I’m not saying you can’t be excited about new content but…

MoreTune

I’ll preface this by saying you are entitled to your own opinions. But there is a difference between being excited for a new land to explore and the sheer disappointment in the content available for a year long expansion.

There seems to be almost a 2/3 vs 1/3 split on the forums and Reddit in regards to disappointment vs excitement (respectively). Which is the worst I’ve ever seen since playing this game and seeing response to new content. And I can’t tell if people are actually excited for a card game or just excited for a new map area.

This isn’t another post to explain why you are disappointment or excited but it’s more of a discussion point to be honest with yourself.

The overwhelming majority are disappointed in things we already know (no new classes, skill lines, spellcrafting, PVP updates etc). We know this. I can’t believe this expansion was made to the announcement without any meaningful content. No trial? Nothing? It’s almost like they rushed to complete a project the night before it was due and slapped on a card game.

Hopefully ZoS sees these concerns and makes some needed changes to content. Isn’t that the whole point of the forums and feedback?

No doubt High Isles will be beautiful and I’m sure all of us are even a “little” excited to see a bright new world. However, it’s almost a slap to the face to call this a new year long chapter and expect us to be okay paying full price for below average work. So I urge you, if you are excited about this expansion and make posts praising it, really ask yourself is this what you expected and are okay with playing as is?

CyberOnEso

They did annouce a trial, which I am very much looking forward to.

If they did not maybe I would be much more down on the chapter, however, I play the trials and dungeons a great deal and always look forward to more of them.

I was very happy with the new base game systems they added in the previous year, the new CP system, the curated RNG system and the armory, and I am looking forward to seeing the additional base game features they add this year. The marketable systems are in my opinion secondary to the base game additons, trials and dungeons they add in the year, and that's what I am most interested in anyways.

I am interested to try out the new card game, but whatever you think of it technically speaking it is not just a last minute thing, you don't make a new system like this as a last minute thing. You may not be excited for it but technically speaking it is a challenge to create all the systems they have discussed for Tales of Tribute.

In terms of development resources I can almost certaintly say that Tales of Tribute took more to create than the Psijic Order line and Jewlry Crafting, both of which are great. But this wasn't just a quick last minute thing.

sajackson

Do you want more content or do you want the various bugs and performance issues fixed?

ADarklore

Finally getting away from the 'world is ending' doom and gloom Daedric prince storylines... I'm all for that! I'm happy they are adding two new companions, disappointed that they're two female companions though and not a male/female offering. I'm unsure of the card game, seems a bit lame... although if it were more a Yu-Gi-Oh type of game I'd have more fun with that. A 'strategy' game doesn't appeal to me because I play ESO to 'not' think... I do enough thinking at work.

So overall... excited for a medieval location... but beyond that, not too much else to be excited about. I did pre-order the collector's upgrade and also ordered the Knight statue too.

redlink1979

Up: I'm looking forward for a new area to explore, the Breton lore to be discovered and of course dungeons and the trial.
The political plot (as it was described) is a loaf of fresh air and sounds interesting but my expectations aren't very high considering what has happened in the past.
Let's hope for the best.

Down: Just disappointed with "Elder Scrolls Legends 2.0", card games aren't my cup of tea. Not at all.

What I really wish is that PvP performance can be improved and that the old bugs can be addressed once and for all.
I'm a dreamer, I know....

Melivar

Always excited for a new zone and trail myself which are the reason I buy any chapter. Everything else is pretty much fluff that I will mess around with sure but won't impact my game play for the positive or negative.

A new class or skill line is always welcome though i still have the option for 3 more characters on my account. If I had 18 maxed out characters that I loved I would likely be very torn.

The perception that the majority of people are unhappy based on the forums and reddit is a bit interesting though. There we 70K + people on the stream yesterday and I'd bet that if you add up all the complaints, negative feedback you would come up with 10-20K people at best.

That doesn't count the people who hadn't even heard about the live stream or ever come to the forums who will just purchase the content when its time and carry on with their day.

Lugaldu

ADarklore wrote: »

... excited for a medieval location...

I'm not too excited about that either, when you're from Central Europe and there are medieval towns and castles everywhere, it's not really exciting. But I'm happy for everyone who finds it exciting and graphically it will certainly be beautifully done, no question.

Chilly-McFreeze

sajackson wrote: »

Do you want more content or do you want the various bugs and performance issues fixed?

How about both?

DagenHawk

MoreTune wrote: »

I’ll preface this by saying you are entitled to your own opinions.

Oh thank you kind sir, for allowing me to have an opinion.

Drammanoth

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

sajackson wrote: »

Do you want more content or do you want the various bugs and performance issues fixed?

How about both?

No, because money :[

Paulytnz

sajackson wrote: »

Do you want more content or do you want the various bugs and performance issues fixed?

