PTS Update 42 - Feedback Thread for West Weald

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for West Weald, mainly focusing on the zone, side quests, and other types of content found in the area. If you have specific feedback on the main story, please visit this thread so others can avoid spoilers. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Quests
  • Did you engage with the Main Story?
  • Did you find it easy to get the Main Story quests?
  • Did you engage with any quests outside of the main story? If so, which ones?
  • Did you find any quests to be problematic from either a directional or difficulty standpoint?
• World Bosses
  • Did you fight any world bosses? If so, which ones?
  • Were any of them too easy or too hard?
  • Were mechanics clearly communicated?
• Mirrormoor Incursions
  • Were you able to locate these?
  • How many other players joined you?
  • How was the level of difficulty?
• Public Dungeons
  • Did you go into any public dungeons?
  • Public dungeons are generally balanced for two or more players of average skill and gear. Did you feel sufficiently challenged?
  • Did you go in with or without a companion?
• Zone
  • What did you think of the West Weald environment?
  • Did you encounter any new monsters you haven't seen before? What did you think of them?
  • Do you have any other general feedback?

Froil

I am not currently able to test due to yesterday, but a slight nitpick I have is regarding the name. Shouldn't it be The West Weald? I've noticed in the zone name, some of the dialogue from the starter quest, that they're all just West Weald.

"Let's go to Gold Coast/West Weald/Colovian Highlands" vs. "Let's go to the Gold Coast, et al", for example. Perhaps it'd make more sense when said like "We're in West Weald", but even that that sounds off.

hamgatan

is the north Reapers March entrance to WW intentionally not interactable/bugged or is that by design..?

DoofusMax

hamgatan wrote: »

is the north Reapers March entrance to WW intentionally not interactable/bugged or is that by design..?

I just got back from using an alt account to specifically check some of that (don't much care if this one hits an oopsie and gets locked out). The transition from Craglorn to West Weald works in both directions (it's tucked down south of Belkarth and kind of around a corner). The transition from Gold Coast to West Weald Works in both directions. The transition from Reaper's March to West Weald works in that direction, but I did not test it in the other (from WW to RM). The big gate from WW to Cyrodiil, about straight east of Skingrad, is just for looks and doesn't do anything. It's deader than a Norwegian Blue parrot. The nearby wayshrine (Trader's Road, I think) wasn't working. I discovered it just fine, it lit up just fine, but it kept telling me "too far away" when I tried to interact with it. Maybe something misbehaving on my end, but it was odd enough to make me stop to look more closely.

Notes for devs: First part, I am in awe. The zone looks and feels wonderful. It gives me good "Witcher 3: Blood and Wine" vibes. Found a few spots where I just wanted to plop down and stare at the scenery for a few hours. Major kudos to the design team for that. Same thing on the sound; gorgeous music and ambient sounds made the area feel alive. Fantastic.

hamgatan

They must have fixed it since I reported it then. The gate just north of Arenthia that is, because it wasn't interactable for anyone who was trying to get past.

Dimpfel

I haven't looked at everything carefully yet! But at first glance I really like the area! Beautiful colors!
The imperial architecture is also very great!
I also like the winery house! Another imperial villa/castle please! PLEAAASE ZOS!

BUT one thing I noticed: I find the lighting and the sun very much overexposed... It looked to me as if an atomic bomb had been detonated in Cyrodiil... It was so extreme at times that you can hardly see the far panorama in general. I think there still needs to be some tweaking.

Eris21

The lighting in some of the areas is a bit much and hurts my eyes to the point I can barely look at the screen. Everything is just yellow without any contrast.

JN_Slevin

I really like how the zone looks but im really disappointed in the placements of the guild traders.

Why are they always tucked away in some dark corner? There is a reason why Vivec, Mournhold, Elden Root etc are very popular spots for people to hang out in, either they have great locations to do writs or they have another reason why people go there. But the staple out of all of these is that the guild traders are between the arrival point (wayshrine) and the thing where they want to go there (writs / undaunted / batteground camps). Vivec is especially good since it also provides an open bank in the middle of the writ area. For lots of people this is the reason why they hang out there all the time.

