PTS Update 30 - Feedback Thread for Oblivion Portals

RaddlemanNumber7

Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
Yes

Did you enter them in a group or solo?
Solo

Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
No companion

If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
Too many trash mobs, just standing around waiting to be killed easily. Bosses were only challenging because they spend half the time invulnerable. There didn't seem much of a reward, unless I missed a chest or something. In story terms, I'm not sure what my character's motivation is supposed to be for clearing these portals.

Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
My toon is Breton Mag NB, stage 2 vamp, in 7 light, uncompromisingly built for stealth and damage. I currently have to play one-handed, that is mouse or keyboard. All that flame damage was challenging at times, but I survived. I expect that on a less vulnerable character it would be a stroll in the park.

Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?
Entered 3 portals, one was completed with me and one other player present. Two were bugged and could not be completed.

Do you have any other general feedback?
/Played approx 10 hrs in Blackwood and found only 3 portals. There seems to be too few portals, or they're too hard to find. Some map indicator or sky-high graphics might help.

Sarousse

Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
Yes

Did you enter them in a group or solo?
Solo

Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
No companion

If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
Graphically very impressive. I love the ambiance and the sounds and the design.


Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
I went there with a lvl 4 char with starting stuff and no champion points : I've been able to handle full packs of mobs. It's way too easy. I should be struggling to beat 2 or 3 mobs at a time when the game start, not being able to destroy 7-8 of them. Tune up the difficulty please.

Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?
I walked through 2 portals then had to stop as is was bugged and couldn't go further (I fell into the emptyness and it ported me back to entrance).

Do you have any other general feedback?
Again, it's too easy. It's oblivion, it's full of deamons, it should be HARD and I should be thrilled by fear. Right now i fell like I'm at the mall buying stuff.

GreenHere

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

So here's the issue with the bugged final boss: he has three "stages", and at the end of the first two (at roughly 66% and 33%), he puts up a damage shield and won't drop it until you kill off the adds. If you group has enough DD to wipe his health down to the end of the SECOND stage (33%) before he's done the shield stage for the 66%, he'll bug. Two steps to fix it:

1. Run back along the path until the boss fight resets.
2. Softball the damage at least in the first stage so he has a chance to do his shield phase at 66%.

If you can wrangle the people you're with into doing those two things, you should be able to beat the final boss.


Though on the WAY to the final boss, ran into this bug when entering the central tower, which was eventually fixed by throwing myself into the abyss, which ported me back to the start of the dungeon where the bug disappeared the second time through.

Just to echo Saucy Jack's experiences, I was dealing with the same exact bugs too. The boss fight bugged out as described above twice out of the 5 or 6 Portal runs I did, and seemingly for the exact reasons Jack surmised. I didn't remember the mini-boss's name, but the big red flying Daedra behemoth dude also did an annoying thing where he entered/left/entered/left IMMUNITY status when there was too much DPS on the table. As in, he alternated these states multiple times in a matter of seconds. It felt obnoxious and disruptive.

As general feedback for the game at large: Immunity phases are lame -- please stop; find a more engaging way to throttle fights if that's the goal. The constant stop/start/hurryup/wait dynamic is butt. It smacks of lazy game design, and in case y'all somehow don't know, players generally hate it.

And also as Jack experienced in those two screenshots, I once ended up in the unmodeled platform room after entering that same doorway when solo (no one else was in the instance that I ever saw), then it happened another time to me (and the randoms I was with) in a group. FWIW, when it happened in-group, there was also an ungrouped player tagging along with us who ended up in the bugged room as well.


General feedback:
I'm disappointed in the difficulty of finding the Portals if you don't know where to look or understand how they work. They apparently have set spawn points, but aren't marked on the map -- and then you have to just happen to be around said unmarked spawn points when they're active. While I kind of get not wanting to pinpoint them due to the nature of "experimental portals probing into our realm" sort of thing you're going for, it's still not very gameplay-conducive to not have anything on the map indicating even a general area of "known sightings of weird *** lately" or something. Throw us a bone here. I don't want to spend 45 minutes looking for the fun.


