The night market is fun. In a way. Not as the main feature of the Event. If you are in a well organized group with communication and direction for the same quest , a lot of fun! Especially if the people in your group are friends. However a vast majority of players tend to solo mainly and group when needed. So it becomes difficult to accomplish the quest in a meaningful way. It becomes frustrating and NOT fun to constantly die and respawn. One main complaint I see in group chat is the fact that it is the grind. OP Trash mobs , OP trash mobs , OP boss , rinse and repeat. 5 favor maybe. But that really doesn't bother me , it is the length of time spend on trash kills with no/little reward. I understand that some people are enjoying this new content and I'm glad, However IMHO: Night market needs a damage scaler (normal or Vet mode) or reduce trash mobs damage to the equivalent of a 4 person dungeon on normal mode.

Their philosophy of curiosity and knowledge appealed to me.

agelonestar wrote: »

It is difficult to enjoy without a large group. It’s also very grindy.

It’s early days, but right now I don’t think this is the kind of new content that will appeal to many. I’m not really sure what the aim is.

The aim is probably mid-game players.

Right now, Night Market is too easy for endgame “sweaty” players, and too hard for solo casuals, allegedly. The problem is that ZOS has catered to casuals for so long that the game barely has a mid-game playerbase anymore.

Instead, the playerbase is incredibly polarized. You have sweaty endgamers on one side, and then a massive amount of casuals who play the game like it is Skyrim and never even try to make the jump beyond that.

Most content ZOS has released follows the same pattern: vet and vet HM for endgame players, then normal mode for casuals. But normal mode is basically the baseline difficulty for the entire game, and it is so easy that it almost never requires you to think, build properly, or learn mechanics in any meaningful way.

There is no real midpoint that helps players transition from casual normal-mode content into actual endgame content. There is also very little incentive for them to make that jump.

Night Market feels like one of the first pieces of content aimed at that missing middle, and that is probably why it is so controversial. The content is not really the problem. The problem is that, after years of ZOS’s direction, mid-game players barely exist anymore.

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

You're stating that its inaccessible for solo or casual players but it really isn't. I have done the entirety of my Night Market runs so far with a PUG group via the group finder. There were absolutely casuals and solo players in those groups. Thats a feature accessible to everyone. You don't have to interact with anyone. You may wipe a couple times, but you will get through it with a group from the group finder. No one will call you out for being low level or dying. I even had a cousin that hasn't played ESO since Summerset hop into a PUG with me and complete it; he had no idea what he was doing and was still able to complete it all with a PUG group.

Just because you need a group to complete it doesnt mean it's inaccessible for casual players. That's why the group finder exists. You can joijoinn one or list a group of your own with your own title.

ZOS was very upfront about needing to group up for this event. It is balanced like a Normal Trial, which means it is balanced for anyone to be able to complete it with a 12 person group - and you can.

Again with this grouping thing. Again with disregarding other peoples' experiences because plenty of people have posted across multiple threads that even with larger groups, they all kept wiping. You're acting like your experiences are the only ones. If you can find capable groups, great! But a LOT of other can't despite trying to do the thing you keep acting like is the answer.

And again with the "ZOS said grouping would be needed" thing too, which is patently untrue. They NEVER said you would need to group, they said grouping would be encouraged but the marketing VERY clearly stated it was meant for groups AND experienced players. I really do wish people would stop being disingenuous about this fact in order to argue that the difficulty is "fine because it's meant for groups only" thing. As for a statement I don't recall posting one, but I can very easily grab a link to the reveal livestream for people to hear it themselves.

2026 Reveal Livestream

Here's the link to the livestream, the part about who the content is for is around 34 or 35 minutes in. They say it's specifically for experienced players AND groups, and that grouping would be encouraged by the difficulty, NOT that it would be needed. They even say it's meant to be accessible for everyone but judging by all the feedback it clearly isn't actually hitting that mark. Not when experienced players are having this hard a time and not when numerous groups are even struggling.

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

ZOS was very upfront about needing to group up for this event.

That's not correct. The statement was that it would be hard to solo, so one would probably prefer to follow some other players along. That's not the same as saying "group content". So people had different expectations, obviously.

There was also a statement that it was an attempt at a "soft grouping zone" - which is understood at just tagging along with others who randomly show up - basically like it had been with the Writhing Fortress last year, where you absolutely neither needed a pre-organized group nor use some grouping tool, you could just run with the masses. So also that led to different expectations.

@Arunei I've seen you posted the quote in some other thread (unfortunately, I can't find it right now). Maybe you could add it here.

I would like to hide my off-hand weapon outside of combat, I just prefer the one sword look.

I tried out NM as a sneak-around, following soloers (yes, people soloing) and based mostly on gauging trash mobs, for MMOs in general, this isn't exactly hard content. I'm immediately reminded of FFXI's Dynamis on release from 2004-2005, it was hard and required several parties of 6 to complete. In one zone, there was 1-2 mobs that would wipe the entire zone beyond recovery and you would be locked out for several days. FFXI also had Absolute Virtue and Pandemonium Warden, the latter of which was so hard that it made the news because people were getting sick after fighting it for over 24 hours straight, the former was simply unkillable for years with the devs having to create a video to show it could be killed. They wiped.

That's all well and good for FFXI but ESO has more casual players and many of us who played TES in our teens now have jobs and families, and we only have so much time to enjoy our hobbies and many of us prefer solo content. That's not what this is. I'm a solo player and I don't think this should be made into solo content. I DO think some of the trash mobs are overturned, I could solo one if I could pick them off.

My suggestion would be as follows:
-Tune trash mobs down a bit.
-better rewards for more incentives
-fix dailies so they are actually fun to do rather than a slog
-make it easier to find your group
-follow each event with a low-tuned solo-oriented event so everyone gets a chance.

TL;DR it's hard but it's not impossible, it's difficult for ESO but it's not that hard when taking MMOs in general into account. Trash is overtuned, quests seem like a chore rather than fun. Rewards are...I don't know I have literally not gotten a single thing outside of the house yet.

SilverBride wrote: »

This is why I play
Because there are many things
That I still enjoy

But the Night Market
Is a bad indicator
Of things yet to come

Turn this trend around
To what the Elder Scrolls are
While there is still time

Dude. It's not an "indicator of things to come". They literally have a road map of things to come this year. 2 solo friendly quest lines and a solo friendly ship combat system. The sky isn't falling because 1 single content drop was group oriented.