Studio Director’s Message Key Points

Integral1900

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

LatentBuzzard wrote: »

Not to mention that if they're only announcing details a quarter of the way through 2025 then 2025 is pretty much going to be a write off in terms of new content.

Just following up on this. We have new content coming in 2025. We have our normal Q1 content for 2025 (we’ll touch on that next month), and April will have details for the rest of 2025. So it will not be a write off regarding content.

Yes it will. Remember, we are in the era of modern gaming, which generally seems to translate to as little as possible, as in frequently as possible, the suddenly made as possible. I fear the letter should’ve perhaps gone through a few more revisions before publishing it especially neglecting to point out that the seasonal stuff isn’t just gonna disappear at the end of the season. If I want to contact that just disappeared at the end of seasons I would scuttle off to Diablo four, fire up the necromancer and let the thing play itself. words like season need to be used with great care.

Rogue_Coyote

Personally, I would be okay with no new pve related content for a year, if it means attention is focused on years-old issues with the current state of the game.

loosej

If this message had come from a different game studio I would be cautiously optimistic. But since this is a Zenimax Online statement, I'll take a "wait and see" approach.

Don't get me wrong, all the things pointed out could be good changes if done right. But even if they all work out, I wouldn't call them a reason for celebration. Some things are, as pointed out, very long overdue. Fixing them would make a lot of unhappy customers not unhappy, and could even win some old customers back.

But don't expect too many pats on the back for doing things that should have been done years ago. I like that improved Cyrodiil performance and a return to higher pop caps are mentioned. But at the same time it's sad that I'm excited about the possibility that the product I've been paying for for years could maybe, finally work as intended...

I'm also very, very curious to see how many players will become unhappy customers again once we know how all this new stuff will be monetized.

Aurielle

Very curious to see what becomes of the PVP changes… What precisely is it about current skills that make it impossible to support higher population caps without taking a performance hit? Are we going to see the elimination of things like delayed burst skills? DoTs? HoTs? Also… if we’re disabling PVE skills, are we disabling PVE sets too? Will there be new PVP exclusive sets or loadouts that DON’T force the servers to do intense calculations (i.e. no more sets like Azureblight?) Will the changes discourage things like troll tank builds, bomber builds, and ball groups? Cautiously optimistic to see if they can pull it off, but have a LOT of questions…

Disappointed that there’s no mention of the current performance issues (outside of Cyrodiil), but not surprised.

terrible1fi

allochthons wrote: »

My concern comes from some ignorance on how a lot of MMOs work.
My impression is that "Seasons" often mean that you essentially start over, and work for a goal for X months, but then lose all your progress (except the shinies) at the end.

So you end up basically re-leveling a toon every few months.

Can someone clarify? This is just what I hear (and very probably misunderstood) about Overwatch or other things, ESO is the only MMO I've ever played.
If it's more like a huge, longer Golden Pursuit, then, well, okay, but not great. I still want ESO to fill in large swaths of the map.

Although more activity in the base game zones is welcome. As is bug fixes.

meaning we will receive short season quest lines featuring new/returning favorite characters that are more bite sized instead of full chapter releases. also with a seasonal pass im guessing to unlock new cosmetics, QOL items, etc. Im guessing it will be done like destiny 2 seasons, where there is a new story/season quest line to do, but without "losing any progress" when its done

Thysbe

Defatank wrote: »

The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

so you seriously think its good news that we will then get the "new" content streched over the year and are hence forced to pay in a service model instead of a one time buy? There are many players who are not on ESO+ and this changes might have a significant impact on the monetisation of the game

spartaxoxo

LatentBuzzard wrote: »

Not to mention that if they're only announcing details a quarter of the way through 2025 then 2025 is pretty much going to be a write off in terms of new content.

Quarter 1 is usually dungeons so I don't think it means much.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

LatentBuzzard wrote: »

Not to mention that if they're only announcing details a quarter of the way through 2025 then 2025 is pretty much going to be a write off in terms of new content.

Just following up on this. We have new content coming in 2025. We have our normal Q1 content for 2025 (we’ll touch on that next month), and April will have details for the rest of 2025. So it will not be a write off regarding content.

