What are your views with ESO questing?

Saber91

So I’ve come back to ESO after a massive 5 year hiatus, I remember installing it a couple years ago and did nothing and deleted it I’m not sure why. I’m a FF14 player first and foremost I’m treating this as sort of my solo experience/find a small guild or something game.

I love the world of elder scrolls and I can see there have been improvements to a lot of things in the game granted there are few I would still love improved ‘animation/feedback in combat’ for one. But to the topic of hand, I’m actually genuinely surprised with the questing for the most part.

14 like wow and many others do sometimes more unique quests but tends to still remain with the go here kill X or click to interact with this. I’m not saying ESO doesn’t but it’s sort of disguised better, it feels much more varied. The writing is t too bad for the most part. I know a few people on these forums have commented on their writing being a bit sloppy/slack.

Sometimes I like how some quests get you involved with delves or dungeons or use some of that elder scrolls wackiness like I done one with a curse making duplicates and you using them to navigating a dungeon it’s simple in execution but it brings variety.

I’ve also forgotten what it’s like to have everything voice acted. ZoS does need some extra credit for that, it’s one of my beefs with 14 and it’s weird moments it decides to voice or not to voice.

Anyway what are your views on the questing in this game coming from long term players and what would you want improved or tackled differently

Blinx

I ditched my White Mage over a year ago, and settled here on Tamriel, I find the Quests in ESO much more immersive(have you done the quest chain for a white mage? omg shoot me now-ZZZzz), plus areas aren't gated behind a dungeon that must be completed first before you can explore them.

And for my playstyle ESO just works better, I may need to go afk at a moments notice, and that really wasn't working out for me on FF, here I solo for the most part, and couldn't be happier.

i much prefer ESO companion system VS FF Trust system, eventho they both have their negative sides

I do miss Hildibrand and his antics questlines from FF tho

PS -The only things I feel would make questing for me personally more fun would be if the enemys were slightly more difficult, and puzzles that are actual puzzles that you have to think about, not move this block x amount of times, and the "puzzle" actually solves itself, and when you have to search for clues for anything suspicious, there shouldn't be an icon exactly where your suppose to inspect, the game is rated M for mature, but sometimes these quests make me feel like the game is rated D for Dumb.

Tandor

Playing since launch, I've always loved the quests and the voiceovers are a critical part of that for me, so that the different voices in Blackwood, for example, add a lot of atmosphere to the quests, as does Cadwell whenever he pops up ! I've barely got out of the prison in the original introduction (Hint: More guards are on the way!) when I start singing "One fine day in the middle of the night". The voices are well tailored to the characters behind the quests, and the fact that every single line of NPC dialogue in the game is voiced is fantastic.

The only thing I'd like to see changed is the introduction of more meaningful dialogue options but sadly having different outcomes that change things in a significant way is nigh on impossible in a multiplayer game.

Vevvev

Quests are fun, but I feel like the damage NPCs do needs to be looked at. They can still keep their health as it is now, but it'd be nice if I actually need to cast a heal instead of letting my HP regeneration do all the work. Even if it's not much of a damage boost it'd be nice to have to engage a little more with the fight scenes.

Starlight_Knight

My view is, the storys in ESO are mostly sloppy, there are a few good ones here and there but most are forgetful generic things.
The npc's do things like call you mortal, or say things like " havnt you ever seen a woodelf before" even though you yourself are a vampire woodelf. Things like that can be triggering for anyone wanting to be immersed.

For me though the worst thing is the incentive to do them, there is none. as a player since lauch i havnt played a quest in years. becuase i get nothing for it.
Yea there are new chapters but nothing good to unlock. Ill hammer the new dungeons and trials to get the acheivments but i couldnt care less about the "main story" theres nothing in it for me.

