I Would Like to Enjoy ESO Again—How to Bring the Magic Back

evLRise

This is a long-time player’s VERY deep dive into the core systems that need way more care and consideration—mostly about the hollow feeling of overland content and questing, but also a tiny but about the incredibly repetitive PvP experience. In this post I want to explore what ESO could be, if it truly embraced gameplay depth, rewarding exploration, a bit more palpable immersion, and balanced design. These are some changes that would make me—and surely many others—finally feel excited again about opening ESO.

Overland Content - Beautiful Worlds, Empty Experiences

Do you guys know that feeling when you see a chest and you're really wondering what's inside? Yea, me neither. Because it's not even worth opening them.

Overland content in ESO suffers from a few core issues that diminish its long-term appeal. While the stories themselves can be engaging and well-written, the gameplay experience around them often feels unrewarding. There’s little incentive to explore thoroughly, open chests, loot overland gear, or even care about quest rewards—most of which are either underwhelming or instantly obsolete. Aside from occasional skyshards for skill points, there’s very little in the way of meaningful, satisfying progression tied to exploration or open-world content. As a result, what should feel like a living, breathing world often ends up feeling hollow after just a few zones.

A. Overland Loot

When I first started ESO, I stumbled into an armory or some sort of warehouse during the tutorial, and excitedly looted every piece of gear I could find—like any Elder Scrolls fan would. Minutes later, I found myself with a full inventory, forced to drag and drop around 40 items to destroy them, since their value was completely worthless ( 0 gold to be precise ). What an exciting start, no? This exact scenario holds true even several years later, as I quickly found out that most items you come across are not even worth picking up.

Why don’t overland chests have a chance to drop something interesting? Imagine opening one and finding a few tristat potions—on par with what players can craft—or a legendary-quality glyph. What about treasure items, like those we get from dragons in Northern Elsweyr, that could be sold for a few thousand gold? That alone would make every chest feel worth your time. No one's stopping you from adding some extra flavor to it, with treasure types and descriptions based on zone. A Dwemer Centurion piece to sell for 2500 gold would be a rather decent find in a dwemer delve.

Materials are another huge missed opportunity. Chests and containers could occasionally yield raw resources, ingots, leather, or even tempering materials, including some of the highest rarity. Suddenly, gathering becomes more dynamic and exploration more rewarding.

The environment can definitely play a role as well. I’d gladly loot every table in the game if I thought a fancy bandit had sat down for a plate of Orzorga’s Smoked Bear. I’d check every satchel and backpack if I knew that there's a good chance I'm going to find some alchemy ingredients, valuable flowers, or a pricey trinket.

And speaking of trinkets—ornate items should sell for enough to actually feel satisfying. Finding a gold ring labeled “ornate” that sells for 120g just feels like an insult—especially when I can't even say whether Mirri is sarcastic or not of how the item "should fetch a fair fetching price".

At the end of the day, progression in ESO—whether it’s improving your character, crafting, or just feeling like you’re getting somewhere—requires gold, materials, and gear. So the question is:

Which scenario sounds more enjoyable?
Spending hours flipping items in trade guilds and logging into 1–9 different characters every day to do the same repetitive writs...
Or actually playing the game—exploring the world, looting interesting gear, discovering valuable items, and feeling rewarded for your curiosity?

I honestly don't think it should be a hard choice. But right now, ESO heavily favors the former. Let players be adventurers, not NPCs.

B. Quest Rewards

When Blackwood came out, I went straight to the spot where I knew Nocturnal’s shrine was from previous Elder Scrolls games. I was even pleasantly surprised to find I could do a quest for her. Naturally, I imagined the reward would be something unique or exciting—maybe even themed.

So you can imagine my excitement… when I received 664 gold.

With some quick math, I realized that if I complete a quest for every Daedric Prince, I’ll just about have enough to buy a nice chair from the guild store. A perfect seat to sit on while contemplating my time investment decisions.

So… why don’t we have better quest rewards?
I’m not entirely sure. Balance concerns? If so, I fail to see how something like the Skeleton Key—an unbreakable lockpick and Nocturnal's signature artifact—would disrupt anything. If anything, it would feel exciting, flavorful, and appropriately rare.

The current system of fixed-trait overland and dungeon set pieces as quest rewards feels outdated—especially since transmutation and item reconstruction became available. And let’s be honest: most overland sets aren’t strong enough to justify a fixed-trait reward in the first place, especially now that transmute crystals are so plentiful.

How do we fix this issue?

