Recommendations for Elder Scrolls Online I: Large Scale Issues - Progression, Balance, Large-Scale Improvements

This is a set of recommendations for an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) called The Elder Scrolls Online, or ESO. It is a player review that will be mostly be comprehensible and possibly interesting only to players and developers of that game. If you were looking for something erudite or insightful about current events, this isn't it. This is in the nerdy, geeky hobby category.

This isn't a full review, or broad or general review. I don't pretend it is impartial and it doesn't include every suggestion or criticism I personally have. It addressed the things that, were I to be able to hand deliver this to the people who make the game, would be my biggest concerns at the moment. It is laid out as a set of steps. It is flawed and biased. And it doesn't have the benefit of knowing what is actually discussed at the game studio in question. 

Perhaps it might inspire something better even if nothing else. But, when I get a certain type of idea in my head, whatever topic they may be about, it's best I write them down, even if they go unread or unheeded.  So to any dev that may wander by, take what is useful and leave the rest.

The issues directly or indirectly addressed include: game balance, game vitality, game growth, and fun. Or, how I would improve the game.

To jump to a particular topic, the six steps are:

Step One: Inversely-linked statistics, checks-and-balances, and greater build diversity

Step Two: Make the champion system and champion point levels meaningful

Step Three: Reforge the crafting system

Step Four: Roulette counter to RNG

Step Five: Training/Practice Grounds

Step Six: Craglorn necromancy

Step Seven: This questline is too bumpy--fill the plotholes 

 

Please proceed...

 

STEP ONE: Inversely-linked statistics, checks-and-balances, and greater build diversity

Currently the main thing that matters when even halfway serious players or ardent casuals look at what gear sets to use for their character are key stats: Damage Power, Max Attributes, Critical Chance, Recovery Rate (of Attributes), Penetration, and Resistance.This is the main concern. Even if you aren't going for top numbers with the rarest sets and highest quality improvements to set pieces, you can't ignore these stats unless you are only doing the simplest content, and even then very low stats will make that content tedious.

Many MMORPGs are worried about "raising the floor and lowering the ceiling", which translates roughly as "making it easier for players with less skill and experience to enjoy more of the content and putting the breaks on the capacities of those with the highest stats and skill level". The idea isn't to achieve total parity. Skill and experience are still intended to matter. But the extremes are reigned in. In statistical terms, there are boundaries for outliers, a pulling of the extremes toward the mean.

One way Zenimax Online Studios (a.k.a. ZOS), creators of ESO, tried to achieve this with Fall 2016's One Tamriel update was to battle level lower level characters up to match the difficulty of where the hardest general content had been. Then all content was roughly equalized in terms of how hard the things you fight can hit. Go anywhere and face the same level of challenge rather than progressing through zones based on a staggered level of difficulty.

Another attempt was made with the Morrowind update, of which the most controversial change was lowering Recovery Rate of the Attributes players use up when taking actions in the game. This meant players accustomed to the old rates of recovery found themselves running out of resources faster, which meant many needed to sacrifice some of their Critical Chance, Damage Power, Penetration, or Resistance to increase their Recovery. Yet players with more friends, experience, and resources were able to quickly adapt, while those with fewer advantages in the game had a harder time trying to catch up. The gap between the ceiling and the floor shifted more than reduced.

I applaud ZOS for recognizing the power creep that had been occurring since the soft cap on player stats was removed and the Champion System was introduced, but the lack of overall limits and trade-offs and the unbalanced Champion System are still a challenge to reducing extreme player character disparity and to build creativity. If you can stacks stats to the heavens and stats are all-important, players who can do so will get around changes like reducing one stat (Recovery) and those who can't will get the ugly end of the stick.

To have real consequences and choices in characters builds, I suggest inversely linking key stats. That is, if one of the two linked stats goes up past a certain point, the other stat it is paired with goes down. Here are the links I recommend:

Damage <--> Resistance

Max Attribute <--> Attribute Recovery

Penetration <--> Critical Chance

Again what this means is that, after you get one stat beyond a certain point, a modifier is introduced the reduces the effectiveness of raising its partner. This coefficient starts off low but scales rapidly. To give an idea of what I mean, I am tossing out sample numbers. They are *NOT* recommended numbers, they are just used to give a sense of the idea.