SirAxen

Elder Scrolls online just feels like a 'lived in' universe and that sets it above all the other MMORPG's out there currently.

fred4

Saber91 wrote: »

Anyway what are your views on the questing in this game coming from long term players and what would you want improved or tackled differently

I don't rate ESO's questing. I came from Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas. I remember having fun questing in those games, but the ones that really stood out were the Bioware games from a decade ago, e.g. Dragon Age Origins, DA2 and the Mass Effect trilogy. Inquisition was already a step backwards for me. I suppose those games were more story driven, with a defined beginning, middle and end, which made the writer's jobs easier. The Landsmeet in DA:O stood out as an outstanding culmination of previous developments. Nonetheless ZOS / Bethesda could IMO learn from those games:

• Craft some natural dialogue. Hire some actual writers. All too often ESO characters simply declare who they are and what they want. There is nothing ambiguous or opaque about them. A lot of dialogue merely revolves around some macguffin or other. It's boilerplate. I occasionally try questing, but it just doesn't work for me anymore. I always end up clicking through the dialogue, because most of it is so bad.
• Experiment with cut scenes, if budgets allow. Stepping into an event between some NPCs via a cut scene as you approached or clicked on it was a hell of a lot more immersive in DA:O than in Inquisition or in ESO. I'm not talking about pre-rendered scenes, but you can use the game engine, albeit the scene is directed with different camera angles and is animated.
• I don't need to be flattered about my past accomplishments. I wish NPCs would just shut up. I like NPCs that are mundane, like the daily quest givers in the Cyrodiil towns. Those I can relate to. I am not a hero to them. They treat me like another pair of boots on the ground, that's all.

As a long term player, I'm the player from Viva La Dirt League's YouTube videos. The whole "hero" thing doesn't work for me, because everything is trivial. Perhaps that's why I like those Cyrodiil NPCs. They don't treat me like I'm doing anything special. I find quests that are not about saving the world, but that are merely about helping out or, perhaps better, about political intrigue - as planned for next year - are better.

In truth, I've moved on. I'm an endgame player, PvP and sometimes PvE. I'm more interested in talking to people in Discord than to NPCs. If ZOS stepped up their game, who knows...

fred4

I want to pick out a well-written ESO character: Heem-Jas from Ruins of Mazzatun. He's a one joke character, but it works for me, because the joke - he's always late and contributes nothing - reflects reality. His personality also dictates that he doesn't flatter you, albeit he is plucky and likeable. That kind of writing works for me.

Fennwitty

There's always room for improvement in anything.

Comparing ESO quests to other MMOs though, ESO's are on the whole much meatier than "collect 10 wolf pelts and bring them here".

Now those quests definitely do exist in ESO, but you're right they sort of disguise it better and it's not the entirety of a quest but usually just a piece of it.

My main critique is with the dialog choices currently. They often put words in the player's mouth, and nearly always they appear to end in the same conclusion no matter what.

Besides the limited player dialog though, non-repeatable quests are fairly engaging.

Mayrael

Blinx wrote: »

I ditched my White Mage over a year ago, and settled here on Tamriel, I find the Quests in ESO much more immersive(have you done the quest chain for a white mage? omg shoot me now-ZZZzz), plus areas aren't gated behind a dungeon that must be completed first before you can explore them.

And for my playstyle ESO just works better, I may need to go afk at a moments notice, and that really wasn't working out for me on FF, here I solo for the most part, and couldn't be happier.

i much prefer ESO companion system VS FF Trust system, eventho they both have their negative sides

I do miss Hildibrand and his antics questlines from FF tho

PS -The only things I feel would make questing for me personally more fun would be if the enemys were slightly more difficult, and puzzles that are actual puzzles that you have to think about, not move this block x amount of times, and the "puzzle" actually solves itself, and when you have to search for clues for anything suspicious, there shouldn't be an icon exactly where your suppose to inspect, the game is rated M for mature, but sometimes these quests make me feel like the game is rated D for Dumb.

