So whatever happened to that Q&A?

BretonMage

VaranisArano wrote: »

So, whether you think that content is worthwhile or not, ZOS does, and they create it to keep a wide variety of players engaged with ESO.

I'm glad they do. I enjoy the diversity of people and activities in ESO, and I'd hate to think that they would abandon any group of players.

As to the Q&A, I assume they're taking a step back to assess and plan (which they said in the U36 preview), and I'm fine with that. Well, resigned anyway. I hope that means we get something good in U37 though.

spartaxoxo

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

MetallicMonk wrote: »

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

Not at all, I want a Cooperative story RPG that isn't gated by a few dozen hypercompetitive grognards that believe they can't have fun unless they ruin everyone else's game...

and let's face it stands most people who play ESO views Raiding like this...
(And for good or bad..this reputation is self inflicted.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJV6WFFYpI&t=18s

ZoS has already found out that having most of the game like a Coop Skyrim is a winner with record profits, which is why 98% of the game is already like this. And yes it would stop Toxicity and while a handful of players would leave (because let's face it who actually raids or PVP's anymore?) the rest of the community would flourish and ESO would be hailed as having one of the least toxic communities of all, not to mention the time and money saved on producing content that few even see much less play.

it's a win-win.

just completely remove any worthwhile content who needs it.

Patronizing insults aside....

If it's so "Worthwhile" why is it that less than 3% of the community even bothers with it?

The mistake you're making is assuming that enjoying quests and that content is mutually exclusive. I enjoy questing. I enjoy vet content. I wouldn't be here if the game leaned too far in either direction. Dungeons give me stuff to do when I don't feel like questing. Many players are the same. Many don't engage in the tougher stuff in a hardcore way, but they'd miss it if they were gone. On top of that, there almost certainly be an effect on people who don't do that stuff at all, when their friends, guild masters, etc left the game. A lot of this game is socializing with others. You can't just delete any portion of the playerbase, and expect none of their friends to go with them. Hardcore players also tend to be the ones spreading word of mouth advertisement on social media.

Many games ensure they have content that caters to more core players for these reasons.

But I digress, as this thread is for the Q&A. I just needed to say that because I think it's a sentiment we see all too often, and it's not how the devs or we should view the game IMO.

spartaxoxo

BretonMage wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

So, whether you think that content is worthwhile or not, ZOS does, and they create it to keep a wide variety of players engaged with ESO.

I'm glad they do. I enjoy the diversity of people and activities in ESO, and I'd hate to think that they would abandon any group of players.

As to the Q&A, I assume they're taking a step back to assess and plan (which they said in the U36 preview), and I'm fine with that. Well, resigned anyway. I hope that means we get something good in U37 though.

I am guessing and hoping that U37 will give us balance changes they've made, as a response to our feedback. I hope the U37 preview serves as both a semi-Q&A for U35 and a preview of U37. If that isn't the case, I will definitely believe they failed us on the promised U35 Q&A. I don't have high hopes, but for me that's when the benefit of the doubt will end.

Ghaleb

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I am guessing and hoping that U37 will give us balance changes they've made, as a response to our feedback. I hope the U37 preview serves as both a semi-Q&A for U35 and a preview of U37. If that isn't the case, I will definitely believe they failed us on the promised U35 Q&A. I don't have high hopes, but for me that's when the benefit of the doubt will end.

I am still waiting for the announced Q&A and an outlook on their vision, which they highlighted in their combat preview statement. I would have thought that it would be easy to communicate a vision to your customer base, especially when you already have it at hand.

But the months(!)-long delay of any related communication leaves IMHO two options:
1. It basically wasn't there and they, as seemingly usual, simply distributed nerfs because "reasons" and now they are (are they?) scrambling to define a vision towards which the game shall strive to, without alienating even more of their playerbase
2. The vision is so bad that it needs a rework. See #1

Because, lets be honest here. If I tell you I have my homework and you want to see it and I drag it out for months... You would have valid reasons to not believe me.

