Recommendations towards a thriving economy while keeping ESO's uniqueness

JHartEllis

https://youtu.be/Eg4oeeLWMqs streamed presentation

Wanting to see a more robust in-game economy, I put together about 60 recommendations that would greatly boost player engagement and game profitability. Guide on this was giving players more things to do through modifications of existing systems and increasing the appeal of rewards. There's certainly a lot more that could be done.

Link to slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1phLHDJtRxcEkd1CXS0ZyEADgI5Xa2RJ1yHwdKVDzPIU/edit?usp=sharing

Would be happy to clean this up further if any decision makers would like to discuss parts of this.

The slides have a lot more info, but, per request, I pulled out the recommendations stripped of most context:

• Reenable Crown gifting for all accounts (Predicated on fraud being mostly dealt with)
• Allow Crown gifting purchases to be transacted via the Invite to Trade and/or mail C.O.D. systems
• Allow Crown items to be “gifted” onto a newly created auction system and newly created request system
• Add Guild Auctions to the Banker (Basically, a copy-paste of the Guild Store but where prices start low and are bid up)
• Add Guild Multi-Auctions to the Banker (ability to sell multiple items in large lots)
• Allow Crown items to be auctioned via these new systems
• Add a bounty-based crafting request system
• Add a small set listing fee to discourage excess transactions, and reduce the 1% listing fee
• Add a Relist option on current Guild Store listings
• Consolidate items such as recipes into books to declutter the traders
• Increase stack sizes to ~800 or even 2000 for white items
• Remove Unlocks, Customization, and Alliance War from the History UI, make Roster history a permission-based toggle, and otherwise require other History to be accessed by request instead of automatically
• Add an NPC to major cities that allows players to search for specific items. The NPC would then list 1 or more locations of where the item was last seen at the best price.
• Add an info button on Guild Traders that pulls up the recruitment window for the respective guild
• Allow players to see their personal sales from the History UI
• Allow guilds to add more information regarding ranks
• Add a calendar system with attendance buttons for events including a notification before the event starts
• Add in-game style competitions
• Allow players to dress houseguests/companions in their homes
• Allow additional combinations of heads/bodies/outfits
• Add a size slider for Polymorphs, which could be unlocked via consumables
• Remove the Outfit Change Tokens and allow players to change their looks freely
• Add a Jousting 1v1 mount-based mini game
• Add additional mount-based mini games like jumping/obstacle courses
• Increase the Special Collectibles housing limits
• Add pet-based mini games where the player transforms into any pet they have in their collection and play competitively and/or cooperatively with other transformed pet players
• Add special events where players spam emotes and/or mementos to charge an objective
• Increase gear strength
• Add more competitive game modes such as competitive dueling and battle royale
• Add a separate inventory tab to hold all items in Armory save slots
• Add rewards tied to Set Items sticker book completion
• Increase traditional furnishing limits by 10/10 across the board
• Add a storage home/wardrobe/vault that can hold a large amount (e.g. 3000) unviewable furnishings
• Double housing chest/coffer space for ESO Plus
• Add a furnishing recycling system that allows players to turn in old furnishings to be redeemed on Luxury furnishings and a selection of otherwise Crown-exclusive furnishings
• Add a Super Decorator housing permission that allows designated trusted players to place furnishings
• Add a tiled list of most furnishings in game organized by sourcing category (luxury/achievement/etc)
• Allow auctions to be bid upon with AP if the seller designates that as their desired currency
• Continue to develop the Group Finder with a notification system if a group forms that meets criteria
• Increase the Event Ticket limit
• Add more Event Ticket sinks such as thematic furnishings and riding lessons
• Add a progression tracker for event grab bags from prior years and allow multiple purchases of these
• Add a weather-control device to housing to make contest judging easier
• Add a spectator mode to Tales of Tribute to make tournament judging easier
• Add milestone rewards to Achievement Points
• Allow antiquity leads to be linked in chat
• Allow bound Scripts to be added to the Craft Bag
• Allow large Crown Packs to be purchased in bundles to avoid credit card transaction limits
• Add a request system for Crown items
• Add unique purchasable mounts to each stablemaster in major zones
• Add more levels of Bag Space upgrades to Pack Merchants

Nharimlur_Finor

I won't watch this.
What ever you have to contribute, I'd appreciate it if you said it here.

