Relatively Bitter ESO veteran considering coming back, looking for insight.

LtCrunch · February 2016

I want to preface this by saying while I may be bitter, ESO brought me and a lot of cool people together in the time I played it between November 2013 and August 2015, many of which I still stay in contact with and game with on a daily basis. With that out of the way I'll list my reasons for leaving and ask those of you who still play to give me some insight into what is the same, what has changed, etc.

I'd be lying if I said the year long content drought leading up to and shortly after the console release wasn't a factor. Going that long without anything new to do was devastating to me and my guildmates interest in the game. We clung to the promise of new content on the horizon and tried to make the most of what was available to us, I clung a little bit longer than some others, but there are some who still play. So now that the devs have dug themselves out of that drought, how frequent have they been able to churn out content/systems? Is it of a high quality? Any news on the VR system finally being removed? Have there been any significant changes to the champion system? How much stock would you say you can truly put into what the devs tease these days? How much faith do you have in the devs these days?

My next concern is how is the Crown Store affecting gameplay and the economy? Before I left they had already introduced the XP pots, which if you wanted to craft and not buy with real world cash was extremely time consuming and/or expensive. I don't like the potential impact this type of design has on gameplay and the spirit of the game. Fueling my concern was the revelation that the glass motif would not only be split into chapters, but those chapters would be further split into fragments. On top of that malachite was going to be extremely hard to come by. It came as no surprise to me to find the full glass motif along with malachite in the crown store right away. Have they continued down this design path with more tedious grinds that push you to circumvent through the crown store? Or have they taken a step back from these types of design choices?

I'd say my final question is are they still sticking closely to established lore or are they stretching lore to accommodate crown store sales? If they're stretching it to what extent, any examples?

Thanks in advance for the insight. I'm currently downloading the game out of curiosity but a couple hours in game isn't going to tell me the kinds of things I'd like to know before I can allow myself to invest my time and potentially money into this game again. Also as a sidenote I would greatly appreciate insight from those who have been around for the long haul or at least long enough to know what the game was like before the subscription fee dropped, if you weren't around that long ago I'm not so sure you can paint an accurate picture for me, but insight is appreciated regardless

Eshelmen · February 2016

Is your old guild disbanded? I would seek out a good active guild immediately. My first piece of insight.

LtCrunch · February 2016

There are still a few members active in the game, I still keep in contact with many others and game with them on a daily basis. If I decide to give the game another chance I know I'll at least have most of a trial group ready to come back and give it a try as well. That's how I prefer it BTW. I'm more of a small guild type of guy and ran the one I was in from beta until I called it quits. So having people to play with isn't really a concern of mine.

Necrelios · February 2016

If you are worried about the motif grind, I am afraid that unfortunately I cannot alleviate your concerns there, my good sir! It is in fact, that I have spent entire weeks grinding to no avail in Old Orsinium for many hours a day (is there still 24 hours in a human day, sorry, This One forgets), anyways, I have only received one design as blessed as Zenitharmax has seen fit, in such a time, my good sir! But change could await! If you convert now to the love of Sithis! We shall redeem thee! For as is written, as Nirn Progens, SIthis Shal Reap! Oh the rewards of Oblivion upon your family! Do not hesitate! Forward this message onto 20 od your friends within 72 hours, or Molag Bal shal harvest their souls for all Oblivion!

MornaBaine · February 2016

It is true that ZOS continues to make anything they "give" us in game completely ridiculous to actually get so as to drive us to BUY it in sheer frustration from the cash shop. I hate that and it's pretty much caused me to lose all lingering respect for their company. The XP pots are a perfect example of this. The recipe to make your own is, of course, tedious and time consuming to get but that's not the bad part. Nor is the bad part that it requires TWO different purple mats. The truly insulting part is the requirement of perfect roe. This mat is among the rarest in the game and requires ENDLESS hours of fishing to acquire. Yet the point of the XP pots is supposedly to SAVE YOU TIME. But you'll spend ten times the amount of time getting what you need to MAKE those XP pots as you would to just level a character without them. Worse, you can't even sell the XP pots with enough profit to make the time worthwhile because if you did they'd be so exorbitantly expensive that it would just make more sense to buy the XP scrolls conveniently offered by the cash shop. In other words, it's a total slap in the face to players. So yeah, if you were hoping ZOS was going to start treating us with any respect... nope.

