SilverBride wrote: »

I need to add that the DK and 2H animations with bright red and orange lights has made my DK unplayable. PLEASE stop the cartoony loud bright effects.

I share this sentiment, and it is a relief to know that they are already working on implementing various VFX toggles to help with this.

SilverBride wrote: »

I need to add that the DK and 2H animations with bright red and orange lights has made my DK unplayable. PLEASE stop the cartoony loud bright effects.

I sometimes wonder if the visuals are contributing to the bogging down of the server at times.

Rissikah wrote: »

Just really upset about Golden Pursuit. Doing that stuff in two days with no effort whatsoever and then nothing to do, thanks ZOS. I really stopped loggin in everyday since they changed that.
Never complained about gameplay cause I dont play pvp, but the stuff they added since Elsweyr is poor and not engaging. Dont even get me started on Blackwood and imaginary daedric prince, the whole bland West Weald. Anything comin after that is even more of an insult.

Same here. The population seems depressed already from this single change. People aren't logging in as much now days and it's obvious. Not sure this was the change ZOS was wanting to see.

AzuraFan wrote: »

I've seen better communication, more transparency, and a lot of requested QoL changes on the schedule, which is all good.


I'm not interested in stuff like the Night Market. I'm hoping special event zones won't always be combat, combat, combat. There are other activities and systems in the game they could build a special event zone around.

Anyway, I'm still keeping an open mind and will see how it plays out for me this year. I see a lot of positive changes, but the bottom line for me will be whether the content they release will be the type of stuff I like to engage with and enough to keep me busy.

Op this is exactly how im feeling about it all. You saved me thectrouble of having to type it all out myself and for that i thank you. This is not my main forums account,mi have 2. For a vet player like myself, been playing eso and subbed for many yrs,
the changes thus far are not an indication of game longevity for me personally moving forward.
At this time i havent got much to do...at leastvthe daily endeavors gave me a lil extra to do but now that's gone. I do daily crafting writs, rando dungeons for the transmute crystals and iA with my partner. I would have lofed it if tge solo dungeons could be played as a duo as there are many of us couples that enjoy playing together.

Hate it, I want clear distinct dps, healing, and tanking skill lines for each class, not this mess we are ending up with. As a subclassed DK tank, there is no reason to play it at the moment and that is the first time I have ever thought this. I would have never thought the DK pure or subclassed tank would be 100% worthless to play but it is.

Those that like to heal as a DK, there is no clear path to take even if you want to subclass.

I hate Daily Bonuses.
Endeavor and Golden are all just quotas.
Is this The Quota Online? No, it's a place to play freely.
I finished my work at the office. I have no intention of working in ESO.
There have been far too many Daily X bonuses so far, so I agree with removing them.
Obligation robs you of your freedom. That's why, at least in ESO, I want to be free.

Love the new DK, really liking the new QoL changes, but there just isn't much to do with any of it. The reality is that there is a real need for new content sooner rather than later. I hope Night Market isn't the flop I'm worried it will be and there is some actual compelling questing content announced soon.

I'm very sceptical and growing increasingly apathetic - not fully yet; I still log in sometimes and check on the news and forum talk sometimes, but it's much reduced; at the moment I barely play anymore.

For one, OP, I share your concerns about the writing. Solstice had actually shown some massive improvements in some areas, I liked the Corelanya Manor and the Meridian temple quests, and Zerith-var was another more recent highlight. Meanwhile Tanlorin is a distinct pain point, as are the more recent Sanguine-related quests, for example. It's the sort of "millennial writing" I just don't enjoy and that didn't use to be in the Elder Scrolls. Last year I replayed a lot of the base game and was reminded of how consistently good the writing was, and how it had one coherent tone that fit the setting. The golden age for me was from ca. Orsinium to Clockwork City, and those highlights have never been met again.
In Blackwood I found myself skimming and skipping dialogue for the first time and was surprised myself; High Isle was the low point.
Last year actually had me optimistic: While it's a chequered image, there were new high points, great improvements in parts, and I enjoyed the main quest, too. Which is why it's so discouraging to have the overall game direction move away from big story-filled zones. In the end, that is still what I play for, along with general immersion in the world.

As for the rest: I don't like the battle pass model at all, I think it's not good for a game like this and will put the development focus on things I don't care for and away from the things I was always happy to pay for in the past. No game I played and liked has ever benefitted from a battle pass, quite the opposite.

I mostly ignored daily and weekly endeavours because any chores in any MMOs are not my cup of tea, but used to like the daily login rewards. Capped event tickets needed an overhaul, so that's not bad in itself, but the battle pass is a whole different animal of monetisation, and I'm uneasy.

