I'm tired of soloing all the time.

killians66 · April 3

I have been soloing for about 20yrs every since I first started playing mmo's when Ultima Online came out. I grouped here and there and joined guilds. Guilds are not the end all to beat all and everyone knows how many problems comes with guilds. Here is a thought for ESO. To really get players to group together and please try this. Give out GOLD items resources. I think these are them, so please don't flame me if they are not. Tempering Alloy, Chromium Plating, Rosin, and Dreugh Wax. But the idea is something great for grouping like 10 or 20 PUG groups. Like don't put it for the daily dungeon because we are already getting XP for that or the daily battlegrounds. BUT, if eso would give out these rewards or add to the Tamerial Tomes. but I like gold resource rewards for odd grouping stuff. Like it's hard to get groups on off times for "Vet dungeons, Trials, Infinite Archives, specific dungeons (grinding to get sets) etc. etc.
Don't even say join a guild, because eso guilds really need help. They are just a place to use members for traveling.
Anyway. please consider this, because there are alot of people who don't mind grouping when they need to get things and are unable to.

SilverBride · April 3

That will kill trading, which is one of the last things left in this game that I enjoy.

killians66 · April 3

I also have a set schedule and I work every weekend. My days off are Tue, Wed, and Thur. and there is nothing to help out players who can't be on for the weekend.

AcadianPaladin · April 3

A large chunk of the player base prefers solo play so one must be careful not to drive us away. ESO is quite solo friendly - if it was not, I'd be gone.

That said, I do spend 2-3% of my time grouped and have a couple of painless ideas that would make grouping a bit more beneficial without detracting from solo play. First, allow the sharing of pledges with your group. Second, allow all chests/heavy sacks to be shared by your group the way they are in a group dungeon when overland or in delves/public dungeons/questing as well.

Palumtra · April 3

Sounds like you joined a guild that weren't up to your expectations and just wanna vent.

Arunei · April 3

Those mats aren't much of a draw for people who don't do crafting. About the only one worth giving out would be Chromium Plating because they're still fairly expensive and people would sell them as much as use them.

But for people who don't care about selling stuff OR crafting, those rewards wouldn't entice them into doing PUG stuff, and as mentioned it would also 100% flood the market with them after a while. Which would reduce their worth to the point where even the Chromium wouldn't be worth farming for. And if you make them Bound to prevent them from entering the market, well, that just means the only people who'd be interested in those rewards are crafters, and even then many crafters would rather do their writs or farm raw mats to decon (or buy raw mats from others to decon) to get their gold tempers from.

It might not be an answer you want to hear, but genuinely finding a Guild or two is the best way to get groups that do the content you're interested in. If you're relying on random people for your groups, well, random people won't always be available when you are, especially if you can only play on off hours. You can advertise in zone with something like "lfg for <insert thing here>" and see if you get any bites, but if you want reliable regular groups to do stuff with, you're really only going to get that with a Guild.

ZOS could try adding incentives to grouping, maybe some Gold or other forms of currency, but it would have to be balanced and in relatively small amounts so people don't start getting whole buttloads of it. But stuff needing to be in smaller amounts means a lot of people who don't generally group likely won't be tempted into doing so. And a lot of people simply don't want to group and wouldn't be enticed regardless of whatever incentives were added. I'm one of those players, I group with friends sometimes for stuff but mostly the things I do don't require or need grouping since I don't do that content, and no amount of rewards would make me want to.

SilverBride · April 4

Another thing to think about is that a LOT of players don't need help doing things so don't need an incentive to group.

valenwood_vegan · April 4

I group with friends and guildies, not random strangers. A few gold mats or some gold or whatever isn't going to change that. At the end of the day, I'm playing for my enjoyment, not to provide a service to other players. If one wants to find groups, they may need to try some different guilds, reach out and meet some people, form some social connections.

Not saying this to try and sound elitist or be rude, just to make the point that there are many players out there who will group but won't do the sort of "forced or semi-forced random grouping" thing, regardless of how incentivized it is. I'm not saying they shouldn't try and incentivize people to group more spontaneously, but imo relying on random people to be available and group only fills in the gaps and isn't a real solution.

rockDokRock · April 4

SilverBride wrote: »

That will kill trading, which is one of the last things left in this game that I enjoy.

I create my own and do all the resource maps daily. Sorry, I have very little sympathy for traders. Obsessed with trying to diddle absolutely every last coin out of us. I look for a motif... 150k, 175k, etc. I wait, I'm patient and I get it for 45k. Screw the guys with the fantasy prices. lol. Not gonna happen. I hate traders.

rockDokRock · April 4

SilverBride wrote: »

That will kill trading, which is one of the last things left in this game that I enjoy.

