No more story quests for a whole year

spartaxoxo

Lugaldu wrote: »

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.

They stated in the announcements that Q1 and Q2 were going to be essentially unchanged and talked about wanting to reduce the number of quests in favor of more systems.

UnseenCat

Sarannah wrote: »

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.

As a long-term ESO player (since Xbox launch, and then switched to PC) I'm fine with this new release schedule too -- Particularly if it gives ZOS time to both address QOL and performance issues as well as take more time to create well-developed story content.

In the meantime, I have several idle alts I've been meaning to advance for several years now. And Cadwells quest, maybe. Heck, life gets in the way and I still need to complete Greymoor/the Reach/Fargrave. I can finally take some time to fine-tune a real workable PvP build. Slowing down the new content treadmill is actually appealing to me -- I can take my time and immerse myself in what we have in Tamriel, instead of racing through it. For new players, there's enough already in the game to keep them busy for ages without drinking from a firehose at the same time. ESO's game world is big enough and mature enough to keep old and new players busy for quite some time.

Lugaldu

spartaxoxo wrote: »

They stated in the announcements that Q1 and Q2 were going to be essentially unchanged and talked about wanting to reduce the number of quests in favor of more systems.

Yes, but right now it doesn't look like we're going to get "more systems". There was a new system with each chapter and now the new system that used to come with the chapter in Q2 has been moved to Q4. So we don't get more systems, but the annual new system was just separated and moved to Q4 instead of a DLC.

Giraffon

There are a lot of things they could do to refresh the game a bit without doing a ton of work:

- Refresh some of the more baron maps (Skyrim) with more resource nodes
- Allow class changes and integrate with armory station use
- allow resource nodes in player housing (ie: fishing, gardening, livestock)
- more storage
- allow players to disable account wide achievements during new character creation
- allow players to reset quests on a per map basis (with possible vet mode difficulty/reward option)
- add groupfinder to trials (yeah, yeah, not ideal for vet, but it opens up a lot of new content to casuals)
- daily rewards that are unneeded can be exchanged for gold
- Nothing in the crown store should cost more than 5K. You guys are out of control with 14K homes!
- custom companions (character creator level)
- Make all CP passive again
- add furniture crafting complete with skill tree and ability to deconstruct things
- add fishing skill tree instead of it being connected to just one or two food items or CP
- add polearms and hand to hand combat skill trees

So many more. It's not that hard to come up with ideas.

Braffin

Lugaldu wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

They stated in the announcements that Q1 and Q2 were going to be essentially unchanged and talked about wanting to reduce the number of quests in favor of more systems.

Yes, but right now it doesn't look like we're going to get "more systems". There was a new system with each chapter and now the new system that used to come with the chapter in Q2 has been moved to Q4. So we don't get more systems, but the annual new system was just separated and moved to Q4 instead of a DLC.

I would definitely call a class, especially one with a quite unique gameplay as arcanist has it, a new system. And if Q4 will have content in addition to the new system of endless dungeon nobody knows yet.

spartaxoxo

Lugaldu wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

They stated in the announcements that Q1 and Q2 were going to be essentially unchanged and talked about wanting to reduce the number of quests in favor of more systems.

Yes, but right now it doesn't look like we're going to get "more systems". There was a new system with each chapter and now the new system that used to come with the chapter in Q2 has been moved to Q4. So we don't get more systems, but the annual new system was just separated and moved to Q4 instead of a DLC.

I would agree. We got Battlegrounds AND a new class the last time around. I made a whole thread about ESO+ losing value.

AzuraFan

Braffin wrote: »

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.

The same applies to the dungeon quests, though. There's one undaunted quest giver that gives quests for DLC dungeons. That's why I suggested one quest giver for basegame WBs and one for DLC WBs - matches what they do for dungeons.

Another idea for rewards for these group content quests is to reward seals of endeavor (which would encourage players to do them), or have a mount/cosmetic/small house/something you can earn each month, and doing one of the dailies for group content awards a token toward earning whatever the thing is that month. That will also encourage players to keep doing them.