So:
- Q&A on the thought process, reasons and justification on U35 for me to understand why they thought it would be a good idea to "punish" the dps-wise lower 80% of their playerbase with U35 in the name of accessibility
- Vision to understand where the game is heading

spartaxoxo

Ghaleb wrote: »

But the months(!)-long delay of any related communication leaves IMHO two options

You're forgetting option 3. They decided to make changes based off what they learned, and will present not just their sentiment but also concrete patch changes they have finished developing at the same time. We'll see come U37 if option 3 was the issue.

Ghaleb

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Ghaleb wrote: »

But the months(!)-long delay of any related communication leaves IMHO two options

You're forgetting option 3. They decided to make changes based off what they learned, and will present not just their sentiment but also concrete patch changes they have finished developing at the same time. We'll see come U37 if option 3 was the issue.

I didn't forget Option 3. I am simply not that optimistic that they will handle the fallout of U35. The fallout of U35 would have given them ample time to figure at least little things out for U36, as we of course need to consider time it takes for changes to be developed, tested, etc. But in U36 they even double down on nerfs by nerfing the Templar another round.

I simply don't expect them to correct their approach.

spartaxoxo

Ghaleb wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Ghaleb wrote: »

But the months(!)-long delay of any related communication leaves IMHO two options

You're forgetting option 3. They decided to make changes based off what they learned, and will present not just their sentiment but also concrete patch changes they have finished developing at the same time. We'll see come U37 if option 3 was the issue.

I didn't forget Option 3. I am simply not that optimistic that they will handle the fallout of U35. The fallout of U35 would have given them ample time to figure at least little things out for U36, as we of course need to consider time it takes for changes to be developed, tested, etc. But in U36 they even double down on nerfs by nerfing the Templar another round.

I simply don't expect them to correct their approach.

I don't either but it's a distant possibility. We might get pleasantly surprised. I certainly won't hold my breath, but I'm not gonna treat it as impossible until they actually disappoint either. I was deeply unimpressed with U36 but they also stated that what will address that sentiment is still in the future. So okay, we shall see. Like I said, I'm not holding my breath.

SammyKhajit

Pacrooti is taking bets on the Q&A response.

He promised Sammy that if he can make a living by being a bookie, he will renounce grates peddling 🤔

And no, a bookie is not someone who reads but a facilitator of gambling 🎰

Jaraal

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Ghaleb wrote: »

But the months(!)-long delay of any related communication leaves IMHO two options

You're forgetting option 3. They decided to make changes based off what they learned, and will present not just their sentiment but also concrete patch changes they have finished developing at the same time. We'll see come U37 if option 3 was the issue.

But we're not looking for a U37 Q&A, and that's not what they promised.

spartaxoxo

Jaraal wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Ghaleb wrote: »

But the months(!)-long delay of any related communication leaves IMHO two options

You're forgetting option 3. They decided to make changes based off what they learned, and will present not just their sentiment but also concrete patch changes they have finished developing at the same time. We'll see come U37 if option 3 was the issue.

But we're not looking for a U37 Q&A, and that's not what they promised.

It can be both.

ETA:

They could something like answer fake questions based off common feedback.

E.g.

"One common question we got was
"Wasn't Update 35 supposed to increase accessibility? What about people with accessibility issues that find more emphasis on spammables makes the game more difficult to play?"

Our goal was to reduce the actions needed when we increased the aoe and dot damage. However we did notice an increase in the amount of spammables being used after the patch. We agree this misses the mark a bit. So, we'd like to address this in U37. In the upcoming patch there is across the board nerfs for all spammables in the game. We've cut their damage in half, to de-emphasize their importance in your kits. "

Note: This is entirely fake. Something I made up to illustrate the concept. LOL

Elsonso

BretonMage wrote: »

As to the Q&A, I assume they're taking a step back to assess and plan (which they said in the U36 preview), and I'm fine with that. Well, resigned anyway. I hope that means we get something good in U37 though.

I'm of the opinion that there is no active work happening on any Q&A, at the moment.

MidniteOwl1913

I would still like to know why my not-very-good damage had to be nerfed. I assure you it was not bloated. And doing so while claiming to help me is just insulting.

