Friendly Fire in ESO!

FabresFour

Okay, hold on. I know—you were probably already hitting caps lock and getting completely outraged at this idea. I get it, I understand. Just take a breath. This is just an idea I had with some friends who are roleplayers and would love an option for friendly fire in the game to enhance immersion.

Here’s the idea they came up with:

You have a group of players, a party. In this party, the leader would have the option to activate "friendly fire." For this option to be active, all players would need to agree. Players couldn’t be inside a dungeon (4 players) or a trial (12 players) for this feature to work.

This way, players in the group could fight each other and take damage anywhere they are. The idea is that, while roleplaying, you could use an ability, and your friend would need to dodge it to avoid taking damage—just like in Skyrim, where your abilities can hurt your companions.

Anyway, there’s a lot more that could be developed around this idea. I know it’s counterproductive for groups in general, but it could be fantastic for immersion and a fun way to do quests with friends!

OutLaw_Nynx

No thanks

Erickson9610

I'd use this for dueling more than one player at once.

fizl101

Could be alot of fun for making guild events, like human archery but now you splat the person you land on

TaSheen

Nah. Though if it gets added, won't affect me anyway as I never group.

JavaRen

Maybe a PvP setting for housing that makes everyone not grouped with you. trigger as a foe.

AllenaNightWood

as long as it was a toggle in settings but only in groups

zaria

It would make melee combat an AoE use incompatible.
Has been in a couple of places this applies. Mostly in Cyrodil one is memorable. I was doing delves for skyshards as yellow owned most of the map. Used an AoE on delve boss who was quest objective. Enemy played was hit by AoE and rolled out.
He was in sneak waiting for boss to re-spawn while cheating or on second screen.
We burned the boss from ranged and split up as he was after skyshard who I got after seeing boss was down going in.
I see this as an pretty stupid idea hitting melee build idiotic hard.

Amottica

It's not a good idea for this game. Too much AoE and splash damage in good builds makes such matches nonsense, and it is already suggested that the application be limited.

FabresFour

zaria wrote: »

It would make melee combat an AoE use incompatible.
Has been in a couple of places this applies. Mostly in Cyrodil one is memorable. I was doing delves for skyshards as yellow owned most of the map. Used an AoE on delve boss who was quest objective. Enemy played was hit by AoE and rolled out.
He was in sneak waiting for boss to re-spawn while cheating or on second screen.
We burned the boss from ranged and split up as he was after skyshard who I got after seeing boss was down going in.
I see this as an pretty stupid idea hitting melee build idiotic hard.

Did you notice that I said the idea is for it to be an OPTION when creating a group, where all members must agree?: it’s not about builds or optimization—it’s about immersion, .

It’s for those players who want immersion in the game. Not “functional builds." Doing quests with your friend and getting annoyed because their damage area hurt you, or an ult almost killed you. It’s about fun, not optimization.

I've done Cyrodiil quests alongside a friend from another alliance, and it was extremely fun precisely because of that. Sometimes I’d use an ult on a mob, and it would almost kill him; other times, I’d accidentally stand in his damage area without realizing.

It’s about giving an option for those who enjoy this kind of thing, not disrupting existing content.

Theist_VII

Adding friendly fire would alter the game’s trajectory completely, and honestly I’m here for it.

A change like this would need to be coupled with several others, like a rework of mob and boss healthbars, added player collision (this should happen regardless), and even then, friendly fire would need to be closer to 50% of your damage dealt before factoring in resistances and other mitigations, this would also need to apply to AoE healing with 50% of your heals being taken by enemies.

Almost all of the problems with end-game can be traced back to how overpowered AoEs are, skewed raid compositions to Arcanist with skills like Fatecarver and Flail all the way to huge ult-bomb ballgroups in PvP with AoE spammed heals.

Of course this would never happen, as it’s been 10 years of the same archaic formula and there would be pushback. Would love to test it on PTS though.

SilverBride

That's what battlegrounds are for.

Erickson9610

SilverBride wrote: »

That's what battlegrounds are for.

There is no friendly fire in Battlegrounds.

FabresFour

SilverBride wrote: »

That's what battlegrounds are for.

Nop, it's not. You can't do quests in the battleground. Battlegrounds are a competitive PVP space. I'm talking about something else. It has nothing to do with PVP or competition, but with immersion. Reread what I wrote.

FabresFour

I’ve been getting a bit frustrated with the ESO community here on the forum, you know? You have a different idea about a system that could make the game a bit more fun for some people, and it’s purely an option for people who would like to activate it.

The first response a player gives is "no thanks." I mean, I’m not talking about a permanent system that’s going to be shoved down everyone’s throats, but an OPTION for roleplay that could be activated by some players when they want to have fun or simply make their experience different.

Honestly, I’ve been having a bit of a problem with the perspective of many ESO players. It’s very common to see players applauding the game for keeping everything the same, without innovating in practically anything, and thinking that’s fine, that everything’s okay.

Guys, the more different ways there are to play the game, the better. The more options, the better. The more things to do, the better.

Everything is either meta nonsense or "don’t touch the game" nonsense. Frankly.

