Official Discussion Thread for "The Road Ahead - May 1"

Saerydoth

Here's a question. I know that /torch had to be disabled back in beta due to a bug. I know it's being re-enabled in 1.1. Is it possible, once this is done, to make nighttime just a *little* bit darker? It doesn't look bad (certainly not like WOW which removed nighttime except for the skybox), but I think it could stand to look a little more like night. I would also like to see a better looking sky...the sky in Skyrim looked amazing, and it also had a great day/night balance. In ESO, the sky (especially the moons) just looks a lot more...I don't know how to describe it other than "flat". In Skyrim, the sky had some depth to it. It would also be nice to see some of the more "alien sky" effects like the auroras that Skyrim had. It really adds to the atmosphere.

Hopefully there are plans to enhance the graphics in this area. When WOW started it had a great balance between day/night, but they gradually destroyed it, eventually turning night into the "daytime, but with a starry sky" that it is now. I do not want ESO's atmosphere to be destroyed like this.

Sordidfairytale

I just want to know, when can I play for Molag Bal?

hakaryu

ok, i dont know about anyone else, but i really want some type of player housing. right now im carrying around a buttload of cool trophies that do different stuff, but no one can really see them or anything. i would love it if there was a place i could go and mount these me and my buddies could see everything ive done and gotten.

Leucius

Thanks, Zenimax, for the 5 complimentary days. I was not among the vocal since I just recently arrived on the scene, but it's appreciated that you included everyone up to May 1st.

Everything you're currently working on has got me hot and bothered, and I would love to know more about the crafting changes specifically.

Also, a future feature I'd like to request is player housing. It should be easy to implement with your phasing technology - well, easier than how it's been done in other games. I'm already planning on sticking with the game and have cancelled my other p2p account (hopefully for good) - and player housing, when and if done right, would be perfect.

I'm kind of torn between phases or having one zone where everyone can build their own house on lots. Some places to look for inspiration are lotro, Vanguard, and EQ 2. Maybe somehow combining all 3 of these... Hmm. From what I remember in EQ2 people could own the same house but have their personal instance of it.... With one megaserver something like this might be needed.

Also, I don't want to whine too much, but could you look into repair costs? Granted, I sometimes play sloppy, but for someone less careful than me, I could see them easily not being able to afford to repair their gear.

One other request I have is to make more crafting mats worth something other than zero. I have half a bank full of provisioning mats that I don't need, because I don't want to lvl up another provisioner, but I may have to just to create space. I know you have concerns about inflation and the game is in its infancy, but right now it's kind of hard to make any money early on unless you sell greens or higher to other players, or you sell crafting mats.

Thanks for everything, I wish this game well, and it's the best birthday gift I've gotten in a long time (got it early, bday's tomorrow)

Keep on rockin' in the free world!
~Leucius

Lauradana

Housing HOUSING YAHOOOO nuff said, ehrmm the rest sounds frigging great as well but HOUSE sounds even better even if they will make it the price of a Penthouse over looking Madison Square Garden, time to start keeping my gold togather, one happy camper dispite the bugs and lags right now (which are being addressed even as I write this) so our six month sub was money well spent imo.

luizterra23

I loved all the incoming updates. But something that should be pressed is about the UI that feels terrible. Perhaps the developers should look out for some fanmade addons around and learn from them what the standard ESO UI is currently lacking, more specifically about the search engine in the guild stores.

Anyway, I still havent catched the meaning in this Dragonstar Arena. Is this some short of PVP Arena? If it is, then I think it is great. The game really needs some alternative short of PVP other than the battle for Cyrodiil. Dont get me wrong: it is great! But some "battleground" mod would fit nice just as well...

bean19

I want to know more about how dungeons are going to be rewarded so that we want to repeat them. Currently, the best xp in the game is mob-grinding, but I'm very bored by this for a few reasons:

1. It rewards optimal aoe builds. I have one and I can grind quickly and well with it, but I'm also, so very bored with it. The most fun thing IMO about ESO is the ability to mix-match skills to try new builds that allow you to play the game in different ways.

2. The server setup mostly makes mob-grinding grief play. I don't want to disrupt questers or fight over spawns and I definitely don't want to be a part of a group farm zerg that has zero risk.