And the nerf to healing, that is continuing with U36. I'd like to know what other than because of PVP (I know a global nerf wasn't what they asked for, but that's what we all got) was the reasoning behind that. And why they felt the need to continue with the beatdown in U36.

And why my DK isn't any fun to play anymore. Yes, I have messed with the build, but why force me to do that? What was the point of it all!

So yes I'd really like an explanation. Better late than never.

Indigogo

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

And the nerf to healing, that is continuing with U36. I'd like to know what other than because of PVP (I know a global nerf wasn't what they asked for, but that's what we all got) was the reasoning behind that. And why they felt the need to continue with the beatdown in U36.

Constant feedback on the forums that healers are obsolete in most pve content, undesirable to many in dungeon groups, and overall too easy.
It's sadly easy to see why they nerfed it all around. The lazy and cheap option, rather than addressing the mistake of making heals scale from damage.

LukosCreyden

There isn't going to be a Q&A.
Communication is very sparse currently, likely due to the fact that the devs are mostly busy working on this mysterious new game. I genuinely believe that the funky balance changes happening all the time are because they cannot / are unwilling to add new combat features to the game, so tipping class.balance on its head is the closest we can get to freshening things up.

Hurbster

Well, there can't be much left in the Big Book of Excuses, surely?

Drammanoth

Hurbster wrote: »

Well, there can't be much left in the Big Book of Excuses, surely?

Ah... we know the answer to this, even though it's as clear as day this is a rhetorical question.

SilverIce58

Drammanoth wrote: »

Hurbster wrote: »

Well, there can't be much left in the Big Book of Excuses, surely?

Ah... we know the answer to this, even though it's as clear as day this is a rhetorical question.

I wouldn't be surprised if their answer is to take to twitter to reprimand their players.

FluffyBird

Hurbster wrote: »

Well, there can't be much left in the Big Book of Excuses, surely?

They always can reskin some old ones

Destai

To get this thread back on track, I'd like to offer some actual questions about U35. Perhaps others can place their questions here, in hopes it actually gets seen and relayed.

1. Given the initial stated goal was to increase accessibility, what was operating definition of accessibility and how did that help shape the initial development designs for this U35?
2. Following U35, did you see an increase in player's progression, like an uptick in challenging content participation?
3. Why was boss reduced by a blanket 10% - did that help bridge gap?
4. What measures were used to evaluate the gap between top-tier and casual players' damage?
5. Why wouldn't you take the opposite approach of upping lower-tier damage? Top-tier are often great at weaving, which implies most of their damage is sourced from that. Wouldn't upping skill-damage across the board help make up for that?
6. Will future content be more accessible, to prevent needing top-tier damage?

@ZOS_Kevin Hopefully you can revisit this thread, help address community concerns around both communication and U35. Players expect regular updates on open hot-topics, so hopefully that's something you and your team can work towards. Earlier, I asked for clarification on what exactly is planned here as well, hoping you can answer those questions.

robofly

I doubt we'll ever hear anything about this again, given what we've seen from the devs these past few months. Doesn't help that they've gone from ignoring this PR disaster to having to put out the flames from U36's disastrous launch, best we can do is keep this thread alive, make sure they know we haven't forgotten, and they can't just sweep this under the rug.

BahometZ

Update 37, we'll still be waiting on an honest justification for update 35.

fizzylu

LukosCreyden wrote: »

There isn't going to be a Q&A.
Communication is very sparse currently, likely due to the fact that the devs are mostly busy working on this mysterious new game. I genuinely believe that the funky balance changes happening all the time are because they cannot / are unwilling to add new combat features to the game, so tipping class balance on its head is the closest we can get to freshening things up.

This is kind of where my view on the situation is. It also makes me think of a video I recently watched about WoW's new expansion (Dragonflight) and how Blizz increased the whole team on it, but especially the engineers have gone up by 60%. This is probably to make sure their servers and engine are capable of handling the new features they're adding like dragon riding and their new race/class combo's abilities (highly mobile, fast paced, and even uses a new type of spell casting).
Meanwhile Zenimax has been trying to work on ESO's server/engine stability for years and lowkey failing.... they struggled right out the gate with the engine and servers handling physics (again, this is why we don't have things like capes despite even older games managing to do them just fine).... and they're constantly using the engine and servers as reasons why they can't add new or even improve features. This blows my mind because I know ESO has to be making bank off it's players.... yet it seems like that money is getting invested elsewhere.

