Soul Slots

Omenpapa · March 2019

I never played with alts, I like to focus on a singular char. However in other mmos, we are able to switch between builds easily. For example Rift has the Role-s, while Wow has the dual talent system. A similiar to those would be called the Soul-s in ESO.

In order for it to work, it should allow us to save another configuration slot for

-racial bonus
-allocated CP
-skill morphs
-mundus stone

Normally it could also give a way to save action bars and gear too, but at least on PC addons are taking care of that right now too.

The goal is to enable switching between tanking and healing for example without the hassle of wasting gold and time. This could result in radically lower dungeon queue times for everybody.

I would easily pay 10k crowns for a single Soul Slot, and prolly would buy multiple, so I can play with my char the way I want.

This wouldn't make char slots pointless. You still would need to create an alt to play another class, and ofc not everybody is going to pay such a price for convenience.
Racial change tokens would only apply to a single soul slot and not for all.
You wouldn't have to regrind all the guilds/skyshards/professions on your alt just to be effective in group content.

Would you like to have such feature in the game?

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · March 2019

Just make another toon.

John_Falstaff · March 2019

@Lightspeedflashb14_ESO , would've worked better if more things were shared between the characters, like achievements or researched traits in crafting. And even so, people grow attached to characters, it's identity after all. So... I would really like they to offer such profile switching - not for race maybe, but at least for CPs and attribute points. Would be really nice to switch between damage and tank profiles on my DK, I've taken to tanking recently but I don't want to give up on stamDK DD altogether.

Browiseth · March 2019

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

Just make another toon.

you seem to really want the grind to be as extended as possible, I've noticed

Omenpapa · March 2019

@John_Falstaff I forgot about attribute points, that is a good point.

The racial bonuses are there because if you let's say pick breton for healing.. you probably would like to have nord for tanking. While a breton could tank too.. it would be a subpar choice, and that is exactly what I would like to avoid with the new system.

heaven13 · March 2019

If you're changing everything about a character, right down to their race, just make a new one.

I wouldn't be opposed to having some kind of saved secondary loadout for morphs/CP so there could be an easier switch between PvE/PvP content (for example) but your proposed system goes too far.

Omenpapa · March 2019

I am not proposing to change everything. If you think about it, you can now
-go to a shrine and reset you morphs,attributes
-buy a race change token and receive it's benefits
-go to your ingame house, or a specific overland place to change your mundus
-reset CP anywhere for a gold price

Basically we can do everything already from the list, but it takes time and gold/crowns.

I would prefer to speed up the process for a one time fee of crowns.

It would also make sense that if ESO+ would provide an extra Soul slot, and we could buy more permanent ones if required.

tinythinker · March 2019

Omenpapa wrote: »

I never played with alts, I like to focus on a singular char. However in other mmos, we are able to switch between builds easily. For example Rift has the Role-s, while Wow has the dual talent system. A similiar to those would be called the Soul-s in ESO.

In order for it to work, it should allow us to save another configuration slot for

-racial bonus
-allocated CP
-skill morphs
-mundus stone

Normally it could also give a way to save action bars and gear too, but at least on PC addons are taking care of that right now too.

The goal is to enable switching between tanking and healing for example without the hassle of wasting gold and time. This could result in radically lower dungeon queue times for everybody.

I would easily pay 10k crowns for a single Soul Slot, and prolly would buy multiple, so I can play with my char the way I want.

This wouldn't make char slots pointless. You still would need to create an alt to play another class, and ofc not everybody is going to pay such a price for convenience.
Racial change tokens would only apply to a single soul slot and not for all.
You wouldn't have to regrind all the guilds/skyshards/professions on your alt just to be effective in group content.

Would you like to have such feature in the game?

Interesting.

I've suggested something that *sounds* similar... but my version is character specific whereas it sounds like yours is account-wide in what is "saved".

