ZOS, It’s the little things that can matter the most!!

Hammy01

Most MMO’s have a problem with player burn out and or boredom. New content is often added in to combat this issue but as with all new content it is devoured up and often rather quickly and once that content is beaten you are back to problem A… player burn out and or boredom! Oh and I guess you could add in another category of players as well… players who are beyond frustrated with the RNG gods! In most cases, from my own experience over years of gaming as well as reading others experiences those players will often quit playing and move onto something else… usually leaving behind a much smaller but dedicated player base until those players get tired of a declining player base and they in turn quit themselves.

The above has lead me to firmly form my own opinion that successful MMO’s (ESO) need the little things that I like to call “Gap Fillers”. These are the things that you can do when you are tired of raiding the same dungeon over and over or doing the same thing in PvP every night. ESO already has some of those “Gap Fillers”, Treasure hunting (cool idea), Achievements (cool idea), Crafting (meh.. could be better) and Fishing. What I would like ZOS to do is expand upon their current “Gap Fillers” and maybe add in some new ones.

1. Treasure Hunting – I think this is fine in its current state. Per @robkrush - You should have the chance to find a costume in the treasure chest you did up!!

2. Achievements - I think this is fine in its current state.

3. Crafting – To me crafting in this game is rather bland. It’s fine for what is needed but nothing really engaging… just time consuming. I don’t really have any ground breaking ideas for improvements here other than maybe adding in the ability to craft rings and necklaces and maybe add in some new recipes. Ohh and maybe add in an engineering crafting line (not sure how this would fit in lore wise but we already see a lot of mechanical stuff in game already).

4. Fishing – Fishing is a really good “Gap Filler” but in its current state can be a little boring. ZOS was on the right track with the fishing achievements and making it the only place to get Perfect Roe but they need to expand on this. First off, the wet gunny sacks need more than just junk (about 99% of the stuff I get in the gunny sacks is instantly destroyed). They should have the chance to contain scrolls/torn pages that lead to rare quest for rare loot (like a rare mount!!), we should also be able to fish up some rare pets like a mini mudcrab, large python or baby crocodile.
Edit - I thought of something else - ESO could have weekly fishing tournaments with leaderboards(prizes given out at the end of the week just like pvp/pve). Top 50 for most fish caught, top 50 for most rare fish caught and if they ever add is fish sizes.. a top 50 for biggest fish caught.
Plus Provisioners could craft bait for fishing (IE - Blue bait that can be used in any body of water, purple bait that can be used in any body of water plus gives +10% chance to luck!).

6. Horse (mount) racing – This would be something new but a cool thing to do in the down time. Just head to the local underground horse track, pay an entrance fee and race against other players for cool prizes and or gold. Of course this would have to be done with standard horses as it would be no fun for a lev 10 to race against a maxed out vet 16. You could also have monthly tournaments to compete in as well!!

6. Underground fight club – Tired of the daily grind.. well just head to the underground pub and down a couple of pints (you know… to gather a little liquor courage ) and enter into a bare knuckled contest where the winner gets the spoils!!

7. Various card games – Not exactly sure how this would fit in but I think it would be cool to go to a pub and play something like blackjack or poker (or something ESO lore equivalent). This is just something extra to do alone or with friends when no one wants to do the daily grind of PVE or PVP or just a quick time filler while waiting for people to log in. I also understand that gambling in game could be a touchy subject so instead of playing for gold you play for tickets or poker chips that can be traded into an NPC for a various selection of goodies.. of course you would also have to spend a little of your hard earned gold just to get started.

Anyways this is what I have for now, any thoughts and or discussion about this is welcomed!! Oh and if you have any other ideas by all means please add them.

robkrush

All pretty cool ideas. Id like to see treasure hunting improved myself. More stuff to hunt for that is obtainable without RNG and useful, not necessarily gear, maybe costumes? These little things should be added one at a time without interfering with forward development and bug fixes, obviously.

Necrelios

I love the minigame ideas. Where I think they went wrong is the final linear game approach, once you complete a zone, it's stays completed, and there is no reason to ever go back there again. It would be fun if they added some random quests that up scale, dynamic world events or some daily quests involving dark brotherhood and thieves guild type stuff. Add some good replay value into the system. I would like a reason to go back to those earlier zones otherwise it just feels like it's going to waste.

Hammy01

@robkrush - Oh I like that idea, going to add it!

