Cyrodiil/IC synergy, making them more fun and relevant to each other

tinythinker

There seems to have been an increase in wanting to make IC more relevant, fun, and populated. It's a beautiful zone that the devs worked really hard to get right in terms of sites, sounds, challenges, and so on. So here are six steps to create more AvA synergy between Cyro and IC that helps make all both maps relevant (i.e. worthwhile targets):

1. Give unique to bonuses for each IC district that take effect when captured and that apply to members of your Alliance in overland Cyrodiil too.

2. Give each of the current six Elder Scrolls a connection to particular district, so that holding the right scroll and the right district gives a special bonus to all members of your alliance in your campaign, whether in IC or Cyro.

3. Only allow districts in IC to be captured if an Alliance controls at least one ring keep. You can enter IC without any ring keeps but you can't capture districts. Because of the dangers of IC and the size of the Daedric incursion, each Alliance can only capture one district at a time, unless they have Emperor. So, there will always be two and sometimes three districts that are not claimed by a provisional militia (i.e. Alliance army).

4. Capturing the two corner keeps closest to your home base gives a "secure borders" bonus, increasing the number of NPC troops that can be sent to IC, making it harder for the enemy to take a district your Alliance is holding. Or it gives some other similarly useful IC bonus. (For EP this would meaning holding Dragonclaw and Drakelowe, for DC it would be Dragonclaw and Brindle, and for AD it would be Drakelowe and Brindle.)

5. Three new Elder Scrolls could be added for IC only (i.e. cannot be removed from the city). But they work differently in IC than in overland Cyro. They spawn in random locations in the uncaptured districts and once found must be brought to a specific location to be used. Once used the successful Alliance gets a bonus that lasts for a period of time but the scroll vanishes and will respawn in an uncontrolled district again. To keep the bonus your Alliance will have to go out and find it again once it respawns. There will be a number of possible locations you need to take it to to use it so it won't be 100% obvious to the enemy which place you will have to go until the runner gets close to it. Again, the bonus applies to everyone in the campaign, whether they are in IC or Cyro.

6. Spying and sabotage missions can be a part of the district capture and defense mechanics to make things more fun and interesting in IC and encourage play there even more while moving flags in Cyro can add additional targets (that could be made strategic).


Basically, #1 and #5 encourages players to go to IC and fight in/over all six districts, while #2 gives the original Scrolls more value again. Both #2 and #3 encourage capturing the six ring keeps and the nine temple gate keeps, while #4 encourages capturing the three corner keeps (Dragonclaw, Drakelowe, Brindle). So, there is plenty of synergy between the AvA zones of a campaign and plenty of reason to spread out across the whole Cyro map and IC map. Lastly, #6 adds a missing dimension to the Alliance War that gives additional flavor to playing in IC and indirectly supports the other elements described.

Duiwel

I like the suggestion in your signature about underwater mechanics and I can see that the sewers can be very relevant to this...

There can be a "flooded" district in the sewers and then players would have to swim ect.

tinythinker

Duiwel wrote: »

I like the suggestion in your signature about underwater mechanics and I can see that the sewers can be very relevant to this...

There can be a "flooded" district in the sewers and then players would have to swim ect.

djyrb

Duiwel wrote: »

There can be a "flooded" district in the sewers and then players would have to swim ect.

Argonian swim speed OP?

tinythinker

djyrb wrote: »

Duiwel wrote: »

There can be a "flooded" district in the sewers and then players would have to swim ect.

Argonian swim speed OP?

For escaping combat...