Is Blackwood a flop?

Tommy_The_Gun

Too early to say. Companion system is awesom. I did not levelled them fully & equipped with bis gear, and yet I feel like I can do content solo I could not do before. So, it is a big "+" for me

On the other hand, I am kinda disappointed with story arc (not that it is a bad story), but rather with the fact that this is closest we could ever get in any TES game (not counting Arena) to visiting actual Black Marsh, the home of the TES iconic lizard-folk people, Argonians, and yet the story has almost nothing to do with them.

Imagine if Elsweyr had nothing to do with Khajiits... I am sure a lot of people would be disappointed as well.
^ This is basically equivalent of this. Black Marsh with a main quest that has almost nothing to do with Argonians....

Everything else ? It is awesome.

SeaGtGruff

Warstory wrote: »

For the past few days of doing the Blackwood dailies and some harvesting and I rarely seen any other players, even in the cities. I've never seen a chapter so dead right after release and it's kinda disheartening.

I'd imagine it's got a lot to do with the fact that four of the five leads for that kilt thingy are in other zones and each one can potentially require a day or more of grinding before it drops.

HumbleThaumaturge

I have enjoyed the Blackwood expansion. First, I am in love with Eveli Sharp-Arrow, so it was great to go adventuring with her again. I've had fun with the quests. I also liked the two public dungeons and delves and the worldbosses. The first time I saw the four-armed giant (Mehrunes Dagon?) striding through the lava in The Deadlands, I thought: "Jode and Jone! That's an awesome sight!" Haven't tried the new Trial yet. I admire the Blackwood artwork: the Zone is visually impressive. But then, I've always loved the ESO artwork. Great job to art design and animation.

Companions are interesting. Not sure I'll be running with a companion in the future though. It was pretty cool running Vaults of Madness with two players and two companions. That Bastian can be a mighty fine Tank, and Mirri can be a helpful Healer.

So, I am happy with the expansion. I suppose I still like Orsinium best, partly because it also had Eveli Sharp-Arrow (not to mention pocket mammoths and loons). I would love to meet Eveli again in future Zones. I would have liked to see a new solo Arena in Blackwood; but hopefully we'll get a new one at some point.

I wish ZOS would post a YouTube video featuring the voice actors for ESO. I wonder what those Argonian voice actors look like, as they sound like 20-pack-a-day smokers.

aipex8_ESO

Also, some weird design descisions: Delves that are a bunch of connected tiny zones, which means if you are in there with someone else, you may never see them, but just lots of empty zones to run through. Like if I'm in another older delve, and I notice no enemies, usually I see another player, then we can either run together, or I can take a different path. Here I just end up running through a completely empty delve all the way to the end. It's really boring.

AlgolStar

Warstory wrote: »

For the past few days of doing the Blackwood dailies and some harvesting and I rarely seen any other players, even in the cities. I've never seen a chapter so dead right after release and it's kinda disheartening.

I can't agree with you. There are a lot of people running around in Blackwood.

Colecovision

I don't have it yet, but I can easily say no, it's not a flop. The rest of tamriel is filled with people doing blackwood activities. Craglorn chat is filled with the new trial, dolmen and delves are swarming with people leveling companions and not just in the dessert. There is lead farming all over the place. Even the outlaw refuges has more people because of the helmet lead.

If the new zone isn't flooded with people, I'm not surprised. The people with the chapter are everywhere else.

CoronHR

i personally love it. i actually thought the main story line was a little better than usual. i'm not a huge fan of companions, but they're fun enough. i like the terrain a lot. the wb's seem a bit easy, but whatever

Goregrinder

Warstory wrote: »

For the past few days of doing the Blackwood dailies and some harvesting and I rarely seen any other players, even in the cities. I've never seen a chapter so dead right after release and it's kinda disheartening.

Oh a click-baity title...spicy! it's just like those "We Got This Covered" posts, when they write things like "Is Scarlet Johansson quitting the MCU??" or "Is Tom Holland jumping the MCU boat for Star Wars??....". It's always entertaining to read those out of context, clearly made-up headlines haha. Thanks for the laugh my dude!!

amm7sb14_ESO

I can't definitively call it a flop, because my opinion is based only on my perspective, but this is the first expansion that's offered nothing that I am interested in.

Morrowind: Warden class, Vvardenfall map
Summerset: Jewelry Crafting
Elsweyr: Necromancer class (the main class I've been waiting for since launch), dragons
Greymoor: Vampire re-work, Harrowstorms, Skyrim map

With Blackmoor, I have no interest in companions. None what so ever. And... that's it. There's no new class, no new skill lines, just companions, which are intended for content that I can't bear playing any further, which is overland PVE.

