It's a bit hard to take Bragas seriously regarding his accent.

I know there have been complaints about the Bosmer accent, but the brogue he has now is firmly established as a Reachman accent since the Greymoor storyline. It feels out of place.

Even his name sounds a bit more Reachman than Bosmer.

Can he be reconfigured to be a Reachman since his name and voice will match better?

EDIT: and yes, he has one flavor dialogue option that mentions he left Valenwood. If he goes Reachman and the line can't be rerecorded, it could easily be cut.
EDIT 2: Oh, he's really meshed into the world. I still stand behind the idea that based on his name and accent, he should be a Reachman.

richieh99 wrote: »

What did you think of the High Isle environment?

• There were many intresting structures, but I was disapointed that (as has been the case with many expansions) simply discovering them marked them as 'completed' - Would be nice if their completion objective was something more... interesting - for example, activating something, completing a quest, speaking to an NPC who told you the history of the structure, and so on

Did you encounter any new monsters you haven't seen before? What did you think of them?

• Yes - they look great. Their uniqueness makes the whole zone feel new - this is a feeling I didn't have last year

That is a very good idea. Makes you more connected with the lore and zone.

I agree with all your points. Zone looks lovely. Art style but also the asset quality. It gets more painfullevery expansion to fast travel to the base zone which look so dated now when it comes to rocks and vegetation. I would be willing to pay 60 euros again for a whole asset swap.

Also shoutout to the composer again. Great new music and I hope the OST gets released soon after release.

richieh99 wrote: »

This is very very true - the base game looks extremely dated compared to the expansions. This year High Isle is so well desgined and crafted that the difference is even greater than ever before. The textures are so nice on High Isle, the density seems to be very well balanced to give the most detail yet not cause too much stress on my GPU (keeping it in line with all other zones in the game).

True. I get that remastering older stuff isn’t that high on their priority list but it would be nice.

I don’t expect full redesigns of the maps. Just some retextures and put in the new rock assets and vegatation/trees they have been using for years now since the first DLC’s. That would already make a huge difference for the visuals.

Shortly said: I really like the zone on the first look!

Long said:
I was just roaming around the cities and was travelling around the isles itself. So i just wanted to see the world itself. Nothing like quests or other content. I just wanted a first look. But still sharing my first thoughts of the chapter.

I case of quests i cant say anything, because i wanna keep that for release and not spoil me in case of Story.

Zone:
Well the isles themselves are really looking beautiful! The map still feels big, in case of the map size or its scaling in comparison to other zones.
I've also seen a few new interesting monsters, that i haven't seen before. But haven't fought them specificly.
I'm really in love with the capital. It's soo nicely build with detail! I really like the classic european mediveal style.
Also the island Amenos looks really interesting and feels like a real jungle. Also a interesting concept as a prison island tho.
It has a lots of different areas. Also that castle southwest on high isle(don't remember the name), where you can get Isobel, was really awesome! Love that knights vibe on there!

Other than that you see a lot of druid buildings and surfaces. F.e. that small druid village. Looks interesting to me and curious about the story behind it.


BUT to be fair... I was expecting a little bit more live outside the cities. Stuff like farms, fields maybe winerys and stuff like that. I haven't seen anything like that. In view of that high isle is feudal land.
I mean still there were some other castles, buildings, towers, ruins and so on. Interesting stuff i'm really interested about the quests and story. But still... I was expecting a little bit more live riding through the countryside of high isle at least.


A other thing that came to my mind looking at the map:
There's no temple/church for character changes in the city!? At least on the map.
I've seen that there is a chapel inside the city, but i couldnt go really inside it.
So maybe it isn't ready or done yet maybe?
I mean in case of a big capital city of a chapter, there should be a temple like in every bigger city!


So far i'm really excited for the chapter!

I like the environment but i did not like how it looks in the big Tamriel Map when you discover all the wayshrines since all those fifteen wayshrine covers the entire island and makes zooming in hard. I wonder if there is any chance to make the island appear much bigger in the big Tamriel Map so it looks more aesthetic there.

I've gone to the isle with an old char of mine and have started the main quest (currently I'm at the Shallows, not very much ahead then).

My feeling about the visual part is favourable, till now: env almost at the level of Summerset, npc interacting correctly, animations good (all in all, better than Blackwood, cheers).

The new accessibility mode, with the controller (DS4 in my case) directly enabled is a charm, and warmly welcomed.