Bradyfjord

How about a bullet point list? I'm at work so I can't watch YouTube.

TaSheen

I looked at the slide clips. None of it pertains to me, and even if it did I don't think it would make much difference to the way I play.

I really don't "engage" with the in game economy, nor do I have any future intentions of doing so.

Pevey

I caught the first part of the stream, and it was all about giving guild leaders like the OP “much needed” tools. Tools to keep the guild trader nonsense afloat a little longer, when the system itself is just not fun for the majority of players. It’s also not fun for many guild leaders, and there’s a lot of burnout. But some feel compelled to do it anyway.

Many don’t engage with trade in ESO at all, and that’s pretty sad. Leaning into the fundraising aspect of the current guild trader system is the wrong way to go. Yet another Reddit thread just today shows this. For those of us who just want to play ESO and be able to sell some things without having to join the equivalent of a high school sports team booster club on steroids, why should we want ZOS to spend time implementing these things?

JHartEllis

Pevey wrote: »

the system itself is just not fun for the majority of players. It’s also not fun for many guild leaders, and there’s a lot of burnout.

Most of my recommendations are about giving players more engaging options to trade, including not needing to belong in guilds at all. Most everything else is about making pre-existing items more fun and appealing.

Pevey

I can’t watch the video atm, but what I saw on the stream was about features like tracking sales, events, more information about ranks, etc. all stuff going further down the path of linking trading to guild.

If there was more afterward that was in a completely different direction, I apologize. After the first bit, I tuned out.

Bradyfjord

JHartEllis wrote: »

Pevey wrote: »

the system itself is just not fun for the majority of players. It’s also not fun for many guild leaders, and there’s a lot of burnout.

Most of my recommendations are about giving players more engaging options to trade, including not needing to belong in guilds at all. Most everything else is about making pre-existing items more fun and appealing.

I would like the ability to sell on whatever traders I want. Sure I would have to pay a fee, but that's how it is anyway. Maybe limit the number of nonguild trades by a reasonable number if the system can't handle the data load.

joergino

No thanks. I would prefer the guild trader system to finally go the way of the Dodo.

WiseSky

Allow Crown items to be auctioned via these new systems

I love this idea

manukartofanu

Some of these points are impossible, some are meaningless, some are too complicated to implement for doubtful value, and some can be replaced by a simple official exchange shop for crowns for gold, which players have been asking for a long time. It would be better if you picked 2-3 points that you consider the most important and realistic to discuss because right now this list is too large and dubious. I only read the first 30 points and can say that there's nothing worth attention in them, but going through each one is too time-consuming with zero benefit. If you want to propose something, especially to the developers, you should at least put in some effort, rather than just unloading a stream of thoughts.

Denisael

manukartofanu wrote: »

Some of these points are impossible, some are meaningless, some are too complicated to implement for doubtful value, and some can be replaced by a simple official exchange shop for crowns for gold, which players have been asking for a long time. It would be better if you picked 2-3 points that you consider the most important and realistic to discuss because right now this list is too large and dubious. I only read the first 30 points and can say that there's nothing worth attention in them, but going through each one is too time-consuming with zero benefit. If you want to propose something, especially to the developers, you should at least put in some effort, rather than just unloading a stream of thoughts.

A statically set exchange rate of crowns, based, for example, on the ratio of house values in gold and crowns, can be extremely unprofitable for developers. In turn, the dynamic exchange rate of the crown can quickly kill the economy of the game, both by pouring real money into gold and by the potential for speculation, not to mention a bunch of farm workers from low-income countries. And in general, the tax and even the banking system may be interested in such a large project. I doubt that the ZOS are ready for this.
The crown auction is more interesting in this regard, but it can lead to essentially the same situation as a dynamic one, although it is safer from the point of view of legislation.

Syldras

Thanks for adding text to the first post! I wish that would be taken into consideration more often. Videos just are very impractical for some people and different reasons, e.g. being at work, other reasons for not being able to enable sound not to disturb others, not wanting or not having the time to watch a video instead of just browsing through text for 2 or 3 minutes, and yeah, I want to be honest: If I have music playing, which is most of the time while I'm here, I'm not willing to interrupt it, and leave my computer and walk through the room to turn it off (and then walk another time later to turn it on again) just to watch some random online video that I'm not even sure of whether it's worth my time. And I can't imagine I'm the only one.

