[SUGGESTION ]Add level of difficulty option in order to improve PVE experience and COOP gameplay.

Xender

It is clear that ESO will be expanded much more as PVE game rather than PVP, however it is still online game and creating opportunities for players to cooperate will be great addition. Right now there is no reason to play together during campaign, there are no true coop mechanics and game is not hard enough to force players to cooperate. I know that you wont force players to play in teams and I agree with that, however you may add option to rise difficulty and add option for cooperative story gameplay. Thanks to that players may receive bigger rewards (gold, etc.) and it may be worth to play story line with your friend. When I think about true Elder Scrolls experience with online features I think that cooperative story mode will be awesome. Just look at Divinity Origin Sin and how awesome it was to play with friend.

Turelus

Sadly people would just still solo the "co-op mode" and take the rewards themselves.

Many players don't want to group for overworld content or in general, others who do normally find a way to do this any way.

The biggest issues with co-op in ESO are not the difficulty but the fact you're still just playing a solo game with someone next to you. SWTOR got co-op multiplayer questing right, it's sad no one else realised that and followed their system.

Xender

ESO is mmorpg but it doesn't benefit from it and because it is mmo you may find better single player experience in other games like TES 3, 4, 5, Witcher series, Gothic and more. Thing which can make ESO great are player interactions like coop or pvp (but this is themepark not a sandbox game, so pvp wont be superb advanced).

MakoFore

i agree- the ideas for coop gameplay should be expanded- they need new thinking here. the newer dungeons touch on it but there are so many interesting scenarios that could take place other than heal, dps ,tank. imagine a player having to go thru a maze blind ,in a certain time while the other players can see him - so they've got to direct him. or tag team speed runs thru certain parts, or actual puzzles - interesting panel puzzles that require thinking- like in witcher 2 ,etc.
it dosent have to be dps, dps, dps- but fun and interesting dynamic puzzle and fun dungeons that integrate various genres- i think that would be incredible and take this to the next level. and then of course finish with a boss that you tank and kill kill kill.

The_Art_of_Paw

I have seen this tried in other games with the results being that the top end players just adjust to it in a week and end up wanting another level on top. Takes the developers 3months to a year to then add another layer on top and same happens again.

And with most gaming environments, people either want to play at the top tiers or they want to just play in a relaxed manner. So you get the hardest level and the lowest (or near to lowest) being the only content available publicly with no middle ground for people to transition through.

Games that I have participated in that had effective grouping system usually just had a bonus for grouping up. Be it bonus exp events occurring, or a set bonus for being in a group, just something that made it fun to be with each other more then being helpful to completing the dungeon objective.

One other thing to keep in mind, is that no matter how great a game is at having group events. There are times people want to be alone, or need to be alone. Sometimes friends are not online, or schedules clash. So in any big game there is always many on the server that want to be questing alone and for it to be a fun environment, the rewards for all need to be somewhat balanced.

I find elder scrolls has a decent balance where most activities bring in similar rewards for time put in. Meaning that if you put an hour in to pvp (when competent) you can something useable in pvp that a similar hour in pve would bring you reward for pve.

Daemons_Bane

Xender wrote: »

ESO is mmorpg but it doesn't benefit from it and because it is mmo you may find better single player experience in other games like TES 3, 4, 5, Witcher series, Gothic and more. Thing which can make ESO great are player interactions like coop or pvp (but this is themepark not a sandbox game, so pvp wont be superb advanced).

Eso does benefit from being a mmo, but it a subtle way, so you have to look for it.. I don't agree that making it harder, aka trying to force teamplay, will make it better

Xender

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

Xender wrote: »

ESO is mmorpg but it doesn't benefit from it and because it is mmo you may find better single player experience in other games like TES 3, 4, 5, Witcher series, Gothic and more. Thing which can make ESO great are player interactions like coop or pvp (but this is themepark not a sandbox game, so pvp wont be superb advanced).

Eso does benefit from being a mmo, but it a subtle way, so you have to look for it.. I don't agree that making it harder, aka trying to force teamplay, will make it better

It wont be forcing, but will be difficulty scaling according to COOP. If you play in coop you should be able to make game worth of playing with friend.

Basically content still should be soloable however playing in coop should make it more difficult and add some benefits.

Daemons_Bane

Xender wrote: »

Daemons_Bane wrote: »

Xender wrote: »

ESO is mmorpg but it doesn't benefit from it and because it is mmo you may find better single player experience in other games like TES 3, 4, 5, Witcher series, Gothic and more. Thing which can make ESO great are player interactions like coop or pvp (but this is themepark not a sandbox game, so pvp wont be superb advanced).

