spartaxoxo wrote: »

Have you tried creating your own group finder with groups with specific names like "Parch bosses," or the like?

Yes, I have tried using the group finder, and part of the reason I’ve been reluctant to start groups myself is honestly because I often do not fully understand what I’m supposed to be doing within the Night Market activities. I see many players who clearly already know the mechanics, routes, progression systems, and objectives, while I’m still trying to understand how everything connects together.

That’s really what I meant earlier when I said events like this highlight how differently parts of the ESO playerbase experience the game. I’m mostly an overland-content player, and I do not normally run dungeons, trials, or coordinated group activities regularly. So I do not already have an established network of players who can quickly move through all three zones efficiently.

I do want to be fair and honest though — my experience improved significantly once I finally joined a group that knew what they were doing. A friend on Discord pointed out a group running bosses for keys, and once I joined them, things started making much more sense. I finally understood more of the progression systems, and now I only need whatever “weak enemies from the district” means for Sorrow’s Friend, along with the skirmishes in all three zones, to finish the relic progression. There really does not seem to be much documentation explaining what some of these achievement requirements actually refer to.

The race activities also became much more enjoyable after a friend explained the fire and lightning buffs and how to actually use them properly. Before that, I honestly had no idea what the intended mechanics were. Once I understood it and was running with experienced players, the entire event became more fun and much less frustrating.

So I do want to update my earlier comments a bit: after getting into a competent group with a few strong leaders organizing things, I enjoyed the Night Market much more. Everyone generally knew what they were doing, people were helping each other, and the cooperative aspect actually became very fun. In some ways it reminded me of older MMOs where grouping together socially was part of the experience.

That is also why I still think there is an important discussion about accessibility for different types of players. Players who already have access to organized dungeon/trial communities are naturally going to experience the event very differently than players in smaller casual guilds or players who mostly play solo.

I actually would like to see more cooperative content like this in ESO. I was even disappointed when Craglorn was eventually scaled down from its original group-oriented design because I enjoyed the social aspect of grouping there. But at the same time, older content like Craglorn still generally felt more approachable for smaller groups.

So for future content, maybe there are ways to preserve these large cooperative experiences while also offering scaling or alternative progression paths for smaller groups. For example, if 12 players are available, great — let the content remain large-scale. But if only 4 players are available, perhaps there could be scaled mechanics or alternate objectives so players with different social situations can still participate meaningfully.

Syldras wrote: »

I wish I could kill factions (and I'm not talking about PvP) - it would make the Night Market more interesting

Never understand why some people like to ruin the game for others so much.

This is something that's niggled at me for a while. Looking at it from the outside, there is something of a mismatch between what the current iteration of the Night Market is intended to be and how the content inside the zone itself actually behaves.

So:
Get A >> Do B >> Get C >> Do D

If this sounds familiar to some, this is technically what might be described as standard 'quest progression'. We've been doing this for years. In order to progress your individual quest you have to do a to go to b etc. We're used to it. But in this case it's an issue because the progression is tied to individuals (not groups). While that's not necessarily a problem for overland groups, it does become a problem for dungeons/trial groups.

In this case, creating a group to do that particular content becomes an administrative task. You're either spending hours waiting around to get enough people with the right combination of 'progress' to get into the dungeons/trials, or if you're leading a guild group, ensuring that the members that want to take part have the correct progress. If you get someone in the group who doesn't have the progress, they have to drop out and you have to find someone else. It's messy at best.

Filling up a group with people who can all 'do the thing' should not have a high administrative overhead - this is a game, not a school outing. The challenge here is that you have what is essentially an individual type progress loop inside content that is geared specifically towards grouping. Those two things do not gel and it is turning grouping into a chore - which I can't imagine was the intention. Yes,. you can specify a group for dungeons/trials but you will end up with members who either don't have the keys, or didn't realise that they are one time use.

I could be wrong, but it feels in all honesty, a little bit like the overland progression was initially designed and setup for solo play (perhaps with soft-grouping for bosses), and the final dungeons/trials needing full grouping, but then the decision was made to ramp up the challenge level of overland overall to the extent that you really need a group. Some options to resolve this mismatch could be the following.

Make it so that the only person who has to have the keys is the group leader
Remove the need for the keys to be farmed repeatedly (and make the keys account wide so that people with multiple builds can switch if needed)
If you must wall off the dungeons/trial, then make is so that what unlocks them can be achieved by a group working together (not individuals within that group) and isn't so arduous and time consuming that you end up with members dropping out or having to leave (people have work, families, get burned out by the dying/respawning loop etc.)