When you say normal content do you mean dungeons again?

Gaebriel0410

Praying for the hypothetical Season of the Scissor, where you help cake chef Donolon's coiffure oriented cousin unravel the mysteries of black altmer hair dye buried deep within the vaults of the thieves guild, a quest chain that ultimately leads to the unlock of a barbershop feature.

irswat

Didn't really work for D2.

licenturion

LadyGP wrote: »

licenturion wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

licenturion wrote: »

So no more zone expansion to look forward to, no new story, no new world events, no new soundtrack release etc

I am going to wait and see but I will probably lose interest rather quickly. But good they announce this well in advance so that I don’t invest financially in ESO+ or crowns. It will be interesting to see how much the PvP crowd will invest financially, now that they become the priority for a year.

Just to clarify, no one said we are not doing things like this anymore. They just won’t be packaged under a chapter. We still plan on story content, music, world activities, etc. We’ll have more info to share in April.

Well that is good I suppose. So are you going to sell a ‘year pass’ instead of an expansion?

However this is very bizarre way of communicating. You drop basically a bomb shell of news on the community and will clarify the details in 4,5 months?

The fact that you had to post several times in a short span about this clearly shows this was not the way to deliver news of this kind of magnitude. Especially when clarifications are almost 5 months away. Just my 2 cents…

I think Matts letter a nice PR way of addressing current challenges this year has faced and a way they plan on handling them.

It's a "hey we want to give you a heads up this is coming.. but as for the specifics of the content we want to wait to do our global reveal". Global reveals/season reveals are important for PR and pushing new players into the game. If they didn't give anyone heads up and dropped the bomb on us then everyone would be asking questions like they are right now instead of focusing on the specifics of the content that was unveiled - which would not drive new players.

As for them coming into this thread.. this is them improving communications. They are immediately stepping in and clearing up any confusion before it goes off the rails - something we all have been asking for.

I don't really agree with this. If they are going the seasonal model, you don't have to have 'global reveal events'. That does not fit the medium anymore. You announce the dripfeed by season or ' midseason reloaded' trailers or roadmaps that you casually drop on YouTube and Twitter like all the other season games are doing with this model. Look at Diablo 4, the only ' global reveal' they are doing was when they were dropping an expansion with a new zone, story, class etc. You don't do events for a new multiplayer map, a new overwatch hero or a new battlepass.

With this model my hype level is the lowest it is ever been because I am not a dripfeed kinda guy. I usually buy the new Call Of Duty when the last season drops so I have all the weapons, all the 20 added maps and cosmetics at once at a heavily discounted price. Same like I watch my TV series, I don't watch Act1 of Arcane or an episode every week. I just wait until the whole season is complete and watch it in 1 go.

I will probably do the same for ESO. I used to pre-order the deluxe edition and looked forward to a big content drop.

Defatank

Thysbe wrote: »

Defatank wrote: »

The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

so you seriously think its good news that we will then get the "new" content streched over the year and are hence forced to pay in a service model instead of a one time buy? There are many players who are not on ESO+ and this changes might have a significant impact on the monetisation of the game

You are 100% correct this change could impact non ESO+ subscribers in a big way it just depends on how ZOS monetizes this change and to be clear, ZOS will monetize this, the suits demand it. But I also believe the devs are 100% committed to making a good quality MMO as well. I've been along this ride for the entire 10 years, beta and all that fun stuff and I have always held support for the game but I also have criticized devs when I felt like things being done in the game were going a bad direction even to the point of dropping ESO+ and stopped playing the game for a couple of years. I can say the devs have made amazing strides and changes to the game that have helped it but there are still plenty of items to work on and make better and it takes not just the devs to achieve it but the players feedback as well, that is why the game has turned towards a better game over the years because ZOS believe it or not actually hears us.

