I like GW2 in general, but knowing that when logging in I'd have to spend hours sorting my inventory to be able to do anything ensures that I won't even try.
Currently I'm not playing any MMORPG. Sometimes I consider to get back into WoW or ESO, but then I rather stick to other good games at hand.
thats weird, it takes 2 seconds to sort my whole inventory in GW2, including sending all crafting materials to the collectible storage. Maybe you missed the little button on the top right side of the inventory?
Also, you can craft bags for specific types of items, and bags that automatically fill up with only trash items.
I find that inventory system one of the few easiest to handle.
As for ESO, i like it but i stopped at the end of Orcinium and haven't picked it up again.
In GW2 my bank is full (its very small and shared between all toons), most of the time I can't put any more materials into the crafting inventory (no more space), and my fully upgraded bags on all toons are full of loot boxes. Then you open a loot box and inside are another couple of boxes, lol.
My bank is always full too and i've only purchased like 3 extra banks. But most of the stuff in my bank is cash shop items i get just by playing the game and extra resources when the crafting storage gets full because I haven't upgraded any crafting storage to maximum size. All my stacks are at the base size of 200.
I always make good money selling my crafting resources in the Auction House and i can buy my microtransactions with gold that way. But i'm always happy to give them my real money because they give me everything just by purchasing the game and expansion. No constant paywalls involved.
I only open Black Lion lootboxes when i happen to loot a key from an enemy. But they stack so they don't really fill the bank. Eff those boxes, i get those items in game by playing
Having said all the lovely things about ESO, I do have to say that the only thing that *truly* got under my skin about the game is the inability to customize my character's armor appearance. There is no transmog/social armor option, so you're pretty much stuck with mis-matched armor if you get drops, have to recraft constantly as you level, or be "sub-optimal" by using crafted sets endgame. At least, that is what I was lead to believe when I played.
Which is a shame, really, because the game's crafting system and armor variety is actually quite astounding. However, I could just never come to grips with not being able to make my character look the way I wanted.
This, above all else, bothered me. Which is saying a lot, because its actually a fairly minor issue.
Yeah there is an amazing diversity of armor styles to learn, but then I am stuck with the ugly monster helm sets ;( kind of wrecks my "look".
That's why I love the "hide helmet" option
There are also a ton of costumes you can earn in the game through quest lines, achievements or special events over and above any of the ones in the crown store.
If you like the look of some of those and especially when you're using mix and match drops from various sources for your gear, you can wear those for a more unified look.
I always end up with the Seducer set. It looks really cool. I'm glad they made all that stuff account wide.
Having said all the lovely things about ESO, I do have to say that the only thing that *truly* got under my skin about the game is the inability to customize my character's armor appearance. There is no transmog/social armor option, so you're pretty much stuck with mis-matched armor if you get drops, have to recraft constantly as you level, or be "sub-optimal" by using crafted sets endgame. At least, that is what I was lead to believe when I played.
Which is a shame, really, because the game's crafting system and armor variety is actually quite astounding. However, I could just never come to grips with not being able to make my character look the way I wanted.
This, above all else, bothered me. Which is saying a lot, because its actually a fairly minor issue.
Yeah there is an amazing diversity of armor styles to learn, but then I am stuck with the ugly monster helm sets ;( kind of wrecks my "look".
That's why I love the "hide helmet" option
There are also a ton of costumes you can earn in the game through quest lines, achievements or special events over and above any of the ones in the crown store.
If you like the look of some of those and especially when you're using mix and match drops from various sources for your gear, you can wear those for a more unified look.
I always end up with the Seducer set. It looks really cool. I'm glad they made all that stuff account wide.
Yeah. I've used that one quite a bit too.
Lately though I've been using the three new ones I got for free during that dungeon mystery box event from a couple of weeks ago. I got the Treasure Hunter, Cook and Blacksmith costumes from that.
Subbing means I can also dye costumes as often and in as many ways as I want so I've found ways to make them look good.
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Personally, for all of ESO's benefits, there are 3 things that made me quit after playing since beta that just come down to personal taste:
1) I got REALLY tired of bar-swapping. I hate that. Let me put skills for both my weapons on one bar - there is a noticeable lag for me (Though some say it doesn't exist, fine, but it does for me) when I try to swap them. For that matter, I don't really like weapon-swapping period. And animation cancelling.
2) Itemization - There is a new OP FOTM gear set every month, mostly in the form of Monster gear, which unless you have these instances on farm, you will get crushed in PvP via pure procs. I've seen way to many fights between good players (Not me, mind you, I'm average at best) come down to sheer random chance.
3) Class balance - You wouldn't think that having only 3 different skill lines would make that big a difference, but.. Damn.. Does it ever. They use the nerf hammer in ESO pretty liberally.
Granted, this is all opinion at the time of quitting (After Shadows of the Hist), and may have changed. But for me, that's why I left.
The Craft Bag though? That I agree.. Sheer joy.
