Did you enjoy the Gold Road Chapter?

FelisCatus

Including Scribing, Zone, Main Quests, etc.

TaSheen

I haven't done anything but scribing. The rest of the zone will wait for a few months at least.

RaddlemanNumber7

Yes

Many happy little moments. A roaring success!

Grizzbeorn

Yes.

Tandor

I've done part of the scribing quest, related harvesting, and a couple of world bosses plus whatever the new dolmen is called, and it's all been enjoyable thus far. The graphics are excellent. The main questing and zone exploration will come later. I don't usually reckon to do much in a new chapter/DLC until at least one incremental patch has fixed the main inevitable glitches.

AzuraFan

I haven't completed it yet, but I can offer some thoughts:

I love the zone environment. The colours, the details, etc. I checked out a lumber mill today and was impressed with the detail and all the moving parts. I much prefer this to having zones like Apocrypha, that have monotonous landscapes and just aren't very interesting.

The quests I've done so far have been entertaining. It's been good to see some familiar faces. I still have lots of questing to do.

I really enjoyed the scribing quest line. I would have liked a bit more variety in the wing quests, but I found the characters interesting. Really well done.

Now for the not so great...

After watching the global reveal for this chapter, I was really pumped for scribing. But I misunderstood what it was. I thought we'd be able to customize existing skills. Once I figured out that no, it's creating new skills, I was much less interested in it. I mainly play one character and I'm happy with her build. Also, the grind for ink, and the cost of grimoires, isn't great. I'm not a rich player. Having said that, I'm not in a rush and if it takes me months to get ink to even experiment with scribing just for the achievements, that's fine. I don't get why ZOS designed it that way, though.

I don't like the mirror incursions. They take too long and quite a few players stand around waiting for the others to do the work of actually getting the incursion to open, which makes them take even longer. I also find it difficult to find the guys we're supposed to take out to get the incursion to open. Too many other opponents near crystals.

But my biggest disappointment--perhaps concern--with the chapter, is how I feel that as a predominantly solo player, I'm being shut out of more and more SYSTEMS. I understand that as a casual player, I'm not going to do vet content, etc. But I find that the new systems ZOS is releasing favour group/non-casual content in order to fully use them. Even antiquities, what I consider a brilliant system because it utilizes all existing zones, now has too many leads associated with content I'll never do.

Look at how to get class script scraps - the only one that really suits me is master writs. Which is fine, I'm not in a rush. But there should be more options. Don't take away the other ways of getting them, but add one or two more options for solo players.

As a solo player, I feel like there's a shrinking amount of content for me with each new chapter release. The grindy systems ZOS is introducing to keep us busy don't give a player like me anything to keep me busy. So even though I'm enjoying Gold Road more than I did Necrom, I'm not sure I'll buy the next chapter until I fully understand what it offers a soloist like me.

So in summary, I like Gold Road so far. For me, it's the best PvE zone since Greymoor (yeah, I enjoyed Greymoor). But as a solo player, I'm feeling shut out of new systems, existing systems like antiquities, and content. Even a zone achievement now requires a trial. There has to be something introduced that a player like me can fully participate in, in order to keep me playing this game. The annual zone quests aren't enough because they don't take all that long to do - a month or two tops if you deliberately take your time.

I think it's important to stress that as a solo player, I never used to feel this way. Something has changed. I think Firor said in his annual letter that ZOS would be introducing systems to keep us busy, which is fine, but I think they've forgotten about solo players. I feel we're being left behind.

I'd like to see a system introduced that I can fully participate in as a solo player. Can be grindy - hey, I completed the achievement that required you to do 150 daily quests for Jee-Lar, before they changed it. But it has to be something that I, a solo player, can fully participate in.

Poss

No

Haven’t done the zone quest yet but the scribing part is mindnumbingly tedious

ThelerisTelvanni

Yes and No.
On one side there were a lot of quests i liked, I loved the new raid and the zone itself is rather lovely.

On the other side there are so many small things that missed the mark for me, some quests and creative decisions and a lot of grind that I dislike.

So at the end it is somewhere in between and more options are truely missing for me at least.

tsaescishoeshiner

Yes

I love Scribing--I think the Scholarium questline would have been an amazing main zone questline based on discovery, history, building trust with allies, and creative magical power. The West Weald questline for me was neither my favorite nor my least favorite. But it introduced some cool stuff.

valenwood_vegan

AzuraFan wrote: »

But my biggest disappointment--perhaps concern--with the chapter, is how I feel that as a predominantly solo player, I'm being shut out of more and more SYSTEMS. I understand that as a casual player, I'm not going to do vet content, etc. But I find that the new systems ZOS is releasing favour group/non-casual content in order to fully use them. Even antiquities, what I consider a brilliant system because it utilizes all existing zones, now has too many leads associated with content I'll never do.

