Additionally to all the other comments and suggestions, something that I'd like to see is to increase the "gradient" of enemy difficulty within encounters.
"Mini-bosses"", large animals, and heavy-armor-clad enemies do not feel particularly more difficult, tanky or dangerous than small enemies like archers, critters or grunts.
I think it would make combat more interesting if larger, stronger enemies were harder when compared to smaller, weaker enemies. To have more variety within each encounter in the overworld.
SimonThesis wrote: »We need scaling to be based not just off your character's level, but off their gear/champion points as well. If overhauling the scaling system is too much to ask, perhaps a 'Hard Mode' option that people can toggle on/off which boosts enemy health/attacks.
I'm tired of having to intentionally cripple myself to make overland content even vaguely challenging. I love questing. It's what I enjoy most in ESO. Please toss us a bone here ZOS.
I think this is a good compromise increase the scaling to gear and CP. If you want easier mobs unslot your CP and take off your gold perfected trial gear and gold perfected arena weapons. If you're CP 3600 with gold perfected trial gear and gold perfected arena weapons the mobs should scale accordingly.
My perspective:
I am disabled and have arthritis in my hands. I do not get to do ANY of the DLC dungeons, or very much on Vet mode. There is a lot of difficult content in the game that I simply cannot access due to physical limitations.
I like doing overland content - it is casual, I can complete it, and I have a lot of fun doing it.
If people want difficult content, there is plenty of difficult content in the game already. If people want to make overland content more difficult, they can remove the gear that they use for Vet content, unallocate their CP (which is now even easier due to Armory slots), and voila the content is more difficult for them.
I do not have the option to reduce the difficulty.
Please, please, do not take away the casual/easy nature of overland quest content. Already a lot of the game is denied to me and others like me.
If overland content difficulty is increased, please make it optional by way of a difficulty setting in the game menu (which implements some sort of power downscaling in PvE quest zones on those who choose it perhaps) and leave the base game difficulty untouched.
Malfious1986 wrote: »Why can't we just continue the scaling to include Champion Points? Wouldn't that be more simple?
Malfious1986 wrote: »Also can't believe there is so much opposition to increased difficulty. I can't think of any other mmo that has an overland this easy.
My perspective:
I am disabled and have arthritis in my hands. I do not get to do ANY of the DLC dungeons, or very much on Vet mode. There is a lot of difficult content in the game that I simply cannot access due to physical limitations.
I like doing overland content - it is casual, I can complete it, and I have a lot of fun doing it.
If people want difficult content, there is plenty of difficult content in the game already. If people want to make overland content more difficult, they can remove the gear that they use for Vet content, unallocate their CP (which is now even easier due to Armory slots), and voila the content is more difficult for them.
I do not have the option to reduce the difficulty.
Please, please, do not take away the casual/easy nature of overland quest content. Already a lot of the game is denied to me and others like me.
If overland content difficulty is increased, please make it optional by way of a difficulty setting in the game menu (which implements some sort of power downscaling in PvE quest zones on those who choose it perhaps) and leave the base game difficulty untouched.
You need to look at the thread as no one is suggesting making anything in overland more difficult for everyone and most of the options have been moving towards the idea of optional difficulty.
Malfious1986 wrote: »Why can't we just continue the scaling to include Champion Points? Wouldn't that be more simple?
Mind that most opinions where ppl talking about additional rewards ppl talk mostly about purple gear
You need to look at the thread as no one is suggesting making anything in overland more difficult for everyone and most of the options have been moving towards the idea of optional difficulty.
Sylvermynx wrote: »
You need to look at the thread as no one is suggesting making anything in overland more difficult for everyone and most of the options have been moving towards the idea of optional difficulty.
Actually, I've read every post in this thread, most of them several times over, and there have been a number of people saying just that: "Just make it harder overall." At this point the most forceful person hasn't replied in a while - nor have a couple of the others - and that might be why it seems the responses have been moving more toward optional.
Sylvermynx wrote: »
You need to look at the thread as no one is suggesting making anything in overland more difficult for everyone and most of the options have been moving towards the idea of optional difficulty.
