Class balance and bug fixes are not DLC features

Digiman · March 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

So why continue to make us wait months for bug fixes, and balance changes?

Why isn't the backend client set up to allow for more hotfixes and class changes when ever the team has something to push out

A handful of changes a week is a lot better than mass changes every 4 months and then anything found broken or not working takes the next DLC for fixes.

This ESO live he says they have stamina changes for Update 10 which is Dark Brotherhood. That is 5 amazing months away at the least to wait for fixes.

Wrobel's team should have priority on pushing patches and hotfixes to Live client. Class balances, combat balances, exploits and skills that are bugged are a pretty important thing to keep squared away in an action MMO.

Class changes need to be pushed to the PTS on a 'regular' basis for testing. Not just for DLC patches.

Matt Firor should be looking into this.

I completely agree with this. I have no idea what Wrobel is doing, but when he is about to announce something about combat gameplay I always shudder because it ends up being half a year of huge problems for particular classes.

Honestly ZoS needs to fix their team up more, Wrobel's team should be addressing these problems weekly and it doesn't help that our communication to the developers is limited to a 2 week live stream either.

Tomato · March 2016

Remove the execute from Radiant Destruction

xellink · March 2016

Tomato wrote: »

Remove the execute from Radiant Destruction

wuuutt? It needs a stamina morph!

Zanen · March 2016

Been like this forever, I don't understand it. Something is very strange with the decision making process at ZOS, all these bizarre changes and the obvious stuff never does.

This is a fantastic game, they really have something with it. ESO could be a goliath, huge playerbase, if they'd just prioritize fixing what's broken and getting information to players.

Bad tooltips left in the game for two years and more, every update there's a "We're going to fix this tooltip that's been wrong since beta now". Defensive stance and its morphs were all wrong in different ways from early beta until 1.6 or so.

I keep coming back because I love the game but the only thing that changes is the meta because the meta is defined by what's broken this patch.

Incremental change is good. Something's broken, fix it. Tweak the balance a bit here and there, rework a skill. Instead we get the whole combat system turned upside down a couple times a year with a whole new set of problems and no way for people to adjust to the changes except to reroll.

Maybe that's the point, keep everyone rolling new characters every three months.

KhajiitiLizard · March 2016

I'm currently playing GW2 and that game patches every Tuesday, mostly bug fixes, but sometimes balancing and new content even.

With ESO major changes I can see taking months but there is no reason bugs need to wait months to fix. One of my reasons for quitting was the lack of QA in the crown store as a costume was bugged and it took months to fix. Why would I give ZOS anymore money if they can't even get costumes right? Who in the right mind would buy a DLC after that?

Also releasing DLC every 3 months is not normal for a MMO. Yes there is new content but mostly stuff like a new dungeon or raid or something. I swear if ESO had dynamic events and even holidays there would not need to be as much DLC. They would be much better off only having one major DLC every year, then trying to shoehorn so much content development into 3 months.

Tdroid · March 2016

The biggest problem with doing the balance changes by the patch, in my opinion, is that it means trying to balance many things at the same time. That is a recipe for unintended consequences. Fixing one thing at the time with hotfixes and smaller patches and seeing how each change affects the game seems to be a much more prudent way of ging about it. Easier to maintain overview of the impacts.

Elektrakosh · March 2016

Would these patches be in the dlc only so you have to get it for the balancing?

MormondPayne_EP · March 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

So why continue to make us wait months for bug fixes, and balance changes?

Why isn't the backend client set up to allow for more hotfixes and class changes when ever the team has something to push out

A handful of changes a week is a lot better than mass changes every 4 months and then anything found broken or not working takes the next DLC for fixes.

This ESO live he says they have stamina changes for Update 10 which is Dark Brotherhood. That is 5 amazing months away at the least to wait for fixes.

Wrobel's team should have priority on pushing patches and hotfixes to Live client. Class balances, combat balances, exploits and skills that are bugged are a pretty important thing to keep squared away in an action MMO.

Class changes need to be pushed to the PTS on a 'regular' basis for testing. Not just for DLC patches.

Matt Firor should be looking into this.

Wrobel's team is a pack of drooling dummies lead by an even bigger drooling dummy.

Troneon · March 2016

They would have to go through consoles "approval" crap before any hotfix or patch of any kind is applied... every single time...

Or just change PC and accept the fact consoles will always be months behind PC...

