It would be nice to have the base game zone's visuals increased to match the more recent Chapter zones. So all content would look more consistent. Higher resolution textures, reworked meshes, new assets.

The ancestral motiffs are more or less them giving us "remastered" base game motiffs if the form of new motiffs added to the most recent expansion. To me, that indicates they have no intention of remastering anything that they can't sell back to us somehow.

i certainly do agree the game could do with looking at old sets and making them relevant again but i don't really see what's wrong with the visuals of old zones. i think generally they hold up very well today and i certainly wouldn't want the zos of today to trample over the hard work the artists put into those zones during the game's initial development.

They should remake old zones when they work on a chapter zone in the same province as they often share assets. Remake the Rift and Eastmarch when making Whiterun Hold/Winterhold. Remake the Alik’r desert when you add to Hammerfell, etc. Doing it in bite sized pieces would be the only way it’s possible.

I really hope they do this, it’s my number one wish for the game apart from making combat feel more impactful.

I'm one of the biggest proponents for a redo of the base game zones you'll find. I do disagree that the more recent zones aren't great- in fact, the astounding job the team has done in world-crafting is the major reason I wand those old zones to get a new parse. The sheer improvement in quality and design philosophy of everything created after base-game is evidence they could do a really amazing job. I love to imagine how much more eastern Reaper's March would feel like part of Northern Elsweyr, or Northern Bangkorai like The Reach if they were to use the assets of the contemporary counterparts. I'd particularly love to have reasons to revisit cities like Dune, Arenthia, Elinhir or Dragonstar.

Both Rich Lambert and Matt Firor have said its not something they are considering at the moment. Rich said that while the team would love to find a way to do it, it would currently have to be at the expense of the new zones that people are excited to see. Matt said that they get the question a lot, and notes that they do go in from time to time to "touch up" parts of the base game zones.

The best hope- in my mind- is that the possibility of redoing base game zones is something that they might revisit further down the road. They've recognised in the past that previous design philosophies didn't work very well, and called out examples like Reaper's March and Coldharbour that represent "tubes of content". Somewhere down the line, new Single Player Titles will release, and any contradictions in vision seem likely to be a pain point for the audience ESO might attract. When Rich laments that they didn't take a closer look at what Bethesda were doing with Skyrim when ZOS was still developing ESO, he might have been talking about this sort of thing. And while we do have islands and oblivion realms and such to handle some of the demand for future content to explore, I think its fair to say "people are here for Tamriel", and some sort of "Base Game 2.0" might eventually take some of that demand on.

I'm all for new quests being added to existing zones. In fact, I'd buy new quest packs in the crown store. Quests are new content.

A graphics / sets overhaul isn't new content to me and wouldn't be an incentive for me to visit old zones.

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Unpopular opinion incoming:
Old zones, from the base game are imho actually better designed than the newer ones (with some exceptions). They are not as pretty as new ones, but they look good enough and the game works better when you are in one of those zones. Also - the base game zones feels kinda consistent. The placements of objectives, quests, POIs or wayshrines... it seems as if they are better designed "maps" than newe ones (but again, there are some exceptions, like Murkmire or Vvardenfell).

My point is: Once you take better graphics away, the newer zones are actually kinda worse than base game ones.

I understand the difference in performance point, but I don't know what you mean about base game zones being consistent, or what it is you feel makes them better designed maps.

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

The only "remake" I would want is for Craglorn to be group content again. In an MMO there should be required group content in every zone and a zone or two that requires makes for a better community.

No disrespect intended, but you haven't shown any reason that an MMO should require group content.

I'm asking because the topic is interesting to me, and I'd like to understand your point of view.

There seems to be a trend towards people playing MMOs solo, and a lot of people don't seem to think that this is such a terrible thing. After all, the persistent world still has competition, economics, guilds, zone-chat and possibility for co-operation.