So... this chapter adds nothing for me. So on a personal level, it's at least disappointing and underwhelming.

grizzledcroc

Bruh just cause you dont like dont mean others dont. ESO has basically its formula , maybe a year isnt super bumpin thats ok. Next one means more chances for something new you know? ZOS is very reactive to certain things.

YandereGirlfriend

Blackwood does definitely seem a little sparse on population these days.

But that's not really a proxy as to whether or not the expansion is under-performing in terms of sales.

Overall, I've been pleasantly surprised by the Chapter despite being poised to dislike it after the debacle of the most recent PTS. Those balance issues still remain but the quality of the zone is extremely high. The art and level design teams always do the heavy lifting for ZOS.

starlizard70ub17_ESO

Elsonso wrote: »

Gythral wrote: »

It's not Graybore
So it must have something going for it

but I dont recall a zone being as dead as it is 6 days after launch!

It is hard to get away from other players in Blackwood, particularly around the companion quest areas and Leyawiin crafting area.

A lot of people are getting their companions, then heading off to level their Undaunted, Fighter and Mage guild skills. Most of leveling companions skills activity takes place outside of Blackwood.

Orion_89

I have a small guild (50 members), there used to be ~15 people online at a time. Most of them took a pause month before the new chapter's start. But when they came to see the Blackwood, they were kinda upset and some of them just quit the game indefinitely.

And yes, Blackwood is empty compare to other locations:
Vivec

Alinor

Rimmen

And Leyawiin... Literally nobody.

Sarousse

At least dragons were hitting hard. Tell me whan can kill you in Blackwood ? Nothing. Even if AFK 30 minutes in a 10 mobs pack.

Elsonso

Orion_89 wrote: »

I have a small guild (50 members), there used to be ~15 people online at a time. Most of them took a pause month before the new chapter's start. But when they came to see the Blackwood, they were kinda upset and some of them just quit the game indefinitely.

And yes, Blackwood is empty compare to other locations:
And Leyawiin... Literally nobody.

You either got very lucky, or you took that picture on PTS.

PC-NA, moments ago:


PC-EU, moments ago:


PTS, moments ago:

Dropstitch

Elsonso wrote: »

Orion_89 wrote: »

I have a small guild (50 members), there used to be ~15 people online at a time. Most of them took a pause month before the new chapter's start. But when they came to see the Blackwood, they were kinda upset and some of them just quit the game indefinitely.

And yes, Blackwood is empty compare to other locations:
And Leyawiin... Literally nobody.

You either got very lucky, or you took that picture on PTS.

PC-NA, moments ago:


PC-EU, moments ago:


PTS, moments ago:

Did you intend to prove there are very few players there?

Elsonso

Dropstitch wrote: »

Did you intend to prove there are very few players there?

There were actually quite a few players back in the crafting area. I was trying to take the same picture he took, with most players on the back side of the wayshrine. Point is that in order to get NO ONE THERE, special circumstances have to be used. It is easy to see people coming and going through the wayshrine almost constantly. This was shortly before 3pm on a Friday.

https://youtu.be/6ZQsBwQZLj8

Tan9oSuccka

It’s kind of an odd expansion. I was expecting more imperial stuff. Seems like more lizard content which was kind of bland and familiar. I got enough entertainment for 40 dollars I guess.

The only flop in my opinion, is companions. Pretty useless. No point in grinding out XP and skill lines if they die almost instantly from standing still in an AOE.

They need some serious improvements with companions before I care much about them. Both combat and customization.

Jameson18

Thannazzar wrote: »

From the streamers I have watched (didn't buy the chapter myself) it looks pretty empty, definitely less busy than the western skyrim quest hubs last year.

Cant say I'm surprised, no new skill line, limited customisation on companions and lack of response to PTS feedback have all taken their toll.

This.

Dojohoda

On PC, I think some have finished the quests and enter Blackwood for activities that do not take long.

I have also noticed an increased number of players at public dungeons and dolmans where, like me, they are leveling companions.

And there're new antiquities to find.

Lumsdenml

I don't think it's a flop, but I think there are factors with this expansion that might make you think so.
1) Companions. A lot of people are running fighters guild or mage's guild quests to lvl that skill line, which takes people out of the chapter
2) Kilt. People are farming this, not in the zone.
3) Oblivion gates. This is a big zone and there are people out in the zone looking for them, not concentrated around the quest hubs

I think these three things give that impression.

Orion_89

Elsonso wrote: »

You either got very lucky, or you took that picture on PTS.

It's a PC EU

Eevee_42

I can only speak from my own perspective, but Blackwood is a flop in my eyes. First of all, the companions feature was the big gimmick of this chapter, but it’s something that hardly appeals to people who actually enjoy playing the game with friends and wants to do more than questing or solo’ing normal dungeons. Overland content is hilariously easy even for the most casual of players, so companions are looking to be an RP feature at this point.

