No more story quests for a whole year

Heartrage

Every year, we got the same content reskinned to another race and theme with the same dailies we got since thieves guild. I’m very happy that they decided to mix things up and Iook forward to the endless dungeon.

gariondavey

Lugaldu wrote: »

Well, yes... we just got Necrom (which is done really great) and new quests, but I've been thinking all along that that's about it for a full year now! No new quests in Q4, instead an endless dungeon. At the moment I can't even imagine that there shouldn't be anything new for a whole year for people like me, who primarily enjoy the story quests. Let's put it this way, that doesn't make me happy.

What's your opinion on this?

Bruh I pvp and we haven't gotten anything since a new bg map in like 2018

Lugaldu

gariondavey wrote: »

Bruh I pvp and we haven't gotten anything since a new bg map in like 2018

I always have the impression that PvP was the original idea, but it never paid off financially and was therefore never further developed.
I would assume that a not insignificant portion of the income comes from sales of cosmetics in the shop on the one hand and housing on the other hand, which is extremely expensive compared to everything else in the game. So it's more worth bringing out new zones with new houses and new furniture than a new area where people can PvP.

Reverb

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ESO+ definitely lost a lot of value due to this decision imo. Not so much I decided to cancel but I definitely consider it a significantly worse deal than it was.

Contrast that against the umber of people, myself included, who cancelled their sub and didn’t buy Necrom, refusing to financially suppprt a studio that won’t prioritize fixing and maintaining existing content.

A good studio can do both improving existing and developing new content. Zeni can do one or the other. For years they’ve prioritized the latter, now just once they’re finally slowing down new content to stabilize the game and it’s resulting in outcry.

ProudMary

Lugaldu wrote: »

gariondavey wrote: »

Bruh I pvp and we haven't gotten anything since a new bg map in like 2018

I always have the impression that PvP was the original idea, but it never paid off financially and was therefore never further developed.
I would assume that a not insignificant portion of the income comes from sales of cosmetics in the shop on the one hand and housing on the other hand, which is extremely expensive compared to everything else in the game. So it's more worth bringing out new zones with new houses and new furniture than a new area where people can PvP.

Except the PvP community spends more per capita on the game than any other subset of the community. The PvP players have to buy the latest greatest dlc for all the latest OP gear ZOS puts in their expansions etc. PvP players are the most consistent players in the game other than the end game PvE trifecta players, which ZOS has pretty much pushed out of the game as well with U35. From the end game player perspective ZOS is really moving the game into a maintenance only phase and catering to the strictly casual player almost exclusively.

TheImperfect

I don't know if this will be a continual thing but if it ups the already high quality of quests then it's ok. I would obviously love more quests anytime. Interested to see what the endless dungeon will be like.

Lugaldu

ProudMary wrote: »

Except the PvP community spends more per capita on the game than any other subset of the community. The PvP players have to buy the latest greatest dlc for all the latest OP gear ZOS puts in their expansions etc.

But the PvP people only buy the latest DLC once while the housing people also buy the expensive houses in the zones and the furniture - and the latter in particular is unlimited. So I'm not sure that this calculation really works, that the PvP players in particular are supposed to be the "golden goose" of ZOS.

markulrich1966

Lugaldu wrote: »

ProudMary wrote: »

Except the PvP community spends more per capita on the game than any other subset of the community. The PvP players have to buy the latest greatest dlc for all the latest OP gear ZOS puts in their expansions etc.

But the PvP people only buy the latest DLC once while the housing people also buy the expensive houses in the zones and the furniture - and the latter in particular is unlimited. So I'm not sure that this calculation really works, that the PvP players in particular are supposed to be the "golden goose" of ZOS.

this, plus the amount is too low.
You have 60 per faction in a campaign, and outside of events you don't have very long queues and just 1 full campaign (xbox NA, EU is much worse).
So you have 180 players in cyro at prime time. Average amount of players in PVE is several thousand most likely, observing steamcharts (PC).
Another indicator is whitestreak mayhem (PVP event), during the last event in may amount of average players dropped by 20% on steamcharts, while it usually rises up to 20% during PVE events like anniversary.
I am definately not against PVP, I actually enjoy cyro now and then and reached first sergeant on 4 logins, but the numbers are pretty clear.

emilyhyoyeon

Lugaldu wrote: »

ProudMary wrote: »

Except the PvP community spends more per capita on the game than any other subset of the community. The PvP players have to buy the latest greatest dlc for all the latest OP gear ZOS puts in their expansions etc.