So, let's say (to use a random number) 2200 is the cap for Damage Power. You raise either Spell Power or Weapon Power somewhat over 2200, so your resistance goes down a bit. And this is for both general types of resistance (spell and physical), as you are distracted by focusing so much on getting a good strike on your target. So you get your damage to 2300 or 2400, and your physical and spell resistances take a small hit. Get it to 3000 or over and you are almost practically naked as far as physical and spell resistance. You are really hurting for mitigation as eventually the coefficient is actually making you take more damage. By 3300 or 3400 you are into negative resistance. Again, this is just a sample. Where the "practically naked" point and the "increased damage taken" points should be set is an open issue, but again, the idea is that if you want to super-stack damage you are really a glass cannon.

However, you could still stack recovery if you wanted to be able to roll dodge or cast shields a bit more, so the burst-and-roll/blast-and-shield build wouldn't be dead. It would just be more vulnerable and require good timing. As the damage buffs wear off so does the decreased mitigation. You can also use racial passives or gear bonuses to boost mitigation and lessen the effects of damage stacking. And the inverse is that the more resistance you have the less damage you do, so you might become really hard to kill in PvP or PvE by stacking resistance but you would be wielding a wet noodle.

You can then see how the other two pairs would work. If you have a Max Attribute balanced with the Recovery Rate for that Attribute, you are versatile. If you stack one really high, then the other is severely diminished, so if you are a tank with supper high health your health recovery is going to be non-existent (meaning you rely even more on healers). Keep in mind, you can still stack whatever you like, but there is a trade-off. If you want high recovery, let's say as a burst-and-dodge build, you can do that. You can burst, roll, roll, but not all day. You have to get in, make a kill, and get away to let your recovery recharge you. The same is true for magicka-focused builds using shields. You have to look at the trade-offs if you want to get one number really high. The same is true for Penetration and Critical Chance. If you stack Spell Penetration to the sky, great, but your Spell Critical chance will blow.

Pros:

• no "does it all" super-builds
• more value to roles in group content
• less disparity in stats in PvP/more value to experience and skill
• devs can adjust for balance by moving the change points and rate for the inversion
• the game has a set point, a range of intended power level, that people near the floor and ceiling are drawn to; the range in which inversion penalties are minimal and how quickly they escalate beyond that range are up to the devs
• skills and gear difference are partially auto-balanced by the automatic trade-off system
• more value to under-used 5-piece set bonuses without the extreme stat stacking fixation, which means as increase in build variety
• more viability for hybrid builds that don't focus mostly or exclusively on a single Attribute, which means as increase in build variety

Cons:

• an additional server-side calculation required

 

STEP TWO: Make the champion system and champion point levels meaningful

One of the problems from day one of the Champion System is that you got higher Attributes for each point you invested in the system, not to mention that the most popular stars directly boost one of the all-important stats. Many players predicted right away that disparity between players, power creep, and so on would increase dramatically under this system, and those predictions came to pass.

ZOS devs were certainly aware of the possibility as well, and an attempt to combat this was made by ZOS in the Morrowind update when the options to directly increase Recovery Rates for Attributes with the Champion System were removed and options to directly increase other key stats were given significant diminishing returns. But why *ever* allow direct investment in broadly increasing  Damage Power, Critical Chance, Recovery Rate (of Attributes), Penetration, and Resistance? Here's a thought. Let sets and jewelry glyphs and Mundus Stone bonuses do that. Breaking it up into more specific choices (like the options for direct damage bonus, damage over time bonus, etc.) makes much more sense for balance and real choices.

If those direct investments in the most important stats do remain, STEP ONE of my improvement plan already introduces a check on such options getting out of control.

Then there is the issue of CP (champion point) level. I mean, you technically get more powerful and can eventually "over-level" the simplest content in the game, but what else do you do with it? Lower cp characters will still get battle-leveled up to whatever content players attempt, and while being over-leveled is an advantage being under-leveled isn't a huge issue since One Tamriel. 

You can get better gear, up to champion level 160, but then what? The current cap for investing champion points, however many you may have earned, is sitting at 630 as of this writing. Why no gear increase for gear grind? I am at the cap of CP 630 but I wear CP 160 gear. The reason for no gear chase is that you get battle-leveled, so even when new content comes out, it doesn't matter what number you set the max gear level at. ZOS could eliminate gear level like they did for mobs and it would make no meaningful difference.

So what else could players get that might mean something? Other than over-leveling content with investing their points, what advantage could a player get for being CP 300 rather than CP 100? And given that ZOS keeps making it faster to earn CP every time the cap is raised, how would that advantage not be trivialized?

The system isn't just broken in terms of power creep, it lacks a solid purpose or identity.

