Writhing Wall Event – Consolidated Messaging Thread

allochthons · November 3

Syldras wrote: »

Is that quest unprogressable then or can you turn it in in Sunport in the crafting area instead?

It's definitely NOT pointing me to the Sunport crafting writ turn-in location. I tried to turn it in there, but it wasn't an option. I tried Vivec too. I can't turn it in at any alchemy turn-in site.

Syldras · November 3

Syldras wrote: »

@DenverRalphy Then it's only bugged on PC EU, it seems. I used the very same crafting table at the main camp but Reistaff had no dialogue. Instead, the quest marker sent me to Sunport to the daily crafting turn-in point and then to Reistaff afterwards. It basically had an exttra step.

Found out what the issue is: It's only a certain skill stage that directs you to the wrong location. I had it happening on a relatively new character who only had Potency Improvement 2 in enchanting. On characters who have enchanting fully levelled, the bug doesn't occur.

LootAllTheStuff · November 3

Syldras wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

@DenverRalphy Then it's only bugged on PC EU, it seems. I used the very same crafting table at the main camp but Reistaff had no dialogue. Instead, the quest marker sent me to Sunport to the daily crafting turn-in point and then to Reistaff afterwards. It basically had an exttra step.

Found out what the issue is: It's only a certain skill stage that directs you to the wrong location. I had it happening on a relatively new character who only had Potency Improvement 2 in enchanting. On characters who have enchanting fully levelled, the bug doesn't occur.

This is getting super weird. This is, what, the 3rd or 4th of these that has a level-specific bug associated with it? That shouldn't even be a thing. It makes me wonder how exactly this set of quests were set up - did someone actually create them as a set of 7 types x n skill level quests individually? Purely from a conceptual design, there are much better ways to do it rather than cloning the quest over and over, and hoping that you got all the details edited correctly.

Syldras · November 3

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

This is getting super weird. This is, what, the 3rd or 4th of these that has a level-specific bug associated with it? That shouldn't even be a thing. It makes me wonder how exactly this set of quests were set up - did someone actually create them as a set of 7 types x n skill level quests individually? Purely from a conceptual design, there are much better ways to do it rather than cloning the quest over and over, and hoping that you got all the details edited correctly.

Looks like that.

Well, another 10 days or so and it's over anyway...

wolfie1.0. · November 3

Syldras wrote: »

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

This is getting super weird. This is, what, the 3rd or 4th of these that has a level-specific bug associated with it? That shouldn't even be a thing. It makes me wonder how exactly this set of quests were set up - did someone actually create them as a set of 7 types x n skill level quests individually? Purely from a conceptual design, there are much better ways to do it rather than cloning the quest over and over, and hoping that you got all the details edited correctly.

Looks like that.

Well, another 10 days or so and it's over anyway...

10 plus 7 for phase 3.

Syldras · November 3

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

10 plus 7 for phase 3.

The question is how many people will still participate after access to East Solstice has been opened, which will happen on day 1 of phase 3?

I know I'll run the fortress once for the achievement and title, but then I'll probably move on. I still miss a few furnishing and style pages, but just buying them might make more sense, especially if it's only a few left and there is no guarantee that, if anything useful drops, it will be specifically these.

twisttop138 · November 3

Syldras wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

10 plus 7 for phase 3.

The question is how many people will still participate after access to East Solstice has been opened, which will happen on day 1 of phase 3?

I know I'll run the fortress once for the achievement and title, but then I'll probably move on. I still miss a few furnishing and style pages, but just buying them might make more sense, especially if it's only a few left and there is no guarantee that, if anything useful drops, it will be specifically these.

I'm hoping the fortress is really cool. We set up rosters for it. So I'll be running it multiple times that day. But yes, after the wall comes down I don't expect to be running many wall dailies. I want to just forgot and move on lol.

