"Swap war stories, make battle plans, and bond with members of your campaign"
Is that what people really do on this forum? Sometimes, but not overly much. It's a good thought, though.
There are many things that could be improved regarding the Alliance War. I have previously offered a
relatively brief and concise post about adding diversity of valuable roles for players of all skill levels/interests, on fun new objectives and rewards to spread players out, to help with pop imbalances, etc. I've even suggested
a spying/capture system. That's all well and good. But even if those or similar ideas were implemented, and even if changes to game code and how abilities work meant that lag saw a 50% reduction at peak intensity (i.e. the worst possible ping/fps issues on the most awful nights were only half of what they are now), there is something else that seems to be lacking.
Just what this is was made clear to me after I learned a bit more about another MMORPG in development and a goal that its developers had committed to, a goal to emphasize and encourage pride in the server you PvP on and in the faction you fight for. Sometimes players suggest making one MMO into something that it isn't, into something that goes against its design principles and philosophy, just because they like a feature in another MMO ("Make your game more like WoW, or Guild Wars, or ESO"), but in this case I don't think looking into or advocating for more campaign and alliance pride is that kind of situation.
So what encourages pride in such things? What diminishes pride in such things?
I don't claim to have an accurate or complete list of answers to such questions, so please feel free to share your own thoughts on the matter.
As for me, here are some issues to consider:
You can play any race and class regardless of Alliance
Initially, being any race despite your Alliance was only available to those who pre-ordered the game on PC, but, with the cash shop came the ability to buy this option, because of course. There are only four classes, so naturally it wouldn't make sense to restrict them by Alliance. The result is that people chose a race because of appearance, lore, or min-maxing, but there is nothing that ties the race choice to an Alliance. Therefore, choosing an Alliance gives you no real connection to or bonus bound to race. It's all generic. It's swappable mix-n-match. Just whatever suits you.
Trying *now* to restrict races and classes by Alliance would, of course, be an unworkable nightmare.
Yet there are things that can be added under the "Yes you can play as you want but choices have consequences" philosophy, especially since ZOS is working on things like race changes. I am not suggesting any or all of these must be implemented, just spit-balling some basic ideas:
- a bonus to AP earned (something small like 4-6%) for playing a native race.
- a bonus to resistance for wearing Alliance specific armor in Cyrodiil/Imperial City (again something useful but not too larger, see below for more on such armor) while playing a native race
- add
a background system for customization but modify it to take race *and* Alliance into account; the options may be different or limited depending on your Alliance
Again, these changes do no prohibit one from playing an Orc in the Pact or a Nord in the Dominion, but it encourages players to consider their race choice based on the Alliance with which they plan to AvA. Yes, native races get a small to moderate advantage here and there but nothing outrageous. You can play as you want, but choice matters.
As for classes, I know some players want new classes, while others feel that the game is hard enough to balance with the current four. That's why many of us advocate class morphs or specializations, which I support but as a limited thing not a whole new class brought in but called a morph. A rough prototype of that
is given here. I think that limited class specialization would jazz up the game, and now I am thinking that such specialization should be Alliance specific. Want to play a Dragonknight in any Alliance? Go for it! Want to have access to a particular specialization once you hit the appropriate level (10? 30? 50?). Better choose the right Alliance.
So, again, yes, you can play any race and class in any Alliance. You can play the way you want. But choice matters. There isn't total homogenization between the Alliances.
You can get the same gear in any Alliance
I've previously suggested adding gear sets available only to members of a particular Alliance as part of
a concept of Alliance specific bonuses. I later
updated the set bonuses to fit changes in the game. Here they are in their current iteration:
Blood for the Pact - Killing an enemy player has a 4% chance of restoring 20% of player's total health.
The Lion's Roar - When the wearer's health drops below 20% an irresistible fear effect is triggered on nearby enemy players for 5 seconds. This can happen once every 15 seconds.
The Eagle Banner - When the wearer's magicka or stamina drops below 20% the wearer gains a 5000 point damage shield. This can happen once every 15 seconds.
Whether or not you like these set bonuses or would like to see them altered or replaced isn't really the point here. Should they be two-piece like monster sets or 5 piece? Debate it all you want. The important thing is that they are unique set bonuses only available to those who fight for the Pact, the Covenant, or the Dominion. I've suggested different ways to get them, through crafting stations only your Alliance can use at their corner keep (i.e. Drakelowe, Dragonsclaw, Brindle), or as a reward for reaching a certain rank, or something else. But again, it runs counter to homogenization. Want to wear The Lion's Roar set? Roll a DC and earn the right to wear that set by fighting for King Emeric. You can play the way you want, but choice matters.
