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What I'd like improved in ESO (from the point of view of an established player)
RMerlin
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I've been playing this game since the beta days. I still love this game, it has an incredible amount of things to do, for a variety of different playstyles. I've been an ESO+ subscriber from the start, and can't see that changing in the near future.
I'd like to share a few things I'd love to see improved in the future. I won't talk about the already known issues of lag, skill balance or stability, but more about the game content itself from the point of view of an established player, who is at (or near to) the gear and CP caps.
- The overland content is way too easy. Before One Tamriel, a player could self-adjust his difficulty level by going into a higher level zone, providing him with some challenge (and with higher risks came higher rewards: more XP, slightly higher level gear, etc...) Since One Tamriel, all the overland content (outside of bosses) is so trivial to a long-time player, the trash mobs might as well not be there at all (and in fact, one generally rides through them without even stopping). It takes two skill attacks to kill anything. I would like to see either more variety in difficulty level for overland mobs, or at least the difficulty increased in some select areas. Have some areas that are more challenging than others. There is so much content for a new player to do, I don't think he'd notice if a small percentage of the overland content required people to have above average gear and skills to tackle. Right now, all the overland content is trivialized once you're high level enough. I never feel threatened in any way while running around the overland aras.
- The current gear feels bland. When you get a pair of light pants with Magicka stats you've pretty much seen them all, they ALL share the exact same stats values. Only difference is in which set bonuses are applied and in which order. I'd like to see more variety in stats, so one might feel a reason to upgrade from time to time, or on a rare occasion someone might go "Wow! this is awesome" at a lucky drop. Otherwise, one simply goes straight at the crafting table or to a specific location, gets the desired pieces, and he's pretty much done gearing up, with only maybe a few variation in monster set pieces. The current gear feels too cookie-cut, more variety in stats would be nice. This might work in a game where gear level increases every few years, but the current (lack of) character progression means that once you're CP 160, you gear up, and you're done. The only time in the past few years a CP 160 character might get new gear was if you wanted a new monster set, or if you wanted to try a different build.
- Quest rewards are generally vendor trash (or decon fodder). Right now once you have a character at CP 160, you pretty much have no reason left to do any questing, aside from the desire to experience the storytelling (this was why I had a blast going through Clockwork City, but wouldn't do it a second time on another toon). I would like to see more unique quest rewards, give us incentive to do the quests even if you're already at the CP cap. Right now, a maxxed CP player only gets like 400g and an item he sells for an extra 40g at the vendor.
- The fun of exploration found in single player Elder Scrolls game is lacking in ESO. Granted, you still need to wander a bit around to uncover wayshrines and delves, for for some reason it doesn't feel as rewarding as in the TES games. I must say I'm not quite sure what is missing there to bring back that sense of accomplishment as you would work your way around just to uncover hidden areas within the map, or possible hidden quests.
- A lot of these tie in to the fact that once you get high enough in CP, you basically have no progression left to do. No new gear to get, the extra CPs are giving you like 0.05% improvement on a given skill (assuming you're not already at max CP cap), and the gold you leaves you with pocket changes even if you don't take into account spending on gear repair and food. We need someplace for high CP players to progress since the gear level hasn't been increased a single time since we've reach CP160. The current CP system is hardly exciting, and brings to sense of progression. "Woooo, an extra 30 points to add to my already capped skills, let`s get an extra 0.5% here, a 1% there...). We need some place to grow our characters, be it skills or gear.
- Dolmens need to be upgraded. One of the coolest "ring event type" things I've experienced in an MMO so far are the Rift events in the game with the same name. They are basically like ESO Dolmens, except there are more waves of monsters, these dynamically adapt to the number of players participating in the numerous waves, and the final rewards (which will scale based on participation and difficulty) can potentially be really nice. Doing a Rift event was a rush when I did them. Players actually died during them. In ESO, after you've done a few, they quickly become trivial. I'd like to see dolmens become more dynamic in nature, and possibly self adjusting based on the number of players in the area. A high level player can already solo any dolmen, so when you get 15 players stacking on one, the only challenge is to be able to hit a monster before it even dies to the player mob. Even the uncommon bosses that can randomly appear during the final stage are generally easy to solo, much less a challenge for any sizable group of player. Spawn timer could also be randomized, so they don't just get farmed ad vitam eternam by a group of 30 players running through all three of them in sequence for an hour or two.