This has been a theme for the last i dont know 4 years?
Elsweyr - tucked away.
Leyawiin - tucked away.
High isle - tucked away.
Necrom - you guessed it, tucked away.

I dont even want to talk about the almost comical placements of some of the small DLC zones (looking at you Fargrave), but we dont even get those anymore so its not even relevant.

Please rethink where you put them, if they were real people they would camp either around the wayshrine or between the wayshrine and the writ area. No trader would put themselves into a back corner of the city people dont go around automatically... It just doesnt make sense where they are.
I think having well placed guild traders would help the city thrive and be the hub it could be, if the guilds which chose to bid there are well enough people find what they need for their writs which makes them more likely to do their writs over there. (And i dont think i have to tell you how some people love doing their daily crafting writs)

Speaking of, the writ area is amazing, probably the best you have ever done! The placement of the mount trainer could be better too but oh well.. The city has (almost) everything it needs to be a staple home for many people for years to come!

I know its probably too late to change because its the city itself and building it takes a long time but i have to try. We do not have enough good guild traders in this game, its basically only Vivec, Mournhold and Elden Root right now with Craglorn losing traffic by the day since the group finder was introduced.

darkred666

Hello when i want to got in the castle in skingrad my game always crash
This is the error
Pending data load error (18478571 - c000000002b7ed9)

aranarthov

Froil wrote: »

I am not currently able to test due to yesterday, but a slight nitpick I have is regarding the name. Shouldn't it be The West Weald? I've noticed in the zone name, some of the dialogue from the starter quest, that they're all just West Weald.

"Let's go to Gold Coast/West Weald/Colovian Highlands" vs. "Let's go to the Gold Coast, et al", for example. Perhaps it'd make more sense when said like "We're in West Weald", but even that that sounds off.

Yes! This a thousand times this! I just did the prologue quest and found it very jarring when they just called it "West Weald".

KingArthasMenethil

Going a bit more cosmetic on this one with NPC clothes.

I've been going around the West Weald and I've noticed that Imperial Noblewomen don't at make some use of the "Nibenese Noble's Shawled Robe" and is sort of an issue in both Blackwood and the West Weald (probably the Gold Coast as well if it has any Imperial Noblewomen).

Like sure it's for "Nibenese" but for asset reuse it would work well for any Imperial and well I don't think this bit of clothing has been used outside of Murkmire for Kassandra so even Nibenay has not been using it. It's like also the only Imperial Noble clothing for women (that I can recall) as they've been using Breton clothing instead.

Edit: like really any Noble NPC could use in Imperial zones it's just a very underused Imperial item as it's used like once in this game which is outside of Cyrodiil

SydneyGrey

Tried to get into West Weald today (April 17) and my character keeps crashing to desktop every time. It only crashes in West Weald, though, not anywhere else. I own the Gold Road expansion (pre-ordered the deluxe edition).

It's unplayable for me.

KingArthasMenethil

Nearly forgot about this one but odd choice of creatures as in the normal part of the Weald there's Terror Birds and Kagouti both are quite out of place in Western Cyrodiil and in the unnatural Jungle you have Bog dogs and Death Hoppers who are very out of place in the Jungle instead of their more swampy biomes of Blackwood and Black Marsh.

Fata1moose

What did you think of the West Weald environment?

I like the traditional West Weald the red trees are gorgeous and Skingrad looks amazing as well. Definitely nails the wine country vibes I wanted. Colovian Highlands could have well had some elevation increases.

I’m not a fan of the blighted area, obviously it’s not meant to look good but it’s just kind of sad to have something like that close to the city. I wish we could revert it to intact vineyards in a quest, maybe that is a thing but there’s been a lack of transformative stuff like that in chapter zones.

The Dawnwood I find lackluster. Pretty sure the trees are old assets and there’s not much foliage density, apart from the giant trees it’s just grass and it has the same turquoise hue to it that Amenos grass has. I’d like to see smaller saplings in addition to the larger trees and I hope ZOS invests in engine upgrades to do forests better justice. Also I’d like to see more Bosmer assets, the new furnishings look nice but I’d like new dividers, more chairs, etc.

chessalavakia_ESO

Public Dungeons

Did you go into any public dungeons?

