Handicap mode for veteran dungeons, trials and arenas: CP disabled in exchange for intelligent drops

Asardes

As everyone knows, now we have 8 or 9 possible traits for both weapons and armor, depending on content (not all content drops nirnhoned). Each trial, arena and dungeon contains 3 or more possible sets. All sorts of weapons drop for all sets. That probability distribution significantly reduces the likelihood of getting an useful, let alone optimal drop. Power creep has been an issue for a long time, and people in the upper skill bracket have complained that even end game content has become too easy.

I've thought about a sweeping solution to solve both problems in one go. Simply add an additional tick box* in the group finder that becomes available once veteran mode is selected, which will disable all CP stat buffs, bonuses and perks, the same way they are disabled by default in some PvP campaigns, but leaves the enemies and drops scaled to the current CP cap. Thus the players will become handicapped against the respective enemies, but they will become luckier as the drop table will be changed as follows:

- Armor pieces will only drop in: infused, divines, impenetrable, sturdy
- Destruction staves will only drop in: sharpened, precise, nirnhoned, charged
- Restoration staves will only drop in: powered, precise, infused, defending
- One handed melee weapons will only drop in: sharpened, precise, infused, defending
- Two handed melee weapons and bows will only drop in: sharpened, precise, nirnhoned, charged
- Medium armor sets will never drop staves
- Light armor sets will drop only staves and swords
- Heavy armor sets will drop only 1H/2H melee weapons if they have mainly stamina/weapon bonuses, but not staves or bows
- Heavy armor sets will drop only 1H melee weapons and staves if they have mainly magicka/spell bonuses, but no 2H melee weapons or bows
- Specific achievements and rewards will be added for completion in handicap mode

*If the tick box is not checked, both the CPs and the drop table will remain unchanged.

WarpigFunk

That sounds like a helluva lot of coding ... and a helluva lot of bugs on implementation.

Izaki

Just make the drops intelligent already

NordSwordnBoard

YES, I think it's overall a good idea

I like the idea, but here's one potential problem:

If some people can barely keep their head above water in a regular vet dungeon, will those same people check the box?

I'm afraid lack of skill will not deter poor players from checking this, making the content more frustrating; as well as good players bullying others into not using the box for their own reasons.

I do like the idea of better drops, but I'm afraid it will become a blame tool for the strong and an extra gimp to the weak.

Maybe base it off the two key reward, or make a third tier scroll so it becomes a group decision like it is now? (not that the way it is now is perfect, but at least you can decide about the 2 key scroll based on the groups performance up to that point.)

It's like we're haggling with ZOS for item drops to make sense...

Asardes

YES, I think it's overall a good idea

To answer all 3 objections:
- itemization is just a database that can be easily edited
- CP suppression is already implemented in some instances, namely some PvP campaigns
- The dungeon queue is already split between veteran and normal; It will only split veteran CP and vetran CP handicap

Trihugger

They can't even get the dungeon finder to work. What a joke.

VyersReaver

Cool idea. But no one will ever run DLC dungeons in this mode. It will be possible ONLY on the skill level that Hodor players are.