Two-Person Mount: Seeking some transparency Please

AyeshaBelladonna · July 2021

We had the announcement, we tested on PTS, obviously they fixed whatever issue it had because they gave it to contest winners finally. WHEN are we going to see it in game? We have been waiting forEVER for it to drop. A little transparency here ZOS, please. If something goes wrong with a mount/house/skin/whatever after you announce we're getting it, it'd be nice to see some official word on what happened to delay said item and IF/when we might expect to get another update on it. We have not forgotten. We understand that Stuff Happens... Especially trying to troubleshoot something through working from home in a pandemic, we just want a little official word. Pretty Please??

SimonThesis · July 2021

We definitely need communication and updates on this, ZOS needs to stop promising nice things and not deliver. The community deserves more transparency and honesty about whats going on. We need updates for when this will be fixed and a timeline for when this is coming out!

Red_Feather · July 2021

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

trackdemon5512 · July 2021

Red_Feather wrote: »

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

It was flagging passengers who disconnected as cheaters and the system permabanned them. That’s a pretty big issue. So how does one remedy it?

Well you certainly don’t adjust the anti-cheat program as it’s working as intended in all other situations and the mount is a optional premium item.

So you shelve the idea until it can be implemented properly without players risking losing years of play.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. @SimonThesis @AyeshaBelladonna

Jaimeh · July 2021

It would be nice to have an update on whether they are planning to fix this or scrapping the feature all together so we know at least.

joerginger · July 2021

Somehow it is amazing that resources were spent on this. It is difficult to imagine a less needed feature.

Marto · July 2021

Pretty sure ZOS never announced, advertised, or confirmed Two-Person Mounts.

They weren't even included in the PTS patch notes.

Clearly, they don't want to promise them, if they didn't feel sure it could work relatively bug-free. They have always been an experimental feature that may or may not come out.

meekmiko · July 2021

Marto wrote: »

Pretty sure ZOS never announced, advertised, or confirmed Two-Person Mounts.

They weren't even included in the PTS patch notes.

Clearly, they don't want to promise them, if they didn't feel sure it could work relatively bug-free. They have always been an experimental feature that may or may not come out.

They announced it during a Twitch livestream where they showed it off. Even posted that they were coming to the game on Twitter: (source: here )

It was available to test during the Stonethorn PTS cycle, hence how we found out it was banning people in the first place.
Mentioned in multiple Patch Notes from the Stonethorn PTS, they're known officially as a "Multi-Rider Mount": (source: here , here , & here )

I'd even made a thread about it a year ago, here, when it banned one of my boyfriend's characters while we were riding it together. (Also, it was a disaster if you happened to get a loading screen while riding in the back of it.... /shudders)

It was announced, advertised, and confirmed by ZOS. It just had some very serious problems and that's why it hasn't been released.

*Edited to add a few more PTS links.

Mellirus · July 2021

I agree with the OP that some update or clarification on whether they would ever release it or not would be appreciated. I've also been waiting for news and sometimes asking about this mount on official livestreams, but no response ever came.

If it got scrapped, that's unfortunate, but it's still better to be open about it than staying silent for over a year by now. Please ZOS?

AyeshaBelladonna · July 2021

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Red_Feather wrote: »

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

It was flagging passengers who disconnected as cheaters and the system permabanned them. That’s a pretty big issue. So how does one remedy it?

Well you certainly don’t adjust the anti-cheat program as it’s working as intended in all other situations and the mount is a optional premium item.

So you shelve the idea until it can be implemented properly without players risking losing years of play.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. @SimonThesis @AyeshaBelladonna

Obviously it's 'Ready' since they gave it out to contest winners for each platform just a few months ag but haven't communicated anything since to the gen-pop.

AyeshaBelladonna · July 2021

meekmiko wrote: »

Marto wrote: »

Pretty sure ZOS never announced, advertised, or confirmed Two-Person Mounts.

They weren't even included in the PTS patch notes.

Clearly, they don't want to promise them, if they didn't feel sure it could work relatively bug-free. They have always been an experimental feature that may or may not come out.

They announced it during a Twitch livestream where they showed it off. Even posted that they were coming to the game on Twitter: (source: here )

It was available to test during the Stonethorn PTS cycle, hence how we found out it was banning people in the first place.
Mentioned in multiple Patch Notes from the Stonethorn PTS, they're known officially as a "Multi-Rider Mount": (source: here , here , & here )

I'd even made a thread about it a year ago, here, when it banned one of my boyfriend's characters while we were riding it together. (Also, it was a disaster if you happened to get a loading screen while riding in the back of it.... /shudders)

It was announced, advertised, and confirmed by ZOS. It just had some very serious problems and that's why it hasn't been released.

*Edited to add a few more PTS links.

Agreed, a ban issue from the anti-cheat algorithms is an 'uh-oh' and needs fixing 1st.... the auto-ban was something i heard about too but had not heard from any reliable sources for a long bit. Thank you for confirming. Since they were given out to the contest winners a few months back I would assume those were the acid-tests for live servers. It'd be really nice to hear from ZOS again finally- officially- with some update to see if it still has issues and isstill shelved or if it's back in the works for full release now that they've obviously cleared it in some capacity.