Everything in this post agrees with me. Overall, aside from the difficulty level, which in ESO is negative in overland PvE, the quests, even the side quests can be really great. After years spent with oriental MMOs, ESO enchanted me precisely because it does not force group play in most of its aspects and quests are always trying to convey a story, they are not a simple "fetch, pick up, sweep up". As I mentioned, only the difficulty level negatively affects the immersion, but comparing ESO to other MMOs it still comes out much better.

fred4

Fennwitty wrote: »

Besides the limited player dialog though, non-repeatable quests are fairly engaging.

Really depends what your yardstick is. If it's New World, then yes. If it's The Old Republic then, from what I've heard, no.

Malthorne

Speaking for the last two chapters Blackwood and Greymoor:
The side quests are enjoyable and a few had my interest piqued with call backs to Skyrim and Oblivion. One Greymoor quest line even added to a mystery from Skyrim, so that was cool.

But unfortunately the the writing, length, snd presentation of the the main quest story is very lacking and in Greymoor’s case just plain bad. Compare that to FFXIV’s MSQ for shadowbringers and endwalker. These two stories are absolutely next level with better writing and pacing than even most AAA single players games today.

Saber91

Malthorne wrote: »

But unfortunately the the writing, length, snd presentation of the the main quest story is very lacking and in Greymoor’s case just plain bad. Compare that to FFXIV’s MSQ for shadowbringers and endwalker. These two stories are absolutely next level with better writing and pacing than even most AAA single players games today.

Oh without a doubt 14 excels in its writing a presentation of its narrative. I personally don’t mind dungeons being locked behind story because well dungeons in that game are part of the wider narrative. 14 will always be my go to mmo but I appreciate aspects of ESO which I think 14 can learn from which in this instance is side quests or questing structure. But yeah the way Endwalker tied up everything in a bow it’s sort of hard not to feel like putting up the hat of your journey haha (I don’t want it to end it was just that sort of conclusion haha)

Gleitfrosch

There is a big difference between
- main quest
- side quests / overland quests
- also a difference between the old quests and the new ones (last few DLCs)


The side quests are usually better and more logical in regard to the possible dialog options. Especially the old side quests.
Main quests, especially since the last few DLCs are a cliche, force the player to (repeatedly) ask the simpliest/dumbest questions and at some point the whole plot makes absolutely no sense, in short: they are bad.

the quality difference can be also seen between the old side quests and the newer ones. The new ones bluntly force explain every single bit (no option to bypass it) while the old ones do it far more intelligent to provide the player the relevant information.

example old quest:
you meet an undead magically bound to another undead, the first one asks you to kill the other. your dialogue option is: "you think that if I kill the other one, it will set you free?". NPC answers "yes"

new quests are like:
you meet an undead magically bound to another undead, the first one asks you to kill the other. your answer dalogue is: "what will happen if I kill the other one"? then the NPC tells you that it will set him free.

Same result but the new quests make the player feel dumb because he cant understand the most obvious things.

SeaGtGruff

Starlight_Knight wrote: »

For me though the worst thing is the incentive to do them, there is none. as a player since lauch i havnt played a quest in years. becuase i get nothing for it.

You get Skill Points for completing zone storyline quests. I think each major zone's storyline is divided into 3 parts-- which, in the old base game (which I never got to experience in that version), corresponded to the 3 subzones of each major zone-- and you get a Skill Point (plus an Achievement/Title) upon completing each part. I'm not sure about the starter zones and smaller DLC zones, but I think you get at least 1 Skill Point from them, if not more. So doing the zone questlines is important if you're wanting to earn as many Skill Points as possible.

Also, the zone questlines seem to be designed to move you through each zone, and they-- along with the various side quests-- usually take you to out-of-the-way locations where there are skyshards, as well as lore books, treasure chests, etc. So if you're not using addons or websites that tell you exactly where everything is, or haven't done everything so many times on so many characters that you've memorized where everything is, doing the zone questlines and side quests can be helpful for finding all of the skyshards and lore books in a given zone. Even with the recent addition of skyshards to the map, it can still be difficult to find every single skyshard in a zone if you aren't doing the quests, since they don't show up on the map until you get within a certain distance of them.

