Is Blackwood a flop?

LalMirchi

In one word, no.

HumbleThaumaturge

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

I Know mine just stands in fire around dragon

Try using your Companion control commands

Wolf_Eye

I have some serious reservations about the update as a whole (particularly the changes to combat, proc scaling, how the companions were handled, and the CP nerf), but for the zone itself of Blackwood I am a little less sure of.

I haven't finished the main quest, so this is mostly what I've seen from exploring.

Blackwood is kind of pretty, I'm seeing a lot of new flowers. I appreciate how big it is too, as well as the fact we have a multitude of civilian locations (towns/cities). But on a whole it feels....like something is missing compared to Summerset, Elsweyr, Western Skyrim and Wrothgar. Even Vvardenfell feels like it has more character to it, and that zone is like the oldest of the chapter updates (I think?).

But the swamps are decent, the trees are nice, the rolling hills are pleasant to look at...

Just about the only complaint I have at the moment is....the mosquitos. I feel like, if ZOS just woke up one day and decided to delete the mosquito mobs completely from the game, nobody would complain Literally nobody. I hate those suckers....

Snowstrider

I feel like the "chapter" concept is getting old since it really isnt a proper expansion size you expect from an MMO and we keep getting more of the same old style zones instead of something new, unique and fresh.

I would rather have them go back to the original plan which was adventure zones.

Aristocles22

I don't know if I'd call it a flop yet, but the enthusiasm has been muted. The new zone is depressingly empty, and one gets the impression that the companions offered there are a way ESO is attempting to compensate for it.

The Imperial stuff there is okay. The Argonian stuff, not so much. Keshu is just a boring, barefoot, do-nothing lizard girl. Anything interesting about her is told in a backstory, nothing interesting is shown. When they do an Argonian zone again, we need an Argonian King Kurog, maybe the ruler of the ruthless Archein tribe, and the struggle is against the slave trade they run. Anyone else want us to fight against a twisted Argonian ruler on top of a Xanmeer he uses for a palace after having rescued his daughter and at the end, you put his considerably-less than evil son in charge?

NoireJin the Witchking

dinokstrunz wrote: »

Too early to call it a flop imo, but after 10 days on PC, blackwood is eerily quiet this past day or 2. Most people are probably finished with the bare bones content already and moved on or gone back to doing what they were doing prior to Blackwood.

That's the issue, outside of questing and prog dungeon/trialing (if you have the patience and stomach for it ) the game has very little offer for people wanting to commit to a game, especially since you nee to pay an entrance fee, then a expansion fee to then getting an membership (Which i used to do alot, to only spend days not playing it). ESO is more of a visual novel, lower than actual single player games so after the main quest the player retention rate drops to an all-time low because realistically, overland is deadass boring offering nothing substantial, reward system is very linear and also boring, lack of competitive elements outside of pvp, small systems like in FFXIV (mount racing, card games, player interaction) that allow the player to relax INGAME from the boring grind you have to partake in. You'd be surprised how little things like those systems increase player population and overall game quality. But then again ZOS servers..so perhaps ZOS is content staying where they are now with their game.

NoireJin the Witchking

AlgolStar wrote: »

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.

It was sad to see on release day of a NEW EXPANSION ESO twitch only hitting 3-5k viewers where as other MMOS we're doing above 10k with even GW catching up to it. I know it's not indicative of game quality but its indicative of player interaction, community and enjoyment. Even YouTube content is dry apart from the random "THIS STAM BUILD IS OP" video for the 5 youtubers who actually make content for ESO. ESO at this point is turning really stale with all these non-important systems and basically pandering to visual novel enjoyers r. Questing is beautiful in this game don't get me wrong and i appreciate all the effort put in it but ZOS really needs to realise they can't spend their entire time developing their game in one year bursts for only one avenue of players. Getting 2 dungeons for 1 quarter is so boring. Not everyone who loves ESO wants to just have dungeons be endgame. I finished the main quest of blackwood in 2 days, and I was playing in 1-2 hour bursts every 4-5 hours. So not slaving away. The story was actually really nice, but the enemies AI and difficulty was so bad and easy the fight was over before i knew it. Or I'd walk into a dungeon/O-portal and everything would be dead or people would be just at the end killing the boss.

