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https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/685477
• [IN PROGRESS] Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – November 19, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/685477
Home, Home on the Range...
fufu_from_ps4
✭✭✭
Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam,
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.
Home, Home on the Range....
Eso has been my home for more than 10 years now. I'd like to first and foremost thank everyone for all of the experiences. There is no other game that even comes close to what Eso does. I have seen all sorts come through here... but the winds of change are blowing. I'm afraid the dynamic that keeps the game afoot is preparing to burst. It must be saved. What am i talking about? The Buffalo of course. That's what this is all about.
Who are the Buffalo? Why do they matter? What role do they perform within the ecosystem that is the Elder Scrolls Online. Why should you care?
Eso is an ecosystem. Many players, many ages, many educations, many walks of life. I have met many amazing people, from all over the world. Here in my home country of America, but i have also met people from Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Europe, even from Russia. We are all brought together by our love and passion for Eso.
Every player is valueable. I have met players who ONLY trade. Players who role play as CHEFS, delivering food and drink alike, even to Cyrodiil. I have met vampire guilds who enslave their members for eternity. I have fought with devoted red's, yellow's, and blue's. I have had the pleasure of raiding with hardcores and casuals alike. I have gone on housing tours with the most prestigous persons, played dress up at a skooma party. I have drank in the many taverns throughout the land, I have paroused Riften late in the eve, I have seen the masses marauding thru Ali'kir. I was permitted to witness a den of wolves come to life under the double full moon, then proceed to rampage thru the imperial city. My point is, in all of this.... we are an ecosystem. We all feed off of each other. Crafters need customers for their food and potions, pvp players need someone to buy their ap and telvar. End game raiders need people who want the motifs they have.
So whats my point? why am i singing a poem from the 1800's to you all?
While the ecosystem IS strong and diverse..... The backbone of the eso pvp system, i fear....has been breaking down and is about to break. If it breaks, the system will crash. if it crashes, the game loses a part of its overall ecosystem, and i believe this will have systemic and irreversible, ripples throughout the community. allow me to paint a picture.
Cyrodiil. Cyrodiil is the great plains. The buffalo. The buffalo are the masses of players who tent to go with the flow. Kind of like buffalo. You'll find them on the frontlines, where faction borders are. Historically, in large numbers. Sometimes as far as the eye can see. But over the years, the plains have changed. With the lower and lower population caps, and as ball groups get stronger and stronger, the buffalo grow tired of being farmed. They cannot win 20 buffalo vs 12 ball players. It requires about 30 randoms to even have a hope of tackling the ball group. so what do they do? they go somewhere else. they abandon their keep. they admit defeat. this is a psychological blow to them. if they cannot win, why even play? so what happens is the ball group follows them.... farms them. the group gets upset. day after day this happens. people stop coming back.
but it is not only the ball groups pressure that is causing the buffalo herd to thin. other choices as well. invasive ai spying on all chat. balance changes (sweeping nerfs that do the opposite of what the intended goal is. this actually happens an alarming amount ). abusive ban system that targets and bans people who have not broken tos (also tos is EXTREMELY ambiguous) but still get banned and then lose their appeal. i have seen this so many times with my friends and myself its mind boggling. broken gear being sold(mythics and classes coming out way overpowered to make money). bugs not fixed for years (psijic ult, combat bug, i should make a list so as to be more helpful). horrible server performance. i can go on and make a more comprehensive list but my goal isnt to bash. my goal is to bring up the issue and possible ways to solve it.
so. the buffalo are leaving. without them, pvp is dead. it will snowball. once pvp dies, the hardcore players leave. the free adverts from content creation stops. less people will see the game. less people join it. snowball. how can we fix this?
increase the player counts in cyrodiil. but that costs money. good servers arent free. how can we make more money? make the game free to play. but wait, then bots will flood the game and that will be expensive to fix. yes. so to fix this, hardware ban bots. also allow us to trade gold for crowns directly in the trade menu. this will make it easier to sell gold, and will make people less likely to buy it from the bots. make it easier. selling gold is gonna happen no matter what. so just make it not worth going to a 3rd party by making it easier to do in game and encouraging people to use the ingame system. instead of punishing them for using a 3rd party system, thats easier than the in game one (which is crazy they are easier to get gold from than using crowns. maybe even make a crown guild trader, where people can make listings to sell crowns for gold. this is easy and will generate a lot of revenue and will also protect players and reduce the amount of tickets you have to deal with).
k but why make it free to play?
people will either play it and then leave. or play it and stay. if they stay, they HAVE TO SPEND MONEY to get meta gear anyways, as well as the skill lines, passives, races, ect ect required to min max.
also, people spend obnoxious amounts of money on mounts and housing. why are we preventing the sale of $100 house by having a $5 entry fee? this is bad for business.
