Not sure why some call ESO lineair. It is one of the least lineair themepark MMO's I have played (since One Tamriel update anyway).
I do agree with the criticism about the AH though. The way it has been designed is so dumb. If you want to use it, it becomes a serious waste of time. Immersive or not, it is just too unpractical.
Odd I find the game open and it certainly rewards the explorer type. To each and their own though. Personally I think the biggest issue is the character progression, by 20 to 25 youve opened up your second hotbar and likely filled them both up with sufficient abilities to get you through the bulk of the content, gets dull quite fast unless you really like your class setup already.
I didn't cap/unlock all my weapon skills until nearly the soft cap, must have changed.
Odd I find the game open and it certainly rewards the explorer type. To each and their own though. Personally I think the biggest issue is the character progression, by 20 to 25 youve opened up your second hotbar and likely filled them both up with sufficient abilities to get you through the bulk of the content, gets dull quite fast unless you really like your class setup already.
I didn't cap/unlock all my weapon skills until nearly the soft cap, must have changed.
Theres still a fair bit left to unlock, if you count lots of passives, but few of the abilities are all that interesting compared to say BDO or EQ2. I was much more excited unlocking class abilities in those games.
Odd I find the game open and it certainly rewards the explorer type. To each and their own though. Personally I think the biggest issue is the character progression, by 20 to 25 youve opened up your second hotbar and likely filled them both up with sufficient abilities to get you through the bulk of the content, gets dull quite fast unless you really like your class setup already.
There's a reason why some abilities unlock first and others fifth in any skill line. There is no way that at level 25 you have unlocked the best abilities in any line.
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For "fanboys" that are going to be offended that I do not like the game, I have truly given it my all. I have truly wanted to enjoy this game. I've gone back to ESO probably 5 times now, including my latest romp through Tamriel here this past week. As usual after a few days of logging in and playing....I'm just like....meh.
I have always tried to put my finger on why..I love Elder Scrolls single player games, I love MMOs, but this one does neither for me. But now I think I just finally figured out the problem.....the game feels linear and claustrophobic to me. Even though I am in this large world, it feels small everywhere I go. The complete opposite of what I feel when I trek through Skyrim, or in other MMOs like when I ride around the huge zones in LOTRO. Even WoW Legion, which is much more linear than ESO (zone layout), feels more open to me. Elder Scrolls game worlds are not supposed to feel small. MMOs are not supposed to feel small unless they are lobby based like Neverwinter. ESO feels like a lobby based MMO, the only difference is you don't zone into and out of the lobby, which in this case are just crafting hubs like main towns.
So probably going to finally put this one in the trash and forget it. Dropped so much money on it trying to enjoy it. But hey, the devs obviously are all over this game and they are trying to keep it fresh for all who love it.
Have fun with it, wish I could!
Fair enough.
I got three good years out of it, but I've done all I wanted. While I was playing, I noticed what you're pointing out here, but I was still having enough fun with PVP and my guild to last me for a while in spite of that stuff.
Now, I probably won't go back if all they can do is add more dungeons and more gear to go for. But three years for me, I can't complain.
I sort of understand the claustrophobic statement. Compared to LOTRO the world is packed with far more things to see and explore. LOTRO zones are huge but not very interesting to explore.
Don't understand the linear part. It's up there with SWG for openness.
Linear? ESO is by far one of the least linear games currently on the market. If you can explain how you feel it is linear..maybe then I might give credence to your opinion - but saying it is linear with no explanation(especially to those of us that play it) makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. ESO has its problems - some of them are huge almost game breaking, but being linear is not one of them.
By linear you mean you follow a quest chain that leads you to next small hamlet or area with a quest NPC that you do that quest chain? If you did that you missed out ALOT.
I agree about the zone design being walled in and not feeling quite right. The character building is pretty weak as well. I enjoy the combat enough to sometimes log in though.
Linear? ESO is by far one of the least linear games currently on the market. If you can explain how you feel it is linear..maybe then I might give credence to your opinion - but saying it is linear with no explanation(especially to those of us that play it) makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. ESO has its problems - some of them are huge almost game breaking, but being linear is not one of them.