Both, and guess what? That's what we are getting. You can't have it one way and say "all devs/employees should be working on the bug fixing side" because:

1 - It's not possible. Employees are trained in certain areas and can't be expected to be thrown into say bug fixing and know what they are doing. You realise there are probably people who do nothing than the clothing/costumes and other re-skins right? That's their job, their training put in practice. Some goes for quests/zones/etc etc etc.

2 - You would have the forum burning MORE with rage for not getting ANY playable features/toys. This would be far worse than what we have right now.

AlienSlof

ADarklore wrote: »

I'm happy they are adding two new companions, disappointed that they're two female companions though and not a male/female offering.

So much this. Gender equality please.

Paulytnz

AlienSlof wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

I'm happy they are adding two new companions, disappointed that they're two female companions though and not a male/female offering.

So much this. Gender equality please.

And next time they give 2 Males, to balance it out watch how the forum burns with rage 100 fold lol....

Don't get me wrong, the 2 females thing surprised me too so I am not on board with that 100%. Just saying, if it was the other way around it would probably be far worse.. Of course they could have avoided that and went Male/Female again, but I am sure they had their reasons. It could be that their metrics show people use Miri more or something like that, dunno.

AlienSlof

I was hoping for a male and female, for more variety.

And maybe people use Mirri more because Bastian is just an IDIOT! He says the dumbest things at the dumbest times, and doesn't even like cheese! [snip]? :0

[edited for profanity bypass]

Redguards_Revenge

Look, my name is redguards revenge for a reason!! (No specific lore, WORST racials in the game, etc.) but, I am willing to see the stuff first before making a decision if I am disappointed or not.

Spellcrafting? That would break the game if implemented hastily. NO thanks for now!!
PVP? Let them finish the server improvements before adding any of that.
Skill Lines? Probably 5 unlockable empty slots to put the spellcrafting skills on.
That spellcraftable skill must occupy the skill bar.

VaranisArano

After they announced the server re-architecture, my expectations for the new Chapter hit rock bottom.

I only wish they'd discounted High Isle to account for a year where the only new feature is a card game. (And companions if you don't own Blackwood, I suppose.)

Scaletho

Honestly I was tired of "hellish" worlds and depressing story lines. I enjoy so much Breton's Medieval ambience, but agree ZOS showed us very little to get excited.

I'm worry that ZOS give us mild DLC for HUGE prices. I'm still shocked by Blackwood's absurd expensive cost. I bought it on sale, and still I think the expansion didn't deserve so much money.

Well, let's see. Perhaps some surprises wait for us in the short future.

Soulshine

"Hopefully ZoS sees these concerns and makes some needed changes to content. Isn’t that the whole point of the forums and feedback?"

In a word - no.

Feedback around how the content offered actually functions is typically the only feedback that may carries any weight. When it comes to new releases especially, that means what is provided on the PTS forum once new content arrives for testing there; though even then, direct feedback provided via player testing doesn't mean that they will change anything.

Basic game features can occasionally get a tweak or two if in over weeks of testing they prove to have serious issues. Sometimes they listen, sometime they don't. That's about it.

Hurbster

It remains to be seen whether there is enough there to be worth a full price purchase. I truly hope that there is more to be announced.

tuxon

Imagine that we could have had an entire knight tournament (arena/mini-game) mounted on horses that we saw from the trailer.

Chilly-McFreeze

Drammanoth wrote: »

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

sajackson wrote: »

Do you want more content or do you want the various bugs and performance issues fixed?

How about both?

No, because money :[

I don't pay chapter prices for bugfixes. I expected their game to be running properly back when I bought it and I still pay them for that when I'm subbing.

Blacknight841

When you announce a game within a game as the main selling point of a chapter you are bound to get players that are disappointed. At least with antiquities the game was incorporated into the gameplay and the environment, with fishing, it takes place in the environment. Unless we are playing Pokémon in wilderness of eso, this will be played on a separate screen, completely detached from the game. This is the third year of no actual gameplay changing additions. Every year, each new chapter is more gutted than the previous one. At least with the antiquities, they were expanded on with both the dungeon and the story dlc the year in which greymoor released. With companions there was nothing, not a single new companion for a whole year. I truly though last year couldn’t be topped with the companions, but here we are.

As for the performance improvements… there are none. We have heard performance improvements are coming for the last half a decade, and still there is nothing noticeable. The “year of performance” was announced back in January of 2020, two years later … what happened to it?

I am perfectly happy with no major additions to the game, and only performance and quality of life changes, but that is not the case. Instead we get a replay to mail function after 6 years.

AJones43865

ZOS is just phoning it in now, as they have been for the last couple years. They don't have any actual game mechanic devs on staff. They only have an art department reworking and reskinning old content and items.

