Wth overland difficulty changes coming soon, it's a good chance to rethink the quest guidance.

Surgee · January 8

Hi everyone,

With the upcoming overland difficulty changes, I believe this is the perfect time to take a closer look at quest —specifically how much guidance is provided.

ESO has some of the best quests in any MMORPG. The developers and writers put an incredible amount of effort into crafting amazing stories. But right now, you don’t have to pay attention to any of it—you just follow arrows. This makes quests feel unengaging and repetitive, which is a shame given their potential.

Recently, I conducted a small poll among players I play with, and their opinions on quests generally fall into three categories:

“I only do quests to clear the map.” These players find questing a chore. They feel the rewards aren’t worth it, and the experience is easy and boring.
“I want to enjoy the quests, but they’re boring.” These players do want to engage with the quests, but they end up skipping dialogue and just following arrows because there’s no value to it, no challenge, and the rewards aren’t exciting.
“I don’t do quests at all.” These players simply avoid quests because they’re not interesting or rewarding enough to bother.

The general consensus is that quests are boring and don’t give good rewards. Players who don’t care about quests just avoid them altogether, while players who do want to enjoy them are bored and would love to see higher challenge levels with better rewards.

Recent games like Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and even Sea of Thieves have proven that players are more engaged when they aren’t led by arrows every step of the way. Solving problems, exploring the world, and figuring out what to do next are what make quests fun and memorable. These games show that gamers love to be challenged, not just in combat but in their problem-solving.

This would:

Make quests more immersive and rewarding.
Encourage players to pay attention to quest dialogue and lore.
Quests and puzzles would require some thinking, so it would be more enjoyable to join forces with your friends (NOT REQUIRED!)
Boost ESO’s online community and content creation, as players turn to forums and videos for guidance.

Some might argue that this should be optional, but I disagree. ESO is an MMO where your achievements are meant to be shared and celebrated. If players can simply lower the difficulty or rely on arrows to breeze through content, it devalues the effort of those who truly engage with the game. Games like Elden Ring and other multiplayer experiences show us that universal challenges make success feel more rewarding.

What are your thoughts?

EDIT: Because some people do not fully understand what guidance is: This has nothing to do with combat or group play. It's about the arrows over the objectives and solving puzzles.

Kyip · January 8

I enjoy all the ESO quests as they are, with current difficulty and guidance.

The only change I think I'd like would be more dialogue and lore-based reading material. I enjoy those parts of the questing experience the most, especially all the voiced dialogue.

Promote group play, where friends team up to figure out objectives together.

I *DO NOT* want this. Not everyone wants to be forced to group up for content all the damned time.

ESO is superior to most other MMOs for the solo play experience, due to current voice acting and solo difficulty. It's immersive and something I can enjoy on my own. When I want to group with people, I can go to Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds, Dungeons, Trials, etc.

Craglorn is the only zone I found miserable, due to content being set for groups.

I found your survey of friends insightful, but I feel like they are playing the wrong MMO for their playstyle, if they do not enjoy story quests.

Surgee · January 8

Kyip wrote: »

I enjoy all the ESO quests as they are, with current difficulty and guidance.

The only change I think I'd like would be more dialogue and lore-based reading material. I enjoy those parts of the questing experience the most, especially all the voiced dialogue.

Promote group play, where friends team up to figure out objectives together.

I *DO NOT* want this. Not everyone wants to be forced to group up for content all the damned time.

ESO is superior to most other MMOs for the solo play experience, due to current voice acting and solo difficulty. It's immersive and something I can enjoy on my own. When I want to group with people, I can go to Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds, Dungeons, Trials, etc.

Craglorn is the only zone I found miserable, due to content being set for groups.

I found your survey of friends insightful, but I feel like they are playing the wrong MMO for their playstyle, if they do not enjoy story quests.

Maybe I came off a bit wrong there with group play. I do not mean that group play in any way would be a requirement. It would just be more enjoyable to quest with friends compared to questing with friends now, when it's all just about following arrows. I absolutely think the player count requirements should stay as it is now. It's more about making the quests more like they were in let's say Morrowind, or on par with other games that require you do pay attention at least a little bit.