I myself, I pay for ESO+ and always do when I'm playing any amount of time in the game because lets be honest the craft bag is completely worth it itself and everything else is just a bonus. So yea this new schedule is amazing news for me and I'm sure ESO+ is going to pick that content up along the way. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this change is geared towards getting more subs per month anyway. I also played WoW for 15 years too, and yes paid my sub there as well. I have zero problem paying for a live service with endless things to do when it feels like I get my monies worth which I do

Noerra

averyfarmanb14_ESO wrote: »

Fischblut wrote: »

While I am afraid that instead of paying once a year for chapter, we might be required to pay more times (per season)... The real concern for my playstyle is this part:

"Increasing the difficulty of standard overworld combat"

If this will be done, it will be the end of ESO for me personally I like easy fights in overland, casually exploring and not being afraid of mobs who guard treasure chests and resources. I already prefer to not participate in world boss/world events in chapters and DLC zones - but when I see an active Dark Anchor in base game zones, I always go for it.

And zones which force (or strongly encourage) grouping like old Craglorn are not how I wish to play nowadays

Bolded for emphasis. I'm an older player, and I'm here in part because I can engage in the story and social aspects of a fully-fleshed MMO without having to either run with an entire group, constantly, or go full-on Dark Souls on everything. If this is, indeed, the direction ESO's going, I can't follow.

I don't think they will make it universally harder for people. I think they are just going to create an option for those that wan't harder difficulty.

SilverBride

For the first time, I am worried about ESO's future, and my place in it.

tsaescishoeshiner

averyfarmanb14_ESO wrote: »

Fischblut wrote: »

While I am afraid that instead of paying once a year for chapter, we might be required to pay more times (per season)... The real concern for my playstyle is this part:

"Increasing the difficulty of standard overworld combat"

If this will be done, it will be the end of ESO for me personally I like easy fights in overland, casually exploring and not being afraid of mobs who guard treasure chests and resources. I already prefer to not participate in world boss/world events in chapters and DLC zones - but when I see an active Dark Anchor in base game zones, I always go for it.

And zones which force (or strongly encourage) grouping like old Craglorn are not how I wish to play nowadays

Bolded for emphasis. I'm an older player, and I'm here in part because I can engage in the story and social aspects of a fully-fleshed MMO without having to either run with an entire group, constantly, or go full-on Dark Souls on everything. If this is, indeed, the direction ESO's going, I can't follow.

"More difficult overland" for a game where you almost recover health faster than overland mobs can kill you is a far cry from going full-on Dark Souls lol. I would settle for "less unengaging and pointless" overland, but that doesn't sound as good in a yearly update letter lol. I didn't like repeating Bastion Nymics, and I don't enjoy Craglorn group areas, but I do enjoy other MMOs or RPGs where you have to use your abilities and combos to kill mobs.

In ESO, non-boss enemies die in 2 seconds to 2 spammables and cannot kill you. In some other MMOs, the "difficulty" is partly in the fact that you need to at least hit buttons in order to kill them faster and prevent their mechanics (they're not necessarily harder, and you can adjust by fighting one at a time, or going to lower-level areas).

Yes, players can get overwhelmed at dolmens or in public dungeons where you can get outnumbered by stronger enemies. In most cases, all those players need is an area DoT and a self-heal every 5-10 seconds, because since mobs don't continuously heal, they can all be whittled down. So we're at 2 skills per 5-10 seconds at the moment with some decent gear. I think that's fairly accessible with room to become more difficult or engaging, even if many players can't piece together basic gear and skills to not die in a public dungeon. I want content to be accessible to these players because they're an important part of the community, but it's very, very easy as it is, and something less pointless for everyone would be nice.

If overland mobs became as hard as Cyrodiil resource guards, I can see that being a barrier to players. But that's the closest I can think of to an encounter where you have to think your way through--do you stun the enemies, heal through it, kite them, or enter the tower to take out the mage first, then run back down? I think if the incoming damage was reduced, and with 1-2 fewer enemies to focus on, that would be a good model for combat that actually engages. But it'll probably be more like Craglorn group areas.

Noerra

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just to follow up here. The changes here are to make us more agile and produce more engaging and varied content. So from our prospective, it is not us "going into maintenance" but rather being able to address several concerns the player base has noted over the years.