I can only scratch the surface here right now, but, consider how the following suggestions could be specifically defined and expanded or used as inspiration for similar types of changes:

• stop giving free boosts to the earning CP point curve when the CP cap is raised
• start allowing players to earn such boosts in the game (opens up new rewards for in-game activities and achievements)
• tie such boosts to key achievements in the game; you earn a key achievement, like completing Cadwell's Silver or Gold, or getting zone exploration and delve achivements, or getting dungeon achievements, get a boost toward earning CP
• spread these boosts around and decide their strength to still allow players to catch up in a reasonable amount of time 
• start unlocking options outside of investing in champion system stars; you hit CP 100 you get access to something whether you bother to spend the points or not; focus here on lateral progression ideas

 Best to start with that last bullet. Maybe you get more bag space. Increased mount speed. Better drop rates on rare items. A unique mount. I mean, you already technically get some costumes for reaching certain cp levels as a hold-over from the bonuses of reaching certain veteran ranks, so put your thinking caps on, ZOS. And if you revamped the crafting system, you could add some bonuses for that as well...

STEP THREE: Reforge the crafting system

As per STEP TWO, gear level has mostly been made obsolete. So for that issue the question is, with regard to crafts involved in making gear (clothier, woodworker, blacksmith), do we undo that or roll with it?

The thing is, if we just get more key stats by raising the cap for gear from 160 to 630, well, that's more power-creep in a One Tamriel, one-size-fits-all world. But what if we think laterally again?

Let's stop and think about gear and what people want from it *other* than bigger stats. Like appearance: motifs, color palettes, and other currently available and simple desired forms of customization. What if gear at higher CP level unlocked more customization options? What if higher grades of material made gear more durable and therefore able to withstand more alterations in customization?

Viola! We now have a reason to care about these things other than the vestiges of the older level-progression system that has been seemingly left in "just because". 

Consider a crafter who can make CP 300 gear. This matters in the proposed revamp because the new customization system unlocks with champion level gear, and CP 300 has more options than CP 50 gear. That crafter can use more colors or nuanced shading or even blending of colors on a piece of 300 gear. And (or?) maybe certain motifs are CP-locked. Maybe the ability to transmogrify gear from one motif to another unlocks at a certain CP level? And so on. Get creative. This is just the ground floor of speculation and planning. 

Maybe gear is locked into a certain number of options. What if CP 300 gear can only be instilled with two motifs, and is perma-locked with those two? But CP 500 gear can be instilled with three motifs that a player can switch between? Or, maybe these options are tied to materials. Higher grades of materials allow for more motifs to be "held" by a piece of gear.

Or. Maybe higher grade materials allow a better chance of the gear not being destroyed when trying to swap out motif on a piece of gear that has reached its limit. You really want to change a locked-in motif on that helm, but you went cheap and made it with iron instead of voidstone. May RNGesus but with you...

That then brings us to the curious decision ZOS made to allow crafters to learn an infinite number of motifs and recipes on a single character, thus making the whole specialist crafter notion pointless. But, this can be remedied. Let a character learn an infinite number of motifs, sure, but, let them only be able to have a very limited number active at one time for adding transmog to a piece of gear. "Oh, sorry, I've only got Glass, Barbaric, Argonian, Bosmer, and Sload in my artisan slots right now". See, you can craft in any style, but adding a transmog option to a piece of gear is limited. And maybe it takes two weeks or even a month to replace an active motif slot with another motif, as your character has to really focus on it to reach the needed level of concentration and familiarity. 

How do you get those artisan slots? Hey, maybe its a perk unlocked just for reach a certain CP level (see STEP TWO). Or maybe the crafting expertise system is expanded in some way. Lots of options.

That was for gear-making crafts, but that doesn't mean that consumable crafts (alchemist, provisioner, enchanter) can't also get boosts and specializations. I won't spell all of those out here right now but hopefully your imagination is fired up.

Plus, there are so many other special location types to play with for other types of fun rewards and experiences and achievements in Craglorn:

• Celestial Rifts

• Taborra's Camp
• Scorpion Ravine
• Inazurr's Hold
• Seeker's Archive
• Rahni'za School

•  Elinhir
• Spellscar

Maybe some of these and other repeatable content in Craglorn can be interactive in some way, with stacking bonuses or unlocking an extra something at one type by doing another. Plenty of material to work with. Craglorn has so much in it and so much potential, make it worth players' time to visit it and experience it all over and over.