They're too easy. I get that difficulty is relative, but shouldn't these be relatively difficult? I'm a veteran in the game, sure; I know my stuff and have certain advantages (even when I'm on a level 4 character with no CP spent) that newer players simply won't have. I get that -- I do. But it's pretty disappointing that our main forays into The Deadlands feel like Delve-level content. I suppose it's standard fare for a Public Dungeon (which the Oblivion Portals appear to be counted as, kinda?), but from the previews and streams and whatnot before this all came to the PTS, I was led to believe I could expect something more... epic? I guess it's not even "difficulty" that I feel is lacking but... I don't know... They feel lackluster, is probably a better way to put it. You step through a portal, slaughter a bunch of baddies, step through a few more portals, slaughter a bunch more baddies... It's all pretty basic. Sorry. The art direction and atmosphere and whatnot are pretty great. Especially for oldies like me who are having their nostalgia bone tickled. But the flow of the actual experience of what I'm doing there is kind of, "well, I was certainly preset during those events" for lack of a better way to put it. I wish I had a better, more constructive, way to word how I feel about it. Hopefully someone more articulate than me can shed light on this if they feel similarly.

Maybe I'm just jaded lately or something, but it kinda feels like nothing "happens". I saw the two enormous Daedra fighting in the lava in the background once while I was soloing a mini-boss. That was pretty neat, even though it was just background "set dressing" or whatever. And the big burning device at the end boss arena was nifty, I guess. I could probably find a lot of things I liked about the experience overall, but they mostly (exclusively, even?) had to do design, sound design, and art direction. The combat team or whoever needs an inspiration injection of some kind, I feel.

I'm truly sorry to say all that given the hard work that was no doubt put into this stuff, but that's my honest impression of the Oblivion Portals at first blush.

GreenHere

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

There didn't seem much of a reward, unless I missed a chest or something. In story terms, I'm not sure what my character's motivation is supposed to be for clearing these portals.

You missed the chest, and so did virtually everyone I talked to!

I only noticed it accidentally after my third completion of the event. It spawned to the left of the orb you destroy at the end (if you're facing up the stairs where the orb was). It's a Daedric (Dunmer?) looking chest like you see in certain dungeons, and it's got the golden glow like thy do in Solo Arenas.

I forgot to mention that in my feedback comment, so thanks for bringing it up!

Linaleah

been trying to find one for days now. I think... I ran into one, but the moment I killed Daedra guarding it - it.. disappeared. the portal that is. so I haven't been able to go into one to experience it.

I get that ZoS is trying to do something different, but different is not always better IMO. I wish these portals had specific locations marked on the map the way all the previously introduced events (like dolmens, harrowstorms, etc) do and was a lot more visible from farther away when its active.

GreenHere

Linaleah wrote: »

been trying to find one for days now. I think... I ran into one, but the moment I killed Daedra guarding it - it.. disappeared. the portal that is. so I haven't been able to go into one to experience it.

I get that ZoS is trying to do something different, but different is not always better IMO. I wish these portals had specific locations marked on the map the way all the previously introduced events (like dolmens, harrowstorms, etc) do and was a lot more visible from farther away when its active.

You can find one pretty easily just north of Leyawiin, on that little peninsular tip before it separates off to the small island.

That's a spawn point for one, anyway. You still got wait til it's "up". I'm not sure if it's on a timer, or what, though.

Dactiller

I have discovered a bug where, after finishing an oblivion portal, I was still in combat and thus couldn't mount directly.

Additional info
1- I have only done one portal, so not sure if it will reproduce.
2- I skipped almost all mobs excluding the pull with the big titan right before the tower and the last fight. (Don't judge me, I'm a tank and still haven't gotten a companion)
3- Engaging in combat after the oblivion portal event finishes, put me out of combat for a while, but as I mounted up, I got back in combat again.

Edit : I actually think that it was probably because I skipped the first 3 mobs and got into the portal by sneaking in from behind them. After the portal ends, it puts me back where I took it, the first mobs are not there physically, but I can see one red dot in my compass and I get put in combat whenever I approach their position.

Enodoc

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
• Did you enter them in a group or solo?
• Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
• If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
• Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
• Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

• Found a couple. Unfortunately they don't seem to trigger the "World Event Activated" API Event, so there's no way of knowing when one has appeared, let alone where it is.
• Entered solo, but it was interesting to see that they are officially designated as "Public Dungeons".
• No Companion.
• Tried to avoid most of the fighting - experience was similar to attempting to avoid most fighting in Public Dungeons.
• N/A - avoiding the fighting isn't supposed to be easy!
• I'm not sure what counts as "completing" the portal - I got no progress in the Portals Completed achievement so I don't know whether this counts enemies or something else, and there was no centre-screen "Completed" text like there has been for World Events in the past.

