Retrospective: Solstice would have been a lot better received if it was sold as a chapter

licenturion

So I finished all the story content of East Solstice and really enjoyed it. If they had released this as a real chapter without the drip feed, the tedious wall event and without all the bugs that that event brought, this chapter would have been received way better than it is now.

The content of the east is a lot better than the part in the west. Story is better, mission locations are visually very well done, there are some new mechanics in there that I don't think I have seen before, the dialog choice options are nice, the second part of the main quest is a lot better too. It is all good stuff and a lot better than East Solstice.

There is also a bit more content compared to the chapter from the last years with more story quests and noteworthy mission locations in total. Since I also love dungeons (and I don't have ESO+), I feel in retrospective that I got my money's worth this year.

However, this also reinforced the feeling that 'drip feed' is not for me. It really dilutes the experience and leaves a sour aftertaste after what has been a very eventful year for ESO and the community. At some point I said Solstice is very lazy content, but now that I played it all of it, I don't think that statement holds up anymore for me. The thing is, if you release a whole chapter at once, you can afford a few duds if they are outshined by other positive things in the package. But if you split the package into small pieces of content, you have to be firing on all cylinders all the time with every piece of pre-paid content you release if you want to keep people happy and entertained and make them feel like they are getting their money's worth. This will be the real challenge next year for ZOS, because this year they failed to convince me of the new season pass format.

So I am looking forward to what is coming next and how ZOS is going to release things next year. Because if we get a zone or story piece by piece, I will just wait until everything is released at the end of the year end pick all the content up in a sale. It is just a way more enjoyable experience to dive into a new zone and experience it all at once and is better fit for a fantasy world like ESO.

Edits: spelling

AVaelham

Indeed, the Solstice Arc felt more like a Chapter repurposed as seasons, rather than built from the start with seasons in mind. If this was the "Year of the Worm" akin to "Dark Heart of Skyrim" or "Legacy of the Bretons" it would've been received as a middle-of-the-road Chapter. I suppose this decision to switch to chapter came mid-production or something and it is only next year we'll see true seasons, two or three smaller sized ones, with smaller scopes.

lillybit

I don't entirely agree.

As a chapter it lacked the extra value that they normally contain - no new system such as new class, card game, antiquities, companions etc. The zone itself turned out to be a reasonable size but I still think it falls short considering recent chapters have also included a secondary zone like Blackreach or Apocrypha.

I think splitting it at least added some interest if not value. Or would have if it hadn't been so badly implemented.

Bundling it as a content pass and forcing people to buy dungeons they didn't want was up there with their all time worst decisions. I'm not saying season passes aren't a good idea but the way it was done missed the point of every single one I've bought before - a cheaper way of buying a selection of content. Buy them seperately or get them all together for less. That we weren't given that option and they took the all-or-nothing approach shows nothing but contempt for their loyal players, particularly subscribers.

Not that I'm still angry about it or anything!

Nemesis7884

I kinda agree...

honestly they should really carefully consider what next years release schedule and amount of content should be - the game really cant afford another year like this...I am aware that everything for next year is already "done" so the point is most likely mute...

But honestly, If they cant innovate because they dont have the staff or knowhow anymore than rather deliver the "boring but tried" which will at least keep the core base busy while not attracting players that left or new ones... if this "untested" approach continues with events that don't satisfy anyone and bugs galore you might drive even the core base away... I don't know ANYONE of my player friends that haven't seriously started to consider not renewing their eso+ next year for the very first time... zos REALLY has to take this seriously - and im not saying this as a hater but someone who has been here since beta and cares about the game making it another 10 years...

Destai

For me, for sure. Had it been released complete (both halves) and the Writhing Fortress was permanent content, I'd have been fine with it. I get they're dealing with a lot at the studio, so maybe releasing less but more complete is the play for next year. It feels like they committed to more scope than they could handle. I have a feeling this year wasn't the most profitable, and I wouldn't be if this new approach contributed to that.

