Delve updates

Denaia · July 2014

Hey,

has anyone here been into one of those new delves yet? If so, what are they like and how much bigger are they compared to what they were before?

Aketium · July 2014

I went to Coldharbour and I did a couple of delves and I can say they're much larger and interesting now. This is an image I did showing on the left the new ones and in the right the previous ones

P.S. Some delve has a second floor so it's even bigger than what it appears on the map

Denaia · July 2014

And what did exactly make them more interesting? Do they have more quests? More bosses? New kind of loot?

Ser Lobo · July 2014

Seems they simply added more detail and unique design to the delves. I think this is intended more for new players (of which we still have many), than those who already went through them. Might help a little for players who are on alts.

This does make them more interesting, for sure. Whether it's the type of *interesting* that everyone is after, I doubt.

Overhauling each of these to make them more unique is a big process. Maybe on the next pass, they can add 'veteran' modes or some reason to return to them for advanced characters.

aipex8_ESO · July 2014

Pretty excited to see some of these. I recently ran through all the Cyrodiil delves and really like how they were bigger, had unique layouts and multiple bosses (and the way only 1 or 2 spawn at a time encourages multiple play throughs, especially if you don't like camping).

LonePirate · July 2014

While I appreciate the changes and improvements if they actually are improvements, I wish ZOS had devoted this design and development time to creating brand new delves in the existing zones or creating new zones as a whole. I prefer new content over old content with a new coat of paint on it.

Preyfar · July 2014

I'm just happy the delves are getting facelifts, even if it just starts in Coldharbor. Every single delve was pretty much "Walk in, there's a branch, door on the left you'll exit from later after you kill the boss." and they followed the same pathways.

Cyrodil's delves were actually very interesting, with unique layouts, themes and designs. I loved it. Even if it's just a delve here and there with each update the fact they're going back and putting shine onto them makes me rather happy.

Most games I've played would never even do that. It's "one and done". Dragon Age 2 is a great example. Awesome story, repetitive maps and areas recycled and re-used. I had a feeling of that with ESO early on, but I feel that ZOS is striving to fix that.

So long as there's a mix of new and old I'll be happy. More than happy. Games need to evolve and grow, even the starting areas/lands.

Lumomancer · July 2014

Preyfar wrote: »

Most games I've played would never even do that. It's "one and done". Dragon Age 2 is a great example. Awesome story, repetitive maps and areas recycled and re-used. I had a feeling of that with ESO early on, but I feel that ZOS is striving to fix that.

The more graphically and mechanically complex games get, the greater the impetus seems to be to reuse content. A lot of games do it, and it's fine in moderation. The less time a studio spends on making every instance of, say, a cave unique, the more time they have to put interesting things in those caves.

I suppose that it's good to expand these delves over time (a luxury of being an MMO, really) to a make them more akin to the Cyrodiil ones, but I do hope they also add in some new ones over time. There are already plenty of potential entrances in the existing over world areas for such purposes.

Dominoid · August 2014

I don't get the complaints. Those changes look massive. I for one am re-running all those dungeons and looking forward to them.

chimneyswift_ESO · August 2014

Preyfar wrote: »

I'm just happy the delves are getting facelifts, even if it just starts in Coldharbor. Every single delve was pretty much "Walk in, there's a branch, door on the left you'll exit from later after you kill the boss." and they followed the same pathways.

Cyrodil's delves were actually very interesting, with unique layouts, themes and designs. I loved it. Even if it's just a delve here and there with each update the fact they're going back and putting shine onto them makes me rather happy.

Most games I've played would never even do that. It's "one and done". Dragon Age 2 is a great example. Awesome story, repetitive maps and areas recycled and re-used. I had a feeling of that with ESO early on, but I feel that ZOS is striving to fix that.

So long as there's a mix of new and old I'll be happy. More than happy. Games need to evolve and grow, even the starting areas/lands.

