I think I've come up with a perfect explanation as to why I dislike forced-group content.

I like your presence, not your company.

SilverBride wrote: »

Psyphiman wrote: »

I wish ZOS stopped allowing two posters to spam the forums with threads rehashing the same complaints.

This thread isn't a complaint. It's asking a valid question that I haven't seen addressed.

Except it was addressed. Multiple times in this very thread.

There's no normal mode because Night Market is already the "Normal Mode". It is balanced around a normal trial level of difficulty. If you're asking why there is no solo version of Night Market, that's because like Normal Trials, it is built for pugging with groups.

If anything, you should be asking why there's no Veteran mode, which if you are asking that:

There are not 2 difficulty levels because it is a zone, and zones do not have multiple difficulty levels.

That's it. That's your answer. It really is as straightforward as that.

No, solo and casual players are not being excluded from participating anymore than a PvP-only player is being "excluded" from playing dungeon content. They have the same ability to join a pug group and play the NM as any other player.

If it's not your thing, it's not your thing.

SilverBride wrote: »

Katheriah wrote: »

It is normal.

If this is the normal mode then where is the veteran? Dungeons and trials always have both modes. Why not this?

Do you want a Veteran mode? Would you play it?

Martiandawn wrote: »

It's not misinformation. I've been observing the ups and downs in the player base for over a decade now. The players who complain the most about changes to content and game mechanics, and who tend to take "breaks" from the game when they feel their needs are not being met, are the ones who focus on chasing the meta. The players who seek a story-driven RPG experience tend to stick around.

Corollary: the "I'm only here because of The Elder Scrolls series and its stories!" will (eventually) get a game to release that will directly compete with ESO. Or are we seriously expecting all of those fans to look at TES6 and say "yeah, I'll stick with ESO."

Meme on it if you want, but that is the one playerbase that we can absolutely guarantee will drop ESO like a hot potato because of a specific new release.
The other playerbases - ESO can win back. If ESO gives PvPers a reason to play, they may look back at ESO. If ESO gives group players a reason to play, they may look back at ESO. But the people who want an in-depth solo Elder Scrolls experience with no other people around...? ESO can't deliver that to the extent that TES6 can.

Hopefully this wont get lost in the sea of feedback, but i've been polling my guildies informally since the Night Market started and wanted to discuss the biggest pain points/issues.

I want to be clear that overall, we love the Night Market and want it to stay. In particular, we really love the difficulty level, the set design, the mechanics, the mob volume, and the clear progression metrics. The feedback encapsulated here is all "even better ifs" from LOTS of time spent by LOTS of your community members. The feedback is not organized in order of priority.

Any feedback that we are providing will come with a clear solution.

Key Progression

We understand the desirability to encourage replayability in zones, but a 6 ardent + 3 dungeon cycle to access the Trial once is a massive time commitment. It also creates major issues with sociability as we cannot help our fellow guildies if we progress past them without re-progressing.

Solution: Dungeons are unlocked permanently once 6 ardents are cleared. 3 Dungeons are still required to get Trial access each time so the prep loop is far more reasonable. If concerned about farming of dungeons, set cooldown timer of a few hours or reduce loot rewards or ensure loot rewards are highest on first clear.

Zone Daily Quests

We understand the idea of creating "discoverable" quests and encouraging exploration of each Night Market zone. That said, the bosses, and the quests themselves, already encourage a full exploration of the zone.

Solution: Wanted board at the entrance of each zone.

Soft Grouping

We run a social guild and so creating guild pre-mades is VERY easy. That said, we have noticed in the wild how many people follow us because they struggle to soft group.

Solution: We think zone population should be increased by 25% to increase the chances of soft grouping in the zones, or population "segments" should be area specific if they are not already (e.g. Parch 40 players). We really do think this needs to be a careful adjustment though, too much and it will trivialize content.

Base Zone Content Rewards

Overall, the "drops" from content in the Night Market feel undeveloped. The organic chest drops in the zone feel far too low for their risk, these feel like they should be more comparable to dungeon chests, particularly the ones that must be 'cleared' using a Relic (significant time investment). In addition, Trash mobs dropping NOTHING feels like a mistake. Overland sets being the norm instead of dungeon sets feels like it does not reflect difficulty. We shouldn't get the reward for killing a 1.25M world boss from a 9M brazen.

Solution: Provide similar loot drops to vet dungeon trash mobs for Night Market Trash. Improve Treasure Chest Loot. Provide dungeon sets instead of overland content sets.

Favor Orbs

Favor Orbs currently despawn way too quickly and encourage people to stop doing content to grab orbs. As this is currently the only real reward around Trash, it being so small a window is punishing.

Solution:: Orbs should have their duration of being out significantly increased (2-3x) to ensure that EVERY member of the group can get them AFTER the combat ends as opposed to a mad dash to get them.

Public Leaderboards

Unsurprisingly to anyone - public leaderboards just encouraged a one-faction mass bomb.

Solution: Hide faction points for the first two weeks and then provide metrics that will make the "competition" element closer leading up to the end of event to ensure it is not a landslide.

Skirmish LENGTH

Difficulty of Skirmishes feels good, but the pure time it takes to complete them feels agonizing. Increasing soft grouping may address this, but the sweet spot of a Skirmish fight should be like 5-7 minutes, not 9-10. The trial itself is 15-16 minutes and is supposed to be the pinnacle of content.

Solution: Reduce health of mobs to make content slightly faster in Skirmishes, or test and see soft grouping results.

SilverBride wrote: »

Psyphiman wrote: »

I wish ZOS stopped allowing two posters to spam the forums with threads rehashing the same complaints.

This thread isn't a complaint. It's asking a valid question that I haven't seen addressed.

Whatever you say, boss.

This is excluding a lot of players and I think they should provide 2 difficulty modes like they have been doing for the last 12 years. Others may disagree but this is my opinion and my feedback and my suggestion.

You can start damaging the spider before it even starts pulling the person.

I think it also pulls the person furthest from them, so two damage dealers can quickly go to the spider, and third person can go away from the spider, giving damage dealers more time to kill it.

Thanks for all of these!

Use the grappling hook around "webbed" heavy sacks and treasure chests to allow them to be accessed.