Didn't play it because overland is so boring. If every mob is 1 shot, why bother playing a game? Can you even consider it a game? If I wanted to experience a story, why wouldn't I go watch a movie or any other form of media?

colossalvoids wrote: »

After getting the last pack as a gift decided to give it a go, but man... Maybe I was just unlucky but my first quests were a "revelry" in a tent and a sloth in a hat ones, I'm not sure I can proceed further as my patience for such things is paper thin now. If they thought that making everything and everyone goofy and dumb is the quirky and modern way of story telling I'll let them be and will be doing something else instead, that's definitely not what I was expecting even with my lower than ground expectations. That might just be two worst examples that I've just stumbled upon randomly but for some reason it makes me think other parts aren't that different. Thought of doing the main quest vanished quite quickly after that.

@colossalvoids

I also disliked those two quests (and the other Sanguine quest in that overland circus in the North-West of the island). I'd say the rest is better than those three, at least.

You might want to give Corelanya Manor a try. Just follow the road leading South from Sunport. The orc sisters that accompany you through the quest were a little annoying (from my personal point of view), but the background story of that quest itself was rather beautiful. I just ignored the sisters' talking, and then, I truly liked that story. It's tragic, it's not that clichéd, the whole story's feel is basically "early 19th century dark romanticist novel". It has a classic literature feel to it.

I like the more relaxed pace, i feel like players can catch up with things...like the landing on what seemed like an endless staircase.

Stop and smell the dragonthorn for a change. I like seeing old characters appear again instead of them being forgotten forever. I felt a reconnection with eso. I may be a romantic at heart but I sure love this game and I dont want to zoom through everything.

It has the bones of what could be a solid story but it feels incredibly rushed and everything ends up just feeling soulless

colossalvoids wrote: »

It wasn't much to even judge something about it but it's probably one of the weakest ones yet again. Not overly enthusiastic about the continuation to be honest. Also a "choice" dialogues are a giant letdown overall, wasn't even thinking it could be done as poorly.

What, you didn't enjoy flirting with Razum-dar (with rather silly innuendo) when you've been told before that you absolutely need to hurry because the whole island could be in great danger?

colossalvoids wrote: »

It wasn't much to even judge something about it but it's probably one of the weakest ones yet again. Not overly enthusiastic about the continuation to be honest. Also a "choice" dialogues are a giant letdown overall, wasn't even thinking it could be done as poorly.

I chose to punch a Worm Cult Bonelord during an interrogation scene. Walks-in-Ash acted like I'd committed a war crime.

Apollosipod wrote: »

Has it ever been stated if the writhing wall is all the way around the other side of Solstice or just down the middle? If the latter, couldn't we just sail around?

There are supposed to be horrible storms and what not (that we never actually see), making sailing hard for, well, everyone except the "Worm Cult fleet" some npc mentions in dialogue, I guess. Or to put short: Another logic mistake, it seems.

twisttop138 wrote: »

Everyone wants academy award winning writing in an mmorpg.

Getting back on the same level the base game, Morrowind, CWC and Summerset had would be enough for me. It's not like we're expecting unreachable standards or some miracle, but just what had been the normal quality when the game started.

Apollosipod wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

It wasn't much to even judge something about it but it's probably one of the weakest ones yet again. Not overly enthusiastic about the continuation to be honest. Also a "choice" dialogues are a giant letdown overall, wasn't even thinking it could be done as poorly.

I chose to punch a Worm Cult Bonelord during an interrogation scene. Walks-in-Ash acted like I'd committed a war crime.

That's probably the only new option I took also, reaction was kinda hilarious considering we've just mercilessly slaughtered the whole city of them a minute ago.

Syldras wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

It wasn't much to even judge something about it but it's probably one of the weakest ones yet again. Not overly enthusiastic about the continuation to be honest. Also a "choice" dialogues are a giant letdown overall, wasn't even thinking it could be done as poorly.

What, you didn't enjoy flirting with Razum-dar (with rather silly innuendo) when you've been told before that you absolutely need to hurry because the whole island could be in great danger?

No one but a EP dunmeri mage to be suspected in this affair...

Syldras wrote: »

I might do horrible things sometimes, but nothing that horrible

So it happen that I've described both our characters and not just mine it seems hehe.

meh

The main quest wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't anything to write home about. It was very standard fare - at least there wasn't an insulting NPC following you the whole time treating you like you had two and a half brain cells, but there were still enough mandatory dialogue options that still implied that your character was a blithering idiot.

