SilverBride wrote: »I think players should have to choose a difficulty and stick with it, rather than having customized difficulties for different activities. And if they want to change their difficulty they should have to buy a token from the crown store to do so.
Hi. I have a question. What can you tell us about the incentives for opting into this more difficult overland content?ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »Fair question. Caveat of "this is still in development" but part of this feature will include proper incentives to opting into more difficult content, without making it feel like you are being punished for not doing it.
I hope it's not cosmetics. Because that has been really, really frustrating in the past, forcing casual players into content they do not like.
valenwood_vegan wrote: »SilverBride wrote: »It's not vindictive to not want players to have a free reign to change their difficulty choices multiple times a day to gain advantages. I suggested a token being required to change difficulty but a once a day cooldown would also help.
I can imagine a player seeing others fighting a world boss, so they crank up their difficulty and jump in to get the better rewards. Then they see another player gathering mats and they want to also gather mats, so they turn down their difficulty and start gathering mats faster. That is manipulating the system for advantages in my opinion and should be prevented.
To be clear I was saying trying to make players buy difficulty changes in the crown store felt vindictive. I do understand the concern about players manipulating the system and that's totally valid to bring up.
I probably should have chosen a different word so sorry for that, the idea of requiring payment just upset me because zos definitely loves to monetize things and I'd hate to see this new system only be open to players with money to burn.
I do hope they consider ways to prevent difficulty changes from being abused for easy rewards in the way you've identified. And as others have brought up, I hope they don't go overboard with any increased rewards such that players feel forced into turning up the difficulty. As one of those players who would most certainly turn up the difficulty for questing, I just want it to feel engaging - I'm not looking for ultra special rewards. There are already options available to earn those in challenging content.
valenwood_vegan wrote: »In a single player game that wouldn't really matter at all, but in an open world area with other players around, it's just something to think about.
SilverBride wrote: »I'm not proposing that the easiest or most efficient path is the most correct one. Rich stated that "players are always going to do the thing that is the most efficient and is the least difficult thing for their time." in his stream when asked about a veteran overland a long time ago. I've also read posts where players stated that they would use easy difficulty for gathering mats and some other activities.
I think players should have to choose a difficulty and stick with it, rather than having customized difficulties for different activities. And if they want to change their difficulty they should have to buy a token from the crown store to do so.
Who cares how people utilize this system if it doesn't affect you directly? Why does it matter if people choose to turn it on and off at a whim? No TES game has ever done difficulty options that way, and so it wouldn't be in line with the rest of the franchise, but more importantly I feel like that would completely turn off a huge number of players from even considering the feature, because if they can't go back without a cost, they're not going to risk enabling it in the first place. It would be a largely wasted effort on the part of the dev team. I and people like me would still do it, but it would cut out a lot of players who might be curious but on the fence due to the consequences.
Honestly I'm a little surprised you're acting so negatively, as when this was discussed by Matt in his letter and subsequently during their April(?) livestream, you seemed pretty relieved about it. As if you were glad that it would finally be dealt with, over and done.
I care and it does affect other players. Having elite-powered players rule the play field cost me a couple game friends because they stopped playing.
ESO_player123 wrote: »
Not inclusive. Where is the RPG players, the solo runners, the base new players in all these grand plans to appease the power happy? When was the last time you heard the development team promise new delves, public dungeons, or story based material. I didn't purchase the new chapter because all I heard promised was two dungeons and a trial. Group play.
The "chapter" this year includes the same 6 delves and 2 public dungeons. 3 delves and 1 public dungeon are available right now (been there, done them). The rest will be accessible when the wall that divides the island is destroyed (quarter 4 update I think). At least that is what I heard. The zone is definitely much smaller (which is very sad), but it does have all the side quests and the main story.Farming is a traditional part of MMOs. Nothing is wrong with that. Those 2800 CP also bought the game and have the right to all the zones. If you were seeing bots then that would warrant a complaint for sure. For context: I just created my first toon on PCEU a couple of days ago. Very slow at everything (drives me nuts), but I did not have any issues with finding resources/competing with someone (and at this stage with an empty craft bag I collect everything that is not nailed down).
I think the people who complain about needing more difficulty are the same players that farm in newb zones like Bal Foyen. I saw two there this day each were over 2800 CP. They were not doing a quest, they were racing from one resource node to another, completing with low levels and each other. One of the two worked the same area for more than 20 minutes so it wasn't a casual find.
