Campaigns post update 2?

JeffKnight · June 2014

It would be nice for our guilds to know what the campaign situation will be like post update 2. Many of us are trying to decide where to go.

This isn't just for ZOS to answer. As players/guilds we should try and make as many balanced campaigns as possible too.

frwinters_ESO · June 2014

I feel Wabbajack is still going to be the most populated going forward and I have been on it since day 1. I am not moving until they change the servers in 1.3.

JeffKnight · June 2014

Regardless, we need to know what is going on game-wise. It is said (rumored) that the campaign changes won't be until update 3. If that's true, then we as a community have to make sure that we populate campaigns more evenly this time, or else we'll all be trying to play on Wabba 24/7 and PvP will die because of queues.

Halrloprillalar · June 2014

JeffKnight wrote: »

Regardless, we need to know what is going on game-wise. It is said (rumored) that the campaign changes won't be until update 3. If that's true, then we as a community have to make sure that we populate campaigns more evenly this time, or else we'll all be trying to play on Wabba 24/7 and PvP will die because of queues.

queues don't kill pvp

lag, bugs, rollbacks, exploits and zergballing kill pvp.

I don't think you can herd the 'community' into going anywhere in particular. It's basically a popularity contest with guilds and campaigns. I'd wager Wabba will still be really busy due to its history, although some 'dead' campaigns may see more action now that a lot of the initial exploits have been closed. I would honestly prefer a lower pop server to avoid the 5 min lag spikes or 50+ pulsar trains.
Probably best to wait and see.

SC0TY999 · June 2014

@Halrloprillalar regarding the lag I take it you're NA server?

And from my understanding NA still suffers with major lag?

I'm literally about to start a new thread about lag in Cyrodiil, it's getting beyond a joke now and the clowns / cowboys that are Zenimax are full of s@*t. They keep telling the Europeans that when the server is moved to Europe it should reduce the lag I find that very hard to believe seeing as NA are getting lag so it's nothing to do with ping times? It clearly comes down to their s@*t coding, the proof is in the pudding everyone states that the game was more reliable and smoother in beta. ZOS what the f@@K have you people done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Halrloprillalar · June 2014

SC0TY999 wrote: »

@Halrloprillalar regarding the lag I take it you're NA server?

And from my understanding NA still suffers with major lag?

I'm literally about to start a new thread about lag in Cyrodiil, it's getting beyond a joke now and the clowns / cowboys that are Zenimax are full of s@*t. They keep telling the Europeans that when the server is moved to Europe it should reduce the lag I find that very hard to believe seeing as NA are getting lag so it's nothing to do with ping times? It clearly comes down to their s@*t coding, the proof is in the pudding everyone states that the game was more reliable and smoother in beta. ZOS what the f@@K have you people done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea NA Wabba (which is pop locked at all but the really weird hours) gets frequent lag spikes that turn the game into a powerpoint /skating rink, and last anywhere from 30s to minutes.

To @ZOS credit, they have gotten less frequent than just after Craglorn (when it was essentially unplayable), but they have not really 'fixed it' whatever is the root cause - which seems to have been introduced (or re-introduced?) since that patch.

And I'm also not talking about the large group player dc related lag, just standard group combat action delay that seems to be server-wide.

Imperator_Clydus · June 2014

Halrloprillalar wrote: »

SC0TY999 wrote: »

@Halrloprillalar regarding the lag I take it you're NA server?

And from my understanding NA still suffers with major lag?

I'm literally about to start a new thread about lag in Cyrodiil, it's getting beyond a joke now and the clowns / cowboys that are Zenimax are full of s@*t. They keep telling the Europeans that when the server is moved to Europe it should reduce the lag I find that very hard to believe seeing as NA are getting lag so it's nothing to do with ping times? It clearly comes down to their s@*t coding, the proof is in the pudding everyone states that the game was more reliable and smoother in beta. ZOS what the f@@K have you people done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea NA Wabba (which is pop locked at all but the really weird hours) gets frequent lag spikes that turn the game into a powerpoint /skating rink, and last anywhere from 30s to minutes.

