This is not a thread that's aimed at hating the game, I'm merely pointing out things that I didn't particularly like with ESO and things that can be improved upon. These are not mainly features but mostly improvements to things already in, and consistent bugs and stuff that I'd rather be without. Even stuff that might get ironed out before release so spare me the "it's just beta", feedback is feedback, So here goes.
- The combat still feels floaty, especially melee and archery. This has been one things that people have noticed since a long long time ago and with my time in the Beta, I still feel that the combat is extremely floaty. Especially in melee, here's why:
- Your attacks miss sound effects, sometimes when you hit your target, the sounds are missing completely, except the swinging sound, which takes the intensity out of the combat, the lack of sounds can sometimes mess up with combat feedback by incredible amounts, do I hit? Am I aiming right?
- Sometimes the enemies take 5 seconds before they die and I swing right through them, even though I have no high latency, only in combat, this makes me think there's something wrong with the combat mechanics and not my connection, since I don't have this kind of latency anywhere else.
- Now archery is also very floaty, it's hard to know if you draw the bow or not at times or if my arrow even launched, there's no animation priority it seems which makes the bow animation sort of flicker which is very distracting and messes up the combat feedback.
- Input lag: There are times (or lot of times) when I try to open a door or a chest/bag whatever and I have to press it twice because the game didn't register my input the first time around, I didn't really think about it the first 10 times but after dozens after dozens of times where my input didn't seem to register, it takes me out of it because the controls seem so loose. This also happens sometimes when talking to people, at times I have to wait before the character is done with whatever it's doing (like leaning unto walls and other idle stuff) before I can try press E again to talk to them. I would be ok if the character is using a smelter or casting a spell at a target dummy but when they do idle animations I'd rather be without what seems to be deliberate input lag.
- Dialogue quality: Was it just me or does the dialogue seem very stiff? The voice acting is superb I really love it but the character seemed lifeless to me when in dialogue, they didn't do any idle animations and when they did move it felt sort of pushed and forced. And the facial animations were off especially the lip-syncing which was out of sync numerous times and sometimes they wouldn't even move their lips.
- Camps and books. This was super apparent in the Aldmiri area but to me the landscape seemed to be dotted with conveniently placed camps and every single one of them had a lore book. This felt really strange to me for all the camps to have even travel distance between them and all contain one book each, a minor thing but I wish there wasn't such an over-saturation of book-camps in Auridon and instead had other explorables to mix things up (not saying there aren't enough explorables, I'm saying there are too many book-camps).
- An option to skip the Wailing Prison. If you're anything like me, you'd probably make a save before you exit the sewers in Oblivion or right before venturing into the wastes in FO3 to use in case you want to start a new character but don't want to go through the beginner area. I made 4 characters in ESO and by the third one I got tired of the Wailing Prison and just wished for a way to skip it. If there was an option at the character creation that would let me skip the place, then I would be greatful. Heck I'd want the option even if it means missing out on the skyshard, the prison is like the Irenicus dungeon in BG2 all over again. This is more like a strong personal opinion so take it with a pinch of salt.
-Warning, this one may be a bit tough to stomach for some of you but I'd like to give an opinion on grouping and questing-
- Group dilemmas, this is one thing I liked in Path of Exile, there's a certain quest in that game were you are supposed to the get amulets of three bandit leaders and you can choose whether to kill the each bandit leader or help one of them. Now if another player in your group would choose a different option than you, you'd have to fight them over what option to be the final one. I really liked this because it caused sort of a RP drama within the players, no real conquences but still a fun thing. I don't want to have to kill my friend if she want to pick another option than me but I'd like to see some sort of system that we perhaps could argue over what option to choose or roll dice over it. The reasons for this is that the quest line becomes sort of messed up when I decide to help the slave but my friend helps the slave master, it seems weird to me that we could choose such extremes but not engage in some sort of internal conflict.
I think SWTOR had something like this but I didn't play the game, only watched my friend play it but it was a nice addition. Feel free to disagree but please keep it civil, I know how people react to unconventional opinions around here well enough.
- Collectively completing quests, I didn't like that the quest giver would all of a sudden need double the help just because I have a friend with me. What I'd like to see is that if my friends and I accept to help someone bring back say ten stray horses, then I'd like for the group to collectively participate and contribute to the quest objective, it feels odd that my friends and I have our own isolated objective even though we accepted the quest as a group. This also add another reason to group, grouping is a way to help each other out and have great time while adventuring together, what better way than to feel participant in a group together with your friends? Right now it feels isolated and in a way punishing because we have to find double the amount of horses now to complete the quest and continue unto our next adventure.
-Warning, this one may be a bit tough to stomach for some of you but I'd like to give an opinion on grouping and questing-
- FOV slider, this one goes without saying, I get headaches after 15 minutes in first person, it would be great if there was an option to change the FOV.
- Chat bubbles, the option to display chat bubbles to easier see who is talking in a crowded area. It's also great for keeping your eyes on the view without having to dart your eyes to the chat window all the time.
That's it right now, I probably have other things that I didn't like but here are the things that concern me. If something wasn't on the list then it probably means I liked it, I don't need to write another list of things I like to balance things out, k.