WalkingLegacy · March 2016

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

sirrmattus wrote: »

The problem with this game is the community, you guys accept failure. You are "ok" with bugs. You are "ok" with constant DLC and Crown Store items, yet there still have been so many bugs that persist from the beginning. You are "ok" with constantly being screwed and scammed by zos. I don't understand this. How can you be passionate about something but accept the constant failure from developers? Even down to the simplest things like free respec. This isn't something we should be begging for, there was a major overhaul, we need and deserve a free respec. Horse advancements; I've spent so many real $'s on horses, when I create a new toon, I have to do it again? How can you accept this? I understand some of you are kids, who don't work for the $ you spend on ESO but some of us are adults with families, and the $'s do count and do add up. Then you have a these classes, that don't even give me reminiscence of the old TES games. Who are these phony classes? DK? Templar? Yet the lore lovers scream and are never heard. Where is our option to choose the destiny of our champions like its always been in TES? This game is an utter failure, and a scam by zos. I've been searching the past 2 months for good pvp mmo because this game doesn't have what it offered. So many of these ftp games are miles ahead of ESO in terms of PVP, its unbelievable. The only reason I spent so much time and $ into ESO was for then end game PVP, only to find out its a disaster with no real goal or point. This game was supposed to be PVP focus, if not, why not just make another single player TES game? They have ruined the franchise with ESO. There is no turning back now.

I think it's only the single-player gamers you're referring to. Veteran MMO players are already moving on. Once I finish all the content my friends and I will probably be moving on too. That is unless they get their rears in gear.

I know a LOT of veteran MMO players that play this. Me among them. When I started playing "mmos" they cost money per hour to play. I just think if you come to an elder scrolls mmo looking for quality pvp then maybe you might not have the right game. There are lots of games who focus on the hardcore pvp crowd. Elder scrolls customers for the most part are casuals. Their money spends the same except the overhead drops drastically. Most of the pvp customers eat up their fees in time spent trying to deal with their issues.

So I wouldnt count us out just yet (us old timers I mean). For a game you say you hate I do like you plan to finish every bit of content before moving on.

I've never said I hate the game. Hence why I am giving feedback and still here playing.

This game was marketed as having full blown PvP, your idea of TES belongs in the singple player genre. Remember this team has DAoC devs and I think even some Warhammer devs?

I PvP and PvE equally. I love both. Both areas are suffering.

mr_wazzabi · March 2016

Every other mmo balances the game and changes abilities in major updates separate from dlc.

Why must zos do it all at once? Do they think it's actually more efficient?

xellink · March 2016

Spaghetti code. Fixing a skill breaks the game. Its easier to break the game each patch then find all the bugs than break the game every week.

Animal_Mother · March 2016

xellink wrote: »

Spaghetti code. Fixing a skill breaks the game. Its easier to break the game each patch then find all the bugs than break the game every week.

For some attempts, fixing the skill, breaks the skill worse than before. (temps charge and eclipse come to mind)

WalkingLegacy · March 2016

Animal_Mother wrote: »

xellink wrote: »

Spaghetti code. Fixing a skill breaks the game. Its easier to break the game each patch then find all the bugs than break the game every week.

For some attempts, fixing the skill, breaks the skill worse than before. (temps charge and eclipse come to mind)

This is why they need to use the PTS constantly and not just for 'huge' DLC releases where they can't fix anything in time for the release date.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO · March 2016

mr_wazzabi wrote: »

Every other mmo balances the game and changes abilities in major updates separate from dlc.

Why must zos do it all at once? Do they think it's actually more efficient?

Really every other mmo only does balance changes and fixes outside of expansions or DLC? Thats amazing you know how every mmo in the entire world works.

Molag_Crow · March 2016

True...

WalkingLegacy · March 2016

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

mr_wazzabi wrote: »

Every other mmo balances the game and changes abilities in major updates separate from dlc.

Why must zos do it all at once? Do they think it's actually more efficient?

Really every other mmo only does balance changes and fixes outside of expansions or DLC? Thats amazing you know how every mmo in the entire world works.

I'm sure they meant that they have played. I can say most of the ones I played did. And I have played too many to bother counting.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO · March 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

mr_wazzabi wrote: »

Every other mmo balances the game and changes abilities in major updates separate from dlc.

Why must zos do it all at once? Do they think it's actually more efficient?

