"In the world of software development, maintenance mode refers to a point in a computer program's life when it has reached all of its goals and is generally considered to be "complete" and bug-free. The term can also refer to the point in a software product's evolution when it is no longer competitive with other products or current with regard to the technology environment it operates within. In both cases, continued development is deemed unnecessary or ill-advised, but occasional bug fixes and security patches are still issued, hence the term maintenance mode."

So I think the answer is clearly no.

of course not.

The fact that you don't like the new features doesn't mean nobody does.

I, for one, vastly prefer a card came instead of a weapon line or even a class. (both are useless to me)

Also, the quality of the quests in high isle increased tremendously. I enjoyed that questline.

New content being made? Yes?

Then no. It's not in "maintenance mode". Unless your definition of maintenance mode is just "they're not making what I want."

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BlueRaven wrote: »

When was the last time you saw any mac centric bug fixes?

I don't know but I haven't checked with them. I wouldn't expect much of anything they don't consider game breaking though, as that post is essentially saying that the MAC's are going to get limited support and only for as much as it makes sense.

They don’t consider the entire Mac OS failing when entering a city game breaking? What can be more gamebreaking? Someone rushing into your home with a sledgehammer?
😝

Ah yet another "I don't like recent changes and additions to the game so it's dying" complaint poorly disguised as a poll. We are getting a guaranteed 4 dlcs a year.we are also getting new major systems like the armory, companions and Tales of tribute as well. If Eso were in maintenance mode we would likely have far less.

kind_hero wrote: »

You're right, perhaps "maintenance mode" is not the best title/poll question, however the game feels like is on autopilot for some time.

It's not just not the best, it's just factually not accurate. People who voted yes are being hyperbolic to make a point that they dislike the state of the game (or perhaps they don't know the definition). Like some people are tired of not having new classes or believe the franchise has gotten formulaic. Voting yes is therefore absolutely mostly about whatever or not you like the content.

kind_hero wrote: »

Where is the imagination, the novelty, the evolution? There is no evolution, the game is stagnating, they are adding things that bring money and keep players doing chores.

Tales of Tribute is evolution. It's a brand new way to play that isn't a chore for the people who like it. I agree with you that the game is getting stale with the 1 year formula. Although it's because I feel it constrains story telling, and because I want a new combat skill line, not because the games' core design is non-leveled zones. So we disagree on the reason, but this game has had new content that changed how we play it. Antiquities were a significant addition and so was Tales. Companions are pretty significant to the players it opened a lot of content too.

Well, the situation is more complicated, but to simplify:

PVE side gets content 4 times per year, and thus can say it is not in maintenance mode, like say SWTOR is for sure, that was mentioned by people already. And i can admit that, even tho not been excited about the last 2 years. There are many reasons for that, but i used to love the game during it's "good old days".

PVP side of the game has been clearly in maintenance mode for years. No one can deny that, it does not get any new content, and nope, the "tests" and trying to fix server stability is not content. Nerfing and buffing sets every 3 months is not content also. Most often it's been just a source of frustration to the pvp players since had to deal with broken sets for months. Often discouraging people to even play pvp at all during the worst updates. Pretty much the only content for PVP is the horror when pvp players are reading the patch notes every major update cycle, sadly.

I just identify so strongly to the PVP side because Cyrodiil and IC was where i did spend most my time, even did all the PVE content also obviously so that it feels sad in current state.

Who knows, maybe after couple less interesting years they come up with something fresh and full of actual content next year. Gonna check read patch notes then to check it out. Even if playing other game right now and ESO been uninstalled, it still has a special place in my heart and if it shows signs of changing it's course to the better, i'm willing to give it a chance.

Staying in contact with people i know still play and reading forums every now and then, maybe once a month, is good enough news source about the latest happenings.

Marto wrote: »

PVP is not in maintenance mode. PVP is in standby mode.

When nothing happens in 2-3 years (actual results) and even after that time there is nothing guaranteed promised to happen in the future for the PVP side of the game, goal posts can just move again for one or more years, like have in the past, (undeniable fact) such is a long time in the game world. We in EU are also getting the server upgrade like 1 year later than NA did. If those had been bought at the same time, we would have gotten it already too.

What term is used about it does not really matter to be honest. But we can use your term if you so wish.

And no, i'm not the typical "doom and gloom" shouter that spends everyday spamming new topics about the game dying. ESO has enough of loyal fanbase to keep the game going still for years. I just try to voice my concerns as someone who has loved the game. And now post maybe few times a year. It was big part of my daily fun for years. And i try to always say feedback in a constructive way, but you also most likely know that any sort of feedback that they think is negative enough is lately not welcome here in the forums and any proper discussion has to be had in neutral discords or in private messages.

