Random Oblivion Oubliette Concept

Gidorick

Here is a pretty simple concept I'm surprised hasn't been put forth before, or at least not that my search found.

ZOS should scatter Tamriel with dungeons that have been wrenched from Mundus and provide players with randomized dungeons. By randomized, I mean random layouts, lengths, atmospheres, loot, mobs... everything random. ZOS would have to create a set of rules to guide the build of each dungeon, of course, but this sort of mechanic is hardly new or revolutionary.

These dungeons could be indicated by their glowing doors, floating rocks outside the entrances, or any number of weird environmental, visual, and auditory effects. These dungeons could be different by zone, completely random, or could even include an in-game mechanic that could let players wield the power of oblivion to decide and choose the variables within the dungeon.



These Oblivion Oubliettes could be single player delves or could be multiplayer dungeons if a player is grouped and their difficulty could be scaled depending on whether or not the player is in a group and the leader's level.

To turn this into a money making system (because ZOS does need to make money... and they have to make it from the Crown Store) ZOS could institute a cool-down for accessing Oblivion Oubliettes. Perhaps one free access per 24 hours. Then ZOS could sell "Oubliette Keys" in the Crown Store. A pack of 5 for 250 crowns.

If you don't like that access idea, feel free to offer an alternative profit generation concept for the Oblivion Oubliettes! The more ideas the better!

So, that's about it. Randomized dungeons... infinite replayability.

Enodoc

Randomised dungeons sound good

RAGUNAnoOne

I Like it, add a costume or 3 and instant hit, random dungeons would be a hit without costumes anyways

Gidorick

What do you mean by "adding costumes" @RAGUNAnoOne ? Like as a reward?

Volkodav

Add seriously unique rewards that make the Oubliettes worth the buying,and it would be great. Just no magic necklaces that only gives you a few bits of enchantment,no magic swords that look like every other sword,no piece of armor that looks like every other piece of armor.etc.

Gidorick

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Add seriously unique rewards that make the Oubliettes worth the buying,and it would be great. Just no magic necklaces that only gives you a few bits of enchantment,no magic swords that look like every other sword,no piece of armor that looks like every other piece of armor.etc.

Oh nice. I like the idea... this could be a good way to get "Oblivion gear" into the game...

Volkodav

Gidorick wrote: »

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Add seriously unique rewards that make the Oubliettes worth the buying,and it would be great. Just no magic necklaces that only gives you a few bits of enchantment,no magic swords that look like every other sword,no piece of armor that looks like every other piece of armor.etc.

Oh nice. I like the idea... this could be a good way to get "Oblivion gear" into the game...

I'd pay crowns for each Oubliette,if I knew the drops would be worth it. :}

Gidorick

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Add seriously unique rewards that make the Oubliettes worth the buying,and it would be great. Just no magic necklaces that only gives you a few bits of enchantment,no magic swords that look like every other sword,no piece of armor that looks like every other piece of armor.etc.

Oh nice. I like the idea... this could be a good way to get "Oblivion gear" into the game...

I'd pay crowns for each Oubliette,if I knew the drops would be worth it. :}

To keep it from being pay to win I think free access with a cooldown and purchasable keys would still be good.

RAGUNAnoOne

yeah,I did mean getting unique outfits and other items as a reward something along the lines of (off the top of my head) A zombie skin, or a dragon priest style outfit or depending on the theme of the dungeon. possibly Vampire or Werewolf blood (and if they make lords...).

slumber_sandb16_ESO

I like it. A good addition for both content and a way to get extra revenue.

CJohnson81

You'd have to have premium rewards to justify paying for keys, but randomized dungeons would be a lot of fun!

Paying for keys seems like the right way to monetize, but I still think the premium loot should be somewhat hard to get.

Maybe paying for keys guarantees one valuable drop in 5 chances - but imagine getting a new skin after every single 24-hour cool off? That'd be great, but the amount of content needed for drops would be insane. I think the procedurally generated randomness would make it fun - the chance for a premium item makes it worth it.

MrDerrikk

I reckon the dungeons themselves should be free to access, but they have boss spawners similar to the ones in Craglorn for those warriors. Then you'd have to have a rare drop to summon them from the spawner which could be sold on the crown store. The former idea just sounds a bit too much like blocking content behind a pay wall, this way it'd just be a little side thing with enhanced loot drops of course.