I hope you can understand why some of us are worried. Changes are scary lol, what does it really mean!?

Personally I am excited and hopeful. I think there is plenty of content in the game. I haven't done all the trials or dungeons yet! I haven't even gotten into the card game or done the chapter stories! I mostly spend my time making builds and trying them out in various content.

I think there is more than enough content in the game to sustain us players that have been playing for years. Albeit I say that as a primarily PvP player, so yeah I'm used to playing the same content over and over.

I am hopeful because to me this represents overall improvements to the game! I would love to see the wrinkles in the new BGs get ironed out, I would love Cyrodiil and IC improvements, I would love the option to have more difficult overland and questing experiences (part of the reason I didn't complete a lot of the main stories is because I found the combat in overland too boring and the difficulty wasn't congruent with the epicness of the story... I mean come on... 2 shotting Molag Bal was hardly epic... ) I would love to spawn into zones and not have my weapon spawned under my feet for some reason making me reequip it so it appears in my hand, I would love for item sets that have become obsolete due to powercreep to get improvements, etc...

So yeah - Good Luck to the Dev Team!

My ESO wishlist is:
- Battleground Improvements, make ranked 4v4v4 because 4v4 just ends with people afking in spawn. Merge group and solo queues for 8v8.
- Cyrodiil I would like to see better server performance of course. But maybe new Siege Weapons... like an actual Siege Tower! Or a skill line that would allow you to pick locks and get inside a keep or something. I would also like to see a nerf to cross healing... Ball Groups kinda ruin the experience for me a little with how many Heal over Time Abilities people have up at all times.
- In the letter/announcement: the Cyrodiil Campaign in which our abilities are replaced with PVP specific abilities worries me a little. Part of the fun is the theory crafting and making unique builds. I'm open to trying it though, maybe it will make things more skill based and less build based which could be a good thing but also a disaster.
- PvP Battlespirit: I feel like Health recovery was hit too hard when it was nerfed. I think it could be brought up just a little bit. Honestly, if Health Recovery was balanced with Vampire Passives, you would see a more balanced mix of Vamps and non Vamps rather than everyone being a vampire.
- Transmute Stone Maximum increased.... I'm at cap!
- Item Sets Redesign and Improvements for sets that have become "obsolete" due to powercreep.
- Continuing the theme with Infinite Archive, I would love more Solo/Duo Arenas; not endless like IA, but ones that have a beginning and end like Vateshran Hollows, Maelstrom, or Dragonstar.
- Dungeon Currency that you can use to buy specific Gear that you want. Let's say I'm running White-Gold tower and I want Essence Thief Maul or something, that I could sell my loot for dungeon currency and then buy the item that I actually want.
- More Storage Coffers for Housing!

BlueRaven

SilverBride wrote: »

For the first time, I am worried about ESO's future, and my place in it.

Yup.

This definitely has a “our development budget got crushed” feel to it. And as someone else pointed out, suddenly the cancellation of the meet ups makes sense.

Ugh.

Tannus15

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

LatentBuzzard wrote: »

Not to mention that if they're only announcing details a quarter of the way through 2025 then 2025 is pretty much going to be a write off in terms of new content.

Just following up on this. We have new content coming in 2025. We have our normal Q1 content for 2025 (we’ll touch on that next month), and April will have details for the rest of 2025. So it will not be a write off regarding content.

people are freaking out and are very anxious about what these changes will mean. You can't leave it to April. 4 MONTHS before giving some sort of outline about what your seasonal model will look like.

Seriously, this is what we mean about communication issues. The letter is super exciting, and has heaps of potential, but it's also promising some big changes and a lot of people are really not comfortable with change. You CANNOT just say "we're changing everything but we're not going to tell you how this is going to work for almost half a year!"

Flangdoodle

What's not said is sometimes as interesting as what is said. It would seem that this (as much as we know from the letter anyway) isn't just a change in content delivery. Unless I'm mistaken (always a possibility ) it also points to a new revenue model. I mean, with any company, you don't just completely change the way you offer and deliver your product without accounting for how it affects revenue, right? That raises a whole lot of questions.

