Year of the dragon feedback: Dragons

BejaProphet · December 2019

So all the year of dragon content is here. We’ve had a good month for the latest installment. Feed back time. Specifically I want to give feed back on dragon hunts.

First, I want to acknowledge that ZOS really rolled the dice on this one. Dragons are sacred in this genre. To mess them up would have been huge. But I think you really did fantastic, ZOS. As of Elsweyr they were good, but with the Dragon Hold content they became truely fantastic.

Sometimes I go and fight dragons, I zoom in my screen in closest zoom 3rd person, or even first person, I turn off everything on my HUD and I just revel in the beauty and epic ness of those fights. Again and again I am shocked to find HOURS have passed with me killing dragons.

But as I reflect, I realize you have done something much much bigger than bringing us dragons. And that something is the real reason for this post.

For the first time ever you have given us epic over land battles against a truely fearsome foe. That is a niche that this game has sorely missed. I didn’t realize just how badly it was missing until you finally gave it to us.

I realize in some measure world bosses were suppose to fill this niche, but we all know they didn’t. You upped the difficulty as DLCs came and went but you always acted with restraint, presumably fearing to exclude more casual players.

But with dragons something magical happened....the epic ness of the creature made you as game developers give yourselves permission to truely go big. And you gave us for the first time a massive, nasty, snarling creature of doom.

And it rocked.

The point of the post is this: that niche, massively epic and challenging overland creatures, needs to be part of your content formula from this point onward. It is fun. And it is something this game has seriously lacked.

Hear me onthis ZOS. I have friends coming back to this game and buying Elsweyr this late in the year because they are watching the videos I am posting of the zoomed in, high resolution dragon fights.

We want more of this. Whether it be dragons or something else. Do this more.

MartiniDaniels · December 2019

I agree, actually this dragon fights is probably only combat content I enjoyed in overland in this year. It's cool when you can die from an error and graphics/sounds of dragon fight is nice too.

Cirantille · December 2019

They are done nicely but 2 dragon dlc and 2 dragon events in a row made them boring.

FierceSam · December 2019

I love the Southern Elsweyr dragon experience. It's fast, lively and fun. You don't have to wait too long for them to spawn, there's always a healthy crowd about and they're good, well paced fights.

Hate the ones in Northern Elsweyr. They take ages to get to, take ages to spawn and there is often just me and a cow keeping the dragon company. That area is going to be deader than dead if they don't do something about it.

zaria · December 2019

Cirantille wrote: »

They are done nicely but 2 dragon dlc and 2 dragon events in a row made them boring.

Yes all the event overdid it.
But yes the dragon is scaled as normal trial bosses, you do not go up against them without an real tank and healer.

Group event bosses in the Elsweyr public dungeons are also more like normal dungeon bosses having more than an million health and hitting pretty hard. I died on one, not having vigor on overland bar,

BejaProphet · December 2019

Group events in public dungeons were good. The quests were probably the worst story content of the year.

Mr_Walker · December 2019

BejaProphet wrote: »

The point of the post is this: that niche, massively epic and challenging overland creatures, needs to be part of your content formula from this point onward.

Yeah, and everyone do your achievements quickly, because the novelty of fighting PITA monsters will soon wear off, and good luck you and Mr Happypants lvl 21 getting that done.

Merlin13KAGL · December 2019

BejaProphet wrote: »

As of Elsweyr they were good, but with the Dragon Hold content they became truely fantastic.

What changed, if I might ask? (I got started late on some of the content.)

Regarding future content, some have been asking for proper roaming bosses for some time. Not tethered, not spawning in the same 3 locations, not BS overland trash mobs, but legitimate bosses that roam and wreak havoc.

BejaProphet · December 2019

They made them less stationary, new abilities, summoning the undead, and even just the graphic changes to the sky. That last one was wonderful btw

chuck-18_ESO · December 2019

I agree! Though I must say that after a year of slaying them, I'm over them. That doesn't change the fact that they were extremely well done!

I honestly like the dragons in ESO far more than the ones in TES:V. In TES:V, the dragons (from a combat perspective) are much more like your standard mythological dragon, with mostly basic elemental breaths and some chomps and tail swipes. In ESO, the dragons feel much more like semi-divine, inherently magical beings, casting elemental barrages with wing buffets while raining fire from the heavens and summoning otherworldly allies to fight for them, even causing the very earth to erupt beneath your feet! They're fabulous to get killed and eaten by fight!

Merlin13KAGL · December 2019

BejaProphet wrote: »

They made them less stationary, new abilities, summoning the undead, and even just the graphic changes to the sky. That last one was wonderful btw

Thankyou.

buttaface · December 2019

Dragons are very well-done and fun IMO. Don't like the nontelegraphed wide area one-shots though because there is little if any counterplay available. You just die. That really shouldn't be a thing. Otherwise great content.

morrowjen · December 2019

My only issues with dragons are 1. they spawn too slow in N. Elseweyr (that landscape is just too difficult to navigate and run to the next spot so you have to camp and that can take forever to get 3). S. Elsewyr's spawns are great and it's easier to run to the next spawn point (you don't have to camp). 2. I don't know what it is about Dragons but in both places they bring my machine to a standstill a good portion of the time. There have been many occasion where I was within feet of a dragon but lagged so badly that the dragon was dead before I could move again. That lag has also created invisible attacks that I die too often from.