TaSheen · January 8

I prefer the quests the way they are with current guidance and difficulty (except for the bosses since High Isle). I'm not going to be able to do quest bosses that are as hard or harder than the ones since High Isle. And I don't care anything about rewards. I am definitely not interested in being forced to group to complete story quests - that's not why I play this game.

[I play this game for the non-static, evolving nature of it as an MMO, not because "MMO" means forced grouping. It doesn't.]

Surgee · January 8

TaSheen wrote: »

I prefer the quests the way they are with current guidance and difficulty (except for the bosses since High Isle). I'm not going to be able to do quest bosses that are as hard or harder than the ones since High Isle. And I don't care anything about rewards. I am definitely not interested in being forced to group to complete story quests - that's not why I play this game.

[I play this game for the non-static, evolving nature of it as an MMO, not because "MMO" means forced grouping. It doesn't.]

I have a feeling that you and previous poster do not understand fully what guidance is. It's about arrows over the objectives. About the fact that when there's a puzzle, you actually have to figure it out, rather than press the next arrow. It has nothing to do with difficulty of monsters, bosses, or forcing group quests. Please, read carefully

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · January 8

Or, you could just choose to turn off quest markers.

Surgee · January 8

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Or, you could just choose to turn off quest markers.

Judging by the comment, you didn't read the post

Kyip · January 8

Maybe I overreacted to the part about being forced to group, because I absolutely hate that idea.

It has made me leave other MMOs before. I love ESO. I don't want that to happen here.

Avran_Sylt · January 8

You can turn off compass Quest markers via the Interface->Heads Up Display->Compass Active Quests

All they really would need to accommodate your vision as an optional setting is to allow players to disable quests markers on the map.

ESO's quests, and dialogue, were designed with quest markers in mind.

This would need an overhaul of all dialogues to give enough information as to where the player should go as if the NPC's were giving directions to the player if they knew where they should go. And also allow players to ask NPC's to mark on a map where they should go. (because why couldn't you?)

And inevitably it just means that players use a 3rd party site to tell them where to go (like they do in the games you list) and it just makes it more annoying for the general audience.

Avran_Sylt · January 8

Also, when people are talking about quests being unrewarding, they're talking about the gear and the actual rewards. Not just that they didn't feel a sense of "Pride and accomplishment".

Dyes, cosmetics, upgrade materials, skill-points, account achievements, polymorphs, hats, etc... are good chase items.

But just paltry leveled experience and 300 gold with the current economy just feels like crud. And with your changes it'd make it feel even more like crud, especially for the random one-off side-quests.

Syldras · January 8

My main interest in ESO is lore and questing. I've played almost all quests so far, except to those behind group content that I can't solo (or duo with a friend), and quests in PvP areas.

The main issue I have is the writing. The first years were absolutely wonderful, but since Summerset, from my point of view, the stories became increasingly formulaic, less complex, and dialogue quality is also not on that level anymore, with many repetitions and tropes.

It got a bit better again after High Isle (but since I really can't stand that chapter, that's not surprising), but we're still miles aways from how it had been during Orsinium, Morrowind and Summerset.

There were two positive exceptions last year: Zerith-vars story, which I really enjoyed (If the writing was always on that level, I'd be happy!), and to some extent also the Scholarium questline, although that has a weird non-TES feel to it. It's nicely written as a fable, but it's not what I'd expect if I play a TES game.

Apart from that, yes, I'd also enjoy having to use my brain more. Actually listening to dialogues, making choices, riddles that are actual riddles and not just repeatedly clicking an object until an npc yells it's correct.

I'd also appreciate different endings to stories depending on player choice, or even the possibility to choose which faction to join (although of course I do understand that in an MMO there are limitations).

I'd enjoy having more dialogue options where I can choose something less generic, something that reflects my character's personality (including options that aren't the "always friendly and helpful good hero"). To me, roleplaying my character is important, and I'd like to see that reflected during questing, too. Basically everything that helps with immersion.

