DSA: Progress Saving Between Arena 5 and 6

ThatHappyCat

I love DSA. It's fun, reasonably challenging in Vet mode, and the rewards can be nice (although more often than not they aren't). The main thing that prevents me (and many people I know) from running it more often is the time investment. A DSA run generally demands at least 1.5 hours and can take considerably longer if the group isn't experienced. This sometimes isn't feasible, and can be pretty draining.

What I would like to see is an intermission between Arena 5 and 6 (i.e. the midpoint, before Boethiah starts talking) that allows you to save your progress and resume playing (with the same group members) at a later time if you desire. This would make the time required to run DSA much more manageable, and should make DSA far more accessible to everyone; veterans and newcomers alike.

Gyudan

I agree with OP.
Maybe the progress could be saved through a quest unlocking a portal that leads to the appropriate instance. The other group members could port to the quester's instance, but their own quests wouldn't update if they haven't completed the previous stages.

For example:
- player A's quest is at stage 5
- player B stage 3
- player C stage 5
- player D stage 8

Player B goes to the Arena, takes the portal and arrives at stage 5. The other players follow and complete that stage. The following happens:
- player A's quest moves to stage 6
- player B stays at 3
- player C moves to 6
- player D stays at 8
The group can continue to the next stage though the regular portal. Once they complete stage 8, player D's quest will update and everyone will be able to progress to the next stage regardless of the stage of the quest.
Once the quest is completed up to stage 10, it resets.

ThatHappyCat

Well, I think running DSA should still be a minor time investment (like dungeons), so being able to save after every arena seems a bit much.

dylanjaygrobbelaarb16_ESO

Its my understanding that this is still a low time investment for mmo raids, even though its "long" for ESO

ThatHappyCat

Most long raids from other MMOs allow progress saving.

mfrd36nrb18_ESO

That's the point of the Arena, to be demanding, if it isn't so its name won't be that. Some games have one month long arenas, so this Arena is fine, is for endgame players mostly, so stop with the ridiculous demands on this forum.

schroed360

Gyudan wrote: »

I agree with OP.
Maybe the progress could be saved through a quest unlocking a portal that leads to the appropriate instance. The other group members could port to the quester's instance, but their own quests wouldn't update if they haven't completed the previous stages.

For example:
- player A's quest is at stage 5
- player B stage 3
- player C stage 5
- player D stage 8

Player B goes to the Arena, takes the portal and arrives at stage 5. The other players follow and complete that stage. The following happens:
- player A's quest moves to stage 6
- player B stays at 3
- player C moves to 6
- player D stays at 8
The group can continue to the next stage though the regular portal. Once they complete stage 8, player D's quest will update and everyone will be able to progress to the next stage regardless of the stage of the quest.
Once the quest is completed up to stage 10, it resets.

Just this ^^. That would be great...

ThatHappyCat

mfrd36nrb18_ESO wrote: »

That's the point of the Arena, to be demanding, if it isn't so its name won't be that. Some games have one month long arenas, so this Arena is fine, is for endgame players mostly, so stop with the ridiculous demands on this forum.

... Are you under the impression that these one-month-long arenas you speak of require the players to play continuously for one month?

mfrd36nrb18_ESO

Yup, Castle Age is one. Scripting is fierce on those arenas

Islyn

I think just even a checkpoint HALFWAY through would be fine. Or if you wanna get fancy - Guydan's way.

Enodoc

This sounds like a nice idea. I know of some MMOs that do this; a 3-stage raid, where each stage is quite long (probably comparable to half of DSA), and at the end of the stage you get a key to enter the next stage. At the end of the stage, the key is removed.
With this for DSA, you wouldn't need to be in the same group, you'd just all need the half-way key.

ThatHappyCat

Yeah, I don't really see any downsides to this: it would make the content more accessible for everyone and doesn't reduce difficulty, unless you consider the difficulty in making time for a run to be part of the game.

cote-bmsb16_ESO

Make it easier? Nah, rather see less people with the DSA title, not more.

ThatHappyCat

cote-bmsb16_ESO wrote: »

Make it easier? Nah, rather see less people with the DSA title, not more.

Do explain how this makes it easier.