Gidorick

Honestly I thought nothing about the rare drops initially. To me, the carrot wouldn't be the drop, but the dungeon itself. Something new to play, however often I'd like!

Peel_Ya_Cap_517

This is an awesome idea! I think it would be a money-maker in itself, however, as it would keep people in the game or bring people back, some of whom would buy a subscription.

CJohnson81

Gidorick wrote: »

Honestly I thought nothing about the rare drops initially. To me, the carrot wouldn't be the drop, but the dungeon itself. Something new to play, however often I'd like!

I like the idea better in this form. I agree that the extra content by itself would be good enough. Rare drops complicate things.

Gidorick

Peel_Ya_Cap_517 wrote: »

This is an awesome idea! I think it would be a money-maker in itself, however, as it would keep people in the game or bring people back, some of whom would buy a subscription.

If ZOS were willing to add benefits to the subs Is think maybe pull the subscriber cool down to like... 8 hours.

CJohnson81

Gidorick wrote: »

Peel_Ya_Cap_517 wrote: »

This is an awesome idea! I think it would be a money-maker in itself, however, as it would keep people in the game or bring people back, some of whom would buy a subscription.

If ZOS were willing to add benefits to the subs Is think maybe pull the subscriber cool down to like... 8 hours.

Thinking further to that cool down. If the doors to the dungeons randomly appeared, maybe subs have a higher chance of running into one. I know that's not really what you were getting at, but I think it would be awesome to be running along when all of a sudden a dungeon door rips into the world. Maybe there are spawn locations, like the dolmens, but complete randomness could be more fun. Then the cool down would just be the fact that you haven't found one in a while.

Ankael07

Brilliant idea,we could even have pvp/e dungeons with upcoming dueling system.Although Im guessing ZOS is currently busy fixing lag,class balance overhaul and finishing the next DLC.

Cathexis

Random PvP dungeons too please!!!

Mettaricana

Gidorick wrote: »

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Add seriously unique rewards that make the Oubliettes worth the buying,and it would be great. Just no magic necklaces that only gives you a few bits of enchantment,no magic swords that look like every other sword,no piece of armor that looks like every other piece of armor.etc.

Oh nice. I like the idea... this could be a good way to get "Oblivion gear" into the game...

I'd pay crowns for each Oubliette,if I knew the drops would be worth it. :}

To keep it from being pay to win I think free access with a cooldown and purchasable keys would still be good.

Make it like ten delves appear a day and 20 for eso plus

Gidorick

Mettaricana wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO wrote: »

Add seriously unique rewards that make the Oubliettes worth the buying,and it would be great. Just no magic necklaces that only gives you a few bits of enchantment,no magic swords that look like every other sword,no piece of armor that looks like every other piece of armor.etc.

Oh nice. I like the idea... this could be a good way to get "Oblivion gear" into the game...

I'd pay crowns for each Oubliette,if I knew the drops would be worth it. :}

To keep it from being pay to win I think free access with a cooldown and purchasable keys would still be good.

Make it like ten delves appear a day and 20 for eso plus

TEN a day? I was thinking like 2. Maybe 5

petraeus1

This is a great idea. (Aside: Gidorick has a lot of good ideas I've seen!)

I somehow feel this idea could be altered a bit in the vein of Neverwinter. Neverwinter features player-made quests. ZOS could make a toolset for players to make their own delves. Players could list them and after a dev check they would be added to the list. This is kinda risky: people could design grind spots et cetera, but there could be limitations in the tool set or QA could test them before whitelisting player-made delves. There are a lot of games that do something like this, notably The Mighty Quest of Epic Loot, players come up with all kinds of great things. I only don't see ESO having the same asset list of traps and puzzle elements that make those player made dungeons so awesome.

shauny.gibbsb16_ESO

I'd like the idea of having random (reset daily) portals to these dungeons, for those that love to explore.

TheShadowScout

I always liked the random quests in TES:Daggerfall, an option that might work well paired with random dungeons...

I'd take it one step further and make it random daily mages guild quests - you know, "go through this magic portal into that oblivion space, do -insert random quest objective-, come back for reward" kind of dailies...
Said random instances could be scaled to character level to make it viable for all takers from apprentice to master mage... and be of widely warying visuals, coldharbour yesterday, shivering isles today, deadlands thomorrow...
Said random objectives could be some sort of object/NPC interaction... retrieving a special spellbook/ingredient, killing a boss or a certain number of mobs, breaking a sigil stone, farming a certain number of item drops, saving a mage trapped in that pocket plane, whatever.

