[Request] [QOL] Would you use Zone Progress Skips?

Credible_Joe

Hello. I have a fairly niche, possibly infeasible request. Just wanted to put it out there to see if anyone else might use this if it were a thing.

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EDIT

Sentiment has been a loud and clear Nay for this suggestion. I didn't consider skill points from questing, and even if it's opt in, locking any character out of content is fairly ill conceived.

Instead, I'd be happy with just a game setting that suppresses quest givers, both main and side in any given zone. That way power gamers won't be incentivized to skip on all of their alts and there wouldn't be any issues with layering.

Alternatively, if zones had some default "Not Started" state that suppressed quest givers until we expressly opt in to beginning the adventure in that region, that could make things a lot less busy, especially for new players. There's been an initiative to streamline the adventure for new players, reducing information overload, and I think this would be a good step in that direction. If we're going through the game for the first time, but say, take a navigator boat to a different zone entirely, it's not intuitive to realize their content is no longer in sequence. But always having the option to activate a zone, say, by doing the prologue quest for it, they wouldn't be limited to the single questline they're on either, preserving the other initiative of keeping the experience as free-play as possible.

There could even be helpful signaling. Take the navigator scenario, for example. "You are about to embark on a journey to a different region. You do not appear to have any quest targets or group members at your destination. Would you still like to depart?"

And then, "You can browse all of the adventures available to you in the Stories section of your Collections Menu. Don't forget to review the Prologue Quests in the Crown Store, too!"

Prologue quests and stories being in different menus is a problem for another thread. But I digress, this desire has always been about making the interface less busy and presenting it as a progress skip was definitely the wrong angle to take.

PS, I'm fully aware that ignoring quest givers is an option, as I mentioned in my original post. I've been doing it this long and it peeved me enough to start a thread. Please consider other suggestions.

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TL;DR: I'm asking for zone completion progress skips, similar to skill line skips in the crown store. But hopefully not monetized.

For the most part, the way I do content is one and done. I have a Pact character, an AD character, and I'm gonna launch my Covenant character once the new difficulty options solution is live. These characters go through content separately, rarely overlapping their progress (this is something I started doing after some overlap had already occurred). One went to High Isle and Galen, the other went to Necrom and West Weald.

The general gist is that I would like zone progress to be shared between these characters. Ideally as a checklist in the Zone Completion window on the map.

1. Select progress heading
2. Select alternate character from dropdown
3. CONFIRM type-in confirmation check
4. Zone is updated to reflect the progress of your alternate character. Quest markers are suppressed, layers update to post-completed content, it's as if another hero in your world has adventured here concurrently with the one you're presently logged in with

With the controversy surrounding AWA, this proposal would be dead on arrival if it weren't optional, so this would definitely be elective. And while ignoring all the quest markers around me is always an option, it does get grating after a while when I have no intention of doing any of it.

Essentially, I'm asking for zone completion progress skips. And the way background dialogue rarely or never accredits zone progress to your character, it could even be immersive.

Again, I'm aware this is almost a non-issue. But when you're on a character that you're not really questing on, or when you're grouped up with a guild in a zone you haven't done on your present toon, it would eliminate a lot of distractions, as well as the dissonance of being surrounded by calls to adventure when you have no intention of heeding them.

And lastly, I want to reiterate that this would definitely be something we manage case-by-case. Adventuring on one character would and should never lock you out of repeating the adventure on another character. If that were the case, 90% of the map would be taken up by my original main before I started making alts. Not to mention it'd be infeasible to reconcile which character gets the progress since so many already overlap.

Thanks for reading, thanks for any participation or engagement.

LunaFlora

Nay

i would not use that, but I don't mind it existing

Tandor

Nay

I play the game to play the game.

However, I accept that some players want the means to progress the game without repeating overland content in order to hit the endgame (which consists solely of repeating content ). and so long as whatever means of achieving that are given sold to them doesn't impact on those wanting to play the game fully then I have no objection to that, although I do think it would be a a retrograde step that would damage the game over time.