To illustrate the difference, let's say everyone gets access to one of the slots I proposed, then another for ESO+, then another in the Crown Store. That would be a maximum of three per account. Yet each character can individually customize those three slots for champion points, attribute points, skill unlocks/morphs, and gear (the last one to help out the console players who don't have gear add-ons).

So a toon called Uses-Random-Character-Name might have a trials healer build in slot one, a PvP tank build in slot two, and a thieving speed stealth build in slot three. But on the same account, another toon called Ork Dork Supreme might have a PvE tank build in slot one, a PvE healer build in slot two, and a battlegrounds build in slot three.

I imagine these slots, whatever they are called, still allowing for a gold sink (of which the game already has many). It's like a snapshot: if you change your CP for Ork Dork's second slot, you can still save the new allocation to that slot, but you have to pay for the CP change like always. So as people adjust for new combat changes (skill line additions/revisions, gear set addition/revisions, etc.) they are still paying gold. They just get to load whatever the latest save is for a slot or resave it with the new changes. It's still a great convenience that opens up more gameplay opportunities and experiences for each character.

That and having account-wide achievement points (*not* account-wide achievements - read carefully) would make the game much more alt-friendly and solo-character friendly at the same time.

Details:

Basically, hovering over an achievement would bring up:

Account achievement 6/13/2015
Achieved this character 10/1/2018

~or in some cases~

Account achievement 5/22/2014
Not achieved this character

That way people who are achievement hunters can choose which character to attempt different things on, but if someone else wants you to link an achievement it would show whether or not the character you are on has done it. So each toon would still have to unlock each achievement for their own use/benefit such as titles, etc.

There are some who resist change or any type of account convenience or oppose them for some moralistic reason, but no one would be forced to use these saveable slots. If you want to have to have a healer-only alt, a tank-only alt, etc., go for it. And if you want to take a lot of time to swap between roles every time on a single character, enjoy! Not everyone wants to make alts for every little thing, and many of us would enjoy alts more if we could readily play around with different specs on each one.

Omenpapa · March 2019

Actually I imagined exactly how you described it. Unlocking the soul slots for the account (since ESO+ is also account wide), but you are able to use 3 widely different builds (base+eso plus + bought with crowns) for each character.

This is definitely not an original idea from me, as I said multiple other MMO-s have such feature just called differently.

And yes, you would be able to change cp allocation for each saved slot just like now for our "singular soul slot".

TheShadowScout · March 2019

Omenpapa wrote: »

I never played with alts, I like to focus on a singular char. However in other mmos, we are able to switch between builds easily...

...and I am VERY happy that quick-change option is NOT available in ESO!!!

Here, people have to -choose-, they can either specialize in one thing at the expense of another, or specialize in the other thing at the expense of the one thing, or they can set up their character to be adequate at all things yet excel at none.
Choices!
They should matter!

I for one like that much better then a system where people can have the option to quick-switch from one specialization to another so they can excel as -every- thing, yet have no meaningful choice in the matter anymore...

John_Falstaff · March 2019

@TheShadowScout , that would've made sense if the choices as they are now we're set in stone. But no, they're just hidden behind 6k / 3k gold (or thereabouts) and unpleasant loss of time whenever one wants to switch to tank or to PvP build as opposed to PvE. Current system doesn't make choices matter, it just makes reconsidering them a mild nuisance. Or a lot of grind when one decides to create an identical twin character with same identity but spec'd as tank and not damage. No point in not creating a lightweight version of what we already have, without the nuisance of traveling to a shrine and spending a few thousand gold.

TheShadowScout · March 2019

Not so.

It makes sense to allow -some- respec option, because new players will make unfavorable choices before they know what the game is like, and then regret them. It would be bad not to let them have a option to redo much of their choices, like skill and attribute points or CP... these days, we have even racechange for those who like chasing the FotM...

