Original post June 13th 2014
Updated June 28th 2014

Utilized system:
EU server from EU location
100/100mb up/down
I7-3940 @ 3.20GHz
32 GB RAM
SSD
2x GTX 680 SLI
Playing since early access.

Warning: Feedback post is 14 pages long.



Table of contents

Introduction – No changes from original post
1. Combat unreliability – Several revisions after feedback and post patch 1.2.3.
2. The veteran system – Some revisions to suggestions after feedback and post patch 1.2.3.
3. Class and skill balancing – Updated post patch 1.2.3.
4. Game phasing mechanic grouping issues and enforced solo pve. – No changes from original post
5. Incentives for group and challenging content – Rewritten after feedback and post patch 1.2.3
6. Player stat and attribute systems – Minor revision of wording after feedback and patch 1.2.3
7. Combat awkwardness – Several revisions after feedback and post patch 1.2.3.
8. Dungeon encounter bugs – No changes from original post
9. Current game economy flooding – No changes from original post
Conclusion - No changes from original post




Hey Zenimax!

First off, I want to thank ZOS for a gorgeous game that has given me tons of joy going from levels 1-50. Besides the phasing issues with grouping for levelling content quests (current issue), numerous quest blocking phasing bugs (a mostly resolved issue), and the ability unresponsiveness of a combat system that is otherwise founded on good concepts (current issue), it has been a great ride.
The crew at Zenimax Online clearly have some great and talented people under their wings.

I’ve also been very impressed by ZOS's active forum communication and responsiveness. Sure hope the forum representatives (Folsom, Bruno, etc.) and all those making sure they have good information to provide, get their deserved praise. Also kudos for the continued development updates in regards to 'road ahead' letters, general updates on the web site and dev posts providing insights into how the devs’ view, think and plan about current issues and future development.

It is also heartening to see the size and responsiveness of the weekly/bi-weekly patches, and that ZOS seem mostly on track in regards to delivering new content every 4-6 weeks. Yes, I am well aware and agree that there are issues players find more glaring and that should have prioritized further ahead in the fix queue, and also the devs have had to fix a lot that should have been working on release. But overall, looking aside from the fix prioritization and launch polish debate, the pace of fixing and content implementation has me impressed and gives me hope.

Despite the valiant effort made by the great team at ZOS, and the great time I’ve had going levels 1-50 through the quest content and normal dungeons, there are however several core issues that in my personal opinion needs to be addressed before console launch. A successful console launch that redeems the game in the eyes of the public, current player base and gaming press is needed.

This post is not 'delving' into the sandbox vs. theme-park debate, or arguing for one versus the other. It focuses entirely on the issues within the game's currently implemented systems and mechanics, as subjectively perceived by an individual gamer colored by personal preferences. I’m also not going into the debate of how many ability and action choices you actually have or do not have in ESO combat, and if a (non-weapon swap) ability/action needs to have an icon on the toolbar, in order to be counted as an actual combat action/choice/tactical option.

Well aware that my personal opinion is just that, a personal opinion and preference. What’s right for one player is wrong for another. One gamer’s treasure trove, is another gamer’s refuse pile. That being said, and from my personal experience of the game, and from the debates we have had on my guilds TS channel, there is quite a bit of feedback I’d like to provide in regards to my playing experience and how I interpret the feedback of the guild members and friends I’ve been playing together with. I do hope the list provided below is some food for thought and debate.

I’d like to apologize about the heavy wording at times. English is not my native language.

So here goes, this lowly gamer's perceived list of current issues facing ESO, as follows.


1. Combat unreliability.

Given the nature of ESO combat, we are very dependent of reliable ability execution. Failing to block, interrupt, and dodge/move and/or quickly controlling/killing opponents can rapidly cause you and your group to get unceremoniously stomped. I love that aspect of the game! That’s also why it is frustrating and a thorn in the side, when you are pushing buttons at the right time and making the right decisions, you often find your character is not responding or reacting in a timely manner to player control input.

• Game uses ‘activate on key-release’ instead of ‘activate on key-press’ for your 1-5 hot bar abilities, ultimate ability, synergy activation, weapon swap and stealth activation. Many players are unaware of this, and wonder why nothing is happening when they hit the key. It would be beneficial if there was an option in the settings menu where players could choose between ‘key-press’ and ‘key-release’ activation of abilities. That would facilitate player awareness of how the controls function for what abilities, and also cater to individual preference.
• Class and weapon skill line abilities that often fail to trigger in combat, even after multiple button presses and confirming crosshair location. This is even while being aware of the ‘key press/release’ functionality, and having macros for all abilities to generate key release on key press. The issue seems to be related to skill line ability queuing mechanics, being inconsistent both between different ability types and also between similar abilities. Queuing the same instant ability, at the very end of an animation, sometimes fails. Similar longer animation abilities, where some reliably allow queuing of follow up actions, while others deny it, even after animation is seemingly complete or about to finish
• Instant cast class and weapon skills/abilities that have variable delays before triggering in combat. Variable delays refers to time to execute similar abilities. Some abilities with listed casting times are triggering faster than some instant abilities
• Weapon-swap continually fails in combat. This with the understanding that it queues like other in-combat abilities do. As such, this also seems related to queuing consistency of the action that was executed before a weapon swap command, and not the weapon swap command itself. This issue persists after the changes introduced to weapon swap in patch 1.2.3.
• Block, interrupts, staggers and knock-downs not always landing properly and not always displaying their animations. This is still occurring post patch 1.2.3
• Telegraphed area attacks landing and hitting players that are, or have moved outside, their graphical marker.