Lightninvash · February 2016

to address some of your points they are adding content more frequently there is 2 new dlc out and another 2 scheduled for this year. they are making a lot of changes with this dlc that will be coming out soon. a lot of balance changes cp changes etc. they will be removing the veteran levels with the Dark brotherhood that is said to release later this year(don't remember what quarter of the year)

the tedious grind so far has been the same as far as the motifs go as well as the vet 16 gear but it isn't too bad for the armor. And lastly as far as I am aware they are not stretching the lore too much for crown store items that being said I don't read lore but if they did something like that it would have been all over the forums and I have not yet read anything like that(I read the forums regularly at work

)

LtCrunch · February 2016

MornaBaine wrote: »

it's pretty much caused me to lose all lingering respect for their company.

I don't blame ZOS nearly as much as I do Bethesda(the publisher, not developer). They're the ones who made the decision to give up on the sub model so quickly, I still think it was due to Microsoft's refusal to waive the XBL fee for active subscribers, but that's an old discussion full of questionable info and some leaps of logic. Between ESO's conversion and how dumbed down Fallout 4 is, I'm worried for my beloved TES series.

Anyway, thanks for the insight.

Keep_Door · February 2016

honestly, if you are this on the fence about playing a game that you need to be convinced by others to play it then just dont play it.

LtCrunch · February 2016

ofullmetalbebop wrote: »

honestly, if you are this on the fence about playing a game that you need to be convinced by others to play it then just dont play it.

Nobody can convince me other than myself. I'm asking those who are still actively playing what has changed regarding my specific qualms, because as I said I can't hardly make an informed decision when I haven't played the game for nearly 7 months. Asking for information and opinions is very different than asking someone to convince me to play. If I wasn't interested in coming back I wouldn't have downloaded the game or created this thread.

LtCrunch · February 2016

Lightninvash wrote: »

they are adding content more frequently there is 2 new dlc out and another 2 scheduled for this year

That's good to hear. I had read they were planning one DLC pack per quarter, glad to know they've been able to stick to it thus far.

Lightninvash wrote: »

they will be removing the veteran levels with the Dark brotherhood that is said to release later this year(don't remember what quarter of the year)

Also good to know, is there any solid information on how they plan on going about the removal of vet ranks yet? Because I remember when everyone was under the impression the vet ranks would be gone with the Imp City DLC pack, so I'm skeptical hehe.

Lightninvash wrote: »

the tedious grind so far has been the same as far as the motifs go as well as the vet 16 gear but it isn't too bad for the armor.

So you don't think the crown store has affected motifs or similar types of items in a negative way in the base game compared to prior to the drop of the subscription fee?

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · February 2016

The game is growing at a faster rate now that they are releasing DLC every quarter so that is good news. There is always something to do if you have the DLC but it is up to you if you choose to buy it and the amount of content actually enjoyed depends on the player. Call me a fanboy, but I personally every bit of it. So what I would recommend is subbing for a month to get access to the DLC and then see if you enjoy the new content. Wrothgar alone is worth a try. The story is amazing and the land is beautiful. So that's my insight on the matter.

LtCrunch · February 2016

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

The game is growing at a faster rate now that they are releasing DLC every quarter so that is good news. There is always something to do if you have the DLC but it is up to you if you choose to buy it and the amount of content actually enjoyed depends on the player. Call me a fanboy, but I personally every bit of it. So what I would recommend is subbing for a month to get access to the DLC and then see if you enjoy the new content. Wrothgar alone is worth a try. The story is amazing and the land is beautiful. So that's my insight on the matter.

Have they changed the way the subscription works for DLC packs? For example if I sub a month do I only get access to the DLC packs for that month and then lose it? If it works more like SWTOR does now(sub a month gain access to expansions forever) then subbing for a month would be far more intriguing to me. If it doesn't I think I'd probably see about working my way through the AD zones and see if I still feel the game at the base level(I always enjoyed the gameplay).

Xendyn · February 2016

ZOS' new promise on content is a DLC per quarter and so far they are holding to that. They say they are working on QOL this year and are slowly improving the Group Finder (which will include Trials with TG), cross faction grouping and we are getting SCT with TG, also.

My opinion on DLCs so far:

Imperial City was too much PVE for the PVP folks and too much PVP for the PVE folks. It is mostly either gankers or Tel Var farmers in there.

Orsinium, as far as aesthetics, story and size was great but all solo content (except for the WB dailies)

TG we'll see soon but there are concerns about performance which has big FPS drops on PTS that I hope doesn't translate to Live. It does have a reportedly awesome new Trial that has not (so far as I know) been beaten on PTS.

My biggest concerns with the game right now are that the majority of the new content seems to be solo oriented and performance. Ping spikes are more common now, even in instanced PVE and also FPS drops for many of us. Cyro can become unplayable at times.

There have been some rather obvious "herding towards the Crown Store" choices. XP pots were mentioned above and also the long-awaited Glass motif with it's double RNG to obtain it in game coupled with an almost-immediate Crown store release of it has pretty much broken me of being a Completionist Crafter in this game. It just ticked me off that much. They are introdicing a "Mimic Stone" into the Crown Store with TG, and will unbind the other style mats (like Malachite and Laurel) when they do so they will be tradeable among players.

