I'll probably be repeating what a lot of people have said already, but I'd like to throw my voice into the fold anyway.

Firstly, Fargrave is my favorite zone in the game. I love the lore, I love the aesthetics, the music, everything. I think it's such a cool contribution to TES universe. So, naturally, I've been very excited to check out this zone. I even made a Fargrave-themed outfit for my main lol.

Unfortunately, I... just don't think I can play this. As everyone has said, the difficulty is just too high. Now, I did go in solo, but I don't think ZOS misrepresented the zone in their advertising. It was said pretty much everywhere that it is meant to be a group zone, and I was ready for that. I expected to have a hard time going in solo. What I didn't expect was to get two-shotted by trash mobs. I have a somewhat optimized build and have been able to solo base game world bosses, so I thought I would at least be able to finish the initial quest from my faction. I couldn't. It's just too frustrating.

Now, I'm lucky enough to have a content guild that I will try to run a big group with, and I'll see if my opinion changes after that. But I don't think it will change much. The respawn points are too far away. Why can't we just res like we can in the overworld? This is going to make it hard for group play, even coordinated group play.

Add that to the fact that my quest with the Curator was bugged and not advancing after I talked to him. So I was running around, confused, not sure what I was supposed to do until I looked on the forums and found out I had to abandon the quest and restart it to get it to work. Not a great first impression.

I guess I expected this to feel more like overland content, but harder. Like Craglorn, I suppose. I wasn't around when Craglorn first launched, so I don't know what it was like then. But now, I can move around the zone pretty freely, kill mobs, and avoid bosses if I'm solo and need to get some quests or surveys done. I think that was my level of expectation. Night Market is not that. It feels like a vet trial.

Like an overland zone, too, I was sort of hoping it would be easy to find zerg groups running around and just join in on the fun there. Not the case. Maybe it's because I picked the Glittering Goad, but I don't really see anyone running around. Groups are hard to come by. In my case, I returned to ESO after a hiatus and am playing on a Steam Deck. This makes it very hard for me to communicate via chat in the game. So, trying to coordinate a group that way is almost impossible. I pretty much have to be in a Discord group with a voice chat to make that kind of coordinated play work. And I'm gonna be honest, I don't always have time or patience for that. Getting a group together at the same time, especially one the size that's needed to progress in Night Market, is hard even without technical barriers!

I think others have mentioned this, but I'm willing to bet a majority of ESO's players are not the people who play tested this content. In fact, I think the percentage of players who run difficult content like this is probably pretty small. I've been playing since about 2017 and my lived experience has been a lot more casual players, often from a middle-aged and older demographic, myself included. Many of us play to relax and unwind after work and don't do a lot of vet content. Add in that some people came for The Elder Scrolls universe and play it mainly solo, and this event immediately alienates a lot of players. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy vet content occasionally! And I do enjoy a good challenge. But like... occasionally. Not when it's the sole new content for 3 months and all the (medicore) rewards are locked behind super grindy and frustrating play. I don't got time for that! I'd much rather feel adequately rewarded and enjoy my time in game.

I'm sure there are folks who will enjoy this, but I do kind of think it's a small percentage. Ideally your new content would be able to be enjoyed by everyone.

I have been admittedly pretty jaded by ZOS in the past not listening to player feedback and making questionable design choices. I've been paying attention since leadership changes happened. I've heard you all saying you want to be more responsive to player feedback, want to respect our time more, not have as much FOMO content, and generally make the game a better experience for players. I've been really excited by this shift in philosophy.

This is a great opportunity for you to put that into practice. Please communicate with us given all the negative feedback on this event. Please implement changes to actually make this enjoyable and worthwhile for folks.

Now that my wall of text is over, some things that I think could help:

- I don't find it fun when difficulty is just ramped up by making enemies damage sponges. I want some cool mechanics! (Disregard if these already exist, I haven't made it to any bosses yet).
- An easy solution to this would be making a normal and a hard mode.
- Increase the instance size so you can actually find other players.
- Either add more respawn points or let us just respawn where we are when we die.
- Make it easier to complete quests solo. If people are all at different stages it will be too frustrating to quest in a group.
- Maybe consider more worthwhile rewards like gold tempers or something.

In all this, I will say I really like the new house! A little sad I might not get to unlock the wings since it's behind such impossible (for me) content, including the cool guild bank feature, but. It's still pretty! 🥲

I really like the Night Market! Finally a challenging group environment that is more than just a trial! I went through it tons of different ways solo and in groups. 2, 3, 5, 12 players, you name it, we ran it😎 Varied amounts of cp and power levels too. Varied roles too at times, especially when we picked up people from zone (and that's a good thing). This is a good first attempt at content like this! Anything that is new isnt always going to be perfect and that is to be expected. I will elaborate on some improvements I think might help later in the post. Also, I deliberately did not read about or view anything about this event ahead of time so that I could get maximum enjoyment from it.

