My ESO observations after a month of gameplay on console

Pewpewcannon · July 2015

Ive been playing MMOs since I was in high school 15 years ago, and its always been one of my favorite types of games when done correctly. (DaoC did alot of things right...just a bit too much wrong near the end)
Im very particular in how I choose an MMO in that I feel like the PVP needs to grab my attention and I need to know that end game will keep me entertained. I dont mind a PVE grind to get to max level (ive been playing for a month and i just hit vr10)....but I do not agree with grinding pve mobs endlessly to gain an edge in pvp.

Most games that have a good system for pvp reward those who play pvp. You may stray off from time to time and do a dungeon here and there to get your PVE fix...but for the most part, you stick to PVP. I feel like there needs to be some way for PVPers to stay out in Cyrodiil and enjoy killing other players...while still being able to level up champ points effectively. If I need to kill 10 million zombies to be on an even level as the top guys, then heck...ill just play at a disadvantage. I didnt buy this game to be a 2nd job.

DaoC had a very fun system that let you spend your actual PVP levels on passives/actives, therefore dangling a carrot in front of you. I feel like after you get assault/support to 10 in this game...everything afterwards seems to be fluff and excess skill points that you probably dont need at that point. (we will see if IC fixes any of these issues)

I think the time to kill is fine in PVP, but the power gap of the vr-14s over everyone else exaggerates just how quickly people die. If I get killed by a NB in 2-3 shots....good for him! He played his class right and thats how every stealth/assassin class should be in any MMO. (he dies in 2-3 shots too ;D) When battle leveling puts everyone at vr-14, I think pvp will be alot more fun. I dont think they needed to nerf dmg across the board, but thats just me.

The pve questing seems pretty linear and bleh, but the delves/world bosses/dolmens break up the monotonous grind and actually make the pve seem a bit fun at times. I really enjoy the combat in this game. Everything is very fluid and I like not having to wait for cooldowns etc like most MMOs. The dungeons ive seen so far are absolutely beautiful, and ive had a blast doing them.

Does the game need dmg/healing numbers etc? I believe it does....but for someone used to running 20+ addons for MMOs on PC...I have to say its a welcome release to just have a wide open UI just like everyone else.

The crafting seems alright. I am already 50 in everything except enchanting (already at 45). The gear you can craft all seems pretty meh though. I really enjoy the daily quests. (provisioning and enchanting seem to be the most worth it for the daily quest rewards...while the main crafts seem to be pointless) Researching seems like a decent idea...but they need to tie in something that involves the daily quests to reduce the time.

I thought I would hate how the guild traders work...but it is definitely a sellers paradise. I am currently in 4 trading guilds and already have half a mill gold in less than a month. If you put in a little effort...making money in this game doesnt seem difficult at all. (sucks as a buyer though for sure)

I can see both sides of the text chat/no text chat argument. For some things like end game dungeons, some people who arent in established guilds will just flat out have a horrible time finding groups to do them. I am getting to that point now and I have no idea how I will experience any of the end game dungeons. In our current society of cyber gaming...most people are admittedly socially akward, and just dont know how to talk to people. So it is definitely an oversight on ZOS to leave it out. With that being said, it does make you get out from underneath your shell to talk to people...and in this day and age, I think thats a good thing.

I dont like that I cant mute people easily. There are some people in game that will go out of their way to be offensive or play music. I have to go find the person...pull up his xbox account....and block him. It may not seem like a hassle, but 3 or 4 loading screens later...it can get annoying and time consuming if needing to do it for multiple people.

I dont know how the devs just dont seem to communicate with their player base. That is a baaaad sign for a long term MMO. It is a good way to get people to try other games and move on if they feel stiffed. Ive seen far too many MMOs go down this path and its not a pretty one. Get your crap straight ZOS and communicate with the people paying your bills.

Allowing PC transfers was probably one of the most amateurish company moves I think ive ever witnessed in MMO gaming. To give players that much of an advantage in the early stages of a games life alienates the other players. Its not even the pvp transfers that bother me...but rather the people who already have a ton of items/gold from PC that they can use to corner the market/guild traders. Most boneheaded thing I think ive ever seen (and ive seen some whoppers)

Not being able to see your actual in game name is a real downer too. I REALLY hate that my gamer tag (iLL wiLL 05) shows up. It really makes me think that the majority of people that made some of the key decisions in this game had actually never in fact played an MMO or had no previous MMO experience. Half the fun of an MMO was thinking of cool names for your character. Such lame.

Overall....I am definitely enjoying the game. I havent quite reached endgame just yet, so we will see if PVP holds my interest. (so far its a blast)

Is it a 10/10 first rate MMO? I think it can be....but not in its current iteration.

Sausage · July 2015

Zen listens its community but try to understand first fans came to the forum 1-2 year before PC launch. Dont just expect to come here and think they listen you after 2 week of playing. I just love how people come here to give protips, as they have played tons of MMO before, well ESO isnt the rest of MMOs, its ESO.

More reason to bring back Road Ahead, maybe. Imagine if they had kept doing Road Aheads, how easy it'd be for new players to read them and get the idea whats going on. Yet again Zen shows its Amateur side.

simena9292 · July 2015

Agree on the text chat. Crafting you are completly off base.
If you know the gear sets you can make out in the wild, you would not say that.
Thry are the best armors in the atm.
As for a dun, its just to try and find someone you do it with regularly. I already got a steady 4 man group i do the daily undaumted ones.. and just took me a couple of days to put i togheter.
I really like this game xD
Just hot vet14 last week and the end game is entertaining. With IC coming up i cant see myself getting bored with it and Orsinium. But if i was playing on pc with a year without content i would be bored!

simena9292 · July 2015

And i agree with the gamertag thing. Its not even a point to have a name.
And if you get emporer no one knowes its you.. unless you got same gamertag as name. A real bummer.

usrevenge · July 2015

uh, crafted items are some of the best in the game.

they need to add some sort of jewelry crafting though.