3. It isn't fun, and it makes the game feel like a grind for levels instead of something to just enjoy.

However, I'm going to grind. On alts, I've seen the quests, so I need an alternate way to level besides questing that is fun. I don't like joining the zerg in RvR which makes the rewards extremely low as zerging for easy caps is the only high reward in open RvR. Also, I just get bored by RvR because there isn't a "winner". You can push them back to their gates, but then what? If dungeons start being rewarding in loot and xp, the dungeon finder works better (don't form a group until all roles are filled as I sometimes want to log out or am entertained by something else by the time the queue pops) then this becomes an alternative way to level which makes playing alts more fun.

I'd also really like battlegrounds. I love even-team PvP with objectives and it would be a 3rd way to level alts.

Also, mob-grinding really shouldn't be the fastest advancement. The team should adjust quest completion xp to be much higher and lower mob kill xp so that they are about the same xp/time. This will require QA to run the quests and time themselves while doing so as well as keep an accurate log on how many mobs they engaged during the quest. With those numbers, it should be possible to adjust quest reward xp so that the advancement rate stays the same but rewards questing over mob-grinding.

DrannyCannon

So far I am totally loving ESO!

The combat is probably my favorite thing about the game so far. Dungeons are also excellent and difficult which I love (though some feel a bit easier than others). The quests lines are interesting and intriguing. PVP is also awesome! I get spanked with my level 24 and 16 so I'm waiting to level a little more before I really get into it. But it's something to look forward to!

Now what sucks: group questing is terrible! A friend and I started playing together a month ago and we were excited to take advantage of the rings of Mara. But he recently cancelled his subscription because group questing seemed more like a pain in the butt than a benefit. He didn't like paying $15 a month for a subpar group questing experience. And I don't really blame him! Hopefully this is something you can work on in the coming months!!

Keep up the good work! In time, I expect this will be the best MMORPG for years and years!

Xaei

Slightly far-fetched but I would really love a version of the game with true-action combat, It just kind of bothers me that really, I dont actually need to aim with my arrows because they're locked unto whatever target I selected last.

Eban

Like the game
The combat system is different from other mmo's which makes it interesting.

Bugs/gold farmers are annoying but all mmo's have them so no big deal.

Biggest problem I have come across in game is its a pain to group level.
I play with a large guild in multiple mmo's and trying to level together here is not good

When questing if you have to kill/gather a number of npc/items then you all have to.
You all have to interact with npcs/puzzles.
If you get ahead of someone then you can't go back to help because they become an white arrow and they're basically on they own 'good luck m8 with that boss'

The game in some ways pushes you to go 'heh m8 just go ahead and play solo no point grouping up' which for a mmo is insane.

For me a mmo is all about playing with an online community from lvl 1 to endgame content. I know raids/dungeons are groups but so should doing the basics since the most time you play is leveling and exploring.

The only real use of the online cummunity/guilds actually come into any real advantage is for crafting.

Not a troll just truly believe this is where the game suffers most of all.

camknox

Firstly let me add my praise for an outstanding game and the talent behind it. Elder Scrolls Online is on its way to being the top of the pile in MMO games. Now the negative, unfortunately. While I applaud the attempts to combat the ludicrous amount of gold spamming and bot farming the steps taken are in my opinion not the whole solution.

For starters let's look at the re-loot timer set for high value NPC's; specifically within public access dungeons. I believe the current re-loot timer is set at 20 minutes with an increased physical spawn timer. This has on its own significantly cut down on the amount of bot farming within these zones but it has had the unfortunate side effect of also almost completely eradicating the player base to be found within these dungeons and the likelihood of finding a partner if needed along the way.

If you couple this with the already low chance of receiving a dropped item of value from these high value NPC targets it means most people are only visiting these dungeons to "tick them off" for the master zone and achievements. This has already started to have widespread effects within the game economy with prices fluctuating daily in unpredictable ways. The availability of specialised equipment, formerly available by the higher amount of "blue" drops being placed onto the Guild Stores has also meant characters are arriving unprepared for their next levels of adventuring.

There have been many suggestions put forward for methods to combat the ever present spammers and bot farming. The simplest is a script moderated chat filter implemented server-side. Simply snagging anyone who repeats a message more than X amount of times per 10 minutes. This can be expanded to incorporate any number of things as the add-on writers have done to be able to better filter the spam which should really be handled by Zenimax rather than the community. When it falls to the paying consumer base to fix a problem for the developers there are serious downfalls with the structuring of priorities.