Pevey

I disagree with the vast majority of these suggestions. They are relevant to a small bubble of players who helped to create and also profited from the enormous inflation that took place over the last few years that is finally correcting.

• Reenable Crown gifting for all accounts (Predicated on fraud being mostly dealt with)
  Please, no. Let's keep the fraudsters out. If an account does not have permission to gift, it is because it has been deemed a high risk account.
  
• Allow Crown gifting purchases to be transacted via the Invite to Trade and/or mail C.O.D. systems
  Please, no. Crown trading may be technically allowed by the TOS because it is trading one currency for another, but it is essentially a way for players to buy gold with real money. This harms players who do not wish to buy gold with real money and should not be facilitated by the game. ZOS is correct to let third parties handle that on their own exchanges.
  
• Allow Crown items to be “gifted” onto a newly created auction system and newly created request system
  Same as above
  
• Add Guild Auctions to the Banker (Basically, a copy-paste of the Guild Store but where prices start low and are bid up)
  Not a good use of dev time. If don't want to continue with doing auctions in guild chat to inflate guild trader bids but still want that gold, just sell the goods and use the proceeds to fund the trader, or do a Discord action.
  
• Add Guild Multi-Auctions to the Banker (ability to sell multiple items in large lots)
  Same as above
  
• Allow Crown items to be auctioned via these new systems
  Same as above
  
• Add a bounty-based crafting request system
  This could be interesting, but I wouldn't give it a high priority on the backlog.
  
• Add a small set listing fee to discourage excess transactions, and reduce the 1% listing fee
  Please, no. The listing fee is the only thing that partially keep in check some shenanigans like using guild trader slots as storage (happens) and listing items for ridiculous prices to increase averages in third-party addons (happens).
  
• Add a Relist option on current Guild Store listings
  This could be interesting, but I wouldn't give it a high priority on the backlog.
  
• Consolidate items such as recipes into books to declutter the traders
  This seems impractical and unnecessary.
  
• Increase stack sizes to ~800 or even 2000 for white items
  This could be interesting, but I wouldn't give it a high priority on the backlog.
  
• Remove Unlocks, Customization, and Alliance War from the History UI, make Roster history a permission-based toggle, and otherwise require other History to be accessed by request instead of automatically
  Please, no. One of players' biggest gripes about the guild trader system is that it is not transparent, and this would make it even less so.
  
• Add an NPC to major cities that allows players to search for specific items. The NPC would then list 1 or more locations of where the item was last seen at the best price.
  This is a worst of all worlds option. It adds, in-game, the centralized information that people who defend the current system think is so dangerous, while retaining the linkage between guilds and trade that people against this system so dislike.
  
• Add an info button on Guild Traders that pulls up the recruitment window for the respective guild
  No reason not to do this, but I don't see how it helps anyone currently dissatisfied with either the state of the economy or the guild trader system.
  
• Allow players to see their personal sales from the History UI
  I agree, there should be some way of tracking personal sales without an addon and without making an outside list from the in-game mails.
  
• Allow guilds to add more information regarding ranks
  No reason not to do this, but extremely low priority.
  
• Add a calendar system with attendance buttons for events including a notification before the event starts
  Just use Discord for this. No reason to waste valuable dev time on creating this when there are tons of better uses for that time.
  
• Add in-game style competitions
  Plenty of guilds already do this.
  
• Allow players to dress houseguests/companions in their homes
  Not my thing, but sure.
  
• Allow additional combinations of heads/bodies/outfits
  ?
  
• Add a size slider for Polymorphs, which could be unlocked via consumables
  Are people really asking for this? I wouldn't want to see giant molag bals running around obstructing view, but maybe with some limits.
  
• Remove the Outfit Change Tokens and allow players to change their looks freely
  This would be great, but ZOS would be crazy to give up the revenue stream from outfit tokens and outfit slots. Also, some people would say that removing the gold cost would remove the sink and cause inflation (even though I think this and repair costs make no difference).
  
