Do you think Scribing took away from West Weald's potential?

ArchMikem

It's only been one week, and I've reached the end of the Chapter's excitement already. Did the Questline, did most of the side quests, explored everything which somehow, didn't feel like as much as older chapter zones? Like I spent wayyy more time running around Summerset and Elsweyr, but The West Weald felt "done" for me after about 5 sessions.

I came to the hypothetical that Dev resources had to be divied up because of the new system, which also has its own mechanics, locations, art, questlines. Just makes me think that, if Scribing wasn't planned to launch with the Chapter then West Weald could've been "more". Bigger zone? More interiors? More scenery? Interactable points of interest, like Rock Bottom Caverns? You can't actually go in them. Skingrad Castle? Can't go there either. You can't tell me the Chapter is just 4 days of Questing and then it'd nothing but Daily Broker Jobs.

SeaGtGruff

I haven't done any actual questing in West Weald yet, although I've done some delve dailies, helped kill a world boss, helped stop an incursion, and spent a lot of time running around exploring, discovering locations, killing mobs, etc.

West Weald feels like a large zone to me, and while I don't know anything about the zone questline and miscellaneous quests yet, it looks like there's a lot to do and see.

As for Scribing, I've completed the questline, acquired all of the scripts (except for the class mastery script), and purchased all of the grimoires, but I haven't done much experimenting with it yet. However, it seems like a great new system with a lot of flexibility and potential. The few skills that I've scribed seem to be performing adequately for me, and I'm looking forward to exploring the system more deeply at leisure.

It's natural to wonder how much more could have been put into a new chapter's zone and quests if no development time and energy had been spent on a new feature-- be it a new class (Morrowind, Elsweyr, and Necrom), crafting line (Summerset), skill line (Greymoor), AI buddy system (Blackwood), game-within-a-game (High Isle), or skill crafting system (Gold Road). But the playerbase demands that new features get added to the game each year, so I don't think a new chapter that's bursting with new quests yet adds no new feature to the game would go over well at all.

Orbital78

ArchMikem wrote: »

It's only been one week, and I've reached the end of the Chapter's excitement already. Did the Questline, did most of the side quests, explored everything which somehow, didn't feel like as much as older chapter zones? Like I spent wayyy more time running around Summerset and Elsweyr, but The West Weald felt "done" for me after about 5 sessions.

I came to the hypothetical that Dev resources had to be divied up because of the new system, which also has its own mechanics, locations, art, questlines. Just makes me think that, if Scribing wasn't planned to launch with the Chapter then West Weald could've been "more". Bigger zone? More interiors? More scenery? Interactable points of interest, like Rock Bottom Caverns? You can't actually go in them. Skingrad Castle? Can't go there either. You can't tell me the Chapter is just 4 days of Questing and then it'd nothing but Daily Broker Jobs.

If you don't engage in all of the content, then I am sure you will find less to explore. Personally the biggest thing for me was exploring the zone, but almost as much was learning and working towards the hard modes in the new trial Lucent Citadel. I still haven't unlocked the new mythics yet either but did put a dent in some of the leads.I put a good dent in the zone exploration finishing up the story line, but there are quite a few skill styles for me to unlock. I am sitting on around 200 inks, and grimoires are discounted so I will likely start tinkering around with setups for my supports and other alts soon.

As for the zone being smaller, we were kind of spoiled with Necrom in getting two rather large zones at the start of the chapter. We also got the two new companions at the release too, we have two more yet to come. We'll have to wait and see what the rest of the year has in store for us.

xylena_lazarow

Scribing was literally the only reason I bought Gold Road. If everything I paid for was unlocked at purchase, I'd be playing a lot more, but the absolutely miserable insulting grind (especially Scripts for alts and the cost of ink preventing experimentation) has me not bothering with the expansion at all, now that I have a few spells for my main.

The Saint and Seducer Mythic was a nice surprise, fair grind and great addition to the PvP meta.

AnduinTryggva

The zone itself looks rather medium-sized compared to other zones. Considerably larger than Murkmire, but much smaller than Necrom either.

On the other hand I really enjoyed the scribing questline in itself and which kept me occupied quite well. And the new trial is simply outstanding.

So in the end I am quite happy with the state. The only two minor grudges I have is the rarity of furniture recipes and the ending of the zone story quest.

Destai

Without knowing their team structure and constraints, it's hard to say for sure. That being said, I don't personally feel like it took away from anything aside from maybe companions. High Isle was able to introduce both a new system and two companions, so that's where I'm coming from.

And there's definitely some things that feel a little lighter, especially the main quest. That feels intentional though, just given their stated desire to focus on repeatable systems instead of quests. But other than that, I don't feel like it's lacking content.

Even though it's a "light" chapter, I'm still finding plenty to do. There's mythics to get and achievements to chase, which actually have some good rewards. And the other features like side quests and delves/public dungeons are all their standard numbers.

