Taking the rose-colored glasses off for a moment

cynicalbutterfly · June 2021

I like Blackwood but it does lack some pizzazz. Overland needs more mobs and things to explore. Honestly it kind of reminds me of going to Cyrodil. Far too much blank space that needs filled in.

The portals to Oblivion lack guards at the entrance. A couple guards at the entrance doesn't represent what's inside. Give me a few more to deal with please. Inside is pretty nice. Plenty of mobs to deal with. Even a few bosses. But it needs more. More room to explore and more to fight. Make that trek through the Deadlands memorable and make us thank the gods we've reached the end boss.

I have yet to be inside a delve but I've hit up both Public dungeons. I like them visually but they severely lack mobs. They're way too spread out. Feels like I gotta walk 10 feet to the next mob. Visually though they're awesome. A lot of detail in there.

Companion wise... I see a lot of untapped potential. I know a lot of people are complaining but I rather like exploring with one of them out.

We've still got the rest of the year to go though.

Jaimeh · June 2021

Sheezabeast wrote: »

I finally had time to explore Blackwood a fair bit, and it made me feel kind of sad. It's a mix of the worst things about Murkmire with some of the worst things about the Gold Coast, with the dungeon design of Southern Elsweyr mixed with Vvardenfell.

I wanted to love it. I really did

Has anyone else felt similar about the landscape/feel of the Blackwood zone as a whole? The ambience, the feel, the terrain, the experience?

I agree, and for me the lighting doesn't help either, It's always overcast, and it can't be helped since it's a lot of marshes, but it gets a bit tiring after a while for such a huge zone.

Finedaible · June 2021

NoxiousBlight wrote: »

Orion_89 wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

ZOS had an interesting chance to make Deadlands into something, but they didn't really do that. They didn't even go for the nostalgia angle, they just tossed some lava into a zone with Daedra and made it look hot. It is boring. I have no desire to even go in there, now that I have done it a couple times. The monsters are boring. The zone is boring. It is just a throwaway location.

This. I thought the Deadlands would be an additional zone to explore like Blackreach, with pieces of dremora's culture, maybe a daedric city but... There are several similar islands and nothing else.

I am pretty sure an entire Deadlands zone is the Q4 DLC.

I'm also pretty sure they said Q4 dlc would take place entirely (or mostly) within the Deadlands. In that regard, I am hopeful for the Q4 dlc since I have been wanting to - legitimately - explore more planes of Oblivion since Summerset. I'm sure I have expressed that interest a few times since so that's nice. I just hope the supplemental content is engaging enough.

AlgolStar · June 2021

Sheezabeast wrote: »

I finally had time to explore Blackwood a fair bit, and it made me feel kind of sad. It's a mix of the worst things about Murkmire with some of the worst things about the Gold Coast, with the dungeon design of Southern Elsweyr mixed with Vvardenfell.

I wanted to love it. I really did

Has anyone else felt similar about the landscape/feel of the Blackwood zone as a whole? The ambience, the feel, the terrain, the experience?

Hmm. I found Blackwood decent on its' own and I'm enjoying it right now. The zone looks good, thankfully not as Murkmire'y as I thought it would be, but I had hoped for more of the Imperial stuff. The main and side quests are well written. Public dungeons are well designed with the bosses being somewhat more demanding than the ones in other chapters. The new motifs look good too.

But if I had to criticize? Compared to the previous chapters, it's not as good. The zone events (I really thought they would be more awe-inspiring and rewarding) than these small orange portals, the companions with their weird implementation, the inexplicably hard to get gear and the squishiness... I don't know.

ArchMikem · June 2021

fiender66 wrote: »

What I cannot condone is the toddler level of the puzzles (rotate the cube, sigh...) and the shallowness of the main quest, with Eveli utterly wasted as a character

I'm a pretty casual person, but when I got to that first set of Rune block puzzles and I actually tried to memorize the symbols, only to realize the game figures it out for me with every block... and then not only a minute later the Quest actually required me to have Eveli remind me what we were doing that very moment before progressing.

Blackwood has been doing a good job of insulting my intelligence.

shadyjane62 · June 2021

Sheezabeast wrote: »

I finally had time to explore Blackwood a fair bit, and it made me feel kind of sad. It's a mix of the worst things about Murkmire with some of the worst things about the Gold Coast, with the dungeon design of Southern Elsweyr mixed with Vvardenfell.

