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Why do expansions feel so...empty?

  • fred4
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    Can't speak for others, but my only interest was the new class this patch. You're telling me there are new zones?
  • mickeyx
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    Rouz wrote: »
    I also had this same issue when High Isle released. It hasn't been that long since Necrom was released. Yet when I go into the open world. It feels so...empty. This is on PC, not sure what console looks like. But I'm sitting there trying to do world bosses and nobody wants to do them. I sit by the world boss and nobody shows up to kill it. I walk around questing and rarely see other players.

    This isn't a super uncommon issues. I go play DF in WoW and the leveling zones are mainly empty cause everyone moved on. But its been a week and a half. Necrom should not feel this empty.

    I'm not sure if its a megaserver issue. Or the total amount of players in a zone was reduced for performance reasons. But its so depressing seeing the newest zones added feel so...empty. Having to leave a world boss cause you just don't have enough people to kill it. Either cause you're solo or you were only able to find one other person. To feel forced into these min/max builds that can solo everything.

    The amount of interest people had in Necrom was really underwhelming. Seems like releasing it so close to Diablo 4 was a mistake.
  • Kendaric
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    mickeyx wrote: »
    The amount of interest people had in Necrom was really underwhelming. Seems like releasing it so close to Diablo 4 was a mistake.

    A lot of people wait until it's on sale, myself included. No way I pay full price for a chapter that offers very little that interests me. I would have bought it, if it were more about House Telvanni but since it's mainly about Hermaeus Mora I just don't really care.
      PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!. Outfit slots not being accountwide is ridiculous given their price. PC EU/PC NA roleplayer and solo PvE quester
    • LittlePinkDot
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      mickeyx wrote: »
      Rouz wrote: »
      I also had this same issue when High Isle released. It hasn't been that long since Necrom was released. Yet when I go into the open world. It feels so...empty. This is on PC, not sure what console looks like. But I'm sitting there trying to do world bosses and nobody wants to do them. I sit by the world boss and nobody shows up to kill it. I walk around questing and rarely see other players.

      This isn't a super uncommon issues. I go play DF in WoW and the leveling zones are mainly empty cause everyone moved on. But its been a week and a half. Necrom should not feel this empty.

      I'm not sure if its a megaserver issue. Or the total amount of players in a zone was reduced for performance reasons. But its so depressing seeing the newest zones added feel so...empty. Having to leave a world boss cause you just don't have enough people to kill it. Either cause you're solo or you were only able to find one other person. To feel forced into these min/max builds that can solo everything.

      The amount of interest people had in Necrom was really underwhelming. Seems like releasing it so close to Diablo 4 was a mistake.

      It's also summer. People are going on vacations etc.
      I've always thought that expansions should be released in the fall when the weather gets *** and before Christmas.

      As for Diablo 4...I'm not buying it until I can use a mouse and keyboard with console.
    • TaSheen
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      I haven't seen "empty" personally. Not even on PC NA where I play off-peak. This morning I ported into a wayshrine (can't remember which now) and there were THIRTY players there - PLUS companions. I couldn't get away fast enough....

      [Edited for typos}
      Edited by TaSheen on June 16, 2023 11:03PM
      ______________________________________________________

      "But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West

      PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....
    • LalMirchi
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      My Arcanist is busy gathering skill points so I've done the main quest upto Coldharbour, Psijic Order 1st level, Antiquities to L5, the Undaunted, Mages & Fighters guild dailies and I've just finished my factions quest-line.

      In most of the activities I see a lot of players so I guess this is what many are doing instead of the chapter story right now.
    • fastolfv_ESO
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      i had this issue on pcna on day 3, had to solo wb's and when i formed a nymic grp with guildies in necrom i wasnt getting a prompt about teleporting to other instances. i really do believe eso pop dies down after dlcs and xpacs and its happening at a faster rate as the game gets older and more updates change the game mechanics just for the sake of change. The game just doesnt have the numbers of dlc warriors like it used to
    • Elsonso
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      i had this issue on pcna on day 3, had to solo wb's and when i formed a nymic grp with guildies in necrom i wasnt getting a prompt about teleporting to other instances. i really do believe eso pop dies down after dlcs and xpacs and its happening at a faster rate as the game gets older and more updates change the game mechanics just for the sake of change. The game just doesnt have the numbers of dlc warriors like it used to

      Maybe, but I am seeing a lot of Arcanists out there running around leveling up.
      XBox EU/NA:@ElsonsoJannus
      PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
      PSN NA/EU: @ElsonsoJannus
      Total in-game hours: 11321
      X/Twitter: ElsonsoJannus
    • Pelanora
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      Yea @Wing imagine if we could pat our pets and walk alongside our horses which levelled up in some user friendly way Jump on things without looking like a *** and interact with items in our houses. Imagine.