You've mentioned that the Guild Stores will be receiving an overhaul. I am hopeful this includes the ability to search for an item by name which is something that put simply is staggering that it was not included. Having to scroll through hundreds of pages looking for items is mind numbingly annoying and sets up bad experiences with this method of trade. Another thing that I know many people would like to see introduced is a server wide or at the very least zone wide (regardless of phase) auction channel. Something separate from the current /zone which is presently over-employed. Currently it is used for the asking of questions; the selling of goods; finding groups; racist, bigoted views and other forms of discrimination (multiple reports unanswered); and then the gold/vampire spam not to mention the hundreds of other things that get posted to /zone daily.

I think that will do for today. /rant off

nicefrog

Kinda curious if housing will revolve around player gathered goods or be a gold sink. Combination of both would be best, I think.

maharao_ESO

Very good news, mostly. I see two concerns:

-- Justice system: Will provisioners now be cooking only in prisons?

-- Dyes: Plausible colors only, please (no WoWish electric pink!), made by alchemists (some from very rare ingredients, think "purple"), and sold on the (virtually nonexistent) market for high prices.

Gogog Bloodthroat

They need to added ability to write scrolls of known cooking recipes so players can sell to other cooks.As well as a way to do cross faction communication for pvp to set up alliances help balance the sides when one alliances dominates.

Zapain

Eban wrote: »

Biggest problem I have come across in game is its a pain to group level.
I play with a large guild in multiple mmo's and trying to level together here is not good

When questing if you have to kill/gather a number of npc/items then you all have to.
You all have to interact with npcs/puzzles.
If you get ahead of someone then you can't go back to help because they become an white arrow and they're basically on they own 'good luck m8 with that boss'

The game in some ways pushes you to go 'heh m8 just go ahead and play solo no point grouping up' which for a mmo is insane.

For me a mmo is all about playing with an online community from lvl 1 to endgame content. I know raids/dungeons are groups but so should doing the basics since the most time you play is leveling and exploring.

The only real use of the online cummunity/guilds actually come into any real advantage is for crafting.

Not a troll just truly believe this is where the game suffers most of all.

I quite agree about this aspect of the game. So far I have been playing solo throughout. My guildies ahead/behind me in quest lines can't join, nor can I join them to help. So needless to say that so far this game has felt like a single player game to me. I've grouped maybe 2 or 3 times with guildies, but that was for adventuring in Cyrodil. When it has come to leveling, I've never grouped with them at all. So basically I'm asking myself, "What is the point of paying for an MMO (and then a recurring subscription) when I could buy a single player game and pay one set price?"

There is a HUGE vacuum when it comes to this part of ESO. As Eban said, "Just go play solo, there's no point in grouping up."

Lastly, it seems mostly that the ESO community is pushing for "non essential" game content and additions to the game when there is still so much to be fixed with the game as is. For instance small bugs, non appearing NPC's, being dismounted for no reason, etc... I sincerely hope that the game "as is" is fixed before any consideration to added content is given. FIX WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE GAME NOW...THEN ADD. Don't add things that are going to need fixing when the game isn't fixed "as is".

I do appreciate the extra added five days, BUT I must say that those five days are giving me time to think about continuing to play ESO after those days are up and waiting a few months for all the little things to be fixed before paying to play a game that is maintained 2 days a week. I've never played a game that had more than one day a week as a maintenance day. I was just wondering if that was going to be the standard in the ESO future or will it eventually just be one day a week? I almost feel sometimes that along with buying the game, that my "included" month is paying to beta test the game even further than I did playing in beta since November of last year.

Bunneh

Some welcome changes in the pipeline. Thank you. What I personally would really like is the ability to re-customise my entire appearance (not change gender or name though), as I get a lot of satisfaction from how my toon looks. I guess many of us will wish we could make change here or there to our toon's appearance, from hair colour/style, to tattoos, facial structure, eye colour and body size/shape. Not sure how you could work it into the lore, but I would be jolly grateful if you could implement this somehow. Also, as we pay subs, I believe it should be free, or maybe a fairly nominal gold sum.

Thanks for reading!

Elkadar

It's good to hear about plenty of upcoming nice features and fixes. However I'm still very concerned about end-game content. Right now I'm making my way through storyline quests, exploring world and I'm enjoying it very much. I'm most afraid what I'm going to do after I reach level 50 and gain a few veteran ranks. Currently there is no long term activity perspective. All we have to choose from is:

Cyrodil PVP
Actually it's not a PVP from my point of view. Of course you can fight another players but where is competition? In controlling structures? Not actually. You can gather zerg-like groups take several keeps/castles from enemy, that would gather bigger zerg-army and take everything back in a few minutes. It goes on and on, over and over again. Advancing in leader board? Seriously I don't think it's intellectual challenge you would expect from high-end MMO. No offence to our emperor. This system rewards only number of hours spend playing the game. MMO is not about sacrificing your own life to get more points somewhere. MMO is about creating social structures, player integration and this is what should be rewarded. Current PVP is pointless. It's still fun and have nice mechanic but there is nothing rewarding to compete for with other players.

