Dracheimflug wrote: »I am really trying to enjoy this game. I have played and enjoyed every prior Elder Scrolls game going back to Arena. However I am having a hard time here. I am a relatively new player to ESO, so please correct my observations as appropriate.
Red Queen’s Race
In Alice Through the Looking Glass, characters on the chessboard had to run faster and faster just to stay in place. This game feels like that. Since content is all scaled to 160 and we are all scaled up to match until we surpass that point, the net result from levelling typically seems to be getting weaker by way of out levelling equipment. It also means that if you encounter content that you cannot beat, there is a very real possibility that you will never be able to beat it, at least not with that character, short of potentially radically changing the build. There also does not seem any point to using crafting to improve the quality level of items, either, since you will out-level the gear and the quantity of drops you need to improve gear is pretty discouraging, especially since those same improvement materials are used for furniture making.
The Chair is Mightier than The Sword
Even the roughest, most simple chair, something that could be carved out in one’s spare time in reality with a sturdy dagger (or ideally a set of decent wood working knives) over the course of a few days takes far more skill and materials to make than swords, which in real life take considerable skill and materials to make. Crafted beds seem strangely unmade, and you cannot even sit on them.
Thou Shalt Use Both Hands
Maybe it is just particularly bad luck but the vast majority of weapons drops I get seem to be two handed weapons. Also the Brotherhood and Thieves’ Guilds seem to like rewarding their operatives with heavy armor for some reason. At least the Psijics seem to bias their rewards towards light armour. I may be missing something here though? Should I be using 2H and Heavy more?
Feeling Disconnected
The game tends to kick me out randomly relatively often, sometimes even in combat. I do not have this kind of connectivity problem with any other online anything, game or otherwise. And yes, I do have the recommended ports flagged open.
The Not-So-Fantastic Five
I do understand that we have to help them stop the machinations of Molag Bal, but it is really annoying that we seem to simply have to play the proverbial good soldiers rather than be able to tell them off. Abnur is particularly annoying.
It is not all bad…
There is a lot to like. There is quite a lot of fun and interesting side plots and (other than the companions) the dialogue side of the main plots seems pretty solid too. The ability to decorate may be limited, but owning properties and decorating them is fun, and other than the issues stated in the first couple points above, crafting seems pretty solid.
Anyway, just some newbie gripes. Please try to be constructive in replies.
I played all the elder scrolls games also and in a lot of ways they felt like Lucky Charms wile this game feels like Marshmallow Treasures or some other generic brand. There seems to be fewer entertaining characters and side quests, not that this game doesn't have them. It just feels like there are more bland here than in the other games.
Elder scrolls set itself apart from other rpg's and made everything feel real by having cities with lots of houses and not having "doors" or items that you couldn't interact with. I always thought it was stupid when you walk into a treasure room with piles of gold, weapons and jewls and then waking out with 46 gold and a green weapon. Don't put treasure rooms in your game, just put a chest at the end.
While leveling from 1 to 50 (160CP) there should be no content that you can’t beat with random dropped poor gear and random skills (what build are you talking about at this point?). The only content that you might struggle with are the DLC dungeons, yet you can still complete them with decent group. There is a point in crafting only after 160 CP. save all your mats for that time. I agree that it is stupid that you can craft at low level but it is useless. However leveling to 160 CP is so fast, it is like an extended tutorial. The real game begins later. Gear drops are completely random. Visit random daily dungeons, you will get good exp as well as gear.
Disconnects are a real pain. Read other threads at the forum. The technical state of the game is god awful. Ping is huge, group finder is not working at prime time, Cyrodiil is a lagfest.
As far as heavy armor and the Brotherhood goes they take anyone who's a friend of with murder. There was the typical silent killer assassins that would slip into a bar full of people and leave their victim propped up in their seat to be discovered at closing time. Then there was heavy armored 2H welders who would pain the wall with their target as well as anyone that got in their way. and mages that would blast their target with fireballs. The morag tong were the ones that were all the typical light armor assassin types
I played all the elder scrolls games also and in a lot of ways they felt like Lucky Charms wile this game feels like Marshmallow Treasures or some other generic brand. There seems to be fewer entertaining characters and side quests, not that this game doesn't have them. It just feels like there are more bland here than in the other games.
