Regarding 1/23 Reddit AuA - The Absence of Brian Wheeler

TheBull · January 2015

Is he even part of the team anymore? Seriously, we have not seen or heard from him for months, since the removal of forward camps and his "piece of the Cyrodiil puzzle" statement.

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌, I'm not trolling you. I coming at you from the perspective of a everyday pvpr. A pvpr dedicated enough to be in the top 10 of every main campaign since launch.

There are some really pressing issues concerning Cyrodiil. Issues that reach far beyond the 1.2 lag issue, or Emp trading and even AoE caps/zergs. Issues that strike at the heart of competition.

With the constant and continued night caps, players are asking themselves what for? Why do I even care about the score? If they cannot answer those questions they put the game down. This is what we are seeing now.

I'm not going to pretend to be a designer. I do not know what is possible from a programming perspective either. I'm not going to leave a bunch of "solutions". I'm just here to say as a gamer, a dedicated pvpr, we have a serious problem.

If you are still with us, you thoughts on the issue would go a long way and be greatly appreciated. We don't need definite plans with timelines, just your thoughts would help. What you would like to see done maybe, or even if you agree there is an issue.

Thank you for your time.

jluceyub17_ESO · January 2015

The night capping issue isn't really an issue. It's Aussie players PvPing. The nature of MMO's is that they're always moving, ZoS isn't going to shut down PvP because you went to sleep.

TheBull · January 2015

It is what it is currently, and it's most definitely an issue. Come to Cyrodiil and ask. What ZOS decides to do is up to them.

tinythinker · January 2015

TheBull wrote: »

Is he even part of the team anymore?

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/2tepef/eso_reddit_ama_from_1pm_to_3pm_est_on_friday/

[–]ZOS_GinaBruno [score hidden] 11 minutes ago

We can confirm that Brian does still work at ZOS.

TheBull · January 2015

tinythinker wrote: »

TheBull wrote: »

Is he even part of the team anymore?

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/2tepef/eso_reddit_ama_from_1pm_to_3pm_est_on_friday/

[–]ZOS_GinaBruno [score hidden] 11 minutes ago

We can confirm that Brian does still work at ZOS.

Good to know. Good to know I wasn't the only one wondering aswell.

jkirchner71ub17_ESO2 · January 2015

"night capping" could be countered with some sort of score "handicap" and this has been suggested numerous times. Sure it is the "Aussie" primetime when a large portion of the community has logged off - ergo the unmentioned guild, who was once in AD, doing what they do to run the campaign score up. But it is up to Zenimax to figure this out and how to compensate for it but it is unlikely we will see this, especially in the midst of the news we just got. They sadly now have bigger fish to fry

.

tinythinker · January 2015

jkirchner71ub17_ESO2 wrote: »

"night capping" could be countered with some sort of score "handicap" and this has been suggested numerous times. Sure it is the "Aussie" primetime when a large portion of the community has logged off - ergo the unmentioned guild, who was once in AD, doing what they do to run the campaign score up. But it is up to Zenimax to figure this out and how to compensate for it but it is unlikely we will see this, especially in the midst of the news we just got. They sadly now have bigger fish to fry .

If they get the time...
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/147616/population-imbalance-nighcapping-etc

jambam817_ESO · January 2015

people are complaining because the PVP zones are active at night? Because of time zone differences and the lack of (well maybe there's a few) p**psockers, stuff gets capped when you're sleeping/working??

I gotta say, this is not even their concern. Its a 24/7 game. Unless they put completely unrealistic and unfair "handicaps" on night time players, there is nothing they can do. And if they do put "handicaps" on anyone, it won't take B2P to kill this game

tinythinker · January 2015

jambam817_ESO wrote: »

people are complaining because the PVP zones are active at night? Because of time zone differences and the lack of (well maybe there's a few) p**psockers, stuff gets capped when you're sleeping/working??

I gotta say, this is not even their concern. Its a 24/7 game. Unless they put completely unrealistic and unfair "handicaps" on night time players, there is nothing they can do. And if they do put "handicaps" on anyone, it won't take B2P to kill this game

Limiting when campaigns are open or penalizing people for playing at certain times are not the way to go, but changing/adding some basic mechanics that require more effort to dominate the map/make it harder to maintain that domination could help.

Rescorla_ESO · January 2015

The #1 improvement ZOS can do to ensure the long term success of this game is to figure out how to make the PVP in Cyrodil meaningful.