Just throwing this stuff out there because I'd like to see ZOS (a) provide incentives to do group content outside of dungeons (harrowstorms, WBs, lava vents, geysers, public dungeon group events, etc.) to help players who are in low pop areas and just can't get these things done outside of perhaps an event that only shows up for the zone every X years, and (b) to do something NEW and not just the same old, same old when it comes to these systems that will generate quests and such.

EramTheLiar

markulrich1966 wrote: »

we have seen a shift in the last years.

Story content getting less focus.
Replaced by new systems to keep people busy, like Antiquities, and most important: Events.
Each new chapter adds a new zone event, plus we soon will have 10th anniversary. I guess this year will be packed with events.

I personally miss new good story content, but I miss it since after Elsweyr already, because the stories thereafter were not great. Even skip Necrom this time after the decline of the last years.
So I will continue what I usually do, mainly dailies, events, with some breaks now and then (Fallout 76 Seasons, certainly Starfield too) to avoid another burnout from the repetitive content (had one already so took 5 months of complete break).

I just want to point out that the same release that gave us the Antiquities system also had one of the stronger story releases at the same time. I don't understand the Graymoor hate - story-wise it was very strong. Harrowstorms were annoying, definitely. But story overall? It even had one of my favorite tutorial/intros. I think Antiquities is a very poor example to use about a shift in priorities _away_ from stories. And the only other system we have, post-antiquities -- at least, the only system that comes to mind -- is the card game. OK, High Isle is not their best work, but two data points does not make a trend.

Rather, I think that ZOS has x number of people who can "do development" and when you have them working toward two releases a year instead of one it cuts into the amount of time they can spend going after bugs that require you to climb down into old code and figure out how to set things right. I can certainly believe that a lot of the things we want them to fix have been untouched due to the time it would take to identify in code and patch. And I can at least theoretically buy into the idea that if you cut the # of releases in half each year you can devote more time to actually fixing those bugs, though since the second part of the year involves releasing a roguelike dungeon I'm not sure if that's actually what we're getting this year.

But taking the statement at face value - "we're cutting our content in half to spend more time on bug fixing" - I'm behind that.

Braffin

AzuraFan wrote: »

Braffin wrote: »

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.

The same applies to the dungeon quests, though. There's one undaunted quest giver that gives quests for DLC dungeons. That's why I suggested one quest giver for basegame WBs and one for DLC WBs - matches what they do for dungeons.

Another idea for rewards for these group content quests is to reward seals of endeavor (which would encourage players to do them), or have a mount/cosmetic/small house/something you can earn each month, and doing one of the dailies for group content awards a token toward earning whatever the thing is that month. That will also encourage players to keep doing them.

Just throwing this stuff out there because I'd like to see ZOS (a) provide incentives to do group content outside of dungeons (harrowstorms, WBs, lava vents, geysers, public dungeon group events, etc.) to help players who are in low pop areas and just can't get these things done outside of perhaps an event that only shows up for the zone every X years, and (b) to do something NEW and not just the same old, same old when it comes to these systems that will generate quests and such.

Yeah, didn't think about the solution for dungeons.

I also support your idea of adding quest givers for basegame WBs (was always quite odd they were left aside when fighter and mages guild dailies were introduced). I'm not so sure about DLC WBs and delves tho, as most of them already have daily quests attached to them in their respective zone.

Maybe it's sufficient to add some sort of noticeboard in alliance capitals for content already covered by existing dailies, where one may quickly grab them, while implementing quest givers for content still unrelated to dailies (I think most of DLC public dungeons lack reasons to re-visit them).

And I'm definitely with you when we speak about rewards. Some system to encourage people revisiting older content (especially world events and world bosses) is needed to keep things healthy in lower pop areas. Maybe do them on a rotational schedule to avoid too much "cherrypicking". I think your idea about tokens would work quite fine.

