Ideas for Improving the New Player Experience

evan302 · March 2023

I started ESO back in January and while I am enjoying the game now, I almost quit after playing for a couple of weeks. If I hadn’t paid for a month’s access (I’m on PS5), I probably would have moved on, as it was I was determined to get my money’s worth and that made me hang in.
Looking back on those early days, here’s how I feel the new-player experience could be improved.

My biggest frustrations (roughly in order):

Trying to follow the story.
I had heard this wasn’t easy so I found the ‘ESO in Order’guide on the forum and tried to follow that. Unfortunately I went wrong immediately after taking the portal because it just seemed natural to click on the npc with the main quest marker over her head who was waiting on the other side. That meant I played through the first area with absolutely no idea of who I was fighting or why. Then I took the boat, did the Cold Harbour Quests and got completely confused by the apparent time-loop
I’d defy any new player to work out that what you need to do is choose the right portal to go through, ignore the main story quest-marker in that area, go to the harbour and then find the right boat to take you to the correct city to start the Cold Harbour quest-line.
Suggestion:
Give players a choice at the end of the tutorial, either Free Explore or Follow the Story. If following the story is chosen, add dialogue where you remember you were about to meet someone in (insert appropriate city) and get Norianwe to open a portal directly to the city where you meet the hooded figure.

Because all quests in an area seem to be live rather than relying on a pre-quest to make them appear, it’s very easy to take the story quests in the wrong order.
I think it was only on week 2 or 3 that I found the Zone Guide and saw it had a full list of all the quests in that area, including the ones I hadn’t done. Before that, I relied on the Journal. I got totally muddled in Riften and did everything out of order with the result that nothing made much sense until the end.
Suggestion:
Either tell new players about the Zone Guide and how to use it.
Or,
Have Norianwe give players who choose to follow the story a Traveller’s Guide (I'm sure there's a better name but you get the idea). Something they can refer to that will have all the story quests in order, along with Cadwell’s Silver and Gold when they finish their starter area. I’d also put the Mage’s and Fighter’s Guild stories in here (with a note saying these can be done at any time once the guilds are unlocked).

No Bag Space!
This was really frustrating. If you are the sort of player who wants to gather as you travel around, you run out of space almost immediately. Then you have the daily rewards which soon mount up especially with 2 types of all the Crown items (meals, potions etc), these quickly went from feeling like a bonus to feeling more like a punishment.
For the first few weeks I was grinding to earn gold to expand the bag and filling it instantly. Three months in and things aren’t so bad, I’ve expanded the bank and my bag enough that I’m not spending a whole play session on inventory management. Early on, I had a couple of occasions when making bag-space was all I had time to do and I very nearly quit after that. I asked myself if I was having fun and the answer was ‘No’.
Suggestion:
Give players an extra 20 bag and bank slots to start. You can charge a little extra for each additional slot after that, if that feels too generous (meaning bank size and gold cost would remain the same).

The Very Slow Horse
A horse at level 1 felt great, until I realised I was faster on foot! The 20 hour cool-down is a pain too, I’m glad that is going.
Suggestion:
Start the horse at +20% speed

Classes Feel Very Vague and Lacking Identity
When I picked up a Night Blade, I expected to be medium armour wearing, melee and dual-wield, so it felt a bit strange to have magika suggested by the game as a main stat and for online guides to then point me towards a staff!
At no point did the game suggest appropriate weapons or armour (which is why I went online), I just took a guess from previous mmo experience.
With a little more information, I could have chosen a stamina build and ended up with something that was more like what I wanted.
I felt overwhelmed by all the choices and that intensified when I got to level 50 and CP. I really would have appreciated more guidance in-game (especially since advice on third-party websites may be out of date and no longer valid).
It’s nice that we have the choice to start anywhere and play any way we want, but a little more hand-holding right at the start wouldn’t go amiss. It’s not much fun if you get things wrong and your choices lead to you to hitting like a wet noodle!

