Player created content - Suggestion for the future of ESO

Shunravi · December 2015

Sausage wrote: »

Shunravi wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

4 DLC per year isnt enough content? Really? Im VERY satisfied if Zen keeps that pace up. Btw, what happens when 50 guys makes own zone and wants them to be released, or 1000 guys makes own dungeon. There isnt simply room for all those.

Why should a quarterly release be enough?

We would have 50 zones and 1000 dungeons to download and play at leisure. Dont see the problem really.

For me 4 DLC per year is perfect, I can take holidays, play other games etc.

So you couldnt do that with player created content somehow? I dont see why.

Sausage · December 2015

Shunravi wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

Shunravi wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

4 DLC per year isnt enough content? Really? Im VERY satisfied if Zen keeps that pace up. Btw, what happens when 50 guys makes own zone and wants them to be released, or 1000 guys makes own dungeon. There isnt simply room for all those.

Why should a quarterly release be enough?

We would have 50 zones and 1000 dungeons to download and play at leisure. Dont see the problem really.

For me 4 DLC per year is perfect, I can take holidays, play other games etc.

So you couldnt do that with player created content somehow? I dont see why.

Im struggling to be honest. I bought Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid, Assassin Creed, Dying Light and Mad Max this Christmas, Im lucky if I can finish those before Thief DLC.

Gidorick · December 2015

Corellon Thromorin wrote: »

Do it like Dota 2.
Create, send, if it's approved then it appears in the game.

This would really be my preference I would love for the player created content to be "ZOS approved" but I'd also be alright with the player content being considered non-canonical lore. Sort of how Star Wars expanded universe are now "Legends".

Jar_Ek wrote: »

Nice post, nice idea OP.
However as an author of a community quest or two in neverwinter before I moved on, I would have to agree about the potential for abuse and exploitation, I would also note that a rating system often ends up with great content being buried.

In NW there were lots of farm quests, and often in massively exploitable ways (ie you can hit them, but they cannot reach you), the time required to build and then maintain your quests through updates was huge - as updates and patches can break your quest. The ability to find good quests actually requires a lot of ratings for different things so you can find the quest type you want. And quests get voted up or down by guilds etc.

In order to make this work zos might have to do a huge amount of work and you are highly likely to end up in the same situation as NW... the authors spend a vast amount of time to make an adventure and the game limits the xp and rewards to ensure that it is not OP. Meaning that the rewards were poor for killing the powerfull Necromancer who had shed loads of adds in a great quest... in fact the same as the bad quest. It's a let down.

In essence it is very, very difficult to get right and to police. It may be possible to do so - potentially with an ambassador type program and the community certainly would provide content... but it would be a huge risk for zos. I can't seem them doing it tbh.

Thanks for the comments @Jar_Ek. I completely agree this could be an exploitation tool but ZOS could easily do something like... set the max amount of XP/Gold/Etc. that can be awarded in a player dungeon and only allow a set amount of player-dungeons to be played per day.

There are ways... and yea... it would require some work on ZOS' part.

Gidorick · December 2015

Sausage wrote: »

Shunravi wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

Shunravi wrote: »

Sausage wrote: »

4 DLC per year isnt enough content? Really? Im VERY satisfied if Zen keeps that pace up. Btw, what happens when 50 guys makes own zone and wants them to be released, or 1000 guys makes own dungeon. There isnt simply room for all those.

Why should a quarterly release be enough?

We would have 50 zones and 1000 dungeons to download and play at leisure. Dont see the problem really.

For me 4 DLC per year is perfect, I can take holidays, play other games etc.

So you couldnt do that with player created content somehow? I dont see why.

Im struggling to be honest. I bought Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid, Assassin Creed, Dying Light and Mad Max this Christmas, Im lucky if I can finish those before Thief DLC.

Good luck... you'll need one of these:

HeroOfNone · December 2015

Jar_Ek wrote: »

Nice post, nice idea OP.
However as an author of a community quest or two in neverwinter before I moved on, I would have to agree about the potential for abuse and exploitation, I would also note that a rating system often ends up with great content being buried.

In NW there were lots of farm quests, and often in massively exploitable ways (ie you can hit them, but they cannot reach you), the time required to build and then maintain your quests through updates was huge - as updates and patches can break your quest. The ability to find good quests actually requires a lot of ratings for different things so you can find the quest type you want. And quests get voted up or down by guilds etc.

In order to make this work zos might have to do a huge amount of work and you are highly likely to end up in the same situation as NW... the authors spend a vast amount of time to make an adventure and the game limits the xp and rewards to ensure that it is not OP. Meaning that the rewards were poor for killing the powerfull Necromancer who had shed loads of adds in a great quest... in fact the same as the bad quest. It's a let down.

In essence it is very, very difficult to get right and to police. It may be possible to do so - potentially with an ambassador type program and the community certainly would provide content... but it would be a huge risk for zos. I can't seem them doing it tbh.

There are several replies dealing with just this sort of issue and the same examples. A vetting system, rewards based on the time spent in the wuest, and a focus on story (not grinding), help reduce that. I invite you to look at some of these prior discussions.

