Wrothgar was the best worthwhile chapter.

Divine1976 wrote: »

As a jaded second class PVPer, I think it is the push I need to take a break

I miss the game pre hybridization and that game isn't coming back

Its kinda making steps towards with the class refresh and masteries

I really did like the Chapter model. I don't know why there was so much hate for them.

That said, I do think it's a good thing that ZOS is going for a format where they can adapt more, considering the Chapter model did lock them into 18 months of work which we only got hints of as it was finished, so if we didn't like it... tough. But we could have had that without dropping the old stuff we got (Classes, Features, Zones, Dungeons) for experimental stuff. Look at things like Wrothgar or Murkmire or the like - they are smaller and self-contained, and generally rank near the top of how the stories were received. And the Dungeons we got at those times were not related to the zone, because they didn't have to be.

As much as they're going on about reducing FOMO, I don't see it at all. I know they were talking about how all of the zones and DLCs we get in the Seasons would be available forever, but... it's clearly not. The Night Market? A few months here and there before it's gone. The High Seas of Tamriel? An event, and then the ships and underwater stuff is gone. It really smells like the Wall event all over again - a lot of dev time to go into making a massive set piece that'll exist for a week or so.
It's hard not to look at things that will delete themselves and not go "imagine if this had been a Dungeon instead that we could go into whenever we wanted..."

Dungeons are my favorite content in game... and we're not getting any in 2026 at all. I desperately want new Classes... and we're not getting anything new for Combat until the Refreshes are done after 2027. It's fun to explore new zones... and that's not coming until next year.
So far, 2026 is not shaping up in my direction at all. And what we get instead is... a story featuring the Elder Scrolls series's most insufferable overused annoyance? Ugh. And with the trajectory the story quality has been on since Wrothgar and Summerset, I'm honestly not looking forward to that at all.

We're getting a new zone and it will be a new zone type in 2027 (early iirc). It's going to be Winterhold.

This quarter never had a chapter to begin with. The thing being replaced by the event zone is the dungeons.

We'll have to see how rumors, sage vault, and the two big new quest lines stack up against the chapter model later.

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

A complicated battlepass system that you pay into just to give you a chance to unlock some average stuff. Trade bars with a store full of stuff most of us already have
No prologues to get you ready for what is to come.

Just a massive money grab for junk.

Eh, to each their own.

If you aren't interested in the story, you were basically getting one trial, maybe a unique system and if you're lucky a mythic each year. And that's it for "massive" content for that particular year. If anything I'd call that a massive money grab for junk. At least now you get something of value.

I don’t. The quality was very much decreasing for me over time, to the point that it became “I’ll see how they handle the lore next Chapter and if it’s another poorly written story, I’m leaving”. We do not need 2 zones a year, that’s incredibly overwhelming for new players and the quality was, again, getting worse. I’m excited to hear they’re already working on next year’s zone and I hope that means they’ll be able to put more time into it to make it solid.

I will, however, concede that I miss the cinematics. But we stopped getting those before the Season system got dropped.

Lore cinematics are the only thing I really miss but we had those before chapters. Imo chapters were an unhealthy loop that was the lowest point of the game overall. Quality got increasingly lower and things became very formulaic and rigid and interchangeable. A lot of times it felt like it turned into same general thing different location and checking boxes for content to check them, new features that would quickly become abandoned, and a lot of unfulfilling content. I know that post-chapter has had missteps and controversial decisions but things feel more organic and like effort is being put back into things that just wasn't there. I'd rather us get things slower if it means the quality is better and it's more thought out.

I also think the game is heading in way better directions now than it was, even with the bumps. It is a lot harder to fix something broken than it is to start anew I find and I do see what zos means about building foundations that will make future years better down the line. I get trust and patience is hard though given the past.

What I don't miss from Chapters are the mandatory delves and public dungeons with what often felt like filler quests. I also don't miss the world-saving epic questlines (which Solstice had anyway) that distract from the characters and cultures. I also don't miss waiting from October to June for new major content.

What I like about non-Chapter content so far are character-driven questlines and unique features like Zerith-var's story and Scribing (which was sold with West Weald but overall separate content). I also like a lot of thought being put into what content and types of updates players might want.

But I do miss having just a big, content-filled zone to explore each year. Summerset in particular is just so rich and fleshed-out—some zones are like a full profile of a certain corner or culture of Tamriel with great stories. But they haven't all been that good.

That said, a new zone is coming, and exploration has been mentioned multiple times as a focus.

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

Do you remember when High Isle was introduced, or Elsweyr? Do you remember the freaking awesome trailers that went out, the fantastic prologue quests (especially the Elsweyr one)? Do you remember when we had a new zone, tons of quests, and a really awesome main story quest to fit the trailer we watched 20 times? We could buy the DLC and know exactly what we were going to get, and if we bought the deluxe version, we often got items upfront and some cool stuff when it launched.

Now look where we are. No trailers anymore
So many currencies, it's very hard to keep track of everything
No new zone
A complicated battlepass system that you pay into just to give you a chance to unlock some average stuff. Trade bars with a store full of stuff most of us already have
No prologues to get you ready for what is to come.

Just a massive money grab for junk.

Subclassing that nobody asked for, and then a class rebalance that will take years to make up for the imbalance brought about by subclassing (that nobody asked for).
Abilities that don't fire
New abilities that disappear (Engulfing Dragon Fire)
Disconnects, login errors, login queues

And to cap it all the game loads on the wrong monitor every day.