[...]

As a solo player, I feel like there's a shrinking amount of content for me with each new chapter release. The grindy systems ZOS is introducing to keep us busy don't give a player like me anything to keep me busy. So even though I'm enjoying Gold Road more than I did Necrom, I'm not sure I'll buy the next chapter until I fully understand what it offers a soloist like me.

[...]

I think it's important to stress that as a solo player, I never used to feel this way. Something has changed. I think Firor said in his annual letter that ZOS would be introducing systems to keep us busy, which is fine, but I think they've forgotten about solo players. I feel we're being left behind.
.

As a predominantly solo player, I want to agree with this so much. Said it better than I could.

kookie

Yes

It was enjoyable for 2 weeks, then I was done with most of the things I wanted to do, mender's bond got gutted, game performance as a whole seems worse then ever, and now I am just very meh about eso in general.

SeaUnicorn

No

Between not being to stay online due to server issues, and grinding for scribing skills got burnout very quickly. Word "daily" brings up a slight feeling of aversion 😅

Necrotech_Master

Yes

i would say overall ive enjoyed the content (zone, trial, quests, scribing (what ive seen so far), etc)

the only exception that i have not enjoyed is the lack of ink for scribing

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

No

I've completed the scribing quests, all the side quests, fishing, and unlocked the entire map. All I have left is the main quest and a few achievements I want (so I can get the dyes). So far, it is nothing special; no different than any other chapter. Everywhere I go there are locked doors and very little to explore. It's very disappointing so far.

Quethrosar

i beat it all . savior, and the trial on vet. scribing completed, all colors received.
the zone is empty, there's 0 reason to be in the zone now. the city is nice for crafting but not sure about staying there for it.
basically now waiting for what's next and just do daily crafting and a trial here and there..

SkaraMinoc

No

Pros

Tribune Ilea Idolus is a badass. She has a strong personality but doesn't come across as annoying. She has some fight scenes during the story that are impressive.

Curate Gadayn getting randomly sucked through Ithelia's tear in reality was the funniest part of the entire chapter. I always thought his character was annoying and having him sucked out into the void was pretty good.

The Fargrave-Mirrormoor twist was interesting. I just wish they went back and updated Fargrave to have Mirrormoor easter eggs if you completed the Gold Road story.

The Macabre Vintage set is fun as a solo quester. Feels like playing Doom.

Cons

Siding with Hermaeus Mora felt wrong and I disagreed with many choices the player was forced to make. Having to return to Beragon's townhouse 15+ times was extremely annoying. The celebration ending had no soul and felt lifeless. Future chapter stories should shake things up and not be afraid to take risks. The same formula every chapter is getting stale and predictable.

Torvesard fight was unrealistic. No way he lost that fight to the player character. He should have won.

The Ithelia introduction was unexpected and jarring. Here we are in some random Ayleid ruins and Ithelia, Prince of Paths, just happens to be there. It was abrupt and out of place and there was no grand moment leading up to it. She looked like a hermit and/or hippy and instead of having her name be "Mysterious Woman"... it just said "Ithelia". Uhh, what?

Scribing quest grind was unnecessary and felt like they just wanted to get players out in the world to make it seem more populated. The options you get with Scribing are limited and often have no place in any build, yet a few crafted skills are actually pay2win. Regardless, the "4000 combinations" certainly aren't viable. You can create thousands of food dishes with all the ingredients in your kitchen but most of it will be slop and inedible. Same with Scribing.

There was very little enemy NPC variety in the Gold Road story. Just trash packs of Recollection bosmer and Mirrormoor monsters regardless of where you went. Maybe it made sense from a story perspective but from a gameplay perspective it felt repetitive and lacked variety.

Invulnerability phases are not fun. Boss fights should be fun.

Some of the fauna of West Weald is out of place. (e.g. Fawns, Kagouti, etc)

The Oakenclaw world boss is a direct copy of the second boss in Earthen Root Enclave, the Corruption of Root.

FelisCatus

No

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

Pros

Tribune Ilea Idolus is a badass. She has a strong personality but doesn't come across as annoying. She has some fight scenes during the story that are impressive.

Curate Gadayn getting randomly sucked through Ithelia's tear in reality was the funniest part of the entire chapter. I always thought his character was annoying and having him sucked out into the void unexpectedly was pretty good.

