Were you generally engaged as a player in the main story quest lines of Chapters / DLC content?

colossalvoids

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

Hurbster wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

I have enjoyed many of the recent stories, but the Q4 smaller DLCs have been consistently better storytelling. Dark Brotherhood, Clockwork City, Dragonhold, Murkmire, and Markarth were all a lot of fun. I thought last year's Markarth was particularly good, especially the Dwemer-themed parts of the story.

I do think they have struggled a bit on the Chapter storylines. It is not as noticeable because there is more to do in Chapters, with more delves and public dungeons and world bosses and trials and whatnot. But I think the year long story has hurt Chapters. They feel like one big prologue and then the Q4 DLC is the more dramatic and engaging grand finale.

Absolutely, the Q4 stories have been way better than the Chapter ones. And I do think it's the 'year of' cadence.

It wasn't that apparent before yeah, now that chapter serves more of a prologue role it's more of an issue overall.

summ0004

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

I believe the bosses are probably ok for a new character but are vastly disappointing to fight as any player that is above 160CP and is wearing two half decent armour sets.

The story is fine, but I can accept braindead mobs in overland if there are also more difficult boss/special mobs in the instances.

I believe there should be a difficulty toggle as this cannot possibly upset anyone and doesnt alienate a anyone who wants to play the story quests with a well established better geared and higher level character.

For me I will not be purchasing any further DLC zones or chapters as this represents poor value if I dont wish to create a new char.

Kiralyn2000

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

summ0004 wrote: »

I believe the bosses are probably ok for a new character but are vastly disappointing to fight as any player that is above 160CP and is wearing two half decent armour sets.

Been playing since 2016, ~875 CP at the moment. The end boss of Blackwood was fine, using my original Stamblade ''main' + Mirri. /shrug

tohopka_eso

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

summ0004 wrote: »

I believe the bosses are probably ok for a new character but are vastly disappointing to fight as any player that is above 160CP and is wearing two half decent armour sets.

The story is fine, but I can accept braindead mobs in overland if there are also more difficult boss/special mobs in the instances.

I believe there should be a difficulty toggle as this cannot possibly upset anyone and doesnt alienate a anyone who wants to play the story quests with a well established better geared and higher level character.

For me I will not be purchasing any further DLC zones or chapters as this represents poor value if I dont wish to create a new char.

In FFXIV they did this. There was the same moaning as here but if doing for story it was great. Thing is you went in on normal difficulty first if you failed (well I did a lot and wasn't intentional) you could then choose which one you wanted.

Sylvermynx

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

One account main, 700+ CP, other account main 400+ CP - took me WAY too long to kill the Blackwood end boss, even with the ambitions "helping". Came REALLY close to dying various times during that fight.

martinhpb16_ESO

Other (not playing it, would play if ..., etc.)

I do not engage with main quest lines at all anymore because the challenge level is negligible. Story alone is not enough to engage me.

phileunderx2

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

My first playthrough of any of ESO story content I take my time and read everything. Some of the most recent I have completed on a tank character so fighting takes awhile and the fights are not bad.

Wolfchild07

I know alot of people love Summerset, and yes the zone is great. But forcing me to do the storyline, which is 7 (or so) quests, to get to the dailies made me skip dialogue and hate every part of it. Then times that by 18 characters. So no, totally not engaged. If it was left for me to do when I felt like it, then it may have been better. If they lock dailies behind story then there's going to be zero actual engagement, and only annoyance.

TwinStripeUK

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

Interesting question, with a couple of answers:

1) As a new player, yes; it's nicely structured so you get a feel of the lore, and the story leads you into the other zones nicely, without rushing you. It's also worth a fair chunk of XP for each stage, so you feel like you're making progress.

2) As an existing player with alts, no; after the 18th time it's pretty tedious, and if the main story didn't deliver the skill points and some decent XP I probably wouldn't bother.

It does suffer as a 'chosen one' scenario, however you never run into other players (beyond 'Soul Shriven in Coldharbour'), so you never really notice until you finish 'Council of the Five Companions' and it forces you to go back and run the Fighter's Guild questline (which is the only really clumsy part of the whole experience, as it's possible to be completely unaware of the Fighter's and Mage' Guild questlines until that point).