They have done a fair job of sticking to the lore imo. Some consider some of the mounts to be lore-breaking in that there are no examples of them actually in game (Fire and Ice horses, etc) but I have little issue with that. They have mostly stuck with costumes, mounts and consumables so I'm ok with it altho we watch them carefully.

The final removal of VR is coming in Q2 with the Dark Brotherhood.

If you came back there would be 2 new dungeons (which require purchase of IC) and a new Trial (which would require purchase of TG) for you to do. Not sure if that would be enough for you.

No you are still renting the DLC if you sub and lose access if you drop sub.

Lightninvash · February 2016

Brandalf wrote: »

Lightninvash wrote: »

they are adding content more frequently there is 2 new dlc out and another 2 scheduled for this year

That's good to hear. I had read they were planning one DLC pack per quarter, glad to know they've been able to stick to it thus far.

Lightninvash wrote: »

they will be removing the veteran levels with the Dark brotherhood that is said to release later this year(don't remember what quarter of the year)

Also good to know, is there any solid information on how they plan on going about the removal of vet ranks yet? Because I remember when everyone was under the impression the vet ranks would be gone with the Imp City DLC pack, so I'm skeptical hehe.

Lightninvash wrote: »

the tedious grind so far has been the same as far as the motifs go as well as the vet 16 gear but it isn't too bad for the armor.

So you don't think the crown store has affected motifs or similar types of items in a negative way in the base game compared to prior to the drop of the subscription fee?

they are definitely trying to achieve the 1 dlc per quarter that is a goal of theirs and so far its not been so bad heck 2 dlc in a year is fine by me if it stayed that way because more quality time to fix bugs and develop the story and dungeons/ extra stuff that is added.

they will be turning vet gear to CP gear like vet 16 gear will be 160cp gear vet 15 gear will be 150cp and so on. so it will all be based on the cp you have not the vet rank you are. I can see that being an issue due to having lvl 50 chars with over 160 cp and your lvl 50(previously vet 1) can now wear vet 16 gear... unless they make cp char wide and not account wide. who knows could be fun being able to use end game gear at lvl 50 for those who like to roll alts atleast.

I think the crown store items are just fluff. Like oh don't wna grind for the motif here buy it for like x money. the xp scrolls aren't worth it as its only like 3k per ambrosia on xbox NA server. from what I see as far as motifs go they realized that glass was a bad idea. since then I have gotten the xivkin motifs from IC in parts like they do with the dweemer motif and ancient orc from the orisinium/wrothgar dlc I only seem to get from bosses in parts like the dweemer motif again.

I know they are trying to cater to pvpers as well with monster sets. idk if they added it yet or not but they are going to add(if not already) a monster vender for pvp to buy with AP or gold(so pve players can buy too.) probably going to be random pieces who knows how good or what it will be(probably well fitted

lol.

Ik with the thieves guild they will be adding new stuff to do in that area I would love if they expand it to more than just that area. It is worth looking into I am excited about that one. They are going to be adding scrolling damage numbers to the game which is awesome for console players(maybe pc since 1 less add on.) Text chat for consoles are coming probably with dark brotherhood. My faith in the DEVS went from oh they are corrupt money hungry jerks(sorry for the bluntness but it is a past thought) to now im like hey they are trying a bit more and not so bad. hope that answers ur questions haha

Lightninvash · February 2016

Brandalf wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

The game is growing at a faster rate now that they are releasing DLC every quarter so that is good news. There is always something to do if you have the DLC but it is up to you if you choose to buy it and the amount of content actually enjoyed depends on the player. Call me a fanboy, but I personally every bit of it. So what I would recommend is subbing for a month to get access to the DLC and then see if you enjoy the new content. Wrothgar alone is worth a try. The story is amazing and the land is beautiful. So that's my insight on the matter.

Have they changed the way the subscription works for DLC packs? For example if I sub a month do I only get access to the DLC packs for that month and then lose it? If it works more like SWTOR does now(sub a month gain access to expansions forever) then subbing for a month would be far more intriguing to me. If it doesn't I think I'd probably see about working my way through the AD zones and see if I still feel the game at the base level(I always enjoyed the gameplay).

its is the same as before I personaly use it as a way to see if I like a dlc before I buy it. though lately I have kept my subscription either way. they also are adding a per for the dlc starting with the orsinium one where once you go in the main city of that area you get a pet with eso+ or buying dlc so either way you get something for playing the dlc even if you don't keep the dlc

Scamandros · February 2016

Crown store I think has had minimal to no impact if you choose to ignore it. Theres a bunch of vanity items and convenience things like motifs that aren't game breaking, but most of the convenience stuff is easily obtainable in game and I don't bother with the store for anything other then to unlock a dlc pack. It is easy to make gold in the game, thats probably the most efficient way to get everything you want like motifs etc.
Exp scrolls in crown store are a thing, but more importantly xp potions are craftable now too. They last 30 mins each, with points in the consume drink passive from provisioning that goes up to 45 or 50 or something. At ~2500 gold each from guild stores, or even cheaper if you buy raw mats and find a friend who has the recipe, it will make you laugh at crown xp scrolls.