Syldras · November 4

twisttop138 wrote: »

I'm hoping the fortress is really cool. We set up rosters for it. So I'll be running it multiple times that day. But yes, after the wall comes down I don't expect to be running many wall dailies. I want to just forgot and move on lol.

Hard to say what will happen with the fortress. It is no group instance, but a public dungeon, in a way (even if it has a clear progression, you need to unlock gates, etc). Not sure if there is a player limit so if a certain amount of people entered the next ones will end up in a new instance? Otherwise we might see a huge rush of players at the same time... Will the server crash? Will it be boring because a huge group will be massively overpowered and you won't see any of the mechanics because all bosses are dead within seconds anyway? Really, we don't know. We were never more than a few people on PTS, so we just couldn't test how it would play with a bigger group.

shadoza · November 4

Syldras wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

I'm hoping the fortress is really cool. We set up rosters for it. So I'll be running it multiple times that day. But yes, after the wall comes down I don't expect to be running many wall dailies. I want to just forgot and move on lol.

Hard to say what will happen with the fortress. It is no group instance, but a public dungeon, in a way (even if it has a clear progression, you need to unlock gates, etc). Not sure if there is a player limit so if a certain amount of people entered the next ones will end up in a new instance? Otherwise we might see a huge rush of players at the same time... Will the server crash? Will it be boring because a huge group will be massively overpowered and you won't see any of the mechanics because all bosses are dead within seconds anyway? Really, we don't know. We were never more than a few people on PTS, so we just couldn't test how it would play with a bigger group.

Yes, it is already this way for lower levels at anchors in some locations and WBs during events. The server does not crash, but a lot of lower levels get nothing for their efforts.

shadoza · November 4

Syldras wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

@DenverRalphy Then it's only bugged on PC EU, it seems. I used the very same crafting table at the main camp but Reistaff had no dialogue. Instead, the quest marker sent me to Sunport to the daily crafting turn-in point and then to Reistaff afterwards. It basically had an exttra step.

Found out what the issue is: It's only a certain skill stage that directs you to the wrong location. I had it happening on a relatively new character who only had Potency Improvement 2 in enchanting. On characters who have enchanting fully levelled, the bug doesn't occur.

I wonder where else this level specific coding is used.

spartaxoxo · November 4

shadoza wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

I'm hoping the fortress is really cool. We set up rosters for it. So I'll be running it multiple times that day. But yes, after the wall comes down I don't expect to be running many wall dailies. I want to just forgot and move on lol.

Hard to say what will happen with the fortress. It is no group instance, but a public dungeon, in a way (even if it has a clear progression, you need to unlock gates, etc). Not sure if there is a player limit so if a certain amount of people entered the next ones will end up in a new instance? Otherwise we might see a huge rush of players at the same time... Will the server crash? Will it be boring because a huge group will be massively overpowered and you won't see any of the mechanics because all bosses are dead within seconds anyway? Really, we don't know. We were never more than a few people on PTS, so we just couldn't test how it would play with a bigger group.

Yes, it is already this way for lower levels at anchors in some locations and WBs during events. The server does not crash, but a lot of lower levels get nothing for their efforts.

For world bosses, only the top 12 DPS get drops as long as they've done a certain percentage of damage. I dislike that too. It's an anti-afk measure but during events it should be disabled imo.

spinality · November 4

We've been regular players, often daily, since public beta. We've bought every bit of DLC that was not PvP focused (because we never had much pleasure from PvP in this game). We had many ESO+ memberships, though we would let them lapse when there was no new content of interest to access.

The Writhing Wall feels like our last chapter. This new content is structured to force me to complete days of pointless grinding. I can't experience the quest content *that I paid for* -- until I first also pay a lot of grinding dues. It's not interesting. It's not fun. I don't mind some community-wide events and rewards. But using it as a turnstile for slowing down access to content is a big change.

