U43… Over-Hype & Under Deliver

Jaraal · July 4

Bammlschwamml wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

So what will all these devs from the shuttered companies be working on? Will they be cutting hours to 20-30 hours per week to make room for all the new people? Isn't it more logical to think that the cream of the crop will be replacing the less productive redundant positions? Wouldn't that "mean they can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home?"

"Cream of the crop" or "efficiency" might sound nice to some people. But you should not forget that we are talking about humans here, not robots. Humans have limits and employers should respect that, instead of burning them out in their best years and then just replace them...

While i don't believe "millions of players" are actually playing ESO, the game itself is constantly growing. Wouldn't it be logical to assume that the team has to grow too? In my opinion it is very obvious that everyone would benefit a lot from hiring more people and investing more of the crownstore money back into this game. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of money to be made.

Before the other game studios were shuttered, ZOS had exactly the amount of employees they needed. There is no shortage of coders, writers, and artists looking for work. If the team "needed to grow," it would have been gross mismanagement to have not hired those individuals in the first place. And as far as games "growing" goes, most of the employee heavy work is done in the preproduction phase, when all the new zones, stories, and combat are being fleshed out. Once the game goes live, less people are needed, as it becomes more of a monitoring phase, with a smaller number of developers working on DLC content and fixing problems as they come up. And ESO has been complete for 10 years, and the new AAA title has been in pre-production for years.

While it's a nice sentiment that we feel the team "needs to grow," rest assured that the payroll department is seeing to it that the minimum number of people needed is being employed at any given time.

XSTRONG · July 4

The new stuff to Infinite Archive rocks my boat lol.

I love that they keep adding content and rewards to Infinite Archive.

In my opinion Infinite Archive is one of the best things they added to Eso since I started playing this game 5-6 years ago.

A new daily quest giver, new class sets, new cool arenas, 10 new bosses from game, 2 new Marauders etc etc.

Soarora · July 4

XSTRONG wrote: »

The new stuff to Infinite Archive rocks my boat lol.

I love that they keep adding content and rewards to Infinite Archive.

In my opinion Infinite Archive is one of the best things they added to Eso since I started playing this game 5-6 years ago.

A new daily quest giver, new class sets, new cool arenas, 10 new bosses from game, 2 new Marauders etc etc.

I liked IA but as long as there’s no save feature, I don’t want to do it. It takes like 1-8 hours… that’s crazy.

AzuraFan · July 4

Soarora wrote: »

I liked IA but as long as there’s no save feature, I don’t want to do it. It takes like 1-8 hours… that’s crazy.

Same. I'm glad to see they're still expanding it, but without a save feature, I can only do two arcs maximum and then I need to stop (due to RSI injuries). So it's dead content to me. Which is really disappointing for me because it's content I enjoyed when I tried it.

EdjeSwift · July 4

AzuraFan wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

I liked IA but as long as there’s no save feature, I don’t want to do it. It takes like 1-8 hours… that’s crazy.

Same. I'm glad to see they're still expanding it, but without a save feature, I can only do two arcs maximum and then I need to stop (due to RSI injuries). So it's dead content to me. Which is really disappointing for me because it's content I enjoyed when I tried it.

Arcs 1-2 are all you need to do to get everything out of IA, how does that make it dead content?

Kidgangster101 · July 4

Soarora wrote: »

I was bored for most of the stream, honestly. I started doing something else. Hopefully we get some intriguing furnishings or combat changes with the patch notes, or at least a bunch of bug fixes again… otherwise this update feels like it’s going to be a whole lot of nothing. Starting to miss 4 dungeons a year again.

Meanwhile ff14 released a dlc that has 6-7 dungeons, multiple trials, 5-6 huge new zones, 2 new jobs, and a patch scheduled in a few weeks to add 4 new raids. Yep content in eso has been trash for years it's a big reason I left even though I loved the combat system. I would have stayed except the combat system is also always buggy smh. All that content from ff14 is the same price as eso 1 map..... Just take that in.

xclassgaming · July 4

TaSheen wrote: »

Pelanora wrote: »

"Roundhouse Games – The team at Roundhouse Games will be joining ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS). Roundhouse has played a key role in many of our recent game launches and bringing them into ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean we can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home.
With this consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams.....we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP..."

