Dynamic Encounters are soul-destroying, and not in a good Mannimarco Way

Carcamongus · July 28

It's weird when I grab a book to read while playing a game, but this is what I've been doing while waiting for these blasted encounters to start. It's a bloody waste of time and the rewards are either underwhelming or not dropping at all. 31 encounters and I got a single Alessian style page. I refuse to farm these events, as I certainly value my time more than the devs. I then found out there's a rare recipe that drops from the Stonefalls encounter. Great, another nice shiny I'm going to miss because of RNGeesus.

On another note: please, good ol' Mannimarco deserves better than to have his name mentioned in the same sentence as these dynamic encounters. So what if he just stole a handful of a few million souls, including ours?

allochthons · July 28

Somewhat rephrased from another thread.

It's good to hear that the timer will be changing. But Jason responded 4 days ago in this thread, and while I've been reading multiple threads about this Gem drop, I missed this one, so I didn't know. I bet the other 30 people standing in Stonefalls with me don't know either. Even though I now know, I'm going to be sitting here, day after day, 10 hours a day, farming the Gem of Agility, like I have most days since these events went live.

Why not wait? It's really hard to farm a lead that comes from an event or boss that is not easily soloed, like the leads from Protector of Galen WWB and the Deadlands WWB, if you start farming after the initial swarming of that boss/event. Late farming usually requires asking favors of guild mates. Luckily, those leads usually drop pretty quickly. After one or two fights.
But people have done the DE over 100 times with no Gem of Agility drop. That is not something you can ask of guild mates.

Maybe the DEs will be soloable. They're still swarmed on PS/NA when I play, so I don't have a good feel for it, but the fact that it has to be done in 10 min, and that requires catching 10 fish or getting 20 herbs on the first location alone, I'm doubting it.

Abysmal drop rates for leads, and FOMO style pages, have been a HUGE issue over the last few years. Remember the 2024 Anniversary Jubilee style pages, the Staff of Worms replica, the Barbas Helmet Replica? ZoS said they'd learned from that lesson. And yet this keeps happening. Why is that? Seriously. Why?

Before the recent layoffs, it pointed to a real failure of institutional knowledge. And now it's even worse, because the layoffs specifically targeted the holders of that institutional knowledge.

It's really, really hard to stay motivated by this game.

I guess it's time to go back to role-playing standing at the DMV...

AzuraFan · July 28

allochthons wrote: »

Why not wait? It's really hard to farm a lead that comes from an event or boss that is not easily soloed, like the leads from Protector of Galen WWB and the Deadlands WWB, if you start farming after the initial swarming of that boss/event.

That's exactly why I did the dynamic events right away, and why I used to do WBs and world incursions as soon as zones were released. If you don't do it when there are crowds, the game doesn't do anything to help you later. It would be great if every month a new area was blessed with double rewards or something for WBs and world incursions, to help people get what they need. But there's never anything like that, so unless you can solo the harder stuff or have a helpful guild, you're basically out of luck. Instead, your only option is to buy overpriced leads from two vendors that only offer two leads a week and require PvP or IA currency.

karthrag_inak · July 29

katanagirl1 wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Khajiit has done many of them (all achievements they are responsible for, got recipe, couple dozen of the ingredients for recipe) , and in general enjoys them a great deal. They are something else to do and as such khajiit welcomes them

Not every activity has to be steak and taters on khajiit's menu. These encounters....these are delightful bag of snack chips. Sometimes that's all that's called for.

This one does hope for some more substantive content in the near future - hopefully the trial will provide that.

Would you have enjoyed them as much if you had not gotten the recipe? So far all I have gotten is the fragment for the house, the skill style fragments (which weren’t a guaranteed drop), and a couple of style pages. Still don’t have the recipe or the gem for upgrading the mythic.

Yes, this one would still find them as enjoyable.