But the PvP people only buy the latest DLC once while the housing people also buy the expensive houses in the zones and the furniture - and the latter in particular is unlimited. So I'm not sure that this calculation really works, that the PvP players in particular are supposed to be the "golden goose" of ZOS.

The people who do zone content and housing also need to buy the DLCs too by default. There is no way PVP players spend the most.

NettleCarrier

It's risky on ZOS's part for sure, but we honestly need it. There's issues in the game that have either been adopted as part of the game or just laughable that they've persisted for so long. Players often say they want to put releases on hold and focus on fixing the game, and now they are giving it a try. Let's see what happens before we jump all over them.

Also, as others have pointed out, there's a lot of great games out there. Why not give them a try if you've still got the story itch?

MasterSpatula

Reverb wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ESO+ definitely lost a lot of value due to this decision imo. Not so much I decided to cancel but I definitely consider it a significantly worse deal than it was.

Contrast that against the umber of people, myself included, who cancelled their sub and didn’t buy Necrom, refusing to financially suppprt a studio that won’t prioritize fixing and maintaining existing content.

A good studio can do both improving existing and developing new content. Zeni can do one or the other. For years they’ve prioritized the latter, now just once they’re finally slowing down new content to stabilize the game and it’s resulting in outcry.

"Stabilizing the game" and "creating new story content" are different skills performed by different specialists. ZOS could continue to delver us story while while the gameplay team focuses on bug fixes, stabilization, and performance rather than their usual strategy of shaking everything up for the sake of shaking things up.

I might let my own sub lapse for the first time since 2016. Outside of Galen, which was dreadful, the Autumn DLCs have been where they've consistently knocked it out of the park on storytelling. And that's primarily why I'm here, why I remain. Why would I remain if they're choosing not to give me what I pay for? If you charge the same, you should deliver the same.

Sarannah

Personally I am fine with no storycontent for such a while. There is still so much I want to do in-game, and with the new arcanists it became even more. Even a year won't be enough to do all of my to-do list.

In a year I will still have too much left to do. This game is huuuuuuuuuuge! And I hope future expansions are something to look forward to(like Necrom), hoping they will have plenty of content in them. (new classes, new races, new companions, etc)

Note: ZOS could release single companions as DLC content.

PS: I don't count dungeons as storycontent, as there is basically no way to follow the story in there.
PPS: I'm never in a hury, so I approach everything in a relaxing pace. Which is why everything takes me so long.

tenryuta

maybe theyre readying for the starfield/eso crossover thanks to sheo doing some weird prank on herma mora, opening a portal to the future, and we the chosen... by every kingdom/org/aedra/daedra to save the day.. again, but someone on that side(future) gives a us key 'doodad' -sheo, that lets us come and go as we please:)

tsaescishoeshiner

In my case, it gives me time to catch up on the older quests, as I've been struggling to make time for it.

I don't just look forward to the new story quests, but a new zone overall—story, sets, atmosphere, furnishings, worthwhile achievements etc etc. We very well might get new sets and cosmetics in Q4 even though there's less to explore.

Personally, I think they should expand on character-based quest series like the companion quests, because I've enjoyed getting to know a character and their story much more than almost any other sidequests. They're shorter than the zone quests, but the characters really shine.

Anifaas

I’m feeling a little gutted by this. I had so much fun doing the Necrom quest chain that now, having to go back to the same stale routine, I’m finding it hard to login. I feel like in every other MMO I play new expansions/chapters involve more content than this. It’s probably the least amount of content I’ve ever experienced for $60.

AzuraFan

ProudMary wrote: »

PvP players are the most consistent players in the game other than the end game PvE trifecta players...

Huh? I rarely PvP and I'm definitely not a PvE trifecta player, but I log in consistently every day and do stuff. "Casual" doesn't mean not spending significant time/money on ESO.

vsrs_au

I'm keeping an open mind, and waiting to see what the rest of the year has to offer. I'm a solo player, so hopefully the endless dungeon really is suitable for solo play, because the Necrom group events seem to have even more strict group requirements than previous chapters' group events.

I'm not in the same situation as others who have done all the quests up to this chapter, though: there are many zones where I still haven't done most of the side quests, and my main quest progression is currently partly through the Deadlands DLC, so there's no shortage of activities for me.

ankerous

It could always be worse. Even with just the dungeons from earlier in the year and the chapter, it is still more new story content than Fallout 76 has received. I've seen plenty of people ask ZOS to take a quarter off or more time and work on long time issues and QOL stuff so at least they still will be working on that kind of thing rather than nothing at all during the same time period.

