Idea: Optional difficulty slider for PVE world content

hafgood

I don't agree with this idea and never will, however, my personal feelings to one side.

Why would Zos do this? It would cost a lot of time and therefore money to program and to test. How would they get their investment back? There is no obvious way for them to do so.

This means they are spending money adding features into the game that many players would just ignore. Whilst you can argue they do that with dlc's (especially dungeons) they do get money back via subscriptions or dlc purchases. With this though there is no obvious way to monetise it.

So regardless of what players may want or may think Zos are only going to bring in new features that benefit all players (sticker book) or which they can charge for (new chapters, dlc, etc). This would take a lot of work to code as you are going to have to tweak every zone, every monster, every reward in the base game, and whilst some of that is an adjustment to tables a lot won't be. Its no good just giving a skeever extra hp to make it harder, you have to give it extra abilities, and you have to do that for every monster in the base game.

Now tell me how Zos get their money back?

idk

Iccotak wrote: »

I’ll never agree with nerfing the player in the same instance as other players because it’s opting to make yourself less effective in comparison to others. It only works if it’s a separate instance.

To be clear this does mean that ZOS needs to go over the power creep of Champion points. Because I remember fights before one Tamriel that used the same mechanics but we’re definitely harder - so there is a question of how buffed the player is, without CP.

That aside

A separate instance for Enemies do need them to be tougher. By tougher I don’t just mean increased stats but more abilities. The enemies need to be more capable.

Story Bosses definitely need this - not just Main Story Bosses but Zone Story Bosses. increased stats and mechanics.

As it stands many Story bosses are not only very weak in numbers but present no actual threat mechanically.

That is the only way this will happen. There are only two ways to approach this, that make any sense and both would entail nerfing the player character. At that, neither would be effective in any PvP zone.

1. A slider that adjusts how much a player character is nerfed. With this, the player has a choice of difficulty and will still be in the same zone as other players. Rewards would be the same as there would be no other choice since different players would use different settings.

2. Two instances for two different difficulties. This is the simplest method for Zos to work with but it still entails nerfing the player character as that is the easiest way to go about this. Less complex is best as it also means less of a chance of messing things up.

Additionally, Zos will determine the challenge of this instance, and players who are truly looking for a challenge are still not going to find it here since Zos will still work it so a large portion of the player base as it would make no sense to do all this work for only the top 10% of the player base. (forget about maelstrom difficulty) It is also possible that Zos would limit when this more challenging instance is available based on the population of the main instance. This would make sense as many older zones are much less populated.

The second option, while the simplest does create other issues with player grouping and between that and the complexity of the slider in an MMORPG are reasons Zos would shy away from even attempting this.

Either way, your character will be nerfed to increase the difficulty. That should not be an issue if someone is truly interested in more challenges with open-world quests and NPCs.

idk

Pywrath wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Pywrath wrote: »

And, perhaps 80% of the player base.

I think suggesting 80% of the player base agrees is a huge assumption.

Myself, I enjoy the challenge of the arenas and trials but when it comes to overland that is stories and the lack of difficulty is far less important than the quality of the story and its telling.

However, I expect Zos will reset the baseline of this game with a future increase in the gear cap/level cap which might come with or shortly after the change to CP. Ofc, this is just a guess and I am willing to note it as such when I am making an assumption.

@idk Yeah, I admit that was a wild guess/assumption on my part. I would love to do a poll of sorts. I should have said "a lot of people" think that overland content is too easy and would play it if it was more difficult.

The poll would be meaningless as forum-goers are such a small portion of the player base. Since they tend to be more vocal than the average player there is no reason to consider those active in the forums to reflect the population.

A lot of people would have been a better characterization. A few hundred or even a few thousand is a lot of people. However, it is unlikely that the majority of players agree with you. My comment is supported by the small percentage of active players who have cleared vMA or the latest trials. This is something that players can see on consoles. They are small numbers. Zos can see those numbers on all platforms.

Iccotak

idk wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

I’ll never agree with nerfing the player in the same instance as other players because it’s opting to make yourself less effective in comparison to others. It only works if it’s a separate instance.

To be clear this does mean that ZOS needs to go over the power creep of Champion points. Because I remember fights before one Tamriel that used the same mechanics but we’re definitely harder - so there is a question of how buffed the player is, without CP.

That aside

A separate instance for Enemies do need them to be tougher. By tougher I don’t just mean increased stats but more abilities. The enemies need to be more capable.

Story Bosses definitely need this - not just Main Story Bosses but Zone Story Bosses. increased stats and mechanics.

As it stands many Story bosses are not only very weak in numbers but present no actual threat mechanically.

That is the only way this will happen. There are only two ways to approach this, that make any sense and both would entail nerfing the player character. At that, neither would be effective in any PvP zone.

1. A slider that adjusts how much a player character is nerfed. With this, the player has a choice of difficulty and will still be in the same zone as other players. Rewards would be the same as there would be no other choice since different players would use different settings.

2. Two instances for two different difficulties. This is the simplest method for Zos to work with but it still entails nerfing the player character as that is the easiest way to go about this. Less complex is best as it also means less of a chance of messing things up.

Additionally, Zos will determine the challenge of this instance, and players who are truly looking for a challenge are still not going to find it here since Zos will still work it so a large portion of the player base as it would make no sense to do all this work for only the top 10% of the player base. (forget about maelstrom difficulty) It is also possible that Zos would limit when this more challenging instance is available based on the population of the main instance. This would make sense as many older zones are much less populated.

The second option, while the simplest does create other issues with player grouping and between that and the complexity of the slider in an MMORPG are reasons Zos would shy away from even attempting this.

Either way, your character will be nerfed to increase the difficulty. That should not be an issue if someone is truly interested in more challenges with open-world quests and NPCs.

Note that I said:

I’ll never agree with nerfing the player in the same instance as other players

If it's a separate instance then that is fine, removing certain buffs and all that. However, If it's in the same instance as all players then I can see that only as a discouragement for anyone trying it out.