I still love ESO, but it's not the game it used to be.

How I long for simpler times

https://youtu.be/XaI-EOVpDvo?si=ctuvjHzEqFA0Cv4O

I don't want to be that guy, but most of the new content was literally copy and paste from old content, as there was never enough time to really add any charm/quality to the massive new zones. I think the most egregious example of this was the Sanguine Tent in Solstice. Just an empty zone with a post-processing shader and the same mob copy pasted throughout it, and the quest was go here, talk to person, go to next person, talk, next person, talk, then leave..

Personally I like the monetization shifting to tomes and away from crown crates, as you get a clear idea of what you're paying for, rather than rolling dice for a 0.1% chance of getting something you want, and it's absolutely a win for all players to have access to all zones/content since this is an MMO and more players makes the game feel more alive.

And the whole purpose of all of this is to modernize the game/make it feel good to play agian, and then to start making QUALITY content, rather than churning out soulless content in large quantity. That doesn't mean we will not get more cinematic and story content. They're absolutely planning on moving the timeline forward, which means building upon previous chapter stories with new events and storyline, all perfect opportunities for new cinematics.

The chapters laid a foundation/built the zones and first storyline, so when they go back to build upon the events of each chapter, they don't have to spend time building the zone/3D models/etc from scatch, which means more time focusing on the gameplay, the lore and storylines, etc.

Lastly, yes, there are some bugs with subclassing and complete overhaul of classes built a decade ago. The old approach was to neglect these things to meet deadlines for each massive chapter release. The new approach literally just started, so of course not everything is fixed, but what they've done in just a few months would've taken multiple years under the previous development approach.

AlterBlika wrote: »

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

A complicated battlepass system that you pay into just to give you a chance to unlock some average stuff. Trade bars with a store full of stuff most of us already have
No prologues to get you ready for what is to come.

Just a massive money grab for junk.

Eh, to each their own.

If you aren't interested in the story, you were basically getting one trial, maybe a unique system and if you're lucky a mythic each year. And that's it for "massive" content for that particular year. If anything I'd call that a massive money grab for junk. At least now you get something of value.

Thanks for your reply, but I disagree.

Even if you were not interested in the story, you got a massive new zone to explore with dungeons and delves, new antiquities to dig up, new lore books, new NPC characters to meet, new towns to explore with unique furnishings, new trader spots for guilds and so on. That's all gone now, and let's face it everything in the Tomes and Trade Bar stores is cosmetic junk that makes no difference to gameplay.

Really happy we are leaving the formulaic "content" behind. I was mostly interested in chapters for the new game systems, (and even those were often misses, e.g. companions), as the stories, quests and NPCs sucked more and more with every release.

Can't wait for everything that's coming this year.

licenturion wrote: »

If you google "define excursion" you will get 'a short journey or trip, especially one taken as a leisure activity' and 'a deviation from a regular activity or course'.

Question as a non-native English speaker: How clear is the focus on leisure? My native language also knows the word "excursion" (though written slightly differently), but it has a strong focus on the aspect of education (in English that would basically be a "field trip") and science (closest in English would probably be "research expedition" - in the real world that would mean: Exploring a yet unknown region, charting it, researching the geography, animals and plants of the region, etc). Historically (17th/18th century), it was also used for short war campaign.

What I'm trying to make sense of is if the usage of "excursion zone" hints more on some short, more or less "guided" storyline through the place, or if the focus is exploration, which would hint as a bigger zone.

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

Even if you were not interested in the story, you got a massive new zone to explore with dungeons and delves, new antiquities to dig up, new lore books, new NPC characters to meet, new towns to explore with unique furnishings, new trader spots for guilds and so on. That's all gone now, and let's face it everything in the Tomes and Trade Bar stores is cosmetic junk that makes no difference to gameplay.

While I'd also have prefered a well-designed chapter with a well-written story, I think we need to be realistic: Quality was dropping from year to year, the writing got worse, which to me simply looks like they just can't keep that standard anymore - creating that much content a year while keeping a good quality. So considering that, I'm fine with smaller zones and storylines though I'm still sceptical if the quality will improve or not.

We do get new lorebooks in the Night Market, by the way. There are new characters around. The two stories in summer, the High Seas event, the Sages Vault, and the new Favor and Rumour systems will probably also introduce new locations, npcs and possibly lorebooks. It's different to how the zones were, of course. But it's not nothing at all.

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

Just a massive money grab for junk.

I like that I won't have to pay any money this year that I wasn't already paying (my sub) and I'll still be getting new story content and features. The quantity and quality of said content remains to be seen, but honestly that was already the case with chapters. Even if we get less than we got in previous years, I'm still saving money, and I appreciate the new focus on quality of life and moving away from predictable formulas.

The money grab is only a money grab if you buy into it. I'm quite comfortable passing on the junk I don't need.

for me, buy chapters more like compulsory buy 95% copy and paste trash to unlock few thing i want
so ,i don't

Faulgor wrote: »

Really happy we are leaving the formulaic "content" behind. I was mostly interested in chapters for the new game systems, (and even those were often misses, e.g. companions), as the stories, quests and NPCs sucked more and more with every release.

Can't wait for everything that's coming this year.

Ditto. Chapters were a death spiral for eso. Really excited for what they've announced!