XP grind is still a pain, although it is much better then it was. Total xp required per rank has been reduced, and xp pots are now a thing. CP season cap and catch up mechanic means it will be possible for you to catch up in points to current players. Crafted v16 sets are also a grind as each piece takes 130-150 ingots/leathers/cloths etc, however v15 versions are more in line with the previous trend (taking only ~15 pieces per piece). Easy to craft some starter gear, then it will take some time or gold to aquire a full v16 set, and after that you will naturally end up with large stocks of mats which may be useful for next patch.

Currently they are aiming to push out new content(DLC) every quarter. Imperial city had some cool aspects to it, but its mostly used as a place to grind xp/mats with a risk of being ganked. Orsinium looks amazing, has some nice stories to it and the main story is the first questline where I felt like some effort was put into the animation and blocking of npc scenes. It makes for a good solo questing experience, although the solo arena in this zone really highlights stupid game features like the tab targetting system thats almost unusable around mobs with large hitboxes. Its doable, its satisfying to complete the challenging content, but it can be a super frustrating experience and we won't even talk about the rng on weapon drops.

I have not followed it much as I am more focussed on pvp, but the old trials have not been scaled to new levels and apparently this makes them very easy. New trial coming out with thieves guild, it sounds like its getting positive revies in pts but again, I don't follow it very much. Lots of new sets coming out too, so more customization, but it is also looking like a number of them will continue to push a hyper offensive meta.

As for cyrodil they are making a number of rather large changes to seige, skills and sets to try hinder very large groups. We all know how well things work out when they try to overhaul 20 different things at once. Alot of key changes that people have been wanting or talking about apparently fall under Mr Wrobel who seems completely uninformed about cyrodil at best. His responces to some things could not be more comedic if he tried, and have a habit of becoming memes.

Overall there is still this feeling that things have been rushed and they are always playing catch up, just as it always had since launch. I personally think that pushing one dlc a quarter will be unsustainable. With patience and friends it can still be alot of fun, the game still has heaps of potential to be much bigger and better, just as it always has.

LtCrunch · February 2016

Xendyn wrote: »

They say they are working on QOL this year

Even knowing they've uttered the term Quality of Life warms the heart TBH. I gave up on them fixign any of the QOL issues even before I was thinking about leaving the game.

Xendyn wrote: »

Imperial City was too much PVE for the PVP folks and too much PVP for the PVE folks. It is mostly either gankers or Tel Var farmers in there.

I'm actually kinda sad to read that. I got to play the Imp City on the PTS before I left and liked it for the most part, I did have my qualms about losing 100% of Tel Var stones though, did that ever get changed? Aside from that I liked the tension and general difficulty of the area. I imagine that tension and difficulty is mostly alive and well?

Xendyn wrote: »

Orsinium, as far as aesthetics, story and size was great but all solo content (except for the WB dailies)

I don't have a huge problem with that, assuming I can spend a decent amount of time doing the solo content. Any content that I haven't done previously is a good thing from my perspective. Do these WB dailies only take you to bosses in Orsinium or all around?

Xendyn wrote: »

TG we'll see soon but there are concerns about performance which has big FPS drops on PTS that I hope doesn't translate to Live. Ping spikes are more common now, even in instanced PVE and also FPS drops for many of us. Cyro can become unplayable at times.

That's not a very good thing to hear, I take it that means Cyrodiil isn't any better than it was when I left?

Xendyn wrote: »

The final removal of VR is coming in Q2 with the Dark Brotherhood.

That's good, it's been a very, very long time coming. I didn't have a problem with the VR system on my first character, but doing it on multiple characters and then having more levels added on top of it was pretty draining.

Xendyn wrote: »

If you came back there would be 2 new dungeons (which require purchase of IC) and a new Trial (which would require purchase of TG) for you to do.

And all of the solo content that comes along with that, the dungeons and trials would keep me interested but the solo content is also something I enjoy very much. I did start playing this game due to my love of all things TES after all

LtCrunch · February 2016

Scamandros wrote: »

Overall there is still this feeling that things have been rushed and they are always playing catch up, just as it always had since launch. I personally think that pushing one dlc a quarter will be unsustainable. With patience and friends it can still be alot of fun, the game still has heaps of potential to be much bigger and better, just as it always has.

