Unfortunately, with AwA coming tomorrow and still no mention of a delay, I think it's inevitable it's going to get pushed to live.
Gina said they were going to keep the data in case something catastrophic happened. Maybe if they get droves of people asking tomorrow what's going on with their achievements and all (and by that I mean like hundreds of people flocking to the forums to ask what the heck is going on), they'll reconsider and roll back, though it's unlikely since it would reset any progress anyone made between release and said rollback.
Crown_of_Antlers wrote: »Today I'll sign into each of my characters, take one more look at them, and say goodbye. I'll miss them, especially my pair of Bosmers whom I roleplay as the ancestors of my TES3 character, but if never logging in on them again is the only way to keep my characters achievements from being blended together into one, so be it. ZOS will not get another dime or another log-in from me.
We got one tiny squeak (from the Q&A), then nothing. Radio silence.
And then to still be told "we're working on our communication"...
It's proof that the word "communication" was used as buzzword and there was not really any intention on doing so. And it's why I've pulled my financial support from this game after supporting it continuously (and on multiple accounts) for years.
I'm not naïve, so I know that I'm nothing more than a line in a database (irony?) with an account number and a credit card number attached to it to a large company like this. It that I feel like we were given meaningless lip service, that has left this bitter taste in my mouth. Because they never really cared about us, the players.
comrade_ogilvy wrote:After wandering around pts on a low level character for a bit [actually, bucky was co-opted] into starter zones like stonefalls, auridon and senschal(s.elsewyr) the ambient npc chatter seems to be mostly silenced. This may simply be because whatever rng mechanic wasn't triggered but it did seem eerily and noticeably quiet. This silence does NOT extend to main quest line npc's ("I swear it was sai sahan..." or "do you know how long I've been looking for you" and, naturally, "dragons in your homeland...") which are still noticeably present. Additionally, some npc's (eg Nahrina in Sentinel Alik'r when approached will NOT recognise the new character and her dialogue reflects that her side quest in an alik'r delve has not been completed) seem ok too; but I only tested one or two of these. My low-level character was not greeted with anything reflecting account-wide progresss by npc monologues - no 'saviour' etc mentions in my brief wanderings in sentinel, senschal, rivenspire and wayrest but, again, those comments are rng and may simply have not been triggered.
All the previous overland issues are still conspicuously present: world objects approached like delves will show initially as dark but as soon as the 'found' trigger occurs, the map turns them white. World bosses etc are shown as complete if AWA has recorded them as complete.
The add-on created by @silvereyes (CharacterZoneTracker) makes some cosmetic changes to both the map and and the zone guide such that current, live behaviour is more or less retained: incomplete delves show as incomplete on the map and the map-inset zone guide pretty much has everything as it should be (exception: tooltips show awa data). Unfortunately, the add-on changes are cosmetic in that it has no effect, understandably, on game mechanics - when you enter a delve the boss will take 5+ mins to spawn if AWA has recorded the delve as complete. When you kill a delve boss you will get the text acknowledgement that it's complete but no corresponding pop-up graphic if awa has recorded it as already done. I didn't test world bosses or other stuff due to time constraints.
image showing u33(no add-ons) incomplete delve on approach from perspective of low-level character. Note that inset and 'full' zone guide shows completion of various zone activities not done by the character but recorded by awa as 'complete'.
image showing CharacterZoneTracker add-on changes to ui from same low-level character: the incomplete delve is still blanked as it should be and the map inset zone guide is showing that this new character has done nothing yet in zone. Once the delve boss is killed (after the LONG wait) - the add-on updates the map and inset zone guide to reflect this fact(not shown).
The CharacterZoneTracker add-on was enabled/disabled to generate the images. The data was collected from live (VERY IMPORTANT FOR ADD_ON TO WORK) by loading into each character with the add-on active then transferred to pts saved variables for testing. No other add-ons were active during testing except, briefly, to test if there were any conflicts with other add-ons or game errors.
From this brief testing, with the add-on - assuming you download it before u33 and backup your savedvariables - it seems to restore some of the replayability removed with the awa implementation. For console users dismayed by this awa implementation, I am truly sorry there is no apparent workaround for you.
All of this begs the question, however: given zos were asked for a client-side implementation why was none implemented and why was that requested potential feature question not addressed in the q&a? Personally, I remain opposed to the implementation of awa and would have preferred keeping what we have and adding account-wide separately.
Thanks to @code65536 and @silvereyes for 11th hour add-on provision. And for Bucky for passing on this test information which I hope may be of interest.
No need to... you should be able just to copy your saved vars lua for the lib addon (after you've logged out - it updates its saved vars on char logout) in a usb stick and then place it into the saved vars folder of the other machine.When you play on more than 1 computer (same account and characters), would you have to cycle through all the characters on each computer for the mentioned addons to be effective in saving your character data?
