Cyrodiil Updates for Update 18

ZOS_BrianWheeler

Here is some news about Cyrodiil for update 18 (the Summerset update). There are more things coming for the update besides what is listed here and we’ll detail those in the coming months, but here’s a start:

Server Performance: Several requirements that were part of ability passives have been converted to server side encoded checks, which will cut down on requirements ran per ability use.

Client Performance: We have increased the amount of cpu cores used by the client which should improve framerate for players on mid to high end CPU's on PC platforms. On consoles and PC we have improved how characters are composited resulting in faster character loads and less framerate spikes.

Defense ticks no longer require you to sit and wait in an objective for the tick. Instead, each type of objective will track whether you’ve earned credit towards a defense or offense tick. Earning the offense or defense "tick" is pretty easy, and you earn credit for pretty much everything except standing there doing nothing. Offense ticks still have a base value that will be granted regardless of being on the credit list, but any bonus AP earned by combat around and inside an objective will only be granted to players that are on the credit lists.

You can be on several credit lists for a Keep superstructure of a Keep, Mine, Lumbermill and Farm and earn Defense ticks for each of them, however if you defend or attack a new Keep superstructure, your credit will be removed.

On top of that, we've increased the amount of Alliance Points you can earn from a Keep Defense with a multiplier based on the lowest ranking Resource of that keep. This is meant to encourage defending the entire superstructure of a Keep and it's supporting structures.

Lastly regarding Keeps themselves, we’ve added a new Keep Upgrade to more defensive siege weapons. The higher the keep levels are on wood, food and ore, the more siege weapons defenders can place.

New daily quests have been added with a new quest board. These quests will grant Cyrodiil exclusive costume pieces and other goodies.

Under-population and Underdog evaluation periods have been drastically reduced. This will result in scoring adjustments being applied more frequently depending on population and scoring within shorter time periods.

Monsters/guards in CP Enabled campaigns have learned how to deal with CP enabled characters. They will be a bit harder to kill and hit a bit harder.

Catapults now have their area damage stick around in the world for a period of time after impact resulting in better area denial. Ballista have been rebalanced to do more damage vs. Siege weapons and damage vs. players has been reduced.

There is more info for Cyrodiil and update 18 coming in the next few months, but until then we will see you in the war!

Turelus

Nice! I've wanted that def tick change for a long time!

Thanks for the update,looking forward to seeing what the passive calculations being server side does for stability.

Apache_Kid

Will the performance changes have any effect on the crashes to the Xbox Dashboard while in Cyrodiil? Yes the lag is a problem but the crashes are even worse.

DeadlyRecluse

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Defense ticks no longer require you to sit and wait in an objective for the tick....
You can be on several credit lists for a Keep superstructure of a Keep, Mine, Lumbermill and Farm and earn Defense ticks for each of them, however if you defend or attack a new Keep superstructure, your credit will be removed.

This is a super positive change that should reduce the "stand on the keep wall and wait for the tick" moments. I look forward to seeing the exact mechanics be more clearly explained.

Rickter

how will the new multi-core support affect quad core pc's? A little scared this is going to make me wish i went with a 6-8 core i7 instead of the i5

Kilandros

Hi Brian it's been awhile how have the last 2 years been buddy?

bikerangelo

WHEELER'S BACK

Minno

[Edited to remove quote]

Zombie wheeler has risen from the dead to absolve us of our PvP sins!

Marabornwingrion

I'd be more happy with something like "after 4 years we permanently fixed the lag"

Saphayla

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Defense ticks no longer require you to sit and wait in an objective for the tick. Instead, each type of objective will track whether you’ve earned credit towards a defense or offense tick. Earning the offense or defense "tick" is pretty easy, and you earn credit for pretty much everything except standing there doing nothing. Offense ticks still have a base value that will be granted regardless of being on the credit list, but any bonus AP earned by combat around and inside an objective will only be granted to players that are on the credit lists.

As some who doesn't play PvP, can someone explain what this means? I don't know what defense ticks are.

Master_Kas

Earning the offense or defense "tick" is pretty easy, and you earn credit for pretty much everything except standing there doing nothing.

But... My leeching

VaranisArano

Saphayla wrote: »

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Defense ticks no longer require you to sit and wait in an objective for the tick. Instead, each type of objective will track whether you’ve earned credit towards a defense or offense tick. Earning the offense or defense "tick" is pretty easy, and you earn credit for pretty much everything except standing there doing nothing. Offense ticks still have a base value that will be granted regardless of being on the credit list, but any bonus AP earned by combat around and inside an objective will only be granted to players that are on the credit lists.