Introduce unique quest rewards - Ideas could be:
- 1-piece set items similar to mythics.
- Items that are directly legendary quality, as finishing a long questline to obtain the shield of a legendary knight feels rather sad when the shield is green quality, in the wrong trait and part of a rather underwhelming set.
- Uniquely enchanted items, or items with unique traits. If the quest's story speaks about a nimble knight, why couldn't the shield we get as reward have a stamina recovery enchant? This would make it completely unique, as such enchantments are not normally available on shields, while also preserving balance due to overland sets being mostly generic and moderately strong.
- Gold rewards should feel actually rewarding. A couple hundred gold as quest reward rather incentivizes people to avoid questing instead of engaging in it.

Not ALL quests need to provide an incredibly rich reward. Sometimes I do a quest simply because I feel like it, and I don't really expect the NPC to offer anything of value. But this doesn't mean the reward needs to feel pointless. A reward is not limited to gold and set items. It can always be a stack of 50 potions for example, if it makes sense in that particular scenario. I know for a fact I'd definitely be happier with 50 escapist poisons as part of a Dark Brotherhood quest reward than 500 gold.

C. Fishing

The core issue with fishing isn’t the activity itself—it’s the rewards. Catching a rare fish often feels more like a punishment than a triumph. Why? Because rare fish are worth so little gold that, statistically, a white-quality fish is more valuable due to its chance to yield Perfect Roe.

That’s right—white fish are better than rares when it comes to value.

Why is this so bad, you ask? Well, how about the fact that someone who invests into fishing with food, CPs and companion passives earns less gold than someone who doesn't, due to catching more rare fish. Doesn't this sound wrong from every possible angle?

To fix this, rare fish should have a significantly higher sell value, and the system should reward players who invest in fishing through CP, food buffs, and companion passives.

Beyond that, fishing could benefit from a larger, more interesting drop pool. There's no reason you couldn’t occasionally reel in:

- Thematic misc items (e.g. lost trinkets to sell as treasure);
- Zone-specific crafting mats;
- Treasure Maps / Surveys in a bottle;
- Even the occasional "shiny ring at the bottom of the lake";

You’d hardly be the first person in Tamriel to fish up something unexpected..

D. NPC Vendors & Immersion

If you'd ask a few people a simple question - where would you go if you wanted to get some clothes? To the tailor. What about some meat? To the butcher and so on.

In ESO, that's not the case. Need potions or plants? No point in going to the alchemist. Need glyphs? The enchanter can't make any half decent glyphs. You're hungry? Too bad. The chef can't cook, nor does he have any noteworthy recipes. Personally, I don't even remember when was the last time I checked what a vendor has for sale, except some Cyrodiil Set merchants, the Golden Vendor and some furnishing traders.

So, just give NPCs actually useful gear. It doesn't have to be infinite. Just limit their stock or add some simple inventory rotations. Why shouldn't the alchemist have 10-20 flowers and several useful potions on sale everyday? Maybe the blacksmith came across some interesting set items lately. A sword or a dagger, in random qualities. Heck, even a tiny chance for a zone-related dungeon or trial piece of gear once every couple of days wouldn't be too bad. Why doesn't the blacksmith have any half-decent weapons for sale? Maybe because no one trades with him...

E. Stealing

At some point I actually spent time & resources to make a fully optimized pickpocket setup, not necessarily because I thought it might be a good idea, but mostly to have fun.

I went for a Nightblade with all relevant Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Legerdemain passives unlocked. Additionally:

- Steed Mundus and 3x Swift traits on jewelry;
- Invisibility & expedition potions;
- Vesture of Darloc Brae set;
- Nightmother's Embrace set;
- The Shadow Queen's Cowl mythic;
- Ember following me for those extra wallets;

Results? Extremely underwhelming rewards. Probably about 25k worth of gold daily. Gets very boring after a few hours of running such a build as there's really nothing exciting ever happening to keep you going.

Here are the main issues:

1. Poor Loot Value
Even after pickpocketing dozens, even hundreds of NPCs, the loot is almost always junk-tier. The vast majority of stolen items sell for less than 100 gold at a fence, and most are useless trinkets with no real market or utility.

On average, I would receive a purple-quality item once every 100-200 or so pickpockets, which worth about 5k gold — and this is generally the best case scenario. There were often days where I'd reach my fencing limit despite destroying all white items and selling only green or better trinkets without getting a single purple tier treasure from pickpocketing, making the endeavor feel completely unsatisfying.