Maitsukas

Nay

So you offer players to play the game, but also not play the game?

Credible_Joe

Yea

Tandor wrote: »

I play the game to play the game.

However, I accept that some players want the means to progress the game without repeating overland content in order to hit the endgame (which consists solely of repeating content ). and so long as whatever means of achieving that are given sold to them doesn't impact on those wanting to play the game fully then I have no objection to that, although I do think it would be a a retrograde step that would damage the game over time.

You might be surprised that I also enjoy repeating content to some degree-- but not at the level the game apparently expects. Late game we're managing multiple characters, and not all of them are for adventuring.

My original main that has all of the zones completed up to High Isle and Galen does nothing more or less than craft these days. So, all of my current characters are in fact repeating content that he's mostly done.

But while I'm doing that, I have no intention of getting all of it done on all of my subsequent characters. So going forward, all of my toons have content done piece-meal, reverse to my original crafter. Doing dailies in different zones I log onto each character that has that zone completed.

While I am technically free to go to those zones on non-complete characters, I have to get taxi'd there, discover wayshrines, and deal with incessant calls to adventure that I've mostly already done fairly recently. And after a while of that I made this thread.

I can definitely see power gamers using something like this to just not engage with content, which is why I think it should definitely be limited to use only if at least one toon has already completed the map.

So no, the point from my perspective isn't to get to endgame. I personally enjoy questing to level up, even while I'm constantly griping about how easy it is. It's just to quiet down the insistence of repeating content again so soon after I've already done it. Which I don't think is expressly intentional, but definitely and loudly present.

mdjessup4906

Yea

Id never use this myself, but I'll never downvote an opportunity to get skill points without grinding, since if this was a thing, zone completion would give you the zone quests skill points as well.

Desiato

Nay

Part of gameplay in an MMO is planning how we develop characters. It's why I leverage guild quest lines and overland shards as part of my levelling process on a new character. Our characters end up with strengths and weaknesses based on the choices we made. I like to have explored maps and they are a reward for the process I chose.

You say it would be optional, but it would be optional in the same way that not using weapons/armor is an option to increase difficulty -- a suggestion that actually gets thrown around here. No, it would be the new default.

I don't want to see the game streamlined further in this way. I like developing characters in a game that requires developing characters. I don't want to develop characters in a game in which developing characters is optional. It's bad enough that someone can already skip so much just by throwing money at a new character.

You might see this as a minor thing, but if implemented another player would apply the same logic to an aspect of the game they do not prefer, making it a slippery slope. And really this feature request is enabled by an existing slippery slope it would extend further.

And then on top of everything else, it would cheapen the effort others have already made developing their characters.

Credible_Joe

Yea

mdjessup4906 wrote: »

Id never use this myself, but I'll never downvote an opportunity to get skill points without grinding, since if this was a thing, zone completion would give you the zone quests skill points as well.

Unfortunately, this is already part-way implemented. Skyshard skips are available in the crown store. So what I'm suggesting probably wouldn't cover that, especially if it's not monetized.

Ignore me, I skimmed your comment.

Credible_Joe

Yea

So it looks like the sentiment on this is fairly negative, even with some signaling that it wouldn't bother them even if they wouldn't personally use it.

Fair. How about this instead-- a simple option to suppress non-daily quest givers on a zone-by-zone basis? We can already suppress quest giver icons on both the compass and overworld, but the quest givers remain, performing their call to adventure, often over and over again at numerous different points around quest hubs and wayshrines. Not to mention it's an all-or-nothing setting, when I would prefer to set it only in zones I'm visiting but not adventuring in.

Kind of reminds me of how Stuga used to chase us incessantly when Wrothgar originally released. If we could just get those elements hidden I'd be more than satisfied. And in hindsight, my original presentation is fairly over the top relative to what I'm asking for. When it comes down to it, this is the only thing I really want. I'd be fine re-discovering wayshrines and locales.

mdjessup4906

Yea

Its wierd how some others besides me who said they dont have an issue with it still voted no. This make the survey look like there's more against than there really is. Why not just say yes by default?