Really every other mmo only does balance changes and fixes outside of expansions or DLC? Thats amazing you know how every mmo in the entire world works.

I'm sure they meant that they have played. I can say most of the ones I played did. And I have played too many to bother counting.

Ive played SWTOR, UO, Neverwinter, Everquest 1 and 2, LOTRO, DaoC, STO and im sure afew ive forgotten. They all do bug fixes along with the expansions or DLC. Not exclusively but then neither does ZOS.

WalkingLegacy · March 2016

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

mr_wazzabi wrote: »

Every other mmo balances the game and changes abilities in major updates separate from dlc.

Why must zos do it all at once? Do they think it's actually more efficient?

Really every other mmo only does balance changes and fixes outside of expansions or DLC? Thats amazing you know how every mmo in the entire world works.

I'm sure they meant that they have played. I can say most of the ones I played did. And I have played too many to bother counting.

Ive played SWTOR, UO, Neverwinter, Everquest 1 and 2, LOTRO, DaoC, STO and im sure afew ive forgotten. They all do bug fixes along with the expansions or DLC. Not exclusively but then neither does ZOS.

SWTOR was pushing character balance pretty darn good in beta and would hotfix and change as needed when I played. Most recent one I've played in your list that I can remember.

GrumpyDuckling · March 2016

One of the things that is also sad about class balancing being coupled with DLC is that I'm way more excited to read about the balancing fixes than I am about the actual DLC itself. So much time waiting for, not new content, but fixed/balanced content.

Ampnode · March 2016

This is what finally made me quit the game. Honestly, the next DLC will probably bring me back. But that's the catch to it... "next DLC". They're promising very good changes in the upcoming DLC, but we have to have 3-5 months for it. For most players, that's a call for a 3-5 month vacation from ESO. I doubt this will ever change

GrumpyDuckling · March 2016

Troneon wrote: »

They would have to go through consoles "approval" crap before any hotfix or patch of any kind is applied... every single time...

Or just change PC and accept the fact consoles will always be months behind PC...

Even though I am a console player, I wouldn't mind waiting. We wait anyway because PC is always first. The biggest thing is that I like to know what ZOS is planning on doing with each class because then it changes my potential ideas for builds.

Same goes for bugs - I just want to know what's in store. Console players have this glitch that occurs where an arrow sticks to the feet of your character model when you use skills while a bow is equipped. It's so annoying that I'm trying to move on from using the bow (which is my favorite weapon) because I can't take the annoying glitch anymore. If I knew it was being fixed in the future I would continue using it instead of abandoning it.

DaveMoeDee · March 2016

Why would they not release patches until DB? In the past they release patches regularly.

Balance change should not be regular occurrences. If 30 skills will be changed, can you really test balance without testing the final state of all skills at the same time? It is bad enough that rebalances happen at all. If we have to suffer through them, at least make them rare as they are nothing more than a nuisance for a large part of the game's population.

Plus, unless you make all skills weak and identical, you really need to be able to test all the skill changes at the same time to see the net result for each class.

How many people play on PTS year round? Will they get numbers needed if they ask people to be there all year?

DaveMoeDee · March 2016

Elektrakosh wrote: »

Would these patches be in the dlc only so you have to get it for the balancing?

The patches are not part of the DLC. They are base game patches. They are just released at the same time and installed together, though they might be separate packages in the update. I have no idea about that.

The significance of the DLC date is their development and testing schedule. They also always include large scale UAT on the PTS before DLC releases.

WalkingLegacy · March 2016

DaveMoeDee wrote: »

Why would they not release patches until DB? In the past they release patches regularly.

Balance change should not be regular occurrences. If 30 skills will be changed, can you really test balance without testing the final state of all skills at the same time? It is bad enough that rebalances happen at all. If we have to suffer through them, at least make them rare as they are nothing more than a nuisance for a large part of the game's population.

Plus, unless you make all skills weak and identical, you really need to be able to test all the skill changes at the same time to see the net result for each class.

How many people play on PTS year round? Will they get numbers needed if they ask people to be there all year?

It's a double edged sword for sure.

On one hand, players can test all day on PTS but a lot of things are ignored or not able to be fixed by release - so what's the point in testing. Then they push live anyways.

30 changes to classes at once, warrants as close to live testing as possible and that means PTS. And to your point, if Magika got it's changes this go around, and stamina gets their changes in 3-4 months, we will never know how those changes play out live until Dark Bro release.