Bucky Balls wrote: »Posting on behalf of comrade_ogilvy who is 'currently tied up in room 101'.comrade_ogilvy wrote:After wandering around pts on a low level character for a bit [actually, bucky was co-opted] into starter zones like stonefalls, auridon and senschal(s.elsewyr) the ambient npc chatter seems to be mostly silenced. This may simply be because whatever rng mechanic wasn't triggered but it did seem eerily and noticeably quiet. This silence does NOT extend to main quest line npc's ("I swear it was sai sahan..." or "do you know how long I've been looking for you" and, naturally, "dragons in your homeland...") which are still noticeably present. Additionally, some npc's (eg Nahrina in Sentinel Alik'r when approached will NOT recognise the new character and her dialogue reflects that her side quest in an alik'r delve has not been completed) seem ok too; but I only tested one or two of these. My low-level character was not greeted with anything reflecting account-wide progresss by npc monologues - no 'saviour' etc mentions in my brief wanderings in sentinel, senschal, rivenspire and wayrest but, again, those comments are rng and may simply have not been triggered.
All the previous overland issues are still conspicuously present: world objects approached like delves will show initially as dark but as soon as the 'found' trigger occurs, the map turns them white. World bosses etc are shown as complete if AWA has recorded them as complete.
The add-on created by @silvereyes (CharacterZoneTracker) makes some cosmetic changes to both the map and and the zone guide such that current, live behaviour is more or less retained: incomplete delves show as incomplete on the map and the map-inset zone guide pretty much has everything as it should be (exception: tooltips show awa data). Unfortunately, the add-on changes are cosmetic in that it has no effect, understandably, on game mechanics - when you enter a delve the boss will take 5+ mins to spawn if AWA has recorded the delve as complete. When you kill a delve boss you will get the text acknowledgement that it's complete but no corresponding pop-up graphic if awa has recorded it as already done. I didn't test world bosses or other stuff due to time constraints.
image showing u33(no add-ons) incomplete delve on approach from perspective of low-level character. Note that inset and 'full' zone guide shows completion of various zone activities not done by the character but recorded by awa as 'complete'.
image showing CharacterZoneTracker add-on changes to ui from same low-level character: the incomplete delve is still blanked as it should be and the map inset zone guide is showing that this new character has done nothing yet in zone. Once the delve boss is killed (after the LONG wait) - the add-on updates the map and inset zone guide to reflect this fact(not shown).
The CharacterZoneTracker add-on was enabled/disabled to generate the images. The data was collected from live (VERY IMPORTANT FOR ADD_ON TO WORK) by loading into each character with the add-on active then transferred to pts saved variables for testing. No other add-ons were active during testing except, briefly, to test if there were any conflicts with other add-ons or game errors.
From this brief testing, with the add-on - assuming you download it before u33 and backup your savedvariables - it seems to restore some of the replayability removed with the awa implementation. For console users dismayed by this awa implementation, I am truly sorry there is no apparent workaround for you.
All of this begs the question, however: given zos were asked for a client-side implementation why was none implemented and why was that requested potential feature question not addressed in the q&a? Personally, I remain opposed to the implementation of awa and would have preferred keeping what we have and adding account-wide separately.
Thanks to @code65536 and @silvereyes for 11th hour add-on provision. And for Bucky for passing on this test information which I hope may be of interest.
SilverBride wrote: »I wonder what players who know nothing about this are going to think when they log in tomorrow.
alberichtano wrote: »Bucky Balls wrote: »Posting on behalf of comrade_ogilvy who is 'currently tied up in room 101'.comrade_ogilvy wrote:After wandering around pts on a low level character for a bit [actually, bucky was co-opted] into starter zones like stonefalls, auridon and senschal(s.elsewyr) the ambient npc chatter seems to be mostly silenced. This may simply be because whatever rng mechanic wasn't triggered but it did seem eerily and noticeably quiet. This silence does NOT extend to main quest line npc's ("I swear it was sai sahan..." or "do you know how long I've been looking for you" and, naturally, "dragons in your homeland...") which are still noticeably present. Additionally, some npc's (eg Nahrina in Sentinel Alik'r when approached will NOT recognise the new character and her dialogue reflects that her side quest in an alik'r delve has not been completed) seem ok too; but I only tested one or two of these. My low-level character was not greeted with anything reflecting account-wide progresss by npc monologues - no 'saviour' etc mentions in my brief wanderings in sentinel, senschal, rivenspire and wayrest but, again, those comments are rng and may simply have not been triggered.
All the previous overland issues are still conspicuously present: world objects approached like delves will show initially as dark but as soon as the 'found' trigger occurs, the map turns them white. World bosses etc are shown as complete if AWA has recorded them as complete.
The add-on created by @silvereyes (CharacterZoneTracker) makes some cosmetic changes to both the map and and the zone guide such that current, live behaviour is more or less retained: incomplete delves show as incomplete on the map and the map-inset zone guide pretty much has everything as it should be (exception: tooltips show awa data). Unfortunately, the add-on changes are cosmetic in that it has no effect, understandably, on game mechanics - when you enter a delve the boss will take 5+ mins to spawn if AWA has recorded the delve as complete. When you kill a delve boss you will get the text acknowledgement that it's complete but no corresponding pop-up graphic if awa has recorded it as already done. I didn't test world bosses or other stuff due to time constraints.
image showing u33(no add-ons) incomplete delve on approach from perspective of low-level character. Note that inset and 'full' zone guide shows completion of various zone activities not done by the character but recorded by awa as 'complete'.
image showing CharacterZoneTracker add-on changes to ui from same low-level character: the incomplete delve is still blanked as it should be and the map inset zone guide is showing that this new character has done nothing yet in zone. Once the delve boss is killed (after the LONG wait) - the add-on updates the map and inset zone guide to reflect this fact(not shown).