If AOC does finish production (Yes i know everyone is hyping this game) in a good a state i believe it will affect the ESO population more, as it's aesthetically/combat similar but also aims to do better with systems/classes then ESO has done as of late. If people wearing rose coloured glasses or suffering from, buyers remorse want to tell me I'm wrong I'm all for it.

Firstmep

6Kyojin6 wrote: »

AlgolStar wrote: »

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.

It was sad to see on release day of a NEW EXPANSION ESO twitch only hitting 3-5k viewers where as other MMOS we're doing above 10k with even GW catching up to it. I know it's not indicative of game quality but its indicative of player interaction, community and enjoyment. Even YouTube content is dry apart from the random "THIS STAM BUILD IS OP" video for the 5 youtubers who actually make content for ESO. ESO at this point is turning really stale with all these non-important systems and basically pandering to visual novel enjoyers r. Questing is beautiful in this game don't get me wrong and i appreciate all the effort put in it but ZOS really needs to realise they can't spend their entire time developing their game in one year bursts for only one avenue of players. Getting 2 dungeons for 1 quarter is so boring. Not everyone who loves ESO wants to just have dungeons be endgame. I finished the main quest of blackwood in 2 days, and I was playing in 1-2 hour bursts every 4-5 hours. So not slaving away. The story was actually really nice, but the enemies AI and difficulty was so bad and easy the fight was over before i knew it. Or I'd walk into a dungeon/O-portal and everything would be dead or people would be just at the end killing the boss.

If AOC does finish production (Yes i know everyone is hyping this game) in a good a state i believe it will affect the ESO population more, as it's aesthetically/combat similar but also aims to do better with systems/classes then ESO has done as of late. If people wearing rose coloured glasses or suffering from, buyers remorse want to tell me I'm wrong I'm all for it.

The 2 games aren't really aiming for the same market.
Aoc is gearing more towards more long term commitment/ hardocre players.
I highly its going to have the same level of established lore, story etc as eso have, which is what brings most players here.
Eso is mostly for casual questing and misc activities, pvp isn't really a focus anymore.

Soulshine

On the whole, I think the zone is beautiful if a bit underwhelming for story. I completed it on one char on NA in the first few days and there were a ton of people running about. Same on EU.

Then when I started taking alts in to get the companions unlocked (still have many that don't have them yet) and I noticed a steady drop off in people around, which was a bit nicer tbh, since the public dungeons and the portals are just way more fun with less people around / in them. You can actually get a decent fight out of the portal end boss if there aren't 65 players spamming destro ults, lmao

I agree that the focus for most players is to get the mythics done, so a lot of people are camping nodes and off to others areas.

That all said, having played it fully I didn't find it anywhere near as appealing as some of the older zones like Summerset and Elsweyr. I did get many Leyawiin furnishing recipe drops and companion items just from the mobs in the zone, including purple jewellery which many say doesn't exist. My favourite thing from the zone by far is the Rockgrove trial. It packs quite the punch on vet and it's super fun to do even on normal.

Hopefully, the whole companion thing will get fleshed out in future updates, but for now they are a bit tedious to level rapport-wise as I just discovered, so not to keen on that part but I will get it done since I want their perks unlocked (I hear they are bugged right now?) and to be able to add them to housing.

Elsonso

Snowstrider wrote: »

I feel like the "chapter" concept is getting old ... we keep getting more of the same old style zones instead of something new, unique and fresh.

I will agree that Blackwood could have been more. I am not sure if that is the pandemic and working from home and we can look forward to another year of "meh" from ZOS and then back to work, or whether this is the new Meh Normal for them.

The Companion system sort of outshines the rest of the Chapter. What that says about the rest of the chapter is up to the reader.

