State of the Game Address

nurayamab16_ESO · April 2014

First of all Thanks for the updade on what you are actually doing, as it is at times difficult to see/know what you guys are up to when we as players for the umptiens time get confronted by hords of bots in a dungeon or while we collect mats to craft things.

Very glad to hear your doing your best on some of the issues ... so are we Players to make you aware of Bots / Goldspammers and any Bugs ingame so they can be fixed.

The fastest way to get rid of the bots and a lot of the goldspammers would be.... ingame GM's checking on and banning goldspammers and matbots and also going at random intervals into all dungeons and perma banning any groups of bots found there on sight .... wich in turn would free your CS to give better and more timely service.

Hoping you also finally will do something about the Rip-Off of all Imperial
edition players that were sold an exclusive and unique crafting style and abillities - Your own words ...
EXCLUSIVE COLLECTION OF DIGITAL CONTENT INCLUDES:
Play as an Imperial and play in any Alliance. Gain unique bonuses, crafting styles, gear and more!

wich are now no longer exclusive or unique crafting abillities ....

Love the game, please dont let it die due to wanting to make a quick buck and keep a Lot more in -Touch with your player base please as only working together we will make it an even more wonderfull game then it allready is.

psufan5 · April 2014

Here's to hoping that major game update include nightblade and vampire fixes. I have the worst of both worlds going on right now

psufan5 · April 2014

Vaerth wrote: »

thorsonwongb16_ESO wrote: »

TGEK wrote: »

This game needs open world pvp

No thanks, I'd rather not randomly get ganked while trying to level because some vet rank 10 wants to stroke their epeen. An arena-styled PVP for skill based competition, however...

EDIT: And cloaks, one day. Maybe. No? Tails causing clipping and physics causing lag in Cyrodiil? Okay, how about customizable guild embelms to go on tabards?

The Breton Nightblade in the trailers had a cloak, was great disappointed there are none in this game. If they never had the intention of adding cloaks, then show off a main character wearing one?

Aside from the bugs nightblades face daily, a cloak is second on my list

I would love to see that!

sinz_xb16_ESO · April 2014

psufan5 wrote: »

Here's to hoping that major game update include nightblade and vampire fixes. I have the worst of both worlds going on right now

Thanks for the update Matt and totally agree with psufan5! Please fix Nightblades and Vampires.

Niminion · April 2014

Very glad to read this, this morning. Communication is very important to players in an mmo!

Oberon · April 2014

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

First and foremost, please know that we are doing everything we can to combat the gold spammers and bots – especially ones that “camp” dungeon bosses – that you see in game.

Remove all loot drops entirely from every public dungeon boss so that they drop no loot whatsoever. No soul stones, no gold, nothing.
Regular players can then get their public dungeon completions and not be faced with bots at Every. Single. Public. Dungeon. Boss.

Angua · April 2014

While I like this game (not love, not yet), I feel like we needed a state of the game a week or two ago.

This is the communication we've been wanting but haven't gotten any of so far. This should be what we see every time there's an issue. Not almost a month after the 'soft launch'.

lateralus821 · April 2014

Are there any plans to fix broken classes such as about 1/3 of the Nightblade skills?

LonePirate · April 2014

Gold spammers are annoying; but they are not game breaking or progression blocking. I would much rather have the Custimer Service team spend the bulk of their day helping players with legitimate game problems. The priorities of the CS team need to be overhauled as not helping customers does far more harm to the players and the game than rampant gold spammers which are little more than ants at a picnic.

Carde · April 2014

Oberon wrote: »

[*] Remove all loot drops entirely from every public dungeon boss so that they drop no loot whatsoever. No soul stones, no gold, nothing.
[*] Regular players can then get their public dungeon completions and not be faced with bots at Every. Single. Public. Dungeon. Boss.

You should really think about what things do to a game before you start making suggestions. Scorched earth policy doesn't make good game design.

drakuel1ub17_ESO · April 2014

Finally a update to address the state of this game... Not sure why it took so long to get the community some meaningful feedback from development of what is being done or what the plans are to get this game back on track.. So for this effort I say thanks.

Yes the forums and players are upset and growing more and more anxious and the forums show it.. Without good communication and efforts from your team I am unsure what else you would expect. You still have loyal and patient players like myself but even I have started to worry and doubt the validity of this game long term and your team being able to deliver... I just have not seen or heard of any real meaningful changes or communication about the real issues with this game to warrant anything else but concern..

I think by now you must be aware of the large issues that is hurting this game and community. If not several here have repeated it again and I will too..

1. BOTS and SPAM-- Annoying as hell and all games of this type have this issue. But in yours it is magnified worse because of the real issue a bigger issue that is next in my list.

2. Phasing/Instancing--They way this is designed today does not work and only has more negative then positive in it's implementation. Due to this core issue you have the following problems other MMO's do not have.