Adventure Zones
Killing the same mobs over and over and over and over and over again trying to kill them in shorter and shorter and shorter time in order to advance in another leaderboard? I'm not looking for e-sport here.... It might be a nice feature but after some time it will be boring.

Ok enough complaining. A few words about what I really miss:

Competition for resources and World domination:)
Then you plan a new expansion please take into consideration, what is easier to keep players occupied for a longer time. Constantly building new adventure zones (like giving a fish to a hungry man) or creating environment for players to create contents and quests on their own (teaching a hungry man how to catch a fish).

How I would achieve it:
- assign a new zone (or continent) as law-less area filled with unique resources (not available in safer areas), powerful creatures guarding treasures etc.
- allow players to colonise it and build their own structures: mines, mills, settlements, keeps, castles and claim parts of it as their own. This way players could define their own "kingdoms", start new alliances, wage wars or pay for protection stronger organisations in order to gain access to unique resources and content.
- make it brutal and risky: open world pvp, without any crime responsibilities (player build their own law system and enforce it), no safe storages like bank, guild bank etc., looting defeated players.
- allow reasonable competition for land and resources: if someone is about to build own castle to store gathered resources in safety, build own crafting stations, control specified area etc. Other party should be able to claim it. Not like in Cyrodil. First atacking party should start a sidge (for example by killing guard-npc outside walls). The sidge should take for example 24h in order to give defending party time to prepare. After specified time castle should become vurnable for direct assault.

Basicly, similar system itself encourages players to gather into organise groups. Some will build up structures and whole supply chain based on extracting rare goods from dangerous areas and transporting them under heavy escort to Tamriel safe banks and markets. Others will specialise in piracy, robbery, raiding and pillaging. Others will become bounty hunters, or mercenaries hired for gold to attack, protect, escort, scout, patrol duties.

This way you may have a chance to create environment where players will create new tasks and goals for other players. This is called sandbox

If you need more specific reference please take a look at classic mmo like Ultima Online, Shadowbane or more and more popular Eve online.

trooperrabbit_ESO

Sayura wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Everyone, don't forget that there are other things we're working on that Matt did not list. That was just a sneak peek of some features that are actively being developed.

So excited for the new stuff and hope housing is one not listed!

Yes! They are actually planning this, but it's not in development yet. There was a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), and this was mentioned! I can't get the link right now, but someone summarized the AMA in bullet point form on the ESO subreddit.

trooperrabbit_ESO

Makkir wrote: »

Chamomile wrote: »

And of course there is NO mention about the memory leak in the Mac client that makes PvP basically unplayable. The client crashes every 30 minutes!! How is this not at the top of the list of fixes?!
forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/63356/cyrodiil-other-memory-related-crashes-post-feedback-reports-here

Yeah well, people shouldn't be using Macs in the first place ;-0)
lolz

@Makkir
This was recently fixed, unless there's another memory leak specifically involving PvP

LTC_Eddy

"A system that allows grouped players to see each other even when they’re in different phases" _ yes! NOT SEEING EACH OTHER WAS really annoying>
"A justice system—steal from and kill NPCs and deal with the consequences if you are caught" Thank you, aside from in coldharbor, tho please, you really need sutff and dead folks dont need it,

"""Field of View (FOV) adjustment"""" Oh, THANK YOU!!! I get sim sickness and even with a mod my son found on line I have to play on my tv in my livingroom from across the room.
"Armor dyeing and tinting" Yes, please
Increased ability to pick up items in the world
Improvements to fishing
Crafting system improvements
Improved Looking for Group system
Better NPC facial animations
"Guild functionality updates: guild store interface updates, customizable guild insignias, tabards, and guild ranks, and Guild Kiosks—guild stores open to everyone that are available to the highest-bidding guild."
Auto-leveling dungeons that level to your group leader
Awards when you repeat dungeons

All good things, so glad you are listening and responding! I am a total noob, my DH is a life long gamer dude, and we are BOTH having a blast playing your game (I hate to call it a "game"...to me it is another world, a beautiful one at that, that I get to explore and enjoy with the man who has endured my cluelessness about the gaming world for over 30 years)

gardenia.ren67ub17_ESO

Medicius wrote: »

Four things.