Other Feedback

• I have only done one portal from start to finish so far, but there were a lot of islands on the Deadlands map that I never reached. I assume you need to enter different portals from Tamriel to reach the other islands.
• There was something behind Havocrel Duke of Storms in the final arena, but another player activated it before I could see what it was - I hope that isn't the thing that triggers the Completion counter, as another player activating/destroying it removes it for everyone else. It either needs to be instanced to every player, or credit everyone in the area when it's destroyed.
• There are three exit portals in the final arena - if they all drop you back to exactly where you entered, there only needs to be one, to avoid confusion of which one to use out of fear of potentially ending up somewhere different.

Finally, after completing most of the quests in the zone, I am assuming (or maybe hoping) that the current "red sphere" portal model shown above is temporary - there are some great "tiny Oblivion Gate" portal models found in quests that are used by enemies to spawn in that would be great to use here for the Oblivion Portal world events.

I hope the intention is to put these in for the world event portals and they just haven't been implemented yet, but if that's not actually the plan, take it as a suggestion rather than an assumption!

Linaleah

GreenHere wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

been trying to find one for days now. I think... I ran into one, but the moment I killed Daedra guarding it - it.. disappeared. the portal that is. so I haven't been able to go into one to experience it.

I get that ZoS is trying to do something different, but different is not always better IMO. I wish these portals had specific locations marked on the map the way all the previously introduced events (like dolmens, harrowstorms, etc) do and was a lot more visible from farther away when its active.

You can find one pretty easily just north of Leyawiin, on that little peninsular tip before it separates off to the small island.

That's a spawn point for one, anyway. You still got wait til it's "up". I'm not sure if it's on a timer, or what, though.

I think... I was in a right spot? its a peninsula and the island right next to Leyawiin, right? either i'm extremely unlucky or I don't even know, but I STILL haven't seen neither sight, no sound of a portal I could go into and participate in.

ealdwin

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Oblivion Portals. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
• Did you enter them in a group or solo?
• Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
• If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
• Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
• Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

1) Yes, encountered it randomly on my journey across Blackwood.
2) Solo. Ran across another person in the first section, but continued through the rest of the portal alone.
3) No, entered completely alone.
4) Experience was fine. The sound design on the Daedric Device at the end was *chef's kiss*
5) Not too hard, but not too easy.
6) Yes, managed to complete the portal on my own. Even faced the boss solo and beat it on my first try with only about 900 CP allocated.
7) Some of the adds have stuns whose telegraphs can be a bit too hard to see when there are too many of them. But, nothing a tri-stat potion couldn't fix when the stam bar got low.

Edit:
Final notes:
1) I, for one, am glad that they are able to be soloed. One of the pitfalls with the harrowstorms and the dragons is that they are pretty much impossible without other players joining in. As someone who plays at infrequent times, and rarely in "prime time", those players might not always be around. It's nice to be able to complete overland content that I want to complete when I want to complete it. Solo-able Oblivion portals means that if no one else is running them than I won't be out of luck for that night. (Especially where motifs are concerned.)

2) On exiting the portal, I was left with an enemy red dot on my map bar on the UI and entering the character screen noticed I was still in combat. Said dot was where the portal had been. I submitted a ticket through /bug on the matter as well.

Alendrin

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Oblivion Portals. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
  
  Too hard to find. I had found almost all the site of interest, wayshrines, dungeons, public dungeons, and world bosses before I saw a single portal.
  
• Did you enter them in a group or solo?
  
  Solo, one other joined late.
  
• Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
  
  No companion
  
• If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
  
  Liked the experience
  
• Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
  
  Seemed fine. I was using a high CP experienced character with some intentionally downgraded gear. Final boss too easy for 2 people, some of the bosses I fought earlier were harder.
  
• Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?
  
  Yes
  
• Do you have any other general feedback?
  
  Too hard to find. Will be way too easy with a lot of people which will be the case near launch.
  

Leogon

Please allow us to enter the portals solo or with a friend. It reminds me of public dungeons, as soon as some random players show up, the difficulty goes from too easy to a complete joke.

BlueRaven

For the past two nights I just rode around Blackwood looking for portals for more testing and found none.

I am not sure if making them so difficult to find is a great idea.

DarcyMardin

I’ve been in 3-4 of those Oblivion portals. They don’t appeal much to me — a lot of Daedra flinging fire, lava pools, and not much else to see. I’d prefer to run a public dungeon anytime. Or a dolmen. Or a Summerset geyser.

I only ever saw one other person inside. On my brand new level 5 alt, the final boss killed me (and of course my companion, who was dead almost as soon as we entered, as usual). My regular fully leveled main had no difficulty.