( a.) BOTS able to stop players progression and worse kill their immersion. In other titles yes there are bots but they can be easily ignored and bypassed, not with your game..
(b.) Grouping is broken and bugged to no end with this, I have yet to play a MMO with such bad grouping mechanics and most of this is due to this core issue.
(c.) Immersion and questing, really ? you do all the hard work to make these quest engaging but then you instance us in if I am solo with groups, but if I am with a group solo?!?!>! this makes no sense at all. Games are all about options and you are king of we let you play how you want to play.. So how in the world did this part of your design go so astray from your own design philosophy?

3. Bugs-- Most bugs and I am not talking just the quest ones here, there are others that actually impact peoples classes, builds, combat. This game was all about freedom of choice and we only need 3 classes because you are free to choose different build outs from a huge amount of skill trees. However this as of today is not true at all. Certain build outs are frustrating and you die too easily, why because the skills for that type of build just plain do not do what they say they do or just do not fire or work.. Combat and animations of the combat are not fluid and do not always work when you use them... In a action oriented combat design as this one, the response to your actions is paramount to the enjoyment and success of the design... Otherwise it is just plain boring and frustrating, especially when it costs us so much money for repairs on death.. I can't tell you how many times I have died due to this... It is one thing to die due to lag from time to time or just because it was a challenging boss, but to die when you have strategy and your skill s do not work or not fire now that is frustrating and not fun.

I subbed to support you for a year, for I always think a MMO's full potential needs a good year after development to shine.. I will still hold my end up, but right now I do not play my character much, why? Well I will tell you, currently NB class is borked and also the other issues I have listed I do not want to ruin my future experience with my main to be ruined, we only get to run through the game fresh once and I do not my first run through on my main to be this bad all the way through I would rather wait. I will log in to craft some for that works great but other than that I am level 15 and will remain in that zone till I see serious action on the above list.

harvester100b16_ESO · April 2014

Firstly I think many in these forums are forgetting this is an mmo and not a full production beginning to end Skyrim type experience. MMO's are always a work in progress things change things break they get fixed new content comes things break they get fixed ect.ect. After about 3 weeks the list of things fixed is impressive. I agree many, many things still need fixing but other mmo's with many years behind them still fair little better.

I am loving the game and I feel it has a ton of potential yes it has problems but with over 20 years of mmo playing behind me I can honestly say its fairing pretty well so far ..not perfect by any stretch but definatly a good bed to build on, and I hope my 6 month recurring lasts for many, many cycles to come.

One thing I see as a trend is people asking to stop the botters and spammers for me this is the single most important thing I feel needs addressing right now ,it is escalating and will NEVER be eliminated totally but also the community is already making effective antispam addons so maybe if it really Is annoying you at least the spam can be controlled.

As far as pvp goes in my opinion the game doesn't need open world pvp in all zones cyradil is a great zone for pvp and has only been scratched as far as potential for it goes.
Maybe in some future content patch or expansion pvp will be elaborated on maybe some contest brawl arena type thing.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole auction system I am still undecided I do belong to 2 big trade guilds which helps but I reserve judgment until the economy settles.. good Segue onto

Economy balance after duping short term yes its let some people buy bites and more game breaking maybe having enough gold to buy the inflated rarer motifs but medium to long term impact I predict virtually zero.

A few ideas in my old wise head

1) gold sellers only exist because of the need for gold and currently very few in game things need tradable gold a) bites so make bites none profitable possible ways: maybe make bites not 100% once bitten it takes a day or 2 before you know your infected so paying up front becomes a huge not worthwhile gamble. Or as i've heard many suggest make it a quest chain.
b)Inventory space several ways 1 idea of which would solve many issues make trade specific holding bags as a skill point say a 60 slot enchanting bag holding only runes and glyphs cost a skill point to buy and do this for each trade skill, so it would appear as an inventory tab as with weapons armour ect. does right now.
c) Motifs this is a bit more tricky maybe.. possibly make learning motifs skill point based and available only at certain skill lvl's so basic ones are available at lvl 1 or 2 onwards but daedric ect. only at character lvl 40 onwards and possibly have a higher skill cost and or a long quest chain to unlock.

These would all solve to devalue gold considerably making buying gold less appealing ..Not totally but these ideas also would fit the game and hopefully not be to radical to implement. Gold will always be an integral part of Elder Scrolls life I cant think of anyway to take that away totally buying items and materials will always be necessary but maybe make gold through the postal system restricted to small amounts and if people want to buy expensive mats or items then guild auction or character trade is the only way.
Leading on to the auction system I think smaller cuts for posting are needed.

Overall I have upmost respect and thanks for Zenimax on giving us a fine game to enjoy and help grow with in the years to come.

just one last thing Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.
be it good or bad informed people suffer less it leaves for less baseless gossip. and also help encourage forum use

thanks
Prime
May Sheogorath's Cheeswheel never run you down

ZomZom · April 2014

Thanks for the communication!