I don't like the current focus on hard and forced group content, the Night Market isn't for me at all, so I'll be bypassing this either mostly or entirely. The recent focus is all well and good for those who enjoy it, but I'll be sitting it out. I don't like the focus away from big zones and a reliable update cadence. There was value in knowing what to look forward to and knowing the game was continuting to deliver that which I liked about it, even when things like the writing quality could have used some earlier focus. But moving away from the model is throwing the baby out with the bathwater in my eyes.

The QOL improvements are good and necessary, but they're not content, and they should have come alongside regular content. They simply are not a feature in themselves, and I currently can't even feel excitement for them because a main attraction is missing.

This game has been a part of my life since shortly before Thieves Guild's release, and I want it to be good. But what's missing is something to give me faith in a real, actual future of it that warrants the MMO-typical investment of time, energy, money, emotional investment too.

Right now I'm mainly hanging on by a thin thread of still enjoying being inside the world occasionally, plus the context-less namedropping of "Winterhold". Should that be content of the old kind, and should it be good, that might be something to get me excited again. But if only it had been a real chapter of the old kind this year, it would have been so good, and I'd have been looking forward to it so much. Or even announced for early next year due to development upheavals, for example; I'd have understood that. Instead, we get a battle pass, and I just don't know if the old magic can be back at all.

Theyre doing a lot right, because pvp today in gh felt like mym almost, it was awesome, and the server held up very well surprisingly.

I'm taking a break from the game right now. What new game has my attention? Skyrim, where even with all the infamous bugginess of a Bethesda game, it is FAR more relaxing, enjoyable, and balanced than ESO has been for a couple of years. Bonus, I can actually play how I want .

So what about this "new direction"? If it works, great. But my trust in the successful execution is low after the catastrophe of last year; expectations, quite honestly, are nearly basement level.

I understand that the devs feel a 'fresh' voice in dialogue might be needed for/to attract younger players who, let's face it, are their target audience. But in that "millennial speak", it not only breaks immersion in a fantasy world not built on these millennial speech patterns, it alienates many of those who are the bread and butter of the game - the 'veteran' players. Every time I hear, "Hey, help a high elf out" in that sing-song voice outside of Auridon, I say several versions of "nope, you got yourself into that mess" behind the keyboard. The voice and the dialogue grates on my nerves, and I actively avoid any companions or NPCs who obviously are not from the fantasy realm of Tyria. Granted, this may not be what folks are talking about with the writing (for the past couple of years), but it's a constant reminder to me that someone thought this character and their cadence was a good idea. Give me Stuga any day instead (not really, but ...)

Story-wise, :: sighs :: Western Skyrim/Markarth was the last expansion I played all the way through and enjoyed even though I bought all except Solstice on both accounts. Hold on, I think I did all of Blackwood on one, maybe. I actively dislike Necrom, Gold Road was meh, High Isle was forgettable, even Vvardenfell was a bit lackluster, to be honest (more to do with the scenery than the story).

Classes. I was a beta tester for the game waaaaaay back in the day and so disappointed when there was no ranger class. But, I thought, being a Bethesda game (essentially), I could still play a ranger within another class. And I did. Right up til they started "balancing" in the U30s and ended up breaking many builds. To be clear, I do not min/max; heck, I don't even run what most hardcore players would consider acceptable, but my builds generally work for me. I leave the math of damage rolls to others more qualified than I, but I am so tired of seeing skills essentially nerfed so there is a handful of builds left which are considered viable enough to group with others. This is, after all, a "play how you want" game, right devs?

Realizing how this game has grown and evolved through the years, I marvel it still exists with all the missteps, the ignoring test players and players in general, the lack of communication between devs and players, and the seeming lack of understanding of the interconnectedness (synergy) of skills both within a class and between the various classes playing together. It's as if the people who have the vision of a class or content, the people who then write the coding, those who test the proposed class/content, and those who release said class/content have nothing in common except they all work for the same company. I know that is an oversimplification, but this is sometimes how it feels.

So no. I'll romp around in old-school Skyrim for a bit while the devs tinker around trying to salvage ESO from last year's debacle. Every now and then I'll pop in for a look (housing limits raised was a good thing, so I'll take advantage of that), but even as a multi-account ESO+ veteran player, ESO doesn't seem all that interested in keeping me around these days.

I've said for a long time that ESO's biggest problem was it didn't know what it wanted to be. A single player? An MMO? A running simulator (I'm looking at you LoM)? There was never a clear design intent.