      Oh and have a balanced combat and set system you can figure out without reading 500 internet posts.
    • AzuraFan
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      The Telvanni Peninsula has seemed a little empty to me. Tonight (peak hours) I saw a handful of players and that's it. People are asking in chat for help with WBs. That's different to High Isle, when for the first couple of weeks, you could show up at a WB and there would be at least a few other players there. Also, when I was working on the High Isle main storyline, there would always be other players doing the same quest I was doing. Same went for the hub quests. But not so in the Peninsula. Maybe it'll be different when I finally spend time in Apocrypha, but I was there briefly last night and it seemed just as quiet.
    • ArchangelIsraphel
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      AzuraFan wrote: »
      The Telvanni Peninsula has seemed a little empty to me. Tonight (peak hours) I saw a handful of players and that's it. People are asking in chat for help with WBs. That's different to High Isle, when for the first couple of weeks, you could show up at a WB and there would be at least a few other players there. Also, when I was working on the High Isle main storyline, there would always be other players doing the same quest I was doing. Same went for the hub quests. But not so in the Peninsula. Maybe it'll be different when I finally spend time in Apocrypha, but I was there briefly last night and it seemed just as quiet.

      Apocrypha is as dead as the Telvanni Peninsula unfortunately. On day 2 of the expansions release I was already struggling to get anyone to come do a WB, let alone Bastion Nymic :/ Something feels...off about that.
      Legends never die
      They're written down in eternity
      But you'll never see the price it costs
      The scars collected all their lives
      When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat
      Before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream
      Oh, pick yourself up, 'cause
      Legends never die
    • prof-dracko
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      People taking their new Arcanists through the base zones maybe? Interestingly I always see "lfg nymic" in the zone chat, very rarely anything else. I think the new class and the nymics, despite the complaints, are really overshadowing the reset of the content. Or perhaps all the people threatening to cancel their memberships over this weeks "worst feature ever" finally made good on that.
    • Dreaders123
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      You'll find people in Alik'r. Arcanists sir, thousands of 'em.

      Also a bunch of folks can't handle the green as it is right now. When I have been to the new zones to do something quickly, I've always seen lots of folks.
    • mickeyx
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      i had this issue on pcna on day 3, had to solo wb's and when i formed a nymic grp with guildies in necrom i wasnt getting a prompt about teleporting to other instances. i really do believe eso pop dies down after dlcs and xpacs and its happening at a faster rate as the game gets older and more updates change the game mechanics just for the sake of change. The game just doesnt have the numbers of dlc warriors like it used to

      Yep. I think people who love this game are refusing to see how big a difference it is now days in population compared to older expansions release. It doesn't feel that Necrom is a brand new expansion. I see more people in older zones such as Auridon doing all kind of activities.
    • Kendaric
      Kendaric
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      mickeyx wrote: »
      Yep. I think people who love this game are refusing to see how big a difference it is now days in population compared to older expansions release. It doesn't feel that Necrom is a brand new expansion. I see more people in older zones such as Auridon doing all kind of activities.

      That shouldn't be a surprise though, considering how bad High Isle was in addition to various other changes that were introduced.
      A lot of players left in frustration and getting them back is difficult.
        PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!. Outfit slots not being accountwide is ridiculous given their price. PC EU/PC NA roleplayer and solo PvE quester
      • FeedbackOnly
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        Lack of group finder for zone events. So many solo players play eso or introverts.

      • Xinihp
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        Kendaric wrote: »
        That shouldn't be a surprise though, considering how bad High Isle was...

        Speaking for myself I have to agree with this. High Isle was a MASSIVE drop in quality, both in content but also actual zone design. Just compare it to Summerset. The level of detail in plants, architecture, little details along roads etc. was night and day. High Isle felt like an experiment in just letting an AI auto-generate a world. In the main city even, the cobblestone roads aren't even blended. They just jut jarringly into the walls at odd angles and go up hills with no texture changes.

        The quality of High Isle was so bad I honestly thought I would never come back to the game. Someone gifted me Necrom though, and I have to say, the quality is significantly better this time on all counts, which was a pleasant surprise. I sort of feared that with Microsoft taking over High Isles' nosedive in quality would be the new norm.