Just imagine the potential: you’re doing a quest with a friend. Usually, the interaction between two players doing a quest is almost zero; however, with a system (which would need to be activated beforehand) where players in your group can deal damage to you, the gameplay becomes much more immersive and funny. That’s the point here.

It’s not about you who play solo. It’s not about you who run dungeons or trials. It’s about a NEW WAY to play. And, of course, give the option to those players who want to have duels with a higher number of players (only friends) in a really casual way.

Amottica

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

That's what battlegrounds are for.

There is no friendly fire in Battlegrounds.

They are saying this would be fine for battlegrounds but not anything else.

I agree that it should be restricted to BGs if it were added. Makes more sense.

Dojohoda

It is an interesting idea. There are some who would like this. In the past, others have expressed a similar request to allow pvp in homes.

Sluggy

I love games that have these sorts of mechanics. I'd be all for it because it would throw some excitement back into PvE for me. Though I wonder what sorts of technical issues would have to be worked around to support it. The current system might have many hard-coded assumptions about how certain effects only work on allies vs enemies and it might require some substantial re-work to enable both for a single target.

Overall I like the sound of it. But it obviously is never going to happen. So I'll file that under "fun things to imagine in my head", I guess.

Erickson9610

Amottica wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

That's what battlegrounds are for.

There is no friendly fire in Battlegrounds.

They are saying this would be fine for battlegrounds but not anything else.

I agree that it should be restricted to BGs if it were added. Makes more sense.

It makes no sense to put friendly fire in a PvP mode. Why on earth would you want to give players the option to grief their teammates to throw the match?

Amottica

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

That's what battlegrounds are for.

There is no friendly fire in Battlegrounds.

They are saying this would be fine for battlegrounds but not anything else.

I agree that it should be restricted to BGs if it were added. Makes more sense.

It makes no sense to put friendly fire in a PvP mode. Why on earth would you want to give players the option to grief their teammates to throw the match?

Why on earth would you want to give players the option to grief others in any situation? If it makes no sense to have it in PvP then it makes no sense to have it at all.

BTW, I was not advocating for friendly fire in BGs but merely clarifying that the person originally quoted, @SilverBride , was not suggesting there was friendly fire in BGs. Someone seemed to have misunderstood their comment.

Erickson9610

Amottica wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

That's what battlegrounds are for.

There is no friendly fire in Battlegrounds.

They are saying this would be fine for battlegrounds but not anything else.

I agree that it should be restricted to BGs if it were added. Makes more sense.

It makes no sense to put friendly fire in a PvP mode. Why on earth would you want to give players the option to grief their teammates to throw the match?

Why on earth would you want to give players the option to grief others in any situation? If it makes no sense to have it in PvP then it makes no sense to have it at all.

BTW, I was not advocating for friendly fire in BGs but merely clarifying that the person originally quoted, @SilverBride , was not suggesting there was friendly fire in BGs. Someone seemed to have misunderstood their comment.

As the OP states...

FabresFour wrote: »

You have a group of players, a party. In this party, the leader would have the option to activate "friendly fire." For this option to be active, all players would need to agree. Players couldn’t be inside a dungeon (4 players) or a trial (12 players) for this feature to work.

This is a purely for-fun feature, requiring all group members to agree to enable it, and thus there won't be any griefing. If there was, players could simply opt-out whenever they've had enough of the friendly fire.

Necrotech_Master

theres already mechanics in the game that show another player killed you lol

just go to the siren WB in vvardenfell with a large group of low dmg people and see how many you can kill with the break out synergy for the whirlpool lol

Theist_VII

JavaRen wrote: »

Maybe a PvP setting for housing that makes everyone not grouped with you. trigger as a foe.

Honestly I see this happening before anything else related to “friendly fire.”

Only problem is that players still, to this day, get knocked back through player home walls and get trapped in floors, all while their ground based AoEs fall through any furniture as if they were never there.

Best case scenario would be to add a Battlegrounds map builder and custom games, then ZOS could pull player created maps and modes for future content.

I_killed_Vivec

The response "no thanks" is just a succinct way of expressing their disdain for the idea and how they would really, really, really want the devs to concentrate on something better. Now you can argue that there is nothing more important for the devs to be working on than your idea, but I'm not sure they would agree.

Obvious issues are:

- The sheer overhead in deciding which players are involved, and which should therefore be affected. Just think of the meltdown at an Alik'r dolmen when the boss drops. Now factor in additional calculations for each AoE to determine if they affect you or other players. Think how complicated it would be if there were two or more separate groups choosing to be affected by their friends' attacks!

- There is always the potential for abuse. Even with duelling, there are those who choose to be disruptive and show off in the middle of a busy city. Imagine the chaos created by a bunch of people having a brawl in the centre of town. Not something I'd want to see, but some people just can't help themselves...

