-long story approach that is apparently going to be the future of ESO content.
During the recent Quakecon 2019 panel about ESO, 'Building Tamriel', the devs talked about the new 'year-long story' approach to creating content. They mentioned that they liked that all four quarterly releases are tied to one cohesive theme and story, and they see no reason to change it. They also basically confirmed that after 2019's 'Season of the Dragon' in which Wrathstone, Elsweyr, Scalebreaker and Dragonhold were interconnected, they are planning on taking this approach forward and creating the next 'Season of the [insert theme here]' for 2020 and beyond.

**********
1. Rich mentioned that they like the year-long story approach: 'We decided with Elsweyr that we wanted to tell this year-long story, so that the entire year was focused on that, so when new players came in or returning players came in they kinda knew what was going on and where they could start is they wanted to start or they could just jump in and continue on the story as they see fit.'

But I'm sorry, that doesn't make sense. Having a year-long story makes it less likely that new and returning players will know what's going on and where they can start. Oh, you want to play Dragonhold? You won't understand what's up with Elsweyr (since Dragonhold takes place is Southern Elsweyr) if you didn't play Elsweyr, and you won't understand what's up with all the dragons if you didn't play Wrathstone or the Elsweyr Prologue. The older system is better in this regard, because if a new or returning player wants to know what's going on and where they can start if they want to play Summerset, they go play Summerset. If they want to know what's up with Murkmire, they play Murkmire. And they don't have to do Dragonbones to understand what's going on or where they should start.

His second point there, that players can just jump in and continue the story as they see fit is also counterintuitive. If the stories are self-contained, such as the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood and Orsinium, players have a lot more choice to just jump in and continue as they see fit. With the year-long story however, that choice is actually punishing. Players will lose out on huge chunks of story, background knowledge, character interactions if they want to join for Dragonhold without having played Elsweyr first. With the Dark Brotherhood, you didn't feel like you're getting the second half of an earlier DLC for example, and the DB DLC experience you got for your buck was equal, whether you bought earlier DLCs or not. Tying content together like this seems more beneficial for a company in terms of sales, and more of a hinderance for players in terms of freedom of coming in and 'knowing what's going on and being able to start as they see fit'.

2. Rich also described their earlier model of content design - such as Dragonbones, Summerset, Woldhunter, and Murkmire forming a year - as a 'hodgepodge of stories that didn't really connect to one another.' And Matt added that with Elsweyr they started the system in which 'All four content drops over the year tell the same story essentially''

However, I have to argue against this and point out the reverse: having the same theme, same story, same region, same NPCs for an entire year is far more boring. With the year-long story, players have nothing to look forward to for an entire year than cats and dragons, and more of the same. If somebody dislikes cats and dragons they will be turned off of the game for an entire year, whereas they could come back for Murkmire even if they didn't like High Elves for example. And even if a person likes cats and dragons, no matter how good the content is, it does get repetitive and uninspiring if we spend almost the entire year doing the same things in the same environments. Orsinium, the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood delivered unique stories, with unique themes, locations, characters, and they're great full-fledged DLCs in their own right which were very memorable. They each had their own vibe and feel, and people have distinct memories that stand out from each of these; whereas people will find a lot less variety in Elsweyr, Scalebreaker and Dragonhold which are just slight variations on the same thing (see image).



That also relates to the issue of calling a varied content year a 'hodgepodge'. Arguably, that's the best part of Elder Scrolls. It has so many races and cultures and places which are wonderful and worth exploring! ESO is great because it is varied and full of different stories and characters! Not because it has three Bosmer zones back to back, or because we spend an entire year with nothing except Khajiit and Dragons. Tamriel has far more interesting stories to tell! It would have been an injustice to Murkmire if the end of 2018 was dedicated to more High Elves and white marble, and we would have lost out on the flavourful and fun Wolfhunter update if we had gotten a dungeon DLC with more High Elves. So it's not just a matter of Khajiit getting several months' worth of content, it's about all the other content that doesn't get made, all the stories that don't get told, as a result.

3. Rich also mentioned an interesting angle on why year-long stories are good, that 'It's easier on the team, because the art team know what they are building, and the content team know what they're building, so it's a lot easier in terms of workflow.'