Of course, you don't actually need all of the Skill Points that are available in the game, especially now that we have the Armory and can switch to different builds on our characters without having to pay respec fees each time.

Malthorne

For sure, the side quests are a very strong point for ESO. Also, the environmental storytelling is interesting. Finding scrawled notes, books, objects that are out place, etc help flesh out the world and often give you a different perspective on what is happening or maybe something new to discover all together.

How are you finding/liking the combat difficulty for solo questing?

bmnoble

They are fun on the first character when your experiencing it all for the first time after that on alts its hit and miss some quests have multiple choices for different outcomes but those are few and far between, most just give you the illusion of multiple choice with the same outcome regardless or only one way to solve the quest.

I took things a lot slower on my second character since I basically rushed the main questlines out of order, ignoring side quests, for the most part in each zone, so that I could see how much of the side character dialogue ties into the zone main quests and allowing everyone to recognize you when you go to clear Coldharbour's zone.

Basically after you have done the quests on your main and a few of your first alts you will likely only end up doing quests for skill points but even that is no longer really necessary with the amount of skill points available now to find you don't really need to go out of your way to quest on alts or even do the dungeon quests anymore, you can get more than enough skill points with skyshards and public dungeon group challenges alone for most builds.

jedtb16_ESO

avrok. nuff said.

colossalvoids

It's complicated. On the one side I enjoyed every dlc and expansion prior to greymoor even with their at times childish writing compared to previous elder scrolls titles but it still was pretty good from a lore standpoint and writing was on a some sort of level while actually adding something meaningful to the universe.

As a so to say lore-nerd I still doing everything they're releasing but decline in writing is apparent. This accompanied with zenimax's approach of separating gameplay in an action rpg game with the narrative not helping much. What I mean by that is if at the very least the "threat" was an actual threat to the player as it was in previous titles it would serve the narrative better and making overall average or cliché stories worth paying attention to as they're more "real" that way or just simply more fun in action sense, evoking some feelings at the very least.

Pretty harsh example would be Miyazaki games here, gameplay serving the narrative and vice versa (but both are good actually). Currently it satisfies only my "lore greed" slightly (as some stuff is clearly just blatantly made up on a lap by a student in couple mins) but that's not enough to keep me as engaged as i was previously. If eso is moving in that storytelling direction they'd better be thinking ways to engage players who are not falling for such low standards.

winterscrolls229prerb18_ESO

As an endgame quester, there are some pretty critical areas of improvement with the questing that really harm it as the dlcs tick on. In no particular order:

• Not being able to move the camera around during dialog, and the lack of cinematic switches like in swtor in the long run cut down the presentation of the excellent voice acting.
• As the expansions tick on, the dialog choices imply you are really stupid, so much so that they couldn't be in character, a reminder gameplay function rather than a story narrative. They also follow the exact same choice structure template. It would probably be better to remove all the dialog and just click next (as you end up doing) and just imagining the filler.
• The music in many zones is terrible. I have an addon to turn toggle it via keypress. As time goes on, its only the base game and a few key exceptions (morrowind) that i keep it on. For single player questing this is harm. The reason why many games keep you coming back is the music.
• Once your character has evolved into its starter multiplayer endgame set, overland gameplay is so pointless you don't look forward to it. There's a subconscious but always present annoyance that every pull is just going to be boring. When you barely get 3 swings in why. Also i switched into some purple thieving gear ages ago it didn't help.
• Biggest killer of the game: The walk speed is too fast. You can never ever shake the impression you're playing a competitive first person shooter, not being immersed in a fantasy world. I can't help but feel like im playing quake.. the last game that also moved as fast. Its not cool anymore, by todays standards its primitive and dated. Either way, at the moment the most fun way to play is a balance of first person while in combat, and 3rd person while out of it.
• (bonus wish that will never happen): Recently went back to swtor, then promptly swapped back to eso. While there, noticed how much of a difference having your character voiced makes. Its so much better.