Since you're a PVPer maybe you can tell me, has performance/lag in Cyrodiil been improved at all since August last year or is it still struggling like it was ever since they dropped the lighting patch? As for the quoted text, it's what kills me about ESO. It's always had such massive potential but it seems the devs are both the best and worst thing about it. I lost all hope of ever seeing spellcrafting become a reality, among other things and it kills me. So much potential that seems to be squandered so frequently.

Xendyn · February 2016

Brandalf wrote: »

Even knowing they've uttered the term Quality of Life warms the heart TBH. I gave up on them fixign any of the QOL issues even before I was thinking about leaving the game.

I'm actually kinda sad to read that. I got to play the Imp City on the PTS before I left and liked it for the most part, I did have my qualms about losing 100% of Tel Var stones though, did that ever get changed? Aside from that I liked the tension and general difficulty of the area. I imagine that tension and difficulty is mostly alive and well?

I don't have a huge problem with that, assuming I can spend a decent amount of time doing the solo content. Any content that I haven't done previously is a good thing from my perspective. Do these WB dailies only take you to bosses in Orsinium or all around?

That's not a very good thing to hear, I take it that means Cyrodiil isn't any better than it was when I left?

That's good, it's been a very, very long time coming. I didn't have a problem with the VR system on my first character, but doing it on multiple characters and then having more levels added on top of it was pretty draining.

And all of the solo content that comes along with that, the dungeons and trials would keep me interested but the solo content is also something I enjoy very much. I did start playing this game due to my love of all things TES after all

They did drop the TV loss to 80%, if you play smart and bank regularly, you'll probably be fine. The tension and difficulty are alive and well

No the WB dailies are only the 6 in Wrothgar. Still fun, tho. Reminds me of the old Craglorn grinds, with folks just getting together to run them and share the quests from Zone.

Yeh I just finished my 5th vet thru Gold. He'd been sitting since 1.6 because I hadn't been able to bring myself to slog thru that again. I'll be glad to see it go.

Cyro is very much worse, Imo. They are trying some things with skill changes and seige upgrades along with back end changes coming with TG and DB but I fear the problem is more in the code and will never be truly fixed. I never used to have much in the way of issues with FPS until IC dropped and since then I'll drop to 2-3 in big fights and crash more frequently. Not a tech guy so all I can do is hope they get it worked out.
It's a shame since I've never been a PVP guy until this game and I love the big battles and 'war" atmosphere in Cyro.

You'll have plenty of good solo content so no fear there. There are some repeatables coming with TG also but I didn't want to spoiler myself too much on PTS so haven't really investigated.

Scamandros · February 2016

Brandalf wrote: »

Scamandros wrote: »

Overall there is still this feeling that things have been rushed and they are always playing catch up, just as it always had since launch. I personally think that pushing one dlc a quarter will be unsustainable. With patience and friends it can still be alot of fun, the game still has heaps of potential to be much bigger and better, just as it always has.

Since you're a PVPer maybe you can tell me, has performance/lag in Cyrodiil been improved at all since August last year or is it still struggling like it was ever since they dropped the lighting patch? As for the quoted text, it's what kills me about ESO. It's always had such massive potential but it seems the devs are both the best and worst thing about it. I lost all hope of ever seeing spellcrafting become a reality, among other things and it kills me. So much potential that seems to be squandered so frequently.

I am oceanic and avoid playing azuras (main campaign) during prime time for america as I usually crash to load screen or just have an absurdly high ping. The smaller campaigns have been fairly good, seems everyone is looking for fun new places to play and escape the lag. I forget what the state of lag was at that time, but I remember during IC noting performance felt better then it was. When massive armies stack and collide things still hurt. Ping spikes possibly server side, and fps can take a sharp dive down. However I haven't seen a time when you get that awkward lag where abilites just stop working and groups move to force flip flags with bodies. Its not great, it could be better, but we have also seen alot worse.

