Overland Content Feedback Thread

spartaxoxo · September 3

TaSheen wrote: »

But then we'd have to deal with a dozen of these every day.... Ugh.

That's the real reason this exists. They do seem to sub tweet us in interviews though. I was really happy when I saw them finally acknowledge sliders and hard modes, recently. Hopefully, they'll implement something soon and this topic can finally be put to bed.

TaSheen · September 3

spartaxoxo wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

But then we'd have to deal with a dozen of these every day.... Ugh.

That's the real reason this exists. They do seem to sub tweet us in interviews though. I was really happy when I saw them finally acknowledge sliders and hard modes, recently. Hopefully, they'll implement something soon and this topic can finally be put to bed.

Yeah. At this point, this entire monstrosity of a thread is basically useless....

SilverBride · September 3

Well something needs to happen to stop the direction things are going with the increasingly difficult Bosses because those are part of overland, too and less people are doing them now because of it.

I usually spend time in the latest zones doing the dailies for awhile but this time I stopped the second I got the last script I needed, all because I don't enjoy the long drawn out fights these have turned into.

This is a very bad direction to take what has been a successful game. I am not one to predict doom but if this doesn't stop and turn around I can see a lot of players leaving, or at the very least no longer buying the newer chapters.

TaSheen · September 3

SilverBride wrote: »

Well something needs to happen to stop the direction things are going with the increasingly difficult Bosses because those are part of overland, too and less people are doing them now because of it.

I usually spend time in the latest zones doing the dailies for awhile but this time I stopped the second I got the last script I needed, all because I don't enjoy the long drawn out fights these have turned into.

This is a very bad direction to take what has been a successful game. I am not one to predict doom but if this doesn't stop and turn around I can see a lot of players leaving, or at the very least no longer buying the newer chapters.

Well.... I for one won't stop buying chapters, crowns etc. Yes, the last few content releases have been too hard for me to deal with - but that's not a real issue for me as there's so much other content I can play.

At some point, it might be no longer viable for me to buy "unplayable for me personally" content. But y'know what? I'll still buy it anyway - because this game to me is worth supporting.

spartaxoxo · September 3

I think many of us are unhappy with Gold Road. This should have been so easy to knock out of the park. It's the 10 year anniversary chapter.

They started things off by spoiling the story, prior to release. This killed all my enthusiasm for even enjoying it as a walking sim. What could have been the most hype I have ever been for an Elder Scrolls story, killed with a spoiler and a bizarre design.

Then, they release this much awaited take on spell crafting and it's grindy and unrewarding. They made random changes to the world bosses and world events that pushed a lot of people out. It did nothing to address the feedback here though. Did the complete opposite of that. I don't know about others, but for me, I pointed out I didn't want additional difficulty in the side content that's supposed to be farmed. It adds nothing to the story and gets old doing it for 30 days.

Their anniversary event had the idea that for some reason to celebrate 10 years of stories we'd want style pages that were bound, extremely rare and grindy, and limited time only all at the same time.

About the only thing I've enjoyed about the 10th year is all the fun rewards like extra endeavors. That's about it. Here's to hoping console's 10th year is better.

Edit

Sometimes, I fear that ZOS has lost the pulse of the playerbase and what it is we want.

TaSheen · September 3

I.... think.... the playerbase has moved beyond the developers' ability to understand, or deal with.

SilverBride · September 3

Three years of feedback is enough. It's time to take action. And a little communication would be helpful, too.

Give them a slider
Decrease the base difficulty of the World Bosses, Story Bosses and Public Dungeon group events from the HIgh Isle Chapter forward
Stop with the Invulnerable phases that only serve to prolong the fights
Make everyone happy by doing all of the above
Then close this 3 year old thread

Stafford197 · September 3

SilverBride wrote: »

Three years of feedback is enough. It's time to take action. And a little communication would be helpful, too.
Give them a slider

Decrease the base difficulty of the World Bosses, Story Bosses and Public Dungeon group events from the HIgh Isle Chapter forward

Stop with the Invulnerable phases that only serve to prolong the fights

Make everyone happy by doing all of the above

Then close this 3 year old thread

Please yes, just do this and the game would immediately be made better for it.

disky · September 3

SilverBride wrote: »

It's extremely frustrating to hear over and over that the game I love is flawed and needs to be changed into something that will drive me out, just like the difficulty before One Tamriel did. I know the word optional is supposed to prevent that but it's not working.

