NOTES:
->The changes in the Veteran Zone setting would be optional and not applied to Normal Zones, Dungeons, Trials, or PvP.
->Please make sure to read the Q&A at the end as it might answer some questions and concerns you may have after you’re finished reading.
To Preface:
We know that the Developers are talking about difficulty options for overland & story content.
From Reddit about 1 year ago
Link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/bwdb0r/comment/epwrb9x
Text of answer
ZOS_MattF
Hello! We have no plans on implementing spears, but we have talked off and on about cool ways to do the one hand magic/one hand weapon thing. That's not on our roadmap anywhere, but we have been brainstorming.
There are so many cool things we could do! Seriously, we love these ideas too, but it all comes down to a matter of time and priorities.
EDIT: to respond to your edit. Yes, we've talked about this, in fact we tried to get that into the game as part of One Tamriel, but we just couldn't get it done. So we have ideas on how to have difficulty settings for overland content, but it's not currently planned. It's a great idea.
So this is Not a discussion on
"if" they should do it.
This is my proposal of what a Veteran difficulty setting option for Overland content could look like.
Veteran Mode for Zones
This is a separate instance of existing zones but with harder content.
The reason this veteran zone is a separate instance is because it takes some inspiration from the “Adventure Zone” concept, that ZOS tried a while ago in Craglorn, but with some tweaks & adjustments and applies it to the existing zones.
Players of any level can enter this instance but are warned that the content is harder and might need friends to help complete some of the areas in the game.
Solo is still a viable play style but it will be harder than it is in the “Normal Zone” instance. Also Players can still do the story on their own in Veteran until the Final Boss.
So if a player feels that the current content is too easy and want more challenge in their overland/story experience - they can check out Veteran Zones.
This Veteran Zone includes the following
Meaning;
- Larger enemy mobs
- Enemies have more health & deal more damage
- Enemies have greater range of detection
- Enemies have more mechanics/tactics/abilities
- Veteran Delve Bosses
- Veteran World Bosses that scale up to more players than in Normal
- Veteran Dolmens that scale up to more players than in Normal
- Veteran Story Bosses are hard group activities (more health & damage dealt, more mechanics + a Hard Mode)
Overland Content Changes
Enemies, Delves, Dolmens, and World bosses
Changes would have to be made to the enemies in order to make the overland more exciting.
Meaning that enemies will have to be Tougher. Not just more health & more damage dealt.
They will have access to more abilities, including ultimates, and tactics along with the removal certain cues that were available in normal overland.
For example: the red path indicator that an enemy is about to charge you would no longer be visible and they would charge at you about 50% faster than they do in normal.
Sometimes a mob leader will be of higher status. So a mini boss can actually be encountered in the wild. Like a “Bandit Chief”.
The Coldharbour spawns in the vanilla zones include more enemies.
Tougher monsters will be littered throughout the zone, like we see in Craglorn with mobs that include Atronachs
Example: Veteran Murkmire will have large Voriplasm monsters, Wamasu & Argonian Behemoths wandering certain parts of the zone.
Imagine a Voriplasm Wamasu Skeleton monster.
With those changes Delves will be tougher without necessarily needing to increase the population too much.
Dolmens & World Bosses will scale to greater amount of players. This way it is much harder to cheese the encounters.
Dragons are going to have to use more abilities and use them more frequently.
Just some examples of how encounters could be “tougher” and not just “longer”.
Changes to the Story Bosses?
Many Endgame Players, including myself, are tired of Story Bosses that are designed for casual players which can be easily dispatched. It’s hard to care about the story when the final antagonist can be beaten in 2 seconds.
So in Veteran Mode, the Main Antagonists are memorable experiences that live up the how the stories build them up.
In Veteran Mod the Story Boss encounters are essentially re-done to convert them into Repeatable Dungeons & Trials. Q2 & Q4 quest bosses would become dungeons, while the Season Story Boss would be a Trial. These encounters would not be something that players could queue for but would have to seek aid in/out of game. These dungeons & trials are for challenge so they will not have a normal mode nor will they have gear sets.
These bosses are the end goal to test your mettle from all the work you’ve done so the only rewards from these encounters are cosmetic to show off your accomplishment.
If a player wants the solo story boss experience then they can play the “Normal Zone” setting.
(EDIT: Is there room for Vet Solo story bosses? Of course.)
NOTES:
- This does not apply to the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood DLCs. Those bosses will be harder but they will NOT be converted to group content.
- In Veteran Mode, the Craglorn Zone will be reverted to making the Trials necessary to complete the whole main story quest line.
Dungeons & Trials: Full Break-Down
Question of Rewards
In past discussion one of the major issues with “Veteran Overland” that people have brought up is players using Vet mode for farming gear more efficiently, this would create an extreme divide in player base and leave the normal zones empty.
In my opinion the current gear reward system in Normal is already very good and if the goal is
challenge then increased monetary reward should not be the priority. So Veteran mode for Overland will NOT provide any advantage in obtaining better gear.
If a player wants to grind for gear in the zones then Normal mode would be more efficient. This way there is not a drastic split in the PvE player base.
Also players with existing characters who have already completed the zones & quests have no reason to return so, besides gear, what would make players interested in going back? Add things that allows players to show off their achievements, that’s a better long term reward than farming gear which has stats that could change under any given update.
Just like Dungeons & Trials - Add Achievements & Cosmetics that can be obtained through gameplay.
In the base game make an achievement for completing the challenges for each faction in Veteran mode: Ebonheart Pact, Daggerfall Covenant, & Aldmeri Dominion
Then apply this system to current & future DLC content
Make a list of achievements for each Boss & Group content of each zone.
- Beat X number of Y type Enemies
- Beat all Vet Delves
- Beat the Vet Public Dungeon
- Beat all Vet World Bosses
- Beat all Vet Dolmens (or beat them X number of times)
- Beat the Vet Story Boss
Add achievements for the Story Boss to make players want to go back and repeat the fight
- Speed run
- No Death
- Hard Mode
Something like we see in dungeons & trials
Image Example of achievement challenges for the Fang Lair Dungeon
What kind of obtainable cosmetics? Like Dungeons & Trials we would be able to obtain;
- Titles
- Colors
- Head items (hat, hair, facial hair, face markings, adornments, etc)
- Skins
- Costumes
- Signature Motifs
- Collectibles
- Furniture
- Pets
- Personalities
- Mounts
- House
Overall this would provide a lot of re-playability.
Final
This would require more effort and investment from the developers but I think this system would do the following;
- Provides more challenge for all players
- Encourages players to work together and socialize.
- Makes the story experience more enjoyable & engaging for long term endgame players, where the main antagonist is a memorable experience that fulfills the build up the of the story.
- Adds more cosmetics that can be obtained through gameplay.
- Adds a system which works to close the skill gap by encouraging players to venture out of their comfort zone.
- Adds re-playability to content.
- Overall adds more to the game which increases the value of existing & future content.
Q&APlease check this section as some of your questions may have already been answered here.