        But if someone hadn't gifted me the expansion I wouldn't know it had improved, because after the bad experience with High Isle feeling like the game was going into maintenance mode, I doubt I would have spent my own money to come back. I think a lot of people with a bad taste from High Isles' "cell phone cards and auto generate" quality level expac probably will require a bit more convincing to give ESO another chance.
      • endgamesmug
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        High isle was awful it was just zergs everywhere 😑,i didnt clear that map till atleast a week later for that reason. But i do understand the opposite problem i myself just got used to doing everything myself on pc its just the culture on pc, solo play is very important to many and "being left alone" is a growing popular sentiment. I have adapted and now run a guild for solo players providing all the services a guildhouse normally provides but without any of the pestering, alot of solo players in this game resent this. Saying that i still see if anyone in zone wants to do the Bastion Nymics in Necrom when i get my dailies and atleast 20% of the time theres a few capable sorts that wanna clear it 😀
      • Elsonso
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        AzuraFan wrote: »
        The Telvanni Peninsula has seemed a little empty to me. Tonight (peak hours) I saw a handful of players and that's it. People are asking in chat for help with WBs. That's different to High Isle, when for the first couple of weeks, you could show up at a WB and there would be at least a few other players there. Also, when I was working on the High Isle main storyline, there would always be other players doing the same quest I was doing. Same went for the hub quests. But not so in the Peninsula. Maybe it'll be different when I finally spend time in Apocrypha, but I was there briefly last night and it seemed just as quiet.

        Apocrypha is as dead as the Telvanni Peninsula unfortunately. On day 2 of the expansions release I was already struggling to get anyone to come do a WB, let alone Bastion Nymic :/ Something feels...off about that.

        The crowds doing the zone for the first time will do world bosses and Bastion Nymic as long as it is rewarding, then they will move onto something else. ESO is well known for being stingy in the rewards department, so unless someone is looking to fill up their sticker book with armor pieces that they may never use, I am going to guess that a lot of people may be doing the world bosses just to get the map marker to change color. On top of that, Necrom world bosses are sort of annoying, with adds and waves and mechanics. It sort of adds up to a "been there done that, didn't get a t-shirt" situation, I think.

        On a bigger picture level, I have observed this sort of thing in every new Chapter zone, which is why I prioritize groupy things for the first week after the Chapter drops. By the second week, I am already starting to transition to the things that can be done solo. I didn't do this with Greymoor and by the time I did, everyone had wandered off.

        Necrom is a lot like Greymoor in that the area is split into two zones, which also splits up the players so we don't see them as much. Necrom is different from Greymoor in that Apocrypha is much larger than the Blackreach area that was included with Greymoor. Not as pretty, though.

        High Isle had rewards people wanted, which caused people to stick around a lot longer.

        That said, I think that Arcanist is the prize for this Chapter. I see them everywhere, and I am pretty sure the class outshines everything else in the Chapter by a considerable margin. The fact that I see them everywhere means they are not in Apocrypha or Telvanni Peninsula.

        Additionally, I do think that Bastion Nymic, for all the crowing the streamers and paid sponsors are doing, is not exactly a home run. This certainly feels like a miss, but the question in my mind is "how much of a miss is it"? If it is close enough that ZOS can squint and say "good enough" then they will sally forth with what they have, but if ZOS sees that it missed, then it missed bad and they will be making changes.
        Edited by Elsonso on June 17, 2023 11:45AM
        XBox EU/NA:@ElsonsoJannus
        PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
        PSN NA/EU: @ElsonsoJannus
        Total in-game hours: 11321
        X/Twitter: ElsonsoJannus
      • prof-dracko
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        I actually noticed quite a few more people there today. Always at least one other person fighting or waiting for a WB, bunch of fishers, felt still a bit quiet but not as dead as last week.
      • Durian
        Durian
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        Yes Dear
      • ArchangelIsraphel
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        Elsonso wrote: »
        AzuraFan wrote: »
        The Telvanni Peninsula has seemed a little empty to me. Tonight (peak hours) I saw a handful of players and that's it. People are asking in chat for help with WBs. That's different to High Isle, when for the first couple of weeks, you could show up at a WB and there would be at least a few other players there. Also, when I was working on the High Isle main storyline, there would always be other players doing the same quest I was doing. Same went for the hub quests. But not so in the Peninsula. Maybe it'll be different when I finally spend time in Apocrypha, but I was there briefly last night and it seemed just as quiet.

        Apocrypha is as dead as the Telvanni Peninsula unfortunately. On day 2 of the expansions release I was already struggling to get anyone to come do a WB, let alone Bastion Nymic :/ Something feels...off about that.

        The crowds doing the zone for the first time will do world bosses and Bastion Nymic as long as it is rewarding, then they will move onto something else. ESO is well known for being stingy in the rewards department, so unless someone is looking to fill up their sticker book with armor pieces that they may never use, I am going to guess that a lot of people may be doing the world bosses just to get the map marker to change color. On top of that, Necrom world bosses are sort of annoying, with adds and waves and mechanics. It sort of adds up to a "been there done that, didn't get a t-shirt" situation, I think.

        On a bigger picture level, I have observed this sort of thing in every new Chapter zone, which is why I prioritize groupy things for the first week after the Chapter drops. By the second week, I am already starting to transition to the things that can be done solo. I didn't do this with Greymoor and by the time I did, everyone had wandered off.