I thought the story and characters are fun and interesting. We had a laugh about the Daedrat talking through what initially appears to be the faction leader especially😎 They fit well and follow the Fargrave theme very well. The factions themselves are fun and interesting! I like that they are all different yet equal as far as their themes and place in the story.

The new Night Market house is amazing! I cant believe it was free and it was a very nice gesture to award it after the first quest! I dont usually decorate houses, but Im definitely decorating this one! Love the treasure vault too👍

Some of the downsides I noticed:

1. Everyone joining one particular faction. I regard this as an exploit and do not blame the developers. It really detracts from the fun of what should be a friendly competition. Perhaps look into ways to offer boosts to the other factions based on the population disparity between the exploiters so the other 2 stand a chance. Or can match it if they work hard while others are not.
2. I think that it might be better to have higher populations in the instances if that is possible without jeopardizing performance. We did not have an issue with them as they currently exist, but I can see where some of the solo players, newer players, ect might feel like its difficult to find a group. I played with many of them and we picked up as many as we could until we didn't have room. I also saw other grouos that had room deliberately not pick them up and that is sad to see. Especially when some of those same groups were following us.
3. I heard a few people mention they did not get credit for the skirmish while grouped because they had died and were at the Wayshrine. I think that should be changed if possible. Its a more gray area if Solo players are following a group. I think it might help to perhaps put up a disclaimer upon death in a Skirmish that if you remain on the field even if you're dead and the boss dies, you still get credit.
4. Some of the tasks and activities could probably be elaborated on more in game. I found myself helping a lot of folks get situated over there and that is ok! But I do see where its not as detailed as it could be. Personally I enjoyed the sense of adventure by actually having to figure it out!

It is is only 1 day into this event so I will add more feedback as the event progresses. This is a really good and nice thing! I am proud of you guys for doing this and we are having a lot of fun out there! Please don't let all of the naysayers detract from this wonderful addition to Eso!

To some of the people who didn't like this event or don't quite understand it, it's ok! Not everyone likes everything in the game. This was advertised, tested, released and designed to be a GROUP EVENT! There are a lot of us who really like these kinds of things. More options is a good thing! New content is always a good thing! It isnt fair to totally judge an event on the first day, especially when its a Wed night. There will be a lot of people out there when the weekend hits. Don't be discouraged. Its also the first time Zos has tried events like this, give them a chance! There are methods to do it solo, I did it myself but it isnt designed to be soloed. You can go solo as a tank, by sneaking, by using Falcon's Swiftness type skills to outrun things, ect. Trying to solo it makes it harder on yourself. The best method is to have a well balanced group with 2 tanks, 2 healers and whatever dps you can muster. Even with small groups, we were successful and you can be too!

there are too many confusing things, relics, keys, difficulty, 10k faction neeeded for monster set. only thing i really care about is getting the mythic items, i played it for 3 or 4 hours last night and 540 faction. it's going to take so long to get 10k and this event is only what 7 weeks? fear of missing out is insane on this and anxiety levels are crazy right now with it. don't enjoy any outside time this spring or you will be missing out !

EthanolMuffins wrote: »

Please increase the drop rate of the relic fragments from dailies, being locked out of content by rng is no fun. The key stuff is fun imo, but needing to grind dailies when I only get 2 chances a day per character at the three relic fragments needed to get these fragments, it really takes the fun out of it. Especially when everyone in the group has to have them to do the content? Idk if any of my guilds will be able to run the trial, and so many have complained about the rng from the dailies that they feel discouraged to engage with the content and I may not even be able to get a group with them for the dungeons because of this factor alone.

Increase the drop rate on relic fragments from dailies
Make it so not everyone needs to have the relics to do the dungeons and trials

I totally agree. As all other fragments are guaranteed except from trash mobs which is easier to get and this one which is very hard to get.

Not being able to get the relic also means you cannot continue with the dungeons and finally the trial.

Another issue I see is the once you have done the dungeons and trial, it is an enormous grind to get the key fragments again. Especially as some of the Argent are taking a long long long time (especially the one with the mechanics from March of Sacrifices)

Make those bosses have less health would be helpful I think. Or make the keys permanent or give players who already used the keys a boost against the relating bosses.