DHale · February 2016

Ok my take, welcome back btw. First off I have glass motif all fragments, pages, etc... I bought some and discovered some. That said glass armor is green nothing special I made one armor set its nothing special and won't make it again unless somebody asks for it. The stuff we got when the game first launched is just as good if not better. Just wait things get cheaper over time I just bought an agility ring with robust for 40 k and 2 months ago it was 250 k. Malachite I find them in chests I have 54 all completely random. I play the game to constantly progress my character undaunted, leveling all weapons, getting 300 skill points leveling legermain to 20, leveling every morph. Getting all skyshards. Leveling assault and support. Then I will do it on the next toon and the next. That's what I like doing when I am not getting ap like a crack user. I already have three vr16 toons and 501 plus cp I don't care about pcijic ambrosia nor XP scrolls they do nothing for me. None of which will help me with assualt support or undaunted or... Cp beyond cap, etc... If all these cash shop stop made ppl stronger then that would be a concern. The trouble is ppl rush to vr16 don't know how to actually play the game or their class get wrecked move to fallout 4. Wash rinse repeat. They respec constantly when I have like 5 weapons and all armors with skill points in them. I have not respecced since zos did it in a patch update. I can literally heal one dungeon and tank the next one and dps a third if needed. That's what makes it fun for me... the progression.

notimetocare · February 2016

MornaBaine wrote: »

It is true that ZOS continues to make anything they "give" us in game completely ridiculous to actually get so as to drive us to BUY it in sheer frustration from the cash shop. I hate that and it's pretty much caused me to lose all lingering respect for their company. The XP pots are a perfect example of this. The recipe to make your own is, of course, tedious and time consuming to get but that's not the bad part. Nor is the bad part that it requires TWO different purple mats. The truly insulting part is the requirement of perfect roe. This mat is among the rarest in the game and requires ENDLESS hours of fishing to acquire. Yet the point of the XP pots is supposedly to SAVE YOU TIME. But you'll spend ten times the amount of time getting what you need to MAKE those XP pots as you would to just level a character without them. Worse, you can't even sell the XP pots with enough profit to make the time worthwhile because if you did they'd be so exorbitantly expensive that it would just make more sense to buy the XP scrolls conveniently offered by the cash shop. In other words, it's a total slap in the face to players. So yeah, if you were hoping ZOS was going to start treating us with any respect... nope.

You understand the concept of convenience right? The concept of game economy? Scrolls are available for cash because they are fast. Roe is not something you should farm to save yourself time, it is part of the economic system of the game. You do not expect to save time farming your own tempers, you save gold. The logic in-game is the same as in real life, spend money (gold or cash) and save time. Business and economics is not your strong suit.

As a side note: Two different purple mats that I have more than 1k of each from provisioning dailies. They are not hard to get by any stretch of the imagination.

LtCrunch · February 2016

Xendyn wrote: »

They did drop the TV loss to 80%, if you play smart and bank regularly, you'll probably be fine. The tension and difficulty are alive and well

Sweet!

Xendyn wrote: »

It's a shame since I've never been a PVP guy until this game and I love the big battles and 'war" atmosphere in Cyro.

Not to derail the discussion or anything but if you like the type of PVP in ESO I'd recommend keeping an eye on Crowfall, so far it looks pretty promising.

Xendyn · February 2016

Brandalf wrote: »

Xendyn wrote: »

They did drop the TV loss to 80%, if you play smart and bank regularly, you'll probably be fine. The tension and difficulty are alive and well

Sweet!

Xendyn wrote: »

It's a shame since I've never been a PVP guy until this game and I love the big battles and 'war" atmosphere in Cyro.

Not to derail the discussion or anything but if you like the type of PVP in ESO I'd recommend keeping an eye on Crowfall, so far it looks pretty promising.

I'll look into that, thx.

MornaBaine · February 2016

notimetocare wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

It is true that ZOS continues to make anything they "give" us in game completely ridiculous to actually get so as to drive us to BUY it in sheer frustration from the cash shop. I hate that and it's pretty much caused me to lose all lingering respect for their company. The XP pots are a perfect example of this. The recipe to make your own is, of course, tedious and time consuming to get but that's not the bad part. Nor is the bad part that it requires TWO different purple mats. The truly insulting part is the requirement of perfect roe. This mat is among the rarest in the game and requires ENDLESS hours of fishing to acquire. Yet the point of the XP pots is supposedly to SAVE YOU TIME. But you'll spend ten times the amount of time getting what you need to MAKE those XP pots as you would to just level a character without them. Worse, you can't even sell the XP pots with enough profit to make the time worthwhile because if you did they'd be so exorbitantly expensive that it would just make more sense to buy the XP scrolls conveniently offered by the cash shop. In other words, it's a total slap in the face to players. So yeah, if you were hoping ZOS was going to start treating us with any respect... nope.

You understand the concept of convenience right? The concept of game economy? Scrolls are available for cash because they are fast. Roe is not something you should farm to save yourself time, it is part of the economic system of the game. You do not expect to save time farming your own tempers, you save gold. The logic in-game is the same as in real life, spend money (gold or cash) and save time. Business and economics is not your strong suit.

As a side note: Two different purple mats that I have more than 1k of each from provisioning dailies. They are not hard to get by any stretch of the imagination.