But the "nuisiance factor" is more then that, it prevents people from changing "on the fly", from having setups they can just swap wherever, as they do need to return to the respec shrine for most of that.
And that means, people generally will prefer not to change their choices unless they have a compelling reason. And thus we are back at the choices... people can change, yes, but its annoying enough that they generally will not do iot just because they want to dip into cyrodil from their usual PvEing, or go farm a dungeon for some gear to help theur usual PvPlaying, or whatever.
And that brings us back to what I said... the choice between specializing or setting up your character as all-rounder.

And THAT is wha I for one would not want to see a "quickchange" option in ESO. It would make that choice obsolete, because -everyone- would be pressured to specialize, since there was no more reason not to.

And I prefer my game with choices.

idk · March 2019

Racial passives is something that we will likely never be able to change from build to build. It requires a crowns store token just to change race, and that is each time.

Mundus will also not be something we can save because there have been exploits concerning mundus and I expect Zos does not want to open another door to more possible exploits.

We have asked to be able to save CP builds but Zos seems to be mum on this. We do not care about the costs, we just do not want to allocate points each and every time. Even on PC we cannot do this since the API does not touch this area.

Now, for doing run of the mill dungeons I do not change my CP for the role. I merely change gear and skills. I do not have a need to change morphs as very few skills I use for one role needs a different morph for another role. It is only with vet trials I concern myself with having a role specific build, but performance is more important then.

John_Falstaff · March 2019

@TheShadowScout , it's the terminology we're splitting hairs about. Those on the fly changes you're speaking about, they're called alts. People make them in multitude, and nothing prevents a person from paying a handful of crowns (if they're at capacity) and get the same 'profile switching', except more heavyweight and they requires logging out and then back in. The only thing a system of profiles would remove is an unnecessary repetitive grind, that's all.

So, such system is only a mild illusion of choice. And to add insult to injury, it penalizes more casual players heavier than hardcore ones; for a hardcore player blowing a few thousand gold going to Cyro after a trial isn't that much, while player with limited time for the grind will have much harder time dabbing into alternative role on existing character. And then all we see is fake tanks in dungeons, PvE-specced people in PvP (of course they get stomped over sooner than others) and so on and so forth.

Digiman · March 2019

Maybe make a crown store armory like the outfit slots where you can store your multiple builds... could be lucrative.

I am opposed to race change thingy though seems like your better off making another toon.

TheShadowScout · March 2019

John_Falstaff wrote: »

it's the terminology we're splitting hairs about. Those on the fly changes you're speaking about, they're called alts.

Wrong.
Alts are "alternate characters", and are -nothing- like changing your character setup from "specialized for PvP" to "psecialized for PvE" between cyrodil sieges and dungeon runs.
Please refrain from using falsehoods.

And yeah, -everyone- is free to make one character specialized for this and another specialized for that. Make one choice on this character, and another choice on that character, and maybe a third character you choose to keep as all-rounder for some other task.
I have no issues with that.

Because they -each- require some effort to build up, you need to earn your levels for each, you need to earn your guild advancement and gear, you need to do your ridfing trianing (as much as some of the "gimme crowd" wants to make all that account wide to be able to use alts -exactly- like this... but that's not how it is, is it now?)

I DO have issues with the greedy ones who want to have -everything- without having to choose!

John_Falstaff wrote: »

And to add insult to injury, it penalizes more casual players heavier than hardcore ones

...you realize you -are- talking to one of those "filthy casual players" here, right?
And I do not feel penalized. Yes, I have a lot of characters, because I have been a casual player since launch, and even when not playing much over the week, it -does- add up over the years.
Do I feel penalized? Nah, not at all.
I make my choices, and I live with them. I know that I would maybe be more ffective if I played everything on fewer characters... but that is the choice I made. I am not gonna argue that I should get the same effect for my lesser effort then the hardcore people who DO spend the time to specialize and build up their "expert" characters! I do not go and argue I should be able to switch specialization so I don't have to make choices! I am not going to argue they ought to dumb down the game I enjoy for its complexity and multitude of choice until everyone is pressured into following the same "most effective" setup!

