FluffyBird wrote: »

merpins wrote: »

_adhyffbjjjf12 wrote: »

Jim_Pipp wrote: »

The devs have answered this pretty honestly, but I think we players should keep saying that the last few years have been underwhelming.

The last 2 years of content was mostly produced during the pandemic, and dev's have been open that it was a challenge for them to adjust to home-working, remote teams, and what sounds like a stressful workplace. The last 2 annual messages have said that it made them less productive.

The other huge limitation is their commitment to keeping ESO running on the oldest consoles, so they simply can't add major new systems.

[Snip]. I work in a software dev house and have done for 20 years and working from home is perfectly normal and results in higher productivity not less, you travel less, you use teams more rather than going to meeting rooms etc etc. Agree on your other point + the game was never fit for purpose and is in fact a mess (aside from awesome open world content)

They have subs, they should be investing it heavily, sacrificing some short term profits to resolve technical debt AND provide good content, i.e not overpowered sets to keep people farming and buying gold.

Animator/3D artist here. This works fine for everything except animation and 3D art. You need a very beefy machine to do 3D art and animation properly. I'm not saying that ESO requires a beefy machine, but that's part of the reason why professional game studios and animation studios require you to work in-house. The other part of the reason is NDA with private company servers that aren't accessible outside the studio, or proprietary software for animation or 3D art that isn't handed out because it's proprietary.

So it's not unlikely that it wasn't an excuse. Not every 3D animator, renderer, texture artist, 3D artist, has a beefy enough computer to do professional level content in the timeframe that is needed for a studio. For example, I can do professional level animation at home in the same amount of time it would take to do it in the studio. I can do textures, and lighting. Lighting will take a bit longer than in the studio, but not much. The thing for me that's impossible to do from home is rendering; my machine can render one scene at a time. I don't have a render farm like my workplace, so I can't get it done quickly. 24 fps, it takes about an hour per frame. So 1 second of animation takes my rig a day to render. The rigs in my workplace cut that down to a little under half that time per frame, and there's about 50 of them so you can render off tens of minutes of animation in less than an hour. I doubt an MMO from 2014 has the same requirements as a 3D animated feature film in 2022, but it's a good comparison.

I'm working only with code, so maybe I don't know some important details, but couldn't they connect remotely to their beefy work machines?

Not if those are closed systems, like the person you quoted mentioned. A lot of software can only be accessed from the machines that are at the worksite.

[Edited quote for removed content]

FluffyBird wrote: »

I couldn't care less for endgame content, but I saw nothing to look forward to in the latest ESO Live. Having just watched a dev stream presenting an update for another game that teased new story, characters, locations and events in a way that was actually exciting, I must say, Firesong presentation was bleak. New zone that looks almost the same? An even more disconnected story? They said that the chapter and Q4 DLC could be played in any order, that's concerning. Cheesy effects for harvesting animations? Tiny QoL changes? Meh.

ESO got boring and their cozy "dungeon - chapter - dungeon - story" with set number of delves and bosses, and same dailies and onslaught of sets and motifs every update just makes it worse and more same-y. Couple it with poor writing and I can guarantee that those recurring characters they showed will be just bland shadows of themselves.

There's a couple of games that I greatly enjoy, won't name names as not to anger mods, but I'll give reasons.
One is of respectable age, about a year older than ESO, I picked it up recently, so it may be just its relative freshness that appeals to me, but I love feeling of actual progression and getting stronger, profitable farming (no trash loot here) and devs' explanation of changes and fixes. Didn't level enough to unlock new content that just released though, but (imho) for ESO the ability to jump straight into latest chapters does more harm than good anyway.
The other I've been playing for the better part of it's two years. I came for edgy anime boi and stayed for top-notch overland exploration, captivating story, easy farm (again, no trash loot) and diverse gameplay (event-excusive gameplay too, not "here's your additional drop for doing same stuff, now heck off").

Nothing ESO can't do.

Edit: typos

So the question is why DONT they? What are they doing with all the money we spend if almost none of it goes back into the game?