Overall though, a pretty good intro.

Biscuit_290

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

Story quests I enjoyed were few enough to count on the fingers of one hand. I remember the one early on in summerset where you

first run into razum-dar

. It was one of the precious few that I really liked reading through. Everything else bores me in varying degrees. I don't know why. Maybe the dialogue delivery feels bland or something.

Magdalina

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters WERE engaging for me. Up til it came to where I could one-shot basically every single story boss before they finish their very first dialogue line. Yes, I can hold off and just stand there waiting for all the shiny attacks and dialogue to unfold as they're barely making my health down, but at this point it isn't really engaging - big bad boss fights should feel dangerous, and they just don't. Even in off-the-world places which could be made instances with desired difficulty that wouldn't affect other players, they still don't.

You know the one storyline where I was extremely engaged? Other than vanilla ones I did while vet zones were still a thing, and a painful one at that? Craglorn. It felt...epic. Me and several friends blast through it within 3 days of almost non-stop gaming, couldn't make ourselves go away because it was a true adventure, epic and challenging. Craglorn had its issues, from stupid phasing to meaningless rewards, but it sure as hell provided that feeling that you're truly saving the world from horrible, horrible enemies, not that you're running around a kindergarten one-shotting toddlers.

These days, only actually engaging quests are dungeons and arena ones imo - if you do those on vet, NPC lines about OP enemies actually make some sense.

summ0004

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

Magdalina wrote: »

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters WERE engaging for me. Up til it came to where I could one-shot basically every single story boss before they finish their very first dialogue line. Yes, I can hold off and just stand there waiting for all the shiny attacks and dialogue to unfold as they're barely making my health down, but at this point it isn't really engaging - big bad boss fights should feel dangerous, and they just don't. Even in off-the-world places which could be made instances with desired difficulty that wouldn't affect other players, they still don't.

You know the one storyline where I was extremely engaged? Other than vanilla ones I did while vet zones were still a thing, and a painful one at that? Craglorn. It felt...epic. Me and several friends blast through it within 3 days of almost non-stop gaming, couldn't make ourselves go away because it was a true adventure, epic and challenging. Craglorn had its issues, from stupid phasing to meaningless rewards, but it sure as hell provided that feeling that you're truly saving the world from horrible, horrible enemies, not that you're running around a kindergarten one-shotting toddlers.

These days, only actually engaging quests are dungeons and arena ones imo - if you do those on vet, NPC lines about OP enemies actually make some sense.

Agree completely. I really enjoyed the playthrough the original zones when I first started playing and then it gets ruined by power creep which actually just makes it feel very flat. This is why I dont wish to buy any more chapters as I dont want to have to make a new character each time just to play it. I want to experience the zone on my main characters.

Vevvev

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

The bosses should really scale to your own personal power to be honest. Or have the ye-old scroll of hard mode just cause since the players equipped and ready for end game content find the big baddie of a storyline to be a bit shallow in their threat.

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

I can't really compare boss encounters in main story lines to any other games I've played.
It's more point and click than hard combat and a lot of A->B.

Another thing I'll point out is that no one in my entourage (even Role players) really talk that much about quests or their outcome, so perhaps they don't leave a lingering memory or not one which could create debate/discussions between players in a wider sense (not just a niche of interested players).

One remark I could say is:
Still not immersive enough for 2021 gaming (animations/outcomes/sense of danger) in regards to the expectations we've had growing up side by side with the franchise or the producer and affiliates.

PS: Molag grabbing me and hoisting me up into the air in 2015 was the only lingering epic memory of questing that I have.
I think I suffer from the need of more visual animations to follow a story line.

Fennwitty

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

I said 'no' but it's a mixture. Some storylines work for me, some don't.

Quality of Writing:
Base game Aldmeri Dominion zone stories on the whole very engaging. Some of the Daggerfall Covenant zones. Ebonheart Pact ... none of them had memorable stories or characters.

Summerset and Elsweyr yes. Greymoor and Blackwood ... only sometimes.