John_Falstaff wrote: »

And then all we see is ... PvE-specced people in PvP (of course they get stomped over sooner than others) and so on and so forth.

Yup.
And my characters are one of those.
Since I am a roleplayer at heart, I never specialize for effect, but build my characters as to reflect their backstory. And while I don't go pretending to be a tank when I don't at least meet basic requirements... I -do- go into PvP, and I -do- occasionally even run dungeons (when I find someone who asks me, I cannot stand PUGs)... and I tend to do suboptimally compared to the "experts", but still decent enough to carry my weight for the most part. Not gonna make it to any leaderboards, but... I accept that, and am okay with it.

But hey, rejoice!
I will give the hardcore PvPlayers easy kills whenever I PvP and they get around to stomp me!

But that is the -choice- I made!

And having those choices... that is what makes the game diverse, and fun for me. And thus I will keep arguing against any mechanic that reduced the number of choices, or makes them less meaningful!

John_Falstaff · March 2019

@TheShadowScout , you're wrong about alts. They can be alternative identities, or they can be used as alternative profiles, and many people use them like that. I'm one of them; I keep a couple of characters that are same identity, same appearance pixel to pixel, just tailored for different purposes. Please try to use your brain next time you decide to accuse people of falsehoods.

And since you're out of actual arguments and down to being personal (and down to propagating your experience onto everyone - 'I don't feel penalized', 'I'm roleplayer at heart [and want to be locked in choices for backstory]'), I don't feel like taking the rest of that rant seriously. You know, "I make choices, therefore everyone must" is no better than sense of entitlement in other players. Just a different twist at selfishness, that's all.

TheShadowScout · March 2019

John_Falstaff wrote: »

you're wrong about alts. They can be alternative identities, or they can be used as alternative profiles, and many people use them like that. I'm one of them; I keep a couple of characters that are same identity, same appearance pixel to pixel, just tailored for different purposes. Please try to use your brain next time you decide to accuse people of falsehoods.

Actually you are the wrong one there.
You may try to use your alts as alternate profiles, but that does not make them so.
Not in this game anyhow.
Not in any RPG anyhow.

You may have noticed that... when checking your "just a different profile" alts achievements, skills, riding training progression, lorebook collections, and so on. Heck, your first hint should have been that the game requires you to make a different -name- for each character!!

Despite of some people wanting to change the game until it conforms to Their style and make everything account-wide so they can indeed use alts as alternate profiles.
Wanting something to be YOUR way does not make it so.
And claiming something is how you want it to be contrary to the facts of how it is... is spreading falsehood.

As for the matter of choice...
...different people making different choices is what a MMORPG thrives on! After all, otherwise we could reduce the whole game to one stat "Competence" and basically have everything decided by a coin toss.
I would not want to play a game like that... and thus I will keep arguing against any suggestion that moves towards that direction.
You can have a different opinion. And you can try to argue how it would benefit the game if you could play it like a MMO shooter where your characters are just different profiles while you the gamer are the one who is important. Which would be a different kind of game entirely from an MMORPG like ESO!!!

John_Falstaff · March 2019

@TheShadowScout , I don't see anything explicitly stated how alts should be used, so your opinion on what they are and how they should be used is just that. Your own personal opinion. Again, please don't try to force your opinion on anyone.

There's no backing your point with details of game mechanics. Your mounts are the same, your skins are the same, plenty of things shared between your alts - doesn't mean anything. You're the one who's now trying to make the game conform to your style and decide how others should play this game. Fact is, if different achievements prevent you from having same identity and backstory (and even name can be made virtually indistinguishable) on different characters (like I do), then what can I say. I pity people who desperately need to back up their imagination with numbers in character sheet, they're not really fit for roleplaying.

So basically, as a conclusion, you need CP and attribute points to cost gold and time to redistribute solely for your roleplaying purposes, and you put that above what others may need to enjoy the game (and they play more of the game content than you do, by admission). How that's not greed, selfishness and a sense of entitlement you accuse others of, I cannot fathom. And since number of exclamation marks grows, I give up. Defend you right to be locked in choices all you want if you need that for RP, just don't be surprised that others won't want the same things from the game as you do.

