PTS Update 48 - Feedback Thread for Cyrodiil Vengeance Testing Round 4

ZOS_Kevin

This is the official feedback thread for the Vengeance Campaign Test 4. Please try out the new campaign and let us know what you think! Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did you use 1 particular Loadout vs. Others? Why or why not?
• Did you slot perks outside of the default ones? Which ones?
• Were the Loadout and Perk systems clear in functionality?
• Did any systems get disabled while you were playtesting on PTS? (There will be some in-game notifications of this.)

tomofhyrule

I will go in to test it once the servers are back up, but just seeing the ESOLive and the patch notes are leaving one burning question that needs to be addressed.

What is the team’s goal for Vengeance now?

We were originally, and repeatedly, sold Vengeance as explicitly “a test.” We had the whole Q&A and stream to reiterate that it was only a test to bring Cyrodiil down to bare bones and then add over time to check what was causing performance issues.

However, now Vengeance is adding “Loadouts” and “Perks,” each with new UI elements. These are not found in any other mode, so the argument of Vengeance being a simple test to add things in to eventually get to Cyrodiil as is is weakened. (It also is noticeable that the Combat team spend the entire time on building these new Vengeance features that will be live for one week instead of addressing general combat imbalances that we’ll have through March.) We also know there’s a new Vengeance test coming in U49, making a U50 launch of a new mode likely. This is making it clear that Vengeance is no longer just a test, but the bones of a new Cyrodiil Campaign mode.

While there are players who would like to see a permanent Vengeance Campaign, players deserve at minimum a response to the changed end goal of Vengeance:

• Is the new goal of Vengeance to be a permanent Campaign?
• Is Vengeance intended to replace any of the existing Campaigns?
• Is the team still going to consider balance for PvP outside of Vengeance?
• Is the team going to continue working on PvE balance?
• If, in the future new skill lines or Classes are added, will those feature into Vengeance?

MincMincMinc

As someone who supports vengeance testing after nearly 10 years waiting for action. Zos really needs to step up their clarity game. Simply put what is on the table and why might you lean in different directions. Are we going to end up with only vengeance or both while live gets modified to see if the changes work?

From an engineering background I can see why making a temporary basic system like perks and loadouts may satisfy the ask for build choices while not hindering the test. However zos still has not stated that they will be bringing back the normal systems people enjoy like gear, items, consumables, mundus, cp. The only conclusion a lot of people see is that all of those normal systems they enjoy are going to be removed and forgotten. 10 years of them playing the game put to waste. Hundreds or thousands of dollars spent suddenly goes poof.

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Feedback for the systems as I see them on PTS

The joining in pick your setup is a good idea. On live the base aliance spawn areas are so poorly setup to introduce people. These areas should be designed to guide new players into pvp and show them how to build or play. There should be PvP gear vendors that sell the commonly used gear. I would even go as far as to say to introduce PvP mythic lead purchases and maybe make pvp crafted gear stations. Sets like stuhns, orders, wretched are all valid gear choices still viable today. A simple combat tutorial showing you how to CC break is probably the most important thing, 90% of PvPers end up rebinding "interrupt" to be its own keybind.

As for the perks and loadouts I would have instead designed the UI to mimic choosing 5 piece sets instead. All you had to do was have the tooltips LOOK like set bonuses and people would not be in a panic worrying whether item sets are going to be useless in pvp.

The vanguard loadout looks very weak. The health and health recovery gain is insignificant compared to the healing loss. The medic line is probably the all around best, but favors magic regen builds so most stam players will just lose out. However stam players have the scout, but losing the armor really hurts the viability for 1vX, instead a more mobile ranged build would hurt (you use the stam regen for rapids)

For perks the good trades I see are

• Bolster strength
• Bolster Ally's life for healers
• Barricade may be needed if we see alot of stam players choose scout for damage
• Bolster Running
• Keep Guardian for regen is just better than ceaseless assault
• hale reserve isnt bad for overload builds
• The cost reduction may be the better choices though depending on what affects block,dodge, sprint. Vengeance requires constant weaving for damage output and when outnumbered you need to be very careful with what to block.

Rkindaleft

Along with what @tomofhyrule said, I also want to ask - if you have been true to your word and Vengeance is just a test, then what is the actual goal here? Now I'm not a game design expert, but creating a new UI and adding perks and penalties seems like a pretty big waste of development time for a limited time "test" when people have been crying out for proper combat balance changes for months.