2. The Veteran System.

To avoid confusion, throughout this post, I refer to ‘veteran’ meaning elite/epic/heroic/hard-mode content, and by the veteran leveling system I mean vet rank 1-12 and the level rank progression going through the other factions’ quest zones.
The following points are thus in regards to having a separate ranking system on top of normal levels, and going through the other factions zones, as a part of the progression curve.

Please just remove it.

Later is better than never, but defiantly before console launch. This system by its very nature, causes so many unintended issues, that it is basically detrimental to the game. I emphasize I’m not talking about not having veteran versions (elite/epic/heroic) of content at all, I’m talking about the systems of vet levels and by large being forced to play the other factions levelling content on same character.

• From my observations, players mainly don’t progress veteran ranks through pvp/dungeons/delves/quest-content, but instead by boring themselves numb by repeating 'best' xp/hrs activity. Thus negating any entertainment value or purpose of having the veteran system.
• It drives players away from pvp and the game as a whole.
• It has had a detrimental effect on game resource and reward economy, and viability of end game pvp and end game small group content. (See later topics for detail)
• Increasing the reward for attaining veteran ranks, will make matters worse, not better.
• Decreasing the effort needed to get veteran ranks just emphasizes the point that the system should not have been in the game in the first place, and does not address the numerous other issues the veteran system is causing.
• Progression through the other factions’ zones de-syncs the games story arc, makes the players main story accomplishment feel somewhat meaningless on that character, and has a very dubious foundation for the plausibility of it all. What is this? Time travel? Existence in multiple dimensions at once? Why are we even doing this?
• The game had the foundation and possibility of having multiple story paths on the journey towards end game. That possibility was lost with implementation of the current veteran system.
• Players that want to see the other factions levelling zones currently have the option to do so both on the same character and on alt characters. Players that don’t want to see the other factions levelling zones on the same character are being by large forced into it. Players that want to play alt characters, are being forced to replay the same levelling zones multiple times in various versions.

Removing the current veteran rank system and removing playing the other factions zones on the same character, raises the question of what game mechanics should be implemented to facilitate this, and what ‘new’ veteran gameplay should look like. Overall I would prefer the game not to have levels, or even classes, and follow the progression systems seen in other gear based but not class or level based mmo’s. Removing the veteran ranks and keeping levels would mean an adaptation of systems already developed and in the game. Removing levels altogether would require full redesign of the games systems. Once again I’ll restrict myself from debating or suggesting systems that are not already present and adaptable from current existing game systems and design. If we are stuck with levels, I’d make the following suggestions.

• Veteran pvp is pvp at max char level.
• Level 50 becomes the new player max cap.
• It is debatable if the introduction of Craglorn should advance the level cap. If an advance is implemented, that advance should be kept minimal. 1-2 levels max. Players must not be left with the feeling they need to grind to reach the cap.
• Veteran instanced dungeons are kept and rebalanced as hard mode versions for groups of max level characters, with challenge levels in brackets, such as the current Tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 etc.
• Trials are balanced for max level characters who are ‘veterans’ of tier 2-3 hard mode dungeons.
• Veteran Delves are introduced as challenge mode content balanced for solo-duo veteran pve. Players would choose to enter a Delve on normal or veteran mode, the same way they today in the group menu choose to go to the normal and veteran version of a dungeon. Access would be through the normal zone where the Delve is located. This greatly enhanced re-playability would fit hand in glove with the upcoming changes planned for delves, were they will be expanded to almost fully fledged dungeons. Veteran challenge mode delves could be instanced for that player or player group/duo, and could use the same re-spawn mechanics as we have in current group dungeons. Veteran Delves ought to be separated into tiers, have loot/materials drop frequency and quality, placing them in-between the top tier quest zone content and the instanced same tier fully fledged veteran group dungeons. Delves would then become a good source of gear and all types of crafting materials, and also support varied pve play style preferences.
• With the option to play in the other factions zones on the same character removed, the skill points earned as quest rewards and sky shards from these previous veteran zones, would be placed in similar numbers inside the new veteran delves.

