Seraphayel wrote: »

I‘m sure we‘re getting answers for all of this throughout the next weeks and months. Did we know beforehand how much quests Morrowind will have? No. We got to learn as soon as the PRT went up. Sometimes they told us that it‘s 30 hours of content or whatever (which was never the case), but right now we just lack in depth information about all of this.
What I’m not doing though is coming to premature conclusions about quality and quantity when there is no basis for it. I‘m just tired reading about an alleged lack of content when a) there‘s lots of stuff listed in the road map and b) we simply don’t have any further information about it yet. Yes, maybe it will be severely lacking. Maybe it will be good. Who knows, we don’t.

Indeed, we lack information. So how can we know that Season 1, to quote your last post in this thread, "contains everything a Chapter would contain"? We know nothing about the scope yet. And that makes some people worry since there had been a tendency over the past few years that content releases became smaller and smaller. It would have helped a lot if they had given at least a bit more info about the upcoming playable content (especially the two stories and the new High Seas event) during the stream.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Yes yes, you don’t want free content, you want lots of quality and quantity content you can pay for. That’s what we had in the last years (okay, minus 2025) and y’all still complained.

The reason people complained was that it lacked quality compared to earlier releases. Not just Solstice, but there was a decrease for years now (maybe with Necrom being a tad better than High Isle, which lots of people consider ESO's worst chapter, but generally, it's not the quality we had during Wrothgar, Morrowind and Summerset anymore; I, personally, was also okay with Elsweyr and Greymoor, but after that it clearly went downwards). I don't think it's really a solution to just not give us a new bigger zone anymore now.

What I would have liked to see (and of course I would have paid money for that since I know people - including writers, voice actors and translators - don't work for free)? More care going into that content. More care for the lore, more interesting and less formulaic (and recently moralistic) writing. If people were tired of the same number of delves and world events every time - they could have changed that within the chapter zone map. There's no rule that a zone needs to contain x world bosses, x delves, x public dungeons and so on. They could have experimented within a chapter zone. Maybe not everyone would have liked everything, but I think by having a big chapter zone with different types of locations and activities, it was very probable that there was something for almost everyone, at least.

I am concerned which might be putting it midly but I am concerned. I do not take any issue with the planned updates as far as the QOL upgrades (even if they are things we've been asking for for years) or free content for all players. I don't love the battlepass but I won't be purchasing it regardless. The lack of story is very concerning and yeah - I am not sure who asked for Sheo back but that's whatever. The night market I can tell will be just as buggy as the writhing wall final dungeon or whatever from the writhing wall event was presumably. Interesting concept so we will have to see how that plays out.
I hope the no new story zone or content does not set a trend because for me that will be the end of my days in ESO. I will be cancelling my ESO + because of this it is so disappointing.

Syldras wrote: »

Now, if we want to speculate about the upcoming stories... Where will they take place? We know they will be in older zones. And I don't think it's a coincidence which zones they'll add to the base game (or make available for free) now. Made me wonder whether the Thieves Guild questline will again be mostly focused on Hew's Bane? Or maybe it's just dailies anyway, with the quest givers being in the Thieves Den there? Where did the Dark Brotherhood story they hinted on last year go to, by the way? And what's with Sheogorath? Any of that planned for Wrothgar or Western Skyrim?

Pretty sure those stories will all be set in the existing zones for a while. And the stories they add for those new dynamic storms will all be set in Western Skyrim. That's the whole reason they add DLC's to the base game.

They will probably continue next year with new stories in Elsweyr or Summerset. Makes sence because the whole art team doesn't have to make loads of new assets anymore for new unique dungeons and zones like Aprocrypha. But they can make lots of assets for cosmetics for the battlepasses, crates and store which makes sense because this will be the main moneymaker for ESO.

licenturion wrote: »

Zone + dungeons are not in these detailed roadmaps. They already confirmed no dungeons and zones might come but are very far away if you consider how they word things. Otherwise, such a big selling point would be in the roadmap.

Quality and quantity means something else for everyone. I play this game for group dungeons and zone (delves/dungeon/quests/sets/furnishing plan/map completion/fishing). For people like me there is 1 thing to look forward for a whole year and that is a trial. To say that I am disappointed is an understatement.

At first glance I would agree, then Jessica and Finn both posted some snippets regarding the new Night Market which sort of gives me pause for thought... because if there are 4-person and 12-person instances within that "temporary zone", then perhaps, just perhaps, we are getting something to scratch our itch.

Add to this it's been stated that if we like Night Market there's a chance it'll come back for good... can't remember where/who said that, maybe in the stream... well perhaps it's not all doom and gloom.

True this won't scratch the itch for everyone, but at this stage, given the lack of real detail, I'm keeping an open mind.


References:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8411775/#Comment_8411775
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8411801/#Comment_8411801
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8411809/#Comment_8411809

ginkys wrote: »

and yeah - I am not sure who asked for Sheo back...