You repeatedly ignore the fact that no one in the conversation we are currently having is trying to "drive you out". You know that what we want is an optional change, and you know that we think the changes they've made to overland in West Weald are a mistake. So what is the issue you have that's bothering you so much? You're stressing yourself out over nothing.

Uvi_AUT · September 3

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Theist_VII · September 3

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

Diebesgut · September 3

SilverBride wrote: »

Well something needs to happen to stop the direction things are going with the increasingly difficult Bosses because those are part of overland, too and less people are doing them now because of it.

I usually spend time in the latest zones doing the dailies for awhile but this time I stopped the second I got the last script I needed, all because I don't enjoy the long drawn out fights these have turned into.

... same to me.

I only played the daily delves quest - the world bosses and these mirror thing dolmen I have completed exactly one time, (i try to do this in every new chapter as long as there are enough people, later there will be nobody anymore ) so that it is done.
I will never do it again.

I collected all the scribes in peace during the daily quests of the mages and fighters guild and from Bolgrul at the undaunted.

Stafford197 · September 3

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

colossalvoids · September 3

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

It was discussed to death before, ai reaction times, wind up attacks etc. where slider won't do much to make it an actual encounter. Look at dungeon or trial counterparts that are doing the same but more effective.

Elsonso · September 3

SilverBride wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

I’ll just add that the “One Tamriel” update, which launched 8 years ago, caused this whole situation in the first place. But it was still a fantastic patch despite ESO being considered too easy at the time.

The game was not too easy before One Tamriel. As Rich said: "ESO being too hard was what once pushed so many away." That is the reason I and many of my friends left.

"Too easy" is subjective. The main difference before One Tamriel was that the player could go to the next zone and be challenged, again. Eventually, though, the player found themselves in Coldharbour and Craglorn was a bigger jump.

I can remember soloing the world bosses in Coldharbour before Level 50 on a Sorcerer. I haven't played that character in years, but the character was distinctly less powerful after One Tamriel. I can solo world bosses today on my main, but that character could not do it immediately following One Tamriel.

Theist_VII wrote: »

if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

Possibly. The slider will simply make it so that the character is more vulnerable and has a combat penalty of some sort. The mobs will be the same as they are today. A lot of what makes ESO easy is understanding the mechanics, so just dying faster isn't going to make the mobs harder. It might just be more frustrating.

I expect that no matter what ZOS does, they will be vilified for doing it, or not doing it, "incompetently".

N00BxV1 · September 3

I used to want more difficult overland content in ESO, but I honestly don't care anymore. Most of the recent chapter zones' "difficult" overland world bosses and incursions are just not fun to me. The constant immunity phases, being swarmed with adds, randomly being one-shot, and being stunned/having to break-free every few seconds is not an enjoyable experience. If this is their idea of "difficult overland content" then I don't want it. I'd rather keep playing ESO's overland content more casually and rush through it with minimal annoyances, and I'll just go play other games like Elden Ring if I want better overland exploration and challenging content with fair difficulty.

disky · September 3

Elsonso wrote: »

The slider will simply make it so that the character is more vulnerable and has a combat penalty of some sort. The mobs will be the same as they are today. A lot of what makes ESO easy is understanding the mechanics, so just dying faster isn't going to make the mobs harder. It might just be more frustrating.

This argument seems to ignore the fact that difficulty sliders which do nothing but adjust numbers exist in many, many games, and that people use them all the time. It ignores the fact that even minor changes make a big difference in how people approach a situation. I've made the comparison before but consider The Witcher III's Death March difficulty. To my knowledge it doesn't change behavior in any way but once you enable it, suddenly you're no longer spamming light attack. You're checking the bestiary, you're preparing for fights and you're using ALL of the tools available to you.