I agree as a person doesn't have to follow any of the different major quest lines in order to level. You can just wonder around and do quests when you run into them then jump to PvP when you reach the minimum level. I was able to take a level ten character to a level 38 zone and complete the vampire quest by kiting mobs there, then I went back to lower zones and continued to level with the new skill line included. With level balance stuff anyone could take off and do the assassin or thief quest line right off the bat if they wanted then go back and level those skills. Same with weapons, some weapons are better then others but is possible to use the types of weapons you like and develop those from day one of playing. That's pretty flexible.
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I'm on my 5th try also. For me its about the no AH and the limited hotbar stuff. Also the class system sucks. TES games are about creativity when making a character and ESO doesn't have it at all. You either run magic or stamina not both like you can in the single player game's. People that defend this game always say its not linear but it really is. Skyrim has more freedom than ESO could ever have because its not a mmo.
I'm on my 5th try also. For me its about the no AH and the limited hotbar stuff. Also the class system sucks. TES games are about creativity when making a character and ESO doesn't have it at all. You either run magic or stamina not both like you can in the single player game's. People that defend this game always say its not linear but it really is. Skyrim has more freedom than ESO could ever have because its not a mmo.
Like you say, Skyrim is not an mmo. Compared to other major mmos, ESO is anything but linear. Similarly, the character building system is far more flexible than most mmos.
Ironically, your post also complains about the AH and limited hotbar
After3+ years of ESO I finally threw in the towel. The main reason I hung around as long as I did is because of friends. I will say it's not a horrible game and I definitely got my moneys worth for the amount of time I played. It just wasn't in my top 5 best MMO ever either. A few of the things that lead to me walking away was:
Overland content is just too easy. There's a huge world but other than them making world bosses harder now there are no random hard patrols, no champion leveled mobs roaming to keep you on your toes, No tougher ranked mobs mixed into random mob packs, etc. It's all static.
Due to Overland being easy your lead to run vet leveled dungeons over an over and over especially when your chasing a certain piece of gear. It gets old quick.
It needs some world events to spice things up.
Some of the combat animations still look bad. I mean look at some of the sword and board and dual wield abilities. The hammer and axe abilities are still thrusting like your using a sword. Sorry that breaks my immersion.
Bow cannot be used as a primary weapon. Throw down it's AOE, pop off it's DOT arrow and switch over to your main weapon. Rinse.Repeat. Lookjing back you can say the same about destruction staff. Drop your AOEs and move on to your spammer.
Lack of crushing, powerful attacks. You know what I mean. Remember the first time you hit a mob with 2 handers uppercut. That rush of "damn that had to hurt!" There are not many abilities that feel good. You can't tell me spamming a Templar's jabs over and over again feels like that..
As a caster in pvp your CC hardly ever works and everyone and their dog have never ending gap closers. Unless your a sorc with teleport your chances of CCing someone and being able to at least kite for the win is pretty slim. Any distance you gain will be nullified instantly with a gap closer.
Cookie Cutter builds- Even though some people disagree I feel these builds are even more apparent in ESO than other games. Sure due to the easy overland world you can get away with running some crazy special snowflake build but once you do anything grouped you'll be running the builds of the month for your class. Those certain abilities are required because bottom line..they work. In my opinion build variety was killed when hybrid builds were killed off in one of the early patches. Now it's all stamina or all mag builds for max leet dps.
There are many other things I could complain about but I've been away for a few months awaiting the next round of MMOs..
People that defend this game always say its not linear but it really is.
Nope it isn't.
Linear would mean that once you've started a zone, you have no choice but to follow the general quest line which sends you from quest hub to quest hub, like e.g. post Cataclysm World of Warcraft.
Elder Scrolls is definitely NOT like that. The only linear part in questing are the main quest lines, aka the story, which is logical, and in Skyrim it's exactly the same. But beside that, you can go anywhere in the world and quest there, there's nothing to stop you.
ESO is one of the less linear theme parks. That's not an opinion, that's a fact.
But this is where the problem is for lots of folks as seen in this thread and others..
Now dont get me wrong i am currenlty playing ESO @ cp 300 and there are parts of the game i enjoy ..
Now by definition its not linear ... But the problem for a lot of people is it now feels Linear , wether you are in Grahtwood or the Alikir Desert .. Its one giant quest hub with blinders on , like a giant long repetive hallway , every quest feels the same every battle feels the same especially overland .. Tamriel One has ruined any sort of overland challenge .. Every fight plays out the same .. Dolmens are not working as intended as massive zergs pass thru them like rice paper .. Worthless content in that regard (if you can get them by yourself or with a couple friends they are better,this includes any overland group content)), Why anyone would want to join X,Y Z and run Dolmans/Group content like that boggles my mind.. what weak gameplay ..
