Taverns and Inns - cool but useless

Rafael0

Have you guys noticed how cool are taverns and Inns in ESO?
They have musicians, npcs with cool stories, and oftentimes a cool fireplace to stare. The whole atmosphere is just so delightful, yet, we have no big reasons to spend some time at those places. Putting in another words, they are almost useless!!

Since most of the jorneys back in the days (and even nowadays) had begun at taverns, I propose that the activity finder tab is turned into panels or npcs (one for each activity) located inside the pubs, similar to the ones from cyrodiil.

Also, one feature that would be extremely cool is that, once you've found a party member for a specific activity, a quest icon appears for you both pointing a table from the tavern.
By clicking on the quest mark, you both sit (instanced seeing each other even if not originally at the same pub) at the table and start drinking, eating and also being able to chat while waiting for the rest of the group to "join the table". Once all the 4 members are found, they are all sit at the table and have an extra 15 sec to say "hi", "good luck", or even just to take stare them.

I cannot express how much immersion that would provide for the whole "group finder" system, which everyone knows how artificial it is. On top of that, maybe you would even end up having a good chat while waiting your group, instead of just running in circles at city centre (that's me).

*I know that some queues take ages to find the 4 needed, and for those, I would implement that you may leave the table without leaving the queue if you feel so.

Heartrage

Well, we will probably be getting the card game in inns soon.

oldbobdude

I agree. Unless you have some activity inns have no value. Same in other games unless you had some survival mod on that made you eat, warm up and sleep.

NettleCarrier

I do think taverns need more purpose, but this isn't it. It's far more practical to keep harvesting while in queue, I don't really want to be forced to sit at a table with people who will most likely not say a word (like the good majority of random groups).

Ilumia

In the high isle preview twitch stream, they put a lot of emphasis on the card game being a tavern game. There will probably be npc's to play with in most taverns, which will give a nice opportunity to visit them, and spend some time talking to the other npc's, theu often have nice little stories or funny remarks to share

Zenzuki

Another aspect of the new card game being played in Taverns that could be a reason to visit, would be if we can spectate the players while they play their matches.

Obviously we would only be able to see the "Tavern Area" of the table and whatever player cards once they're played into the round (so no "over-the-shoulder cheating, etc.).

Allowing us to watch the matches would allow for people who may not be ready to actually play a PVP match, but would like to see how others strategize, work around different play-styles, defenses/attacks, etc, as well as give people a look at some cards they may not already have and how they play in-game, the ability to do so.

It could also open up Roleplay opportunities, as well as possibly side/prop betting and/or guild/community events, bringing much more life and usefulness and a reason to visit the various Inns/Taverns around Tamriel.

Curious though...
As it plays out now, has anyone on PTS actually watched two other players (or against npcs) play?
Does it just show an animation of two people sitting at a table? Do you actually see the match? Is it just two toons standing there? Or once a match starts, do they just blink away like when you port out to IC or Cyro or into an instance?

Lugaldu

Taverns would also make more sense if you walked out with a "bonus" after visiting them - either a stamina plus from being in a good mood or a stamina minus from being drunk.

Rafael0

The card game is something, I guess, but like... isn't everyone discussing about how artificial and single playerish MMOs have became nowadays?

NettleCarrier wrote: »

I do think taverns need more purpose, but this isn't it. It's far more practical to keep harvesting while in queue, I don't really want to be forced to sit at a table with people who will most likely not say a word (like the good majority of random groups).

What if a single person decided to ask about your day, or your opinion about something? Wouldn't that be cool?

Come on, look at this... players are prefering to "work" (harvest grind) rather than chilling for 2 min while listening to some joyful music and maybe talking to someone. The magic about MMOs is to have some role-playing moments from time to time. Forget about the META guys..

Rafael0

Lugaldu wrote: »

Taverns would also make more sense if you walked out with a "bonus" after visiting them - either a stamina plus from being in a good mood or a stamina minus from being drunk.

I thought about that too, like eating some food to increase stamina regen and drinking for magicka regen. I could be cool, but also would still feel artificial as you wouldn't spend time there. It would be like having a lunch in 5 min, when you are in a hurry lol.

LesserCircle

Add a new type of daily quest or move existing ones there.

phaneub17_ESO

Hunting dailies on a job request board, something related to the zone so each zone has something unique about it. That may be a tall order to fulfill but would bring a lot of foot traffic into them. The idea would be turning a one time quest into a repeatable daily quest doing the same objective on a smaller scale that comes up once a week. They only become available after you have completed the main quest on that character, then you get the daily as optional repeats afterwards; each zone would have a total of 7 of these quests, one for each day of the week.

Like in Auridon it could be after you cleared up the Thalmor training school you revisit to help the students learn, hunt down remaining veiled heritance, or help rebuild First Hold.