I don't doubt that year-long stories are great for the developers, in terms of reusing assets versus having to create unique styles for distinct areas and cultures. However, from a player perspective, this seems like a cop-out. No matter how much I liked Summerset for example, if I had to spend Wolfhunter and Murkmire staring at more while marble spires and elf ladies in silken dresses, it would have made for a far more tedious 2018. Yet this is what's happening in 2019, with nothing but variations on the same Khajiit vibe with the same sandy stones and the same cats and dragons. Getting the Argonian crafting motifs and furniture after getting the Hircine-and-Silver-Dawn items after getting the elaborate Summerset ones was a lot more refreshing and motivating than getting six types of Khajiiti stairs and yet another vaguely-South-East-Asian-inspired armor. And this isn't against Elsweyr, I liked the update itself, I just don't think that dragging out the same theme and story for a year makes for a particularly interesting content schedule.

4. Matt also mentioned some other angle on why they consider the year-long story a success, he said that 'it has been hugely successful having one marketing tool like the CG videos [...] that tell the same story [...] it has been hugely successful for us'.

Which again seems like a company-perspective rather than 'is this really the best content design for the game' perspective. For example, I'm not sure how much of that success is mis-attributed to the year-long story, when really it was due to Elsweyr alone. People have been waiting for some quality cat content for a long time, people have been asking for necromancers for an even longer time, and dragons sounded exciting to some Skyrims fans, I'm sure. But the successful numbers that ZOS is seeing right now all come from Elsweyr, not from Scalecaller or Dragonhold, so it would be wrong to conclude that the year-long story is what brought people in. The cinematics are the same, while they are clearly great ways to generate hype, ZOS haven't tried to do the same for unrelated stories as far as I know - Orsinium, the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood didn't have their own cinematics, even though those could have worked to generate hype just as well as 'dragon cinematic one' and 'dragon cinematic two'. And Elsweyr could have generated enough hype as a standalone Chapter even if it was followed by some other themes (such as Nord or Imperial content which would have generated plenty of hype on its own too, believe me ).

**********
So...Thoughts? Preferences? Surely there is a happy medium somewhere, between entirely unrelated content and spending a year on the same theme and story. I consider Wrathstone to be an example of how to do things right for example. It involed a frosty Dwemer dungeon, and an Ayleid ruin dungeon. These were different from each other, and different from Elsweyr itself to be an exciting and interesting DLC on its own, but it still tied into the story without being too similar. Or the way they actually pulled off the Daedric Triad storyline. Morrowind, Clockwork City, and Summerset had an interconnected story as well, that had overarching narratives and characters. Still, the specific themes and locations were unique enough so that these stood out as distinct DLCs. Why not go back to that model?

What do you think, do you prefer unrelated stories (Orsinium/Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood), slightly related stories (Morrowind/Clockwork City/Summerset), or year-long stories (Elsweyr/Scalebreaker/Dragonhold)?

***********
Update with Scalebreaker and Dragonhold: I'm sorry to say that I was right in my concerns and the 'year-long story' indeed seems like an excuse to get away with creating less content than earlier years. So yes the final verdict seems to be that the 'year-long story' is worse for the game since it means you use it as an excuse to cut costs for the company, by using it to generate hype instead of delivering the content that the playerbase deserves.

You make a good (and lengthy) argument.

My thoughts: whether the story is stand alone or part of the larger theme - in the end it's going to depend on the individual story itself. If it has interesting characters and a good plot then I believe players will appreciate it. So if developing a consistent story over the course of a year helps the writers do that - then it's probably worth it in the long run. Time will tell if that's the case or not.

Lab3360

The company has all the subs they want and are just coasting now. Dont really care as much as they once did. Game has been mismanaged and its combat decimated.

Nova Sky

You gotta bring your "A" game to ESO, ZeniMax!

You've got competition coming up on the PS4/5 — Civilization 6 is releasing in November and Vampire: The Masquerade II is coming out on consoles early to mid next year, too, besides the just-launched Black Desert Online and so on.