I completed both of the Public Dungeons.

I really enjoyed the visuals of Silorn and the boss fights.

Leftwheel didn't do anything for me really aside from having an interesting view from the skyshard some of that might be because I really don't care for the enemies in it at all.

However, I will note I left both not really knowing entirely what was going on inside. I'm not sure if I missed some notes or something. In both dungeons I expected from the quest to be finding out a bit more about why the enemies were present or what they were doing. It's possible I missed something from multi-tasking a bit while I was in them.

Did you go in with or without a companion?

I used a companion.

Public dungeons are generally balanced for two or more players of average skill and gear. Did you feel sufficiently challenged?

I think the trash might have been a little too easy at times. But, this might have been a side effect of using Macabre Vintage.

The Group Event boss in Silorn might be a bit too hard/too hard on companions.

The Group Event boss in Leftwheel was far easier than Silorn and I was actually surprised when I got the skill point after killing it.

Additional Notes:

I got 7 Remnant of Deception while clearing Silorn. I do not know if that is the intended drop rate or if they are dropping too much.

Aliyavana

Zone
Do you have any other general feedback?

The breton npc Dabienne Geontene can be found next to the mages guild in skingrad. She was first mentioned in the Azure Ombre hairstyle entry which was present in the All Maker Crown Crates.

"Why did I choose this stunning blue hair style? First, it's my choice! Second, if you can do this, you're a master alchemist and hair artist like me. Why not flaunt it?"—Dabienne Geontene of Skingrad

feedback wise, i'd like it if she wore the Azure Ombre hairstyle for continuation purposes as currently she is blonde. Its a nice throwback to TES 2 Daggerfall when breton females could choose blue hair. I like the dev's attention to detail with this.

Additionally, i wish she wasn't hostile to you breaking into her house. I'd like it if she had unique dialogue where you can talk to her about her ideas for hair color fashion etc, would be fun to discuss it with her instead of she being some npc you just can rob and kill.

Syldras

Do you have any other general feedback?

Not sure if this is the right place to post it, and it might only be a minor thing, but does Fennorian's dialogue make sense lore-wise? The quest takes place at a winery where a secret meeting of vampires is supposed to take place. He suspects something weird going on, because, according to his words, a meeting of vampires at a winery makes no sense, as vampires generally don't drink (anything else than blood). I know that in some vampire stories, vampires aren't able to consume any normal food or drinks anymore, only blood - but has that ever been the case with TES vampires? I never had that impression. They might not need it, but there doesn't seem to be anything that makes them unable to drink - and it's not like anyone drinks wine not to die of thirst, anyway. Also, vampire player characters can use food, drinks and potions just fine, with the normal effects. Seems like a lore mistake to me.

SkaraMinoc

KingArthasMenethil wrote: »

Nearly forgot about this one but odd choice of creatures as in the normal part of the Weald there's Terror Birds and Kagouti both are quite out of place in Western Cyrodiil and in the unnatural Jungle you have Bog dogs and Death Hoppers who are very out of place in the Jungle instead of their more swampy biomes of Blackwood and Black Marsh.

Found some fauns in the eastern part of West Weald. Not sure why since they're native to the Systres.

Froil

KingArthasMenethil wrote: »

Nearly forgot about this one but odd choice of creatures as in the normal part of the Weald there's Terror Birds and Kagouti both are quite out of place in Western Cyrodiil and in the unnatural Jungle you have Bog dogs and Death Hoppers who are very out of place in the Jungle instead of their more swampy biomes of Blackwood and Black Marsh.

Oh I agree with all of this. The fellrunners in the north around Sutch are fine, with it being near Hammerfell, but the bog dogs? Kagouti? Totally out of place.

chessalavakia_ESO

Mirrormoor Incursions

Were you able to locate these?

Yeah, they aren't that hard to find

How many other players joined you?

I did most of one with Mirri than I was joined at the end by two other people.