Actually, I've read every post in this thread, most of them several times over, and there have been a number of people saying just that: "Just make it harder overall." At this point the most forceful person hasn't replied in a while - nor have a couple of the others - and that might be why it seems the responses have been moving more toward optional.
In addition, nothing Zenimax has said has made any suggestion that "optional" would be an option.
People have been asking for "Story Mode" dungeons (ie. an easier option that can be soloed without mechanics, no expectation of good loot ofc) for a while so that people like myself with physical/co-ordination issues and more casual players can experience the story in the harder DLC dungeons that we currently cannot do at all (despite in a lot of cases technically paying for them by having ESO+ and being cut off from that content) - but Zenimax have shown absolutely no interest in accommodating that request to make those 2 content releases each year available to all.
spartaxoxo wrote: »Disagreement is not toxicity.
spartaxoxo wrote: »Disagreement is not toxicity.
Agreed but like I said, I don't have a problem with disagreement, I have a problem with ppl shuting down discussion by torpedoing almost every idea based on their assumptions presented as facts. By ppl that won't gonna use this paarticular feature.
I said before, one of the most valid point was that it needs to be optional. But most of the ppl who are against the idea said present mostly weak arguments like "it will cost too much" while not knowing how expensive it will be or "almost nobody want that" while threads about rising difficulty happened every week and this one already is almost the highiest viewed pinned topic next to thread with guild traders that affect basicaly most of the population, directly or indirectly. Some ppl that are doing that have even the audacity to tell others "it is your opinion, not fact so it means nothing" and sharing their opinions presented as facts.
[snip]
[edited for discussing moderation]
spartaxoxo wrote: »Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »
Therefore this idea is intended to make questing more interesting while still working within the developers self-stated reasons as to why we can't have a vet overland "too much work" (debuffs require little dev effort) and fractured playerbase (debuffs don't require splitting players up).
If you don't care about what the devs stated in the past they aren't going to do, that's fine. But some of us would rather find solutions they haven't come out against and meet their criteria because we think it's more feasible and the lowest impact on the rest of the playerbase.
Would you please be so nice and link me to where the devs ruled out vet overland instances for good?
Thanks in advance.
They have a policy to never say never but they have said no to vet Overland and why on multiples occasions. This is why I wanted to make a suggestion that wasn't vet overland but still made things harder. Because the playerbase has been told "no" for years to vet Overland.
I compiled some answers here with select highlights from Rich's twitch.spartaxoxo wrote: »Also here are some responses from Rich Lambert and Mike Finnagin that I had compiled in another thread that I think are pertinent here.
On Vet Overland: [Source for both following responses]
[source 2 just forumers discussing this video in case the link is broken]
"So, we had that, Jeulen, at launch. It was called Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold. Nobody did it and everybody hated it, so we took it out and we put the challenge into world bosses and into solo arenas and into dungeons and trials."
“People just did not like the extra difficulty in the story stuff. I get that there’s a lot of people that do like the harder difficulty, but a HUGE portion of our player base just wants to do story, and they don’t want to have to struggle with difficult things.”
...
“I totally hear you on the difficulty thing. I like things to be more difficult. But the data doesn’t lie. And we have never been more successful than where we are today. And a lot of that has to do with just how much freedom players have to go an experience story.”
“And yes, go look at Craglorn. There’s not a lot of people in Craglorn and that’s not super difficult but it’s more hard than the regular overland.”
On a Toggle:
"Uh, it is not as simple as just flip a switch and make things more difficult. There is a ton of work, and then as lucky mentioned earlier you have to also incentivize that. Like just making something more difficult for no reason, if you're not going to get anything out of it why do it, you know? The satisfaction is there sure, but players are always going to do the thing that is the most efficient and is the least difficult thing for their time.So like I said, we went down that route. We built the game with difficulty in mind and 2/3 of the game was never played by players, so we changed it.”
On Splitting the playerbase using different difficulty sliders/settings[Source]
'We get this question or request a lot too. We built overland content to be inclusive because as an MMO we want to unify as much of the player base as possible in a given zone. Difficulty sliders and settings are a detriment to that."
