Majority of add-ons not working afterlast update

helgamarie · 08/25/22, 03:38 AM

first of all many thanks to the entire ESO community for creating these awesome add-ons. Then I would like to rant on how bad the state of the game is right now. And I'm talking about Zenimax not supporting the community or allowing the community for their addons to work smoothly. I think it´s ZeniMax's fault. Even Zenimax devs agreed that certain add-ons should be maintained by Zenimax like the minimap. To force the community to do Zenimax´s job, because they don't want to solve the game´s many issues is really shameful. Again thanks for these awesome addons but I think Zenimax should support more the community and stop indulging in other things we never asked instead of making add-ons to work much better with the game. If it won't be for those that spend countless hours working on add-ons we should be left with a breaking game as it happened after the beta. It is really shameful that after each update people are forced to spend trillions of hours of their time just bc Zenimax doesn't understand that they should have implemented the majority of the code behind those add-ons as part of the main game. this is obviously my personal view and I'm entitled to share these views bc I'm not being disrespectful to anyone. I will understand people disagreeing with me but plz avoid being rude or etc

Masteroshi430 · 08/25/22, 04:09 AM

Can you please give a list of your non working addons?

EDIT:
Sorry I read too fast...

I agree with you that sneaky code change absent from the patch notes is disrespect, feels amateurish to me and costs me a lot of hours of testing sometimes absolutely random things to solve the bugs.

That being said I personally have no idea of how I would handle interactions/collaborations between the paid devs of the company and the addons dev community which are not paid by the company...

I don't know the history of opening parts of a game code to mod community but I'm pretty sure things can be improved.

**Baertram** · 08/25/22, 04:46 AM

Then I would like to rant on how bad the state of the game is right now.

Hello helgamarie,
and I'd like to rant about how your text is written, as a text block without any paragraph

Don't get me wrong, I'm not rude here. But it makes me, and most probably others too, just, skip to read your text.

Please consider editing it or at least, for future texts, add more paragraphs to unstress the eye and reading.
Thank you for considering this.

Back to your topic:
Thank you for your kind addon community related words, it's appreciated.

I partially agree with your ideas that Zenimax could have added more of the addon provided stuff into the base game,
also to ease the console player's live.
They already did that meanwhile, like add more inventory sub-filters (addon: AdvancedFilters), allthough this was taking several years and was only added half-way (crafting table inventory did not get any subfilters).

I guess there are other projects the same devs need to work on and ESO is thus not getting all attraction it could get.
Overall we devs are happy that we get API funtions and possibilities for the addons, which is not a matter of course.
I've played other games where it was just NOT possible or even allowed to use addons, and even if allowed the API was always old and lacking so many features.
Here we got some dedicated ZOs dev who are in contact with us and provide us updates what will be worked and improved, where new API will be available or existing old code will be unwired and improved.
I like this and as long as it will not be "forced each patch" it's okay to update addons to make it compatible again.

It takes time then and the user base using the addons just need to relax, wait for the fix/adoption. If they cannot wait they most likely will realize how important that addon is for them -> Time to tell the dev and optionally donate then to compensate their time invest, which cannot be spend on playing the game

Disable those addons and wait, everthing works without addons. Not as comfortable as it could be but it does work.
Ppl are quick in complaining but positive feedback is often forgotten.

Overall I'd say it could be better, but it definately could be worse! I'm happy with what we got and I like them to work on the game and fix real bugs, add new features (allthough a card game is nothing I'd tell an appreciated feature in an MMO RPG or even pay money for it... sorry ZOs!

).

But as you said, everyone thinks differently, and this is great.

Masteroshi430 · 08/25/22, 05:09 AM

Originally Posted by Baertram

Overall we devs are happy that we get API funtions and possibilities for the addons, which is not a matter of course.
I've played other games where it was just NOT possible or even allowed to use addons, and even if allowed the API was always old and lacking so many features.
Here we got some dedicated ZOs dev who are in contact with us and provide us updates what will be worked and improved, where new API will be available or existing old code will be unwired and improved.
I like this and as long as it will not be "forced each patch" it's okay to update addons to make it compatible again.

I agree with that, games with a good (usable) API for modders are rare.
Update 35 cost me 3 days of nightmare just to fix Minimap by Fyrakin (inluding 1 mail from the comment section of the patch per hour to inform me of the same 3 bugs again and again) but overall I can't think of a better place/game to mod.

**Baertram** · 08/25/22, 07:02 AM

I agree with you that sneaky code change absent from the patch notes is disrespect, feels amateurish to me and costs me a lot of hours of testing sometimes absolutely random things to solve the bugs.

Well some changes get in on last second and were only tested without hitting the PTS. We all know this could happen and it does a lot.
But to tell the truth: Most changes are on PTS, at least 1 week before live, and we can (if we want and find the time) adopt our addons in advance.

But again: The major thing here is the time and addon users and devs just need to learn to wait and disable addons that cause errors. Always was and will be that way after (major) patches. From my experience I'd say most players know this meanwhile and will just wait, communicate with the devs what is not working and collaborate. And the ones being picky or not wanting to help, but just want to play "and rant at you to make it work again": Ignore them.

(inluding 1 mail from the comment section of the patch per hour to inform me of the same 3 bugs again and again)

I exactly kow what you mean and after years of being polite and reading + answering them all I'm just deleting them now to keep the addon comments clean and ONLY show the relevant info. Most users support this meanwhile, the ones who start to flame and rant will just be igored/comments deleted again.
If they start to behave wrong one can also report those but so far this was not the case (at least not in the past 2 years anymore).

I can only recommand this to you all (devs) and I know a lot others handle it the same/similar meanwhile.
Especially the ones maintining several addons like myself, as else you do not enjoy this anymore and it's get an administrative mess.

These stupid "me too" or "same error here" comments do not help at all.
The ones that provide screenshots or at least more text/info are worth to be read and if they neither help -> delete.

You can ask Dolby to create a sticky comment at the top of your addons, just need to tell him the comment therad and ID of the post and he can sticky it for you. That way you can add info, howtos, and warnings like "I'll delete comments here which do not provide additional information and only repeat the already known error without additional warning, to keep the comment section clean".

helgamarie · 08/26/22, 07:14 AM

Many thanks for all your comments even if some of u disagreed with me. Much appreciated it is always helpful and constructive to read other points of view

I'm sorry about my phrasing but somehow that is how I write (no kidding, but it could be related to my disability), I got it might discourage others from reading my posts.

**Baertram** · 08/26/22, 09:21 AM

I'm sorry about my phrasing but somehow that is how I write (no kidding, but it could be related to my disability), I got it might discourage others from reading my posts.

Thanks for your update. It is something I like to complain about as I often think ppl just dictate something to their smartphone and press "send" without investing any additional 10 seconds to press the return key in between a few times, but they expect everyone to read and respond to it.
**** in -> **** out (or no "out" at all as it was not read).

After reading your response I notice there exist other reasons too that I had not thought about. My appologies.
In the end it did not discourage me enough, and I've read your post