2. Rare Drops Are Too Infrequent and Too Cheap
There are a few style pages, like the ones in Vvardenfell, that are available exclusively via pickpocketing. While that’s a neat incentive, they:

- Have bad drop rates;
- Aren’t worth much gold;
- Often aren’t even in demand, making them poor incentives for repeat gameplay.

Fix? Similar to most other outlined issues. Just make it actually rewarding, especially with heavy investment. Change related passives ( Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and Legerdemain ) to actually boost your capability, rather than being niche flavor skills that no one uses.

F. Difficulty

The difficulty of overland content remains one of the most debated topics in ESO, and for good reason. Players are divided — some find it too easy and unengaging, while others prefer a relaxed, exploration-focused experience.

A potential solution that could satisfy both sides would be to introduce a Normal/Veteran mode toggle for overland zones. Players seeking more challenge could opt into Veteran mode, where enemies hit harder, have more mechanics, and offer better rewards. Those who enjoy a more casual experience could continue in Normal mode, maintaining the current pace and ease of exploration.

At present, many overland encounters feel like a chore rather than an engaging part of the game. There’s often little incentive to engage with enemies, especially when most can be killed in one or two hits. Adding meaningful difficulty options could revitalize exploration and restore a sense of danger and achievement — without taking that away from players who prefer a more relaxed journey through Tamriel.

To take things next level, a "Hard Mode" mechanic on top of Veteran difficulty for instances such as delves could actually turn the boring "Grab the skyshard, Nuke the boss for completion" chore into an engaging part of the game for most players.

With this, not only you improve immersion, engagement and satisfy both sides, but you also prove that player agency is actually taken seriously.

G. Crafting Node Diversity

One area where ESO could improve immersion and player satisfaction is in how it handles resource distribution in the open world.

Currently, crafting materials like ore and alchemical ingredients appear almost randomly, regardless of the surrounding environment. It feels odd to find ore veins sprouting in grassy fields, or to come across the exact same flowers growing in a swamp, a desert, and a frozen tundra.

Introducing more localized and biome-specific resources would not only enhance realism but also give each region a stronger identity. It would encourage players to explore different zones for specific materials, making gathering feel more purposeful and grounded in the world. Hunting for rare tundra herbs in Skyrim or mining volcanic ore in Vvardenfell could become memorable gameplay experiences rather than routine tasks.

It would also allow a vast expansion of crafting options that feel either outdated or obsolete. If we take Alchemy as an example, there's around 6-7 potions and even fewer poisons that players ever use. What's stopping you from expanding the options through more unique items. I'd definitely delve a bit more in Dwemer ruins if I could loot some Dwemer Oil off automatons and actually make something useful out of it.

This change would improve immersion & world cohesion, incentivize meaningful exploration and overall improve the natural world design ( as a side note, it would even increase DLC value, since some of those items would end up being DLC gated - wink wink ZoS).

H. Cyrodiil - PvP

As a main PvP player, I can pinpoint exactly what makes the PvP experience feel less enjoyable. While balance is always a topic of discussion, most power spikes have been reasonably streamlined with the introduction of subclasses—since now, nearly everyone has access to similar tools.

The real issue lies in how repetitive and stagnant the experience has become. Sure, each patch brings a short-lived sense of novelty, but that fades within a few weeks as meta builds and popular strategies quickly settle in. The most monotonous aspect, however, is the map itself.

In all the years I’ve played, I can barely recall any meaningful changes to the layout or world design—aside from the removal of a single tree near Glademist. Every outpost, resource node, and region of Cyrodiil feels identical. Keeps lack any unique identity; they're essentially just walled outposts, copy-pasted across the landscape.

Reworking the map layout could inject much-needed life into PvP. Imagine keeps that reflect their location and nearby cultural influences, or regional diversity in fauna and flora. It’s almost comedic to get a death recap from “The Great Forest” when the area only has five or six scattered trees. There's so much potential to make Cyrodiil feel like a dynamic, evolving battlefield rather than a static arena.

EDIT:

I. Mounts

Has anyone else found it a bit odd that when you visit Vvardenfell, the stablemaster—despite being surrounded by Guars—only offers the same three horses available in every other zone? I'm not asking for flashy mounts with glowing effects or anything extravagant, but it would really add to the immersion if certain regions offered simple, thematic mount options.

For example, being able to purchase a plain guar in Vvardenfell, Stonefalls, or Deshaan would feel much more fitting. A basic Kagouti would also make sense. And in Clockwork City, even a minimalistic Dwemer automaton would go a long way in making the zone feel unique and rewarding.

