Storytime with Bastian in Normal Dungeons (and why we need a story mode)

spartaxoxo · January 6

old_scopie1945 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Luckylancer wrote: »

Looks cool. I think the main pain point of story mode supporters is they want to play with their own rythm. 4 people who want to listen every dialogue and fool around at every corner will raeraly, very very rarely, be in same party. Therefore a story mode will enable a new way to play for casuals.

Cons: If the rewards wont be reduced appropriately, everyone will start playing story mode to get what they want (undaunted/gear). They will be forced into it because they are players, they have to get from point A to point B by shortest route.

Whatever, when will we talk about veteran overland and veteran questing content?

I agree.This is why I don't think it should give credit for pledges or drop set pieces. I do think the first time you do it, it should count for some small amount of Undaunted skill line credit. No different than the public dungeons. But that's about as rewarding as it should get. No gear sets, no skill point, no keys or transmute crystals. Should be about on par with the rewards of doing a delve, minus the 5pc gear sets.

I don't want people to do it because it's rewarding, but because they want to hear the story. I don't want middle finger type punishments like no exp but doing it on normal group should still be superior for rewards.

I agree with you 90%. The sticking point is the skill point. The skill point is the reward for doing the quest for the first time. The number of times I have missed out on the skill point because of speed runners preventing me doing the quest are numerous. The story mode will allow you to do the quest at your own pace. There is a number of quests with long dialogue in order to complete it for the skill point. Therefore in my opinion a story mode goes hand in hand with the skill point. That's it, story mode and skill point plus what XP you have gained and nothing else. Pledges are part of the Undaunted as well as the daily delves, and corresponding rewards are part of it in my opinion. I solo base game pledges to progress the Undaunted line, but that is not so easy for some. DLCs are another matter. Story mode along with the skill point reward only need to be done once and may be the answer.

Your vid points out the time, effort and money used to make the quest story. All that talented voice acting also gone to waste in the current format. It makes me think how little ZOS understands human nature.

Since creating this thread, I have come around on the skill point. So we're in agreement.

Undaunted exp you currently get once for completing the same quest that gives you the skill point. Since this would probably be harder than a delve, I don't see much reason to exclude since I think it's only one time but I'm not 100% sure on that. Regardless, Undaunted can be easily be maxed without ever grouping. So I don't see it as group reward, personally.

I'm still at no on transmutes, leads, and gear though.

DaniimalsSF · January 6

Can someone explain to me the logic in restricting rewards in something like the proposed story mode? I’m just curious.

Vonnegut2506 · January 6

Less effort and risk equals less reward is how the thinking usually goes.

spartaxoxo · January 6

DaniimalsSF wrote: »

Can someone explain to me the logic in restricting rewards in something like the proposed story mode? I’m just curious.

Certain rewards were added a later date. Transmutes were presumably added to solve two problems. Queue times were a bit too long and also people complained a lot about having to PvP to get transmutes.

Antiquities were added later mostly just because they were added to a bunch of different activities. And this also helped. But they also kind of reduced the need to queue for vet specifically for monster helms since monster helms are less popular than they were. I'm not saying they suck or no great builds use them. They do. But the adoption rate isn't anything like their hey day.

Dungeons need group rewards to give people more incentive to group with one another. Otherwise they'd end up like Harrowstorms and other content that lacks a reason to challenge them outside of just wanting to do so.

So, to preserve the health of the activity finder for people who want to do the group version of dungeons, I think that the various group rewards should remain group only.

Kallykat · January 6

I would love a story/solo mode for dungeons! I don't think it should be devoid of rewards, but even if it was, I would still play through each dungeon for the narrative (and to take screenshots of monsters for the wiki).