For all the vaunted benefits of MMO-ness this sort of thing is supposed to encourage, it just tends to be ugly. PUGs aren't places where life-long friendships form- at best no one speaks, no one responds to "hi" and if they don't get in your way, you can pretend they're not there. At worst, they're the fuel for all the rage, impatience, intolerance and spite that has filled the forums and reddit for 8 years and are just as hot-button-topic to this day.

Adventure Zone Craglorn failed because people didn't want to be forced to play together. When they couldn't do it solo, they simply stopped going there. How would you fix that?

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

The only "remake" I would want is for Craglorn to be group content again. In an MMO there should be required group content in every zone and a zone or two that requires makes for a better community.

No disrespect intended, but you haven't shown any reason that an MMO should require group content.

I'm asking because the topic is interesting to me, and I'd like to understand your point of view.

There seems to be a trend towards people playing MMOs solo, and a lot of people don't seem to think that this is such a terrible thing. After all, the persistent world still has competition, economics, guilds, zone-chat and possibility for co-operation.

For all the vaunted benefits of MMO-ness this sort of thing is supposed to encourage, it just tends to be ugly. PUGs aren't places where life-long friendships form- at best no one speaks, no one responds to "hi" and if they don't get in your way, you can pretend they're not there. At worst, they're the fuel for all the rage, impatience, intolerance and spite that has filled the forums and reddit for 8 years and are just as hot-button-topic to this day.

Adventure Zone Craglorn failed because people didn't want to be forced to play together. When they couldn't do it solo, they simply stopped going there. How would you fix that?

Craglorn failed cause they said it failed before enough people were there. It suffered the same fate as other games/zones when you have the 1% or less rushing to the end and then complaining there is nothing to do, or not enough people. If they had left it alone till say 40% of the people playing where there I think they would have seen the zone was good the way it was.

PuGs are only for dungeons and trials to a point. Having harder content / quests you have to group up for actually encourages playing as a team and it's normally enjoyable. Now I understand times have changed and people now are rabid must finish now in the fastest speedy time possible and if I can't I'll go complain on the forums, but then forget what I was going to complain about because I have the attention span of a gnat. Games like EQ and WoW that required some things to be done as a team have formed relationships for many people that are going on 20+ years later. I even know some people that both needed to do the same quest in WoW (in the Barrens with the elite raptors collecting eggs) that randomly found each other and are now married.

There are 10s of thousands of single player RPG games people can go and play. MMOs need to have some group content to help create a community, that's kind of the whole point of the MMO genre. Honestly though at this point this point is sort of the same as a Progressive and a Alt Right conservative talking. No opinions, facts or examples are going to sway ppl's mind. Mostly the newer ppl to the MMO genre say 2010 or so and beyond see it as they should all be large single player games and only groups need for dungeons. People that are from the older games of the genre tend to see it the way I do.

The excitement for a lot of us to get on the game was to talk to friends from around the world. Group of for a few hours for some stuff, or just talk in Teamspeak (or just game chat for the early on games) and have fun. Now you look forward to getting your dailies done, ignoring everyone for the most and just logging in and out for an hour or two to finish stuff up for the day. Maybe do a trial or dungeon then log off. It's not the same experience and the genre is suffering for it.

I won't lie I like how devs have made a lot of things quicker in the newer games. I don't have the time in my life for a 6 hour Scholomance run or something anymore. I like that you can get done with multiple dungeons quickly, I do wish that some were a little longer, or the old ones re done to have a challenge again, but for the most part it's a decent balance. I just wish (other than the world bosses) there some quests, nothing required for the main story or anything, that gave better rewards, but required you to have a friend or two or three etc to complete. You could easily find people needing the same, group up and then maybe clear out more of harder quests together. Maybe at the end you go your own way, or maybe you've made a new friend that helps keeps you from pugs, or just somebody talk to while doing those crafty dailies.

I know it's not going back to the way it was and I get why. It's just sad and I personally miss having to work with other people to get through more difficult stuff through out the world.

Ratzkifal wrote: »

We've asked for that already and the official stance is that ZOS wants to fill the Tamriel map first before revisiting older zones or going beyond Tamriel.
Also it's not that newer DLC aren't as popular because of their zones. It's the writing and the failure to add meaningful systems to these DLC that makes them less popular.

