Thank you for the update

That must have been a hard letter to write, I mean honestly some of you guys(players), should be ashamed by your attitudes!!

Look around, if you can find a game doing what you want, then go play that but oh no instead you come to the Forums and make everyone else miserable too.

Personally I do not limit myself to one play style so whatever changes can or cannot be made, if it affects me badly enough, I just play another part of the game.

I mean it isn't as if ESO is a small world to explore.

Going forward I wish the team the absolute best regards and hope that their new normal is not too restrictive on what they wish to do.

Vaqual wrote: »

FluffyDoom wrote: »

Ah yes, Morrowind aka Sorrowind.

First experience with a whole trial guild quitting and mass exodus of numerous friends/guildies.

Do wish players would stop begging for nerfs and ask for buffs instead.

Nerfs are not fun.

Buffs are fun.

Games should be fun!

Fair and interactive gameplay is fun.
Coherent concepts are fun.

Buffs or nerfs have nothing to do with it. That is a simplification that has caused so much more harm than good countless times already.

What? Nerfs 1000% have something to do with things being fun or not and to claim they don't is outright incorrect. Things that NEED nerfing are one thing, it's another thing entirely when something doesn't need a nerf but gets it anyway, and it's even worse when the nerfs are heavy-handed. Just look over the years at how many times people have gotten upset over Sets and playstyles being gutted all the time. Look at how much WW got nerfed into the ground until the rework. Look at how many times a Mythic has been released in an OP state despite warnings on the PTS, only for it to get nerfed a few months after hitting Live. Look at the debacle that was U35. And in the past ZOS was VERY infamous for not doing small gradual changes to get things balanced, but for nerfing things into the ground so hard they might as well have been buried.

Nerfs most definitely DO have something to do with fun when they are consistent and excessive. At least recently they've been better about making smaller adjustments and making better use of things like Battle Spirit or the "against monsters" tags to not nerf PvE over PvP.

Class refresh should be coming out faster than anything, not pushed back even further. Not even Crown Store items should compete against that as refresh work affects core gameplay. Unless you intend on making everything unfun to play by heeding to the nerf calls and taking things back to Morrowind level pretty much. That was the least fun experience I've had in a single game. Only saving grace was that I was an avid TES fan then, I am not that avid of a TES fan anymore.

Vaqual wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Vaqual wrote: »

FluffyDoom wrote: »

Ah yes, Morrowind aka Sorrowind.

First experience with a whole trial guild quitting and mass exodus of numerous friends/guildies.

Do wish players would stop begging for nerfs and ask for buffs instead.

Nerfs are not fun.

Buffs are fun.

Games should be fun!

Fair and interactive gameplay is fun.
Coherent concepts are fun.

Buffs or nerfs have nothing to do with it. That is a simplification that has caused so much more harm than good countless times already.

What? Nerfs 1000% have something to do with things being fun or not and to claim they don't is outright incorrect. Things that NEED nerfing are one thing, it's another thing entirely when something doesn't need a nerf but gets it anyway, and it's even worse when the nerfs are heavy-handed. Just look over the years at how many times people have gotten upset over Sets and playstyles being gutted all the time. Look at how much WW got nerfed into the ground until the rework. Look at how many times a Mythic has been released in an OP state despite warnings on the PTS, only for it to get nerfed a few months after hitting Live. Look at the debacle that was U35. And in the past ZOS was VERY infamous for not doing small gradual changes to get things balanced, but for nerfing things into the ground so hard they might as well have been buried.

Nerfs most definitely DO have something to do with fun when they are consistent and excessive. At least recently they've been better about making smaller adjustments and making better use of things like Battle Spirit or the "against monsters" tags to not nerf PvE over PvP.

So fixing a bad state by making a poor change gives a worse result. Congrats to that realization. They could have made the situation just as miserable with poorly thought out buffs.

There are just as many people having a miserable time with other players being overpowered as there are players having a miserable time being underpowered. They are two sides on the same coin. The outcome is the same, you just need to fix the perspective.
Regarding PvE that still applies. Nothing stops them from adjusting NPC values either.

What you believe should happen balance wise and what should happen balance wise are not always the same. No amount of nerfing will pull PvP out of the rut it’s in now ,with these delays especially, without destroying the combat vision and likely negatively affecting future reworks also.