And by the way, around the same time I was thinking of the idea for adding such gear, in a separate post
about plans for the future of the Alliance War and playing in Cyrodiil by PvP Lead Brian Wheeler had independently come up with a similar idea:
Alliance War Future – After Imperial City launches, we are looking to add more content into Cyrodiil in some of the emptier locations. We will, of course, continue adding to the Keep system, too. We’re also looking to add more Alliance-specific gear to give more options for individual identity to the Aldmeri, Ebonheart and Daggerfall communities.
Hopefully this idea hasn't been scrapped.
The Campaigns primarily only differ in scoring and length and switching Campaigns is easy
Yes, technically one campaign has gated access to IC and some will be made CP-free, but still, there is nothing that different about the campaigns. This was something else that I had previously thought of and was worried about, so a couple of years ago I suggested
adding some variety to campaigns. I would like to suggest that notion of adding variety again, even if those linked ideas are not adopted. That said, I particularly like the Standard of Akatosh idea, whatever the actual MacGuffin turns out to be. It fits nicely with
other changes I and others have suggested to spread players out, such as having
moving capturable flags. The MacGuffin and the reward for chasing it down could be unique to each campaign. Just what bonuses your Alliance gets for capturing and keeping it isn't the point. Let's debate what the different MacGuffins should be for different campaigns and what they should offer, but first, let's agree that campaign uniqueness important to campaign pride and that campaign pride should matter.
Next is the short campaign duration and the ease of switching campaigns. I appreciate why we no longer have 90 day campaigns. I was there. If you got too far behind, you had no chance of winning and had to wait months for a new start. I also appreciate why people want to be able to travel to groups if their friends are in a different campaign or if their home campaign is dead. But at the same time, it makes campaign choice trivial. You can't have pride in something you can swap or jump out of so easily. Triviality and pride are anathema to each other. Just go where you can PvDoor your way to Emp, just go where you can farm weaker Alliances and troll other players. Just go where the action is at any given moment. Whatever. Log back in the next day and ask in /zone, "What campaign is this?" Who cares, LOL? Yeah, that's not really conducive to actually caring about your particular allies and foes and the state of your home campaign.
Well, if agree that campaign pride can make for more enjoyable play over an extended period, something needs to change in terms of how willing people are to jump ship. The cost for switching to a new home in the middle of a campaign cycle is going up, but it's still free at the end of the cycle and you can still group your way anywhere. You only get on the leaderboards by playing on your home campaign but if you aren't doing an Emp run it only takes a day or two, depending on how long your play session lasts, to get to Reward Tier 3.
I don't think it should take longer to get to Tier 3, but what about a Tier 4 that takes three times as long to reach as Tier 3? Maybe a Tier 5 that take even longer to reach, something even hardcore players would have to really keep working at to achieve? Sure you can still campaign hop with a group but there is an incentive to spend more time on your home campaign.
As for switching campaigns, institute a loyalty program. For each campaign cycle you keep the same home campaign you get a cumulative reward. Maybe it's more gold at the end of the campaign. Maybe it's a small bonus to AP earned. Maybe it's both of those, neither, or those plus something else. But make it a worthwhile reward that you lose and have to start accumulating all over again each time you switch your home campaign. So if you get a 1% AP bonus the first cycle on your home campaign, maybe it goes to 2% if you stay another cycle, to 3% for another cycle, and caps at 4%. But that bonus only applies while on your home campaign. You could add that to the above suggested 4% bonus for playing a race native to your Alliance. That's an 8% bonus, on top of anything else, based on choice and pride. Play as you want, but choice matters.
Another thing to consider to facilitate campaign pride is having a more dynamic map that changes based on player activity. Yes, town capture in overland Cyrodiil is coming and district capture in the Imperial City is coming, and those are definitely steps in the right directions. But I strongly recommend addition changes, such as
destroying chokepoints. Moreover, I would suggest adding some way to alter the map or the way things work in the campaign that persists for the whole campaign cycle or that only resets very slowly. I am sure players and devs could think of some fun and exciting ways to do that, and by doing so, particular campaigns take on more of their own character and flavor based on the actions of players.
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Thanks for reading. I really think Alliance and Campaign pride, while not completely absent, are severely malnourished in ESO and have dwindled greatly from the game's initial launch in the spring of 2014. I believe that taking actions to add fun new elements to the game that also happen to bolster such pride can be of immense value to ESO in general and to Cyrodiil/the Alliance War in particular. If you agree even a little, please rate and comment and tag others to come and share their ideas for pride building. Let's help show the devs what Cyrodiil could and should be.
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EDIT: New content has been added. Like or hate or meh the suggestions above? OK. But
check this out below.***************
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