In the early days of ESO, we discovered some of the same fun we had found in the original Elder Scrolls solo gaming experience. We enjoyed the ESO implementation, we enjoyed the quest writing and dialogue, we enjoyed the huge world, we enjoyed the mod community. We also enjoyed the player community interaction, at least in the early years. There were lots of pleasant adults playing along with us, and we made friends. Nice strangers hopped in and helped out. People said "thanks" after collaborating. The guilds were interesting and engaging.

In recent years, the ESO business model evolved. We understand that this was probably necessary; but it's like we've moved from an interesting novel to a nerfed-down "tune in tomorrow" soap opera with American Girl doll rewards. The unashamed grinding model of today's event, a novelty, seems to be telling me that it's finally time to depart. (I know, it's not an airport; we don't have to announce a departure. But this forum is the only mechanism for leaving feedback breadcrumbs that might reach the decision makers.)

As I read the tea leaves, we are presumably no longer the kind of users who keep the lights blinking. So get out your Tales of Tribute cards instead. It's disappointing to feel that the ESO world has simply moved away from the kind of gaming we enjoy. Oh well. For what it's worth -- this is how we reacted to the latest drop.

Danikat · November 4

I'm not defending the event design but for what it's worth you don't have to grind the quests, or do any more of them than you want to.

Officially the progress bars track quest completion, so if no one did the quests it would stall. But it's tracking everyone on your server and the second half of the island unlocks for everyone together, so you as an individual (or a group? I assume that's not a royal 'we') don't have to keep doing it every day. You'll get the same 'reward' either way.

Unofficially ZOS cannot let the event go on too long (it can't fail, only stall if all players stop doing quests), so if not enough people are doing it they'll manually adjust the progress again. They've openly done it 2 or 3 times already and can make adjustments without announcing it whenever they want.

I understand everyone just wants the event to end and the best way to do that is to complete the quests every day, but if doing that is making you hate the game it's better to stop and spend your time on something you enjoy.

Lugaldu · November 4

Danikat wrote: »

Unofficially ZOS cannot let the event go on too long (it can't fail, only stall if all players stop doing quests), so if not enough people are doing it they'll manually adjust the progress again. They've openly done it 2 or 3 times already and can make adjustments without announcing it whenever they want.

And that's the big problem – what's the point of such a "competition" if everything is just manually "fixed" over and over again...

kind_hero · November 4

Danikat wrote: »

I'm not defending the event design but for what it's worth you don't have to grind the quests, or do any more of them than you want to.

Officially the progress bars track quest completion, so if no one did the quests it would stall. But it's tracking everyone on your server and the second half of the island unlocks for everyone together, so you as an individual (or a group? I assume that's not a royal 'we') don't have to keep doing it every day. You'll get the same 'reward' either way.

TBH I am doing 3 quests for the golden box, hoping for the Coldharbor house. I might give up after I unlock the tent achievement furnishing (defended 30 camps), because I don't really need it so much. That's my carrot on the stick right now.

The event burnout is real. I am kind of annoyed at ZOS because of this event, so at this time I don't really enjoy the game, even though it is my favorite game for so many years.

twisttop138 · November 4

Syldras wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

I'm hoping the fortress is really cool. We set up rosters for it. So I'll be running it multiple times that day. But yes, after the wall comes down I don't expect to be running many wall dailies. I want to just forgot and move on lol.

Hard to say what will happen with the fortress. It is no group instance, but a public dungeon, in a way (even if it has a clear progression, you need to unlock gates, etc). Not sure if there is a player limit so if a certain amount of people entered the next ones will end up in a new instance? Otherwise we might see a huge rush of players at the same time... Will the server crash? Will it be boring because a huge group will be massively overpowered and you won't see any of the mechanics because all bosses are dead within seconds anyway? Really, we don't know. We were never more than a few people on PTS, so we just couldn't test how it would play with a bigger group.