        Necrom is a lot like Greymoor in that the area is split into two zones, which also splits up the players so we don't see them as much. Necrom is different from Greymoor in that Apocrypha is much larger than the Blackreach area that was included with Greymoor. Not as pretty, though.

        High Isle had rewards people wanted, which caused people to stick around a lot longer.

        That said, I think that Arcanist is the prize for this Chapter. I see them everywhere, and I am pretty sure the class outshines everything else in the Chapter by a considerable margin. The fact that I see them everywhere means they are not in Apocrypha or Telvanni Peninsula.

        Additionally, I do think that Bastion Nymic, for all the crowing the streamers and paid sponsors are doing, is not exactly a home run. This certainly feels like a miss, but the question in my mind is "how much of a miss is it"? If it is close enough that ZOS can squint and say "good enough" then they will sally forth with what they have, but if ZOS sees that it missed, then it missed bad and they will be making changes.

        Yeah, I get that. But I'm talking day 2 of the release, not 3 weeks down the line. On the second day of the new chapter being out, there was no one around.
        Legends never die
        They're written down in eternity
        But you'll never see the price it costs
        The scars collected all their lives
        When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat
        Before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream
        Oh, pick yourself up, 'cause
        Legends never die
      • AzuraFan
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        Finally spent some time in Apocrypha tonight and it was quiet - saw maybe four other players the entire time I was there.

        I've been splitting my time between Necrom and doing stuff in other zones. The other game zones are as crowded as usual. It's only the Necrom zones that feel pretty empty, considering the chapter has only been out for a little over two weeks. Maybe it didn't sell well, or maybe the majority of the people who bought it blew through the content and moved on. Who knows? But this is the quietest I've seen a new chapter. In the past, I've always done one WB daily until I hit the 30/30 and for those 30 days, there were always other players at the WBs. It's not the same this time.

        I guess another possibility is that there are more instances of Necrom than there have been for new chapters in the past, but if that's the case, they need to reduce the number of instances.
      • Quethrosar
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        Probably because the zone feels cheap and the gear will never be meta. But I am still chasing acorns
      • Soraka
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        As I worked through the main quest more people appeared around me. Maybe it's instancing based on progress? For example when I turned one in immediately someone loaded next to me.
      • DP99
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        I just finished all the quests yesterday, and was playing most of the day, saw people around while I was going about completing the quests, and around the settlements. But, it was maybe 10-20 at the most for any know of higher numbers, and maybe 5 others at a time in any dungeons or anything. It's been kind of dead for a new release, and High Isle had people everywhere for months, and to some extent still does whenever I go back there just to do a daily endeavor or something like that.
      • TweFoju
        TweFoju
        i am a recently returning players due to Necrom expansions, and i have not touched older expansions too since Summerset?

        I have not touched Necrom yet, but it's funny how i have been hearing people saying Necrom area is dead, whereas older zones like Auridon, Reaper's March, Alik'r, Skyrim, Summerset and a couple more are very populated.

        I can be running around on that old zones and still seeing many players running and passing by, and even when i visit some of the public dungeons and delves, there would be a dead mob ( means a player were just there )

        So why is it Necrom is dead? it would be worrying knowing that if players like me that will most likely do Necrom on later stages would have no chance to even cleart the wb content which need groups, XD
      • BasP
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        TweFoju wrote: »
        So why is it Necrom is dead? it would be worrying knowing that if players like me that will most likely do Necrom on later stages would have no chance to even cleart the wb content which need groups, XD

        I wouldn't necessarily call it 'dead', as there seem to be a decent number of people around now (on PCEU at least). But I do believe that High Isle was more active when it was released for some reason.

        As for myself, I created an Arcanist when Necrom dropped, picked up one of the new companions and then started leveling the character in other zones. I can imagine that other players that bought Necrom did that as well, because I saw Arcanist's everywhere. The Daily Battlegrounds were full of Arcanists, I was grouped with at least one other Arcanist in all the Daily Dungeons I did and they could be found in every other Base Game + DLC zone I visited too.

        Now that my character is level 50 and has most of the important skill lines leveled I plan to take my time exploring Necrom's zones and doing the quests, because I definitely liked what I've seen and done so far.
      • rothan117
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        Today, I spent hours wandering the new zones fishing, harvesting nodes etc. For peak weekend time, it felt very empty. Bounced to High Isle and Galen and saw far more people. The sets for this expansion are weird and nothing I would ever use. The Herald Seekers are utterly annoying, they are everywhere and you cannot even AFK at a wayshrine without risking getting caught up in one. I got kicked out of an antiquity because somebody attacked one and its area tentacles attacked me. I can see why the area has lost popularity very quickly. The only busy spots I found all day were the two new public dungeons, probably because people are farming the acorns.
      • barney2525
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        Isn't that the definition of expansion?

        Something is full, so you Expand it, making lots more room.

        :#
        Edited by barney2525 on June 19, 2023 8:06AM
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