On what content players want to do these days (this was NOT said about Vet Overland, but instead was in an different interview where they asked him this question. While this response was never meant by him to address Vet Overland, I do think it's pertinent to know what is the vast majority of content that players engage in)[Source]
The vast majority of our player base loves the exploration, loves the lore, loves the story side of things. So we focus a lot of our time and effort on that. Two of our four major updates every year are focused on story and exploration. The other two are focused on quality of life, are focused on group-oriented activities with the dungeons or adding new systems.
In a nutshell, players want to see that you are going to put the effort into improving the game over time. And if you continue to do that, they’re going to stay and play and have a good time.
For the full transcript of the Rich interview check out SilverBride post.SilverBride wrote: »Rich Lambert recently addressed this in a Twitch stream here and gives an explanation as to why things are as they are now. I encourage others to please watch it for his perspective.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1133028256?t=1h48m0s 1:48:00 through 1:51:11
It appears the full video is no longer available and may have been taken down, but the first part of the stream is avaialble here: https://clips.twitch.tv/BovineLovelyGrassTakeNRG-IGkmH8s1XHeD9P2u
Click SPOILER for a written transcript of the complete stream.Can we get a vet mode for delves and quests? Uh, so we had that ... at launch. It was called Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold. Nobody did it and everybody hated it, so we took it out. We put the challenge into World Bosses, and into solo Arenas, and into Dungeons and Trials.
[Speaks about skyshards then returns to the topic.]
People didn't do it because they had to go through their own alliance first? That's not actually true. A ton of people completed their own alliance storylines to get to silver and gold. A ton of people did. People just did not like the extra difficulty in the story stuff.
I get there’s a lot of people that do like the harder difficulty, but a HUGE portion of our player base just wants to do story, and they don’t want to have to struggle with difficult things. And so that was why we did what we did and said story is soloable and quick path will always be soloable and if you want the extra challenge you can go seek out other things to challenge you.
I totally hear you on the difficulty thing. I like things to be more difficult. But you know, the data doesn’t lie. And we have never been more successful than we are today. And a lot of that has to do with just how much freedom players have to go and experience story.
And yes, go look at Craglorn. There’s not a lot of people in Craglorn and that’s not super difficult but it’s more hard than the regular overland.
Would it be an option just to give people the choice? It is not as simple as just flip a switch and make things more difficult. There is a TON of work and then as Lucky mentioned earlier you have to also incentivize that. Like just making something more difficult for no reason, if you’re not going to get anything out of it why do it? The satisfaction's there sure but players are always going to do the thing that is the most efficient and is the least difficult thing for their time.
So, you know like I said, we went down that route. We built the game with difficulty in mind and 2/3rds of the game was never played by players so we changed it.
For an official interview check out Zathras postThe relative ease of content in Elsweyr and Elder Scrolls Online as a whole has been a common complaint as the game's playerbase ages. Players have asked for alternate difficulty options for the open-world questing experience, to have a challenge outside of dungeons and trials. Lambert says that this probably won't be coming because Zenimax Online wants the entire storyline to be accessible.
"Balance is obviously a tricky thing. What is too easy for one player is impossible for another," he tells us. "We try to balance so that the average player can have a good experience, especially with the main story content. That's our critical path. If they want to challenge themselves, they can go and do Public Dungeons, or Trials with 12 of their friends. We do make that conscious choice with the crit path to make it playable for as many people as possible."
"As for the extra difficulty, that's something our playerbase has talked about for a long time. A lot of our original players forget that we had that with [Cadwell's Gold and Silver] way back when. The feedback that we got about that was they didn't like it. It wasn't fun. The extra difficulty wasn't what they wanted. They wanted to enjoy the story. It's a catch-22."
Source
Regardless of what ZOS believes there is still a large number of customers that will not be purchasing the story chapters if they do not not include some sort of optional difficulty in the story quests as it represents poor value for money.
