Is Blackwood a flop?

Starlight_Whisper · June 2021

nukk3r wrote: »

People are probably still camping at nodes in Shadowfen.

🤣 You joke but this is hard truth

Starlight_Whisper · June 2021

I kinda thought the same, but companions seems to very popular. I think blackwood just push everyone elsewhere

HumbleThaumaturge · June 2021

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

The only flop in my opinion, is companions. Pretty useless. No point in grinding out XP and skill lines if they die almost instantly from standing still in an AOE.

Companions do not die instantly. That is something that happened for (maybe) the first two weeks after Blackwood went up on the test server (PTS). We reported the problem; ZOS responded to the comments and made companions considerably more robust. I tested companions before and after these changes.

Again, companions do not die instantly. When Blackwood launched on June 1, I got both Mirri and Bastian on all 10 of my main characters. In all the days since, doing all the Blackwood content, plus some group dungeons, my Companion has died ONLY 3 times. Companions do not stand in AoE; they even dodge-roll when in trouble. I did a 2-player run of Vaults of Madness with my Mirri as Healer and the other player's Bastian as Tank. I was very impressed with Bastian as Tank. The other player said he was using the keyboard command for Companion plus right-click for Attack and left-click for Retreat. In that entire run, a companion died only once. Admittedly, I did slot a self-heal on Mirri and Bastian, but that's just sensible.

VaranisArano · June 2021

BrownChicken wrote: »

The new chapter isn't bad. Many people overdramatize that there is nothing interesting about this chapter for a high-end player. In fact, this is far from the case. Good sets and mythics (hello kilt!), Amazing trial. I just completed the main quest and completed all the other quests in the zone before that. It was much better than Graymoor. I liked it, even if the Dark Brotherhood was there. Much better than Graymoor. Yes, companions are a failure. They are too useless for the old player and too much work for the new player.
But it's true. I, too, have been playing Blackwood from day one and immediately noticed that there are too few players in the location. At first, I did not betray any importance to this, because the servers were turned on an hour or so ago. But there were no more players ... The location feels very empty. Even around the quest givers there were 2-3 players, when usually at the start of the chapter there is a whole swarm of them. I ALMOST SEEN NO NEW PLAYERS! This is the main strategy of ZoS - to attract a large number of new players to the game every year. But I hardly saw people in the zone without CP`s.
Why is that? Was Greymoor too bad? Greymour did have serious performance issues for almost the entire year starting with Harrowstorm. I knew a lot of scorpusher`ers who left the game because their skills in trials didn't work. I definitely don't believe that most players just wandered off to leveling companions. Absurd. Most likely, the peak of interest in the game subsided. Perhaps in the future, the ESO will still shoot like Elsweys or Graymoor.

In ZOS' defense about the lack of new players, this is the first Chapter that new players have been given the choice about where to go. Previous Chapters dumped every new player and alt straight into the new zone. Blackwood doesn't. Blackwood gives new players a tutorial that lets them choose from a variety of base game and chapter zones.

SydneyGrey · June 2021

I suspect a lot of people are just leveling up their companions right now, which means traveling to other zones to do the Fighter's Guild, Mage's Guild and Undaunted dailies.
That's what I'm doing. I've never seen dolmens so active before outside the Alik'r.

Oh, and people are also farming the easier public dungeons for companion gear in a lot of different zones.

Scallan · June 2021

I've been playing since right after Imperial City released so I've been able to experience all the expansions at launch. My favorite expansion so far is still Summerset, I absolutely loved almost everything about it. Not just content-wise but I felt the game was in the healthiest spot it had ever been at that point.

Morrowind, prior to that, was also a fantastic expansion, but I really felt that game had hit its stride during Summerset and that was probably the peak of my ESO experience.

I took a break from the game a bit after Elsweyr launched because it didn't really hook me in. It's an okay expansion but it just didn't scratch the itch I had.

I really liked Greymoor though. I love Skyrim, I love vampires, and I love Blackreach.

But for me personally, at least right now, Blackwood is even less effective at hooking me than Elsweyr was, and it's a shame because I really do like Dagon as a big bad. But I don't like Leyawin though, and never did even back in Oblivion. I'm just not a swamp person.

I'm also kinda tired of the massive amount of Argonian content. They're cool but let's give the Bosmer, Redguards, and Bretons some love for once. None of them have been given much love in DLC (maybe the Redguards a bit in TG but come on) or expansions. I'm aware that the current loremaster's favorite race is Argonians so maybe that has something to do with so much of their presence, but I digress.

All in all, this has been a severely underwhelming expansion, and I really hope the next one is better.

Sylvermynx · June 2021

I have to say I've really enjoyed the bits with Drals. Not enough to mess with DB in this game, but hey - as a sidekick he's a GREAT companion.

Make him a companion, I'll take him. As long as you don't emascu.... - um - make a wimp out of him....