You make a good point. I guess the way I thought it would be, a public dungeon style but individual group instance. The video from ninja pulls was just his team in it but it might have just been them on pts. I guess I'll have to look into it. I thought you would need some people upstairs and downstairs ala Hel Ra Citadel. Time will tell lol. Yes though. We will probably kill stuff quickly because of the massive power creep and we will probably be disappointed.

twisttop138 · November 4

shadoza wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

I'm hoping the fortress is really cool. We set up rosters for it. So I'll be running it multiple times that day. But yes, after the wall comes down I don't expect to be running many wall dailies. I want to just forgot and move on lol.

Hard to say what will happen with the fortress. It is no group instance, but a public dungeon, in a way (even if it has a clear progression, you need to unlock gates, etc). Not sure if there is a player limit so if a certain amount of people entered the next ones will end up in a new instance? Otherwise we might see a huge rush of players at the same time... Will the server crash? Will it be boring because a huge group will be massively overpowered and you won't see any of the mechanics because all bosses are dead within seconds anyway? Really, we don't know. We were never more than a few people on PTS, so we just couldn't test how it would play with a bigger group.

Yes, it is already this way for lower levels at anchors in some locations and WBs during events. The server does not crash, but a lot of lower levels get nothing for their efforts.

A lot of any levels get nothing for their efforts. This isn't a high or low level issue, despite your pet peeve. Zos in their infinite wisdom hath decreed that only 12 people get loot from a boss in the world. Now in the case of anchors, it's a chest and everyone gets something. Same with siege camps. The only issue would be world bosses and stuff like dragons.

DenverRalphy · November 4

Lugaldu wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Unofficially ZOS cannot let the event go on too long (it can't fail, only stall if all players stop doing quests), so if not enough people are doing it they'll manually adjust the progress again. They've openly done it 2 or 3 times already and can make adjustments without announcing it whenever they want.

And that's the big problem – what's the point of such a "competition" if everything is just manually "fixed" over and over again...

Because when they make the adjustments, the adjustments are made universally across all servers and not to individual servers. Once U48 lands on consoles, they'll be free to speed it up should they wish to. They can't do that right now since a couple of console servers are looking like they just may hit 100% before U48 lands.

wolfie1.0. · November 4

Syldras wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

10 plus 7 for phase 3.

The question is how many people will still participate after access to East Solstice has been opened, which will happen on day 1 of phase 3?

I know I'll run the fortress once for the achievement and title, but then I'll probably move on. I still miss a few furnishing and style pages, but just buying them might make more sense, especially if it's only a few left and there is no guarantee that, if anything useful drops, it will be specifically these.

At that point it wont matter. Not really. As soon as the fortress is cleared on your server, its 7 days till event is over. Bars and participation wont really matter.

Probably gonna mean that you wont find many people doing seige camps any more though.

wolfie1.0. · November 4

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Unofficially ZOS cannot let the event go on too long (it can't fail, only stall if all players stop doing quests), so if not enough people are doing it they'll manually adjust the progress again. They've openly done it 2 or 3 times already and can make adjustments without announcing it whenever they want.

And that's the big problem – what's the point of such a "competition" if everything is just manually "fixed" over and over again...

Because when they make the adjustments, the adjustments are made universally across all servers and not to individual servers. Once U48 lands on consoles, they'll be free to speed it up should they wish to. They can't do that right now since a couple of console servers are looking like they just may hit 100% before U48 lands.

Which IMO, means it really wasnt a competition. Because if it were a true one, then all servers should have had update 48 released before any of this started.

StihlReign · November 4

Elder Scrolls Online devs make their bets on the world-first clear of the MMO's Writhing Wall event, watching entire servers fight a rift in the world map itself - October 15, 2025

ESO's lead encounter designer says he's "pulling for Xbox EU" as the "dark horse" of the race to take down the Writhing Wall
"We have some internal betting markets on which servers are going to unlock it first, but we'll leave that," Finnigan tells me.

"I'm pulling for Xbox EU, but we'll see. That's dark horse, I think."

Writhing Wall is explicitly designed as a cooperative event for players across a single server to team up and ideally encourage a sense of community, but there's also this competitive element, with different servers racing to be the first to clear the event.