Way to completely miss the point. I said I didn't care about the purple mats. I have tons. But it makes absolutely no sense to give us, in game, an item that is designed to save time and then make acquiring it take 10 times longer than just playing without it entirely. So no, "business sense" may not be my strong suit. Clearly, logic isn't yours.

notimetocare · February 2016

MornaBaine wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

It is true that ZOS continues to make anything they "give" us in game completely ridiculous to actually get so as to drive us to BUY it in sheer frustration from the cash shop. I hate that and it's pretty much caused me to lose all lingering respect for their company. The XP pots are a perfect example of this. The recipe to make your own is, of course, tedious and time consuming to get but that's not the bad part. Nor is the bad part that it requires TWO different purple mats. The truly insulting part is the requirement of perfect roe. This mat is among the rarest in the game and requires ENDLESS hours of fishing to acquire. Yet the point of the XP pots is supposedly to SAVE YOU TIME. But you'll spend ten times the amount of time getting what you need to MAKE those XP pots as you would to just level a character without them. Worse, you can't even sell the XP pots with enough profit to make the time worthwhile because if you did they'd be so exorbitantly expensive that it would just make more sense to buy the XP scrolls conveniently offered by the cash shop. In other words, it's a total slap in the face to players. So yeah, if you were hoping ZOS was going to start treating us with any respect... nope.

You understand the concept of convenience right? The concept of game economy? Scrolls are available for cash because they are fast. Roe is not something you should farm to save yourself time, it is part of the economic system of the game. You do not expect to save time farming your own tempers, you save gold. The logic in-game is the same as in real life, spend money (gold or cash) and save time. Business and economics is not your strong suit.

As a side note: Two different purple mats that I have more than 1k of each from provisioning dailies. They are not hard to get by any stretch of the imagination.

Way to completely miss the point. I said I didn't care about the purple mats. I have tons. But it makes absolutely no sense to give us, in game, an item that is designed to save time and then make acquiring it take 10 times longer than just playing without it entirely. So no, "business sense" may not be my strong suit. Clearly, logic isn't yours.

So bitter at the system that you overlook my explanations. I have been far more logical than you have. So I shall quote myself for convenience "Roe is not something you should farm to save yourself time, it is part of the economic system of the game." This is true of every resource in the game, farming any item is not about saving time. This is an MMO, not everything is supposed to be done solo. That is the entire point of an MMO. You want to save time leveling and someone else wants to earn gold farming. Insert trade, time saved.

dylanjaygrobbelaarb16_ESO · February 2016

crown store is irrelevant, its mostly bells and whistles, in game stuff is superior(like in game tri food is better than crown store version).
you have a point with motifs, but that is completely irrelevant because it is only The LOOK of items, it has no baring on ability or balance.
the gear grind is real, that will never change.

the changes on TG have me excited ( I took a long break too, have recently been playing a bit.)

cp system has been revamped to be more streamlined(damages go together better. magic added to elemental damage, poison/disease added to the physical damage, thermague is now a dot cp). some things changed from % to flat amounts

the vet system is supposedly getting rid of for the next dlc after TG. they will scale gear off cp ranges. so level 50 alts will be the same level as your main.

dimensional · February 2016

MornaBaine wrote: »

It is true that ZOS continues to make anything they "give" us in game completely ridiculous to actually get so as to drive us to BUY it in sheer frustration from the cash shop. I hate that and it's pretty much caused me to lose all lingering respect for their company. The XP pots are a perfect example of this. The recipe to make your own is, of course, tedious and time consuming to get but that's not the bad part. Nor is the bad part that it requires TWO different purple mats. The truly insulting part is the requirement of perfect roe. This mat is among the rarest in the game and requires ENDLESS hours of fishing to acquire. Yet the point of the XP pots is supposedly to SAVE YOU TIME. But you'll spend ten times the amount of time getting what you need to MAKE those XP pots as you would to just level a character without them. Worse, you can't even sell the XP pots with enough profit to make the time worthwhile because if you did they'd be so exorbitantly expensive that it would just make more sense to buy the XP scrolls conveniently offered by the cash shop. In other words, it's a total slap in the face to players. So yeah, if you were hoping ZOS was going to start treating us with any respect... nope.

lol... I buy em for like 4-6k gold. not even a big deal

notimetocare · February 2016

Instead of responding to others, I will give you a direct answer. Most everything is better, crown store caused almost no real problem, and game-play is getting better.

XP is an issue, but its not nearly as bad as it has been, and the removal of VR is on the horizon it is not a large issue. VR removal is next DLC, roughly 3 months.

The material requirement is honestly fine IMO. Reason being that crafted gear competes with drop gear for usefulness. They are on par with each other. if It took 20 minutes to farm a full v16 set, it would kill pve quite a bit. And looking at the actuall difference between v15 and v16 gear is minimal for most people. Skill matters more in pvp and all pve is currently doable in v14 easily, it is just a difference of max performance.