Elder scrolls set itself apart from other rpg's and made everything feel real by having cities with lots of houses and not having "doors" or items that you couldn't interact with. I always thought it was stupid when you walk into a treasure room with piles of gold, weapons and jewls and then waking out with 46 gold and a green weapon. Don't put treasure rooms in your game, just put a chest at the end.
I played all the elder scrolls games also and in a lot of ways they felt like Lucky Charms wile this game feels like Marshmallow Treasures or some other generic brand. There seems to be fewer entertaining characters and side quests, not that this game doesn't have them. It just feels like there are more bland here than in the other games.
Elder scrolls set itself apart from other rpg's and made everything feel real by having cities with lots of houses and not having "doors" or items that you couldn't interact with. I always thought it was stupid when you walk into a treasure room with piles of gold, weapons and jewls and then waking out with 46 gold and a green weapon. Don't put treasure rooms in your game, just put a chest at the end.
I actually feel the exact opposite, oddly enough. I remember way more characters and moments from ESO than I ever have from the single player entries.
You know this, I'm not assuming you don't.
I'm just setting perspective as a baseline:
You're not obligated to use heavy armour in the game just because you get it as a reward.
Reward equipment falls into 2 classes and are either stuff you want to use because it falls in line with your character strategy, or it's a form of currency that you get to sell for gold, or crush for mats/experience while buying/crafting the stuff you do want.
Example: You use heavy armour if your tactics revolve around bonus sets that improve your health level and health regen.
Light sets yield magika bonuses for characters with higher magika reserves and magika regen needs.
Medium sets yield stamina bonuses for characters with higher stamina reserves and stamina regen needs.
Heavy sets yield health bonuses for characters with higher heath reserves and health regen needs.
i.e.: Magika based characters tend not to be able to swing swords/axes/hammers for drawn out engagements without running out of stamina. This is somewhat mollified by the points you put into skills and characteristics of your build, as well as the way you spend CP points you earn.
You beat harder situations by leveling up your skills and technique, getting,using better equipment, wisely spending points, teaming up, and learning to read situations better so you know when to attack with which skills and when to retreat.
You effectively stop outleveling gear at lvl 160, and only need to change it when you decide to try different styles of play, newer sets are released, or the devs decide you need to start over and they rebalance the races to throw established builds into the dumpster forcing you to spend gold/mats/time to get your mojo back again.
(This also forces you to play to earn more gold/mats to use, and spend time doing it
They typically do this to coincide with new DLCs or chapters so everyone is encouraged to buy the new zones that come with new set bonuses.
To your last point:
The server stability and lag is suxor for many people and many geographic locations in the real world, and thats something we just put up with because the Mothership keeps making promises of improvement, which most of us tend not to notice as fact.
Join a few decent guilds where you can settle in with people who can/will encourage you, help you learn stuff, share experience, and let you sell off loot thats worth more to other people than it is to you.
Finally, just enjoy the game as best you can.
Everyone you see around you is going through most of the same issues, and feel much the way you do at some point or another.
You're points are valid, but one thing I want to point out is that unlike other TES games ESO is not a single player game. I think you should approach ESO with a different mindset of playing. Gameplay in an MMO-RPG is just not the same as with a single player game.
Personally, it's a bit odd to for me to explain this, because ESO is a TES game, but at the same time it's not (being it an MMO). If you play this game expecting it to be like Skyrim or Morrowind (etc), you WILL be disappointed, because while the developers of ESO tries to bring as much elements as what other TES games have, they have to tailor ESO to an MMO-RPG. So yeah, crafting is different in ESO, leveling is different in ESO, a lot of things are different, but still relevant in the perspective of an MMO-RPG.
Dracheimflug wrote: »I am really trying to enjoy this game. I have played and enjoyed every prior Elder Scrolls game going back to Arena. However I am having a hard time here. I am a relatively new player to ESO, so please correct my observations as appropriate.