Look, Khajiit understands your frustration - at least a dozen runs of ICP of all places and still no Mora's Whispers lead. Still, this one finds the events enjoyable - they are different, and somewhat exciting, and it is nice to see the screen full of people for a change. The sparkly lights of beams abounding makes Khajiit forget his troubles for a bit.

katanagirl1 · July 29

karthrag_inak wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Khajiit has done many of them (all achievements they are responsible for, got recipe, couple dozen of the ingredients for recipe) , and in general enjoys them a great deal. They are something else to do and as such khajiit welcomes them

Not every activity has to be steak and taters on khajiit's menu. These encounters....these are delightful bag of snack chips. Sometimes that's all that's called for.

This one does hope for some more substantive content in the near future - hopefully the trial will provide that.

Would you have enjoyed them as much if you had not gotten the recipe? So far all I have gotten is the fragment for the house, the skill style fragments (which weren’t a guaranteed drop), and a couple of style pages. Still don’t have the recipe or the gem for upgrading the mythic.

Yes, this one would still find them as enjoyable.

Look, Khajiit understands your frustration - at least a dozen runs of ICP of all places and still no Mora's Whispers lead. Still, this one finds the events enjoyable - they are different, and somewhat exciting, and it is nice to see the screen full of people for a change. The sparkly lights of beams abounding makes Khajiit forget his troubles for a bit.

Well I am glad you are enjoying them.
🙂

Elvenheart · July 29

karthrag_inak wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Khajiit has done many of them (all achievements they are responsible for, got recipe, couple dozen of the ingredients for recipe) , and in general enjoys them a great deal. They are something else to do and as such khajiit welcomes them

Not every activity has to be steak and taters on khajiit's menu. These encounters....these are delightful bag of snack chips. Sometimes that's all that's called for.

This one does hope for some more substantive content in the near future - hopefully the trial will provide that.

Would you have enjoyed them as much if you had not gotten the recipe? So far all I have gotten is the fragment for the house, the skill style fragments (which weren’t a guaranteed drop), and a couple of style pages. Still don’t have the recipe or the gem for upgrading the mythic.

Yes, this one would still find them as enjoyable.

Look, Khajiit understands your frustration - at least a dozen runs of ICP of all places and still no Mora's Whispers lead. Still, this one finds the events enjoyable - they are different, and somewhat exciting, and it is nice to see the screen full of people for a change. The sparkly lights of beams abounding makes Khajiit forget his troubles for a bit.

I saw you at the Glenumbra one recently. 🙂

karthrag_inak · July 29

Elvenheart wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Khajiit has done many of them (all achievements they are responsible for, got recipe, couple dozen of the ingredients for recipe) , and in general enjoys them a great deal. They are something else to do and as such khajiit welcomes them

Not every activity has to be steak and taters on khajiit's menu. These encounters....these are delightful bag of snack chips. Sometimes that's all that's called for.

This one does hope for some more substantive content in the near future - hopefully the trial will provide that.

Would you have enjoyed them as much if you had not gotten the recipe? So far all I have gotten is the fragment for the house, the skill style fragments (which weren’t a guaranteed drop), and a couple of style pages. Still don’t have the recipe or the gem for upgrading the mythic.

Yes, this one would still find them as enjoyable.

Look, Khajiit understands your frustration - at least a dozen runs of ICP of all places and still no Mora's Whispers lead. Still, this one finds the events enjoyable - they are different, and somewhat exciting, and it is nice to see the screen full of people for a change. The sparkly lights of beams abounding makes Khajiit forget his troubles for a bit.

I saw you at the Glenumbra one recently. 🙂

Khajiit wishes you would have said 'haithar'!

Elvenheart · July 29

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Khajiit has done many of them (all achievements they are responsible for, got recipe, couple dozen of the ingredients for recipe) , and in general enjoys them a great deal. They are something else to do and as such khajiit welcomes them

Not every activity has to be steak and taters on khajiit's menu. These encounters....these are delightful bag of snack chips. Sometimes that's all that's called for.

This one does hope for some more substantive content in the near future - hopefully the trial will provide that.

Would you have enjoyed them as much if you had not gotten the recipe? So far all I have gotten is the fragment for the house, the skill style fragments (which weren’t a guaranteed drop), and a couple of style pages. Still don’t have the recipe or the gem for upgrading the mythic.