TheImperfect · June 2021

I'm loving it so far and taking time to savour it - feels very, very eso - the sounds and music are awesome - next level. I think the argonians feel much better and more argonian somehow. It feels very Elder Scrolls to me. The Stibbons quest was awesome.The Dagon areas are gorgeously scary and the scenery of Blackwood is beautiful. So far it's feeling next level superb to me.

OutLaw_Nynx · June 2021

I am enjoying the zone,but yes this zone feels very lonely

TheImperfect · June 2021

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

I am enjoying the zone,but yes this zone feels very lonely

I don't think it's because it's a flop - I think they planned for more Bastian's and Mirri's and made more instances so it didn't get overloaded. It's better when quieter when questing mostly anyway.

dazza1033 · June 2021

I'm finding blackwood quite fun to just explore and there are enough other players for the world boss/public dungeons.

Cirantille · June 2021

It does not look empty for me.
Although I must say I don't share the excitement for companions.
I never liked companions not even in Skyrim because they are usually annoying or burdensome.
Only companion I carried was Serana and that is because I wanted quick blood to withdraw so I can shoot the sun

DarcyMardin · June 2021

I really like the design of the new zone; it’s vastly preferable to Greymoor for me. But I haven’t started the story there yet because of the companion leveling task. Just acquiring the companions for my many alts is a major time-consuming (and boring) task. Doing the Mages, Fighter’s and Undaunted dailies takes me all over the original zones, and since bosses in public dungeons might yield companion gear, I’ve spent some time farming those.

I actually tried the Shadowfen mythic lead grind last night and found the area less crowded than I expected. I spent an hour or two there without having to fight over nodes, but it was the middle of the night on PCNA, so that was probably why it wasn’t packed. No lead for me—my typical RNG—so I’ll have to go back again soon.

But I agree, compared to the last chapters, Blackwood does seem sparsely populated.

blktauna · June 2021

I'm enjoying the heck out of this dlc. Today I finished the entire zone, and that's the first time I've done that with an ESO zone. I started a new Argonian NB in PCEU and we went all over. I found the portals to be too difficult for my under lvl15 toon and even now at lvl 30 its necessary for her to have help. That doesn't bother me at all though because I enjoy the mechanics of the portal and want to go through them more than once.

There have always been 3 or 4 other players at WBs when I got here, which is a nice number where everyone gets a chance to actually fight the boss vs when Elsewyr came there were 50+ folks slaughtering the Dragons in moments.

Its been nice to wander the land seeing the occasional player, not having to run through after some speed demon in a delve or dungeon while trying to pay attention to the quest and enjoy the artwork and the atmosphere.

I was hoping for more Argonian content but maybe thats coming up. Its a success for me and I feel money well spent.

Synnastix · June 2021

May depend on your platform - I’m not playing until the console enhanced version drops.

SeaGtGruff · June 2021

Scallan wrote: »

But I don't like Leyawin though, and never did even back in Oblivion. I'm just not a swamp person.

I don't mind the swampy areas so much in TES4 and ESO. For me, the main reason that Blackwood was just about my least favorite region of Cyrodiil in TES4 was because it was such a hassle to get there. As a general rule, I don't like to use fast travel in the single-player ES games except for things like boats, Mages Guild guides, silt striders, and horses and carts-- and even then, I still prefer to travel on my own two feet as much as possible-- so quests that required me to go from, say, Chorrol to Leyawiin were especially tiresome to do, and even going from the Imperial City to Leyawiin was kind of a hassle.

That's not an issue for me in ESO, since I normally travel by wayshrines to get from zone to zone.

YstradClud · June 2021

I play on the NA server at off peak times mainly so don't really expect too many people to be around because most of them are asleep but when I play on the weekend I see a fair amount of players around.

IGN rated Blackwood 7 or 'Good' if you care what they have to say. They reckon it is a "step up from last year's expansion".

Starlight_Whisper · June 2021

HumbleThaumaturge wrote: »

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

The only flop in my opinion, is companions. Pretty useless. No point in grinding out XP and skill lines if they die almost instantly from standing still in an AOE.

Companions do not die instantly. That is something that happened for (maybe) the first two weeks after Blackwood went up on the test server (PTS). We reported the problem; ZOS responded to the comments and made companions considerably more robust. I tested companions before and after these changes.

Again, companions do not die instantly. When Blackwood launched on June 1, I got both Mirri and Bastian on all 10 of my main characters. In all the days since, doing all the Blackwood content, plus some group dungeons, my Companion has died ONLY 3 times. Companions do not stand in AoE; they even dodge-roll when in trouble. I did a 2-player run of Vaults of Madness with my Mirri as Healer and the other player's Bastian as Tank. I was very impressed with Bastian as Tank. The other player said he was using the keyboard command for Companion plus right-click for Attack and left-click for Retreat. In that entire run, a companion died only once. Admittedly, I did slot a self-heal on Mirri and Bastian, but that's just sensible.

I say this as someone who has taken Bastian into trials. There's a problem with companions in some content.

