Transcribed Interview with Rich Lambert 27.05.2020

theDTV

Hello,

i tried to transcribe the AMA/Interview hosted today on twitch.tv/kyledempsterstudios.
I hope that i didn't miss too much or wrote down anything wrong.

(English is not my native language, but i tried to get everything as clean as possible)

The interview is also availble as a VOD here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/633422102?t=06h31m00s



1.
Q: Lots of people ask for things to be introduced into ESO. If you had a magic wand, what would you introduce first?
A: Fix all performance issues! We have a big team looking at it, and its just very hard. Its often caused by high load.

2. Regarding bad launch of Greymoor
Q: Still digging through it, there will be an official message for that, as the Live team was fixing things all the time.
We almost broke all time concurrency record today.
We are investigating Lag-Related Issues for Western Skyrim, but other than that, servers are holding up fine.

3.
Q: Are there any plans to adjust combat based on the current performance issues - for example client server location desync's caused by knock back and knock up abilities, and bugs with sprinting and stuns (streak cc bug?)?
A: Do you want us to remove sprint? No.
We know there are Desync Issues, We are knocking them out over time. A lot of them got fixed in Update 25, and some more fixes on 26.
The Team is currently doing an audit, and is looking at these issues.

4.
Q:What do you think about an "Choose your start Location"-Menue after creating a new alt? (That way players could experience the old starting zones again)
A: I think its a good idea.

5.
Q: Will there be another Trial this year?
A: We released Kynes Aegis this year

6.
Q: Are you planning to split up the servers into EU West / East to help with the server load?
A: We don't have any plans on splitting servers. We did add capacity to the EU Server. We look at the load regulary, and monitor it. We got alot better compared to last year

7.
Q: With Western Skyrim opened up, is there any chance to see Markarth or the Reach later in the year?
A: Good question. Check out the Stage Event, there may be a small spoiler there.

8.
Q: Is there any chance in the future to update the vanilla designs to reflect the progress made over time.
A: Though question. We don't have unlimited time or unlimited people. We are constantly evaluating if we do something new or revisit something old. New stuff most times wins, as we learned a lot. If we would revisit old zones, we would need to bulldoze these if we would like to do major changes. We do add things and update those, but not whole overhauls (any time soon).

9.
Q: Lyris Mount?
A: No.

10.
Q: Why are current VMA and VDSA weapons not being upgraded to their perfected versions?
A: They are not imperfect, you didnt loose any power. Its still the same weapon. Current weapons became a lot more accessible. I made the call for them to not be upgraded, as players didnt loose any power.
You didnt loose anything. If you want the perfected versions, run VMA again.
Yes it may feel arbitrary, i get that, but again when youre kind of doing that kind of balancing act, i made the call to not upgrade them. Blame me (Rich) for it.


11.
Q: How is working from home?
A: Its definetly been a very big learning cure. We already had some experience, a lot of us are already used to it.But now its the entire team, and some pipelines/processes didnt work quite as well from home as from work, so we went through a bit of a learning cure. But i would say overall the team did an great job to adjust to it. But we are not pretty much right where we were before.
For me (Rich) the hardest thing to get accustomed to is loosing these kind of "Watercooler Talks" This doesnt happens anymore as much, and you have to book meetings for these kind of things. It's tough.

Note: Use the /bug and /feedback-functions. They are read everyday.

12.
Q: Opinion on feet/toes in Skyrim?
A: Eeeh, i don't look at the feet in skyrim.

13.
Q: Will we ever be able to gift houses to other players?
A: We know a lot of people want it. I can't guarantee it,but we are looking into it.

14.
Q: Is there any plan on making the respawns for Harrowstorns shorter? People are sometimes waiting >20 minutes for these.
A: Shouldn't happen. I will make a note

15.
Q: How many players are needed to take down a Harrowstorm? (vs Dragon)
A: We balanced to a decent group (4 player). They will scale up to 8. When there are more than 8, they becoma cakewalk.

16.
Q: What is the next festival/even this year, that you are excited for?
A: One of my faviorite ones is "Witches Fest". You can do what you want, and can just "stumble" into it. New Life will be interesting this year. (Spoiler maybe)

17.
Q: Revising Events on the Roadmap?
A: Big Part of Engagement Strategy. So yes, there is a team for that.
First Goal for that team was to just make them work without any issues. They helped to make these events a lot more bugfree. They are also working on improving them.

