I live in IC. I loved it when the mobs were much harder, and there were no objectives. Oh wait, there actually were! Back then we had Monstrous Tooth, Bloody Claw, and so on. People would roam where there were high concentrations of specific monsters, as Agility and Willpower were worth a lot. Objectives were more diffuse, and there was gameplay in the sewers! I was also a fan of instant resurrection in the same district and the large, anarchic, battles that periodically ensued.

The new IC has brought some advantages. Tel Var farming made me rich. Hakeijo enchants are used in every PvP build, and alchemy parcels have solved my potion problems. Is it better than it was? Not really. The sewers are virtually abandoned, and upstairs PvP usually revolves around the inner ring, grouping up, taking flags, and doing bosses. Much of ICs square footage is underused. I remember a time when the sewers felt alive and dangerous. Now they're mostly dead.

I don't know what the solution is, but I'd like it, if it brought some life back into the sewers. One problem, for example, is that the sewer flag bosses remain hard, but there is basically no reward for killing them. At the end of the day people play only where they get some reward, be that a skin (Molag), XP (blue sewers), AP (flags), Tel Var (bosses).

One thing I think ZOS got right is that Tel Var are shared between players. It discourages zerging and puts a premium on soloing bosses. Aside from PvP, this is sadly the only moderately hard challenge left in IC.

I don't feel qualified to predict how a free for all would change IC, but it would mean removal of the flags, right, and that 200% bonus that comes with them? Well, there goes my income, although it's hard to say what impact that would have on the economy. Tel Var value would probably go up, as would reagent prices throughout the game.

I had this crazy idea, while I was writing this. What if ZOS hired a person to actively study the markets and adjust the game? Things go out of whack without it, for example the current lack of incentive for doing sewer bosses, or the fact that only Hakeijo and apothecary parcels are actually worth buying at the general Tel Var vendor. He/she could adjust NPC vendor prices and item drop rates. What if, for example, monsters in some part of the sewer "got sick" and started hemorrhaging Tel Var or key fragments? If an intelligence was behind this, rather than a computer program, this might be unpredictable enough that players would be encouraged to spread out more in search of opportunities.

Apherius wrote: »

They should add a malus, in the " Active Effects " once we enter Imperial city ( Sewers & Districts):

If there is 3 ally or more in a X meters area around you, Your and their telvars attract each other, a link is created between them ( maybe they could copy the " guard " skill animation, but the bond could be blue/dark and pretty transparent).
If you are killed or if an ally is killed, all the ally who were bond to you or the ally, lost 25% of their telvar, However, the one who died still lost 50% of his telvars.

I can't even wrap my head around what that is meant to achieve. No matter. It is incompatible with cloaking NB gameplay, thus a complete non-runner.