Would you play this game if add-ons didn't exist?

AzuraFan

Yes

I use one addon, and I only added it last month when I was looking for a lead that was in a chest. I'll soon disable it.

jsarthur_ESO

No

Not sure, most likely I would and yet I stilled answered no.
It's been a long minute since I have seen base game without addons, it would be a new learning curve for me to play without them.

Bradyfjord

Yes

I would sorely miss my Grid and Lazy Writ crafting addons. I might be able to get by without the others. Maybe.

ApoAlaia

No

Nope.

22 daily writs without Dolgubon's? Not in your nelly.

essi2

No

Very infrequently if at all, ZOS slowly starting to add QOL changes is nice, but most of the features added by addons should have been part of the game long ago.

Hallothiel

Been playing on console for years without them & manage fine 😃

(Seriously, reading about what some addons do, I would suggest that some users aren’t actually playing the game at all)

Exquisition

Yes

I played ESO for 6 six without addons.
But since I started my own guild a year ago, I downloaded more then 40 addons and I can't remember how I ever played without those addons. Specially addons like Bandits UI that are giving me notifications of boss mechanics, so I can warn and explain those mechanics in voice chat to my other guildies.

redspecter23

No

Nope. The lack of a minimap is the killer for me. I'd spend 95% of my game time with the map open as I'm horrible with that sort of navigation. It would mean spending enough time in the map screen to be annoyed and quit or spend time running around spaces not knowing where I or my teammates are and quitting as a result of that.

Plenty of other addons are nice, but I could play without them if necessary. Take away my minimap and I'm gone near instantly.

jssriot

No

I played this game for a loooong time before I got into using add-ons. It was OK then, but as a late-game player, I would not want to now.

Sarannah wrote: »

I play on PC, and never use add-ons! Which is also why I feel some add-ons should not be allowed. (like the resource/chest-locations add-on)

One thing I tired of greatly, as someone who's played a lot of ESO both with and without addons, is this pretense that it's some kind of virtue to play without addons. If you don't want to play with them, fine, but don't use your preference as justification to say or imply others should not.

That said, I do not use Harvest Map and to this day I don't know why ZOS allows it. It's always struck me as one of those grey area things that if everyone using it abided by the TOS, it's OK-ish despite it clearly giving players who use it an advantage over access to valuable resources, but not everyone using it abides by the TOS, and that's where it gets super problematic.

francesinhalover

Yes

xv1_me wrote: »

I just thought about this, and I honestly do not think i would play this if add-ons weren't a thing, but then again, I wouldnt know what i was missing so maybe I would. What about you all?

currently? YESSSS because after 6 YEARS zenimax FINALY added skill timers..
YES IT TOOK 6 YEARS! but we got them finaly!!!

how did console people play without timers? that's just wow

Lonestryder

Yes

I play on PC and use no addons.

LanteanPegasus

Yes

The only add-ons I use are MasterMerchant, Dressing Room and Rare Fish Tracker.

So I probably would have a lot less gold (because I doubt I could face trading without MM), but I'd still happily be playing the game. (Don't really need the Fish Tracker at all, and while the Dressing Room is very comfy I could do the gear/skill change manually again - did it that way for almost two years, after all.)

Danikat

Yes

I do use some addons, but the majority are fairly minor so I could definitely play without them. Now Advanced Filters has been made part of the game I think the only ones I'd really miss are Tramriel Trade Centre for finding things to buy and the mini map, because I have no sense of direction so without one I'd have to constantly open the main map to check where I'm going.