As for the "big twist" we got... ugh. ESO has hit that point for me of "all emotional weight is gone since we can just bring people back from the dead if the plot (and the fanbase's fantasies) demand it." Seriously, we got one character to die in the quest and the only thing I thought was "oh that's slightly unexpected. I wonder what contrived reason they'll come up with to bring that character back in part 2." It was like the character's death did not affect me in the slightest.

I'm also over Raz being in literally everything. Please let him go back to his family in Merivale and give him a rest. After all, he did die in the basegame and keeps popping back up over and over again... because death is evidently nothing more than a minor inconvenience in Tamriel.

As for the side quests... also meh. Corelanya Manor's was good enough, but I could have done without the Shor's Stand one. At least that version of a Rigurt story didn't make all Nords look like drunken buffoons, but I really didn't see the point of just gender swapping Rigurt because reasons. Rigurt (and Laurent/Stibbons) are definitely on my list of "if they never show up ever again, it'll still be too soon."

But definitely one of the things I've noticed is that I'm always feeling like I'm rushed to do the stories. Before, I could do them at my leisure (and I normally waited until the crowds died down so I wouldn't see 50+ other people in the "tomb that hasn't been opened in 1000 years." I wanted to make sure I had time to really sit down and take the story slow. But lately, I'm feeling super rushed to get it done - Necrom's major spoiler was literally revealed in the Gold Road reveal event before Necrom even went to DLC, ZOS put out a spoilery Loremaster's Archive pretty soon after Solstice released that expected all of us to do the story within a few weeks, etc.

I always look at that like when we were told to read in school: if you read for fun, you enjoy it. If a teacher hands you a book and tells you to read it, then it's work and it feels like a chore, and you don't enjoy it. So this whole feeling like I need to shove "do the quest" into my schedule means that I just naturally am not going to enjoy it as much as if I just could do it on my own terms.

Regarding the "oh, too many world-ending threats" debate: that doesn't really bother me much... but we should get a mix of some smaller-scale things as well. Orsinium is still the best story this game has done hands down, and that was a story that had effects on the zone of Wrothgar and some ripple effects through the Covenant... and that was it. I'm not one of those people who gets all bent out of shape about timelines (in my headcanon, I've got several characters who are heroes of their own story, so it's not like it's all one character), and these stories are all definitely not happening at the same time.

I don't think the story needs to say that any given story happens on a specific date since the lore in general is pretty well a black box between 2E 580 and around 800, when there are secessions in Elsweyr and we're getting the 2nd AD formed. I actually prefer the old Loremaster's idea of "time in-game is personal to you. Given that multiple players can play content in any order" since that gives us the ability to fill in those gaps in the way that makes the most sense to us - for the one-character-wonder players, it makes sense that the world should be in like the 2E 600s by now, but for others who spread out their heroes, it could still be within a year or two. Trying to pin everything down restricts freedom.

I’ve seen asset store unreal engine projects maintain more of a stylistic look and feel. Solstice is too much of a mash up and the story is complete garbage.

Syldras wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

Yes I am more relaxed when it comes to my story expectations and enjoy it for what it is. That doesn't mean I didn't see what everyone else saw, I can see it I just don't wanna drive myself crazy poking holes in it. A side effect of age maybe.

I'm genuinely curious: How do you know other people aren't relaxed and drive themselves crazy? All I see in this thread is different people writing reviews about the recent content and explaining what they liked and what they disliked, most probably because they hope this feedback helps when it comes to future writing. Some reviews be a bit more direct in their wording (and maybe sometimes generalize a bit too much), others feel more nuanced, but I wouldn't conclude anything from that.

colossalvoids wrote: »

No one but a EP dunmeri mage to be suspected in this affair...

I might do horrible things sometimes, but nothing that horrible

I don't know how others felt, I wouldn't pretend to know. I just know that I made myself unhappy doing that when I played swtor and when the star wars sequels came out. Idk if you've played swtor but the vanilla game is absolutely great imo. I let myself ruin the newer content by poking holes in the story and maybe just being a little too into it. Ive learned over many years to just chill and just enjoy it for what it is. I try not to have expectations. This way I don't get upset when a game or movie doesn't live up. Doesn't mean I can't see the flaws, just that I'll leave it alone. My post was just about me. Others are free to do and feel how they want.

I just finished it all, and I'm honestly surprised at how good it was. Sure it's a bit chequered in quality still and I have my criticisms, but in general I really liked it, and it's leagues above the previous chapters.