Ashryn

As much as I love story content and will miss having 2 quarters dropping that kind of content, I think the quality of Necrom has felt that more care was put into it. That tells me that keeping up with two drops of new story content every year needed more people working on it then the company is willing to put into ESO at this time. More then likely the new game projects are getting the builk of the creative content developers. ESO is probably trying to do the best it can with less workers devoted to it.

LunaFlora

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

They stated in the announcements that Q1 and Q2 were going to be essentially unchanged and talked about wanting to reduce the number of quests in favor of more systems.

Yes, but right now it doesn't look like we're going to get "more systems". There was a new system with each chapter and now the new system that used to come with the chapter in Q2 has been moved to Q4. So we don't get more systems, but the annual new system was just separated and moved to Q4 instead of a DLC.

I would agree. We got Battlegrounds AND a new class the last time around. I made a whole thread about ESO+ losing value.

elsweyr was the last chapter with a class and did not have battlegrounds

spartaxoxo

LunaFlora wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

They stated in the announcements that Q1 and Q2 were going to be essentially unchanged and talked about wanting to reduce the number of quests in favor of more systems.

Yes, but right now it doesn't look like we're going to get "more systems". There was a new system with each chapter and now the new system that used to come with the chapter in Q2 has been moved to Q4. So we don't get more systems, but the annual new system was just separated and moved to Q4 instead of a DLC.

I would agree. We got Battlegrounds AND a new class the last time around. I made a whole thread about ESO+ losing value.

elsweyr was the last chapter with a class and did not have battlegrounds

True. Fair point. Elsweyr was a Year-Long Story though whereas the last time we had a story arc and a new class was Morrowind. The Daedric War was specifically the content they told us to compare the planned content cadence to.

Bo0137

I am genuinely ok with one big quest-focused expansion per year. Yes, I would love more and more quest content but I feel like the team at ZOS works better doing this one-a-year expansions. It is just clear, judging by the quality of Necrom. Necrom feels like Orsinium, which feels like *excellent* content. So yeah I'm 100% fine with it going this way because I'd rather have quality and longevity rather than filling my belly with half-baked stories. (For clarification, I aboslutely loved every single past expansion and story DLC, it's just that Necrom stands out way more)

AzuraFan

Braffin wrote: »

I also support your idea of adding quest givers for basegame WBs (was always quite odd they were left aside when fighter and mages guild dailies were introduced). I'm not so sure about DLC WBs and delves tho, as most of them already have daily quests attached to them in their respective zone.

The difference with my proposed DLC WB quest-giver is that it would be located in the alliance capitals (or the undaunted enclave if that would work) and it would give the same quest to everyone every day, just like the undaunted pledges do.

Right now, let's say you need a WB in Murkmire. Good luck. You go pick up the quest in Murkmire and hope that one of the other four players in the zone needs the same WB. With the new WB quest-giver, everyone in the game that day would get a quest to kill the same WB. So if you need the WB in Murkmire, just wait until the day that WB quest given out and then you can go to Murkmire and there will be lots of players killing that WB that day.

StihlReign

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?

hmm...

2023/2024

Q 1 Bug Fixes/QoL polling/feedback/schedule
Q 2 Bug fix feedback
Q 3 QoL/fixes again
Q 4 Bug Fixes

DeltaForce64x

Development video games and its content have been slow since 2019 or perhaps even before. Dunno why but certainly annoying, I just can't wait 4-5 months only to get 2-3 hours of story content. Industry needs to fix this.

Northwold

DeltaForce64x wrote: »

Development video games and its content have been slow since 2019 or perhaps even before. Dunno why but certainly annoying, I just can't wait 4-5 months only to get 2-3 hours of story content. Industry needs to fix this.

How?

endgamesmug

Just dont have stories anymore, kill the stuff get the things

NeuroticPixels

I’m totally okay with no more story content for the rest of the year. I now have 2 new characters that need their mounts trained, professions leveled, and their new companions leveled and rapport maximized.
On top of that, I have loads of treasure maps and surveys to do.