Thieves' Guild (Hew's Bane), Clockwork City yes. Southern Elsweyr mostly good. Dark Brotherhood no.

I like when the story is coherent, things are related in a believable way, there's lore, and the main character's dialog options aren't "Duh, what's a daedra?" level when I've completed X zones with that character.

Challenge Though:
None of the zones have been a real challenge since I learned the game.

To me it is disappointing when the big bad and everything from start to end rolls over and dies. The stakes at this point should never be remotely in the realm of 'oh no the boss is going to kill you' but they should really move into 'oh no the boss is going to do something else bad if not stopped'.

Any buildup that character X is a great ancient evil threat fall completely flat for me at this stage in my ESO career. Future storylines shouldn't even bother with faux threats against the player.

I'd super jump at the chance for an *optional* difficulty mode beyond stripping to nothing (Yes I have literally taken off all gear and food and CP -- the enemies take a bit longer but I'm in no danger at all).

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

Fennwitty wrote: »

I said 'no' but it's a mixture. Some storylines work for me, some don't.

Quality of Writing:
Base game Aldmeri Dominion zone stories on the whole very engaging. Some of the Daggerfall Covenant zones. Ebonheart Pact ... none of them had memorable stories or characters.

Summerset and Elsweyr yes. Greymoor and Blackwood ... only sometimes.

Thieves' Guild (Hew's Bane), Clockwork City yes. Southern Elsweyr mostly good. Dark Brotherhood no.

I like when the story is coherent, things are related in a believable way, there's lore, and the main character's dialog options aren't "Duh, what's a daedra?" level when I've completed X zones with that character.

Challenge Though:
None of the zones have been a real challenge since I learned the game.

To me it is disappointing when the big bad and everything from start to end rolls over and dies. The stakes at this point should never be remotely in the realm of 'oh no the boss is going to kill you' but they should really move into 'oh no the boss is going to do something else bad if not stopped'.

Any buildup that character X is a great ancient evil threat fall completely flat for me at this stage in my ESO career. Future storylines shouldn't even bother with faux threats against the player.

I'd super jump at the chance for an *optional* difficulty mode beyond stripping to nothing (Yes I have literally taken off all gear and food and CP -- the enemies take a bit longer but I'm in no danger at all).

I agree with many points.

I know ZOS doesn't want to go down that road, but I think we need some 'Grey' NPC interactions: Not good or evil, less binary approaches and perhaps...I say just perhaps....we could go down 'Dark ESO alley' and reunite with the shadier and perhaps more human/daily life side of Tamriel

(Apparently I enjoy the word 'perhaps')

freespirit

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

Difficulty wise I would like harder quest bosses BUT I absolutely love the storytelling in ESO!!

Kiralyn2000

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

I've got to say that I don't really get the whole "if the fights aren't hard, I can't appreciate the story" thing.

In the past, with games where I just couldn't get into the combat mechanics, I've turned the difficulty down so I could just plow through it, all for the sake of seeing where the story went.

Dragon Age Origins, for instance, was just so tedious to slog through those fights. (of course, it didn't help that my party turned out to be very non-meta - I had no AoE mages, and almost no AoE at all. Healer, Tank, two Rogues; Wynne, Shale, Leliana, and my PC.)



Just another example of differing philosophies & outlooks between people. /shrug

whitecrow

I too will play on the easiest mode so that I can get through the story. The only thing that bugs me is when I destroy the miniboss (one "wing" on bar) before they've even finished their opening spiel. It's a little anticlimactic.

summ0004

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

I've got to say that I don't really get the whole "if the fights aren't hard, I can't appreciate the story" thing.

In the past, with games where I just couldn't get into the combat mechanics, I've turned the difficulty down so I could just plow through it, all for the sake of seeing where the story went.

Dragon Age Origins, for instance, was just so tedious to slog through those fights. (of course, it didn't help that my party turned out to be very non-meta - I had no AoE mages, and almost no AoE at all. Healer, Tank, two Rogues; Wynne, Shale, Leliana, and my PC.)