Difficulty sliders matter. They can make games more fun by forcing you to adjust the way you play. I'm a little tired of people replying with defeatist responses like "people will do the easiest thing anyway" or "if it doesn't change behavior then what's the point". It may not give an enemy more attacks, but what difference does that make if you're just dodging a telegraph or evading a red circle on the ground? If you don't like that style of combat, I have news for you: most MMOs are like this. A challenge slider at least gives us a way to improve the feeling of satisfaction when tackling a difficult situation, it forces you to think harder about your situation, and it changes your behavior. It may even encourage grouping. What a revelation that would be for an MMO in 2024.

Theist_VII · September 3

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

Enemies need to play off of each other, and bosses need more mechanics, ones that are already available in the game.

Do they need to re-write the book? No. But taking away some of the predictability of the game would go a long way towards making it a refreshing challenge.

Also; people seem to forget that a difficulty slider in singleplayer games is a lot different than a difficulty slider for an online shared world. In a singleplayer game, you have less rare difficult enemy spawns, AI will move faster and smarter, and those same AI will have new attacks that are thought provoking.

Don’t believe me? Look at Skyrim’s Legendary difficulty and do a comparison, and that’s an Elder Scrolls.

You can’t have that in a shared world.

Theist_VII · September 3

disky wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

The slider will simply make it so that the character is more vulnerable and has a combat penalty of some sort. The mobs will be the same as they are today. A lot of what makes ESO easy is understanding the mechanics, so just dying faster isn't going to make the mobs harder. It might just be more frustrating.

This argument seems to ignore the fact that difficulty sliders which do nothing but adjust numbers exist in many, many games, and that people use them all the time. It ignores the fact that even minor changes make a big difference in how people approach a situation. I've made the comparison before but consider The Witcher III's Death March difficulty. To my knowledge it doesn't change behavior in any way but once you enable it, suddenly you're no longer spamming light attack. You're checking the bestiary, you're preparing for fights and you're using ALL of the tools available to you.

Difficulty sliders matter. They can make games more fun by forcing you to adjust the way you play. I'm a little tired of people replying with defeatist responses like "people will do the easiest thing anyway" or "if it doesn't change behavior then what's the point". It may not give an enemy more attacks, but what difference does that make if you're just dodging a telegraph or evading a red circle on the ground? If you don't like that style of combat, I have news for you: most MMOs are like this. A challenge slider at least gives us a way to improve the feeling of satisfaction when tackling a difficult situation, it forces you to think harder about your situation, and it changes your behavior. It may even encourage grouping. What a revelation that would be for an MMO in 2024.

No, it is the very definition of a “defeatist response” to request a debuff slapped on your character and wiping your hands clean of the problem without addressing the underlying lack of difficulty found within the overland.

We’ve seen thought-provoking bosses from the multiple dungeons and arenas throughout the game, enough to know that delve and quest bosses could use a touch-up.

Stafford197 · September 3

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

Enemies need to play off of each other, and bosses need more mechanics, ones that are already available in the game.

Do they need to re-write the book? No. But taking away some of the predictability of the game would go a long way towards making it a refreshing challenge.

Also; people seem to forget that a difficulty slider in singleplayer games is a lot different than a difficulty slider for an online shared world. In a singleplayer game, you have less rare difficult enemy spawns, AI will move faster and smarter, and those same AI will have new attacks that are thought provoking.

Don’t believe me? Look at Skyrim’s Legendary difficulty and do a comparison, and that’s an Elder Scrolls.

You can’t have that in a shared world.

It sounds like you want ESO Overland to become something fundamentally different from what it is right now. What you’re asking from ZOS is for them to rewrite the book.

ESO being an MMO means we are playing in a shared world with other players. That is exactly why ZOS can’t do what you’re saying, because your suggestions (AI reworks, different enemy spawns) would require the playerbase to be split into different versions of each Zone based on Difficulty setting.

The suggestion proposed by myself and many others is to implement a Difficulty Slider which strictly places a debuff onto our character alone. This “adjusts the difficulty” while keeping the whole playerbase together in fighting the same enemies.

Theist_VII · September 3

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

Enemies need to play off of each other, and bosses need more mechanics, ones that are already available in the game.

Do they need to re-write the book? No. But taking away some of the predictability of the game would go a long way towards making it a refreshing challenge.

