As a player who has played it off and on I've returned and I'm having a good time. Drops are better, yielding more sets. Not a ghost town. I really enjoy logging in and just doing anchors for awhile with others when my time is limited and it feels like I'm actually getting something done during the short time. They really do need an auction house.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I'm not even sure I know what you mean by this statement. As the first person to mention it though I will ask wtf you mean?
At the end of the day it comes down to how a development team decides to deal with "global cool downs".
The comment I replied to was along the lines of "I don't play ESO anymore because I have to wait for the animations to finish". Your comment seems to me - but correct me if I am wrong - I don't play ESO because you don't have to wait for the animations to finish.
OK the developers could make a game with no animations - you wouldn't have any animation cancelling then. Guess what though .... some people think ESO's animations are not showy enough.
The system they have is the result of a design decision. You don't like - no problem; you can say I don't play ESO because you don't have to wait for the animations to finish. Although you can if you want and in normal play I'm pretty sure no one will care. Calling it (animation cancelling) bs though is - frankly - bs.
I have tried several times to play this game as I like ES stuff (Skyrim a bit less than Oblivion and Morrowind, though).
But ugh. No. It's such garbage.
1) I have -never- played a game where the quests are so generic and so packed in. It is so theme-park it takes all ES-soul right out of the game. In the ES games, meh, I skipped a good many of the quests to just go off and explore. What does exploring in ESO get you? Oh, yeah, nothing (except those stupid skyshards) because every "secret" area (heh) is tied to some crappy, generic quest-line with utterly forgettable NPCs and stories.
2) Lack of AH and lack of designated RP servers. I play on RP servers to get away from the douche bag PVP kiddies and LOLOLOL spam. Originally, they were going to have RP servers, and then nixed that idea--so bleh. Horrible. I don't want to be stuck on a megaserver, completely ruins immersion for me and makes finding like-minded players impossible. The lack of AH or central market system also sucks. I don't want to join a bunch of guilds (that always go dead in a few weeks) just to hope to sell a few items. No.
3) Not group-friendly. The phasing is still broken and awful. Trying to play with my husband and stay on the same phase of a questline is almost impossible.
4) Getting credit for doing nothing. *Pick up quest that says "Go to Cave" *run to cave, other players there. *BAM QUEST COMPLETE -WTF I did nothing I didn't even hit a mob. I don't want a completed quest because someone else halfway down the damned cave killed the quest mob. Utter crap.
5) Drab graphics. No, really. In a few years, it'll look like EQ2 does now (and at least EQ2 was fun in its heyday). Why is everything some variance of brown or gray? Fricken boring. You don't have to make it look like WoW technicolor graphics, but FFS it's boring.
6) Character models are pretty horrendous and animations are clunky as hell.
OK. To answer - rather than rebut:
1. Generic quests: I suggest they are very much in the mould of Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim. Not all but a lot. And not all of an areas quests are tied to the over-arching story. Some are "less interesting" sure. Some - like the main story and I liked the Mages' Guild one as well - are very good. You can play ESO as a "proper" solo game just like the other ES games and never group!
What I would say is that if you do enough of them they will become boring. However good they are. This is the case with any game however unless it is very short and you don't have time to get bored. ESO is a very big game; many months of quests. You have the time to get bored! On the plus side though: it doesn't lack for content.
EDIT: If you haven't played since before Tamriel and didn't do the main quest line - which was drip fed - then its worth doing. With One Tamriel you can now do it without leveling to 50. Excellent voice acting and some witty banter.
2. Lack of an AH. Yes. And yes I understand the frustration. ESO uses megaservers. WoW doesn't have a global AH (as in just 1 AH) - it does now use x-realm AHs and the complaints about lag are real. If ESO had a global AH per megaserver ... it wouldn't be pretty. However what you can do is get the add-ons Master Merchant; and Hotep as well if you feel the need.