Weapon swapping in GW2 was fine for me, but for some reason in ESO most of the time when I try to swap nothing happens. This is a major pain in the butt because usually I'll swap (middle mouse for me) followed immediately by pressing the key for the ability I want to cast on the new bar. Only problem is the swap didn't work and I am still on the original bar and end up wasting magicka/stam on some worthless ability! No.1 cause of death for me.
I've tried to figure out what's causing this behaviour, because as you note some people don't seem to have any issue with it. What I have found so far is that 1) the best way to swap quickly is to animation cancel into the swap, and 2) swaps are often not triggered because my character is in a state that "blocks" swapping (sprinting, cc'd, casting some abilities).
I think lag also plays a part, but when I practice in a non combat situation, I can get the swapping done just fine and I see my friends swapping smoothly all the time. That suggests to me that in the heat of the moment I am trying to swap while unknowingly performing an action that prevents me from swapping. Anyway, it works waaay better in GW2.
Regarding your second point, the monster sets have been toned down quite a bit, but what annoys me is the pve grind to get sets and dungeon gear. I wish I could just buy everything with AP or gold, but everyone I have asked about it thinks allowing that would "kill" the game.
Personally, for all of ESO's benefits, there are 3 things that made me quit after playing since beta that just come down to personal taste:
1) I got REALLY tired of bar-swapping. I hate that. Let me put skills for both my weapons on one bar - there is a noticeable lag for me (Though some say it doesn't exist, fine, but it does for me) when I try to swap them. For that matter, I don't really like weapon-swapping period. And animation cancelling.
2) Itemization - There is a new OP FOTM gear set every month, mostly in the form of Monster gear, which unless you have these instances on farm, you will get crushed in PvP via pure procs. I've seen way to many fights between good players (Not me, mind you, I'm average at best) come down to sheer random chance.
3) Class balance - You wouldn't think that having only 3 different skill lines would make that big a difference, but.. Damn.. Does it ever. They use the nerf hammer in ESO pretty liberally.
Granted, this is all opinion at the time of quitting (After Shadows of the Hist), and may have changed. But for me, that's why I left.
The Craft Bag though? That I agree.. Sheer joy.
Weapon swapping in GW2 was fine for me, but for some reason in ESO most of the time when I try to swap nothing happens. This is a major pain in the butt because usually I'll swap (middle mouse for me) followed immediately by pressing the key for the ability I want to cast on the new bar. Only problem is the swap didn't work and I am still on the original bar and end up wasting magicka/stam on some worthless ability! No.1 cause of death for me.
I've tried to figure out what's causing this behaviour, because as you note some people don't seem to have any issue with it. What I have found so far is that 1) the best way to swap quickly is to animation cancel into the swap, and 2) swaps are often not triggered because my character is in a state that "blocks" swapping (sprinting, cc'd, casting some abilities).
I think lag also plays a part, but when I practice in a non combat situation, I can get the swapping done just fine and I see my friends swapping smoothly all the time. That suggests to me that in the heat of the moment I am trying to swap while unknowingly performing an action that prevents me from swapping. Anyway, it works waaay better in GW2.
Regarding your second point, the monster sets have been toned down quite a bit, but what annoys me is the pve grind to get sets and dungeon gear. I wish I could just buy everything with AP or gold, but everyone I have asked about it thinks allowing that would "kill" the game.
Weapon Swapping bugs out in ESO since beta on PC. It happened to me all the time trying to swap when no secondary weapon was equipped and/or you are missing a weapon from dual wield setup and try to swap and go back. Its a really strange bug and i'm surprised its still around. I think it's present on PS4 as well but i haven't played in a while so i'm not sure.
I remember unequipping the active weapon used to bug it too instead of autoswapping to the second set. It would switch to the second weapon but stay in the first set all bugged.
I love ESO for all the things it gets right, but don't play anymore for the ONE major thing it truly messes up on: end game.
ESO has, by far, the most shallow end game of any MMO I've ever played. I have multiple toons at lvl50 + 300+CP and yet, I don't see any reason to push on. Yea, there are trials and veteran dungeons. But none of them have actual progression. With a decent group, not even a great one, you can clear most content right off the rip. It's incredibley boring and just not fun.
I love coming back for the story DLCs but outside of that I just find myself wondering what to do. Because there is no progression whatsoever.
I really wish they would work on some actual hard, group oriented content. Trials just do not cut it.
That's my two bits. Glad you're enjoying ESO so much, I'll be over in FFXIV raiding until the next DLC.
All this sounds like to me is laziness. If you have a shit ton of crafting mats why not just sell them or actually use them? I mean, thats their whole purpose. To be used. I craft time gated stuff almost everyday with all those mats I collect to the point where I actually am running out and need even more Mats. Part of this is either lack of knowledge of what you can do with all that stuff you've collected and laziness.
Salvage all --> collect mats --> use mats in crafting or sell --> Profit Got miscellaneous items? Figure out what that item is --> either toss out or compete the task that item is associated with.