Yes, this one would still find them as enjoyable.

Look, Khajiit understands your frustration - at least a dozen runs of ICP of all places and still no Mora's Whispers lead. Still, this one finds the events enjoyable - they are different, and somewhat exciting, and it is nice to see the screen full of people for a change. The sparkly lights of beams abounding makes Khajiit forget his troubles for a bit.

I saw you at the Glenumbra one recently. 🙂

Khajiit wishes you would have said 'haithar'!

I didn’t say that, but I did say something about seeing your posts on the forums in /say, but so much was happening I’m sure it got lost in all the ruckus. 😂

Dalsinthus · July 29

As much as I viscerally hate these dynamic encounters, they’re probably a success from ZOS’s perspective. Every one I’ve done - hundreds of these at this point - has been absolutely mobbed by players. Low drop rates + lots of rewards to collect = high player engagement, even if the content itself is absolute garbage. I have to assume that this grindy content is bad for long term player retention, but it is drawing big numbers right now.

allochthons · July 29

karthrag_inak wrote: »

at least a dozen runs of ICP of all places and still no Mora's Whispers lead.

Off-topic, but full sympathy. That lead is brutal. It should definitely be a 100% drop rate.

PhxOldGamer68 · July 29

Dynamic encounters should've been like the Night Market events that showed a counter. The encounter should've been just as hard with stronger mobs, bosses and mechanics. It was great dying so many times while the 2 groups worked to get the mechanics down. That was chaos and fun. I've done 1 encounter just by luck to see it on the map one day. So far I haven't had the patience to wait at one location. That's just a waste of anyone's time.

karthrag_inak · July 29

Perhaps this is the best characteristic of these bombastic and flashy but minimally nutritious events - great way to meet new potential friends, maybe. Khajiit likes to meet new friends.

Elvenheart wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

karthrag_inak wrote: »

Khajiit has done many of them (all achievements they are responsible for, got recipe, couple dozen of the ingredients for recipe) , and in general enjoys them a great deal. They are something else to do and as such khajiit welcomes them

Not every activity has to be steak and taters on khajiit's menu. These encounters....these are delightful bag of snack chips. Sometimes that's all that's called for.

This one does hope for some more substantive content in the near future - hopefully the trial will provide that.

Would you have enjoyed them as much if you had not gotten the recipe? So far all I have gotten is the fragment for the house, the skill style fragments (which weren’t a guaranteed drop), and a couple of style pages. Still don’t have the recipe or the gem for upgrading the mythic.

Yes, this one would still find them as enjoyable.

Look, Khajiit understands your frustration - at least a dozen runs of ICP of all places and still no Mora's Whispers lead. Still, this one finds the events enjoyable - they are different, and somewhat exciting, and it is nice to see the screen full of people for a change. The sparkly lights of beams abounding makes Khajiit forget his troubles for a bit.

I saw you at the Glenumbra one recently. 🙂

Khajiit wishes you would have said 'haithar'!

I didn’t say that, but I did say something about seeing your posts on the forums in /say, but so much was happening I’m sure it got lost in all the ruckus. 😂

Oh! khajiit perhaps was bedazzled by all the sparkly lights. This one has a low threshold for that kind of thing. Still, sorry to have missed it

SeaGtGruff · July 29

I do 3 or fewer of them each day-- three different ones, not the same one three times. Basically, it's "go accept Auridon favor, go do Auridon favor, go back to Auridon to turn in favor, then head to the dynamic encounter location in Auridon"-- followed by the favors and dynamic encounters in Glenumbra and Stonefalls. If the dynamic encounter isn't active yet, I just run around for a while killing mobs, harvesting resource nodes, and looting treasure chests and thieves troves or other containers to pass the time while I'm waiting.

I almost never grind for anything in the game, be it a lead, a fragment, a furnishing, a motif, or any other item or reward. There have been, and may one day be again, times when I've done some grinding, but as a general rule I'm not interested in doing so unless there's some kind of time limit on obtaining the whatsit, or if the associated activity happens to be something I enjoy doing anyway.