SilverBride wrote: »I'm not proposing that the easiest or most efficient path is the most correct one. Rich stated that "players are always going to do the thing that is the most efficient and is the least difficult thing for their time." in his stream when asked about a veteran overland a long time ago. I've also read posts where players stated that they would use easy difficulty for gathering mats and some other activities.
I think players should have to choose a difficulty and stick with it, rather than having customized difficulties for different activities. And if they want to change their difficulty they should have to buy a token from the crown store to do so.
Who cares how people utilize this system if it doesn't affect you directly? Why does it matter if people choose to turn it on and off at a whim? No TES game has ever done difficulty options that way, and so it wouldn't be in line with the rest of the franchise, but more importantly I feel like that would completely turn off a huge number of players from even considering the feature, because if they can't go back without a cost, they're not going to risk enabling it in the first place. It would be a largely wasted effort on the part of the dev team. I and people like me would still do it, but it would cut out a lot of players who might be curious but on the fence due to the consequences.
Honestly I'm a little surprised you're acting so negatively, as when this was discussed by Matt in his letter and subsequently during their April(?) livestream, you seemed pretty relieved about it. As if you were glad that it would finally be dealt with, over and done.
I care and it does affect other players. Having elite-powered players rule the play field cost me a couple game friends because they stopped playing. Last day, the only one left from the group chose to play a different game. He is allowed truth enough; however, having ones play interfered with my someone that herd mobs, fast runs/picks resources in resource rich starter areas, one hit bosses in dungeons, spawn camps delves with a companion doing the killing and auto-loot doing the collecting, dominating all opportunities of enjoyment by base player in PvP mini-games . . . It affects other players.
The worst of it is, that those that choose the higher difficulty levels will demand higher, more powerful gear and pots which will eventually make the harder difficulty feel easy. Then the campaign for more challenging levels starts again. it is self-perpetuating by design. If there is a higher level of difficulty, there should not be higher level of rewards. The reward is in the challenge. If that is not reward enough, then your issues is not with more challenge but rather more power. my opinion.
SilverBride wrote: »I can imagine a player seeing others fighting a world boss, so they crank up their difficulty and jump in to get the better rewards. Then they see another player gathering mats and they want to also gather mats, so they turn down their difficulty and start gathering mats faster. That is manipulating the system for advantages in my opinion and should be prevented.
SilverBride wrote: »It's not vindictive to not want players to have a free reign to change their difficulty choices multiple times a day to gain advantages. I suggested a token being required to change difficulty but a once a day cooldown would also help.
I can imagine a player seeing others fighting a world boss, so they crank up their difficulty and jump in to get the better rewards. Then they see another player gathering mats and they want to also gather mats, so they turn down their difficulty and start gathering mats faster. That is manipulating the system for advantages in my opinion and should be prevented.
ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »ESO_player123 wrote: »spartaxoxo wrote: »New Answer from the Reddit AMAZOS_Finn on Reddit wrote:Short answer is: Yes, we are working on it.
Longer answer: We have scoping and are aligning resources for this initiative and will share more when we have better timelines.
For the time being, I can say that the some core values for this are...
\- This is optional and no one will be forced into it
\- There will be varied levels of difficulty players can opt into
\- We will NOT be separating players
https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/s/8dqcougkjNZOS_GinaBruno on Reddit wrote:Yes, it would include older content.
https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/s/4BKTqd1Hai
These responses personally make me feel like the timeline has been pushed back but I'm not sure.
@ZOS_Kevin
Is this still slated for the current content pass?
Was it ever slated for the current content pass? I do not remember seeing/hearing any mention of it. Would be great to see a quote if it exists.
Yes. I asked about it coming out this year, 2025, after the April livestream. My question was referencing a statement made at the end of 2024 that we'd know more in 2025. And I was reassured that the current plan was still that it would come out this content pass.spartaxoxo wrote: »Thank you for the response. I guess my follow up question is if this is something still so early into prototyping, is this is something still planned to drop this year? I know last year, it was stated that it would be coming this year which lead to many of expecting news during the live. The new content cadence was stated to help with speed of releases so I wonder if this is still possibly coming this year?As of right now, the goal is to still have this out during the content pass timeline. But if that changes, we will update once we have a clear picture if anything changes.
However, between the statements made in the AMA and the layoffs, I am not convinced that this is still the case. A lot has changed at ZOS and those statements make it sound like it's not that far in development.
@spartaxoxo Thanks a lot. I would be very surprised if we get this this year.
You're welcome. I'd be surprised too but I'd still like confirmation since we were told we'd be updated if things changed. Seems easy enough since the Livestream is this Thursday.
