Official Discussion Thread for "Battle For The Writhing Wall Event Info"

aussie500 · October 12

Not really discussing the event, but I do not suppose the content pass will have a special price for the event to tempt more to join in the Solstice fun? Two of my accounts have it the third does not.

Danikat · October 12

zenonuk wrote: »

Firstly the issue isn't with event per se, rather it's specifically with the time-limited access to an element of the paid season pass content (the Writhing Fortress instance) which people do not know whether they'll be able to play because RL takes priority, and there's no schedule of when Phase 3 would happen (because by the nature of the event, it can happen at any time).

I thought it's obvious that's what all the discussion around this has been about. But just in case it's unclear to ZOS as well and they'd need a long conversation where it's explained to them here's a summary:

Having a one-off community event is fine, it's not the first and probably won't be the last. Having unique rewards for participating in that event is not ideal but again it's not the first time and it won't be the last.

The problem is having a delve - part of the game world tied to the zone story - which is going to be removed once the event is over, meaning anyone doing it later misses out and has to play through a broken, disjointed story with a chunk missing. This will affect everyone, whether or not they played through it during the event or not.

That's all that's being asked for - keep the dailies and the Writing Fortress available in some form to play later on.

Varana · October 12

zenonuk wrote: »

- Offer some compensation to season pass holders who bought the content in good faith, and are (through your logs) shown to have not gained the benefit of the Writhing Fortress instance.

It's not just players who will miss out on completing the Writhing Fortress.

At least with AWA, ZOS has moved away from seeing characters as individuals who have their own story, but that doesn't mean I have. I'd like to have several of my characters experience the story for themselves, not just me as the player.

The more I think about this, the less I like this time-limited content idea, and that started at "I don't like this idea" already.

Syldras · October 12

Danikat wrote: »

The problem is having a delve - part of the game world tied to the zone story - which is going to be removed once the event is over, meaning anyone doing it later misses out and has to play through a broken, disjointed story with a chunk missing.

As someone who has played the whole thing on PTS: I don't think the removal will ruin the story, if they adjust dialogues accordingly. It's more an extra anyway. There's another singleplayer-scale quest that's about breaking the Wall (and I guess that's the one that will remain for everyone even after the event has ended).

It might make the event sound less spectacular, but defeating the final boss within the Fortress is more about weakening the Wall than actually destroying it with one hit or push of a lever or so anyway.

Still, I'd like the Fortress to remain in game. It's just a fun dungeon if the balance between player power or group size and enemies is right (scaling would be needed for that).

Danikat · October 12

Syldras wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

The problem is having a delve - part of the game world tied to the zone story - which is going to be removed once the event is over, meaning anyone doing it later misses out and has to play through a broken, disjointed story with a chunk missing.

As someone who has played the whole thing on PTS: I don't think the removal will ruin the story, if they adjust dialogues accordingly. It's more an extra anyway. There's another singleplayer-scale quest that's about breaking the Wall (and I guess that's the one that will remain for everyone even after the event has ended).

It might make the event sound less spectacular, but defeating the final boss within the Fortress is more about weakening the Wall than actually destroying it with one hit or push of a lever or so anyway.

Still, I'd like the Fortress to remain in game. It's just a fun dungeon if the balance between player power or group size and enemies is right (scaling would be needed for that).

Thanks for the extra info.

I suppose making the Fortress an optional extra with no real impact on the story is one solution. Although I'm concerned about the fact that this requires them to update some dialogue. They never went back and adjusted dialogue to accomodate One Tamriel and that was 9 years ago. Maybe the fact that this is smaller scale and more immediate means it will get done, but it would be nice to have that confirmed. ZOS increasingly seem to think the point of quests is to clear them for the rewards so as long as they're completable they don't worry about the narrative.

My preference would be for it to work as ZOS intend - with the Wailing Fortress as the epic conclusion to a dramatic and meaningful storyline, but one that's available for everyone who purchases and plays that storyline. Making it something you can do or skip because it doesn't actually matter sort-of fixes the problem, but it's probably the most disappointing way to handle it. Well, except for ignoring the problem entirely and leaving us with a broken quest chain with nonsensical dialogue.

Syldras · October 12

Danikat wrote: »

Thanks for the extra info.
I suppose making the Fortress an optional extra with no real impact on the story is one solution. Although I'm concerned about the fact that this requires them to update some dialogue. They never went back and adjusted dialogue to accomodate One Tamriel and that was 9 years ago. Maybe the fact that this is smaller scale and more immediate means it will get done, but it would be nice to have that confirmed. ZOS increasingly seem to think the point of quests is to clear them for the rewards so as long as they're completable they don't worry about the narrative.
My preference would be for it to work as ZOS intend - with the Wailing Fortress as the epic conclusion to a dramatic and meaningful storyline, but one that's available for everyone who purchases and plays that storyline. Making it something you can do or skip because it doesn't actually matter sort-of fixes the problem, but it's probably the most disappointing way to handle it. Well, except for ignoring the problem entirely and leaving us with a broken quest chain with nonsensical dialogue.