"Meaningful" is obviously a subjective term but ZOS already knows the PVP game needs a lot of improvement in the meaningful area. ZOS knows it because a couple of months after the game was released they actively sought feedback from a couple of the hardcore PVP guilds active at that time. Unfortunately for whatever unknown reasons they haven't been able to address most of the feedback given to them yet.

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌ was a part of that summit with the hardcore PVP guilds and IIRC he agreed with most of the feedback given to him. I can't attend the AMA so someone who will please ask him about the status on the feedback given to him by the PVP guilds.

gw2only1b14_ESO · January 2015

jkirchner71ub17_ESO2 wrote: »

"night capping" could be countered with some sort of score "handicap" and this has been suggested numerous times. Sure it is the "Aussie" primetime when a large portion of the community has logged off - ergo the unmentioned guild, who was once in AD, doing what they do to run the campaign score up. But it is up to Zenimax to figure this out and how to compensate for it but it is unlikely we will see this, especially in the midst of the news we just got. They sadly now have bigger fish to fry .

Actually seen a post before in the PVP alliance section just have servers that are open 12hrs then off 12 hrs plus they can then do a daily maintenance on them to keep them less lag free etc from launch they had bunch of servers for pvp no longer in use sounds plausible and stops night capping

Jahosefat · January 2015

The "this is a 24/7 game" and "the middle of the night is my primetime" arguments only go so far; if there was actually competition between the alliances at night I would agree but that is not the case, nor has it ever been. Early on it was AD that did this every night, now it is EP. They basically take the map uncontested and get a ton of points for it; ruing any competitive atmosphere around the actual score of the campaign. So generally people don't care about the overall score of the campaign and just focus on personal/guild success. This is thus a major game mechanic of Cyrodiil that has more or less failed since launch. Efforts to combat this (low pop bonuses) created its own host of problems.

I respect that there are many people from outside North America that play on the NA server, and I agree they should be able to play whenever they want. But there should be some incentive or mechanic that drives the oceanic players to disperse amongst the three alliances, and not just stack in one alliance.

TLDR: The problem is not oceanic players playing during their primetime (or late nighters in NA), it is all of them stacking in one alliance.

Tankqull · January 2015

gw2only1b14_ESO wrote: »

jkirchner71ub17_ESO2 wrote: »

"night capping" could be countered with some sort of score "handicap" and this has been suggested numerous times. Sure it is the "Aussie" primetime when a large portion of the community has logged off - ergo the unmentioned guild, who was once in AD, doing what they do to run the campaign score up. But it is up to Zenimax to figure this out and how to compensate for it but it is unlikely we will see this, especially in the midst of the news we just got. They sadly now have bigger fish to fry .

Actually seen a post before in the PVP alliance section just have servers that are open 12hrs then off 12 hrs plus they can then do a daily maintenance on them to keep them less lag free etc from launch they had bunch of servers for pvp no longer in use sounds plausible and stops night capping

just copy EvE´s model, place the server cluster on iceland and merge the pvp of EU+NA tada 24/7 population on your servers without any "night" caps.
and as Iceland is quite in the middle of EU and A everyone wil have comparable (***) pings.

ZOS_BrianWheeler · January 2015

Some of the things mentioned in the Summit (and on these forums) will be addressed in Update 6, such as Siege damage, keep wall health, and underscore bonus time frames in the 30 day campaigns. We're also adding Veteran 13 and 14 gear to the rewards you can receive in Cyrodiil, in Update 6.

We are well aware there are more things to address in Cyrodiil (making fights more meaningful and general population balance to name a few), but to be direct, our immediate primary focus is addressing the performance spikes. Granted, I don't know C++ and digging into the nitty-gritty of our net-code and engine, but we do have people that are working on this complex issue. I hear it every day, not just from you (the players) but internally too. We are working on it, and will continue to do so.

The population change was not something we did lightly and while the deer and torchbug nuke was seen as something a bit silly, it does help in the overall game performance in Cyrodiil. We know there are more recent concerns with population and finding fights, and we are looking at addressing those in the future as well. There are several changes in Update 6 with underlying systems to tweak and push performance to achieve improvements, and I know they are not nearly as fancy as new systems and new gear, but all of that is for nothing if performance is not up to par.