In order to improve things I'm pointing to an issue I met right at the start: I was welcomed by two Jakarns standing very close to each other. One tried to send me to the introductory quest (that I had already done), the other correctly sent me to Lady Arabelle.

Also, a way to quit directly once logged out could be handy. By now one has to go back, restart and then quit, least I've missed something.

Public Dungeons
Did you go into any public dungeons? Both. Delves - also.

Did I like it? No.

In 2 words, current PTS is empty as hell. One (Red coin?) is a circle with several mobs, 2 sub areas, closed central area, and ZERO interactive objects. So you run a circle, solo it with any good char 300+ CP and there is nothing you can worry about.

Second is small hybrid of Vayrest + Karnwasten open dungeons, small and tricky. It is just tiny! And again, without anything to loot inside, there is literally zero reasons to go into! You go once, grab the skillpoint, you leave another proxy dungeon.

And this is my main opinion about current PTS - apart from quests and new card game, there is LITERALLY ZERO content to test. Roads are empty. POI are empty. Zero NPC, tons of locked doors, zero content to explore. I don't like it and if that won't be changed - I'm not buying, sorry.

You made nice LODs, but the world is dead. And since you last chapters were empty hell for the urn looters, I may assume that there won't be any nice points to farm again. So - sorry, but it scares me, and I don't want another static location, like Deadland or Blackwood.


there is nothing in Public Dungeon, except walls and couple of mobs.


Everything on that coast is presented - 1 lootable clam, 2 mobs.


one mob, several stones - and that's all on the scene


Literally ONE road encounter I was able to find. If encounter means a couple of unlootable containers


housing on the stream. Usual houses are not open on PTS


And that is a shipyard - nice location to be revealed, but just EMPTY dead

I can clearly see how your designers were "inspired" or... taking ideas from Witcher 3 Blood and Wine DLC. But the main difference between High Isle and Toussaint - Toussaint pretended to be alive.

Please, stop giving us static unlootable containers in empty dead world! Give us something to explore, loot and farm!

ArchMikem wrote: »

richieh99 wrote: »

What did you think of the High Isle environment?

• The zone is amazing, looks great and has lots of little areas to explore.
• Although similar to Summerset, it has a completely different vibe - this is easily my new favorite zone in the game!
• The map feels so much larger than previous expansions - so much so that the render distance on the larger island now feels kinda low even on max
• The smaller island is very complex, I was forever checking my map - felt like I was truly exploring somewhere
• With its size, the Delves felt kind of difficult to find

@richieh99

All of that is really encouraging to hear. I've always wanted larger, more expansive lands that really help you feel lost in. Does High Isle have a lot of streams running through? Not rivers but the small rocky ones you can find in Greymoor and Blackwood etc.

In the time that I spent on High Isle I did see a number of streams. They were very atmospheric and beautifully intergrated into the landscape. I hope that ZOS continues this asthetic in the Q4 DLC. The water in general is very nice around High Isle too.

Tratrix wrote: »

Public Dungeons
Did you go into any public dungeons? Both. Delves - also.

Did I like it? No.

In 2 words, current PTS is empty as hell. One (Red coin?) is a circle with several mobs, 2 sub areas, closed central area, and ZERO interactive objects. So you run a circle, solo it with any good char 300+ CP and there is nothing you can worry about.

Second is small hybrid of Vayrest + Karnwasten open dungeons, small and tricky. It is just tiny! And again, without anything to loot inside, there is literally zero reasons to go into! You go once, grab the skillpoint, you leave another proxy dungeon.

And this is my main opinion about current PTS - apart from quests and new card game, there is LITERALLY ZERO content to test. Roads are empty. POI are empty. Zero NPC, tons of locked doors, zero content to explore. I don't like it and if that won't be changed - I'm not buying, sorry.

You made nice LODs, but the world is dead. And since you last chapters were empty hell for the urn looters, I may assume that there won't be any nice points to farm again. So - sorry, but it scares me, and I don't want another static location, like Deadland or Blackwood.


there is nothing in Public Dungeon, except walls and couple of mobs.


Everything on that coast is presented - 1 lootable clam, 2 mobs.


one mob, several stones - and that's all on the scene


Literally ONE road encounter I was able to find. If encounter means a couple of unlootable containers


housing on the stream. Usual houses are not open on PTS


And that is a shipyard - nice location to be revealed, but just EMPTY dead

I can clearly see how your designers were "inspired" or... taking ideas from Witcher 3 Blood and Wine DLC. But the main difference between High Isle and Toussaint - Toussaint pretended to be alive.