It would also be a plus if npcs would comment on my character's race, class or other individual factors more. And it would be even better if these factors would also matter and influence npc's opinions instead of just exchanging a noun and calling you "Hey Bosmer / Nord / Breton / alchemist / sorcerer / knight", without it making any difference.

I'd also like to see stories being rooted deeper in lore, including giving us new interesting facts. Less generic "Bandits kidnapped my father/husband/son" or "My dog/bunny/camel ran away" quests that could take place everywhere else and in any other game world, more lore-specific things. And no, exchanging the dog for a nixhound is not what I mean.

As for rewards: I don't care much for them, but I know other people do. I think it would be nice to have the rewards related to the quest content. Like getting an artifact from the story as a furnishing, or a character from a longer questline as a house guest at the end, or an animal from the story as a non-combat pet or mount, things like that.

When it comes to quest markers, let me say I played TES3 Morrowind. A lot. And I'm still playing it. So I'm very much used to having no quest markers and getting directions like "Go East then North then West, then run around that hill five times and at the big tree, turn left" - and sometimes they were so faulty that you still ended up in Vos instead of Gnisis

(At least after 20 years I don't need them anymore because I know all paths anyway by now). While I don't really mind that, I know many people hate this. I think making quest markers optional in the menu would be okay. And removing them if the whole task of a riddle is to search for a place or item. Because in that situation, it really doesn't make any sense to point at the "hidden" object or place.

Since you mentioned group questing: No, thank you. Not only do I often play at times where not many people are around, (and often deliberately because I love the feeling of travelling alone), questing in teams doesn't really work well in this game. Not sure if it ever was fixed, but when I quested with someone else the last time, the first person ending a dialogue ended it for everyone in the same group, too. So everyone who was slower missed it. It's not really fun.

And when it comes to "content creators", I'm also sceptical. I want to be able to play the game without having to look things up in videos.

TaSheen · January 8

Surgee wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

I prefer the quests the way they are with current guidance and difficulty (except for the bosses since High Isle). I'm not going to be able to do quest bosses that are as hard or harder than the ones since High Isle. And I don't care anything about rewards. I am definitely not interested in being forced to group to complete story quests - that's not why I play this game.

[I play this game for the non-static, evolving nature of it as an MMO, not because "MMO" means forced grouping. It doesn't.]

I have a feeling that you and previous poster do not understand fully what guidance is. It's about arrows over the objectives. About the fact that when there's a puzzle, you actually have to figure it out, rather than press the next arrow. It has nothing to do with difficulty of monsters, bosses, or forcing group quests. Please, read carefully

I know exactly what you are talking about. The arrows are fine with me. I don't have any issues with the way the game questing is set up right now.

[Not to mention that after 7 years I know where EVERYTHING is anyway....]

Amottica · January 8

Surgee wrote: »

Recently, I conducted a small poll among players I play with, and their opinions on quests generally fall into three categories:
“I only do quests to clear the map.” These players find questing a chore. They feel the rewards aren’t worth it, and the experience is easy and boring.

“I want to enjoy the quests, but they’re boring.” These players do want to engage with the quests, but they end up skipping dialogue and just following arrows because there’s no value to it, no challenge, and the rewards aren’t exciting.

“I don’t do quests at all.” These players simply avoid quests because they’re not interesting or rewarding enough to bother.

1. A player who finds quests a chore and finds the rewards are not worth it would not do quests to clear the map. They would only do enough to get the skill point and maybe some XP. There is easier XP in the game.
2. A player who finds most of the guests boring will not be able to engage in the quests pleasantly, no matter what.
3. This is the same as the first two points. Well, mainly the first point. The difference is it does not mince words.

Zenimax will not rework a significant number of quests in the game. That is rebuilding half the game. That does not make sense; considering ESO has been reasonably successful, it is unnecessary. Further, many of us have already seen the dialogue for the quests, which leads to skipping the dialogue outside of maybe some quests we enjoyed. This is the case in every game.