Buffs have to happen to underperforming classes and we already have the avenue (class masteries) to take advantage of this (provide reduced benefit for werewolf on masteries where needed).

freespirit wrote: »

Thank you for the update

That must have been a hard letter to write, I mean honestly some of you guys(players), should be ashamed by your attitudes!!

Contrary to your moral grandstanding, people can also share their concerns and they don't have to be ashamed for doing so. 2027 for the Warden refresh is disappointing, and we can give feedback on that. We don't have to pretend everything is fine or be happy with a bunch of side/second rate offerings for rest of the year compared to what we used to get.

This community as a whole has funneled billions in revenue into this game and we all deserve better.

This is honestly not that bad. The things that have been pushed out are BIG things that should be released fully functional. I don't mind waiting for night market to return- I got a little burnt out on it, admittedly.

I hope you guys are doing alright. TY for continuing ESO and not yet sunsetting it.

Are there ways, besides the obvious (like, don't quit, keep subbing/buying crowns), that we can support the TEAM? I don't mean necessarily ZoS/Bethesda (that's where financially supporting the game more directly matters)- but how can we, as a community of gamers, make sure the game we all love...... survives? Should we go on PTS more? Is there a WAY you'd like us to test things that go on the PTS? I am guessing a lot of your testers are no longer being paid/on staff... so finding bugs will be pretty important before release. Are there any OTHER ways we can help? I like this game and I want it to survive.

CAB_Life wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Combat and Class balance is something that affects all facets of the game, from the most casual of overland questing to hypersweaty PvP. Leaving that to languish for any length of time will only serve to drive more and more people away. This is especially obvious from the recent surprise Vengeance test - Vengeance as it currently is was running fine and had a population that enjoyed it as is, so the Combat Team taking time away from the Refreshes to focus on modifying that mode (especially in a way that removed what its main userbase enjoyed to try in vain to entice a userbase that wants nothing to do with it) seemed like a case of skewed priorities.

Hey all, related to the above, while we aren't going go into specifics (and I recognize that's disappointing), the class refresh schedule change is not due to anything the Combat Team is or will be working on. Vengeance work is unrelated.

What are the combat team working on then if not combat changes for the class refresh? Broadly speaking if you can't give specifics? Because this comment is very confusing. Were they not working on Vengeance changes, ergo, as that poster posited it would in fact be shifting workload from the combat team working on the class refresh?

Didn't you even stop to think about what the development team does and who's on it?
I'm really curious—do they have animators and sound designers? If you look at the list of those who were laid off, there are animators and sound designers on it, and they were supposed to be involved in implementing the class reworks.

Warden refresh delay is disappointing. Even with recent layoffs, according to official statements on the forums, Warden refresh project was already underway with the DK update.

Therefore, it's clear that Warden refresh is either facing serious technical problems or that some staff members are simply [snip] and unable to deliver on time.

If it's the former, then the developers should clearly inform players of the difficulties encountered, or which design concepts cannot be agreed upon internally. If necessary, a vote or survey could be conducted.

[snip]
[edited for bashing]

Wuuffyy wrote: »

Vaqual wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Vaqual wrote: »

FluffyDoom wrote: »

Ah yes, Morrowind aka Sorrowind.

First experience with a whole trial guild quitting and mass exodus of numerous friends/guildies.

Do wish players would stop begging for nerfs and ask for buffs instead.

Nerfs are not fun.

Buffs are fun.

Games should be fun!

Fair and interactive gameplay is fun.
Coherent concepts are fun.

Buffs or nerfs have nothing to do with it. That is a simplification that has caused so much more harm than good countless times already.

What? Nerfs 1000% have something to do with things being fun or not and to claim they don't is outright incorrect. Things that NEED nerfing are one thing, it's another thing entirely when something doesn't need a nerf but gets it anyway, and it's even worse when the nerfs are heavy-handed. Just look over the years at how many times people have gotten upset over Sets and playstyles being gutted all the time. Look at how much WW got nerfed into the ground until the rework. Look at how many times a Mythic has been released in an OP state despite warnings on the PTS, only for it to get nerfed a few months after hitting Live. Look at the debacle that was U35. And in the past ZOS was VERY infamous for not doing small gradual changes to get things balanced, but for nerfing things into the ground so hard they might as well have been buried.