I had a hard time choosing between ESO/FFXIV/GW2 and WoW. GW2 for the combat and immersion, the beauty of the world, able to do anything you want (though ESO you can too). WoW for the fun factor. FFXIV for the community.
I love ESO for the story, the voice acting, the quests, also the immersion and (like GW2) able to do anything you want
However, what it came down to...the most annoying game breaking part of any game for me...inventory management. If a game has terrible inventory management, it ruins the game no matter how good it is.
And I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to re-install ESO, or GW2 Path of Fire or re-sub to WoW (which is still installed). Spent a lot of time deciding...and GW2 inventory management is just too much worse than ESO. WoW was my 2nd choice to decide between...but read further...
ESO I have my own guild that I took over from someone who gave me keys for leader. That is an insane amount of guild bank space to store all my stuff. I have tons of stuff in there as a non-member and never have to worry about space barely. On top of that, if I pay next month the subscription I get an infinite sized harvesting bag for more space.
Downside and a caveat...as a free player if you don't own a guild, inventory management is WORSE than in GW2 and the worst MMO I ever played to deal with that. I pick EVERYTHING up, because that is how Elder Scrolls and Fallout games are played...pick everything up. Before I owned a guild, I'd actually have gone with GW2.
However, look at GW2 inventory space. Limited bag slots, have to buy for one extra bag slot (which is only very very little extra space) and bank spaces are extremely limited and gotta buy a bunch of gems for more bank space. In GW2 I can't even put materials in my bank anymore because its filled up and I never throw anything away. That killed the game for me, because I had all this stuff in my inventory and the guild wars 2 bank is so limited...sure better than ESO as a free player without a guild, but still pretty bad.
Look at WoW. In WoW you can have 12 characters per server. 12 characters can have hexweave bags (4 of them for each character) that have 32 slots in each bag (hexweave bags are biggest bags in WoW). You can then have 8 (or is it 9?) bag slots in each character's personal bank with hexweave bags. 11 of those characters can have their own guild (well all 12 can, but I like to have my main character in an actual guild) and each guild they own can have tons of space. On top of that there are special "vaults" (forgot what they are called, nethervaults or something) that you can put even more stuff in. WoW you can literally have thousands and thousands of items and materials, probably 10s of thousands with how much materials (like ore/cloth etc) stack.
GW2 doesn't even come close to how much inventory you get in WoW, even if you pay a bunch of money to unlock banks and bag slots
ESO however has a neat feature you get when you pay monthly. Lets ignore WoW's 11 guild banks, lets ignore WoW's 12 character personal bank, lets ignore 12 character x4 bag space.
Nothing beats what I am about to reveal to you all.
An infinite sized harvesting bag.
Which means you can actually have MORE items than you can in WoW. You can loot as much craftable items as possible and put them in a neverending bag space. You can have one million ore and still put harvestable items into it. You can have 10 million pieces of cloth and still have more room. An infinite sized harvesting bag.
And that is why I went with ESO...plus hey the story/voice acting/immersion is great too
...amazing !
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy? Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
I had a hard time choosing between ESO/FFXIV/GW2 and WoW. GW2 for the combat and immersion, the beauty of the world, able to do anything you want (though ESO you can too). WoW for the fun factor. FFXIV for the community.
I love ESO for the story, the voice acting, the quests, also the immersion and (like GW2) able to do anything you want
However, what it came down to...the most annoying game breaking part of any game for me...inventory management. If a game has terrible inventory management, it ruins the game no matter how good it is.
And I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to re-install ESO, or GW2 Path of Fire or re-sub to WoW (which is still installed). Spent a lot of time deciding...and GW2 inventory management is just too much worse than ESO. WoW was my 2nd choice to decide between...but read further...
ESO I have my own guild that I took over from someone who gave me keys for leader. That is an insane amount of guild bank space to store all my stuff. I have tons of stuff in there as a non-member and never have to worry about space barely. On top of that, if I pay next month the subscription I get an infinite sized harvesting bag for more space.
Downside and a caveat...as a free player if you don't own a guild, inventory management is WORSE than in GW2 and the worst MMO I ever played to deal with that. I pick EVERYTHING up, because that is how Elder Scrolls and Fallout games are played...pick everything up. Before I owned a guild, I'd actually have gone with GW2.
However, look at GW2 inventory space. Limited bag slots, have to buy for one extra bag slot (which is only very very little extra space) and bank spaces are extremely limited and gotta buy a bunch of gems for more bank space. In GW2 I can't even put materials in my bank anymore because its filled up and I never throw anything away. That killed the game for me, because I had all this stuff in my inventory and the guild wars 2 bank is so limited...sure better than ESO as a free player without a guild, but still pretty bad.
Look at WoW. In WoW you can have 12 characters per server. 12 characters can have hexweave bags (4 of them for each character) that have 32 slots in each bag (hexweave bags are biggest bags in WoW). You can then have 8 (or is it 9?) bag slots in each character's personal bank with hexweave bags. 11 of those characters can have their own guild (well all 12 can, but I like to have my main character in an actual guild) and each guild they own can have tons of space. On top of that there are special "vaults" (forgot what they are called, nethervaults or something) that you can put even more stuff in. WoW you can literally have thousands and thousands of items and materials, probably 10s of thousands with how much materials (like ore/cloth etc) stack.