18.
Q: What are you planning for the Champion Point System?
A: Hmm. I will say, that the team is actively working on it right now. We can't talk right now about it, but we hope that we can talk about it hopefully soon. (Within a year). We have a plan, the team is working on it, and as soon as it "solidifies" we will reveal more.

19.
Q: Are we still on the same release cycle. (With everything going on in the world right now)
A: We are still commited to the quarterly updates. We are working on Update 27. Next internal date for it is tomorrow. (28.05). We are already working on Update 28, 29 and even Update 30 (The next Chapter)

20.
Q: What will happen to us console players when the new systems arrive?
A: We didnt talk about it? Then i cant talk about it right now. When we are ready about it, we will talk about it.

21.
Q: Thoughts on ESO STADIA?
A: Very soon (June 16th)

22.
Q: Would you think to add barbers to the game?
A: Really gone that direction, you can kind of already change your hair at will as long as you have these collectibles. We are interested into adding new Hairstyles, but we are not thinking about adding new systems in that direction.

23.
Q: Are we going to see event incentive other than Indrik, and will the Indrik system be reworked soon?
A: That's a good question. Time will tell.

24.
Q: Dragurkin are unkillable. Is that intentional?
A: Dragurkin are unkillable?? *Wife yelling in the background, telling him to fix it*. Yeah, i guess there is an issue.

25.
Q: Regarding /bug /feedback: How much is it funneled through the Selection List
A: Rich and the individual Leads reads the Raw Lists. The other people read the funneled lists.

26.
Q: More transparency to the /bug /feedback system? More screenshot options?
A: I will ask, and see. CS/QA control those forms, but i will ask about it in particular.
In regards to more transparency: The first test was the performance roadmap, not sure how successful it has been.
We are evaluating how these things are working. We want to be as transparent as we can, but we are not sure how far we can go. A lot of things happen during the development process.

Info: Server Multi Threading in Update 26 was in the first PTS Patch, but was removed and will be included in 27

27.
Q: Any plans there will be more NPCs in the future for housing? Or armor stands?
A: I like that train of thought

28.
Q: We will ever see an system to earn Crowns through daily challenges etc?
A: Not sure
We kinda have that right now with the gems, where you can earn those with crowns. I can talk with the teams to see where their heads are.

29.
Q: Cyrodil performance is not where it should be, it got worse since Harrowstorm. Any thoughts/forecasts?
A: The team is nose to the grindstone in looking at the performance impacts. (Pretty big team, not just engineers). They are looking at every item set, and trying to find issues.
This is the reason we didnt add a lot of new content into it, as it would only increase the issue.
I can't guarantee when this is will happen.


30.
Q: Last year Battlegrounds became Soloqueue. Is this permanent, or temporal?
A: We are still evaluating it. We havent seen a marked improvement. We didnt see a large change in player numbers. (Slight Improvement). We are still talking about it.
If we let players choose we would fragment the queues, and Battlegrounds wouldnt match up anymore. We are still in the evaluation process.

We have seen Feedback by passionate PvPers: "We ignore the PvP". This couldnt be further from the trough. These are just hard issues. We are working on it.

31.
Q: Any plans to get the "Female only" adornments to become available for male?
A: I will ask. Good question

gatekeeper13

"Q: Are you planning to split up the servers into EU West / East to help with the server load?
A: We don't have any plans on splitting servers. We did add capacity to the EU Server. We look at the load regulary, and monitor it. We got alot better."

Do they live in a parallel universe or sth?

shaielzafine

10.
Q: Why are current VMA and VDSA weapons not being upgraded to their perfected versions?
A: They are not imperfect, you didnt loose any power. Its still the same weapon. Current weapons became a lot more accessible. I made the call for them to not be upgraded, as players didnt loose any power.
You didnt loose anything. If you want the perfected versions, run VMA again.
Yes it may feel arbitrary, i get that, but again when youre kind of doing that kind of balancing act, i made the call to not upgrade them. Blame me (Rich) for it.

So they're really consistent with that. Didn't tell us why though. Didn't say more than he really wanted to keep it that way, and run vMA again. Lol. They could change their mind again at any time and give super perfected weapons next year based on how they feel doing "that kind of balancing act"

zvavi

Q: Are there any plans to adjust combat based on the current performance issues - for example client server location desync's caused by knock back and knock up abilities, and bugs with sprinting and stuns (streak cc bug?)?
A: Do you want us to remove sprint? No.
We know there are Desync Issues, We are knocking them out over time. A lot of them got fixed in Update 25, and some more fixes on 26.