Too Many NPCs Popping Up From Future Expansions
It’s very confusing when major cities are full of npcs all wanting to take you to different areas. I remember getting increasingly annoyed by people who seemed to be stalking my every move.
Suggestion:
If you choose to follow the story, make it so these npcs and prompts don’t appear until you have completed the earlier content.

Mages Guild, Fighter’s Guild and Undaunted
Since these are all important, I think it would be a good idea to point new players towards them right at the start.
Maybe have a npc meet you after Cold Harbour and offer to show you around the town (or after you take the portal to a major city if you aren’t following the story). They could also take you to the npcs that certify you for crafting writs if you express an interest in crafting.
I had to look online to find out where to get certified for jewellery-making so, I’d suggest letting the npc who does equipment certification in the major cities also certify you for jewellery-making if you have the appropriate expansion. It would be a lot less bother than looking up where to go, teleporting to a new area and then having to find the city and the npc.

Accidental Stealing and Attacking Friendly NPCS
I don’t know how it is with mouse+keyboard, but with a controller this is so easy to do when you are still learning the controls. Having played a couple of mmos before coming to ESO, I went through the options carefully and turned this off before I started, but not everyone is going to do this. It would have been very frustrating to be hit with fines for something I didn’t even intend to do when I was scraping gold together for bags and riding speed.
Suggestion:
After character creation offer the option of starting in ‘Safe Mode’ with accidental stealing and attacking turned off. Tell players this can be changed at any time by going through the options.

Companions (not a frustration this time but a feature I’ve really enjoyed)
I noticed as I was questing that a lot of players had a companion out. As a very new player, in levelling gear and with a rather poor grasp of skills and combat, I definitely could have done with some help in delves and areas where mobs were packed very closely.
Ironically, most high-level players seem to go through everything like a hot knife through butter even when they don’t have a companion out, but players following the story won’t get a companion when they need it most and those without the DLC won’t get one at all.
I wasn’t going to unlock companions until I reached their area, but I’m glad I changed my mind and didn’t wait; things became a whole lot more fun once I unlocked Mirri and Bastion.
Suggestion:
I think early access to a companion would help a lot with player retention. At low levels, areas with high mob density can be a complete slog if you are the only player in the area, and until you find your feet and maybe join a guild or make friends, questing can be quite lonely.
I know not everybody likes them, but I think giving new players access to a companion in the starting area would be a winning move.

Final Suggestion: A ‘New Players’ Board on the Forum
I notice that Players Helping Players has a mix of newbie queries and questions about later content and endgame.
I was wondering if a new board specifically for new players might be a good addition to the forum, both for asking questions and also for meeting up with other people who are brand new to the game.
I’d love to team up with other newbies for some of the group content rather than queue with randoms or ask my guild to pull me through stuff they’re probably sick of at this point.
I’m lucky enough to have found a helpful and friendly guild, but even so, I can’t constantly spam their chat with cries for help and newbie questions.

Lucien_Torriel · March 2023

Great article. I went through similar issues on my first playthrough on PS4. I remember watching a youtube video, and the person said grab as many quests as you can. I did that, and I found myself doing introductory quests for DLC content at the beggining of the game. I also ended up getting stuck in the main storyline, and defeated Molag Bal before I made Champion.

I didn't see much issue with the bag space at the beginning. Most items that you pick up can be deconstructed to boost your crafting levels. There is a place in every zone to upgrade your bag space.

I agree with you on the horse speed. I have been playing on a new Windows account, my mount speed is less than 20. As a Bosmer, I can run faster than my mount, but once you max out your mount speed, you will never want to run again.

I agree with the classes. I wish there was a warrior class, that was weapons based. The closest ESO has to something like that is a Nightblade, but you really have to master that class to be effective. It would be nice if there was more insight to what your character will become as you level up, but there are plenty of guides on the internet these days, that give a pretty good rundown on the skill morphs.

I agree with the Jewelry Crafting certification. Jewlery certification came with the Summerset DLC. It would be nice if the base game trainers were able to do that certification, so a new player doesn't have to travel to Summerset and back to do those writs. Or add that same Summerset NPC to the base game zones for Jewelry crafting.

