West weald is like a ghost town

Elrond87 · July 7

well its a combo of summer being here, and if not many new players joining and more content/zones added it is just diluting it and there is different instances so you cant see players that are there, places only seem busy during a event. i rarely play in the summer months

Tandor · July 7

So at 6:30pm UK time on Saturday evening the PC EU server was quiet in West Weald...

I don't suppose that would have anything to do with the Euros football quarter-final between England and Switzerland taking place at that time, would it?

DragonRacer · July 7

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Depending if you are on PC or console, there can be completely different explanations.

Your experience (if on PC) could simply be explained by the zone being instanced and you just happen to be in a nearly empty instance of the zone. This is something ZOS does for the new zones each chapter release and also something they do for existing zones that have events running (such as Craglorn recently for the Zenithar event that ended a few days ago) due to how laggy it can get if there are too many players in a single instance/part of a zone.

If you are on console, the explanation could be different, console populations have massively dwindled (long before this chapter) as many console players used the free Epic weekend last year to switch to PC. As such, console will always seem empty compared to PC as the already smaller player numbers continue to decline.

As for my experience on PC (EU) the zone is still very busy and I am seeing dozens of players (20+) still constantly farming the Mirrormor world events (dolmen) and that is during off peak times too (early morning EU time, which is when I play due to time zones). I'm also constantly seeing minimum 20-30 players in the town too.

Another thing to note for console is the timing worked 100% against the new zone: Gold Road dropped literally only TWO DAYS before 2 weeks of Zeal of Zenithar event. And that also started our 27 day or whatever timer to get the Scribing questline done if you wanted the free 2-person mount in the store. So, between focusing on the event plus going through the long Scribing questline grind to get the TIME-LIMITED stuff done on time, I am only just now here at the second week of July feeling like I have the time to properly invest in exploring the Gold Road chapter.

Nothing like waiting 2-3 weeks to enjoy new content because of event timing and then time-limited rewards for a new system.

TheNuminous1 · July 7

DragonRacer wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Depending if you are on PC or console, there can be completely different explanations.

Your experience (if on PC) could simply be explained by the zone being instanced and you just happen to be in a nearly empty instance of the zone. This is something ZOS does for the new zones each chapter release and also something they do for existing zones that have events running (such as Craglorn recently for the Zenithar event that ended a few days ago) due to how laggy it can get if there are too many players in a single instance/part of a zone.

If you are on console, the explanation could be different, console populations have massively dwindled (long before this chapter) as many console players used the free Epic weekend last year to switch to PC. As such, console will always seem empty compared to PC as the already smaller player numbers continue to decline.

As for my experience on PC (EU) the zone is still very busy and I am seeing dozens of players (20+) still constantly farming the Mirrormor world events (dolmen) and that is during off peak times too (early morning EU time, which is when I play due to time zones). I'm also constantly seeing minimum 20-30 players in the town too.

Another thing to note for console is the timing worked 100% against the new zone: Gold Road dropped literally only TWO DAYS before 2 weeks of Zeal of Zenithar event. And that also started our 27 day or whatever timer to get the Scribing questline done if you wanted the free 2-person mount in the store. So, between focusing on the event plus going through the long Scribing questline grind to get the TIME-LIMITED stuff done on time, I am only just now here at the second week of July feeling like I have the time to properly invest in exploring the Gold Road chapter.

Nothing like waiting 2-3 weeks to enjoy new content because of event timing and then time-limited rewards for a new system.

And then they add the recall which can only be earned if you do vvardenfell. And they gave our clockwork for free. So both those zones have a big chunk of the population heading to them and not west weald.

I've never seen them more determined tk keep us away from a new zone.

Scribing, free rewards via achievements, and events happening as soon as console launched.

They want me everywhere BUT west weald

kevkj · July 7

Don't fret mate they were all in nhof.

LittlePinkDot · July 7

StarOfElyon wrote: »

GMdoghunter wrote: »

Since the gold road update launched we have had lots and lots of problems,whether it may be related to addons or even connectivity issues.
Logged in tonight and as you will see form the picture this is in West Weald at 18:30 U.K. Time.