"There's always been that healthy competition, and we just wanted to broaden that appeal," Finnigan says Source

Honestly the biggest issue for me is the devs predicting EU would finish first in what was described/presented to us as a server vs server contest/race, if this isn't a server vs server contest/race. A simple countdown timer would've been sufficient, right? geez, give us a giant bucket to fill and say it's for donations or something...quests = donations!! do more than them, hurry before the timer ends, yaay

twisttop138 · November 4

StihlReign wrote: »

Elder Scrolls Online devs make their bets on the world-first clear of the MMO's Writhing Wall event, watching entire servers fight a rift in the world map itself - October 15, 2025

ESO's lead encounter designer says he's "pulling for Xbox EU" as the "dark horse" of the race to take down the Writhing Wall
"We have some internal betting markets on which servers are going to unlock it first, but we'll leave that," Finnigan tells me.
"I'm pulling for Xbox EU, but we'll see. That's dark horse, I think."

Writhing Wall is explicitly designed as a cooperative event for players across a single server to team up and ideally encourage a sense of community, but there's also this competitive element, with different servers racing to be the first to clear the event.

"There's always been that healthy competition, and we just wanted to broaden that appeal," Finnigan says Source

Honestly the biggest issue for me is the devs predicting EU would finish first in what was described/presented to us as a server vs server contest/race, if this isn't a server vs server contest/race. A simple countdown timer would've been sufficient, right? geez, give us a giant bucket to fill and say it's for donations or something...quests = donations!! do more than them, hurry before the timer ends, yaay

Funny. I think that they would publicly say they were "betting" in house is something we talked about on these forums at the start of the event. After they had already fiddled with the numbers in the opening hours of the "race". I don't think many people are fooled by the marketing BS. They were always going to have a time they want it to last until. What I think would be hilarious is if Xbox EU got 100% on phase 2 before Nov 12 and there was no other side of the wall because it's not in game yet. If it has been a true race, everything would've been in game ready for the competition. They've, as the op pointed out, put their fingers on the scale multiple times during this event. It's all weird marketing stuff that I really hope most players see through.

Your article reminded me though. I saw an interview with the head of monetization (don't recall the title but that's the gist of it, the guy most people wouldn't have kind words for) where he brags he brings Zos 15 million dollars a month. It seems Zos is making the revenue that Microsoft wants to see,let's see some of that put back into the game yes. We're paying more money this year for less content. Next year, by their own words, will be worse. New stories in old zones doesn't leave much room for the 6 world bosses, 6 delves, 2 public dungeons, a trial, large zone to explore and lots of side quests and a new system to engage in. One would hope that the outcry from this years content would make the people who make decisions here realize the ships headed towards the rocks, but their track record doesn't inspire confidence. I guess we'll all be looking to the end of year letter with bated breath.

tomofhyrule · November 4

twisttop138 wrote: »

I guess we'll all be looking to the end of year letter with bated breath.

I feel like making a bingo card for this year’s letter.

You know it’s going to be chock-full of mindless platitudes, congratulations to the server that “won” the rigged race, and zero indication of anything to come in the future beyond “[remains silent]”

twisttop138 · November 4

tomofhyrule wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

I guess we'll all be looking to the end of year letter with bated breath.

I feel like making a bingo card for this year’s letter.

You know it’s going to be chock-full of mindless platitudes, congratulations to the server that “won” the rigged race, and zero indication of anything to come in the future beyond “[remains silent]”

I hope, if nothing else, for a trial and your new class lines. I'll be happy if I can still raid with my friends but many of them are on hiatus now until the next trial is announced. Plus new skill lines would be super fun.

shadoza · November 4

StihlReign wrote: »

Elder Scrolls Online devs make their bets on the world-first clear of the MMO's Writhing Wall event, watching entire servers fight a rift in the world map itself - October 15, 2025

ESO's lead encounter designer says he's "pulling for Xbox EU" as the "dark horse" of the race to take down the Writhing Wall
"We have some internal betting markets on which servers are going to unlock it first, but we'll leave that," Finnigan tells me.
"I'm pulling for Xbox EU, but we'll see. That's dark horse, I think."