This is absolutely not true, since desyncs became worse after update 25. Before it one shots didn't kill you if you stood in the right place.

Edit: I really had hard time giving a constructive answer. But this thread looks like a serious one. So I will behave.

Edit 2:

Q: Are you planning to split up the servers into EU West / East to help with the server load?
A: We don't have any plans on splitting servers. We did add capacity to the EU Server. We look at the load regulary, and monitor it. We got alot better.

Just finished vMoS where adds would dance between going forward and backward instead of attacking us, and also spawn in unrealistic numbers. And you can't blame it on my gear or net, since there was no incoming damage from them to the party. It is the server side. PC EU.

Sanguinor2

Wow Rich must not mean the Eso we mean when he talks About Performance issues. Or Maybe Grathwood is Western Skyrim now since I had 999+ ping at world bosses?

The_Lex

Lots of corporate-speak: Double-talk, half-truths, failing to answer the question being asked, avoidance, and outright false hoods.

Jaimeh

EU server got a lot better?

RodneyRegis

I don't really have a problem with not getti g perfected ma. What I am disgusted by is weapons dropping in normal.

YandereGirlfriend

Sadly, no question about the Kyne's Aegis trial sets, Aslyum Destro, Grundwulf, and the like (which I can understand, interviewing people is not easy and you always think of things that you wanted to ask later). But I would have LOVED to hear the "reasoning" behind Roaring Opportunist, etc.

Also, sort of interested by his statement that there is "a very large team" working on Cyrodiil performance "but not just engineers." The issue of performance seems entirely like an engineering challenge and I'm not sure what use non-technical people are to the problem. Perhaps if they actually are considering things like DoT/HoT caps then that touches on combat and ability balance, but that's my best guess.

Finally, any time I see this guy use the word "audit" I cringe and begin to get nervous. Nothing good ever happens in ESO after an "audit" (rest in peace Nightblades and dozens of dumpstered sets).

CleymenZero

zvavi wrote: »

Q: Are there any plans to adjust combat based on the current performance issues - for example client server location desync's caused by knock back and knock up abilities, and bugs with sprinting and stuns (streak cc bug?)?
A: Do you want us to remove sprint? No.
We know there are Desync Issues, We are knocking them out over time. A lot of them got fixed in Update 25, and some more fixes on 26.

This is absolutely not true, since desyncs became worse after update 25. Before it one shots didn't kill you if you stood in the right place.

Edit: I really had hard time giving a constructive answer. But this thread looks like a serious one. So I will behave.

Edit 2:

Q: Are you planning to split up the servers into EU West / East to help with the server load?
A: We don't have any plans on splitting servers. We did add capacity to the EU Server. We look at the load regulary, and monitor it. We got alot better.

Just finished vMoS where adds would dance between going forward and backward instead of attacking us, and also spawn in unrealistic numbers. And you can't blame it on my gear or net, since there was no incoming damage from them to the party. It is the server side. PC EU.

I'm with you on that, I'm having a really hard time staying polite...

His stance on perfected weapons is just childish and prideful, nothing else. He feels he would admit defeat if he changed his mind hence his answer. There's no way you could argue that his decision is the correct one, the only thing making it hold is that he calls the shots. I'm sure he even has people on his team not feeling the same as he does but they got bigger fish to fry I guess.

For the performance, if he thinks there's been a performance increase since U25 then he has absolutely no credibility.

I have a great aversion to this individual. I think he shouldn't be giving interviews anymore, he's gonna attract too much of the wrong attention...

Note: vDSA and vMA is outdated irrelevant content. If you had increased the difficulty or introduced something new, it wouldn't be as bad but you did nothing... Making your playerbase go in there again when we would rather do 1500 other things is blindingly stupid.

Klad

I just get the feeling that Rich and the gang are burnt out, I understand that was a Translation ...but damn was it terse.



Q: Could we please have X

A: No...and also I hate you all.

Maybe this wasn't Rich's intent....but I am seeing this attitude with a lot of developers since lock down *cough GW2 Cough*

I was on a Discord AMA for AoC a few nights back and questions were met with answers like "We haven't thought of that but it sounds fun" or "That would be sorta hard to implement" but if we ever get there with our engine sure" my point is they were engaged ...not pissy.

