I very much support a more difficult overland experience, as a veteran player, doing quests and overland content in general sometimes turn into a major turn off, even immersion wise.

I still remember when I started playing and was completely lost, the enemies felt somewhat menacing, because I could actually die fighting them, and that felt GOOD, but after getting somewhat decent, any overland, world boss and especially story quest enemies/bosses are so easy to solo that it completely throws off the window how they're supposed to be "world ending threats."

I feel like me and many other veteran players deserve to have the same experience as newer players, we want to have a more engaging combat while questing, I don't want to fight a Daedric Prince and completely melt them a few seconds in the fight.

The fact that the endgame community is a "minority" doesn't make us any less important at all, if anything this means changes are needed to make our numbers grow, a loyal veteran community is the main foundation of any MMORPG, if you value their feedback you'll add to the game's health and lifespan immensely.

In my opinion if a hardcore overland zone turn into a thing, it shouldn't have a difficulty slider, but if it does, at least tie exclusive rewards accordingly, there is no point in doing difficult content if the rewards are not worth it.

If ESO had a good reward system tied to difficult content, you'd magically see a good portion of the casual playerbase actually investing in more time learning and exploring different aspects of the game.

Morvan wrote: »

I very much support a more difficult overland experience, as a veteran player, doing quests and overland content in general sometimes turn into a major turn off, even immersion wise.

I still remember when I started playing and was completely lost, the enemies felt somewhat menacing, because I could actually die fighting them, and that felt GOOD, but after getting somewhat decent, any overland, world boss and especially story quest enemies/bosses are so easy to solo that it completely throws off the window how they're supposed to be "world ending threats."

I feel like me and many other veteran players deserve to have the same experience as newer players, we want to have a more engaging combat while questing, I don't want to fight a Daedric Prince and completely melt them a few seconds in the fight.

The fact that the endgame community is a "minority" doesn't make us any less important at all, if anything this means changes are needed to make our numbers grow, a loyal veteran community is the main foundation of any MMORPG, if you value their feedback you'll add to the game's health and lifespan immensely.

In my opinion if a hardcore overland zone turn into a thing, it shouldn't have a difficulty slider, but if it does, at least tie exclusive rewards accordingly, there is no point in doing difficult content if the rewards are not worth it.

If ESO had a good reward system tied to difficult content, you'd magically see a good portion of the casual playerbase actually investing in more time learning and exploring different aspects of the game.

+100000000000000000

DeathStalker wrote: »

No, you would not.

Clarify:
If that were true, then more people would do trials to get the best gear in the game.

When I say reward, I'm talking about actual non tradeable cosmetic rewards, which trials completely lack, the fact that trials don't have a good cosmetic reward system, makes the chase for good gear worthless for those people.

Why would they grind gear for? When all the good cosmetics are not in that content.

Morvan wrote: »

DeathStalker wrote: »

No, you would not.

Clarify:
If that were true, then more people would do trials to get the best gear in the game.

When I say reward, I'm talking about actual non tradeable cosmetic rewards, which trials completely lack, the fact that trials don't have a good cosmetic reward system, makes the chase for good gear worthless for those people.

Why would they grind gear for? When all the good cosmetics are not in that content.

My answer remains the same, no you would not see an influx of people into harder content.

If you truly think otherwise then you will be in for a rude awakening if they give you what you want and what you expect doesn't happen.

making old content harder while not introducing new content or rewards seems like a lazy way to drive up play time.

as the population continues to decline this only serves to extract more in-game hours from activities that can be done alone.

SilverBride wrote: »

Throughout this thread we have been told that immersion and challenge were the rewards.

"Casuals" aren't the only ones not wanting increased difficulty. I enjoy a challenge and do veteran content, too. But I also enjoy a relaxing story experience and the thought of better rewards for overland will not make me want to give up my relaxing story time.

There is a gray zone between "easy" and "difficult" content, for the most part the great majority of veteran dungeons in the game are nowadays pretty easy, even on HM, especially when you have classes like arcanist who gives access to pretty decent damage with barely no effort, even on the hands of a newer player.

ESO has so much content, just because some people don't want to do hard content it doesn't mean the game doesn't have a place for it, from all the zones this game has, what is the problem of having at least ONE hardcore zone? Why does every bit of content must please casual gameplay?

Let us have at least one win, for gods sake.

DeathStalker wrote: »

My answer remains the same, no you would not see an influx of people into harder content.

If you truly think otherwise then you will be in for a rude awakening if they give you what you want and what you expect doesn't happen.

Well, then I'm all ears to understand why ESO especifically wouldn't have a chase for good cosmetics rewards when literally every other MMORPG that have it works just fine.

Even for new motifs I always see a great influx of players grinding the hell out of it, being overland or latest dungeons, and motifs are by all means not an unique kind of reward, as you can trade them.

So yeah, if ESO hardcore achievements would give you something more interesting than a title most of the time, you'd definitely have a response for that, that's observable on rare occasions in ESO itself and any other MMORPG for that matter.

Kyip wrote: »

So we should note that we haven't announced what overland changes are yet. We'll have more information to share next year. We wanted to just note that there will be changes to overland difficulty generally. What form that takes will be shared next year.

@ZOS_Kevin

Increasing the difficulty of standard overworld combat

This will be the worst possible change the devs could possibly make. This game already has lots of challenging content for the people who want it. I cannot express strong enough how much this would make the game worse. Please leave this alone for all the people who enjoy it. Most of us like the ease of solo gameplay in overland zones.