(Oh, I got an idea while writing that. ZOS should implement profiles, and then also a checkbox 'hardcore' or 'rp' during character creation - that will make every change to the character irreversible and give a roleplayer badge. Choices matter. ^^ For those who want that.)

Maggi12 · March 2019

Soul slot (or whatever, maybe devs will find better naming for it) idea is very good and very old at the same time (successfully have been used in other projects). For ESO in its current state, the main problem is GEAR - how to manage material objects like gear and potions? How to implement it? Lets see at possible solutions:

1) store all "soul slot" gear in inventory (bad solution, but it works for now - using Alpha Gear addon)
2) seamlessly transfer from bank to character ? (i dont like to allocate bank space for so much set items, especially if i play muliple chars - it is waste of bank cells - so this solution is also bad)
3) special GEAR storage (only for bound items).

I think that the game storage systems must evolve :

old: bank + craftbag + bag
new: bank + craftbag + loot.bag + gear.bag

old bag becomes loot.bag
gear.bag is the new special system bag, used only by "soul slot" system", player can only have read-only access there, if he wants.

When you start to buid "soul slot" config, you fill all required build info in the "new soul slot dialog UI":
CP distribution, both skill bars, current mundus stone, active potions/poisons, ...

What do you think about it?
I hope devs will read this topic, this game gives so many pain if you play more than some critical amount of chars (for me that number is: 8+).

TheShadowScout · March 2019

John_Falstaff wrote: »

I don't see anything explicitly stated how alts should be used...

...because you do not aknowledge any truth other then your own opinion?
Why don't you look it up sometime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_character
Note that the term "alt" DOES indeed refer to "Alternate Character" and not "Alternate Template"!

Of course, how you use them exactly is up to each player. But that does not change the fact that your earlier statement:

John_Falstaff wrote: »

Those on the fly changes you're speaking about, they're called alts.

...does -not- portray the truth or the general game-development intention about alts.

Also, if you change to an alternate character, you do NOT log in at the same place your other character logged out from, so it would be doubly wrong to call switching alts a "on the fly change".

Ergo... no matter how much you try to twist the facts to make your twisting of the facts about the term seem acceptable, you did twist the facts.

John_Falstaff wrote: »

There's no backing your point with details of game mechanics.

I beg to differ.
Game mechanics do often tell us quite a bit about the developers intention after all...
Like I stated, IF the game developers had wanted alternate characters to be used as alternate templates, they would have made everything account wide.
They. Did. Not.
And that IS their statement, plain as day, not in words but in actions. And there you have it. ;p

And yes, they did make some things account wide, because they know that a great many people would not like paying for each crown store thingie per character, or unlock each color for every alt. And since those things are -purely cosmetic-... it is all right.
Now...
...pray tell...
...how "cosmetic" are champion points and skill morphs, hmmm?

John_Falstaff wrote: »

...or they can be used as alternative profiles...

Well, of course you -can- choose to use them that way, a bit awkwardly, but you can do it.

I would consider it silly, to have one character who is a magica sorceror, and then try to make the same character as stamina dragonknight... abd still be both in-character, but... well, I had a guildmaster before who did just that (And Demoz was one of the better ones, who tried to create neat roleplay for his guildmembers), so... okay.
But to try an argument from the platform of "because -I- do it this way, that is how it is" will not convince anyone.
Try "I do it that way, that is my choice, and I deal with the drawbacks", instead of saying "Because I do it that way, I demand that they change the game so I not suffer any drawbacks!"

Maggi12 wrote: »

For ESO in its current state, the main problem is GEAR - how to manage material objects like gear and potions?

Now that is a topic worthy of discussion!!!
I mean, they keep adding more stuff to grab (more sets, furniture, motiv pages and recipes, consumables, etc.), but not more inventory or bank slots to store it!!
And the more you need to carry, the less easy it is to also carry gear to swap out!

