You want people to return - please add housing and

[Jetstream_Fox]

No, less focus on things that don't matter to the overall gameplay and more refining of systems that do matter is what brings people back. ESO was awful now they've fine tuned a lot of the combat and the game feels much stronger, for instance I'm a level 10 dragon knight, my skills and stats give off such great feeling, where as in 14 when I pop a tank buff I don't feel that buff being activated. Aside from skills feeling much better, the MSQ is so quick in ESO that it's actually enjoyable, I can finish one MSQ walk to the town and be visited during my journey back that the next MSQ is open. Before the game took ages for the MSQ to open up each mission it was so dragged out it became an afterthought to exploring the world. It was very close to how 14 has its story flow, a lot of pointless quests that go A to B, pick up item X take to location Y, kill add at X location, run dungeon now or primal fight.

Honestly housing as is clashes a bit with the games lore at times it's a very hard to overlook, recall the end of 2.X when we thought the Sultana was killed, the Brass Blades were looking for us, but we owned a house and could go freely into and out of it, this was especially laughable if you owned a house in the Goblet. Granted ya you could go back into Ul Dah after this and it breaks the game, 14 needs less of this and craft a story that actually changes the world as we progress within the current story. For instance not even 3.0 does this, but we had Nidhogg preparing a massive assault, so why was the dragon presence so minimal in 3.0? Wouldn't a dragon seeking blood be sending out hordes to randomly attack us in the field? Nothing feels important in this game, which is hurting the integrity of the games foundation.

People don't want to keep playing a game that doesn't feel important nor as impactful as it should be. If SE wants to bring back people and keeping them hooked, the game needs to feel it's growing with the player and not staying stagnant, pushing forward and challenging the player is the only way this game can grow and foster more players. Adding more of X,Y and Z content that has issues that they haven't fixed yet isn't going to solve anything, it would make things so much more worse.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

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The NPCs explain why you're able to return to Ul'dah despite the hoopla that went down. As for the dragons, you aren't exactly important to Nidhogg until you confront him in The Arey and even then, he doesn't think you're a threat until the final battle in 3.3. You also answered your own question on why Nidhogg's brood isn't just attacking you randomly; they're preparing the next assault. Even if you were to get attacked randomly, I don't think anyone would enjoy it if they are not doing the main story and wanted to do a side quest and are forced to slog through dragon after dragon in very boring battles. You want world impact changes, but at the same time, there will never be any major changes where things are closed off or the like because everyone needs to have equal access to areas.

[Jetstream_Fox]

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I'm well aware as to why they don't, but again that takes away from the overall importance of that scene, completely downplays the entire significance of it based off the hunch that we'd never do it. Same with Nidhogg, we beat him and he vanishes so he can prepare for the next assault while we deal with political nonsense? Him being a dragon and Ishgard not being truthful able to defend itself makes Nidhogg look entirely weak after the first encounter. They could have easily made his brood invade sometime during the events of the vault to keep Nidhoggs presence a vengeful powerful being, which in case would have lead to Archbishop transforming into Thordan, instead of him transforming because we're spreading the truth about the Dragonsong war.

The only time this games story really had the ability to add anything significant was with the Warriors of Darkness, which got written out almost immediately and how Bahamut and his brood was being constantly tortured. If this MMO is supposed to be story driven, yet can't drive a story when there is no significant values or fear of consequences. How is it supposed to bring players back? Because let's face it, reworking the entire battle system isn't going to do anything when every single fight is still going to be built within the trinity system resulting in more AoE dancing but this time in a new area. Hell I haven't done anything in this game since finishing relic, all I've done in the past 21 days according to my fc log is login and reset the counter on my house. Which I wouldn't even do if I wasn't sharing it with 3 other people, which is sad that I feel them losing a house is more impactful then 98% of the storytelling they've put out.

[SpiritMuse]

the Brass Blades were looking for us, but we owned a house and could go freely into and out of it, this was especially laughable if you owned a house in the Goblet. Granted ya you could go back into Ul Dah after this and it breaks the game

If you talk to the various Blades you'll find out that a lot of the Blades (and Crystal Braves, for that matter) aren't really looking for you very hard, either because they're friends/fans and can't believe you'd ever do such a thing, or because they're too intimidated by your power to even attempt an arrest. That's why you can still go around Uldah.