Hammer and scroll "gifting"

mortalous

Hello, all of my fellow ESO lovers! For those of you who do not love this game as much as me, then you can also listen in... but no bad comments

All joking aside, I have loved ESO for a long time and have played off and on since beta. I remember fondly watching (and playing with) some of the more well-known streams of old, who would often 1vx and also hold streamer "town halls" to talk about ESO.

I would consume all the "math" to figure out just the best combo to help my lack of skill, in order to become better. I have held world records on the PvE side of things, in several of the original OG trials, but PVP is where it is at for me .... and ironically, where I come back to in order to get a semblance of actual player versus player.

Admittedly, my son has an account as well and this is the main focus of my coming back recently.

What have I found in pve? A lot of changes that I am sure pvpers love. However, PVP is a little different for me.

I won't go over all of my own personal thoughts on each and every aspect of things I like, love, or hate about current PVP since any regular current pvper will already know these examples to your core by now since I am already tired of some of the silly stuff too.

The topic that really seems to be hurting alliance-locked pvp campaigns is "gifting". Let me explain my term, gifting.

I am able to play a lot. I work in a job that allows me to work on the same computer I game on, and I can do this 24/7. So, being that I now have a passion for ESO again, I see a lot happening on Gray Host.

The point of this campaign is to prevent alliance hopping. Being that alt accounts are a thing, you can obviously circumvent that by simply having another account. However, the goal of the ZoS team is to make this alliance locked.

One of the reasons, one could argue, is to keep the integrity of the alliances (somewhat) by preventing fast switching, etc.

What I find affects the MOST of PVP on this campaign is the "gifting" of hammers and scrolls, like clockwork, daily. This changes the daily PVP drastically. What am I referring to?

Well, there are well-known "fluid" patterns of alliance participation levels at certain parts of the day/night of the 24/7 cycle. Some factions have full pop lock during certain time frames a lot more often than others, so this can be taken advantage of.

The gifting "problem" is when someone grabs the hammer (if you know the "random spots" you can wait for the hammer or at least that is how it used to be) and then runs it DIRECTLY to the other faction even while their own faction denounces the behavior. There are strategic reasons to NOT run the hammer into battle, too. (or there are so that can can PURPOSELY lose it as quickly as possible).

The same happens when scrolls are not defended or are taken to the enemy. This all happens while the general populace of that faction sleeps or is offline, but if you are online, you can see it play out.

Why is this novel of mine being written? Well, I think there is an easy solution to this. Make it so that you cannot actively pick up the SAME scroll, or another hammer in the case of hammers until after a timer is met. Why?

There are a handful of people who I see called out in chat every night EDT. For example, they will take hammers or scrolls into a tower when being chased by 36 enemies. They lose hammer of course, but there is no one else in the faction who is able to pick it up because of the positioning. If you have one faction who is at pop lock at 2 am and one that is 2 bar, it's kind of only a game of numbers/math at that point when you have sabotage from your own side.

If we were to introduce a "pickup timer" on the same scroll, or for a hammer, then this would prevent "bad actors for the faction" from ruining a game mechanic that is obviously being bypassed for the benefit of individuals at the sacrifice of the hard work that is put in during the thrust of the day for the alliances.

You would have more people running scrolls and hammers, and you would prevent hours of gameplay of many of people from being snuffed out by a simple act that happens at 1:30 to 2:30 am each day/night. Even during the day, this happens, but to a lesser extent since there are more people awake.

So, am I just crazy or does it seem that 2 or 3 people shouldn't be able to easily had over game mechanics to factions that they are loyal to OTHER than the current tabard they are wearing?

36 hours or 48 hours and the PVP scroll or hammer "touch timer" would be removed similar to a vamp bite, etc. It would be a very easy change to make and take away if it didn't work out. Thoughts?

mortalous

Additionally, I forgot to add that the timer could simply not start until say... like 4 hours later. That way, you could actively keep fighting and exchanging the scroll or hammer during that battle/war window, but then have an ultimate timer kick in for a period of time. Just some thoughts.

Telel

If you think that some scrubs are using alts to help friends score boost, trade AP, and other such acts of patheticness there is only one thing you can do.

1) NEVER confront them directly. Many of these things are parasitic in nature and need you to pay attention to them. So they act out as loudly and pathetically as they can. Without the disappointment of others they won't get the food they rely on to feel relevant.

2) Get video , or at least screen captures of the individuals who're abusing game mechanicss to boost AP gains and team scores. Especially if they're doing it to 'punish' someone on a team in an attempt to harass them from the game.

Make sure to get their @ names if at all possible. So it's easier to keep track of the faceless herd of dissapointments who need to do this to accomplish menial task.

3) Report them. Encourage others you know to report them. Share the evidence via some medium such as you tube or twitch.

Make sure to point out they're score boosting and AP trading. Some scrubs may try to play the 'lol this is war so i spai' line but ZOS has expressly made AP trading a big nono. Also make sure to mention anything they say about trying to force individuals out of the game.

4) When you get the robo email from the email bot reply to it. Make sure to include a link to the video showing the scrubs resorting to these actions due to their lack of general competence.

Insure anyone else doing the same also sends in those links. The more the better.

5) Laugh at how hard some people need to work to accomplish so little in a game that's been made ridiculously easy, and keep enjoying life.

Remember. K/D and AP/hour mean nothing in a game mode involving point control. If they were actually skilled at it they'd not need to resort to these methods.

If they claim they're doing it because of some one else in the game just laugh harder. They've after all chosen to let some random name on the internet have a massive amount of control over them, and their actions. All so they can then go on to be a massive disappointment to thousands of people that've done nothing to them.

geonsocal

@Telel

mortalous

Thank you very much for reading, and responding with a thoughtful post! I will definitely take some evidence since I have now installed software to help with recordings.

I did directly confront someone through, in private chat and will probably just record from now on Thanks again

Marcus684

mortalous wrote: »

Thank you very much for reading, and responding with a thoughtful post! I will definitely take some evidence since I have now installed software to help with recordings.

I did directly confront someone through, in private chat and will probably just record from now on Thanks again

Very good idea. Confronting someone will often result in disciplinary action being taken against you for "harassment" or some other behavioral violation. Clever investigators can get people to incriminate themselves but most of us just end up doing more harm than good.

A lot of what you are describing is not a ToS violation but rather just poor sportsmanship by people who only care about winning. ZOS has been silent for years on the topic of spies and using the hammer and scrolls to troll or farm for AP, so I've just decided to accept that sometimes my alliance will be on the receiving end of this and find enjoyment somewhere else.

IndyMike26

The only way to fix this is if they were to let you assassinate players in your own faction. But clearly that could be misused just as easily