XP drinks are perfectly fine, as I addressed to another person, because they are ease at a cost of gold. IT is useless if you want to farm them yourself, but buying them with gold is perfectly viable. I have made 60k gold on a new alt and I only just hit v1 yesterday. That is enough to fund myself with plenty of drinks until v16.

As far as Crown Store and lore, no and I don't really expect a ton of the crown store to be too lore accurate. As far as lore accuracy, they stay accurate enough as this is a time period before the vast majority of TES lore (specifically the games happening all after this timeline). Clothing, some pets, some mounts are bound to be unlore friendly, but DLC is going to be mostly if not entirely lore friendly because at this point they are filling in a void in history (in reference to DLCs).

Champion system got good overhaul for TG patch. It is setup well, the catchup is nice (I plan to see how good it works myself with an alt account at some point if I buy one), but you can see the XP required to lvl CP after. First 300-400 points are the most important, but a hell of a lot easier to get now.

As far as new motifs, they will end up in crown store, but not all motifs are massive grinds that will be worth the price like glass. However, they do need money to run a game and they have a perfectly fine system so long as they hold off pl;lacing motifs in crown store for months like it seems they are with newer ones. Materials like Malachite are not as hard to get as malachite was aside from Mercenary Laurels.

Personally, I recommenced keeping ESO plus for DLC, especially if you might only play for a few months as it will be the cheaper choice. Feel free to ask anything specific if you like.

notimetocare · February 2016

dimensional wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

It is true that ZOS continues to make anything they "give" us in game completely ridiculous to actually get so as to drive us to BUY it in sheer frustration from the cash shop. I hate that and it's pretty much caused me to lose all lingering respect for their company. The XP pots are a perfect example of this. The recipe to make your own is, of course, tedious and time consuming to get but that's not the bad part. Nor is the bad part that it requires TWO different purple mats. The truly insulting part is the requirement of perfect roe. This mat is among the rarest in the game and requires ENDLESS hours of fishing to acquire. Yet the point of the XP pots is supposedly to SAVE YOU TIME. But you'll spend ten times the amount of time getting what you need to MAKE those XP pots as you would to just level a character without them. Worse, you can't even sell the XP pots with enough profit to make the time worthwhile because if you did they'd be so exorbitantly expensive that it would just make more sense to buy the XP scrolls conveniently offered by the cash shop. In other words, it's a total slap in the face to players. So yeah, if you were hoping ZOS was going to start treating us with any respect... nope.

lol... I buy em for like 4-6k gold. not even a big deal

Console? They are down to 2.5-3k per drink on PC

LtCrunch · February 2016

notimetocare wrote: »

Instead of responding to others, I will give you a direct answer. Most everything is better, crown store caused almost no real problem, and game-play is getting better. As far as new motifs, they will end up in crown store, but not all motifs are massive grinds that will be worth the price like glass. However, they do need money to run a game and they have a perfectly fine system so long as they hold off placing motifs in crown store for months like it seems they are with newer ones. Materials like Malachite are not as hard to get as malachite was aside from Mercenary Laurels.

This is good to know, if they've backed off of the concept of making the types of artificially long and tedious grinds that put me off such as getting the XP pot recipe fragments or the glass motif fragments then that is a pretty huge relief. How are some of the newer motifs? Do they mostly come in chapters with the extremely rare full book like Dwemer? Have they done any other motifs that require fragments of a chapter like Glass or was that kind of a one off thing?

notimetocare wrote: »

Champion system got good overhaul for TG patch. It is setup well, the catchup is nice (I plan to see how good it works myself with an alt account at some point if I buy one), but you can see the XP required to lvl CP after. First 300-400 points are the most important, but a hell of a lot easier to get now.

I never had a problem with getting them, my main concern was not having a catchup mechanic along with no "seasonal" cap to keep grinders grounded. So it's very good to see they've taken steps to address that problem(or potential problem).

notimetocare wrote: »

Personally, I recommenced keeping ESO plus for DLC, especially if you might only play for a few months as it will be the cheaper choice. Feel free to ask anything specific if you like.

I probably won't be getting too deep into it again if I do indeed decided to come back and stick around until I get my time with The Division. I was pleasantly surprised by that game and the world the developers have put together. No game's world has impressed me like that since Skyrim and it had lots and lots missing during the beta sessions, so I'm pumped for full release. Me and my fellow ex-ESO players might just come back after we get our time with The Division, because between a lot of what I'm reading in responses as well as my own limited experience earlier today playing the game once again I think I might actually be ready to give ESO another chance.