Nerfs most definitely DO have something to do with fun when they are consistent and excessive. At least recently they've been better about making smaller adjustments and making better use of things like Battle Spirit or the "against monsters" tags to not nerf PvE over PvP.

So fixing a bad state by making a poor change gives a worse result. Congrats to that realization. They could have made the situation just as miserable with poorly thought out buffs.

There are just as many people having a miserable time with other players being overpowered as there are players having a miserable time being underpowered. They are two sides on the same coin. The outcome is the same, you just need to fix the perspective.
Regarding PvE that still applies. Nothing stops them from adjusting NPC values either.

What you believe should happen balance wise and what should happen balance wise are not always the same. No amount of nerfing will pull PvP out of the rut it’s in now ,with these delays especially, without destroying the combat vision and likely negatively affecting future reworks also.

Buffs have to happen to underperforming classes and we already have the avenue (class masteries) to take advantage of this (provide reduced benefit for werewolf on masteries where needed).

I think you are reading way too much into my comment. I am not claiming that they can manage to achieve perfect balance purely through nerfs without causing any friction. I am however convinced that a few surgical nerfs can take most of the edge off though. Making 4-5 incisions, even if just temporarily until the rest is ready to ship, would also not be unreasonable. Leaving a majority of classes and subclass pairings at a severe disadvantage for more than 2 years is however completely mad.

And even if they'd set out to fix everything by buffing, that still wouldn't mean that nerfs are inherently bad. I just think this notion needs to be rooted out.

freespirit wrote: »

It is entirely entirely unreasonable to still expect the promised cadence of releases to stay in place, when also taking into account the teams working on those things have lost many of their members.

Everyone is moaning about the delayed Warden class refresh, I main Templar's, I have no issue with waiting a bit longer for their refresh. At this point that could be two years away, it won't stop me playing them just because they're weaker(in some peoples eyes) than other classes

Modern GaaS has warped people's expectations. They think that just because a game makes money, a studio should be able to churn out new content at whatever rate they (the player) thinks is reasonable. It's a complete lack of understanding regarding the challenges and realities of game development.

hoangdz wrote: »

First, thank you for the update. We feel assured that the game we enjoy is still here to stay. With that said, let’s talk about PvP combat balance. We are enduring DK and WW dominating the meta purely out of hope that the next reworked class will be right around the corner. Now that the next class rework is a year away, we expect ZOS and the development team to seriously consider adjusting these classes in both PvP and PvE.

My suggestion is to nerf DK’s class masteries and remove HP scaling heals from WW. This is urgent, so please consider these going forward.

Do not forget the ridiculous 50% projectile damage reduction on DK Wings.

So First off Thanks for the Update(ish).

I understand what’s happening from multiple angles, being on the Wrong Side of a layoff (quite a FEW TIMES), also being on the Right side of a Layoff (quite a FEW TIMES), Being on the management team making those decisions, Being on the management team surviving the decisions. And finally as the Owner of the company having to come to those positions.

Hence simply put and straight forward, “I ONLY BELIVE A LITTLE OF WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!” The majority of this is CORPOSPEAK and DAMAGE LIMITATION.

Lets look at project planning and cost analysis here for a second, your Shergorath event is out and underway. Yes it took time to create, but the majority of your assets being used which required no rework at all, already existed! A Wise and cost effective way of adding content! I can honestly see more of this coming along, and in my opinion a good way of expanding the game out!
The writer(s) and the voice actor have got “New” work, one part of which got paid well, the other is on staff, but we will avoid the contractual law bit here! But boiled down you have added a few hours to the total game play, with negligible rewards to entice long term players, and since this is a “Drop in” may or may not stay – or may or may not return again!

Simply put look at “Washington – right now – Its getting polished up (for the time being) , lots of things are getting GOLD PLATED (if you count paint as gold), but there is in the majority NOTHING NEW, an oversized paddling pool with stagnant water, is still simply an oversized paddling pool with stagnant water with a lick of paint, You cannot tell the world that Washington has had any sort of an improvement, yet $MILLIONS have been spent, depriving other areas of much needed $ influx.

Yes Everyone who has played for a long time, and those who are relatively new want more content, they want an even playing field to let their gameplay skills shine, or simply to enjoy their investment, as commented on above a gold painted street dropping is still only a prettier street dropping. I have said it before on other posts, how about actually explaining the thought process behind what you do (you have skimmed the surface on the Devs Videos), When people find an angle everyone copies it, Simply put Everyone loves to win – everyone loves to be a bully – and most of them are sheep! (me included in there in parts!)