As for "old style zones"... nah. They can do the "standard chapter zones" and make them interesting. They just are not doing that.

Jaimeh

The same thing crossed my mind several times when playing in the new zone, thinking back to how crowded Skyrim was when the chapter released. It doesn't help that portals don't feel like big zone events that people will gather for, like Harrowstorms which were very busy at the start. The aethetics of the zone are a bit meh for my liking as well, it feels like an extened Murkmire marshland, and the lighting being overcast and dim all the time is tiring for the eyes. Companions were definitely a highlight, but it's becoming obvious that at their present iteration they will be mostly used for RP. It seems as though the chapter was underfunded, and compared to previous releases it's very lackluster. I think part of it is trying to work with something old (Oblivion) and trying to refresh it, instead of coming up with a new idea, or maybe they are just skimping out on content for performance reasons, but performance is still bad, so that's not an excuse. Or maybe the year-long format has taken its toll finally... whatever the reason, it doesn't feel as exciting compared to previous chapters.

Orion_89

I just remembered how ZOS explained in their interviews that it is only looks like the copy of TES4: Oblivion, but they did plenty of work and now there are just some common moments... But, yes, our first impressions were not far from truth. Blackwood gave us a little piece of what TES4 was in the past and nothing more. Play on nostalgia.

danno8

Mahabahabtha wrote: »

Look @ Steamcharts, says all...
Https://steamcharts.com/app/306130#1y
Maybe not a flop, but definitely a big disappointment when you compare the numbers to last year...
I wouldn't even say that the add-on is to blame, the migration probably started with cp 2.0 and goes on with cp 2.1
If you are punished because you make progress.... That's a bad idea...

Steamcharts is usually a reasonable way to look at trends, but comparing it to last year at this time is really problematic. There's this little thing you may have heard of called Covid-19 that caused a massive leap in online gaming as well as all other online activities that make comparisons really out of whack.

Comparing it to 2019 is probably a better option in which case it's doing fine.

Starlight_Whisper

Wolfshead wrote: »

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 have been around since early beta and I have play all expansion and honest this nothing new ZoS always drop their expansion just around summer time which means many of the player bases is enjoying nice weather then instead sit inside and have their vacation time which means lower player online it will pick up and if we get "bad" summer mean more rain people will come back and play again also i think many player wait to all "big expansion bug/problem" is fix as well.

And with more country around the world lower there restricted for covid-19 I think a lot of people will spend more time outside and with there friends and family this summer

It's 117 f here... everyone I know stays inside

Starlight_Whisper

HumbleThaumaturge wrote: »

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

I Know mine just stands in fire around dragon

Try using your Companion control commands

Doesn't help as I wanted him to tank

Elsonso

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

HumbleThaumaturge wrote: »

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

I Know mine just stands in fire around dragon

Try using your Companion control commands

Doesn't help as I wanted him to tank

Slot him with taunt and heal skills, no ranged attacks, then point him at the boss you want tanked (a heavy attack will do) and keep an eye on him so you can heal if he gets into trouble. (and he probably will) Careful not to direct him to another mob.

Obsidian3

Hold up!

I have to unlock companions on each character?? They aren't acct bound?

Elsonso

Obsidian3 wrote: »

Hold up!

I have to unlock companions on each character?? They aren't acct bound?

They are both. You have to unlock them per character, but they are the same for all the characters on the account. Each character has independent rapport, though.

Jeremy

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.

You can't really judge Blackwood's success by the amount of players in the zone. The companion system relies heavily on doing guild dailies, and those are going to have players doing activities all over Tamriel. Additionally, Blackwood doesn't have any group events similar to Harrowstorms or Abyssal Geysers.

The best way to judge Blackwood's success is look at how many Companions you see players running around with. And those are legion. So I'd say it was a success.

Elsonso

Jeremy wrote: »

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.

