Sorry, but I completely disagree with this idea of populating the world and the reason for that is I greatly enjoy the peace and quiet and solitude that I get when going through the older zones where few players are.

If I want to see players, I will go to Grahtwood, Stormhaven, Deshaan, Vivec City, Clockwork City, Undaunted tents, etc.

This is a very mature game at 11 years old, so I am not convinced that there is a great influx of "new players." What I generally see is a few new players, generally identified of those with very modest amounts of champion points, and MANY multiple Alts, who, upon reaching level 50 are immediately gifted with all of the main character's Champion Points.

In fact, I believe that the "New Player Experience" has already been addressed by the Developers.

From my own experience and that of other players I know there is a spectrum of "I want the world populated by other players besides me" and "I would be happy if I never saw another player while I'm playing" with a lot of people falling somewhere in between. I admit I personally lean more in the I prefer to be away from town and other players camp. It's more peaceful and immersive for me and it makes it easier to snag screenshots without accidental photobombs. I even sometimes go on the pts in off season just so I can do screenshots in the more populated cities on live.

At the same time, I get other players really want to see more players and why they do. I think both are valid, but it would be nice to see things taken into account. I know years ago people suggested a way to manually switch your megaserver phase to be more or less populated, get away from someone trolling you in overland, or even to have a dedicated rp slice of the megaserver where people could go to be in character since rpers out in the world are frequently targeted by trolls by just doing their thing. At the time ZOS's response was something along the lines of they didn't have the time and resources to invest in that and it wasn't something they felt was a high priority. I assume today it's even less so given we all know the team is busy and currently they've openly admitted they have to weigh projects they are working on against eachother and they have committed to the class overhaul. Maybe something to think about for the future though? I don't know.

Either way, I'm not overly bothered by the current state of things. I'd prefer more space and quiet time personally, some of my friends would like to see people everywhere, but neither of us are overly fussed about the current state of the game population. I also don't want to see an effort into this at the expense of other features right now. There are things I want in game way more.

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

Radiate77 wrote: »

Part of the appeal of an MMO is a shared world, when towns are not adequately populated, it takes away that appeal.

If ESO were an Online Action Roleplaying Game, I would understand that sentiment, @SpiritofESO

Also, if the New Player Experience is solved, where is everyone?

Moving purposefully dispersed locations into more concentrated areas wont actually address the issue you think it will address.

My suggestion to spread 3 into 30 wouldn’t make the world feel more lived? How so?

What would you do?
(Other than turn your alts into bots lol)

Where are these empty areas? Every delve or quest I do has a dozen players also there. Its really not fun to have constant groups in a delve.

Radiate77 wrote: »

Mik195 wrote: »

Where are these empty areas? Every delve or quest I do has a dozen players also there. Its really not fun to have constant groups in a delve.

The idea is spreading population out to where it’s needed/wanted. Having the chance to run into other players looking to run Pledges in an Alinor Fighter’s Guild would be a perfect case and point.

Right now, what purpose does it serve? It’s just a prop. Stopping in and grabbing a Fighter’s Guild contract (pledge) would create natural player interactions throughout dead space.

But... Fighter's Guild != Undaunted.

Like literally, the reason that you run into people at the Undaunted Enclaves for pledges is that's which guild is doing them. The Fighter's Guild has nothing to do with dungeons and trials; their whole thing is fighting the Dolmens.

I get what you're trying to do, but there are lore-based reasons for some things to be where they are. And besides, if your entire argument is "these 10 people are all at this one location instead of individually in these 15 locations, so we should spread them out!" that's not going to make the world look 'way more populated.'

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Radiate77 wrote: »

Mik195 wrote: »

Where are these empty areas? Every delve or quest I do has a dozen players also there. Its really not fun to have constant groups in a delve.

The idea is spreading population out to where it’s needed/wanted. Having the chance to run into other players looking to run Pledges in an Alinor Fighter’s Guild would be a perfect case and point.

Right now, what purpose does it serve? It’s just a prop. Stopping in and grabbing a Fighter’s Guild contract (pledge) would create natural player interactions throughout dead space.

But... Fighter's Guild != Undaunted.

Like literally, the reason that you run into people at the Undaunted Enclaves for pledges is that's which guild is doing them. The Fighter's Guild has nothing to do with dungeons and trials; their whole thing is fighting the Dolmens.

I get what you're trying to do, but there are lore-based reasons for some things to be where they are. And besides, if your entire argument is "these 10 people are all at this one location instead of individually in these 15 locations, so we should spread them out!" that's not going to make the world look 'way more populated.'

Lore-wise, what are the Undaunted? A band of mercenaries who fight for glory and gold.

While the Fighter’s Guild currently serve Meridia, this has not always been the case. As ZOS have stated, the timeline is moving forward.

The Fighter’s Guild that you participate in other TES games, function IDENTICAL to the current Undaunted.

How did this happen? What pivotal events lead to this change in direction? These are all questions that could be answered with a new questline explanation. We do not need to delete the Undaunted from existence, but it would help if we knew why the Fighter’s Guild took over their line of business.

In concept, this change checks out.

But this thread isn’t just about my ideas, @tomofhyrule what are yours? What would you do to improve the population of dead areas in the game.

Better marketing and actual new players

I think there are multiple reasons why it is an issue. Tired veteran players being number 1. Subclassing is number 2. There are others. Too many people will only play with their guilds, friends or a dischord channel.

