Volendrung Theorycrafting

Jules

After hearing Rich discuss the daedric artifacts (Volendrung) in Cyrodiil, I think this is a phenomenal concept and will be a ton of fun seeing how its implemented. So happy to see some new content coming our way after a few drought years. Thought I'd share some of my key questions and ideas surrounding this new mechanic and see if anyone else can help theorize how it would ideally play out. Perhaps if ZOS is not concrete on their implementation of this, we could give them some ideas as to what we want.


Some things worth pondering:


1) What will the frequency of Volendrung drops will be?
- Hourly? Daily? Weekly? Once a campaign? This could be the difference between an occasionally fun mechanic like scroll fights vs something that will have a real impact on all of our gameplay constantly.

2) Where will they drop primarily?
- Ideally outskirts of the ring so that we can get pvp in interesting and new places, but with a timer bomb ticking down and player kills being needed, too far out would mean a hasslesome journey back in to more prevalent fights. Perhaps half way between inner ring and outer keeps would be ideal to optimize access to fights.

3) What will the time frame look like in terms of killing players to prevent it killing you?
- Does 1 player add x amount of time to a never-ending countdown or would some other concept be in place? Going 10m without a kill, ect?

4) Will emp be able to simultaneously be Volendrung or will they be the solitary person incapable of doing so?
- Hopefully not as this is intended to be an emp counter, but never know.

5) Is there any disadvantage to dying while being Volendrung? (Other than just not being able to kill other players if you're dead)
- I wonder if they will implement any loss of power or loss of time mechanic within the actual Volendrung from deaths. It seems to make sense that a power this great should be wielded by a worthy possessor, so if you aren't playing well would it penalize you?


Thanks for reading, interested to see what you all think.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

I can see the 3 zergs all sieging the spawn so no one can press E now.... oh the lag...

Also from the stream I'm fairly sure you lose it when you die like a scroll

Ruckly

It sounds like it will be very difficult to implement.

- Keeping track of who has what and where(Icon on the map showing where person with daedric item is?)

- Movement speed and mountability of person with daedric item

- How person with item stays alive. If it is based on kills everyone can avoid them until they die.

- Wrecking walls!?

- How many are up at once?

- Where do they spawn?

Bigger problem IMO is necromancers. A pile of summons means guaranteed dets and dets are a hallmark of cyrodill. The artifact might be a fun a few times and then cyrodill is boring forever type of thing until everyone stops playing cyrodill because they don't want to fight titans.

zyk

I'm not looking forward to this. I don't like the emp mechanic either; I don't like having emp and I don't like fighting emps.

I wish they'd put more work into the Cyrodiil game design issues that result in stacking before they add another layer of complexity.

WeyounTM

I agree with Zyk....before we get another mechanic that gives more power, more pressing issues needs to be adressed. Like the complete imbalance regarding population. The Daedric Artifact mechanic looks nice on paper when the server is full and balanced. But just look at this Screenshot taken now at 7 AM on Vivec PC EU, arguably the most unbalanced campaign around:



So imagine playing on EP or DC right then and there. You are not only massively outnumbered and have everything stacked against you. No, the dominating faction will most likely get the artifact too. GG i guess?
Adding more imbalance to favor the faction that PvDoor against few opponents is NOT the solution. And while AD will have the map painted yellow for the next couple of hours....everyone even trying to oppose them will get slaughtered by the supposedly "best" PvPers around. Yeah, so not feeling too hyped atm to be honest...

Sacredx

For whose who have not had the experience playing this game to know what the game can and cannot realistically handle this looks like a great idea that will infuse the pvp community with a new concept that will be a ton of fun. However, for whose of us who have been actively playing and know what the game can handle historically, placing a beacon for everyone to mass to is a bad idea. Based on years of playing this game, countless forum thread/posts showing player's experiences the server cannot cope with very large number of players in one area, which is exactly what this will achieve. The so called great idea will become a nightmare that will be remembered as a failure to achieve what players have been asking for years, that is better server stability. Listen to the 'customer', the players, as they are the ones paying the wages. Get the basics right first. That is: server balance, faction balance, we are not asking for much here, just a simple 'fit for purpose' product that works.