STEP FOUR: Roulette counter to RNG

The RNG issue is continually and hotly debated among ESO players, so allow me to offer a way to help with it.

Currently there is a random "roulette" for a normal four-player dungeon and veteran-mode four player dungeon. Doing one of each every day earns a rewards bundle. Use this as the basis of a token system while leaving RNG in for those who want to farm. Maybe add more Undaunted keys or something else or both.

However you do it, add more of these daily roulettes to include:

• normal four-player dungeons (roulette already exists)
• veteran four-player dungeons (roulette already exists)
• normal trials
• veteran trials
• individual stages of normal Dragonstar Arena
• individual stages of veteran Dragonstar Arena
• the Skyreach instances

You can earn so many tokens per day and thus so many per week to use at vendors for gear and crafting materials and special housing items (maybe some of the crafting materials are for the special housing items). The gear can still be farmed by those who want to RNG their way to a faster result, but other players can get their grind speeded up a bit while rewarding them for daily play of more content and content types.

I recommend that you need to have completed the normal version of something before the veteran version appears in the roulette queue. So if I have done Stage Three of normal DSA, I might get Stage Three of veteran DSA in my roulette for vet DSA. Or, maybe some types are bundled. Like maybe DSA and Skyreach share a roulette queue.

By dividing some content up by stages for players to try, they get to sample more of the game. For something like DSA, you would still need to go to a single run to get the achievement, but seeing parts of it would still be a nice fun challenge for a daily. I would recommend doing the same for single-shot roulettes for trials bosses but that would take far more work to put together.

STEP FIVE: Training/Practice Grounds

I get it. I was in the late beta and was there for the early access period on PC. The game was meant to be highly accessible and learn-as-you go. Pick up a different weapon,equip it, and go--just play as you want. But the game has changed. To help newer players who don't understand MMORPGs or ESO's approach to them, and to help experienced players who run random dailies with these new players, please, please, please consider some kind of training ground scenarios. Tie them in with the Undaunted guild. 

For example, a series with tanks where an NPC trainer says something like, "Use a taunt on that beast" and "OK now move it over to the statue and keep it there." 

Having a place where you can get tips and basic knowledge, like an expanded version of the game's opening tutorials, but for things specific to instanced group content would do quite a bit to encourage new players to try more things and to reduce to frustration that arises in randomly formed groups. 

It could even cover all three role types, with a sword and board and frost staff there for a player to equip in the tanking lessons, an restoration staff there to equip for the healer lessons, and so on. Keep the lessons short and progressive in how many things a player has to manage/level of difficulty. Offer an achievement for completion. Nothing overdone or overly complicated.

STEP SIX: Craglorn necromancy

I was glad to see the devs try to revamp and revive one of the original base-game zones. I applaud their efforts. But it wasn't enough. The zone is still too empty and under-active. If there is a budget and a will to make a few more upgrades, kindly consider the following.

Wrothgar is the best zone released post PC-launch. Better than Craglorn, Hew's Bane, the Gold Coast, and Vvardenfell. At least to me. So when I ask myself why it was so very active for long (and is still way more active than Craglorn), especially when it comes to delves and world bosses, the answer is simple: 

• desired gear drops 
• crafting motif drops 
• achievements for repeating content

Craglorn delves and world bosses (Burial Mounds, Anomalies, and Nirncrux Mines) don't have these things. Change that. You're welcome.

For all three world boss types, give them the same treatment you gave the world bosses in the old alliance zones to offer more character and challenge. Then, give each type a unique three-piece jewelry set with varying chances to get a set piece and to get a set piece of decent or high quality. Add a new non-trial Craglorn motif that drops at all three. Next, give each one something unique.

As an example, make the Nirncrux Mines a crafter's dream with a chance for special drops like 10 pieces of Nirncrux or 100 pieces of whatever ore (like rubedite) is correlated to character level. These two drops would be in addition to a chance for a jewelry drop or a motif drop. Set the rate for each at whatever seems best. Maybe Anomalies and Burial Mounds give longer last bonuses and something for housing. Or maybe keep the short term bonus and change it to/supplement it with enlightenment for CP gain. Again, lots of room for creativity here.

STEP SEVEN:  This questline is too bumpy--fill the plotholes

Many players could care less about the stories and plot lines in ESO, but many of us do. We like that the devs put so much effort into lore consistency and lore building, great stories and characters, and voice acting every line of dialogue. Thank you very much for this dedication, ZOS.

Sooooo, why then did you blow to big holes in plot consistency and fail to address them?