Also; people seem to forget that a difficulty slider in singleplayer games is a lot different than a difficulty slider for an online shared world. In a singleplayer game, you have less rare difficult enemy spawns, AI will move faster and smarter, and those same AI will have new attacks that are thought provoking.

Don’t believe me? Look at Skyrim’s Legendary difficulty and do a comparison, and that’s an Elder Scrolls.

You can’t have that in a shared world.

It sounds like you want ESO Overland to become something fundamentally different from what it is right now. What you’re asking from ZOS is for them to rewrite the book.

ESO being an MMO means we are playing in a shared world with other players. That is exactly why ZOS can’t do what you’re saying, because your suggestions (AI reworks, different enemy spawns) would require the playerbase to be split into different versions of each Zone based on Difficulty setting.

The suggestion proposed by myself and many others is to implement a Difficulty Slider which strictly places a debuff onto our character alone. This “adjusts the difficulty” while keeping the whole playerbase together in fighting the same enemies.

Enemies need to do more synergies, depending on which enemies are around them. We’ve already seen the interaction between bandits, where one throws oil on the ground, a snare, yells, “Light it up!” and then another one sets it aflame.

Those interactions need to be more frequent, and more diverse. That is how you create a challenging, and thought provoking experience, WITH a slider.

SilverBride · September 3

If there is even a slight chance to get a slider it would be one that only affects the player. If they haven't even done that yet after 3 years of asking then there is zero chance of getting a slider that also reworks multiple mobs, too.

disky · September 3

Theist_VII wrote: »

disky wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

The slider will simply make it so that the character is more vulnerable and has a combat penalty of some sort. The mobs will be the same as they are today. A lot of what makes ESO easy is understanding the mechanics, so just dying faster isn't going to make the mobs harder. It might just be more frustrating.

This argument seems to ignore the fact that difficulty sliders which do nothing but adjust numbers exist in many, many games, and that people use them all the time. It ignores the fact that even minor changes make a big difference in how people approach a situation. I've made the comparison before but consider The Witcher III's Death March difficulty. To my knowledge it doesn't change behavior in any way but once you enable it, suddenly you're no longer spamming light attack. You're checking the bestiary, you're preparing for fights and you're using ALL of the tools available to you.

Difficulty sliders matter. They can make games more fun by forcing you to adjust the way you play. I'm a little tired of people replying with defeatist responses like "people will do the easiest thing anyway" or "if it doesn't change behavior then what's the point". It may not give an enemy more attacks, but what difference does that make if you're just dodging a telegraph or evading a red circle on the ground? If you don't like that style of combat, I have news for you: most MMOs are like this. A challenge slider at least gives us a way to improve the feeling of satisfaction when tackling a difficult situation, it forces you to think harder about your situation, and it changes your behavior. It may even encourage grouping. What a revelation that would be for an MMO in 2024.

No, it is the very definition of a “defeatist response” to request a debuff slapped on your character and wiping your hands clean of the problem without addressing the underlying lack of difficulty found within the overland.

We’ve seen thought-provoking bosses from the multiple dungeons and arenas throughout the game, enough to know that delve and quest bosses could use a touch-up.

First of all, I don't think that an average overland enemy should have particularly complex mechanics. Partially because it would get tedious but also because it's something that would change the game for those who like things as they are, which I think is a bridge too far for ZOS for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it could exacerbate the negative community sentiment that we're seeing from the Gold Road challenge debate.

It's also a lot of work to design, create and implement new mechanics, especially if you're considering the breadth of enemy types across all of overland. We have to be realistic about the possibilities we have before us, and I think it's far more likely that we'll be able to get something which doesn't impact the experience of others and doesn't require an unreasonable amount of development effort. A slider can dramatically alter the experience in a positive way for a lot of players while using code and design that already exists in the game. If you want to see new mechanics I think you're going to have to look forward to new content, particularly dungeon content.

Theist_VII · September 3

disky wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

disky wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

The slider will simply make it so that the character is more vulnerable and has a combat penalty of some sort. The mobs will be the same as they are today. A lot of what makes ESO easy is understanding the mechanics, so just dying faster isn't going to make the mobs harder. It might just be more frustrating.