Yeah the 100% phased questing is the highlight here, but you get over that after hundreds of hours.

FlopsyPrince

Vevvev wrote: »

Quests are fun, but I feel like the damage NPCs do needs to be looked at. They can still keep their health as it is now, but it'd be nice if I actually need to cast a heal instead of letting my HP regeneration do all the work. Even if it's not much of a damage boost it'd be nice to have to engage a little more with the fight scenes.

CP is probably the core problem there. You can't fix it for high CP players without making it really hard for low/new CP players.

krachall

For all the things ZOS does extremely well, quest writing isn't one of them!

Some of the quest lines in the game are pretty good. The Dark Brotherhood line was good. Some of the more involved side-quests (morag tong, Mage's Guild, etc.) are pretty good.

But the VAST majority of ZOS quests and many parts of the main, DLC, and chapter quests, could be written by a bot.

Talk to NPC A
Talk to NPC B
Travel to (random location) and...
...destroy/smash/eat/bless/desecrate/cover/douse/light/burn/touch/cover/energize/take..
...3/4/5/6/7...
...crystals/shards/braziers/symbols/relics/etchings/markings/runes/urns/lamps/graves/chests/vials
Talk to NPC B
Talk to NPC A

but the worst parts are the needless and repeatitive "talk to..." steps. Yes, I get it...they make the quest seem longer. But after 10,000 Talk To steps, it gets really boring.

[snip] Dialog is easy. Plots are harder. That's why ESO is full of so much rambling dialogue and so thin on plot.

[edited for bashing]

FlopsyPrince

Quests seem as good as any other MMO I have played.

I am fine with them and have done a few literally 20-30 times.

Vevvev

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Vevvev wrote: »

Quests are fun, but I feel like the damage NPCs do needs to be looked at. They can still keep their health as it is now, but it'd be nice if I actually need to cast a heal instead of letting my HP regeneration do all the work. Even if it's not much of a damage boost it'd be nice to have to engage a little more with the fight scenes.

CP is probably the core problem there. You can't fix it for high CP players without making it really hard for low/new CP players.

Not even that. A new character against trash mobs has no peril at all even without CP. CP amounts to very little in this game now like it used to be way back in the day, and a new player that understands that X ability heals and Y ability does damage will never feel threatened in any overland fights they go into.

Ksariyu

The writing is okay. Not great, but there are some really good moments (I particularly recall the end of the Aldmeri campaign being pretty interesting).

The objectives are actually pretty good most of the time. While most of it still boils down to "Talk to x" or "collect x of y item," at least it's all presented in a way that feels fitting for the quest. It's not just, "Hey, I need 50 hide because. . . who knows?"

The difficulty is a bit boring. I know this is obviously personal preference, but I really feel the game would benefit from just having instanced interiors with either scaling or a vet toggle. Overland as a whole doesn't need to change, but infiltrating a hideout should feel at least moderately threatening.

The non-linearity of questing as a whole is undoubtedly one of the game's biggest strengths. I love the fact that I can start a new character and pretty much immediately play with a friend (Not that there are any left, but that's a different topic). Few things will turn me away from an MMO faster than having to play 90% of the game solo just to get to group content.

In general, I don't bother with questing much now because it's just not that engaging in its current state, but it's still one of the better iterations in the genre. A few tweaks to make it appealing to people who already cleared the base game (or any combination of activities to hit lvl 50) would be the only reasonable suggestion I could offer.

Starlight_Knight

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Starlight_Knight wrote: »

For me though the worst thing is the incentive to do them, there is none. as a player since lauch i havnt played a quest in years. becuase i get nothing for it.