The Fargrave-Mirrormoor twist was interesting. I just wish they went back and updated Fargrave to have Mirrormoor easter eggs if you completed the Gold Road story.

The Macabre Vintage set is pretty fun as a solo quester. Feels like playing Doom.

Cons

Siding with Hermaeus Mora felt wrong and I disagreed with many choices the player was forced to make. Having to return to Beragon's townhouse 15+ times was extremely annoying. The celebration ending had no soul and felt lifeless. Future chapter stories should shake things up and not be afraid to take risks. The same formula every chapter is getting stale and predictable.

Torvesard fight was unrealistic. No way he lost that fight to the player character. He should have won.

The Ithelia introduction was unexpected and jarring. Here we are in some random Ayleid ruins and Ithelia, Prince of Paths, just happens to be there. It was abrupt and out of place and there was no grand moment leading up to it. She looked like a hermit and/or hippy and instead of having her name be "Mysterious Woman"... it just said "Ithelia". Uhh, what?

Scribing quest grind was unnecessary and felt like they just wanted to get players out in the world to make it seem more populated. The options you get with Scribing are limited and often have no place in any build, yet a few crafted skills are actually pay2win. Regardless, the "4000 combinations" certainly aren't viable. You can create thousands of food dishes with all the ingredients in your kitchen but most of it will be slop and inedible. Same with Scribing.

There was very little enemy NPC variety in the Gold Road story. Just trash packs of Recollection bosmer and Mirrormoor monsters regardless of where you went. Maybe it made sense from a story perspective but from a gameplay perspective it felt repetitive and lacked variety.

Invulnerability phases are not fun. Boss fights should be fun.

Some of the fauna of West Weald is out of place. (e.g. Fawns, Kagouti, etc)

The Oakenclaw world boss is a direct copy of the second boss in Earthen Root Enclave, the Corruption of Root.

I agree with most of what you've said although I didn't like Ithelia and think she should never of been added. All for adding new lore but adding a new prince is too far. I would love though if we had the chance to be truly evil rather than the hero all the time.

I preferred Fargrave being its own thing. It was more unique that way and it felt lazy for them to say it was once her realm. Just felt like an excuse to re-use Fargrave textures than to make a whole new daedric realm. I thought the wood elves were very shoehorned in for fan-serviceas people have complained about lack of new bosmer content since launch. Scribing felt half baked. It's too weak and way too utility focused. Just overall weak and the combos are more limited as you are locked into weapons or can't use all buffs/damage types. Zone was tiny, quests were far too short and very little side quests that were standalone, most were connected to the main quest in some way or another.

Typical reskinned monsters and only a few new unique ones got added. It would be great to get more choice in quests but unfortunately that's just not the type of game ESO is. ESO quest writing is very predictable and formulaic. Not as many interesting NPCs. Whilst it's nice seeing reoccurring characters like Fenorian or Mizzik, etc. It sometimes just feels lazy and not adventurous.

I don't think the DLC was as expansive as past chapters and don't think it was worth the price, sadly.

haelgaan

No

it's just a grind.

Hrafngrimr3

No

When I consider price vs content I feel pretty disappointed to be honest.

I’ll be interested in how they expand out scribing but so far - the grind doesn’t feel satisfying to me. I like the concept just poorly executed and not enough utility (yet).

West Weald is beautiful and combines the environments of some of my favourite zones but again, the aesthetics to me doesn’t justify the price.

Story so far feels derivative, however full disclosure I haven’t finished all of it yet. That being said, a full zone story I can finish in a day feels a bit meh when I consider the amount of time between dlc releases and the lack of new content across the board.

I’m excited for the new trial, another vet clear and hm prog to look forward to.

All in all, I would have been satisfied if it was about 1/3 the price I paid - it just doesn’t hit the mark for me.

kyle.wilson

No

Those mirrormoor incursions are going to be a pita once the population settles from the initial scramble for achievements.

DreamyLu

Mitigated.

I have no interest in scribing and also not in new companions (my bad, sorry, thought there are). So of course, for me, already a big part of the new scope is no fun, even a bother.

I do love the landscape and surprisingly, I enjoyed some of the few zone quests I did up to now (except for one that I really hated).I appreciate a lot that progress gets saved .
Beside, even if I don't scribe, I enjoy luminous ink, because I'm a resources farmer and it's a nice little bonus (additional to hakeijo, nirncrux and such rare stuff).

