Is it time to lift the alliance lock on Gray Host?

fred4

PC EU player here. The servers were upgraded in spring and PvP is relatively lag free, but it seems the population caps are still at a historic low. Not that it matters, because it also seems the player demand for Cyrodiil has waned. Yes, Gray Host is still alive, but it's far from it's heyday. In previous years Gray Host (or equivalent) were buzzing, as was Ravenwatch on PC EU, and even Blackreach to an extent. Now you basically only have one choice for large scale action: Gray Host.

I've made all kinds of friends, because I play both PvE and PvP. I want to play with them in the one populated instance of Cyro from time to time, but some of us are locked to different alliances. We can't play together in Gray Host. Given the lack of options - Gray Host is the only place to find large scale battles most of the time - do you think it's time, at least for a while, to lift the alliance lock on that campaign?

OBJnoob

Yes

I don't play in GH so... This is just an opinion, and not a super educated one...

I think lifting the alliance lock would be fine. It seems to me the alliance lock is a tool to prevent everybody from jumping on the winning team. Which is important when that's an option for people. It's important in the lesser populated campaigns.

GH, being the most populous campaign on all servers, really isn't subject to this problem because it's always so full. It doesn't matter if 10 yellows want to jump on red because they're probably going to have to wait in que to do so. And likewise their spots will be filled by the yellows in que. And the population of red can not exceed the cap. So there's no issue.

Amottica

Yes

There has never been anything substantiated to show that the lack of an alliance lock caused real issues. If they did cause real issues that were anything other than minor and insignificant Zenimax would not be perming any campaign to work without alliance lock.

Think about it for a moment. Why would anyone fight for one team then swap side and fight to help another team? So yea, Not a real issue.

As for a friendly player helping the other team, A great many players have alt accounts and Zenimax has stated it is perfectly legit to have and play on alt accounts as long as they are not automated. So yea, there will and are spies and alliance lock does nothing to stop that.

Freilauftomate

No

Please no, because i experienced what would happen last year. Gray Host was broken for about 6 months (on Playstation EU). A maintenance in the middle of the PvP event in July/August 2022 made Gray Host unplayable for almost everyone (except for one youtuber and some other players). Performance was bad before, but this maintenance completely broke it (even on an empty server you would die to guards because you could not use skills etc.). So people started playing on PS NA server instead. Some started playing on PC. And a lot of players just stopped playing PvP and ESO because they didn't want to level and farm everything again.

What was left on PS EU started playing on Blackreach, because for some reason performance was much better there (even with full server). Blackreach has the same rules Gray Host has, but no alliance lock. So exactly what you are asking for here.

At first we were happy to be able to play at all. And it was interesting to play against your own guildmates, friends and your own alliance without spending alliance change tokens, leaving guilds, losing friends...

But then the problems began. Guildmasters started kicking players for playing in other alliances. Groupleaders refused to play on Blackreach. AP boosting and cheating was way worse. Sometimes groups would try to take a keep with a big zerg, and when they saw their attack failing, they quickly swapped char and alliance to collect the huge AP tick for defending the keep they just tried to take. Ballgroups would first farm enemy homekeeps and scrolls, and then switch char and alliance to mock everyone in zonechat. I honestly don't remember everything that happened back then, but it wasn't good for the PvP community.

There is a reason why some people like to play on Blackreach and most players prefer Gray Host. I don't think your idea to get rid of Gray Host and just add another Blackreach would be good for the game.

I am afraid there is nothing they can do to save ESO PvP at this point. The trust is gone. Most people lost hope long ago. ZOS would have to invest a lot more money and add expensive new resources to the game (like PvP developers, better servers for PvP...). And they made it pretty clear that's not what they want to do. PvP went from their biggest selling point to an embarrassing story about neglect and failure. From my perspective it looks like nobody in their team wants to talk about it, nobody wants to touch it, and everyone in their team would like to forget about the whole thing as soon as possible.

IZZEFlameLash

No

It is there for a reason. And you are welcome to play non-locked campaign of Blackreach where trolls thrive. I do not miss blatant crossfaction trolls that would get their target faction players (usually whichever side they are on) griefed.

DaisyRay

Yes

I said yes only because I would love to play on other factions in GH sometimes to play with my friends, but I don't want to be faction locked to DC or EP since AD is my home. So I just stay AD every camp lol.

NotoriousBTK

No

If people wanted to not be alliance locked, wouldn't they go to Blackreach? I always assumed GH was the most populated because of the alliance lock. There's no other difference, is there?

fred4

Yes

NotoriousBTK wrote: »

If people wanted to not be alliance locked, wouldn't they go to Blackreach? I always assumed GH was the most populated because of the alliance lock. There's no other difference, is there?

To the best of my recollection the predecessors of GH, and those of Ravenwatch, were the only 30-day campaigns in the past. Blackreach, or equivalent, was 7 days. I forget exactly when this changed, whether the last change involved a name change and whether people were forced to reaffirm their choice of home campaign or alliance lock.

Reality is that only one CP campaign and, for some time but not anymore, the no CP campaign is/was regularly fully populated on PC EU. IMO people go where the action is. It's that simple. Once a campaign is established as the "main" campaign, that doesn't easily change. Today's population isn't large enough to fill two. My best best guess is that's why Ravenwatch is now also as empty as Blackreach instead of the playerbase distributing more evenly between GH and Ravenwatch. I know players who prefer no CP and, well, I haven't asked, but I bet they now go to GH simply for lack of action in Ravenwatch outside of an ever narrowing prime time window.

I get the concerns about griefing. The poll says that's the priority, fair. That said, your position likely depends on how you view your role in the game. I'm possibly both technically better yet more casual than I used to be. I don't have much ambition for myself as a player anymore. I just role-play the character I'm currently on and am looking to have fun with my friends, whoever happens to be online at the time.

Poss

No

Definitely not. Remember the days before alliance lock and it was carnage. People switching characters to gift scrolls, turn people’s siege, troll in zone chat, reveal players in sneak, placing 20 oils down on the outer so no one could place ballistas to name a few things

Alliance lock was added for a reason and was a great QOL improvement.

You wanna play with your friends from other alliances then go play blackreach or ravenwatch

IZZEFlameLash

No

Poss wrote: »

Definitely not. Remember the days before alliance lock and it was carnage. People switching characters to gift scrolls, turn people’s siege, troll in zone chat, reveal players in sneak, placing 20 oils down on the outer so no one could place ballistas to name a few things

Alliance lock was added for a reason and was a great QOL improvement.

You wanna play with your friends from other alliances then go play blackreach or ravenwatch

Yeeep, and Blackreach is still like that. Not saying Gray Host is completely free of this kind of act, but it is very rare.