Overland and Story - BORING

kargen27

I don't think it is a matter of the story being bad. The problem is what should be the epic fight isn't an epic fight. The overland content isn't boring the fights are boring.

There should be a food we could eat that reduces all our characters stats to a degree that makes these fights more interesting.

SassiestAssassin

Asking for cutscenes in a TES game? How quickly we forget the infamous cart ride to Helgen...

I would absolutely support a difficulty selection option, though.

worrallj

I share some of OP's frustration, but I think it is less about how strong the enemies are and more about how it feels, like OP said, like your watching a bad movie. There's no player interaction, just kill enemy to get to next dialogue snippet. Your not interacting with anything or determining the way things go.

My favorite example is from Orsinium. That was actually a great story but it was so frstrating because it was crying out for player choice- which king do you back? Are you malacath or trinimac? Vosh rhak? What sneaky things could you get away with to further your sides agenda? There was none of that. Just walk from quest marker to quest marker and activate the next bit of dialogue.

idk

Sorry you found Elseweyr boring. I thought the back story for Cadwell was well done and make for a great storyline.

Granted, we all have our own tastes but one area Zos has done well with is the story line for most of the zone DLCs. Especially Morrowind, Clockwork City, Summerset and Elseweyr.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO

I would appreciate a vet option for the overland content, delves and public dungeons. An optional wholesale crippling of just my character would go a long way towards making me feel challenged again, like the difficulty slider in recent single player TES games, only without the option of making anything easier. Make enemies hit me harder than someone without that "vet" toggle enabled, and make me hit enemies less hard. It could be implemented as a hidden scaling, simply robbing me of some portion of my HP and damage but scaling the numbers back for presentation, just making it look like everything was harder. I don't need better rewards for it, or even a title for bragging rights after completing a quest line in vet mode. Just challenge me with something that would give me the opportunity to practice the same build and play style that would be relevant for more difficult content while doing overland quests. It would make the very well written quests in ESO a lot more enjoyable for me, and I would be able to challenge myself as much or as little as I wanted to, without significantly affecting the gaming experience of other players. It would also make it easy to do a group dungeon run, by toggling that option off for a while.

I meet so many new players who just can't be bothered to do the quests because they are too easy. It's a terrible pity on such good stories. The quality of writing and voice acting in ESO really is something extra, and something well worth experiencing even for players who are getting good at playing the game.

I tried making a dedicated questing character with a somewhat "proper" build, but all CP unspent and a chunk of attribute points unallocated. In combination with not using any buff food, it had more or less the same effect as the difficulty slider I suggested above and made the quests a lot more fun, but that character was of course not viable even for a normal dungeon run, and changing the build back and forth was both costly and too much of a hassle.

Veinblood1965

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

When I got back to the game last year after a long break, I started out by doing the Wrothgar main quest on my old NB character, to get into the game again. I managed to get through it, with some struggles here and there which I found reasonable, like depending on help from others for delve bosses and public dungeons.

Then, after having played ESO like a single player game for weeks and not caring one bit about any changes that might have affected my old build from 2015, I started actually looking into what I could do to improve and adapt to all the changes that had been made since I left. It turned out I had a severly gimped and outdated hybrid mag/stam sap-healer/tank NB build with bad CP140 gear (The level cap was "VR14" when I took a break back in 2015), no monster set, badly chosen crafted-only armor sets, and I did not use light attack weaving or any self-buffs or synergies to speak of. I could easily triple my damage *and* increase my survivability by just farming and crafting some new gear, redistributing my attribute points, using a slightly different set of skills and adding some left clicks between the number button presses.

Then I went to Vvardenfell, eagerly anticipating the Morrowind chapter to bring back some fond memories of TES:III.

Suddenly, everything in sight melted at my feet in seconds, and I had no problems soloing delve bosses and public dungeons. World bosses were still a challenge, but I could actually solo several of those as well, with some effort.

Then I realized I had still not spent a single Champion point, and made some effort on that front as well.

I breezed through Vvardenfell, thinking it was laughably easy and not really enjoying myself. "You mean this big bad monster? Sure, how about I poke it with my stick a couple of times. There, dead. Anything else? No?"

Before I took on Summerset, I reverted back to another old build, a Templar which was even more of a sorry mess than what my NB had been, and made sure not to make it too good before I took on the overland quests. Still, I couldn't help trying some new things, and pretty soon that character felt overpowered as well.

I understand that PvE overland quests can't be too hard, or new players will give up and rage quit. I have helped new players get through fights which I consider laughably easy, and I see how the difficulty is probably just right for them. However, I would really like to be able to take on the Elsweyr quests with one of my reasonably well developed characters and have at least some challenge without deliberately crippling them with bad gear and bad skills. Even starting a new character in Elsweyr was ridiculously easy - so much so that I lost interest in the zone after a short while.

I am old enough in the game to remember the sorry mess that was "VR zones" back in 2015, and how we complained about the content being too difficult for solo players of average skill or less. We are now at the opposite end of the scale, where overland content is way too easy for anyone but the least experienced players.

