Are Addons worth the fuss?

InvitationNotFound

Lysette wrote: »

InvitationNotFound wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

None of them is necessary though and most are a cheat, working around game play decisions made by ZOS.

This is BS.

Some people... really... I don't like addons, so they are cheating!!!1!1

Excerpt from the Terms of Service:

ZeniMax may, in its discretion, make available to You one or more application programming interfaces and associated documentation (each an “API”) to allow You to access, create, download, enable, use, or associate Content (excluding Game Mods), that modifies or otherwise provides enhanced features to the user interface (“Add-ons”) for a Game

This is wanted by ZOS. ZOS wants players to be able to enhance their UI and game. Deal with it and stop spreading BS.

@ OP:
Most addons do not cause any issues with the client or the game. See other threads in the forum and do not simply believe any BS just because someone lacks a basic understanding of what addons are and what they do.

Well, they are cheats if they work around intended game play - regardless if those are allowed or not .

That's the decision ZOS has to make (what is intended or not). Not you. If they do not like what they allow, they have to restrict it, as they did with Miats PvP Alerts. At no point in time, Miats PvP Alerts fell for the category cheat. Of course you may not like it and complain about it (and i might not disagree with some complaints). But it is still not cheating.

You are trying to use that word because it simply fits your agenda. That's it.
And that's what can be seen in your first post here:

Lysette wrote: »

None of them is necessary though and most are a cheat, working around game play decisions made by ZOS.

Most can certainly not be considered a cheat (none to be exact here, as long as no obvious functionality is exploited - e.g. abuse the API to macro / botting etc. - which hasn't been the case to my knowledge yet, even such bugs existed and got fixed).

Furthermore, some addons are necessary if you do not want to waste a lot of time or want to feel like playing games from 1990.

Nestor

Some addons impact performance, most do not. Master Merchant should only be ran when trading or on the alts that sell things. I bank everything i sell and use an alt I have parked at the bank to sell. MM has a huge impact on login and logout times.

Harvest Map can really slow things down if you track too much.

Also, most out of date addons are OK to use.

The biggest pain to addons is the Lib files.

Oliviander

What's the fun in playing a game that doesn't have addons.
I wouldn't play such a game
Trying out adddons and optimizing the game client is
something I really like in a game.

So I have over 100 Addons installed (Including Libs)
and no problem so far.
(Ok I have a fast connection and a fast machine)

But as mentioned above there are some addons that
are slowing the game considerably that should be used with care
(I no longer use them) like
Master Merchant and Harvest Map.

Asardes

I find the functionality of the base UI to be lacking. The developers didn't add much in 5 years, except multi craft & refine, but other than that they clearly expect players to make addons themselves, just like they did in other TES games previously. Unfortunately console vendors don't allow addons there so only the PC players get those advantages.

I use quite a few addons to make some chores easier in game, and complement the very poor vanilla UI:

1) Trading Addons:
- Master Merchant - I'm in 4 trading guild and I have to know the sale prices to price my wares effectively.
- Tamriel Trade Centre - for items that are rarer and had no sales I like to know an approximate price, so I use current listings; the addon also advertises my listings to others as they become visible on the website

2) Crafting Addons:
- Dolgubon's Lazy Writ Crafter - allows me to do writs very efficiently
- Writ Worthy - complementary allows me to evaluate received master writs, also to craft them in bulk
- ESO Master Recipe List and Alt Format plugin allow me to track recipe and blueprint knowledge on all my characters
- Trait Buddy keeps track of research on multiple characters and tell me when research slots become available

3) Map Addons:
- Map Pins - comprehensive addon that adds map markers for various locations for sky shards, books, bosses, surveys & treasure map and various achievements.
- Destinations - about the same but also has some markers for fishing, various trophies, if you have both on Map Pins will add layers from it on the map.
- Quest Map - shows quest pickup points
Those addons are especially useful on alts, because I want to speed run various zones I've already explored on my first character a long time ago.

4) Combat Addons:
- Alpha Gear 2 - allows you to save gear & skill setups and map them to keys for easy swap
- Srendarr - shows the timers for various buffs, debuffs and skills in real time, very useful for end game PvP & PvE
- Combat Metrics - shows the damage you do with various skills, overall damage, up time of your buffs and debuffs over a parse, very good for improving DPS.
- Raid Notifier - shows certain mechanics in trials, quite good when learning trails and you don't know the mechanics; also some will be bugged from time to time (ex. the color indication in vMoL Twins fight) and that will compensate for it.
- Hodor Reflexes - similar to Raid Notifier, has some complementary functions.

I optimize the addon loadout individually for every characters since some are quite resource heavy. For example I keep the trading addons active only on my first character, and disable them when entering a trial, similarly I only activate Hodor Reflexes and Raid Notifier when I enter a trial.

Asardes

Also people who say addons are "cheating" have no clue about how the game works. Indeed there was a PvP addon specifically that gave you warnings of skills used by other players before the skills even displayed, but ZOS changed the API pretty fast so it made that addon useless. Other than that I can't think of an addon that can be called a "cheat".