Zenimax also works to encourage content creators. Zenimax offers incentives for players to view the streaming of creators that make their list.

Understanding what issues are there is the first step to finding a solution. A poll amongst a few friends is likely too small of a sampling to be helpful, and it is of somewhat like-minded players, which does nothing to figure out what the player base is interested in. In other words, the poll did not provide a general consensus of the player base.

Kyip · January 8

Syldras wrote: »

My main interest in ESO is lore and questing. I've played almost all quests so far, except to those behind group content that I can't solo (or duo with a friend), and quests in PvP areas.

This is a BIG, BIG frustration for me. I hate when actual interesting lore content is presented inside a place where I can't enjoy it. I like doing vet prog trials, groups runs in imperial city, vet dungeon achievements, guild runs in cyrodiil, etc... but it's awful trying to actually pay attention to the quests, read the written materials, talk to the NPCs to see all their dialogue, explore the maps for visual pleasure, etc, when I would be holding up a group in PVE or getting ganked in PVP.

Syldras wrote: »

I'd enjoy having more dialogue options where I can choose something less generic, something that reflects my character's personality (including options that aren't the "always friendly and helpful good hero"). To me, roleplaying my character is important, and I'd like to see that reflected during questing, too. Basically everything that helps with immersion.

This is a very small thing, but, I still hate the quest choice I made in Phaer, Auridon. To this day, random Altmer still say "You let that woman kill that poor doctor in Phaer, shame on you!" while maybe 10% as often, you get "Auri-El would be proud" or something like that. I hate random NPCs constantly shaming me for over ten years now for letting a grieving mother have vengeance on an evil doctor who was feeding an entire village to his vampiric son. Just... geez, let me redo the ending, I hate that particular one, and it's on my main. It sucks. Now anytime I see red text in a quest, meaning it's a decision branch, I stop immediately, going to UESP to see how it all ends. I don't want another ten years of every NPC of a given race guilting me when I'm otherwise enjoying my day in every zone on the map.

Syldras wrote: »

Since you mentioned group questing: No, thank you. Not only do I often play at times where not many people are around, (and often deliberately because I love the feeling of travelling alone), questing in teams doesn't really work well in this game. Not sure if it ever was fixed, but when I quested with someone else the last time, the first person ending a dialogue ended it for everyone in the same group, too. So everyone who was slower missed it. It's not really fun.

Agreed 1,000%. I stopped questing with people because it means I will always miss dialogue.

DaniimalsSF · January 8

OP, I noticed you seem to be basing the value of your time and energy on how other people spend their time and energy. It makes sense if you are frustrated by this.

Soarora · January 8

I only have two problems with quests as they are now:
1) you are locked into a dialogue box. As my attention span wanes, I get antsy. In other games, I run around in a small circle or start going to the next objective while the dialogue goes on but in ESO you have to stand there and wait. I know TES games have always had a stationary dialogue box but Morrowind is all reading and Oblivion/Skyrim have more facial expressions and less long winded paragraphs of dialogue.

2) you can’t comfortably quest in a group. Once someone picks up a letter, no one else can read the letter. Once someone ends dialogue with an NPC, no one else can finish their dialogue and they get kicked out of the interaction. If you quest with more than just yourself, you will miss out on information.

Edit:
I forgot, there’s a third thing:
3) the writing is bad. Summerset was wonderful, I’m a big fan of gritty painful stories. Summerset was the only quest that made me feel anything. Every other quest, every death meant nothing because of lack of connection or because I knew zos would just bring them right back to life (and then they do). Plot twists are predictable. Handling of lore is questionable (we did not need ANOTHER oblivion crisis, for instance).
Edit again: also, in almost every instance we have to make decisions. Something I loved with bg3 and High Isle is the NPCs making decisions themselves instead of relying on me to tell them every decision they should make. If we make a decision, it can break immersion as people will stop and google or think about it for like 5 minutes.