You can't really judge Blackwood's success by the amount of players in the zone. The companion system relies heavily on doing guild dailies, and those are going to have players doing activities all over Tamriel. Additionally, Blackwood doesn't have any group events similar to Harrowstorms or Abyssal Geysers.

The best way to judge Blackwood's success is look at how many Companions you see players running around with. And those are legion. So I'd say it was a success.

The best way to judge the success is by sales numbers.

Jeremy

Elsonso wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

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.

You can't really judge Blackwood's success by the amount of players in the zone. The companion system relies heavily on doing guild dailies, and those are going to have players doing activities all over Tamriel. Additionally, Blackwood doesn't have any group events similar to Harrowstorms or Abyssal Geysers.

The best way to judge Blackwood's success is look at how many Companions you see players running around with. And those are legion. So I'd say it was a success.

The best way to judge the success is by sales numbers.

But we can't see the sales numbers. So that is a standard not available to us.

If people have their companions out, then they bought Blackwood. So that's as close to the actual "sales numbers" as we can get.

BigM

All I can say from Beta to now I believe am finally done with the game.

sean.plackerb14_ESO

I've kind of been wondering this as well. It def does not seem as populated as the previous chapter was. I played the weekend after it released. I run into players often like at quest givers and spots where you stop to talk to someone for a quest. But nowhere as many players as the previous chapter on its launch weekend.

Also, I remember ESO getting a slight spike in popularity on Twitch when the last chapter released but nothing really this chapter.

Not sure why, maybe just bad timing or something IDK.

Starlight_Whisper

Jeremy wrote: »

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.

You can't really judge Blackwood's success by the amount of players in the zone. The companion system relies heavily on doing guild dailies, and those are going to have players doing activities all over Tamriel. Additionally, Blackwood doesn't have any group events similar to Harrowstorms or Abyssal Geysers.

The best way to judge Blackwood's success is look at how many Companions you see players running around with. And those are legion. So I'd say it was a success.

They messed up not adding new crafting materials to the zone .

Nothing beats Dragons in my heart for group events. Everything else feels like dolmen 3.0

VampReworkFailed

stewhead2ub17_ESO wrote: »

Stop the silliness. It just released.

?

All the more reason why the chapter should be bustling with activity. What kind of backwards logic is this? 'It just released, don't expect it to be populated.' That isn't how MMOs work.

IF X new thing is released and there ISNT a lot of activity there in an MMO... that's a bad thing. Not a silly thing. That, quite literally, is bad.

Elsonso

VampReworkFailed wrote: »

stewhead2ub17_ESO wrote: »

Stop the silliness. It just released.

?

All the more reason why the chapter should be bustling with activity. What kind of backwards logic is this? 'It just released, don't expect it to be populated.' That isn't how MMOs work.

IF X new thing is released and there ISNT a lot of activity there in an MMO... that's a bad thing. Not a silly thing. That, quite literally, is bad.

The silliness is thinking that the Chapter is failing, I think.

shadyjane62

IMO yes.

Jeremy

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

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.

You can't really judge Blackwood's success by the amount of players in the zone. The companion system relies heavily on doing guild dailies, and those are going to have players doing activities all over Tamriel. Additionally, Blackwood doesn't have any group events similar to Harrowstorms or Abyssal Geysers.

The best way to judge Blackwood's success is look at how many Companions you see players running around with. And those are legion. So I'd say it was a success.

They messed up not adding new crafting materials to the zone .

Nothing beats Dragons in my heart for group events. Everything else feels like dolmen 3.0

Dragons were my favorite landscape events also. I wish they would make them more relevant and worthwhile long term.

Extinct_Solo_Player

One of the most useless and bug creating chapters in a while, if that's not a flop i don't know what is.....

kmontywrwb17_ESO

Michaelkeir wrote: »

What he said. That zone is like a war zone right now. People running all over the place fighting over nodes.

Honestly, people made much more over this than it was. There were a few very loud complainers, but mostly it was a lark. Zone chat was hilarious, and I enjoyed every moment of my 3 day camp.