• Add a Jousting 1v1 mount-based mini game
• Add additional mount-based mini games like jumping/obstacle courses
  This could be interesting. ToT I think was a flop compared to expectations. From my own perspective, games are just too slow. The idea of tavern games is interesting to me, but I had in mind simpler, faster-paced games. Gwent was like this in The Witcher, and it was very popular. I like the concept of these mounted games for the same reasons I like the concept of tavern games, but I'm not sure ZOS would have the nerve to try it. The player base for ToT is miniscule.
  
• Increase the Special Collectibles housing limits
  If feasible, sure.
  
• Add pet-based mini games where the player transforms into any pet they have in their collection and play competitively and/or cooperatively with other transformed pet players
• Add special events where players spam emotes and/or mementos to charge an objective
  These sound pretty niche.
  
• Increase gear strength
  A new upgrade tier beyond gold could be interesting. There were some things in the early datamines of the Elsweyr chapter that made us think they might be adding a new upgrade mat, and some of us got excited that it may be coming eventually. But that never happened. It could be implemented as a super rare mat so that upgrading a set took a lot of time or gold investment. Minimal stat boost, but something for endgamers to go for. No need to re-farm any gear at all, so it probably wouldn't upset people too much to have this new tier.
  
• Add more competitive game modes such as competitive dueling and battle royale
  This could be interesting.
  
• Add a separate inventory tab to hold all items in Armory save slots
  Love this idea. There was a whole thread on this recently. Makes perfect sense and might actually convince me to finally purchase an armouy slot, which I never have to date.
  
• Add rewards tied to Set Items sticker book completion
  There's already the reward of significantly lower transmute crystal cost to reconstruct.
  
• Increase traditional furnishing limits by 10/10 across the board
  Increase by 10/10? So increase by 1? I don't understand this one. If you just mean increasing furnishings, yes, I think pretty much everyone agrees that would be great if they can figure out how to do it without people getting locked out. Or maybe they could implement a failsafe system where you can undo the last furniture placements from the outside of your house, if you are unable to port in without crashing. I'm not too big into housing, but there's no denying that a lot of people are or that it drives a large part of the ESO economy.
  
• Add a storage home/wardrobe/vault that can hold a large amount (e.g. 3000) unviewable furnishings
  A good stopgap measure in place of a furniture bag.
  
• Double housing chest/coffer space for ESO Plus
  Sure. As many people have noted, tons more items have been added to the game since storage was meaningfully increase.
  (I don't count the inventory pets as meaningful. People want storage that is accessible account-wide.)
  
• Add a furnishing recycling system that allows players to turn in old furnishings to be redeemed on Luxury furnishings and a selection of otherwise Crown-exclusive furnishings
  Please, no. This is intended to kill the used furniture market to make crafting furniture to sell more profitable.
  
• Add a Super Decorator housing permission that allows designated trusted players to place furnishings
  Sure, why not.
  
• Add a tiled list of most furnishings in game organized by sourcing category (luxury/achievement/etc)
  I don't have an opinion on this.
  
• Allow auctions to be bid upon with AP if the seller designates that as their desired currency
  Same as way above, no need for ZOS to implement auctions in ESO. People often say they want an auction house. What they really mean is a market other than the guild traders. Auctions are a different beast. Markets/exchanges are not too difficult to program. Auctions (like ebay) are more complex. And it's not necessary for ZOS to spend the dev time to build auction capapbility into ESO.
  
• Continue to develop the Group Finder with a notification system if a group forms that meets criteria
  This is an excellent idea. Some people think the group finder is dead because they check it once in a while and don't see much. But I've seen it used quite a bit in scheduled runs where someone can't make it, and we need one or two fills. We post in GF, and we get fills almost immediately. Some someone has to be looking at that exact moment to see it.
  
• Increase the Event Ticket limit
  I don't have an opinion on this.
  
• Add more Event Ticket sinks such as thematic furnishings and riding lessons
  More choice would be good. There not much I'm usually interested in buying with the tickets. I have over a hundred group repair kits.
  
• Add a progression tracker for event grab bags from prior years and allow multiple purchases of these
  I don't have an opinion on this.
  
• Add a weather-control device to housing to make contest judging easier
  I don't see why not. To avoid clutter, I think it would be best if this were added to the already existing item that controls time. The idea could be that it's freezing the house at a specific time AND day, so of course the weather would also be the same.
  