I believe that has changed, and it finally has a clear direction. Over the next few months I expect the nature of that direction to become clearer. Whether I will like that direction remains to be seen, but even if they decided on a direction I don't particularly like I will still be very happy that they have finally chosen an identity - even if that identity is we don't want to be WoW, GW2, BDO; we want to be ESO.

Optimistic im really eager to here about the QoLs coming in update 50

Seems ok so far. DK rework is fun (dps and healer, not tried tank). Subclassing is fun still. Scribing is fun. Really been enjoying the mix of things I can do with characters since scribing and subclassing came out. Now it seems like they are strengthening base classes, which is also nice. Looking forward to class mastery and the other reworks this year.

Syldras wrote: »

Ah, okay. I'm also a lore- and roleplay-focused player, but I still have a bit of a different stance on what I expect from playing ESO. I wrote it in another thread some weeks ago: Within the past few years I had to headcanon so much I've seen while playing the game that it now feels like ESO has become more or less just a backdrop to make up my own characters' stories anyway; and I've read so many player-written stories (roleplay character backgrounds and stories, fan fiction, etc) which felt more interesting and strangely also more fitting and lore-appropriate than what we officially see in ESO lately. And while I love that ESO can inspire creativity in players, I also find it sad somehow that the things we officially see in game are not on that level. I somehow expect official writing, by professional writers, to go even beyond that - but it doesn't. Also I began to wonder what the official stories even mean anymore; to make up TES-lore-based stories for my characters, I personally could just open UESP and read about the lore topics I'm interested in - I don't really need to log into ESO for that. So from logging into the game, I expect more than it just being a background for my own stories, if it makes sense. I also want to see interesting, well-written stories, presented in an atmospheric way, that make me think and that evoke emotions.

Yea, to be fair I feel pretty similarly. I will admit there are several stories I had to really dig deep and recontextualize some bits and it was a challenge (namely Elsweyr and Gold Road MQ), but I still did at least enjoy the challenge and thinking about it but I agree with you that if it got to a point like with WoW where I felt like I was permanently bandaging the lore or that the story jumped too much of the shark I would probably consider just moving onto other writing endeavors that felt better.

Syldras wrote: »

I haven't played Night Market yet, so I can't judge it. But what you wrote sounds indeed interesting, and I'm curious to have a look at it next month!

I really hope that "working together" aspect is not presented with moralistic tones, though - it doesn't even matter if I agree or disagree with something, I find dialogues presented in a way that sounds like some "lesson" towards the player horribly annoying.

I hope I'm not overhyping the Night Market for you and others but I genuinely really liked what I saw and wished we had more quest content in the zone.

I'm right there with you on the morality rub. My main character in eso leans more heroic but sometimes she's harsh and rugged, not overly nice and cheery. I have characters who worship daedric princes or are more self serving and flawed, I have a few goody two-shoes too but for me the diversity of character personality and how they interact with the world compared to others is an important part of my characters and their stories. I personally felt the Night Market was noticeably better on that front than Solstice was.

Spoilers for those who want to go into the Night Market blind:
I admit I always love planar adventures in fantasy settings so this is some of my favorite thematic content but I also hope others find it as interesting as I do because it feels like an improvement. I personally found it better than Solstice and better than the recent Heart's Day quest dialogue so I'm hoping it's a good sign for the other storylines this year. If it isn't and it was a happy accident, my advice to the writing team is sometimes less is more and use the mmo/game elements of the game to show us some things and not directly tell us.

Syldras wrote: »

I also thought the Argonian lore was interesting, and I'm not generally opposed to the idea that Tamrielic cultures might develop differently in a location far away from the mainland. I'm also not saying there was nothing at all that I liked about Solstice - the problem for me is that it wasn't much, and that little that there was, was overshadowed by writing aspects I disliked. I do think it plays a role that I've been playing ESO for such a long time, so I've seen how Wrothgar and the Daedric War story arc were written, so I just know what can be possible. So having some interesting background cultural lore bits for a new zone feels like it's basically some minimum requirement to me, not super-fascinating and extraordinarily good writing.

I think "comparison is a thief of joy," as the expression goes. If good quests becomes background noise because it's to be expected then they become harder to appreciate on their own merits. Similarly, if everything is always held to Wrothgar, then it will always be lacking because Wrothgar wasn't just a franchise high mark but also the game was a lot newer then. At least that's how it works for me, myself, personally. You're mileage may vary, obviously. Nothing wrong with that. I just know I'm more likely to enjoy the stories if I evaluate each on its own merits before thinking about how it compares to the broader Elder Scrolls experience.

I actually thought Solstice did a lot of stuff well. I would put it below Wrothgar and the Daedric War as well. But it was an improvement over High Isle, Blackwood, and West Weald for me personally. I found it pretty middle of the road.