Necrotech_Master

they have teased that Q4 would be the new system, i highly doubt that the entire release for Q4 is going to be that

to take a hypothetical, that would be like them saying Q4 release would be a card game and then releasing no other content besides the card game, or releasing companions and doing nothing else besides adding the companions

if the plan is an endless dungeon, im sure they will have some story content surrounding it than just "go to instance and do this" with literally no other changes or new items with the rest of the game

also for those complaining about no pvp content, they have added new sets for pvp almost every year now (and no, im not going to get into what people thought about those sets, and yes i know its not anything new "mechanics" or "gameplay" wise like a new zone or game mode, but the sets technically are obtainable through pvp)

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Lugaldu wrote: »

If I think about it further... After all, not only is there no new story content for a full year, but also no new areas to explore. Right now I'm realizing again that that's a big part of the pre-release anticipation and then the fun - exploring new territory.

All in all, it feels like an extreme shortage of content.

This get worse by how the chapter we do get isn't bigger than previous ones. It would've been more okay if a lot of content and work was put into the chapter, which it sounded like what they would do, when they previously talked about coming content before Necrom's showcase. A single big chapter they could focus on to give it a lot of content and portray the areas and its people well. But of what I've seen that's not the case. It seems to be a lot like previous chapters and just like Blackwood so is there not much focus spent on the region, its people and culture, but mostly daedric stuff.

Northwold

I know this is a heresy on the official forum, but I assume people are aware that other games exist to tide them through?? The sheer volume of original story content that would be necessary to keep players satisfied 365 days per year, year after year, would be nuts. And one way to address that problem is exactly what they're doing: focus on repeatable systems and gameplay experiences that don't depend entirely on plot for satisfaction.

AzuraFan

Northwold wrote: »

I know this is a heresy on the official forum, but I assume people are aware that other games exist to tide them through?? The sheer volume of original story content that would be necessary to keep players satisfied 365 days per year, year after year, would be nuts. And one way to address that problem is exactly what they're doing: focus on repeatable systems and gameplay experiences that don't depend entirely on plot for satisfaction.

Other games have been mentioned a lot in this thread, actually. But the danger is that if players leave the game and start playing something else, they might never return.

I agree that they need to focus on repeatable systems, but those systems need to be interesting. There needs to be some randomness, and they need to involve all the zones and DLCs. For example, the undaunted guy who gives the delve quests cycles through a tiny subset of the delves that are available. No delves in zones outside the base game. Add another quest giver for those. Also the same thing applies for the mages guild quests. Add more public dungeons to the mix. Add more quests for all the guilds - they're under-utilized. Have random quest givers you can run into on the roads. Have a quest giver that has you delivering letters to people - some deliveries are routine and others not. There's so much they could add and I hope they're getting creative in that way.

ETA: They could also add quest givers for WBs, similar to the undaunted quest givers, where everyone gets the same quest every day. I know there are dailies in each of the non-basegame zones for this, but let's face it, many zones aren't that populated and players who can't solo a WB are often out of luck. So have two quest givers, one for the base game and the other for chapters/DLCs, that give a daily quest to kill a WB. That way there will be a bunch of players all doing the same WB on the same day. They should do a similar thing for other content that's difficult for players to do because the population just isn't there. A specific harrowstorm for example, not just any old one. It's difficult doing some of the harrowstorms in Western Skyrim - those in Blackreach. Make the reward decent and players will do these quests.

TaSheen

I just have no interest in other games. TES is my home for gaming - not just the single player games (which I have played since Arena released, so since 1994) but also now ESO.

Really the only thing "better" about ESO is that it's not static like the single player games are. Yes there are mods for the single player games, but they aren't the same as fresh new content.

katanagirl1

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

If I think about it further... After all, not only is there no new story content for a full year, but also no new areas to explore. Right now I'm realizing again that that's a big part of the pre-release anticipation and then the fun - exploring new territory.

All in all, it feels like an extreme shortage of content.

This get worse by how the chapter we do get isn't bigger than previous ones. It would've been more okay if a lot of content and work was put into the chapter, which it sounded like what they would do, when they previously talked about coming content before Necrom's showcase. A single big chapter they could focus on to give it a lot of content and portray the areas and its people well. But of what I've seen that's not the case. It seems to be a lot like previous chapters and just like Blackwood so is there not much focus spent on the region, its people and culture, but mostly daedric stuff.