Red Queen’s Race
In Alice Through the Looking Glass, characters on the chessboard had to run faster and faster just to stay in place. This game feels like that. Since content is all scaled to 160 and we are all scaled up to match until we surpass that point, the net result from levelling typically seems to be getting weaker by way of out levelling equipment. It also means that if you encounter content that you cannot beat, there is a very real possibility that you will never be able to beat it, at least not with that character, short of potentially radically changing the build. There also does not seem any point to using crafting to improve the quality level of items, either, since you will out-level the gear and the quantity of drops you need to improve gear is pretty discouraging, especially since those same improvement materials are used for furniture making.
Dracheimflug wrote: »While leveling from 1 to 50 (160CP) there should be no content that you can’t beat with random dropped poor gear and random skills (what build are you talking about at this point?). The only content that you might struggle with are the DLC dungeons, yet you can still complete them with decent group. There is a point in crafting only after 160 CP. save all your mats for that time. I agree that it is stupid that you can craft at low level but it is useless. However leveling to 160 CP is so fast, it is like an extended tutorial. The real game begins later. Gear drops are completely random. Visit random daily dungeons, you will get good exp as well as gear.
Disconnects are a real pain. Read other threads at the forum. The technical state of the game is god awful. Ping is huge, group finder is not working at prime time, Cyrodiil is a lagfest.
The content in question is some solo bosses, both are DLC bosses, mind. Clockwork Core (Divine Restoration, Vivec quest line) with a Sword and Board/Bow Stamina Dragonknight and K'Tora the Sea Sload (Buried Memories, Psijic Order quest line) with a Bow Hybrid Bosmer Warden.
There is a point in crafting only after 160 CP. save all your mats for that time. I agree that it is stupid that you can craft at low level but it is useless.
Dracheimflug wrote: »The game tends to kick me out randomly relatively often, sometimes even in combat.
Dracheimflug wrote: »You're points are valid, but one thing I want to point out is that unlike other TES games ESO is not a single player game. I think you should approach ESO with a different mindset of playing. Gameplay in an MMO-RPG is just not the same as with a single player game.
Personally, it's a bit odd to for me to explain this, because ESO is a TES game, but at the same time it's not (being it an MMO). If you play this game expecting it to be like Skyrim or Morrowind (etc), you WILL be disappointed, because while the developers of ESO tries to bring as much elements as what other TES games have, they have to tailor ESO to an MMO-RPG. So yeah, crafting is different in ESO, leveling is different in ESO, a lot of things are different, but still relevant in the perspective of an MMO-RPG.
And yet, ironically, the problems I have been having have been with solo instances. The group content I can understand not being able to solo
Dracheimflug wrote: »You're points are valid, but one thing I want to point out is that unlike other TES games ESO is not a single player game. I think you should approach ESO with a different mindset of playing. Gameplay in an MMO-RPG is just not the same as with a single player game.
Personally, it's a bit odd to for me to explain this, because ESO is a TES game, but at the same time it's not (being it an MMO). If you play this game expecting it to be like Skyrim or Morrowind (etc), you WILL be disappointed, because while the developers of ESO tries to bring as much elements as what other TES games have, they have to tailor ESO to an MMO-RPG. So yeah, crafting is different in ESO, leveling is different in ESO, a lot of things are different, but still relevant in the perspective of an MMO-RPG.
And yet, ironically, the problems I have been having have been with solo instances. The group content I can understand not being able to solo
Like I said don't look at it in a Single player perspective. Why are you having issue soloing? Solo play in this game is easy as ***. I light attack an overland mob and that's 98% of their health. Don't be a Skyrim fan boy, you will NOT enjoy this game. Then again, maybe this game is NOT for you. Maybe it's time to move on. There is no shame in admitting to that too.
Dracheimflug wrote: »I am really trying to enjoy this game. I have played and enjoyed every prior Elder Scrolls game going back to Arena. However I am having a hard time here. I am a relatively new player to ESO, so please correct my observations as appropriate.
