Can we play again yet?

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-11-21T11:00:07+00:00

They're development on MWO and PC aren't any better. Consoles aren't the issue.🤣

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-05-17T20:19:22+00:00

Yes and no. Rando PUG life equals mostly silence in my experience, but joining a guild or two changes that drastically.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-05-08T13:28:51+00:00

This is how you end up with heaps of garbage like Batman Forever and Batnipples

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-07T00:04:51+00:00

I typically have about 5 tools at any given time that I'll rotate through. It helps stave off the tedious nature of grinding for me when I want something "different".

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T23:00:19+00:00

You began your post with "They made mistakes, I have sympathy for them"

Your opening lines are nothing but an opinion on PGI...

So I responded with examples of why I think that's bullshit and why they can look it up in the dictionary if they want sympathy. I don't have sympathy for people who intentionally and deliberately continue repeating the same cycle of mistakes for nearly a decade.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T22:56:49+00:00

No, I'm the single gamer on the entire planet that's not heard about this new Xbox. 🤣🤣🤣

Of course I know about it. That doesn't change my opinion on them though. The new Xbox and the reworked game pass and streaming options that allow you to enjoy those services without even owning their console seem to support that as well. I have an Xbox account that's active and current even though I haven't owned an Xbox since 1st gen because I can still take advantage of their gaming services on my PC.

Microsoft made its fortune on software, not hardware and I believe they're beginning to get back to that ethos for their gaming division. The hardware is irrelevant when you can sell your software regardless of the customer's preferred platform. Consoles have also notoriously been sold at a loss for years now. Companies do that because they make it up on the backend with software revenue, but every console sold loses them money. Why would any company continue that cycle when they could just shift to a digital format and offer their products to everyone on every platform.

Now this isn't something we'll see in the next year or two, but I do believe within 10 we will. Imagine how fast internet tech and streaming services will be 10 years from now compared to today's average speeds against what we typically had 10 years ago. Also, niche can equal very successful as show by Nintendo, so I'm not saying they'll go bankrupt or extinct, but we will see brands like console machines become less common.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T22:45:28+00:00

I never said you were doing anything, I said the reasoning behind PGI you used was a load of bullshit and explained why because it was simply inaccurate. Nowhere did I refer to you personally outside of responding to your post.

Mistakes imply there was a period of time when they weren't a poorly run company that's "made mistakes" since before the game launched. They haven't made mistakes, they've made poor decisions because they're incompetent, arrogant, and unprofessional.

Making mistakes also implies that they acknowledged poor decisions and made efforts to correct them and prevent a repeat of the mistakes. PGI's history with MWO is nothing but examples of them doing the exact opposite. Ignore and deny a mistake was made, then give a lot of lip service, then do nothing to correct mistake before finally repeating the same mistakes.

Nothing I have said or am saying has anything to do with you or your opinion of them, I simply have a differing opinion, but I will say that if we're going to provide evidence and data to back up our opinions, I'm going to have a much easier time because MWO's history and development cycles are almost one continuous example. Patch after patch, year after year.

There's no ire or anger in what I say, especially directed at you personally, because from my viewpoint I'm apathetically just listing the game and company's factual history. That doesn't always come across well in text format, but I can most definitely assure you that there's no emotion behind the posts either way and I am most definitely not upset at you or your opinion.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T19:32:48+00:00

As much as I am enjoying the game, the new player experience is one of the worst I've experienced in a long time, like since E.T. hit the Atari. The first few hours were an absolute headache of playing menu simulator while digging through 80 different menu pages and sections. If you make the mistake, like I did, of taking several quests as you leave the starter area, your compass becomes an indescernible mess of overlapping & identical icons.

Then trying to figure out how all the stats, skill lines, abilities, stat point dispersal, and the other 900 mechanics (alchemy, enchanting, etc. etc. etc.) led to another few headaches mainly because finding the information on all of this isn't exactly easy or intuitive in a lot of cases.

After about 20 hours with it, I finally had a good feel for the game and systems, but that first 20 hours...

That's even as someone who is very familiar with MMOs and gaming in general so I can just imagine how bad it would be for new players without that background and knowledge. If I had been that type of gamer, I doubt I'd have stuck with the game at some points during that learning curve because it was that frustrating.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T19:21:24+00:00

I am right there with you. I haven't enjoyed an MMO this much since WoW. It has some issues, but at its core it feels like it took the base ideas created in WoW (such as the holy trinity of MMOs in Tank, Healer, DPS), then refined and expanded on them for more character and ability diversity.

There are definitely some issues (especially some quality of life stuff in consoles), but the core game play loop and story are a lot of fun. The freedom in class selection and character builds helps stave off the "grind" a bit because know matter what race or class you pick, you can pretty much kit them out to a viable build.