The place is like a ghost town.This is Prime Time on a Saturday night
Was wondering how long it would take for this to happen,but it seems to have happened.
Not the first time i have seen this either.

Lots and lots of players have already left,mainly because they are not listening to what the players want.
Devs listening to the players=Thriving game and community.

This is the result that happens when they don't listen.
It is a shame that this is happening to eso,looking like it is on a downward trend,who knows the answer to that-even i don't know the answer.
But what i do know is Gold Road seems to have done more damage than good.Sad to say but true.

It seems fine to me on Xbox.

My only big problem is that Ithelia was one and done. She had so much potential to be a long term story device. I just get sad when I adventure around West Weald now. I wish she could come back. 😢

I think that just spoiled the story ending for me.

DragonRacer · July 7

TheNuminous1 wrote: »

DragonRacer wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Depending if you are on PC or console, there can be completely different explanations.

Your experience (if on PC) could simply be explained by the zone being instanced and you just happen to be in a nearly empty instance of the zone. This is something ZOS does for the new zones each chapter release and also something they do for existing zones that have events running (such as Craglorn recently for the Zenithar event that ended a few days ago) due to how laggy it can get if there are too many players in a single instance/part of a zone.

If you are on console, the explanation could be different, console populations have massively dwindled (long before this chapter) as many console players used the free Epic weekend last year to switch to PC. As such, console will always seem empty compared to PC as the already smaller player numbers continue to decline.

As for my experience on PC (EU) the zone is still very busy and I am seeing dozens of players (20+) still constantly farming the Mirrormor world events (dolmen) and that is during off peak times too (early morning EU time, which is when I play due to time zones). I'm also constantly seeing minimum 20-30 players in the town too.

Another thing to note for console is the timing worked 100% against the new zone: Gold Road dropped literally only TWO DAYS before 2 weeks of Zeal of Zenithar event. And that also started our 27 day or whatever timer to get the Scribing questline done if you wanted the free 2-person mount in the store. So, between focusing on the event plus going through the long Scribing questline grind to get the TIME-LIMITED stuff done on time, I am only just now here at the second week of July feeling like I have the time to properly invest in exploring the Gold Road chapter.

Nothing like waiting 2-3 weeks to enjoy new content because of event timing and then time-limited rewards for a new system.

And then they add the recall which can only be earned if you do vvardenfell. And they gave our clockwork for free. So both those zones have a big chunk of the population heading to them and not west weald.

I've never seen them more determined tk keep us away from a new zone.

Scribing, free rewards via achievements, and events happening as soon as console launched.

They want me everywhere BUT west weald

That is an excellent point. Especially with the CWC increased daily endeavors, those days will pull more people to Clockwork knocking those out. Plus getting that recall (which is super cool and, thankfully, an achievement I already had so an easy grab for me).

katanagirl1 · July 7

I’m on PS NA and the West Weald zone is busy but my crafting hub in Riften is deserted.

Kappachi · July 7

GMdoghunter wrote: »

Since the gold road update launched we have had lots and lots of problems,whether it may be related to addons or even connectivity issues.
Logged in tonight and as you will see form the picture this is in West Weald at 18:30 U.K. Time.

The place is like a ghost town.This is Prime Time on a Saturday night
Was wondering how long it would take for this to happen,but it seems to have happened.
Not the first time i have seen this either.

Lots and lots of players have already left,mainly because they are not listening to what the players want.
Devs listening to the players=Thriving game and community.

This is the result that happens when they don't listen.
It is a shame that this is happening to eso,looking like it is on a downward trend,who knows the answer to that-even i don't know the answer.
But what i do know is Gold Road seems to have done more damage than good.Sad to say but true.

Another MMO expansion just launched, one I was planning to play but stopped plans for since gold road exceeded my expectations, you should expect some player drop though from the general MMO population as they try dawntrail before settling back on ESO if that's their jam. All the zones are as populated as they normally are, and all queues are as instant as ever, west weald isn't the only area.

