This game really lacks polish

MrDenimChicken

This game has seen massive improvements since it's launch. The amount of content now is staggering. And a lot of it is done really well, especially for an MMO.

But what prevents this game from being considered one of those iconic, 10/10 games that becomes remembered as a pinnacle in it's gaming genre is really the lack of polish.

Every day I play I encounter 10, 20, 30 (it seems like) bugs or glitches. It's honestly insane. Like right now my quest has duplicate NPC's (that clone npc is just standing next to the real one, and you can't interact with it). A second ago this boat I was supposed to board in southern elsewyr was spazzing out with the textures/colors going haywire. I had a loading screen freeze when I was logging in to begin the day (maybe that because I'm still on the original Xbox One...). People are still running on their freaking horses. I had a bug where I couldn't use any abilities until I just died. This is all stuff that is in the span of one freaking hour. I mean come on!

Idk man, it seems like either they don't have a handle on their code, or they prioritize new content at all costs and see polishing as some waste of time. Maybe they think the money spent on polishing wouldn't be worth the return, and new content is more bang for your buck.

But please Zenimax. Taking the time to polish your game will pay off in the long run. I hope you guys take it seriously one day.

edit:* literally a few minutes after this post there was some scene of NPC's that are supposed to talk with each other but instead they just all talk at the same time and you can't understand anything. Then I do some maze and I get that crap of npc's chasing you after they aggro you and they can actually attack you, but you turn around to attack them and suddenly THAT is when they de-aggro. Like wtf?

SosRuvaak

trying to play the game seriously is pretty exhausting. its mentally draining to expect an ability to do what it always does and should do, but then doesnt.

the competition is gone, theres no point when some days you literally just cant use abilities. i queue into battlegrounds and often jokingly ask how to use abilities because they simply wont activate. Its always great getting flamed in pvp for doing bad too when you cant use abilities. what fun.
as much as ive loved this game and made great memories, its dying quicker than ever.
log in, do your dailies, log off. its not worth the frustration to play anymore.

Everest_Lionheart

Bugs happen in all games and persist for years. Go check other game forums you’ll see.

That NPC thing is a problem in so many RPG’s. The worst is when 5 are talking over the quest giver. Happens is all the them though.

The biggest bug of all in this game though is probably animation cancelling. It was never an intended feature but they ran with it. Some bugs aren’t so bad after all!

Rake

Pretty sure I saw polish ppl in game

doomette

MrDenimChicken wrote: »

(maybe that because I'm still on the original Xbox One...)

Oof, the struggle is real. If I’m on my old XBox I’ve pretty much accepted there’s some things I can’t do, like play any sort of melee character in PVP 😐

Tonturri

I tell friends when ESO comes up during chatter - "what an amazing, lovely, beautiful game. If only you could actually play it."

Gaggin

I agree with thread title, dont see alot of Polish people playing this game what with the lag and all.

SosRuvaak

Tonturri wrote: »

I tell friends when ESO comes up during chatter - "what an amazing, lovely, beautiful game. If only you could actually play it."

it truly is a nice concept

Destai

Well, submit a bug report every time you get these issues. They see enough of these reports clogging up their system, they'll start doing something about it.

The questing NPCs are buggy, talk over each other, take long time to show up. Mobs follow you, knock you across Tamriel and then ROFLcopter away the moment you hit. I could live with that if my skills would actually work. Now I have to use one of my 1000 soul gems. Thanks.

Quest lines and animations bug out. I remember one time, I was trying to assassinate an NPC for breathing in my personal space, and then animation failed hard. They basically flopped around like a towel. Hilarious.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find the usage button on consoles AWFUL. I can't tell you how many times I jump instead of using the item or object I wanted. Or using quest items - get a ton of "item not ready". THEN WHY SHOW ME THE ITEM, GAME?!

I take comfort in one thing though. Well, two. I can still play the game. And people still run on top of their mounts.

Starlock

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

Nord_Raseri

Starlock wrote: »

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

From Merriam-Webster: 'Polish verb-to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state.' the amount of bugs, lag, and performance issues in this game show that there is much "polishing" to do with the code.

Starlock

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

From Merriam-Webster: 'Polish verb-to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state.' the amount of bugs, lag, and performance issues in this game show that there is much "polishing" to do with the code.

Fair enough, but it sounds to me like some folks are expecting not polish, but straight up perfection. That's not realistic. Having played many, many games in my years ESO is not a title I would list as "lacking polish" whether or not one is including bugs in the equation. You want lacking polish? We could talk about the AAA developers releasing half-finished, conceived games that are shallow attempts to cash in on customer's wallets with games-as-service bull crap. They've become alarmingly common. And frankly, ESO is heading in that direction, but it's not quite there yet. When it gets there, that'll be the day I quit for good.