Right now, I'm solidly in the camp of "not renewing for another year"; my year end splurge isn't happening here. My sub is up in Mid-December, so I'll likely subscribe for another month just to get the most out of NLF and then step back until I see some actual improvements. I don't see myself buying the Season Pass content going forward, if it's like this year's. If we get a return to chapters, I'd be way more willing to spend money on the game.

Neelanna48

Yes same with me , been a subscriber since game began but I too have been very underwhelmed by this years content and will not be continuing with eso + when subscription is up for renewal.

AScarlato

As the game gets older, and we see less content and now seasons over Chapters, it makes me worry.

I understood this trend when they were working on another MMO, but now that it's cancelled I hope they slowly re-grow the ESO team given it's a lucrative product and can continue to be one if they give it the resources it needs.

I hope we get to the point where they can return to Chapters since seasons just makes me feel like they are slowly slipping away from their commitment to ESO customers, despite claiming they will be committed for decades more to come.

tomofhyrule

I was definitely one of the people who liked the old Chapter model. It was predictable. Maybe the stories could have been meh, but it was nice to have some idea of what was coming, and the January reveal events tended to be exciting.

Solstice though… ugh.

I’ll say it didn’t start out on the right foot for me: I’m not a huge fan of the setting, but that’d be no problem if the story was fine. But I really didn’t like the concept of “secret island that nobody knows about (except everyone on the island has mainland friends and relatives) which does not exist outside of 2E Tamriel” as a way to retell the main quest, especially when there are other islands they could have used that are on the lore maps (like Cespar and Herne in the Chain).

The “you have to buy the dungeons with the Pass, which is $10 more than a normal Chapter” thing was also insulting. I’ve had ESO+ for ages and I don’t intend to drop it until I drop the game completely. Having the dungeons permanently unlocked means absolutely nothing to me, and doubly so since I have all of the stickerbook and achievements from them.

My favorite thing about the Chapters though is the big tentpole feature we get in June. Sure, some have fallen a bit more flat (Tales of Tribute), but things like new Classes always left me so excited and eagerly planning a character backstory to go with it. And here…? We didn’t get a Chapter-exclusive feature, we got a new system shoved on us that was obviously not thought through in the slightest, destroyed any semblance of balance in all parts of the game, made all of our alts utterly obsolete, and turned those of us who chose not to interact with it into memes. It was insulting that the endgamers saw all of these issues within a few hours of the leak, but the people who built the system couldn’t even foresee any issues even when the reports were screamed into the PTS feedback threads. That debacle alone turned me so far off.

The capstone event was impossibly overhyped, and went over in ways I couldn’t even imagine. There was not a single part of that event that didn’t have an issue, and most were fairly destructive. And to top it all off, they decided the best solution was to pit the servers against each other, where every other Chapter event was a cooperative effort that was much more rewarding. And it just did. not. end.

All to finish off with the Writhing Fortress - a huge trial which would have been really fun… if it were an actual trial where you work in a group from start to finish and not something where you zerg rush in to a half-finished instance and never get a chance to see the full thing. And that’s not even assuming you can manage to get a working instance in the first place. It also feels really bad that the Fortress was the best part of this year… and that’s permanently going away.

Also, what’s with the QC lately? ESO has never been known as a bug-free game, but this year has been particularly bad. And issue after issue gets reported on PTS and then invariably goes live. The whole thing just carries a stink of “we know better than you” when any issues - bugs, balance problems, things players will reject, etc - are presented on PTS (with evidence!) and yet it is completely ignored and brushed off… and then the team is shocked when those issues present on Live and it turns out that once again, everyone on PTS was right. Why is there such a disconnect there?