High Isle is a pared down and reworked summerset. The companions aren't a new thing and neither is a card game. None of this took any significant effort or planning on ZOS's part. (at least not compared to past expansions) In many regards ESO is an empty box with really good artwork on it now.

Seeing how weak High Isle is I am now wholly convinced they are not doing anything to improve performance. They are just continuing to say "we're working on it" as an effort toward damage control.

It looks like the staff at Zeni is now about 50% of what it was 8 years ago and their work products are really starting to show it.

Elsonso

sajackson wrote: »

Do you want more content or do you want the various bugs and performance issues fixed?

Both. With equal priority.

Scaletho wrote: »

. I'm still shocked by Blackwood's absurd expensive cost. I bought it on sale, and still I think the expansion didn't deserve so much money.

I pre-ordered High Isle. This card game had better be the most bestest card game ever created.

ZigoSid

I just realised that even the collector content is disappointing as it give a simple outfit (still better than a costume but still.) instead of a full new motif ...

Sarannah

I am actually excited about high isle, even though cardgames are not my cup of tea. But it is actually a new system, when they said we wouldn't get any new systems during the year of performance. So, that is only a plus for those who like it.

Other than that, the expansion seems like a regular ESO expansion. Zone, quests, public dungeons, delves, etc. Everything any expansion has. Two companions.... Awesome!

The only thing I dislike, is the year long story being in dungeons. AGAIN! Now I already do not like year long stories, as I will already have forgotten everything and everyone by the time the next story-part comes out. But placing parts of the story in dungeons, is a terrible mistake in my opinion. Stories in dungeons are totally lost on me.

But yeah, I am excited about the new expansion and will preorder it really soon.

MEBengalsFan2001

CyberOnEso wrote: »

They did annouce a trial, which I am very much looking forward to.

If they did not maybe I would be much more down on the chapter, however, I play the trials and dungeons a great deal and always look forward to more of them.

I was very happy with the new base game systems they added in the previous year, the new CP system, the curated RNG system and the armory, and I am looking forward to seeing the additional base game features they add this year. The marketable systems are in my opinion secondary to the base game additons, trials and dungeons they add in the year, and that's what I am most interested in anyways.

I am interested to try out the new card game, but whatever you think of it technically speaking it is not just a last minute thing, you don't make a new system like this as a last minute thing. You may not be excited for it but technically speaking it is a challenge to create all the systems they have discussed for Tales of Tribute.

In terms of development resources I can almost certaintly say that Tales of Tribute took more to create than the Psijic Order line and Jewlry Crafting, both of which are great. But this wasn't just a quick last minute thing.

IMO they should have created a free to play but pay to improve Tales of Tribute for mobile, PC and consoles. I'm sure it would have been more profitable given that not all ES fans play ESO.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

I'm disappointed in their half***** offering of accountwide achivements. It should be all or nothing. Just giving us titles and leaving out the main thing everyone wanted (motifs) really pisses me off. I don't care about titles, I just want to combine all the stuff I've learned on the old toons I no longer play with my new main. Every time ZOS nerfs a class to a point it's no longer desirable to play, you basically lose progress and knowledge. (insert grumpy face here)

Mythgard1967

AlienSlof wrote: »

I was hoping for a male and female, for more variety.

And maybe people use Mirri more because Bastian is just an IDIOT! He says the dumbest things at the dumbest times, and doesn't even like cheese! [snip]? :0

well..I hate Cheese...so I appreciate that about Bastian. That said....Bastian whines when I steal things...so I use Mirri. So l if I can have a companion who is ok with stealing and doesnt get all wound up about ripping butterfly wings off...and is mildly entertaining I am good...would be nice to be able to use Blade of Woe though.....

[edited to remove quote]

tuxon

AJones43865 wrote: »

ZOS is just phoning it in now, as they have been for the last couple years. They don't have any actual game mechanic devs on staff. They only have an art department reworking and reskinning old content and items.

High Isle is a pared down and reworked summerset. The companions aren't a new thing and neither is a card game. None of this took any significant effort or planning on ZOS's part. (at least not compared to past expansions) In many regards ESO is an empty box with really good artwork on it now.

Seeing how weak High Isle is I am now wholly convinced they are not doing anything to improve performance. They are just continuing to say "we're working on it" as an effort toward damage control.

It looks like the staff at Zeni is now about 50% of what it was 8 years ago and their work products are really starting to show it.

THIS> 10/10 well said.

spartaxoxo

I am looking forward to the new expansion and the card game is one of the more interesting aspects of it. However, I am not as excited as previous chapters.

I didn't see anything all that magical about the Bretons, which significantly killed my interest in a Breton themed chapter. I know there will likely fewer interesting Overland quests and the map will be sparser like Blackwood. Haven't seen it yet but they have already warned us fixes were the main priority next year so I am not gonna hold my breath it would be better in that regard.

There is a trial btw, not sure where that part came from. The dread sail reef.