Optional Dynamic Diffulty

Rex-Umbra

Greetings fellow Tamrialites (IDK is that right?)

Myself and a lot of other players have been asking for more difficult overland since One Tamrial.

We generally get more immersed into the game when the none player characters we are fighting offer us give us some challenge.

I propose ZOS make OPTIONAL dynamic overland difficulty scale.

My proposal would not require a new Veteran instance of each zone but would instead work on the character level similar to the battlespirt de-buff in PvP. You would be able to turn it on or off on the character sheet at any time.

This would allow us players whom want a more challenging and immersive experience the option without interrupting players whom do want want to participate.

Everstorm

I like pie more than cake.

ZOS is dead set on having all quest/overland content (85% of all content?) be accessible to people who picked up the game an hour ago to play their very first computer game ever.

Tyrobag

I like pie more than cake.

Why don't you just not spend/slot CP, or use weaker weapons and armor? The result is literally the same thing, except you don't have to wait and rely on ZoS to do it.

Danikat

Yes. Allow players to have a challenge if they want.

I think the numbers, and possibly the effects, might need to be different that Battle Spirit to achieve the desired effect, but as a general idea I think it could work.

I'm already doing something similar by not using CP and I know other people have tried different approaches to reach the same effect like using fewer gear pieces or lower tier/level gear. The problem with any of these is it can be a pain when you want to 'turn it off', in my case I have to apply all the CP I'm not currently using then pay 3k gold to remove them afterwards (the gold is not a problem, if I don't do it a lot, having to go through and apply all the points is more annoying). With gear it means you have to carry and swap the sets and of course if there's any balance changes which affect you then you may need to update both.

So I think an optional 'buff' (more like a debuff really') which makes you weaker in overland maps could be a good solution, but I'm not sure what specifically it would need to do and it might take some trial and error to balance it appropriately.

Everstorm wrote: »

ZOS is dead set on having all quest/overland content (85% of all content?) be accessible to people who picked up the game an hour ago to play their very first computer game ever.

Then they just don't turn it on. In your extreme hypothetical example it's unlikely they would even be aware this is an option.

Wolfpaw

No. Why do you feel that way?

No, they will just break the game with more bugs/performance. ESO already has difficult pve end game content.

Hymzir

No. Why do you feel that way?

Like I pointed in another thread, a sliding difficulty slider would not solve anything, and would just lead to frustrating gameplay experience. Not to mention all the cool new bugs, that introducing yet another layer to the mechanics of the game would inevitably entail.

I get the call for a harder difficulty, but a slider wont really make things any better than they are now. It would not lead to real change in difficulty, just make targets be bigger "bullet sponges."

ZOS can't add new mechanics to bosses that are shared by all players. That is inherent design feature of the game. One size fits all. The only thing they could do to make that shared content harder, would be by limiting the damage you deal, and make you take more damage form the monsters. Kinda like what the difficulty slider does in say Skyrim.

It would lead to a slower paced combat style, where you need to pick your foes one at a time, and you would have to avoid fighting large crowds of mobs at once.

Boss battles would become battles of attrition where you would slowly chip away at the health of the boss, and go through several cycles of the bosses mechanics.

Sounds great right? You would have to use the terrain and and potions and pay attention to the fights. Well... You would, until another player, who has not opted to the harder difficulty, came swooshing by and melted the boss and mobs, and then went on their merry way, leaving you standing there looking like a schmuck.

Sliding difficulty would not make most of the games content any better, it would just make you contribution in boss battles irrelevant.

The thing is, that Overland content is mainly aimed and balanced for beginners. For non CP powered character, for characters wearing random found items, not carefully selected gold gear. For players new to the game and unsure about what they are doing. Not a day goes by in my overland sojourns without seeing some magicka based character running around with a two handed sword wearing heavy armor and light attacking some monster while throwing magicka based DOTs on it. The content is hard enough for players like that, and that is what it is balanced for. I once came by a trio of beginners in Nchulefttingth who asked for help with the bosses. When I then proceeded to nuke and melt a boss before they really had managed to even join combat with it, and their reaction was to type "WOW" in chat. I did continue to hang with them and help them complete the place, but I toned down my damage output a bit, so as to not make their contribution feel completely pointless. That is the difference between veteran players and beginners.

And that is the thing, there inevitably comes a point where you as a player have outgrown any challenge Overland content might provide, and your attention is now on other stuff. You are not roaming around the countryside to be challenged by mobs, you are there looking for chests to farm for a lead for some cool antiquities furnishing. You are not in a public delve to do quests or to be challenged by the fights - you are there to pick up the skill point for an alt from the group challenge, or are farming fragments of some collectible or another.

At that point, you want to waste as little of you time as possible on pointless mobs and simple bosses. There are enough time sinks build in the game as is, the last thing you need is to make Overland journeys even more tedious than they already are.