Soarora · January 8

TaSheen wrote: »

Surgee wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

I prefer the quests the way they are with current guidance and difficulty (except for the bosses since High Isle). I'm not going to be able to do quest bosses that are as hard or harder than the ones since High Isle. And I don't care anything about rewards. I am definitely not interested in being forced to group to complete story quests - that's not why I play this game.

[I play this game for the non-static, evolving nature of it as an MMO, not because "MMO" means forced grouping. It doesn't.]

I have a feeling that you and previous poster do not understand fully what guidance is. It's about arrows over the objectives. About the fact that when there's a puzzle, you actually have to figure it out, rather than press the next arrow. It has nothing to do with difficulty of monsters, bosses, or forcing group quests. Please, read carefully

I know exactly what you are talking about. The arrows are fine with me. I don't have any issues with the way the game questing is set up right now.

[Not to mention that after 7 years I know where EVERYTHING is anyway....]

To be honest, that’s another thing. For several quests the arrows are actually broken. For you and me, that’s just a minor inconvenience because we know where to go anyways. For new players its a nightmare because they’re sent from town to town just to use the boats instead of wayshrines, or they wayshrine into a city to find they need to actually go halfway across the map, or they leave an area going through the wrong door and end up in a cycle of confusion.

TaSheen · January 8

Soarora wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Surgee wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

I prefer the quests the way they are with current guidance and difficulty (except for the bosses since High Isle). I'm not going to be able to do quest bosses that are as hard or harder than the ones since High Isle. And I don't care anything about rewards. I am definitely not interested in being forced to group to complete story quests - that's not why I play this game.

[I play this game for the non-static, evolving nature of it as an MMO, not because "MMO" means forced grouping. It doesn't.]

I have a feeling that you and previous poster do not understand fully what guidance is. It's about arrows over the objectives. About the fact that when there's a puzzle, you actually have to figure it out, rather than press the next arrow. It has nothing to do with difficulty of monsters, bosses, or forcing group quests. Please, read carefully

I know exactly what you are talking about. The arrows are fine with me. I don't have any issues with the way the game questing is set up right now.

[Not to mention that after 7 years I know where EVERYTHING is anyway....]

To be honest, that’s another thing. For several quests the arrows are actually broken. For you and me, that’s just a minor inconvenience because we know where to go anyways. For new players its a nightmare because they’re sent from town to town just to use the boats instead of wayshrines, or they wayshrine into a city to find they need to actually go halfway across the map, or they leave an area going through the wrong door and end up in a cycle of confusion.

That's entirely true. And that's NOT going to be helped by getting rid of arrows entirely - ZOS needs to clean up the broken bits ASAP.

spartaxoxo · January 8

I don't play this game as Tamriel: MapQuest Edition. I don't care if they improve the current toggles for those that want them. But, it's a hard pass for me on anything further than that.

Surgee · January 8

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

You can turn off compass Quest markers via the Interface->Heads Up Display->Compass Active Quests

All they really would need to accommodate your vision as an optional setting is to allow players to disable quests markers on the map.

ESO's quests, and dialogue, were designed with quest markers in mind.

This would need an overhaul of all dialogues to give enough information as to where the player should go as if the NPC's were giving directions to the player if they knew where they should go. And also allow players to ask NPC's to mark on a map where they should go. (because why couldn't you?)

And inevitably it just means that players use a 3rd party site to tell them where to go (like they do in the games you list) and it just makes it more annoying for the general audience.

Making such things optional goes against the entire idea of the challenge and the nature of an MMO. I go more into detail in the part of the post you might have missed.

spartaxoxo · January 8

Surgee wrote: »

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

You can turn off compass Quest markers via the Interface->Heads Up Display->Compass Active Quests

All they really would need to accommodate your vision as an optional setting is to allow players to disable quests markers on the map.

ESO's quests, and dialogue, were designed with quest markers in mind.

This would need an overhaul of all dialogues to give enough information as to where the player should go as if the NPC's were giving directions to the player if they knew where they should go. And also allow players to ask NPC's to mark on a map where they should go. (because why couldn't you?)