Regardless of what ZOS believes there is still a large number of customers that will not be purchasing the story chapters if they do not not include some sort of optional difficulty in the story quests as it represents poor value for money.
If the lack of difficulty prevents some players from enjoying the quests then there is absolutely no value or point in spending £30 to just have an extra trial and a dungeon for the content.
I believe ZOS is missing an opportunity to connect with more players.
spartaxoxo wrote: »Regardless of what ZOS believes there is still a large number of customers that will not be purchasing the story chapters if they do not not include some sort of optional difficulty in the story quests as it represents poor value for money.
If the lack of difficulty prevents some players from enjoying the quests then there is absolutely no value or point in spending £30 to just have an extra trial and a dungeon for the content.
I believe ZOS is missing an opportunity to connect with more players.
Given that a lot of people in the past who like this idea state that all they do is wait around for a single trial/ dungeons and (rightfully) state that this is too little content, that would indicate they are actually buying the chapters. There's no way to quantify who quit over it, but of those who want this and are still playing, many of them are loyal customers who are still buying everything.
colossalvoids wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »Regardless of what ZOS believes there is still a large number of customers that will not be purchasing the story chapters if they do not not include some sort of optional difficulty in the story quests as it represents poor value for money.
If the lack of difficulty prevents some players from enjoying the quests then there is absolutely no value or point in spending £30 to just have an extra trial and a dungeon for the content.
I believe ZOS is missing an opportunity to connect with more players.
Given that a lot of people in the past who like this idea state that all they do is wait around for a single trial/ dungeons and (rightfully) state that this is too little content, that would indicate they are actually buying the chapters. There's no way to quantify who quit over it, but of those who want this and are still playing, many of them are loyal customers who are still buying everything.
Obviously not all of us are voting with their wallets (partially because zos can't analyse such data, they have zero idea why exactly) hence this thread. And it would be nice if not every single post would be welcomed here with a copy pasta of how it should be optional or how everyone is enjoying the game as it is without such options, it's just cluttering.
SilverBride wrote: »Regardless of what ZOS believes there is still a large number of customers that will not be purchasing the story chapters if they do not not include some sort of optional difficulty in the story quests as it represents poor value for money.
I have never heard a single person in zone chat, in guild chat or on my friend's list even once say anything about being unhappy with overland, or that they will not purchase any more chapters unless they get an optional difficulty. On the contrary, according to Rich Lambert (from a Twitch stream 2 months ago) ESO is doing better now than it ever has.
Edited to clarify.
Let the thread give ideas about how to implement changes rather than just repeating that everything is all ok or not ok. Lets focus on building on solutions with which I know a few have been suggested that have had majority support.
That may well have been the case in the past but if things dont change/improve or evolve then things start to stagnate. Comparing what was doesnt indicate what is...
The fact that these threads exist show that quite a number of players would liike some sort of changes, and as most agree with optional changes it will not affect those who prefer quests to be a walk and talk simulator.
I dont play PvP but would happily support improvements for those that want it...
Let the thread give ideas about how to implement changes rather than just repeating that everything is all ok or not ok. Lets focus on building on solutions with which I know a few have been suggested that have had majority support.
spartaxoxo wrote: »Let the thread give ideas about how to implement changes rather than just repeating that everything is all ok or not ok. Lets focus on building on solutions with which I know a few have been suggested that have had majority support.
I mean, then offer some?
Because what this last page conversation change was
Person X is toxic
Person X is not toxic just because they disagree
Yeah, but Person X is acting like the developers said xyz when it's just their opinion. And then tell me my mine is just an opinion while there's is a fact.
The developers DID say xyz
Well regardless of what they believe a large portion want this
It's not that large of a portion
OMG you can't just say it's not a large portion...
Like...the thread got dragged back on this topic because someone decided to make it about other people instead of solutions.
Y'all don't like debuffs. We don't like a total overhaul.
So what's a solution inbetween redoing the entire overland experience and just tossing in debuff food?
Like let's find that. That's what I'm interested in. CP scaling I didn't like because it makes it mandatory. Any other ideas? I don't have any but it's got to be out there.