AlienDiplomat wrote: »

In pretty much every other MMO, developers realize the importance of reward and the PSYCHOLOGY OF HOPE. Perhaps they call it something different in the industry but basically, it is the idea that at any given point, regardless of your play style, there is a CHANCE for you to catch up at another play style, if you begin to apply yourself to it.

For example in ANY other MMO, you might be into PVP, RP, farming, questing, addon development, whatever. You may be months behind the raid or competitive PVP "scene", but in any other MMO that is OK because IF you decide to START applying yourself and dedicate a REASONABLE amount of time at it, there is a perception and fact that you can catch up.

A person with no raid gear can join a guild and get reasonably geared within a month or so, non-arena players can run battlegrounds for a few weeks and get geared enough to compete for "real" gear, etc.

This creates an atmosphere of diversity, where you don't perceive you are being punished for pretty much everything other than one mindless grind play style, which is what ESO was billed on. Yet ESO's counter-intuitive grind does the exact opposite. It absolutely KILLS diversity of play style!

In ESO unless you mindlessly grind 24/7 you will NEVER catch up because everything is behind a LINEAR TIME WALL. This means that if you enjoy RP, exploration, questing, PVP, or pretty much any sane behavior other than mindlessly grinding, and you later decide to apply yourself to some serious "end-game", there is absolutely no hope you will catch up in a reasonable time because the time it takes to catch up is linear, meaning you can't just join a good group and get geared, you MUST mindlessly grind grind grind.

There is NO chance (for a non-grinder) to be competitive in PVP against players who already have 700+ CP that can:

• Roll-dodge literally forever thanks to maxed Tumbler trait.
• Have impenetrable damage bubbles thanks to maxed Bastion trait.
• Wrecking Blow for 30k (more than my HP) thanks to maxed Mighty trait.
• Etc., etc., etc.

I have never seen a system that is so unfriendly to diversity of playstyle as ESO CP.

As an addon developer who gets paid nothing, I feel like I am WASTING MY TIME supporting this game, as all I get for my efforts to improve the lives of other gamers and make this company money in resale value by devoting my free time to doing unpaid intellectual labor, is months behind because I didn't spend that time mindlessly grinding in cracked troll cave. In other games I at least felt like I had the luxury of devoting time to addon development without destroying my chance to be competitive in PVP or end-game.

This is total BS.

There needs to be some catch-up method for CP (no, giving the grinders XP potions does NOT solve anything), and a tiered limit to CP gain in a given expansion to slow down the no-lifers constantly chasing an unfair advantage in the name of "progress" to shore up their ego. ZOS needs to realize these are a MINORITY of players and bite the bullet and stop catering to them at the expense of your larger, content creating audience.

halfbadger wrote: »

xMovingTarget wrote: »

I am with you on that one. I had a break for 1 month in April. Due to that 1 month, everybody else just rushed away. Now I am about 80 points behind our guilds average. I can never ever catch up. My dps will always be less, Survivability is less.. CP is a bad system.

New players wont get taken in the top Guilds due to them being behind so much. They cant provide. The best player isnt worth anything when he is just behind on CP. And this honestly is kinda -snipping- me off. Before CP I was Top DPS everywhere. Now.. Dont even ask.. I despise the Champion System. When you fall behind, you are out. Sad but true.

Don't worry you can do as much dps as other people by buying a new mount and not using addons for more immersion.

Deltia wrote: »

Hello ESO Forums,

I posted this on my website but I know ZOS reads these forums so I figured I'd share my thoughts here. I'm one person the sea of awesome people that love this game. With the announcement of increase in Veteran Ranks I'd like to leave my feedback whether you agree or not. And here's what I have to say about the problem and fixing it.

Before I start I want to make clear where my opinions come from. I make my living playing THIS video game only. Not only that, but it's my primary means of socialization. Over the past two years (including beta), I've been infatuated with the idea of a multiplayer Elder Scrolls Game. Not to mention the help that ZOS has personally given me. I still love ESO, but I'm not going to blindly follow a games growth that does not fit my needs. Just realize the passion I have for this game, it's community and developers runs deep.

VR 16?

Within the same breath, Eric Wrobel said they still have long term plans of removing Veteran Ranks (VR), but for the new content they are increasing it by two thus making end game VR 16. At this point, I think it's clear that Veteran Ranks aren't going away, ANYTIME in the future. I have eight VR 14s and the problem I have with this isn't the time investment to re-level all those characters, or the fully legendary gear, but the constant deception about not adding more Veteran Ranks. We as customers have a right to voice or opinions and/or a right to stop being customers. For me, it's time to pick one and voicing seems to be the best option.

I have defended their decisions as a business model constantly but this is one I cannot ignore. Adding Veteran Ranks is not content, it's busy work. Content is intractable quest, dungeon diving finding worthwhile rewards with friends, a working PvP system giving flexibility and choices. Yes, I know Imperial City is coming with this additional Veteran Ranks, but why increase the cap? "Deltia to increase the contents difficulty," well that's true in most MMOs but not ESO and that's due to the Champion System.

Champion Progression

Most games have a level cap that once reached, one works on optimizing gear and your individual skill for increased performance. However, ESO has the Champion System rendering time in game collecting XP as account progression. So take the most skilled PvPer in the world (let's say Sypher) vs. someone with 1,000 more champion points. Skill is irreverent at this point. Thus removing one of the core reasons I play MMOs and video games alike. Busy work trumps constantly improving yourself. Grinding mobs and CP is the new meta, not skill.

Take another game for instance, you have fully maxed out gear and have been playing for four years. Once a level increase hits, most players will be on an even playing field in terms of gear. So, there is some possibility of catching up to those folks that spend eight hours a day in game. Not ESO, there is no Champion Point catch up mechanic. The person at level 10 might be more powerful than someone at VR14 due to CP. Without a catch up mechanic or a way to limit zombie grinding macros and bots, you'll have a runaway performance gap the size the Grand Canyon.
The Fix

Someone like me benefits significantly from the Champion System. Having alts, grinding mobs and skills, etc just makes me VERY powerful. But it does not help new players, inexperienced ones nor the overall game. My good friend Parfax had an excellent suggestion, simply have seasons for Champion Points. Meaning, every three months or so, you could gain 100 CP. Once you reach that number, you have to wait for the reset. No more 100 v 1,000 CP fights. If that doesn't work, why not make CP have diminishing returns? So the first 300 are very easy to obtain, but everything beyond that is harder (similar to Alliance Ranks).

I'm all for account wide progression, but at what cost? At the cost that people grinding zombies ultimately win? At the cost that skill and performance are removed out of the game? I want to one day challenge Sypher in PvP without out grinding him. With skill, learning, getting my face kicked in by him over and over just to beat him one day with pure skill. Until this changes, the easier way for me to beat him is out grind him. Obtain such a mathematical advantage that no amount of skill can compensate. And that is the day that ESO dies.

Why I Give a ****

No I do not plan on leaving the game. I still love the combat, the people and the developers. But I'm no longer a bushy eyed fan-boy. I don't want to leave this game, this is my absolute favorite thing to do (well besides you know what). I've have (not had) such an emotional attachment to the land of Tamriel that I won't let it go just yet. But I'm not going to sit back and let another level increase happen without a true fix to the underlying problem, the Champion System.