Eso does benefit from being a mmo, but it a subtle way, so you have to look for it.. I don't agree that making it harder, aka trying to force teamplay, will make it better

It wont be forcing, but will be difficulty scaling according to COOP. If you play in coop you should be able to make game worth of playing with friend.

Basically content still should be soloable however playing in coop should make it more difficult and add some benefits.

So you basically want to create an extra instance of the game that only activates if you go into a group.. That's gonna be hard on the game I'd wager

Xender

I wont alter already existing content but maybe in another expansion (next after Morrowind) it will be nice to have something designed for COOP gameplay in main story line? Some adjustable quests?

Naerri

Turelus wrote: »

SWTOR got co-op multiplayer questing right, it's sad no one else realised that and followed their system.

I remember doing those alone anyway

Turelus

Naerri wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

SWTOR got co-op multiplayer questing right, it's sad no one else realised that and followed their system.

I remember doing those alone anyway

I did the whole Imperial story with friends at launch, one of the best MMO memories I have. I only did the instances for my class solo most of the time, if not with my friend on his Warrior.

Lavennin

Sometimes my friend and I have shared quest progress, that is, if I complete one step then she doesn't have to do the same thing. But the majority of quests don't seem to allow that and the quest items/NPCs are instanced. We group all the time.
I'd actually like to know when is progress shared. It's utterly confusing & inconsistent with current system.

As for the difficulty...it's too easy, sure, but I guess they think the elites are a good enough incentive.

Daemons_Bane

Xender wrote: »

I wont alter already existing content but maybe in another expansion (next after Morrowind) it will be nice to have something designed for COOP gameplay in main story line? Some adjustable quests?

But if you want the open world to change when you get a group partner, I'm pretty sure that you'd have to add a lot of stuff to the existing game.. If I run into a group of enemies, they are set to x level.. If you and your friend run into them, you want them to be y lvl.. And what happens if we run into the fight at the same time?

Xender

To be honest, the whole single player content could be instance based for party players.

Coilbox

Xender wrote: »

It is clear that ESO will be expanded much more as PVE game rather than PVP, however it is still online game and creating opportunities for players to cooperate will be great addition. Right now there is no reason to play together during campaign, there are no true coop mechanics and game is not hard enough to force players to cooperate. I know that you wont force players to play in teams and I agree with that, however you may add option to rise difficulty and add option for cooperative story gameplay. Thanks to that players may receive bigger rewards (gold, etc.) and it may be worth to play story line with your friend. When I think about true Elder Scrolls experience with online features I think that cooperative story mode will be awesome. Just look at Divinity Origin Sin and how awesome it was to play with friend.

Absolutely agree with your idea, a new difficult level that could make people find a challenge in the content they have ran a thousand times.

And for new content, just implement mechanics that enforce teamplay. Look for example to mechanics like the bosses on mazzatun, you have to cooperate with your team in order to be able to finish it. There are certain moments that doesnt even care how much DPS you can put on a boss, cause you have to attend to some mechanics in order to notmake your whole group wipe.

The result is way more engaging and fun for everyone than simply nerfing to the ground sustain, making fights longer and boring, cause the mechanics are always the same, and when you run out of juice the boss is not gonna sit to wait until you are back...

Coilbox

MakoFore wrote: »

i agree- the ideas for coop gameplay should be expanded- they need new thinking here. the newer dungeons touch on it but there are so many interesting scenarios that could take place other than heal, dps ,tank. imagine a player having to go thru a maze blind ,in a certain time while the other players can see him - so they've got to direct him. or tag team speed runs thru certain parts, or actual puzzles - interesting panel puzzles that require thinking- like in witcher 2 ,etc.
it dosent have to be dps, dps, dps- but fun and interesting dynamic puzzle and fun dungeons that integrate various genres- i think that would be incredible and take this to the next level. and then of course finish with a boss that you tank and kill kill kill.

THIS.

Create situations on fights on which DPS doesnt matter cause you have to engage other mechanics, like puzzles as he said, or many other situations. Think on the boss on Funghal that teleports you to another room where you have to deal with some spiders, think about the mechanics on the last boss of mazzatun, where you cant see the statues and other players have to tell you. There could be such amazing ideas that would make it really FUN, and cooperative. On top of that, add a new level of difficult to the game, challenging for really good players with better rewards, or better RNG. IMO that would be great.

Daemons_Bane

In dungeons, go wild That's a lot easier to make/handle ingame