PvP spam? Can't comment - don't see it. The majority of PvP takes place in "campaign instances" that are not part of the "main instance". There is some dueling now but not that much - and it doesn't generate spam.
As for guilds - no different to any game. Better in many ways since guilds usually have specific functions.
No RP servers - correct. I seriously suggest you give LotR a try if you haven't. Ask in the LotR forums - someone usually pops in. OK some of the RP guilds go dead quicker than any other sort of guild but there are some really nice servers and some really nice guilds. Very "chummy" once you "get in".
3. Phasing. When it first released the game suffered because ZoS had focused on "immersion". So everyone had to be on the same step. Hasn't been the case for some time. I reported one quest about 6 months ago that had a broken quest turn in pre-requisite but they changed tack. Dropped the focus on immersion. And with One Tamriel its gone. As a result you will see people who you know are "on a different step / quest" - so not as immersive. The phasing issues though - gone.
4.Getting credit for doing nothing. Possible but rare. Won't happen at all on "personal" quests. Often you have to get a hit in even if grouped; more often you have to do some of the quest steps even if others in your group do them! (The opposite complaint to yours). There are some that operate on "proximity" though and if you got close enough just as a boss say was going down you can indeed get credit. A few seconds later and you (probably) wouldn't have; slightly earlier and you would have done something. Out of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of quests - its rare.
5. Drab graphics. OK. Personal taste. At the end of the day they are ES graphics. They are different in different areas. I suspect you didn't make an Ebon Pact character. At the end of the day though Gold Coast is Gold Coast, Skyrim is ... Skyrim, Oblivion is .. Oblivion and as said already Morrowind will be Morrowind.
6. Character models - some like them. My suggestion would be find a costume you like and stick to it; something plain. Clunky - no argument there for some of it - there is worse out there and horses say are fine. Don't mentions certain mounts that can be bought though - some like them however so that is fine even when they make me cringe!
The game feels like Elder Scrolls to me, it has it's up and downs. The only thing that does bother me and a lot of others is when on a quest and have to kill quest guy, yet when you get close and someone else fights and kills him you get credit, yet never even hit him once!
It kills the whole point of the game for me. One day I hope they fix it and make dungeons more instanced!
See point 4 above. More common in some daily quests especially if you are in a 24 person group say. It isn't the norm.
I'm not even sure I know what you mean by this statement. As the first person to mention it though I will ask wtf you mean? [...]
It's when you do another action to cancel the animation of a current action. In ESO, cancelling an skill animation, unfortunally doesn't cancel the damage. So you can use a bunch of skill in seconds. Killing someone without a 'real fight'.
Other comment I did on reddit yesterday:
In
my conception (and opinion), animation cancelling is something that
screw up the combat/gameplay that the game intended to have.
Someone can kill you in 2 seconds with a spam of skills, most part of the time you can't hit back.
Bassically there's no combat there, it's an oneshot.
People should keep fighting, dodging, blocking heavy/light attacking
between the skills. A more 'slow paced' combat, like skyrim, something
like in real life.
But I don't see people blocking/heavy/light attacking, they use these commands just to cancel the skill animation and spam more skills.
Most mmos I've played are like this, just a lot of skills spamming.
When I saw eso, I trought it would be different. I'm sad it's not.
I've seen people saying that ZOS know its a bug, and they tried to
fix, without success. But I hope they're still trying do fix soon as
possible.
I'm not even sure I know what you mean by this statement. As the first person to mention it though I will ask wtf you mean? [...]
It's when you do another action to cancel the animation of a current action. In ESO, cancelling an skill animation, unfortunally doesn't cancel the damage. So you can use a bunch of skill in seconds. Killing someone without a 'real fight'.
Other comment I did on reddit yesterday:
In
my conception (and opinion), animation cancelling is something that
screw up the combat/gameplay that the game intended to have.
Someone can kill you in 2 seconds with a spam of skills, most part of the time you can't hit back.
Bassically there's no combat there, it's an oneshot.