GW2 doesn't even come close to how much inventory you get in WoW, even if you pay a bunch of money to unlock banks and bag slots
ESO however has a neat feature you get when you pay monthly. Lets ignore WoW's 11 guild banks, lets ignore WoW's 12 character personal bank, lets ignore 12 character x4 bag space.
Nothing beats what I am about to reveal to you all.
An infinite sized harvesting bag.
Which means you can actually have MORE items than you can in WoW. You can loot as much craftable items as possible and put them in a neverending bag space. You can have one million ore and still put harvestable items into it. You can have 10 million pieces of cloth and still have more room. An infinite sized harvesting bag.
And that is why I went with ESO...plus hey the story/voice acting/immersion is great too
...amazing !
yeah, I don't think any other MMO has an infinite sized crafting bag. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it.
But actually, that is perfect for Elder Scrolls. In Elder Scrolls you can have an infinite amount of items (granted you end up walking slow)...but you can keep picking items up to the end of time. This is even better though, because don't have to worry about walking super slow lol.
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I dunno, I don't have any particular problem with my GW2 inventory. While I havn't bother to get the 32 slots I have some 24 and that is more then enough (if you own PoF and have 4 24 bags and the 20 backpack you still have 116 slots without buying any extra gem bag slots, if that ain't enough you need to learn to sort your inventory from crap).
As for the 250 trade mat slots you refine most of them and if the most refined version still is full I sell them off to get some gold, which you for that matter can buy gems for to get those extra bags if you really need them), and in some cases I have extra 250 stacks in the bank or at a mule character.
While the free version do get annoying you were talking about getting Hot and I just don't see the problem there unless you are extremely poor managing your inventory.
Now, there are certainly other reasons to prefer ESO to GW2 depending on what you like but I don't see inventory as one unless you only play the base game as F2P. And if you really want an insane inventory, try EQ2. There you can put the largest "bags" (they are more chests) in each bankslot together giving you an insane amount of hoarding possibility.
I dunno, I don't have any particular problem with my GW2 inventory. While I havn't bother to get the 32 slots I have some 24 and that is more then enough (if you own PoF and have 4 24 bags and the 20 backpack you still have 116 slots without buying any extra gem bag slots, if that ain't enough you need to learn to sort your inventory from crap).
As for the 250 trade mat slots you refine most of them and if the most refined version still is full I sell them off to get some gold, which you for that matter can buy gems for to get those extra bags if you really need them), and in some cases I have extra 250 stacks in the bank or at a mule character.
While the free version do get annoying you were talking about getting Hot and I just don't see the problem there unless you are extremely poor managing your inventory.
Now, there are certainly other reasons to prefer ESO to GW2 depending on what you like but I don't see inventory as one unless you only play the base game as F2P. And if you really want an insane inventory, try EQ2. There you can put the largest "bags" (they are more chests) in each bankslot together giving you an insane amount of hoarding possibility.
I wouldn't say the inventory is a reason to play ESO over GW2, but I certainly find ESO's inventory/bank (with sub) to be much better than GW2s; without the sub GW2 is probably better in that regard.
For example, in ESO most of my characters have about 100 bag space each (cheap to upgrade to that capacity), my shared bank space is 240 slots atm, and I have a limitless crafting bag. It is also straight forward to sort out and sell junk, and my main inventory management activity involves opening "rewards for the worthy" chests which contain an armor piece and deciding whether to deconstruct it or save it.
I haven't played GW2 much recently, but I have done a thousand-plus of hours of spvp on a paid account. From memory I have a shared bank of about 20 slots, about 100 bag slots per character, and the crafting bag has a limit (don't remember how much, but I often run against it).
Inventory management seems more complicated than in ESO because I get literally hundreds of chests from playing spvp, which when opened produce items plus more chests making an inventory management nightmare. Its really easy to sell unneeded gear that drops from chests, but some of the valuable crafting items materials I can't store in the crafting bank (for making legendaries or something?), and obviously having a limit on how many crafting matts I can store is less convenient than ESO's limitless bag.
At any rate, I want to get back into GW2 at some point and focus on the RvR side of the game, so I'll have to get off my lazy arse and sort through all that crap in my toons' inventories ;(
ESO the crafting bag is great but I prefer no subs on my game accounts. GW2 it's pretty easy to manage inventory the problem is with HoT and PoF I have a lot more drops and not only that but drops that have to be opened containing more drops that need additional sorting, so those areas do slow progress because it simply takes more time to sort the stuff.
So far inventory space has become a minor inconvenience in both games.
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So I'll try and avoid too many spoilers. But...this is way more advanced than GW2. I'm glad I went with ESO
There was a town taken over by enemy soldiers (NPCs). I did a series of quests to help take it back. Now its populated by friendly NPCs. I thought it be the lame mechanic of it being reset after a few hours so the quest and everything I did was for nothing. Which always really annoyed me about GW2 is nothing I ever did mattered since everything resets really quickly and all the events repeat on timers.
