Poll: How Do You Feel About the Visual Upgrades in ESO's Starter Zones?

LesserCircle

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

They basically decorated old zones with old assets so they have more assets and that's it, they look the same.

Vonnegut2506

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

I decided to create a new character to see all of the new, "updated" zones and couldn't really see any difference. If this "update" took time away from working on better things, it should have been scrapped.

kind_hero

Looks better, but not a game-changer – The improvements are nice but not drastic enough to make a big impact.

Stros is one of the zones I am fond of, since I played a lot in the beta on that island. I stationed my char in Bethnik fort for years, because of the proximity of the bank and crafting stations. So, I know these areas well.

To me the changes are subtle. Probably the water had the greatest change.

However, I feel like the devs spent too much effort for so little gains. Only the veterans will know the difference. For a new player, the textures and especially the rocks, will look dated, which is not good for starting zones. It doesn't matter if you have a fancy DLC with much better visuals, if the base game starting zones look like 2015. For me, Hew's Bane is an example of better graphics and biomes. This is probably the case because for Hew's Bane the devs had to create totally new assets for rocks and desert areas, and the Redguard 2.0 assets.

Durnik

ganzaeso wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin Hopefully the survey location for Jewelry Crafting Survey: Wrothgar III

|H1:item:139443:4:1:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1:0:0:1:0:0:0|h|h

will also get looked at at some point. It is extremely inconvenient to have to jump down a cliff face, especially if you have multiple survey maps for the location. Perhaps just move it to the very bottom of the sea shore.

I quit doing most surveys because they are a chore. This one is best done by log out then back in. Too many are a pain to do.

Zur_Keshh

Looks better, but not a game-changer – The improvements are nice but not drastic enough to make a big impact.

The visual upgrades made so far are a welcome change, but if these zones are to be on par with newer chapters, I think additional updated assets will be needed. For example, the buildings and structures from Hew's Bane and High Isle could spruce up Stros M'kai, such as the large gate to Abah's Landing, or a lighthouse from Gonfalon Bay.

If more changes to the starter islands are planned, though, perhaps an overhaul to make the island look a bit more like it did in Redguard could take considerably more time and effort compared to the others.

SeaGtGruff

Haven’t checked yet, but want to see the results.

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

sans-culottes wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

What zones were changed? I don't have the crowns to make a new toon and only have 1 slot left anyway. I'd love to see them.

You may still visit starter zones.

What are the starter zones?

I usually started in Coldharbor or a new Chapter zone (and obviously the chapters have not all been redone (or need to be).

The "starter zones" are the first zones you visit in each of the three alliances after escaping from Coldharbour:

Aldmeri Dominion starter zone = Khenarthi's Roost

Daggerfall Covenant starter zones = Stros M'Kai and Betnikh

Ebonheart Pact starter zones = Bleakrock Isle and Bal Foyen

If you're wondering why the Aldmeri Dominion alliance has only one starter zone while the other two alliances have two, there was apparently an additional Aldmeri Dominion starter zone named Rictus that got cut from the game before release:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Cut_Content/Aldmeri_Dominion

Thysbe

Unnecessary changes – The old assets and visuals were just fine.

Was intially not convinced by the changes but now that I am questing on Bleakrock and spend more time there I have to say its´an awesome job.

Everything looks better and not so dated any more without disturbing any of the memories I have from previous playthroughs.

Unfortunately I can´t change my vote - Great Like!

CatoUnchained

Unnecessary changes – The old assets and visuals were just fine.

Need more focus on performance and less on cosmetics....especially cosmetic changes like this that nobodys going to notice anyway. Old players won't remember it was different, and new players will only ever see it how it is now.

So why?

NotaDaedraWorshipper

As updating some dated things are, reusing the same assets everywhere makes things look samey and weird, especially between different provinces and cultures.

Like Stros M'kai now has a much darker dock with moss growing on it, which is a bit weird for a desert port.

The ship models also uses the same model of ship, so it's the same types of ships wrecked all over Tamriel's coast. Like you'd expect at least one to be a redguard ship around Stros M'kai and a khajiit ship around Khenarthi's Roost,

Ragnarok0130

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

CoronHR wrote: »

i am surely struggling to see any real changes. the textures look the same, but maybe that's not what they changed? i think it might look a little greener in betnikh and khenarthi's roost. stros m'kai and bal foyen look the same .. or am i looking at the wrong zones? smh

Me too, and I see that we're both on PC so I wonder if that is a factor since the game has always looked pretty good on PC.

katanagirl1

Stunning! – The updated visuals make the world feel much more immersive and is a gamechanger.