Maggi12 wrote: »

I think that the game storage systems must evolve :

And I would agree to that.
Heck, one easy thing would expanding the "crafting bag" concept to also include furniture!

Another nice thing would -finally- treat all the older disguises like they did in the "Scarlet Judge" quest - remove the disguise item at quest completion, and unlock a costume with the same visuals but no disguise mechanic instead!
Easy enough to do retroactively, right?

Another nice thing for us roleplayers would be allowing to deconstruct all that stealable civilian clothing for a chance at learning the visuals for the outfit system! I mean, if -has- a clothingt ab (for the prisoner outfit), so... why not expand on that?

And finally... yeah, I could even see a "change of clothing" preset second outfit. As long as it is not quick-switch like a weapon swap. But a slower change... say, a 1 minute "change clothes" time where you are immobile and not getting any benefit (so it would be a really bad thing to change in mid-battle), and as benefit get a whole second gear setup... I could see that happening!

John_Falstaff · March 2019

@TheShadowScout , so, speaking of not-so-purely-cosmetic things, are you trying to tell me that you're playing all your characters like they somehow live in same house, own same mounts, and share bank space, crafting bag content? Because, you know, if you swapped a gear piece between your character, you already have refuted your purist point about roleplaying and sticking to alts being what you state they are for you. You know, su-u-u-urely if developers gave us shared bank and crafting bag, they wanted us to roleplay characters sharing a secret connection. According to you anyway. Devs' actions is to want your dunmer secretly working for Covenant or some such, that so.

So once again. You've imagined that your way of treating character is the only true, canonical, dev-approved way, and you're trying to push your style down everyone's throat. No, it doesn't work like that, sorry. Basically you're the one currently trying to say "because I do it that way, this is how it is". And of course you're not convincing anyone. ^^ People have richer imagination than that, they play how they want, not how you want them to play. You got into discussion of proposal that doesn't impair your style in any way (you know that you're not forced to change your CP profiles on a whim, you're aware of that, right?) and you're trying to block that change because you want others to play like you. What can I say, again. Good luck with that. You sure will find a lot of understanding.

TheShadowScout · March 2019

John_Falstaff wrote: »

are you trying to tell me that you're playing all your characters like they somehow live in same house, own same mounts, and share bank space, crafting bag content?...

Nah, of course not, Duh! They all get their own house, well, the ones that are -actual- roleplaying characters and not just OoC testbed alts anyhow...

John_Falstaff wrote: »

Because, you know, if you swapped a gear piece between your character, you already have refuted your purist point about roleplaying and sticking to alts being what you state they are for you...

Oh? Now, why would you think so? If my bounty huntress barters that staff she found in a treasure chest to my librarian boy (through the OoC mechanic of a shared personal bank) for a nifty new weapon rune she could use, how does that make it refuting any points?

I mean, really, arguments like that have somewhat of a straw-grasping feeling to them.

John_Falstaff wrote: »

Basically you're the one currently trying to say "because I do it that way, this is how it is".

Projecting much, are you?

John_Falstaff wrote: »

Those on the fly changes you're speaking about, they're called alts.

...seeing as I recall it was soneone else who went -exactly- that way. Someone who calledalts "on the fly changes" because of their way of palying and their opinion? Now, who could that have been...

Whereas I on the other hand decided to follow the -established- nomenclature... where in any Role Playing Game, different characters are -supposed- to be different roles. No matter of the same player plays them, Just like Saruman is a different character then Count Dooku or Fu Manchu or Count Dracula, no matter if Christopher Lee played them all.
Apologies if you failed to understand that.
Maybe read it up sometime:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_character
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_character

And yes, ESO does give some account wide conveniences, like many modern MMORPGs. More then most I ever played, and -certainly- more then was common for older style games. And a lot of players like it that way, and some want more account wide because they see a game like an adventure or console game where often enough the achievements are the gamers "gamerscore" and characters are just interchangable tools the players use, and others want less because they are more from the roleplayerish side and want each character be their own seperate individual to earn their own merits and powers... and in the end, the balance is just right to keep the majority of them playing happily I reckon...
Still won't change the facts what an RPG is and is supposed to be.