After all, many of us bought DLCs or chapters, or have an ongoing subscription for content like Clockwork City, and while they bring great story and design, the most functional reward in this example—like the transmutation station—is now easily found in most guild halls and player homes. Offering zone-specific basic mounts would be a small but meaningful way to make these areas feel more special and worth the investment, as it would actually encourage players to visit each zone for at least one more reason.

There is so much more to be added of course, but the list was getting rather long already. Would be more than glad to share even more ideas if there's actual interest displayed in such suggestions

whitecrow

One thing I liked about the Gold Road quests is that they did reward something more than a set piece I'm only going to desconstruct. Skill styles and I think there were some collectibles as well. Although I also noticed some only rewarded gold.

Agreed about the vendors as well. They only have white gear so why would anybody other than a new player use them except to sell stuff. Put some interesting things there.

Desiato

In terms of loot, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Loot can't both easy to get and interesting at the same time. If it is easy to get and everyone has it, it is inherently uninteresting.

Everquest was full of interesting loot because items could be difficult to obtain and/or rare -- with a lot of cause and effect there.

This is why I didn't mind the grind from the 2024 Jubilee for the replica styles. It was fun to have something in ESO that was actually somewhat exclusive for a while. No, I didn't consider grinding dolmen or world bosses to be the pinnacle of gameplay, but I enjoyed the pursuit of something rare.

There are two ways to achieve this outside of expensive Crown Store items. Gate items behind very challenging encounters (like vMA weapons in 2015 and 2016) or low percentage RNG. This community ALWAYS rejects both.

I would love a modern day vMA that is extremely difficult and actually rare rewards. People used to stop to look at vMA weapons when someone had them equipped because they were so rare. But if it were to actually happen, Reddit and the forums would be in meltdown mode.

A continuous supply of new items isn't the answer either because there is a saturation point, and honestly ESO reached the saturation point a long time ago. Every ESO vet has far more rewards than they could possibly ever use.

So we are left with the system we have where they gradually introduce one or two OP sets or really nice cosmetics mixed in with a bunch of underwhelming stuff.

I miss the days when loot didn't completely dominate gameplay. Loot was a huge factor in EQ, but it was a trickle compared to the waterfall it is in ESO. IMO, players are literally addicted to the dopamine rush from loot and achievements and that's why there is almost no gameplay remaining.

evLRise

I definitely agree that scarcity can make rewards more memorable, and it's completely fair to have items that are difficult to get. That said, my suggestions weren’t really touching on those kinds of rewards — they’re part of a different aspect of ESO's systems. But let’s go through this step by step:

Every ESO vet has far more rewards than they could possibly ever use.

And if every vet player already has more than enough, then who exactly are we gatekeeping rewards from? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ People who just want to enjoy "Skyrim with friends" and are unlikely to join endgame content anyway?

Loot can't both be easy to get and interesting at the same time.

Says who? Loot can be accessible and interesting at the same time if it's designed well — via unique effects, compelling visuals, narrative flavor, clever acquisition methods, or simply through engagement with the world. Accessibility doesn't have to mean “boring.”

To be clear, I never said people should get rich from doing a couple of quests. But right now, a player who wants to enjoy exploration, story, or thievery will often feel unrewarded — there's barely any meaningful sense of progression tied to that kind of gameplay.

Loot was a huge factor in EQ, but it was a trickle compared to the waterfall it is in ESO.

Sure — but ESO is also not EQ. It’s designed to be modular and welcoming. In fact, I would say that the vast majority of people who play the game fall in this category, and the people that would grind for dozens of hours for a 2% drop are the minority.

Players are addicted to the dopamine rush from loot and achievements and that's why there's almost no gameplay left.

That comes off more bitter than constructive, honestly. I get being frustrated with the current system, but exclusive, challenging content can exist alongside fun, casual, story-driven content. This isn’t a black-and-white choice between bleed for the gold or leave empty handed. Layered rewards work — give something to everyone, and scale rewards with difficulty.

Gate items behind very challenging encounters (like vMA weapons in 2015/16) or low-percentage RNG. The community ALWAYS rejects both.

Players reject bad RNG and artificial difficulty, not challenge itself. Lots of people love tough content (me included), but nobody enjoys running the same trial 50 times for a 2% drop they’ve already earned in practice. I already finished the instance on vet. I already have all achievements. So what’s the point of grinding it 40 more times for one trait roll on one item, as per the "engaging" example of old vMA? At that point, it’s not skill being tested — it’s time-wasting.

And for context: 99% of my time in ESO is spent in challenging content. It’s not because I dislike casual stuff — it's because there's nothing meaningful to earn from it right now, and it simply doesn't feel satisfying, aside from maybe doing some random quests for the story once every couple months. That’s what I want to see change.