I do not like comparing games as they are all unique and deserve to be viewed that way (it is after all, art). If they had incentives to actually run with other people, like the mentor system in Final Fantasy, it might actually encourage a solution to some of this problem.

Making new friends across Tamriel is good enough for only a few of us. There are far too many people who want to separate and punish new players. Or players who are not 'meta'. I am not one of those people. My Guilds and our Officers are not those kinds of people. We never will be under any circumstances either.

As bad as it sounds, if they had a title or some kind of rewards for actually helping people (people who are not in their own guilds) it might at least slow down the trend.
The other is that many of us are struggling to explain to brand new players everything surrounding subclass. They already don't understand their own pure class characters (which thankfully are finally being restored). Combine this with scrying, scribing, crafting, daily quests, ect we must go over with them. It's exhausting. And many of those people give up in frustration after they've seen PvP, get left alone in a dungeon or get barred from a trial.

I run dungeons in the group finder multiple times every time I play. Usually the first thing to happen are the already tired tanks that keep getting their sustain nerfed bail due to a cp level they dont like or the dps not meeting their top 1% dps standards. Or worse, try to immediately kick them. I will always do everything in my power to help these people and prove to them that people like that are not the majority in this game. And I clear content with them. All content.

One of the reasons I think overland is rather vacant is the fact that many ppl can now solo things like dlc world bosses. Or you see 1 or 2 people fighting a dragon and it discourages others from attempting it.

Id like them to add some kind of world events to these zones where there are major consequences for the rest of Tamriel not jumping in to do something about it. Imagine a dolmen that increases in size and power every 2 minutes if it isnt stopped, until it reaches the point where 60 of us have to step in or no one can even enter the zone. Its just an idea. I do think the overland difficulty is definitely an improvement. Overland was so very long overdue for some updates.

The short answer is, we have to find a way for people to have a reason to play together. All cp levels, new and old players alike. Guildies and strangers in Zone. Something for everyone.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. Questing in ESO when there are a lot of other players around can be a pretty dull experience. I’ve had plenty of days where I’ve tried to enjoy quests but ended up barely killing a single thing because other players had already cleared everything ahead of me. And let’s be honest, ESO doesn’t exactly pack its zones with enemies to begin with.

Mik195 wrote: »

Where are these empty areas? Every delve or quest I do has a dozen players also there. Its really not fun to have constant groups in a delve.

Are you always in the newest or event related zones? Doing older content where there is no event update can feel barren for large periods of time once you leave main cities.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

In all earnesty, this is a solution searching for a problem.

You don’t have to search hard to find the problem.
ESO will release Zones again, and players will continue to thin out across the game.

Would it not improve our experience to add variety, or incentive to visit areas of the game that are less traveled?

Leads did a great job of this, but it’s not enough.

if Fighters Guild and Mages Guild had more daily quests, such as in dlc zones, maybe their buildings would get more visits.

The MG could get quests for dlc public dungeons.
But what would the Fighters Guild make you do in dlc zones?
incursions already have dailies except Atoll of Immolation portals, but those are harder to find without map symbols.


Sadly Fighters and Mages guilds are inside buildings instead of at an outside camp like the Undaunted.
And even if ZOS added more dailies people would still only go inside the buildings to start and finish quests.
The Undaunted camps are in Elden Root, Mournhold, and Wayrest. Which also have guild traders and master writ merchants nearby.

As long as I’ll not be able to hide the flappies and exploding mounts I’ll stay far away from all the populated places as much as I can.

LunaFlora wrote: »

if Fighters Guild and Mages Guild had more daily quests, such as in dlc zones, maybe their buildings would get more visits.

The MG could get quests for dlc public dungeons.
But what would the Fighters Guild make you do in dlc zones?
incursions already have dailies except Atoll of Immolation portals, but those are harder to find without map symbols.


Sadly Fighters and Mages guilds are inside buildings instead of at an outside camp like the Undaunted.
And even if ZOS added more dailies people would still only go inside the buildings to start and finish quests.
The Undaunted camps are in Elden Root, Mournhold, and Wayrest. Which also have guild traders and master writ merchants nearby.

maybe places in the wilds of DLC zones called guild camps would work for this

Not sure I understand the original post which seems to be asking to group together certain functions to consolidate them in single locations, but also spread them out all over the world. Is that right?

The way the base game major cities, in particular, function is as hubs where players can do most of the major things they need to do, and as starting points to the major quests / the setting off point for DLC content. In terms of the new player experience this has at times made the game utterly nightmarish in the major cities and close to incomprehensible (25 new quest arrows, blue arrows, whatever, and not knowing where to even begin, plus the exact same characters in two different parts of the same building doing two different things, etc). But it has made the big cities look busy -- and by design.

If you spread that out all over the place you're making a choice to reduce the hub function of the big cities and empty them a bit in favour of sparser but more consistent player activity everywhere. Which is fine if that's what you want. But it does necessarily involve a tradeoff.

Personally I prefer having some emptiness in the world, not least because it kind of kills the mood if you're doing some atmospheric quest and someone wanders along with a violent pink wizard hat and tassels astride a dancing Christmas llama. The cosmetics, and some of the classes with their naff Disney effects (esp Arcanist), can really ruin the experience for me.