Town ruler... would this fit ESO?

Sarannah · April 26

An expansion where we are the ruler of a starting town, which we can expand and grow in wealth. By controlling resource gains and resource deployment/dividing, controlling the people on what to do and what to become, drive trade with other towns, expand the town itself, research upgrades, and build up the town in every way possible(political/wealth/size). Bit of a strategy & resource management & political side to ESO. This could even expand to already existing towns and zones, to do trade with those or gather resources from those zones. Maybe even add a reputation system with this: a town likes you more and you gain bonusses there, another towns dislikes you somewhat and everything is more expensive there. (just examples)

Not sure if something like this would be solo player possible, or would have to be communitywide for this to work. Afterall we couldn't all build and maintain the same town in seperate instances, could we?

Personally I would love something like this, but I am not sure if this would fit ESO. So I figured I would post it and see what others think.

PS: Maybe tradeskill hirelings could become a part of this town, instead of being e-mails.
PPS: This idea is not taken from another game, though it possibly may exist elsewhere already!

Danikat · April 26

I think it would be possible, but it sounds like an entirely different game so I'm not sure how it would fit with the existing gameplay.

There's a very basic version of it in Cyrodiil where if you control a keep and the surrounding outposts they provide resources to upgrade the keep, and controlling more keeps gives your faction additional bonuses. They can be claimed by guilds as well, giving them access to the guild store and other bonuses.

That system could maybe be expanded, or a PvE version could be created. IMO the big problem is as I said it's a very different game mode, pretty much a different genre, from what we've already got and I don't know it would be popular enough to justify the time and effort both ZOS and players would need to put into it. If it had a big impact on current gameplay that might increase how many people bother with it, but if they're only doing it because they have to (for example if there were essential functions you could only get in a town you own) I think it'd make the system even more impractical.

Sarannah wrote: »

Not sure if something like this would be solo player possible, or would have to be communitywide for this to work. Afterall we couldn't all build and maintain the same town in seperate instances, could we?

We could, just like we can all own the same houses and decorate them differently. But like houses it would have to be instanced and have no impact on anyone else unless you invited them into your version of the town.

But I suspect if they did add something like this it would be intended for guilds or other groups rather than solo players.

TX12001rwb17_ESO · April 26

There could be an expansion where you become the lord of a town, as far as customization goes though it would be limited to the town manor of which you would be given as a quest reward.

Avran_Sylt · April 26

Maybe something along the lines of acquiring/unwittingly tethered to a Demi-plane "Town" (Evolving housing area) through a connection via the Crystal Tower? (Like some kind of minor Daedric Prince).

Ideally presented as a connection made by happenstance or something that would theoretically allow an amount of "Towns" to exist canonically up to the player-count that exists and allow inter-player town interactions. (But likely possible solo connection made, via shenanigans with your soul and Molag Bal)

Functionally speaking it would be a DLC sized "House" (The size of a small village) with some static structures/NPC's that have upgrade paths (quests), and can provide some passive resource gains.

icapital · April 26

why does this sound like ashes of creation and why are you trying to impose taxes on me?

phantasmalD · April 26

I could see something like that work as an expansion to the Guild Trader system.
With Guild profits determining how the kiosk looks like. Something like a 5-tier system. Potentially even giving limited customization options to the Guild Leader.
And nearby NPCs and selected locations flying the colours of the most powerful local guild.

The selection of NPC shops improving, tho maybe prices would increase, due to the clientele being richer.

Maybe NPC clothing could improve, visual clutter gets cleaned up. And on the reverse hand, could get a bit shoddier, if the town sees very little commerce. Number of Guild merchant's increases with higher prosperity?

Vacant houses getting rented, new NPCs moving in, providing more opportunities for thieves and assassins.

Could be a fun little cooperative gameplay feature, encouraging players to spend money in their favourite towns in order to improve the looks of it.