Calamitous Dunegorger is perhaps the most fun fight in the Night Market. Devs really cooked with that one. Unfortunately it does tend to bug out though where none of the Gastric Stalks/organs will spawn rendering the boss unkillable. Still one of the most creative fights I've seen in a while.

Syldras wrote: »

[
I never thought the suggestion of adding more story to content could be seen as "ruining the game", but other people's opinions are not mine to judge.

Still don't understand how "killing factions" instead of "killing mobs" are related to "the suggestion of adding more story to content"

MidnightDuel wrote: »

What happens AFTER the Night Market ends?

• Where will the entrance to the Night's Den house be located? Will players be able to exit the house in Fargrave when the Market is gone? Will there be an entrace somewhere in Fargrave?
• While the completed-codex Antiquities from the night market are purchasable from the Coldharbour Achievement Furnisher, what happens with the Faction Merchant items? Will faction items unlocked during the event with favor still be purchasable somewhere else in game after the market closes? Or will players need to stock up on any of those furnishings during the event or be locked out?

With the week 5 PTS, the Night's Den icon and entrance are now located on the Fargrave map in the Shambles.

Also, the faction merchant items from the Night Market Event do not appear in either the Fargrave or the Coldhabour Achievement vendors' inventories. Guess we'll have to stock up before the event ends on any of those furnishings unlocked with "favor" in the Night Market.

Syldras wrote: »

So even just having some missions/quests that actually show there's a competitions going on between factions would make it more interesting for me. And considering these factions are not exactly moral, I think criminal acts would make sense: One faction sabotaging another, or similar. There could be sabotage, spy or assassination quests. Adding some actual story to it would make it even better, of course.

I would like to see some faction dailies that are moreso about advancing lore of the factions as well and themed around them.

Perhaps we could be turned into a skeevaton for the thousand eyes and do a spy mission or gather some relic/knowledge.

The Ruckus could be kill enemies or assassination quests.

Glimmering Goad could be an escort missions (protect a VIP) or deliver something quickly because of whatever rare property it has.

Seems to be slowing down now, hardly any groups in the group finder, I thought I'd jump on my 2nd account do it again for the masks & shoulders but struggling now to get groups to do stuff on pceu, it's a shame because I am really enjoying the night market but it's seems people are done it with it after a week.

Why no access to the guild store in your nm den?

So as expected the dropoff is STEEP. Groups on PC NA dwindled from a dozen nightly to 3-4. Content will be dead in another week. Far better rewards like perfected Trial gear or something (rather than trash golden gear from Trials that launched 10 years ago—what WERE you thinking ZOS?) would keep people in the playspace.

After 12 days in the Night Market, I would like to share some impressions.

I like the difficulty level. The NM is very challenging to solo, and I mainly play solo, but after testing some trash packs I figured pugging it was going to be more enjoyable, which is correct. But even in a group of 12, players need to be aware of their environment and focused, which I appreciate, as I was afraid that running in pugs would make the entire thing trivial. Also, this level of difficulty makes roles matter: tanks and healers are a must, and it is immediately clear when they are missing, as fights turn into a total mess in no time.

In a way I’m forced to group, and frankly, from time to time I appreciate it. It’s been a very long time since I tried any harder group content, mostly because of the PvE toxicity that I experienced years ago, and which I despise. I was very positively surprised; players seem to be more patient and tolerant, more eager to explain mechs, provide advice and propose/listen to solutions, and try different approaches to tackle a challenge. For example, when I was getting Affinity for Everything without watching videos (my ignorance wiped us many times and yet nobody kicked me or insulted me). Or when I was doing 30% damage for Festering Timelines, and the other DD kept complaining that we needed more damage; I proposed at some point we go get flame aura and we did, again no kick. There was some toxic player from time to time, but really just a couple of them, and I’ve joined or created dozens of PuGs. Maybe I will try trials again someday; I feel more encouraged now.

I also like the free house, which I don’t really have to decorate; that’s cool. And the vault—it has made me join a guild again after 2 years of being in none, just so I can see how the vault fills (it won’t, because I have too much gold, it appears).

On the less positive side: rewards should be improved, especially for the district quests. One piece of old overland gear isn’t worth the effort required to complete them. Also, quests are bugged. I was looking for some missing person for one entire evening, and I found them the next day, in a spot that I’d checked several times, but the body hadn’t spawned. Same with the poison flask: bugged one day and working the next. Some bosses are very bugged (Molonach’s lights); sometimes they don’t drop keys. Some mobs also bug so they infinitely cast, and it is not possible to interrupt them. There are just too many bugs overall, and they make us waste our time.

