Is Imperial City Dying?

Volkodav · October 2015

Yes, it's dying

Hell,I cant even get past the prison gate. There are five enemies just waiting to get me,and no help from anyone.I have never seen anyone but myself there.

VoiDGhOs7 · October 2015

As soon as most players are done with agility,willpower and endurance jewelry grind IC will start slowly to die but there always be someone who is farming inside.

dodgehopper_ESO · October 2015

I'm currently not able to play during the week (and most weekends) but if it is going slow right now I suspect that is purely because people might be exhausted from overplaying one thing for a month?

When legerdemain came out I maxed the skill on 4 characters as fast as it could be done... After I did this, I needed a break, and I now get my dose of roguish adventure in more moderate levels. This is how it should be. Its a game meant to be enjoyed, not a factory where you punch in the clock for the latest new expansions.

Yolokin_Swagonborn · October 2015

Yes, it's dying

Of course its dying. It was only meant to last long enough until the next DLC comes out and it will be completely abandoned.

It wasn't designed for longevity. If it had high re-playability, then people might favor it over then next chunk of DLC and the marketing department would never allow that.

What if I told you the original concept of the Imperial City had actual PvP objectives?
Territory to hold. Capturing districts. You know, something beyond a gear grinding moshpit gank fest. Its all in the 2014 Quakecon video. Look it up.

This is called the "Strip-mining of Endgame Content."
New content comes out, they raise level cap to grab your old gear. Suddenly your favorite things to do as a guild (like trials or DSA) have no more incentive. Guilds have a harder time forming groups. People leave. Whole guilds become ghost towns.

But then... Salvation. The NEW DLC IS OUT!!! HYPE TRAIN!!!! Suddenly ZOS employees, who usually don't even speak in the forums are everywhere again. ZOS shows up in twitch streams (only the ones showing the new content of course). Everything is so exiting again!!!

For a while everything is great. Old friends return to their former guilds and everybody grinds the content for that next carrot.

Until that carrot gets stale. Everyone is geared up. Beyond the gear grind, the new content doesn't have much re-playability. and the cycle starts again.

Asherons_Call · October 2015

Yes, it's dying

As a PVE player I went in and got all of the skyshards then took out of there. A little too claustrophobic in the sewers

nimander99 · October 2015

No, there is still life in Imperial City

It's not 'dying' pop is normalizing. Plus the grinders have all just about earned their vr16 gear/mats and jewelry so those who don't traditionally pvp are heading back to safer pastures.

Rohaus · October 2015

Yes, it's dying

I like IC. However, most of my guildies are done farming there as pretty much all of them are geared now. I am too fully geared with VR16 gear. However, it's a great place to farm to make money. But soon AP will be once again quite valuable and as such I prefer to farm AP now.

But Cyrodiil has proven to be quite frustrating as many have returned to it and being on a campaign where both opposing factions have greater numbers and Zerg with massive numbers... Yah, getting zerged over and over is as much fun as watching paint dry...

dodgehopper_ESO · October 2015

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

Of course its dying. It was only meant to last long enough until the next DLC comes out and it will be completely abandoned.

It wasn't designed for longevity. If it had high re-playability, then people might favor it over then next chunk of DLC and the marketing department would never allow that.

What if I told you the original concept of the Imperial City had actual PvP objectives?
Territory to hold. Capturing districts. You know, something beyond a gear grinding moshpit gank fest. Its all in the 2014 Quakecon video. Look it up.

This is called the "Strip-mining of Endgame Content."
New content comes out, they raise level cap to grab your old gear. Suddenly your favorite things to do as a guild (like trials or DSA) have no more incentive. Guilds have a harder time forming groups. People leave. Whole guilds become ghost towns.

But then... Salvation. The NEW DLC IS OUT!!! HYPE TRAIN!!!! Suddenly ZOS employees, who usually don't even speak in the forums are everywhere again. ZOS shows up in twitch streams (only the ones showing the new content of course). Everything is so exiting again!!!

For a while everything is great. Old friends return to their former guilds and everybody grinds the content for that next carrot.

Until that carrot gets stale. Everyone is geared up. Beyond the gear grind, the new content doesn't have much re-playability. and the cycle starts again.

That's so jaded and depressing. :P

Yolokin_Swagonborn · October 2015

Yes, it's dying

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

Of course its dying. It was only meant to last long enough until the next DLC comes out and it will be completely abandoned.

It wasn't designed for longevity. If it had high re-playability, then people might favor it over then next chunk of DLC and the marketing department would never allow that.

What if I told you the original concept of the Imperial City had actual PvP objectives?
Territory to hold. Capturing districts. You know, something beyond a gear grinding moshpit gank fest. Its all in the 2014 Quakecon video. Look it up.

This is called the "Strip-mining of Endgame Content."
New content comes out, they raise level cap to grab your old gear. Suddenly your favorite things to do as a guild (like trials or DSA) have no more incentive. Guilds have a harder time forming groups. People leave. Whole guilds become ghost towns.

But then... Salvation. The NEW DLC IS OUT!!! HYPE TRAIN!!!! Suddenly ZOS employees, who usually don't even speak in the forums are everywhere again. ZOS shows up in twitch streams (only the ones showing the new content of course). Everything is so exiting again!!!

For a while everything is great. Old friends return to their former guilds and everybody grinds the content for that next carrot.

Until that carrot gets stale. Everyone is geared up. Beyond the gear grind, the new content doesn't have much re-playability. and the cycle starts again.

That's so jaded and depressing. :P

So lets all close our eyes and pretend its not happening.