Zelos

Sorry man, that's what you pay for. Content over polish, you can scream your head off at zos to polish the game and stop pushing out content like all us veteran players have years ago:) look how well that went here you are telling the same thing and all the veteran players are gone:)

Nord_Raseri

Starlock wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

From Merriam-Webster: 'Polish verb-to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state.' the amount of bugs, lag, and performance issues in this game show that there is much "polishing" to do with the code.

Fair enough, but it sounds to me like some folks are expecting not polish, but straight up perfection. That's not realistic. Having played many, many games in my years ESO is not a title I would list as "lacking polish" whether or not one is including bugs in the equation. You want lacking polish? We could talk about the AAA developers releasing half-finished, conceived games that are shallow attempts to cash in on customer's wallets with games-as-service bull crap. They've become alarmingly common. And frankly, ESO is heading in that direction, but it's not quite there yet. When it gets there, that'll be the day I quit for good.

Eso is hands down the buggiest, most laggy game I've ever spent money on. I have never played another game where hitting the attack button yields no action for several seconds or sometimes not at all as it has become common for me in eso.

Everest_Lionheart

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

From Merriam-Webster: 'Polish verb-to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state.' the amount of bugs, lag, and performance issues in this game show that there is much "polishing" to do with the code.

Fair enough, but it sounds to me like some folks are expecting not polish, but straight up perfection. That's not realistic. Having played many, many games in my years ESO is not a title I would list as "lacking polish" whether or not one is including bugs in the equation. You want lacking polish? We could talk about the AAA developers releasing half-finished, conceived games that are shallow attempts to cash in on customer's wallets with games-as-service bull crap. They've become alarmingly common. And frankly, ESO is heading in that direction, but it's not quite there yet. When it gets there, that'll be the day I quit for good.

Eso is hands down the buggiest, most laggy game I've ever spent money on. I have never played another game where hitting the attack button yields no action for several seconds or sometimes not at all as it has become common for me in eso.

Fallout 4 was way worse than this game for game breaking and annoying bugs. Also happens to be another title in Bethesda’s library! There were parts of Boston that you just couldn’t walk around in for very long and where you had to quicksave every 2 minutes or else risk your progress. You learn fast in that game to quicksave early and quicksave often. And for good measure you had to manual save as well at the beginning and end of some quests because even quicksave loads would sometimes bug out. The more mods you ran and the more of the game you completed the worse it got too.

I find ESO’s bugginess tame by comparison. Only thing that really bugs me is extreme lag sometimes at the beginning of certain battle situations (which often goes away in a few seconds) and that stupid shield bug where the icon gets stuck on the screen. Also when the main quest gets locked down because of a prologue quest but after learning the fix it bothered me a lot less.

It’s not the only game with bugs and lag though. I’ve had it on several other titles as well. This phenomenon is not unique to ESO.

Nord_Raseri

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

From Merriam-Webster: 'Polish verb-to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state.' the amount of bugs, lag, and performance issues in this game show that there is much "polishing" to do with the code.

Fair enough, but it sounds to me like some folks are expecting not polish, but straight up perfection. That's not realistic. Having played many, many games in my years ESO is not a title I would list as "lacking polish" whether or not one is including bugs in the equation. You want lacking polish? We could talk about the AAA developers releasing half-finished, conceived games that are shallow attempts to cash in on customer's wallets with games-as-service bull crap. They've become alarmingly common. And frankly, ESO is heading in that direction, but it's not quite there yet. When it gets there, that'll be the day I quit for good.

Eso is hands down the buggiest, most laggy game I've ever spent money on. I have never played another game where hitting the attack button yields no action for several seconds or sometimes not at all as it has become common for me in eso.

Fallout 4 was way worse than this game for game breaking and annoying bugs. Also happens to be another title in Bethesda’s library! There were parts of Boston that you just couldn’t walk around in for very long and where you had to quicksave every 2 minutes or else risk your progress. You learn fast in that game to quicksave early and quicksave often. And for good measure you had to manual save as well at the beginning and end of some quests because even quicksave loads would sometimes bug out. The more mods you ran and the more of the game you completed the worse it got too.

I find ESO’s bugginess tame by comparison. Only thing that really bugs me is extreme lag sometimes at the beginning of certain battle situations (which often goes away in a few seconds) and that stupid shield bug where the icon gets stuck on the screen. Also when the main quest gets locked down because of a prologue quest but after learning the fix it bothered me a lot less.