Little percent changes more than likely don't need to be tested because they have the base metrics collected from live and should be able to do the math on what the change brings.

If there are big plans for stamina and still magika in the works, they need to group those changes up, clean them in house, and push to PTS for testing.

They don't utilize the PTS very well right now, and unless they change it soon, even the player base will ignore it.

charley222 · March 2016

yea is very sad how this game is balance , in my book the guy dont play game and have any clue of what is doing , i think is very obvious , just a little quick exemple everyone know from release heavy armor is far too be the best(pve and pvp)and never have very good passive , and today heavy never be fix and on the top of this is more worst because all stack penetration , make def useless , idk what the guy is working too balance this game thinking sometime ,idk this just make any sense , and dont have any hope of the people are in place for this issue because the very abyssal capacity of thinking and fix issue in the pass , a lot of problem are from release and is still now fix today , not very fun for player
have a nice day peace +1 op
sorry for my bad english

bedlom · March 2016

True, but do you think you will ever play a bug free game that is worth playing?

ESO has less bugs than any TES game, oblivion and skyrim are still filled with the same bugs they released with, and there all single player.

WalkingLegacy · March 2016

bedlom wrote: »

True, but do you think you will ever play a bug free game that is worth playing?

ESO has less bugs than any TES game, oblivion and skyrim are still filled with the same bugs they released with, and there all single player.

Bugs in TES players can fix themselves and bugs don't present as big an issue in SP game as they do an MMO. Modders released bug fixes long before Bethesda did.

I doubt any game nowadays will be bug free, but accepting ones that haven't been fixed in over a year is not acceptable.

DHale · March 2016

Hey I get the honey and vinegar analogy but it's been 2 years. I was a manager for over a dozen years. I was required to deliver certain benchmarks and deliverables each and every month and yearly. On top of that we had customer service goals. If the customer wasn't happy if the customer complaints were not addressed if the customer went elsewhere people lost their jobs. Who I liked or who liked me was totally irrevelevant. When I didn't meet my metrics I had to get an action plan in place and address it. Two months of not meeting metrics.... Coached... Counseled... Disciplined.... Terminated. I want this game to be the top game in the world. I want it to succeed. I am...we are...passionate about this game. We see fringes of greatness. It's got to be fun it's got to be worth more than the frustrations. When I logged in a couple of days ago and fell through the world endlessly and put in a ticket and get the run around from customer service I want to scream. Did you try relogging? Did you disable add ons? Did you put /stuck. I just don't think I should pay 150 gold for your screw up and if we were at any restaurant in the world we would get a free meal. You know it I know it. It does not matter if you don't want aoe caps removed the players want aoe caps gone so do it. Will it fix anything? Maybe maybe not but you aquiesse over silly things but doggedly say we aren't looking into this right now. Just do it bc your customers want it. My Safeway stopped carrying promise butter spread. So I called an assistant manager 3 to complain. He said there was nothing he could do. I am in the same store 6 months later I get some guy and his team of hanger ons he is the district manager, he asked me how my shopping experience was I tell him about the butter spread. That assistant manager calls me the very next day to say they would be stocking promise and he deeply apologized for "his" mistake. I went there the next day bought like 7 of them guess how much it was. It was free no charge and I got a gift card. Did I expect it... No. They exceeded my expectations.i now have the store managers number do I expect special treatment no... do I get excellent customer service, yes! Is Safeway going to be hurt if I stopped shopping there... Nope but they did it anyway.

WalkingLegacy · March 2016

charley222 wrote: »

yea is very sad how this game is balance , in my book the guy dont play game and have any clue of what is doing , i think is very obvious , just a little quick exemple everyone know from release heavy armor is far too be the best(pve and pvp)and never have very good passive , and today heavy never be fix and on the top of this is more worst because all stack penetration , make def useless , idk what the guy is working too balance this game thinking sometime ,idk this just make any sense , and dont have any hope of the people are in place for this issue because the very abyssal capacity of thinking and fix issue in the pass , a lot of problem are from release and is still now fix today , not very fun for player
have a nice day peace +1 op
sorry for my bad english

Thanks for supporting timely fixes.

The sad thing is Matt Firor PvPs with us in Cyrodiil. He is a fellow PvP player and always has been.

He's also the President of ZOS and the Director of ESO, and they still haven't fixed Cyrodiil or many combat bugs present in the game.