But I played a few hours of ESO after the quest (this was yesterday), went back to the town today...and its permanently owned by friendly NPCs because I helped take it back.
This is very advanced mechanics, which means the quests and things you do in the world actually matter and make a permanent difference. WoW does this too though (only in some areas, its kinda basic and limited for most part), so I was super happy to see ESO does same thing but done even better.
Now I can use the entire town and all its services (bank, merchants etc). I don't recall taking over a town in WoW and being able to use its services. In WoW npcs (like in ashenvale) tend to just stand around and become lifeless and you never need to go back to (ashenvale) after doing the ashenvale quest chain. So ESO is more advanced than even this.
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So I'll try and avoid too many spoilers. But...this is way more advanced than GW2. I'm glad I went with ESO
There was a town taken over by enemy soldiers (NPCs). I did a series of quests to help take it back. Now its populated by friendly NPCs. I thought it be the lame mechanic of it being reset after a few hours so the quest and everything I did was for nothing. Which always really annoyed me about GW2 is nothing I ever did mattered since everything resets really quickly and all the events repeat on timers.
But I played a few hours of ESO after the quest (this was yesterday), went back to the town today...and its permanently owned by friendly NPCs because I helped take it back.
This is very advanced mechanics, which means the quests and things you do in the world actually matter and make a permanent difference. WoW does this too though (only in some areas, its kinda basic and limited for most part), so I was super happy to see ESO does same thing but done even better.
Now I can use the entire town and all its services (bank, merchants etc). I don't recall taking over a town in WoW and being able to use its services. In WoW npcs (like in ashenvale) tend to just stand around and become lifeless and you never need to go back to (ashenvale) after doing the ashenvale quest chain. So ESO is more advanced than even this.
You are talking about phasing, no issue if you solo a lot, but can be a bit of a pita if your friends are in a differen phase.
Was a big issue for some at launch but as I understand it they made changes to dial back the disconnect between player who are in differen phases from others.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
So I'll try and avoid too many spoilers. But...this is way more advanced than GW2. I'm glad I went with ESO
There was a town taken over by enemy soldiers (NPCs). I did a series of quests to help take it back. Now its populated by friendly NPCs. I thought it be the lame mechanic of it being reset after a few hours so the quest and everything I did was for nothing. Which always really annoyed me about GW2 is nothing I ever did mattered since everything resets really quickly and all the events repeat on timers.
But I played a few hours of ESO after the quest (this was yesterday), went back to the town today...and its permanently owned by friendly NPCs because I helped take it back.
This is very advanced mechanics, which means the quests and things you do in the world actually matter and make a permanent difference. WoW does this too though (only in some areas, its kinda basic and limited for most part), so I was super happy to see ESO does same thing but done even better.
Now I can use the entire town and all its services (bank, merchants etc). I don't recall taking over a town in WoW and being able to use its services. In WoW npcs (like in ashenvale) tend to just stand around and become lifeless and you never need to go back to (ashenvale) after doing the ashenvale quest chain. So ESO is more advanced than even this.
You are talking about phasing, no issue if you solo a lot, but can be a bit of a pita if your friends are in a differen phase.
Was a big issue for some at launch but as I understand it they made changes to dial back the disconnect between player who are in differen phases from others.
no, I've been grouped with my friend most of the time since I got him to join me. He mostly plays singleplayer games though. He isnt subbed or have any DLC or morrowind though, so its a bit limited but nothing so much that it makes the game less fun for him. We just can't do DLC stuff together, not a big deal.
With that said, he said he was annoyed at the "huge" item limit because he wants to pick shit up like in Skyrim and do all the crafting professions like he did in skyrim. So I just gave him access to my "personal" guild bank and he said it improved his experience by a lot.
So that goes back to what I said in my OP, that "vanilla" ESO the item inventory is pretty limited to certain people if they want to play it like a lot of people play in Skyrim. Hoarding is pretty common from what I saw from Skyrim players (and fallout 3/nv/4 players).
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
You are talking about phasing, no issue if you solo a lot, but can be a bit of a pita if your friends are in a differen phase.
Was a big issue for some at launch but as I understand it they made changes to dial back the disconnect between player who are in differen phases from others.
There's no problem with that nowadays in ESO, as opposed to WoW.
Not to mention questing in ESO is NOT linear like WoW.
And there's so much content now with "One Tamriel" that you will never run out of things to do with friends.
Agree.
When the game lauched the game checked which step of a quest people were on in the interests of "immersion" - which resulted in "phasing issues" as a result of people not being able to progress all together.
They toned down the immersion checks and the phasing issue went away - although it does mean you can e.g. see other folk killing a quest mob that you have just sent back to Oblivion! I think there are a few key quests that are checked - as there are in WoW, LotR etc. - but its not an issue.
