Suggestion for PvE

surge914b14_ESO

So it's pretty obvious that the PvE side seems kind of against grouping. There seems to be many problems when 2 or more players in a group try to do PvE quests like enemies not appearing for one player or some players not getting credit while the other does.

It seems like Zenimax needs to implement some sort of incentive to encourage players to group up should they chose so instead of making them frustrated when trying to do PvE content together only to encounter problems. SWTOR did a good job of encouraging grouping by being able to get social points for doing conversations with other players plus extra XP if your in a group. Not saying you have to take their idea, though they did use Guild Wars 2's style of PvP, but using something similar might worth looking into. SWTOR style won't work as well on ESO with how the game is set up but seeing as they are both heavy on story like I said they should look into putting an incentive to encourage players to group instead of doing the opposite. This seems to be one drawback to the game as the haters just compare it to skyrim and quickly talk trash about it because the PvE seems mostly like a representation of the ES games single player only since grouping doesn't offer much and tends to become more of a con than pro.

How do you guys think ESO should encourage grouping on regular PvE questing?

crislevin

They shouldn't "encourage grouping", as many people likes to play alone.

They do need to fix the problem if people are in a group.

Phazzle

I agree that the best way to get people to group is to fix the glitches.

Xaei

I think there needs to be a choice. I stand strongly against quests being group-based, it needs to be something personal to have any impact. Imagine if you killed Molag Bal with a raid of 15 people, do you see that as a personal victory? No, it teh just becomes another raid, quests become just another way to get exp.

But we need more group options, because it is a MMO afterall. More dungeons (with better loot), move Craglorn to level 50, and make zones without any personal story elements to it which you can just play together as a band of adventurers looking for loot.

The last point being something like Underworld or Fissure of Woe from GW1.

Rayadrel

Despite what I may have said in other posts I'm not against raid content perse.
I'm against developing raid content exclusively at the cost of everything else.

The next patch for instance is entirely focused on raid and group content. I find this worrying. Because every MMO tends to do this. Even when they do update solo content it becomes a side thing with vastly inferior rewards.

It's happening here too. For example, they're already promising that these raids will have the best equipment in the game. Meanwhile, what does completing the main quest give you? A level 50 blue weapon that you most likely have a better example of already.

Yes, MMOs give you the ability to play with others. But I do not think they should be exclusively about that. Solo players should be able to earn equivalent rewards through equivalent content. Make it highly challenging content, such as Guild Wars 1 had. But make it all the same.
Those who claim high end rewards should remain exclusive to group content are engaging in elitism, and diminishing the huge potential solo content in an MMO offers.

Xaei

But the market thinks otherwise. The lack of an endgame and group-based content is one of the huge complaints with ESO.

I often think MMO developers are forced to make content they don't really like to make. Look at GW2 for example. Devs wanted to make the entire endgame based on collecting cosmetics and exploring the world, no gear grinds or elitist raids.

Look at what happens. People quitting the game complaining there's no endgame (by which they mean no raids), and nothing to work towards (by which they mean stat-wise). So then comes Ascended gear, something which even the devs cringe about when they talk about it in interviews.

Rayadrel

True however I think more often than not hardcore raiders are a vocal minority that MMO devs or rather their publishers assume represent the entire market.

GW2 presented something new and fresh and declined in popularity once the devs started caving in to the demands for hardcore content.
Because it's a vicious cycle. You make hardcore content. The hardcores clear it in a week and demand more. You make more, they demand more.
Meanwhile the people who were initially attracted to your game because it was different leave because it's become just another generic MMO.

Look at WoW. There was a time when raids weren't the focus of it. Now? Raid after raid after raid after raid to the point the rest of the game - aside from pvp which is it's own seperate grind - is merely a stepping stone to get yourself a place in a raid.

I'd rather that not happen to ESO as well.

Xaei

I don't know. Although only a very small percentage of MMO gamers raid, there must be a reason that devs make raids in most MMOs. They aren't stupid, and they don't invest resources into a project which obviously is pointless.

I don't understand the logic of it either, its in fact very counter-intuitive but it just seems that its a reality that MMOs need raids. Maybe its something most players don't do but looks forwards to doing, or maybe its almost a brand-image for MMOs like how consumers automatically assume Kellog's cornflakes is better than Tesco's cornflakes. Whatever it is, it seems it's necessary.

Rayadrel

If you watch web shows like the Jimquisition it quickly becomes apparent that the last thing game publishers tend to use is logic.

They're run by career businessmen who have never played videogames in their lives with no idea of what's actually going on. They just see what's popular in reports drafted for them by other people (who also don't play games) and say "copy that" (in this case, WoW is popular, WoW has raids, hence make more raids to be as popular as WoW).
It's the same reason why so many games try to be Call of Duty.

surge914b14_ESO

One of the things I meant was fixing the problems that happen from grouping but I also brought it up because this is an MMO and while I really do enjoy doing the quest by myself, it seems odd that this is suppose to be an MMO where you play and interact with other players but the big portion of it is spent by yourself. One reason is because some chose to play b themselves but the other is because of how screwy grouping up can be. When I meant encourage I meant it in a way where the player can chose to play by themselves or in a group and the experience can still be fun. Currently it's only fun doing the quests by yourself to save yourself the frustration of the grouping problems. If I wanted a pure single player I would've have just waited for ES6.

Morthur

.

knaveofengland

you get more xp if you are in a group

GreySix

crislevin wrote: »

They shouldn't "encourage grouping", as many people likes to play alone.

They do need to fix the problem if people are in a group.

Concur. Don't disable grouping for instanced dungeons, as is currently the case.