I'm not sure what to do about this. I just find it sad that I am not enjoying most of the game content. I have a strong preference for questing, and I really like the storytelling and the environments in ESO, but the PvE fights in the overland quests are just stupid easy. Sure, I can run veteran dungeons and trials, and I do, but that's a very small part of this huge game. I would like to be able to enjoy the main quests as well, and that enjoyment requires at least some challenge.

I ran into the same thing in Elsewyer, started a new character, didn't give him any help at all from my main, did not use any CP etc. Leveled with crap gear and finished the zone at about level 32. By 32 I was breezing through stuff was getting to the point where I was happy to finish the last quest and then unsubscribed. Looking for a reason to sign back up again but haven't found it.

exeeter702

Definitelty do not think cutscenes are needed.

KerinKor

Conduit0 wrote: »

The ease of overland content is the direct result of One Tamriel, because of that all overland story content has to be doable for a naked lvl 1 character. So of course its painfully easy for any remotely competently put together character.

You do realise that was case BEFORE One Tamriel .. in the days of VR each faction had to be doable at three different character level ranges.

Yes, each zone had a defined level range but even so, Bleakrock for example had to be doable at 1, VR1 and VR5.

exeeter702

KerinKor wrote: »

Conduit0 wrote: »

The ease of overland content is the direct result of One Tamriel, because of that all overland story content has to be doable for a naked lvl 1 character. So of course its painfully easy for any remotely competently put together character.

You do realise that was case BEFORE One Tamriel .. in the days of VR each faction had to be doable at three different character level ranges.

Yes, each zone had a defined level range but even so, Bleakrock for example had to be doable at 1, VR1 and VR5.

Not really.... it was only the case for the starter zones. VR1 and onwards was a notable step up and vr 12+ zones were not zones you could sleepwalk through.

One tamriel made the faceroll ease of lvl 3 starting zones, game wide from start to finish.

KerinKor

exeeter702 wrote: »

VR1 and onwards was a notable step up and vr 12+ zones were not zones you could sleepwalk through.

One tamriel made the faceroll ease of lvl 3 starting zones, game wide from start to finish.

Yes, I know the power difference between 3 and VR1, my point was that the same content had to be doable by such a power difference .. just like it has to cope with 3, CP1, CP160 and everything in between .. I don't see the difference pre-and-post One Tamriel.

I'd also point out the VR system was scrapped in large part because of the hostile reaction ZOS got to the over-tuned mobs in the VR zones which made them into borderline group-or-die content for many builds .. culminating in the deserted desert that was Craglorn when only the hardcore 'trailists' bothered going there.

worrallj

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

I would appreciate a vet option for the overland content, delves and public dungeons. An optional wholesale crippling of just my character would go a long way towards making me feel challenged again, like the difficulty slider in recent single player TES games, only without the option of making anything easier. Make enemies hit me harder than someone without that "vet" toggle enabled, and make me hit enemies less hard. It could be implemented as a hidden scaling, simply robbing me of some portion of my HP and damage but scaling the numbers back for presentation, just making it look like everything was harder. I don't need better rewards for it, or even a title for bragging rights after completing a quest line in vet mode. Just challenge me with something that would give me the opportunity to practice the same build and play style that would be relevant for more difficult content while doing overland quests. It would make the very well written quests in ESO a lot more enjoyable for me, and I would be able to challenge myself as much or as little as I wanted to, without significantly affecting the gaming experience of other players. It would also make it easy to do a group dungeon run, by toggling that option off for a while.

I meet so many new players who just can't be bothered to do the quests because they are too easy. It's a terrible pity on such good stories. The quality of writing and voice acting in ESO really is something extra, and something well worth experiencing even for players who are getting good at playing the game.

I tried making a dedicated questing character with a somewhat "proper" build, but all CP unspent and a chunk of attribute points unallocated. In combination with not using any buff food, it had more or less the same effect as the difficulty slider I suggested above and made the quests a lot more fun, but that character was of course not viable even for a normal dungeon run, and changing the build back and forth was both costly and too much of a hassle.

Lol as I was reading your post I was thinking "just turn off cp." I imagine that was the biggest contributor. CP op.

Araneae6537

I couldn’t disagree more about the story. I’ve really been enjoying both the main and side stories. I feel there is plenty of background given if you talk with the characters and interact with the world. IMHO, the stories and characters are better than other MMOs with NPCs I hardly know who they are, much less care, with crazy story turns out of nowhere (some TV shows too for that matter).

As for difficulty, I can’t comment much on that as a new player. It wasn’t too easy for me but it certainly gets easier as I learn the game. I have heard that the scaling does not take into account CP, which I imagine must contribute to the problem.

SickleCider

On the bright side, I thought Mulaamnir was the best storyline boss I have encountered so far. He was still too easy for an endgame character, but he had a decent health pool and some mechanics that naturally stretched the fight out. It was also the most visually interesting storyline boss encounter. I also like that they're starting to give us weapon skins and stuff as quest rewards, instead of just a sea of green trash gear. I'd welcome more of those kinds of rewards.