This argument seems to ignore the fact that difficulty sliders which do nothing but adjust numbers exist in many, many games, and that people use them all the time. It ignores the fact that even minor changes make a big difference in how people approach a situation. I've made the comparison before but consider The Witcher III's Death March difficulty. To my knowledge it doesn't change behavior in any way but once you enable it, suddenly you're no longer spamming light attack. You're checking the bestiary, you're preparing for fights and you're using ALL of the tools available to you.

Difficulty sliders matter. They can make games more fun by forcing you to adjust the way you play. I'm a little tired of people replying with defeatist responses like "people will do the easiest thing anyway" or "if it doesn't change behavior then what's the point". It may not give an enemy more attacks, but what difference does that make if you're just dodging a telegraph or evading a red circle on the ground? If you don't like that style of combat, I have news for you: most MMOs are like this. A challenge slider at least gives us a way to improve the feeling of satisfaction when tackling a difficult situation, it forces you to think harder about your situation, and it changes your behavior. It may even encourage grouping. What a revelation that would be for an MMO in 2024.

No, it is the very definition of a “defeatist response” to request a debuff slapped on your character and wiping your hands clean of the problem without addressing the underlying lack of difficulty found within the overland.

We’ve seen thought-provoking bosses from the multiple dungeons and arenas throughout the game, enough to know that delve and quest bosses could use a touch-up.

First of all, I don't think that an average overland enemy should have particularly complex mechanics...

We deviate perspectives from the very first sentence. Every enemy in the game should have at least 3 thought provoking mechanics and an optional higher difficulty.

Adding more ability options to enemies would do absolutely nothing to the current difficulty of enemies, which is why I agree on the slider.

Fixing Overland is a multi-step solution, and if it was as easy as tacking a slider on without any other changes, it would have been done ages ago.

Stafford197 · September 3

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

Enemies need to play off of each other, and bosses need more mechanics, ones that are already available in the game.

Do they need to re-write the book? No. But taking away some of the predictability of the game would go a long way towards making it a refreshing challenge.

Also; people seem to forget that a difficulty slider in singleplayer games is a lot different than a difficulty slider for an online shared world. In a singleplayer game, you have less rare difficult enemy spawns, AI will move faster and smarter, and those same AI will have new attacks that are thought provoking.

Don’t believe me? Look at Skyrim’s Legendary difficulty and do a comparison, and that’s an Elder Scrolls.

You can’t have that in a shared world.

It sounds like you want ESO Overland to become something fundamentally different from what it is right now. What you’re asking from ZOS is for them to rewrite the book.

ESO being an MMO means we are playing in a shared world with other players. That is exactly why ZOS can’t do what you’re saying, because your suggestions (AI reworks, different enemy spawns) would require the playerbase to be split into different versions of each Zone based on Difficulty setting.

The suggestion proposed by myself and many others is to implement a Difficulty Slider which strictly places a debuff onto our character alone. This “adjusts the difficulty” while keeping the whole playerbase together in fighting the same enemies.

Enemies need to do more synergies, depending on which enemies are around them. We’ve already seen the interaction between bandits, where one throws oil on the ground, a snare, yells, “Light it up!” and then another one sets it aflame.

Those interactions need to be more frequent, and more diverse. That is how you create a challenging, and thought provoking experience, WITH a slider.

How do you propose ZOS creates an AI which functions differently for two players who are fighting the same enemy, when the first player is on Easy Mode and the second player is on Hard Mode?

ESO is an MMO, not a single player game. The only way to do what you’re saying is to create different versions of each Zone where enemy AI will be adjusted based on difficulty. But we don’t want to split up the playerbase into a bunch of different difficulties.

Improving AI as a whole may be nice, but the idea of changing it based on difficulty is not an option here due to the structure of the zone system itself.

colossalvoids · September 3

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

Enemies need to play off of each other, and bosses need more mechanics, ones that are already available in the game.

Do they need to re-write the book? No. But taking away some of the predictability of the game would go a long way towards making it a refreshing challenge.