John_Falstaff · March 2019

@TheShadowScout , a-ah, so shared bank is already "OOC mechanic". I got how it goes for you. Every game mechanic that works towards your playstyle is the sacred intention of devs and how they want everyone to play the game. Every game mechanic that doesn't fit your playstyle is an OOC mechanic because of course it is. Talking about straw-grasping. ^^

I'm at the point where I'm casting pearls here, and I'm just about done. Just tell you what - if some players want less, they just use less, simple as that. Use your head and limit yourself in creative ways, don't ask the game to limit you (and everyone else) in order to supply crutches for your imagination.

tinythinker · March 2019

So, for players like @TheShadowScout, the solution is to not buy or use the build save slots (should those ever be offered) so they can RP the way they want according to their preferences for how people should play the game. Then allow other people who don't care about playing that way to buy the slots because they've already earned the CP, gear, skill lines, etc., on a character and prefer the convenience and fun of being able to save/modify the builds relevant to their favorite in-game activities.

That way people who don't RP at all or who do RP differently can get more fun out of the game by having quicker access to swapping between content or roles. I'm all for meaningful and consequential quest choices, but for playable content I would prefer to able to jump between vMA, battlegrounds, and dungeon/trial healing quickly.

It's the same with differences between people who do or don't want the silly stick mounts or who cringe at character names like "Guldan is Innocent". It would be nice if ZOS set up a dedicated RP shard for those who want greater immersion. I would strongly support that, especially if you could flick it on and off. Like a switch between OOC play/light RP and dedicated IC RP. If some folks want to just stay all the time in one or the other, great. If they want to switch back and forth and different times, cool.

TheShadowScout · March 2019

tinythinker wrote: »

I would prefer to able to jump between vMA, battlegrounds, and dungeon/trial healing quickly.

You do realize you can do that already, yes?

You just would have to make a choice which one you want to excel at, and what you would put less priority at. Which brings me full circle:

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Here, people have to -choose-, they can either specialize in one thing at the expense of another, or specialize in the other thing at the expense of the one thing, or they can set up their character to be adequate at all things yet excel at none.
Choices!
They should matter!

I for one like that much better then a system where people can have the option to quick-switch from one specialization to another so they can excel as -every- thing, yet have no meaningful choice in the matter anymore...

And that is exactly my point. I for one dislike games where you can use such mechanics to avoid making choices, and change your character "on the fly" from tank to DPS or from PvE specialization to PvP optimized.
Other people prefer those kind of games, and that is all right. But I do not like it when they argue that because they prefer that kind of gameplay, ALL games should change to suit their preferences. because I know all too well then the elitist players will start pressuring casual players like me to also use the same system. It happened before, it will happen again. Thus... I say again -I- for one am happy this is not a thing in ESO. And -I- for one believe it never should be a thing in ESO, there are enough other games where it is a thing after all...

And no matter what other people say, the definitions of a roleplaying game do support my side more then any others, not that this really matters all that much since in the end it IS the decision of the powers that be how to interpret those definitions in their game. But when someone wants to present their own playstyle as universal "this is how it is" with fake statements like "change on the fly is called alts", then I will argue against it.

Tho it does often feel like playing chess with pigeons, really... so I guess I shall cease to waste my time, 'kay?

tinythinker · March 2019

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Tho it does often feel like playing chess with pigeons, really... so I guess I shall cease to waste my time, 'kay?

TimeWizard · March 2019

In case any pc players aren't aware there are addons that allow you to save cp allowcations and quick swap to them. I use Champion Point Respec.