Rkindaleft · July 7

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

West Weld just isn't very attractive. Skingraad looks like dozens of other cities.

There isn't a lot of chests, troves and nodes if you are just wandering around. The bosses have annoying invulnerability stages.

Trees, it has lots of lovely trees. But after you've seen the trees there isn't much there there.

Meh.

Yes. I do think the zone can be pretty to look at, however if you compare it to the other zones I feel like there isn't a whole lot of engagement with the zone itself for a few reasons:

1) Too many locked doors make the world feel superficial
2) Only one really good place to do furniture looting and the zone is generally lacking in good grinding/farming spots
3) Bosses are annoying
4) Main questline felt pretty rushed
5) Scribing takes too much time and is too boring

Even 3 weeks after console release I still haven't killed the Silorn boss as it seems to still be bugged in some of the instances.

Scaletho · July 7

GMdoghunter wrote: »

Since the gold road update launched we have had lots and lots of problems,whether it may be related to addons or even connectivity issues.
Logged in tonight and as you will see form the picture this is in West Weald at 18:30 U.K. Time.

The place is like a ghost town.This is Prime Time on a Saturday night
Was wondering how long it would take for this to happen,but it seems to have happened.
Not the first time i have seen this either.

Lots and lots of players have already left,mainly because they are not listening to what the players want.
Devs listening to the players=Thriving game and community.

This is the result that happens when they don't listen.
It is a shame that this is happening to eso,looking like it is on a downward trend,who knows the answer to that-even i don't know the answer.
But what i do know is Gold Road seems to have done more damage than good.Sad to say but true.

West Weld is extremely small, even smaller or equal to Galen. ESO's yearly new stuff is becoming smaller despite any circumstance. And 2024 is the 10 years commemoration! Imagine 2025!

SilverBride · July 7

On PCNA there are a lot of players in West Weald every time I am on, regardless of the day or the time. Maybe it's different on PCEU but I haven't seen any issues at all.

Every town I go to anywhere in game has other players in it, and out in overland areas too.

MasterSpatula · July 8

AzuraFan wrote: »

joergino wrote: »

You hardly ever see more than a handful of players at a world boss or at an incursion. You definietly will never see another of my characters at a world boss again ever and as soon as I'll be done with the mosaik skill thing, none of my characters will ever be found near an incursion again either. Both kinds of activities are incredibly annoying.

Yeah, before Necrom, there would be a ton of players at world bosses for a good couple of months after a release. I noticed that changed with Necrom and it has gotten worse with West Weald. The second week after Gold Road's release I'd have to wait at a WB and hope someone else would show up, or there'd be someone waiting there when I did, and usually there's only 2-3 of us fighting the boss.

I think this is because ZOS just fundamentally misunderstands who World Bosses are for. So all the players who were like, "Harder World Bosses? F*** YEAH!!!!" are already bored with them and have moved on. Meanwhile, the players who normally farm WB dailies every single day were mostly like, "Ugh, really?" to the difficulty, and thery're less likely to want to bother than in earlier content.

I think the more involved bosses were an attempt by ZOS to address the "Overland Difficulty Thread" folks in the typical ZOS way of "address the problem in a way that doesn't give them what they want and also takes something from someone else." The "Overland Too Easy" crowd wants, for reasons I'll never comprehend, nuisance mobs to be hard. They don't want to farm WBs every night for six months. And the crowd that does want to farm WBs every night for six months doesn't want to have to bang their head against a wall six times a night for those months.

ZOS pats themselves on the back for making Overland harder, all while completely failing to make the "Overland Difficulty" crown any happier and driving "casuals" off. And people in the middle end up with fewer people to do the content with. A lose/lose/lose.

Elvenheart · July 8

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Regarding burnout though, I am myself still reeling from what they inflicted upon us during anniversary. Way to ensure I won't forget the momentous occasion.

Oh, me neither, I still cringe. That event is a permanent stain in the history of ESO.

