What happened during Necrom Development? Feels weird

AzuraFan · October 9

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont really see where we are getting less content for the same price

When it comes to the annual chapters, the more recent ones feel smaller. For me, the decline started with High Isle and continued from there.

The number of quests don't tell the story. If most of the quests only have one part (go here, do this, you're done), that's not equivalent to a quest having seven parts to complete it. I find that the quests in the newer chapters often take less steps, and the zone story often has fewer quests in it. I was surprised when Gold Road's main quest completed. I thought, "That's it?" Fortunately the scribing questline made up for it because it added a few hours of play.

Before High Isle, I was in-game more than I am now. Still, it took me longer to complete the chapters. With Gold Road, I only played 60-90 minutes/day because I was deliberately trying to stretch the content, and I still finished everything in two weeks. I think the complexity of the quests, especially side quests, is lower. Also, AFAIK, the last couple of chapters haven't had a collection to do, like the tapestry in Elseweyr and the instruments for the bard college. Maybe Blackwood didn't either. I don't remember.

On top of that, I'm an ESO+ subscriber. I used to get a Q4 story DLC that added more hours of gameplay every year. That's gone. The QoL updates don't make up for that because many of them don't include more gameplay.

So it feels to me like I'm paying for less content. I'm certainly not getting the same content for my sub. But I feel that way too for the annual chapters, to the point that I won't pay AAA price again.

Necrotech_Master · October 9

AzuraFan wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont really see where we are getting less content for the same price

When it comes to the annual chapters, the more recent ones feel smaller. For me, the decline started with High Isle and continued from there.

The number of quests don't tell the story. If most of the quests only have one part (go here, do this, you're done), that's not equivalent to a quest having seven parts to complete it. I find that the quests in the newer chapters often take less steps, and the zone story often has fewer quests in it. I was surprised when Gold Road's main quest completed. I thought, "That's it?" Fortunately the scribing questline made up for it because it added a few hours of play.

Before High Isle, I was in-game more than I am now. Still, it took me longer to complete the chapters. With Gold Road, I only played 60-90 minutes/day because I was deliberately trying to stretch the content, and I still finished everything in two weeks. I think the complexity of the quests, especially side quests, is lower. Also, AFAIK, the last couple of chapters haven't had a collection to do, like the tapestry in Elseweyr and the instruments for the bard college. Maybe Blackwood didn't either. I don't remember.

On top of that, I'm an ESO+ subscriber. I used to get a Q4 story DLC that added more hours of gameplay every year. That's gone. The QoL updates don't make up for that because many of them don't include more gameplay.

So it feels to me like I'm paying for less content. I'm certainly not getting the same content for my sub. But I feel that way too for the annual chapters, to the point that I won't pay AAA price again.

thats what i was talking about in terms of the quality of quests

most of the newer quests have been reduced to mostly glorified fetch quests, or ones that tell you to go to another place and do the normal POI quest there

for me the eso+ is more about the craft bag and a few other minor bonuses, each major update is still value to me, in fact i prefer less paid updates because its less i have to buy (yes i buy all dlc and chapters so i can still access it if i were to lose or drop eso+ for whatever reason)

so as someone who buys all of the content even with a sub, i still feel im getting equal or better value because now im paying for 2 less DLCs a year

the Q3 and Q4 might not always have quests, but the game is not just purely quests, dungeons/trials/arenas/pvp/infinite archive/tribute/etc are all content too

Syldras · October 9

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

for me, pure quantity of quests is not always a good number to go on, as i would prefer quality over quantity (would you rather do 40 mindless fetch quests, or 10 polished intriguing stories? and yes i know quest "quality" is going to mean different things to different people for an overall rating)
so if its 70 quests vs 50, but the quality of those 20 quest difference is poor, then the content would still be about equal for me

Of course quality is more important, but that hasn't increased either. Quite the opposite, which makes it even worse.

LunaFlora wrote: »

recently i counted chapter quests for high isle and morrowind, excluding repeatable quests.

Even the repeatable quests had a bigger variancy and provided more background story in Morrowind. They certainly do count if we are talking about how much content to do a zone has. And even if they're only done once, it's still more than not having them at all. Actually I'd wish they'd introduce daily quests linked to factions again, preferably with a bit of story and lore, instead of always the same formula with 1 "do a world event" and 1 "kill wb" without any real background to it.

LunaFlora wrote: »

i don't know if West Weald is smaller than past chapters, how would you even measure that?

Time to cross the zone, for example. Also, several chapters had a second zone, not only one.

Elsonso · October 10

ESO_player123 wrote: »

The working theory here on the forums is that Gold Road was initially designed to be Q4 for the same year Necom was released but then was promoted to the chapter status due to the changes in release format. Of course, it's just a theory with just feelings and no proof.

Even if it was not a DLC promoted to a Chapter, the perception that it is, backed up by less zone and story content, should be a wakeup call to ZOS. Well. Honestly, they probably aren't asleep.

It may be the plan.

Rkindaleft · October 10

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont really see where we are getting less content for the same price

the old release format:
2 dungeon dlc = its own cost
chapter = its own cost
2 dungeon dlc = its own cost
zone dlc = its own cost (if did not get it for free)

the new format:
2 dungeon dlc = its own cost
chapter = its own cost
Q3 update = no cost
Q4 update = no cost

Q3 and Q4 content updates are smaller as they are usually focused on 1-2 features, and mostly bugfixes, but we are getting them for free

"content" does not always equal new zone or quests

the infinite archive to me was one of the best things they have added to the game in recent years and was not paid DLC content

This is how I understand it. When people say that they're getting less content for the same price they mean that they feel like the content or the quality within the purchase has been reduced, making it not as worth the price, not that they're paying the same for less content.

Everyone will think about it differently, but like, chapters are all priced the same, so it's normal people would juxtapose them and it's already been talked about heavily on the forums that Gold Road was lacking in content within the chapter compared to other chapters, many people didn't like the fact they were paying the same price given the noticeable reduction of content within it compared to other chapters and the quality of what was there felt worse to them than other chapters (like grindy content, inaccessible areas, mechanics to simply pad out the playtime like the annoying WB and world event phases, companions moved to a separate purchase, etc.)