Lailaamell

Rafael0 wrote: »

The card game is something, I guess, but like... isn't everyone discussing about how artificial and single playerish MMOs have became nowadays?

NettleCarrier wrote: »

I do think taverns need more purpose, but this isn't it. It's far more practical to keep harvesting while in queue, I don't really want to be forced to sit at a table with people who will most likely not say a word (like the good majority of random groups).

What if a single person decided to ask about your day, or your opinion about something? Wouldn't that be cool?

Come on, look at this... players are prefering to "work" (harvest grind) rather than chilling for 2 min while listening to some joyful music and maybe talking to someone. The magic about MMOs is to have some role-playing moments from time to time. Forget about the META guys..

I love hearing red diamond song over and over again

Syldras

Zenzuki wrote: »

Curious though...
As it plays out now, has anyone on PTS actually watched two other players (or against npcs) play?
Does it just show an animation of two people sitting at a table? Do you actually see the match? Is it just two toons standing there? Or once a match starts, do they just blink away like when you port out to IC or Cyro or into an instance?

So far I've only been to the building where the quest line begins. The NPCs you challenge sit at a table, you talk to them via the normal dialogue window (one dialogue option starts the match). As you can't even sit down at that table and I've only seen other players standing around there in the room, I guess there are no animations. Not 100% sure, but it didn't look like it.

robwolf666

Rent a room for a day like in Skyrim?

EdmondDontes

The taverns and inns that have the super cheap room you can buy for 5k gold or less have a ton of utility. They can be used as free wayshrines. They are inexpensive and totally worth it. The rest of the tavern/inn is for RP players as far as I can tell. But the cheap rooms have a lot of utility where they are available.

Molydeus

You should get an experience boost for logging out in an inn. They do it in other games and it's a great incentive to use taverns and inns aside from just cooking at their hearths.

Saefti

Some nice ideas mentioned herein. I'd live to see more usability in taverns.

Kinda courious how it'll looks like when viewing ppl playing cards.

DMuehlhausen

Bring in the dancing wookies from Galaxies

Kahnak

Rafael0 wrote: »

Have you guys noticed how cool are taverns and Inns in ESO?
They have musicians, npcs with cool stories, and oftentimes a cool fireplace to stare. The whole atmosphere is just so delightful, yet, we have no big reasons to spend some time at those places. Putting in another words, they are almost useless!!.

Will no one think of the ERPers?

Syldras

Kahnak wrote: »

Rafael0 wrote: »

Have you guys noticed how cool are taverns and Inns in ESO?
They have musicians, npcs with cool stories, and oftentimes a cool fireplace to stare. The whole atmosphere is just so delightful, yet, we have no big reasons to spend some time at those places. Putting in another words, they are almost useless!!.

Will no one think of the ERPers?

They meet in taverns now? I only saw two once, amidst a Dwemer ruin. One doing pushups above the other, in underwear.

RisenEclipse

Rafael0 wrote: »

Have you guys noticed how cool are taverns and Inns in ESO?
They have musicians, npcs with cool stories, and oftentimes a cool fireplace to stare. The whole atmosphere is just so delightful, yet, we have no big reasons to spend some time at those places. Putting in another words, they are almost useless!!

Since most of the jorneys back in the days (and even nowadays) had begun at taverns, I propose that the activity finder tab is turned into panels or npcs (one for each activity) located inside the pubs, similar to the ones from cyrodiil.

Also, one feature that would be extremely cool is that, once you've found a party member for a specific activity, a quest icon appears for you both pointing a table from the tavern.
By clicking on the quest mark, you both sit (instanced seeing each other even if not originally at the same pub) at the table and start drinking, eating and also being able to chat while waiting for the rest of the group to "join the table". Once all the 4 members are found, they are all sit at the table and have an extra 15 sec to say "hi", "good luck", or even just to take stare them.

I cannot express how much immersion that would provide for the whole "group finder" system, which everyone knows how artificial it is. On top of that, maybe you would even end up having a good chat while waiting your group, instead of just running in circles at city centre (that's me).

*I know that some queues take ages to find the 4 needed, and for those, I would implement that you may leave the table without leaving the queue if you feel so.

They may be useless to you, but they're incredibly important to group RPers. Since housing appeared most guilds have practically gone underground from the overworld and do rp just in their houses. This is due to the severe trolling issues that happen... I guess purple text in your chat box offends people? So the real only overworld rp that happens is in taverns. Which the hot spot changes regularly when the trolls invade and it has to move.