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo · July 2021

Nah we'll just get another DLC like Blackwood with more mythical items for cheesing.

Good luck with the mount

*Hope I'm wrong*

ClawOfTheTwoMoons · July 2021

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Red_Feather wrote: »

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

It was flagging passengers who disconnected as cheaters and the system permabanned them. That’s a pretty big issue. So how does one remedy it?

Well you certainly don’t adjust the anti-cheat program as it’s working as intended in all other situations and the mount is a optional premium item.

So you shelve the idea until it can be implemented properly without players risking losing years of play.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. @SimonThesis @AyeshaBelladonna

Ah yes so in other words, you just get rid of it and never speak of it again. It's obvious they can't fix it.

tomofhyrule · July 2021

AyeshaBelladonna wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Red_Feather wrote: »

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

It was flagging passengers who disconnected as cheaters and the system permabanned them. That’s a pretty big issue. So how does one remedy it?

Well you certainly don’t adjust the anti-cheat program as it’s working as intended in all other situations and the mount is a optional premium item.

So you shelve the idea until it can be implemented properly without players risking losing years of play.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. @SimonThesis @AyeshaBelladonna

Obviously it's 'Ready' since they gave it out to contest winners for each platform just a few months ag but haven't communicated anything since to the gen-pop.

I'm wondering if that was more "Here are all of the mounts in collections! Hope we didn't include any bugged ones!" than "We know everything works perfectly so you get to be more special than everyone else!" I guess if one of those contest winners wanted to be devious, they should just test with one of their friends to see if the friend's account gets banned for botting...

There are several things that are available in collections (I'm always stuck on hairstyles...) that haven't been available through the store for one reason or another. They really did hype the group mounts, to the extent that they devoted a whole segment of an ESO live to them, so I figure that they don't know how to fix this bug easily which is why they're still stuck in limbo. It was like that with the costumes that hid the shield as well last year - once people figured out you could exploit it to be invisible in PvP, they deactivated the costume completely. It was only once they fixed that bug that they started selling costumes like that again... but the one they deactivated never came back to the crown store for sale (until it ended up in a crown crate half a year or so later).

I assume that if/when they fix the bug, they'll be on sale. But it'll be tough to do - if it's just a flag that's set saying "cheat system, ignore my positioning since I'm a rider," that sounds like something that an actual cheater could easily hack in and set for themselves to bypass a lot of restrictions...

zaria · July 2021

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Red_Feather wrote: »

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

It was flagging passengers who disconnected as cheaters and the system permabanned them. That’s a pretty big issue. So how does one remedy it?

Well you certainly don’t adjust the anti-cheat program as it’s working as intended in all other situations and the mount is a optional premium item.

So you shelve the idea until it can be implemented properly without players risking losing years of play.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. @SimonThesis @AyeshaBelladonna

The problem is that cheat programs can send the on 2 person mount code to server.
And no if your are an active player and got banned because of this you will get the ban lifted fast.
As in the type of players to use the PTS a lot.
Still I would not want this problem on my lap. I would put it behind the Khajiit tail turfs who was an thing during Morrowind PTS. Yes limited interest but also much less impact if you had to pull it.

trackdemon5512 · July 2021

AyeshaBelladonna wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Red_Feather wrote: »

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

It was flagging passengers who disconnected as cheaters and the system permabanned them. That’s a pretty big issue. So how does one remedy it?

Well you certainly don’t adjust the anti-cheat program as it’s working as intended in all other situations and the mount is a optional premium item.

So you shelve the idea until it can be implemented properly without players risking losing years of play.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. @SimonThesis @AyeshaBelladonna

Obviously it's 'Ready' since they gave it out to contest winners for each platform just a few months ag but haven't communicated anything since to the gen-pop.

Please show proof that these players got this.

zaria wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Red_Feather wrote: »

I heard it was flagging passengers as cheating because of how fast they were moving and got shelved.

It was flagging passengers who disconnected as cheaters and the system permabanned them. That’s a pretty big issue. So how does one remedy it?

Well you certainly don’t adjust the anti-cheat program as it’s working as intended in all other situations and the mount is a optional premium item.

So you shelve the idea until it can be implemented properly without players risking losing years of play.

It’ll be ready when it’s ready. @SimonThesis @AyeshaBelladonna

The problem is that cheat programs can send the on 2 person mount code to server.
And no if your are an active player and got banned because of this you will get the ban lifted fast.
As in the type of players to use the PTS a lot.
Still I would not want this problem on my lap. I would put it behind the Khajiit tail turfs who was an thing during Morrowind PTS. Yes limited interest but also much less impact if you had to pull it.

It would easily create a situation where players being unnecessarily flagged for cheating would get banned, contact customer service, have to be dealt with, and then possibly banned again over and over. There is no reason to put company resources to waste on that.

And even if you sent a signal to the cheat program that the players were on such a mount the issue arose specifically when one of the players disconnected from the server. We’ve seen such over and over again in Cyrodiil

Mizael · July 2021

Yes I'd like some clarity about this please. @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_SarahHecker @ZOS_Kevin

milesrodneymcneely2_ESO · July 2021

joerginger wrote: »

Somehow it is amazing that resources were spent on this. It is difficult to imagine a less needed feature.