@Necrelios - I like the idea of having a reason to visit completed zones (other than grinding for mats or skyshard hunting).

Zerok

These are very good suggestions!

Volkodav

I'm having a great time going down the Achievement path at the moment. And every Skyshard in both Auridon and Stonefalls.
I've already become a murderer,a butcher,and gotten the "Ground Meat" achievement.
And I am still trying to get the one for jumping off that damn Water Falls.I spoke to the little guy on the rock,and have jumped in every way I can think of,but not yet do I get that achievement.
XD

Hammy01

@WhiskeyRiver.AZub17_ESO - You can get an achievement for jumping off a waterfall? I might have to check this one out!!

altemriel

great suggestions!!

CherryCake

It...it...feels like this game was kind of made on the run... many quests are almost the same, but with different npcs, and instead of fetching people, you fetch some objects...

So your suggestions would definitely make the game a bit more fun.

Hammy01

Another thing to add but not really part of the OP...
Maybe ZOS could allow us to skin the Blue and Green fish we catch with a slightly better chance to drop Perfect Roe??

Shardaxx

Some sort of arena where players can fight 1v1 or vs in small groups, and team games like capture the flag or some variant would be cool.

Holycannoli

I've always loved the idea of tavern games in MMORPGs but sadly have never seen them. Poker (either cards or dice. I prefer dice, like Yahtzee), blackjack, some sort of darts, checkers, chess etc.

There was literally one "massive multiplayer online" game that had checkers and chess tables in taverns but it was a little-known top-down graphical MUD so it doesn't really count.

I want taverns in ESO to be the places people hang out to chat and play minigames, rather than standing around the square outside the bank.

Imagine being able to play a game of chess vs someone in a tavern? It can be an NPC or another player. Imagine a twitch-based darts UI? Card games? It would be fun and atmospheric.

MMORPGs never bother with that kind of stuff though.

Shardaxx

Yes totally agree Holycannoli the taverns in eso are woefully underused and should be the place to hang out.

Krombie

ZOS, Make taverns useful!!

Great ideas, Can't wait to see them in-game if they ever introduce them

TheShadowScout

I mentioned it elsewhere, but I'd love to see tavern games. Like, say, have a selection of a dozend different games, and have two of them in each tavern, different games in different taverns... maybe one against some NPC and one set up for PvP gaming?
Stuff like:
- Arm wrestling, with unequal "strength" values determined by average of health and stamina (sorry limp-wristed bookworm mages, this is a sport for the strong! ) with perhaps even a huge bonus for choosing "big and muscular" in your character design... (common in nord and orc bars)
- Drinking contest, again depending on health/stamina (again, size bonus if it can be coded, perhaps even racial boni for "hardy" races like nords), down more drinks then your opponent before falling over or showing other effects...
- Eating Contest with a set time, and whoever eats more wins, with a wide selection of foods that each take a different time to gobble down. Find out which nom fastest, and then grab more of those then your opponent kind of stuff...
- Spell contest, much like arm wrestling only here magica rules supreme, push spell light to one or the other direction through the power of your will... (common in elf & breton bars)
- Insult contest, pick the right line out of the choices, different lines will work in different regions... win three of five or something to make it more of a challenge then getting lucky once...
- Dart board (simple "click at the right time" type minigame)
- Board game (something like checkers, maybe? or four in a row? or both in different bars)
- Card game (possibly of varying type depending on region...)
- Memory game (find the two matching cards...)
- Perception game (...under which shell is the gem?)
- Dancing game, use the right dance emote for the song the tavern bard plays...
- Dares - get a random "dare" which may involve going to a certain place and doing a certain action... sometimes just legwork, sometimes searching for something, sometimes spawning an enemy to be defeated... random.

And maybe even more of those added to likely places. The festival in windhelm. The wedding in Alik'r. The five finger dance. The Mansion in coldharbour. Possibly someday have a "Sanguines plane" oblivion map for a cross-faction "party time" social interaction location... Full of dark seducers in skintight outfits! With free food and drink! Good music! Dancers! A duelling arena. Hot springs to relax (and oogle other characters in their underwear, BtW, we should get better looking underwear for our characters to be more oogle-able! I wanna see some cute dunmer boys bu... uhm... ) And org... uhm...several people getting together to know each other, in an, hmm, physical way, if you get the meaning... or at least as close to that as ESO dares to get within their rating...
I'd sooo fu... uhm... fully buy that DLC!