I joined with other players on a couple others with around four to five people.

How was the level of difficulty?

The PTS char I'm on isn't totally optimized and isn't super tanky and I was in danger of running out of resources and dying around the time the two other people showed up due to the trio of bosses + adds on the later part of it.

I think an optimized tanky character could probably solo it if it doesn't have an enrage without needing that much skill.

However, fighting it solo took long enough that it's not something I would do with any regularity as the rewards are not that great.

ThelerisTelvanni

Quests
Did you engage with the Main Story?
No I did not since I do not want any Story spoilers.

Did you engage with any quests outside of the main story? If so, which ones?
No I did not since I do not want any Story spoilers.

World Bosses
Did you fight any world bosses? If so, which ones?
No since I was alone and did not take the time to create a solo optimised character.

Mirrormoor Incursions
Were you able to locate these?
Yes, I found all 4 of them and they have quite the optic effects if active. No way to miss them!
But I did not actually play them.

Public Dungeons
Did you go into any public dungeons?
Yes both.

I liked Silorn the Aylied ruin, yet I hardly recognised it aside from the exterior. I played TES4 Oblivion recently where this ruin is used during the Mages Guild questline. I had perfered something more recognisebel with maybe some extentions.

The second dungeon Leftwheal was kind of strange. Imperial ruin, cave tunnel without a propper "enterence" (a hole in the wall) and than the overrun city. I had perfered if the city part had been more open. and I am not a big fan of boring cave parts.

Public dungeons are generally balanced for two or more players of average skill and gear. Did you feel sufficiently challenged?
They were fine for the most part, but I met a minotaur that onehitted me. That might need a nerf.

Did you go in with or without a companion?
I went in alone.

Zone
What did you think of the West Weald environment?
I love the regular West Wheald biom! And the tree colores seem to make it the best time of the year to visit Of cause I'd also take changing seasons^^

The Dawnwood is also an interesting designe. And I like the little nod to the dschungel part in the lore. I think the bosmer got a nice new settlement there

Yet in between those two I do not like the dead strip of land. I personally perfer it gone or at least a lot smaler.

I somewhat faild to find Miscarcand! Was I just blind or where did it go? I mean it was huge in TES4 Oblivion!
Link lore articel: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Miscarcand

Did you encounter any new monsters you haven't seen before? What did you think of them?
Yes I did encounter some new monsters and I was whondering why the were here. Also the return of the bugs that already irretatet me at the gold coast. I personally had liked a more classic TES4 Version of the zone when it comes to the fauna. Well at least for the unchanged landscapes.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Is it just me or where there more Aylied ruins in TES4? I counted 6-10 that might fall into the the new zone area.
Link map: https://images.uesp.net/4/4f/Ayleid_ruins.jpg
But maybe I'll have to find a map that shows the exact borders on the chapter zone over the map of all the ruins.

Also a lot of the new Aylied stuff feels rather like a style change than a suddel addition no one notices. The team put a lot of effort into iconnography yet they somewhat did not consider shape as much. The curved elegance of the old designes were something I realy liked! But some of the new stuff looks rather clunky and blocky by comparison. I made some of the points on that in the housing/furniture feedback. Maybe I'll make a deepdive at a later date, depending if I find the time to do so.
It is especially sad since the Blackwood additions were rather suddel and did fit in perfectly, so I had high hopes for Gold Road!

ThelerisTelvanni wrote: »

Last but not least we got some Aylied stuff. I've been asking and waiting for more Aylied furniture!

We got little of the new stuff actually implemented as housing furniture yet. The furniture uses iconography that fits the Aylied style yet the forms choosen often don't seem to propperly fit in with the existing stuff.

Here are some screenshots of already implemented structural furniture:

The structural fornishing seems to lack the curved elegance of the archways we see at every aylied ruin. Still I saw some of the level designers make good use of them in some Aylied ruins where the look good!

The trees look good at first but they look kind of flat from a different angel and it is whierd that they seem to grow welkyn- or valastones. But I have to note that the trees I saw in the Aylied ruins were not as flat!