For the players who play eso for the gameplay, pvp, or endgame, Blackwood falls flat. Even a lot of people who only quest seem disappointed. This is my first time not buying a chapter, the game feels truly dead to me for the first time in my years of playing since launch. Out of the small amount of friends and guildies I still see logging into eso, almost none of them bought Blackwood either. I didn’t think we could have a year that is more lackluster than Greymoor, but I was SO wrong.

The zone appears dead, companions are useless for the most part, the game breaking bugs are plentiful, performance is at the worst it’s ever been, there are no new classes, systems, or pvp content for people who want to play the game as an MMO and not a solo RPG, so what is the reason to even buy this chapter?

Kagukan

It did feel dead the first few days but it seems to be picking up lately so that is good.

Amottica

redlink1979 wrote: »

Perhaps you haven't heard yet about Tide-Glass Beads lead that drops in Shadowfen's water nodes.

But each time I go to Blackwood there's a plenty of players there. Don't know about your platform, server and day time in there.

Pretty much this and when I am sitting around waiting for something I see a lot of companions. That is a sign that many are into this expansion. Considering for leads and leveling the companions much brings us to other areas it just makes sense we would see slightly fewer players in the new zone than other expansions.

Goregrinder

Elsonso wrote: »

Dropstitch wrote: »

Did you intend to prove there are very few players there?

There were actually quite a few players back in the crafting area. I was trying to take the same picture he took, with most players on the back side of the wayshrine. Point is that in order to get NO ONE THERE, special circumstances have to be used. It is easy to see people coming and going through the wayshrine almost constantly. This was shortly before 3pm on a Friday.

https://youtu.be/6ZQsBwQZLj8

And what's Shadowfen look like right now, you got some screenies of that by chance?

Girl_Number8

The clones say you are mistaken....😄

Parasaurolophus

The new chapter isn't bad. Many people overdramatize that there is nothing interesting about this chapter for a high-end player. In fact, this is far from the case. Good sets and mythics (hello kilt!), Amazing trial. I just completed the main quest and completed all the other quests in the zone before that. It was much better than Graymoor. I liked it, even if the Dark Brotherhood was there. Much better than Graymoor. Yes, companions are a failure. They are too useless for the old player and too much work for the new player.
But it's true. I, too, have been playing Blackwood from day one and immediately noticed that there are too few players in the location. At first, I did not betray any importance to this, because the servers were turned on an hour or so ago. But there were no more players ... The location feels very empty. Even around the quest givers there were 2-3 players, when usually at the start of the chapter there is a whole swarm of them. I ALMOST SEEN NO NEW PLAYERS! This is the main strategy of ZoS - to attract a large number of new players to the game every year. But I hardly saw people in the zone without CP`s.
Why is that? Was Greymoor too bad? Greymour did have serious performance issues for almost the entire year starting with Harrowstorm. I knew a lot of scorpusher`ers who left the game because their skills in trials didn't work. I definitely don't believe that most players just wandered off to leveling companions. Absurd. Most likely, the peak of interest in the game subsided. Perhaps in the future, the ESO will still shoot like Elsweys or Graymoor.

xeNNNNN

nukk3r wrote: »

People are probably still camping at nodes in Shadowfen.

They are.


Its a flop because of the following reasons in my opinion:

1) Not enough overland activities
2) Map feels barren & empty
3) Deadlands interaction with the world is a less than the hype provided
4) Swamps suck
5) The story dragged, for a long long time.

***SPOILERS***

5 expanded: They tried to hard to apply intrigue to a story that for the most part wasn't that interesting and proceeded to drag the story out through very meaningless conversation and running back and forth. Its a pretty forgettable story if I am honest and frankly I enjoyed talking to nocturnal at her shrine in blackwood more than the main story. Mostly because I got to gloat.

The plot devices were boring too at first I was interested and thought to myself "ohhhh they're the ambitions" and that occurred before it was even said in the story and therein lies the problem. The story was predictable. Too predictable. A good daedra willing to help? No of course shes working for Dagon. Lyranth was the only interesting thing about the main story in fact shes been one of the few interesting characters thats stuck around since the beginning of the game.

Urgh I could go on, this felt like an extremely low effort story. It didn't even feel that impressive. Perhaps there will be more to it in the DLCs but thats another problem as well, they had the opportunity to set up a fantastic foundation of you vs Dagon and so forth but it only partially materialised and even then it only occurs at the end of the main story.

I wonder whatever happened to meridia saying "they will have plans for you" at the end of the base games story. That was far more interesting to me than this protracted attempt at pointless intrigue.

and reach was extremely cool story wise, I dont know how they go from that to this...

/rantover

sevomd69

I was on a pug 12 man group in the public dungeon in shadowfen... doing the water node loop..never seen that before...lol

So... yeah I think Blackwood is doing fine...