And as @Jean-Luc_Picard says there is a huge amount of content even if you just buy the (very inexpensive) base game "One Tamriel". Several months of content - including some that is very good indeed. And yes you could very well get bored before you finish it all - but better that than the "played a week and nothing left to do".
You are talking about phasing, no issue if you solo a lot, but can be a bit of a pita if your friends are in a differen phase.
Was a big issue for some at launch but as I understand it they made changes to dial back the disconnect between player who are in differen phases from others.
There's no problem with that nowadays in ESO, as opposed to WoW.
Not to mention questing in ESO is NOT linear like WoW.
And there's so much content now with "One Tamriel" that you will never run out of things to do with friends.
Their solution was pretty elegant from a tech perspective: Your ability to see and interact with other players who are seeing the other phase persists but what you see, the NPCs you interact with and even their hostility (or lack thereof) toward you is personally phased.
Something similar is also done with resource nodes since what you can collect from a nodeis specific to you, your level and your skill in gathering from that type of node (metal, wood, fibre, etc.) It's still a competitive node and only the first person that gets to it can harvest it but what you saw walking up to it is phased to your skill: you might have seen a dull red lump of iron and the other guy a ruby-red rubedite node.
There are some key story NPCs that move around to different paces in a city, zone or world depending on your stage of the story. Queen Ayren for example. Whenever you get to a point in the quest line where you encounter her somewhere else, she will disappear from her previous spot... but only for you: anyone else on a previous part of the quest will still see her in her old spot and interact with her there.
At launch you weren't able to see the other players who were there. Now you do see them and can interact with them but to you it will seem like they are just staring at nothing
It's actually the most sophisticated phasing tech I've ever seen in an MMO.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I like ESO because crafting is optional for one thing. I can level and quest just fine without it in PvE. ESO has it's problems but isn't all that bad. I find it easy to get lost in the game for hours at a time. Pretty much the same for GW2 for me. Hopping from one to the other is a nice change of pace.
"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
Personally, for all of ESO's benefits, there are 3 things that made me quit after playing since beta that just come down to personal taste:
1) I got REALLY tired of bar-swapping. I hate that. Let me put skills for both my weapons on one bar - there is a noticeable lag for me (Though some say it doesn't exist, fine, but it does for me) when I try to swap them. For that matter, I don't really like weapon-swapping period. And animation cancelling.
2) Itemization - There is a new OP FOTM gear set every month, mostly in the form of Monster gear, which unless you have these instances on farm, you will get crushed in PvP via pure procs. I've seen way to many fights between good players (Not me, mind you, I'm average at best) come down to sheer random chance.
3) Class balance - You wouldn't think that having only 3 different skill lines would make that big a difference, but.. Damn.. Does it ever. They use the nerf hammer in ESO pretty liberally.
Granted, this is all opinion at the time of quitting (After Shadows of the Hist), and may have changed. But for me, that's why I left.
The Craft Bag though? That I agree.. Sheer joy.
I agree with the weapon-swapping- I wish there was an option to use the same weapon (not just weapon type) on both bars.
As @Sovrath mentioned, and especially for those of us with MMORPG gaming mice complete with 12 side buttons, a modifier key is much more intuitive and convenient.
While I'm not faulting Zeni for the decision, the extremely limited skill bars that are divided into two sides smacks of a move made to keep the game console-friendly. It ends up being a sore point for me.
Personally, for all of ESO's benefits, there are 3 things that made me quit after playing since beta that just come down to personal taste:
1) I got REALLY tired of bar-swapping. I hate that. Let me put skills for both my weapons on one bar - there is a noticeable lag for me (Though some say it doesn't exist, fine, but it does for me) when I try to swap them. For that matter, I don't really like weapon-swapping period. And animation cancelling.
2) Itemization - There is a new OP FOTM gear set every month, mostly in the form of Monster gear, which unless you have these instances on farm, you will get crushed in PvP via pure procs. I've seen way to many fights between good players (Not me, mind you, I'm average at best) come down to sheer random chance.
3) Class balance - You wouldn't think that having only 3 different skill lines would make that big a difference, but.. Damn.. Does it ever. They use the nerf hammer in ESO pretty liberally.
Granted, this is all opinion at the time of quitting (After Shadows of the Hist), and may have changed. But for me, that's why I left.
The Craft Bag though? That I agree.. Sheer joy.
I agree with the weapon-swapping- I wish there was an option to use the same weapon (not just weapon type) on both bars.
As @Sovrath mentioned, and especially for those of us with MMORPG gaming mice complete with 12 side buttons, a modifier key is much more intuitive and convenient.
While I'm not faulting Zeni for the decision, the extremely limited skill bars that are divided into two sides smacks of a move made to keep the game console-friendly. It ends up being a sore point for me.
You do get used to it and with a gaming mouse it actually serves to free up many of the buttons for other things such as crouching, sprinting, calling my horse, etc.
I have 5 buttons bound to 1-5 and one button to weapon swap. When I swap I just use the same 1-5 buttons to use the actions bound on the other bar. I actually prefer it this way. If they did it the other way I would have to bind 1- 0 on my mouse instead. And like you say, you can if you wish have a bow on both bars for example.
