The Cyrodiil changes not that we deserve, but the ones we needed

ADawg

Putting down some of my ideas for Cyrodiil changes in the hopes that maybe one day a Dev will run with them.
TL;DR we need changes in Cyrodiil to help with overall health of large scale PVP and draw in more participants...here's how:

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DEFENSE MECHANICS
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Currently there is little in the way of defending against a much larger zerg group. What we have now is a handful of defenders deploy siege on their keep walls and watch helplessly as over-healing, siege shields, Emperors, and super weapons *cough* hammer *cough* turn their fortified fortress of stone into butter. Then the zerg bursts in faster than a parent barging into Timmy's room playing XBox too late to wreak havok on the poor working class casuals defending their keep.

How can we fix this? Simple, by adding DEFENSIVE MECHANICS

1. Give players the ability to fortify their defenses.
2. Add tasks that players can perform to bolster gate/wall health
3. Add traps or "spikes" to funnel ball groups into choke points. These would require TIME to build and not be a freebie.
4. Add Champion NPCs that players can unlock via tasks/quests. Champions would be mini-boss level difficulty to help defenders
5. Rework the Resource system upgrade over time to be more meaningful, the system already exists, make it better. Add more benefit to holding territory over time thus making losing the territory more difficult!
6. Add spell crafting system where enchanters/magicka fans can create proc effects that occur within their keeps ie lightning strikes, fireballs, dragon spawns, etc. COOL STUFF. Think of one-off type events that magicka players can build into the keep that trigger off events such as:
7. Outer door breached: Dragon spawns and strafes the inner courtyard and consumes the benefit
8. Inner Door breached: a wave of flames is spawned by an elder mage NPC that does enough damage to punish the group in the doorway area.
9. you know...COOL STUFF

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In World Events
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These are basically events that occur to add another element of complexity to the territory control game. Things such as escort missions, artifacts, etc.

So how can we do this? Like so:

1. Add escort caravans. A wagon with gold/resources spawns at predefined points and travel on pre-defined paths. These caravans bring supplies to and from locations thus resulting in benefits for the factions. *Points up* using the list above, these events can tie directly into defensive mechanics or even offensive mechanics.
2. Escort caravans will have an entourage of NPCs that are fairly tough to defeat and return to their caravan after pursuing players for a short distance and/or defending the caravan.
3. Currently we already have the hammer artifact (personally I think the hammer is stupid and only makes zergs even stronger, hence I play Ravenwatch, but I digress) It would be nice to have other artifacts, especially ones that offer some counter play to the hammer.
4. Artifacts should spawn similar to the hammer, on pre-defined but randomized locations. Securing these artifacts and bringing them to a keep (similar to the scroll mechanics) will offer the keep some added benefit for the faction.
5. Examples of benefits for the faction:
6. Magical effects that harm enemy players within the keep
7. Benefits that aid friendly players within the keep
8. Benefits that aid NPCs within the keep
9. Heal debuffs on attacking players within the keep OMFG MAJOR DEFILE???? or a super defile that actually works

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EMPEROR MECHANICS
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This system needs rework. Currently the highest AP player in the faction enjoys Emperor status when the "ring" keeps are captured. This creates an unhealthy AP grind fest that leads to cringeworthy exploiting and sleep deprivation. The nerd that plays the most does not always equal the best leader for a faction...There might be a real world leader with charisma and energy that can lead a faction to victory that has...oh I don't know....a JOB and is unable to grind out countless hours of AP to become the EMPEROR!!! its honestly sad.

That said, we need a better system to figure out Emperor. Some small fixes:

1. Remove offline Emperors from maintaining the title. Nothing is more annoying than helping someone gain Emperor, only for them to be offline.
2. Have an online system for the highest ranking leader to maintain the title. If a higher ranking person logs on, the title will pass. Can evaluate every 15 minutes or 30 minutes or something

Since Emperors offer an amazing benefit to their faction, The other factions need a counter mechanic. I propose the CHAMPION MECHANIC
What is this? Basically think of it as a mini-Emperor buff for factions who are not in power.

1. Essentially another buff system, that will be less impressive, to help combat an aggressor Emperor.
2. This Champion Title would be applied to the player who is eligible for Emperor on the factions not in control.
3. If no current Emperor is in power, then no one should be Champion.
4. This can be tied to a defensive condition, requiring the champion to be near a keep.
5. This would ensure the Champions are not using their buffs for offensive play, but rather defensive counter play.
6. Could even make the Champion buff quite strong if it is tied to being near a defending keep

I have many more ideas, but lets see what the community does with these ones. I'm sure I will get flamed and roasted for it, but I don't care. The PVP community is dwindling to irrelevance and soon it won't matter anyway!

Crown

Similar suggestions were made in 2015.. what we need is for there to be people on both the management and dev teams who play all types of PvP so that they understand why these are reasonable and viable suggestions, and for them to ask for and take advice from experienced and intelligent players of all types rather than just sensationalist streamer types who don't actually do much other than promoting their own awesomeness (if there are any others than that type, almost nobody knows about them).

Many of us have made many good suggestions (including the ones you've made) through the years. None have ever been accepted, and the one dev who told us they were trying to push for some of them left the company in 2019.

This is still one of the better large (ish) scale PvP games out there, but it could be so much better..

ADawg

Crown wrote: »

Similar suggestions were made in 2015.. what we need is for there to be people on both the management and dev teams who play all types of PvP so that they understand why these are reasonable and viable suggestions, and for them to ask for and take advice from experienced and intelligent players of all types rather than just sensationalist streamer types who don't actually do much other than promoting their own awesomeness (if there are any others than that type, almost nobody knows about them).

I plan to go to an event in person, in cosplay costume soon. I will ask directly

CrazyKitty

Crown wrote: »

Similar suggestions were made in 2015.. what we need is for there to be people on both the management and dev teams who play all types of PvP so that they understand why these are reasonable and viable suggestions, and for them to ask for and take advice from experienced and intelligent players of all types rather than just sensationalist streamer types who don't actually do much other than promoting their own awesomeness (if there are any others than that type, almost nobody knows about them).

Many of us have made many good suggestions (including the ones you've made) through the years. None have ever been accepted, and the one dev who told us they were trying to push for some of them left the company in 2019.

This is still one of the better large (ish) scale PvP games out there, but it could be so much better..

Wasn't that departure the last dedicated PvP dev on staff?