dharbert wrote: »

To be clear, there is a very distinct difference between grinding and exploiting. Grinding is repeatedly killing groups of regular mobs that give normal XP, or repeatedly killing a boss with a regular respawn timer. Grinding is perfectly legitimate. However, if you are doing this in an area that is known to have unintentionally high XP, or there is a trick to get the respawn faster, you are no longer grinding. You have become an exploiter.

Agreed, should have made this clear on my OP. I refered to grinding unbalanced content.

As I said earlier, Spellscar grind, for example, is currently balanced. It still offers the best xp/hours in the game without being way too much higher in terms of xp gain, while still being pretty boring.

dharbert wrote: »

No. There will be always be a power gap between new players and veteran players, as there should be. You think that a new player should be able to be competitive with someone who has been playing for a year? No. I guess you also think you should be in the running for CEO of a company that you just started working for as well....

Grinders are going to grind. It's that simple. It's a perfectly legitimate way to play, and there are no rules against it. If you want to earn 1 CP per day running a couple of dungeons with your friends or "immersing" yourself in the game, then go right ahead. I'm going to earn as many as I can per day.

Online games aren't fair for everyone, nor should they be. Fairness for everyone is socialism. There will always be someone out there with more skill, better tactics, and better gear than you. If you had your way, Zenimax (the government in this example) would control how many CP's you can get per day to keep things "fair" for everyone. Fortunately that's not the way it works. You earn CP based upon how much time and effort you put into it, as it should be.

I was watching your little outrage a bit and wasn't so sure if I should step in...

Anyways,

the OP makes a valid point. What if ZO messes up again and grinders are able to exploit XP locations so that they reach several hundred CPs in a few days / weeks. The whole reason why ESO is at such a bad spot right now was the exploiting at Craglorn. No player was supposed to hit VR 12 and later 14 in a few hours / days.

The VR system failed because of those who used exploits, those who started screaming for new content a few days after release of said content.

But its not only about these players, its also about the gap that the CS will create.

I can not judge how much experience you have in regards of MMO gaming but I can tell you this. As long there is a gap between new and old and that gap increases significantly every hour, an MMO is doomed. Its not doomed because seasoned gamers have more than new, as this is to be expected.

It is doomed as seasoned players will now throw this advantage into the new players face every time said player wants to go into a dungeon, trial or AvA battle. As an escape route MMO designers offer resets like at the game we don't speak of. Every year or two, the whole achievement structure based on items is reset and players have to level new, + gain new items, profession improvements etc.

No MMO that I know allows seasoned players to keep their advantage forever, as everyone will be brought back to even ground from time to time.

ESO does not have this. We don't get new levels, we don't get CP resets or VR resets. All we achieve stays forever and as later someone joins in or as less someone plays, as bigger the distance to those on top will be.

In theory this wouldn't even be bad if this game wouldn't be about AvA and Trials only. If someone joins AVA and has to face people there, who do several hundred % more damage, who have double or triple the HP - then this wont be much fun for said person.

But again, this wouldn't be the issue.

The issue is, that said "low skill player" as you call them, would need to grind for years and still could never ever get even. Knowing this, is a slap in every new players face but also into every Casuals face. You play, but you can never catch up - so what do you play for? For getting humiliated every day?

Same situation with Trials. You want to raid or do dungeons and all you hear is "only 2000 CP" and this will happen I assure you this. Our community will be split into groups, based on CP. We will no longer be one community, but several and each community will now demand the whole hand by ZO.

Those with 2000 CP will demand harder content, as they are pretty much bored with the weak monsters. Those with 1000 CP might want a slight nerf and those with 0 CP, want something totally different.

ZO will have an incredible hard time in future, but so will new players and casuals.

That said,

1- Have a maximum number of CPs you can gain in a day. That will counter hardcore grinders as they wont be able to get insade numbers of CP in a sigle day.

This wont be a good idea, as it would force people into playing every day, as else they would miss out on progress. Wildstar had such a system and it was a mess. You were always worried if you were able to get the max amount of XP for the Elder System there.

2- Balance Champion bonuses so that there is much less of a difference between a, lets say 100-150 CP character and a maxed out in CP character

I think that gaining a CP should improve a character meaningful, so that if we lower the reward for each individual CP, then this wouldn't be achieved. Just imagine you have to get 500 CP for a 1% increase in a stat, that would be hilarious

In my opinion ESO needs two things.

1. Scaling content

Every piece of content should either scale to the player or the player to the content. Latter would be even better as it could also be used in Trials and Dungeons. Lets say, we do have a raid and that raid lowers or buffs every player to 500 CP. From now on, no player would be excluded from going there as he is 500 CP no matter what he was before and those with higher CP, would still find a challenging encounter. This would also make the ladders more meaningful, as in future those with most CP will be on top, not really a skill check if you ask me.

2. AvA brackets

I don't have the information at which CP count the difference is big, but I believe the first bracket should be from 0-69 and then the next could start at 70 CP. By doing so players could have a at least improved pvp experience without facing players who one hit them due the sheer amount of CPs they have.

A cap on CP earned per day would not solve the new/old player gap. It may even worsen it. A freshly-minted new player will have difficulty competing with experienced players who have gear and CP advantages. As is, a new player can put in some solid gametime and quickly catch up to these veteran players. The system you propose would prevent new players from being competitive for longer amounts of time. If a veteran player has 4 month's worth of CP, a new player would have to play for an additional 4 months to reach that level. By that time, the veteran player would have 8 months of CP. In effect, the system you propose would guarantee that new players never catch up to veteran players.

Instead of preventing an unfair gap, your system would create a persistent and insurmountable gap.

New players will always be at a disadvantage to veteran players. With dedication and hard work, they will be able to catch up.

Well well well... seems I was right after all...