To @ZOS credit, they have gotten less frequent than just after Craglorn (when it was essentially unplayable), but they have not really 'fixed it' whatever is the root cause - which seems to have been introduced (or re-introduced?) since that patch.

And I'm also not talking about the large group player dc related lag, just standard group combat action delay that seems to be server-wide.

This shouldn't really come as a surprise, but ZOS did not intend for virtually everybody to be on one campaign, and the rest to either be lopsided or dead. The problem with Wabbajack is a simple one. There are too many people there. Logic dictates if you do not want to have a substandard experience, do not play there. This is likely an issue ZOS will never fix because the megaserver literally cannot handle the amount of people there.

With that being said, unless there are a decent amount of groups who actually want quality PvP, it will be difficult to gauge if there will be any other quality campaigns. Auriel's Bow is dominated by AD with virtually zero presence from DC and EP. Bloodthorn is dominated by DC with a decent EP presence and barely any AD. I can't account for the other campaigns because they are beyond dead and not worth considering.

It will be interesting to see where people go. I'm assuming Wabbajack will be worse as more players try to transfer there after campaign reset. I'd probably wager it would be best if players either went to Auriel's Bow or Bloodthorn, since they actually do have populations, just not very balanced. ZOS could make this easier and remove most of the dead campaigns, but due to ill-proper planning on their part, that's not an option at this point.

We'll see what happens. Given the current situation of AvA on most campaigns, the community wanted PvP to be this lopsided and uninteresting. I cannot see much changing as people are either motivated to farm the emperorship, have zero competition and just farm others at their gates, or they just want the easy alliance-wide boosts without any threat of resistance.

Halrloprillalar · June 2014

If they don't think their megaserver can handle the pop, then lower the pop cap, it's that simple. I'd rather wait in queue and not lag. I don't wanna hear about 'Cyrodiil performance fixes' if they have nothing to do with performance but rather server capacity. Nothing worse than being lied to.

They could realllly easily fix the population problem by having AP gains scale inversely with total population of your faction, that way if you are literally alone on the campaign and gank someone you could score 20k AP

Krinaman · June 2014

The reality is we really only have the pop for maybe two servers. So pick two, any two and declare them the unofficial PvP servers. Leave the rest to be dominated by a single faction for PVE buffs and questing.

Halrloprillalar · June 2014

Krinaman wrote: »

The reality is we really only have the pop for maybe two servers. So pick two, any two and declare them the unofficial PvP servers. Leave the rest to be dominated by a single faction for PVE buffs and questing.

you mean, exactly what is happening now basically?

Krinaman · June 2014

Halrloprillalar wrote: »

Krinaman wrote: »

The reality is we really only have the pop for maybe two servers. So pick two, any two and declare them the unofficial PvP servers. Leave the rest to be dominated by a single faction for PVE buffs and questing.

you mean, exactly what is happening now basically?

Yes, we have Wabba as one. Just need another.

Imperator_Clydus · June 2014

Halrloprillalar wrote: »

If they don't think their megaserver can handle the pop, then lower the pop cap, it's that simple. I'd rather wait in queue and not lag. I don't wanna hear about 'Cyrodiil performance fixes' if they have nothing to do with performance but rather server capacity. Nothing worse than being lied to.

They could realllly easily fix the population problem by having AP gains scale inversely with total population of your faction, that way if you are literally alone on the campaign and gank someone you could score 20k AP

Well truth be told is some of those "Cyrodiil performance fixes" were lowering the population cap. This is an on-going process that ZOS will continue to tinker with until they finally find a balancing point where they can have numbers with decent performance.

While that might scare off AP farmers, you would merely be encouraging bad behavior on dead campaigns and discouraging PvP. The truth of the matter is ZOS needs to regulate the campaigns. They need to cut out most of them, remove or severely cripple guesting, increase the transfer cost to a ridiculous amount, and more or less force players to stick to one campaign.