As some who doesn't play PvP, can someone explain what this means? I don't know what defense ticks are.

Players are awarded AP for defending and capturing keeps and resources.

Capturing an objective is an offensive tick, awarded when the flags fully flip and the objective changes hands. You get a flat amount of AP + the amount of AP from kills divided among players present (now on the credit list).

Defensive ticks are awarded for participating in the defense of a resource, generally accumulating from the AP credit from players killed. Previously it was divided between all players present on the grounds after combat ceased for approx. a minute, now it will be divided amongst players on the credit list.

Jadokis

Awesome sounding changes. Just make sure the archer guards don't one shot with snipe like they did when they were first put in :P

Rohamad_Ali

I'm not really a fan of op sieges but at least there's an update and the performance improvements are most needed . Hope this works this time and thank you for updating us .

Ghostbane

tl;dr

You can now farm ap faster


Thanks Brian !

Avran_Sylt

Cool changes. It's nice to hear that PvP will be getting some more updates, especially ones that diversify the roles of siege weapons.

If I were to add my own two cents: I'd also suggest adding in a Forward Camp type mechanism to the keeps if the keep owns most/all of its own resources. Such that it incentives actually going out to cap/defend a resource after your keep has been flagged without having to plop down 20k AP for your own FC. (It would also be an incentive for the siegers to take your resources before PvDooring your keep)

jaws343

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Defense ticks no longer require you to sit and wait in an objective for the tick. Instead, each type of objective will track whether you’ve earned credit towards a defense or offense tick. Earning the offense or defense "tick" is pretty easy, and you earn credit for pretty much everything except standing there doing nothing. Offense ticks still have a base value that will be granted regardless of being on the credit list, but any bonus AP earned by combat around and inside an objective will only be granted to players that are on the credit lists.

You can be on several credit lists for a Keep superstructure of a Keep, Mine, Lumbermill and Farm and earn Defense ticks for each of them, however if you defend or attack a new Keep superstructure, your credit will be removed.

Does that mean, if a player is fighting at a BRK defense and the keep is still flagged for whatever reason but the fighting is over, and that player moves down to Sejanus to assist in a defense, they will lose the Defensive credit for BRK? It says that you don't have to wait around for the tick anymore, which is nice, but how long will it take from when a keep is unflagged to when the tick is awarded? If the time for a tick is anywhere near what it is now, you could be attacking another keep before the defensive tick is awarded. And from the wording here, that means you lose the defensive tick. Or you successfully defend a keep and then port up to defend another keep, you could lose your defense bonus.

Unless the defense tickis instant, like the capture tick, the moment the keep is unflagged.

MissBizz

New daily quests have been added with a new quest board. These quests will grant Cyrodiil exclusive costume pieces and other goodies.

WTB Cyrodiil Carries! Can pay in gold, potions and more! Just kidding. Sounds interesting though!

Not sure I understand the tick changes, but we shall see!

Turelus

Brian are there any plans to try and get some kind of "faction pride" back, something which means staying with one faction and fighting for them is better than logging in alts for other factions all the time?

I understand the reasons behind changing the faction locks (help populations and the fact they could be bypassed any way) but since that's happened that sense of a war where you fight with the same people has been lost, now it's about what faction is best to fight for that night to get the most fights/AP.

VaranisArano

jaws343 wrote: »

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Defense ticks no longer require you to sit and wait in an objective for the tick. Instead, each type of objective will track whether you’ve earned credit towards a defense or offense tick. Earning the offense or defense "tick" is pretty easy, and you earn credit for pretty much everything except standing there doing nothing. Offense ticks still have a base value that will be granted regardless of being on the credit list, but any bonus AP earned by combat around and inside an objective will only be granted to players that are on the credit lists.

You can be on several credit lists for a Keep superstructure of a Keep, Mine, Lumbermill and Farm and earn Defense ticks for each of them, however if you defend or attack a new Keep superstructure, your credit will be removed.

Does that mean, if a player is fighting at a BRK defense and the keep is still flagged for whatever reason but the fighting is over, and that player moves down to Sejanus to assist in a defense, they will lose the Defensive credit for BRK? It says that you don't have to wait around for the tick anymore, which is nice, but how long will it take from when a keep is unflagged to when the tick is awarded? If the time for a tick is anywhere near what it is now, you could be attacking another keep before the defensive tick is awarded. And from the wording here, that means you lose the defensive tick. Or you successfully defend a keep and then port up to defend another keep, you could lose your defense bonus.