BlueRaven wrote: »

ESO is NOT a standalone game. It’s part of the Elder Scrolls line of games. What’s more, it’s a prequel to those games.

A new race can’t just be inserted because they then have to explain why that race disappears from the other ES games.

Maomer are a perfect example of that. If a Maomer becomes Emperor, saves Skyrim, or anything like that. It would become a huge deal lore wise. It would not just be lost to history. Maomer can never become a playable race, never.

The best we can get is sub races of our existing ones.

Besides races like Maomer and Dwemer can be recreated right now, an “official” version is not needed.



My maomer exile.




My "time lost" dwemer.

if were being technical 1) this expansion has been a bust of the most part , the last update obviously driving alot of ppl away , alot of ppl originally believed it was going to be a maomer themed one and maomer being playable , they are not a NEW race , and when ppl say add new races they mean just add more playable races (as we saw with skyrim you can argue that at this point in time snow elves could be added on a technicality since they didnt get to their state till ESV)....there is literally alot of variations they can add outright (hello the amount of khajiit sub races! what was that like 11-16 ? obviously ruling out the house cat shaped models and the senche mount ones......murkmire showing different types of argonians , and so forth. to say they couldnt add more races , much less classes , is laughable. to say we should just make lookalikes trying to get teh right pieces is also sad and just enables bad practices.

Agenericname wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Using myself as an example, I want the Beast Personality, but getting a No-Death clear on Vet is pretty much impossible for me. I get way too overwhelmed way too easily and it ruins my situational awareness, as does my ADHD. It throws me off my rotation and it's next to impossible for me to get back into the swing of it during the battle, because I'm still being overwhelmed. And the longer the fight goes on the worse it gets, until I wind up with my face murdered. As an RPer it super sucks that I can't get it, and I wish there was an alternate way to get those trifecta rewards. Maybe getting 100 Vet clears of the dungeon. Something that requires a lot of effort and work, so it's still earned, but in a way I and others might actually be able to manage.

Not to say I think trifectas shouldn't be rewarded. Maybe guaranteed golden gear drops (including Jewelry) or additional drops (maybe triple the normal drops) or something else that would really benefit people doing those runs? Extra gold to cover the cost of potions and stuff? But putting cosmetic stuff that the most casual of casuals might want behind content so very few people can clear is very sucky.

The Beast Personality comes from the March of Sacrifices Challenger. The trifecta is commonly refers to all three of the challenger components in the same run, and they really dont offer a lot in terms of rewards. Most of the decent rewards come from the hard modes or the entire challenger, and the latter can done in stages and the progression saved. Thats not unreasonable.

Putting cosmetics as the reward is also not a bad thing. If ZOS offered golden jewelry as a reward, they would be farmed for it, even the trifectas. If they added gear it would give people that could complete them an advantage over those who could not. Anything ZOS could add as a reward would be scrutinized and cosmetics are the least impactful.

Anything that ZOS added would also be coveted. The idea that the most casual of casuals should have any reward whether they can do the content it comes from means in essence that there should be no rewards for it all. There's no reward that could be added that someone wouldnt ask for without doing it.

If a player is capable of 100 veteran clears, they're more than capable of the no death. Most of the folks that run that content for the achievements either work with experienced players that know it well or about to put some reps in. After some attempts, some familiarity, and knowing the fights, the fights slow down and things that seemed impossible wont be nearly as far out of reach.

Ah yes, I don't know why I keep keep getting the trifecta and Challenger achieves mixed up, thank you for the correction.

Anyways, I have to respectfully disagree that someone who can do 100 Vet clears should be able to do the Challenger things too. You have to remember that in normal Vet clears, you don't have to worry about dying or being fast. You can take as long as you need, die as much as you want, and still manage to get through it. I CANNOT do MoS on Vet without dying, and to say I should be able to do that just because I can do normal Vet clears is...well just because a person can do one doesn't mean they can do it all.