In short, a lot of the game content is trivialized since One Tamriel as it becomes quickly too easy for any high level player, and more variety in loot/gear/quest rewards would be appreciated, to give us incentive to do anything beside PvP or Trial farming.
I'd like to share a few things I'd love to see improved in the future. I won't talk about the already known issues of lag, skill balance or stability, but more about the game content itself from the point of view of an established player, who is at (or near to) the gear and CP caps.
- The overland content is way too easy. Before One Tamriel, a player could self-adjust his difficulty level by going into a higher level zone, providing him with some challenge (and with higher risks came higher rewards: more XP, slightly higher level gear, etc...) Since One Tamriel, all the overland content (outside of bosses) is so trivial to a long-time player, the trash mobs might as well not be there at all (and in fact, one generally rides through them without even stopping). It takes two skill attacks to kill anything. I would like to see either more variety in difficulty level for overland mobs, or at least the difficulty increased in some select areas. Have some areas that are more challenging than others. There is so much content for a new player to do, I don't think he'd notice if a small percentage of the overland content required people to have above average gear and skills to tackle. Right now, all the overland content is trivialized once you're high level enough. I never feel threatened in any way while running around the overland aras.
- The current gear feels bland. When you get a pair of light pants with Magicka stats you've pretty much seen them all, they ALL share the exact same stats values. Only difference is in which set bonuses are applied and in which order. I'd like to see more variety in stats, so one might feel a reason to upgrade from time to time, or on a rare occasion someone might go "Wow! this is awesome" at a lucky drop. Otherwise, one simply goes straight at the crafting table or to a specific location, gets the desired pieces, and he's pretty much done gearing up, with only maybe a few variation in monster set pieces. The current gear feels too cookie-cut, more variety in stats would be nice. This might work in a game where gear level increases every few years, but the current (lack of) character progression means that once you're CP 160, you gear up, and you're done. The only time in the past few years a CP 160 character might get new gear was if you wanted a new monster set, or if you wanted to try a different build.
- Quest rewards are generally vendor trash (or decon fodder). Right now once you have a character at CP 160, you pretty much have no reason left to do any questing, aside from the desire to experience the storytelling (this was why I had a blast going through Clockwork City, but wouldn't do it a second time on another toon). I would like to see more unique quest rewards, give us incentive to do the quests even if you're already at the CP cap. Right now, a maxxed CP player only gets like 400g and an item he sells for an extra 40g at the vendor.
- The fun of exploration found in single player Elder Scrolls game is lacking in ESO. Granted, you still need to wander a bit around to uncover wayshrines and delves, for for some reason it doesn't feel as rewarding as in the TES games. I must say I'm not quite sure what is missing there to bring back that sense of accomplishment as you would work your way around just to uncover hidden areas within the map, or possible hidden quests.
- A lot of these tie in to the fact that once you get high enough in CP, you basically have no progression left to do. No new gear to get, the extra CPs are giving you like 0.05% improvement on a given skill (assuming you're not already at max CP cap), and the gold you leaves you with pocket changes even if you don't take into account spending on gear repair and food. We need someplace for high CP players to progress since the gear level hasn't been increased a single time since we've reach CP160. The current CP system is hardly exciting, and brings to sense of progression. "Woooo, an extra 30 points to add to my already capped skills, let`s get an extra 0.5% here, a 1% there...). We need some place to grow our characters, be it skills or gear.
- Dolmens need to be upgraded. One of the coolest "ring event type" things I've experienced in an MMO so far are the Rift events in the game with the same name. They are basically like ESO Dolmens, except there are more waves of monsters, these dynamically adapt to the number of players participating in the numerous waves, and the final rewards (which will scale based on participation and difficulty) can potentially be really nice. Doing a Rift event was a rush when I did them. Players actually died during them. In ESO, after you've done a few, they quickly become trivial. I'd like to see dolmens become more dynamic in nature, and possibly self adjusting based on the number of players in the area. A high level player can already solo any dolmen, so when you get 15 players stacking on one, the only challenge is to be able to hit a monster before it even dies to the player mob. Even the uncommon bosses that can randomly appear during the final stage are generally easy to solo, much less a challenge for any sizable group of player. Spawn timer could also be randomized, so they don't just get farmed ad vitam eternam by a group of 30 players running through all three of them in sequence for an hour or two.