But the biggest problem you are facing – and will face going forward! Is getting things out to justify simply existing, in doing so you’re building in Errors, and if you push forward on expansion rather than creation you’re going to embed those errors into the future! A nice example of this would be a Fallout 76 Plasma Gattling Gun, was in the game for YEARS, and was JUNK!! But they kept on tweaking it to make it more appealing, Then someone actually found the error in the base code damage calculation, and Stupidly Fixed it ( love that person!!! ), you now had a weapon that could destroy anything as now it worked and the years of Tweaks to boost it all now worked way better, you could do Group content Solo, it created a black market on and offline for the weapon, and a few Hacks / exploits to get it., The only FIX was to simply remove the weapon as it stood from the game, Fallout LOST Thousands of players on that day – a lot came here to ESO!!!

How about either SLOWING down the releases, and putting them out Bug Free (impossible I know, but near would be nice!) , taking some time and patching the problem that exist, try simply playing the game live! Read the comments, even simply jump worlds and read the comments!

Right now, You have created a Hate Environment! People celebrating getting a Key or a Jewel, items that are not meant to be rare! Where others (me included) have played 8-14 hours per day for the past 20+ days, multiple favours 300+ , done as many Dynamic Events as they can (best I got was 5 in a row, by miraculously having people on other servers at the right time) and some people have not found ANY Dynamics as they are stupidly playing the game! And all for 0 Keys, 0 Jewels, 0 recipe’s, 0 style pages – which is a THEM PROBLEM, based upon your Bad R&G. And you expect them to stick around and Support you???
Lose them and you lose the Future revenue Microsoft are expecting from ALL of its Xbox Divisions!!

As to Cross Play… Your Behind the Microsoft Schedule of June 2nd 2026! Yes it may be Disguised as Play Anywhere, but its always been planned as a Cross play , as a consolidation of revenue Streams, Console + Personal Computer (Mac and Microsoft) + Handhelds + Tablets, Incorporating Sony – Steam – Ubisoft – EA Games – GOG (and ON). Simplistically Circumvented by a lot of Studios by Cloud Streaming, ESO’s problem is the old enforced control, you had to have an ESO account to play, meaning you might have a single account but that’s subdivided by PC/Xbox/PlayStation each with a separate Server environment, made worse again by NA/EU subdivisions again! So Your old Enforced control is the catalyst for your own problems! Another example of Compiling a problem rather than simplifying it early!

Please not here I am Not a Fan of the Xbox way of doing this, it’s too Open to manipulation!

Fallout 76 buy it on Bethesda / steam / epic, you get to play 1 account, want more, Buy More! Good for You bad for families!!
The Xbox way, Buy the game (as the responsible parent / person), install the game on the computer. Now add your family, each gets Fallout 76 without buying it (good I like it), BUJT make up ANY Email, register that as a Family Member, do whatever the hell you want! Get banned, no problems, simply make a new family member! Now you have a Toxic Game!

So, I can understand and Appreciate the ESO control there, but that’s making Crossplay database integration a nightmare and a mess, and given the Track record over the past few years, of simply getting it wrong, it’s going to take a long time!!! And probably will still be wrong!!

I am for one intrigued as to how my Xbox account lvl 32 with NOTHING, is all of a sudden going to be onto my PC Account with a lot more, OR is my PC account all of a sudden going to be my Xbox Account? And Microsoft Xbox Support whining up the ladder at the ESO incompetence, they may be building more Guillotines right now!
The Biggest Problem you NEED TO FIX, for older players, current players and New players, is an R&G system that works, and is fair, Right Now its anything But.
I am old enough that I do not Believe CorpoSpeak, In the days of AI I do not believe anything I see or Here. I simply believe what I personally experience. And at this point in time from that perspective , this game is a wate of time effort and energy and only getting worse!

So PAUSE! Get things stable and sorted, then move Forward from there. With your staff levels right now, the only way you can be the Studio that made Orsinium , is to cut the player base back to before then, and not have the Bugs pulling the game down… Do That and your going to suffer the Wrath of the Microsoft Directorate, who are going to see ESO as a loss maker, and the whole thing is Gone…

Pray that Microsoft are not Trailing Corporate AI, the same way as Bethesda Trailed AI Support!!! We all know how that went!!