People should keep fighting, dodging, blocking heavy/light attacking
between the skills. A more 'slow paced' combat, like skyrim, something
like in real life.
But I don't see people blocking/heavy/light attacking, they use these commands just to cancel the skill animation and spam more skills.
Most mmos I've played are like this, just a lot of skills spamming.
When I saw eso, I trought it would be different. I'm sad it's not.
I've seen people saying that ZOS know its a bug, and they tried to
fix, without success. But I hope they're still trying do fix soon as
possible.
OK.
First it isn't a bug or an exploit; ZoS are not trying to fix it; this they have said. Isn't a mistake either and - there is a limit imposed by stamina / manna usage.
So yes it is possible to program a sequence of stuff. I suspect the place you will most likely see this used is at e.g. boss at the end of a dolman. A known quantity basically.
In PvE though mobs - usually - take much longer to die. And there is nothing stopping you watching the animations.
In PvP - the minority activity of course - all I can say is I haven't been or seen anybody one-shotted. This may simply be people not "exploiting" it to its full potential or because its more fluid.
I can absolutely understand your point though. And even agree with it. If you want to play "solo" though you can. And let the animations finish. The flip side of the coin though is:
GCDs have been the source of consternation and problems for decades;
there are those who say the animations are boring
reduces lag
ZoS have opted for "a solution". No spell / skill / attack gcds. They are resource limited though. And whilst potions can be restored via potions ...... potions do have a shared cooldown. Still the only thing in the game that does I believe.
oh i tell you why. because i cant get over the shittiest jumping mechanic ever! yeah. just because of that. i dont wanna play game where devs cant properly code jump(ing).
I have tried several times to play this game as I like ES stuff (Skyrim a bit less than Oblivion and Morrowind, though).
But ugh. No. It's such garbage.
1) I have -never- played a game where the quests are so generic and so packed in. It is so theme-park it takes all ES-soul right out of the game. In the ES games, meh, I skipped a good many of the quests to just go off and explore. What does exploring in ESO get you? Oh, yeah, nothing (except those stupid skyshards) because every "secret" area (heh) is tied to some crappy, generic quest-line with utterly forgettable NPCs and stories.
you acquire quests in ESO the exact same way you acquire quests in skyrim and oblivion. it's not a quest hub game like wow. if you don't explore you don't get all the quests, you have to go out and look for them.
i'm not saying the quests are great but more generic than wow's? you don't even have to do the quests to level up and you can go anywhere you want now at any level.
it's just as themepark as oblivion and skyrim at this point.
oh i tell you why. because i cant get over the shittiest jumping mechanic ever! yeah. just because of that. i dont wanna play game where devs cant properly code jump(ing).
right??
i miss the good old swg times where jumping actually meant something
I don't play ESO because it is a decent game but imo does nothing very exciting.I need at least one aspect of a game to be really good,like makes me want to login everyday and TESO doesn't have it.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I'm currently playing it and enjoying it to some degree. That said, I admit it's not with great excitement.
There's just something.... off about the core "feel" of the experience. It's floaty - and though many of the quests are well-written, they don't feel anything like true singleplayer games.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it's primarily how stick-thin and floaty most of the characters are. It's unfortunate, because some of the mobs are quite solid looking and feeling.
But it sort of feels like a cardboard world without enough weight and solidity.
That's the best way I can put it.
It has many of all the right features - but that doesn't help much if I can't truly immerse myself.
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Carl Jung
Its Way too easy. Very rarely will you run into a npc/monster that in anyway will make you feel in danger. The quest hub nature of the game is simply made more overt and worse by the weak mobs.
1) The game completely lacks any sense of organic exploration. Go to a zone, do all the quests in that zone, go to next zone...good grief! 2) I always liked the idea of skills increasing in level the more you use them, but if you are only going to allow 4 skill levels at least make them feel stronger. It seems like the skills increase in rank and they get 1% better. Don't even bother making them level if there isn't much difference between levels. 3) The dungeons. Last time I played most of the dungeons were just circles. They should have made even the solo dungeons longer and more of a maze.