Just to level set, while overland difficulty is in active development, it's not something that will be ready to be released before the end of the year. We're definitely excited to share more information on it as development progresses, though!
So sad to hear exclusion is coming. Keep expanding difficulty levels and handing out higher rewards and you are perpetuated the problem.
We don't want to exclude anyone with this feature, and I'd like to reiterate the core values that Finn mentioned during the AMA:
- This will be optional and no one will be forced into it
- There will be varied levels of difficulty players can opt into
- We will NOT be separating players
spartaxoxo wrote: »Changing your difficulty settings based on the tasks you're doing is not abuse. That's pretty standard for any game. Punishing players financially for using a standard gameplay system would be a predatory tactic towards the customers. Someone SHOULD be able to turn down the difficulty if all they want to is complete their stacks of surveys.
How are you going to do this without separating players?
SilverBride wrote: »As I stated above, I feel being able to turn difficulty on and off multiple times a day at will could lead to manipulating the system for advantage. This was the example I gave for what I could see happening:
"I can imagine a player seeing others fighting a world boss, so they crank up their difficulty and jump in to get the better rewards. Then they see another player gathering mats and they want to also gather mats, so they turn down their difficulty and start gathering mats faster. That is manipulating the system for advantages in my opinion and should be prevented."
This also negates the whole reason for wanting more difficulty in the first place, which was often stated as immersion and feeling the bosses were really a threat, and overland mobs weren't a threat, etc., so why turn it off?
@ZOS_GinaBruno Are there going to be any restrictions to how often players can change their difficulty, such as cooldowns, to prevent this type of action?
And again, I fully intend to leave it on all the time, so I'm not debating this on my own behalf. It just feels incredibly silly to act like we need to have some additional dissuasion in play. It's just not necessary.
SilverBride wrote: »And again, I fully intend to leave it on all the time, so I'm not debating this on my own behalf. It just feels incredibly silly to act like we need to have some additional dissuasion in play. It's just not necessary.
I feel it is very necessary because the potential for manipulating the system is just too high otherwise. I can only imagine the amount of conflict it could cause among the playerbase.
spartaxoxo wrote: »How are you going to do this without separating players?
Works for other MMOs just fine. Players that are stronger than you beating you to the punch sometimes at mobs is a normal and expected part of multiplayer gaming. It happens now and would happen to the majority with any chosen solution. This is not a single player game so we can't expect to always have uninterrupted experiences.
The biggest and most important quests narratively are actually already mostly in solo instances.
SilverBride wrote: »And again, I fully intend to leave it on all the time, so I'm not debating this on my own behalf. It just feels incredibly silly to act like we need to have some additional dissuasion in play. It's just not necessary.
I feel it is very necessary because the potential for manipulating the system is just too high otherwise. I can only imagine the amount of conflict it could cause among the playerbase.
I’d be okay if the cooldown is for a few mins. But I do NOT want to have to spend real money and buy a token just to switch difficulties.
I also do NOT want this to be account wide. That would be too restricting. There are days where I want higher difficulties for immersion and there are days where I just want to chill and farm leads. This should not be black and white.
And again, I fully intend to leave it on all the time, so I'm not debating this on my own behalf. It just feels incredibly silly to act like we need to have some additional dissuasion in play. It's just not necessary.
ESO_player123 wrote: »
Not inclusive. Where is the RPG players, the solo runners, the base new players in all these grand plans to appease the power happy? When was the last time you heard the development team promise new delves, public dungeons, or story based material. I didn't purchase the new chapter because all I heard promised was two dungeons and a trial. Group play.
The "chapter" this year includes the same 6 delves and 2 public dungeons. 3 delves and 1 public dungeon are available right now (been there, done them). The rest will be accessible when the wall that divides the island is destroyed (quarter 4 update I think). At least that is what I heard. The zone is definitely much smaller (which is very sad), but it does have all the side quests and the main story.Farming is a traditional part of MMOs. Nothing is wrong with that. Those 2800 CP also bought the game and have the right to all the zones. If you were seeing bots then that would warrant a complaint for sure. For context: I just created my first toon on PCEU a couple of days ago. Very slow at everything (drives me nuts), but I did not have any issues with finding resources/competing with someone (and at this stage with an empty craft bag I collect everything that is not nailed down).
I think the people who complain about needing more difficulty are the same players that farm in newb zones like Bal Foyen. I saw two there this day each were over 2800 CP. They were not doing a quest, they were racing from one resource node to another, completing with low levels and each other. One of the two worked the same area for more than 20 minutes so it wasn't a casual find.
So you dismiss my experience and use your own to support your claim? Is that what you are doing here.