• Add a spectator mode to Tales of Tribute to make tournament judging easier
  ToT is very small, and the number of players within that who participate in tournaments is even smaller. I don't think this is a good use of dev time since alternatives exist. The participants can each stream, and those streams can be combined.
  
• Add milestone rewards to Achievement Points
  Is that really going to keep people playing?
  
• Allow antiquity leads to be linked in chat
  Sure, why not
  
• Allow bound Scripts to be added to the Craft Bag
  This could add confusion for newer players and I think is a really bad idea. Remember how much confusion there was about ink when Gold Road dropped before people realized it was going straight to the craft bag? But then it clicked that ink was considered a crafting material. Scripts are not. They are consumables. You should never have to dig into your craft bag to find a consumable. The bag should only be for base crafting components, no consumables.
  
• Allow large Crown Packs to be purchased in bundles to avoid credit card transaction limits
  And people try to say guild traders are not being funded by the sales of crown packs. Please, no.
  
• Add a request system for Crown items
  Same answer as way above regarding crown traders. Please, no.
  
• Add unique purchasable mounts to each stablemaster in major zones
  Sure, why not
  
• Add more levels of Bag Space upgrades to Pack Merchants
  Sure, why not, but I personally think individual character inventory is okay. It is account-wide inventory that is too low.

manukartofanu

Denisael wrote: »

A statically set exchange rate of crowns, based, for example, on the ratio of house values in gold and crowns, can be extremely unprofitable for developers. In turn, the dynamic exchange rate of the crown can quickly kill the economy of the game, both by pouring real money into gold and by the potential for speculation, not to mention a bunch of farm workers from low-income countries. And in general, the tax and even the banking system may be interested in such a large project. I doubt that the ZOS are ready for this.
The crown auction is more interesting in this regard, but it can lead to essentially the same situation as a dynamic one, although it is safer from the point of view of legislation.

You should explain specifically why the tax authorities might be interested and what the risks are for ZOS. The same goes for the banking system. You also need to clarify what it means to "kill the economy" and what kind of "speculation" is being referred to. Right now, it's just a collection of vague statements without any specifics.

JHartEllis

manukartofanu wrote: »

impossible...complicated

There's a feasible implementation path for each point--that's most of what I talked about in the presentation. I think all of these could be added by summer (though I'd advise stringing additional game modes over a few years)

Marronsuisse

I don't see it in the bullet list but one of my favourite suggestions from the stream was the idea of a "bounty board" where players could post requests for certain items with their offered price, and other players could accept the bounty and go farm or craft the items.

DinoZavr

Hi @JHartEllis

very detailed lecture (of course I was watching your Twitch presentation) based on your experience and knowledge, plus the impressive and precious non-indifference to the game economy current state.

many of your ideas are good, some of them were also much demanded by players (like Auction house)

I am not an economist, just an ordinary ESO player, so I would try to refrain from my views and ideas, except maybe one.

How I see the current situation: market becomes stale due to oversupply.

Each big update number of different ingame items grow noticeably: be that new sets, new furnishings and recipes, new bound cosmetics (though these are bound, the Crowns are still tradeable via some “gray markets”)
(I should also whine about the lack of inventory slots to hoard all these new shinies (for the most of it – these are not much relevant for this discussion, but I normally just destroy most of unwanted bound furnishings, as I am running out of storage space, even used all 20 characters slots and housing containers))

in my humble understanding: with the constant influx of the new stuff, ESO becomes overwhelming and, i’d say “cluttered”, as out beloved developers are mostly concentrated on adding new stuff, instead of maintaining the entire game ecosystem as a whole.

Thus we have pets we hardly ever use, emotes we do not use often/at all, obsolete gear and such.

So I can see two root causes:
- addition of new stuff without new tools, allowing to efficiently handle this bigger amount of things
- addition of free/cheap stuff (like free motifs and materials), which demotivates players to actually obtain items by playing the game, this also stuns the economy (I play ESO and may confirm: improvement materials do not sell, even the prices dropped quite a lot (due to Anniversary event))

Though, the later might be the actual goal of Developers – to make everything dirt cheap, which is great for buyer, but demotivates the sellers (also decreasing Guild Stores listing interval was a clear hint about Devs vision – sell dirt cheap, or pay re-listing fee twice more often).
I don’t list anything that is cheaper than 2,000g – it simply not worths the efforts and Guild Store slots


What can be done:

First – develop new tentpole (just kidding) system, allowing to search and view relevant information ingame. Like what sets have Major Maim, or pen, or crit – with ability to sort results according to the query (why else should we use the beautiful eso-sets site?)
Or show all available plants/ crystals/ladders/lanterns furnishings specifying the source and the cost
Needless to say: TTC is overloaded when you look for Mazzatun legs motif, or precise Deadly dagger, or some new chandelier – the game is to provide such tools (like EVE Online does)
so: the efficient and simple search system INGAME

Second: limit giving away unbound stuff, which can be obtained by playing the game.
Of course, this make ingame Events so popular, for the price of market deflation.