- The way you could be in the same place but .... not be in the same place as others at the same time.
Not exactly sure what you mean by this.
When it released ZoS had built into the game what I will call "strict phasing" - the idea being to increase immersion. So e.g. people doing a quest chain all had to be on the same step pretty much.
What was "good" for immersion though was "bad" for groups and friends who didn't necessarily play together all the time and so got out of step. So they relaxed the criteria. Which means the grouping issues have gone away. However it does mean that you may be in an area in which e.g. the mobs are friendly to you - because you have saved the day say - but hostile to someone else in the area because they haven't.
If this is what you mean and you don't like it c'est la vie. Its a design choice.
- The way you could be in the same place but .... not be in the same place as others at the same time.
Not exactly sure what you mean by this.
When it released ZoS had built into the game what I will call "strict phasing" - the idea being to increase immersion. So e.g. people doing a quest chain all had to be on the same step pretty much.
What was "good" for immersion though was "bad" for groups and friends who didn't necessarily play together all the time and so got out of step. So they relaxed the criteria. Which means the grouping issues have gone away. However it does mean that you may be in an area in which e.g. the mobs are friendly to you - because you have saved the day say - but hostile to someone else in the area because they haven't.
If this is what you mean and you don't like it c'est la vie. Its a design choice.
It was a design choice, a poor one for role players. Tried to do rp in a rp guild but it was just too hard to get everyone in the same "phase"
Also I didn't care for the combat unless using a controller, it seemed to me like making this game for both PC and console hurt the combat, but that's just my opinion .
• The crafting system was total garbage from day 1. Waiting 2 weeks of real life time to learn to make an item— 2 weeks of real life time that my character spent absolutely nowhere near a crafting station —is just ridiculous.
• The pvp system was total garbage from day 1. Stun spammers everywhere. Level capped characters were in the same pvp matches against level nothing characters. Everyone could see you when you were invisible/stealthed.
• The bank system was total garbage from day 1. Never enough room to store what needs to be stored. Storage space costs were ridiculously exponential. And now, there's housing which added absolutely no storage space. Geenyus!
Exploring was cool— there were some neat things to find. Lockpicking was cool— I remember picking my first Master chest on my first attempt. But those 2 things weren't enough to keep me in the game.
I don't because I could not get over the fact that a game based on a series of games founded on immense character freedom gives you four.... (4) classes. Races restricted to factions, abilities locked behind 4 bland classes that then force you to use specific weapons to use certain other skills... just terrible. So I want to play a wood elf ranger like character with support heals and buffs. I have to play a Templar and I have to use a staff. Very bad design in my opinion. Don't play. Won't play.
I keep trying. I fired it up this week-end and didn't play long. I am not 100% sure what it is. I think if I can get through what I think are bad animations (this from someone who doesn't get the complaints about LOTRO), and the console like interface I think I will really like the new freedom that the "go anywhere you want at any level" thing will offer. I just keep playing for a bit and logging out.
I guess in the end so far. . it is just not fun for me. I loved it when I first played for a month but then could just never get back into it.
Comments
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
At the end of the day it comes down to how a development team decides to deal with "global cool downs".
The comment I replied to was along the lines of "I don't play ESO anymore because I have to wait for the animations to finish". Your comment seems to me - but correct me if I am wrong - I don't play ESO because you don't have to wait for the animations to finish.
OK the developers could make a game with no animations - you wouldn't have any animation cancelling then. Guess what though .... some people think ESO's animations are not showy enough.
The system they have is the result of a design decision. You don't like - no problem; you can say I don't play ESO because you don't have to wait for the animations to finish. Although you can if you want and in normal play I'm pretty sure no one will care. Calling it (animation cancelling) bs though is - frankly - bs.