Just another example of differing philosophies & outlooks between people. /shrug

Its not so much that they have to be hard, they just need to have enough health that you can use a range of damaging abilities on them and they too can potentially kill you if you dont use block/dodge heal etc. When something is so trivial it makes for a less immersive world if there is no challenge at all.

Many of the mobs in the overland part of the game are way easier than the easy difficulty of most single player games.

I know not everyone feels this way, but the option should be there if they want it.

phaneub17_ESO

I just blow through them most of the time, half the time I don't even read or listen to what is being said. There are a few interesting moments like seeing a Scarecrow Mob guy in Summerset standing on an open wall hole while manning a Ballista. The objective is to shoot the door open, but when I saw that guy I shot him without thinking. There's this one quest in Grahtwood about a boy's soul and a flesh golem, I did talk to everyone asking what they think I should do... then I talked to the flesh golem, oops, in he went and "I hate you" was all he responded.

AVaelham

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

I don't really care that much about boss fights. I guess they could make them harder instead of having invulnerability phases and having to rely on NPC mechanics. Ultimately, I care more about the storyline than a sweaty fight so if I can't kill the boss and the whole storyline is stopped by that, I would be lowkey annoyed. I remember this happening sometimes back when I started playing in 2015 when even Doshia (and pretty much all Harvesters) was a pain in the arse. Having already played in a 'harder' more, I do prefer the One Tamriel version much more.

One thing I would like more is the environment to change more post-questline. It does already to some extent but not very much lately (ie. Greymoor, Blackwood). Watching Baar Dau almost crashing was infinitely more engaging than fighting some boss.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

They were engaging, but the writing in the latest chapters has left much to be desired, especially in the main quests. The year long stories was supposed to better the stories but has instead made them worse imo, and somehow with even less continuation. Now however that is possible because we didn't have much of that to start with. The Vestige is becoming a bigger oblivious fool with every dlc, despite having saved the world for ...who bothers keep count now.

The only enjoyable part is the side quests.

As for the end bosses and such, eh, I don't care if they are harder or easy (unless they are so hard it's hard to pass). It's a very game mechanic heavy thing, so I just roleplay they were harder or easier depending on the situation.
The bosses with those immunity phases can sod off, though. They are just annoying.

Ishtarknows

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

Quests and story are fine, but the big bad boss needs a buff though. Its disappointing when you kill him first time and quickly. I especially found the fight with Molag Bal in Blackwood underwhelming and I was surprised he was the final boss. Even my fully specced as a healer had no trouble with him.

Sylvermynx

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

It wasn't Molag Bal in Blackwood? Wasn't even Dagon really, it was "High Priest Vandacia" wasn't it?

Shawn_PT

Other (not playing it, would play if ..., etc.)

To be honest, I have 100% lost interest in the new/DLC questing content. New content doesn't feel engaging at all. Quite the contrary. I get really grumpy whenever there's more coming, because I've grown used to it just being more of the same with different colours, and I fail to understand everyone else's hype. And I don't think it has to do with a single reason. More like several factors.

I remember starting the game. Wrothgar had just been released. I was casually questing around, following my alliance story (as it was meant to be), but also exploring this new and popular map. Particularly, I remember that quest in Frostbreak Fortress. Wading through what felt like hundreds of reachmen and harpies. Then that part where we have to destroy the big tree, with all the enemies spawning around. It was challenging. After that, the fight with the boss himself (I forget his name). If things until then had been challenging, now was running around like nuts, fighting for my life while landing some attacks now and then. Dodging all that ice and the adds, desperate for the potion cool down to be over. It felt like a proper boss battle!

I also remember having trouble with the prison escape quest, and the gauntlet part later on, where we have to press the four buttons in time. I failed so much back then. I felt it was impossible, frustrating, and downright unfair. Until I managed to do it. Yes! I feel like a proper hero, on both instances.

Yet last night I took an old character who has done literally everything else in Wrothgar except the main quest line through that very section, and I was already preparing myself for the inevitable frustration of having to start over several times.... And it didn't even take half the alloted time to get done, the enemies were hardly a hindrance at all, and it felt so pointlessly easy I was left thinking how I had found that hard when it first came out.