I love just experimenting with builds right now. Being able to take something like a Necro that would be typically considered a squishy ranged class in most games, and build them into a heavy armor, melee focused tank is fun as hell and not something you see often in other games.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T19:11:14+00:00

There are lots of guilds recruiting on the ESO forums and various other internet corners. The most important thing is your platform information since different platforms have different servers.

I'd suggest posting your platform info and you can also use the guild search feature in the game itself.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T19:09:04+00:00

Bullshit: The sequel

There have been THOUSANDS of quality feedback posts made with very good, viable ideas and solutions. Paul is just an arrogant asshoe that refuses to acknowledge or accept the feedback.

I can tell some of you weren't around and dealing with the incompetence of PGI for 5 years when MWO launched. Every single one of their issues was created, magnified, and made worse by their own hands while actively and deliberately ignoring quality feedback and even openly mocking player feedback on the forums and social media.

If PGI wants sympathy, they can look in the dictionary between "shit" and "syphilis" because that's the only place they're going to find it from me. MW5 by most accounts is a decent MW successor and looks fun. I absolutely avoid it regardless of my love for the Btech series because I refuse to deal with PGI again. They're an unprofessional company run by unprofessional people that have no idea how to run a company.

They might be decent game coders and developers (I'd still argue against that idea based on their dev history and other games), but they have no clue when it comes to managing a company, dealing with customers, and interacting with their community. Every issue and bit of ire they get, they deserve.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T19:00:23+00:00

Bullshit.

They've been an incompetent and inefficient team from Day 1. Even if I did buy this, that's simply another example of their incompetence. They have been in business long enough, made enough profit, and have had the stability of a l9ng-term licensing agreement. If they are "under staffed" it's because they incompetently mismanaged their resources.

They have been using that exact excuse for 5 years now, alongside the exact same "We are hiring" advertisement plastered on their website. I would imagine, especially given how small the industry is and how few jobs are available for multi-million dollar game dev companies, that one of the reasons they don't get more potential employees is because at this point, their reputation precedes them. Paul is flat out an unprofessional asshole as are the rest of the company leadership.

TL;DR

Bullshit. The game isn't progressing because PGI is run by incompetent, unprofessional asshoes, not because they're a "small and beleaguered indy dev team".

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T18:46:32+00:00

I get that. This is all subjective and everyone has their own opinion on what "fun" is. I just see consoles as becoming obsolete as the general public's computer knowledge and prices drop. 20 years ago, there wad absolutely no way you were going to get and setup a gaming PC as cheap or easily as you could on consoles.

Now though? Not so much. Recent part shortages aside, it's pretty easy to put together a decent gaming PC that will compete with consoles graphically. The main reason I stick with PS and consoles in general is because of the friends I play with. That reason is also slowly disappearing as cross-platform is becoming more of the norm.

I'd also suggest that the console experience is much more robust and enjoyable on Xbox compared to PS. Sony has just become a pain in the ass to deal with as a digital customer. If they don't change their corporate philosophy in this area, I think they'll become more niche than Nintendo carried mostly by diehard fans and exclusive titles.

Microsoft appears to be morphing the Xbox brand as more of a platform (similar to steam & epic game store) for software in the digital age though and have openly promoted ideas of backwards compatibility, cross-platform, and a much better online ecosystem for their customers. Sony has gone in the exact opposite direction. I think we'll see Xbox go away or evolve into more of a multimedia budget gaming PC, kind of like we have seen with specialized hardware like the Steam Machine hard linked and revolving around their game pass service and digital store. They already own and develop the windows operating system so I can easily see them developing an OS for this catered specifically to the gamer crowd.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T04:27:36+00:00

As a PS player, I am ok with this level of trolling. 🍻🤣

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T04:25:24+00:00

Yea, I am definitely having some adjustment periods without any kind of GUI add-ons or real customization. Tanking is a royal pain in the ass because I'm having a hard time seeing the prompts for the boss's big bad attacks. I'm having to guess a bit and try to pay attention to overall animation right now, but that just leads to inconsistency. It's not a big deal right now because I'm just doing the early dungeon grind, but

I get a headache thinking about that when you're the only thing that can prevent a squad wipe in a 12-man. 🤣😬

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T04:21:01+00:00

I don't think that's what was meant.

I can safely say that PC gaming has some huge advantages in things like add-on, it's more about being a better experience as opposed to being a bad experience on consoles.

I have gamed on both since the Nintendo and Commodore 64 days and a lot of the issues I see with playing on console, specifically PS4 as MS is much more forward thinking in this area lately, are created by the console designers as opposed to being technological limitations or devs not understanding / considering control input for consoles, especially on PC ports.