Also; people seem to forget that a difficulty slider in singleplayer games is a lot different than a difficulty slider for an online shared world. In a singleplayer game, you have less rare difficult enemy spawns, AI will move faster and smarter, and those same AI will have new attacks that are thought provoking.

Don’t believe me? Look at Skyrim’s Legendary difficulty and do a comparison, and that’s an Elder Scrolls.

You can’t have that in a shared world.

It sounds like you want ESO Overland to become something fundamentally different from what it is right now. What you’re asking from ZOS is for them to rewrite the book.

ESO being an MMO means we are playing in a shared world with other players. That is exactly why ZOS can’t do what you’re saying, because your suggestions (AI reworks, different enemy spawns) would require the playerbase to be split into different versions of each Zone based on Difficulty setting.

The suggestion proposed by myself and many others is to implement a Difficulty Slider which strictly places a debuff onto our character alone. This “adjusts the difficulty” while keeping the whole playerbase together in fighting the same enemies.

Enemies need to do more synergies, depending on which enemies are around them. We’ve already seen the interaction between bandits, where one throws oil on the ground, a snare, yells, “Light it up!” and then another one sets it aflame.

Those interactions need to be more frequent, and more diverse. That is how you create a challenging, and thought provoking experience, WITH a slider.

But we don’t want to split up the playerbase into a bunch of different difficulties.

That's what devs want, to be precise.

What "we" want is varying from person to person and slider which got pretty popular option here between people who don't give a single guar about ones who want a better game definitely is a safe bet, but not the one which would solve it for everyone forever more so we would all live happily and not litter the forums with our thoughts since. Some want complex solutions to the complex issue, our money are going/went into their pockets not for us to settle with safest and easiest of options.

Edit: I know it's written in a bit hostile maner and that's not my intention. As english is not my first, nor third language it is what it is.

Theist_VII · September 3

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

Enemies need to play off of each other, and bosses need more mechanics, ones that are already available in the game.

Do they need to re-write the book? No. But taking away some of the predictability of the game would go a long way towards making it a refreshing challenge.

Also; people seem to forget that a difficulty slider in singleplayer games is a lot different than a difficulty slider for an online shared world. In a singleplayer game, you have less rare difficult enemy spawns, AI will move faster and smarter, and those same AI will have new attacks that are thought provoking.

Don’t believe me? Look at Skyrim’s Legendary difficulty and do a comparison, and that’s an Elder Scrolls.

You can’t have that in a shared world.

It sounds like you want ESO Overland to become something fundamentally different from what it is right now. What you’re asking from ZOS is for them to rewrite the book.

ESO being an MMO means we are playing in a shared world with other players. That is exactly why ZOS can’t do what you’re saying, because your suggestions (AI reworks, different enemy spawns) would require the playerbase to be split into different versions of each Zone based on Difficulty setting.

The suggestion proposed by myself and many others is to implement a Difficulty Slider which strictly places a debuff onto our character alone. This “adjusts the difficulty” while keeping the whole playerbase together in fighting the same enemies.

Enemies need to do more synergies, depending on which enemies are around them. We’ve already seen the interaction between bandits, where one throws oil on the ground, a snare, yells, “Light it up!” and then another one sets it aflame.

Those interactions need to be more frequent, and more diverse. That is how you create a challenging, and thought provoking experience, WITH a slider.

Improving AI as a whole may be nice, but the idea of changing it based on difficulty is not an option here due to the structure of the zone system itself.

That’s not the idea. The idea is to have those synergies do more damage based on the difficulty, they need to be baseline.

Let’s use Shield Charge for example…

Getting hit by a charge attack in the current overland does not even a quarter of your health and the only inconvenience it provides is making the player have to CC break if they don’t want to sit on the ground for a few seconds. In a DLC Veteran Dungeon, that charge attack would kill you if you don’t block or dodge it.

Diversifying the abilities with which an enemy can attack you with and speeding up the frequency of said attacks would make the combat a lot more active for players at entry level and on the highest difficulties.

disky · September 3

Theist_VII wrote: »

We deviate perspectives from the very first sentence. Every enemy in the game should have at least 3 thought provoking mechanics and an optional higher difficulty.