Random side note: I literally mentioned in the initial post that it would be interesting to have a vet option for overland instances, with maybe even hard mode options for delves etc. and associated rewards based on difficulty.

evLRise

whitecrow wrote: »

One thing I liked about the Gold Road quests is that they did reward something more than a set piece I'm only going to desconstruct. Skill styles and I think there were some collectibles as well. Although I also noticed some only rewarded gold.

Agreed about the vendors as well. They only have white gear so why would anybody other than a new player use them except to sell stuff. Put some interesting things there.

True I missed the aspect of skill styles. But it goes to show how easy it is to make players feel rewarded in a way that's both fun and doesn't break balance.

ZhuJiuyin

evLRise wrote: »

RNG and artificial difficulty, not challenge itself. Lots of people love tough content (me included), but nobody enjoys running the same trial 50 times for a 2% drop they’ve already earned in practice. I already finished the instance on vet. I already have all achievements. So what’s the point of grinding it 40 more times for one trait roll on one item, as per the "engaging" example of old vMA? At that point, it’s not skill being tested — it’s time-wasting.

If we had a new arena with a very high difficulty that allowed you to pick a special weapon of your choice when you completed it, rather than having a random weapon generated, I would happily challenge that high difficulty arena.

El_Borracho

The problem with the last 2 years of ESO is they have been overly catering to new and casual players. What I mean by that is they have introduced things that have turned the game into a bit of a joke. Players complained about it being too hard to get monster sets, so monster sets were nerfed. Players complained about it being too hard to get trials gear, let alone perfected gear, and presto, mythics. Players complained about LA weaving, and voila, the Oakensoul Ring.

Since all of that was not enough for a brand-new player to be able to clear VMA within an hour of buying the game, we were given the Arcanist. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Arcanist as it allows me to still put out massive damage numbers while being half-asleep. But its not in line with the other classes in any way. Its like putting in the cheat code before playing Contra, to my fellow players who are old enough to remember.

But the complaints kept coming and coming and coming. So now we have subclassing, which has gone exactly as predicted by anyone with enough time in this game. Its not meta-crushing its now created the meta-meta. Just go look at Skinnycheeks' builds.

ESO today is the product of all of these ideas to "diversify" the game and "balance." Its has done the exact opposite. Be careful what you wish for.

DenverRalphy

Desiato wrote: »

There are two ways to achieve this outside of expensive Crown Store items. Gate items behind very challenging encounters (like vMA weapons in 2015 and 2016) or low percentage RNG. This community ALWAYS rejects both.

I would love a modern day vMA that is extremely difficult and actually rare rewards. People used to stop to look at vMA weapons when someone had them equipped because they were so rare. But if it were to actually happen, Reddit and the forums would be in meltdown mode.

Quoted simply because I believe it merits repetition.

I would absolutely love to see "challenging to acquire" gear again. Unfortunately (from my perspective anyway) rewards are all about cosmetics and fashion anymore, and challenge has to be tuned down to be easily accessible by all.

MincMincMinc

Nicely organized post, good job at breaking down the wall of text.

Pretty on point where the devs have spent thousands of hours making an empty game. Overworld being a huge issue where they belittle the average population thinking they cant handle basic mobs that light attack you once every few seconds.

Other than the neglected server performance, yeah the next step on refrshing pvp is to overhaul cyrodil as a map. Maybe make a completely different pvp zone not cyrodil. During events you could always bring it back.

Major_Mangle

As someone who tried the difficulty scaling in Lord of the Rings online when it came out found that to be quite fun, realized that it wouldn´t do very well in ESO for a very simple reason:

The quests, the lore and the design of the stories in ESO is complete and utter trash. Sure it might not be super fair to compare to lord of the rings and the work of Tolkien which is on another level when it comes to worldbuilding and lore. I just don´t see how ESO overland would become more appealing by making it more difficult when the world itself with its story, lore etc is some of the worst I´ve ever encountered in an MMO. For me overland is supposed to be about the quests and the world itself (LOTRO does this incredibly well, even though I`m not a huge fan of its combat system), and making it harder without addressing the actual weaknesses of it would just make it slower and less appealing to me.

DenverRalphy

Major_Mangle wrote: »

As someone who tried the difficulty scaling in Lord of the Rings online when it came out found that to be quite fun, realized that it wouldn´t do very well in ESO for a very simple reason:

<snipped for brevity>

Quest/Story aside.. the biggest reason difficulty scaling wouldn't work very well in ESO is because the rewards couldn't scale with the difficulty or challenge. If harder difficulty instances gave out better rewards, the majority of the ESO playerbase would revolt. Because when ESO players say an increase in difficulty should be optional, they still expect the same rewards should they choose the easy option.

