Wabbajack and guesting. An abuse story.

Wilted_Brainz

I have noticed, now that the 16 day timer is past that the pop on the Wabba server seems to be flooded with vast waves of AD. I have also noticed at a few keeps that AD and DC were working together to push EP out of the lead spot. It is sort of flattering that this type of tactic needs to be used to get ahead of EP, but also sort of cheap to resort to it as well.

I have reported a bug to the ZO administration, as well as a few friends of mine on a bug with party joining Cyrodil. Abusing this is getting ppl to receive all benefits of the server without guesting restrictions. I also want ZO to look into this bug, because (not tested) but it seems it could allow players to join Cyrodil without a pop cap being enforced, thus leading into a faction having way more players on the map than others causing unbalanced battles and lag central.

I have talked to numerous players about guesting. With the way it is as of now, a player can be homed on a server that is high pop their faction, gain the benefits of being the lead dogs on it, then guest on another server to throw a wrench into the hard work and time put into getting a decent spot on the leader board. This basically (when done organized) can caused one faction to have a 24 hr push on any server they choose to troll. Now this is just a toss up, but wouldn't it seem more plausible to have guesting on a server to be a one time thing, or at the least once a month? To have it every 24 hours means that certain guilds and alliances between factions can get together and dominate. To allow guesting in a perfect world would mean people would actually use it to guest on the server to see if they like it to join it. This isn't what is going on though. They use it to create a constant population on multiple servers to monopolize a factions leader board standings.

Whatever you decide on this matter ZO is all up to you. This happened not too long ago to a certain game called Guild Wars 2. They started off having a 24 hours server switch on their WvWvW servers. This caused the dominate faction to crush every server, which in turn, caused factions to start making alliances with one another to get points. It in a nutshell ruined the whole PvP aspect of the game. Then caused a massive influx of players to leave the game entirely because the WvWvW buffs received helped out in the PvE side of the game.

This isn't an EP AD or DC centered request to nerf. This in whole is something that would help all factions. I have noticed that the player base on here seems more driven to help on bugs and exploits (with the exception of a few on all sides) than other games I have played. You will always have someone out there that will try to beat the system to get ahead. I like the game so far. You have a nice flow of fixes and patches that help keep the content going.

dcincali

Wilted_Brainz wrote: »

I have also noticed at a few keeps that AD and DC were working together to push EP out of the lead spot. It is sort of flattering that this type of tactic needs to be used to get ahead of EP, but also sort of cheap to resort to it as well.

I stopped reading after that.. LOL.. You do realize that on Wabba, AD will decide who will first place based off of whos keeps/scrolls we take? DC just pays us more gold then EP does so they are allowed more "fun time".. *giggle*

Tintinabula

I was gonna be mean but..well.. ADs score pretty much can be mean for me.

maholi

I have reported a bug to the ZO administration, as well as a few friends of mine on a bug with party joining Cyrodil. Abusing this is getting ppl to receive all benefits of the server without guesting restrictions.

This was actually said to be a feature I am pretty sure I read about being able to do this from a ZOS post, but I can't find it atm. The queue time on locked servers still applies when you join as a group this way.

Zintair

Tintinabula wrote: »

I was gonna be mean but..well.. ADs score pretty much can be mean for me.

The only way they can justify not being able to win the only campaign that matters. I bet they are Oceanic too LOL.

Halrloprillalar

"omg bad guys coming in to stop us from winning, nerf guesting, more ghost campaigns plz"

Zintair

Halrloprillalar wrote: »

"omg bad guys coming in to stop us from winning, nerf guesting, more ghost campaigns plz"

Yeah I hate these complaints and I am EP. Like get over the tin foil stuff. Though with how buggy the game was would I be surprised? No. But also do I think it is realistically happening? No lol.

SC0TY999

I agree with what he's saying the guesting feature has got way out of hand to the point it's almost an exploit. ZO need some sort of population control to keep the numbers even I've put numerous suggestions in like put a cap on guesting to 10 when one guest leaves another may join but the hard cap is 10 and that's it! Also a lot of people complain that when a faction is dominating in numbers it's impossible to take keeps, there's a solution for that too. Campaign population detection if the server detects a high population then the number of NPC's spawned at a keep are dramatically reduced giving the underdogs a fair chance. Let's face it a huge population alliance are able to defend and don't need the NPC's!!

Yusuf

Just one question: NA or EU server? If it's the EU, you get what's coming to you since those EP guys there dominated the entire map for more than a month, homecamped and zerged down the only 5 players couragious (or maybe foolish) enough to stay there with a force of 40 people.

