Dear ZOS, how can we get you to listen to us?

spoqster · July 2015

Dear ZOS,

I have elaborated in so many posts and comments why a vertical progression system is a bad game mechanic for multiplayer games. I have provided many arguments, examples and alternatives. But you still released a vertical Champion System, have not taken out the Veteran Ranks yet and now even plan to increase the level cap again.

I don't engage in this forum to complain. I am a software exec myself and I just want to help you, as a company, to get this game right. And that is because I love this game so much! Most ideas are not even my own, but are taken from other multiplayer games that are very, very successful.

It's so painful to watch you make questionable calls when the solutions to so many issues and problems are rather obvious (not necessarily easy, just plain to see).

A one hour phone call with @ZOS_MattFiror should be enough to go through the basics.

Following the decisions regarding game mechanics and interface (combat and art are great!) and reading the reactions in the forums - and all the convoluted and misguided discussions that result - is just painful and frustrating.

JD2013 · July 2015

NotSo · July 2015

No but letting vet players have upwards of 15% bonuses across all stats and impossible to obtain armor set bonuses is good for the game and encourages heavy play from newcomers who will all sink real money into xp potion in order to "get on my level, bro".

/sarcasm

Many ideas have been presented on stunting the verticality of the CP system (among other things) and nearly 0 responses from ZOS. Makes me cry irl.

Drazhar14 · July 2015

Vertical progression actually discourages me from playing the game. I'm all for horizontal progression with new armor styles and set bonuses though.

spoqster · July 2015

JD2013 wrote: »

I am 100% serious.

NotSo · July 2015

Then perhaps you will like my system to squash 99% of vertical progression:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/191125/making-eso-more-elder-scrollsy-breaking-away-from-the-standard-mmo-formula#latest
Posted yesterday.

spoqster · July 2015

NotSo wrote: »

Then perhaps you will like my system to squash 99% of vertical progression:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/191125/making-eso-more-elder-scrollsy-breaking-away-from-the-standard-mmo-formula#latest
Posted yesterday.

I really like your idea. It's a good way to make to design horizontal progression. In a sense it's already implemented with battle leveling, as the big difference between being at max level and being battle leveled in Cyrodiil is that battle leveling is flat, while you can min/max the attributes if you are at max level.

I do see a few issues with it, though.

I think there should be some vertical progression in a game. The perfect curve is an inverted hockey stick which resembles the real life learning curve: You get to a competitive level quite quickly, and after that improving your skill gets really, really slow. My proposition is to stop increasing attributes at level 20 and only award skill points from then on. That way you get a neat succession of milestone levels (10: pvp, 15: weapon swapping, 20: level cap) and you'd reach max level roughly by the time you reach the major cities of each respective alliance (Wayrest, Elden Root, Mournhold) and you'd have 15 out of the 17 major zones at the same level. This will provide a huge open world that will be enjoyable to explore at max level. The monsters will have the same base strength in each zone, but how fast you kill them depends on your playing skill. Every zone will have stronger monsters like bosses, trolls, giants, etc. which are far harder to kill, and players will only be able to kill them after they learned to play or in groups. Your suggestion would be a great addition to my model, as an additional reward for a level up beyond 20.
The next one is a bit of a personal one. I dislike min/maxing-based game mechanics, because I believe that it ultimately leads to fewer viable build options. This is a problem in every game, and ZOS's removal of softcaps has made it worse in this. At this point, there are not many viable endgame dps set options, for example. So it's great to give players the option to adjust their attribute balance as a bonus for leveling up, but with a better mechanics design that bonus won't be as valuable as it is at the moment. A big step to improve the mechanics and to make hybrid builds viable again would be to remove the relationship of spell/weapon damage and max magicka/stamina.

[Deleted User] · July 2015

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