Red Queen’s Race
In Alice Through the Looking Glass, characters on the chessboard had to run faster and faster just to stay in place. This game feels like that. Since content is all scaled to 160 and we are all scaled up to match until we surpass that point, the net result from levelling typically seems to be getting weaker by way of out levelling equipment. It also means that if you encounter content that you cannot beat, there is a very real possibility that you will never be able to beat it, at least not with that character, short of potentially radically changing the build. There also does not seem any point to using crafting to improve the quality level of items, either, since you will out-level the gear and the quantity of drops you need to improve gear is pretty discouraging, especially since those same improvement materials are used for furniture making.
The Chair is Mightier than The Sword
Even the roughest, most simple chair, something that could be carved out in one’s spare time in reality with a sturdy dagger (or ideally a set of decent wood working knives) over the course of a few days takes far more skill and materials to make than swords, which in real life take considerable skill and materials to make. Crafted beds seem strangely unmade, and you cannot even sit on them.
Thou Shalt Use Both Hands
Maybe it is just particularly bad luck but the vast majority of weapons drops I get seem to be two handed weapons. Also the Brotherhood and Thieves’ Guilds seem to like rewarding their operatives with heavy armor for some reason. At least the Psijics seem to bias their rewards towards light armour. I may be missing something here though? Should I be using 2H and Heavy more?
Feeling Disconnected
The game tends to kick me out randomly relatively often, sometimes even in combat. I do not have this kind of connectivity problem with any other online anything, game or otherwise. And yes, I do have the recommended ports flagged open.
The Not-So-Fantastic Five
I do understand that we have to help them stop the machinations of Molag Bal, but it is really annoying that we seem to simply have to play the proverbial good soldiers rather than be able to tell them off. Abnur is particularly annoying.
It is not all bad…
There is a lot to like. There is quite a lot of fun and interesting side plots and (other than the companions) the dialogue side of the main plots seems pretty solid too. The ability to decorate may be limited, but owning properties and decorating them is fun, and other than the issues stated in the first couple points above, crafting seems pretty solid.
Anyway, just some newbie gripes. Please try to be constructive in replies.
1) The combat scaling as you level isn't so much scaling you down as scaling you to the side. At level 1, you are CP160 and treated as if you have Max points distributed into all attributes. As you level, your character takes shapes and specializes into their role. Where you lose raw attributes, as you level up you gain specific skills, lines, and morphs, which far surpass the effect of a raw attribute boost.
If you are encountering content you can not beat, that just means that raw attributes alone are not enough to defeat it - you will need skill (both in terms of practice and in terms of in-game skill lines/morphs) to either survive the biggest hits or dish out enough damage to erase the opponent. Crafting, as it is, is more of a mid-game endeavor, as to get all 9 traits researched is going to take you a few months, same as maxing out a mount for all 3 of it's buffs (carry space, stamina, run speed).
2) The drop table is just luck. If you don't need it or want to use it, sell it or trash it or deconstruct it. There are no wasted drops, just lost opportunities to make gold.
3) The level of skill and material usage for crafting is intentional. It was added pretty late into the game, and is meant to be a resource sink, to help control inflation. As such, it needs to take high value items, i.e. upgrade materials, out of circulation. If you are looking at crafting furniture and getting into housing, learn the economy and a reliable way to make gold, because good house setup is a gold sink beyond compare.
4) Not sure what is up with your disconnects, but others have made suggestions for that.
5) You have no obligation to play th emain quest, it's optional just like everything else. I have had more than one alt maxed out who hasn't touched a quest---yeah, the builds were tight on skillpoints, but it can be done.
You're still early in the game, and it takes time and practice and an understanding of the game mechanics, upgrade routes, and the class you are playing to make things go by with ease. It can be a bit discouraging, and frustrating, though it may be helpful to remember that you don't need to use much in terms of sets or upgrades until CP160 --- which means all of those drops can be sold, deconned, or used for research to get a leg up. And if you are going with crafted gear/weapons, you only have to worry about having a replacement every 10 levels or so, not really all that demanding. 1 Set of Training Gear (after you get to that point) will make alts go up a lot smoother, and if you enjoying the housing and decoration, you are probably going to have an alt or two for crafting, thievery, and just different roles for when you want to do something different.