eso plus. you guys are changing your service model, but if it were to stay the same...... tie a 100 percent..... yes a 100 percent xp bonus, with eso plus, to EVERYTHING except ap gains. so if you have eso plus you double the speed at which you get undaunted/mages guild/psijic/antiquities ect ect. the grind to make a new.... competative character is wild bro. like..... a complete noob, going from level 1 to 50 with no help....... is gonna take forever. then hes gotta grind his skill lines out (revert the hidden skill line change. idk why there are hidden. unhide them and let people know what they are missing out on.... so they go and get it). for a new player, to do 1-50, mages/mythic/psijic/scrying/undaunted its gonna be like 300 hours.... before they are even ready to come play the game. WE NEED TO FIX THAT. you will make more money, by having a deluge of new players, than you will by trying to charge old players 50 bucks to not have to grind mages guild. its not fun. its bad business practice. this game is mostly fun. it SHOULD BE FUN. People should be EXCITED to work towards new, and more powerful skills. not HATE the idea of having to do it.
on top of the bonus xp buff, change the armory or whatever its called. make it so that you can quickly and easily move and find gear that other characters are wearing. its tedious and i have actually turned the game off after checking 8 of my 17 toons for gear and then just saying its too much work. and give people more slots dont make people feel nickel and dimed charging them for a convenience. it just puts a bitter taste in our mouths.
so. free to play. bring in more players. make it easy to level up, so they dont leave when they realize how long it will take. make it take way less time. remove the barrier.
these new players will generate revenue with the systems i outlined
this revenue can then be used to upkeep GOOD SERVERS so we can have higher playercounts
idk man. its sad to see whats happening. this game has the best combat system imo.
other random ideas i had
bg's : make a skill based rank for it. just tie the mmr to a symbol. have two categories, ranked, unranked. ranked is tdm 24/7/365. 4v4
the skill based symbol will perhaps give incentive to the sweaties to stay in ranked. since the bg rework i keep getting matched with noobs, and it just feels awful. i dont enjoy bullying them. nor do they want to play tdm with me during an objective based game.
also consider hiding names in battlegrounds because its a small community and often friends wont hit each other.
tldr : pvp is dieing, i think with a few changes to monitization, changes to bring in new players, and retain them, and quality re-investments into the servers and game that not only can the game generate much more profit, but provide a much better experience to players and sustain the ecosystem for many more years to come.
sorry i didnt organize my thoughts better and thanks for reading.
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.
Home, Home on the Range....
Eso has been my home for more than 10 years now. I'd like to first and foremost thank everyone for all of the experiences. There is no other game that even comes close to what Eso does. I have seen all sorts come through here... but the winds of change are blowing. I'm afraid the dynamic that keeps the game afoot is preparing to burst. It must be saved. What am i talking about? The Buffalo of course. That's what this is all about.
Who are the Buffalo? Why do they matter? What role do they perform within the ecosystem that is the Elder Scrolls Online. Why should you care?
Eso is an ecosystem. Many players, many ages, many educations, many walks of life. I have met many amazing people, from all over the world. Here in my home country of America, but i have also met people from Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Europe, even from Russia. We are all brought together by our love and passion for Eso.
Every player is valueable. I have met players who ONLY trade. Players who role play as CHEFS, delivering food and drink alike, even to Cyrodiil. I have met vampire guilds who enslave their members for eternity. I have fought with devoted red's, yellow's, and blue's. I have had the pleasure of raiding with hardcores and casuals alike. I have gone on housing tours with the most prestigous persons, played dress up at a skooma party. I have drank in the many taverns throughout the land, I have paroused Riften late in the eve, I have seen the masses marauding thru Ali'kir. I was permitted to witness a den of wolves come to life under the double full moon, then proceed to rampage thru the imperial city. My point is, in all of this.... we are an ecosystem. We all feed off of each other. Crafters need customers for their food and potions, pvp players need someone to buy their ap and telvar. End game raiders need people who want the motifs they have.
So whats my point? why am i singing a poem from the 1800's to you all?
While the ecosystem IS strong and diverse..... The backbone of the eso pvp system, i fear....has been breaking down and is about to break. If it breaks, the system will crash. if it crashes, the game loses a part of its overall ecosystem, and i believe this will have systemic and irreversible, ripples throughout the community. allow me to paint a picture.
Cyrodiil. Cyrodiil is the great plains. The buffalo. The buffalo are the masses of players who tent to go with the flow. Kind of like buffalo. You'll find them on the frontlines, where faction borders are. Historically, in large numbers. Sometimes as far as the eye can see. But over the years, the plains have changed. With the lower and lower population caps, and as ball groups get stronger and stronger, the buffalo grow tired of being farmed. They cannot win 20 buffalo vs 12 ball players. It requires about 30 randoms to even have a hope of tackling the ball group. so what do they do? they go somewhere else. they abandon their keep. they admit defeat. this is a psychological blow to them. if they cannot win, why even play? so what happens is the ball group follows them.... farms them. the group gets upset. day after day this happens. people stop coming back.