They're getting more people, not less.

https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/xbox-closes-four-bethesda-studios-tango-gameworks-1235994961/

Yep. Was hoping for some input from the devs about what this absorption of Roundhouse would encompass.

*sigh* I guess.... nope.

playing devils adcoate, we know that zos plans these updates years in advance, so it might not be afew years until we see content that round house worked on

Syldras · July 4

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Arcs 1-2 are all you need to do to get everything out of IA, how does that make it dead content?

With finishing 1 or 2 arcs you won't get anywhere in the ranking (for those who care for that). You can't even get all achievements.

That said, I normally don't do more either, in my case due to lack of time. Why I'm playing Archive at all? For the currency to get the 2 lorebook furnishings each week.

xclassgaming · July 4

master_vanargand wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

master_vanargand wrote: »

I think that in the near future all work should be done by AI.
At least AI won't slack off at work.

I'm really looking forward to character models with 6 fingers per hand, as well as dialogues and quests that are 80% NSFW.

But at least the AI does its job.
It's better than the lies told by game creators who don't do their job.

AI HAS NO PLACE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ART MADE BY HUMANS, Absolutely not.

EdjeSwift · July 4

Syldras wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Arcs 1-2 are all you need to do to get everything out of IA, how does that make it dead content?

With finishing 1 or 2 arcs you won't get anywhere in the ranking (for those who care for that). You can't even get all achievements.

That said, I normally don't do more either, in my case due to lack of time. Why I'm playing Archive at all? For the currency to get the 2 lorebook furnishings each week.

Arc 1- 2 is enough to get top 100 for rewards for some classes every week.

AzuraFan · July 4

EdjeSwift wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

I liked IA but as long as there’s no save feature, I don’t want to do it. It takes like 1-8 hours… that’s crazy.

Same. I'm glad to see they're still expanding it, but without a save feature, I can only do two arcs maximum and then I need to stop (due to RSI injuries). So it's dead content to me. Which is really disappointing for me because it's content I enjoyed when I tried it.

Arcs 1-2 are all you need to do to get everything out of IA, how does that make it dead content?

I can't get everything I want out of IA in arcs 1-2. If all a player cares about are the drops, sure. But for me, the infinite archive is a challenge, as in, how far I can get. Well, I already know the answer, so there's no point doing it. I'll never get past Arc 2. I don't care about the drops, etc. That's not the appeal for me.

WolfCombatPet · July 4

The only thing this new update will change for me is that now I will be avoiding house touring anyone's home while the creator is present.

I don't want to feel obligated to upvote a home if I dislike it.

Without voting, all I need to do is say something nice about one feature I liked.

With voting now in the game, I have to set myself up for a confrontation in which I have to stress about telling someone why I'm not upvoting their house.

But that is still not going to save me from feeling like I should be upvoting my friends' homes when in fact I don't think they are all that.

Popularity contests have never been a good thing. I hope the voting aspect is something devs remove from Home Tours.

Shagreth · July 4

Look, it's fine to try, it's fine to be confident in your abilities and sometimes surprise players. In the case of ZOS however, they barely try, and when they do -- we get stuff like Tales of Tribute, Home Tours, Scribing (it was a disappointment for me) and other stuff that most people don't give a damn about. If you are trying and failing again and again, perhaps it's time to change things up in your team, perhaps even the leadership. I recall a moment when said leadership made fools of themselves regarding PvP and the players that care for PvP during a livestream, that opened my eyes about a few things and ZOS.

Mathius_Mordred · July 4

PVP Update: We've finally added the ability to kill people who have commited a crime in the city if they are at the level where a guard will attack. Oh wait, sorry, that was a few years ago wasn't it, let me check my papers, ah, here it is, we've added a second golden vendor yay!

Mathius_Mordred · July 4

LOL those of you who think ESO is in or approaching maintenance mode haven't got a clue.

zaria · July 4

sh4d0wh4z3 wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

It's fine if people wanted more, but I don't think it was over-hyped. All we were told was "new housing feature." In addition to that, we're also getting a big Archive update, new class sets, and some other QoL/goodies.

I also think the new housing system is pretty cool. Between this and the Archive, it's like a focus on systems that give us a lot to do over the long term. It would be awesome if it came with new furnishings and stuff but ... we'll see if there's anything in the patch notes that they didn't mention.