Went in and spent maybe a couple of hours there. Do I want to go back? Not really.
I’m not an endgame trial player. I play for the world, quests, interactions etc. yes the place has quests but they are tied behind a vet dungeon style zone which is completely impossible solo unless you have your gear and skills locked in or you wait around for a group to pass by and tag along otherwise it’s an endless death-fest. No incentive from rewards for casual players. No incentive from questing for casual players. I was bored after 30 minutes of dying and chasing a group around that never really happened to go near the quest markers I was wanting.
So so far this year, nothing for the casual/solo player in terms of new gameplay. This needs a total rework to appeal to players like me. Different difficulty options, solo versions of the zones or at least activities that solo players can do like a dedicated solo/small group zone along side the vet zones.
Tldr: for anyone that isn’t endgame, group focussed, trial players…this is not for you. Not enough incentives to play. Very anti-solo/casual player

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

coop500 wrote: »

I don't suppose you could also confirm whether the decrease of trash mob difficulty was actually applied? It feels exactly like it did in the PTS.

We did make an adjustment, yes, but it wasn't a huge reduction. This is one of the many things we are watching feedback on.

Jessica, was this when it went live?

Hist Mother wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

coop500 wrote: »

I don't suppose you could also confirm whether the decrease of trash mob difficulty was actually applied? It feels exactly like it did in the PTS.

We did make an adjustment, yes, but it wasn't a huge reduction. This is one of the many things we are watching feedback on.

Jessica, was this when it went live?

Yes, they already did the adjustment, supposedly. It really doesn't feel like it so it must have been microscopic

i am not going to discuss difficulty here as there is already lots of feedback and i think difficulty is always subjective.

But there are a couple of things I wanted to say something about because i either dont understand them or they are not clearly explained. (It could be also that i am not very smart, but i find the event very overhelming)

1) What am i supposed to do, is there a overarching objective to the event?

2) What is the main quest? Is there a main quest? according to the Golden Pursuit i have completed the main quest, but all i have done was choose a faction and did a fetch quest, together with some other fetch quests, so i might have lost track wich of the fetch quests was the main quests?

3) I want to unlock the wings of the house, i need some item to place in the wing to open it up, the pop up is not helpful, i find an NPC in one of the sectors that tells me something about relics, but no way how to obtain them, hes just being crytpic. Hang on- didnt the house also need a relic? is it the same relic? Off to google we go, because i cant find any info in game. I spent 2 hours afk in the zone googling relics, but im actually non the wiser. I go here to the forums and can piece together that some of the pieces of the relics drop from bosses, okay fine, im sure i will get a group over the next couple of days to kill them, I am not worried about that. Theres other pieces i will get from coffers. Hang on - i got a coffer earlier from that fetch quest, I open it and in there is a blue piece of briarheart gear, no fragemt thingy for the house though. back to google, ah there are other coffers for dailies, no idea where to pick that quest up. Reading in the forums i can see that it migth be the kill xx enemies one. I spent 4 hours already in the game and need to go to bed, maybe today i can pick that quest up and try to kill xx enemies

4) why can I not respawn where i died. I found a group (and actually grouped with them) but ya know, sometimes one just dies, stuff like that happens, no biggie. However by the time i respawn and trudge back and try to solo the mobs between me and the group they already killed the boss and i got no loot. That was very frustrating.

5) Oddities: I got a quest from my faction leader to do an oddity, I guess they are the puzzles? fight my way to one of the puzzles, but I cant do anything, cant interact with anything, back to google i go. AH! they are not active all the time and i was advised to find a different one. Mkay. A lone player dragged some mobs to the puzzle, i die while i was looking at my phone screen googling. I respawn somewhere else, My group has moved on. I dont feel like going to another puzzle location. I havent finsided the oddity quest yet, and i am not sure if they have any benefit. Do they? Is it part of the main quest? Can i get fragements for the house thingy? I dont know. Why can those puzzles not be active all the time? Could there not be a tiny safe zone where i dont get mauled by passing mobs?

6) My group has now finished what they wanted to do and has dissolved, I have not accomplished anything other than 3 fetch quests, 3 briarheart pieces and 120 favour. That is quite some reward for 4 hours in the market.

7) My guild has collected all the fragment thingies while i was at work, apparently you need those also to get access to the dungeons, everyone wants to do dungeons now and not do the bosses or the fetch quests that some other guild mebers want to do. Understandable, its new exciting content, but it does fracture the people into groups that are ready to move on and the ones that are still finding bits and pieces.

8) i am torn between taking a break from the game and being left behind or trudging through again and trying to figure out what i have to do. I am not sure yet what to do.

9) i cant teleport out, I am on one of those respawn platforms and cant even go to the questgiver, because there is no wayshrine in the plaza. I can also not see the tamriel map. Do i fight back though the mobs to go through the door and walk on foot to the plaza? Lets try that. Ahh i died... respawned on a platform even further away. I just logged out, not sure where i will spawn in today if i log in.