Here is an overview of the feature additions with each update:

• Imperial City was more than just a dungeon DLC, it was an entire PvP update with a new zone.
• Orsinium had Maelstrom Arena and made farming the new highest tier materials easier.
• Thieves Guild had heists, restricted areas and a trial.
• Dark Brotherhood had the Blade of Woe and Sacraments.

After that we got the system of two dungeon DLCs, one chapter and one zone DLC per year.

• Morrowind added Battlegrounds and the Warden class.
• Clockwork City added Transmutation and another trial.
• Summerset added jewelry crafting.
• Murkmire had a new 4-player Arena, but otherwise lacked in features - it was given away for free.
• Elsweyr added the Necromancer class.
• Dragonhold didn't have any major feature addition, the grappling hook isn't used in older zones to discover secret areas for example. People were disappointed with it.
• Greymoor added antiquities which a lot of people were unhappy with, at the end of the day mythics are just sets like any other - but it's not a bad system and continues getting updated which makes the feature more valuable over time, but that wasn't obvious back then. Its writing was also quite bad.
• Markarth added a new solo arena, the lack of any other feature could be excused due to the addition of the gear stickerbook and the good story it had.
• Blackwood added companions, which are a nonfeature because they are pointless in overland, and in dungeons and trials you'll always prefer a human player. They are human-shaped vanity pets. People were disappointed.
• Deadlands also added nothing, but at least it was given away for free and Fargrave was cool.
• High Isle added companions that don't require Blackwood, making Blackwood effectively featureless, and Tales of Tribute - an entirely separate game that has little to do with ESO so it hardly counts as an "ESO feature". It's its own game, but why buy an ESO chapter to get a card game when you could buy a better card game (or play them for free) and why buy a chapter if it doesn't add anything meaningful to ESO. People were disappointed.

So over the last two years ESO received no or only disappointing features, three if you were among the people who were upset with Antiquities in Greymoor. The price tags remained the same or climbed. It's really not the look of the new zones or the design of its overland that made these DLC so poorly received.

I'm all for updating older zones. Shadowfen, Deshaan, Stonefalls and all of Valenwood's zones could greatly benefit from being updated but it's not like the effort is wasted on newer zones. The zone design is one of the few things that has remained great about ESO. It's everything else that makes these DLC bad.

Antiquities and Companions were both received pretty well by the playerbase at large. Tales of Tribute was the only feature that was controversial from start and remains very split. A ton of people use companions and antiquities. Antiquities being by far the most popular feature of the three.

Most of the complaints I've seen around the last 3 expansions have had to do with its shallower writing and how easy overland is, which has been a longstanding complaint since Summerset. People also want new combat abilities, which is not the same as not liking the non-combat activities we've been getting. A lot of complaints go like "Antiquities is nice and all, but when are we going to get a new class" for example.

ETA:

Holly: Hopefully the Companion System was well received by players, if so do you have plans to release more Companions, and/or add more to the system (i.e. more skills, armor, or cosmetic items)?

Rich: Companions have been extremely well received by our community and the vast majority of players who have access to them, are using them on a regular basis. It’s been fun for us to see which companion is the most popular (Mirri – 62% vs. Bastian – 38%), and which abilities players seem to gravitate towards equipping on their companion (Most players have at least one heal ability on their companions). As for the future of the system or if we will release any more, only time will tell…

[Source]

And I'm inclined to believe him, because I see them all the time. I even see them in harder content when someone drops group and then someone else's companion is summoned automatically until that group member is replaced. They sometimes make jokes about it too like "Guess Mirri's gonna solo this for us." or whatever.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

We've asked for that already and the official stance is that ZOS wants to fill the Tamriel map first before revisiting older zones or going beyond Tamriel.
Also it's not that newer DLC aren't as popular because of their zones. It's the writing and the failure to add meaningful systems to these DLC that makes them less popular.