In short, a lot of the game content is trivialized since One Tamriel as it becomes quickly too easy for any high level player, and more variety in loot/gear/quest rewards would be appreciated, to give us incentive to do anything beside PvP or Trial farming.
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bethsheba✭✭✭
In short, a lot of the game content is trivialized since One Tamriel as it becomes quickly too easy for any high level player, and more variety in loot/gear/quest rewards would be appreciated, to give us incentive to do anything beside PvP or Trial farming.
Quite frankly, I think it is easy with any character no matter the level. Riding through mobs, 2 or 3 hits to kill, it feels like a joke. Even more so if you follow their new Skills Advisor, which I did with a couple toons just to see how they fared. I even destroy all Exp scrolls I get because before you get out of the starter islands now on the original plotline, you are level 10 or 10+ easy. Then you begin the quests in your starter zone, and like you said, other than WBs there is really no challenge. I only do it for the lore and questlines quite frankly. I can make it "slightly" more challenging by Self Nerfing. I ignore Skills Advisor, and build the way I want to for that character, use weak armor and weapons, and hold back on point allocation.
Sad that I have to do this to enjoy overland content, I could not imagine how it would feel if I even had cp on any character, which I do not.
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disintegr8✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭The problem is that you will find most new players disagreeing with you on some, if not all, of your points.
To me the game is only easy to longer term players because they know what they are doing, if you make overland content harder than it already is, new players will be put off, frustrated and disillusioned. I know we all want a challenge but the game needs new players to keep taking the game up, otherwise it will die.
I started a second account in the hope of finding a challenge with no CP, only to find it wasn't much fun. Even with basic assistance form my main account, an armour set and food, the content just seems way too easy and I just steamroll everything. I blame the 1T 'balancing' system a lot, as I feel it 'over compensates' low level players and makes them stronger than they should be.
Current gear and quest rewards are not trash when you are a new player with no crafting ability and no gold - they are the only way to get gold, 'better' gear, some food and potions. Sue, running nMOL at CP cap and getting an ancestor silk robe of magicka out of a chest doesn't help you much, but maybe ZOS just needs to do something about what drops for CP160+ players.
For me, exploring was only fun the first time I did it and it is something most players only do on one or two characters. Before 1T I rolled a character in each alliance so that I could visit all the areas. When it came to doing Cadwells Silver and Gold on one of them, it already seemed boring. There is no longer a need to 'explore' with 1T, you can simply go to the best grinding spots and get to CP160 as fast as you can.
Dolmens for me are simply too crowded, maybe a dramatic drop in XP associated with them will make them better. I can still be challenged soloing a dolmen on a new build and I don't mind them in their current state. Actually finding a dolmen to do on your own is a real bonus.Australian on PS4 NA server.
Everyone's entitled to an opinion.1 -
RMerlin✭✭✭✭disintegr8 wrote: »To me the game is only easy to longer term players because they know what they are doing, if you make overland content harder than it already is, new players will be put off, frustrated and disillusioned. I know we all want a challenge but the game needs new players to keep taking the game up, otherwise it will die.
I started a second account in the hope of finding a challenge with no CP, only to find it wasn't much fun. Even with basic assistance form my main account, an armour set and food, the content just seems way too easy and I just steamroll everything. I blame the 1T 'balancing' system a lot, as I feel it 'over compensates' low level players and makes them stronger than they should be.
That's why I'm not suggesting making the entire overland area more difficult, but to find a way to offer more challenging content in at least some areas.disintegr8 wrote: »Current gear and quest rewards are not trash when you are a new player with no crafting ability and no gold - they are the only way to get gold, 'better' gear, some food and potions. Sue, running nMOL at CP cap and getting an ancestor silk robe of magicka out of a chest doesn't help you much, but maybe ZOS just needs to do something about what drops for CP160+ players.
However let's face it, this game has more content than you need to reach level 50. It means a lot of that content gets wasted, as people have generally little incentive to do it after they are done reaching level/CP cap, and they have enough money to get half decent gear. If ZOS wants to continue selling new chapters, they need to give us (established players) an incentive to actually do the new content, beside just the fun factor.disintegr8 wrote: »For me, exploring was only fun the first time I did it and it is something most players only do on one or two characters. Before 1T I rolled a character in each alliance so that I could visit all the areas. When it came to doing Cadwells Silver and Gold on one of them, it already seemed boring. There is no longer a need to 'explore' with 1T, you can simply go to the best grinding spots and get to CP160 as fast as you can.