So I got to check these out today, and I see the sails on the wrecked ships and a few other things.

This update, and the last one too, seemed to have increased the resolution for objects further away. Things like large rocks and buildings in the distance used to be blurry, now they are very detailed and sharp. Also, there has always been a line out in front of the player where there is a transition from lower resolution to higher resolution which is closer to the player, noticeable when riding along on your mount. Today I have to really look to see this line. Objects used to pop into view while riding and were quite noticeable, but now there is just a slight increase at that distance.

In general, I think the whole game has more updated graphics and everything is much more crisp and vibrant than before. That is why the starter zones might not look as impressive because everything looks much better to me (except for the shadowing glitch on characters with body markings.)

Sarannah

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

Played Bal Foyen and Bleakrock and Stros m'kai. Now I think I may be going blind, but I did not notice any changes.

PS: Playing in 4k PC EU with highest texture options and highest graphical/visual options.

SkaiFaith

Stunning! – The updated visuals make the world feel much more immersive and is a gamechanger.

katanagirl1 wrote: »

So I got to check these out today, and I see the sails on the wrecked ships and a few other things.

This update, and the last one too, seemed to have increased the resolution for objects further away. Things like large rocks and buildings in the distance used to be blurry, now they are very detailed and sharp. Also, there has always been a line out in front of the player where there is a transition from lower resolution to higher resolution which is closer to the player, noticeable when riding along on your mount. Today I have to really look to see this line. Objects used to pop into view while riding and were quite noticeable, but now there is just a slight increase at that distance.

In general, I think the whole game has more updated graphics and everything is much more crisp and vibrant than before. That is why the starter zones might not look as impressive because everything looks much better to me (except for the shadowing glitch on characters with body markings.)

Highly agree but I'd like to point out that it seems the changes are WAY MORE evident and good for us console players - the upgrade for us feels MASSIVE; really hope they keep up this work and update all base game zones to this quality if not even better. Yes there is margin to improve, like those damn doors we always look up close and have low res textures... But overall it's awesome, and it seems to me that on consoles even the rocks are definitely a lot better than before.
Base game zones felt old-gen. The revamped ones feel more current-gen, almost on par with DLCs.

Einar_Hrafnarsson

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

They did the changes already? I didn't notice anything.

Remathilis

Looks better, but not a game-changer – The improvements are nice but not drastic enough to make a big impact.

AngryPenguin wrote: »

This effort tells me ZOS if focusing on cosmetic changes, which are ok if needed, but ZOS should be focusing far more on actual core combat and performance issues first. I feel like these cosmetic changes are a distraction from fixing some of the things that are broken with the game.

Well, the art team isn't going to be working on combat and performance, so if we're not getting a whole new zone, let them freshen up the older ones

Dithieon

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

Updating the rock textures would be noticeable to me, otherwise I honestly see no diff.Maybe rocks and ground textures in the future?

Shagreth

Looks better, but not a game-changer – The improvements are nice but not drastic enough to make a big impact.

They need to do much more if they want to "modernize" ESO — that includes character model updates. The moment they actually start updating assets (which would be reflected across all zones, e.g., Stonefalls), then we’ll talk.

Anilahation

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

can't even tell the difference ngl.. a much better improvement would have been to give the noob islands a better story that really higlights on the pros/cons of every race to better introduce you to your factions races and sell a more solid fantasy.

like Aldemeri dominion you land on that island... you kill some pirates, and help some khajits and high elves... you dont really get a good introduction what or why these people are together and the only world building you get is the khajit have some skuuma and the high elves are arresting them.

whitecrow

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

Ok, I've been to the starter zones and they look the same to me.

Cireous

Unnoticeable – I barely noticed any difference compared to before.

Should probably do an AI pass in a few years and just modernize the visuals of the entire game.
At the very least, brighten these drab colors.
Starter zones looked the same to me.

LalMirchi

Sometime I wonder...

Why are some potentially good polls so flawed? I cannot choose any of the options as they are all biased towards the topics assertion.