More diverse ways to play the game are not necessarily better, particularly if some require a great deal more developer effort than is reflected in player involvement. You might think it is the most important thing they could be working on. Others go "Meh". And still more go "No thanks", because they have their own priorities for developer time. Take a look at some of the "What I'd like to see in 2025" posts - some people have endless lists of crackpot ideas

SilverBride

Amottica wrote: »

BTW, I was not advocating for friendly fire in BGs but merely clarifying that the person originally quoted, @SilverBride , was not suggesting there was friendly fire in BGs. Someone seemed to have misunderstood their comment.

This is correct.

If players want to get in groups and fight other players they can go to a battleground and do that. They don't need to form groups out in the world and disrupt others around them, particularly in towns. I seriously doubt many would be interested or participate in this anyway.

valenwood_vegan

FabresFour wrote: »

I’ve been getting a bit frustrated with the ESO community here on the forum, you know? .

Me too, but what I find frustrating is the dozens of ideas to rework every aspect of the game that are posted constantly. Not so much that the ideas are being suggested, as that's totally valid... but that posters often approach it with an attitude that their idea is the best and most worthy of dev time, and is the best thing for the game, and they can't possibly fathom how any rational person could possibly disagree with them or have a different priority, or even like things how they are currently and not want a particular aspect of the game to change.

You post on a public forum, you're gonna get a whole range of opinions, that's just... life. I'd suggest not focusing so much on the negative ones. Even in this thread, the are also posters who seem to like the idea presented, or some variant of it. Ultimately none of us get to decide what gets added to the game.

Personally, it's of no interest to me because it would add nothing to my gameplay and I'd thus rather see the devs spend time on something else. Sorry! I also share concerns brought up by another poster about server stress and trolling caused by groups battling it out in the middle of where people are trying to craft or quest. If something like this were going to be added as an option, I'd prefer it be added to homes and/or instanced group areas such as dungeons and trials, and/or perhaps to a new area like an arena designed for dueling and player battles.

alternatelder

So instead of 1 or 3 duels going off in my face in town, I'd have a large group fight ruining my gaming experience? I've now seen the worst idea anyone has ever come up with on here. 👎

FabresFour

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

The response "no thanks" is just a succinct way of expressing their disdain for the idea

And that’s exactly the problem. The disdain.

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

FabresFour wrote: »

I’ve been getting a bit frustrated with the ESO community here on the forum, you know? .

Me too, but what I find frustrating is the dozens of ideas to rework every aspect of the game that are posted constantly. Not so much that the ideas are being suggested, as that's totally valid... but that posters often approach it with an attitude that their idea is the best and most worthy of dev time, and is the best thing for the game, and they can't possibly fathom how any rational person could possibly disagree with them or have a different priority, or even like things how they are currently and not want a particular aspect of the game to change.

You post on a public forum, you're gonna get a whole range of opinions, that's just... life. I'd suggest not focusing so much on the negative ones. Even in this thread, the are also posters who seem to like the idea presented, or some variant of it. Ultimately none of us get to decide what gets added to the game.

Personally, it's of no interest to me because it would add nothing to my gameplay and I'd thus rather see the devs spend time on something else. Sorry! I also share concerns brought up by another poster about server stress and trolling caused by groups battling it out in the middle of where people are trying to craft or quest. If something like this were going to be added as an option, I'd prefer it be added to homes and/or instanced group areas such as dungeons and trials, and/or perhaps to a new area like an arena designed for dueling and player battles.

At no point did I say my idea was exceptional or that it should be prioritized by the developers. Honestly, it’s just a "for fun" idea that I genuinely believe could be added in various ways to make the game more enjoyable. Criticism of the idea isn’t the problem. In fact, comments from people suggesting more effective ways to implement it (like with housing, as you mentioned) are great feedback!

I agree with you; I let myself get caught up in the negative side, but this is something frustrating about the forum. I’ve often talked to people outside of it who felt intimidated precisely because of these "disdainful" and "mocking" responses when all they wanted was to make the game more fun.

FabresFour

alternatelder wrote: »

So instead of 1 or 3 duels going off in my face in town, I'd have a large group fight ruining my gaming experience? I've now seen the worst idea anyone has ever come up with on here. 👎

The fact that people are playing the game ruins your "gaming experience"? Could you tell me more about that? Because I honestly don’t think I understood.

Danikat

I've basically done this. I was doing quests in Cyrodiil and a dolmen started up right by the town so I decided to do that as well, and a couple of people from other alliances did the same. We'd run into each other in the town and knew we were all there to do quests and weren't intending to fight each other, but of course that didn't protect us from each others skills.

It basically meant we had to avoid AoEs - either avoid using them or make sure not to run through them - and be more careful about exactly where we aimed ranged skills.

It was an interesting novelty for a one-off fight but I think the novelty would wear off quickly.

SilverBride

FabresFour wrote: »

...this is something frustrating about the forum. I’ve often talked to people outside of it who felt intimidated precisely because of these "disdainful" and "mocking" responses when all they wanted was to make the game more fun.

The thing is that we all have different ideas of what is fun. Some suggestions appeal to a broad range of players, while others do not appeal to many at all. That is the chance we take when we present an idea.

But players shouldn't let that stop them from suggesting things they think others may like. They may hit up on a great idea that gets implemented one day!