Yesterday I was waiting for the dynamic encounter in Glenumbra, running around farming and killing and looting, then it finally started and we all started fighting vampires and escorting the NPC and her dog. The warning about the NPC's health being low came up a few times, but we killed the vampires that were attacking her. Then, about 4/5ths or more of the way through the dynamic encounter-- during the ambush just before the final fight with the vampire boss, if I'm not mistaken-- up popped a message that she'd just been killed and the encounter had failed. Bummer. They weren't fooling with the warnings!

Romilly · August 1

I'm now at almost a 100 DE's no sign of recipe or gem. This is an utterly terrible experience. Even worse, zoning between areas to fill in Favors risks losing your spot in an existing megaserver instance.

Malprave · August 1

Dynamic encounters, apparently from the same Zos employees that designed the Writhing Wall event. Repetitious, boring content like this is ruining the game. If this is what you’ve got just go ahead and put this thing in maintenance mode.

JimFord047 · August 2

I have tried them with so many people that its just a fast moving hoard, and with only 6 people , made no difference, 1 recipe - 1 style page - couple of ingredients - no gems and most insultingly NO KEYS, I only want 1 not being greedy here!

the way its coming across here is "We want lots of numbers on the server's , to prove we have a lot of players", the fact they are in the majority grinding for nothing! or waiting to Grind for Nothing is neither here nor there!

From My point of view

For the "Nowhere Vault" you need a KEY, for Each Toon going through, so 15 toons you need 15 keys, so Do it on 15 toons... Logical sense here! EXCEPT... for 1 key you need to do 10 Favours from EACH, in a row, So for me thats now 450 favours for each of them to get each key, to get the Seasonal challange done, and run the vault 3 times... Add into this the time it takes to log off, log on , change location you know all the normal network lag, just to do the Favours i am looking at over 8 hours per day! every day for 10 days ( i know i am going to get 3 key's, but thats neither here nor there, I need to do it again for the "20th")

And add into this , Every 7 days , Stop and grind the weekly challange, to allow you to get it over and done with, to go back to the rest of the grinding, not to mention IF another "addition" ie a seasons one off, now means you have to stop everything to grind that instead, with the same possible results!

So from what i am getting from the ZOS idea so far is ...

Drop the time from 30 minutes to 15... Yes that may help, if your standing waiting for it to start! but on which instance is it going to start - and how do you get there?

Most of the time, when I have some friends on, they tell me "oh such and such DE is starting!", most of those time i am struggling through the FAVOURS, so i am in a boss fight of some kind, and either have to miss it or leave port to them and still in the case of auridion miss it in any case!

Raising the drop rate from Minute to a little less minute... Fed up saying it, fix your R&G first, kind of give ANY sort of a chance!

We are not going to tell you where or when the thing will kick off Still! Just stand and wait , it may or may not go off on time, and if the server load blances putting you onto another instance... LMAO well thats a You Problem!

We are going to do this all on Update 51 (possibly), and we will see how it goes , then we will alter again , and give you that, keeping on doing it until we get it right! Might be Update 60 before it works - if we still., have it!

Until then, you lot keep doing a Quality Assurance Job! and wasting your time! as we have to prioritise on things coming out / refreshes / new sellable items and the ocassional Bug fix that You lot find...

Do you really want players in the game???????

STOP PUTTING THINGS OUT THAT REQUIRE OTHER THINGS, THEN DO NOT ALLOW THE PEOPLE A CHANCE OF EVEN GETTING THEM, your sickening folks!!!

AND TO PREMPT WHAT YOUR GOING TO DO!

Nowhere vault is going to come out, some with good R&G can get in there others ... well ... Do not worry! We have a challange , that will award you 3 Nowhere Keys and allow you to get into the nowhere vault!!!

a concelation prize for all those who ground for nothing, a Sod you to all those that got something for the grind, And a welcome onboard for All new players or those that had already seen the futility!

Is this a Game that has Events & Challanges attached or Events & Challanges that has a Game attached?