ImmortalCX

When subclassing went live I realized they had jumped the shark. Every party was green beam spam. Classes lost identity, the game was no longer an RPG but a collection of skills built upon aging theme parks. The magic was lost.

It had a good run, but I am more excited about a next generation experience wherever that may be.

The fundamental problem with eso was scaled zones, so that new players could engage with any content they wanted. There was never any sense of danger, never a sense of accomplishment. Overland was like "easy skyrim". At least in skyrim there is some progression tied to the main story so you have to build up your character. That was not a thing in ESO.

I personally think the geography/maps were too small. There should be high traffic zones in an mmo, but there should also be vast expanses to explore, such that you don't feel like you would ever be able to see everything. ESO had packed everthing on top of everything else, so you could literally see the next ride from the ride you are on, like an amusement park.

The main draw of ESO was being able to play a decent-length Elder Scrolls story campaign every year. That is no longer a thing.


Did ESO get anything right? I think guild traders and a semi-functional economy was the best thing. Most MMOs don't have a functioning economy.

Stamicka

I think that PvP and PvE need to be completely separated maybe by using an idea similar to how the PTS works. The PTS server can have character data copied to it and then you can access your usual characters on a totally different version of the game.

I would love if this was applied to PvP. They copy all of our data to this PvP server (preferably it would be cross platform too) and it runs a different version of the game with different skill behavior, balancing, and set options. I think they would need a way to keep character data in sync though, which I don't think is currently a thing. It's a pipe dream, but it would be great.

I'm not someone who thinks that ESO needs a bunch of new features to bring the magic back. The magic was lost with combat changes, nerfs, power creep, and poor balancing. If they could just revert some of the worst changes and improve performance I would have no problem playing ESO as is for many more years. Even ESO classic with more modern QoL would keep me happy.

Anyway, I have a lot more ideas especially as it relates to improving PvP, but I'll leave it there.

AcadianPaladin

I gather I'm in a distinct minority but my elf and I don't really care about loot/rewards.

Her 'end game' is soloing alliance zone group dungeons on normal and soloing alliance zone WBs. She doesn't care about DLC dungeons, vet or trials since she can't solo them. And, given her end game, she has no need for the sets that come from those places.

So here's what's important to my elf just trying to live her life in Tamriel: Lots of fashion flexibility - after all, what good is adventuring if you can't look good doing it? Wonderful music and beautiful natural terrain - plenty of that available and easy to avoid the steampunk or realms of Oblivion weirdness areas. Lots of nice, enjoyable daily quests ranging from writs to delve diving with enough variety that it never gets old. Quality of life stuff - I already mentioned fashion, but combat flexibility also with things like subclassing and Oakensoul. The ability to have her horse swim will be massive!

tsaescishoeshiner

The fishing info is incorrect:

Well, how about the fact that someone who invests into fishing with food, CPs and companion passives earns less gold than someone who doesn't, due to catching more rare fish. Doesn't this sound wrong from every possible angle?

It's been stated that the trophy fish don't replace white fish, but the "junk" loot category. No stats have indicated that it's wrong, so there's a lack of fact-finding here. (Not that fishing can't be improved.)

In general, I think it takes more research and considerations of the secondary impact of changes before calling something a very deep dive.

For example, while I think having biome-specific crafting nodes makes sense and sounds immersive and cool on paper, in practice, it would increase competition in the few zones that had more worthwhile material, overall making the gathering experience and economy worse.

scrappy1342

ZhuJiuyin wrote: »

If we had a new arena with a very high difficulty that allowed you to pick a special weapon of your choice when you completed it, rather than having a random weapon generated, I would happily challenge that high difficulty arena.

works very well in other games. the boss will drop a token that you turn into a vendor for the gear/weapon you need. or mount or whatever else they tie to it

RebornV3x

for the NPC vendors there needs to be an overhaul I don't even know how they stay in business they should sell white Trainee set or something worth buying if your a new player.

I think bosses dropping tokens needs to be used sparingly we don't need dozens of new currencies overnight Ive played MMOs that have way to many currencies and its overwhelming and annoying.

DenverRalphy

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

The fishing info is incorrect:

Well, how about the fact that someone who invests into fishing with food, CPs and companion passives earns less gold than someone who doesn't, due to catching more rare fish. Doesn't this sound wrong from every possible angle?