3. Class and skill balancing

With patch 1.2.3 some positive initial steps have been taken in regards to class and skill line balancing. It is also good to see that the devs seem to be making this, among other goals, a focus area in the upcoming weeks and months. Many classes have seen quite a few tweaks, and we have also seen some initial changes to armor and weapon skill lines. I do hope that continued special attention in upcoming balancing efforts are directed at armor and weapon skills, as much of the viability discrepancy between different play styles in my opinion, does not only come from class skills, but lie at the core of how weapon and armor skills are designed. The points listed below seem already to be very much on the developer agenda, and the gaps seems less wide compared to pre patch 1.2.3, but I still consider them to be a current issues until we see the outcome of further balancing and tweaks

• Melee weaponry and bows seem lackluster compared to caster staff builds.
• Heavy and medium armor seem lackluster compared to cloth armor builds.
• Skill sets prioritizing magicka stacking have more soloing power in the high end content, compared to melee/bow builds that are stam reliant. This in terms of survivability and damage. This also makes them seem more viable and desired in group content.

4. Game phasing mechanic grouping issues and enforced solo pve.

This topic has also been stated to be on the developers’ agenda. The following is personal perception of the current status.

MMO's are just that. Online multiplayer. That has to lie at the core of the game and content design. Not saying that there should not be solo options, but there should not be prevalent solo only content. The seamlessness of phasing and story enhancing elements of phasing in ESO are very good. However, the consequences of the current phasing system mechanics is not beneficial to group activities.

• Forced solo quests and events should be limited to an absolute minimum. General questing and the majority of the content in the main story lines should allow players to choose to have fun together.
• Players that have completed a quest must be allowed to help other players who have not completed the quest and are in a separate phase.
• Quest dialogue with multiple decisive (red) options, need to have a group decision mechanic or graphical indication in the dialogue screen, where other group members’ choices are indicated and some sort confirmation option is present. This does not need to be implemented so that all group members are bound by the same group decision, but with a clear warning and indication that different decisions will lead to the group being divided into those phases for players having made the same dialogue choice.

5. Incentives for group and challenging content

Risk vs reward in the game is currently contributing to players avoiding or not finding incentive to partake in large parts of the content. This especially being the challenging pvp or pve group content. Something which is rather unfortunate, since the game has many fun, challenging and well-designed group encounters and dungeons.

I very much prefer that MMO’s cater to varied play styles, or play styles compromised of several different elements, and I enjoy having several content options available. Be that either solo/duo, group or large group.

That being said, for me personally, the main draw and purpose of an online multiplayer game, should be the multiplayer aspect. And that not only as in simultaneously occupying the same gaming space as other players, but actually doing things and defeating challenges together with other players. Multiplayer games that don’t facilitate for a multiplayer experience, from my point of view, rather lose their appeal and purpose of playing the game.

The same goes for games with RPG mechanics. RPG is rather a misnomer, as it stands for role playing game, and computer game RPG’s have a strong history of having character power development reward incentive systems as a core gameplay mechanic.

If I’m not entirely mistaken, which it is entirely possible I am, ESO is not only a mmo, but a mmorpg. As such, while I really enjoy having different content types and play options available in a mmorpg, and while finding it beneficial and desirable that several play styles are catered for, there is one thing that has to be alive at the core of the game. And that is the pve and pvp multiplayer team effort RPG element.

It is fully possible for a game to cater for varying player preferences at varying degrees, but I would also argue it is not possible for it to equally cater for all types of play preferences. If a game tries to attempt the utopia of being everything to everybody, then it quickly ends up being nothing for everyone.

Does that mean that solo play should not be rewarding and desirable? Of course not. Does it mean that crafting should cease being viable at the threshold to the end game? I certainly hope not, especially considering the very good crafting system we have in ESO.

All this taken into consideration, my opinion is that there are some developing issues present, which currently are sending ESO in the direction of becoming more of a MSOG (Massively Simultaneous Online Game) then a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online RPG)