I Know mine just stands in fire around dragon

Wolfshead · June 2021

Warstory wrote: »

For the past few days of doing the Blackwood dailies and some harvesting and I rarely seen any other players, even in the cities. I've never seen a chapter so dead right after release and it's kinda disheartening.

I have been around since early beta and I have play all expansion and honest this nothing new ZoS always drop their expansion just around summer time which means many of the player bases is enjoying nice weather then instead sit inside and have their vacation time which means lower player online it will pick up and if we get "bad" summer mean more rain people will come back and play again also i think many player wait to all "big expansion bug/problem" is fix as well.

And with more country around the world lower there restricted for covid-19 I think a lot of people will spend more time outside and with there friends and family this summer

Baconlad · June 2021

Blackwood quests are terrible. The first main quest has us going for hours chasing dead bodies and reporting it to some random npc. Its not until quest four things finally pick up. I find myself skipping dialog out of boredom. The land itself is uninteresting. Could been in mainland cyrodiil doing quests and having more fun.

The companions are terrible. Can't even hold my loot. Just get in the way most of the time. Like...I'm halfway done with quests here and I just...dont care. Not like in greymore. There I felt the story weighed more...anyway, better luck next expat I guess

TacoMasters(PS4) · June 2021

Content-wise, Blackwood is formulaic and it feels like the chapters are getting smaller by the year. I wouldn't call it a flop, though. I like Blackwood. I've found the main story to be a lot more intriguing than Morrowind, Elsweyr, and Greymoor--just being a notch down compared to Summerset. The whole concept of the ambitions is really cool and the characters are fun. I wish it was a bit longer.

Brrrofski · June 2021

People farming leads in other zones, farming public dungeons or group dungeons for companions gear, levelling up companion at grind spots, sitting in oblivion portals farming new furnishing plans etc.

I think people are just doing a lot of other things right now. Like I haven't touched a lot of the content, I'm farming companion gear while pro es are hot, will focus on blackwood when that bubble bursts.

Saying that, on xbox eu, everyone of the new delves I go in has at least 5 people running around, so the zone is still busy

cyberjanet · June 2021

Ingenon wrote: »

Bottom Line Up Front: Only ZOS knows how many copies of Blackwood they have sold.

Yup. If people are buying it, it's not a flop.

Orion_89 · June 2021

cyberjanet wrote: »

If people are buying it, it's not a flop.

Yes, but as for me it seems that Blackwood have become the last thing I bought this year. We'll see what the next season would look like.

Anyron · June 2021

quiet? i must play it at late nights to enjoy it.

shame there isnt offline story mod

Mahabahabtha · June 2021

Look @ Steamcharts, says all...
Https://steamcharts.com/app/306130#1y
Maybe not a flop, but definitely a big disappointment when you compare the numbers to last year...
I wouldn't even say that the add-on is to blame, the migration probably started with cp 2.0 and goes on with cp 2.1
If you are punished because you make progress.... That's a bad idea...

VioletGlimmerstone · June 2021

Mahabahabtha wrote: »

Look @ Steamcharts, says all...
Https://steamcharts.com/app/306130#1y
Maybe not a flop, but definitely a big disappointment when you compare the numbers to last year...
I wouldn't even say that the add-on is to blame, the migration probably started with cp 2.0 and goes on with cp 2.1
If you are punished because you make progress.... That's a bad idea...

Steamcharts may not represent the whole playerbase....but regardin ZOS behaviour against console players....
mayor letdown

WeerW3ir · June 2021

cyclonus11 wrote: »

Based on the number of players and companions I see at dolmens (outside of Alik'r and Auridon), I would say no.

Yes. Maybe. People have the companions. But that dosent mean they are doing the zone also. Getting companions is SUPER easy.

SerafinaWaterstar · June 2021

Thoroughly enjoying this chapter - much better than Greymoor!

Leyawiin & Gideon are beautiful & feel like a ‘real’ town should.

The countryside is lovely. Not plagued by excessive amounts of trash mobs every other couple of feet.

Main quest line is interesting, & whilst I find Eveli excruciating, found it worth completing.

Many opportunities for stealing & good drop rate.

And Companions are actually rather endearing & useful.

So all in all, not a flop!

MaisonNaevius · June 2021

Personally, "Blackwood" is not a region that sold me dreams. It is a region that attracts Imperial players (at least not all given the overwhelming preference for Colovia) but especially Argonians. The khajiit are supposed to live together but go almost unnoticed.

From TES IV, Leyawiin does not sell me any dreams even though ESO made it better and attractive. As for Gideon, he looks less imposing than what was expected with the original Murkmire.

I think Blackwood will be crowded once the Companions quests and the famous "kilt" are unlocked.

But it will be like the previous Chapter ...
Very crowded at the beginning ... Then only die-hards who love the region (in relation to the race of their character, the characters who define it as their native region, the gamers) will remain.
Last year with Greymoor, making Nothern Elsweyr's WB dailies was difficult because no one was there anymore.

But I'll add one thing: he's better than Greymoor and the skeleton of the script has changed somewhat. (I still remember the joke that was Greymoor's music).