It's been stated that the trophy fish don't replace white fish, but the "junk" loot category. No stats have indicated that it's wrong, so there's a lack of fact-finding here. (Not that fishing can't be improved.)

In general, I think it takes more research and considerations of the secondary impact of changes before calling something a very deep dive.

For example, while I think having biome-specific crafting nodes makes sense and sounds immersive and cool on paper, in practice, it would increase competition in the few zones that had more worthwhile material, overall making the gathering experience and economy worse.

More accurately, specifically only Sharp-As-Night's fishing perk does not intrude upon catching regular fish. Angler's Instinct (the CP perk) and Pickled Fishbowl foods do. But those latter two are simply toggled on/off, or just not eaten when the player is just fishing for regular fish.

evLRise

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

The fishing info is incorrect

It's been stated that the trophy fish don't replace white fish, but the "junk" loot category. No stats have indicated that it's wrong, so there's a lack of fact-finding here. (Not that fishing can't be improved.)

Could be true, but the fact that white fish is more valuable than rare fish is still incredibly immersion breaking.

katanagirl1

evLRise wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

The fishing info is incorrect

It's been stated that the trophy fish don't replace white fish, but the "junk" loot category. No stats have indicated that it's wrong, so there's a lack of fact-finding here. (Not that fishing can't be improved.)

Could be true, but the fact that white fish is more valuable than rare fish is still incredibly immersion breaking.

You just have to get a lot of white fish to get something valuable. Perfect roe is something like 1/200.

Sluggy

Desiato wrote: »

In terms of loot, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Loot can't both easy to get and interesting at the same time. If it is easy to get and everyone has it, it is inherently uninteresting.

Everquest was full of interesting loot because items could be difficult to obtain and/or rare -- with a lot of cause and effect there.

This is why I didn't mind the grind from the 2024 Jubilee for the replica styles. It was fun to have something in ESO that was actually somewhat exclusive for a while. No, I didn't consider grinding dolmen or world bosses to be the pinnacle of gameplay, but I enjoyed the pursuit of something rare.

There are two ways to achieve this outside of expensive Crown Store items. Gate items behind very challenging encounters (like vMA weapons in 2015 and 2016) or low percentage RNG. This community ALWAYS rejects both.

I would love a modern day vMA that is extremely difficult and actually rare rewards. People used to stop to look at vMA weapons when someone had them equipped because they were so rare. But if it were to actually happen, Reddit and the forums would be in meltdown mode.

A continuous supply of new items isn't the answer either because there is a saturation point, and honestly ESO reached the saturation point a long time ago. Every ESO vet has far more rewards than they could possibly ever use.

So we are left with the system we have where they gradually introduce one or two OP sets or really nice cosmetics mixed in with a bunch of underwhelming stuff.

I miss the days when loot didn't completely dominate gameplay. Loot was a huge factor in EQ, but it was a trickle compared to the waterfall it is in ESO. IMO, players are literally addicted to the dopamine rush from loot and achievements and that's why there is almost no gameplay remaining.

Oh shoot, thought I was on the Diablo4 forums for a sec here. But ah yeah, it still all works for ESO too

tincanman

Before 1-tamriel zones were level (and alliance!) locked with associated graded difficulties and mats were zone specific. Unless you were at or below the required level for a zone you got pretty much nothing: no xp, no loot, no treasure. There might have been a tiny amount of gold from quests in those circumstances, I'm not sure. The only time you were guaranteed any kind of loot (trash by today's standards) was after completion of Cadwell's gold and in the final zone for that particular alliance. If you were ahead in terms of craft capability than your character level then tough - you probably weren't strong enough to farm the mats you needed to match that and guild traders were only available via keep capture and retention in cyrodiil (when pvp was rightfully the 'end' game). You spent a significantly longer time at any specific character level and craft level as a consequence. It was a pitiless grind.

It was the fact that many players found this setup 'too hard' (and consequently boring - why waste limited recreation time when there are other, simpler and more entertaining options with other products?) combined with the inability to group with friends due to alliance being central and limiting to character identity(you could only group with others of the same alliance and, to be effective, of very similar level) that resulted in 1-tamriel - originally and thankfully protoyped in Wrothgar, which is why when it went live it pretty much did so without a hitch.