But Best of Luck! Keep Trying and I will see you on the other side!

I love the forums for trying to understand where everyone is coming from… But at Times (understandably) the focus is on how/why/where they play, and how it effects them and their friends / teams in gameplay, mostly PVP!

Me I am not a HARDCORE player, keep saying it, level 3600 does not make you great, simply means you play a lot. I always have played the game to relax and have fun – that’s been going away for years now! Replaced by the Job that its become. Example I am avoiding going on right now, as I have 15 toons trying to get Favours for a Key… 3 hours of Grinding for an event that’s not out, and for a challenge pittance!

I have 20 toons on 1 account and 15 on another, the 20-toon account was made up by creating role specific toons, or in some cases My hated Arcanist, it’s in the game I am going to have one, then not play it!

The 15 Toon account 10 of those were not even my toons! I allowed family to use this account to find out if they liked the game, then I bought them a copy! I simply kept the toons and levelled them up.

Point I am making here is that I am flexible, but now its all about HOW I HAVE TO PLAY, not how I want to play. And it has / is really putting me off playing… but I keep playing rather than finding another game, just in case it gets better!!!

Since 1980 , my actual love of computers has been hardware, Networks and Communications (yes they are different things) , The software came along because it took engineers to get it running, and then engineers to fix what the programmers BROKE!

ESO is the Only MMO that I have bought and stuck with… it was that good, and its always had a great helpful community, which counts a lot as you get on in years!

But its going to hell in a handcart all for the chasing of the mighty dollar, We the community are the “Divine Wind” pilots, revered until we are not!

@ZOS_Kevin

Hint - the website shows still the old version of the yearly roadmap.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/roadmap

peacenote wrote: »

ZOS sometimes just can't win and some of the reactions here are a good example of this. For years.... YEARS... we have expressed frustration that partially finished solutions or new features with identified issues on PTS continue to go live despite feedback that things aren't done, need to wait, or should be fixed/changed before going live...

ZOS is definitely in a no-win situation. To some degree, it's of their own making.

I'm seeing more frustration over the communication than the actual decisions themselves. Especially around the Warden refresh. We were weeks away from it landing on PTS and now it's pushed out well into next year. People have asked for clarification repeatedly and ZOS has handled that in their traditional fashion.

They need to appreciate that some people see them as a "problem child" given their history. And when they have missteps like that, it takes people back to the moments that embittered them over the years. I don't think people are likely to extend grace when they avoid important topics.

peacenote wrote: »

ZOS is essentially acknowledging that the new trial and class reworks are important and not ready, and so are pushing them out, and from that perspective it's an extremely refreshing change. The only thing worse than delaying these features would be releasing them half baked. So I honestly can't criticize this and in many ways, this dedication to quality is the best we could hope for after recent events. Not to mention the fact that if they released an extremely buggy trial, everyone would point to it as proof as to how the game is failing and the sky is falling. This means these are smart moves. Thoughtful moves. I appreciate that.

It was wise to push it out. The issue is they're not addressing the elephants in the room surrounding the delays.

The trial I can understand because it was under the content team, which sadly was hit quite hard during the layoffs. The Warden refresh, and the schedule of the broader refresh initiative, is more of the issue.

Like I said, the Warden was weeks away from landing on PTS, so it's hard to see why it needs to be pushed out so far. And hey, it's a simple paragraph needed. That's it. They just have to explain that. The facts we have are painting a rather negative picture of their teams around that, so like, go out of your way to dispel that. They don't. And here we are.

peacenote wrote: »

I just want to make the point that 12 more small QoL improvements won't keep people here

No, they won't.

Some of the QoL is great - but it should've happened years ago. I'm not trying to be unreasonable, but they're acting on really, really old feedback. I'm glad they are, but more's needed now. It feels like more than they give, so I can see old timers going on hiatus or walking away entirely.

The reality is the game's not doing well. And we all know that it needs money to grow - which is their stated commitment. But people are increasingly unlikely to give them money because of a content draught that's been worsening since Gold Road.

For me, I was sticking around in hopes of the Warden refresh and some of the features this year. Most of what I was sticking around has been delayed or fell flat. It's unfortunate, but I'm not going to mercy-spend on this game.