Here is an overview of the feature additions with each update:

• Imperial City was more than just a dungeon DLC, it was an entire PvP update with a new zone.
• Orsinium had Maelstrom Arena and made farming the new highest tier materials easier.
• Thieves Guild had heists, restricted areas and a trial.
• Dark Brotherhood had the Blade of Woe and Sacraments.

After that we got the system of two dungeon DLCs, one chapter and one zone DLC per year.

• Morrowind added Battlegrounds and the Warden class.
• Clockwork City added Transmutation and another trial.
• Summerset added jewelry crafting.
• Murkmire had a new 4-player Arena, but otherwise lacked in features - it was given away for free.
• Elsweyr added the Necromancer class.
• Dragonhold didn't have any major feature addition, the grappling hook isn't used in older zones to discover secret areas for example. People were disappointed with it.
• Greymoor added antiquities which a lot of people were unhappy with, at the end of the day mythics are just sets like any other - but it's not a bad system and continues getting updated which makes the feature more valuable over time, but that wasn't obvious back then. Its writing was also quite bad.
• Markarth added a new solo arena, the lack of any other feature could be excused due to the addition of the gear stickerbook and the good story it had.
• Blackwood added companions, which are a nonfeature because they are pointless in overland, and in dungeons and trials you'll always prefer a human player. They are human-shaped vanity pets. People were disappointed.
• Deadlands also added nothing, but at least it was given away for free and Fargrave was cool.
• High Isle added companions that don't require Blackwood, making Blackwood effectively featureless, and Tales of Tribute - an entirely separate game that has little to do with ESO so it hardly counts as an "ESO feature". It's its own game, but why buy an ESO chapter to get a card game when you could buy a better card game (or play them for free) and why buy a chapter if it doesn't add anything meaningful to ESO. People were disappointed.

So over the last two years ESO received no or only disappointing features, three if you were among the people who were upset with Antiquities in Greymoor. The price tags remained the same or climbed. It's really not the look of the new zones or the design of its overland that made these DLC so poorly received.

I'm all for updating older zones. Shadowfen, Deshaan, Stonefalls and all of Valenwood's zones could greatly benefit from being updated but it's not like the effort is wasted on newer zones. The zone design is one of the few things that has remained great about ESO. It's everything else that makes these DLC bad.

Antiquities and Companions were both received pretty well by the playerbase at large. Tales of Tribute was the only feature that was controversial from start and remains very split. A ton of people use companions and antiquities. Antiquities being by far the most popular feature of the three.

Most of the complaints I've seen around the last 3 expansions have had to do with its shallower writing and how easy overland is, which has been a longstanding complaint since Summerset. People also want new combat abilities, which is not the same as not liking the non-combat activities we've been getting. A lot of complaints go like "Antiquities is nice and all, but when are we going to get a new class" for example.

ETA:

Holly: Hopefully the Companion System was well received by players, if so do you have plans to release more Companions, and/or add more to the system (i.e. more skills, armor, or cosmetic items)?

Rich: Companions have been extremely well received by our community and the vast majority of players who have access to them, are using them on a regular basis. It’s been fun for us to see which companion is the most popular (Mirri – 62% vs. Bastian – 38%), and which abilities players seem to gravitate towards equipping on their companion (Most players have at least one heal ability on their companions). As for the future of the system or if we will release any more, only time will tell…

[Source]

And I'm inclined to believe him, because I see them all the time. I even see them in harder content when someone drops group and then someone else's companion is summoned automatically until that group member is replaced. They sometimes make jokes about it too like "Guess Mirri's gonna solo this for us." or whatever.