I feel that developers should not be angry at players for giving feedback, it can be negative sometimes, but it also means people care enough to give it. They should be proud of the product they created, people have loved it, we are not their enemies now, many of us (not trying to talk for everyone, the gaming community is not one big hive mind) just been feeling that the game is going to a direction that is not what we hoped for, meanwhile also having plenty of technical difficulties.

And no, feedback like this should not be seen as bashing or trolling, but they should read all feedback and just build again towards what made their systems and combat be so loved. And discussion in an open forum should be allowed to be open, it can give valuable insight even sometimes. It is not bashing or trolling to talk about the good and the bad sides of current game update(s).

And i actually think that Gina, Kevin and other community team from ZOS are nice people. And same with Rich since direct messaged with him on discord already years ago.

Hope you all have a great sunday!

English is not my primary language, so who knows, maybe sometimes can pick a wrong word to describe something. In such a case, i do apologize.

Four_Fingers wrote: »

Always with the console bashing.
You do realize there are low end PC out there as well.
Neither has anything to do with quality of content.

Can we stop with this feel-good dishonest repeated line that it's not console that is the cause of these decisions?
Sure, there are some low-end PCs out there, but few people who are gaming are using them, especially for expensive genres like MMOs.

The reality is that there is a significant portion of the playerbase that plays on a machine that is marketed for gaming, which is natural. The unfortunate reality of that machine is that the technology is not just low-end but VERY low end, which places significant restraints on game design.

These restraints (along with the poor code of the game itself) have held back the game over the years, from classes, to abilities, to animations, to housing, everything.
Zenimax has already confirmed this, we are not divining and abstracting a reason.

ZOS will implement improvements when the market value of those players are no longer worth the limitations, which will probably come with no longer supporting the older consoles (rather than the newer generation). Unfortunately, the game will always be behind the curve at its current rate, and that's just something that we as ESO players have come to accept and deal with.

kind_hero wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

Where is the imagination, the novelty, the evolution? There is no evolution, the game is stagnating, they are adding things that bring money and keep players doing chores.

Tales of Tribute is evolution. It's a brand new way to play that isn't a chore for the people who like it. I agree with you that the game is getting stale with the 1 year formula. Although it's because I feel it constrains story telling, and because I want a new combat skill line, not because the games' core design is non-leveled zones. So we disagree on the reason, but this game has had new content that changed how we play it. Antiquities were a significant addition and so was Tales. Companions are pretty significant to the players it opened a lot of content too.

ToT might be a cool feature, but saying that is evolution, it's like saying Witcher 3 evolved compared to Witcher 2 because it has Gwent.

By evolution, I mean a significant improvement in several core systems that impact the game and create a more engaging experience, especially for the veteran players who are used with the same release pattern for years.

Then your idea of gameplay evolution is extremely narrow compared to mine. My idea of gameplay evolution is significantly new ways to play the game, that are more than just stuff like basic stat increases to the game. I would consider Gwent a gameplay evolution and a new game mode. It was drastic enough of a change to get it's own spin-off.

I don't consider it something that narrowly benefits a particular group of players but really anything that significantly shifts the way at least some target group of people play.

Companions dramatically changed gameplay for the casual players that fully utilized them. Entire gameplay avenues opened up to them that wasn't there before. I know ones that went from being unwilling to do dungeons and constantly asked for help for world bosses, to soloing those things on their own. I don't know how a feature that opened entire gameplay modes to people could be dismissed as just a grind.

Thing is, we don't know what their problem is

The server re-architecure and having to replace the hardware. They've been open that content is being held back (particularly anything that adds significant content to pvp) until they've finished.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

Thing is, we don't know what their problem is

The server re-architecure and having to replace the hardware. They've been open that content is being held back (particularly anything that adds significant content to pvp) until they've finished.

I know, and they are at it for years with no milestone in sight. Me and many other players pay a sub. I haven't seen any meaningful discounts on account of this backend inconvenience. If you are a PvP player, there is almost nothing new on the horizon for years, except for game breaking sets or nerfs. I pre-ordered High Isle, like I am doing since Summerset. Why do I have to pay for the related DLCs, such as Firesong? (I don't, since I have a sub, but it should be included since is connected and part of the year long theme). There should be some meaningful discounts for paying customers while we wait for more rich content, in some way. But their premium content policy hasn't changed, on the contrary, there are more and more things put behind crown or gem deals.

I feel its in a state of transition and uncertainty.

If the past few years are any indication, I don't think they'll pull off what ff14, gw2, and a few others did. I think they are on a slow descent and that they do not know how to provide lift. They still appear to have a lot of runway til the game dies.