Delves are a borefest , and many have the exact same layout ..... Lazy
The Lore for ESO is broken from Tamriel one and can never be fixed .. terrible
SOme DUngeons are fun , with some good mechanics i do enjoy running them but like any game it gets repetitive ..
I do enjoy the crafting and exploring , housing is nice .. I also enjoy Cyrodill
Well, I'm playing the game like I would play a sandbox like UO. I go wherever I feel like and do whatever I feel like doing depending on my mood. Very few theme parks allow that kind of play style.
And a zone definitely doesn't have "one giant quest hub". That's not true, quests are all over the place. Unless you use some addons, you will have to search for the quests, explore.
Well funny thing about UO .. You cant go wherever you feel from the start like you can ESO , Try going North of Yew to Lich spawn area for example ... You will in ghost form searching for a healer faster than you can blink .. There are many many many areas like that in UO..
Thats the price of scaling and also the ease of access to content in ESO , but also the feel of everything is the same ...
I said "I'm playing it like I would play a sandbox like UO", don't make me say what I didn't: this isn't UO ;-)
Unlike heavily level dependent theme parks, you aren't forced into hard content, YOU choose to do it. Or not. Like UO.
You make that comparison with UO... ok let's go for it. Try to go into one of the public dungeons (not delve) as soon as you leave the starter zone. Enjoy your painful death at the first trash pack.
you said ...
"Well, I'm playing the game like I would play a sandbox like UO. I go
wherever I feel like and do whatever I feel like doing depending on my
mood"
My point is you cannot do that in UO , well you could go but would die very easily (it would be a stupid move at best).. Unlike ESO where anywhere overland is a walk thru the park at any lvl .. And there-in lies the problem for some folks , you can go anywhere at creation (overland) and its the exact same threat , the exact same challenge from day 1 to CP 690 , the Overland experience is Borked .. There is no sense of danger , Overland in particular .. None ,zero,zilch .. just a walk in the park of ESO..
So in UO example if you tried and got owned horribly , you would drop back work on some spell resist , hunt some other mobs (ORc Fort for example and hope to get a Silver weapon to help .. Chop some trees to build HPS and str .. up your magery a bit etc... Then try again and see if you fair a bit better , possibly bringing a friend to help out ..
Also in a game like UO there is a real risk in doing something like this , as in lose all your stuff.. IN ESO there is NO risk at all
In ESO you just go roll over everything overland in the same exact manner from day 1 to day 5000.. Alone .. there is no need for help .. Overland .. ever .. except for a little group content .... and even a large portion of that can be solo
Honestly. BDO feels more like I'm playing a multiplayer/MMO version of Skyrim than ESO did. Not sure exactly why though (maybe its the world, but there has to be more than that). Because its still very different and a game that comes from not even the same continent that Bethesda is based in.
But I've heard a few people say BDO feels like playing an online version of Skyrim, except with also PvP added to it. So I'm not only one who feels like that.
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I have played it on and off I think the only major complaint I have is the way the skill system works. I don't really like how many options you have for skills, I feel like it opens up the ability to fail in what you choose way too much. I know most people think the opposite, but for me, going in and seeing an option for 55 different skills I can put on my skill bar, then having to think of a secondary weapon set with additional skills just feels like too much. I want a flat set of skills to work with in my games.
I played on and off the first 6 months and have tried to go back myself 3 or 4 times now. I just find it dull and boring after a few hours of play. On the plus side, it did get me to try out playing skyrim , which once I added a few mods I really enjoyed playing
Comments
I do agree with the criticism about the AH though. The way it has been designed is so dumb. If you want to use it, it becomes a serious waste of time. Immersive or not, it is just too unpractical.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I got three good years out of it, but I've done all I wanted. While I was playing, I noticed what you're pointing out here, but I was still having enough fun with PVP and my guild to last me for a while in spite of that stuff.
Now, I probably won't go back if all they can do is add more dungeons and more gear to go for. But three years for me, I can't complain.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Don't understand the linear part. It's up there with SWG for openness.
If you did that you missed out ALOT.
"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
Like you say, Skyrim is not an mmo. Compared to other major mmos, ESO is anything but linear. Similarly, the character building system is far more flexible than most mmos.