Please, stop giving us static unlootable containers in empty dead world! Give us something to explore, loot and farm!

This was the case also with Blackwood. Most overland trash mobs appeared in a later PTS.

ajkb78 wrote: »

It's a small thing, but rather immersion-breaking: the zone feels similar in size to other chapter zones, but on the map zoomed out to where you can see all of Tamriel it looks tiny, maybe the size of Betnikh. It should be considerably bigger on the map (and this is a really small quibble but it also probably ought to be closer to High Rock, really: it seems unlikely that the Altmer wouldn't have taken it off the Bretons at some point, with it being so close to Summerset).

Nah, nothing unusual about that. Zone sizes have rarely corresponded to map sizes. Starter isles are all far larger than the Tamriel map suggests. Bal Foyen too is probably one of the biggest discrepancies in zone/map size. And really, if immersion is key to you, it's the larger zones with tiny map sizes like High Isle that would be the most immersive

I am disappointed it's so dark. Why are color palettes still so gloomy and grey? I was promised pretty things again

Sunflowers should be bright as the sun...not closer yellow of dir 🌞☀️🌻

Waited awhile at lava vent and nothing happened

I like how you really feel like you are on an island in the middle of the ocean. Amenos jungle is beautiful, and contrasts with High Isle which is more plains like. I like all the goats in the high places of the island, that's a different. My Templar wants to join the Steadfast Society, wish there was a way for our chars to join different factions like that. I'm sure others would have loved joining the Morag Tong in the Morrowind chapter. Please consider letting us join these diverse groups, even if only in name or title like you did with House Ravenwatch, it makes us feel more part of the world.

This has nothing to do with High Isle itself, but it does to this update: Thank you for giving Count Ravenwatch back to our alts. I tested him and he was there, and I was happy.

I won't comment on the quests, WBs, delves or PDs. There was no indication in the patch notes or any news that there were significant changes to these compared to previous overland content, and thus should be as easy as ever.

The volcanic vents feel like reskinned abyssal geysers and are comparable in difficulty imo. The final boss is just a copy and paste of the havocrel bosses from the Deadlands. Lol. Didn't find the tutorial.

The zone itself feels like a mix of Summerset and Murkmire with Breton makeup on it. Large breton castles and primitive breton druid huts with large open empty fields in between on High Isle + dense jungle on Amenos. I don't hate this aesthetic, but I wasn't wowed by it either like I was by say Clockwork City or Vvardenfell. It just feels like something I've already seen before. It doesn't help that most of the main High Isle is VERY reminiscent of Summerset in that it feels almost too clean and barren, even in the wilderness.

I was glad to see that the number of wayshrines in the zone was improved compared to last few chapters. In general, the number of wayshrines feels ok but placement needs improvement. I have sketched my proposed changes below. Green lines indicate that I feel the wayshrine is within 10- 20 seconds of mount time (60 speed + major gallop) to a location that is likely to be repeatedly visited (WBs, vents, delves). Red means I think the distance is too long. Yellow and dotted lines indicate proposed new wayshrine locations and player routes.



For Amenos, the northern most wayshrine is a good spot. The rest could be shifted slightly to allow better access to the WBs and vents. Due to the mountain blocking it, the Monard Falls WB should be better served by the Serpent Hollow wayshrine.



High Isle is less ideal. There is a significant lack of wayshrines in the south and center of the island and most delves are located in very inconvenient locations. I propose adding a whole new wayshrine (black circle) near Albatross Point to better serve the 2 WBs and craft station nearby. In addition, a path through the mountain that allows access to the nearby WB from Stonelore Grove wayshrine would be my suggestion, as that waysrhine cannot be easily moved without making it too near to Castle Navire or too far from the druid village. Shifting Castle Navire wayshrine a bit further west would also allow easier access to the vent and delve.

Zone feedback:
Love the contrast between High Isle and the Amenos Jungle. The jungle is especially well done- really captures that closed in feeling of a dense forest. I think it would be neat if there were more/different ambient sounds in the jungle to help highlight how wild and dangerous it is.

High Isle is def my new favorite zone- lots of little secrets and details tucked away and I keep stumbling on something new. I liked the new monsters that I encountered- they felt fresh and new. Really enjoying the art style/environment very much.

I want to give a thank you to the animators/monster designers for fixing the Hadolids’ bubbly putty necks. It was really creepy and it looks much cleaner now.