I also have to talk about how utterly appalling it is that one of ESO’s official languages was just… not delivered this year. I may play in English, but I realize that people who play other languages have the right to play in their language, and the fact that there has been no communication on when our French-speaking friends can get their voiceover is nothing short of contemptible. And, with the fact that a lot of this event is time-limited, they are never getting what they paid for. That is abominable. Full stop.

I understand that things were not going well. There felt like there was a major shift around fall 2024 where every patch was just overhyped and disappointing… and most US companies have their fiscal year start in October. It really seems like ZOS had a huge budget cut right about then (which also explains the surprise cancellation of the NA event). But that does not justify overhyping and underdelivering, and it definitely does not justify releasing broken products. They should do everything to try to listen to the PTS (you know, the bugtesters who work for free) and deliver quality products, if the intent is for them to keep the game alive. And for the love of all the Divines, stop promising us “tee hee we have cool things in the future but we’re not telling.” We’re over this Mean Girls sales pitch. Give us concrete things we can be excited about.

A large number of people are now on the “I’m not preordering or resubscribing until I see something” fence. This next year will be critical for ZOS - they really need to wow us with something, and they really need to give us a reason to keep throwing money at them. They need something that all players will enjoy, not just hard focusing a single subset of players and ignoring the rest as they keep bleeding out.

DenverRalphy

I don't mind the drip release so much. It's not my preferred delivery method, but I could get behind it. But when each drip arrives with even more bugs than the previous, the entire pool becomes such a polluted mess that it's difficult and unpleasant to drink from.

Over the past few years, with every update and release, bugs have been becoming more and more frequent. And I'm not just talking about minor quirky inconvenient bugs. But showstoppers. We're well beyond the "all software has bugs" dismissal.

There's been a breakdown in the QA protocols that desperately needs fixing. As well the response procedures to act upon them needs serious improvement.

AzuraFan

Destai wrote: »

Right now, I'm solidly in the camp of "not renewing for another year"; my year end splurge isn't happening here. My sub is up in Mid-December, so I'll likely subscribe for another month just to get the most out of NLF and then step back until I see some actual improvements. I don't see myself buying the Season Pass content going forward, if it's like this year's. If we get a return to chapters, I'd be way more willing to spend money on the game.

Earlier this month, I changed my annual sub to a 90-day one, just enough to see me through the end of the year and hopefully a reveal in January. I want to see what's coming before I spend any more money here.

As a casual (meaning I don't do vet content, but otherwise I log in daily and do normal dungeons and such), mainly solo player, I'm not just concerned with how the content pass was rolled out and how buggy the fortress and Eastern Solstice is. When I saw that one WB in Eastern Solstice has 9M health, and the other 6M health, I wasn't impressed. Then when I did the Eastern Solstice PD and saw that the group boss had 6M health, same thing. And NOBODY else was there. The PD was a ghost town. I managed to do the event by myself, but it took a while because I don't do 150k dps with a beam build.

I've been concerned about how the game seems to been leaning more towards forcing group play (not necessarily grouped, but needing other players to complete stuff), and this hasn't helped. To me, overland, PDs, delves, etc. should still be casual activities. I won't mind if they introduce an OPTIONAL higher difficulty, but that's not what's happening with WBs and now PD group events. We used to have WBs with 1.2M health, then a bit more in DLCs. PD bosses used to have maybe 300-400k, with a group event boss having maybe 1.2M. Now we're up to PD bosses with 1M health, and a group boss with 6M. Did they already forget that many people couldn't complete the Silorn group event boss until they nerfed it?

Anyway, this just goes to show how the power creep is out of control and you can't play as you want, not even in overland and PDs anymore. I'm thinking that as a casual, mainly solo player, I'm no longer the type of player they're interested in keeping.

So yeah, I'll see what they say for next year. I'm not only interested in the monetization and if they're continuing with content passes (and double dipping with ESO+ subscribers), but whether they still care about people who don't want to subclass, and who like playing off-meta builds in overland content, where 100k dps didn't used to be required to take something down in a reasonable amount of time.