The companions seem like a break in the story for me. On my first playthrough, I was CP 985, when I picked up my first companion. Looking back, it would have been nice to have a companion for the world bosses, but I enjoyed perfecting my skills so I could tackle a majority of the gameplay with no companions at all.

I enjoyed reading your post. It was well written. A lot better than my response. Have a great one.

SilverBride · March 2023

I like these ideas.

Being able to play any zone in any order has some advantages but can be very confusing to those new to ESO. It would be great if the game guides a player to do their own alliance's zones first, but once they finish the Harborage quest chain it immediately sends the player to Cadwell's Silver. Direction to the player definitely needs a lot of improvement.

Destai · March 2023

I've gotten several people into the game and they've all found the new player experience to be confusing. I think the fundamental challenge is navigating the patchwork of abandoned tutorials and years of content all at once.

Fundamentally, it needs to be overhauled. I'm happy you're posting this because I feel like ZOS needs to see/hear it more often until they truly understand it's an issue. I'll break down your talking points with my own input as a long time player.

1. Following the story. It's hard to follow; you're not alone in that experience. The iconography needs to be updated to make it clearer and some chronology needs to be made more apparent. The only differentiation you can tell at first glance is between zone/main story, side quest, and daily/repeatable quests. I'd like some different colors or something for each DLC's main quest. Chronology is found in the zone guide, but nowhere else. I'd personally expect the Stories panel to be the most intuitive place for that to go. Even with your solution, player agency isn't respected, which in my mind, is the core issue. Just look at the Hooded Figure as an example. When following tutorial to a DLC zone, you're still forced into that questline. With all of the stalking NPCs, multi-scene questgivers, "You There!" shouts, and lacking iconography, it's hard to get a clear path forward. Years ago, I mentioned this to @ZOS_RichLambert on one of his streams, and I didn't feel like he was receptive to hearing how to improve it. If anything, he seemed beholden to the idea of "play in whatever order you want". It's a noble idea, but there's definitely a more elegant way to go about it. The Stories menu feels like the natural place to acquire and track any story related info, so I'm surprised they haven't adopted that approach.
2. Bag space. It takes a while to get it maxed, and without ESO+, you're going to be left juggling. It's one of the main money makers for them, so I don't see that being remedied any time soon.
3. Horse Upgrades. For me, it's one of the worst "features" of the game. It wouldn't be so bad if you could upgrade all at once. Unfortunately, they've chosen to monetize the solution as they're so wont to do, so you're left waiting months to get it to an enjoyable state. So yes, I agree with you though - the starting speed is too slow and really feels like a buzzkill. I sure wouldn't' be excited to get a mount running at the speed.
4. Class Identity. From the perspective of a new player, I can totally see why you'd feel this way. I think one of the core problems is the build advisor isn't really explained or kept up to date with some of the combat changes. Additionally, you don't get to explicitly choose if you'll be magicka or stamina upfront and get a corresponding build to aim towards. A lot of class skills start as magicka, so you're left to discover later how to play as a stamina character. It does become more apparent, so with repetition, I'm sure you'll make your way. Like a lot of features, the players must rely on external sources to really understand concepts that should be better conveyed in game.
5. Too Many NPCs. Content delivery is quite intrusive and the prologues are the best/worst example of why. I could accept if only the current year's prologue was available from an NPC, but those prologues really clutter up the starting zones. So new players are left even more confused, have a full quest log, and are then wondering where their quest marker is going every time it changes. I struggle with this when I play with my wife and my other RL friends.
6. Guilds Skill Lines. There's a huge gap with these and how they're obtained. AFAIK, you can only acquire the skill lines through base game. Even if you play through a DLC, you'll not be able to complete the skill lines. They're married to the zone progression of the base game. If you start in base game zones like Vulkhel Guard, they will more naturally guide to obtaining these. However, I believe those skill lines should be unlocked from the get-go and then you can choose to begin their corresponding questlines at your leisure. Again, the Stories menu could better help this.
7. Crime settings. I'd prefer these to be off by default, maybe it's a setting that can be determined during character creation or when going through the tutorial. Talking to a shady NPC, you get those options turned on; if not, they're off by default.
8. Companions. Personally, I don't use them. My bear is enough and I just don't want any more dialogue to deal with on top of the rest of the game. That being said, after unlocking them once, it makes sense to have them unlocked account wide. Progress can remain per character, and the quests currently used to acquire can just be treated like public dungeon quests. For those, the first time you complete them, you get a memento. I don't see why the same logic wasn't applied here.