Previously, the model was to release the new packages of content as one-off purchases in pieces throughout the year, and hype them until the next year, and then make them available to all subscribers when the shine wore off (and TBF to tie player advantages to the new content so that you had to buy the content to get the advantage - see "Oakensoul" and other content exclusive gear)

So how will these "seasons" function? Will they each need to be purchased or will they be folded into the subscription? Will the player advantages be tied to the seasons or does this mean an end to them, etc.

Probably getting way too far ahead here.

SilverBride

Tannus15 wrote: »

people are freaking out and are very anxious about what these changes will mean. You can't leave it to April. 4 MONTHS before giving some sort of outline about what your seasonal model will look like.

Seriously, this is what we mean about communication issues. The letter is super exciting, and has heaps of potential, but it's also promising some big changes and a lot of people are really not comfortable with change. You CANNOT just say "we're changing everything but we're not going to tell you how this is going to work for almost half a year!"

This please.

Danikat

Thysbe wrote: »

Defatank wrote: »

The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

so you seriously think its good news that we will then get the "new" content streched over the year and are hence forced to pay in a service model instead of a one time buy? There are many players who are not on ESO+ and this changes might have a significant impact on the monetisation of the game

We don't have any info at all on how it will be paid for. I'm one of the people who doesn't use ESO+ and does pay for chapters (and used to pay for DLC) and this is one of my big questions, but they didn't say anything about what it will cost or how frequently so we can't decide yet.

Yes it might be a "season pass" model where you're expected to pay up front for the promise of DLC and updates and hope it will be something you want. Or it might be like the early years of the game where we got different types of DLC every few months, but not on a fixed schedule and could pick and choose which ones to buy and which to skip.

If it's basically a return to how they used to do things then I'll be fine with it, I can go back to buying the DLC which interests me and skipping the ones that don't. If it's a season pass then the one bit of good news is they've already said seasons will be permanently available so I can wait until it's been released and I know what I'm paying for before I pay. If it's something else entirely then I'll decide based on what it is.

It's a concern, but it's far too early on to say its not good news for non-subscribers (or for subscribers).

RomanRex

Tannus15 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

LatentBuzzard wrote: »

Not to mention that if they're only announcing details a quarter of the way through 2025 then 2025 is pretty much going to be a write off in terms of new content.

Just following up on this. We have new content coming in 2025. We have our normal Q1 content for 2025 (we’ll touch on that next month), and April will have details for the rest of 2025. So it will not be a write off regarding content.

people are freaking out and are very anxious about what these changes will mean. You can't leave it to April. 4 MONTHS before giving some sort of outline about what your seasonal model will look like.

Seriously, this is what we mean about communication issues. The letter is super exciting, and has heaps of potential, but it's also promising some big changes and a lot of people are really not comfortable with change. You CANNOT just say "we're changing everything but we're not going to tell you how this is going to work for almost half a year!"

They ambiguously teased a big PVP update for months this year. Lots of folks were super excited and eager to see what was in store. We ended up with battlegrounds that most people despised.

They also teased housing for a few months. People got their hopes up that it was increased storage, furniture deconstruction, or a furniture craft bag. Instead, we got housing tours that nobody wanted.

It’s not worth holding your breath and waiting for news you hope will be positive.

Tannus15

RomanRex wrote: »

Tannus15 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

LatentBuzzard wrote: »

Not to mention that if they're only announcing details a quarter of the way through 2025 then 2025 is pretty much going to be a write off in terms of new content.

Just following up on this. We have new content coming in 2025. We have our normal Q1 content for 2025 (we’ll touch on that next month), and April will have details for the rest of 2025. So it will not be a write off regarding content.

people are freaking out and are very anxious about what these changes will mean. You can't leave it to April. 4 MONTHS before giving some sort of outline about what your seasonal model will look like.

Seriously, this is what we mean about communication issues. The letter is super exciting, and has heaps of potential, but it's also promising some big changes and a lot of people are really not comfortable with change. You CANNOT just say "we're changing everything but we're not going to tell you how this is going to work for almost half a year!"