Secondly, and to quote the original article, I'd like to point out that it just slapped all Beta Testers in the face - and for a damn good reason. You guys failed. Perhaps you're just too used to "beta testing" games on Steam where you get to play what the developer is calling an alpha/beta game and where you rail on about things that are broken, yet never try to help resolve it by re-testing and submitting bugs. The ignorance as to what beta testing is shows clearly in the amount of bugs that we still continue to see now. Yes, Beta Testers, you failed. And here's the quote that proves it:

...We’re also continuing to fix bugs as we find them and as players report them to us. In a world as large as ESO’s, with endless variations of gameplay by players, it is impossible for QA to identify all bugs before launch

@Medicius,

How is it that we beta testers failed exactly? It is a FACT that the dupe bug was reported in beta - several times. It is a fact that several quest bugs were reported complete with screen shots and all of those were not fixed. It is a FACT that we reported latency issues getting worse with each beta and not better. It is FACT that the disappearing bank slots were also reported during beta.

What more, pray tell, would you have had us to do? Go to the offices of ZOE and demand they get fixed at gunpoint? That would be a little excessive, not to mention illegal.

I'll wait over here with my popcorn while I await your response.

jimmulvaney

Something that has recently come to my attention and is a bit of a concern are the diminishing returns on loot from bosses. First of all, does the fix take into consideration whether you have received reasonable loot from a specific boss already? I ask because when I do dungeons I usually get the achievo for completing said dungeon on first try, but I typically have to kill a boss two or three times before I get ANY loot. I don't want to look like a farmer or anything but this has always been the case for me since launch. Which brings me to my second question...

Is it true that the diminished returns are universal regardless of what boss you kill when? What I mean is I was told if I kill a world boss and get some nice loot then hop in a dungeon and bust through it in a few minutes I end up only getting 5g (which has been my experience lately) because I just killed a boss 10 minutes ago? Seriously, I ran 2 world bosses and 3 solo dungeons in Eastmarch yesterday and all but one of the bosses only gave me loot after I killed them twice and even then I only got 5g each as well as a bunch of 0 value provisioning items.

Can someone explain/ confirm/ deny this for me? If the 2nd is true then you can see how the 1st issue is a big problem.

trooperrabbit_ESO

Here is a link with a summary of some Q&A on reddit (AMA) that expands on "The Road Ahead". Among other things, Player Housing is mentioned, as well as several insights on balancing and Quality of Life adjustments in consideration. Enjoy!

jimmulvaney

trooperrabbit_ESO wrote: »

Here is a link with a summary of some Q&A on reddit (AMA) that expands on "The Road Ahead".

Was that for me? because if so then it really didn't answer any of my questions.

knaveofengland

we all love new content and this has put many smiles on faces, as a suggestion you can skip the first part next time around , I would suggest on the first part you could show players things like some crafting ,node farming , make a set of armour, weapon, some food, potions. this would help many on the road ahead

TaoRaven

Good work, Devs. As a LONG time Elder Scrolls fan, and MMORPG player, I personally am completely blown away and in love with this game. I can't wait to see this game grow. Needless to say, you'll have my subscription $$ for quite some time.

rolopololoco

Speech bubbles? pweeese

DemonNinja

Keep up the great work! I'm so excited to see where this game goes in the coming years. Anytime anyone *** about the bugs, I kindly remind them of how buggy DAoC was at launch, and also the fact that game was completely featureless, with very little quests, no ambient audio, and lots of imbalance, and it turned into an industry defining game. Stay true to your vision, you guys know you what you are doing!

User3rr0r

Fairydragon3 wrote: »

BabylonRocker wrote: »

Armor dyeing and tinting

What i'd like to see in adition would be that i can have lvl 10 armor look with vr10 stats.

Al long as we keep it realistic, I don't want to see people running around in Hot Pink.

And if they are in hot pink, will you quit?

Personally I love the freedom this game gives the players and I hope they keep adding more features that further that freedom. Not that I would dye any armor hot pink, but if a player want to choose that dye who am I or you to say anything bad about that.

KerinKor

jimmulvaney wrote: »

Is it true that the diminished returns are universal regardless of what boss you kill when?

I can't find the ZOS comments I'm thinking of so can't provide a link or be absolutely certain, but I'm pretty sure they said the boss timer crap applies to all bosses .. the intent seeming to be to stop the bots simply teleporting around bosses to avoid any timer/DR hindrance to their item/XP farming.