Pewpewcannon · July 2015

Sausage wrote: »

Zen listens its community but try to understand first fans came to the forum 1-2 year before PC launch. Dont just expect to come here and think they listen you after 2 week of playing. I just love how people come here to give protips, as they have played tons of MMO before, well ESO isnt the rest of MMOs, its ESO.

More reason to bring back Road Ahead, maybe. Imagine if they had kept doing Road Aheads, how easy it'd be for new players to read them and get the idea whats going on. Yet again Zen shows its Amateur side.

you misunderstand me. They may listen, but they do a poor job of communicating with us.

A perfect example would be that bug where people were one shotting people in PVP with that bow skill. Apparently it got fixed this past patch. How hard would a message like "we are aware of the issue and are working on a fix as we speak."

Something that simple can save alot of anger. This seems to be a pretty common issue from what ive been reading on the boards. You need more than mods responding to posts....you kind of need a community ambassador for this stuff.

Pewpewcannon · July 2015

maybe you guys are right on the crafted stuff. I guess I mainly meant I wasnt very impressed with the 8-9 trait stuff. Ill take another look at the other sets today.

I forgot to mention...

why oh why cant i know what i sell? Thats been around since the dawn of MMOs. That just seems like pure laziness on ZoS's part.

This last patch also introduced a bug...lets say I have 40 food items. I want to split up the stacks. The first time i go in, I split them 20/20. Normally....I could just split that same 20 stack while it was still up, but now when I try to split the stack, I instead eat the food, even though im not in the normal menu. So for every stack i split, I need to completely exit that menu and re-pull up the 20 stack. It doesnt sound like a big deal...but when you are doing this for 200 units of food, it gets annoying.

Some of the most basic of things in this game are extremely tedious. (i still cant send mail to certain people bc apparently the name "doesnt exist?" Even though I pulled up their name from the guild list. (and there were no weird spaces or anything)

markt84 · July 2015

I just want to level up faster in PvP. Not sure why underpowered AI gives you more xp than actual people that are all buffed to kinda not really be around the same level. But even if they aren't at the same level, the can run with a group and can instantly think about how to defend themselves, not some computer programmed set moved at set times

Pewpewcannon · July 2015

markt84 wrote: »

I just want to level up faster in PvP. Not sure why underpowered AI gives you more xp than actual people that are all buffed to kinda not really be around the same level. But even if they aren't at the same level, the can run with a group and can instantly think about how to defend themselves, not some computer programmed set moved at set times

very good point.

Or how someone can stealth right in the middle of you attacking them, even when they seem to be right next to you...

while level 6 Speaks-With-Frogs NPC can somehow see you in stealth halfway across the room when hes not even looking at you.

Pewpewcannon · July 2015

wafcatb14_ESO wrote: »

The person Behind DAOC Trials of Atlantis is The Head DEV for ESO

If you liked DAOC which i did this game is set up just like old school DAOC but is 2 years away ;looks promising; then theres Camelot Unchained
.

http://landofbritain.com/

I donated to the CU fund however long ago, so I am looking forward to it.

ToA was one of the nails in the coffins for DaoC if i remember, so that explains a bit about things. (the pvp is eerily similar in alot of ways to daocs system) relics=elder scrolls

I will check out land of britain, never heard of it until now, thanks!

markt84 · July 2015

Pewpewcannon wrote: »

markt84 wrote: »

I just want to level up faster in PvP. Not sure why underpowered AI gives you more xp than actual people that are all buffed to kinda not really be around the same level. But even if they aren't at the same level, the can run with a group and can instantly think about how to defend themselves, not some computer programmed set moved at set times

very good point.

Or how someone can stealth right in the middle of you attacking them, even when they seem to be right next to you...

while level 6 Speaks-With-Frogs NPC can somehow see you in stealth halfway across the room when hes not even looking at you.

I can't stand that, even you go invis right in front of me, I know where you are and should be able to hit you. It should be a skill used to hide, not one to negate damage as you flee

mklundub17_ESO · July 2015

I agree with a lot of the things in this thread, and about either pure laziness or lack of manpower on the dev side - not sure which without spending time at the company.

The major issue, as mentioned before, is their complete lack of communication with their player base. MMO's like EQ have been around 17+ years because of it's community and the communication with their player base, and that's even carried over after being bought by Daybreak.

The biggest issues for console, in my opinion, are:

Not having chat on console is just small minded
Using gamertags instead of character names, either a poor decision or if there's an actual reason for it LET US KNOW

NewBlacksmurf · July 2015

Sausage wrote: »

Zen listens its community but try to understand first fans came to the forum 1-2 year before PC launch. Dont just expect to come here and think they listen you after 2 week of playing. I just love how people come here to give protips, as they have played tons of MMO before, well ESO isnt the rest of MMOs, its ESO.

More reason to bring back Road Ahead, maybe. Imagine if they had kept doing Road Aheads, how easy it'd be for new players to read them and get the idea whats going on. Yet again Zen shows its Amateur side.

+1

Pewpewcannon · July 2015

Were the devs just as mute a year before release as they are now?

MikeB · July 2015

No one at ZOS, even the "support" will respond to you on twitter. That alone makes me want to quit supporting and playing this game. It makes it seem like they dont care about our complaints and are just going to do what they want and have planned no matter what we say or think. Having no communication with your player base, especially paying customers, is the worst thing you can do. Look at the app game Heroes of Dragon Age, the game is horrible, broken and is just a cash grab but they communicate with the people on their forums so the idiots keep handing them money hand over fist.