Basic Concept: Improved Loot

This is pretty basic as basic concepts go.

It covers everything from fishing loot to crafting loot to trash mob loot to boss mob loot to treasure chest loot to... (goes on forever).

I like what ZOS did with trash loot using the Blackfeather Court in the Clockwork City DLC. Looking forward to them doing more with loot.

Basic Concept: Enhacing PvP Zones

It's really hard for me to add this basic concept or type of feature without getting into specifics. It's hard for all of them, but wow have I written so much about this in the past.

Some things that have been added are similar to such suggestions, though I'm not vain enough to my suggestions had any effect on the implementation of:

• capturable towns
• siegable bridges and milegates
• special crafting stations in Cyodiil
• alliance themed outfit motifs

Still, there's a lot more I'd like to see.

Basic Concept: Adding Extra Challenge

There regular request on the official forums for more challenge in PvE content, particularly in the open world and their open instances. This is difficult, as there are experienced players and new ones, there are people with top level gear and builds and those in quest reward and mob drop mishmash, those with physical and neurological limitations to their game play and those without, and so on.

The lead developers have stated that they want more challenging play to be optional, so they lock it behind privately instanced content.

Well, most of it.

There are dolmens and their equivalents and world bosses that offer varying increases of challenge compared to one or three mobs here and there. Not nearly as much challenge, though, as veteran hardmode DLC dungeons and trials and DLC group/solo arenas. Here I'm talking about the difficulty or challenge of one type of content relative to other types of content. Not what individual player's personally consider to be challenging.

So how could extra challenge be added while also making it optional? I've posted and commented about this on the official forums, but to boil it down there are a few options:

1. add extra private areas in open instances
2. add zones or sections of zones that are harder
3. add instancing for those who opt into harder content
4. add a self-chosen set of debuffs

The first two are more likely (not likely, *more* likely by comparison), the latter two are not.

Why?

Look at #3 and keep in mind ZOS doesn't like separating people by instance unless necessary. If players are off in their own harder instance, fewer people are in the regular instance chatting, meeting each other, playing together, helping each other, etc. And if there aren't enough players using the harder instance to make that kind of difference, why bother spending developer resources on it?

As for #4, it isn't the same as "not using your Champion Points" from a roleplay perspective. You are taking on some kind of challenge as per a quest/reward system in the game tied to a story. You can choose to activate it to get a harder challenge and whatever comes with it so it isn't forced on anyone. But, still, you are just asking ZOS to make you weaker and they probably won't see a value for their time in that.

This doesn't mean that they will see sufficient value in #1 and #2, but they offer a little more. They are still optional and they fit the a pattern we already see in the game. Specific suggestions for them will be offered in other posts.

Basic Concept: Supplementing (Adding to & Expanding on) Base Game Content

The base game is really important. There are many characters, plot elements, locations and so on that are central to the ESO experience. Making the most out of these employs efficiency in game development and also rewards players who've explored and participated in core content.

So far ZOS has done a nice job of this:

• putting some new DLC dungeons and trials in base game zones
• adding repeatable guild quests (Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood) to base game zones
• adding holiday events that sometimes involve less visited places in base game zones
• having NPC from base game zones show up in DLC

There's room for more. Which I will elaborate on in future posts.

Basic Concept: UI Enhancements

I have posted some user interface ideas previously on the forums and some on another blog that I wasn't sure what to do with. I truly believe they could do quite a lot for quality of life and enjoyment within the game. As they will hopefully getting their own posts, I won't elaborate here, but will just give a quick description of two ideas:

• A screen with horizontal tiles featuring names of different starting content with brief description and background image for the different stories/locations you can choose from when you start a new character
• An option (partially monetized?) to allow players to "save" a profile of a character with all gear and customization options included for a quick swap between two to four options (dungeon healer to trials tank to pvp ganker with a *click* then *click* then *click*)

Basic Concept: More Non-Combat Systems

I was glad to hear about the Antiquities system being added with the Greystone Chapter. I hope it is well-designed and implemented. ESO could use more of that kind of thing and use more often in different contexts to make the world feel more alive and colorful while adding new things for players to do, especially in the base game

The thing is, some systems already kind of exist - if feels like the coding is 40% to 80% already there (which relates back to another basic concept, using two-plankers). Of course I don't *know* that as an arm chair dev, but I do see what's already in the game.

To give an kind of examples here dips into specific suggestions a bit, but they can be fleshed out more fully later. Maybe.

Making lizard racing a game:
simpler - race against NPCs in different locations for wagers of gold
more complex - raise/train your own lizards to race against other players

Allow us to play spike ball:

• simpler - race against NPCs (you already do for a quest) to win prize money
• more complex - race against NPCs and other players to win prize money

Bare-handed tavern fights which could include some or all of the following:

• fight for reputation and achievements for gold and reputation
• bonus for fighting drunk (we have drunk animations and could add fighting/movement penalties)
• have special NPCs that sometimes spawn as part of achievements
• questline(s) for the sparring circuit

I could go on and on but maybe this gives an idea of what I mean?

Basic Concept: Two-Plankers

In another popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft, the Alliance quest hub for the Battle for Azeroth was in the port city of Boralus. And the Alliance flagship docked there was important to get to on a regular basis. Before flying was able to be unlocked, you would be riding right at the ship as you came to some stairs. Just beyond the stairs was a wooden platform. Naturally, players tried to jump to that platform, generally to miss and have to go down over, up, and over to get to that platform.

So a dev saw this and added a couple of wooden planks to make it possible to jump every time and go quickly onto the deck of the ship.

When you see me described something as a two-planker, it means that a solution or feature already has a lot of the needed components already in the game. No need to build it from scratch. Of course, something might be a bit more complicated than adding two wooden planks, but the gist is that the game's existing state has a good head start toward whatever it is I'm suggesting.