The same people who wanted a card game.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Why are y'all discounting Night Market as a zone when it's clearly on the road map?

Why are y'all discounting the possibility of a new zone later on when they said they cannot give a final answer yet?

Why y'all discounting that Night Market will have three instanced group encounters and one instanced trial encounter when talking about the lack of group activities?

Why y'all discounting multi-stage cooperative events and large-scale world events in Skyrim?

Who cares about Steam chart numbers? They mean absolutely nothing in regards to ESO, a game that can be accessed with their own launcher, has a Playstation and an Xbox version and is accessible through Steam?

How do you know these big points are small things? As I said, premature conclusions based on nothing. And nothing of what you've said has been presented as a major feature. They're not even listed on the roadmap, they have their special section later on.

Honestly, there is so much stuff and actual diversity on the roadmap - the problem is just y'all blinded by the fact that it's not exactly what you expected or want it to be.

A chunk of people are disappointed that the stuff they played ESO for for 10 years is missing from the roadmap (zone/companions/dungeons/antiquities/...)

Also while you seem to be super hyped, a lot people are not, because we have seen this before. You say how do you know that all those things are small things. Well, let's reverse the question here, how do you know all these things are huge tentpole additions?

U know that once in a lifetime event from last year with those wild epic battle preparations working together per server from the reveal stream? I was hyped AF. They turned out into a few fetch quests and dolmen 2.0 with less impressive visuals. So when I read large scale world event (storms) in Skryim I don't expect much either because there are already storms, so I expect Harrowstorms 2.0.

New stories in old zones is nothing new. They were added every year with the prologue quests to the new chapter. They were usually the most boring quest of the chapter because it was usually portalling and fetching stuff all over base maps and delves you visited 200 times before.

We will have to see what Night Market is. But I expect something of the scope of infinite archive or the temporary fortress from last year. A fun diversion made with existing assets and some existing enemies amped up for group play. But nothing more.

Overland difficulty and a class rebalance is great. But again, for people like me who did all the quests, have all the dungeon and overland sets. Should we run the same dungeons, delves, quests again for the 201th time? This time a bit more difficult and with new animations and a few more extra CP we can't use anyway. Why is it so hard to understand for people that people who finished all the content are upset now that the focus is on new players and players who are only playing for a year or two. Except from the trial there is almost no new actual content.

Anyway. I am not going to repeat the same points over and over again for a whole year. So, I just send a goodbye notice to all my guilds and taking a break from the game and the forums until a new zone and/or dungeons arrive at some point in 2027. Peace out!

Seraphayel wrote: »

It obviously is a further decline, don’t be fooled about that. But, and this is important, it‘s free stuff you don’t have to pay for. The argument of less content had weight to it when you needed to pay for it. Now you get it for free, so any content is a positive, even if the quantity is less.

Honestly, I would have preferred if they just staid with Chapters. I liked the model and I liked the content that came with it. One big new zone, one big new narrative, one big new feature. It worked, at least for me. Yes, it got boring and very formulaic, but only because they didn’t take any risks with it.

You make a ok point but I'm kind of, as my kids might say, low key tired of hearing that it's gonna be free. Like that makes it better. Free is a concern. Content costs. So with it being free, what incentive do they have to give us another zone on par with say Western Skyrim (with blackreach). Not much. After that stream I felt sad. Like ESO was moving away from players like myself. But the thing the team messed up on, and I heard this above or in a different thread by an astute poster, they gave us the shareholder presentation. How we get to pay. How things will be monetized moving forward. Instead they should've expanded on the stuff, the system. The trial (the thing I wanted most) the sea battles, the Skyrim thing. The dynamic events in a certain zone that calls everyone to come and fight like a fallout 76 public event. This stuff sounds cool. The night market sounds cool. They buried the lead.

I feel terrible that story, exploration and dungeon players are left out in the cold. That ESO feels like it's moving towards fortnight instead of ESO. I count myself among all those groups, not just in the end game trial group. I feel bad that all the amazing things that came with chapters are mostly in the garbage. And all I keep hearing is that it's ok cause it's free now.

I do feel terrible, as I said above. I think quality of life improvements should not be the years marquee features. But something that just happens alongside content. I will say though that I'm excited for the things they didn't mention but that people like ninja pulls expanded on in his excellent video. This made me feel better and more hopeful that this year is fixing a game that was a hairs breath away from the garbage can. I think the DK changes are looking good. Players much better then I am will be playing them today and we'll see but I'm hopeful that class balance and, ugh, subclassing will be in a better place. Wild that it'll take 2 plus years though. So anyway. People who feel apprehensive are very much justified. The concern and disappointment is justified. Being free doesn't help those concerns. And the team needs to expand, double time, on what's coming this year beyond how we can PAY. I'd love to see some of this new communication around this.