I don’t have Necrom yet, but this is a concern of mine as well. I feel like the past few chapters have had less in the way of exploration just in the overland. There should be interesting little places tucked into the corners of the map to discover, with something other than a single provisioning sack and a fire pit. There is a lot of detail in the outside environment sometimes but often so little of it has any way of interaction, just visuals. I do like to just ride around sometimes and look at the scenery when I am tired of fighting, but it would be nice to have another, deeper layer of interaction with the gaming world.

Lugaldu

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

This get worse by how the chapter we do get isn't bigger than previous ones. It would've been more okay if a lot of content and work was put into the chapter, which it sounded like what they would do, when they previously talked about coming content before Necrom's showcase. A single big chapter they could focus on to give it a lot of content and portray the areas and its people well. But of what I've seen that's not the case. It seems to be a lot like previous chapters and just like Blackwood so is there not much focus spent on the region, its people and culture, but mostly daedric stuff.

Exactly! It sounded in the announcements that we would get more in Q2 as a "replacement" for the missing new DLC in Q4 with new area and new quests, but I don't get that impression either. The area is not significantly larger than in the previous chapters and neither is the content. The number of side quests also seems to me to be even lower than in previous chapters.

Aporcrypha and the city of Necrom are really great new zones, but Telvanni Peninsula doesn't add anything new in terms of regions. Everything is too reminiscent of Vvardenfell for my taste - which of course makes some sense in terms of content, [snip]

[edited for bashing]

Hurbster

tenryuta wrote: »

maybe theyre readying for the starfield/eso crossover thanks to sheo doing some weird prank on herma mora, opening a portal to the future, and we the chosen... by every kingdom/org/aedra/daedra to save the day.. again, but someone on that side(future) gives a us key 'doodad' -sheo, that lets us come and go as we please:)

I'm just waiting until the ActiBlizz acquisition takes place and we get the WoW crossover.

Vrienda

As someone who rarely gets all the stability issues people always seem to complain about it was incredibly frustrating to see a DLC essentially cut. Though I am glad to see the year-long story hit the road. Especially after it brought down the quality of Galen. It means that the story could continue in Winterhold or Fallenesti instead of say... the actual Telvanni Peninsula a little North of Necrom.

To think we've lost an entire story DLC for what is essentially going to be ESO's version of Torghast is just depressing.

Braffin

AzuraFan wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

I know this is a heresy on the official forum, but I assume people are aware that other games exist to tide them through?? The sheer volume of original story content that would be necessary to keep players satisfied 365 days per year, year after year, would be nuts. And one way to address that problem is exactly what they're doing: focus on repeatable systems and gameplay experiences that don't depend entirely on plot for satisfaction.

Other games have been mentioned a lot in this thread, actually. But the danger is that if players leave the game and start playing something else, they might never return.

I agree that they need to focus on repeatable systems, but those systems need to be interesting. There needs to be some randomness, and they need to involve all the zones and DLCs. For example, the undaunted guy who gives the delve quests cycles through a tiny subset of the delves that are available. No delves in zones outside the base game. Add another quest giver for those. Also the same thing applies for the mages guild quests. Add more public dungeons to the mix. Add more quests for all the guilds - they're under-utilized. Have random quest givers you can run into on the roads. Have a quest giver that has you delivering letters to people - some deliveries are routine and others not. There's so much they could add and I hope they're getting creative in that way.

ETA: They could also add quest givers for WBs, similar to the undaunted quest givers, where everyone gets the same quest every day. I know there are dailies in each of the non-basegame zones for this, but let's face it, many zones aren't that populated and players who can't solo a WB are often out of luck. So have two quest givers, one for the base game and the other for chapters/DLCs, that give a daily quest to kill a WB. That way there will be a bunch of players all doing the same WB on the same day. They should do a similar thing for other content that's difficult for players to do because the population just isn't there. A specific harrowstorm for example, not just any old one. It's difficult doing some of the harrowstorms in Western Skyrim - those in Blackreach. Make the reward decent and players will do these quests.

Interesting idea, which I'd like to see implemented.

The major issue I see with adding DLC zones to base game questgivers is, not everyone has access to this zones. That's why I think zos won't bother doing it.

alternatelder

As of now, I will be enjoying it simply because: Diablo 4, Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, Spider-man 2, and few others I can enjoy while ESO hits a new content drought.

Jammy420

Summerset, Clockwork City, and Morrowind were my three favorite expansions, they are in depth, very well fleshed out, and visually stunning and unique. Blackwood, Greymoor and High isle, not so much, so I am very happy with the move back to memorable story archs instead of forgettable year long stories.