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.

Basic Concept: PvE Role Stances

I posted about this once on the forums and used examples of things other players have previously requested to give readers a sense of what was possible. So naturally I got replies about the examples and not the concepts. Because forums.

Anyway, the idea is that anything, large or small, could change in privately instanced PvE content (group dungeons, trials, group arenas, etc.) based on the role a player has chosen for that particular run. This could be resistances, attributes (health, magicka, stamina), etc. It could some kind of change to UI elements or the appearance of objects on the screen. How abilities work. Anything.

Naturally this sounds a bit like the PvP Battle Spirit buff, so respondents focused on that and *only* that, which kind of defeats of the point of it potentially being "anything".

I am wary of posting any kinds of examples, because for some that limits their imaginations. I will keep it limited to one very narrow potential use, and again say this narrow potential represents a small fraction of what one could do it.

Consider the issue of fake tanks.

Say queuing as a tank gave you "tank stance", which caused all of your weapon attacks to put you to the top of the threat list. If you don't come prepared, queuing as a tank will get you all of the love of the mobs and bosses immediately.

But you could also help genuinely would be tanks out this way and allow for other off-weapons in tanking other than frost staff and one-handed with sword. It would definitely allow for more build options. You could even give tanks a boost up to a minimum set of resistances (that would be far surpassed by proper armor and set bonuses and the like).

Now, having written that, forget it. It isn't a good idea. The point of it wasn't to offer a good idea. The point was to show an example of what you could do. Another example is simply to have some special mechanics react differently to people stanced as tank, healer, or dps. Again, an example and not a suggestion at this time, though that one sounds like it has more potential to explore in a later post.

Basic Concept: Skins and Reskins

Skins in MMOs refer generally to the artwork for some object or space. So adding a skin or reskinning something means replacing or modifying the outward appearance of something in the game. It's a great way to reuse assets from object building.

In ESO we already see this with mounts - how many different skins are there of different guar, wolves, bears, horses, camels, indriks, and so on? Or, take the Abyssal Geysers from the Summerset Chapter or the Harrowstorms from the Greymoor Chapter; both are reskins of Dark Anchors/Dolmens from the base game.

I will be suggesting here that ZOS consider more reskins to liven up the game and to add new rewards. I will cover some specific ideas in more detail in other posts where they may be part of a larger idea, but just to give you an idea of what I mean and to help me remember later (I think of lots of things randomly and then get busy or distracted) here are a handful of examples:

• keeps and outposts in Cyrodiil
• siege weapons in Cyrodiil
• normal class ability effects/animations
• selected other skill line abilities effects/animations
• music in different situations (yes, an auditory "reskin")

Oh, and these should always be tied to in-game achievements and rewards. There need to be more cool things that you get for playing the game not paying in the cash shop.This would be a great area to add more meaning and value to in-game efforts.

Original Post

Please see the introduction.

This is just a place for me to transfer ideas, add ideas, and organize ideas I have about The Elder Scrolls Online. Not a place to argue or debate. Plenty of places exist for that.

My initial plan, if we can call it that, is to have posts on Basic Concepts and Specific Suggestions. I might change those names or add more categories later. Basic Concepts are things that are not unique to any one idea or suggestion, so Specific Suggestions may include one or more previously articulated Basic Concepts or unspoken/not previously posted basic notions. This will hopefully help me to keep tracks of things better than I would otherwise.

Again, this is a repository. Read along if you wish. Polite comments if you like. Who knows how often I will check this place, though, so don't worry if your comments don't show up.