Otherwise, I really like the way dragons work in the game. When lag isn't too bad they're a fun fight that really does feel epic.

weedgenius · December 2019

buttaface wrote: »

Dragons are very well-done and fun IMO. Don't like the nontelegraphed wide area one-shots though because there is little if any counterplay available. You just die. That really shouldn't be a thing. Otherwise great content.

Totally agree with this! Unless there's something I'm missing, they feel frustratingly hard to counterplay. But I thought it was great overall. While I can understand why people got sick of the theme, I think it was important for them to really spend time integrating this into the main story.

rpa · December 2019

The first version of Elsweyr dragons sucked. Improved ones are truly better, but not appropriate for CP 0 players and lv 20 chars. N Elsweyr desperately needs at least 2 more wayshrines to center and south dragon landing areas. Riding around really got old.

Davadin · December 2019

but omg can't you at least animate their eyes to be closed on their dead corpse?

totally ruining my immersion.

/s

they're awesome. go play in 1st person

perditioner · December 2019

I personally dislike the new dragons. They are worse then the old ones because they have a lot of AOE skills that simply do not load on PS4, leading to a game loop of attack the dragon and randomly fall over with no feedback. And this is when there is only one or two people, it's madness during the current event!

oddbasket · December 2019

It's more like Year of the Indriks rather than dragons since the prior actually did last a whole year now, and is coming to a close, at least the pre-planned four evolution indriks are.

It's indriks and events, and the dragons are there to supply events.

I_killed_Vivec · December 2019

The dragons are cool, but...

Why do they just sit on the ground and wait to be killed? There could be reasons for them landing, but once attacked why don't they take to the air and just burn everything?

daemonios · December 2019

The problem with the dragons in ESO (as with Skyrim) is that they can't be simultaneously epic and endlessly farmable. The dragons in Sunspire and Lair of Maarselok are better, and the fact that they're sitting inside instances means they can't be trivialized farther than by doing them on normal. The overland ones simply get old fast, same as every other mob.

I do appreciate the changes made with Dragonhold, the added damage and mechanics do make the encounters trickier. The first time I had a dragon crawl up to my face from the opposite side of the battleground I could have soiled my undies. But at the end of the day, they spawn every couple of minutes, have a limited set of mechanics, and can be farmed by dozens of people at the same time and go down in seconds.

Dragons have a lot of good things to them. But I get the feeling that instead of this fan service trying to reel in a couple more Skyrim fans who still hadn't taken the ESO bait, we could have had different, original content, or more content (northern and southern Elsweyr are quite small even combined and considering all the available quests).

Out of everything launched under the Year of the Dragon banner, I think the dungeons and trial are the best, even if I'm not the greatest fan of some mechanics (looking at you, Moongrave Fane movable crates).

FierceSam · December 2019

daemonios wrote: »

The problem with the dragons in ESO (as with Skyrim) is that they can't be simultaneously epic and endlessly farmable.

The side issue of this is that Dragons aren’t scaleable. Unlike either Dolmens or Geysers, you can’t vary their offensiveness to match the number of players hunting them. Sure they’re easy to take down during events, but once this event, with its low grade rewards, ends, the Norther Elsweyr dragons will just sit there unmolested like filthy turds as one or two players watch on. So they will have achieved the unenviable distinction of becoming neither epic nor farmable.

I like the way they work in Southern Elsweyr, but Northern Elsweyr is rubbish.

daemonios · December 2019

FierceSam wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

The problem with the dragons in ESO (as with Skyrim) is that they can't be simultaneously epic and endlessly farmable.

The side issue of this is that Dragons aren’t scaleable. Unlike either Dolmens or Geysers, you can’t vary their offensiveness to match the number of players hunting them. Sure they’re easy to take down during events, but once this event, with its low grade rewards, ends, the Norther Elsweyr dragons will just sit there unmolested like filthy turds as one or two players watch on. So they will have achieved the unenviable distinction of becoming neither epic nor farmable.

I like the way they work in Southern Elsweyr, but Northern Elsweyr is rubbish.

You could turn that to your advantage. Put together a small group and try to take down those dragons. Pre-Dragonhold I managed to bring a dragon down to 80% solo trying to do the daily dragon hunt quest during a slow time. I never got farther than that solo because someone inevitably comes running when they see a dragon's been flagged. Haven't tried soloing the new dragons, but with careful resource management and the right skills it should be doable, especially if you don't get the swarms of undead mobs.

Eliahnus · December 2019

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

The dragons are cool, but...

Why do they just sit on the ground and wait to be killed? There could be reasons for them landing, but once attacked why don't they take to the air and just burn everything?

Right, of course. And if I was a dragon, I would keep all the event tickets for myself, instead of handing them out to my killers.

pod88kk · December 2019

This is what it felt like as a dps with all the buffing and nerfing of different skills this year

https://youtu.be/2hshkdneE8o

I feel like player fatigue was at an all time high this year

Hallothiel · December 2019

I have loved the whole quest & storyline this year - thoroughly enjoyed playing it numerous times. Both areas are fabulous & love exploring.

And the dragons are fabulous.
(Now they are sooo over-powered & mighty that they make me disconnect from the server - what dragon shout is that??!)

Olauron · December 2019

I was tempted to say that it is hard to imagine something worse than Elsweyr dragons... and then I thought of dungeons. Well, I guess it is an achievement in itself, to make overland as disgusting as instanced group content.

Veinblood1965 · December 2019

I personally like this idea. My biggest wish would be a large overland Barney the Dinosaur. I've hated that thing ever since my nieces sang the Barney song over and over and over and over and over.....