• Drops of rare materials and equipment have such a high frequency while solo grinding, grinding fast spawning low challenge open zone group content, and from hirelings, that players can easily and rapidly accumulate the materials for top end gear, while not participating in anything that is remotely challenging or requiring a group effort.
• This results in PvP, low to high range end game dungeons and group challenges, having very little reward incentive, severely limited re-playability, and are not stepping stones towards higher range end game pvp and pve content. This because basic pve xp grind solo content is propelling players fully geared straight into upper tier end game content. I’m not saying that there should be no chance of rare materials and loot dropping from solo pve play, but I’m saying that frequency (chance) and amount of rare loot and material drops needs to be balanced out, in regards to reward/risk/time/effort, so that all forms of play are more viable, and especially facilitating for challenging pve group encounters and pvp. A mmorpg where multiplayer challenges pve and pvp are not worthwhile, can quickly torpedo the entire foundation for the game concept.
• The accessibility of epic and legendary materials from easy and farmable open zone content and hirelings, acted as fuel to the fire in regards to the desirability of gold farmers running bots in the game. By simple means they gained bountiful access to the top end of the game economy and gear rewards
• Another issue here is the veteran rank system itself. Players’ don’t view Vet rank 1 as getting to 'end game' content. Players generally do not, from my observations, start doing veteran group content like pvp and vet dungeons when hitting vet rank 1. They just keep grinding basic xp/hrs easy and fast content. This combined with the frequent drop rates of rare materials through disassembly from easy content grind and hirelings, means once they hit vet rank 12, and think that they now will start 'end' game, they basically have already become fully geared, achieved BIS (Best in Slot) and out-levelled the content and rewards for veteran group pve and pvp activities. That being besides certain item sets from trials. Loot drop amounts combined with loot drop quality frequency, has to be adjusted for reward contra risk and effort, and facilitate for the core concept of the game.
• The amount of in volume easily available high grade crafting components, can potentially very negatively impact the games crafting economy. Players are so rapidly gaining epic and legendary materials from hirelings, farming materials, and killing random open world mobs, that the services of crafters is possibly spiraling towards eventually being only desired for actually making the item. Buying or selling items and materials in a guild shop, or in an open to all guild kiosk when we get that introduced, could lose its incentive. We could very quickly end up reaching the point where the market for crafted goods either is saturated or loses its value. And without adjustments to loot drop amounts and drop quality frequency, the continued crafting economy becomes dependent on a steady large in-flux of new players and the level/rank caps of crafted gear being regularly hiked up.
• This game has potential for a great crafting economy, and through that supporting varied play styles. Solo PvE, Group PvE, and PvP. Potentially, finally a game where crafting actually matter at ‘end game’ and the loot from demanding pve and pvp content, can either be used directly, or deconstructed to acquire the mats to make something especially tailored for your preferred build, make an item for your friend, or sold on the market as raw materials or crafted items. This goes a long way to make all loot drops from challenging activities desirable. Unfortunately, the excessive rare loot drops from the non-demanding content, crumbles the foundations for such a system.
• The loot crafting material rewards from pve dungeons is a bit too one sided atm. Blacksmiths, woodworkers and tailors get quite a bit for their professions. Adding more drops from bosses and containers with materials for alchemy, provisioning and enchanting would be awesome, if these drops where scaled equivalently in level, rarity and amount similar to the other gear and material rewards. It would help a lot if these additional material dropped in addition to currently dropped loot, or was added as additional chests and group containers in the dungeons.
• Too many dungeons still have their normal mode non-gear loot from drops and in containers. Level 50 potions and level 20 provisioning components should preferably not be present in the veteran versions of the same dungeon. If a dungeon drops vet rank gear, then all other drops in the dungeon should be of similar level, and not the lower level normal mode crafting materials, consumables and glyphs. This has improved patch by patch up to and including patch 1.2.3, and I hope we see more changes here.
• Pve, contra pvp, is unfortunately the much stronger and faster option for acquiring better gear, consumables and materials. Reward gains in pvp need to be balanced with pve. If an imbalance is present or partially unavoidable, it is preferable that this imbalance tips slightly towards favoring pvp. This to avoid competitive and practical minded pvp'ers being sucked out of pvp and into pve.
• Usefulness of rewards from Trials, due to excessive drop rates from grind and levelling content, feel limited to specific dropped item sets. Quality of and amount of crafting materials obtained from trials should matter and feel rewarding.
• Several of the item sets only available as drops, feel less worthwhile due to them either having no trait, an undesirable trait, or that utilization of that item disturbs the balance of traits in the player’s total gear set. By trait I mean the aspects like divines, infused, impenetrable, etc. We can already modify enchants on many items by making and applying a new glyph. It could be interesting looking at a system where crafters can modify traits on dropped items and/or make something similar to trait modification kits.
• It may be worthwhile looking at adding special crafting stations to the end of veteran dungeons that allow crafting of the item sets that only drop in those dungeons. Possibly with some mechanic for limiting the number of items that can be crafted per run. These dungeon specific item sets should still drop in their normal fashion in addition to any potential crafting mechanic added.
• It may be worthwhile looking at adding special crafting stations to the end of trials, that allow crafting of the item sets that only drop in that trial. Possibly with some mechanic for limiting the number of items that can be crafted per run. These trial specific item sets should still drop in their normal fashion in addition to potential crafting mechanic added.
• It may be worthwhile looking at adding special crafting stations to keeps in pvp, that allow crafting of the item sets that only are rewards in pvp, that allow access to the station based on a system of participation in capturing or defending the keep. Possibly with some mechanic for limiting the number of items that can be crafted per keep capture, defensive period or something similar. These pvp specific item sets should still be available from their previous sources in addition to any potential crafting mechanic added.
• Considering the idea mentioned earlier of having veteran challenge mode versions of delves, these could possibly hold crafting stations for the item sets that currently are only available as open world pve random loot. Possibly with some mechanic for limiting the number of items that can be crafted per run. These open world drop specific item sets should still drop in their normal fashion in addition to any potential crafting mechanic added.