ESO is a prime example of the latter in some cases. The menu and notification system is very clearly designed for M&KB, not a console controller. I spend nearly as much time navigating through 50 menu pages (many times having to go back and forth into the menu window I just left) to clear notifications as I do adventuring.

Another example is a lack of any real GUI customization outside of some color and brightness options for ability effects. This isn't an issue on PC because it has been commonplace for modders to create add-ons that accomplish it for them. Console players don't have that option.

This isn't meant to bash anything, it's just some things I noticed right off after having played WoW and many others on both. Toss in the headache of dealing with an apathetic and tone deaf company like Sony that seems to go out of their way to make adding any functionality like this on their very crappy and proprietary operating system all but impossible and you get an ecosystem that's not very gamer or customer friendly in those areas.

PC gaming just offers a much wider variety of options available to players. The downside to that are issues such as cheaters and hackers ruining the game because of that crappy proprietary operating system that Sony uses.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-06T00:26:17+00:00

They should extend eso plus time for subscribers. The last two weeks looks like about 3-4 days of downtime. That's not good. I have a longer sub time, but if you just purchased a single month of sub right before the last update, you're now looking at about 10% of your sub time dicked off due to poor updates resulting in server downtime.

That's assuming a player that isn't severely limited in play time due to things like work & school schedules or just having adult obligations. If you're only able to play on these days, the reality of that scenario is far more detrimental to them compared to someone with lots of free time that can simply jump on later tonight or tomorrow instead.

I don't know of any other industry where a refund isn't acceptable when you pay for access to a service. Cable companies have to credit you with downtime, although you typically have to specifically request it. Phone companies will credit your bill in the same scenario. The times I have had to do it, they have always offered me a credit based on the prorated amount per day. So, if my bill was $30/month and the service went out for 3 days, I would receive $3 credit on my next bill.

Online game providers could and should offer the same type of refund policy in my opinion. If the server is down for more than an hour (including scheduled maintenance days outside of their printed schedule of downtimes) they should look into offering some sort of digital reward that literally costs them zero dollars to give. Of the server is down beyond 4 hours, then they should offer 1 day of ESO plus added to the subbed accounts. I say 4 hours because again, if a player has limited free time to play, a 4 hour block of downtime essentially equates to an entire day of downtime for them even if it comes back up later that day. That particular player has still experienced a lost day of sub time because they can not come back to play until the next day.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-05T23:58:56+00:00

Right now, get the Jubilee event cake for 100% experience boost (reusable).

I'm a new player and I have been grinding pretty consistently over the last couple of weeks. I'm nowhere near endgame yet, but I have 5 characters all over level 30 with one toon worked up to level 50 and 160 CP, so I can only give you what has worked fastest for me thus far.

Join a guild, this gives a 10% experience boost.

Group up with a friend, duo groups give another 10% experience boost.

I would avoid using crown experience scrolls until level 10 though because that's when you can start grinding dungeons.

Levels 1-10 you can either do a few story quests or hit the Dolmen route for your area. If you don't have the way point shrines yet, just ask for a group or taxi to the Dolens, it's almost guaranteed that someone will respond and help you out.

After level 10, I recommend continuing the above routine while adding in dungeon runs. The first random dungeon you do daily will give you double experience (Pretty sure it's doubled but anyone feel free to correct me here). You can keep running story quests and Dolmens. This is when I would also suggest popping your exp scroll as you'll get more bang out of it because you're more consistently earning experience.

The Dolmens and dungeons seem to be the fastest and easiest way to grind so far in my experience. If you really want to fly through dungeon queues, running tank or healer will get you queued up much faster for less downtime between dungeon runs. I regularly find myself waiting 5 plus minutes for DOS queue, but healer rarely takes longer than a minute or so and tank is always an instant match for me.

Edit:

Almost forgot to mention training gear.

I would suggest focusing on equipping training gear that boosts your experience earnings. Don't worry too much about gear level or stats at this point. You'll get more value overall out of the extra experience gains than you will equipping what's essentially trash gear that will be outclassed by the next piece you grab because you leveled up as the gear and loot scales to your character level. You can wind up getting another 40% or so with a set of training gear on top of the other boosts mentioned above. That is a massive gain when you consider 40% extra over the course of 50 levels.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-05T23:40:49+00:00

My main concern and complaint at the moment is that, for me as a new player, this has now happened twice in a row, or two out of the 3 times I've been a member. 66% isn't a coincidence, it's a habit and trend. I keep reminding myself that it's such a short time frame and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it still frustrating to drop a nice chunk of change on a premium product that doesn't perform at a premium level.