Sausage wrote: »

4 DLC per year isnt enough content? Really? Im VERY satisfied if Zen keeps that pace up. Btw, what happens when 50 guys makes own zone and wants them to be released, or 1000 guys makes own dungeon. There isnt simply room for all those.

Player created content is more suitable for developers, who simply dont have the muscle to push out content fast enough, like Neverwinter.

Some of us have been here since 2014 and do a lot of MMO content. While I enjoy RSO, I do like to hear stories made by other writers, see new creations, and have the ability to tell my own story. This is something we've had in prior TES games but we're lacking that in ESO.

As a take away from this post, since ZOS might be looking for new contests (since not all were able to participate in the million dollar give away) maybe @ZOS_GinaBruno can setup a player created contest for submitting stories and map ideas. Winners see their creation in game and gets a crown reward. Sort of illustrates the concept we're trying to promote here

Gidorick · December 2015

@HeroOfNone I actually suggested a player-designed costume contest type thing here:

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/215756/eso-motif-costume-mount-pet-design-contests

@ZOS_GinaBruno responded with

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Interesting idea! We'll see what we can do.

So hopefully we will see something like player designing contests in the future!

Jar_Ek · December 2015

@HeroOfNone Yeah I read the ideas, but it all comes down to implementation. WhatI was trying to do was to highlight some of the issues from NW.

Gidorick · January 2016

Jar_Ek wrote: »

@HeroOfNone Yeah I read the ideas, but it all comes down to implementation. WhatI was trying to do was to highlight some of the issues from NW.

Yea... Neverwinter had issues.... but that just means ZOS could learn from them. Heck... Players could even be allowed to add an RNG chest to the end of their level that would give players a change to get the armors that are only available through RNG... at least then we would have a wider variety of things to run to try to get the goods.

As time goes on I feel like we need player created content more and more.

krylance · January 2016

I don't like the idea. Player housing and guild halls that can be decorated by the players is plenty. Even player made dungeons become a way to lvl grind and remove players from the world everyone will be spending time in these instances and the world will be empty very bad idea seen this happen in other games. Plus leveling expoilts also. Dont do this zenimax.

Kalifas · January 2016

I would like to see something like this but:

In a segregated server you can travel to
Keep it simple
Devs provide beginning framework
Players expand upon the framework
Devs spend little to no time policing or creating content
Basic rules for fair play

My reasons:

Segregated servers defend against abuse
Keep this content designed for players interested in it
Keeps the non interested players from committing to slog through it
Minimal dev governing let's the devs focus on creating polished official content in main game
Keeps funds and time more focused on core game
Less lag on core servers, even more important in large group content or populations

Great idea, and I usually like all of Gidorick's ideas. Just don't fully agree this time.

Gidorick · January 2016

I honestly think any abuse could be mitigated....

Each Player Created quest/level/dungeon can only award a maximum amount of gold and XP earned. Lowering gold & XP earned by 50% every time a player runs the same content within a certain period even to the point of the player earning no gold or XP for playing the content.

I also see no reason why content couldn't be flagged as public or private.

What other kinds of exploits do you feel this may bring about @krylance ?

LadyNalcarya · January 2016

Or maybe Zos can just organize a monthly contest for costumes/quests/dungeons. So the content that isnt lore friendly or affects game balance, wouldnt be approved.

krylance · January 2016

The devs still have bugs from beta their working on, this would introduce numerous more. Not only that but like i said before the game would be empty with everyone and their mom creating or playing these dungeons non stop. Sounds cool but realistic no. Let the devs make the content so it fits with the lore. They barely have time to make dlc content. Shifting through ps4 , pc and Xbox made dungeons is ludicrous. Thousands and thousands submitted to a test server would lead to a dead empty normal server. Will never work. Wish it could but there are just to many negatives to it. Time, bugs, new coding, empty world, money to make, lore, exploits, and the list goes on. I don't see it happening. Great idea though!

acenewton1 · January 2016

A Poll and Discussion you may be interested in. Please read. http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/239577/want#latest

wookiefriseur · January 2016

They shouldn't stop innovating just because there are unresolved issues. There are multiple teams working on multiple ends at the same time. They learn and improve along the way.

Also I don't see empty live servers caused by test server influx. The hassle of installing and playing on the test client which does not have persistent characters (frequent resets) and takes up additional time and disk space is not something I expect most people to go through. Neither do I see empty zones by players hiding in their little private dungeons. Didn't happen in STO either, though that one is F2P.

The population on PC/MAC EU seems very healthy to me, at least for the moment. Introducing a framework for player created content is something that, in the long run, should be considered. Same with spellcrafting and the second part of the justice system.

Counter measures for possible exploits have been discussed here at length if I remember correctly (too lazy to read everything again ^^) and Gidorick has mentioned some of those countermeasures multiple times.

Gidorick · January 2016

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

Or maybe Zos can just organize a monthly contest for costumes/quests/dungeons. So the content that isnt lore friendly or affects game balance, wouldnt be approved.

I actually suggested something like this here http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/215756/eso-motif-costume-mount-pet-design-contests/p1 @KoshkaMurka . And @ZOS_GinaBruno responded favorably. We have yet to hear if anything has come of the concept but I would love to get player created content into the game, even if it is just a couple items per year. Heck... one would make most of us happy!