Taking note of one of the major changes between Civ IV and Civ V, they completely did away with unit stacking. The strategy had been, place a bunch of units on the same tile, the mechanics always had the strongest unit take damage, and there were huge synergies affecting all units in the stack. Not only would a smaller stack be unable to win, they couldn't even deal meaningful damage.
By disallowing unit stacking, the optimal startegy still involved large numbers working together, but also involved losses to individual units, if the smaller force played adequately.
I think the reason why this change was satisfying, applies to ESO blobs. (A guild that stacks on a single person is a blob)
I am perfectly okay with a large coordinated force ultimately winning against a smaller force, I am not happy if the outcome is predetermined, and with limited ability to inflict damage that is instantly healed due to everyone standing in the same place.
In team sports, standing on top of your teammates is rarely the optimal strategy. I want to see a guild group show me how awesome they are. The current meta is like watching 5 year olds play soccer - everyone chases the ball. (The leader)
We need mechanics that encourage spreading out. Just like other games with pleasing aesthetics encourage spreading out.
There are a lot of things that we could do here, pick one or more of these and spreading out will happen.
Suggestion:
All single target spells and effects automatically hit players within 5 meters of the original target. This should effect players and players' pets only, but not npcs.
All aoes should deal 2x MORE damage to players after the first 6 targets, not half as much.
AOEs should have friendly fire (pvp only) (obvious trolling potential)
Conservation of ninjitsu, your effectiveness (damage output/healing) should be inversely proportional to how many ninjas (players) are standing within 5 m
Give players damage buffs for flanking.
Situational collision detection between players. (After x seconds of standing on top of another player moving at similar velocity, both players are set off balance)
When I see a tightly stacked blob, I want to see free AP
When I see a guild of 24+ people working together effectively, I do not want to see 5 year olds playing soccer.
I find it highly surprising that ZOS would try to encourage players spreading out by half measures. I'm glad there are more reasons to go to dolmens/delves but it doesn't address the core of the issue. The game rewards stacking more than it penalizes it. That should change.
Edited by jrkhan on 28 April 2015 05:06