"The vast majority of players who have access to them." That somewhat significantly reduces how much players are being referred to here. There is also not really a downside to using them, so that's also not surprising and not indicative of player opinion on the feature overall. For example I'll be using Nocturnal's Ploy next patch too despite my opinion of it being that it should not be added to the game. A lot of people were complaining about how pointless companions were at the time because they were only useful in overland which isn't really an area where you need extra damage. At the time of their release companions were still instantly dying and doing their quotes way too often which was a big contributor to the complaining and not to mention all the crafters that felt upset about not being able to craft or upgrade companion gear.
But just like vanity pets, having your own dress-up doll following you is something a lot of players like. I'd say after all the fixes the reception of it was luke-warm over all, because the system could have been much greater than it ended up being and there is still no point to it other than fashion and maybe helping tanks and healers quest a little faster. People still would have preferred something else.
You got the same complaints in Greymoor about antiquities because it "looked like a mobile game" and "doesn't belong in ESO". You won't find those voices anymore because unlike housing, antiquities continue to get free updates and pretty solid ones too but at the time there was the fear that this feature would just be forgotten the same way ZOS has forgotten about Battlegrounds. Personally I was a fan of antiquities regardless of whether they would continue to get updates or not, but if it hadn't I could understand the sentiment. The only thing I dislike about antiquities is that the scrying part can be brute-forced which makes it pointless rather than puzzle fun, to me anyway.

I'm pretty sure the complaints about ToT will die down too, as I'm sure the game is actually fun and it's easy for ZOS to add new decks without much worry. Personally I would have liked if there was at least a cut scene of our player characters sitting at a table, shuffling the cards and then drawing before the perspective switches. Just a little more details to show that it's our characters playing the game and make it more related to ESO. Feature-wise High Isle is going to stay superior to Blackwood which has lost all of its unique features now that companions can be obtained without owning Blackwood, but a card game will ultimately remain something only few people in the MMO space enjoy and it cannot stand alone as the main feature of a chapter.

When it comes to feature addition, ask yourself, how likely is someone going to buy this chapter as a DLC later on over some other chapter with a different feature? Compared to jewelry crafting, antiquities, psijic, dark brotherhood and thieves guild skill line, companions and tales of tribute are going to be pretty low on the priority list unless you are hardcore into these these systems. Still better than Elsweyr which is left without feature now that Necromancers are a separate purchase, but at least it still has that free house.

Ratzkifal wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

We've asked for that already and the official stance is that ZOS wants to fill the Tamriel map first before revisiting older zones or going beyond Tamriel.
Also it's not that newer DLC aren't as popular because of their zones. It's the writing and the failure to add meaningful systems to these DLC that makes them less popular.

Here is an overview of the feature additions with each update:

• Imperial City was more than just a dungeon DLC, it was an entire PvP update with a new zone.
• Orsinium had Maelstrom Arena and made farming the new highest tier materials easier.
• Thieves Guild had heists, restricted areas and a trial.
• Dark Brotherhood had the Blade of Woe and Sacraments.

After that we got the system of two dungeon DLCs, one chapter and one zone DLC per year.

• Morrowind added Battlegrounds and the Warden class.
• Clockwork City added Transmutation and another trial.
• Summerset added jewelry crafting.
• Murkmire had a new 4-player Arena, but otherwise lacked in features - it was given away for free.
• Elsweyr added the Necromancer class.
• Dragonhold didn't have any major feature addition, the grappling hook isn't used in older zones to discover secret areas for example. People were disappointed with it.
• Greymoor added antiquities which a lot of people were unhappy with, at the end of the day mythics are just sets like any other - but it's not a bad system and continues getting updated which makes the feature more valuable over time, but that wasn't obvious back then. Its writing was also quite bad.
• Markarth added a new solo arena, the lack of any other feature could be excused due to the addition of the gear stickerbook and the good story it had.
• Blackwood added companions, which are a nonfeature because they are pointless in overland, and in dungeons and trials you'll always prefer a human player. They are human-shaped vanity pets. People were disappointed.
• Deadlands also added nothing, but at least it was given away for free and Fargrave was cool.
• High Isle added companions that don't require Blackwood, making Blackwood effectively featureless, and Tales of Tribute - an entirely separate game that has little to do with ESO so it hardly counts as an "ESO feature". It's its own game, but why buy an ESO chapter to get a card game when you could buy a better card game (or play them for free) and why buy a chapter if it doesn't add anything meaningful to ESO. People were disappointed.