Also, when you get into high end DPS min-maxing, a weapon swap also serves to animation cancel so many people use the swap as yet another way in a rotation to up the DPS.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
All this talk about ESO really makes me what to give it another shot. Maybe after another Divinity Original Sin 2 playthrough. xD
Hah, I agree! I came on here to check out some new games and saw ESO
Decided to check out the threads and was surprised how much seeing people talk about it was making me want to load my Assassin back up and play! (only got like 4 champion lvls before I stopped)
Just to see if that works as well for ESO, its 50/50 if reshades work for other games when they are made for another game. I used that reshade for Witcher 3 and it worked amazingly, but tried it in another game and not so much.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
I would put ESO and FFIV on a par. I just can't face WoW as the graphics are so old, not a good reason I know. GW2 I do not rate at all, so much of it stands against the principles of what I think MMOs should be about.
Comments
I always make good money selling my crafting resources in the Auction House and i can buy my microtransactions with gold that way. But i'm always happy to give them my real money because they give me everything just by purchasing the game and expansion. No constant paywalls involved.
I only open Black Lion lootboxes when i happen to loot a key from an enemy. But they stack so they don't really fill the bank. Eff those boxes, i get those items in game by playing
Lately though I've been using the three new ones I got for free during that dungeon mystery box event from a couple of weeks ago. I got the Treasure Hunter, Cook and Blacksmith costumes from that.
Subbing means I can also dye costumes as often and in as many ways as I want so I've found ways to make them look good.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Weapon swapping in GW2 was fine for me, but for some reason in ESO most of the time when I try to swap nothing happens. This is a major pain in the butt because usually I'll swap (middle mouse for me) followed immediately by pressing the key for the ability I want to cast on the new bar. Only problem is the swap didn't work and I am still on the original bar and end up wasting magicka/stam on some worthless ability! No.1 cause of death for me.
I've tried to figure out what's causing this behaviour, because as you note some people don't seem to have any issue with it. What I have found so far is that 1) the best way to swap quickly is to animation cancel into the swap, and 2) swaps are often not triggered because my character is in a state that "blocks" swapping (sprinting, cc'd, casting some abilities).
I think lag also plays a part, but when I practice in a non combat situation, I can get the swapping done just fine and I see my friends swapping smoothly all the time. That suggests to me that in the heat of the moment I am trying to swap while unknowingly performing an action that prevents me from swapping. Anyway, it works waaay better in GW2.
Regarding your second point, the monster sets have been toned down quite a bit, but what annoys me is the pve grind to get sets and dungeon gear. I wish I could just buy everything with AP or gold, but everyone I have asked about it thinks allowing that would "kill" the game.
I remember unequipping the active weapon used to bug it too instead of autoswapping to the second set. It would switch to the second weapon but stay in the first set all bugged.
ESO has, by far, the most shallow end game of any MMO I've ever played. I have multiple toons at lvl50 + 300+CP and yet, I don't see any reason to push on. Yea, there are trials and veteran dungeons. But none of them have actual progression. With a decent group, not even a great one, you can clear most content right off the rip. It's incredibley boring and just not fun.
I love coming back for the story DLCs but outside of that I just find myself wondering what to do. Because there is no progression whatsoever.
I really wish they would work on some actual hard, group oriented content. Trials just do not cut it.
That's my two bits. Glad you're enjoying ESO so much, I'll be over in FFXIV raiding until the next DLC.
Salvage all --> collect mats --> use mats in crafting or sell --> Profit
Got miscellaneous items? Figure out what that item is --> either toss out or compete the task that item is associated with.
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
But actually, that is perfect for Elder Scrolls. In Elder Scrolls you can have an infinite amount of items (granted you end up walking slow)...but you can keep picking items up to the end of time. This is even better though, because don't have to worry about walking super slow lol.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
As for the 250 trade mat slots you refine most of them and if the most refined version still is full I sell them off to get some gold, which you for that matter can buy gems for to get those extra bags if you really need them), and in some cases I have extra 250 stacks in the bank or at a mule character.
While the free version do get annoying you were talking about getting Hot and I just don't see the problem there unless you are extremely poor managing your inventory.
Now, there are certainly other reasons to prefer ESO to GW2 depending on what you like but I don't see inventory as one unless you only play the base game as F2P. And if you really want an insane inventory, try EQ2. There you can put the largest "bags" (they are more chests) in each bankslot together giving you an insane amount of hoarding possibility.
For example, in ESO most of my characters have about 100 bag space each (cheap to upgrade to that capacity), my shared bank space is 240 slots atm, and I have a limitless crafting bag. It is also straight forward to sort out and sell junk, and my main inventory management activity involves opening "rewards for the worthy" chests which contain an armor piece and deciding whether to deconstruct it or save it.
I haven't played GW2 much recently, but I have done a thousand-plus of hours of spvp on a paid account. From memory I have a shared bank of about 20 slots, about 100 bag slots per character, and the crafting bag has a limit (don't remember how much, but I often run against it).