Since they already planned the Fortress to be a temporary event thing beforehand, I'd guess they already have two different versions of dialogue recorded anyway and after the event they might just swap to the other variant. That doesn't concern me that much, to be honest. (And they did change a bit of old quest dialogue after a new story release, by the way - Hermaeus Mora in one of the Dominion basegame zones has some slightly different dialogue if you have finished Necrom before).

On PTS both quests about, more or less, breaking the Wall felt a little redundant. You basically run into a few solo delves to destroy whatever to weaken the Wall, and then you run through the fortress and weaken it another time... One of these things could be easily left out. The only dialogue change needed would be, well, not mentioning the "go to location x..." part and remove mentions of the Fortress.

Lugaldu · October 12

I've never been so disappointed and unhyped by an event as I am now. Many people in this thread have already explained the reasons for this: I paid for what is now turning out to be a (developmentally irrationally intensive, wasted) one-week spectacle that will never be available again.
I'm also one of those who will barely have time to participate in the event in the coming weeks, and I'm wondering what I actually paid more for this year than I paid for the chapters in previous years.

Elvenheart · October 12

Aliyavana wrote: »

NGL, wall breaker as a title seems sorta lame. Since the wall is made out of many souls, i feel it could sound cooler.

Soul Breaker?

Soul Shatterer?

shadyjane62 · October 12

I find I have no idea what this is all about. I didn't buy Solstice so didn't pay attention to anything for this year. Not sure if I m interested in this. It doesn't seem to be a part of the game.

Cobble123 · October 13

So what time does this start at?

Lord_Draevan · October 13

Cobble123 wrote: »

So what time does this start at?

Website says today (Oct 13) at 10am Eastern Time

DragonRacer · October 13

"ZeniMax Online Studios, tear down this wall!"

twisttop138 · October 13

I find "to be a part of gaming history" a little suspect. With all this talk of communication, can we just for once call a spade a spade. Some marketing manager thinks time limited means people will fear missing out and spend when they might not have. It's your favorite crown store and event play. Have you ever seen viva la dirt league? They do a skit called, I believe, devs. They show the management team of an mmo and the community manager. The managers are portrayed as money hungry and think the community is stupid and tell the community manager to sell it. It's how I imagine meetings at Zos.

MissyTrulla · October 13

Edenprime wrote: »

Are there three or four glorious coffers available from the four available dailies? On PTS the Quartermaster Nurwalne's quest also gave a golden coffer, but the article only mentions the other three quest givers and their loot tables. @ZOS_Kevin

I only got 3 the Golden Chest from Nurwalne is missed

Inari Telvanni · October 13

Is anyone having issues with the quest "Crossing the Wall"? I have been softblocked.

Destai · October 13

I am deeply disappointed that the Stirk Motif pages aren't a guaranteed drop. Seeing that, I don't think I'll be participating in this event.

tomofhyrule · October 13

MissyTrulla wrote: »

Edenprime wrote: »

Are there three or four glorious coffers available from the four available dailies? On PTS the Quartermaster Nurwalne's quest also gave a golden coffer, but the article only mentions the other three quest givers and their loot tables. @ZOS_Kevin

I only got 3 the Golden Chest from Nurwalne is missed

I'm thinking that the Quartermaster and the Vitrified Souls quests are sharing drop tables, since the coffer rewards are the same name and only one of those two quests is awarding the gold box.

E_Lucan · October 13

This might be a silly question, but it's happened to me three times now that an event to "defend the camp" has started in a camp I was in, only for all the enemies to despawn in like two seconds. Is this meant to happen? We are waiting around for 15+ minutes for the camp event to start and then the timer seems to reset without the battle actually starting? Am I misunderstanding something?

tomofhyrule · October 13

E_Lucan wrote: »

This might be a silly question, but it's happened to me three times now that an event to "defend the camp" has started in a camp I was in, only for all the enemies to despawn in like two seconds. Is this meant to happen? We are waiting around for 15+ minutes for the camp event to start and then the timer seems to reset without the battle actually starting? Am I misunderstanding something?

Known issue
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/683994/writhing-wall-event-known-issues#latest

E_Lucan · October 13

tomofhyrule wrote: »

E_Lucan wrote: »

This might be a silly question, but it's happened to me three times now that an event to "defend the camp" has started in a camp I was in, only for all the enemies to despawn in like two seconds. Is this meant to happen? We are waiting around for 15+ minutes for the camp event to start and then the timer seems to reset without the battle actually starting? Am I misunderstanding something?