Ysbriel

I've spent more time on Mournhold picking up pledges and Vivec City doing writs than Elseweyr and i always buy the Digital Collectors Upgrade 😓
that might change next season. At least the previous chapters and zone DLC had story that made me want to complete it.

Aelorin

Hello OP,

1. To answer your first post: Before there was an ongoing story which expanded to 2 chapters. Although this story was fun and interesting, a lot of new players got confused. Which zone do you have to do first to experience this story? If you do CWC first, then Morrowind, then Summerset, then the story does not make much sense. As the Edler Scrolls is more a franchise of: go where you want, do what you want, this 1 year approach is better: You can do 1 zone (Elsweyr) with 1 storyline.

I must say, i do hope they will do a longer story arc again in the future.

2. Have you tried PTS? Southern Elsweyr has another feel and atmosphere then Northern Elsweyr. I am not a huge fan of Northern Elswyer, but as it stands, it seems that Southern Elsweyr will be more my cup of tea. So yes, there are cats and dragons, but it will be different then before. At least, that is how I feel about it.

bluebird

Aelorin wrote: »

Hello OP,

1. To answer your first post: Before there was an ongoing story which expanded to 2 chapters. Although this story was fun and interesting, a lot of new players got confused. Which zone do you have to do first to experience this story? If you do CWC first, then Morrowind, then Summerset, then the story does not make much sense. As the Edler Scrolls is more a franchise of: go where you want, do what you want, this 1 year approach is better: You can do 1 zone (Elsweyr) with 1 storyline.

2. Have you tried PTS? Southern Elsweyr has another feel and atmosphere then Northern Elsweyr. I am not a huge fan of Northern Elswyer, but as it stands, it seems that Southern Elsweyr will be more my cup of tea. So yes, there are cats and dragons, but it will be different then before. At least, that is how I feel about it.

Hi there yourself, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the thread!

1. Looking at your example, this year-long approach is not better. You're correct in saying that playing CWC, Morrowind, Summerset out of order wouldn't have made sense story-wise; but you see, playing Dragonhold, Elsweyr and Wrathstone out of order also doesn't make sense story-wise. So the story of this year is just as linear as the MW/CWC/SS story was.

2. Yes I have tried it on the PTS. Morrowind and Summerset were far more diverse and varied on their own than Elsweyr and Southern Elsweyr are together. Compare Rimmen and Senchal, or any of the smaller Khajiiti cities and I think you'll find that they are far more similar and copy-pasted than Altmer and Psijic assets, or Hlaalu, Vivec, Telvanni, Ashlander (not to mention CWC) assets.

Aelorin wrote: »

I must say, i do hope they will do a longer story arc again in the future.

They're free to create longer story arcs in the future, as long as they create DLCs that are fully fleshed out and interesting in their own right. Morrowind, CWC and Summerset all stood on their own as independent zones with great stories, unique architecture and furniture, with their own share of crafting blueprints and PvE content. Dragonhold on the other hand...

What exactly does Dragonhold offer players, apart from being forced to do it if we want a resolution to the Elsweyr cliffhanger with Kalgrontiid? Does it take us to a new and exciting part of Tamriel (like CWC)? No. Does it have unique architecture and furniture (like Murkmire)? No. Does it add new crafting schematics? No. Does it add a Trial or an Arena? No. It does not deserve to be called a Q4 zone DLC when it comes with a mere fraction of the content that other DLCs come with.

So since they already created overarching storylines (MW/CWC/SS) without making those DLCs feel like a low-effort ripoff that couldn't ever stand as a DLC on their own (Elsweyr/Dragonhold), I would really appreciate it if they stopped hiding behind the 'year-long story' excuse when all they are doing is lowering the quality and quantitiy of content they produce in a year. Even the 'new' traversal mechanic that they talked about in the stream, the Grappling Bow, is a copy-paste of the Tamed Vine-Tongue mechanic from Murkmire.

Veinblood1965

therift wrote: »

mairwen85 wrote: »

therift wrote: »

I strongly support all four points made by ZoS. They are absolutely correct.

You can't do that. it is forbidden.

@mairwen85

When you emboldened that quote, you made me look bat$hit crazy, didn't you?

Lmao

I don't know why but this made me laugh.