The smithy with the smal armboss on the table felt kind of whierd for smithing.

Of cause I also saw other furniture in the open world that is not yet housing furniture!

I was asking to tables and benches, as well as other furniture like chairs, beds, wandrobes and so on.

What was implemented looks kind of blocky. As with the structural furnishing I expected something more in line with the elegance of the curved archways.

What I realy liked however are the new urns!

Over all, I don't know. I was waiting for Aylied furniture! Yet the way it is implemented does not seem to fit. You can see that the team put in effort to hit the iconography! And it is not a bad designe! But the forms choosen often don't seem to propperly fit in with the existing style and that is super frustrating for me.

Do you have any other general feedback?
I hope for a new Aylied home in classic Aylied style with new furniture that fits the classic Aylied style! Like the new urns!

But I also hope I can warm up with the new Aylied stuff that does not fit 100%, since it is clear the team put in effort!

The mountain range also felt far higher in TES4. Or are they supoed not to be part of the map?

I liked the inclusion of Sutch. Yet it feels kind of smal, considering it is suposed to be an important trade hub. Well but that is 3rd Era lore.

MoonPile

Zone - Environment:
I wonder if anyone else notices this:

The blues in shadows and saturation are vastly overtuned.

I typically play with ReShade but turned it off to check vanilla. When the sky gets bluer, shadows become cartoonish. Made worse because they're surrounded by complimentary colors (orange). The whole effect is kinda crazy. Other environments in the game are not like this.

(But in general the environments in ESO are just awesome; I love the design and attention to detail. It's such a huge part of why I play; it's enjoyable to be here.

In West Weald there are so many little details. Even something simple like a lantern hanging from a branch stuck in the ground is lovely and I want the art team to know that we do notice. )

chessalavakia_ESO

Zone

What did you think of the West Weald environment?

I thought that the upper section of the map was absolutely beautiful and I'll likely use it like I use the Gold Coast sometimes for gathering to relax.

I didn't find the lower section of the map to be terribly appealing or interesting.

Skingrad looks quite nice but, has a somewhat disappointing amount of blocked doors.

Not being able to enter Skingrad Castle unless I missed something is a bit disappointing.

Outlaw's Refugee is okay but not one of my favorites.

Did you encounter any new monsters you haven't seen before? What did you think of them?

A bunch of new Mistmoor stuff and Tharrikers (sp?). The Mistmoor stuff didn't really do much for me as I generally like my opposition to feel more grounded. The Tharrikers were alright.

Do you have any other general feedback?

I liked the Goblin Drums.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Is it my imagination or are there no Deer in the Zone? there are also Kagouti which are not native to Cyrodiil and should not be in the West Weald, I believe the Kagouti should be removed ASAP and replaced with more native wildlife.

SydneyGrey

Beautiful! Why is Leramil the Wise everywhere, though? She's going to be the new Stuga now, annoying us everywhere until we pick up her quest. You only need to place her in one location, not five.

LunaFlora

SydneyGrey wrote: »

Beautiful! Why is Leramil the Wise everywhere, though? She's going to be the new Stuga now, annoying us everywhere until we pick up her quest. You only need to place her in one location, not five.

for the zone story i have only seen her at the Skingrad wayshrine, Skingrad gates, and West Weald gates.

it is just the first places people get to so they can actually find the story quests.

Just like other characters are placed near a quest location so you'll find them more easily.

Even Stuga was not actually everywhere she was just in Daggerfall, Vulkhel Guard, and Davon's Watch.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Complaint about the winery quest: we just finished establishing that this stuff is lethal to vampires and then the moment we walk in the door, Fennorian IMMEDIATELY takes a glass of the stuff and drinks it. *headdesk* And admits to drinking it. Is this mer suicidal? Why not just pretend to drink like a sensible person??? Or don’t take the glass at all, because none of the other vampires did?

KingArthasMenethil wrote: »

Nearly forgot about this one but odd choice of creatures as in the normal part of the Weald there's Terror Birds and Kagouti both are quite out of place in Western Cyrodiil and in the unnatural Jungle you have Bog dogs and Death Hoppers who are very out of place in the Jungle instead of their more swampy biomes of Blackwood and Black Marsh.