6. Player stat and attribute systems.

Currently, the base attribute and stat systems don’t feel fleshed out, are superfluous and unnecessary in certain areas, and are also causing balancing issues. To avoid confusion when reading this, bear in mind I’m differentiating between the base attribute values for magicka/health/stamina, and the derived values you get from these represented by the stats max magicka/health/stamina. Confusing at times isn’t it?

• No 'real' option for distribution of base magicka/health/stamina attribute points, or incentive to have different 'setups' for base attribute distribution. If we are to have this point distribution system, there should be more meaning to choosing different stat setups.
• Locking players down with a base stat point distribution system, gets unwieldy when that player possibly already has multiple skill and gear sets that allow that player switch up his build to play multiple roles. If we are to have the base stat system, we need to be able to adjust our base stat load outs with the same flexibility we change our skill and gear load outs.
• Why we even have base magicka/health/stamina attribute distribution, in a game where much of the horizontal progression elements lie in accumulating skills and gear for different roles, is an odd occurrence. Counterproductive. One option is to remove the base attributes and give players set level dependent generic flat values in the other non-base attribute stats, such as max magicka/max health/max stamina/stat regens/etc. Use current system of pick and choose among gear stats to allow for diversity and tailoring of a characters stats to suit a certain role. The other option is to allow more flexibility of stat load out changes.

7. Combat awkwardness.

Some of the ESO’s combat issues are not directly tied to abilities and actions malfunctioning, bugging or lagging out. Below are some design issues I feel present in the current game mechanics.

• Some instant cast abilities have consistent long activation times and animation cycles. Example, the 0.8 sec cast time Lotus Fan ability feels a lot more responsive then the instant cast time Sun Shield ability.
• Some abilities have very obscuring and dominating graphical effects, which makes certain actions hard to spot, especially from medium to small size opponents. One example here is the resto staff force siphon ability. The golden aura created by the de buff, makes the warning for an incoming heavy attack somewhat hard to spot at certain times. Good to see one spell got changed in patch 1.2.3 in regards to this. Hope some others get adjusted as well.
• Hectic and mobile melee and ranged combat against multiple grouped opponents, can make single targeting that one low health opponent in a cluster of other mobs an annoying experience. Especially when enemy opponents do not have collision detection with each other (pve and pvp), and frequently are standing right on top of each other. Even with the cursor pointed at your intended target, targets occupying the same space continually cause miss-targeting or the player being forced to waste time by excessive repositioning to force the targeting system to do what the player wants. This is one of the contributing reasons as to why single target abilities are somewhat inferior to aoe in ESO combat atm. Other action based combat systems have resolved this by allowing single target melee attacks to hit all or some opponents within a limited weapon frontal swing arc (max 2-3 targets closely bunched). This would also be great for tanks attempting to control multiple mobs in large fights, using melee attack taunts, without having to dumb down tanking by implementing full out aoe taunts. Good multiple target agro control would then be dependent on good positioning, mobility and responsiveness from the tank's side. AoE dps abilities would still be vastly superior to single target dps abilities versus spread multi mob fights, due to the much wider swing arcs and impact areas of aoe abilities hitting more targets. Similarly, single target bow attacks could have a penetrate function, hitting both mobs if they stand on top of each other, or one directly behind the other. Single target magical attacks could have a small blast radius, allowing two mobs standing on top of, or right beside each other, to be hit by the same attack.
• The extreme character avatar left side off-set, compared to target cursor and screen facing, when closely zoomed with in third-person view, is annoying and distracting for some players. In full first-person, or zoomed out third-person, the avatar is centered in or close to center of screen, and avatar position, avatar facing, and avatar attack swing arc or fire direction, is mostly in alignment. This allows observation of your characters facing to indicate attack direction, as a supplement to the attack cursor, in hectic and grouped enemy combat situations. If you are closely zoomed in third person, this starts to feel counter intuitive. Your attack cursor and camera is pointing one direction, while your character avatar and swing/fire arc is pointing in another. Character offset and swing arc to target cursor and camera should be made minimal and as consistent as possible through all levels of zoom. Preferably a camera option setting should be included for this, allowing players to choose between the current system and a system where target cursor and character avatar are more centered and in alignment on your screen.
• When aimed at a target, the full animation cycle for melee light and heavy attacks are stuttering severely, especially upon weapon impact. I emphasize this is not an observation in regards to and within the context of forced animation skipping, but when you allow light and heavy attack animations to play their full durations. The light and heavy melee attack animations are smooth and gorgeous when not aimed at a target, but stutter wildly when actively targeting a hostile opponent. Funnily enough, if you stand at range, and do a heavy melee attack towards the target, this will sometimes generate the heavy attack impact sound, even with the target being out of range and not getting hit. The stuttering of targeted light and heavy melee attacks seemingly is not present for skill line attack abilities, with the latter retaining their smooth animation when landing on a target. Bow and staff light and heavy attack animations running their full animation cycles, also stutter when targeted, or even go missing entirely.
• The game allows forced animation skipping to increase you attack rate and dps. I use the term forced animation skipping in order to differentiate from animation/action cancelling. I’m not going to argue for or against forced animation skip. The pro-contra of this topic is thoroughly discussed in other threads. My general comment to the topic, is that the more fast paced, skill based and reaction oriented the combat system is, the happier I am. I am however going to include some esthetic observations, and point out some questions. If forced animation skipping is an intended skill based timing mechanic in ESO, it is unfortunate that it is not more supported by the animation system. If we through timely queuing and execution of abilities are to be rewarded with faster attack rates, this ought to be reflected and accompanied by faster complete animations for successful rapid execution of attacks. Currently the attack animation for a force skipped ability is very jerky or even missing entirely. It is not esthetically pleasing in an otherwise well animated game, that hits landing on opponents only have partial stuttering animations or the animations are missing entirely. Furthermore it would be beneficial if we had some dev commentary in the threads discussing forced animation skipping. Regardless if animation skipping is intended or not, it becomes hard to provide feedback to the balancing of abilities, unless we know the devs stance on forced animation skip.

