Is it really the best idea to drop U40 during the Witches Festival?

RMW

Witches Festival starts on the 26th and ends on the 7th. U40 drops on the 30th.
Why is ZOS dropping a major update during an event?

phaneub17_ESO

Major patch schedules are rigid. We knew the patch was going to be on the 30th before the PTS started.

Danikat

Why is it a problem? The Witches Festival is just bonus loot, even if someone wants to do everything that just means doing the 1 daily quest and killing 1 of each type of boss every day. I don't see why an update would interfear with it, or why it would stop players prioritising the new stuff. (Especially if you can get plunder skulls in the Endless Archive.)

Also the group finder might make it easier to do the Witches Festival daily quest, especially on low level or otherwise sub-par characters because you'll be able to find other people in the same situation.

MasterSpatula

This happens every year, and considering how little is actually in the update, I'd say it presents less of a problem this year than in years past.

prof-dracko

Danikat wrote: »

Why is it a problem? The Witches Festival is just bonus loot, even if someone wants to do everything that just means doing the 1 daily quest and killing 1 of each type of boss every day. I don't see why an update would interfear with it, or why it would stop players prioritising the new stuff. (Especially if you can get plunder skulls in the Endless Archive.)

Also the group finder might make it easier to do the Witches Festival daily quest, especially on low level or otherwise sub-par characters because you'll be able to find other people in the same situation.

I think it's mostly because every single time there's an event that gets interrupted by maintenance, the forums are flooded with angry threads demanding compensation. Not that ZOS actually does anything with these complaints unless something really goes wrong with the schedule, but it might be more pragmatic of them to nip it in the bud for once and drop and update before an event to curb the inevitable tide of whiners.

LunaFlora

if it causes nearly the entire day of october 30 to not be playable on pc zos will probably extend the event.

MasterSpatula wrote: »

This happens every year, and considering how little is actually in the update, I'd say it presents less of a problem this year than in years past.

there is a lot in this update, have you actually read the patch notes??

Danikat

prof-dracko wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Why is it a problem? The Witches Festival is just bonus loot, even if someone wants to do everything that just means doing the 1 daily quest and killing 1 of each type of boss every day. I don't see why an update would interfear with it, or why it would stop players prioritising the new stuff. (Especially if you can get plunder skulls in the Endless Archive.)

Also the group finder might make it easier to do the Witches Festival daily quest, especially on low level or otherwise sub-par characters because you'll be able to find other people in the same situation.

I think it's mostly because every single time there's an event that gets interrupted by maintenance, the forums are flooded with angry threads demanding compensation. Not that ZOS actually does anything with these complaints unless something really goes wrong with the schedule, but it might be more pragmatic of them to nip it in the bud for once and drop and update before an event to curb the inevitable tide of whiners.

Oh that's a good point. I'm not very with it at the moment and managed to forget they'd have to have maintenance downtime for the update (and likely extended maintenance).

tomofhyrule

It's also because the Witches Festival is pretty well hard coded to be over the 31st of October for obvious reasons. If they came out and said "Yeah, we're ending the Halloween event the week before Halloween" people would understandably be questioning that decision.

I mean, I can't really think of a way to have 13 days of an event that both doesn't include the 30th of October, but does include the 31st of October and a few days before the 31st as well.

The logical thing would have been if U40 dropped (for PC) right after the event and (for console) right before the next, but that would have taken planning months in advance. Besides, the Q4 DLC has always dropped during the event

• Witches 2022: Oct 20-Nov 2, Firesong: Nov 1
• Witches 2021: Oct 21-Nov 2, Deadlands: Nov 1
• Witches 2020: Oct 22-Nov 3, Markarth: Nov 2
• Witches 2019: Oct 24-Nov 4 (but extended to 11th), Dragonhold: Oct 21

If anything, the weird part is that the event starts very late this year and continues far into November. I think most people were expecting it to start today and then they'd tack an extra day on to clear Halloween (so Oct 19-Nov 1). However, they're really sticking to the Thurs-Tues schedule, so the 26th-7th is the only one that actually clears the 31st to be solidly in the event.

Danikat

tomofhyrule wrote: »

If anything, the weird part is that the event starts very late this year and continues far into November. I think most people were expecting it to start today and then they'd tack an extra day on to clear Halloween (so Oct 19-Nov 1). However, they're really sticking to the Thurs-Tues schedule, so the 26th-7th is the only one that actually clears the 31st to be solidly in the event.

ZOS have often said they can't give us an actual event schedule in advance because the dates can change at the last minute due to problems. Maybe that happened here? Maybe they were originally planning on it starting today but had to push it back for some reason.

Shagreth

I honestly don't have a problem. I will prioritize the Event stuff then casually slide into Endless.

Wolfkeks

If it's gonna be a smooth Update olthete won't be a problem

If it's gonna be a messy one... Expect many threads about missing event tickets 😅

KlauthWarthog

What could possibly go wrong?

kringled_1

LunaFlora wrote: »

if it causes nearly the entire day of october 30 to not be playable on pc zos will probably extend the event.

MasterSpatula wrote: »

This happens every year, and considering how little is actually in the update, I'd say it presents less of a problem this year than in years past.

there is a lot in this update, have you actually read the patch notes??