Inventory management seems more complicated than in ESO because I get literally hundreds of chests from playing spvp, which when opened produce items plus more chests making an inventory management nightmare. Its really easy to sell unneeded gear that drops from chests, but some of the valuable crafting items materials I can't store in the crafting bank (for making legendaries or something?), and obviously having a limit on how many crafting matts I can store is less convenient than ESO's limitless bag.
At any rate, I want to get back into GW2 at some point and focus on the RvR side of the game, so I'll have to get off my lazy arse and sort through all that crap in my toons' inventories ;(
So far inventory space has become a minor inconvenience in both games.
"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
There was a town taken over by enemy soldiers (NPCs). I did a series of quests to help take it back. Now its populated by friendly NPCs. I thought it be the lame mechanic of it being reset after a few hours so the quest and everything I did was for nothing. Which always really annoyed me about GW2 is nothing I ever did mattered since everything resets really quickly and all the events repeat on timers.
But I played a few hours of ESO after the quest (this was yesterday), went back to the town today...and its permanently owned by friendly NPCs because I helped take it back.
This is very advanced mechanics, which means the quests and things you do in the world actually matter and make a permanent difference. WoW does this too though (only in some areas, its kinda basic and limited for most part), so I was super happy to see ESO does same thing but done even better.
Now I can use the entire town and all its services (bank, merchants etc). I don't recall taking over a town in WoW and being able to use its services. In WoW npcs (like in ashenvale) tend to just stand around and become lifeless and you never need to go back to (ashenvale) after doing the ashenvale quest chain. So ESO is more advanced than even this.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Was a big issue for some at launch but as I understand it they made changes to dial back the disconnect between player who are in differen phases from others.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
With that said, he said he was annoyed at the "huge" item limit because he wants to pick shit up like in Skyrim and do all the crafting professions like he did in skyrim. So I just gave him access to my "personal" guild bank and he said it improved his experience by a lot.
So that goes back to what I said in my OP, that "vanilla" ESO the item inventory is pretty limited to certain people if they want to play it like a lot of people play in Skyrim. Hoarding is pretty common from what I saw from Skyrim players (and fallout 3/nv/4 players).
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
When the game lauched the game checked which step of a quest people were on in the interests of "immersion" - which resulted in "phasing issues" as a result of people not being able to progress all together.
They toned down the immersion checks and the phasing issue went away - although it does mean you can e.g. see other folk killing a quest mob that you have just sent back to Oblivion! I think there are a few key quests that are checked - as there are in WoW, LotR etc. - but its not an issue.
And as @Jean-Luc_Picard says there is a huge amount of content even if you just buy the (very inexpensive) base game "One Tamriel". Several months of content - including some that is very good indeed. And yes you could very well get bored before you finish it all - but better that than the "played a week and nothing left to do".
Something similar is also done with resource nodes since what you can collect from a nodeis specific to you, your level and your skill in gathering from that type of node (metal, wood, fibre, etc.) It's still a competitive node and only the first person that gets to it can harvest it but what you saw walking up to it is phased to your skill: you might have seen a dull red lump of iron and the other guy a ruby-red rubedite node.
There are some key story NPCs that move around to different paces in a city, zone or world depending on your stage of the story. Queen Ayren for example. Whenever you get to a point in the quest line where you encounter her somewhere else, she will disappear from her previous spot... but only for you: anyone else on a previous part of the quest will still see her in her old spot and interact with her there.
At launch you weren't able to see the other players who were there. Now you do see them and can interact with them but to you it will seem like they are just staring at nothing
It's actually the most sophisticated phasing tech I've ever seen in an MMO.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
"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
As @Sovrath mentioned, and especially for those of us with MMORPG gaming mice complete with 12 side buttons, a modifier key is much more intuitive and convenient.
While I'm not faulting Zeni for the decision, the extremely limited skill bars that are divided into two sides smacks of a move made to keep the game console-friendly. It ends up being a sore point for me.
I have 5 buttons bound to 1-5 and one button to weapon swap. When I swap I just use the same 1-5 buttons to use the actions bound on the other bar. I actually prefer it this way. If they did it the other way I would have to bind 1- 0 on my mouse instead. And like you say, you can if you wish have a bow on both bars for example.
Also, when you get into high end DPS min-maxing, a weapon swap also serves to animation cancel so many people use the swap as yet another way in a rotation to up the DPS.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Hah, I agree! I came on here to check out some new games and saw ESO
Decided to check out the threads and was surprised how much seeing people talk about it was making me want to load my Assassin back up and play! (only got like 4 champion lvls before I stopped)
It has a sort of "Dark Souls" vibe to it
https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/7349/
Looks awesome
Though next time I play, going to try...
https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/243/
Just to see if that works as well for ESO, its 50/50 if reshades work for other games when they are made for another game. I used that reshade for Witcher 3 and it worked amazingly, but tried it in another game and not so much.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul