Improving Dark Anchors (warning: wall of text)

nicholaspingasb16_ESO

Welcome! To start, I would like to say that this game exceeds in several areas and is quite weak in many others. Most MMOs aren't perfect at launch, and before I continue, I want people to realize that this thread is here to provide constructive feedback on this game's dark anchors, not to unleash a *** of hate on Zenimax. So without further ado, here is how I think Zenimax should go about fixing the currently unrewarding and repetitive anchors.

1. Make Them Feel Like an Event

Dark anchors are currently confined to a small area, and have no impact on the world around them. Change that! make it so that anchors, if left open for too long, begin to impact the world by filling it with Daedra of all types. For example, an anchor left open for 10 minutes will begin to send out scamps and clanfears to various towns and cities, harassing players and killing NPC guards at the edge of town. If left open for 30 minutes, an anchor will begin sending organized squads of scamps, clannfears and dremora to raid and seize towns , preventing quests in the town from being completed until the daedra are repelled in a siege-style endeavor. After 4 hours of being open, a massive army of 200 high level daedra will pour out and begin slaughtering players, low level and high level. At this point, a zone will become absolutely overrun, with the only way for players to access it being a concerted effort to siege and take back various cities and towns. The times that these things occur will be adjusted with the zone's population, of course.

2. Cross Over Into Coldharbour

You should have to cross over into Coldharbour to close an anchor. Once the outside defenses of the gate have been breached, you and everyone else can go into the anchor, entering a wailing prison-type zone, where you must clear a large area and fight a zone boss that requires team work to kill. This boss should be big and powerful, and it should feel like a true incarnation of Molag Bal. Around the boss would be areas of different heights, with the boss moving from large cliffs and shooting balls of flame down to ground level where he smashes players with powerful AoE melee attacks. Once defeated, the anchor closes in a flash of light and the players are scattered to various places around around the zone, with a small buff called "Favor of Arkay" that gives you 1 free revive if you die in a PvE zone within the next 2 hours.

3. Cyrodiil Dark Anchors With Vampire Defenders. MUAHAHAHAH!

Vampires, being the children of Molag Bal, should naturally have the option to take up arms for their father. In cyrodiil, vampires can choose to defend a dark anchor from invaders, regardless of their faction.

Secondly, dark anchors should drop down at random in the middle of PvP battles, forcing alliances to either give up their hatred for each other and work together, or continue slugging it out while Daedra pour onto the field and slaughter their troops.

Obviously, dark anchors will have to work differently in cyrodiil than in PvE zones in order to keep the focus of the players in cyrodiil on each other and not on closing the anchor (unless it drops onto them in the middle of a PvP battle). This means that there would be no gradual invasion by Daedric forces across cyrodiil, and that there would be no Coldharbour section for PvP anchors. Instead, there would simply be an instant and deadly attack from a force of 50 or so high-level daedra.

4. LOOOOOOT

LOOT! Give the players who complete an anchor and successfully close it a good few items! Hand them some powerful, enchanted armor and weapons that is tailored to whatever they use, such as light armour or two handed weapons. Also give them a sigil-stone type item, similar to the ones from Oblivion, where you can apply it to an item and receive a powerful enchantment.

5. New Opportunities!

Players who close the anchors have attracted the hatred of Molag Bal, yes. HOWEVER! They have also garnered the attention of the other princes, who hate Molag. Now, multiple new daedric quest lines are open to players who have cleared an anchor.

NOTE: This was written at 1AM. I apologize for any grammatical errors.

nicholaspingasb16_ESO

Bump?

psychounz

@nicholaspingasb16_ESO‌ these are fantastic suggestions, thanks for taking the time to write such great feedback!

We need more of these kinds of posts with helpful and constructive suggestions!

I like a combo of one and two, personally. I think that could be really, really fun!

Perhaps do an in-game /feedback with a link to this thread That way it might get to the devs!

reggielee

I agree with these suggestions. right now its just a race to get a hit in before the vets close it in 2minutes

SuperScrubby

I like the general idea's. Currently you do get loot from the last mobs and the human ones that do the ritual in the beginning. But I think something that other games do is like a score sheet. So at the end of the event you're told your stats you did vs the other people in the event. I believe they did something like that for rift, but I didn't play the game long enough to remember.

Loot does seem like overkill since it's so easy to get loot in this game. What there needs to be are repercussions if these anchor's don't get closed. Other games which I guess I'll list Rift again did that and it was somewhat enjoyable. Currently the world doesn't feel very dynamic with its current offerings. Obviously the game is only a month old so these changes may not happen too quickly.

But if anything scaling the dark anchors based on more than 4 players should be a priority because in their current state they suck.

nudel

1. Don't know how I feel about this. It sounds a little too much like what happens in games with open world PVP. Casual players will not like getting ganked by overpowered Daedra because an anchor opened while banking and crafting in town. It would also be hard to explain why the NPCs weren't affected at all and continued going about their business. Keep it confined to a small area around the anchor and I'll come on board.

2. Interesting idea, sort of an impromptu dungeon. I'd rather it be separate from the anchors though. Anchors are sort of the solo player's segway into grouped content, much like world bosses. Yeah I know they're easy, but they kinda need to be that way to lure solo players into cooperative play. Could be really cool to have this as a different random event though. Massive portal to Coldharbour opens, giving players an opportunity to participate in the temporary dungeon you described.

nicholaspingasb16_ESO wrote: »

*snip*
3. Cyrodiil Dark Anchors With Vampire Defenders. MUAHAHAHAH!

Vampires, being the children of Molag Bal, should naturally have the option to take up arms for their father. In cyrodiil, vampires can choose to defend a dark anchor from invaders, regardless of their faction.

Not in this game actually. Vampires do not follow Molag Bal.

In fact one objective in the quest to become a full vampire is to 'Profane the Symbol of Molag Bal', in which you destroy his icon with a hammer.

The lorebook Rites of the Scion details the ceremony and its significance.

4. Do not agree with tailored loot. Makes getting gear wayyy too easy. They did this with the CE treasure maps and it almost nullifies looking for gear anywhere else. More and better loot, sure. Tailored loot, not so much.

5. I love the idea of Daedric quest lines. A little disappointed that there is no means of devoting yourself to a specific Aedra or Daedra in the game. Would also be really cool to have some of the Daedric relics (aka little bundles of awesome) from other games come into play, perhaps as unique rewards for gaining favor with the associated Prince. Would be neat to have your favor with one decrease your favor with its competitors and so on. Make some of them mutually exclusive. Helps with roleplay, replay value, and just overall unique character progression.

SuperScrubby

I don't think anchors serve any purpose of leading solo players into group content because like everything in this game you can do almost all of it solo. I've never grouped for dark anchors simply due to their ease. If I start to die I just self heal and hold back on doing the most damage. There's no bonus for speed in its current state.

If anchors are supposed to be a daedric invasion then why shouldn't there be repercussions of any sort for not doing them? You say you don't want crafters to be caught up in it or people using the banks, but then there's literally no risk of a so called "invasion". I mean you could do it that way, but that's pretty boring and defeats the whole purpose.

Either way as they stand now anchors are boring and can be turned into a wealth of content and time sink as they stand. Maybe have them give some reputation points that reduce the cost of items from NPC's or increase the sale price of your own items to the NPC. Plenty of money sinks in this game could currently offset that gain.

ed.radleyrwb17_ESO

Yeah the present Anchors are as I see it a start. They could be a lot better. Would have to be very careful with flow out effects onto the map though and scale accordingly.

Have seen it where a zerg will play a new map, but eventually once it is old content it blocks all the new players progress as the whole map turns hostile because of the flow out effects.

Orr in GW2 is a bit like that, the temples all needs turning but the player base is no longer on the map and a solo player can't do it fast enough. Might have changed a bit since they went to mega servers for some zone but I'm busy here so don't know yet

nicholaspingasb16_ESO

ed.radleyrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Yeah the present Anchors are as I see it a start. They could be a lot better. Would have to be very careful with flow out effects onto the map though and scale accordingly.

Have seen it where a zerg will play a new map, but eventually once it is old content it blocks all the new players progress as the whole map turns hostile because of the flow out effects.

The effects of anchors in the world would have to be constantly monitored and controlled. It would be a pain to maintain, but well worth the cost.

Metrobius

there are some good ideas in this thread. I persinally wiuld rather see trophies and housing items drop from the dark anchor bosses than gear though.
I dread anything that encourages gear treadmilling.

Seabreeze

Good ideas, but there are a couple things I don't like:

1. No invasion of towns. There are already mini-portals that spawn daedra in random places (not sure if coordinated with anchor or not), and that could be improved upon. There could be more of them popping up as the anchors stay open. Attacking towns is just a bad idea. It will disrupt things for those who are not interested in the content, and no one should be have this type of content forced upon them. Monitoring it all is also just not feasible, so I don't see it happening.

2. Zoning into some Coldharbor area could potentially cause some snags due to loading times. I have no idea what would happen if a very large group of people was to zone into one place, all at the same time. I also don't think much coordination should be necessary in any kind of world activity, since a lot of people will be approaching these situations solo, not in Teamspeak with each other. They should just remain as mostly simple zergs, just have more dynamic elements added to make them more varied and fun.

3. The vampire thing is kind of weird. I don't think it's feasible, and I have a weird vibe about it only being open to people if they make a certain large change to their character. It makes sense from a certain lore perspective, but not from a gameplay one.

I agree that the other suggestions are good. Overall, some very neat ideas, just that some of them may be way too difficult to implement.

BETAOPTICS

I am not sure if I agree with all the suggestions but most of them actually sound pretty good ideas and certainly something I could see being done later down the line. They would also make them truly meaningful events and not just another minor places to go to and complete. After all, if something then these should be the most dangerous things in Nirn, outside of bosses.

silent88b14_ESO

I wish to recommend items #1, #4, and #5. World invasions consequent to inattentive local play would be a great enhancement IMV. In fact I'd recommend the danger should increase further the longer it is left inadequately opposed. Let it be a serious incentive to combat the spawn of the anchors. And, by Yffre's Beard, as the Anchor spawn escalates the loot should also improve commensurately. Finally, new opportunities for adventure should be a natural way to add ephemeral content that can be capitalized upon only by those who participate!

RazzPitazz

NyI agree the anchors should spawn an actual invasion, possibly based on an averaged algorithmic player count and level of a given zone. Possibly the daedra forces could increasingly replace the normal mobs as the invasion expands outwards until the anchor is closed. Stay out of towns and dungeons. Period. I agree whole heartedly that the anchors feel like "special mobs" that dont really GIVE anything and certainly do not take anything. The only incentive I have to close them is for an achieavment. Maybe. They pose no threat, they offer no Return On Investment. Make me care about these events, please.

Tarwin

Some great ideas and I see some similarities to Rift .. which is OK, I enjoyed those as well

Call it nitpicking, but can they add some reverb or something to the not so booming voice indication an Anchor is in the making/drop . I thought it was some annoying priest in town harassing me, had no idea it was some Epic event on the move!

Seabreeze

gamebouncerb16_ESO wrote: »

I thought it was some annoying priest in town harassing me

THE MIGHTY TALOS!

nicholaspingasb16_ESO

reggielee wrote: »

right now its just a race to get a hit in before the vets close it in 2minutes

Epona222

SuperScrubby wrote: »

I don't think anchors serve any purpose of leading solo players into group content because like everything in this game you can do almost all of it solo. I've never grouped for dark anchors simply due to their ease. If I start to die I just self heal and hold back on doing the most damage. There's no bonus for speed in its current state.

If anchors are supposed to be a daedric invasion then why shouldn't there be repercussions of any sort for not doing them? You say you don't want crafters to be caught up in it or people using the banks, but then there's literally no risk of a so called "invasion". I mean you could do it that way, but that's pretty boring and defeats the whole purpose.

Either way as they stand now anchors are boring and can be turned into a wealth of content and time sink as they stand. Maybe have them give some reputation points that reduce the cost of items from NPC's or increase the sale price of your own items to the NPC. Plenty of money sinks in this game could currently offset that gain.

SuperScrubby wrote: »

I don't think anchors serve any purpose of leading solo players into group content because like everything in this game you can do almost all of it solo. I've never grouped for dark anchors simply due to their ease. If I start to die I just self heal and hold back on doing the most damage. There's no bonus for speed in its current state.

If anchors are supposed to be a daedric invasion then why shouldn't there be repercussions of any sort for not doing them? You say you don't want crafters to be caught up in it or people using the banks, but then there's literally no risk of a so called "invasion". I mean you could do it that way, but that's pretty boring and defeats the whole purpose.

Either way as they stand now anchors are boring and can be turned into a wealth of content and time sink as they stand. Maybe have them give some reputation points that reduce the cost of items from NPC's or increase the sale price of your own items to the NPC. Plenty of money sinks in this game could currently offset that gain.

I think part of the problem with grouping for dark anchors is that they spawn when you go near them, and inviting someone who isn't on your friends list to group with you involves you both standing still for long enough to target, hold down F, and select the correct option on the social radial and hoping they haven't run off to do something else before they get the invite notification. Unfortunately grouping on the fly is not particularly quick or intuitive.