And inevitably it just means that players use a 3rd party site to tell them where to go (like they do in the games you list) and it just makes it more annoying for the general audience.

Making such things optional goes against the entire idea of the challenge and the nature of an MMO. I go more into detail in the part of the post you might have missed.

No. It doesn't. It only devalues it in the eyes of people who measure their own happiness and achievement by the experiences of others. Not all of us who enjoy a challenge feel the same way.

Surgee · January 8

Syldras wrote: »

My main interest in ESO is lore and questing. I've played almost all quests so far, except to those behind group content that I can't solo (or duo with a friend), and quests in PvP areas.

The main issue I have is the writing. The first years were absolutely wonderful, but since Summerset, from my point of view, the stories became increasingly formulaic, less complex, and dialogue quality is also not on that level anymore, with many repetitions and tropes.

It got a bit better again after High Isle (but since I really can't stand that chapter, that's not surprising), but we're still miles aways from how it had been during Orsinium, Morrowind and Summerset.

There were two positive exceptions last year: Zerith-vars story, which I really enjoyed (If the writing was always on that level, I'd be happy!), and to some extent also the Scholarium questline, although that has a weird non-TES feel to it. It's nicely written as a fable, but it's not what I'd expect if I play a TES game.

Apart from that, yes, I'd also enjoy having to use my brain more. Actually listening to dialogues, making choices, riddles that are actual riddles and not just repeatedly clicking an object until an npc yells it's correct.

I'd also appreciate different endings to stories depending on player choice, or even the possibility to choose which faction to join (although of course I do understand that in an MMO there are limitations).

I'd enjoy having more dialogue options where I can choose something less generic, something that reflects my character's personality (including options that aren't the "always friendly and helpful good hero"). To me, roleplaying my character is important, and I'd like to see that reflected during questing, too. Basically everything that helps with immersion.

It would also be a plus if npcs would comment on my character's race, class or other individual factors more. And it would be even better if these factors would also matter and influence npc's opinions instead of just exchanging a noun and calling you "Hey Bosmer / Nord / Breton / alchemist / sorcerer / knight", without it making any difference.

I'd also like to see stories being rooted deeper in lore, including giving us new interesting facts. Less generic "Bandits kidnapped my father/husband/son" or "My dog/bunny/camel ran away" quests that could take place everywhere else and in any other game world, more lore-specific things. And no, exchanging the dog for a nixhound is not what I mean.

As for rewards: I don't care much for them, but I know other people do. I think it would be nice to have the rewards related to the quest content. Like getting an artifact from the story as a furnishing, or a character from a longer questline as a house guest at the end, or an animal from the story as a non-combat pet or mount, things like that.

When it comes to quest markers, let me say I played TES3 Morrowind. A lot. And I'm still playing it. So I'm very much used to having no quest markers and getting directions like "Go East then North then West, then run around that hill five times and at the big tree, turn left" - and sometimes they were so faulty that you still ended up in Vos instead of Gnisis (At least after 20 years I don't need them anymore because I know all paths anyway by now). While I don't really mind that, I know many people hate this. I think making quest markers optional in the menu would be okay. And removing them if the whole task of a riddle is to search for a place or item. Because in that situation, it really doesn't make any sense to point at the "hidden" object or place.

Since you mentioned group questing: No, thank you. Not only do I often play at times where not many people are around, (and often deliberately because I love the feeling of travelling alone), questing in teams doesn't really work well in this game. Not sure if it ever was fixed, but when I quested with someone else the last time, the first person ending a dialogue ended it for everyone in the same group, too. So everyone who was slower missed it. It's not really fun.

And when it comes to "content creators", I'm also sceptical. I want to be able to play the game without having to look things up in videos.

I agree with most of what you've said. I'm one of those who read the quest dialogues and for the most part, the NPC's explain well enough where to go next. If this is an issue for some people, it could show the general area, but not pinpoint everything up to a milimiter. You've also are spot on wth secrets and puzzles.