So over the last two years ESO received no or only disappointing features, three if you were among the people who were upset with Antiquities in Greymoor. The price tags remained the same or climbed. It's really not the look of the new zones or the design of its overland that made these DLC so poorly received.

I'm all for updating older zones. Shadowfen, Deshaan, Stonefalls and all of Valenwood's zones could greatly benefit from being updated but it's not like the effort is wasted on newer zones. The zone design is one of the few things that has remained great about ESO. It's everything else that makes these DLC bad.

Antiquities and Companions were both received pretty well by the playerbase at large. Tales of Tribute was the only feature that was controversial from start and remains very split. A ton of people use companions and antiquities. Antiquities being by far the most popular feature of the three.

Most of the complaints I've seen around the last 3 expansions have had to do with its shallower writing and how easy overland is, which has been a longstanding complaint since Summerset. People also want new combat abilities, which is not the same as not liking the non-combat activities we've been getting. A lot of complaints go like "Antiquities is nice and all, but when are we going to get a new class" for example.

ETA:

Holly: Hopefully the Companion System was well received by players, if so do you have plans to release more Companions, and/or add more to the system (i.e. more skills, armor, or cosmetic items)?

Rich: Companions have been extremely well received by our community and the vast majority of players who have access to them, are using them on a regular basis. It’s been fun for us to see which companion is the most popular (Mirri – 62% vs. Bastian – 38%), and which abilities players seem to gravitate towards equipping on their companion (Most players have at least one heal ability on their companions). As for the future of the system or if we will release any more, only time will tell…

[Source]

And I'm inclined to believe him, because I see them all the time. I even see them in harder content when someone drops group and then someone else's companion is summoned automatically until that group member is replaced. They sometimes make jokes about it too like "Guess Mirri's gonna solo this for us." or whatever.

"The vast majority of players who have access to them." That somewhat significantly reduces how much players are being referred to here. There is also not really a downside to using them, so that's also not surprising and not indicative of player opinion on the feature overall. For example I'll be using Nocturnal's Ploy next patch too despite my opinion of it being that it should not be added to the game. A lot of people were complaining about how pointless companions were at the time because they were only useful in overland which isn't really an area where you need extra damage. At the time of their release companions were still instantly dying and doing their quotes way too often which was a big contributor to the complaining and not to mention all the crafters that felt upset about not being able to craft or upgrade companion gear.
But just like vanity pets, having your own dress-up doll following you is something a lot of players like. I'd say after all the fixes the reception of it was luke-warm over all, because the system could have been much greater than it ended up being and there is still no point to it other than fashion and maybe helping tanks and healers quest a little faster. People still would have preferred something else.
You got the same complaints in Greymoor about antiquities because it "looked like a mobile game" and "doesn't belong in ESO". You won't find those voices anymore because unlike housing, antiquities continue to get free updates and pretty solid ones too but at the time there was the fear that this feature would just be forgotten the same way ZOS has forgotten about Battlegrounds. Personally I was a fan of antiquities regardless of whether they would continue to get updates or not, but if it hadn't I could understand the sentiment. The only thing I dislike about antiquities is that the scrying part can be brute-forced which makes it pointless rather than puzzle fun, to me anyway.

I'm pretty sure the complaints about ToT will die down too, as I'm sure the game is actually fun and it's easy for ZOS to add new decks without much worry. Personally I would have liked if there was at least a cut scene of our player characters sitting at a table, shuffling the cards and then drawing before the perspective switches. Just a little more details to show that it's our characters playing the game and make it more related to ESO. Feature-wise High Isle is going to stay superior to Blackwood which has lost all of its unique features now that companions can be obtained without owning Blackwood, but a card game will ultimately remain something only few people in the MMO space enjoy and it cannot stand alone as the main feature of a chapter.