The difficulty is what it is, and it serves it's intended purpose well enough. There are constant calls for help in ZONE for world bosses, and beginners are not one shotting mobs. But as with all one size fits all solutions, it wont satisfy everyone's needs, and eventually you will outgrow any challenge it poses. Thems the breaks.

Besides, if you really just want to make boss fights harder and take more time, you can do that by lowering the power level of your character. Do not use any CP. Only equip white non set items. Skip on food buffs, and limit yourself to basic found potions. You ability to sustain damage goes down, your hits will be lot weaker, and your battles will take lot more time. Just keep in mind, that unless you are playing in the middle of the night in some far flung corner of the map, eventually a player, who is just interested in getting things done ASAP, will come running along and just nuke everything in sight, leaving you standing in the dust.

The only way to make harder overland difficulty to work, is by making a dedicated server for it. But that is not going to happen, because most people are not interested in spending any more time than is absolutely necessary on content they've already been through more than once. Offering better rewards would not work either, because that would just make "veteran" difficulty the new assumed standard, and the forums would be flooded with threads asking for the content to be nerfed, to make it less tedious, less aggravating and less time wasting. So the veteran serves would offer the same rewards for more work, and that would mean that they would remain pretty empty.

Challenging game play is a thing, and I get why one would go after it. But you gotta also look at the bigger picture, and accept that you can't always have your cake an eat it too. Overland content is not meant to be challenging, and trying to come up with ways to make it so is not productive, and definitely not worth the dev tie it would take to implement.

Vaoh

Yes. Allow players to have a challenge if they want.

Give sliders to reduce total Healing Done, total Damage Done, and take increased damage, anywhere we want between 0% to 99%.

Would let the fully geared out high level players fight alongside lowbies easier too without nuking stuff. Why not lol

lolo_01b16_ESO

Yes. Allow players to have a challenge if they want.

Vaoh wrote: »

Give sliders to reduce total Healing Done, total Damage Done, and take increased damage, anywhere we want between 0% to 99%.

Would let the fully geared out high level players fight alongside lowbies easier too without nuking stuff. Why not lol

I can't imagine why anyone would be opposed to that suggestion. It's not like we want more loot or xp or anything. Just a smooth way to temporarily reduce our own power.

And for those guys who always suggest playing without cp / gear / skills / ... thats not a good option for two reasons:
- Often times, some of the fun of your build is based on the skills and gear you use. Sure, a naked fistfight against a dragon is challenging, but not the kind of challenge I'm looking for when I play a fire mage in a fantasy rpg.
- I use all my characters for multiple activites. Sometimes I quest while waiting for a dungeon group. Now imagine how happy my random group for veteran stone garden will be when we get grouped and I tell them: "Sorry, guys, usually I'm a good dd, but for a more immersive questing experience, I did gimp my character. Just give me a few minutes to set my points, equip gear and get that mundus stone back."

Araneae6537

No, I don’t want overland to be a slog but I would love for story bosses to be more challenging and I think they are in instanced single-player (or group) mode so such options would be more feasible too.

RedMuse

Yes. Allow players to have a challenge if they want.

I like cake more so that option was right out.

Seriously though, as long as I keep my option for "easy mode" I'm all for adding a way to make overland harder for those that want that. My personal favorite is vet instances, but I'm flexible.

FrancisCrawford

Yes. Allow players to have a challenge if they want.

Exactly.

Everybody wants to blow through overland mobs like tissue paper much of the time. (If nothing else, that's ensured by the various grinds ZoS keeps adding, eg for CP or companion leveling or Bad Man's Hallow lead chasing.)

Cireous

Yes. Allow players to have a challenge if they want.

Yes.

Amottica

No. Why do you feel that way?

Tamrielians I would expect.

Just a question here. Is this thread suggesting Zos create a slider to make our characters weaker if we choose?

lillybit

No. Why do you feel that way?

Outside of the very few solo instances, they can't change mobs at all. They can't give them more health, make them hit harder, give them extra mechanics or anything like that because at any time a level 3 straight out of Coldharbour might join the fight and it has to be set at their level too. You can't have the same thing in the same fight with 2 different values.
The only way they could do it is to make you weaker and you can already do that for yourself. Don't set CP, don't use sets, food, mundus, whatever. Why add in another complicated system that will only impact performance even more when you have everything you need already?

Danikat

Yes. Allow players to have a challenge if they want.

lolo_01b16_ESO wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Give sliders to reduce total Healing Done, total Damage Done, and take increased damage, anywhere we want between 0% to 99%.

Would let the fully geared out high level players fight alongside lowbies easier too without nuking stuff. Why not lol

I can't imagine why anyone would be opposed to that suggestion. It's not like we want more loot or xp or anything. Just a smooth way to temporarily reduce our own power.

I have to admit when I first saw this topic I was waiting to reach the part about how of course anyone using this optional debuff should be rewarded with double XP and all drops being purple rarity or better, but I was plesantly surprised to see that wasn't the case and for once it's a genuine request for an optional hard mode, not a poorly concealed request for a farming mode.