1. Generic quests: I suggest they are very much in the mould of Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim. Not all but a lot. And not all of an areas quests are tied to the over-arching story. Some are "less interesting" sure. Some - like the main story and I liked the Mages' Guild one as well - are very good. You can play ESO as a "proper" solo game just like the other ES games and never group!
What I would say is that if you do enough of them they will become boring. However good they are. This is the case with any game however unless it is very short and you don't have time to get bored. ESO is a very big game; many months of quests. You have the time to get bored! On the plus side though: it doesn't lack for content.
EDIT: If you haven't played since before Tamriel and didn't do the main quest line - which was drip fed - then its worth doing. With One Tamriel you can now do it without leveling to 50. Excellent voice acting and some witty banter.
2. Lack of an AH. Yes. And yes I understand the frustration. ESO uses megaservers. WoW doesn't have a global AH (as in just 1 AH) - it does now use x-realm AHs and the complaints about lag are real. If ESO had a global AH per megaserver ... it wouldn't be pretty. However what you can do is get the add-ons Master Merchant; and Hotep as well if you feel the need.
PvP spam? Can't comment - don't see it. The majority of PvP takes place in "campaign instances" that are not part of the "main instance". There is some dueling now but not that much - and it doesn't generate spam.
As for guilds - no different to any game. Better in many ways since guilds usually have specific functions.
No RP servers - correct. I seriously suggest you give LotR a try if you haven't. Ask in the LotR forums - someone usually pops in. OK some of the RP guilds go dead quicker than any other sort of guild but there are some really nice servers and some really nice guilds. Very "chummy" once you "get in".
3. Phasing. When it first released the game suffered because ZoS had focused on "immersion". So everyone had to be on the same step. Hasn't been the case for some time. I reported one quest about 6 months ago that had a broken quest turn in pre-requisite but they changed tack. Dropped the focus on immersion. And with One Tamriel its gone. As a result you will see people who you know are "on a different step / quest" - so not as immersive. The phasing issues though - gone.
4.Getting credit for doing nothing. Possible but rare. Won't happen at all on "personal" quests. Often you have to get a hit in even if grouped; more often you have to do some of the quest steps even if others in your group do them! (The opposite complaint to yours). There are some that operate on "proximity" though and if you got close enough just as a boss say was going down you can indeed get credit. A few seconds later and you (probably) wouldn't have; slightly earlier and you would have done something. Out of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of quests - its rare.
5. Drab graphics. OK. Personal taste. At the end of the day they are ES graphics. They are different in different areas. I suspect you didn't make an Ebon Pact character. At the end of the day though Gold Coast is Gold Coast, Skyrim is ... Skyrim, Oblivion is .. Oblivion and as said already Morrowind will be Morrowind.
6. Character models - some like them. My suggestion would be find a costume you like and stick to it; something plain. Clunky - no argument there for some of it - there is worse out there and horses say are fine. Don't mentions certain mounts that can be bought though - some like them however so that is fine even when they make me cringe!
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
Other comment I did on reddit yesterday:
In my conception (and opinion), animation cancelling is something that screw up the combat/gameplay that the game intended to have.
Someone can kill you in 2 seconds with a spam of skills, most part of the time you can't hit back.
Bassically there's no combat there, it's an oneshot.
People should keep fighting, dodging, blocking heavy/light attacking between the skills. A more 'slow paced' combat, like skyrim, something like in real life.
But I don't see people blocking/heavy/light attacking, they use these commands just to cancel the skill animation and spam more skills.
Most mmos I've played are like this, just a lot of skills spamming. When I saw eso, I trought it would be different. I'm sad it's not.
I've seen people saying that ZOS know its a bug, and they tried to fix, without success. But I hope they're still trying do fix soon as possible.
First it isn't a bug or an exploit; ZoS are not trying to fix it; this they have said. Isn't a mistake either and - there is a limit imposed by stamina / manna usage.