When it comes to feature addition, ask yourself, how likely is someone going to buy this chapter as a DLC later on over some other chapter with a different feature? Compared to jewelry crafting, antiquities, psijic, dark brotherhood and thieves guild skill line, companions and tales of tribute are going to be pretty low on the priority list unless you are hardcore into these these systems. Still better than Elsweyr which is left without feature now that Necromancers are a separate purchase, but at least it still has that free house.

Companions were a fantastic addition to the game. I wish they'd do more with them, add more, and give more functionality, but its up there with housing as things that any game trying to capture the TES spirit should have tackled. I also don't think that companions were ever designed with harder content in mind. You say that they are only used in overworld, but overworld might be 90% of the game, and what 90% of the population spend 90% of their time on.

LikiLoki wrote: »

Return players to the old zones? Easy. Wash textures, open closed houses, populate them with new residents with additional tasks. Do you want more complicated? Make the world dynamic: the seasons change once a month, add unique resources depending on the time of year (non-melting snow in winter, alchemical snowdrop in spring, etc.), new monsters coming at their own time of year and time of day. Do you want more? Turn on your imagination. But will you get at least something? The development team already has the answer in the form of complex economic graphs, charts and figures, and this report has already been removed to the deepest corner of the archive

I love this. Give me seasons and more dynamic weather! Make the overworld more dynamic.

UNLOCK THE CHAINS AND RELEASE THE DOORS!

kieso wrote: »

They need an upgrade and some issues touched up.

For example better continuity between the alisnce zones which then can culminate to cold harbour. Right now cadwells silver and gold feels outdated.

An overall better presentation of the base zones would help with player retention imo since its what new players would see more often.

Yeah, strong agree. I think that Silver and Gold were a last-minute hackjob to meet beta demands to be able to experience all of Tamriel on the one character. It never made a lot of sense if you thought about it, and as the story continues, makes less and less sense still.

Danikat wrote: »

The only maps I'd like to see redesigned are the Valenwood ones, because they look nothing like Valenwood is described in lore. It's supposed to be a huge dense jungle where many of the people and animals live entirely up in the trees, moving along pathways formed of branches, so high up you can't see the ground which is in perpetual twilight. In the game it's more like beech woodland, with lots of big trees but wide open space below and between them.

I think some of us would quote the same sort of arguments about other zones not feeling like they should be. My pet one is Bangkorai, with its 2-dimensional Dragontail Mountains, Viridian "woods", and cold, mountainous Evermore being right next to tropical Blackheart Haven. Montaine Halcyon Lake is inexpliccably navigable by huge ships. And Schrodinger's Ephesus exists in name, but when you open the box, there's literally nothing there. Which is a shame because existing lore gives it character that would have been really interesting to see.

But I very much agree with you about Valenwood. It could absolutely use some love. I'd absolutely love to explore treewalks high above the ground, I think that would be amazing. One can dream, 'eh.

Ratzkifal wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

We've asked for that already and the official stance is that ZOS wants to fill the Tamriel map first before revisiting older zones or going beyond Tamriel.
Also it's not that newer DLC aren't as popular because of their zones. It's the writing and the failure to add meaningful systems to these DLC that makes them less popular.

Here is an overview of the feature additions with each update:

• Imperial City was more than just a dungeon DLC, it was an entire PvP update with a new zone.
• Orsinium had Maelstrom Arena and made farming the new highest tier materials easier.
• Thieves Guild had heists, restricted areas and a trial.
• Dark Brotherhood had the Blade of Woe and Sacraments.

After that we got the system of two dungeon DLCs, one chapter and one zone DLC per year.

