A Message from ESO's Game Director

Taarente · August 8

Rungar wrote: »

RedDragon1313 wrote: »

First and Foremost, STOP with the new buggy content and fix what you have -- we don't need a new trail or events that you can't finish without getting fix
You need to get the classes done and somewhat balance - fix your bugs without creating more along the way -- get back to the game Elder Scrolls - Elder Scrolls has so much content now No One is ever going to get it completed and just tossing in new content that only half works create only more trouble and mad players - and before someone says We need new content all the time to keep players or get new players doesn't fly -- what we need is a stable balance game that plays along the way it should -- you're always going to get a bunch that screams WE NEED WE NEED WE NEED -- Lets please fix what we got and let the main player base get back to the Elder Scroll game and not events events events every time we turn around
Thank-You

actually that wont be enough. Without a serious uptick in players there will be very little development funding for this game. They really need to go all in and change some core stuff to attract new blood. Sure the game might die if they fail.. but its dyin anyway and the studio is one round of layoffs out from the abyss. Nothing to lose imo. Go out strong or bleed to death. not great options but it is what it is.

i think they still have a chance here to trim some fat and make this game a premier overland ( through invasion zones) and dungeon crawler ( with a new dungeon template). Combined with a true combat overhaul thats the only way i see them getting anyone excited again to play.

They aren’t doing that, we get go feed some kittens

Lugaldu · August 9

Rungar wrote: »

Combined with a true combat overhaul thats the only way i see them getting anyone excited again to play.

They could also allow us to play a different race for the first time in an Elder Scrolls series; I think that would bring in a lot of players too. Maormer and Dremora, in particular, should be super easy to implement; all they'd have to "create new" would be the race's passive abilities.

And from a lore perspective, there's no longer any reason why the Maormer shouldn't be friendly player characters, given that Solstice is teeming with them. And there are plenty of friendly Dremora in Fargrave now too...

Muizer · August 9

'Great news' to come back to after the holidays.

alakeyfox wrote: »

1 rework a year will hammer the final nails in the coffin in for the balance of the game.

Agree. This is the make-or-break deal for me. Not going to keep the game on the back-burner (where it already is now) for that long and come back when it's finally done. Despite having been with the game since beta, I'm sure by that time I won't feel I've got anything invested in the game anymore.

EnochianWing · August 12

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

Personally, I don’t give a damn about the class refreshes and I play pvp! I just want Zos staff to find their feet again after what must have been a seismic shake up.

I’ve been in their place, surviving a round of redundancies, when staff that had been there for years were let go. And it takes a while for things to get back to the new ‘normal’, and can leave scars. All while trying to function as before.

To be frank, I am slightly disgusted by the lack of compassion or empathy from some comments here, only thinking about themselves and what they want, and complaining they’re not getting what they think they need ‘immediately’.

For example, why the outcry about balance when the majority of ‘end game’ players will just follow the meta anyway, both in pvp & pve.
And at lot of ‘normal’ players will just play what they like. So why is ‘balance’ so crucial? And what is meant by that, anyway?

[snip].

Arunei wrote: »

EnochianWing wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

React wrote: »

Good to hear the new PVP zone is releasing in January, that is at least something to look forward to. Fingers crossed it is well designed and worthwhile to participate in.

Hearing the news about the reworks is tragic, and has serious implications for the future of the game. These reworks NEED to be the number one priority for the studio. The game is currently in an unfinished state where DK and WW are so far ahead of everything that it isn't even fun to think about playing other classes. Delaying these reworks is going to SERIOUSLY harm your playerbase in both the short and long term.

Between this and the trials being delayed, it really feels like the studio is signing off on ESO's endgame. Sad to see, especially since it had felt like the game was on an upwards trajectory for the first time ever this year.

Why are we dooming when the letter literally states the game isn't going into maintenance mode? What about a delay to make sure something is done right mean they're "signing off" on anything? Would you rather them push out something before it's actually ready just so it can be said that it was released, the state of it be damned? The letter also states plainly they're looking into other ways to do stuff in the meantime, but we just ignore that part to make it seem like they're completely ignoring anything to do with Classes for now, I suppose.

And why are people assuming the reworks AREN'T a top priority? Just because things are taking longer doesn't mean they aren't focusing on things, but people also seem to think everyone working in a game studio can just be thrown onto X thing or Y thing. That's not how it works, though. The people who design levels would not be able to work on balancing. The people who work on art would not know coding. I'm sure there ARE people who could be moved to the team working on the refreshes, but they can't reroute everyone to working on a single thing.

No top priority would mean no small random events or content like the thieves guild nonsense that's more of the same just running back and forth with no real reward to it. The story was also meh. Top priority would mean all hands on deck to get them rolled out right away no side projects until it's done.

Did you see any of the posts explaining how that isn't feasible or realistic in terms of how game development works? Just because someone wants it to work that way doesn't mean anything.

Game development works in stages. You expect the QA team to just not do anything while waiting for animations and sound design for any Class to be finished? You expect the combat team to just do nothing while waiting for the other teams to do their work?

And there are plenty of teams who have nothing to do with combat or other parts of the Class reworks, which means most of the people in them would have no experience with those aspects. You expect the writers to just do nothing? The level and environmental designers? The character model or Collectible designers? The people who come up with Events? The QA team in general? Music composers? Any other number of teams who work on the game but have nothing to do with combat or balancing? Some of these people might have experience with those aspects and can be moved to them but again, most won't.

