@ZOS_BrianWheeler
@ZOS_GinaBruno

Overland Difficulty That Works in a Shared World (No Nerfs, No One-Shots, No Phasing)

Problem
ESO overland currently has two opposing failures at the same time:

• New / low power players can be genuinely challenged by an enemy, then a high CP player arrives and "love taps" the target into instant death. The new player feels robbed of the fight and learning experience.
• High power players find overland trivial, so their only "challenge" option becomes self-imposed handicaps (remove gear, fight naked, etc.) or asking for enemies to one-shot, which is not healthy design.

This is not a Trials balance issue. This is a shared-world experience ownership issue.

Design Goal
Keep:

• One shared world
• One shared enemy entity
• No phasing / no instancing
• No "make my character weaker" stat sabotage

Add:

• Protection against drive-by one-shots
• Meaningful overland challenge for veterans
• A system that scales with mixed groups naturally

Core Concept: Proportional Influence + Personal Completion
Instead of scaling the whole world to one player (or scaling players down), the enemy evaluates each attacker’s influence relative to their power AND chosen difficulty.

This creates a shared fight where:

• A strong player can still feel strong.
• A new player can still complete and learn their fight.
• No one can erase another player’s encounter just by touching it.

Part 1 — Personal Influence Weighting (No Numbers, Only Formulas)
When player i hits an overland enemy E, we compute an effective damage that is weighted by both:

• The player’s power (CP/gear/output proxy)
• The player’s chosen overland difficulty

Definitions

• P_i = Player Power Index (a proxy based on CP, gear, max stats, offensive ratings, etc.)
• D_i = Player’s chosen Overland Difficulty (e.g., Story / Standard / Veteran / Master)
• S_E = Enemy Baseline Strength Index (what that enemy is intended to be)
• RawDamage_i = Damage the player would normally deal (unchanged; your build remains intact)

Weight Function
We compute a weight W_i for player i:

W_i = f( P_i, D_i, S_E )

Then:

EffectiveDamage_i = RawDamage_i × W_i

Key properties of f():

• If a player is far above the enemy’s intended baseline, W_i decreases (their influence is capped).
• If a player chooses a higher difficulty, W_i increases (they opt in to more responsibility and challenge).
• Low power / new players remain near baseline: W_i stays near 1 so their fight remains "real".
• The player is not nerfed globally — this only affects how the shared enemy resolves disproportionate impact.

Result:

• CP3600 cannot delete a mob in one frame just because they walked by.
• The enemy still dies quickly for the veteran, but not so fast that it erases another player’s experience.

Part 2 — Personal Completion Ownership (Prevents “Kill Steal” Feel)
When the enemy dies, reward/credit is not decided by "who did the last hit" or "who did the most damage".

Instead, each engaged player has an Engagement Score:

Engagement_i = g( TimeInCombat_i, EffectiveDamage_i, DamageTaken_i, HealingUsed_i, Actions_i )

A player receives full kill credit if:

Engagement_i ≥ Threshold( D_i )

So if a level 10 was fighting the enemy and a veteran finishes it:

• The level 10 still gets full XP/loot/quest credit.
• The veteran gets assist credit (or reduced rewards if they did not meaningfully engage).

This protects the new player’s narrative closure without punishing help.

Part 3 — Veteran Challenge Without Sponge HP or One-Shots
Veterans complaining overland is too easy is valid.
The solution should NOT be "bosses one-shot you" or "remove your stats".

Instead, higher overland difficulties change pressure (mechanics frequency/variety), not just enemy HP.

Examples that can be toggled per difficulty level:

• More frequent enemy ability use
• Additional telegraphs / interrupts required
• Extra elite adds that only target higher difficulty players
• Environmental hazards that apply only to opted-in players

This keeps casual overland casual, while giving veterans gameplay to actually play.

Part 4 — Player Choice: Multiple Overland Difficulties (AND Respect Nearby Players)
High power players get an Overland Difficulty Selector (optional):

• Story (lowest pressure)
• Standard (current baseline)
• Veteran
• Master (highest pressure)

However, in a shared world we must prevent a Master player from effectively "dragging" everyone else into their choice OR deleting someone else's fight.

So we define a Local Interaction Context around each enemy:

• Let N(E) be the set of players currently engaged with enemy E.
• Each player keeps their own chosen D_i for their pressure/mechanics/reward scaling.
• But the enemy applies an additional anti-erase constraint using the group’s context.

Example constraint:

W_i is bounded by a function of other engaged players’ baselines:
W_i ≤ h( {P_j, D_j} for all j in N(E) )

Interpretation:

• You can opt into higher difficulty for yourself (more pressure, better rewards).
• Your influence is prevented from erasing the fight of someone who is clearly still engaged and below baseline.
• Your help remains meaningful, but not encounter-ending in a single touch.

Why This Solves Both Complaints

• New players keep their fight and their rewards even when veterans are nearby.
• Veterans can choose higher difficulty that adds pressure/mechanics, instead of only "HP sponge" or "one-shot" design.
• No phasing. No instancing. One shared world remains intact.
• No global nerfing. Builds behave normally; only disproportionate influence is normalized in shared targets.

Summary
Overland does not need Trial-style tuning.
It needs:

• Proportional Influence (prevents drive-by deletes)
• Personal Completion (prevents stolen experiences)
• Optional Veteran Pressure (gives meaningful difficulty without stat sabotage)

ZoS can decide the exact functions/coefficients.
The principle is: balance the impact of participation, not the stats on the character sheet.

TL;DR: Overland doesn’t need enemies to one-shot players or players to be nerfed. Instead, enemies should evaluate each attacker individually: high-CP players keep their power, but their damage influence is proportionally weighted so they can’t instantly erase fights for weaker players, while every engaged player still earns their own completion credit. Veterans can opt into higher personal difficulty that adds pressure and mechanics for them only. The world stays shared, nobody loses their build, new players keep their learning fights, and experienced players finally get meaningful overland challenge.