My full list if anyone is curious:

• Account settings (copies settings across characters)
• Arkadius' Trade Tools (price data from actual sales in my guild store)
• Azurah (move UI elements around, hide some unnecessary stuff and colour code characters names to show friends and enemies)
• BankerShutUp (silences bankers, adds mute buttons to other NPCs)
• Binder (save and load sets of keybindings using chat commands)
• CraftStore (I just use it to check which motifs and recipes I have unlocked)
• HideHousePreview (hides map icons for houses you don't own)
• Inventory Insight (lets you see other character's inventories and the bank from anywhere)
• pChat (makes chat settings account-wide and add some options)
• Quest Map (adds map markers for unclaimed quests, I use it to check I've got them all)
• RandomMount (changes your mount and pet when you change areas)
• S'rendarr (buff/debuff trackers, more customisable than the defaults)
• Tamriel Trade Centre (price data based on current listings in all guild traders)
• Votan's Collectible Most Recent (puts most recently used mounts, pets etc. at the top of the menu)
• Votan's Crafting Quick Access (click on the trait, style etc. headings to quickly choose what to craft)
• Votan's Minimap (reenables the mini map ZOS built then disabled)

From that list I'd say 12 are minor conveniences, one is just for fun (random mount) and 3 are genuinely useful (the trade ones and the map) but even those I can and have played without, I just don't buy much from guild stores and spend a lot of time opening the map.

Vevvev

No

I wish there was a middle ground because for years I didn't, but if you had me lose all my add-ons today I'd be devastated. The most brutal one to lose would be Pchat as ESO's vanilla chat box is complete and total trash. It's missing a lot of features I take for granted now that you'd find in Pchat.

deleted221106-002999

I played a LONG time without any add-ons at all so the question of whether I would or not is moot.

But once you've explored most overland, worked out where skyshards etc are from clues then a few add-ons make some aspects of the game significantly less laborious particularly for other character/different server.

Zos also seem to agree regarding utility, implicitly by having the api to create add-ons available in the first place and explicitly by duplicating and integrating some add-on functionality into the base game - the latter is great news, I think, for console players.

I tend to avoid combat related add-ons with the exception of combat metrics for post-combat review; I always felt very uncomfortable with any add-on that says 'dodge now' or 'potion ready' or other stuff like that. I understand that there are circumstances where such add-ons are arguably essential - where there's desynch between a huge boss attack and how it's graphically shown at your end (we've all been slaughtered at least once by a 1-shot BEFORE the attendent animation appeared...) but they're just not for me. Also, I have a very low opinion of players who would such use such add-ons in pvp - which is a whole other argument that I'm disinclined to have beyond expressing that personal, discardable opinion.

Anyway, big *thank-you* to add-on creators who use their time to create such helpful stuff.

carlos424

ADarklore wrote: »

I was once thinking about going to console, but after considering how many of the absolutely essential addons I use, there was no way. If addons were disabled, I would never play again. Absolutely serious.

“Essential?” Lol. Maybe convenient. Those of us on console think this thread is funny.

bmnoble

No

If it were not for add on's I would not have stuck around, they were a selling point for me when buying the game on PC.

JamieAubrey

Yes

Yes, I did play without them but I'd have to get used to spending 7+ years having to rely on them

sliabh

Yes

i would just play an ORC

Everest_Lionheart

Yes

francesinhalover wrote: »

xv1_me wrote: »

I just thought about this, and I honestly do not think i would play this if add-ons weren't a thing, but then again, I wouldnt know what i was missing so maybe I would. What about you all?

currently? YESSSS because after 6 YEARS zenimax FINALY added skill timers..
YES IT TOOK 6 YEARS! but we got them finaly!!!

how did console people play without timers? that's just wow

Not just lack of timers, some skills don’t even show anywhere on the UI while playing like WoE o eruption on DK, shade has no timer either it’s there and just disappears, so you end up casting certain skills in relation to one another and following along on either your own buff bar or the debuff bar above the enemy. Eventually you learn to just feel it or you memorize all 200 actions in the dynamic rotation itself 🤣.

Zyreist

Yes

Addons are little more than quality of life buffs. There's a lot of things in the game they improve, but they aren't critical to enjoying the game, they just streamline some of the more annoying inconveniences, sorting/trashing loot, tracking chat history, saving equipment setups, auto-crafting for writs. These and many more are all great time savers, but I'm not going to bail if they cease to be tomorrow...
But I REALLY would miss the saved chat history most of all. Tracking people when they need the services of my other characters after a relog can be arduous sometimes.