Rake

cutscenes?
go back to whatever cutscene u crawled out from

worrallj

ErinM31 wrote: »

I couldn’t disagree more about the story. I’ve really been enjoying both the main and side stories. I feel there is plenty of background given if you talk with the characters and interact with the world. IMHO, the stories and characters are better than other MMOs with NPCs I hardly know who they are, much less care, with crazy story turns out of nowhere (some TV shows too for that matter).

As for difficulty, I can’t comment much on that as a new player. It wasn’t too easy for me but it certainly gets easier as I learn the game. I have heard that the scaling does not take into account CP, which I imagine must contribute to the problem.

What do you mean by "interact with the world?" My main beef with the immersiveness of ESO has always been that there's just not much sandbox type interactivity. But I totally agree it still beats out most other MMOs, if not all. But fallout 76, even though it's not quite an mmo, gets a lot of this right IMO.

Araneae6537

worrallj wrote: »

ErinM31 wrote: »

I couldn’t disagree more about the story. I’ve really been enjoying both the main and side stories. I feel there is plenty of background given if you talk with the characters and interact with the world. IMHO, the stories and characters are better than other MMOs with NPCs I hardly know who they are, much less care, with crazy story turns out of nowhere (some TV shows too for that matter).

As for difficulty, I can’t comment much on that as a new player. It wasn’t too easy for me but it certainly gets easier as I learn the game. I have heard that the scaling does not take into account CP, which I imagine must contribute to the problem.

What do you mean by "interact with the world?" My main beef with the immersiveness of ESO has always been that there's just not much sandbox type interactivity. But I totally agree it still beats out most other MMOs, if not all. But fallout 76, even though it's not quite an mmo, gets a lot of this right IMO.

By “interact with the world,” I mean reading books/notes/other quest items in addition to talking with the characters. Perhaps more especially relevant to Summerset quests than Elsweyr.

After the last MMO I’ve been playing, I’ve been thrilled to ever have any options for how things turn out and have the world change in response to my completing quests. I prefer good stories over sandbox, preferably with impactful choices, but realize there are practical limits on how much this can be done even in a single player RPG.

drkfrontiers

Mytheos wrote: »

The storylines also introduce characters that you never really grow attached to

I have just two words on this.

Darien Gautier

JumpmanLane

Mytheos wrote: »

I started tackling Elseweyr story and honestly... I'm so bored.

I think I came to a conclusion about ESO story and that is that the voice actors have gotten really good but the way it is done is SO BAD. This game could use cutscenes. I have no idea how many characters actions I've missed because my camera was pointed in the wrong spot or how many times enemy or character dialogue screws up because of how unimaginably easy the story fights are. Simply put there is no climax and the villains are pathetic because they serve no threat. You know how it's gonna go down. Last big boss fight I did I dropped one AOE and just kind of sat with my chin resting against my hand waiting to hopefully see dialogue before everything died.

The storylines also introduce characters that you never really grow attached to because they are plot device characters that seem to exist because the story wouldn't make sense without them. There is absolutely no pacing for the story and it all feels rushed. Honestly I'd love for the development teams to really look at how utterly boring any overland content is and review story design. It feels like all Im doing to "putting up" with the story to see how it ends. Kind of like a bad movie you put too much time into to turn off.

I've put off Elseweyr for soo long because I just hate to spend my free time being bored and enduring the feeling that I am a god in a land of tissue paper enemies and trying to enjoy a story that fails to captivate. Not sure if anyone else feels this way and not even sure if this post has a point other than to hopefully raise awareness over what I think to be a bit of an issue.

Totally agree. Elsweyr’s main quest was mind numbingly boring. What really got my goat was how any quest that had a companion. Those idiots light attacked once every three seconds if they got an attack in at all . Contributed nothing. You vote and kick them in a dungeon lol.

SirAxen

Aren't you supposed to run Trials, dungeons, arenas and PVP for challenging content? The story and exploration is the story and exploration. When you've played the game long enough you're just good at it now, you skill and feel for how the game flows makes overland content easy.

Source: A few buddies of mine struggled for awhile with overland content until they built up muscle memory for how this game is played. They shouldn't have to be thrown to the wolves to simply enjoy a good Elder Scrolls story. That's what the MMORPG group content is for-the next challenge.

Saril_Durzam

ESO has good quests but watered down among many not so good. Overland content being so trivial doesnt help. Quests should be way more difficult depending on your lvl, or should be the option of "veteran overland content" for the sake of it, no need more rewards. Or yes. Dunno.

Its a pity. As it has been said.. its boring.

Sylvermynx

Love the stories. And the quests. Or I would love them, if I wasn't on satellite. This new one is better by far, but it's still hard to get by quest bosses (for me - I'm old, and don't have twitchy reflexes, never have had).

Cutscenes? Bite your tongues. Hate that crap....