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. I sometimes wish too you could have an option at the start of the Delve to just be able to go in solo. There are so many times where I wanna fully immerse myself into the Delve and solo the boss but can't. I feel stuff like this would go really well with the new Delve improvements, more bosses, layouts, etc. I'd also like to see more bosses with new mechanics too rather than just fighting a normal mob with just lots of health.

ssfiit · August 2014

This is totally pointless. It's a total waste of resources. So they spend all this money and time to fix up places where all players will only visit it once. Once you go into a cave and beat the boss, or get the skyshard. That's it, you dont go in it again, ever. There are no exp and no drop on the 2nd time you go in. Unless are you are helping someone.

Dominoid · August 2014

ssfiit wrote: »

This is totally pointless. It's a total waste of resources. So they spend all this money and time to fix up places where all players will only visit it once. Once you go into a cave and beat the boss, or get the skyshard. That's it, you dont go in it again, ever. There are no exp and no drop on the 2nd time you go in. Unless are you are helping someone.

I think it's a perfect place for newer team members to "cut their chops". They have developers at different skill levels. This way the rookies can get their feet wet, the whole team can test out new assets, etc. There is a whole lot of great reasons to put resources here.

ShedsHisTail · August 2014

chimneyswift_ESO wrote: »

Preyfar wrote: »

I'm just happy the delves are getting facelifts, even if it just starts in Coldharbor. Every single delve was pretty much "Walk in, there's a branch, door on the left you'll exit from later after you kill the boss." and they followed the same pathways.

Cyrodil's delves were actually very interesting, with unique layouts, themes and designs. I loved it. Even if it's just a delve here and there with each update the fact they're going back and putting shine onto them makes me rather happy.

Most games I've played would never even do that. It's "one and done". Dragon Age 2 is a great example. Awesome story, repetitive maps and areas recycled and re-used. I had a feeling of that with ESO early on, but I feel that ZOS is striving to fix that.

So long as there's a mix of new and old I'll be happy. More than happy. Games need to evolve and grow, even the starting areas/lands.

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. I sometimes wish too you could have an option at the start of the Delve to just be able to go in solo. There are so many times where I wanna fully immerse myself into the Delve and solo the boss but can't. I feel stuff like this would go really well with the new Delve improvements, more bosses, layouts, etc. I'd also like to see more bosses with new mechanics too rather than just fighting a normal mob with just lots of health.

I think you're confusing Delves with Dungeons (Instanced or Public). As far as I've seen, all Delves are soloable and only occasionally do I encounter a boss in one that's difficult enough to warrant needing a friend.

Delves are the little Torch icon on the map.
Public Dungeons are the Torch+
And Instanced Dungeons are the Crossed Torches.

chimneyswift_ESO · August 2014

ShedsHisTail wrote: »

chimneyswift_ESO wrote: »

Preyfar wrote: »

I'm just happy the delves are getting facelifts, even if it just starts in Coldharbor. Every single delve was pretty much "Walk in, there's a branch, door on the left you'll exit from later after you kill the boss." and they followed the same pathways.

Cyrodil's delves were actually very interesting, with unique layouts, themes and designs. I loved it. Even if it's just a delve here and there with each update the fact they're going back and putting shine onto them makes me rather happy.

Most games I've played would never even do that. It's "one and done". Dragon Age 2 is a great example. Awesome story, repetitive maps and areas recycled and re-used. I had a feeling of that with ESO early on, but I feel that ZOS is striving to fix that.

So long as there's a mix of new and old I'll be happy. More than happy. Games need to evolve and grow, even the starting areas/lands.

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. I sometimes wish too you could have an option at the start of the Delve to just be able to go in solo. There are so many times where I wanna fully immerse myself into the Delve and solo the boss but can't. I feel stuff like this would go really well with the new Delve improvements, more bosses, layouts, etc. I'd also like to see more bosses with new mechanics too rather than just fighting a normal mob with just lots of health.

I think you're confusing Delves with Dungeons (Instanced or Public). As far as I've seen, all Delves are soloable and only occasionally do I encounter a boss in one that's difficult enough to warrant needing a friend.

Delves are the little Torch icon on the map.
Public Dungeons are the Torch+
And Instanced Dungeons are the Crossed Torches.