So I'm incredibly against this idea. Encouraging questers in taverns only encourages trolling on RPers. RP is absolutely about immersion. So you spamming abilities, dancing on a counter to be funny, and doing otherwise stupid things is about as harmful to RP as pulling a boss away so it resets on someone. Which I think is something many people in this game don't understand. So bringing PvE people to them will cause severe harm to the RP community. When you know... they can't help themselves but to be a stupid head. Overworld RP is already nearly dead, please don't kill it anymore. When I did rp with my guild in the overworld we kept our posts to group, because the MOMENT someone could see our posts, they took it as an invitation to spam abilities, mock us in chat, and do everything they could to wreck the immersion and take away from the rp.

Rafael0

RisenEclipse wrote: »

Overworld RP is already nearly dead, please don't kill it anymore.

I actually had no idea of these trolling problems that RPers face... but a question for you..
Is RP dead because of troll players, or because games are not creating systems to incentive it??

Long live the META!

DagenHawk

Rafael0 wrote: »

Have you guys noticed how cool are taverns and Inns in ESO?
They have musicians, npcs with cool stories, and oftentimes a cool fireplace to stare. The whole atmosphere is just so delightful, yet, we have no big reasons to spend some time at those places. Putting in another words, they are almost useless!!

Since most of the jorneys back in the days (and even nowadays) had begun at taverns, I propose that the activity finder tab is turned into panels or npcs (one for each activity) located inside the pubs, similar to the ones from cyrodiil.

Also, one feature that would be extremely cool is that, once you've found a party member for a specific activity, a quest icon appears for you both pointing a table from the tavern.
By clicking on the quest mark, you both sit (instanced seeing each other even if not originally at the same pub) at the table and start drinking, eating and also being able to chat while waiting for the rest of the group to "join the table". Once all the 4 members are found, they are all sit at the table and have an extra 15 sec to say "hi", "good luck", or even just to take stare them.

I cannot express how much immersion that would provide for the whole "group finder" system, which everyone knows how artificial it is. On top of that, maybe you would even end up having a good chat while waiting your group, instead of just running in circles at city centre (that's me).

*I know that some queues take ages to find the 4 needed, and for those, I would implement that you may leave the table without leaving the queue if you feel so.

It would just make people complain.

I was a beta tester for EQ (way before beta testing was really a thing...some friends and I were actually approached at the 1996 Gen Con) During the Beta folks use to meet up at the Lions Mane Tavern to form groups...those were irreplaceable days that made the game almost magical.

But as soon as the game launched the doom players showed up and it was "STFU and kill stuff"

We can never have nice things.
Never forget that.

Heartrage

I think zones specific dailies, card game npcs and maybe another minigame or two could make inns and taverns liveliers.

I’m on the fence for a buff because I don’t like world buffs and how they can affect pvp and harder pve content. I would be fine with them selling a food buff that’s the establishment speciality.

As for putting group finders in taverns, I don’t agree. I don’t want to slingshot between farming spots and dungeon queues because i can’t queue from my farming spot. I also see many problems with the implementation of the group table. I agree that these ideas would be immersive but i can’t get behind them.

Also, I think other buildings/merchants could use a bit of love. Why not give blacksmiths the ability to repair your equipments to 125% durability and enchanters charge weapons to 125% too? That would give us a better incentive to interact with these npcs without making it mandatory.

Rafael0

Heartrage wrote: »

I think zones specific dailies, card game npcs and maybe another minigame or two could make inns and taverns liveliers.

I’m on the fence for a buff because I don’t like world buffs and how they can affect pvp and harder pve content. I would be fine with them selling a food buff that’s the establishment speciality.

As for putting group finders in taverns, I don’t agree. I don’t want to slingshot between farming spots and dungeon queues because i can’t queue from my farming spot. I also see many problems with the implementation of the group table. I agree that these ideas would be immersive but i can’t get behind them.

Also, I think other buildings/merchants could use a bit of love. Why not give blacksmiths the ability to repair your equipments to 125% durability and enchanters charge weapons to 125% too? That would give us a better incentive to interact with these npcs without making it mandatory.

I'd say those are cool ideas too, I also think that those npc are in need of some love.

I got your point that my table idea would break the tempo, but idk.. I think players have forgotten the purpose of MMOs, which is people!!
If you are not interacting with people, you are not playing an MMO, you are simply in a traffic jam staring at cars passing by.

DagenHawk

Rafael0 wrote: »

Heartrage wrote: »

I think zones specific dailies, card game npcs and maybe another minigame or two could make inns and taverns liveliers.

I’m on the fence for a buff because I don’t like world buffs and how they can affect pvp and harder pve content. I would be fine with them selling a food buff that’s the establishment speciality.

As for putting group finders in taverns, I don’t agree. I don’t want to slingshot between farming spots and dungeon queues because i can’t queue from my farming spot. I also see many problems with the implementation of the group table. I agree that these ideas would be immersive but i can’t get behind them.