Obviously, they won't drop support for older consoles, because those older consoles are providing a decent amount of revenue and likely contractual requirements make it still worth keeping that support. That won't always be the case.

If they see a clear trend in CP, such as ppl over 1600, for example, tend to leave the game. That likely influences their decisions and I feel that 1500-2000 is sorta a burn out point for their players and doesn't factor into their decision making process.

If the current handling of updates, messaging, and changes continues, they will continue to bleed end gamers and long time players who are not fans of the changes but kept playing past the burnout.

Covid was a huge boost for many games, and that boost is fading After a few years of the repetitive change people move on, I know I am playing other games, but still trying to do dailies and limit my time quite a bit, but even dailies are getting to feel not worth a log on, because I see no long term future for myself with the current direction of this game.

Its just gotten frustrating having to adapt constantly and the aspect I loved, healing, just feels optional since dps and tanks can self heal fine. The only challenge is learning the dance and maintaining situational awareness of the mechanics.

I originally liked this game because you had to somewhat rethink the concept of trinity, it was was only required in some parts of vet and somewhat in hardmode. I feel its basically not required at all anymore because there is so much self and shared healing available, you don't even need a resto staff in party, in the right group resto staff actually holds the team back.

PVP heal heals better than Regen and can be stacked similarly, and sets like Hiti and Winter's Grasp out heal most class based aoe heals that are not ultimates if you can proce them reliably and suffer the same if people can stay in the area. Class heal ultimates are on par and in many cases, better than resto ultimate. Each class has a combat prayer type of heal, and while you miss out on the combat prayer buff, sets again provide better utility there.

If they really wanted to simplify the balance of combat the most fundamental thing they could do is alter stacking of dot's, hot's, buffs and debuffs. Turn them into majors and minors like the buffs and debuffs. Only allow stacking in that manner. major (strongest application) dot, minor (2nd highest and scales to 50% of the major application if backed with enough power to hit that level) version of dot/hot, any other applied dot's or hots, simply do nothing unless the timer on an active one expires and then it can fill in the gap. Then you wont have raids with most dps all running carbon copy pillars and whorl and whatever flavor of the month other bits. You'll want more diversity and very organized teams will organize around that paradigm. .

FelisCatus wrote: »

We've been witnessing a decline and degradation in the quality of ESO chapter's I'd say since Summerset-Elsweyr (Those were the best chapters along with Morrowind but after that in my opinion it went downhill). Chapters are now lacking a wow factor. You've all seen everyone crying out for a new class or combat orientated skill line to spice up combat/rotations and choice. We're now receiving very small/lackluster or generally non-requested (that many seem to feel should be free updates than a chapter DLC). "major features" in the form of minigames (antiquities or ToT) as the main chapter/yearly feature. Instead of new classes or weapon/guild skill lines.

Have the devs lost their muse or are they (which is the most probable) held back by the limitations of consoles.? Couple that with the disaster of U35/balancing fatigue. We're told server upgrades are to come but yet we wait and we still have neglected content like PvP. Communication between devs/players is also near non-existent and there is very little clarity or correspondence as to what their grand plans are regarding balancing/class identity/nerfs/combat changes etc.

My question to all of you is do you think ESO has entered maintenance mode? I made this poll because I feel these questions need to be asked. There is no intent to troll or stir up drama. I genuinely want to gauge what the community thinks and I hope the devs see this.

I believe they are minimizing what they put into the game at the moment as they work on upgrading the game's engine and server code.

Not sure if true but that was my impression based on what had been said earlier.

Agreed, the last interesting chapter was Elsweyr. High Isle is just bad. Tiny zone (but landscapes are really beautiful), main story is bad, world event - complete garbage. Only DSR is good

Well, this is not an "is ESO in maintenance poll".

It's a PvP issue thread in disguise.

The problem with PvP is that there's only so much method it can be implemented and ways people can wack each others .

What new content could possibly be made?

Another zone? Well, have fun doing the exact same thing you do in Cyrodiil in a new setting. Also, you divide the population by 2, if you split it in 2 zones.

Other battlegrounds? Ok, but what rules? (not too compicated/unplayable, please)

New class? Absolutely uninterresting, there's variety enough. Also, everyone would complain it's "op", and every thread of the forum would devolve in "now, it's elder grapplers online" and other jokes we heard a million times and that wren't even funny the first.

New weapon skill line? Same as a new class, but even less interresting. Also, 9 traits crafters could take exception to that.

Seriously, appart from "fix bugs" or "buff me" or "nerf him" ... what new content could possibly made in PvP?