It’s not the only game with bugs and lag though. I’ve had it on several other titles as well. This phenomenon is not unique to ESO.

I've had FO4 since release and did not have that problem. Some parts of bosto did drop my frame rate a bit, though. It's not like I've never experienced bugs/lag in other games, but ESO(as it is right now) is the buggiest most laggy game I've ever spent money on. Until I start playing a buggier game now or in the future, that fact cannot change. Certainly not due to someone else's experience, obviously. Edit: despite all that I do still like and support this game as it has provide a lot of fun(along with the frustrations) and I do still have hope for the potential this game has when it does run well for me.

silvereyes

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Edit: despite all that I do still like and support this game as it has provide a lot of fun(along with the frustrations) and I do still have hope for the potential this game has when it does run well for me.

That was my attitude three years ago. Twelve updates later, including several major attempts by ZOS to fix various aspects of performance, and I've pretty much given up hope. Everything they do seems to make things worse. I'm done supporting this game.

VaranisArano

Nitpick: NPCs having an aggro leash - that thing that prevents them from chasing you forever - isn't a bug. That's an intentional choice to prevent players from dragging mobs too far out of position for the quest or dragging them in a train over other players throughout the zone. If you drag them far enough, they'll just give up. Within that range, they will try to attack you at least once so you can't just waltz on by.

If you don't like the mechanic, either stop and fight them or actually leave the area.

Vaoh

You’re encountering tons of issues in casual questing. Hope you know that is the considered the “working” part of the game

MrDenimChicken

Starlock wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

From Merriam-Webster: 'Polish verb-to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state.' the amount of bugs, lag, and performance issues in this game show that there is much "polishing" to do with the code.

Fair enough, but it sounds to me like some folks are expecting not polish, but straight up perfection. That's not realistic. Having played many, many games in my years ESO is not a title I would list as "lacking polish" whether or not one is including bugs in the equation. You want lacking polish? We could talk about the AAA developers releasing half-finished, conceived games that are shallow attempts to cash in on customer's wallets with games-as-service bull crap. They've become alarmingly common. And frankly, ESO is heading in that direction, but it's not quite there yet. When it gets there, that'll be the day I quit for good.

[snip] You think I'm asking for straight up perfection? I want a game where I don't see something janky and buggy several times an hour.

Guild Wars 2 is so refined compared to ESO. I would love if ESO took the time to refine and de-bug this game to the same level as that game.

[Edited to remove Bating]

Destai

MrDenimChicken wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

Odd understanding of polish. I thought "polish" meant attention to detail, not being bug-free. And this game has attention to detail in spades when it comes to the art direction, lore, and overall design.

From Merriam-Webster: 'Polish verb-to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state.' the amount of bugs, lag, and performance issues in this game show that there is much "polishing" to do with the code.

Fair enough, but it sounds to me like some folks are expecting not polish, but straight up perfection. That's not realistic. Having played many, many games in my years ESO is not a title I would list as "lacking polish" whether or not one is including bugs in the equation. You want lacking polish? We could talk about the AAA developers releasing half-finished, conceived games that are shallow attempts to cash in on customer's wallets with games-as-service bull crap. They've become alarmingly common. And frankly, ESO is heading in that direction, but it's not quite there yet. When it gets there, that'll be the day I quit for good.

[snip] You think I'm asking for straight up perfection? I want a game where I don't see something janky and buggy several times an hour.

Guild Wars 2 is so refined compared to ESO. I would love if ESO took the time to refine and de-bug this game to the same level as that game.

To this day, Guild Wars 2 shines the brightest in terms of QoL and polish in any MMO. Sure the story and world got to be a bit goofy, but so much thought went into every facet of that game's UI and end user experience. Shame it never came to console, I'd never even think of another game had it.

ESO could learn so much from it - crafting mat storage, build storage, smoothness of mounts, area looting, and of course combat smoothness. All of which are doable within the context of ESO. Instead we get crown crates and skill delays. But hey, Greymoor! Right?

Destai

VaranisArano wrote: »

Nitpick: NPCs having an aggro leash - that thing that prevents them from chasing you forever - isn't a bug. That's an intentional choice to prevent players from dragging mobs too far out of position for the quest or dragging them in a train over other players throughout the zone. If you drag them far enough, they'll just give up. Within that range, they will try to attack you at least once so you can't just waltz on by.

If you don't like the mechanic, either stop and fight them or actually leave the area.