TheNuminous1

1/3 wood elf zone in 10 years

Necrotech_Master

the main part of the scribing system i think that could have taken a lot of time was placing the 200000 wards (obvious hyperbole) you need to dispel while doing the questline lol

on a whole to me west weald is alright, though the zone feels like it barely has more content in it than say the gold coast

theres only 4 WB, and most chapter zones have about 6 (though i guess the wandering WB counts as 1 too)

theres only like 4 regular delves, which most chapter zones have 6-8

i think the number of mirrormoor incursions is fine though, and close enough to most wayshrines to be easy to get to

there was like ~30 quests in the zone total, about 1/3 of those were the main story quests

i think having a few more delves with some more lore in them might have made the zone feel more expansive

edit to add: i think the biggest problem with new zones not feeling expansive is that most of the story quests, just like necrom, were like "go to these 3 POIs and do the quests there" instead of actual separate story quests from the POI quests

itsfatbass

ZoS 100% failed to give us a shiny new toy this chapter. Which will likely translate to poor sales for them. This release was absolutely a flop.

tsaescishoeshiner

I don't think so for two main reasons.

One, Scribing was my favorite story for years. I loved the characters, the lore, the overall feeling of it. It's one of the selling points of West Weald to me.

Two, West Weald's story felt about the same length to me and took as many quests. Some of the main quests are split into two or three separate "investigate this area" quests.

(And lastly, the way that Scribing reused existing zones and delves probably made it take less development so more could be focused on West Weald. Similar to the grindy Psijic questline--except there was a lot less character and lore focus for that questline, which is also grindier because each character needs to do it. I think Scribing did the idea much better.)

That said, if I liked Scribing so much as it is, would I have also liked it as its own DLC that was a bit more detailed? Maybe ... but it's definitely a selling point of the Chapter for me. Tanks, healers, and PvP characters are using Scribing, and a small number of DPS are using it for Minor Heroism/Minor Force.

EdjeSwift

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the main part of the scribing system i think that could have taken a lot of time was placing the 200000 wards (obvious hyperbole) you need to dispel while doing the questline lol

on a whole to me west weald is alright, though the zone feels like it barely has more content in it than say the gold coast

theres only 4 WB, and most chapter zones have about 6 (though i guess the wandering WB counts as 1 too)

theres only like 4 regular delves, which most chapter zones have 6-8

i think the number of mirrormoor incursions is fine though, and close enough to most wayshrines to be easy to get to

there was like ~30 quests in the zone total, about 1/3 of those were the main story quests

i think having a few more delves with some more lore in them might have made the zone feel more expansive

edit to add: i think the biggest problem with new zones not feeling expansive is that most of the story quests, just like necrom, were like "go to these 3 POIs and do the quests there" instead of actual separate story quests from the POI quests

Ummm....



I count 6 World Bosses - Recollection, Spinner, Training Camp, the Baelful, The Fate-Eater and Lake Olo.
I count 6 Delves - Legion's Rest, Fort Colovia, Lumber Milll, Necro place, Varen's Rest and Fyrelight Cave.

As for the size of the expansion, it's about what I expected from a game expansion these days, but on the generous side. Too many companies release an expansion and it's content is sparser than we got here.

I'm pretty much back to where I was pre-expansion, log in, do my housekeeping(log in 20 alts and do writs on a couple), do my dailies, do my daily IA run, call it a day. I may play some older content or work on getting my alts to T1 PvP each month, but the one thing to keep in mind is I'm still logging in everyday and enjoying what I'm doling. That can't be said of a lot of games I bought this year.

Edit: That 6-8 delve thing was bothering me, so I went through all the expansions/zones and I realized why it did:
Necrom Chapter: 6 Delves
High Isle Chapter: 6 Delves
Blackwood Chapter: 6 Delves
Greymoor(Western Skyrim/Greymoor Caverns): 6 Delves
Elsweyr (Northern): 6 Delves
Summerset: 6 Delves
Morrowind(Vvardenfell): 6 Delves

The only 2 zones in the entire game with more than 6 delves are Cyrodiil with 18 ( 3 per banner) and Craglorn, 11, because it was the old VR leveling zone

Necrotech_Master

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the main part of the scribing system i think that could have taken a lot of time was placing the 200000 wards (obvious hyperbole) you need to dispel while doing the questline lol

on a whole to me west weald is alright, though the zone feels like it barely has more content in it than say the gold coast

theres only 4 WB, and most chapter zones have about 6 (though i guess the wandering WB counts as 1 too)

theres only like 4 regular delves, which most chapter zones have 6-8

i think the number of mirrormoor incursions is fine though, and close enough to most wayshrines to be easy to get to

there was like ~30 quests in the zone total, about 1/3 of those were the main story quests

i think having a few more delves with some more lore in them might have made the zone feel more expansive

edit to add: i think the biggest problem with new zones not feeling expansive is that most of the story quests, just like necrom, were like "go to these 3 POIs and do the quests there" instead of actual separate story quests from the POI quests

Ummm....