I mean it was more like a BS session with guys in your guild.....it just seems like devs for a lot of games have become irritable as ***. Rich talked about the Water cooler....ZoS really needs that concept for the fans

All I'm saying is when a launch bombs the way Greymoor has, it would be better to try to be a little nicer to the folks who are responsible for your check.

LuxiasCaelum13

theDTV wrote: »

Q: Why are current VMA and VDSA weapons not being upgraded to their perfected versions?
A: They are not imperfect, you didnt loose any power. Its still the same weapon. Current weapons became a lot more accessible. I made the call for them to not be upgraded, as players didnt loose any power.
You didnt loose anything. If you want the perfected versions, run VMA again.
Yes it may feel arbitrary, i get that, but again when youre kind of doing that kind of balancing act, i made the call to not upgrade them. Blame me (Rich) for it.

Ok, not gonna say hard words despite how this pisses me off but, seriously? THIS dude is the one who insulted our efforts?
Yes, Rich, we don't loose any power because the bonuses are so mediocre they don't deserve the effort to get them. But just like how you update other items in our inventories, you should have updated our weapons, because we got them by doing the same exact content that now awards the perfected weapons. [snip] But who cares about the players anyways, right?.

And about the other things, like "we are working on it, etc etc"...if the experience serves as precedent, no, you're not. Sweet words completely devoid of meaning. And even if it's true, this is what your actions have lead us to: to not trust you.

/endRant

CleymenZero

The more dangerous thing is what kind of corporate culture his attitude risks instilling.

If the employees see that the boss tells his customer off, they're gonna think it's ok to behave like this.

CleymenZero

RodneyRegis wrote: »

I don't really have a problem with not getti g perfected ma. What I am disgusted by is weapons dropping in normal.

I'm happy everyone is getting the weapons. That's not what's going to improve their dps by a lot though but at least they get access to them.

Aedrion

Heh.

Heh.

Kuratius

theDTV wrote: »

Hello,


29.
Q: Cyrodil performance is not where it should be, it got worse since Harrowstorm. Any thoughts/forecasts?
A: The team is nose to the grindstone in looking at the performance impacts. (Pretty big team, not just engineers). They are looking at every item set, and trying to find issues.

Lmao, they think the main issue is item sets. That's almost as hilarious as when they thought blocking was causing issues. The main issue is your inefficient implementation of combat calculations, not individual item sets.

Varana

Can we, like, just stop with these "interviews" that are really just corporate-speak (i.e. empty blabber) and only do them if the guy has anything meaningful to say, actually, and knows what he's talking about?

I mean, this AMA was insightful about the vMA/vDSA issue - showing that he refuses to actually engage with the feedback. Apart from that, there wasn't much in it.

This is not "communication", this is a lot of hot air.

Sleep724

Actively working on desyncs but snipe desvync has been around for how long? Servers are fine? Didn't lose anything in VMA except for the fact they're the one who made them worse to begin with a few years ago? This can't be real.

ralphylauren

Dude handle is slashlurk what y’all expect? 🤷‍♂️

zvavi

Varana wrote: »

Can we, like, just stop with these "interviews" that are really just corporate-speak (i.e. empty blabber) and only do them if the guy has anything meaningful to say, actually, and knows what he's talking about?

I mean, this AMA was insightful about the vMA/vDSA issue - showing that he refuses to actually engage with the feedback. Apart from that, there wasn't much in it.

This is not "communication", this is a lot of hot air.

I mean. It is not yet swimming, but it is at least dipping the toe in the water. Maybe one day we will get to see some water acrobatics.

HowlKimchi

So in summary,

" a team is looking into it"

MartiniDaniels

Varana wrote: »

Can we, like, just stop with these "interviews" that are really just corporate-speak (i.e. empty blabber) and only do them if the guy has anything meaningful to say, actually, and knows what he's talking about?

I mean, this AMA was insightful about the vMA/vDSA issue - showing that he refuses to actually engage with the feedback. Apart from that, there wasn't much in it.

This is not "communication", this is a lot of hot air.

Well, at least they finally publicly acknowledge performance problems. It doesn't matter that it "became better" or "there are lag, de-syncs, Cyro unplayable, but otherwise servers are fine". For any person it is obvious from those words, that performance is bad.

What bothers me about VMA/VDSA is that they not only don't want to upgrade them, but that they keep sub-optimal perfect bonuses exclusively for PVE weapons. As we can see for PVP weapons bonuses are pretty good. If we combine it with VAS destro ruination, it seems like they want to remove any possible veteran gear advantage in PVE (even if that gear was earned by hard grind).