• Morrowind added Battlegrounds and the Warden class.
• Clockwork City added Transmutation and another trial.
• Summerset added jewelry crafting.
• Murkmire had a new 4-player Arena, but otherwise lacked in features - it was given away for free.
• Elsweyr added the Necromancer class.
• Dragonhold didn't have any major feature addition, the grappling hook isn't used in older zones to discover secret areas for example. People were disappointed with it.
• Greymoor added antiquities which a lot of people were unhappy with, at the end of the day mythics are just sets like any other - but it's not a bad system and continues getting updated which makes the feature more valuable over time, but that wasn't obvious back then. Its writing was also quite bad.
• Markarth added a new solo arena, the lack of any other feature could be excused due to the addition of the gear stickerbook and the good story it had.
• Blackwood added companions, which are a nonfeature because they are pointless in overland, and in dungeons and trials you'll always prefer a human player. They are human-shaped vanity pets. People were disappointed.
• Deadlands also added nothing, but at least it was given away for free and Fargrave was cool.
• High Isle added companions that don't require Blackwood, making Blackwood effectively featureless, and Tales of Tribute - an entirely separate game that has little to do with ESO so it hardly counts as an "ESO feature". It's its own game, but why buy an ESO chapter to get a card game when you could buy a better card game (or play them for free) and why buy a chapter if it doesn't add anything meaningful to ESO. People were disappointed.

So over the last two years ESO received no or only disappointing features, three if you were among the people who were upset with Antiquities in Greymoor. The price tags remained the same or climbed. It's really not the look of the new zones or the design of its overland that made these DLC so poorly received.

I'm all for updating older zones. Shadowfen, Deshaan, Stonefalls and all of Valenwood's zones could greatly benefit from being updated but it's not like the effort is wasted on newer zones. The zone design is one of the few things that has remained great about ESO. It's everything else that makes these DLC bad.

Antiquities and Companions were both received pretty well by the playerbase at large. Tales of Tribute was the only feature that was controversial from start and remains very split. A ton of people use companions and antiquities. Antiquities being by far the most popular feature of the three.

Most of the complaints I've seen around the last 3 expansions have had to do with its shallower writing and how easy overland is, which has been a longstanding complaint since Summerset. People also want new combat abilities, which is not the same as not liking the non-combat activities we've been getting. A lot of complaints go like "Antiquities is nice and all, but when are we going to get a new class" for example.

ETA:

Holly: Hopefully the Companion System was well received by players, if so do you have plans to release more Companions, and/or add more to the system (i.e. more skills, armor, or cosmetic items)?

Rich: Companions have been extremely well received by our community and the vast majority of players who have access to them, are using them on a regular basis. It’s been fun for us to see which companion is the most popular (Mirri – 62% vs. Bastian – 38%), and which abilities players seem to gravitate towards equipping on their companion (Most players have at least one heal ability on their companions). As for the future of the system or if we will release any more, only time will tell…

[Source]

And I'm inclined to believe him, because I see them all the time. I even see them in harder content when someone drops group and then someone else's companion is summoned automatically until that group member is replaced. They sometimes make jokes about it too like "Guess Mirri's gonna solo this for us." or whatever.

"The vast majority of players who have access to them." That somewhat significantly reduces how much players are being referred to here. There is also not really a downside to using them, so that's also not surprising and not indicative of player opinion on the feature overall.

I don't think people would be using them if they didn't want to like them. It's too minor of a feature to assume there's any pressure to use it despite disliking it. I saw plenty of feedback about Companions that was critical, but almost all of it was because they wanted the system improved not because they didn't like it. And they have honestly flooded the zones. I don't think that people wanting the system improved is the same as not liking the system at all. I did see some negative posts but it was overwhelmingly positive or constructive criticism of where they could be improved rather than resentment of their existence. Same with antiquities.

Tales, I think will always be the least used or enjoyed feature. I like it a lot, and it's a lot of fun. But, realistically it's a niche interest imo.

As for which type of features players will like most, I think companions are one of them which is why they got added to High Isle too. Most of the playerbase are casual players. Stuff like that is right up their alley.
Outside of them, stuff that impacts actual gameplay like classes and skill lines are gonna always be the most desired features because they interest a much wider variety of players. There is no denying that.

I don't think a zone remaster would go over as well as any of the past chapters tbh unless they introduced a new skill line. Because, I think that's what people want most right now. A new gameplay system. I think they care about the look out of the place far less than they do their gameplay experience getting some much needed variety. I do think revisiting a zone like Alik'r would go over well though if they did something like add a sword singer skill line to it.