Writhing Wall is explicitly designed as a cooperative event for players across a single server to team up and ideally encourage a sense of community, but there's also this competitive element, with different servers racing to be the first to clear the event.

"There's always been that healthy competition, and we just wanted to broaden that appeal," Finnigan says Source

Honestly the biggest issue for me is the devs predicting EU would finish first in what was described/presented to us as a server vs server contest/race, if this isn't a server vs server contest/race. A simple countdown timer would've been sufficient, right? geez, give us a giant bucket to fill and say it's for donations or something...quests = donations!! do more than them, hurry before the timer ends, yaay

The biggest issue for me is that the devs think this event is healthy. The devs believe players competing on the same server for the limited number of resources is healthy is very telling in my opinion. There is no increase sense of community. There is no broadening appeal. The fact that developers can manipulate the gauges AND are making bets with favorites tells us not to trust the man behind the curtain.

NikayyyLove17 · November 4

The writhing wall event has not lived up to the hype and is a bit of a disappointment. It’s been expressed by many the tedious quests and lack luster rewards but my biggest disappointment came with phase 1 completing. What seemed to be 100 players all rooting each other on in zone chat to complete phase 1 was amazing. Everyone rallied together calling out the percentages and congratulating everyone when we hit 100. We all gathered together at the siege camp base and waited for something exciting to happen. We waited and we waited. We waited so long we took matters in our own hands and started arc beaming the wall ourselves. Finally a notification popped up, a small notice that phase 1 was complete and a timer in activity finder appeared. By this time many signed off with their disappointment and most people in area chat were kinda over it. The timer brought some sort of excitement back to the what’s gonna happen now feeling of phase 1 being complete. As we waited for the timer to run down like New Year’s Eve the meridian light turned on and that was that. The excitement came from the people rallying together it was really nice to have that connection with everyone but the result was very anticlimactic. Especially with a timer to when phase 2 started even just a cool cinematic cut scene being added when phase 2 started or showing the npcs powering up the light. ANYTHING just anything more than a small notification phase 1 was completed would have been nice.

duagloth · November 4

Abysmal drop rates, tedious fetch and craft quest. Certainly not the epic event i was told we'd have.

LalMirchi · November 4

Went in excited and curious for new content and experiences. Unfortunately I was underwhelmed and disappointed both with the story and execution. Better rewards could have alleviated some of the disappointment but no, even those were meagre.

A low key effort that does not feel epic or unique.

Syldras · 1:05PM

Syldras wrote: »

Found out what the issue is: It's only a certain skill stage that directs you to the wrong location. I had it happening on a relatively new character who only had Potency Improvement 2 in enchanting. On characters who have enchanting fully levelled, the bug doesn't occur.

And the next related bug: At a different stage, the quest description and what you're actually supposed to craft don't match. It says you're supposed to craft a glyph with what would be denima (not sure how the whole glyph is called in English, so I'm using that for clarity), but if you do that, the quest doesn't progress and can't be turned in. What you can actually turn in are glyphs crafted with deni instead...

LootAllTheStuff · 1:48PM

Syldras wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Found out what the issue is: It's only a certain skill stage that directs you to the wrong location. I had it happening on a relatively new character who only had Potency Improvement 2 in enchanting. On characters who have enchanting fully levelled, the bug doesn't occur.

And the next related bug: At a different stage, the quest description and what you're actually supposed to craft don't match. It says you're supposed to craft a glyph with what would be denima (not sure how the whole glyph is called in English, so I'm using that for clarity), but if you do that, the quest doesn't progress and can't be turned in. What you can actually turn in are glyphs crafted with deni instead...

Does it at least show the little quest icon beside the correct glyph in the crafting UI while at the enchanting station?