Few notes about furnishings:
Newer players might not know there are 5,000+ different furnishings in the game (and each major update add 20..100+ new types)
- Collectible (account-wide, furnishings available for Event tickets from The Impresario might be a separate subcategory, houseguests are quite apparent)
- Achievement (normally bound – Undaunted Trophies, Vendors signs and utensils, BG banners and decor, - FG and MG (mostly books), Justice achievements, Master Writs stuff (including crafting stations)
- Antiquity (these are bound)
- ESO Plus Furnishings (like statuettes each month, sometimes paintings)
- Luxury Furnishings (obviously sold by Zanil Theran)
- Home Goods - (Common, Exclusive)
- Furnishings/Other Vendors — Furnishings that can be bought from other Vendors
- Crown Store Furnishings and Furnishing Packs
- Housing Exclusive - might be obtained only by purchasing the house (though most of such items are available for Crowns)
- Furnishings from Other Sources — looting unowned containers, looting Events Containers (like Plunder Skulls may contain some plants, or books from Pelinal's Midyear Boon Boxes), looting mobs (in many cases in specific zones or dungeons (like factotum parts in CWC, or animal bones from both Wolfhunter dungeons), or 6th house banner from mobs of containers only in Forgotten Wastes)), pickpocketing (which also differ: pickopcketing only in a certain zone, pickpocketing only specific NPCs (priest beggars mages nobles etc)), stealing (again, specific to a certain zone, and specific for container types (like some Velothi paintings are obtainable only by cracking safeboxes only in Vvardenfell)), fishing, harvesting (like plants from cloth nodes only in Vvardenfell), Infinite Archive (normally bound - a lot of furnishings and books. drops from bosses/goblins/marauders and purchases for Archive Fortunes currency), ToT (normally tapestries), Treasure chests (many paintings are specific for a zone, plus paintings that drop from base game chests), - Quest Rewards (for example, the very rare Crimson Shard of Moonshadow from Ald'ruhn (Vvardenfell) relics dailies rewards containers), Shadowy Supplier furnishings (specific on what you demand: equipment, or disguice, or alchemy)

a wall of text, right?
Then I ask you: how on Nirn an inexperienced player can discover all these options and preview them ingame? (to select what they would like the most)
Of course, there is a great Furnishing Catalogue addon, but the preview is disabled, because Developers in theirs eternal wisdom decided against preview. And what is left for our Consoles fellow players?
I mean: I would not look for some furnishing item if I have no clue it even exists.


We’d need a great search/preview/sort/filter for everything overwhelming: sets, items, cosmetics.
ingame Google to call that.
Same applies to finding the deals, trends and prices. For prices we have MM and ATT, but for offers?
I would not comment on Gold/Crowns, though some Crown tokens tradeable for gold would be a good idea (exactly like PLEX in EVE Online. Moreover, cosmomauts could pay theirs subscription buying these tokens, though they are expensive).


TL/DR; not an economist, give the game a convenient search system it lacks so dire (also increase storage, please),
educating and informing a potential buyer about what to look for in the circumstances when supply is overwhelming can raise demand.
(this is short-term measure, but with a good long-term effect, though balancing of everything to keep it modern is still necessary, but it is way bigger and way more labor-intensive strategic goal)
and, @JHartEllis much respect for caring!


edit: fixed three typos & added spoiler

This is how i saw JHart's lecture:

Come join Spicy. We have cookies!

ThelerisTelvanni

Well after listening to 3 hours of points you made, I'd like to also say a few words on these topics.