You get Skill Points for completing zone storyline quests. I think each major zone's storyline is divided into 3 parts-- which, in the old base game (which I never got to experience in that version), corresponded to the 3 subzones of each major zone-- and you get a Skill Point (plus an Achievement/Title) upon completing each part. I'm not sure about the starter zones and smaller DLC zones, but I think you get at least 1 Skill Point from them, if not more. So doing the zone questlines is important if you're wanting to earn as many Skill Points as possible.

Also, the zone questlines seem to be designed to move you through each zone, and they-- along with the various side quests-- usually take you to out-of-the-way locations where there are skyshards, as well as lore books, treasure chests, etc. So if you're not using addons or websites that tell you exactly where everything is, or haven't done everything so many times on so many characters that you've memorized where everything is, doing the zone questlines and side quests can be helpful for finding all of the skyshards and lore books in a given zone. Even with the recent addition of skyshards to the map, it can still be difficult to find every single skyshard in a zone if you aren't doing the quests, since they don't show up on the map until you get within a certain distance of them.

Of course, you don't actually need all of the Skill Points that are available in the game, especially now that we have the Armory and can switch to different builds on our characters without having to pay respec fees each time.

I dont need skill points. i have a million already i cant even use them all and i havnt done a quest since morrowind. besides that you dont even need to quest for them you can just walk into a place a grab some skyshards or kill a group boss or something.
Another thing that triggers me, its not like i can even make an alt to go questing on becuase they already have 2.5k CP like me as well.
IMHO questing is an absolute waste of time, its incredably easy and pointless.
In fact if i was struggling to sleep one night i might consider doing a quest.

twev

The original game at release had linearity, you progressed your character through a storyline.

The 'new' game treatment has new players start in the new zones, in the middle of many story plot lines with no regard to continuity.
New players start in the middle of the game with whatever the DLC flavor is in the release cycle and don't have a beginning foundation.

And I hate meeting NPCs I've been playing with or had met earlier in the game who have no clue who I am, and my dialogue matches their amnesia. The game lacks character memory.

I understand the game/company doesn't want to gate plotlines to force players to adhere to a timeline, but too many things can/do happen out of sequence as a result, and the NPCs/storylines reflect that by just gluing too much stuff into the middle or near the end of plot sequences.

Saber91

Starlight_Knight wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Starlight_Knight wrote: »

For me though the worst thing is the incentive to do them, there is none. as a player since lauch i havnt played a quest in years. becuase i get nothing for it.

You get Skill Points for completing zone storyline quests. I think each major zone's storyline is divided into 3 parts-- which, in the old base game (which I never got to experience in that version), corresponded to the 3 subzones of each major zone-- and you get a Skill Point (plus an Achievement/Title) upon completing each part. I'm not sure about the starter zones and smaller DLC zones, but I think you get at least 1 Skill Point from them, if not more. So doing the zone questlines is important if you're wanting to earn as many Skill Points as possible.

Also, the zone questlines seem to be designed to move you through each zone, and they-- along with the various side quests-- usually take you to out-of-the-way locations where there are skyshards, as well as lore books, treasure chests, etc. So if you're not using addons or websites that tell you exactly where everything is, or haven't done everything so many times on so many characters that you've memorized where everything is, doing the zone questlines and side quests can be helpful for finding all of the skyshards and lore books in a given zone. Even with the recent addition of skyshards to the map, it can still be difficult to find every single skyshard in a zone if you aren't doing the quests, since they don't show up on the map until you get within a certain distance of them.

Of course, you don't actually need all of the Skill Points that are available in the game, especially now that we have the Armory and can switch to different builds on our characters without having to pay respec fees each time.

I dont need skill points. i have a million already i cant even use them all and i havnt done a quest since morrowind. besides that you dont even need to quest for them you can just walk into a place a grab some skyshards or kill a group boss or something.
Another thing that triggers me, its not like i can even make an alt to go questing on becuase they already have 2.5k CP like me as well.
IMHO questing is an absolute waste of time, its incredably easy and pointless.
In fact if i was struggling to sleep one night i might consider doing a quest.