As for the profit idea... why stop here, why not take it further and sell "keys" to reset ANY daily for a wee bit of crowns in the crown store?
Want to do a dozend Wrothgar dwelve dailies all in one day? Buy the wrothgar daily keys.
Want to do a dozend mages guild dailies all in one evening? Buy the mages daily keys.
Want to do a dozend Thieves Guild dailies (I am just gonna assume that someday there will be some) in one big crime spree? Buy the thief daily keys...
Or not and do them day by day. Each as they choose.

BtW, dailies... can we get a upgrade to the Cyrodil fighters guild "bounty" daily? Make it more challenging (like, say, for example, not just kill ten random gobbos, but also a goblin boss in some dwelve where you stand a much greater chance to happen upon an enemy grinding team... that sort of thing?), but also up the rewards?
Like... say... wrothgar-style reward boxes that contain scaled "fighters guild - akavri style" gear and possibly even a small chance at a motiv page? You know, just to breathe some life into that one...

(...also, can we finally get the "pact-dominion-covenant" part removed from the akaviri style gear, since its the same in effect and appereance all across the various versions, and put them to the IC faction gear instead so we know which character shoudl wear what style without having to comsult a chart? Eh, different topic I guess...)

Enodoc

TheShadowScout wrote: »

I'd take it one step further and make it random daily mages guild quests - you know, "go through this magic portal into that oblivion space, do -insert random quest objective-, come back for reward" kind of dailies...
Said random instances could be scaled to character level to make it viable for all takers from apprentice to master mage... and be of widely warying visuals, coldharbour yesterday, shivering isles today, deadlands thomorrow...
Said random objectives could be some sort of object/NPC interaction... retrieving a special spellbook/ingredient, killing a boss or a certain number of mobs, breaking a sigil stone, farming a certain number of item drops, saving a mage trapped in that pocket plane, whatever.

Ooh, nice idea, that would work well alongside my suggestions for Guild dailies.

Gidorick

Thanks @petraeus1 !

Check out this thread, you might like the ideas presented there.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/144735/player-created-content-suggestion-for-the-future-of-eso

Gidorick

Enodoc wrote: »

TheShadowScout wrote: »

I'd take it one step further and make it random daily mages guild quests - you know, "go through this magic portal into that oblivion space, do -insert random quest objective-, come back for reward" kind of dailies...
Said random instances could be scaled to character level to make it viable for all takers from apprentice to master mage... and be of widely warying visuals, coldharbour yesterday, shivering isles today, deadlands thomorrow...
Said random objectives could be some sort of object/NPC interaction... retrieving a special spellbook/ingredient, killing a boss or a certain number of mobs, breaking a sigil stone, farming a certain number of item drops, saving a mage trapped in that pocket plane, whatever.

Ooh, nice idea, that would work well alongside my suggestions for Guild dailies.

And my Guild Viability concept! Which is pretty much the same thing as guild dailies...

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/182288/continued-viability-of-fighters-mages-guild-concept-and-discussion

Im glad we're all on the same page here!

Enodoc

Gidorick wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

TheShadowScout wrote: »

I'd take it one step further and make it random daily mages guild quests - you know, "go through this magic portal into that oblivion space, do -insert random quest objective-, come back for reward" kind of dailies...
Said random instances could be scaled to character level to make it viable for all takers from apprentice to master mage... and be of widely warying visuals, coldharbour yesterday, shivering isles today, deadlands thomorrow...
Said random objectives could be some sort of object/NPC interaction... retrieving a special spellbook/ingredient, killing a boss or a certain number of mobs, breaking a sigil stone, farming a certain number of item drops, saving a mage trapped in that pocket plane, whatever.

Ooh, nice idea, that would work well alongside my suggestions for Guild dailies.

And my Guild Viability concept! Which is pretty much the same thing as guild dailies...

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/182288/continued-viability-of-fighters-mages-guild-concept-and-discussion

Im glad we're all on the same page here!

Oh yeah! If I remember that specific thread next time I'll try to link that rather than just the most recent version of my copy/paste, since you actually put my ideas in the OP

WolfingHour

@Gidorick , great idea to keep monotony at bay.

The idea of having a cooldown to access with access key for crowns, not so much. That's a slippery slope I would not like to the game to go down. Instead , have it has a part of a DLC. Pay once to get access to the content and that's it.