Agree! There’s usually at least some in-game excuse like ‘oh, the animals broke out of the nearby zoo’ or ‘there are kwama here because we imported them, please help us round them back up.’ But if theres a reason given for these, I haven’t found it yet.

Kaivalya

The "Investigate Rustwall Estate" objective is too difficult, or maybe I'm encountering a glitch. I looked everywhere, including inside the two accessible buildings. I even tried to jump down the well. I found nothing and no one I could interact with, except an NPC offering a different quest. I never saw a white arrow on my compass indicating a nearby objective for my active quest, which is set to the correct one. If there's anything having to do with the quest here, it's hidden much too well.

Kaivalya

"If you have specific feedback on the main story, please visit this thread so others can avoid spoilers."

I suggest moving the "Gold Road Main Quest (spoiler alert!)" entry from the bottom of the table of contents to the top, the ToC here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/656504/megathread-update-42-official-feedback-threads-bug-reports#latest

Soarora

There's some werewolf NPCs inside Skingrad. To see what they'd do, I transformed into a werewolf in front of them and one started to attack me while another turned into a werewolf and then also started to attack me? This doesn't make sense to me based on their personalities, shouldn't they at least be staying neutral about this?

James-Wayne

Quests
Did you engage with the Main Story? Yes and it was amazing from start to finish.... although the way it ended was a terrible way to end that story after 2 years, it makes it feel all a bit pointless
Did you find it easy to get the Main Story quests? Yes
Did you engage with any quests outside of the main story? A few If so, which ones? I dont recall now, EU character copy has happened
Did you find any quests to be problematic from either a directional or difficulty standpoint? Aside from the last boss of the main story bugging out I did not see any issues or difficulty points. I know some have questioned the challenge but I actually liked it and wish you would do more of it. I am CP 2856+ so understand the game pretty well.

World Bosses
Did you fight any world bosses? Yes If so, which ones? All
Were any of them too easy or too hard? They are not easy. They are definitely a challenge, I found the roaming pack the hardest due to the constant CC and bleeds, they can be solo'd but you need a different setup compared to other WBs
Were mechanics clearly communicated? Not at first but after a few goes it makes sense. I think some will struggle but on launch there will be so many players mechanics are not really a issue its post launch when players are trying to complete is where difficult spike will increase especially newer players

Mirrormoor Incursions
Were you able to locate these? Yes
How many other players joined you? Just me
How was the level of difficulty? It was ok, similar to WBs which Im ok with personally.

Public Dungeons
Did you go into any public dungeons? Yes both. Design wise they are amazing!!! Hats off to the teams!
Public dungeons are generally balanced for two or more players of average skill and gear. Did you feel sufficiently challenged? The minotaur with its bleeds was tricky at first but once you know the mechanics I wouldnt say these are hard, WBs were much harder. This is from the point of view of playing by myself. I would welcome a much harder boss in PDs with maybe some kind of puzzle mechanic to solve.
Did you go in with or without a companion? Companion lol Companions are useless... great for generating corpses! Maybe companions seem WAY underpowered and useless for me because Im already doing everything so well as a solo player thou

Zone
What did you think of the West Weald environment? I was expecting a second smaller zone to be honest but understand there is a PvP update in Q4. The design team of the zones has always consistently out done themselves with each zone, I can not fault that ever. The different biomes blended together, the vertically of the zone, the structures and textures used, everything has a cinematic kind of feel to it which Im really loving.
Did you encounter any new monsters you haven't seen before? I did What did you think of them? Most of them didnt stay alive long enough for me to real take them in but I like how they interact with the world around them when the player isnt there.
Do you have any other general feedback? Can we finally end the 3 banners war and put that story to bed already haha I was really hoping you would be using your time shift technology we have seen in the past to visit different periods of Tamriel so we could revisit old zones that have been completely remodelled with the latest visuals the team are now doing in the newer zones. Sorry you want to know about current zone.... yeah keep going in this direction, thanks!