So yes it is possible to program a sequence of stuff. I suspect the place you will most likely see this used is at e.g. boss at the end of a dolman. A known quantity basically.
In PvE though mobs - usually - take much longer to die. And there is nothing stopping you watching the animations.
In PvP - the minority activity of course - all I can say is I haven't been or seen anybody one-shotted. This may simply be people not "exploiting" it to its full potential or because its more fluid.
I can absolutely understand your point though. And even agree with it. If you want to play "solo" though you can. And let the animations finish. The flip side of the coin though is:
- GCDs have been the source of consternation and problems for decades;
- there are those who say the animations are boring
- reduces lag
ZoS have opted for "a solution". No spell / skill / attack gcds. They are resource limited though. And whilst potions can be restored via potions ...... potions do have a shared cooldown. Still the only thing in the game that does I believe.It is what it is.
because i cant get over the shittiest jumping mechanic ever! yeah. just because of that. i dont wanna play game where devs cant properly code jump(ing).
i'm not saying the quests are great but more generic than wow's? you don't even have to do the quests to level up and you can go anywhere you want now at any level.
it's just as themepark as oblivion and skyrim at this point.
i miss the good old swg times where jumping actually meant something
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
There's just something.... off about the core "feel" of the experience. It's floaty - and though many of the quests are well-written, they don't feel anything like true singleplayer games.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it's primarily how stick-thin and floaty most of the characters are. It's unfortunate, because some of the mobs are quite solid looking and feeling.
But it sort of feels like a cardboard world without enough weight and solidity.
That's the best way I can put it.
It has many of all the right features - but that doesn't help much if I can't truly immerse myself.
Very rarely will you run into a npc/monster that in anyway will make you feel in danger.
The quest hub nature of the game is simply made more overt and worse by the weak mobs.
2) I always liked the idea of skills increasing in level the more you use them, but if you are only going to allow 4 skill levels at least make them feel stronger. It seems like the skills increase in rank and they get 1% better. Don't even bother making them level if there isn't much difference between levels.
3) The dungeons. Last time I played most of the dungeons were just circles. They should have made even the solo dungeons longer and more of a maze.
- The guild system
- The auction system
- The chat system
- The way you could be in the same place but .... not be in the same place as others at the same time.
When it released ZoS had built into the game what I will call "strict phasing" - the idea being to increase immersion. So e.g. people doing a quest chain all had to be on the same step pretty much.
What was "good" for immersion though was "bad" for groups and friends who didn't necessarily play together all the time and so got out of step. So they relaxed the criteria. Which means the grouping issues have gone away. However it does mean that you may be in an area in which e.g. the mobs are friendly to you - because you have saved the day say - but hostile to someone else in the area because they haven't.
If this is what you mean and you don't like it c'est la vie. Its a design choice.
I also hate the lack of an auction house. The amount of time I have to spend "shopping" is ridiculous.
It was a design choice, a poor one for role players. Tried to do rp in a rp guild but it was just too hard to get everyone in the same "phase"
Also I didn't care for the combat unless using a controller, it seemed to me like making this game for both PC and console hurt the combat, but that's just my opinion .
• The crafting system was total garbage from day 1. Waiting 2 weeks of real life time to learn to make an item— 2 weeks of real life time that my character spent absolutely nowhere near a crafting station —is just ridiculous.
• The pvp system was total garbage from day 1. Stun spammers everywhere. Level capped characters were in the same pvp matches against level nothing characters. Everyone could see you when you were invisible/stealthed.
• The bank system was total garbage from day 1. Never enough room to store what needs to be stored. Storage space costs were ridiculously exponential. And now, there's housing which added absolutely no storage space. Geenyus!
Exploring was cool— there were some neat things to find. Lockpicking was cool— I remember picking my first Master chest on my first attempt. But those 2 things weren't enough to keep me in the game.
I guess in the end so far. . it is just not fun for me. I loved it when I first played for a month but then could just never get back into it.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!