Taunky

"Heh"

Where's that Discord private message attitude now?

CassandraGemini

Lord-Otto wrote: »

"[...] Blame me (Rich)."
And there it is. The "If you don't like it, you can leave" position, just very hidden. Lambert can say this, sheltered behind his desk, having to fear no consequence.
This shows an absolute disrespect for the customers and invalidates every bit of pro-consumer statement he's trying to make us believe. Just think about it: His team told him the arena weapons should be upgraded. His customers tell him they should be upgraded. Only he is of the opinion they shouldn't, so it goes through.
You must have quite the ego to be that unprofessional and unwise. And in the end, he showed his true colors.

Honestly, when I saw this thread

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/528421/rich-lamberts-stance-on-perfected-master-and-maelstrom-weapons/p1

with Rich Lambert's "stance" on the perfected weapons issue a few days ago, I couldn't help wondering, if that was really him writing there, despite all the evidence that pointed to it, just because I found the general attitude he displayed absolutely unbelievable. Now we have this interview and it's basically just the same. The whole "Do you want us to remove sprint? No." answer when asked about certain bugs actually made me shake my head in disbelief. It sounds like something a defiant kid would say.

I won't use the analogy of what the way he portrays himself reminds me of because I'm pretty sure it would be labeled "non-constructive", but hoo boy... somebody clearly must be living in one hell of an Ivory Tower.

ZOS_Ragnar

Hey there, we have removed a few comments from this thread that were determined to be bashing. While it is certainly acceptable to share your thought and feedback please ensure your posts comply with our Community Rules.

Elsonso

CassandraGemini wrote: »

with Rich Lambert's "stance" on the perfected weapons issue a few days ago, I couldn't help wondering, if that was really him writing there, despite all the evidence that pointed to it, just because I found the general attitude he displayed absolutely unbelievable. Now we have this interview and it's basically just the same. The whole "Do you want us to remove sprint? No." answer when asked about certain bugs actually made me shake my head in disbelief. It sounds like something a defiant kid would say

I did not understand that question, either. I don't think Kyle understood it, either. I am not sure why he picked that one.

CassandraGemini

Elsonso wrote: »

CassandraGemini wrote: »

with Rich Lambert's "stance" on the perfected weapons issue a few days ago, I couldn't help wondering, if that was really him writing there, despite all the evidence that pointed to it, just because I found the general attitude he displayed absolutely unbelievable. Now we have this interview and it's basically just the same. The whole "Do you want us to remove sprint? No." answer when asked about certain bugs actually made me shake my head in disbelief. It sounds like something a defiant kid would say

I did not understand that question, either. I don't think Kyle understood it, either. I am not sure why he picked that one.

Well, okay, but if I don't understand a question I can just say: "I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure i understand what you're asking. Can you please elaborate?" or something to that effect. There was absolutely no need to react like that (although I will say that I only read the transcript, I didn't watch the video, so maybe it didn't sound as ridiculously defensive as I make it out to be in my mind by just reading it).

dhboy123

It really baffles me why they cannot just post all this information on the forums for us, would clear so many complaints up.

Elsonso

ralphylauren wrote: »

Dude handle is slashlurk what y’all expect? 🤷‍♂️

Small history lesson. He used to lurk in threads here in the forum, and when he wanted to make his presence known in an interesting thread, he would simply say "/lurk". Slash lurk. He probably still lurks, but does not say so. He was last active about 2 hours ago as I write this.

CassandraGemini wrote: »

Well, okay, but if I don't understand a question I can just say: "I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure i understand what you're asking. Can you please elaborate?" or something to that effect. There was absolutely no need to react like that (although I will say that I only read the transcript, I didn't watch the video, so maybe it didn't sound as ridiculously defensive as I make it out to be in my mind by just reading it).

He sounded confused. Because Kyle was reading a question from someone else that was posted in the Twitch stream chat, there really was not an opportunity to clarify.

My opinion is that you get one chance to ask a question, if you are lucky. If it misfires, like this one did, the interview moves on. When writing questions for this sort of thing, be clear and keep it pithy.

Banana

Anyone who thinks the servers are holding up well must only look at the power light and never visit here.

Ratzkifal

I do like how he is sticking his neck out for BrianWheeler, taking the blame for the vMA and vDSA weapon debacle.
I suppose BrianWheeler gets his privilege to call us "gang" back, since it wasn't his idea.