It was over hyped. The entire month of May was dedicated to housing. Housing themed endeavors, free house guests that encouraged players to visit each other's houses, and a free notable style house. All to hype up the housing update. The banner on the launcher for U43 was even labeled as the housing update.

Now this one like putting down 10 furniture from bank in an new house for 100 endeavor,

NoticeMeArkay · July 4

Syldras wrote: »

master_vanargand wrote: »

I think that in the near future all work should be done by AI.
At least AI won't slack off at work.

I'm really looking forward to character models with 6 fingers per hand, as well as dialogues and quests that are 80% NSFW.

Don't forget about the racism. Oh, all the racism and none of will be targeting actual ingame races.

AI...better not.

Ashnarug · July 4

I am not into housing a lot. Use them only to move around. And I am not a fan of Infinite Archive either. So for me Update 43 is a waste of space, time and energy.

davelbier · July 4

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

PVP Update: We've finally added the ability to kill people who have commited a crime in the city if they are at the level where a guard will attack. Oh wait, sorry, that was a few years ago wasn't it, let me check my papers, ah, here it is, we've added a second golden vendor yay!

lol, my expectations are something like this

a scribing script or Assault skill to add 'cleanse in combat' for like, 20k of your health or something.
updating the golden to somehow be more disappointing - would curating it just for one piece each week kill them?
reducing the player cap in cyro again

what i want is more like this

mini cyro - short term [2-4 hours], smaller scale, outposts with lots of fun terrain capped at maybe 18 per alliance.
BGs to really level-set players into a skill fight with capped-stats or a random debuff-per-match to all players to mix it up
adding ink drops to just one friggin pvp daily, eg, one guaranteed ink for the first daily of IC, Cyro, or BG*

* - i am glad they are adding ink to chests and heavy sacks, i guess? i do some daily writs and pvp. that doesnt help me. idk why they cant have a chance of dropping with writs a-la master writs or something.

regarding the other announcements - I am glad they are curating more drops. Theres plenty of stuff i still dont have, or just refuse to bother collecting because i dont want to bother with RNG for it. I dont do housing or IA. I get housing being a let down...I also expected something functional. Im glad some people look forward to the IA update, i never played it, but its good that they are still working on it.

Tsuriel · July 4

alternatelder wrote: »

Just wait until they finally reveal the pvp update. I hope everyone is tempering they're expectations for that.

Yeah my expectations for that one is rock bottom, someone should def make a thread about this one for a good guessing game and laugh. Perhaps something for the devs to truly reflect over, because pullin this kind of hype and not delivering on it is truly unfortunate, it will chase people away from the game.

Two medium Houses and a place to list your house is not much to look forward to, but at least as most have stated up above, the IA stuff is something to look forward to at least. A saving feature for IA would be nice, similar to the Arenas because my own personal reason for not going beyond Arc 2 is time, even though I have a lot of fun in there.

Jaraal · July 4

WolfCombatPet wrote: »

The only thing this new update will change for me is that now I will be avoiding house touring anyone's home while the creator is present.

When I visit other people's homes for inspiration, using EHT I usually do so at 2 or 3am, when it's most likely that no one else is there. Or if it's guild members, I check the roster to see if they are offline. I'm not there for a drawn out guided tour, standing around waiting for people to type out their stories. I want to look at what interests me, and skip past what doesn't, and be on my way as soon as possible. Conversely, if it's an invitation or a guild gathering, then of course proper protocols are observed. But I think fear of the guided tour is what keeps a lot of people from checking out other folks' homes.

When I finish a house and would like to show it off, or get people's opinions on my work, I will mention in guild chat that my new creation is available for viewing, but that I won't be there because I'm logging, going on a raid, working on a different house, stuck in Cyrodiil, or whatever the case may be. I find that I get a lot more visits that way, and people will let me know in guild chat, "Hey, I liked this or that, didn't care for the other," etc.

Syldras · July 4

NoticeMeArkay wrote: »

Don't forget about the racism. Oh, all the racism and none of will be targeting actual ingame races.
AI...better not.

They fixed that. Now, everyone is equally happy. Fortunately, there are no fingers on this picture.

Now imagine that with the races of Tamriel. A wonderful future indeed.