Cosmetic stuff is a poor thing to use as rewards for endgame imo because it's something everyone can use. Locking things like golden gear or Jewelery behind these sorts of things is less problematic because the people who want that stuff will be the ones to benefit most from it. It's kind of like when people ask why those who don't do trials at all want trial gear (tho in that case I can imagine it's people wanting the stuff to fill their Stickerbook). The people who are capable of using that gear are the ones already doing that sort of content. That's why I said the rewards locked behind the hardest content should be stuff the endgame community can get use out of but isn't stuff casual people would also want and be able to use. MMOs are just as much about making characters look how you want as they are about content, and making cosmetic stuff near impossible to get for the majority of players really puts a crimp in that.

And like I said, just because I can do 100 Vet runs does NOT mean I can do one Vet No-Death. Yeah, I might get lucky in that 100 runs and have one where I don't die once, but if I can't get that luck, then at least I have this alternate method to getting the thing I want. It's still something that requires time and effort, so what would be the difference? Different ways of acquiring things doesn't have to mean one way makes someone less "worthy" of having something; at the end of the day this is a game and I don't get why people (not you, but people I've seen say this over the years) feel it necessary to claim anything has to be "earned". It ain't that serious, you know?

But again, it's why ZOS has been putting rewards behind Vet clears instead of behind Challenger achieves. Or at least they have been for dungeons, not actually sure about trials or arenas.

ESO has its way around lore breaking things we are in the Elder Scrolls Universe... we can have a split in the universe happen in the past caused by .... that cause a break in reality known and move into a different universe branch then due to manipulation can be returned to the original time line and no one would ever remember the break or line change after they correct the abberation... so the devs could have fun if they planned a way to branch out yet keep the main line lore stable

to quote a SF book I read a life time ago "any paradox can be Para-doctored"

I do and don't agree with the OP. Content is good, in fact I think the dungeon content has gotten better since summerset. I like the way Hardmode makes all bosses challenging rather than just the end.

But I agree with the reward.system sucking hard since Wrathstone. Conqueror achievement giving personality/skin was a perfect balance of hardcore without making it too overbearing or grindy as a trifectas, giving Endgame/vet content players something fun to aim for.

Unfortunately they caved in to the demands of casuals not being unable to obtain/access them. But I doesn't lessen the quality of the content.

Last three Trials have been very meh though. They should have just stuck to tiered difficulty arena style like cloudrest, asylum, which are more more fun and have far better boss mechanics than any of these new trials.

Wasn't it stated somewhere in the past that ESO actually is canon?

Update - It seems I remembered correctly:

Emmagoldman wrote: »

HoundofTara wrote: »

I feel that the last two years of content have been so lack luster and dull especially for the endgame community.
No 4man arenas, no trifecta/perfecta skins or personalities in dungeons, no solo arenas, no new classes or skill lines, no skins in trials, no new race (Maomer), barely anything to farm aside from the occasional set here and there… what’s going on?
Why is the game feeling like content isn’t rewarding anymore? Why don’t we get arenas or skins anymore? I’m honestly worried, I’ve put so much time into this game the last 6 years and it feels like the devs aren’t caring to add content to keep the game alive and it’s sad to be honest. I’m immensely disappointed and companions are a far cry from good added content btw.
I miss Summerset-Greymoor, it actually felt like I was playing a loved, supported, and living game.

Could be worse, last addition for pvp was what, feb of 2019?

Could be worse? You realize we play the same game right? No pvp content since 2019 affects us and every other player equally it’s not like we play different versions of eso than each other lol.
The point of my post is pointing out that we are paying the same price for content that gives us less month after month.

What content? 2 sunflower furnishings and 10 quest on an empty small island?
It's not even worth calling that a DLC, and i'ts even more to ask people money for this.
And yes i'm salty, because things like these are more than insulting to the player base.

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

_adhyffbjjjf12 wrote: »

Jim_Pipp wrote: »

The devs have answered this pretty honestly, but I think we players should keep saying that the last few years have been underwhelming.