Please describe to me what you feel are thought-provoking mechanics, because what I'm envisioning are teleporting bandits that freeze you in a block of ice who can only be killed if you time your attacks just right in order to break their damage shield.

I'm just saying that if every group of bandits or monsters had a suite of complex mechanics available to them, it would be more tedious for most players than they would tolerate.

But most importantly, it's more work than the devs will be able to realistically put forth.

disky · September 3

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Stafford197 wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Just doing my 3month-check in.
Any news or is Openworld still bad?

Still bad, and worse, people are capitulating to the idea of a slider nowadays.

Funny enough, if a slider was implemented, you’d see the same faces back again complaining about enemies using the same dull attacks, and how trivial it is to avoid them.

What’s wrong with a slider? It outright solves the difficulty issue with minimal effort, as it does in many other games.

If you’re asking for ZOS to completely rework all enemy AI, we’ve now crossed into the realm of unreasonability on many different fronts. You seem to think you know better than everyone else though so what’s your idea here, given the many different needs of the community and current game limitations?

Enemies need to play off of each other, and bosses need more mechanics, ones that are already available in the game.

Do they need to re-write the book? No. But taking away some of the predictability of the game would go a long way towards making it a refreshing challenge.

Also; people seem to forget that a difficulty slider in singleplayer games is a lot different than a difficulty slider for an online shared world. In a singleplayer game, you have less rare difficult enemy spawns, AI will move faster and smarter, and those same AI will have new attacks that are thought provoking.

Don’t believe me? Look at Skyrim’s Legendary difficulty and do a comparison, and that’s an Elder Scrolls.

You can’t have that in a shared world.

It sounds like you want ESO Overland to become something fundamentally different from what it is right now. What you’re asking from ZOS is for them to rewrite the book.

ESO being an MMO means we are playing in a shared world with other players. That is exactly why ZOS can’t do what you’re saying, because your suggestions (AI reworks, different enemy spawns) would require the playerbase to be split into different versions of each Zone based on Difficulty setting.

The suggestion proposed by myself and many others is to implement a Difficulty Slider which strictly places a debuff onto our character alone. This “adjusts the difficulty” while keeping the whole playerbase together in fighting the same enemies.

Enemies need to do more synergies, depending on which enemies are around them. We’ve already seen the interaction between bandits, where one throws oil on the ground, a snare, yells, “Light it up!” and then another one sets it aflame.

Those interactions need to be more frequent, and more diverse. That is how you create a challenging, and thought provoking experience, WITH a slider.

Improving AI as a whole may be nice, but the idea of changing it based on difficulty is not an option here due to the structure of the zone system itself.

That’s not the idea. The idea is to have those synergies do more damage based on the difficulty, they need to be baseline.

Let’s use Shield Charge for example…

Getting hit by a charge attack in the current overland does not even a quarter of your health and the only inconvenience it provides is making the player have to CC break if they don’t want to sit on the ground for a few seconds. In a DLC Veteran Dungeon, that charge attack would kill you if you don’t block or dodge it.

Diversifying the abilities with which an enemy can attack you with and speeding up the frequency of said attacks would make the combat a lot more active for players at entry level and on the highest difficulties.

You're asking for something that will affect the experience of all players, so it won't happen. If ZOS is so reluctant to put a feature into the game which has little to no effect on players who choose not to enable it, there is zero chance they're going to do something that does. We just have to be realistic about what we can expect.

SilverBride · September 3

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert

This thread has been pinned for 3 years now. Players should be working as a community but instead this debate has split the players into "Us" and "Them". This is not good for the players or the game.

The only changes that have happened have been global and are not what any of us want. The increased difficulty of the World Bosses and Story Bosses and now Public Dungeon group events with every chapter from High Isle forward, along with invulnerable phases, has made it so many cannot even complete the zone stories now. I've already decided that I am not going to buy any more chapters if this trend is allowed to continue because these Bosses are just too difficult to be fun now.

We know that the requests for a difficulty slider have been heard. Is there any chance of this, or anything being implemented? I think a simple difficulty slider that just reduces the players health and damage would go a long way to making more players happy but we need to know... is anything like this possible? Please address this with a final answer one way or another, so we can lock this thread and put this to rest.