I'm probably way below the average player in DPS stats, I'm lucky if I can maintain 9000 for more than a few minutes on a dummy. That said, it wasn't that long ago that I found I could solo dolmens and world bosses in most of the base game. The DLC and newer chapters are entirely different, I had a tough time surviving even with other players doing harrowstorms, abyssal geysers, and world bosses in these zones. I would love to continue killing dragons but with so few doing them that content is out of my reach, unless I find a guild that likes doing them on a regular basis.

I'm hoping that in the base game is where they will want to increase the difficulty, not too much though. I don't feel the chapters need to have the overland increased.

DeathStalker wrote: »

For starters, there are a lot of people like me who play for the great story. While a great story is only 1 of the reasons I play, it's an important one. I want a relaxing. engaging fun time while I play not to be stressed out. Most good rewards are purchased or in difficult content right now anyway. So adding in other cosmetics to more difficult overland content won't change much. Most casuals won't do harder content period, regardless of the reward.

That's the thing, the endgamers are such a minority in this game not because people don't like doing hard content, but because of the lack of hard content and rewards tied to it, you guys are the majority because 99% of the game is designed for that type of gameplay.

Most of this game is already super casual friendly, I have nothing against that, I also like to chill and enjoy a story sometimes, but we can't be egoistical and think this is what the game must be everywhere.

With a hard overland zone you'd still be able to chill and do your quests just fine, the only difference is that monsters won't get hit killed and actually represent a menace, there are literally zero zones in the game with difficult overland content, it would be an unique addition to the game.

We deserve to have fun with challenging content, too.

Frooke wrote: »

I recorded a video to show how difficult overlanding is, and it's serious. I can't understand who is having any kind of difficulty. Watch the video and draw your own conclusions

https://youtu.be/DWtW1BP6qqM

LOL, [snip] LOL

[edited for profanity bypass]

Morvan wrote: »

DeathStalker wrote: »

For starters, there are a lot of people like me who play for the great story. While a great story is only 1 of the reasons I play, it's an important one. I want a relaxing. engaging fun time while I play not to be stressed out. Most good rewards are purchased or in difficult content right now anyway. So adding in other cosmetics to more difficult overland content won't change much. Most casuals won't do harder content period, regardless of the reward.

That's the thing, the endgamers are such a minority in this game not because people don't like doing hard content, but because of the lack of hard content and rewards tied to it, you guys are the majority because 99% of the game is designed for that type of gameplay.

Most of this game is already super casual friendly, I have nothing against that, I also like to chill and enjoy a story sometimes, but we can't be egoistical and think this is what the game must be everywhere.

With a hard overland zone you'd still be able to chill and do your quests just fine, the only difference is that monsters won't get hit killed and actually represent a menace, there are literally zero zones in the game with difficult overland content, it would be an unique addition to the game.

We deserve to have fun with challenging content, too.

Then why don't you go solo a dragon or any of the other DLC content that is more difficult than base game overland content? Seriously, the DLC zones mostly sit empty even though in most, especially the more recent ones the content is harder for people like you to have a challenge. but the zones sit empty. why make everything harder for everyone, when the people asking for harder content won't do the harder content in the game already like dragons?

DeathStalker wrote: »

Then why don't you go solo a dragon or any of the other DLC content that is more difficult than base game overland content? Seriously, the DLC zones mostly sit empty even though in most, especially the more recent ones the content is harder for people like you to have a challenge. but the zones sit empty. why make everything harder for everyone, when the people asking for harder content won't do the harder content in the game already like dragons?

Because challenge needs incentive to be relevant, not even dragon rheum is much expensive nowadays to be worth it, hence why you don't see as much people farming them anymore.

It's not just about how hard a content is, it's about the feeling to get through something difficult and be rewarded for it.

And honestly, I wouldn't consider dragons a challenge to solo either, even on a standard DPS build, all you need is pale order or a heal slotted to solo them just fine. But that is irrelevant since they're in a open zone with players that can help you out.

Morvan wrote: »

DeathStalker wrote: »

Then why don't you go solo a dragon or any of the other DLC content that is more difficult than base game overland content? Seriously, the DLC zones mostly sit empty even though in most, especially the more recent ones the content is harder for people like you to have a challenge. but the zones sit empty. why make everything harder for everyone, when the people asking for harder content won't do the harder content in the game already like dragons?

Because challenge needs incentive to be relevant, not even dragon rheum is much expensive nowadays to be worth it, hence why you don't see as much people farming them anymore.

It's not just about how hard a content is, it's about the feeling to get through something difficult and be rewarded for it.

And honestly, I wouldn't consider dragons a challenge to solo either, even on a standard DPS build, all you need is pale order or a heal slotted to solo them just fine. But that is irrelevant since they're in a open zone with players that can help you out.

Serious question then. Why not ask for better rewards for the harder content in-game already instead of ruining all the content for casuals like me by making everything harder?

Frooke wrote: »

I recorded a video to show how difficult overlanding is, and it's serious. I can't understand who is having any kind of difficulty.

It's not that easy for everyone. Some players have difficulty for a variety of reasons and they should be able to play, too.

I personally find easily killing overland mobs satisfying because I can feel like the strong hero I'm being told that I am.

Morvan wrote: »

ESO has so much content, just because some people don't want to do hard content it doesn't mean the game doesn't have a place for it, from all the zones this game has, what is the problem of having at least ONE hardcore zone? Why does every bit of content must please casual gameplay?

Let us have at least one win, for gods sake.

Every single combat related content except overland is challenging content. All of it. And they are not just talking about one new zone. They are saying "Increasing the difficulty of standard overworld combat" which could mean everything.

Overland is the last bit of causal combat related content we have and we don't want that taken away from us.