Androconium wrote: »

SantieClaws wrote: »

Androconium wrote: »

You take portraying the Khajiit seriously. Right down to proving the reputation they have as liars and thieves.

Please this one is curious to know when she has lied and what she has stolen from you exactly?

This one is a respectable merchant, temple keeper, college teacher and clan mother.

Also this one has no idea how much money the gods have or what they choose to use it for. This was just the general feeling this one she got from her own travels and experiences yes. That Elsweyr is beautiful and wonderful but sometimes it feels that there was just not time to do everything.

Please have some milky coffee perhaps. The sour lemonade is not always good for the stomach.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

The lie was bolded in the original post, where I explained the situation quite clearly.

Erm, its very tempting to say that ZOS can just throw people or money at the problem to fix it, if time is the limitation.

But neither people nor money are finite, and certainly potentially not a effective use of resources. If, and this is my speculation, the specialized team that's handling interiors can only do so many, then asking them to quickly cross-train members of other teams so they can "throw more people at it" isnt a great use of time either.

The solution, of course, is for ZOS to properly allocate team members and get them training well BEFORE crunch time for large zones like Chapters, not when they realize they can't hit all their target goals.

But that requires ZOS to prioritize filling out "non-essential" interiors that don't have anything to do with quests.

IMO, they ought to, because those non-essential interiors are pretty important to my TES experience. But I can easily see where ZOS chooses not to prioritize that in an MMO where exploration is not a major part of gameplay to the same extent as the single player games. Unfilled interiors don't cost them much money in terms of unsatisfied players, while filling those interiors costs money in terms of developer time and possibly training.

And this is one of the many reasons why I decided to avoid buying this 'chapter'

I was surprised by this, most of the houses in the zone are locked. So much for my thief being busy out there I guess LOL.

Loved the look of that town.

Unlock the doors so we can walk into places and steal things and drink beer.

Androconium wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Androconium wrote: »

SantieClaws wrote: »

Androconium wrote: »

You take portraying the Khajiit seriously. Right down to proving the reputation they have as liars and thieves.

Please this one is curious to know when she has lied and what she has stolen from you exactly?

This one is a respectable merchant, temple keeper, college teacher and clan mother.

Also this one has no idea how much money the gods have or what they choose to use it for. This was just the general feeling this one she got from her own travels and experiences yes. That Elsweyr is beautiful and wonderful but sometimes it feels that there was just not time to do everything.

Please have some milky coffee perhaps. The sour lemonade is not always good for the stomach.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

The lie was bolded in the original post, where I explained the situation quite clearly.

Erm, its very tempting to say that ZOS can just throw people or money at the problem to fix it, if time is the limitation.

But neither people nor money are finite, and certainly potentially not a effective use of resources. If, and this is my speculation, the specialized team that's handling interiors can only do so many, then asking them to quickly cross-train members of other teams so they can "throw more people at it" isnt a great use of time either.

The solution, of course, is for ZOS to properly allocate team members and get them training well BEFORE crunch time for large zones like Chapters, not when they realize they can't hit all their target goals.

But that requires ZOS to prioritize filling out "non-essential" interiors that don't have anything to do with quests.

IMO, they ought to, because those non-essential interiors are pretty important to my TES experience. But I can easily see where ZOS chooses not to prioritize that in an MMO where exploration is not a major part of gameplay to the same extent as the single player games. Unfilled interiors don't cost them much money in terms of unsatisfied players, while filling those interiors costs money in terms of developer time and possibly training.

I would ask that you go back and re-read my post. I logically deconstructed the process. There were two main elements that stood clearly.

Interiors were not developed for an entire town in Elsweyr; and this behaviour is already obvious in an original-release town, namely Foyen Docks. I can't be 100% sure, but the vast majority of doors in town and on the ships are locked. So this 'let's not bother with interiors' is not a new thing, it has been there since day one.

We then have a community ambassador trying to convince us that 'they ran out of time'. I don't believe that they ever planned for those interiors to be created. Otherwise, they would have factored in enough resources to deliver them on time.

The problem for me is not that they didn't do it; it's the suggestion that they weren't responsible for not doing it.
They were responsible!