So, thank you for continuing to voice your concerns and suggestions. We do see them, and are dedicated to improving the PVP experience in ESO for all our current and future players.

See you all on the battlefield!

Lionxoft · January 2015

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌,

You forgot to mention the Imperial City in anything else but your signature.

Jitterbug · January 2015

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

We

"My friend and me"

sry, couldn't resist

snowmanflvb14_ESO · January 2015

gw2only1b14_ESO wrote: »

jkirchner71ub17_ESO2 wrote: »

"night capping" could be countered with some sort of score "handicap" and this has been suggested numerous times. Sure it is the "Aussie" primetime when a large portion of the community has logged off - ergo the unmentioned guild, who was once in AD, doing what they do to run the campaign score up. But it is up to Zenimax to figure this out and how to compensate for it but it is unlikely we will see this, especially in the midst of the news we just got. They sadly now have bigger fish to fry .

Actually seen a post before in the PVP alliance section just have servers that are open 12hrs then off 12 hrs plus they can then do a daily maintenance on them to keep them less lag free etc from launch they had bunch of servers for pvp no longer in use sounds plausible and stops night capping

So your suggestion is to prevent people who are playing the game from enjoying it during their prime time because other players are asleep?

Blud · January 2015

jkirchner71ub17_ESO2 wrote: »

"night capping" could be countered with some sort of score "handicap" and this has been suggested numerous times. Sure it is the "Aussie" primetime when a large portion of the community has logged off - ergo the unmentioned guild, who was once in AD, doing what they do to run the campaign score up. But it is up to Zenimax to figure this out and how to compensate for it but it is unlikely we will see this, especially in the midst of the news we just got. They sadly now have bigger fish to fry .

This at one time AD guild wouldn't now be in EP, would it? Because I play with an AD Aussie guild and most of the time we are looking at a mainly red map. If we go out with 12-16 of us to do some smallish scale pvp, to cap a tower, to do anything, we surely are met by at least 3x our number anywhere we go. It sucks the fun out of the campaign to be constantly zerged down.

There are a handful of DC guys (you know who they are) that we continually swat away like flies and the red zerg. That's it at night. Seems like most of the Aussie DC and AD have just given up or re-rolled EP.

Edit: The population situation is a bit demoralizing, probably. Thanks for responding @ZOS_BrianWheeler. Sadly, the futility of fighting EPs huge numbers at night sometimes drives DC and AD to fight each other (stupidly) while EP continues to push it's growing score higher.

It' frustrating to see red pushing blue out of Aleswell while blue is pushing yellow out of Roebeck and red is hitting Allessia. Yellow sometimes goes after blue, too, when they shouldn't. It's frustrating to see.

It might be cool if there were some kind of commander tag(s) for each faction and a convenient way for faction commander to communicate. For example, if DC and AD could communicate better, they might be able to coordinate better against EP until the situation changes. I'm not sure how that might work in detail. Any ideas?

Valije · January 2015

To the people complaining about AUS players... How about ping issues? Is that fair too?

I am in EU and play in EU server, but I remember when the servers where in US and it really was an issue.

TheBull · January 2015

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

snip..

Thanks man. I know a lot is going on, but keep fighting for us.

NotSo · January 2015

AvA is a warzone and war ain't gonna wait for you to wake up.

Blud · January 2015

Valije wrote: »

To the people complaining about AUS players... How about ping issues? Is that fair too?

I am in EU and play in EU server, but I remember when the servers where in US and it really was an issue.

If we get 240 ping, that's pretty good. People are often over 300. I can't imagine what it's like to actually play with North American ping. Anything under 100 must be amazing. It must be so fun. I think it also hurts us in pve, doing veteran dungeon content. Timing is really important, down to a split second. That makes it harder to get the Undaunted things done. A lot starts to depend on luck due to the delays caused by the uberlag we experience.

kijima · January 2015

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌ glad to see you are still alive, we were worried about you.

If you get the performance fixed in Cyrodiil, you do realize you'll be the most revered and respected ZOS employee of all time, even if it's one of your button monkies that fixes the issue, your still the lead guy we know to take the credit.

So, no pressure mate

Lord_Kreegan · January 2015

I find it funny when people complain about night-capping...

I'm in the good ol' U.S.A. just 50ms from the servers and I just spent the afternoon (very unsatisfying) "day-capping".

