I'm not familiar with other MMOs that use megaserver tech the way that ESO does. What games are you thinking about? And how do they allow constant switching between phasing?

Also, assuming that this was something that they wanted to implement, how would you prevent exploitation?

RoyMallis wrote: »

The main one that comes to mind at the moment and does it well is Tera, it's done through a drop list with each channel showing it's population level (High, med, low).

In what way do you see it being exploited? The phase you occupy does not affect other players as far as I can see.

The phase I occupy does affect other players if (oh, let's just pretend for a moment) I start cycling through phases at a delve boss and kill it in each one. Or do the same in public dungeons in order to avoid having to deal with the actual boss-spawn mechanics. There are actually quite a few ways you could abuse elective phasing like this in order to grief other players.

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

RoyMallis wrote: »

The main one that comes to mind at the moment and does it well is Tera, it's done through a drop list with each channel showing it's population level (High, med, low).

In what way do you see it being exploited? The phase you occupy does not affect other players as far as I can see.

The phase I occupy does affect other players if (oh, let's just pretend for a moment) I start cycling through phases at a delve boss and kill it in each one. Or do the same in public dungeons in order to avoid having to deal with the actual boss-spawn mechanics. There are actually quite a few ways you could abuse elective phasing like this in order to grief other players.

Okay, fair point. Though I've never had the be an issue in my experience I would imagine there would be a lock as to how many time you can change your channel in a given area in a set time period similar to what @Skafsgaard‌ suggested. I also think it would be fairly easy it identify when some one was doing this and then report them.

But still to with your exploit thought, The switch is not instantaneous. This type of exploit is most likely to occur on high demand delves/areas, such areas would have about +6 channels, it takes 5 secs to select your new channel, 10 secs to initiate the switch (like log of timer), 5 or more secs for loading (internet pending) plus what ever time it takes to kill the boss and or mobs lets say 45 secs. That's over a min on one channel. Now to be honest I don't really now what spawn timers are like for ESO, but I would imagine that at least two channels could have full spawns before the griefer could get back around to them. But that's just my opinion really :-/. and its still better than occupying one channel with every one having to go for this one boss.

TLDR: I want and option to not group automatically when entering an instanced area. I want to go alone or with couple of my friends with same playstyle.

Star Trek Online has system of this kind and it works well on "deep space encounters" where you phase in to area of instanced space, shared with other players and multiple enemies in swarms that somewhat even scale with you. Usually there is instance where there is nobody else if you want to try them alone but usually someone comes in. Nature of these instances is that others are welcome addition since it makes sense to get someone else coming to aid when you batle 5 starships alone

In mission areas, similar to ESO's small instanced areas like building interiors, caves, and ruins there is another version where you choose from menu that do you want to auto group or not. If not, you are free to go alone or make your own group to do it.

Since my overall feel of those areas is, that they were originally designed for one player (Overall difficulty). ESO in my opinion would benefit more from this kind of system than from changing between instances. Nature of these areas is such, that they should be available to do alone, in premade group as well as in public random group. For me, random people behaving like many behave is just immersion braking for me. Cant talk for others but my atmosphere in these areas needs it to be dark, dangerous and you are alone against the evil that lurks there.. Or like i wanted in Skyrim, Oblivion and Morrowind, With one or two friends i know and have the same RP playstyle as i do. Arent't we all the "big" hero who saves everyone and then people cheer at you and speak of you? At the same time i dont feel i have saved anyone since there was 5 other people doing that same thing and sometimes i just get objectives complete without having an idea as why. I want to know what happens, when it happens and why it happens. This is the most important thing in game for me, XP and items are just extra reward for the experience itself.

I dont think having option to go in these areas alone or with premade group would hurt anyone if the public version is still available as well.

DogFaceInBananaPatch wrote: »

I have a problem with other players auto-completing my quest due, mostly, to the sheer volume and traffic in areas. I would love to follow the story but I can't too often because some other player (not even in my group!) talking to the NPC is spamming the dialogue as quickly as possible that starts an event that leaves me clueless to what's happening in the story.

Actually that is my top most hated mechanic in this game.

Can you name some quests where this happens?

I'm not actually aware of any area in the game where someone who isn't in your group can affect your NPC dialogue like that.

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

I walked into the room and completed the quest as someone else killed the main baddie.

Also that! Can't stand when that happens, too. Come around a corner, baddie dies unbeknownst to me, I progress/complete a quest for an unknown reason, and have no idea what just happened. I'm just looking at a room with one to twenty players in it and nothing else.