The mob knows their leash is too far and gives up anyways. That tells me they know they're overextended but someone couldn't program them giving up before launching me into the air. And that's after their initial hit, too. I shouldn't have to whack it for it to know it's overextended. It already knows it. It needs tweaking, intentional or not. If nothing else, it's bloody annoying and should be changed for that reason alone.

Hotdog_23

I don’t mind the bugs so much as all games have them and some do fixed eventually but others persist for years.

My main problem with ESO is the performance or server with desync’s and lag. This is game breaking issue.

Shantu

Too many people running on poorly optimized code and a server system not capable of responding adequately to the load.

RefLiberty

Rake wrote: »

Pretty sure I saw polish ppl in game

Were they poles?

VaranisArano

Destai wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Nitpick: NPCs having an aggro leash - that thing that prevents them from chasing you forever - isn't a bug. That's an intentional choice to prevent players from dragging mobs too far out of position for the quest or dragging them in a train over other players throughout the zone. If you drag them far enough, they'll just give up. Within that range, they will try to attack you at least once so you can't just waltz on by.

If you don't like the mechanic, either stop and fight them or actually leave the area.

The mob knows their leash is too far and gives up anyways. That tells me they know they're overextended but someone couldn't program them giving up before launching me into the air. And that's after their initial hit, too. I shouldn't have to whack it for it to know it's overextended. It already knows it. It needs tweaking, intentional or not. If nothing else, it's bloody annoying and should be changed for that reason alone.

Its annoying for a reason: to prevent players from taking half measures without consequences. Either be more careful about aggroing mobs, stop and fight them, or run far enough away, fast enough that they don't hit you. Its an "annoyance tax" designed to shape player behavior, in addition to the practical effects I listed above.

I get that you'd rather change mob behavior than your own, but realistically no one's going to change the intended mob aggro behavior in a six year old game.

Thing is, I generally agree with the OP on bug fixes.
But this isn't a bug.
Its just personal preference, and if we're changing the game based on "I find this personally annoying despite it working as intended", well...when somebody appoints me the overseer of ESO, there'll be changes made. Until then, its important to distinguish between actual bugs and glitches vs "I just don't like it and want it changed."

rpa

Single player TES games are also barely working bugpiles which pretty much require unofficial bugfixing mods to be playable. Every time Skyrim is re-re-released it has the same thousands of bugs modders already fixed years ago after initial release. That kind of "It just works!" quality is expected from a Bethesda game. Too bad no mods for a MMO. And mods can not fix everything, like outdated engine.

To be fair, lately I've been playing Doom (2016) and appears folks at ID managed to polish it to shine even if it has the Bethesda logo.

Eifleber

Very much agree with OP.

Things that should have been fixed long, long ago:

* invisible walls
* getting stuck in environment
* people running on horses
* bugged dungeons

but also

* decent tutorials
* choose your starting location and questline
* doors in player houses
* sort inventory by armour type, trait, body part
* have option to only show inventory while deconstructing
* like trash, have additional bag for "locked" stuff in your inventory (cannot be sold or deconstructed)
* have tooltip on runes so you know what's "superb", "frost", "poison" and such

and last but not least

* integrate the most needed add-ons into the game. It's ridiculous that stuff like skyshards, foundry tactical, TTC and such don't exist ingame. A game shouldn' t need add-ons to make up for its deficiencies.

.. and much more.

Varana

RefLiberty wrote: »

Rake wrote: »

Pretty sure I saw polish ppl in game

Were they poles?

Yep, both North and South Poles.

TheSeraphim

It is comical how a MMO released in the 2010's has no idea how to load lots of players in a decent way. If I'm out questing and doing delves the game runs like a dream on high settings never going below 60, but the second you walk into a town with a competent crafting setup it becomes a slideshow with terrain and buildings taking 30 seconds to get out of their super low quality setting and even longer for actual player models to load. After everything has finally loaded I'm still only getting 20ish fps at the best of times.

12 Player pvp also somehow manages to lag half the time, even SWTOR was able to figure 16 Player pvp out and it couldn't even handle small scale open-world pvp at launch.

It is only slightly better when we don't have bat flu keeping everyone at home.

robertthebard

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

Bugs happen in all games and persist for years. Go check other game forums you’ll see.

That NPC thing is a problem in so many RPG’s. The worst is when 5 are talking over the quest giver. Happens is all the them though.

The biggest bug of all in this game though is probably animation cancelling. It was never an intended feature but they ran with it. Some bugs aren’t so bad after all!

I'm going to have to disagree, as there is a loading screen tooltip that I saw this morning that explains that you can, in fact, animation cancel.