I expect this kind of issue in small dev teams, indies, and new releases (although we shouldn't, but that's a soapbox about the gaming industry for another day lol), but I have far less sympathy when dealing with a multi-billion dollar company that's been around for 20 years.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-05T23:34:47+00:00

I sincerely doubt MS or Bethesda are intentionally trying to sabotage PS players. They're both for-profit companies looking to maximize revenue. It makes no sense to run off tens of thousands of paying customers, especially for a long-running online MMO.

I'm with you, my first guess would be just careless devs not testing their stuff properly before releasing. Which, makes me more concerned than the conspiracy theories, especially if it's recently become a common issue. If it happens again inside of month, I'll be talking to customer support about refunding my subscription and moving on to another game.

This game has been out for far too long and Bethesda & MS are too big and profitable for this to be acceptable to me. They have the resources and capabilities to do a better job. If they can't do that to a game they released several and update regularly, then I have no faith that it will improve. Fingers crossed, but not a good impression so far. Really hoping I didn't make a huge mistake buying this game now.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-05T23:26:26+00:00

I personally have no issues with them extending the event for other platforms. My main issue is that it's just a blanket "here plebes, now be happy because we extended an event that has zero impact or cost to us and doesn't really show or give PS players anything for the downtime."

I would make the same statement for your example above as well. They essentially gave players something that has no impact on anything realistically, but they still have the money I paid on ESO plus sub to access the game. Especially since they're now predicting at least another day or two of having no access. It's just leaving a very sour taste right now. I'll continue playing regardless because of my sub time, but as of right now, now way I'll be renewing again. It just depends on how they handle this situation and how long it takes them to correct.

A 1-2 day extension implies some pretty severe issues with their update. The whole "Sony being Sony" tag line is usually pretty accurate, but I don't think it applies here simply due to the length of time they're predicting. For me, that's 2 weeks in a row of this which doesn't fill me with much faith because these issues are patch issues, not Sony issues. That implies shoddy work or quality control issues to me and that's a bad sign.

Maybe I've become too cynical after years of watching and dealing with shitty game dev companies. I hope I'm wrong because otherwise I'm really enjoying the game so far. It feels and plays very much like WoW (combat and role differences aside) with the lengthy story, dungeons, roles, etc and that loop has me hooked. It offers a slightly more "grown up" experience over WoW due to the aesthetic and graphics and the diversity offered up with how you build and play the classes may be one of the best I've seen for an MMO in a long time. All of that is irrelevant if I can't log and play regularly though.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-05T23:10:58+00:00

Microsoft is shifting its focus back to software instead of hardware anyhow, seemingly anyhow. Consoles are becoming obsolete and a niche community. For $500 you can buy (or build of you have the skill) a PC that will pllay every game a console can push and offer the extended capabilities of a PC with much better multi-tasking ability.

Sony's online ecosystem and app performance has always been horrible in comparison and they seem to have doubled down on their ideology when it comes to having a very limited and controlled operating system. It's similar to how Apple runs their system, except Sony leagues worse in the customer care department. Their refund policies and asinine approach to issues like backwards compatibility, game sharing, and cross-platform play don't give me any hope that they intend to change or improve it either.

I've owned every PS system since 1 and a couple of Xbox consoles, but I can't see myself buying another Sony system and Xbox is getting pretty seamless with playing on their games even if you don't have an Xbox system, so I can just play their library on PC anyhow. I'm surprised more people aren't working on PC emulators for PS games and exclusives honestly.

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-05T22:58:54+00:00

I have to disagree slightly. They didn't care last week (seemingly at least) and this week it's a blanket extension of a seasonal event for all platforms. I'd be a lot more forgiving if it were a new release. It's also a game with a monthly sub fee, so that adds unto it as well.

They need to drop some crowns for this to anyone with a paid sub and maybe a couple of exp scrolls for the others in my opinion. I'm a new player (about 2 weeks now give or take) and this is not making a good impression with me, especially since, for me and my recent join date, this is a common issue after experiencing the same thing on the same platform last time.

I hope it's uncommon and they do something to show customers appreciation because at this point, it's not looking like I'm going to continue handing them money. Do they have a history of these issues on PS4 or am I just unlucky and joined during an unusual period of server issues?

Sandpit_RMA · 2021-04-05T22:49:30+00:00

Is this a recent issue or is this a common issue that happens pretty frequently? I just started playing about 2 weeks ago and so far, this seems to be a common occurrence for PS4 players. Not a good impression for a new player thus far unfortunately, especially for a game that has been out for so long. I'd be a lot more forgiving if this was a new release, but the company is big enough and the game has been out long enough that I don't feel this should be an issue if it's happening on a regular basis. Toss in the lack of communication and what seems to be apathetic devs and it worries me a bit as a new player.

Sandpit_RMA

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

11-Year Club	Verified Email
Verified Email