LesserCircle

Guys, I have come to the conclusion that we're not the costumers, we are the payers. The real costumers must be the share holders. As long as ESO keeps earning a big amount of money they don't care about us enough to even have a Q&A

nightstrike

Destai wrote: »

To get this thread back on track, I'd like to offer some actual questions about U35. Perhaps others can place their questions here, in hopes it actually gets seen and relayed.

There's a fundamental problem with a Q&A that I think might make having one somewhat fruitless. It's a question and answer of their thought process, but it has no bearing on the future. It serves only to provide a tiny window into understanding a decision. But at least in the case of AwA, the thing that I personally am passionate about, their answers were dubious. As a paying customer, I don't want to ask questions like "why did you make this bad decision?" and I don't want to get answers like "our database can't scale.". I want THEM to ask ME questions, like "How important are achievements to you on a scale of 1 to 10?" and I want to be the one providing answers like "11". And I want follow through from that to see that paying customers have real influence. Instead, a fake Q&A where they ask themselves questions and provide carefully crafted answers is not really very useful. We saw this with AwA, and it was awful.

They tried this, kind of, after the reveal event. There were follow up threads that asked questions about the video production and how it was received and solicited feedback on a variety of topics. That was a nice attempt. But they asked mostly superficial questions and deleted negative replies, so...... nice idea, but disappointing execution.

We fundamentally lack a voice to get across desires, and a U35 Q&A won't fix that. You can send in /feedback, but that's /dev/null. You can post on the forum, but you can't express your true feelings, or you get censored. You can cancel subs or quit, but that's ergo decedo. What can you do?

Jaraal

nightstrike wrote: »

There's a fundamental problem with a Q&A that I think might make having one somewhat fruitless. It's a question and answer of their thought process, but it has no bearing on the future. It serves only to provide a tiny window into understanding a decision.

And I think that's probably what most are interested in. They obviously are happy with the results, or they would have addressed and changed them before U35 and especially U36 launch. But we want to know why they announced accessibility improvements and reduction of the skill gap, but then released something that actually goes against those stated goals. And they mentioned that their goals for the update were ultimately conflicting, so we would like to have more insight on why they chose one path and abandoned the other. Plus we want to know why they said they wanted to nerf the high end, but ultimately made high end content 10% easier, while leaving regular content the same difficulty for the newly nerfed low end players.

Let's not forget that there's also the matter of integrity and truthfulness regarding following through on what they said they would do. We were told a Q&A was coming, but they've yet to deliver. The management said they wanted more trust from us. Well, trust is earned. And that works both ways. Even saying, "We've decided we're not going to do what we said, and there will be no U35 Q&A as promised" would be better for their long term reputation than just continuing to suggest that updates on the matter may or may not be coming at some time in the future.

FluffWit

I'm tremendously confident our wonderful, hard working, talented creative team is working non stop to get this Q&A completed to the tremendously high standards we've come to expect from Zenimax Online Studios!

The fact they haven't even given us a chance to ask the questions absolutely should not be taken as a sign they've simply decided not to bother.

And my personal decision to cancel my sub and stop playing absolutely isn't a sign update 35 was anything but an overhwelming success and another feather in the cap of our brilliant creative and combat teams.

I certainly didnt give up because my Templar is absolute trash now and the only build I can make work is a DK Cleave spammer that bores me to sleep. Cleave is great! I love not using sticky dots- the skill that used to define my class and give it an identity. Class identity is so overrated!

KlauthWarthog

At this rate, this thread will get closed for being too old before we get an update on this subject.

SammyKhajit

This thread was created on 17th August 2022. Today is 7th November 2022 and with no response in sight…..

ErMurazor

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno any ETA on this? It's way overdue at this point.

LesserCircle

This is just depressing, they don't want us playing this game people, they must be busy with their new MMO.