Official Discussion Thread for "Battle For The Writhing Wall Event Info"

aussie500

Not really discussing the event, but I do not suppose the content pass will have a special price for the event to tempt more to join in the Solstice fun? Two of my accounts have it the third does not.

Danikat

zenonuk wrote: »

Firstly the issue isn't with event per se, rather it's specifically with the time-limited access to an element of the paid season pass content (the Writhing Fortress instance) which people do not know whether they'll be able to play because RL takes priority, and there's no schedule of when Phase 3 would happen (because by the nature of the event, it can happen at any time).

I thought it's obvious that's what all the discussion around this has been about. But just in case it's unclear to ZOS as well and they'd need a long conversation where it's explained to them here's a summary:

Having a one-off community event is fine, it's not the first and probably won't be the last. Having unique rewards for participating in that event is not ideal but again it's not the first time and it won't be the last.

The problem is having a delve - part of the game world tied to the zone story - which is going to be removed once the event is over, meaning anyone doing it later misses out and has to play through a broken, disjointed story with a chunk missing. This will affect everyone, whether or not they played through it during the event or not.

That's all that's being asked for - keep the dailies and the Writing Fortress available in some form to play later on.

Varana

zenonuk wrote: »

- Offer some compensation to season pass holders who bought the content in good faith, and are (through your logs) shown to have not gained the benefit of the Writhing Fortress instance.

It's not just players who will miss out on completing the Writhing Fortress.

At least with AWA, ZOS has moved away from seeing characters as individuals who have their own story, but that doesn't mean I have. I'd like to have several of my characters experience the story for themselves, not just me as the player.

The more I think about this, the less I like this time-limited content idea, and that started at "I don't like this idea" already.

Syldras

Danikat wrote: »

The problem is having a delve - part of the game world tied to the zone story - which is going to be removed once the event is over, meaning anyone doing it later misses out and has to play through a broken, disjointed story with a chunk missing.

As someone who has played the whole thing on PTS: I don't think the removal will ruin the story, if they adjust dialogues accordingly. It's more an extra anyway. There's another singleplayer-scale quest that's about breaking the Wall (and I guess that's the one that will remain for everyone even after the event has ended).

It might make the event sound less spectacular, but defeating the final boss within the Fortress is more about weakening the Wall than actually destroying it with one hit or push of a lever or so anyway.

Still, I'd like the Fortress to remain in game. It's just a fun dungeon if the balance between player power or group size and enemies is right (scaling would be needed for that).

Danikat

Syldras wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

The problem is having a delve - part of the game world tied to the zone story - which is going to be removed once the event is over, meaning anyone doing it later misses out and has to play through a broken, disjointed story with a chunk missing.

As someone who has played the whole thing on PTS: I don't think the removal will ruin the story, if they adjust dialogues accordingly. It's more an extra anyway. There's another singleplayer-scale quest that's about breaking the Wall (and I guess that's the one that will remain for everyone even after the event has ended).

It might make the event sound less spectacular, but defeating the final boss within the Fortress is more about weakening the Wall than actually destroying it with one hit or push of a lever or so anyway.

Still, I'd like the Fortress to remain in game. It's just a fun dungeon if the balance between player power or group size and enemies is right (scaling would be needed for that).

Thanks for the extra info.

I suppose making the Fortress an optional extra with no real impact on the story is one solution. Although I'm concerned about the fact that this requires them to update some dialogue. They never went back and adjusted dialogue to accomodate One Tamriel and that was 9 years ago. Maybe the fact that this is smaller scale and more immediate means it will get done, but it would be nice to have that confirmed. ZOS increasingly seem to think the point of quests is to clear them for the rewards so as long as they're completable they don't worry about the narrative.

My preference would be for it to work as ZOS intend - with the Wailing Fortress as the epic conclusion to a dramatic and meaningful storyline, but one that's available for everyone who purchases and plays that storyline. Making it something you can do or skip because it doesn't actually matter sort-of fixes the problem, but it's probably the most disappointing way to handle it. Well, except for ignoring the problem entirely and leaving us with a broken quest chain with nonsensical dialogue.

Syldras

Danikat wrote: »

Thanks for the extra info.
I suppose making the Fortress an optional extra with no real impact on the story is one solution. Although I'm concerned about the fact that this requires them to update some dialogue. They never went back and adjusted dialogue to accomodate One Tamriel and that was 9 years ago. Maybe the fact that this is smaller scale and more immediate means it will get done, but it would be nice to have that confirmed. ZOS increasingly seem to think the point of quests is to clear them for the rewards so as long as they're completable they don't worry about the narrative.
My preference would be for it to work as ZOS intend - with the Wailing Fortress as the epic conclusion to a dramatic and meaningful storyline, but one that's available for everyone who purchases and plays that storyline. Making it something you can do or skip because it doesn't actually matter sort-of fixes the problem, but it's probably the most disappointing way to handle it. Well, except for ignoring the problem entirely and leaving us with a broken quest chain with nonsensical dialogue.

Since they already planned the Fortress to be a temporary event thing beforehand, I'd guess they already have two different versions of dialogue recorded anyway and after the event they might just swap to the other variant. That doesn't concern me that much, to be honest. (And they did change a bit of old quest dialogue after a new story release, by the way - Hermaeus Mora in one of the Dominion basegame zones has some slightly different dialogue if you have finished Necrom before).

On PTS both quests about, more or less, breaking the Wall felt a little redundant. You basically run into a few solo delves to destroy whatever to weaken the Wall, and then you run through the fortress and weaken it another time... One of these things could be easily left out. The only dialogue change needed would be, well, not mentioning the "go to location x..." part and remove mentions of the Fortress.

Lugaldu

I've never been so disappointed and unhyped by an event as I am now. Many people in this thread have already explained the reasons for this: I paid for what is now turning out to be a (developmentally irrationally intensive, wasted) one-week spectacle that will never be available again.
I'm also one of those who will barely have time to participate in the event in the coming weeks, and I'm wondering what I actually paid more for this year than I paid for the chapters in previous years.

Elvenheart

Aliyavana wrote: »

NGL, wall breaker as a title seems sorta lame. Since the wall is made out of many souls, i feel it could sound cooler.

Soul Breaker?

Soul Shatterer?

shadyjane62

I find I have no idea what this is all about. I didn't buy Solstice so didn't pay attention to anything for this year. Not sure if I m interested in this. It doesn't seem to be a part of the game.