I wanted to love it. I really did

Has anyone else felt similar about the landscape/feel of the Blackwood zone as a whole? The ambience, the feel, the terrain, the experience?

I mangaed to do the first two quests, and have found a lot of other things to do. I hate companions. I am sorry I bought this expac.

And I'm really sorry I signed up for another year. Will never do that again. Last one I liked was Elsweyr. I'm still there.

Supreme_Atromancer · June 2021

I've loved this chapter, the pacing (spatial and questing), the writing, the location, the delves and dungeons have all been great, to me. Its one of my favourites so far. The ambience, feel, and experience have all been spot on for me. I've written my thoughts already on the opposing view thread, if anyone is interested in understanding why some of us are happy. I do strongly agree with others that the Blackwood part could feel more like the forest we got in TES4's Blackwood region. I suspect that its performance limitations and hope that in the future this is something they can overcome.

I actually really like the Oblivion portal world events - keep in mind that they were probably aiming for something with about the scale of other world events, all of which are designed to be these dramatic, visually epic, but quick and repetitive spontaneous bite-sized content, not full-blown worlds. So the scale seems about right to me. I love that they've made the world events play out differently, and that they've added a level of dynamism to them.

I suspect that Q4 will be what we're all looking for in terms of getting to explore The Deadlands. I hope we get to explore Dremora culture and traffick with some interesting daedra. I never got to play Elder Scrolls Battlespire, but from what I've read, there are some really interesting, compelling and off-beat dynamics that they could profit from capitalising on. I think that Leamon has shown that he's not afraid to reach into the obscure stuff, and Matt recently made a point of saying that they're inspired by ALL of the games in the series, so we can hope!

FantasticFreddie · June 2021

I wish oblivion portals were instanced. I really do. I miss the gates from Oblivion.... deadra enemies outside, inside.... towers, puzzles, a sigil stone!
What we have now is just disappointing.

L_Nici · June 2021

Mine are more Salmon like.

ApoAlaia · June 2021

Agree with the mob density (or lack thereof), at least in overland and public dungeons.

Unsure about oblivion portals; it would be nice to have 6-7 varied 'guards' outside - a bit like the groups you find inside - instead of 3 (or very often none because someone got there first) but inside... well...

Personally I would welcome groups twice the size and 'everything and the kitchen sink' in that last 'gauntlet' before the boss, and also mini-bosses with more adds and general harassment (the only one that left a memorable impression of any kind is the one that has the 'spinning fan blades' AoE mechanic and it was not an impression deep enough to even remember its name) but I have a feeling that portals currently are balanced with inclusiveness rather than exclusivity in mind and I'm OK with this.

alanmatillab16_ESO · June 2021

Sheezabeast wrote: »

I finally had time to explore Blackwood a fair bit, and it made me feel kind of sad. It's a mix of the worst things about Murkmire with some of the worst things about the Gold Coast, with the dungeon design of Southern Elsweyr mixed with Vvardenfell.

I wanted to love it. I really did

Has anyone else felt similar about the landscape/feel of the Blackwood zone as a whole? The ambience, the feel, the terrain, the experience?

The title of the post suggests you have no intention of discussing anything and just want people to agree with you. Anyone who likes Blackwood is wearing Rose Glasses right?

Sheezabeast · June 2021

alanmatillab16_ESO wrote: »

Sheezabeast wrote: »

I finally had time to explore Blackwood a fair bit, and it made me feel kind of sad. It's a mix of the worst things about Murkmire with some of the worst things about the Gold Coast, with the dungeon design of Southern Elsweyr mixed with Vvardenfell.

I wanted to love it. I really did

Has anyone else felt similar about the landscape/feel of the Blackwood zone as a whole? The ambience, the feel, the terrain, the experience?

The title of the post suggests you have no intention of discussing anything and just want people to agree with you. Anyone who likes Blackwood is wearing Rose Glasses right?

Did you only read the title, and not this part?

"Has anyone else felt similar about the landscape/feel of the Blackwood zone as a whole? The ambience, the feel, the terrain, the experience?"