The_Saint

For a world event they are too easy. much to easy.

when i enter a portal 1min after others everything will be dead.
i found one three times on the same position. did it with companion and without. i dont know my feelings. this is not a world event like dragons, harrowstorm etc. its a solo open world dungeon. not what i expected from the teaser..

Elsonso

Well, here's hoping that today's patch includes revisions to the Deadlands and the portals that were not able to be completed before 7.0.0 dropped on PTS.

tuibitsi

Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
Yep!

Did you enter them in a group or solo?
Solo

Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
Bastian went with me, he didn't last long, which was fine because I'm a vamp/necro with psijic blocking so I just heal myself by doing basically anything. RIP Bastian.

If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
Fights were tough and technically complex but overall a not-too-hard but not easy challenge

Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
Faran-Xaran, the giant fire Nixad, was a challenge due to a bug where it clipped into the scenery and couldn't be targeted while still doing that volcanic AOE

Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?
I did

Do you have any other general feedback?
Some of the gear in the areas were marked "steal," roughly a third from my count, so farming for basic pre-made heavy gear was complicated.

Jaddman

Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
Yes.

Did you enter them in a group or solo?
Solo, with a companion.

Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
The companion was relatively useless, fighting a single mob, while I've cleared out the rest.

If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
Pretty good. Not too difficult, definitely soloable. About on par with regular public dungeons, which I assume was the intention.

Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
It's not hard by any means, but I didn't do them with a Level 3 character.

Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?
Yes.

Do you have any other general feedback?
The entrance gate is very un-epic. I get that lore-wise these are "experimental" portals or whatever, but you already have TES 4 looking portals in Auridon questline, in City of Ash and in Blackwood storyline itself. So why not make them look as such?

This would look so much more epic:

Contraptions

I think this feedback is too late but oh well.


Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?

Yes

Did you enter them in a group or solo?

Solo

Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?

Yes, they were useless as per usual, and died practically every time I fought a boss.

If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?

It was fine, it seems like the pattern is always 2/3 islands with 2/3 minibosses, then the larger end boss. Pretty repetitive.

Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?

Was pretty easy compared to previous world events, like Harrowstorms or dragons. But it was marked as a public dungeon, so it fits the difficulty of other public dungeons I guess, so eh.

I don't like how often the final boss goes invulnerable. Just drags the fight on and on.

Not a fan of how the xivilai idiots have the DK chain pull attack. I don't like being yoyoed around the map.

Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?

Yes.

Do you have any other general feedback?

Make the portals more obvious, spawn faster, and mark them on the map. Thanks. Also, why are there three exit portals after the last boss if they all lead to the same place?

kinyaeb17_ESO1

Were you able to locate and enter any Oblivion Portals during your testing?
Yes, few.

Did you enter them in a group or solo?
At the beginning of testing I did one with other people but last boss was unkillable.

Did you do the Oblivion Portal with a Companion? If so, how was the overall experience?
Yes I did with Mirri. I equipped here with gear I've found while exploring Blackwood. She died a lot and I love that (I am against companions)

If you ventured inside to fight, how did the experience feel?
I am a casual player and in group enemies died very quickly. I did also solo portal up to last boss, but it took me some time.
I was also able to pass all the enemies on the way to Havocrel without fighting.

Did you find anything either too easy or too hard?
It feels too easy.

Did you manage to complete the Oblivion Portal?

Yes, I joined one where when I reached main boss (skipping all the fights on the way) there was a guy soloing Havocrel. So I joined and we killed him.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Oh, yeah.
Do you know what was the best part up till now of other public events in ESO? That you can see them from afar. Greymoor looks awesome - those huge red storms, you just wanna run into that direction to check what it is. When you see dolmen opening in the sky or flying dragon over your head... it looks amazing. It feels amazing.

When it comes to Blackwood those tiny little terrible portals are NOT visible. It is frustrating to run around and try to find them. If you don't know where to find them you will have a hard time to see them.
Yes, is some music associated with them but do you know how many of my friends are playing with eso music switched off?
I have no idea why did you decide to make those portals so small if you have other great art for them in the game (eg. City of Ash). I know other players will complain about that, especially that portals appear random and the moment fix number of players enters them they close. It happens few times for me at the beginning of PTS that I saw portal, was running in his direction and it disappear. I was not happy I must say.

Maybe just leave them open for lets say 15 min or more and if more ppl enter, then send them to other instance?



When it comes to Deadlands - I actually expected something more. I was disappointed. The islands feels really small. Also I thought we will have different end bosses not just one.

I was unlucky with portals as I mostly started on the top left island (then port to the right island, only once to the left), twice on the right (port to the left island, not once to right) and not even once I started my adventure at the bottom island.