8.Dungeon encounter bugs

The ESO combat system can demand a lot from the player’s ability to respond and react on the fly. Missing a block or dodge can severely detrimental, and I really like that. This does however necessitate that vet dungeon bosses and enemies don’t have excessive animation and ability bugs. A lot of the following is known issues, and suspect to the normal patching cycle within mmo development. I kept these specific examples listed, as they still seem to be present post patch 1.2.3.

• Opponent aoe attacks that hit players having moved out of the telegraphed area before enemy cast completes.
• Opponent aoe attacks that do not have accurate impact areas compared to the red telegraphed area.
• Opponent attacks that are invisible or lacking animations. Such as the beams and beam explosions at the Deadra spider boss in vet fungal grotto.
• Decisive animations that play incorrectly. Such as the continued beam from the final boss in vet fungal grotto still being streamed, after players have cleared the de-buff and she has lowered her staff and resumed her normal attacks.
• Encounter spawn timers bugging out after wipes. Like getting several add packs appearing at once on the shade boss in vet Spindleclutch, instead of their correct intervals.
• Bosses still fighting support quest npc's, long after all players are dead, forcing extended delays before the encounter can be re-attempted. Examples here are the gargoyle boss and the shade boss in vet spindle.
• Support quest npc's running off and activating boss encounters, before the group is ready and actively engaging the boss.

9. Potential game economy flooding

I’m neither an economy professor, nor do I have experience building mmo game economies. The following does not state objective fact, but are just observations, concerns and discussion points.

Item duping, hireling abuse and other removed exploits all had their effect on the economy to some extent. The current status of the bot issues are hard to judge from casual observation. It seems to be significantly and vastly more under control then just a few weeks ago. Hopefully, ZOS has managed to place sufficient systems in place for detecting and removing bots and cheating accounts. But the negative contributions from these may actually become minimal, when we look at the effects of the legitimate actions of the legitimate players themselves. The excessive ease of access to epic and legendary crafting materials, in my opinion and perception, means that most players following the game since launch, now probably are sitting on small hoards of higher end equipment and materials. That in itself is not a problem, players will always accumulate large amounts of loot over time. It does however pose some interesting challenges, given the nature and intent of the games potentially fantastic crafting systems, and if the resource stockpile drain is not naturally rapid enough. If ZOS managed to balance out time/effort/risk vs reward in future versions of the game content, and thus providing strong incentives to actually participate in the group pve and pvp activities, the game crafting economy and thus ease of gear availability, would still be haunted by player previous loot gains. In regards to players’ stockpiles of easily and rapidly acquired rare crafting materials, good suggestions become hard to find. A pro/contra awareness may be all that can be said about it atm.

• Future balanced risk vs reward group incentives, due to availability of crafted items, may be undermined by players’ current epic and legendary material resource stockpiles.
• Naturally draining surplus epic and legendary resources out of the economy by increasing max cap on item levels/ranks, thus forcing new items to be created, will be time consuming and could be disastrous if new item rank/levels were introduced to rapidly.
• A slow paced resource drain may be insufficient for rebalanced incentives in current rank/level pvp and pve content, to entice group content participation from new and older players.
• Nullifying the value of player’s current resources, by introducing additional rare or special resources to be used in crafting is a possible option. Though this would bloat the crafting systems, and possibly generate as much annoyance as a resource wipe, as it is basically the same as doing a resource wipe. Out with the old currency and in with the new, and a few more slots to fill at the crafting station resource input menu.
• High value loot drops that could be introduced across several forms of content, and which cannot be generated through crafting, could rapidly re-establish risk vs. reward incentives, but would also effectively drastically reduce the value of certain crafting professions. Given the potential of the crafting systems the game currently has, it would be a shame if their usefulness ended at the final stages of pre-endgame content. We are already seeing some of this, with the introduction of Trial loot set bonuses, which are not available through crafting.
• The positive effect of a, and unlikely to happen, resource wipe for current players, would be that any new resources acquired would be worth a lot more than current resource stockpiles. Combined with re-balanced risk vs reward ratios for material and gear loot/rewards, this would cause increased availability of challenging pvp and pve group content, strengthen the usefulness of the crafting system, and set foundations for a more viable player to player economy.
• Wiping current resource stockpiles, to facilitate implementation of rebalanced risk vs reward group content incentives, and retain the value and potential of the crafting systems, would potentially cause a large section of the current player base to start gargling blood, and ZOS finding itself knee deep in a PR disaster.