Tandor

Nay

So far as persistent quest-givers like Stuga are concerned, I'd certainly support them not being mobile. Leramil in Gold Road who pops up all over the place should in my view only be in one place, and engage with you once after which she's there but only to respond if you choose to approach her.

Credible_Joe

Yea

mdjessup4906 wrote: »

Its wierd how some others besides me who said they dont have an issue with it still voted no. This make the survey look like there's more against than there really is. Why not just say yes by default?

I could have shaped the poll differently by including an indifferent option. As it stands the poll is specifically asking if we would use this system, and if the answer is no then it's an accurate response regardless of tolerance.

ShadowPaladin

Nay

A big fat NO NO for this.

There are Skillpoints tied to certain things in a zone. If you *skip* zone related stuff there are only two ways - in my opinion - to do so. 1) You skip it via an auto-complete or 2) you skip it via an auto-cancle and never be able to do it again mechanic. Both are in their own way stupid. With auto-complete you would gain Skillpoints WITHOUT doing the things you SHOUL DO for them (mainly play the game), which would make it P2W. With the other mechanic you would loose the skillpoints for ever, since you can't do the stuff, because you *skipped* it.

If your aim/goal is only to deactivate quests and stuff like that, so that it does not bother you during playing the game, then in this case I recommend to you - just ignore the quests. You do not need to take them .

scrappy1342

Nay

i wouldn't use it, but i'd be willing to bet there's an addon that does this already.

Aliyavana

Nay

LunaFlora wrote: »

i would not use that, but I don't mind it existing

This

Credible_Joe

Yea

I've edited the initial post to reflect sentiment and to offer alternative suggestions to progress skips. The initiative now is to simply reduce quest density for content you're not presently doing, as well as streamline and focus content sequence for new players without constraining or limiting where, when, or how they play.

Thanks for the participation and engagement so far, folks.

Soarora

Nay

The problem with quest overload isn't that people can go anywhere they want, the problem is that there's questgivers on the roads that you take while going to other quest objectives. So, while you're on one quest, you meet several others and have to decide to either stop what you're doing and help them or get back to them later. Reducing quest overload thus would be more like pushing questgivers away from the roads and more towards their associated point of interest so you have to go out of your way to run into them.

katanagirl1

Nay

When I bring new characters into the game, I don’t do questing with them but put them to work in PvP or trials. I grab skyshards for skill points in just about all of the zones. I get xp for discovering areas on them. I don’t have a problem with questgivers, I just ignore them.

I guess I don’t understand enough about this idea to know how it would work. I get tired of grabbing all of these skyshards again on another character if it hasn’t been long since I did them before, but I do need to level them up somehow.

SilverBride

Nay

With Scribing last year and Subclassing this year, I am not purchasing any more new content. So completing all the older zones on my 3 characters that haven't completed them yet is all I have to look forward to now. I want to make it last as long as I can.

sarahthes

Personally, I think once you've leveled a character to cp 160 you should be able to buy a boost for subsequent characters the way you can in almost any other MMO.

GloatingSwine

Nay

Sounds weird. Like what would you get out of it? Skill points? Better to beeline the public dungeon group events and dungeon quests, that'll get you enough for a build, then skyshards if you need to do crafting.

robwolf666

Nay

I buy games to play them, not skip content.

Credible_Joe

Yea

We're at the part of the thread where no one reads the opening post, the edit, or the discourse and just answers the title. Which, fair. It is a lot of text, absent a TL;DR.

I'll be messaging the mods and asking them to close this topic.

I might post a follow-up thread regarding the alternatives that don't involve actually skipping or getting skill points, and just suppressing quest givers.

Thanks again for the participation and engagement, folks. I appreciate it.

ZOS_Icy

Greetings,

We are going to go ahead and close this thread as per the request of the OP.

The Elder Scrolls Online Team