For the sake of server stability they should be diversifying the map, not make players ball to one location. If you truly want a better game then please look at making an alternative concept that will spread the players and fill the map.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

Sacredx wrote: »

For whose who have not had the experience playing this game to know what the game can and cannot realistically handle this looks like a great idea that will infuse the pvp community with a new concept that will be a ton of fun. However, for whose of us who have been actively playing and know what the game can handle historically, placing a beacon for everyone to mass to is a bad idea. Based on years of playing this game, countless forum thread/posts showing player's experiences the server cannot cope with very large number of players in one area, which is exactly what this will achieve. The so called great idea will become a nightmare that will be remembered as a failure to achieve what players have been asking for years, that is better server stability. Listen to the 'customer', the players, as they are the ones paying the wages. Get the basics right first. That is: server balance, faction balance, we are not asking for much here, just a simple 'fit for purpose' product that works.

For the sake of server stability they should be diversifying the map, not make players ball to one location. If you truly want a better game then please look at making an alternative concept that will spread the players and fill the map.

I mean they will make some performance changes in 6-8 months time. I'm sure everything will be fine after that?

Kadoin

WeyounTM wrote: »

I agree with Zyk....before we get another mechanic that gives more power, more pressing issues needs to be adressed. Like the complete imbalance regarding population. The Daedric Artifact mechanic looks nice on paper when the server is full and balanced. But just look at this Screenshot taken now at 7 AM on Vivec PC EU, arguably the most unbalanced campaign around:



So imagine playing on EP or DC right then and there. You are not only massively outnumbered and have everything stacked against you. No, the dominating faction will most likely get the artifact too. GG i guess?
Adding more imbalance to favor the faction that PvDoor against few opponents is NOT the solution. And while AD will have the map painted yellow for the next couple of hours....everyone even trying to oppose them will get slaughtered by the supposedly "best" PvPers around. Yeah, so not feeling too hyped atm to be honest...

I saw that pic and knew immediately it was PC EU

Checkmath

I think we did not get much details about the daedric artifacts yet.

I could imagine, that like a daedric artifact spawns every hour and only stays for maybe half an hour (at least that would be favorable, otherwise there would be this constant fight about the artifacts and keeps and map will be ignored). Also if they ever implement more of the weapons, then they must spawn at the same time, so that there are multiple powerful warriors at the same time and again to not disturb the general pvp game.

I dont think, that the spawn location nor the location of the carrier of such a weapon is shown on map. So basically the one, who finds it can keep it untill he dies. Afterwards it probably will be handled similarly like a scroll, which might cause big laggy fights around it, since everybody would like to take it up.

Anyway, it will be problematic, if there is always the presence of such a weapon, leading to unnecessary focus to them. Especially when one is dropped near the emp ring keeps, it will cause performance issues for sure.

Alcast

I really wish ZOS had talked a bit more about the performance updates, I think that part in their live stream was a bit short. And on top of that those improvements will not even be ready when the chapter releases. Need more hamsters for cyro servers.

The idea of the weapon is cool, finally something new. it will be broken af most likely and people will find ways to abuse it.

Tommy_The_Gun

What ZOS fails to realize is that in less than a month there will simply be an addon that will either show deadric artifacts spawn points or will even point a direct place where it has spawned. And forget about even trying to get as it will be camepd by destro-ulti farming ball groups that will use that artifacts 100% of time.

More OP buffs for ball groups is really the last thing PvP needs.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

What ZOS fails to realize is that in less than a month there will simply be an addon that will either show deadric artifacts spawn points or will even point a direct place where it has spawned. And forget about even trying to get as it will be camepd by destro-ulti farming ball groups that will use that artifacts 100% of time.

More OP buffs for ball groups is really the last thing PvP needs.

Well it is the season of the dracgon right

caeliusstarbreaker

People complained they would never get emp... so they gave an emp lottery and turned cyrodiil into an arcade game.

Merlight

Jules wrote: »

4) Will emp be able to simultaneously be Volendrung or will they be the solitary person incapable of doing so?
- Hopefully not as this is intended to be an emp counter, but never know.

If their intention is to lure the Emperor to the location and lock him down in jiggalag unable to do anything, then yes it'll be the Emp counter. Otherwise, anyone on the Emp's faction must be unable to wield it, lest it becomes the opposite of Emp counter.

ScruffyWhiskers

Great questions. I would much rather that they use a spawning artifact system to spread the fighting out to places that don't normally see much fighting. There is some great terrain on the map but it's always the inner ring that sees most of the fighting with the occasional fight at the 3 scroll keeps. The most fun fights I have had are those sprawling scroll battles from one side of the map to the other fighting in ruins and buildings that you didn't even know existed.