Probably in an experienced player basket, mostly was into lore, "endgame" pve and PvP, barely playing nowadays. Got in for several hours solo on a magnb with ardent flame subclassed.

Despite dying a bunch in the begining figured the flow and adjustments were made build wise, it's got smoother pretty quickly as the content isn't much diverse and pretty intuitive after some clashes and skirmishes. Overall had quite a fun, joined people around (on a team gilded) when beneficial and went on my own when on quests. Ran with some couple lowbies / new players and we did pretty good overall considering their lack of any vet experience, everyone seemed to have fun emoting and jumping over defeated bosses etc. but can see how lonely pugs can get demotivated quickly by not finding "the right people" or people at all in their instances.
I didn't felt like a target audience for something this game does in a long while, was pleasantly surprised but still it's a one-two evening activity pretty much, personally. It definitely will get better if I'd join up with some fellow players who still didn't left the game for some reason.

A bug encountered; a werewolf WB in his immunity/split phase can stuck with no "trap beam" spawning, we fixed it by running from the arena and back, probably didn't reset it properly and still he's last shadow got a proper health bar (16mil) instead of an immunity one and was defeated, no bugged state encountered after in next clears of the same boss.

An edit: it would have landed better if was marketed as a vet soft-grouping activity which can be entered by anyone "on their own risk" to avoid the backlash, same as not doing a golden pursuit as people tend to think it's mandatory for them to complete no matter they interested in content or not, it's an mmo so completionism is an obvious thing here.

twisttop138 wrote: »

. . . it's more for players that enjoy grouping. I think that's totally fine, not all content released is for me either.

I do not mind to be in the group but there is no group to find that does what I need to do. Partly because even for many group oriented players this is like HM trial, even 12 player groups being wiped -- I saw it on twitch streams. Each activity needs a group and it makes it impossible because the total cap is 36, there are absolutely no players to fill that many groups.

So to get your task done:
1st - you need to be very lucky to appear in the instance where good number of players need the same thing (very low chance due to 36 player cap)
2nd - you need to be very lucky to have the boss you need active (low chance due to hierarchy and respawn time)
3rd - you need to be very lucky that your group is good enough and has enough players to kill that boss (low chance due to extreme difficulty level and instance cap)

Effectively this is mission impossible for most of players including those who do not mind group content.
Solo players are utterly ruled out, bury your hope.

I really want to address the issue that items that are literally essential for progress are left to random drops;

Namely, Splinters from Coffers;

I've already collected all the other Splinters for all 3 Tolls except these ones, cause I'm just "out of luck", which frustrates me about the game in general, cause most of my friends have already moved on in the progression, even though we were progressing together, so I'm getting left behind just due to this system without any ability to affect

I should add that I completed both gold coffer quests, yesterday and today (I even asked others to share extra with me), and I also completed all the unique zone quests, some few times... but I still don't have any Splinter fragments from the Coffers; I just aren't getting them
I get that this is an attempt to keep me playing for a few days in a row, but it just makes me want to give up of game, since without the fragments I can’t access the Dungeons (aka I can't create tool to path to them), and instead my friends just move on without me, cause no one wants to wait days till I get my luck, which is causing me nothing but huge frustration, not motivation

maxandkon wrote: »

I really want to address the issue that items that are literally essential for progress are left to random drops;

Namely, Splinters from Coffers;

I've already collected all the other Splinters for all 3 Tolls except these ones, cause I'm just "out of luck", which frustrates me about the game in general, cause most of my friends have already moved on in the progression, even though we were progressing together, so I'm getting left behind just due to this system without any ability to affect

I should add that I completed both gold coffer quests, yesterday and today (I even asked others to share extra with me), and I also completed all the unique zone quests, some few times... but I still don't have any Splinter fragments from the Coffers; I just aren't getting them
I get that this is an attempt to keep me playing for a few days in a row, but it just makes me want to give up of game, since without the fragments I can’t access the Dungeons (aka I can't create tool to path to them), and instead my friends just move on without me, cause no one wants to wait days till I get my luck, which is causing me nothing but huge frustration, not motivation

I have seen a few posts on this and it makes no sense.

Create content that needs a group to complete but then sprinkle additional rng drops for progression on top? So a player can’t move on with their group?

So how do groups get to the trial then?

My one big critique so far is it doesn't feel rewarding when you kill the trash mobs. They don't give enough Favor and the fact you have to interact with a randomly spawned object to claim the Favor also feels bad because when in a large group you're lucky if you see the Favor object to interact with it before it dissappears.

I wanted so badly to enjoy this zone. I love the detail of the market area but it is dead. I can't play at "regular times" but jump in when I can and there is no one. It is un-soloable which I understand was highly marketed. The new house might as well just be a Participation Trophy but little else will be available for the casual player.