In any case, welcome to the game! Hope you get your questions answered, don't be shy asking here or Reddit.

Dragonlord573 · March 2023

ESO's UX really hasn't improved much. Maybe in 2015 it was good, but it is 2023 and the UX should be improved to today's standards.

Androrix · March 2023

Hmmm...I will be the dissenter here. I like to feel like I am progressing and achieving things. I don't want it all at the start of the game. I do agree that devs do not direct new players to the storyline very well though.

evan302 · March 2023

@ Andronix - I quite agree with you that getting everything on a plate is unsatisfying but I honestly feel I'm not asking for things that would affect player-satisfaction or a sense of achievement. Maybe you could be more specific about the things I've posted about that you would like to remain the same?

Re: Bag space - I would like to clarify that I'm not asking for more space in total. I am aware that ESO+ gives double space and a craft bag and I don't expect ZOS to undermine that.
My proposal would give a bigger bag to start with and then subsequent upgrades would be fewer and more expensive, so the end cost and final size would be exactly the same as it is now.
Similarly with the mount speed, I'm not asking for 20% on top of what we have, just suggesting giving more speed at the start and then having fewer steps to upgrade with the cost adjusted to keep total speed and cost exactly the same as it is now.

Billium813 · March 2023

evan302 wrote: »

No Bag Space!

This was really frustrating. If you are the sort of player who wants to gather as you travel around, you run out of space almost immediately. Then you have the daily rewards which soon mount up especially with 2 types of all the Crown items (meals, potions etc), these quickly went from feeling like a bonus to feeling more like a punishment.
For the first few weeks I was grinding to earn gold to expand the bag and filling it instantly. Three months in and things aren’t so bad, I’ve expanded the bank and my bag enough that I’m not spending a whole play session on inventory management. Early on, I had a couple of occasions when making bag-space was all I had time to do and I very nearly quit after that. I asked myself if I was having fun and the answer was ‘No’.
Suggestion:
Give players an extra 20 bag and bank slots to start. You can charge a little extra for each additional slot after that, if that feels too generous (meaning bank size and gold cost would remain the same).

The Very Slow Horse

A horse at level 1 felt great, until I realised I was faster on foot! The 20 hour cool-down is a pain too, I’m glad that is going.
Suggestion:
Start the horse at +20% speed

Both of these points are definitely an issue. Upgrading a mount is needlessly slow, uninspired (costing a pittance of gold), and provides very little feelings of improvements since you're upgrading like 1% per day...

I would like to see

All three mount stats should be able to be improved each day
Make each stat improvement a quick time event instead of costing gold.
- Stamina could be a hurdle jumping event. Hit the button at the right time to jump the hurdles.
- Speed could be a mount racing event. Mash the button as fast as possible to beat the timer.
- Capacity could be a cart pulling event. One button urges the mount forward, but don't go too fast. Calm the horse with another button.

Seriously, @ZOS, go watch Fire Emblem Engages strength training and see how simple it is.

evan302 wrote: »

Classes Feel Very Vague and Lacking Identity

When I picked up a Night Blade, I expected to be medium armour wearing, melee and dual-wield, so it felt a bit strange to have magika suggested by the game as a main stat and for online guides to then point me towards a staff!
At no point did the game suggest appropriate weapons or armour (which is why I went online), I just took a guess from previous mmo experience.
With a little more information, I could have chosen a stamina build and ended up with something that was more like what I wanted.
I felt overwhelmed by all the choices and that intensified when I got to level 50 and CP. I really would have appreciated more guidance in-game (especially since advice on third-party websites may be out of date and no longer valid).
It’s nice that we have the choice to start anywhere and play any way we want, but a little more hand-holding right at the start wouldn’t go amiss. It’s not much fun if you get things wrong and your choices lead to you to hitting like a wet noodle!