Known issue
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/683994/writhing-wall-event-known-issues#latest

Oh okay, thank you so much! I find it hard to find the latest post related to the event sometimes haha, so I appreciate the link.

SerafinaWaterstar · October 13

Drop rate appalling.

For example, trying to gather Golden Sap from identified location in Greenshade, killed lots in area = zero sap.

Killing daedra in coldharbour is ridiculous. Will get 4 in a row then nothing for the next 10.

THIS IS NOT FUN.

laniakea_0 · October 13

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Edenprime wrote: »

Are there three or four glorious coffers available from the four available dailies? On PTS the Quartermaster Nurwalne's quest also gave a golden coffer, but the article only mentions the other three quest givers and their loot tables. @ZOS_Kevin

We issued a correction for this in the article. It should be four, rather than three.

The article does now mention The Quartermaster as a source for event coffers but there is still no paragraph listing the rewards found in her coffers.

wolfie1.0. · October 13

i think one of the issues could be that mobs might have a timer cool down on event quest drops. similar to how plunder skulls have a cool down.

mobs that respawn quickly dont seem to drop items as often as those that have been standing around for a while.

laniakea_0 · October 13

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

Would also like to know if the Writhing Fortress instance is specific to the event period, or if that will remain open as a Public Instance once the event is finished. Thanks!

Writhing Fortress is specific to the event period. It is gone once the event is over. For others noting disappointment that the event will not be available as a persistent public dungeon, we will pass that on to the team. The goal for this event is to make it apart of game history. Like "I was there for the Battle for the Writhing Wall". But totally understand the sentiment around wanting it accessible post event as repeatable content.

I'm sorry, but that's really not what ESO is. What the community does is based on what happens in-game, not the other way around. The fact that the first time we're bringing the wall down we're all doing it together, is history enough and it's fine that this aspect of the experience will remain in the past, but actively blocking future players from visiting these places as a natural (and intentional!) part of the story is not in the spirit of the game. doing it this way doesn't add to the game. it literally subtracts from it.

shadyjane62 · October 13

tomofhyrule wrote: »

E_Lucan wrote: »

This might be a silly question, but it's happened to me three times now that an event to "defend the camp" has started in a camp I was in, only for all the enemies to despawn in like two seconds. Is this meant to happen? We are waiting around for 15+ minutes for the camp event to start and then the timer seems to reset without the battle actually starting? Am I misunderstanding something?

Known issue
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/683994/writhing-wall-event-known-issues#latest

You had all this time to make it worked right and it doesn't. I've spent a fortunes trying to get to places because no Stirk Wayshrine. I've wasted hours doing boring busywork that I can't accomplish. If I ever go into Entilias Folly again I hope its not this century.

Think I'll give the rest of this disaster a miss.

laniakea_0 · October 13

Destai wrote: »

I am deeply disappointed that the Stirk Motif pages aren't a guaranteed drop. Seeing that, I don't think I'll be participating in this event.

They are tied to the Siege Camp quests which will remain part of the game after the event is over. no way to run out of time to obtain it in this case.

Romo · October 13

Well again I'm really questioning the money I spent on this stuff, and becoming more happy I did not buy at the first for $50pls dollars.

Took the starting quest from Skordo and he did-int give me a Qwest! So I did not know where to find him. Searched back at palace, but not there. Searched all over the areas on map..still no Skordo.

Then asked the zone for his location... no one replied.. helpful bunch.. not...

Sigh...

waste of money, and time.

fizl101 · October 13

Not sure what is happening but on ps eu we were at 2.6% then dropped to 0.9%

ZOS_CouchTato · October 13

fizl101 wrote: »

Not sure what is happening but on ps eu we were at 2.6% then dropped to 0.9%

Kevin commented on this in this thread.

Erissime · October 13

So an event announced in ever so long - and to be clear JUST an event, no particular new content, nothing TOO extraordinary to exhaust the team, nothing to stay long term in game - has already as many known issues as these:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/683994/writhing-wall-event-known-issues?utm_medium=social&utm_source=discord&utm_campaign=dwemer_automaton

You can also add to the pile the spriggans drops too low, as well as their respawn times - but probably that was intended. Because there are only so many spriggans zones in base game, why bother to increase a special drop meant for a specific event, when players can just sit around forever and farm in the hope that MAYBE it will happen. (it didn't for me in over 20 min - 8 too big a nr!)

Percentage bars are already listed elsewhere for not working too.

Just a mere idea of the lovely embrace we are being given as players in ever so long. Thank you zos, bye zos. There's one too many failures you can provide. o/

This isn't even PTS worth , never you mind live, but here we are. Until of course ... we're not!