I can agree that ZOS is reaponsible for whether or not they fill interiors...and I suspect that's unfortunately chosen not to because non-quest interiors are more effort for the very intangible reward of player enjoyment of exploration.

myskyrim26 wrote: »

At first I was disappointed. But my next thought was: well... we have some interiors to admire and loot. If all doors were unlocked, what would it give? Just more spots to steal things. No lore experince. So, why bother?

No lore experience?

I disagree.

I really love thieving in the city of Orsinium. I've got a route, and it takes me through a number of shops, quest locations, and homes.

Those NPCs have their quirks! There's the Breton noble family who seems to always detect me, the slightly shady bathhouse owners, the major shrine to Malacath in someone's basement, and, of course, rooting through the palace itself. It's all a really interesting look at a city that's more interconnected than it appears. That's all rich fodder for role-playing.

Not to mention, the stolen items themselves have tons of lore in their descriptions.

In choosing to remove the interiors of many buildings in Summerset and Elsweyr, ZOS really robbed players of the chance to explore and learn more about these areas through their architecture. (I give Vvardenfell a small pass because TES 3 did the lore/exploration so much better). We don't get the chance to view the regions in the private lives of its citizens the way I can view the families of Shornhelm, Rivenspire or Hew's Bane or Orsinium (which I still think is the best zone ZOS has ever made).

I find it very disappointing, and honestly I think it reflects a lack of creativity with storytelling when ZOS skimps on these chances to tell small stories and small scenes in these non-quest locations. Its especially noticeable for TG and DB players.

So I think you are selling the "lore experience" short if you think of it as just "more spots to steal things".

There's lore to be made and stories to be told in those homes and "spots to steal things." It just takes some imagination, unlocked doors, and a dev team that cares. In Orsinium, they cared. And its one of my favortie places to steal becuase of it.

Tasear wrote: »

Coldharbor

The thing with Coldharbour is that if you do every single quest/delve out there, you will "unlock" pretty much every house. Every questline brings NPC's back to Hollow City & most of them unlock a house or building.

As far as Elsweyr, I haven't been everywhere within yet, but I did notice that there are a very high number of locked buildings . Today I even found a RUINED building with a locked door! It makes me sad - Khajit are the ultimate thieves, so we should be able to at least try to unlock all buildings & "rehome" anything we find! (Trust me on this, I have 10 little Alfiq who practice this multiple times EVERY DAY! Well, not door unlocking, but definitely "rehoming abandoned" items )

lordrichter wrote: »

Iluvrien wrote: »

I find it problematic for several reasons:

1) This is a studio that continually boasts about its high number of accounts.
2) This is a studio that has recently boasted about how they are "killing it"
3) This is a studio that has sufficient resources to begin work on a completely different game, in a completely new IP, using a new engine.

As such, the argument that ZOS did not have the resources (money->people->work hours) to do the job completely had it chosen to do so is one that does not convince me.

I think that ZOS chose this path. Or, given the posts about the proportion of locked doors in earlier zones, ZOS continued on this path entirely of their own volition.

No reason why it cannot be both. I have always described ZOS as a rather fiscally frugal company. This is the way that they appear from the outside. My thinking is that ZOS has ESO in a steady-state "maintenance" mode, likely with a fixed level of staffing that fits the development schedule and studio budget. This is going to limit how much time they spend on details, and they appear to be fully OK with this.

This I agree with. ESO is in maintenance mode, and ZOS is not putting a dime towards it that they don't actively have to.

lordrichter wrote: »

What this thread is talking about is mainly window dressing. Non-quest optional areas. Rooms and room decorations. These things compete with other parts of the game. I can easily see how they can choose to limit development in this area in order to fit other things into Chapters or DLC.

Now this I'd challenge. Window dressing ultimately adds little to the underlying shopping process. It is a way to draw you into the store. Internal spaces have never struck me as window dressing. They are world building. The company wants us to sympathise with the inhabitants of the settlement and go out of our way to help them? Then make them people we can relate to. Show us their lives. The company wants us to understand the culture of these people so that we want to buy whatever items they have dropped into the crown store because we understand how cool it is? Internal spaces can manage that too. I mean this is the company they used to have us come up with stories for the random skeletal arrangements in the game world.

ZOS has decided to go shallow. That is entirely their choice. ESO is a combat heavy, number-centric, RP light, nickel-and-dime, themepark MMO. None of these are overt criticisms. They are statements of the choices that ZOS has made over the last 5 years. Their choice.

But let us not, for one moment, pretend that ESO could not have been much much more.