Unfortunately, your first mistake was thinking that the in game suggestions are intelligent or mean anything. I would just as well have those suggestions completely turned off. It's like the "Equipment Bonus" on your character sheet, it's basically pointless.

evan302 wrote: »

Accidental Stealing and Attacking Friendly NPCS

I don’t know how it is with mouse+keyboard, but with a controller this is so easy to do when you are still learning the controls. Having played a couple of mmos before coming to ESO, I went through the options carefully and turned this off before I started, but not everyone is going to do this. It would have been very frustrating to be hit with fines for something I didn’t even intend to do when I was scraping gold together for bags and riding speed.
Suggestion:
After character creation offer the option of starting in ‘Safe Mode’ with accidental stealing and attacking turned off. Tell players this can be changed at any time by going through the options.

Honestly, I'm surprised the Anti-Stealing option isn't on by default! I guess they want players to experience the bounty system first hand by stealing things without being blocked. After that first time though, they should turn on Anti-Stealing and then tell the player how to disable it. Each time the player attempts to steal, or kill, while below level 50, have a reminder notice come up telling them about the configuration.

KlauthWarthog · March 2023

The very slow horse becomes less of an issue after level 10 - do the sieging tutorial quest on Cyrodiil, and put a point on the continuous assault passive. No combat required for that.
... but yes, the mount is abysmally slow without it or some 20-30 days of training, so no contest from me on this being an unnecessary pain point.

DrNukenstein · March 2023

Get rid of item level. Design quest rewards in vanilla zones so that players unlock the stickerbook for a full overland set by completing all quests in a zone. Get players hooked on making builds fast. It's the best part of the game, and the grind to cp160 before players can enjoy that is arbitrary and alienating for a new player.

IMO the grind to endgame level would've been so much more fun if I was doing it with an actual loadout instead of what ever I could find that was within 3 levels of my character.

Somber97866 · March 2023

If new players don't do back flips over this game like I did ( and that was years ago when it first came out) then there is no pleasing them

MaleAmazon · March 2023

For what it´s worth, here´s my comments and suggestions:

Trying to follow the story.

I can understand this, though ZOS have done some things to make it easier. The Alliance questlines which were the vanilla Main Quest, along with the Prophet questline, are started at the end of the tutorial though, if you choose that. I don´t like it that they put you in a DLC zone otherwise, hopefully that gets changed. At the same time, the player has to take some responsibility - the hooded figure automatically contacts you and that quest is literally sorted under "Main Quest" in the journal. So, you need to pay attention.

Also, I don´t like it that starting Story questlines via Collections skips the prologue - since events in the prologue are referenced, at least for Skyrim. This is stupid and confusing. It should start with the prologue, and I am fine with changing the quest arrows to make things more clear, like was suggested in another thread.

At the moment, I recommend people to go to UESP and search if they get lost. That excellent site shows you what the next and previous quest in a questline is.

No Bag Space!

Giving people more bag space just gives them 30 more minutes until they fill up that bag space. If you have ESO+ and / or mule alts, this isn´t a problem.

Since set items are added to collections and can be reconstructed - the player needs to learn sooner or later that you need to sell and deconstruct almost everything. Hoarding is not a good option, and often not necessary anymore. And ESO+ is almost a must, at least if you auto-loot.

Grinding early is IMO a no-no. The game should be fun. Later you might need to grind (I needed to grind for a day for Markyn ring), but then you can do it with purpose and do it with a way more powerful character. Early on, skip grinding. 2 bag space upgrades ASAP so you get more bang for the buck for the free one you get with levelling is fine though. You don´t need more than that.