As others have said, my highlight was Corelanya Manor. What a cool quest with the most fun quest companion in a long time, a mystery, a messed-up family, it felt like real classic TES. Loved it. And what is essential: The story does not judge our ghostly necromancer companion on a meta level, no plot and writing coming together to punish him for being "wrong" or telling us the player that he is. It just leaves him be, and we can form our own opinions; he is who he is, and we can like him or not. That is TES writing as I expect it. I can't overstress how happy I was to see that finally return. Please more of that.

I also liked the Meridia temple a lot. And there too, our priest companion was a joy to travel with, cordial and pleasant but totally down with her cult and its ways, and that was refreshing and also something I'd wanted to see again. She has her opinions and faith and that's just how it is.

Main quest: Much more engaging than in the past, and for both this and the prologue I very much appreciated the character writing and the acting for many characters. Vanus is always great, Skordo gets to stay himself too, Azah gets fleshed out more, those three work the best in my opinion.

The decision-making where it works: Love it. Really. Roleplaying is back. And I loved that it turned into little decision branches even. My guy is a "mercy first" type, and got to spare and save two deserters, and it made such a difference to be able to make the decision myself. The NPCs' gratitude means more that way. And I liked that I could pick the degrees and go, okay not only do I guarantee this guy's life, I'm also seeing to him getting safely smuggled out so that he can actually escape. With an option of "Your life has to be enough" there on screen to decide against. I finally felt like I had agency again. I've missed that since after Murkmire, when that kind of thing got mostly shelved.
Also in the Meridia temple quest: If I wanted to, I could play as a Meridia cultist myself or a strict anti-Daedra person. Both of which my character is not, but the option was there, and if we can keep that up, that'll be great.

Now, it doesn't always work. In some cases, I wanted more actually different opinions and viewpoints there and not just three ways of saying the same thing that I didn't want to say. E.g. I like Vanus, and my character likes Vanus. They've gone through Hell Coldharbour together, and Vanus has always been a staunch friend, showed himself happy to see my character and treated him with respect. Why would my character just snipe at him and berate him and badmouth him to others? It made no sense to me whatsoever, and I repeatedly looked for the least-bad option.

In the prologue in particular, the aggressive choice often was way overdone and had the tone of a childish schoolyard bully. This was much better in the actual chapter for the most part; there were more actually determined sensible and just tougher-minded lines there. Great to see the improvement.

Much has been said about the cringey flirty lines, and oh my goodness. People did not exaggerate. I will go so far as to say that Razum-dar has turned into one of those black vortex characters that drag every scene around them down, make all writing around them actively worse and downright insufferable, and I would happily have cut him out of the whole chapter to be spared the pain. There is no gravitas where he is around, and the wording and the placement of the flirt options for him were bafflingly out of place. Everything is going to the dogs, Vanus's investigations have been discovered by his captors and he's in worse danger now, the worm cult is about to resurrect Mannimarco, which nobody could want, and the game thinks we want to suggest "playing games" (heart emoji)? I don't think so.
And while I'm lucky, with no interest in Razum-dar whatsoever, and can just shake my head and ignore these lines, I feel sorry for the people who actually like him and were looking forward to the romance options, only to be given this. Surely we can take this kind of thing to a more grown-up and serious level going forward and with other characters. Please. Let romance have some dignity.

Speaking of flirtations and revelry gone wrong... Yeah I also agree with many people that Sanguine was given way too much of a pass with plenty of whitewashing and brushing over his sphere, making it a matter of personal taste more than anything.
Sanguine is one of the most dangerous Princes of all and part of that is because he and his realm are so intially approachable in ways that are tempting to people more naturally than say, Namira's. And that destroys those who enter. I can understand a massively popular MMO in the current day and age not wanting to tell the kinds of stories that that entails and that would be fitting for the actual Sanguine, but then keeping him unused would have been the more tasteful option. Turning him into a funny guy who just wants to party and whose realm one can leave anytime no worse for the wear except for a hangover invalidates his whole purpose in the narrative. And themes of addiction and self-destruction by excess ought to be treated with more respect than this.
That said, the High Elf Dibella priestess was lovely and well-written and I enjoyed her presence. She can come back as far as I'm concerned to spread her message.

This is getting long, so I'll end here lol. Overall: Massive improvements, including some between prologue and this chapter, and if we can get more of the good parts of this, I think we're back on a very good track. Can't say how glad I am to see it, as someone who's in this mainly for the story and the world.

Compared to old quests and stories new chapters taste like soy meat. Quest lines feel straightforward and smooth, that no one will accidentally offended. Battles aren't challenging enough, otherwise the newbie might not be able to complete it. I feel like craglorn quests were much more fun than solstice.

Can’t judge, I’ve already forgotten. I guess this says something though