That's why I'm saying it's currently an issue. Even the first time it quickly gets boring "exploring" since there's little incentive to do so. The sense of discovery just isn't there after a few weeks wandering around Tamriel. Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestion to make as to how to address this.disintegr8 wrote: »Dolmens for me are simply too crowded, maybe a dramatic drop in XP associated with them will make them better. I can still be challenged soloing a dolmen on a new build and I don't mind them in their current state. Actually finding a dolmen to do on your own is a real bonus.
Most people are doing dolmens to farm for items to sell, that's why the dolmens in some zones are overcrowded, while in other zones they are utterly empty. Making them more dynamic would allow them to remain an interesting challenge even if there are already 20 people stacked there doing it.
I am not dismissing the current situation for newcomers, but pointing out where these are becoming issues for established player. And as an MMO matures, you tend to have less and less newcomers, and an increasingly large population of established player which you need to keep hold of in the long run. I'm not saying that ZOS should globally make everything harder to newcomers, but they need to find a compromise if they want to retain their established player base.1 -
RMerlin✭✭✭✭Caldwell's Gold is actually a good example. Most of us don't bother with it because there are no incentive to go through what turns eventually into a boring grind. You just skip through quests without following the dialog, sticking to each zone's main quest. Personally I gave up on it after getting Caldwell's Silver. Getting a new hat and maybe 10K gold total just doesn't justify the many hours required to get through it.Edited by RMerlin on March 19, 2018 10:11PM0
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VaranisArano✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭The overland content is way too easy - Before One Tamriel, I could go back to early zones and one-shot everything with light attacks. Go to harder zones? Sure, if the artificial miss chance didn't mean I couldn't hit things at all! I don't have the same pre-One Tamriel nostalgia at all. Opening up all the zones was a huge boon for replayability.
Right now, overland content is easy if I'm running my end-game DPS build. As a leveling player with no CP, bosses and minibosses weren't that easy. We still have threads from new players going "OMG how do I survive?!?!"
Dolmens - Dolmens do scale as you add more players. You'll see less monsters when you solo them versus when there are a lot of players. Its just that Dolmens can't keep up with the Alikr Zerg and the lag is already bad enough around those dolmens. If you want exciting dolmen events, the servers have to be improved or the zone is going to feel like a faction-stacked keep take in Cryodiil.
The rest of it I don't disagree with, but I don't expect it to change.1 -
newtinmpls✭✭✭✭✭
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- Dolmens need to be upgraded. One of the coolest "ring event type" things I've experienced in an MMO so far are the Rift events in the game with the same name. They are basically like ESO Dolmens, except there are more waves of monsters, these dynamically adapt to the number of players participating in the numerous waves
I remember early on Dolmens were impromptu community events because no one had a chance in heck of surviving without a ton of help.
I do miss those days.Tenesi Faryon of Telvanni - Dunmer Sorceress who deliberately sought sacrifice into Cold Harbor to rescue her beloved.
Hisa Ni Caemaire - Altmer Sorceress, member of the Order Draconis and Adept of the House of Dibella.
Broken Branch Toothmaul - goblin (for my goblin characters, I use either orsimer or bosmer templates) Templar, member of the Order Draconis and persistently unskilled pickpocket
Mol gro Durga - Orsimer Socerer/Battlemage who died the first time when the Nibenay Valley chapterhouse of the Order Draconis was destroyed, then went back to Cold Harbor to rescue his second/partner who was still captive. He overestimated his resistance to the hopelessness of Oblivion, about to give up, and looked up to see the golden glow of atherius surrounding a beautiful young woman who extended her hand to him and said "I can help you". He carried Fianna Kingsley out of Cold Harbor on his shoulder. He carried Alvard Stower under one arm. He also irritated the Prophet who had intended the portal for only Mol and Lyris.***Order Draconis - well c'mon there has to be some explanation for all those dragon tattoos.
House of Dibella - If you have ever seen or read "Memoirs of a Geisha" that's just the beginning...
Nibenay Valley Chapterhouse - Where now stands only desolate ground and a dolmen there once was a thriving community supporting one of the major chapterhouses of the Order Draconis0 -
Grimm13✭✭✭✭✭
✭disintegr8 wrote: »The problem is that you will find most new players disagreeing with you on some, if not all, of your points.
