eKsDee wrote: »

This isn't an issue with old content becoming irrelevant just because new content came out, it's an issue with old content becoming irrelevant because it offers next to nothing to make it relevant in the first place.

Group content like this requires a large commitment in terms of time, effort and coordination, players won't bother doing the content if there's nothing there to justify the commitment they have to make. Achievements that are nothing except a "well done!" phrase with some useless score attached to it is not enough, jewelry pieces from sets exclusive to that zone is not enough once players have collected everything they need.

Players need an actual reason to go back and do old content, especially when that content asks so much of them. Add way more collectibles to the loot table, increase the amount and quality of drops so that running the content has a decent gold return, do something so that players are rewarded for running the content, especially since it's group content.

GW2 has content that's several years old at this point, that is still actively ran today. The Silverwastes RIBA meta, the Auric Basin Octovine meta, the Tequatl world boss fight, the Triple Trouble world boss fight, all of them are several years old (Silverwastes came mid Q4 2014, Auric Basin came early Q4 2015, Tequatl came late Q3 2013, Triple Trouble came early-mid Q1 2014) and yet they're still actively run.

Why? Well, the Silverwastes RIBA meta is a very lucrative gold farm (a little behind latest content, but by far the best of all base game content), same with the Auric Basin Octovine meta, Tequatl gives an easy daily gold farm per character with a decent amount of loot, and Triple Trouble gives a lot of loot and has a ton of achievements associated with it, on top of being the hardest world boss in the base game (arguably the entire game, since if you fail it, you can't redo it, unlike others).

ESO could do the same for older content. Dolmens could have the difficulty scale a lot higher with numbers, meaning the more people are around the harder it becomes, and loot could also be scaled to encourage grouping. Geysers and Harrowstorms could be a harder but more lucrative alternative to dolmens, with Harrowstorms being the hardest and Geysers being in the middle. Dragons could be distinctly group events, where you need a small group at minimum, mid sized group preferably, again with difficulty and loot scaling up the more people are around. Loot could also be overhauled for all, granting more gear, more materials, and maybe chances at unique items for clearing them, not only turning them into a decent gold farm, but also a collectible farm.

Can guarantee you'd see more groups running through older content that way, especially if you tie it to a daily system. People would actually have a reason to go back and do older content.

Xiomaro wrote: »

So to reiterate - people who want harder overland content aren't necessarily asking for more dragon-like content. They're asking for solo-able content that requires you to make use of all of ESO's mechanics to be successful.

eKsDee wrote: »

dazee wrote: »

The game began to be dumbed down BECAUSE of the people demanding it be made more like a vanilla MMO. Ever since One Tamriel vastly improved the game, the dumbest players have been demanding it be changed to be more like WoW or the like.

Truly baffling since those other mmos do that mmo thing way better than ESO with far less bugs. why not play those and leave the elder scrolls fans alone and not demand that ESO be made vanilla and unremarkable- and with all the bugs objectively inferior to other mmos?

People have been asking for difficulty to come back to overland, not for it to go back to the way it was before. The way it is now, it's literally designed for absolute beginners, despite the fact that it could absolutely be a tangible part of the end game experience, for everyone.

Guild Wars 2 proves that, arguably being the second most casual friendly MMO on the market behind ESO, as its overland is designed to be accessible for everyone, and yet everyone participates in it, even veterans. GW2 overland is arguably the end game content of GW2, while still being accessible for everyone.

In this very thread, people have outright said they don't want it to become a clone of yet another MMO. They just want it to break out of the "everything is ultra easy solo mode, except the huge minority of instanced content" mould it's currently in. ESO could easily etch out its own identity in MMO's, without steering away from being an MMO, as it currently is.

ESO also launched like a vanilla MMO, so it absolutely is the other way 'round. The people driving ESO early on came from DAoC, and designed ESO to mirror DAoC. It's why we have a three-faction Cyrodiil, and why, on release, Cyrodiil was the only content beyond overland and basic dungeons. It was the end game of ESO back on launch, trials came later.

So yes, those wanting a single player RPG experience were the ones who caused the game to become dumbed down. Zenimax moved away from PvP as the end game because those who expected "Skyrim, but online" and stayed with ESO hated it, Zenimax moved away from a traditionally leveled and more towards an ultra easy solo mode everywhere for the same reason, Zenimax dumbed combat down to the point where proc sets are now king, for the same reason.

And yes, I know this won't ever changed. The "Skyrim, but online" crowd has been catered to so much over the 6 years that ESO has been around for, that they're now undoubtedly the #1 source of ESO's income, so Zenimax would absolutely been shooting themselves in the foot if they changed. Still, can't fault me for trying.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I don't just want Harrowstorms nerfed. I want dragons nerfed and for all future content to never again be like dragons and storms.

I literally can't farm Northern Elysweyr dragons whenever I want.