Zorgon_The_Revenged · October 2015

No, there is still life in Imperial City

I'm still having some good fun there.

phairdon · October 2015

Unsure. Not gone back to IC for almost a week. Certain days were/times were busy. My main goal for heading there was leveling to v16. Grinding mobs for stones & trophies becomes a drag after a while.
Took an alt in, different alliance, different campaign. Place really was empty.

Uneed2Stop · October 2015

No, there is still life in Imperial City

Maaan i just went on last night and grouped up with like 6 people and raided districts and sewers (avoiding arena) and questing and it was a BLAST! So i think its great lol.

P.S there were lots of enemies around too.

Thecapeo · October 2015

MrBeatDown wrote: »

The game itself is loosing its population. Many people quit playing this game because of the nerfs that Ic brought to the game. I have people on my friends list that purchased the IC update, played for about a week, and haven't logged back on since. Also the RNG for this game is *** terrible. Not too many people are happy about the grind for no rewards this game offers.

Me personally, im about ready to give up too. This IC update has been a giant mistake since its inception and has failed to deliver a pleasant experience for the money that I payed to have access to the content so I could get the Items that I needed from it to play in Cyrodiil with. I now find my self stuck in Deshaan, unable to progress my character, because the items I need are bound to account and not tradeable. The RNG is so *** horrible in this game. I just want 1 *** item so I can go back to playing in cyrodiil and it will not drop for me. They need to just put the items in the crown store so we can skip purchasing these bulshit DLC zones that we are not interested in anyway.

So what are TV stones good for ? Runes? That's it? *** that.

That's my personal experience. The IC update destroyed my Stam DK build. Now the only viable DK builds that would make as competitive as I was require a massive RNG gear grind and a playstyle I don't like. Haven't logged on since about a week after IC dropped. It's boring. It makes everyone play way too safe or zerg or gank in the sewers. After a few nights of grinding the arena with my guild with my newly nerfed character I was bored to tears so went into the sewers by myself. Started to collect some stones from ridiculously overpowered mobs and got ganked mid-fight by an NB. Said eff this and haven't logged on since.

dodgehopper_ESO · October 2015

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

Of course its dying. It was only meant to last long enough until the next DLC comes out and it will be completely abandoned.

It wasn't designed for longevity. If it had high re-playability, then people might favor it over then next chunk of DLC and the marketing department would never allow that.

What if I told you the original concept of the Imperial City had actual PvP objectives?
Territory to hold. Capturing districts. You know, something beyond a gear grinding moshpit gank fest. Its all in the 2014 Quakecon video. Look it up.

This is called the "Strip-mining of Endgame Content."
New content comes out, they raise level cap to grab your old gear. Suddenly your favorite things to do as a guild (like trials or DSA) have no more incentive. Guilds have a harder time forming groups. People leave. Whole guilds become ghost towns.

But then... Salvation. The NEW DLC IS OUT!!! HYPE TRAIN!!!! Suddenly ZOS employees, who usually don't even speak in the forums are everywhere again. ZOS shows up in twitch streams (only the ones showing the new content of course). Everything is so exiting again!!!

For a while everything is great. Old friends return to their former guilds and everybody grinds the content for that next carrot.

Until that carrot gets stale. Everyone is geared up. Beyond the gear grind, the new content doesn't have much re-playability. and the cycle starts again.

That's so jaded and depressing. :P

So lets all close our eyes and pretend its not happening.

This is the reason I have been against gear grinds and 'new gear' on every MMO I've played. The game should be fun for the game's sake and no other reason, when it ceases to be fun for that reason, I think all the developers do is accelerate the distastefulness of the game.

Yolokin_Swagonborn · October 2015

Yes, it's dying

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

Of course its dying. It was only meant to last long enough until the next DLC comes out and it will be completely abandoned.

It wasn't designed for longevity. If it had high re-playability, then people might favor it over then next chunk of DLC and the marketing department would never allow that.

What if I told you the original concept of the Imperial City had actual PvP objectives?
Territory to hold. Capturing districts. You know, something beyond a gear grinding moshpit gank fest. Its all in the 2014 Quakecon video. Look it up.

This is called the "Strip-mining of Endgame Content."
New content comes out, they raise level cap to grab your old gear. Suddenly your favorite things to do as a guild (like trials or DSA) have no more incentive. Guilds have a harder time forming groups. People leave. Whole guilds become ghost towns.

But then... Salvation. The NEW DLC IS OUT!!! HYPE TRAIN!!!! Suddenly ZOS employees, who usually don't even speak in the forums are everywhere again. ZOS shows up in twitch streams (only the ones showing the new content of course). Everything is so exiting again!!!

For a while everything is great. Old friends return to their former guilds and everybody grinds the content for that next carrot.

Until that carrot gets stale. Everyone is geared up. Beyond the gear grind, the new content doesn't have much re-playability. and the cycle starts again.

That's so jaded and depressing. :P

So lets all close our eyes and pretend its not happening.

This is the reason I have been against gear grinds and 'new gear' on every MMO I've played. The game should be fun for the game's sake and no other reason, when it ceases to be fun for that reason, I think all the developers do is accelerate the distastefulness of the game.

Quoted and bolded for truth. Here is a good recap of the 2014 Quakecon notes on what the Imperial City could have been.

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/18/eso-quakecon-the-future-of-eso-panel-notes/

Here are some highlights.

PVP zone
Unlocked by Cyrodiil Keep ownership.
Clear out enemy players.
Capture and hold different districts of the city. You get rewards and can respawn in that captured districts.
Repeatable PvE quests with high gold and XP reards.
You can capture this district. Once you own it, you can respawn and gain alliance bonus. Specific tradeskill stations that allow you to craft Imperial Daedric gear.

No mention of Tel Var. No mention of a gear grind. Just small scale PvP and minigames in the districts.