I count 6 World Bosses - Recollection, Spinner, Training Camp, the Baelful, The Fate-Eater and Lake Olo.
I count 6 Delves - Legion's Rest, Fort Colovia, Lumber Milll, Necro place, Varen's Rest and Fyrelight Cave.

As for the size of the expansion, it's about what I expected from a game expansion these days, but on the generous side. Too many companies release an expansion and it's content is sparser than we got here.

I'm pretty much back to where I was pre-expansion, log in, do my housekeeping(log in 20 alts and do writs on a couple), do my dailies, do my daily IA run, call it a day. I may play some older content or work on getting my alts to T1 PvP each month, but the one thing to keep in mind is I'm still logging in everyday and enjoying what I'm doling. That can't be said of a lot of games I bought this year.

Edit: That 6-8 delve thing was bothering me, so I went through all the expansions/zones and I realized why it did:
Necrom Chapter: 6 Delves
High Isle Chapter: 6 Delves
Blackwood Chapter: 6 Delves
Greymoor(Western Skyrim/Greymoor Caverns): 6 Delves
Elsweyr (Northern): 6 Delves
Summerset: 6 Delves
Morrowind(Vvardenfell): 6 Delves

The only 2 zones in the entire game with more than 6 delves are Cyrodiil with 18 ( 3 per banner) and Craglorn, 11, because it was the old VR leveling zone

probably was misremembering lol

i think some of it had to do with too much of it feeling similar, or not being very memorable

at least 2 of the west weald delves were ruined forts, and had 80% the same quests (boiled down to "clear out bandits/deserters or recollection and light some signal fires)

for the delves i think the problem was they all felt too similar, and had no memorable quests

for the WBs i think they also were blocked from my memory due to the excessive use of invuln phases (5 of the 6 WBs have invuln phases of some form in the west weald)

SeaGtGruff

I don't find the zone itself to be medium-sized (I'm talking about land area, not content). It feels pretty big to me. The shape is kind of odd, almost like a boomerang-- the western area is wide but not tall, and the eastern area is tall but not wide-- so it can be pretty quick to go from one edge to an opposing edge depending on where you are and whether you're going north-south or east-west, but if you look at the zone on the map of Tamriel I think it compares favorably with other large zones.

Melivar

I haven't gotten into the questing yet but have been entertained by the scribing questline and the overland content as well as the new trial. Lots of fun mechanics in LC.

I typically wait a few weeks before doing the main quest and side quests so I can fully focus on it instead of constantly getting sidetracked by all the pretty new things and stuff.

Lots of folks stressing over the grind for inks but the 15 I got from the main questline as been sufficient to try out a few skills, they will come over time and I will play with more things.

Tandor

Orbital78 wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

It's only been one week, and I've reached the end of the Chapter's excitement already. Did the Questline, did most of the side quests, explored everything which somehow, didn't feel like as much as older chapter zones? Like I spent wayyy more time running around Summerset and Elsweyr, but The West Weald felt "done" for me after about 5 sessions.

I came to the hypothetical that Dev resources had to be divied up because of the new system, which also has its own mechanics, locations, art, questlines. Just makes me think that, if Scribing wasn't planned to launch with the Chapter then West Weald could've been "more". Bigger zone? More interiors? More scenery? Interactable points of interest, like Rock Bottom Caverns? You can't actually go in them. Skingrad Castle? Can't go there either. You can't tell me the Chapter is just 4 days of Questing and then it'd nothing but Daily Broker Jobs.

If you don't engage in all of the content, then I am sure you will find less to explore.

Agreed, plus it will also take less time to "complete" it all if you only play one character, on one server.

tsaescishoeshiner

Honestly, I would be down for cutting back on the number of delves and point-of-interest quests if it meant getting slightly longer, better multipart questlines like Scribing, Companion bonus quests, or Sadrith Mora.

TaSheen

Not really.

katanagirl1

I have done the 3 dailies so far and the first 4 wings of the scribing quest line, but none of the zone story line yet.

Of course they had to split the development. There is a schedule with a set timeline and a fixed number of developers.

So far I have not felt like the scribing quest line fits with the theme of ESO. I am not really interested in using any of it for my build and hoping that what I heard that dps don’t need it for builds is correct. I will try to do as many achievements as I can because that is a thing I like to do, but then will leave it just like the Psijic stuff.

I would have liked to have more zone content instead.

ValueDrift

ArchMikem wrote: »

I came to the hypothetical that Dev resources had to be divied up because of the new system

I feel like I'm repeating this a lot but someone should, the development resource was most likely moved to the unannounced project ZOS is known to be working on. The drop in quality in chapters and the beginning of that project seem to coincide.