Lets start with economy like you did:
• I like the idea that you suggested that you can put up a request for some items! I think that's a big win if implemented. If I can tell what I want and what I am willing to pay for it.
• I personally like to be in one specific area for some time with some characters. So if I am locking for furniture on Vvardenfell, I hate doing all over the world just to buy a piece of furniture or a furniture plan for that region. Why not give us regional vendors where players can sell regional stuff without the need of a guild trader? Maybe have themed shops for gear, furniture, alchemy potions & incidence, a food shop and other shops like these to have it feel more organic in the world. With some nice interiors for houses that are not used yet, to fill out the world.
• If you implement a bidding system let the players make a baseline price and let them choose what is the minimal percentage is, if you raise. Or if there is one at all. But ultimately let the players choose how much they want to bid.

Lets get to loot next:
• Yes sets with set bonuses other than dps, heal or tank might be nice but there is only so much you can do, that is actually useful.
• I'd like it if the location I choose to play in also reflects on treasure maps and survey maps for recourse node. I do not need stuff from zones I do not plan to visit any time soon! There are some zone I do not visit. Some that are old and others I do not care about. But there are also some I want to spend more time in.
• Generally give me more stuff I want and less trash to fill my inventory.
◦ Maybe more furniture. Or Items that are "trash" that I can still place in my home?
◦ Maybe more furniture materials.

Inventory management:
• Something that drives me away from a game always is when I can not store anything anymore! And I do not like to put something in the bin or sell it, that I might need later on!
• Let me have a treasure map and survey map tab in the crafting bag.
• Let me have a master writ tab in the crafting bag.
◦ Or give me a way to let me work thru the master writs faster. Like adding a house guest, where you can turn them in and make a lot of them in quick succession without painfully having all the loading screens walkways in between!
• I think the storage house seems like a nice middle ground, but honestly I'd prefer a furniture bag!
• Cooking recipes and furniture plans also need a place on the crafting bag. That way I can learn them fast with all my characters and sell the stuff I do not need anymore.
• I totally agree on the scripts also getting a crafting bag slot. And maybe deconstruction for inc.

Lets talk housing next:
• I need more slots to properly flash out a lot of the homes!
• I want a free flying camera to decorate my home. No longer being bound to my character when decorating.
• I'd like to able to rearrange parts of a per made house. Like changing the layout of the rooms, combining 2 small ones, moving a wall or a door, or choosing the materials for the floor and walls out of a fitting list.
• A weather control device.
• Portals that allow to teleport between different parts of the house. What is a mages home without them? Frostcrag spire anyone?
• A full sets of structural furnishing for each style that can also (optional) "click" together at the edges to be combined. So everything fits neatly together. With homes that offer the free space needed to build it yourself.
• Some logic mechanics that allow you to combine a lever/switch with a furnishing like a door, light or bridge and set individual permissions for interactive furnishing.
• A general furniture crafting station that allows you to search craft-able furniture by style (Imperial, Aylied, Dark Brotherhood) and kind of furniture (chair, bed, table). No longer running between crafting stations...
• As well as the same filter options when placing furniture. They made at least the race filters so far
• More interactive furniture like usable storage, gardening furniture that allows you to grow crops like tomato, more of these cool new books you can open that we recently got or Apocrypha bridges.
• And yes let us customize our companion house guests.


I also made a poll where I presented these ideas so have a link. And yes I regret the typos I made in the poll.
Link: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/653397/what-do-you-think-might-have-the-biggest-impact-on-decoraiting-and-using-your-house/


UI improvements:
• Yes we need an ingame calendar with guild events, ingame events by the devs, maybe some for friend/raid groups and if you are at it optional for those you follow maybe for the stream team as well
• We still need timestamps in chat.
• Having a furniture catalog like you mentioned is also something I'd like. It is a mess figuring out where to get something...
• Same goes for leads of the antiques system. No idea where to get them...