The CharacterZoneTracker add-on was enabled/disabled to generate the images. The data was collected from live (VERY IMPORTANT FOR ADD_ON TO WORK) by loading into each character with the add-on active then transferred to pts saved variables for testing. No other add-ons were active during testing except, briefly, to test if there were any conflicts with other add-ons or game errors.
From this brief testing, with the add-on - assuming you download it before u33 and backup your savedvariables - it seems to restore some of the replayability removed with the awa implementation. For console users dismayed by this awa implementation, I am truly sorry there is no apparent workaround for you.
All of this begs the question, however: given zos were asked for a client-side implementation why was none implemented and why was that requested potential feature question not addressed in the q&a? Personally, I remain opposed to the implementation of awa and would have preferred keeping what we have and adding account-wide separately.
Thanks to @code65536 and @silvereyes for 11th hour add-on provision. And for Bucky for passing on this test information which I hope may be of interest.
If I may play the cynic again (as it is what I do best) - they knew that modders would solve it for them. As with so, so many other bugs, issues and matters of QoL, modders do a lot of work that ZOS then simply doesn't have to. It is a rare thing to see implementations that were once part of a mod, and even then it is often (though admittedly not always) wrenched to become a selling point. Compare the modded versions of the Armory and the one created by ZOS - the modded versions were free, the ZOS-version is free to a very limited degree.
So that is why, I believe.
DarcyMardin wrote: »Re the new add-ones, which I’ve installed and am very thankful for — this might be a stupid question, but I’m no code expert:
once I have finished signing in all my characters and the data in the saved variables file, will it stay saved when I play the game after the update tomorrow? it won’t be overwritten by ZOS’s new code? (I’m assuming that add-on file is separate from the game code, but I’ve never actually looked at what’s in the files in my various ESO folders).
SilverBride wrote: »I wonder what players who know nothing about this are going to think when they log in tomorrow.
DarcyMardin wrote: »Re the new add-ones, which I’ve installed and am very thankful for — this might be a stupid question, but I’m no code expert:
once I have finished signing in all my characters and the data in the saved variables file, will it stay saved when I play the game after the update tomorrow? it won’t be overwritten by ZOS’s new code? (I’m assuming that add-on file is separate from the game code, but I’ve never actually looked at what’s in the files in my various ESO folders).
I have talked with Code (who wrote the library) and he has it setup so that it will not update if it detects update 33 as the version of the game being run.
I'd still recommend making a backup of the saved variables file just in case.
For the rest... Anyone who has been around here for long enough knows that the number one skill required for long term ESO play is the ability to adapt to change. ZOS twiddles with the game, sometimes in a manner that seems random, four times per year, every year. Long term play of ESO is not for those who lack skill in the ways of change.
SpiritKitten wrote: »I spent the last two weeks doing Kari's Hit List and some skyshard runs, but I just can't do it anymore. Burnt out. 3 of my alts will not get Kari's TG xp I guess. Skyshard runs will be more difficult going forward. I can live with this, because I learned long ago to adapt to change in MMOs. We do not have the ultimate power over our characters or the game world. The devs do. They work in mysterious ways.
I feel sad about all the alts being deleted/parked/stripped. I went the opposite route after the AWA announcement, and bought them all their own homes and have begun decorating them so they know that I love and value them and would never delete them. I've begun respeccing them so they can be whole, even if played less.
Deleting alts so their name doesn't appear on a line of text in a tooltip (in the achievement panel) seems overboard and emotional, and an act many will regret I would bet.
Let's not lose sight of one enormous truth: we are privileged to be able to play in an MMO at all. I grew up before the internet even existed. A lot of you seem to take this wonderous digital realm for granted. Please take a step back and see the larger picture.
DarcyMardin wrote: »Re the new add-ones, which I’ve installed and am very thankful for — this might be a stupid question, but I’m no code expert:
once I have finished signing in all my characters and the data in the saved variables file, will it stay saved when I play the game after the update tomorrow? it won’t be overwritten by ZOS’s new code? (I’m assuming that add-on file is separate from the game code, but I’ve never actually looked at what’s in the files in my various ESO folders).
The_Boggart wrote: »This juggernaut will be rolling out and squashing my characters into an homogeneous paste.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my characters. I'm thinking of doing the nuclear option which is to delete all but one so I have NO achievements on my account messing up the integrity of the game world. Then use PTS to play out everything, take note of which achievements destroy NPC reactions and narrative integrity, and avoid those like they're a horrible plague. Or I will simply let my characters sit and never touch them again and walk away. I have today to think about and prepare for this. I'm not happy.
SpiritKitten wrote: »Deleting alts so their name doesn't appear on a line of text in a tooltip (in the achievement panel) seems overboard and emotional, and an act many will regret I would bet.