They ambiguously teased a big PVP update for months this year. Lots of folks were super excited and eager to see what was in store. We ended up with battlegrounds that most people despised.

It’s not worth holding your breath and waiting for news you hope will be positive.

exactly my point. this was one of my big gripes this year. just tell us what the plan is. You have a plan, you know what it is, JUST TELL US FFS.

Sarannah

After having read it all, I am glad we are getting content still, though it does seem 'maintenance'-like.

Not a fan of seasons, personally I love ESO most when there isn't a list of things to do, so I can do what I want without missing out on anything else(FOMO). Because I don't want to miss tickets, styles, eventrewards, endeavours, daily rewards, and golden pursuits already. Add seasons to that, and the daily load is just too much. (Maybe lower the daily load, by removing daily endeavours and adding those rewards to the weekly endeavours, by removing the dungeon/BG daily rewards and make it a seven times per week completion reward, etc)
My guess is, that in the end paying for each part of the new season's content separately will cost us more than one full chapter would have. Which would point to 'maintenance'-mode and nickle and diming players.

The list of things coming does not excite me at all:
-Cyrodiil: Personally I do not PvP, don't care at all.
-Overland mob difficulty increase: Waste of development time. Everyone skips overland/delve/public dungeon/groupdungeon mobs anyways, always running their mob trains through my aoe's, leaving me with their mob mess. (Add the guard's pull/stuck abilities to ALL mobs before even thinking about increasing difficulty in overland.) Add to this that everyone has a different idea of the difficulty and what it should be, and this just becomes a huge waste of development time, no matter how you look at it.
-Improving the feel of combat: The game is in a good spot combat-wise, any changes will only mess things up(like U35 did). Best to just fix performance and add new classes/races to expand the combat experience instead.
-Craglorn like groupzone(s): Even though I love new content/zones, I heavily dislike the focus on grouping/groupdifficulty. If these zones are just going to be a one and done like Craglorn, it is not worth the development effort.
-Guildtools: Not in a guild, don't care at all.
**I'd rather we get more new systems, fixes to the performance issues(don't have any myself, but seeing players leave in droves because of this is not a good look, not to mention the bad press/advertising this places on the game itself), fixing groupdungeons for the new player experience by removing speedrunning and fake roles, an expanded/larger database(more character slots/more races/more classes/more inventory space/more bankspace/more furniture slots/more world skilllines/more anything like survey bags and furniture bags and such), expanding the CP system to the millions(with current exp curve). Just in general expand and fix the game's real main issues so everyone can have a pleasant experience, new, returning, and existing players.

"Concentrating on new and returning user experience"- As an existing max account player, this means nothing. It is good that you are doing this, but does this also mean we get more character slots and more ways to enjoy the new player experience as existing veteran players? (rebirth system/resetting quest zones/anything?)
Note: What would help the new/returning player experience most, is different color quest arrows for each separate DLC. Very simple, very easy to understand for new and returning players, suggested like a million times before by many different players. Why isn't this implemented yet? (Earlier this year there was development time spent on thinking about and placing different level requirements on each different questcontent, which felt like a major waste of development time and made it even more confusing. Including for me as a veteran.)

What does sound promising is the visual rework on the older zones, but I do hope this is done right. If it is going to look like a mix between half old and half new, it is going to look bad. In that case it would be better not to touch these older zones. In that case I would rather have this development time be spent on expanding game systems, like mentioned above**.

Overall based on this letter, not much seems to be going on. While at the same time it feels like 'maintenance' mode, combined with more FOMO content instead of chapters, and nothing for veteran players to really be excited about.

PS: Give us an option to completely exclude ourselves from other player's add-ons.

HazierBlue

It remains to be seen whether these are positive or negative changes, but it's hard for me to believe that a dev team that can't juggle producing content and fixing bugs at the same will be able to pull it off. We will probably see the stuff in the letter materialize.. in 5 years.

Danikat

The one part of this which does give me hope is they specifically said they're going to make further improvements to the start of the game to help new players learn how it works and stop them getting overwhelmed. That's not something they'd bother doing unless the game was regularly attracting new players and ZOS expected that to continue.