Also, I think other buildings/merchants could use a bit of love. Why not give blacksmiths the ability to repair your equipments to 125% durability and enchanters charge weapons to 125% too? That would give us a better incentive to interact with these npcs without making it mandatory.

I'd say those are cool ideas too, I also think that those npc are in need of some love.

I got your point that my table idea would break the tempo, but idk.. I think players have forgotten the purpose of MMOs, which is people!!
If you are not interacting with people, you are not playing an MMO, you are simply in a traffic jam staring at cars passing by.

So since the devs say that they really don't consider ESO a MMO any longer...I mean they usually call it a online RPG these days.

Kiralyn2000

Rafael0 wrote: »

NettleCarrier wrote: »

I do think taverns need more purpose, but this isn't it. It's far more practical to keep harvesting while in queue, I don't really want to be forced to sit at a table with people who will most likely not say a word (like the good majority of random groups).

What if a single person decided to ask about your day, or your opinion about something? Wouldn't that be cool?

No.

Honestly, I prefer my game interfaces to be functional & user-friendly, not needlessly complicated for the purpose of "immersion".

Kahnak

Rafael0 wrote: »

RisenEclipse wrote: »

Overworld RP is already nearly dead, please don't kill it anymore.

I actually had no idea of these trolling problems that RPers face... but a question for you..
Is RP dead because of troll players, or because games are not creating systems to incentive it??

Long live the META!

Games don't need to incentivize RP for RP to flourish. How successful RP is in a game is entirely contingent upon the community's attitude towards RP. I would also say that, unlike other aspects of the game, no ticket complaining about players ruining others' RP is going to be taken seriously enough to be acted on even if it is legitimate. So, RP either dies or it goes underground as a result.

Syldras

Rafael0 wrote: »

I think players have forgotten the purpose of MMOs, which is people!!
If you are not interacting with people, you are not playing an MMO, you are simply in a traffic jam staring at cars passing by.

Well, I stopped the Planemeld, helped rebuilding Orsinium, saved Lord Vivec, had a long talk with Sotha Sil in his private memorial garden, saw the secret island of Artaeum, killed some dragons and vampires along the way, freed two weird teens with superpowers from a Daedric bunker, and visited the ruins of the old Mournhold Temple in Dagon's realm where I currently construct my own Deadlands fortress that I probably won't leave that often within the next few weeks, except for some Sundas cruises on my Dwemer automobile. If you compare that to standing in a traffic jam, they seem to be really interesting in your area.

RisenEclipse

Rafael0 wrote: »

RisenEclipse wrote: »

Overworld RP is already nearly dead, please don't kill it anymore.

I actually had no idea of these trolling problems that RPers face... but a question for you..
Is RP dead because of troll players, or because games are not creating systems to incentive it??

Long live the META!

I would have to say it's because of a lack of a RP server. I've had pms from people getting SUPER offended because they saw people rp posts in their chat. I doubt the huge trolling issue on RPers would be as bad if PvErs did not feel as if they were forced to be in the same servers as RPers. I've ran community events for multiple guilds and I've yet to have one where a PvEr hasn't decided to run around and troll it. You'd see cities more alive with players RPing if we had a separate server for it... oh and if ZOS would stop quest locking places... there is no reason the temple of Akatosh could only be accessed at the end of the DB quest.

RisenEclipse

Kahnak wrote: »

Rafael0 wrote: »

RisenEclipse wrote: »

Overworld RP is already nearly dead, please don't kill it anymore.

I actually had no idea of these trolling problems that RPers face... but a question for you..
Is RP dead because of troll players, or because games are not creating systems to incentive it??

Long live the META!

Games don't need to incentivize RP for RP to flourish. How successful RP is in a game is entirely contingent upon the community's attitude towards RP. I would also say that, unlike other aspects of the game, no ticket complaining about players ruining others' RP is going to be taken seriously enough to be acted on even if it is legitimate. So, RP either dies or it goes underground as a result.

Actually there is nothing RPers can do. Trust me, tickets upon tickets have been sent in. With no effect. You pm someone to stop spamming abilities on you or throwing mudballs at players during an rp event and you'll usually get the "I'm not breaking any rules by standing here and spamming abilities". Maybe they really don't understand that they're actually causing quite a lot of harm to the rp.

When PvErs are trying to kill a boss, the goal is to deplete its health. Someone aggroing the boss for the intent of resetting its health is causing active harm to it.

When a RPer RPs their immersion and focusing on the RP is what is incredibly important. Someone coming in and trolling them on purpose is causing active harm to it.

One you can give a ticket for and something might happen. The other... probably nothing will happen tbh. Which is a shame, you'd see this game far more alive with RPers if the community treated them a lot better. But like I said, most guilds just stick to their houses now. While community rp is difficult to put together due to trolling and instances. They can't be on houses as the pop limit for houses is way too low.