DreamyLu · July 8

I believe it's a phase. As said in earlier posts:
- Many players hurry at doing the new content within a few days and after that leave the place.
- PvE content aside of the repeatable stuff is limited, so PvE players (ESO majority) return to their normal business once done.
- Farming resources is not a point, because trading market keeps sinking (offer overload vs. demand that remains same than usual).

All in all, the new area has no real added value compared to other areas, so players tend to return to they're preferred places rather than staying in the new one.

AzuraFan · July 8

DreamyLu wrote: »

All in all, the new area has no real added value compared to other areas, so players tend to return to they're preferred places rather than staying in the new one.

This is true. I know I'll be back to Leyawiin once I've completed the West Wield daily achievements.

Having said that, sure, players go through the content and leave, but even so, before Necrom, there would still be a lot of players doing WBs and such a couple of months after the release of the chapter. I never had a problem before showing up at a WB and finding other players there, or other players quickly showing up after me.

But since Necrom, that's not the case. Today there was only one other player at the WB I did, and we died once so had to start again. It took us a good 7-8 minutes total and nobody else showed up. Before, I'd show up to find the boss down and other players waiting for it to pop again. Now, the boss is often up, and nobody is waiting. Also, people were asking for help ("I can share the quest!") the second week after release. It wasn't this way until Necrom. Perhaps fewer people are buying the chapters, which doesn't bode well.

MasterSpatula wrote: »

ZOS pats themselves on the back for making Overland harder, all while completely failing to make the "Overland Difficulty" crown any happier and driving "casuals" off. And people in the middle end up with fewer people to do the content with. A lose/lose/lose.

Absolutely it's to satisfy the "we want a harder overland" crowd. So either do a harder overland, or don't. Instead they mess with something that was working in a half-baked attempt to satisfy what I believe to be a vocal minority, and now few people want to do the content.

BXR_Lonestar · July 8

Of course its a ghost town! People are in other zones farming for ink and scripts so they can make use of the scribing feature. The storyline for the area is secondary tbh, and its not likely that I'll get to the story for several months because I still need to finish Cadwell's gold, high isle, galen, and necrom before I play the story for high isle.

But every time I've gone into the West Weald, its been full of people doing all kinds of different things, so perhaps its just a timing issue for you?

dcrush · July 8

Almost everything that gets added to the game is meant to prolong the time you spend in game. Everything except the story - in my opinion anyway. And a lot of it is prolonging your game time without prolonging the fun.

* world bosses now have invincible stages so they can’t be burned down. Which isn’t necessarily a bigger challenge… it just makes them more boring because it takes longer.
* World events also have invincible stages. Same thing - doesn’t really make them harder, it just takes longer.
* Lead rng is meant to make people grind existing content
* Delves are mazes with multiple levels so that you can’t do a daily within a minute, you have to spend most of the time running around.
* Some delve bosses now also summon adds and I think there’s one with an invincible phase as well.
* Scribing returns you to old locations where, once again, you mostly just spend time running around
* Ink drop rate is super low so it takes players forever to grind for it if they want to try skill combos

Once I finished the story there really wasn’t much appeal for me to come back to the zone. I do some dailies occasionally but not every day because of the above mentioned reasons. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

It’s a shame, because some of the terrain looks awesome. The scenery designers did a really good job for this chapter. But it’s not enough for me to come back. I just speedran the Vvardenfell story to get the animation because I’ve already done it on two servers before and even while skipping most of the dialogue the story was still more interesting than Gold Road.

MasterSpatula · July 9

@dcrush nails a big part of the problem which is that ZOS's attempts to add difficulty and complexity really server to add nothing but tedium. Let's face it, few people get genuinely excited by tedium.

I do think another factor, for evening players at least, is moving dailies reset four hours later. 10 (11 in DST) PM in Pacific Time is pretty late for the US East Coast, but plenty of West Coast players were camped in front of dailies quest givers at 9:59 every evening waiting for the blue arrows to pop on. People rushed to kill the bosses and round robin-all six, sometimes even moving onto other zones, keeping World Bosses active pretty late into the evening. With the later reset times, much fewer people are awake to hunt bosses at reset. Those of us who used to farm bosses right at reset now do it whenever we get around to it, if at all.