Demanding the reworks be prioritized and work on everything else be stopped or significantly reduced is not going to make the reworks get done any faster. That simply isn't how it works. I'm also someone who isn't super hung up on the reworks, so I would prefer the studio actually keep its workers working on other stuff too insteadof just having them do absolutely nothing. I'm way more interested in the Nowhere Vault than I am Class reworks.

Clearly bc you're not a competitive player and by not caring about the class reworks you inherently don't care about balance of the game. People aren't saying they want the reworks because they want something new and shiny, it's because the clases they love are not performing well in some aspect of the game. Typically pvp, a competitive atmosphere. They have admitted in this thread the combat team in totality isn't working on classes. Nobody is saying the art guy should be balancing the combat passives. [snip]

EnochianWing · August 12

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!!

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.

News flash. Not everyone plays how you want them to play or enjoys every aspect of the game.

Arunei · August 12

EnochianWing wrote: »

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

Personally, I don’t give a damn about the class refreshes and I play pvp! I just want Zos staff to find their feet again after what must have been a seismic shake up.

I’ve been in their place, surviving a round of redundancies, when staff that had been there for years were let go. And it takes a while for things to get back to the new ‘normal’, and can leave scars. All while trying to function as before.

To be frank, I am slightly disgusted by the lack of compassion or empathy from some comments here, only thinking about themselves and what they want, and complaining they’re not getting what they think they need ‘immediately’.

For example, why the outcry about balance when the majority of ‘end game’ players will just follow the meta anyway, both in pvp & pve.
And at lot of ‘normal’ players will just play what they like. So why is ‘balance’ so crucial? And what is meant by that, anyway?

I wish there was a thumbs down option.

Arunei wrote: »

EnochianWing wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

React wrote: »

Good to hear the new PVP zone is releasing in January, that is at least something to look forward to. Fingers crossed it is well designed and worthwhile to participate in.

Hearing the news about the reworks is tragic, and has serious implications for the future of the game. These reworks NEED to be the number one priority for the studio. The game is currently in an unfinished state where DK and WW are so far ahead of everything that it isn't even fun to think about playing other classes. Delaying these reworks is going to SERIOUSLY harm your playerbase in both the short and long term.

Between this and the trials being delayed, it really feels like the studio is signing off on ESO's endgame. Sad to see, especially since it had felt like the game was on an upwards trajectory for the first time ever this year.

Why are we dooming when the letter literally states the game isn't going into maintenance mode? What about a delay to make sure something is done right mean they're "signing off" on anything? Would you rather them push out something before it's actually ready just so it can be said that it was released, the state of it be damned? The letter also states plainly they're looking into other ways to do stuff in the meantime, but we just ignore that part to make it seem like they're completely ignoring anything to do with Classes for now, I suppose.

And why are people assuming the reworks AREN'T a top priority? Just because things are taking longer doesn't mean they aren't focusing on things, but people also seem to think everyone working in a game studio can just be thrown onto X thing or Y thing. That's not how it works, though. The people who design levels would not be able to work on balancing. The people who work on art would not know coding. I'm sure there ARE people who could be moved to the team working on the refreshes, but they can't reroute everyone to working on a single thing.

No top priority would mean no small random events or content like the thieves guild nonsense that's more of the same just running back and forth with no real reward to it. The story was also meh. Top priority would mean all hands on deck to get them rolled out right away no side projects until it's done.

Did you see any of the posts explaining how that isn't feasible or realistic in terms of how game development works? Just because someone wants it to work that way doesn't mean anything.

Game development works in stages. You expect the QA team to just not do anything while waiting for animations and sound design for any Class to be finished? You expect the combat team to just do nothing while waiting for the other teams to do their work?

And there are plenty of teams who have nothing to do with combat or other parts of the Class reworks, which means most of the people in them would have no experience with those aspects. You expect the writers to just do nothing? The level and environmental designers? The character model or Collectible designers? The people who come up with Events? The QA team in general? Music composers? Any other number of teams who work on the game but have nothing to do with combat or balancing? Some of these people might have experience with those aspects and can be moved to them but again, most won't.

Demanding the reworks be prioritized and work on everything else be stopped or significantly reduced is not going to make the reworks get done any faster. That simply isn't how it works. I'm also someone who isn't super hung up on the reworks, so I would prefer the studio actually keep its workers working on other stuff too insteadof just having them do absolutely nothing. I'm way more interested in the Nowhere Vault than I am Class reworks.

Clearly bc you're not a competitive player and by not caring about the class reworks you inherently don't care about balance of the game. People aren't saying they want the reworks because they want something new and shiny, it's because the clases they love are not performing well in some aspect of the game. Typically pvp, a competitive atmosphere. They have admitted in this thread the combat team in totality isn't working on classes. Nobody is saying the art guy should be balancing the combat passives. Don't be so obtuse.

[snip]
People not caring about the Class reworks is exactly because not every single person playing is a competitive squeeze out every possible ounce of DPS/healing/tanking humanly possible min-maxer. That's fine if that's how people want to play, but a number of people don't PvP or don't care about PvE leaderboards or chasing down every single Trifecta or Challenger achieve there is.

And my guy the very post you're quoting was in response to someone LITERALLY claiming work on other content should be halted and all focus put onto the reworks. There have been droves of posts here and numerous threads of people clamoring for that very thing. Yes, people ARE acting like everyone magically has extensive experience in all departments and they can all just be put wherever ZOS wants them to be. There was a thread where someone tried to claim people could be cross-trained in a handful of weeks so they could be put on the reworks.

ZOS_CouchTato · August 12

After review, we have removed some unnecessary back and forth from this thread. Please keep conversation civil and constructive and keep in mind the Community Rules moving forward.