It should also be king of the hill for some power up time. You should have to control a flag or something to unlock the weapon so that it can be wielded. Otherwise its just a race to the cheese.

Give the faction that controls the flag and the artifact some bonus score points if they unlock it. Yeah, there would be some lag but less than a last emperor keep 3 faction battle since ideally you should spawn these way of the beaten path. And ideally you should spawn more than one artifact at a time. So get working on some more....armor, staff, etc.

ScruffyWhiskers

Also a ball group with this artifact farming Arrius, Glade or Fare would be bad.Really bad. You should die if you get within 10 feet of this and you are on the same alliance. Just have the lore say your soul is automatically harvested.

Anrose

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

Just have the lore say your soul is automatically harvested.

But... we don’t have souls. Remember?

Merlight

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

Otherwise its just a race to the cheese.

Sounds perfectly fitting Sheogorath theme.

Ghostbane

Anrose wrote: »

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

Just have the lore say your soul is automatically harvested.

But... we don’t have souls. Remember?

Some of us have bested Molag Bal.

Anrose

Ghostbane wrote: »

Anrose wrote: »

ScruffyWhiskers wrote: »

Just have the lore say your soul is automatically harvested.

But... we don’t have souls. Remember?

Some of us have bested Molag Bal.

Not even the Amulet of Kings could help me...

CatchMeTrolling

I know a lot of people are against people massing in one area but I actually think this will do the opposite. Keep in mind you have to make the decision to take or defend objectives plus scrolls while an artifact drops. This means there will be multiple places to mass rather than just one or two.

If anything this gives smaller groups the opportunity to farm larger groups with their own personal emp.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

CatchMeTrolling wrote: »

I know a lot of people are against people massing in one area but I actually think this will do the opposite. Keep in mind you have to make the decision to take or defend objectives plus scrolls while an artifact drops. This means there will be multiple places to mass rather than just one or two.

If anything this gives smaller groups the opportunity to farm larger groups with their own personal emp.

I'm just looking forward to the following posts:
1) AD is disadvantaged because of the spawn location
2) Volendrung buffs ball groups QQ
3) Volendrung too strong / not strong enough / balance qq
4) LAAAAAAAG
5) population advantages worsened by Volendrung

Ghostbane

I'm looking forward to the following posts being responded too:

1) The weapon doesn't look like it came from Sheogorath
2) The sound effect is not dramatic enough
3) Can we buy a dummy one to hang in our houses?

Feanor

I’m not hyped. Cyrodiil already is a huge divide - those that tryhard enough and the walking AP. I can’t imagine anything else than a huge QQ fest after this hits.

barshemm

My only theory is... wtf were they thinking? We have severe performance issues when most of the PVP population ends up in one place, for example final emp keep battles.

So, lets add a new mechanic to encourage everyone to gather in one spot.

ffs

WaltherCarraway

wts emp wep carry group token 700 USD

Dreyloch

I posted my thoughts on this subject here. Mainly, how is anyone gonna pick this thing up? The ground will be covered with caltrops like a dropped scroll right? Check my solution here....https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/453439/is-it-really-a-good-idea-to-introduce-cyrodiil-mechanics-that-will-increase-zergs#latest

I think most agree it's a cool concept to put in game. It's just the details of how that has us all worried just a little bit =/

Kikazaru

If this turns out to be successful, they may do more things similar to this. Maybe more daedric weapons! Maybe the wabbajack? So I can turn you all into little chickens.

Minno

I don't think it will be so random as to let it drop near the dominant faction.

And without knowing the full details, do you really think Sheo would give you a weapon without a harsh drawbacks? Besides it being fed with AP/kills, I imagine it would have some friendly fire mechanic and drain stamina from everyone it hits lol.

Also, they said you have to "prey" at the shrines. I imagine lots of people will PVP at the shines to avoid others from climbing the ladder mechanic (at least that is what I would do). But no idea if this is an actual map mechanic either.

casparian

Thank you for using the word "hasslesome". I am glad I met this word.

Joy_Division

I get many of your are jaded, but before we tell Wheeler he's wasting his time and making Cyrodiil any worse, can we at least see the mechanic in play for more than a few days before consigning it to the dustbin of stupid ideas in ESO's history?