but it is not only the ball groups pressure that is causing the buffalo herd to thin. other choices as well. invasive ai spying on all chat. balance changes (sweeping nerfs that do the opposite of what the intended goal is. this actually happens an alarming amount ). abusive ban system that targets and bans people who have not broken tos (also tos is EXTREMELY ambiguous) but still get banned and then lose their appeal. i have seen this so many times with my friends and myself its mind boggling. broken gear being sold(mythics and classes coming out way overpowered to make money). bugs not fixed for years (psijic ult, combat bug, i should make a list so as to be more helpful). horrible server performance. i can go on and make a more comprehensive list but my goal isnt to bash. my goal is to bring up the issue and possible ways to solve it.
so. the buffalo are leaving. without them, pvp is dead. it will snowball. once pvp dies, the hardcore players leave. the free adverts from content creation stops. less people will see the game. less people join it. snowball. how can we fix this?
increase the player counts in cyrodiil. but that costs money. good servers arent free. how can we make more money? make the game free to play. but wait, then bots will flood the game and that will be expensive to fix. yes. so to fix this, hardware ban bots. also allow us to trade gold for crowns directly in the trade menu. this will make it easier to sell gold, and will make people less likely to buy it from the bots. make it easier. selling gold is gonna happen no matter what. so just make it not worth going to a 3rd party by making it easier to do in game and encouraging people to use the ingame system. instead of punishing them for using a 3rd party system, thats easier than the in game one (which is crazy they are easier to get gold from than using crowns. maybe even make a crown guild trader, where people can make listings to sell crowns for gold. this is easy and will generate a lot of revenue and will also protect players and reduce the amount of tickets you have to deal with).
k but why make it free to play?
people will either play it and then leave. or play it and stay. if they stay, they HAVE TO SPEND MONEY to get meta gear anyways, as well as the skill lines, passives, races, ect ect required to min max.
also, people spend obnoxious amounts of money on mounts and housing. why are we preventing the sale of $100 house by having a $5 entry fee? this is bad for business.
eso plus. you guys are changing your service model, but if it were to stay the same...... tie a 100 percent..... yes a 100 percent xp bonus, with eso plus, to EVERYTHING except ap gains. so if you have eso plus you double the speed at which you get undaunted/mages guild/psijic/antiquities ect ect. the grind to make a new.... competative character is wild bro. like..... a complete noob, going from level 1 to 50 with no help....... is gonna take forever. then hes gotta grind his skill lines out (revert the hidden skill line change. idk why there are hidden. unhide them and let people know what they are missing out on.... so they go and get it). for a new player, to do 1-50, mages/mythic/psijic/scrying/undaunted its gonna be like 300 hours.... before they are even ready to come play the game. WE NEED TO FIX THAT. you will make more money, by having a deluge of new players, than you will by trying to charge old players 50 bucks to not have to grind mages guild. its not fun. its bad business practice. this game is mostly fun. it SHOULD BE FUN. People should be EXCITED to work towards new, and more powerful skills. not HATE the idea of having to do it.
on top of the bonus xp buff, change the armory or whatever its called. make it so that you can quickly and easily move and find gear that other characters are wearing. its tedious and i have actually turned the game off after checking 8 of my 17 toons for gear and then just saying its too much work. and give people more slots dont make people feel nickel and dimed charging them for a convenience. it just puts a bitter taste in our mouths.
so. free to play. bring in more players. make it easy to level up, so they dont leave when they realize how long it will take. make it take way less time. remove the barrier.
these new players will generate revenue with the systems i outlined
this revenue can then be used to upkeep GOOD SERVERS so we can have higher playercounts
idk man. its sad to see whats happening. this game has the best combat system imo.
other random ideas i had
bg's : make a skill based rank for it. just tie the mmr to a symbol. have two categories, ranked, unranked. ranked is tdm 24/7/365. 4v4
the skill based symbol will perhaps give incentive to the sweaties to stay in ranked. since the bg rework i keep getting matched with noobs, and it just feels awful. i dont enjoy bullying them. nor do they want to play tdm with me during an objective based game.
also consider hiding names in battlegrounds because its a small community and often friends wont hit each other.
tldr : pvp is dieing, i think with a few changes to monitization, changes to bring in new players, and retain them, and quality re-investments into the servers and game that not only can the game generate much more profit, but provide a much better experience to players and sustain the ecosystem for many more years to come.
sorry i didnt organize my thoughts better and thanks for reading.
1
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fufu_from_ps4✭✭✭oh yeah, also nerf crosshealing to 2 per morph. no one needs 10 stacks of vigor and 10 radiating regens. its probably not helping performance and it makes ballgroups uber tanky. and no, snake in the stars didnt solve this issue.
also also rush of agony doesnt follow the rules of the game, and being able to move someone from the position they fought to obtain is incredibly powerful in the first place, then they dont even get cc immunity after it. add in the lag and its just not fun or balanced.0