I have not done much more. I hope there is a sort of treasure hunt maybe? That would be an added value for me. Let's see.

Qagh

Yes

I like the main story.

The side quest in Wendir was great. Love it!

The area with the amazing sunset is beautiful.

But scribbing is boring. Only the card game is worse.

FelisCatus

No

DreamyLu wrote: »

Mitigated.

I have no interest in scribing and also not in new companions. So of course, for me, already a big part of the new scope is no fun, even a bother.

I do love the landscape and surprisingly, I enjoyed some of the few zone quests I did up to now (except for one that I really hated).I appreciate a lot that progress gets saved .
Beside, even if I don't scribe, I enjoy luminous ink, because I'm a resources farmer and it's a nice little bonus (additional to hakeijo, nirncrux and such rare stuff).

I have not done much more. I hope there is a sort of treasure hunt maybe? That would be an added value for me. Let's see.

There were not any new companions for Gold Road.

Firstmep

Yes

I liked it all around, the main story is better than any of the recent ones, the zone itself is pretty with plenty to do. The achievement grinds were okay too, and we got a lot more stuff to collect this time around than any other chapter before.
Skill styles were an amazing addition imho and hopefully zos will add more of those with later chapters.

dcrush

Hard to say, I finished the scribing questline but the last few days all I’m getting is timeouts and lost lobby connections on PC/NA. PC/EU works fine but my main account is on NA. Kind of fed up with the server performance so Gold Road is probably the last chapter I’ll ever buy.

katanagirl1

Obligatory other option.

Just started it yesterday on console. Haven’t even started the scribing quest yet.

FelisCatus

No

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Obligatory other option.

Just started it yesterday on console. Haven’t even started the scribing quest yet.

I would say only answer this poll once you've completed it then.

LannStone

Yes

I found the scribing quest line pretty irritating but enjoyed the main story line, side quests and delves - and the landscape was worth the price of admission, well done

Destai

No

What I enjoyed

• Really enjoyed the art direction. The assets and music are great, as always. The zone was a pleasure to go through. I found myself to be pretty impressed with the delves and public dungeons. The new Ayleid assets were quite cool. With the music, there's these Disney-esque flutters in it that were honestly kinda magical.
• Gameplay. There's also a few quests where you get a combo ability - those were cool. Gameplay wise, I enjoyed the expansion overall.
• Rewards. I am very happy with the rewards this chapter. Just looking through the achievements, I'm seeing so many things you get from completing content.

What I didn't enjoy

• Depth of Content Even though the zone itself was attractive, seeing so many padlocked doors really diminishes the experience. Sure, other zones have them but it seemed really pronounced this chapter. It makes the whole thing feel rushed. Overall the zone felt a little lighter compared to similar zones. There's less main quests and dolmens, compared to say Greymoor and High Isle. There's also no companions.
• Storywise, I'm pretty lukewarm on it. I didn't hate my playthrough, but I don't feel satisfied by it either. I find the last few years stories all had really strong elements that didn't come together very well. Ithelia, while such a good idea, just felt awkward to me. Her introduction and ending were a little jarring. I started warming up to her, so it was a shame to see it end how it ended.
• Scribing also hasn't landed well. I got through the scribing storyline and by the end of it, I was more than ready for it to be over. I feel like it could've been reduced to the last quests you do for each Luminary and that would've been fine. Ink drop rates are way too low for me to get into the system. Some skills seem fun, but it just seems like a grind for little more than RP flare.
• Bugs/Performance. Probably the buggiest release for me since Greymoor. Getting a lot of performance issues, where quest scenes don't update (this happened a lot with the Skein). During Ithelia's Fury, I had to log out so the quest scene could reset itself. There's the issue with the health bar constantly glowing and I get these moments where a lot of details get blurry. I'm also really not a fan of the "environmental" changes made to the menus.

DagothCorvia

Yes

Yes, also finished doing all quests in West Weald.
My only issue with this chapter by far is the abuse of the "kill mobs until this enemy can take damage again".

Recent

Yes

Yes I enjoyed the main questline but I found Ithlia out of place as far as the art work is concerned...she looks almost human and unlike any race or monster in Tamriel. A new artist must have designed her.i found her look a bit unnerving.
I enjoyed the use of the relics that was a really novel touch.

My negative opinion about the main quest would be that I'd like to see something other than us having to save Tamriel from absolute destruction..... I'd like to see a bit of espionage and mystery in the next big expansion main quest....some thievery and daidric mayhem but more of a battle between certain daedric princess and a game of battles between them to gain a certain powerful relic or such plot.