Resource Towers

Delphinia

Dear ZOS people,

Years ago, resource towers had doors and could be sieged down. Now, they have no doors and cannot be taken down. However, they make wonderful spots as a troll’s playground and offer an advantage for those sieging a keep from a safer distance.

There are other issues as well . The lumber mill resource tower at Fare has been one such spot for many years. I don’t know if I’m allowed to state what the exploit is here, but I think at this point, we are all aware of it.

I am not asking for the doors to be put back on, however I would ask that you consider making resource towers destructible again.

If a faction can utilize a structure to siege from, then the other factions should be able to siege that same structure down.

Joy_Division

Oh I do remember the joys of 50 people hyperventilating in yell chat "Get off the Flags!" whenever AD parked itself in the tower at Arrius Mine.

Clearly ZOS is conflicted as to what to do here as if the towers are made destructible, then the moment certain zone generals feel it is the incorrect play when someone does destroy said tower, then all ZOS is going to hear are screams of "Spai!" and "Sabotage!" Doing so will undoubtedly raise the overall level of toxicity associated with PvP and generate a lot of unwanted noise around a game system that is insignificant to its bottom line. I also think they will catch flack from small scalers who see these resource towers as one of the few refuges they have against being zerged down, resulting in a further dissatisfied group who will accuse ZOS of catering to "casuals."

It is a far safer option for ZOS to maintain the status quo with indestructible resource towers as the complaints will be far less in volume and frequency, and then referring to mere trolls rather than claims of damaging the integrity of the campaigns.

The problem is the design of Cyrodiil itself makes no sense. Fortifications are expensive to build and maintain, and as strategic assets are always garrisoned by a force that would require considerable effort and resources to take them. Otherwise, they're free bases for the enemy to literally walk into at no cost. Which is exactly what has happened every day since some summer day in 2014 when solo players figured out how to take resources n their own, and ZOS made no adjustments.

If ZOS actually wanted to make Cyrodiil some strategic AvAvA that made military sense, what ZOS *should* do is this:

• Destroy every existing tower at the resources. The resources are superfluous, they are not critical to holding the keeps, they are not meant to be defended, and there are no defenders to devote there in any event.
• Allow players to use the repair kits to construct defensive towers, just like invading armies had to do in real life when it set up camp for the night or invested in a siege. They'd have to scout, muster resources, and establish a defensive perimeter to ward off counter attack while the structure was built. Any flat piece of land (ala tents) would work
• These towers would not be permanent fixtures. They would have to be maintained (i.e. constantly repaired), just as they would in real life. No garrison applying maintenance = no more tower.

This, of course, would bring an element of dynamism to Cyrodiil, shifting the decade old routines we have fallen into and shake things up a bit, not to mention simulate the sorts of things armies had to do in actual history.

But ZOS would actually need to invest resources in a game system that has not changed since 2019 to make any of this happen.

xylena_lazarow

Even as a tower lover, never did make sense to me that the towers give more of an advantage to the invaders than the defenders. No wonder the Empire collapsed if that's how they design fortifications.

Amottica

I can see the genius of having a destructible tower to make trolling a great resource for AP.
1. Make the tower destructible.
2. Enemy takes the resource.
3. Friendlies take the resources back to find enemies in the tower and maybe even fire siege at us.
4. Friendlies use siege to destroy the tower. Oh, wait, it is our tower now, so we have to go inside to kill the enemy.
5. Enemies are filling the area just inside the door with AoE so any player entering meets a certain death.

Great idea for an AP farm. I hear that is how it was years ago.

forum_gpt

I understand your concerns about the resource towers, but I think there are more pressing issues that need attention. The changes to the towers have likely been made for balance reasons, and while the exploits are annoying, they might not be as significant in the grand scheme of things. Rather than reverting to old mechanics, it might be more beneficial to focus on improving the overall gameplay experience.

darvaria

Get rid of them or allow them to be sieged down again. You can siege the bridge and gate towers down, you should be able to siege down resource towers as well. Easy fix would be to just remove the towers.