No no, I definitely know the difference between them. I just mean solo-ing them in the point that I sometimes don't want some random person or group of people coming in and helping with mobs or a boss that I would like to do solo or something

Dominoid wrote: »

ssfiit wrote: »

This is totally pointless. It's a total waste of resources. So they spend all this money and time to fix up places where all players will only visit it once. Once you go into a cave and beat the boss, or get the skyshard. That's it, you dont go in it again, ever. There are no exp and no drop on the 2nd time you go in. Unless are you are helping someone.

I think it's a perfect place for newer team members to "cut their chops". They have developers at different skill levels. This way the rookies can get their feet wet, the whole team can test out new assets, etc. There is a whole lot of great reasons to put resources here.

Agreed, and besides...even if it is a place you only visit once, ZOS as well as the players probably want them to be a bit more memorable or engaging while inside them. Just cause you visit them once doesn't mean they need to be bland.

arkansas_ESO · August 2014

ssfiit wrote: »

This is totally pointless. It's a total waste of resources. So they spend all this money and time to fix up places where all players will only visit it once. Once you go into a cave and beat the boss, or get the skyshard. That's it, you dont go in it again, ever. There are no exp and no drop on the 2nd time you go in. Unless are you are helping someone.

Honestly, you could say this for most every dungeon in the game, except for the end-tier veteran ones and Shada's Tear. You go in, grab the skyshard/quest that rewards a skill point, kill the boss(es), walk out. If you're lucky, you got a named drop that you can sell in zone chat for 1k or so.

The Undaunted dailies they're adding in later on will hopefully fix this. All in all, I'd say the resources spent doing this weren't wasted because they're not of much use to current players, instead I'd say it's a boost to newer players that will hopefully hook them in more and result in more positive reviews and will benefit older players when dungeon scaling and Undaunted dailies are added.

chimneyswift_ESO · August 2014

arkansas_ESO wrote: »

ssfiit wrote: »

This is totally pointless. It's a total waste of resources. So they spend all this money and time to fix up places where all players will only visit it once. Once you go into a cave and beat the boss, or get the skyshard. That's it, you dont go in it again, ever. There are no exp and no drop on the 2nd time you go in. Unless are you are helping someone.

Honestly, you could say this for most every dungeon in the game, except for the end-tier veteran ones and Shada's Tear. You go in, grab the skyshard/quest that rewards a skill point, kill the boss(es), walk out. If you're lucky, you got a named drop that you can sell in zone chat for 1k or so.

The Undaunted dailies they're adding in later on will hopefully fix this. All in all, I'd say the resources spent doing this weren't wasted because they're not of much use to current players, instead I'd say it's a boost to newer players that will hopefully hook them in more and result in more positive reviews and will benefit older players when dungeon scaling and Undaunted dailies are added.

Yeah, I definitely see this as a positive for new players as well as current players who are making new characters. Additionally, I'm so excited about the Undaunted Daily Quests that I can hardly contain myself haha!

Rune_Relic · August 2014

On the subject of reusability... ?

If you kill a mob or baddy out of an area....would that area not eventually get occupied by someone else ?

Is there any reason why there couldn't be multiple adventures into the same area/dungeon/delve with different characters and story ? A bit like 50- vs Vet level only lots of versions of that dungeon.

Scaling dugeons to suit player 1 to x sounds awesome, but why not make them 1 to x ....or public too ?

That way rewards can scale to match difficulty from ..public > 1 player > group of X
Where the larger the group the harder the challenge ?

Come to think of it...everyone loves a shard right ? Why not 1 shard for public, 1 shard for 1 player, 1 shard for 2 player, 1 shard for 3 player completion and so on ? Those who have don it upto a 12 man group would have gained 12 shards...and played as a group... like zeni wants us to do. But you also gain experience in goups of different size.

chimneyswift_ESO · August 2014

Patch Notes have confirmed that in 1.3.3 the Delves in Coldharbour are larger and contain more monsters and loot. http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/124010/patch-notes-v1-3-3#latest