For REAL.

I don't wanna go nuts-to-butts with NONE of y'all!

Jaraal · July 2021

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Please show proof that these players got this

I guarantee that would get this thread shut down for "naming and shaming" with a quickness. In fact, I'll be surprised if this one doesn't just vanish, like a few others on the same subject have in the past.

One of the contest winners posted screenshots on Facebook of themselves with their multi-rider mount, in situations that could only be possible after the mounts were pulled from the test server, never to return again. Many people saw it.

I'd be interested to hear the official explanation from ZOS as well, but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation.

trackdemon5512 · July 2021

Jaraal wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Please show proof that these players got this

I guarantee that would get this thread shut down for "naming and shaming" with a quickness. In fact, I'll be surprised if this one doesn't just vanish, like a few others on the same subject have in the past.

One of the contest winners posted screenshots on Facebook of themselves with their multi-rider mount, in situations that could only be possible after the mounts were pulled from the test server, never to return again. Many people saw it.

I'd be interested to hear the official explanation from ZOS as well, but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation.

Linking to a screenshot would in no way be naming and shaming if the photo was cropped AND that this isn’t about shaming but rather backing up an assertion that these were somehow released to members of the public.

It would be the same as asking proof of a glitch.

FangOfTheTwoMoons · July 2021

They wont even acknowledge game breaking bugs. You think they wanna talk about an embarrassment like this?

Edit: Looks like I'll eat my words

Minyassa · July 2021

I'd also like to hear final word from ZOS on this. I was GREATLY looking forward to this. I play with someone who has a poor quality monitor and cannot upgrade, and frankly she's a terrible driver and we would have a lot smoother time if I drove. We were both really excited about that announcement and the preview, and I even bought a bunch of crowns in anticipation.

ZOS_Kevin · July 2021

Hi All. Thanks for the follow-up here, @AyeshaBelladonna. Currently, we have identified some additional work we need to do for the mount and while we do still plan to release it, it's a little ways off. Thanks for your continued patience and stay tuned for details.

ZOS_Kevin · July 2021

Minyassa wrote: »

I'd also like to hear final word from ZOS on this. I was GREATLY looking forward to this. I play with someone who has a poor quality monitor and cannot upgrade, and frankly she's a terrible driver and we would have a lot smoother time if I drove. We were both really excited about that announcement and the preview, and I even bought a bunch of crowns in anticipation.

Thanks for your feedback here, @Minyassa. This is great feedback for us to know.

cmetzger93 · July 2021

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All. Thanks for the follow-up here, @AyeshaBelladonna. Currently, we have identified some additional work we need to do for the mount and while we do still plan to release it, it's a little ways off. Thanks for your continued patience and stay tuned for details.

I am so glad to hear this and get some communication about it. Thank you very much!

ClawOfTheTwoMoons · July 2021

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All. Thanks for the follow-up here, @AyeshaBelladonna. Currently, we have identified some additional work we need to do for the mount and while we do still plan to release it, it's a little ways off. Thanks for your continued patience and stay tuned for details.

By Ysgramor's beard I never thought I'd see the day.

virtus753 · July 2021

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All. Thanks for the follow-up here, @AyeshaBelladonna. Currently, we have identified some additional work we need to do for the mount and while we do still plan to release it, it's a little ways off. Thanks for your continued patience and stay tuned for details.

The transparency is appreciated!

...as long as it doesn't extend to the mount. See-through mounts would be a little strange.

Destai · July 2021

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All. Thanks for the follow-up here, @AyeshaBelladonna. Currently, we have identified some additional work we need to do for the mount and while we do still plan to release it, it's a little ways off. Thanks for your continued patience and stay tuned for details.

Wow, thank you so much, Kevin!

Mizael · July 2021

Thank you Kevin for answering! So happy the idea didn't get trashed

AyeshaBelladonna · July 2021

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All. Thanks for the follow-up here, @AyeshaBelladonna. Currently, we have identified some additional work we need to do for the mount and while we do still plan to release it, it's a little ways off. Thanks for your continued patience and stay tuned for details.

TYVM for touching base with us about this! At least we know it's still in the works and has not been abandoned, which is what really matters most to a lot of us. We totally understand that some fixes were probably just not possible while everyone worked from home and that likely delayed the troubleshooting. I just didn't want to sit here with my housing guild wasting hope on it if it was being totally scrapped. Much like the HUGE delay with Jode's Embrace, we don't mind waiting as long as we know we are not waiting in vain!

AyeshaBelladonna · July 2021

Minyassa wrote: »

I'd also like to hear final word from ZOS on this. I was GREATLY looking forward to this. I play with someone who has a poor quality monitor and cannot upgrade, and frankly she's a terrible driver and we would have a lot smoother time if I drove. We were both really excited about that announcement and the preview, and I even bought a bunch of crowns in anticipation.

Ditto lol! I even set aside crowns to raffle one off for my guild when they launch

Still hyped for it when it finally drops