Communuty report. Relationship status: it's complicated

Howda

Hi, trying to be constructive and with good intentions.


Situation is critical, few thoughts on the current community dynamics from my perception backed up by forums, reddit, YouTube and discord. Consider this as a report maybe and I suggest that someone from ZOS to take it over because it is a critical moment. If you don't have community reports by now.

Note: I don't see the numbers of people in houses or trials but probably the voices raised are only the negative ones because the ones that are silent:

- don't care
- are playing the game
- they already quit.

I will cover why people complain in more general sense.

Players are not happy with announced changes because current atmosphere is promoting lack of:

- Certainty (constant changes sucking out the fun, demanding more grind and disregarding current player's open projects)
- Respect (random dev comments with no PR clearance)
- Stability (all we read is negative comments and we will be afraid to "invest" time and money and start looking elsewhere. I know I am a grain of sand but deserts are made of grains of sand.
- Understanding the game from a Player's point of view


Players are also:

- tired from constant changes (example: Oakensoul should've been nerfed since day one, based from first PTS feedback and never touched again)
- asking for more meaningful changes based on feedback
- roadmap of possible direction (vision)

Based on community feedback. ESO should improve/ bring

- combat/animation changes
- new systems like jewelry crafting update and transmutation update or armory update (this was the real update)
- PvP overhaul, maybe instanced wars for better performance
- separation of pvp and pve so skills won't have to be changed constantly.


Few ideas on my end

- political system in Cyrodill with heroes (look at Archeage system)
- Wars like in New World on keeps and make holding a keep important
- justice system overhaul (overland pvp)
- Assigning guild houses and more housing options like promoting them as battlegrounds, even guildwars (both pve and pvp)
- Bring politics in zones with zone lords based on votes and other parameters, assign temporary titles like Lord of Windhelm


For near future, I strongly suggests:

- longer pts cycles with more firm long term changes (Oakensoul situation -> after 3 months the nerf arrived despite feedback since day one, assuming all stakeholders had good intentions)
- make HoTs named buffs that stack 2 times only
- bring stun, stagger, weakness on bosses. (Boss enrages we need to stun him with a class stun skills, boss makes signature move we need to stagger him with specific class skill, boss enters in weakness phase with a random chance from a class skill at specific point etc)
- add some new buffs and debuffs on class skills, on expense of Dots, because dots are not action combat. Having every skill being a dot makes the game little bit boring.
- Reducing the LA importance in combat (not fully implemented) if you ask me add all those effects that LA is applying to class skills and make LA just for resource recovery
- Make heavy attacks dmg dealing only and they can apply all LA effects like enchants and status effects, make enchant effects more visible like a combat text, so players can be more aware when to heavy attack. (Heavy Attacks are rooting players to ther ground they should not allow players to move even further, dmg should be buffed and resource recovery should be back on LA or completely moved to class skills, companions, healer sets and healing skills.

In conclusion, ZOS should appreciate that has such a devoted community. The problem starts when Players are silent and don't care. Indifference will kill the game. Make patches loveable because the feedback of the voices raised will shape the Streamer's content, public opinion and general status of the game.

Thank you.

Lykeion

Howda wrote: »

separation of pvp and pve so skills won't have to be changed constantly.

Exactly right. Trying to balance both pvp and pve on the same skill is often difficult, and dev often loses sight of the other when tweaking, as they did with Dark Cloak in 8.1.0 and 8.1.3. I'm glad they finally found a relative compromise for cloak, but it's usually not easy. Separating the effects of pvp and pve might be a more efficient solution.

I also hope that the set effects are separated for pvp and pve, so maybe they can design a Caluu that performs well in pve, as well as so many other sets that only used in pvp/pve.

Nathyiel

Howda wrote: »

separation of pvp and pve so skills won't have to be changed constantly.

+1

Most mmo do it because it's easier to balance.

Jaimeh

I'm disappointed at ZOS with their handling of update 35. Instead of being professional, extending an olive branch, and trying to meet the playrbase in the middle, they are responsible for creating further disputes in a lot of their communication in the forums, discord, and social media. This PTS cycle has shown to me that not only can't they take criticism dispassionately and with a discerning eye, but also that in their attempt to have a casual relationship with their players from a place of power they have created a situation that has devolved in naming-calling and pitch-fork hunting. It's so embarrassing and unprofessional.

Howda

Jaimeh wrote: »

I'm disappointed at ZOS with their handling of update 35. Instead of being professional, extending an olive branch, and trying to meet the playrbase in the middle, they are responsible for creating further disputes in a lot of their communication in the forums, discord, and social media. This PTS cycle has shown to me that not only can't they take criticism dispassionately and with a discerning eye, but also that in their attempt to have a casual relationship with their players from a place of power they have created a situation that has devolved in naming-calling and pitch-fork hunting. It's so embarrassing and unprofessional.

It feels like only business to client relationship and in this industry that is not enough. Even in other sectors, businesses test and conduct focus groups and provide the product that their customers want. I will stop here. ✋️

shadyjane62

The people I feel sorry for are most of the players who don't go to forums or read outside blogs.

They have no idea what's about to happen to them.

GreatGildersleeve

Assuming there IS a roadmap, the players will never see it. A roadmap implies an eventual final destination and thus, an end to sweeping combat changes like U35.

Given ZoS’ track record, the U35 style updates will not end.

Cyber10

The entire situation is disappointing to say the least. ZOS does not seem to care at all how the community feels or what they expect from ESO. I am done with ZOS!

thorwyn

Relationship status: it's complicated

Nothing that can not be fixed by a cooking stream and distributing pink unicorndragon-panda pets.

Nathyiel

thorwyn wrote: »

Relationship status: it's complicated

Nothing that can not be fixed by a cooking stream and distributing pink unicorndragon-panda pets.

only if we have a pets emote with it.