To me the game is only easy to longer term players because they know what they are doing, if you make overland content harder than it already is, new players will be put off, frustrated and disillusioned. I know we all want a challenge but the game needs new players to keep taking the game up, otherwise it will die.
I started a second account in the hope of finding a challenge with no CP, only to find it wasn't much fun. Even with basic assistance form my main account, an armour set and food, the content just seems way too easy and I just steamroll everything. I blame the 1T 'balancing' system a lot, as I feel it 'over compensates' low level players and makes them stronger than they should be.
Current gear and quest rewards are not trash when you are a new player with no crafting ability and no gold - they are the only way to get gold, 'better' gear, some food and potions. Sue, running nMOL at CP cap and getting an ancestor silk robe of magicka out of a chest doesn't help you much, but maybe ZOS just needs to do something about what drops for CP160+ players.
I see this argument every time someone brings up that overland content is too easy. People are thinking about this wrong. It's not at all levels that the content needs to be raised, remember that is is dynamic scaling already.
It needs to be tuned better to raised the top bar for the upper end players and take into account CP at all levels making adjustments there as well.
How hard is it to give players a hard mode option that they can toggle on to increase the challenge rating for them. Since all content scales to players it's one addition to add into the scaling if it's toggled on. It would not affect anyone else around them. You could argue that if you are in a group then it follows the choice of the group leader, give a warning it is on so players can leave group if they wish.
The quest rewards is even lack luster for new players. I many cases it seems to be a pat on the head and not really helpful. Starting out I would also prefer to be able to have some choices in what I get. New players feel pigeon holed into gear types, having to take a heavy piece when they want a light or getting a stave when they wanted a dagger.
Players like choices. Makes them feel they have some control and not just moving through motions like a trained monkey. Give them a choice to tailor rewards a bit then it make s a game more satisfying.
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HotToddy✭✭I'm played a fair amount of MMO's and have been playing ESO since beta as well (and I still sub) - one MMO component that I really miss that hasn't made it into ESO yet is the 'character sheet' that would allow players the ability to write their own origin story. This along with an 'inspect character' ability in order to view other player's origin stories and achievements would be a really nice 'quality of life' feature.
One of the main reasons I miss the 'character sheet' is that it doesn't feel like anyone really hangs out at social spots like they do in other MMO's (for ESO it would be taverns). Other than making consumables for your character and the occasional quest that may lead you into a tavern, no one really uses it as a social gathering place. If player's had the option of checking out other player's 'character sheets' the taverns might be used for something that could gather the community together in a very casual way.
I used to spend hours in other games just reading the fiction that players would put together for their characters in these social gathering areas. For an MMO, ESO doesn't seem to do much to encourage these types of connections. Granted, the 'group finder' might put a party together for you, but it really sterilizes the social experience of meeting with new people , talking with them, and then forming an adventuring party the old fashion way.
Again, just something that seems to be glaringly absent from this game that feels like it would be incredibly easy to implement that would add more depth to the social experience and add to the creativity in regards to character creation and roleplaying.3 -
Hluill✭✭✭@RMerlin
I would love to see some tweaks to various areas. Make some areas harder, give some bosses or named some crazy abilities or skills. I will say this game isn't as eyeroll-easy as many of the games I play. It's tough to balance combat challenge between feeling effective and heroic or feeling scared and worthless.
And I would love to see more "live events". The dolmens can be fun, but, more often than not, turn into a grind of skill-spam races. Maybe some towns could be invaded or something...
@HotToddy
I miss character sheets too.Black-handed Hluill and his daughter Leyek of House Numaril.0 -
RMerlin✭✭✭✭And I would love to see more "live events". The dolmens can be fun, but, more often than not, turn into a grind of skill-spam races. Maybe some towns could be invaded or something...
More dynamic events would definitely be nice. There are a few right now where you can run into a minor daedra invasion which consists of two waves of easy-to-kill mobs. I'd like to see the idea expanded a bit. Right now these are as easy as random overland trash (except those events in Craglorn which are much more challenging).
There's actually a few nice ideas in Craglorn which never made it elsewhere in game. Initially, Craglorn was intended to be targeted at groups. They made it slightly more solo-friendly, with a few areas still group-only. We haven't had anything new similar to that since Craglorn initially launched.
Edited by RMerlin on March 20, 2018 2:36AM1