Elsonso · July 4

Syldras wrote: »

NoticeMeArkay wrote: »

Don't forget about the racism. Oh, all the racism and none of will be targeting actual ingame races.
AI...better not.

They fixed that. Now, everyone is equally happy. Fortunately, there are no fingers on this picture.

Now imagine that with the races of Tamriel. A wonderful future indeed.

I actually prefer the picture as is, with a variety of previously unknown Daedra.

Nharimlur_Finor · July 4

Don't move
Don't talk out of time
Don't think
Don't worry
Everything's just fine
Just fine..

Shagreth · July 4

master_vanargand wrote: »

Some people believe that a business is making a $1 item look like it's worth a million dollars.
But I don't think the game creators are doing work that's worth a dollar.
I think that in the near future all work should be done by AI.
At least AI won't slack off at work.

ZOS stated some time ago that they'll utilize A.I. in their development process, so...

ArchangelIsraphel · July 4

Syldras wrote: »

NoticeMeArkay wrote: »

Don't forget about the racism. Oh, all the racism and none of will be targeting actual ingame races.
AI...better not.

They fixed that. Now, everyone is equally happy. Fortunately, there are no fingers on this picture.

Now imagine that with the races of Tamriel. A wonderful future indeed.

Hmm, needs more confetti. Then we can call it a new system.

Syldras · July 4

Elsonso wrote: »

I actually prefer the picture as is, with a variety of previously unknown Daedra.

We'll probably never see them in-game though. They just look too horrendous happy.

Shagreth wrote: »

ZOS stated some time ago that they'll utilize A.I. in their development process, so...

Do you have a source? I'm curious because there had been a statement just a few weeks ago that they do not (I'm not sure if the thread still exists, it was about Ithelia's design).

Kaelalas · July 4

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Kaelalas wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Isn't hype completely subjective? Any over or under hyping is the onus of the viewer.

For me, I was pleasantly surprised by the announced IA changes.

That's nice. Mostly everyone else isn't.

I would think more people would be pleasantly surprised. It's hard to say that "mostly everyone" is upset by this update, when the forums are such a small subset of ESO's playerbase as a whole.

IncultaWolf wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Kaelalas wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Isn't hype completely subjective? Any over or under hyping is the onus of the viewer.

For me, I was pleasantly surprised by the announced IA changes.

That's nice. Mostly everyone else isn't.

I would think more people would be pleasantly surprised. It's hard to say that "mostly everyone" is upset by this update, when the forums are such a small subset of ESO's playerbase as a whole.

Exactly. I personally don't care about the housing tours, but the Infinite Archive updates are awesome and I can't wait to check it out on pts.

Good for you two. But for most everyone else who took time out of their day, in the middle of the day, to watch a livestream full of meaningless commentary between the developers to add padding to a stream otherwise devoid of any meaningful content? They underdelivered, and for most everyone who watched the stream (largely to see what "big" housing features we'd be getting), these other small improvements and additions to things like the IA just doesn't outweigh the disappointed surrounding this housing update. Don't get me wrong, I like the IA, but I didn't take the time to watch the stream for that. I didn't even *know* that they were dedicated some of the stream to that. For me and most everyone else, this was "the big housing feature reveal" and what a blow it was. No band-aids like the IA additions being slapped on are going to even come close to making up for the overhype. And, for the record, hype isn't just on the viewer- it is influenced largely by the advertising of the product by the developers. We as a community were asked what we wanted to see added to housing, and this new QOL addition doesn't even come close to the top of that list. We had a whole month where housing endeavors took the spotlight. They dedicated an *entire* quarter to this housing update. Blaming the community for actually expecting something meaningful or even remotely impactful to the actual housing mechanic is ridiculous

master_vanargand · July 4

The PvP update will probably be something like "add a 15 minute time limit to Duel".
This solves the problem of the duel never ending. Yay, we created the amazing update

ArchangelIsraphel · July 4

master_vanargand wrote: »

The PvP update will probably be something like "add a 15 minute time limit to Duel".
This solves the problem of the duel never ending. Yay, we created the amazing update

Nah, it will be even better- a button we can click (because who doesn't love clicking things on the UI as a new system amiright guys?) to auto disable all our weapons and gear so we can stand and punch each other to death.

They'll call it "The Noble Art of Fisticuffs."

Ooooh, maybe there will even be a checkbox or two. I'm soooo excited.