The last 2 years of content was mostly produced during the pandemic, and dev's have been open that it was a challenge for them to adjust to home-working, remote teams, and what sounds like a stressful workplace. The last 2 annual messages have said that it made them less productive.

The other huge limitation is their commitment to keeping ESO running on the oldest consoles, so they simply can't add major new systems.

[Snip]. I work in a software dev house and have done for 20 years and working from home is perfectly normal and results in higher productivity not less, you travel less, you use teams more rather than going to meeting rooms etc etc. Agree on your other point + the game was never fit for purpose and is in fact a mess (aside from awesome open world content)

They have subs, they should be investing it heavily, sacrificing some short term profits to resolve technical debt AND provide good content, i.e not overpowered sets to keep people farming and buying gold.

[Snip]. Just because you are more productive doesn't mean other people are. If you even look at surveys of it the vast majority, like 80%+ of people asked say they are more productive in the office. [Snip].

Let's start with:

Number 1 stating working from home raises your productivity by up to 77%

Number 2 stating, that 6 of 10 work more productively at home, while 14% state they are less productive.

Number 3, confirming that employees are more productive at home due to more flexibility (loot at finding #1)

Number 4 with the most conservative increase by measly 9% increased productivity for working from home

And that is just an excerpt from a very quick and dirty Google-search. There was on McKinsey article which highlighted that flexible workers (bit office, bit home office) report the most obstacles to their work, home office workers the 2nd most and office workers the least of the three groups compared. Reasoning for that was not clear and collected by the survey though.

So. To me, the other forum user was not that off. [Snip].

[Edited for removed content]

Regarding new playable races, The Elder Scrolls has a very established lore that was created over more than two decades. So, it is complicated to add playable races without diverging too much from the original games. Another issue is balance. There could be snake people or giants, but these races will create a lot of issues.

I was hoping for a new class, like the battlemage, since they introduced Battlespire NPCs in a dungeon, and we have one of them as a house guest. Felt like a for-shadowing. High Isle would have been a great opportunity because the Bretons are good with magic. Unfortunately, High Isle could have been a larger DLC, it's not that unique to be a year long chapter. I did enjoy parts of it, but to me it looked too similar with Summerset and felt too much like the Blackwood chapter. Companion grinds, same dailies, etc (I won't go again into details).

Not having some sailing mechanics, a ship boarding pvp arena, a jousting system or some tournament/prison arena, are missed opportunities.

One thing that is diminishing my enthusiasm with each new DLC is how as a veteran player, all the new content (except dungeons/trials) is so easy, the same like in starting zones. I wish DLCs to have an optional game plus mode. I get it this might be complicated to do for the older zones, but it should be considered for new zones. I wish the new zone to have some very dangerous area, if a game+ mode is too much to ask for. This dangerous area could have tough mobs, cool mechanics, timed mini quests, all for increased rewards or xp. Have all this made optional, fine, but don't make everything so easy. Trust me dear devs, I felt no fear or worry about this Ascendant Order, because it was like any other cult or group of bandits from base game. Go in, use some aoe, bam, everything is dead. I can't get invested in the story like this. The only place you can tell this order means business is that world boss minievent. I am sure the Firesong druids or whatever will be the same, very easy to deal with. The mobs can't even have some memorable attack because they die so quickly. Otherwise you would fear their special spell or trick. Everything regarding overland is the same, just the skin of the mob changes.

kind_hero wrote: »

Regarding new playable races, The Elder Scrolls has a very established lore that was created over more than two decades. So, it is complicated to add playable races without diverging too much from the original games. Another issue is balance. There could be snake people or giants, but these races will create a lot of issues.

I was hoping for a new class, like the battlemage, since they introduced Battlespire NPCs in a dungeon, and we have one of them as a house guest. Felt like a for-shadowing. High Isle would have been a great opportunity because the Bretons are good with magic. Unfortunately, High Isle could have been a larger DLC, it's not that unique to be a year long chapter. I did enjoy parts of it, but to me it looked too similar with Summerset and felt too much like the Blackwood chapter. Companion grinds, same dailies, etc (I won't go again into details).