I don’t really have an issue with keys, but I can see how they can affect guilds; perhaps they could be reused infinitely for 24 hours max?

The biggest problem I have is that after 12 days, I have nothing else to do there, except for Festering Timelines (btw, why is this achievement worth 5 points when it’s so much harder than Essence of War?). There isn’t really any incentive to run the trial multiple times once all achievements are completed. If we could fill our trial set sticker book (without perfected) in OO, maybe that would make it more worthwhile to run several times.

To conclude, I like this new event zone, and I don’t mind that it is for groups. But it needs to be fixed (bugs), improved (rewards), and expanded so it gives a good reason to keep playing it.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

RemnantFantasy wrote: »

Finedaible wrote: »

Calamitous Dunegorger is perhaps the most fun fight in the Night Market. Devs really cooked with that one. Unfortunately it does tend to bug out though where none of the Gastric Stalks/organs will spawn rendering the boss unkillable. Still ong to do the skirmish while rolling out the way going 'don't me'e of the most creative fights I've seen in a while.

I have to say, despite walking away from NM that fight is really interesting and unusual. Trying to do the skirmish while rolling out of the way going 'don't eat me! Don't eat me! Don't eat..damnit. I got et!' may still have resulted in dying, but it's an experience that will always make me smile.

The first time I got ate I was so surprised because I thought it was just an environmental hazard and not an actual enemy. Imagine my surprise when I realized I was being digested! Gave me the biggest "NO NO NO NO NO, I gotta get out of here" surprise moment in this game in ages! Like I think it's legit been years. Absolutely loved it (once I got out of there lol). Very creative and well executed.

Lmao I thought i glitched into another part of the game. Didnt realize id been eaten. I dont think that fight will ever get old.

Never do something like these stupid "sand doors" again.

Or if you're going to, don't make us kill every single boss to get the key to open them.

No one is doin Ash Titan or Sellistrix; the last two aside from the "from weak enemies" splinter.

"Go make a group." Bro, I don't even know how to get to the f-ing area because every time I've been to that area all four paths are block by the stupidly designed 'sand door'. - It's why I still haven't been able to finish Adding to the Collection; the last location is above Sellistrix's spawn area.

My 3rd, and Last post on the Night Market.

Did big group with my Guild last night. They had done the NM the week before so had cleared some content. I had mostly cleared the Shard by sheer perseverence and the kindness of a Pug and a Guildmate helping me.

Anyway, they are discussing all the quests that are on the agenda and are sharing. I pipe up that I am not getting any quest shares. I am told that i need to do Pre-Requisites in all 3 areas before I can have any quests shared with me. WTF? This is a Joy Suck.

We start off in the Shard.

Oh well, I can beat up on mobs and bosses, things are going OK for a while until everydone decides to crawl inside the worm. I am jumping up and down on the worm, standing in front of it and taunting it, and no entrance. The Worm is Full? Then a large group of mobs kill me so I rez at tower as that is my only choice. Have I mentioned that not being able to Rez in place is a Joy Suck?

So, my guild finishes gutting the worm and they end up on the other side of the map from me. So, I have to figure out how to get to them. Only, the Sand Walls. Can't go past those. I ask why, dreading what I know will be the answer. I need a Pre-requisite. Which makes it almost impossible to get myself back to the guild. Total Joy Suck. I thank my guildies for their time and patience, and I just rage quit.

Not being able to Rez on demand, or choose the platform to come back to, and not being able to share quests with the group ruins this content. The mobs and bosses are too hard to solo, and grouping is just a waste of time. I am done with the Night Market. And, if this is the model of content going forward, with gated paths tied behind arbitrary Pre-requisites, content that requires arbitrary and obscure quest sequences, and grouping being borked because reasons, then count me out. Done. No Joy, No Fun, Not Interested.

I give the Night Market a 1 out of 10.

A little update about the Parch wandering boss. A bug.

It has a nice mechanic to reset the cumulative dot on a player. Once at least one part of the stomach is destroyed, you can use the leftover in order to leave the boss. Jump out, jump in, keep fighting.
It is very good for a small or weak group so people don't die of the cumulated damage in a long battle.

The problem is, when you jump back in, you can be somewhere in the middle while the rest of the group is being teleported out of the dead boss. I wasn't stuck inside, but I've lost the loot because the boss kept pretending to be alive and made noise while staying at one place. Screen is attached.
The rest of the group got their loot with no problem. They saw the boss dead as intented.
Leaving the zone and getting back hasn't solved the problem. The boss stayed the same. I haven't got the loot.

TLDR: Jumping out and in the Duneripper boss when he has 0% HP bugs the boss loot.