General atmosphere and art style:
• Sadly I recently have seen a lot of things the do not seem to fit into a "The Elder Scrolls" game for me.
◦ One of the recent crown crate mounts strongly reminded me of "My little pony" and it put me off quite a bit.
◦ Others felt off like the order of the lamp stuff, where the not glowing version of some NPC's was way better, but still was not exactly what I wanted for mages guild.
• Sadly some of the new additions do not care as much to fit in with the existing stuff.
◦ The new Aylied stuff hit me the most. A lot of the new Gold Road additions sadly did not feel right. Iconography was fine, but the shapes were sometimes problematic and not in line with what came before. It sometimes felt like its just a box with textures instead of the flowing design we've seen before.
◦ But an older example is the mushroom structure of the Telvanni towers. I preferred the TES 3 and 5 styles. I know different games, but still.
• TES games always got "good" and "evil". They were never cosy games, so please do not turn TESO into one.
• Some of the dimensions feel like they also got out of hand with the scale of rooms compared to player characters and furniture. That was irritating me a lot in Skingrad. But was also present before to some degree.

Lets talk mounts:
• I once asked for mount customization, so I can give every colored Guar I have the Telvanni saddle/riding gear, that fits my Telvanni mage.
• Having region specific mounts & saddles/riding gear for sale at a stable master, is something I support! However I think it needs to be affordable for new and regular players as well. And not only to the whales that get gold for crowns or the masters of trading. Maybe around 100k to 200k gold might be a good price point. Maybe also some cheaper ones for around 45k to 65k gold for the new players. Still reachable but also a big gold sink if you get them all.
• I actually really like the idea of having jousting. Having some nice tournaments might be fun and engaging. However it depends on how the controls work if it is any fun or just ends up ignored and wasted developer time.

As for pets:
• I'd like to place multiple versions of the same pet, for example a chicken, in my home so I can for example have my chicken farm. And maybe add functionality to those chickens so I can get some eggs for cooking.
• I honestly do not think we need a lot of mini games for pets. Yeah they might be fun for a few rounds, but I think the developer time is spent better somewhere else.

The card game:
• Never played it, never wanted it and honestly I think it was a waste of developer time that might have gone into something better. No idea what the metrics are on who plays it and if the do it for fun or rewards.

Fashion:
• Removing the price to change the style, is something I'd take, but I have settled for something I like. So unless something I like better is added to the game I will not change it.
• Selling style slots account wide instead of each single character might drive me to buy some. But I'll ignore them, if I need to pay for every character.
• Fashion contests can be fun if they have a specific theme and players come together with a generally cohesive taste. Otherwise it can be frustrating for both the voters and those being voted upon. And if there are rewards for placement, it will create a lot of drama...


Singleplayer PvE content:
• I need more stuff to explore! Stuff that is less like a formula driven delve. Give me caves or giant solo dungeons to explore! Don't throw countless trashmobs at me but give me meaningful encounters.
• I want a connected overworld! Please patch the zones together so I can traverse them without loading screen!
• Have multiple difficulty’s for the zones and other singleplayer content.
• I do not need content that just throws wave upon wave of enemy’s upon me like infinite archive or an arena does. Especially without save point before a challenging boss. I do not kind to try multiple times but I hate it to waste my time every time I fail and have to do the trash again...
• Add guild (mages guild, fighters guild, etc) specific quests to every zone.
• Make diving a thing and give us some underwater content.

Group PvE:
• The suggested changes for the group finder are absolutely welcome! Being notified when someone organizes a group for an activity you are locking for seems good. And way better than having to list for only one specific activity.
• We need some sort of protection if someone does not fulfill the role the have enlisted with for group content. I am kind of annoyed that I often try to do a dungeon and the heal does not heal and the tank does not tank. Especially if we get into a DLC dungeon, where it matters!
• It is also sad we no longer get 4 Dungeons a year.

Scribing and skill styles:
• Give me different skins for deadric and other beasts I can summon with some skills.
• Give me scripts for fulfilling some interesting quests and sell it after that at the vendor for alts.
• Make ink more available!

Monetization:
It's a mess! Honestly I'd prefer to pay for the chapter a year as well as my sub and have nothing else to pay for! But sadly that is not how it's gonna be. So what can be done?
• At least give me value for the money I pay!
• Make reasonable prices!
• Get rid of the loot boxes!
• Make everything sold available all year round instead of using "fear of missing out" methods. Digital goods are made once. They do not have limited supply! Creating artificially a limited supply is bad business.
• If I buy something on EU also give it to me on NA! Don't charge twice for the same account! Or give the same amount of crowns to each server and reduce them separately as well, when I get something from the store on one server. Having one crown pool but having to pay separate is bad business.
• Let players trade crowns for gold directly.

Well that's all for now. I need to do something else. Thanks for reading