Btw, thanks @spartaxoxo for posting these story walkthrough videos!

old_scopie1945 · January 6

Probably the way to implement the story mode is when you enter the dungeon. EG: Presently when you enter a dungeon you are given the option of normal or vet mode. ZOS just needs to add story mode to these options. It can be implemented if you enter the dungeon via a Way Shrine or directly. If doable it seems simple enough IMHO. It would also keep it separate from the Undaunted system. The one sticking point is that it would only be good for solo or premade groups. On second thoughts, isn't story mode supposed to be tailored for solo or minimum amount of players?

spartaxoxo · January 8

https://youtu.be/zTE8Mz4aKsw?si=Jf9Aq9Is3C0RppYQ

I'll have to redo the other dungeon on another character at some point but here's Oathsworn pit

Kyip · January 8

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Anyway please enjoy the Frostvault story.

Thank you for doing this, it's awesome!

To read the story dialogue I have been stuck using uesp and/or screenshotting every dialogue path option (when I can) to read afterward. It's nice to actually see it and enjoy the voice acting.

Thysbe · January 9

DaniimalsSF wrote: »

Can someone explain to me the logic in restricting rewards in something like the proposed story mode? I’m just curious.

I definitely would use that to avoid doing any dungeon content with PUGs in the future and run solo - probably faster and definitely less painful than with a bunch of fake roles and "pull the whole dungeon til the next door" pro´s

Handing out the same or similar rewards like normal dungeons will drain the queues and the minimal group play left - pushing ESO even further away from an MMO where you are supposed to work together as a team.

pro Story mode, fine with undaunted rewards, against gear and lead drops

Aravel · January 9

I remember playing at launch when everyone actually wanted to hear dungeon stories. I played a lot then, but had to quit for some reason, and didn't return until recently. It was so disappointing to find dungeons being run at breakneck speed with no time allowed for players wanting to enjoy the story. ESO absolutely requires a story mode for this content. With that kind of feature, I would set about doing all the dungeons in chronological order. As it is now, I don't really want to because it is too depressing to either have to rush the quests, or not be able to do them because players do not expect anyone to be new anymore.

Kyip · January 9

I dunno if it might be even work for eso, but I remember when WoW introduced Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder. I loved it. Raid Finder let me actually do all the raids for the first time, pleasantly, enjoying the stories. Before that, organized groups were not fun because they treated it like a job, and pickup zone chat groups were usually train wrecks. Raid Finder was an easier version of the raids, with gear awarded at a slightly weaker item level. It let people like me enjoy the content at easier difficulty with some rewards, while keeping the best rewards for the people who still did the content at normal or increased difficulty. Anyway, I'm not proposing that specifically, but I remember the community reaction, people seemed happy with it because more people got to do the content, but the higher tier players still felt rewarded with more powerful gear. After reading threads like this, I'd hope any solution could in some way satisfy everyone, and tiered rewards might do that. I dunno.

spartaxoxo · July 3

This is my final status update in this thread for the foreseeable future. I had wanted to put in the dungeon that revisits maelstrom but my PlayStation crashed and I lost my footage a while back. I had planned to just add it to the list when these new dungeons dropped and just do all three remaining ones at once. But I'm honestly burnt out. The announcement that the latest dungeon can't even be done alone is honestly the last straw for me. Maybe one day I'll relaunch this thread or someone else will take to posting these. If you have seen a good video with the stories, please share them. I still believe all players that want to hear these stories should get to do so. But I just am tired of tilting at windmills for a feature the devs seem to be openly contemptuous of at this point.

spartaxoxo · July 3

In the meantime, I found a content creator who has done lore runs. Be sure to give these videos a like if they worked out for you 😁

Bedlam Veil - Ran by AJTC5000

https://youtu.be/CzF187_5xrw?si=ie7e2kHT0IH4cWy2

Lep Seculsa

https://youtu.be/f3JJyIUBk-Q?si=JpOXTfchTns9E_QK

Exiled Redoubt

https://youtu.be/f3JJyIUBk-Q?si=j3y4Q6opsRK7bUDp

Kallykat · July 4

I always appreciate when someone takes the times to create a dungeon story mode video. I'm not able to solo dungeons beyond the base game, so I don't do most of them for fear of missing out on the story/dialogue. Thank you!