I have plenty of time on my hands, and CAN do these...except even i am now so fed up with this same thing every day for weeks! How the Hell are people coming home from Work, sorting out the family, sorting out the house and dealiong with life meant to do all of this????

Or

People with the time! Screw them over with BAD R&G, meaning they canj also get the same NOTHING!!!

Am i Getting a Tad Salty? YES, and i am not the only one!

"If you do not like it, Leave!" will be some of the comments or thoughts! They are correct! Hence why the ESO+ is already cancelled , and I am here Giving you a chance, Until its gone and then I am as well...

This has not been a case of time to move on! I was Happy! There is only so much Mushroom food that a person can handle, and the darkness has overwhelmed !

I need to finish off these favours... But at the same time . . . I would rather get all of my teeth pulled . . . But It does put me to sleep quicker than the Meds!!! decisions decisions decisions

JimFord047 · August 2

PS... I am from a Generation that was given a job to do, we did the job and did it right, as we hated doing it all over again on our time!

Its not completionist, It has to be done, do it...... So the catch 22 bull, really does not sit well

whitecrow · August 2

I ran into one of these, something about vampires, there were so many people I didn't really know what was going on, but I got a couple achievements out of it...

zaria · August 2

Calastir wrote: »

During the final fight of the DE in Glenumbra in the stone cricle, out of the blue the game keeps hitting me with a "you'll be killed on sight"-bounty.

Now I know there are NPC soldiers around but I'm not a necromancer, not a werewolf or vampire, not pickpocketing and not attacking anyone, just walking along casting healing spells.

This seems like a bug to me.

Do you have prevent hurting innocent settings on? Its tempting to turn if of during the TG quest as you could blade of woe enemies in restricted areas. But your AoE will then hit npc like guards.
Remember having it on and doing a baseline quest in Firsthold who involved helping AD against daedra, I wondered why it was so many enemies, then I realized half of them was AD forces I was supposed to help. so I turned it on.
But l I got an so high bounty the guards around the wayshrine in Wulkel guard they killed me

AzuraFan · August 2

JimFord047 wrote: »

For the "Nowhere Vault" you need a KEY, for Each Toon going through...

Has that been confirmed? I've wondered if you'll need more keys once inside the vault. If it's only one key per toon to access the entire vault, that would be great. I understand there will be puzzles to solve to gain access to areas, but I've wondered if there will be doors that require keys.

DenverRalphy · August 2

AzuraFan wrote: »

JimFord047 wrote: »

For the "Nowhere Vault" you need a KEY, for Each Toon going through...

Has that been confirmed? I've wondered if you'll need more keys once inside the vault. If it's only one key per toon to access the entire vault, that would be great. I understand there will be puzzles to solve to gain access to areas, but I've wondered if there will be doors that require keys.

You only need a key to unlock and enter the vault. Once you're in, you're in. Rooms don't require more keys.

If you're in a group, only one person in the goup needs to use a key to unlock it for everyone to enter.

You can freely come and go from the vault as long as the instance exists. As long as someone in the group remains inside, the instance won't reset. If there's nobody inside, then the intance resets after a timer. I don't recall if they gave a specific number of minutes, but they did say it's comensurate with IA as to how long it would remain intact before resetting. Som I'd speculate that if you're running solo and need to step out for whatever reason, you have approximately 15 mins to get back inside before it resets.

AzuraFan · August 2

DenverRalphy wrote: »

You can freely come and go from the vault as long as the instance exists. As long as someone in the group remains inside, the instance won't reset. If there's nobody inside, then the intance resets after a timer. I don't recall if they gave a specific number of minutes, but they did say it's comensurate with IA as to how long it would remain intact before resetting. Som I'd speculate that if you're running solo and need to step out for whatever reason, you have approximately 15 mins to get back inside before it resets.