Unless the defense tickis instant, like the capture tick, the moment the keep is unflagged.

Yeah, if the credit is removed, that seems like its the same old, same old, "Don't move off the keep grounds til the D-tick comes strategy." Only slight better because I think the resources count as one keep superstructure?

jcasini222ub17_ESO

I believe the ticks change is pretty simple. I'm fighting at Aleswell, defending, we secure the keep but it's still flagged. I can now ride to the farm, defend there, and not miss out on the d-tick from the immediate keep defense.

If I ride to Bleakers before the ticks are awarded and engage I loose out and now I'm on the Bleakers credit list not the Aleswell superstructure list.

Also no more afk for AP... Pretty sweet.

tinythinker

Turelus wrote: »

Brian are there any plans to try and get some kind of "faction pride" back, something which means staying with one faction and fighting for them is better than logging in alts for other factions all the time?

I understand the reasons behind changing the faction locks (help populations and the fact they could be bypassed any way) but since that's happened that sense of a war where you fight with the same people has been lost, now it's about what faction is best to fight for that night to get the most fights/AP.

Saving this spot until thus evening after I get home from work

I've got a thread on restoring faction pride for the Alliance War, and some of the later stuff may be better, but to add to, borrow, and build upon ideas from that thread I offer for now two main areas of emphasis:

Faction loyalty bonus for AP: logging in with the same faction in a particular campaign builds up a calendar/time-based bonus to AP that is earned over the duration of the campaign, while logging in with a character from a different faction resets the counter. This way, if you just want to join your friends in another faction for fun, to help out the lower pop faction, to play something different, etc, you don't have a lockout to bar your way. Yes, you lose something, but you can still play and have fun. If you are just swapping to AP farm, well, you lose your AP bonus each time you switch. The bonuses could kick in each quarter of the campaign duration, so that by the last quarter of the campaign those who supported one faction the whole time get the max bonus, which resets with the new campaign.

Faction distinctiveness: In my campaign/faction pride thread, a consistent theme is setting the factions apart. I still like some of what I wrote as is, some of it I would tweak a little, but a big goal is to really make it feel unique when fighting for each faction as opposed to just different coloring of banners and tents. For example:

- some benefit to playing the faction's native races.This can be small, like unique dialogue from NPCs, or big, like a diminishing AP bonus (see here)
- a unique two or three piece set for each faction. I used to make up examples of sets for illustration purposes only but I don't care what they are, just something different you only get for doing PvP with a certain faction.
- unique "skins" added to things like siege engines and even captures keeps and outposts that are faction-specific. You know who controls something from a mile away by how it has been rebuilt and adorned (and not just by the banners).
- a unique faction champion or group of heroes. This may sound odd or lame, and maybe it is, or maybe I just can't explain it well. The concept is to have some named NPCs who hang around the gate areas who are viewed as war heroes. They tell stories of their exploits, and ask your character how her own battles have gone. Perhaps they even give their own quest challenges with unique objectives.

technohic

Sounds like more reason to have catapults in stead of just ballistas yet Im thinking trebs are still not as favored as far as against the keeps. Mabye make bilistas a little less sturdy when being hit by other balistas?

Nermy

Thanks for giving us some attention. Appreciated.

vamp_emily

I hope the defense tick changes the way people play. Currently, Vivec ( on DC side ) is more less "zone PvP" and attacking empty keeps for AP. Nobody cares about defending.

Mureel

So by monsters do they mean IC bosses/mobs in CP campaigns too? Not overly concerned either way, but if it now takes a raid to kill the overland bosses an increase in dropped tel var on those bosses would be nice.

Either way though, a 'yay' in my book!

Greasytengu

I would hug you guys right now if I could!

GeneralSezme

As a bomber I will miss the "everyone stand in one place and wait for the tick moments" but I guess overall it is good.

Ley

Time to dust off my pvp characters!

ZOS_BrianWheeler

The character compositing should help with console crashes <-- confirmed from our coder gang.

In terms of the BRK -> Sejanus example, the two are technically different structures on the server as one is an Outpost and the other is a Keep. This means you could be on both of their credit lists, but if you pushed to Alessia and contributed to that battle, your BRK credit would be replaced with Alessia credit.

Ley

GeneralSezme wrote: »

As a bomber I will miss the "everyone stand in one place and wait for the tick moments" but I guess overall it is good.

I thought we were waiting for transit.