So what do you think they could do or alter that would make questing viable for you outside of say difficulty changes etc? It’s nice to see differing opinions form long term players I think this thread has been quite insightful

DagenHawk

I think as far as questing goes much of it seems phoned in, which is baffling considering the game is story centric...it's like they are holding on just in case the raid or die crowd shows up again.

Tesman85

Maybe the majority of my time in-game is spent on questing, and I'm loving it. The writing in its core is definitely better than in other Elder Scroll games, except for Morrowind. I've got nothing against Oblivion or Skyrim in that department, though, but the main plots in those games were a bit flatter than they needed to be. There were many jewels among the side quests, but most of them were rather cookie-cutter. Not even going into Daggerfall, as it was a typical 90's video game mess writing-wise - a string of cool but often incoherent concepts tied haphazardly together.

In ESO there are quite enough of the fetch- and/or kill-monster/villain-quests, but they feel quite a bit more varied. Also, there sometimes are nice twists to the stories and choices to be made. I think the very good dialogue is behind this. The quest-givers can be quite quirky personalities, and their dialogue is mostly interesting. The mostly excellent voice acting is a huge help, too.

Also, I like how the writers reuse many NPCs in different quests, even if they only appear at minor ones. It makes it seem like they do have lives of their own, and as a bonus they mostly have different dialogue if the player character has met them before. Some great NPCs, like Crafty Lerissa and Lady Laurent, can also pop up in the unlikeliest of places with fun quests. It makes the world feel much more alive and inter-connected between its parts. No wonder I like the questing so much. I even bought the game in large part because I read in reviews that it had great quests, and for once the reviews didn't lie.

As for alliance and main quests, they are very well constructed, too. For instance, I spent most of the previous few days playing the Dominion questline to its end, and one or two evenings were stretched too long because I simply couldn't stop playing. Because of how naturally the quests flowed into the next one, I had a bad case of the "one more quest"-itch, a feeling that's always a mark of a good game.

One thing I particularly loved was how some of the villains were somewhat ambiguous or even a bit sympathetic. Magistrix Vox in the Pact questline is a great villain, for example. She is actually very believable, because her path from a true believer to an apostate avenger is perfectly understandable. Besides, seeing how the Tribunal is presented between the lines in the game, she also isn't nearly entirely wrong. So, her being a villain isn't so much about her views as about her extreme deeds. This is storytelling I very much like, especially when mixed in with all the other storylines where the villain is just a straight up villain. So, variety again, which is always good.

Nothing is perfect, however. For instance, I said "very good" dialogue, not "excellent". This is because of the often annoying repetition. I do understand why the writers make NPCs regurgitate things so much, but sometimes it seems to underestimate the player's intelligence just a tad too much. Speaking of which, I would wish the player character didn't look like an idiot so often in his/her dialogue options. Too much asking about the obvious or something the NPC said just a second ago. Fortunately I have a good imagination, so often I just imagine something less inane. Also, there are moments when there is too much lecturing in the NPC dialogue (some parts of Alchemy's lines in the Rellenthil quest, for instance).

There are problems with quest difficulty, too. These villains that are built up as so powerful go down all too easily. Killing them is all too often somewhat of an anti-climax. A partial solution is to play the questlines with a new, under-50 character, but even like that the challenge is a bit too small. Thus, I'd like if one could for instance choose a "hard-mode" in all quests, where the main villains would be so tough that they would present a lvl 50 solo player some true challenge (but still be beatable without a million CP or hours of training).

Saber91

Tesman85 wrote: »

Maybe the majority of my time in-game is spent on questing, and I'm loving it. The writing in its core is definitely better than in other Elder Scroll games, except for Morrowind. I've got nothing against Oblivion or Skyrim in that department, though, but the main plots in those games were a bit flatter than they needed to be. There were many jewels among the side quests, but most of them were rather cookie-cutter. Not even going into Daggerfall, as it was a typical 90's video game mess writing-wise - a string of cool but often incoherent concepts tied haphazardly together.