Oh, when I sell stuff I price check and undercut by 10% just to shift what I want to sell. As I said, not obsessed with diddling every last coin out of people.

SilverBride · April 4

rockDokRock wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

That will kill trading, which is one of the last things left in this game that I enjoy.

I create my own and do all the resource maps daily. Sorry, I have very little sympathy for traders. Obsessed with trying to diddle absolutely every last coin out of us. I look for a motif... 150k, 175k, etc. I wait, I'm patient and I get it for 45k. Screw the guys with the fantasy prices. lol. Not gonna happen. I hate traders.

I have been putting motif and recipes and patterns that I am getting a ton of from the anniversary boxes on our trader for very cheap just to help players that may need them. I always sell near the lower end anyway. We aren't all "Obsessed with trying to diddle absolutely every last coin out of us."

valenwood_vegan · April 4

rockDokRock wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

That will kill trading, which is one of the last things left in this game that I enjoy.

I create my own and do all the resource maps daily. Sorry, I have very little sympathy for traders. Obsessed with trying to diddle absolutely every last coin out of us. I look for a motif... 150k, 175k, etc. I wait, I'm patient and I get it for 45k. Screw the guys with the fantasy prices. lol. Not gonna happen. I hate traders.

Seems a bit harsh. People set their prices too high? Don't buy their items. Fortunately, we can all farm up everything we need ourselves. No one is obligated to farm stuff up for others and then give it away or sell it cheap. That said, personally, I do list items very cheap because my primary goal is to clear inventory bloat, not to "diddle every last coin" out of other players. Everyone has different goals and values their time differently.

wolfie1.0. · April 4

Honestly, OP the best thing I can suggest is actually to join a guild. But not an existing one. Your own. And recruit people that are available when you can play.

Rohamad_Ali · April 4

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

Honestly, OP the best thing I can suggest is actually to join a guild. But not an existing one. Your own. And recruit people that are available when you can play.

Here is the correct answer. ^

Orbital78 · April 4

killians66 wrote: »

Don't even say join a guild, because eso guilds really need help. They are just a place to use members for traveling.

It sounds like you're not willing to find a group of players then... you have five guild slots. Find a good one that has an organized discord for events. There are a whole lot of players that don't want to PUG. Sometimes PUG groups can lead to meeting good friends, but you kind of need to find a regular group of friends if you want to do anything beyond base game vets or normals.

Anyways, I am glad my guild grouping experience has been the opposite of yours. Admittedly the game has been trending down in population and participation end game for some of mine. If anything I think they need to keep working on the class rebalances and make the game more accessible in higher difficulties and not balanced around the smaller groups that can do silly RSI gameplay.

SheepdogPaladin · April 4

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

A large chunk of the player base prefers solo play so one must be careful not to drive us away. ESO is quite solo friendly - if it was not, I'd be gone.

I wanted to chime in and agree. I've been soloing in MMOs for decades and I always solo. I have no problem with providing various kinds of content that caters to grouping, raiding, guilds, etc. Just please don't make ESO solo-unfriendly as that would make me abandon this game entirely, and I've been playing on and off since inception.

SundarahFr3akinrican · April 4

I agree with OPs take on guilds. There is not much to them. There needs to be more grouping incetives and mechanics

spartaxoxo · April 4

As with all things socialization, guilds are only as good as the effort you're putting in and whether or not you're mixing with people that you vibe with. I do agree they should take a look at the reward structure of queued activities and trials, so that PUG scene is healthier.

But, I disagree guilds aren't good. I like most of my guilds. Just joined one new as an old one had died off but so far it's pretty friendly.

CatalinaWineMixer2 · April 4

I find myself soloing a lot more since U46. More than half of the time, its because its actually faster to do things alone. Most of our vets quit with us being forced into Subclassing. The ones who stayed dont want to run anything because they hate their characters now. PvP is simply unplayable now. Everyone has quit playing it except me since U46 and I only do BG and Blackreach now. All the gold mats in the world wont change any of these things, there is simply nothing worth building. Everyone is running the same builds and gear. There is no variety. All of the sets have been nerfed so badly they're not even worth using. This is especially true of fire sets for the new DK. Im hoping these class mastery passives help, but im not holding my breath at this point

Vaqual · April 4

My personal opinion on this topic is that part of the problem comes from being allowed to be part of multiple guilds account wide. People who are spread out that way tend to have a lower commitment to each guild on average, and some guilds are really just filled with low commitment members because of that, giving them a really ghostly feel. It is within the players control to counteract that of course, but it requires quite a bit of effort from guild leaders to curate the available slots actively. Not saying it has to change, but overall this is a trend I have observed across different games.