Ironically, your post also complains about the AH and limited hotbar
- Overland content is just too easy. There's a huge world but other than them making world bosses harder now there are no random hard patrols, no champion leveled mobs roaming to keep you on your toes, No tougher ranked mobs mixed into random mob packs, etc. It's all static.
- Due to Overland being easy your lead to run vet leveled dungeons over an over and over especially when your chasing a certain piece of gear. It gets old quick.
- It needs some world events to spice things up.
- Some of the combat animations still look bad. I mean look at some of the sword and board and dual wield abilities. The hammer and axe abilities are still thrusting like your using a sword. Sorry that breaks my immersion.
- Bow cannot be used as a primary weapon. Throw down it's AOE, pop off it's DOT arrow and switch over to your main weapon. Rinse.Repeat. Lookjing back you can say the same about destruction staff. Drop your AOEs and move on to your spammer.
- Lack of crushing, powerful attacks. You know what I mean. Remember the first time you hit a mob with 2 handers uppercut. That rush of "damn that had to hurt!" There are not many abilities that feel good. You can't tell me spamming a Templar's jabs over and over again feels like that..
- As a caster in pvp your CC hardly ever works and everyone and their dog have never ending gap closers. Unless your a sorc with teleport your chances of CCing someone and being able to at least kite for the win is pretty slim. Any distance you gain will be nullified instantly with a gap closer.
- Cookie Cutter builds- Even though some people disagree I feel these builds are even more apparent in ESO than other games. Sure due to the easy overland world you can get away with running some crazy special snowflake build but once you do anything grouped you'll be running the builds of the month for your class. Those certain abilities are required because bottom line..they work. In my opinion build variety was killed when hybrid builds were killed off in one of the early patches. Now it's all stamina or all mag builds for max leet dps.
There are many other things I could complain about but I've been away for a few months awaiting the next round of MMOs..Now dont get me wrong i am currenlty playing ESO @ cp 300 and there are parts of the game i enjoy ..
Now by definition its not linear ... But the problem for a lot of people is it now feels Linear , wether you are in Grahtwood or the Alikir Desert .. Its one giant quest hub with blinders on , like a giant long repetive hallway , every quest feels the same every battle feels the same especially overland .. Tamriel One has ruined any sort of overland challenge .. Every fight plays out the same .. Dolmens are not working as intended as massive zergs pass thru them like rice paper .. Worthless content in that regard (if you can get them by yourself or with a couple friends they are better,this includes any overland group content)), Why anyone would want to join X,Y Z and run Dolmans/Group content like that boggles my mind.. what weak gameplay ..
Delves are a borefest , and many have the exact same layout ..... Lazy
The Lore for ESO is broken from Tamriel one and can never be fixed .. terrible
SOme DUngeons are fun , with some good mechanics i do enjoy running them but like any game it gets repetitive ..
I do enjoy the crafting and exploring , housing is nice .. I also enjoy Cyrodill
Thats the price of scaling and also the ease of access to content in ESO , but also the feel of everything is the same ...
and that the UI is too console style. i guess a lot of my problems about this game is, that its not really programmed for PC in mind.
"Well, I'm playing the game like I would play a sandbox like UO. I go wherever I feel like and do whatever I feel like doing depending on my mood"
My point is you cannot do that in UO , well you could go but would die very easily (it would be a stupid move at best).. Unlike ESO where anywhere overland is a walk thru the park at any lvl .. And there-in lies the problem for some folks , you can go anywhere at creation (overland) and its the exact same threat , the exact same challenge from day 1 to CP 690 , the Overland experience is Borked .. There is no sense of danger , Overland in particular .. None ,zero,zilch .. just a walk in the park of ESO..
So in UO example if you tried and got owned horribly , you would drop back work on some spell resist , hunt some other mobs (ORc Fort for example and hope to get a Silver weapon to help .. Chop some trees to build HPS and str .. up your magery a bit etc... Then try again and see if you fair a bit better , possibly bringing a friend to help out ..
Also in a game like UO there is a real risk in doing something like this , as in lose all your stuff.. IN ESO there is NO risk at all
In ESO you just go roll over everything overland in the same exact manner from day 1 to day 5000.. Alone .. there is no need for help .. Overland .. ever .. except for a little group content .... and even a large portion of that can be solo
But I've heard a few people say BDO feels like playing an online version of Skyrim, except with also PvP added to it. So I'm not only one who feels like that.
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