Besides maximizing/completing all 20 characters (so I can do anything and everything on every single one of them), the main thing I enjoy is making gold through selling on guild traders. 🤷‍♀️

Jammy420

Been playing the xpac for a few days now and still havent finished it, this has been the most substantial dlc since a long time, if you fast travel everywhere and avoid everything except the main story, you are missing a ton of content that ties into the game.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Jammy420 wrote: »

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.

Yes, those were nice, but Clockwork was a story dlc, not a chapter. Same was Murkmire, Thieves Guild, Dark brotherhood etc, and now we won't get any of those.

I'm wondering what's the point of ESO+ when there's less content. To me, content is not constantly farming dungeons over and over again.

Jammy420

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Jammy420 wrote: »

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.

Yes, those were nice, but Clockwork was a story dlc, not a chapter. Same was Murkmire, Thieves Guild, Dark brotherhood etc, and now we won't get any of those.

I'm wondering what's the point of ESO+ when there's less content. To me, content is not constantly farming dungeons over and over again.

I mean, this chapter was about the length of clockwork city and morrowind combined really. At least thats my experience so far. And if they are really spending time fixing long standing issues and bugs and implementing QOL improvements, I am down. It felt like the quality was suffering from the super crunch regiment.

spartaxoxo

DeltaForce64x wrote: »

Development video games and its content have been slow since 2019 or perhaps even before. Dunno why but certainly annoying, I just can't wait 4-5 months only to get 2-3 hours of story content. Industry needs to fix this.

The pandemic caused delays across the industry.

thedocbwarren

DeltaForce64x wrote: »

Development video games and its content have been slow since 2019 or perhaps even before. Dunno why but certainly annoying, I just can't wait 4-5 months only to get 2-3 hours of story content. Industry needs to fix this.

You might see this at some point with AI generated content. I think it's a cost alternative to the current model. Doubt this happens for a while but I do see this happening at some point.

OtarTheMad

I honestly don't blame them for toning it down so much. Covid messed up a lot and got things really backlogged when it came to performance improvements and hardware changes. Plus, they have that PvP code rewrite thing and the mess that was 2022 with players getting burned out over combat overhauls/grinding and the big mess that happened after that. (u35 and U36 I believe, I was on a break so idk)

I am going to miss the year-long stories, I actually liked them a lot but oh well, got to adjust after all those misses. That doesn't mean after a few years they can't go back to either year-long stories or something like what we had before that.

colossalvoids

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Jammy420 wrote: »

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.

Yes, those were nice, but Clockwork was a story dlc, not a chapter. Same was Murkmire, Thieves Guild, Dark brotherhood etc, and now we won't get any of those.

That's one way to look at things, for me we aren't getting any quality story dlc for years already so we aren't getting Galen basically and I'm absolutely fine with it, we also have no idea what q4 will consist of exactly. As much as I love TG/DB those times are long gone for this company and their focus also shifting, if not this year it would be next one or one after as they have stuff to address and it's only piles up if they won't break usual release cadence.

BlueRaven

I have a yearly subscription. If this is the cadence of new content, I think I will be switching from a yearly sub, to monthly one. Just really playing I eso during chapter release quarter and then moving on to other games.

I love this chapters story, the artwork, the new class, music, and voice acting.

Everything else about it is horrible. I am not a fan of how long pve ToT quests take now, I am not a fan of the increased slog for antiquities, and I am definitely not a fan of the new “world event” philosophy.

The story is great, but beyond that there is not a lot holding me here. It’s just annoying my sub renews in March.

Hurbster

How about they get the servers working first?

Lugaldu

Hurbster wrote: »

How about they get the servers working first?

Yes, that would be nice, but one would think that working servers are the basis and that bug fixes are not considered a "special service".
I don't buy a car and then I'm happy when the brakes are examined more closely and repaired from time to time because they aren't considered a fundamental part in the first place, but need "special attention".

SaffronCitrusflower

If ZOS actually invests in performance improvements, primarily in Cyrodiil, this is a welcome change.

I just hope this doesn't mean they are entering a maintenance only phase for the game.