SilverBride

No

Not unless they added some features I use addons for now, like a minimap in particular. Having to stop and open the map every few seconds to see where I'm going is not something I am willing to put up with for any game.

jrgray93

No

Probably not. Addons added so many QoL things that make the game easier to play. Without them, I wouldn't have a reliable source of income with writs, and I wouldn't be able to easily swap between gear and CP loadouts. The game would wear thin in a hurry without them.

Kiralyn2000

Yes

UntilValhalla13 wrote: »

Do you really even play ESO if you need add-ons to make it bearable? XD

I only use a handful of addons, and they're all informational - they take the place of writing lots of notes, or looking up maps.


"Addons" doesn't mean "things that play the game for you".

Sarannah wrote: »

Which is also why I feel some add-ons should not be allowed. (like the resource/chest-locations add-on)

Huh. I'd have thought those would be the least objectionable - the resource location ones (like Harvest Map) just mean that I waste less paper writing notes, and the chest-location ones just mean I don't tab to another window to look up a map on a wiki (i.e, the functional equivalent of those Prima strategy guides that existed for decades. I've got a shelf full of those things from the PS1 & 2 era.)

What's wrong with them?
(as opposed to automating things, or detecting pvpers in stealth, or...)

Toxic_Hemlock

No

Limited time along with family time etc. Not only would I not play anymore, I would not even worry if my ESO+ ran out in a few months, I would just stop playing.

Life is to short to be hobbling yourself IMO.

Sheezabeast

Yes

When I first started playing, I did not know about addons, did not seek them out, did all my pvp and crafting with the base game.

Now, I am pretty dependent on addons, but ZOS had augmented the base game to be friendly to players without addons to a point. I think if I couldn't use addons, I could still play. I would be getting the console experience.

pleximus

Yes

I would have stayed on console if it wasn't for addons. They made ESO-life so much easier.

WiseSky

No

Let's not jinx anything

Linaleah

No

Zyreist wrote: »

Addons are little more than quality of life buffs. There's a lot of things in the game they improve, but they aren't critical to enjoying the game, they just streamline some of the more annoying inconveniences, sorting/trashing loot, tracking chat history, saving equipment setups, auto-crafting for writs. These and many more are all great time savers, but I'm not going to bail if they cease to be tomorrow...
But I REALLY would miss the saved chat history most of all. Tracking people when they need the services of my other characters after a relog can be arduous sometimes.

your very words actualy state that YES they are essential to enjoyment of the game, because of how many inconveniences they remove.

for me, not having minimap, not having ability to move around my UI elements, not having ability to track variety of things without having to constantly go through multiple menus just to which fish I'm still missing for an achievement, having to change my house primary just so that friends guildies can visit it (for contests or whatnot) without me having to be online and inside it, manually junking every little thing and yes, saving equipment setups. while I do use lazy writ crafter, base UI now has a functionality (finally, dear god it only took forever) that doesn't require me to essentially memorize or write down which items quest requires on any given day. I can actualy see it now! and it only took... how long to add it into base game? having to log in and out on multiple characters or keeping and updating a gosh darn spreadsheet just to see which character I left a particular item on (I use inventory insight right now, so I only need to log in and out once instead of going down the entire list of alts, hoping its on the one closer to the top rather then the bottom)

all these little things add up to so much time spending on minutia instead of actualy playing the game that yeah.... I would quit if I had to deal with it. inventory management is already a drag even with some help from addons.

is it possible to play without addons? yes obviously. the question is - is it actualy fun? for some of us the answer is no. no its not fun.

kypranb14_ESO

Yes

I play without add-ons frequently. I played on Xbox One from release until September 2017. I switched to PC, and continue to play on PC because my variable 55-100 FPS is better than 10-30 FPS on Xbox One, it also looks better, loads significantly faster, and most importantly... My wife and best friend now play on PC with me!