Okay, so you only need one key to enter, if you leave for a certain amount of time, you'll then need another key to enter again and pick up where you left off (I believe some state is saved). So that does mean it's possible to be shut out of the vault at some point, if you don't have any keys. That's what I've been wondering. Thanks.

davapoole · August 2

in diablo 4 they put a timer in top left of screen to say when the events start. surely can start at set times or post a timer on screen when in the three zones to say when it starts or on the icon on the compass but so you dont stand around for the greater part of your life. i only can play a few hours in evenings so do not need to wait for up to 30 mins for an encounter to start and need to do loads to get bits for dye colours. a game should be fun and not a chore

DenverRalphy · August 2

AzuraFan wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

You can freely come and go from the vault as long as the instance exists. As long as someone in the group remains inside, the instance won't reset. If there's nobody inside, then the intance resets after a timer. I don't recall if they gave a specific number of minutes, but they did say it's comensurate with IA as to how long it would remain intact before resetting. Som I'd speculate that if you're running solo and need to step out for whatever reason, you have approximately 15 mins to get back inside before it resets.

Okay, so you only need one key to enter, if you leave for a certain amount of time, you'll then need another key to enter again and pick up where you left off (I believe some state is saved). So that does mean it's possible to be shut out of the vault at some point, if you don't have any keys. That's what I've been wondering. Thanks.

If you leave and it resets, then you start over from the beginning. At least, that's how it was explained during the live stream reveal. Each instance is supposed to be randomized. Though I imagine some aspects will remain, like unlocks from achievements. Like IA has boosters that are unlocked and subsequently purchased.

AzuraFan · August 3

DenverRalphy wrote: »

[
If you leave and it resets, then you start over from the beginning. At least, that's how it was explained during the live stream reveal. Each instance is supposed to be randomized. Though I imagine some aspects will remain, like unlocks from achievements. Like IA has boosters that are unlocked and subsequently purchased.

I'll have to see how it is in practice. I had the impression that some stuff would be saved. If I have to start from scratch every time, and an instance takes longer than an hour or two to complete, I'll have zero interest in doing it.

katanagirl1 · August 3

AzuraFan wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

[
If you leave and it resets, then you start over from the beginning. At least, that's how it was explained during the live stream reveal. Each instance is supposed to be randomized. Though I imagine some aspects will remain, like unlocks from achievements. Like IA has boosters that are unlocked and subsequently purchased.

I'll have to see how it is in practice. I had the impression that some stuff would be saved. If I have to start from scratch every time, and an instance takes longer than an hour or two to complete, I'll have zero interest in doing it.

Wow. They are actually gatekeeping the content they give us now. Maybe they should rethink this. It’s not a good time to make your customers jump through multiple flaming hoops right now.

Romilly · August 3

Also one last gripe - (other than the person abbreviating Random Number Generation R&G :-)) - there is ZERO experience from these Dynamic Events. I only realized the other day when I was in a smaller group and realized there was no experience gains popping up!

Still no Gem either, although Granny did finally relinquish her recipe finally!

Romilly · August 3

whoops, I stand corrected - there's ~6k at the end of the event, but none for mobs along the way (unless they are collateral mobs, but definitely none for the spawned mobs).

Haenk · August 3

JimFord047 wrote: »

Do it on 15 toons...

That's like having 15 9-5 jobs - and then complaining about the workload.
Sure, it is nice to have 15 max'ed out characters, but maybe it's time to set yourself a limit?
The FOMO is not good for your health, after all, this is a game to have some fun with, no need to raise your stress level.

JimFord047 · August 3

AzuraFan wrote: »

JimFord047 wrote: »

For the "Nowhere Vault" you need a KEY, for Each Toon going through...

Has that been confirmed? I've wondered if you'll need more keys once inside the vault. If it's only one key per toon to access the entire vault, that would be great. I understand there will be puzzles to solve to gain access to areas, but I've wondered if there will be doors that require keys.

Well Yes and NO, it was covered in the Dev's Bit. If you take in a group, then a single key gets you in... otherwise its a key every single time you run it!

But going by what we have seen in the thieves guild , Different Portals , I think thats where the keys come in.. not getting into the nowhere vault itself.

They will (hopefully) add this in to group finder, allow the lucky few with Keys to tow a few others without in with them... If thats not already in the works DEV's it may be a plan, I will not mind using my SINGLE KEY to pull a few in with me!!