If I can ask for one update, it would be to allow shared questing. When I play with my husband I'd like to be able to phase with him rather than seeing a chevron instead of his character. Auto-phasing to the least-completed version among a group would be my preferred way of handling this.

Isibis · April 2014

TGEK wrote: »

This game needs open world pvp.

and lol @ there being no one on these forums. What a farce.

Better yet, make people who've been sitting next to a boss for over a half hour killable. We'll take care of your gold farmers for you.

ozzman · April 2014

Hey Matt. Thank you for the Update.

Just make sure that the (in)famous INFINITE LOADING SCREEN bug is fixed! This bugs haunts me since the beta, and really blocks my progress through the game.

Carnage2K4 · April 2014

While I like that we have finally been provided with some info from an ACTUAL dev (instead of the forum mods) 2.5 weeks to get 1 truly official English post is too long.

I really hope they post more frequently in future for the sanity of the player base who care enough about this to be here every day and vent their anger...
I would hope most of us are understanding enough of maintenance and the like, but the pure LACK of dev posts is the frustrating thing for many of us I think.

I know that at least for me, it's the woefully poor communication that really starts to *** me off.

therasia2_ESO · April 2014

Excellent! Looking forward to the update and the new content! thanks so much for a great game I'm loving it

TheOnix · April 2014

Sounds good, but when are you going to fix PvP Exp gains/hour compared to PvE Exp gains?

As it stands you simply cannot level from PvP 1/5th as fast as you can in PvE, no matter how good you are.

Targanwolf · April 2014

Hire more customer service people.....and instill an actually fix a paying customers problem mentality.

Ulliam · April 2014

Kiwi wrote: »

limit the amount of characters an account can make per day, that way the spammers will be forced to wait

I would hope the actual account would be perma banned to prevent even the creation of one more character period.

tokyov · April 2014

Dupes didnt affect the economy? Really? What world are you living in? Not in the one most of us are- there are so many duped mats out there its ridiculous. Its blind statements like these which tell me you have NO IDEA what TRULY happened with the economy.

Chryos · April 2014

@‌sahib

Im sure they mean a dedicated open pvp server for the hardcore players.

(I'd be down for open pvp server, I'd at least give it a shot, but It's a rough virutal life lol)

Chryos · April 2014

I'd ask everyone to be a bit more patient. As with any new game, they most likely have their hands full working on alot of stuff behind the scenes. Everthing that is new, no matter if it's a game or whatever takes time to refine and iron out the problems. Rome was not built in a day.

RealRobD · April 2014

TGEK wrote: »

keondre.branchcub18_ESO wrote: »

[snip]

Forums being dead is the biggest shock to me. I would love to see how many subs they have, and how many they are going to lose when the 1 month is up.

The game won't die, but it will definitely go F2P within 12-18 months.

Can I borrow your crystal ball, the only one in the world that actually works?
I'd like to win the next lottery, thanks.

[edited to remove quote]

Rapscallion74 · April 2014

Chryos wrote: »

I'd ask everyone to be a bit more patient. As with any new game, they most likely have their hands full working on alot of stuff behind the scenes. Everthing that is new, no matter if it's a game or whatever takes time to refine and iron out the problems. Rome was not built in a day.

I would be patient if they credited back my free game time and halted billing until the issues were fixed. Why should we pay them at all for a broken product?

Greyhaven · April 2014

SoMuchMass wrote: »

Here is a tip for ZoS, you need to communicate better. You know why? If you don't the trolls will speak for the game and their voice will be the loudest. So it is your job to speak over them and keep people informed. If you are open people are understanding.

THIS^^^^

Right now there is a very well organized hate machine on these forums and cruising the local news sites many of them belong to the angry army these astro turfers are more than likely paid to hate...if ZOS doesn't keep their voice loud and clear these idiots will be doing your marketing for you.

Dionysis · April 2014

@Rapscallion74 You bought an MMO at release. Bumps, bugs, glitches, hacks, downtime, maintenance windows, hotfixes, bots, and gold spammers should have been expected. These happen at every MMO release. Hell, even non MMOs, like SimCity, had crazy problems the first few weeks. If you want a polished fixed, patches, shiny game, buy it a few months after release. This is not ZOS's fault you have unrealistic expectations.

SANTANTICA · April 2014

And lost BANK SLOTS, GOLD etc???? When fixed and give back?

camilla_noctis · April 2014

What about having to relog after every single death to get vampire passives back? This affects EVERYONE that uses vampirism, and is a HUGE bug that constantly affects my gameplay and is still the reason I don't PvP. Could you at least acknowledge this bug? Say SOMETHING about it? Because at this point I feel like it's being ignored completely.

MorHawk · April 2014

SANTANTICA wrote: »

And lost BANK SLOTS, GOLD etc???? When fixed and give back?

You may want to read the patch notes there chief. Already fixed. You need to put a ticket in to get your lost gold back.