ESO is a mmo that I really like. Been playing mmo’s since Ultima Online launched, and not one of the myriad of mmo’s I’ve played since, gave such an elated feeling of gaming pleasure as I went through the level 1-50 quest content and the normal mode dungeons. Even while seeing all the issues facing the game at launch, I still kept saying to myself ‘This is EPIC’. It seems a bit loony, but it is a good sign when you talk, laugh and smile to yourself while playing a game. All signs of that you are enjoying yourself and are engaged in what you are doing. For those that are wondering, my play style is not rushing it. Took my time paying attention to all the dialogue, what was happening in the world, exploring every nook and cranny, and running all the dungeons available as I became level appropriate. For zone quests I usually prefer to run solo in mmo’s, taking my time experimenting, and then teaming up with friends or new faces, for the tougher on the fly challenges or dungeons.

I do play a lot of solo games as well, and of course you can’t really compare a graphics engine made for the bells and whistles in an individual player’s world, to an engine that is designed to handle the siege weapons and spell storms of hundreds of players at once. But still. ESO is one heck of a gorgeous game. All this from clever use of the gfx engine, great optimization, and really good work by the gfx artists. The sound picture is also truly amazing. So perfectly positioned, such great effects and amazing music. And to top it all off, great storytelling (sometimes a bit too long winded) and visceral on the fly reaction based combat. It so rewarding to see that making smart fast decisions in this combat system allows you to steamroll multiple opponents, and equally satisfying to get your ass handed to you because you know you were playing badly that fight. Good stuff.

I was not even previously a fan of the ES single player games. Played Daggerfall back in its heyday, and somewhat liked it, but stopped playing just shortly into the content. However, ESO impressed me so much, I went out and bought the ES Anthology. This is defiantly a game world I’d like explore more and learn more about. The glossy Anthology box is now sitting on my desk, unopened and calling to me.

Perhaps that is an indication of miss-set objectives or presumptions. ES solo games are true to their heart and soul. Deep solo playing experiences, where the world and story revolves around the individual players.

Perhaps ESO should have been more true to its heart and soul as well. And by that I don’t mean primarily strong solo experiences. Besides the wonderful and amazing ES wrapping and lore, the game at its core is a mmorpg, and should perhaps not stray far from that path. At least, I’m under the impression that ESO is a mmorpg. I could be mistaken, and the developer have an entirely different vison of what the game is and is not.

Perhaps its mission was not to bring solo focused ES fans into mmo’s, but bring the mmo gamers into ES and Tamriel? That’s my advice at least. If you are making a mmorpg, regardless of the wrapping you set it in, make real sure it is a game for mmorpg gamers. If you don’t cater to your core gamer preference group, depending on your core game design, you are bound to have yourself a bumpy ride.

Not that I’m suffering from the delusion that my personal preference is the definition of what ESO should be. I’m just one gamer looking at a world meant to be viewed and experienced by many others, and we are all using different personal preferences to interpret that world. A lot of the issues I’ve pointed out above, could even rapidly prove to be severely misguided conjecture.

That being said, something hit me damn hard in the face when I hit Vet rank 1. It had been a long and fantastic journey getting to Molag Bal’s lair. Best and most engaging levelling content I’ve personally seen in a mmo so far. But at the end of my faction’s last zone, and going through Coldharbor, I started to really feel that tug. The level 1-50 group dungeons and group delves had allowed me sweet glimpses of it. I wanted group action. Tough challenges to be faced and prevailed against with friends and having a laugh. My craving for ‘end game’ group dungeons raids (trials) had awakened. I picked up pace. Levelling a little faster, going about quests efficiently. I was one of the slow pokes. Most of the other active members of the guild had already obtained that illustrious Vet 1. Time to get up there among them, and get some tough stuff done together. Some of them had been really active while levelling, but were logging on less and less. Where had they got to? Is it an exam period for students?

Reality check.