Hole one was introduced with the One Tamriel update, wherein players were no longer limited to a sequenced pathing for base-game Alliance zones. You can now visit any zone, any time. Which means that the plot device used to explain why you could be in enemy territory, that comes later in the game, is needed earlier in the game. Or at least a placeholder for it. Which is why I suggested the cheapest, simplest fix:

When you first arrive in a different Alliance than the one you start the game with, add a glowing ball of light that appears only to you and that is heavily synthesized or continually altered in tone, pitch, etc. to make it seem other-worldly and unrecognizable. Something like this:

Mysterious Voice: You have strayed into lands that may see you as an enemy. My master sees great potential in you, and will cloak you from detection. In the eyes of those you meet here your true identity will be unknown. Your reputation here will be born anew according to your actions.

Player: Wait, I don't understand. Who is your master?

Mysterious Voice: All will be revealed...if you show the qualities my master anticipates. Fare thee well, mortal.

When you enter the other "enemy" Alliance, the original line from the Mysterious Voice changes a bit to this:

Mysterious Voice: Ahhh, mortal, once again you have strayed into lands that may see you as an enemy. My master still cloaks you from detection. As before, your reputation in this place will be born anew according to your actions.

So, you know, there you go. When you finally figure out who is pulling what strings (and why) later on this will make sense, but until then it adds another layer of intrigue. Now ZOS just needs to have a coder put in an NPC with the form of a glowy sphere at location x,y,z triggered by a new player entering zones a,b,c, then add in the text dialogue and set it to auto-play upon arrival, and grab a voice actor for a few minutes of work. Nothing too complicated or overly expensive/time-consuming.

Hole two was introduced with the Morrowind update, wherein new characters start in Vvardenfell rather than the Wailing Prison in Coldharbour. All three Alliances have tons of content, beginning with each of their starter islands, that recognizes/plays off of the fact that your character has lost its soul. It's kind of a big deal for the overarching plot and many subplots. But now, hey, you can skip going to the Wailing Prison indefinitely, going through stories in which references or allusions are made your missing soul. No bueno. Hence I suggested a couple of possible fixes:

FIRST FIX:  

A. Actually have someone approach you after you finish the main scenario on Vvardenfell saying that there is a growing danger back on the mainland that requires heroes that launches a quest that points you to the Navigator in Vivec City. Players could always find the Navigator on their own, but this would help those who are actually new to the game (see point #5 above).

B. The ship automatically stops on a small island due to a storm. You *don't* reach the regular starting zones. Something seems off. Maybe you are immediately ambushed and escape or maybe you just feel like something is wrong and wander off. Either, way, you investigate and find through letters and talking to a couple of captured NPCs that some Daedric cult is sacrificing people to Molag Bal.

You get a quest prompt to investigate more to find a way to stop the sacrifices, just like you would for any other quest in the game where you stick your nose into something like this and somehow manage to find a way to win. You observe NPCs being killed by Mannimarco (even though no one says his name and he has no dialogue). You reach the next quest marker and are knocked out as a cultist says to prepare you as the next sacrifice.

C. Proceed as normal with from what used to be the opening of the game with the escape and landing on a starting island.

SECOND FIX:

You cannot get or proceed with an quests outside of Vvardenfell until you take the new quest for players who didn't start in the Wailing Prison. The quest giver for the Wailing Prison meets you at the harbor when you try to leave Vvardenfell. That's it. Much simpler and cheaper than the first fix but it gets the job done.

Also, quest pathing is now very confusing for some new players because of the "go anywhere" freedom of One Tamriel update and the forced start in Vvardenfell from the Morrowind update. Keep it simple. With my Morrowind update plothole fix, players will be required to do Wailing Prison to home Alliance starter island anyway, eliminating some confusion. From there, give something in the questlog and in the quest list on the main screen UI to indicate home Alliance major storyline plot quest, secondary Alliance major storyline plot quest, and tertiary Alliance major storyline plot quest. Each Alliance is identified with a primary color, so that can be worked in somehow. Make it clear which quests advance them in each Alliance.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, and especially for considering these concerns and starting thoughts for solutions.  They are made in the spirit of helpfulness and out of desire to have the best possible game for all players, even if biased by my own experiences with and preferences for the game itself. I know game design and development isn't easy, and that the wish list of best options or preferred options aren't always available for a given issue, so I've tried to make suggestions that build on what exists rather than scrapping whole systems and starting from scratch.

This post is too long already, but there are more details and example available. Have a great day and good luck producing the game.