2 things I disagree about:
Group questing - I have never mentioned group questing. I only said that right now it's not fun playing quests with friends because all you do is follow arrows. When quest makes you pay attention to puzzles and such, it's more enjoyable to play with friends than in the current setup. Everything can be done solom but 4 brains might solve it a bit faster. that's about it.

Content creators - I think this is a misunderstanding. Completing anything should NEVER recquire you to search online. Everything should be explained well enough in the game. I've only mentioned that those who for some reason have difficulties completing the quest because there's no arrow pinpointing exactly where to press, can check the content creator.

Necrotech_Master · January 8

for me personally, i find the story the quest offers needs to be entertaining to be engaging and enjoyable

i do not prefer the puzzles in the game if the hints are unclear or not really present, sometimes if im doing the quest repeatedly i dont want to have to "figure the puzzle" every time (example: old orsinium public dungeon quest, i just look up the "correct" answers for the floor puzzles because ive already done it more than half a dozen times)

i do the quests to clear the map, but not because i find questing a chore, but because i see no value in repeatedly doing the same quests, the rewards are not worth it, plus the quest itself has no surprises or changes in content, its the same repeated dialog (certain quests which offer choices sometimes make me want to redo that quest line on another character to see the different dialog options/endings depending on what happened during the quest)

forced repeated questlines just make me enjoy them even less (example: companion intro quests), being forced into a long and tedious questline repeatedly just to use something you already unlocked is asinine

the biggest things most quests in this game lack is consequences, theres very few quests which have different outcomes depending on if you succeeded at some task (one of the examples of this is mirris unlock quest, which does have different dialogs depending on how many of her family you rescued, even though the actual outcome is the same (she joins you regardless of what happened))

ESO_player123 · January 8

Surgee wrote: »

Hi everyone,

With the upcoming overland difficulty changes, I believe this is the perfect time to take a closer look at quest —specifically how much guidance is provided.

ESO has some of the best quests in any MMORPG. The developers and writers put an incredible amount of effort into crafting amazing stories. But right now, you don’t have to pay attention to any of it—you just follow arrows. This makes quests feel unengaging and repetitive, which is a shame given their potential.

Recently, I conducted a small poll among players I play with, and their opinions on quests generally fall into three categories:
“I only do quests to clear the map.” These players find questing a chore. They feel the rewards aren’t worth it, and the experience is easy and boring.

“I want to enjoy the quests, but they’re boring.” These players do want to engage with the quests, but they end up skipping dialogue and just following arrows because there’s no value to it, no challenge, and the rewards aren’t exciting.

“I don’t do quests at all.” These players simply avoid quests because they’re not interesting or rewarding enough to bother.

The general consensus is that quests are boring and don’t give good rewards. Players who don’t care about quests just avoid them altogether, while players who do want to enjoy them are bored and would love to see higher challenge levels with better rewards.

Recent games like Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and even Sea of Thieves have proven that players are more engaged when they aren’t led by arrows every step of the way. Solving problems, exploring the world, and figuring out what to do next are what make quests fun and memorable. These games show that gamers love to be challenged, not just in combat but in their problem-solving.

This would:
Make quests more immersive and rewarding.

Encourage players to pay attention to quest dialogue and lore.

Quests and puzzles would require some thinking, so it would be more enjoyable to join forces with your friends (NOT REQUIRED!)

Boost ESO’s online community and content creation, as players turn to forums and videos for guidance.

Some might argue that this should be optional, but I disagree. ESO is an MMO where your achievements are meant to be shared and celebrated. If players can simply lower the difficulty or rely on arrows to breeze through content, it devalues the effort of those who truly engage with the game. Games like Elden Ring and other multiplayer experiences show us that universal challenges make success feel more rewarding.

What are your thoughts?

EDIT: Because some people do not fully understand what guidance is: This has nothing to do with combat or group play. It's about the arrows over the objectives and solving puzzles.