Not having some sailing mechanics, a ship boarding pvp arena, a jousting system or some tournament/prison arena, are missed opportunities.

One thing that is diminishing my enthusiasm with each new DLC is how as a veteran player, all the new content (except dungeons/trials) is so easy, the same like in starting zones. I wish DLCs to have an optional game plus mode. I get it this might be complicated to do for the older zones, but it should be considered for new zones. I wish the new zone to have some very dangerous area, if a game+ mode is too much to ask for. This dangerous area could have tough mobs, cool mechanics, timed mini quests, all for increased rewards or xp. Have all this made optional, fine, but don't make everything so easy. Trust me dear devs, I felt no fear or worry about this Ascendant Order, because it was like any other cult or group of bandits from base game. Go in, use some aoe, bam, everything is dead. I can't get invested in the story like this. The only place you can tell this order means business is that world boss minievent. I am sure the Firesong druids or whatever will be the same, very easy to deal with. The mobs can't even have some memorable attack because they die so quickly. Otherwise you would fear their special spell or trick. Everything regarding overland is the same, just the skin of the mob changes.

I am going to point out that the lore you mention also has orcs as monsters, centaurs, and nymphs....
It also has other continents that make oblique reference to intelligent beings .... Summerset even included the Sload.

There is no reason a colony of a new race from one of the other continents cannot make an attempt on one of the shores, just as the Redguard came over and invaded Alik'r, or the Nords in Skyrim... both established in history.

The colony can die out, or even be absorbed by current races in the future.... and we don't know what the Daedra might be trying on another continent that could prevent future attempts by those people to come to Tamriel..... or even if Daedra are attempting to copy Azura with the Khajiit, or the Hist with the Argonians..... It's VERY possible that the Aedra or Daedra could take an existing people, and alter some of them..... it may only last a few generations, or be part of a MUCH longer term plan than we know.......

All of that is easily in Canon ......

Like you, though, I was HOPING for new classes .... I love the idea of an Imperial Battlemage .... or some of the other options that, again, we have in lore, but don't see much in ESO.

Auldwulfe

Ksariyu wrote: »

I'm pretty 50/50 on this post. I understand the frustration at no new arenas being added. Personally I haven't done half of them but that's more due to lack of players than lack of interest (Might have something to do with the lack of said content?).

As far as other new content goes, there are reasons for its scarcity. A new race? There has literally never been a race besides the 10 we have now in an Elder Scrolls game. Ever. What would make them suddenly decide now is the time to start? A new class? The six we have now are already pretty much indistinguishable besides color. The game's singular core playstyle leaves no room for anything else. This is also true for new weapon types, new arena weapons, and frankly also applies to a new race as well. There's just nothing left to add at a gameplay level until they fix other stuff first. PvP content? We know we're waiting on a backend overhaul which we've already been told will likely not be complete this year.

I 100% agree the current formulaic releases are getting beyond stale. I agree that the content in those releases has been underwhelming (Thus why I haven't purchased one since Murkmire, just an idea for all the other complainers out here). However, I also feel like most of the things people are clamoring for are just as mundane at this point. Why add a bunch of new stuff when the stuff in the game already is either broken or deprecated? They could add so much life to the game just by fixing what's there, and I really hope (Foolishly) that the reason for these last couple chapters is that they've also realized this and are trying to work on it.

FYI you're wrong about the race thing.
ESO started with 9, Imperial came later
Games before Morrowind had a lot fewer than 10, orcs were throwaway enemies

Jim_Pipp wrote: »

The devs have answered this pretty honestly, but I think we players should keep saying that the last few years have been underwhelming.

The last 2 years of content was mostly produced during the pandemic, and dev's have been open that it was a challenge for them to adjust to home-working, remote teams, and what sounds like a stressful workplace. The last 2 annual messages have said that it made them less productive.

The other huge limitation is their commitment to keeping ESO running on the oldest consoles, so they simply can't add major new systems.

Yeah, it's time to drop these 9 year old consoles. Like honestly