Writs could also factor in, and maybe could determine where Rolis sets up his little drop-off point.
Players could also just flat out donate to improve a town? (potential gold sink?)

Tho a system like that would create issues with NPC dialogues, where they refer to a town as a prosperous hub, even tho players have abandoned it. Or vice versa.

Most likely never going to happen, but could be a neat addition.
Maybe it'd allow people to finally restore Bleakrock XD.

Sarannah · April 26

Danikat wrote: »

I think it would be possible, but it sounds like an entirely different game so I'm not sure how it would fit with the existing gameplay.

Yeah, it is sort of a different genre. But I kinda see it as adding another layer upon ESO, making the game more political. While including all the original zones and towns into this trade/politics system. While building and expanding our own town.

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

Maybe something along the lines of acquiring/unwittingly tethered to a Demi-plane "Town" (Evolving housing area) through a connection via the Crystal Tower? (Like some kind of minor Daedric Prince).

Ideally presented as a connection made by happenstance or something that would theoretically allow an amount of "Towns" to exist canonically up to the player-count that exists and allow inter-player town interactions. (But likely possible solo connection made, via shenanigans with your soul and Molag Bal)

Functionally speaking it would be a DLC sized "House" (The size of a small village) with some static structures/NPC's that have upgrade paths (quests), and can provide some passive resource gains.

Oehw, I love this idea! This would also give the town/townowner a clean slate and a reason to be hostile or friendly towards existing towns. While at the same time keeping it soloplayer friendly. (would not want a system like this to be guild only)

icapital wrote: »

why does this sound like ashes of creation and why are you trying to impose taxes on me?

Taxes are a part of life... sorry!

Have never played ashes of creation though.

This_0ne · April 26

May i rebuild Bleackrock Village?

joshisanonymous · April 26

The way this is typically done in MMOs is through PvP determining who rules a town. Since almost every town is in a PvE zone, this would only be possible if there were scheduled, instanced battles, and those are generally just terrible for many reasons, not the least of which is that it blocks the vast majority of players from participating.

If there were a way to have town control decided through non-PvP means, that might work. Or they could limit this system to the towns in Cyrodiil. You can already take control of those, but that system could be fleshed out more. However, Cyrodiil towns are more of a small scale PvP target, so making them more attractive to larger groups would ruin their current function.

sans-culottes · April 26

Have you played this? https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/blades

Freelancer_ESO · April 26

Personally, I was kind of hoping that at some point ZOS would shift the Three Banners War so that the faction leadership would declare peace but, portions of the actual factions would defy the leaders and keep fighting. The people that are fighting in Cyrodiil for loot aren't going to want to stop just because the leadership says so and members of factions that have had negative experiences with the other factions may not wish to do so either. The map for Cyrodiil could contract somewhat and have added damage to show the impact of the war.

The contraction of the map could move some of the towns/cities outside of the map and make them open for rebuilding efforts.

I think Bravil would be a good place to start as the town has already clearly been trashed and it's depiction in other time periods isn't great. Players could save the town from whatever entity holds it and then make decisions on what to do for the town and how to split the resources earned by your actions with the town vs yourself.

icapital · April 26

*laughs in Nord* peace, HAH

Hapexamendios · April 26

I think it would best work as a player home.

Sarannah · April 27

Hapexamendios wrote: »

I think it would best work as a player home.

This could work, with a large area like the plateau house for example. In which we could build and expand our city, through quests, trade, and politics with other zones/towns. Would be cool to have zones 'connected' through political status and trade.

Making this town a playerhome, would also allow other players to visit the towns through the home tours feature.

PS: I am also hoping ZOS ends the three banner war, especially after changing the BG's to only allow two alliances. The whole war does not make sense anymore. Not sure how Cyrodiil/IC would be affected by ending the war, but I would love for those to become new PvE questing zones. (keep the PvP versions of PvP Cyrodiil/PvP IC for those who enjoy it's PvP, the PvE versions would only expand the story, not remove the PvP from the game)