If you are one of those, you deserve it. If not, i feel sorry for you

Anazasi

The bug that the OP is referring to is not a mechanic that was intended. Example: I want to go to Wabba to zerg with my roommate.... I have my home campaign set to Hopesfire and my guest campaign set to Volendrung. I don't want to change either of them but my friend really needs warm bodies. Workaround..... He's in Wabba, I get invited to group while outside of Wabba. I then open the group window and select travel to him or her. Shortly there after, I'm in Wabba. My home campaign is still Hopesfire my guest campaign is still Volendrung and yet I'm in a third campaign that is clearly not intended. The travel to player feature was intended to be a PVE feature and was never openly discussed or intended to be a PVP mechanic. Now the real issue is this. When you travel via this mechanic you sometimes get caught in the que but usually you don't or the only person subject to que is the actual homed or guested player entering Waba. Now lets make it worse, those players who are not part of waba at all come in with whatever home campaign buffs they may have. So yes its a bug yes it needs to be fixed and yes if you laughed at the OP you are probably part of the group that continues to exploit this.

Lettigall

Yusuf wrote: »

Just one question: NA or EU server? If it's the EU, you get what's coming to you since those EP guys there dominated the entire map for more than a month, homecamped and zerged down the only 5 players couragious (or maybe foolish) enough to stay there with a force of 40 people.

If you are one of those, you deserve it. If not, i feel sorry for you

It's not EP players foult that in ESO aren't enough players to balance all campaigns.

As for OP post completly agree, if you want to help your alliance in other campaign choose it as your guest campaign or switch it to your main. But bug abuse should be bannable. But in ESO bug exploiters aren't being punished but even more they are awarded...

maholi

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/68593/alliance-war-faq

Q: My guest campaign and home campaign are full. How can I play in Cyrodiil?
A: If you are grouped with a player in a campaign that is not your home or guest campaign, you can still join that player. In the campaign listing, you’ll see an indicator for the campaigns your group members are in, and you can join them.

Lord_Draevan

The "Travel to player" in your group option does NOT work if the campaign is full. I've tried it, you get the following message: "Jump failed because campaign is full". When all 3 factions are locked, it's equal numbers across the board.
Remember, some people come to Cyrodiil just to do PvE dungeons, Skyshard hunting, camping quest givers in towns or stand around the home bases selling stuff in zone chat. Not everyone is going to actually be doing Alliance War, sadly.

Gaettusk

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

The "Travel to player" in your group option does NOT work if the campaign is full. I've tried it, you get the following message: "Jump failed because campaign is full". When all 3 factions are locked, it's equal numbers across the board.
Remember, some people come to Cyrodiil just to do PvE dungeons, Skyshard hunting, camping quest givers in towns or stand around the home bases selling stuff in zone chat. Not everyone is going to actually be doing Alliance War, sadly.

If it's your home or guest campaign,then that's true. If it's not your home or guest campaign, then there's no queue. Welcome to campaign stacking 101

maholi

There is still a queue if it isn't your home or guest campaign and the campaign is full. You just have your friend queue you as a group and you wait just like everyone else.

Lord_Draevan

Gaettusk wrote: »

If it's your home or guest campaign,then that's true. If it's not your home or guest campaign, then there's no queue. Welcome to campaign stacking 101

It wasn't either. My home campaign was set to Goldbrand, guest was Bloodthorn, one of my guildies went to Wabbajack. I tried porting to him and I got the "campaign full" message. Repeatedly. There's always a queue for Wabbajack, usually 75-100 people

kirnmalidus

This might the most obtusely worded whine post I've ever read. I guess you should get points for disguising your whining as a "bug report."

That said, none of what you describe is a bug or an exploit. This is how the game works, and it is working as intended. If zergs of other factions are coming into your campaign and kicking your @$$ then maybe you should try to rally your allies from guilds, other campaigns etc. and fight back.

Lord_Draevan

kirnmalidus wrote: »

This might the most obtusely worded whine post I've ever read. I guess you should get points for disguising your whining as a "bug report."

That said, none of what you describe is a bug or an exploit. This is how the game works, and it is working as intended. If zergs of other factions are coming into your campaign and kicking your @$$ then maybe you should try to rally your allies from guilds, other campaigns etc. and fight back.