I've looked at the patch notes, yes. Other than the archive, which will not be compelling content for everyone, all of the other changes are balance/features that could change how you play existing content (like the group finder). There's not much other content to pull people in past the archives.

ikzaa

They always do it, it's not the first time and it won't be the last.

[snip]
[edited for bashing]

TiberX

YES

Carcamongus

New content means new things that can malfunction, with the addition of some old things that suddenly break because why not. A popular event and new content are both things that might attract more people back to ESO, meaning there's a risk of the server hamster not coping well. What if something goes wrong and the game becomes unstable in the middle of an event? Sure, everything could work just fine, but it's still better to err on the side of caution. We do have, after all, many precedents of events mixed with new content causing problems.

Four_Fingers

I bet there would be more complaints if ZOS announced a delay to U40 release because of the event.

mdjessup4906

They do this all the time and it sucks. Makes the game almost unplayable for lag and crashes. Really wish they would rework their scheduling. I'd think it would net them less headaches too from everyone complaining about it.

Kusto

Wolfkeks wrote: »

If it's gonna be a smooth Update olthete won't be a problem

If it's gonna be a messy one... Expect many threads about missing event tickets 😅

If? Lol
Has it ever been smooth?

Paulytnz

DLC's usually drop during events for console players, soooooo, I think it's about time and pretty fair now that it is dropping during an event for PC players and not console (we don't get U40 until after the event).

Apart from that silly little statement, I agree they could do better and not drop during events for ANY players.

LunaFlora

Paulytnz wrote: »

DLC's usually drop during events for console players, soooooo, I think it's about time and pretty fair now that it is dropping during an event for PC players and not console (we don't get U40 until after the event).

Apart from that silly little statement, I agree they could do better and not drop during events for ANY players.

which dlc dropped during events for us on console?

other q4 updates have also released during witches' festival for pc so it's not the first time.

YetAnotherLinuxUser

Danikat wrote: »

Why is it a problem? The Witches Festival is just bonus loot, even if someone wants to do everything that just means doing the 1 daily quest and killing 1 of each type of boss every day. I don't see why an update would interfear with it, or why it would stop players prioritising the new stuff. (Especially if you can get plunder skulls in the Endless Archive.)

Also the group finder might make it easier to do the Witches Festival daily quest, especially on low level or otherwise sub-par characters because you'll be able to find other people in the same situation.

it's a problem because everyone else is not you. nor do they live on your schedule. major updates have a tendency to cause major delays and go over their scheduled time and not everyone finds the down time convenient to their schedule.

that said, i could give a hoot about witches festival and would prefer there be an option to play that would spare me the nonsense of witches festival... like i could play on a server where it doesnt exist. that would be ideal for me BUT you know, everyone isn't me so there it is.

Zodiarkslayer

I see no problem. I think its awesone!

EF321

I think Witches event isn't the one were rewards are worth the grind.

freespirit

On the plus side Witches Festival is a double xp event, update 40 arriving during it will make all those now affordable to complete Jewelry Master Writs all the more juicy to do!

Veryamedliel

Is it the best idea? Surely that doesn't require an answer. Anyone with half a brain can at least imagine that things could go wrong, either due to extended maintenance (where people could miss out on rewards) or because of crappy game experience (lag, DC's, unanticipated bugs etc).

Has ZoS ever cared? Nope.
Has it gone "wrong" before? yes.
Did they care this time? obviously not.
Will they care in the future? doubtful.

It is what it is. We're going to have to deal with whatever the update brings, be it good or bad.

Dr_Con

Dropping the patch during the witches festival makes the game literally unplayable. I need to wait for a content creator to post a guide so I can rework my gear in u40 to do dolmens and delve content. I want my money back.

JavaRen

Dr_Con wrote: »

Dropping the patch during the witches festival makes the game literally unplayable. I need to wait for a content creator to post a guide so I can rework my gear in u40 to do dolmens and delve content. I want my money back.

Please, please tell me this is mockery. For the love of all that is holy, please!

Necrotech_Master

Veryamedliel wrote: »

Is it the best idea? Surely that doesn't require an answer. Anyone with half a brain can at least imagine that things could go wrong, either due to extended maintenance (where people could miss out on rewards) or because of crappy game experience (lag, DC's, unanticipated bugs etc).

Has ZoS ever cared? Nope.
Has it gone "wrong" before? yes.
Did they care this time? obviously not.
Will they care in the future? doubtful.

It is what it is. We're going to have to deal with whatever the update brings, be it good or bad.

i remember when that did happen during a witches festival, they ended up extending the event for like an extra week lol

Jaraal

EF321 wrote: »

I think Witches event isn't the one were rewards are worth the grind.

Yep. Get tickets, back to the regular grind.

Necrotech_Master

EF321 wrote: »

I think Witches event isn't the one were rewards are worth the grind.

witches event is probably one of the few i do grind out and even use a 2nd acct to help farm boxes lol

i usually on avg get several sugar skulls recipes each year, which sell for avg of like 400-500k each "off season", and some of the other provisioning recipes are also some of the more popular ones (witchmothers potent brew for example) and can still fetch decent prices