The Very Slow Horse

Yeah, it is slow. Remember the upgrades every day, for now. And you´re pretty fast on foot. Same thing with Witcher 3, in both games running everywhere doesn´t really take that long.

Classes Feel Very Vague and Lacking Identity

Classes not being locked into stereotypes is a good thing. Also, forget about what the game suggests. To paraphrase Chris Rock: Turn that excrement off. And classes do have identity - just not ONE identity. My strongest character, that I do arenas and PvP on, is a Bosmer Stamina Sorcerer. She certainly has a separate identity as a 2-handed, bow master werewolf! That´s what great about Elder Scrolls!

Too Many NPCs Popping Up From Future Expansions

It can be annoying. But remember - you don´t have to do any quests you don´t want to... If a quest giver has an 'intricate' arrow over their head, that means they start a Story questline. Pick up the quest, then look in your journal to see what it does. If it´s not sorted under the zone you´re in, it´s DLC. So leave it if you want. Otherwise, what I wrote above.

Mages Guild, Fighter’s Guild and Undaunted

Yes. There are handbills to start the guild quests, but for some reason those aren´t where they should be. They should (re)add them to major city notice boards.

Accidental Stealing and Attacking Friendly NPCS

Pick them in options. If you started with them off people would make posts about how they couldnt steal. Really, what they need to do is put in newbie advice when you start the game and make it impossible to close that window until you´ve scrolled down and clicked 'read, understood and accepted'. Then failure would be on you.

Companions (not a frustration this time but a feature I’ve really enjoyed)

I think it´s a good suggestion. Companions are still a selling point though, and the Prophet does recommend looking for guilds. Eventually the DLC will probaby be free.

Final Suggestion: A ‘New Players’ Board on the Forum

I don´t think it´s a good idea to split people up more. You could just write 'New Player: XXXXX' as a title in your post to advertise that.

Lastly, welcome to the game!

evan302 · March 2023

@MaleAmazon
Re starting the story, it's not quite as clear cut as your post suggests,

The Alliance questlines which were the vanilla Main Quest, along with the Prophet questline, are started at the end of the tutorial... ...the player has to take some responsibility - the hooded figure automatically contacts you and that quest is literally sorted under "Main Quest" in the journal. So, you need to pay attention.

I've done both the Alliance and the Ebonheart Pact and in neither case are you taken to the area where you meet the hooded figure.
The Alliance isn't too bad as you port to Khenarthi's Roost and the ship to take you to Auridon is very close to you, though a new player is not going to know that they need to take that particular ship and go to Auridon in order to start the story.
Ebonheart pact is worse as the ships are a long way away from the place where you port in and there is a NPC with the main story quest marker standing right in front of you (who you need to ignore).
Hence my suggestion that if a player chooses to follow the story, they are ported directly to where the hooded figure is waiting for them.

Re NPCs from later expansions popping up - I still find it confusing and irritating to be faced with so many apparent 'main story quest' markers in the major towns.
I think the suggestion to redesign the Prologue quest markers or recolour them is a good one and that would go a long way to solving this issue. The name Prologue is pretty confusing too, I initially thought this was something I should do before the main story quests.

Re the forum - having noticed that the other boards are not much used and are generally where posts go to die, I have to agree with you, yet another board is probably not a good idea.

I do get what you are saying about players needing to be somewhat pro-active and prepared to look things up. I played WoW years back and felt very similar frustrations to the ones I had starting ESO; bags were tiny, mounts so expensive you needed a kind friend or you'd be walking for months and the game didn't do a great job of explaining things. However, Blizzard realized new players often didn't stick with the game and since then, the've made the starting experience a lot easier.
I've played other MMOs where the introduction was much smoother and there was a higher degree of hand-holding at the start. In those games the pain-points (if there were any) tended to come after levelling. Here, I hit them very early on.
Looking at the PS4 Trophies, it seems that only around 11-12% of players reach level 50, so I don't think this is just a 'me' issue; it was seeing those figures which prompted me to post.

Psiion · March 2023

Greetings all,

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