As another poster mentioned, people would just look up the information on the 3rd party websites. Would that devalue the efforts of those who truly engage with the game?
I would better understand if you argued for an optional change to boost the immersion, but the bolded part is kind of a turn off of me.

valenwood_vegan · January 8

There was an addon that kinda attempted to do this: immersive quests

Seems like it fizzled out. Only had ~15k downloads on minion, while many addons that provide *more* map information, such as map pins... have millions. Suggests to me that many are not looking for the type of challenge described (but also that some are interested).

But anyway, regardless of what one takes away from that snippet of data, the addon can be looked at as a good example of the huge undertaking it would be to rewrite the quests to provide sufficient information for them to be completed without map guidance.

Might be a cool idea for the future challenge zone zos has alluded to - that could be a good place to build some quests from the ground up that offer more of a challenge / puzzle / less guidance. [EDIT: forgot to add, I personally would enjoy this if the quests are interesting and well-written and not just a meaningless puzzle designed to waste time.].

Beyond that, I doubt they have the capability to go back and rework all the old quests (beyond bugfixes, which already take an inordinate amount of time). And not sure it would be very beneficial, as the game is ten years old and many have already done all of these quests anyway.

hiyde · January 8

Playing Hide & Seek for quest NPCs or objectives doesn't appeal to me personally. Other than the first MMO I played in 2007, every MMO I've ever played has implemented quest markers (even that first MMO eventually added it). Having to tab out of the game to look up map coordinates for every quest would lower the enjoyment/immersion for me, not raise it.

I'd be fine with an optional toggle for those that want that type of challenge, just as I'd like to see for Overland Difficulty.

Heren · January 8

Most likely flawed and unproven premises about engagement in the other games cited. The amount of ressources you can get online annihilate the 'People really solve these themselves, I swear !' argument.

Also, if people don't enjoy stories, it's not by making questing more time consuming that they will enjoy them.

Elvenheart · January 8

Surgee wrote: »

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

You can turn off compass Quest markers via the Interface->Heads Up Display->Compass Active Quests

All they really would need to accommodate your vision as an optional setting is to allow players to disable quests markers on the map.

ESO's quests, and dialogue, were designed with quest markers in mind.

This would need an overhaul of all dialogues to give enough information as to where the player should go as if the NPC's were giving directions to the player if they knew where they should go. And also allow players to ask NPC's to mark on a map where they should go. (because why couldn't you?)

And inevitably it just means that players use a 3rd party site to tell them where to go (like they do in the games you list) and it just makes it more annoying for the general audience.

Making such things optional goes against the entire idea of the challenge and the nature of an MMO. I go more into detail in the part of the post you might have missed.

The only thing I really disagree with (REALLY disagree with) is this need you seem to have to make the quest arrows be taken away for everyone, not just the ones who might like to turn them off with an optional setting. Surely I’m misunderstanding that? Some people, including myself, are very happy with the arrows there and would not want them to go away, it would actually lessen our play experience to have them gone. Another game I used to play, I think it was Neverwinter, implemented these sparkling glowy trails to lead you right to the objective of a quest. I loved those! It made me feel like a wizard, casting a spell that led me to whatever objective I desired, so it didn’t break my immersion at all. 🧙‍♂️

SilverBride · January 8

It's not been determined that increased overland difficulty will definitely be implemented yet. These will be marked as "experiments" in patch notes and are ideas that may or may not be fleshed out into full game systems.

ArchMikem · January 8

Kyip wrote: »

Promote group play, where friends team up to figure out objectives together.

I *DO NOT* want this. Not everyone wants to be forced to group up for content all the damned time.

The Devs, thankfully, expressed years ago when designing ESO, they went The Elder Scrolls first, MMO second. I too spent the majority of my 9 years and counting playing by myself and I'm thankful I've been able to do so.

BUT. They should promote group play anyway. Not everyone is a loner, and ESO is still partly an MMO. Perhaps give Quest Puzzles the ability to be solved solo, but grouping up makes it a bit easier?

Ugrak · January 8

hiyde wrote: »

I'd be fine with an optional toggle for those that want that type of challenge, just as I'd like to see for Overland Difficulty.

Options.

This is the way.