As for what seems to me to be essentially a request to revert to most of that pre 1-tamriel setup, no thanks. I suspect any such reversions changes would render eso extinct as the remaining players abandoned it.

whitecrow

I preferred the old Tamriel except for the out-levelling of quests. The quests and foes should just have been "upgraded" based on your character level.

logan68

we cant have nice things because of people...and their bots sorry

YandereGirlfriend

Desiato wrote: »

In terms of loot, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Loot can't both easy to get and interesting at the same time. If it is easy to get and everyone has it, it is inherently uninteresting.

Everquest was full of interesting loot because items could be difficult to obtain and/or rare -- with a lot of cause and effect there.

This is why I didn't mind the grind from the 2024 Jubilee for the replica styles. It was fun to have something in ESO that was actually somewhat exclusive for a while. No, I didn't consider grinding dolmen or world bosses to be the pinnacle of gameplay, but I enjoyed the pursuit of something rare.

There are two ways to achieve this outside of expensive Crown Store items. Gate items behind very challenging encounters (like vMA weapons in 2015 and 2016) or low percentage RNG. This community ALWAYS rejects both.

I would love a modern day vMA that is extremely difficult and actually rare rewards. People used to stop to look at vMA weapons when someone had them equipped because they were so rare. But if it were to actually happen, Reddit and the forums would be in meltdown mode.

A continuous supply of new items isn't the answer either because there is a saturation point, and honestly ESO reached the saturation point a long time ago. Every ESO vet has far more rewards than they could possibly ever use.

So we are left with the system we have where they gradually introduce one or two OP sets or really nice cosmetics mixed in with a bunch of underwhelming stuff.

I miss the days when loot didn't completely dominate gameplay. Loot was a huge factor in EQ, but it was a trickle compared to the waterfall it is in ESO. IMO, players are literally addicted to the dopamine rush from loot and achievements and that's why there is almost no gameplay remaining.

Yes, more things should be gated behind difficulty and challenge. In gaming in general. Not sure when that stopped being a thing.

Things like the Perfected bonus on trial sets are so laughably minimal it really discourages their pursuit unless you were already planning on doing that content for whatever reason.

IMO, things like the Leaderboards are also criminally under-utilized. Have sets that only drop from being Top-100 to encourage players to do their best.

Asikoo

I was in the same place as you, so here’s what I did:

First, I completely ignored the "online" part and tried to focus only on The Elder Scrolls itself. After that, I found myself playing Morrowind again and right now, I’m alternating between Morrowind and PoE2.
My plan is to continue with Oblivion next, then move on to Skyrim. To me, that’s where the real magic of The Elder Scrolls lives. This "online" version just doesn’t feel like Elder Scrolls anymore, it’s not for me.
So I canceled my ESO+ subscription, and now I’m playing through the Elder Scrolls series again to recapture that "magic" you mentioned.

Ulvich

I have noticed that during the main story quests the quest rewards have changed.

evLRise

Asikoo wrote: »

I was in the same place as you, so here’s what I did:

First, I completely ignored the "online" part and tried to focus only on The Elder Scrolls itself. After that, I found myself playing Morrowind again and right now, I’m alternating between Morrowind and PoE2.
My plan is to continue with Oblivion next, then move on to Skyrim. To me, that’s where the real magic of The Elder Scrolls lives. This "online" version just doesn’t feel like Elder Scrolls anymore, it’s not for me.
So I canceled my ESO+ subscription, and now I’m playing through the Elder Scrolls series again to recapture that "magic" you mentioned.

Sadly I already finished all Elder Scrolls games except Arena several times each, including thousands of mods, among which several were DLC sized. I get the craving once in a while, but unless I'm really in the mood it feels very repetitive. I'm very excited for the Skyblivion project release to rekindle that excitement.

NettleCarrier

You hit ALL the nails on the head. The biggest one for me is definitely quest rewards. I sped through Cadwell's Silver to get my style when I was collecting them all, and I've run plenty of repeatables for boxes (Jubilee boxes during the seasons) and event tickets. Outside of that I've done some of the most grindy activities on the game (all fishing achievements, all styles, all "random encounters", all monster components (before AWA), etc.)

All that said, I've never done a quest I didn't have to do - because it was never worth the "leveled" gold reward that was literally less than the average plant I picked running into town.

Where this game shines is in its questing and clever storylines for the side quests that 99% of players skip. If these developers would lean into that strength by some means I feel like we'd have something truly great on our hands.

evLRise

Ulvich wrote: »

I have noticed that during the main story quests the quest rewards have changed.

Yep and that's definitely a step in the right direction. It's one of the few situations where the quest reward can be significantly useful, depending on context. Having a full trainee set is definitely great for a new player which does not have access to crafting.

skinnycheeks

Really great points! This would really help bring exploration back to life for veteran players.