I had to nag to get ppl to drop their solo grinding and eventually nag to get them to take time away from group grinding in Craglorn on mobs that died after 5-7 seconds of massive aoe spam. They kept linking juicy purple loot in the guild chat from that. Anomalies they called it. Yeah, that sure looked like an anomaly to me. 5-7 secs of bashing aoe button, and ka-ching, epic gear or craft mat from deconstruction. Good drop rate they called it. Weird drop rate I called it. End game pvp and pve group content was not on the menu. They had their eye on the prize. Vet rank 10 and eventually 12. What content gave the best and most efficient xp was the main activity, and that was not inside dungeons or on the mighty fields of pvp. When they finally joined for some group stuff, the heart and soul of mmo’s, they only wanted to get the skill point and get out of there quickly and back to the grind. No patience or will to learn tough encounters. Dungeon loot was useless for them, even when getting good mats from deconstruction. One had 74 spare epic craft mats for his crafting profession before even setting foot inside a vet dungeon for the first time. And that was after he had already made his first level appropriate complete set bonus epic gear set. Playing most evenings for 2 weeks after hitting vet rank 1 and completing Coldharbor, I managed to scrape together people for about 4 dungeon runs total. Most runs stranded at being only 3 players wanting to make a stab at it. Activating the grouping tool resulted in an uneventful hour with a spinning searching wheel. Sometime when we got 4 people we ended up with two melee dps. We worked our asses off. One evening of the dual melee dps group set up, must have cost me 3k in repairs. Poor guys, they gave it their all. Attentive, on the ball type guys, trying to kill bosses with trash packs slower than time kills a dragon. At the end they seemed to feel that they had let the group down. No completed dungeons. I had to give them a well-deserved pep talk. They did well. Decided not to mention about the cloth wearing staff user we had with us in the same dungeon previously, who melted those adds as soon as they appeared.

Between the boredom of waiting for groups or trying to get one together, I ventured more and more into the following factions’ veteran zone. It was solo time again. All those little combat glitches you persevered through, and hoped would get fixed soon while going level 1-50, now struck home full force. Seeing the veteran enemy spell caster start his red sparkle, preparing some heavy blast to send my way, gets very fatal when you activate your interrupt, and nothing happens. Two thirds of my health bar burned right off. Rapidly turning towards his heavy melee assistant, gold sparkle heavy attack warning just appearing of him. I hit my trusty block button, and he still manages to full hit me. Hard. No block effect and no stun landing. About 10% health left now. A couple dodge rolls, quickly get some distance. Time to get out that secondary resto staff, and fill up my battered health bar. Weapon swap key produces nothing. Again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Dead.

A few quests, deaths and runs to the blacksmith later, severely depleting my bank balance on a steady stream of repairs on my poor armor, I find myself at the final encounter in a group delve. One of my stronger guild mates has graciously assisted me through the veteran delve. It’s fun. Cool combat. Cool mobs. Cool zone design. Great story telling. We get to the final boss room, and he says he will be waiting outside. I respond ‘what??’ He explains that it is instanced, and he has done the quest before, so he can’t help me with the final part. He says I’ll have to hope there are other players in the instance, because it is a tough boss. I tentatively venture inside. Loading screen. I emerge alone. Boss fires a fast cast cone shaped aoe. I dodge roll and end up about a meter outside the red telegraphs before she finishes her cast. Massive lighting is fired off. I’m about 2 meters outside the red telegraph now. Off to her side. The spell hits me. I’m dead.

I don’t’ mind tough content in mmo’s. I love challenges. I don’t mind dying repeatedly in mmo’s. If I’m dying because poor application of tactics/abilities/timing, that just motivates me to do better. If I’m dying because pushing the button repeatedly does nothing, that gets me annoyed.

ESO is a game I really like and really want to like. There is so much awesomeness in it. Even for a jaded mmo veteran like me. The moment I realized it had an adaptive react on the fly, non-tab, non-cooldown combat system, I was shouting ‘FREEEEEEDOOOOOOOOM!’ When encounter and ability mechanics are not misfiring on you, the combat from my personal taste is brutal bliss deluxe. If they are however, not functioning correctly, the game quickly becomes an unforgiving frustration fest. I’ve already heaped loads of praise on the gfx, animation, sound and storytelling, so I won’t be addressing that again. The crafting system is awesome for supporting multiple roles on the same character and for supporting the levelling of alts, and has huge potential to be a great asset to the player driven economy.

That also is the final summary. Huge potential. I hope ZOS has the dedication, resources and foresight to bring this game where it should be. If they manage that before console launch, the game could have a great future ahead of it. They have made amazing strides after launch. There are some deep core issues to be handled though. I severely doubt my view of what are the core issues and how I think they should be addressed is spot on though. Some of more of it is probably way off, and all off it is colored by personal preference. What’s right for one gamer is wrong for another. I do however hope that this lowly gamer’s experiences and misguided conclusions sparks some insights and ideas.

Thanks again for all the fun ZOS!
Keep up the good work.

See you in Tamriel.