That's the difference almost 2000 CP do. Quest content does not feel challenging at all anymore. Not one bit. Uhhh look at the brave little adventurer! Thinks he can stand up against me and my minions and save the world!! Yeah. Yeah I can. And it'll only take a few light attacks, maybe some skills now and then. So much that I often stand back to try and see any extra mechs or hear the lines the enemies say. Matters not if they're an ancient undead sorcerer, a daedric overlord, a powerful enemy general... none of them pose an inkling of a threat to me.

I confess. I did not even complete Clockwork City's story yet. Nor Summerset's. Nor anything that came since. Why? Because it just doesn't feel engaging. I don't feel like a hero for helping these NPCs. Instead they all feel like lazy people/kings/gods/etc who just want to get some random serf to go and do the work for them. I fully understand that if story enemies were truly challenging, new players wouldn't stand a chance at advancing at all and that would put them off. But this just means that players on the opposite spectrum will only really be challenged by vet group content, while the bulk of the story line is merely flavor text.

And while that definitely detracts from the experience, I think the worst part has become the repetition. You're a living god and need my help to save the world? Okay I'll go and light attack your foes into submission... You're another living god yet you also need my help to go and save your hide from a bunch of enemies I can just light attack to death? Sheesh... Fine... You're some ultra powerful altmer sages, yet you need my help to light attack some more foes to death, otherwise the world will end, again? I think I have heard that before... You're... Some khajiit authority but need my help to do something... something evil dragons mixed with zombies end of the world....? Fine, but I hope you pay more than 600 gold pieces and a blue item which I could loot from a mudcrab... Vampires magic soul-sucking rituals, complete extermination, end of the world/civilization as we know it? Big-ass red four-armed daedra opens tiny pocket-sized """oblivion gates""" something something end of the world........?

Looking back to the old days, why did Wrothgar stay with me as a memorable DLC (just like Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood) while everything since was progressively "meh"? Is it because I found them just challenging enough as a new player? Or because they didn't constantly rely on the end-of-the-world plot?

And I don't have an answer for that. But I still play the game daily, and am not going to leave any time soon. So I can rule out burnout.


TL;DR: DLC/chapter quests no longer engage me, either because they're too easy for a seasoned player, or because the "end of the world" scenario got really old after being used so many times.

AlexanderDeLarge

Other (not playing it, would play if ..., etc.)

Story-wise? Absolutely. Gameplay-wise the overland content is way too easy and trivializes the game beyond any possible moment-to-moment enjoyment and it doesn't matter how good the story is, the moment-to-moment gameplay is letting it all down.

Sylvermynx

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

AlexanderDeLarge wrote: »

Story-wise? Absolutely. Gameplay-wise the overland content is way too easy and trivializes the game beyond any possible moment-to-moment enjoyment and it doesn't matter how good the story is, the moment-to-moment gameplay is letting it all down.

Definite disconnect there. I really hate combat. I don't want to fight every damn thing just because that's "the only way to get XP" in a game like this. Where's my diplomatic missions, my ability to assist a notable architect to restore a ruined palace? Yeah, I know I'm a minority of one and very much an outlier, but I absolutely abhor having to kill my way through games.

There must be some devs out there somewhere who have more imagination than "go here kill everything in the zone get reward".

I wish. Even the TES single player games are "go here kill everything". But I do love the lore. I just don't love the apparent lack of imagination that provides ONLY killing as a raison d'etre....

I do fully enjoy the stories. I just wish there was some way to NOT have to kill everything. Actually, I don't kill everything.... I kill only what's necessary, even if I occasionally wind up dead myself. I wish I'd had the ability earlier in my life to learn to make games myself.

Oh well, hey - I can program websites for clients. So I'm not a total loss I guess.

Bobby_V_Rockit

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are not engaging enough for me.

Greymoor and Blackwood, no. Blandest stories ever. Everything else, yes.

Amottica

Main story quest lines and the final boss encounters are engaging enough for me.

I enjoy the stories and Zenimax does a great job writing them. I think the boss fights are just fine. It takes a moment to figure out the routine but they are very well designed with the idea that they are not to distract from the story.