Race would be the outlier in this system, because all the other componants already exsist ingame for either a gold cost or no cost. I think its a cool idea, but it would definately have an impact on endgame play. I heal for an score-pushing trials team and I will usually have to swap gear between every fight, food between a lot, and even cp between a few. In a single trial run. My morphs, mundus, and attributes (and race and class too as I will swap character for different trials, but that's separate) all can change depending on the trial I'm doing. Being able to change those mid raid as well would open up a lot of possibilities to min-max every fight in a trial.

tinythinker · March 2019

TimeWizard wrote: »

I think its a cool idea, but it would definately have an impact on endgame play. I heal for an score-pushing trials team and I will usually have to swap gear between every fight, food between a lot, and even cp between a few. In a single trial run. My morphs, mundus, and attributes (and race and class too as I will swap character for different trials, but that's separate) all can change depending on the trial I'm doing. Being able to change those mid raid as well would open up a lot of possibilities to min-max every fight in a trial.

Valid observation.

Yet I would ask, do we care?

If you aren't in a competitive raid group it's irrelevant what they would do, and if you are you wouldn't be upset by such feature.

Min-maxers use and when possible abuse everything, but unless you are in a competitive raiding guild, what they do with their resources is there own. And if more costly/less comprehensive options to switch between builds fights already exist, aren't they already using them? (And again, not only would this help PC but console's got nothing at all. They would be greatly aided by something along these lines as well as some other options to help with things like crafting writs.)

EDIT: Forgot to add, if we do care what hardcore raiders do, we can say you have to leave an instance to swap, which could cost them time/points. Yet you could still quickly help out a casual dungeon group by teleporting out, switching from DPS to tank, and teleport back in.

Omenpapa · March 2019

@TheShadowScout I understand that you are happy with the current system, or maybe would even prefer a more restrictive system, but as @John_Falstaff said, nobody is forcing you to use the new Soul Slot system in case the devs implementing it in the future.

You are stating that what you want is that your choice should matter. I hope you do realize that you have the choice to never use the features of the soul slot system. You can also choose -even in the current game- to never change your CP, mundus stone, race, char name or attributes. Hell, if you want hardcore experience, you can also choose to never revisit a dungeon! Just go in once, and see if you are able to complete it or not. If not, you are welcome to choose to not ever have the drops from it. If this is not enough, surely you can just simply delete your toon the first time it dies and roll a new one.

Point being, you DO have a choice now too, just like if the Soul Slot system would be in the game. If you do not want to use it, just don't. This is that simple.

I actually love the idea of marking our chars at char creation if it would be a hardcore RP char or not, which would add additional restrictions. I also understand that real role players do not need the devs to restrict their gameplay, they have a choice to restrict themselves if they choose to.

In other games such soul system also came with restrictions. For example you cannot change your soul in combat. It would also make sense to have a let's say 5-10 sec casting time for it.

About the hardcore raider topic, I agree with @tinythinker . The system can have some restrictions, let's say you are invalidating your trial score if your soul is changed between you entering the instance and killing the last boss. Or just allow switching between every encounter. I personally do not have any problem with either way.

There is this marketing sentence for eso "Play how you want". Well, that is what I would like to do. Play as a healer, or a dps, or a tank in group PVE content on the same char,without the annoyance and waste of time via manually changing the build,.gear,cp etc, and also without using a subpar build just because I am a Breton now and not a Nord. I am one of those guys who respect the time of other "randoms'" in public groups, and try to not make the instance longer as it should be, by using a hybrid build, instead of focusing on the role as I highlighted in the dungeon finder system.

As I mentioned earlier too, I am not asking for more choice / less restrictions. Everything is already implemented into the game(cp change, race change etc), but we have to spend some time, gold and/or crowns in order to change them. I would like to have more streamlined / user friendly experience with the Soul Slot system.

SaintSubwayy · March 2019

play a hybrid race, there are more than enough skillpoints in this game to switch playstyle easily.

you only have to reallocate Attributes and CP and you can swap how you want to