It's also something I really think needs doing. Don't get me wrong, I like the freedom of choice we get and I wouldn't want to lose that but I also think it's important for new players to get their feet under them before they get sent off in all directions.

I think the default should be that new players go through the game in order, and only go off on their own path if they choose to do that, but ever since Morrowind came out it's required players to research and manually track the intended order of quests and often included some fairly unintuitive steps (although they've already fixed a lot of that by restoring the start of the game).

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate the freedom we have to choose our own path through the game, but it should be a choice, not something you stumble through because you haven't got a clue which of the quests you're picking up even fit together to make a storyline.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

After reading the letter I get the feeling we will see the Fallout 76'ization of ESO. This is something that would be the last nail in the coffin as far as my having anything to do with the game. The letter also gives me the impression that the team is at the end of its creative line and will be doing the minimum to keep the cash flowing rather than continue with the comprehensive story lines you'd expect from an Elder Scrolls game.

I play Fallout 76 occasionally. The whole season thing is a mechanism to get players on a treadmill without a lot of effort in actual content development. I can see the Golden Pursuits and Endeavors becoming the equivalent of FO76's daily/weekly challenges that reward points for unlocking the seasonal rewards and obtaining currency to purchase the unlocked rewards. The season is also monetized such that many of the best rewards are locked behind the monthly Fallout 1st sub. While not truly pay to win it sure pushes the limits of what's not P2W. It is a model I would never have expected from an MMO that is suppose to be top tier player. I guess we will find out in April just how far ZOS has gone.

LatentBuzzard

.

Danikat wrote: »

The one part of this which does give me hope is they specifically said they're going to make further improvements to the start of the game to help new players learn how it works and stop them getting overwhelmed. That's not something they'd bother doing unless the game was regularly attracting new players and ZOS expected that to continue.

They've already done this several times over the last few patches in changing starting zones for new players, changing tutorials, hiding quests etc. so why do they need to focus on it yet again ? One way that you can look at it is that with the seasonal model they'll be focusing on churning new players rather than trying to keep existing players around and so are prioritising the new player experience again.

RomanRex

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

After reading the letter I get the feeling we will see the Fallout 76'ization of ESO. This is something that would be the last nail in the coffin as far as my having anything to do with the game. The letter also gives me the impression that the team is at the end of its creative line and will be doing the minimum to keep the cash flowing rather than continue with the comprehensive story lines you'd expect from an Elder Scrolls game.

I play Fallout 76 occasionally. The whole season thing is a mechanism to get players on a treadmill without a lot of effort in actual content development. I can see the Golden Pursuits and Endeavors becoming the equivalent of FO76's daily/weekly challenges that reward points for unlocking the seasonal rewards and obtaining currency to purchase the unlocked rewards. The season is also monetized such that many of the best rewards are locked behind the monthly Fallout 1st sub. While not truly pay to win it sure pushes the limits of what's not P2W. It is a model I would never have expected from an MMO that is suppose to be top tier player. I guess we will find out in April just how far ZOS has gone.

I never played FO76. I am grateful to know the similarities in games regarding their overall trajectory.

It isn’t a good picture but it at least gives us a more realistic forecast of what will *actually* happen.

Deimus

I'll remain cautious until I see the results of his words being acted on in game, but he is saying the right things.

As a primarily PvP player I want to see the of their PvP exclusive skills campaign works and the return to 2014 population levels sound amazing. We've wanted this for so long so hopefully they are allocated all the resources needed to reach this "ambitious" goal. Make a shrine to Dagon in ZOS HQ and the datacenters if necessary.

I think it's a safe bet that splitting a large zone is referring to the Summerset Isles. Restructuring it to add more to the land mass like dlc zones that came after it sounds great and I'm 100% down for it.

For updating older zones I hope the base game assets that are also furnishings are also affected and some of the older racial motifs could use some touch ups.

Ruthless

We used to get 2 Zones and 4 DLCs per year.

Then we get 1 zone 2 DLCs a year

Now this...

I need someone to explain how is this not heading towards Maintenance mode...