In ESO there are quite enough of the fetch- and/or kill-monster/villain-quests, but they feel quite a bit more varied. Also, there sometimes are nice twists to the stories and choices to be made. I think the very good dialogue is behind this. The quest-givers can be quite quirky personalities, and their dialogue is mostly interesting. The mostly excellent voice acting is a huge help, too.

Also, I like how the writers reuse many NPCs in different quests, even if they only appear at minor ones. It makes it seem like they do have lives of their own, and as a bonus they mostly have different dialogue if the player character has met them before. Some great NPCs, like Crafty Lerissa and Lady Laurent, can also pop up in the unlikeliest of places with fun quests. It makes the world feel much more alive and inter-connected between its parts. No wonder I like the questing so much. I even bought the game in large part because I read in reviews that it had great quests, and for once the reviews didn't lie.

As for alliance and main quests, they are very well constructed, too. For instance, I spent most of the previous few days playing the Dominion questline to its end, and one or two evenings were stretched too long because I simply couldn't stop playing. Because of how naturally the quests flowed into the next one, I had a bad case of the "one more quest"-itch, a feeling that's always a mark of a good game.

One thing I particularly loved was how some of the villains were somewhat ambiguous or even a bit sympathetic. Magistrix Vox in the Pact questline is a great villain, for example. She is actually very believable, because her path from a true believer to an apostate avenger is perfectly understandable. Besides, seeing how the Tribunal is presented between the lines in the game, she also isn't nearly entirely wrong. So, her being a villain isn't so much about her views as about her extreme deeds. This is storytelling I very much like, especially when mixed in with all the other storylines where the villain is just a straight up villain. So, variety again, which is always good.

Nothing is perfect, however. For instance, I said "very good" dialogue, not "excellent". This is because of the often annoying repetition. I do understand why the writers make NPCs regurgitate things so much, but sometimes it seems to underestimate the player's intelligence just a tad too much. Speaking of which, I would wish the player character didn't look like an idiot so often in his/her dialogue options. Too much asking about the obvious or something the NPC said just a second ago. Fortunately I have a good imagination, so often I just imagine something less inane. Also, there are moments when there is too much lecturing in the NPC dialogue (some parts of Alchemy's lines in the Rellenthil quest, for instance).

There are problems with quest difficulty, too. These villains that are built up as so powerful go down all too easily. Killing them is all too often somewhat of an anti-climax. A partial solution is to play the questlines with a new, under-50 character, but even like that the challenge is a bit too small. Thus, I'd like if one could for instance choose a "hard-mode" in all quests, where the main villains would be so tough that they would present a lvl 50 solo player some true challenge (but still be beatable without a million CP or hours of training).

I actually think this is a very well thought out answer that isn’t so much of a ‘I find it boring etc’ like some have put here and you’ve described your issues which some have issue with but worded in a constructive way and I thank you for that. For me currently I have had no issue with the writing per say I have noticed the repetition and ‘dumb player character’ questions but generally it’s not been invasive to my immersion. I do agree they need to look at difficulty somewhat before next chapter or something because I imagine with the influx of players from the wow exodus a lot more people will see the ease. I mean to be honest with 14 you still get moments of side quest mobs or characters being a cake walk, it’s not entirely avoidable they just need to have more variables or switches on their scaling formula I think.

I personally like what you said about Morrowind, it’s my favourite of the franchise and what got me into the franchise. I felt the writing was really well done but above al the lack of handholding. Reading journals finding landmarks etc it amplified the experience I think oblivion and Skyrim lost that along the way. ESO suffers from it to but funnily enough I could imagine by the time ES6 comes out that ESO might be more an Elder scrolls game than ES6 will be with the direction they’ve been going with each instalment.