Kahnak

Lysette wrote: »

InvitationNotFound wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

None of them is necessary though and most are a cheat, working around game play decisions made by ZOS.

This is BS.

Some people... really... I don't like addons, so they are cheating!!!1!1

Excerpt from the Terms of Service:

ZeniMax may, in its discretion, make available to You one or more application programming interfaces and associated documentation (each an “API”) to allow You to access, create, download, enable, use, or associate Content (excluding Game Mods), that modifies or otherwise provides enhanced features to the user interface (“Add-ons”) for a Game

This is wanted by ZOS. ZOS wants players to be able to enhance their UI and game. Deal with it and stop spreading BS.

@ OP:
Most addons do not cause any issues with the client or the game. See other threads in the forum and do not simply believe any BS just because someone lacks a basic understanding of what addons are and what they do.

Well, they are cheats if they work around intended game play - regardless if those are allowed or not .

By definition it doesn't qualify as a cheat if it's not against the rules.

Cheat -

to practice fraud or deceit:
She cheats without regrets.

to violate rules or regulations:
He cheats at cards.

WiseSky

And if you want to immerse yourself here is my Immersion addon guide

url="https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/511483/last-draft-need-your-input-for-settings-and-addons-for-immersive-gameplay-for-a-future-guide#latest"]https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/511483/last-draft-need-your-input-for-settings-and-addons-for-immersive-gameplay-for-a-future-guide#latest[/url]

daim

I got a lot of great suggestions too of what I'm using myself, many even since 2014. To name a few:

• Bandits User Interface I initially got it for circular health bars, but BUI also have tons of other features like moving any element on the UI.
• Dolgubon's Lazy Writ Creator i woudln't do writs without this.
• Personal Assistant is the best banking addon out there, especially useful with lot of alts.
• TrueExploration well this is just for the graphics theme I have going on below, most people get this for immersion and Fog of War but I use it mainly to track my where abouts on different alts, so I know where I have quested and where not.

What many haven't mention here - when I got back to ESO a few years back, before I decided to give it another try I first searched would there be anything that could make the game look better. I mean in MMO standarts it's quite ok even it's already 6 years old.

I stumbled on these three:

• Votan's Darker Nights (VDN)
• Votan's Advanced Settings (VAS)
• ESO Graphics Extender (ESOGE)

So first I got VAS, and this basically tweaks your UserSettings.txt file found on your documents/eso folder. It's not a huge improvement but noticable.

The second I got was ESOGE. Now this gets in a bit in the grey area as it uses a 3rd party executable called Hook64. ESO devs have said somewhere that this is ok to use as it doesn't give you an advantage in gameplay (someone probably will remember better and look up the post). Many install this just for DOF effect, I personally didn't like the dof but there's plenty of other effects that I do like. A lot. I have also tweaked the settings to my own liking. See some pics at the end.. Anyways be warned and use it with your own discretion.

The third one gives the last finish to it all, VDN. Granted, sometimes it gets TOO dark in the game and you have to switch it off for a little while so you can find your way. But you can keybindid so np. It does make the game feel a lot more athmosheprec imho.

1. Comparing between: Vanilla vs ESOGE+VDN
2. Comparing between: ESOGE vs ESOGE+VDN
3. ESOGE with DOF and Sharpening enabled (disabled on the previous ones)

So Here's some pics:

1. Comparing between: Vanilla vs ESOGE+VDN


2. Comparing between: ESOGE vs ESOGE+VDN


3. ESOGE with DOF and Sharpening enabled (disabled on the previous ones)

Thokri

All who hate addons are just salty console players.

For 95% they are pure aesthetics and QoL. At least I don't have wow-style addons like dbm etc. that literally says what to do on encounters if you want to.

Trading, mail, chat, crafting and UI just are something that can be done better with addons. No one wants to spend extra time on searching inventory that is made to work (badly) with pad instead better solution called keyboard.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

UGotBenched91 wrote: »

So, I’ve heard so many great things about addons but I can’t help but see all the negative. I constantly see people posting about their game crashing and massive lag. I don’t experience any of this.

With that being said, I’ve seen some people say it’s because the addons are updated and they cause the crash. I’d rather not add them onto my game if it’s going to cause lag and crashing issues. So, is there any truth to this? And if there is, why is everyone blaming ESO makers for it?

Don't let ZOS using addons as a scapegoat deter you from giving them a try. Can a wonky addon cause crashing, sure. Add them 1-2 at a time, see if you have issues, and add a few more. Addons are not what is causing the Cyrodiil DCs, I assure you. First thing I did after the patch was to delete my addon folder and start from scratch. I crashed just as often in PVP without a single addon as I did with 30 of them.

If you don't pvp, i wouldnt worry in the slightest about crashing. I can't remember the last time I crashed outside of Cyro. Although, I would venture a guess that it was in VCR, shortly after it launched.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Lysette wrote: »

None of them is necessary though and most are a cheat, working around game play decisions made by ZOS.

Today's winner of the dumbest post on the forums, at least so far. Just because you don't like something, doesnt mean it's cheating. They are supported by the developers. Stop with the nonsense.