Not to mention it doesn't the "travel to player" option in groups work that way. If the campaign is locked for your faction, the "Travel to player" option won't work, you get a "Jump failed because campaign is full" message. 3 locked bars means it's evenly numbered across the board.

demonlkojipub19_ESO

Woa, wrong thread... howed that happen :P

Halrloprillalar

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

Gaettusk wrote: »

If it's your home or guest campaign,then that's true. If it's not your home or guest campaign, then there's no queue. Welcome to campaign stacking 101

It wasn't either. My home campaign was set to Goldbrand, guest was Bloodthorn, one of my guildies went to Wabbajack. I tried porting to him and I got the "campaign full" message. Repeatedly. There's always a queue for Wabbajack, usually 75-100 people

If your leader is inside the campaign you can travel to them and will be put in queue.

Queue affects everyone so the numbers are not actually 'stacked' in any way. If it's all locked, it's all locked and thus, on par.

Gaettusk

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

kirnmalidus wrote: »

This might the most obtusely worded whine post I've ever read. I guess you should get points for disguising your whining as a "bug report."

That said, none of what you describe is a bug or an exploit. This is how the game works, and it is working as intended. If zergs of other factions are coming into your campaign and kicking your @$$ then maybe you should try to rally your allies from guilds, other campaigns etc. and fight back.

Not to mention it doesn't the "travel to player" option in groups work that way. If the campaign is locked for your faction, the "Travel to player" option won't work, you get a "Jump failed because campaign is full" message. 3 locked bars means it's evenly numbered across the board.

I've had it work for me before with a full queue. I guess I got lucky?

kirnmalidus

Gaettusk wrote: »

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

kirnmalidus wrote: »

This might the most obtusely worded whine post I've ever read. I guess you should get points for disguising your whining as a "bug report."

That said, none of what you describe is a bug or an exploit. This is how the game works, and it is working as intended. If zergs of other factions are coming into your campaign and kicking your @$$ then maybe you should try to rally your allies from guilds, other campaigns etc. and fight back.

Not to mention it doesn't the "travel to player" option in groups work that way. If the campaign is locked for your faction, the "Travel to player" option won't work, you get a "Jump failed because campaign is full" message. 3 locked bars means it's evenly numbered across the board.

I've had it work for me before with a full queue. I guess I got lucky?

The queues can reduce pretty quickly sometimes. I was able to jump into Wabba pretty much immediately last night even though it was locked because the queue was small to non-existent.

So this might be causing what you think is happening – it may look like the campaign is locked and a queue is active but it is so short you essentially end up jumping in as if there wasn't a queue.

Lord_Draevan

Point is, when all 3 sides are locked, the numbers are equal across the board. You won't have one side with dozens or hundreds more players due to traveling to other players or guesting.

Zenzu

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

Point is, when all 3 sides are locked, the numbers are equal across the board. You won't have one side with dozens or hundreds more players due to traveling to other players or guesting.

Wow I really got to stop using that travel to player bug when a campaign is locked, I guess I haven't been able to the whole time I've played this game [Sarcasm]. Good thing we have testers like you putting the truth out there.

Lord_Draevan

Zenzu wrote: »

Wow I really got to stop using that travel to player bug when a campaign is locked, I guess I haven't been able to the whole time I've played this game [Sarcasm]. Good thing we have testers like you putting the truth out there.

If there's no queue, you can. We've established that, pay attention if you're going to try to be part of the discussion.

kirnmalidus

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

Zenzu wrote: »

Wow I really got to stop using that travel to player bug when a campaign is locked, I guess I haven't been able to the whole time I've played this game [Sarcasm]. Good thing we have testers like you putting the truth out there.

If there's no queue, you can. We've established that, pay attention if you're going to try to be part of the discussion.

Right, and as I posted earlier, just because there is a lock on pop doesn't mean there is a queue per se. The queue could be just you and people leave all the time so in that case there is effectively no queue. This is probably what he experienced. It happened to me last night.

Gaettusk

Queue was fairly high when it worked for me- going to have to try it on an alt again. Had it work once with a low queue, once with a high queue, and I had it fail to work one time.

Wilted_Brainz

"Edit" End of posting from me. ZO, fix PvP. Why have guesting and Home if you allow party joining campaigns?

maholi

It SAYS in the FAQ that I linked that you can play with your friends that are not on your Home/Guest campaign. This isn't an exploit.

galiumb16_ESO

OP's name is highly accurate

Cody

Lets fix actual bugs plz, guesting is the least of our concerns right now. im pretty sure every single alliance has tons of guest players in their armies, just like you claim the AD does