My main is part of DC; I think I saw 1 AD and 1 EP player all afternoon (the ass-hole who killed me... my compliments, actually). Our zerg, all of maybe 15 players at most, took multiple resource points and keeps with no opposition.

None. Nada. Zilch.

Wow, that was exciting... Not.

But that is not what irked me; the gameplay was crapola, but the real issue was SILENCE... The majority of players in the zerg must have all belonged to the same guild; I don't know what guild was involved, but they never used chat (obviously on Ventrilo or some other audio system) and they would not bother to inform non-guild players what they were doing -- even when asked.

Not a peep.

No coordination with non-guild players at all.

This is a problem I've seen time and again in ESO PvP; the elitist guilds are averse to participation in battles by non-guild members. I have even heard some of the various guild leaders basically tell other players IN THEIR OWN FACTION who weren't guildmembers to leave the area.

Fine; it's their guild... but it's not their game.

One of the things PvP needs is better indication of where friendly forces are at... if for no other reason than to allow those of us who do not want to put up with guild drama and guild politics a way to find the battles.

But, seriously, night-capping and day-capping to take keeps and resource points? Is that what PvP has devoled to? They should call it PvNO (Player Vs. No Opponent)...

Maybe we need a scoring system that IS NOT tied to keep and resource point capture...

Cogo · January 2015

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

So, thank you for continuing to voice your concerns and suggestions. We do see them, and are dedicated to improving the PVP experience in ESO for all our current and future players.

See you all on the battlefield!

Wow! Thanks Mr pvp! You and Mr Sage's answers keeps my belief in ESO.

The_Great_Maldini · January 2015

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌

You had me at 'hello'...

Ryuuhime · January 2015

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

This is a problem I've seen time and again in ESO PvP; the elitist guilds are averse to participation in battles by non-guild members. I have even heard some of the various guild leaders basically tell other players IN THEIR OWN FACTION who weren't guildmembers to leave the area.

Fine; it's their guild... but it's not their game.

One of the things PvP needs is better indication of where friendly forces are at... if for no other reason than to allow those of us who do not want to put up with guild drama and guild politics a way to find the battles.

Just today I was told (although indirectly) to leave a keep by people of my own faction. They all wore the same tabards so they were all part of the same guild. I have also had people refusing to be revived by me only to accept it from members of their own guild. At least they're so obsessed with their AP gains that they revive me seconds after I die so I don't stay dead for long.

But seriously... why tell people not in guild and not in group to leave? How stupid. So I stayed at the keep. They left it instead.

I had a talk with another player regarding this today: vet PvP seems to be reduced to guilds that don't invite "outsiders" and small parties that don't know what to do because no one talks with them and zone chat is empty. So we made a group with all those randoms and had a lot of fun with them. We were few seconds too late in stopping DC from getting emperorship in EU Haderus, we took the second flag of a central keep some 2 seconds after he got emperorship.

Most of time that I spend on vet PvP I have to look at the map and guess where the next move will be if I want action. But this is more of a problem between players themselves and not the game. Could sure use some improvement for non group members, though.

TheBull · January 2015

Ryuuhime wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

This is a problem I've seen time and again in ESO PvP; the elitist guilds are averse to participation in battles by non-guild members. I have even heard some of the various guild leaders basically tell other players IN THEIR OWN FACTION who weren't guildmembers to leave the area.

Fine; it's their guild... but it's not their game.

One of the things PvP needs is better indication of where friendly forces are at... if for no other reason than to allow those of us who do not want to put up with guild drama and guild politics a way to find the battles.

Just today I was told (although indirectly) to leave a keep by people of my own faction. They all wore the same tabards so they were all part of the same guild. I have also had people refusing to be revived by me only to accept it from members of their own guild. At least they're so obsessed with their AP gains that they revive me seconds after I die so I don't stay dead for long.

But seriously... why tell people not in guild and not in group to leave? How stupid. So I stayed at the keep. They left it instead.

I had a talk with another player regarding this today: vet PvP seems to be reduced to guilds that don't invite "outsiders" and small parties that don't know what to do because no one talks with them and zone chat is empty. So we made a group with all those randoms and had a lot of fun with them. We were few seconds too late in stopping DC from getting emperorship in EU Haderus, we took the second flag of a central keep some 2 seconds after he got emperorship.

Most of time that I spend on vet PvP I have to look at the map and guess where the next move will be if I want action. But this is more of a problem between players themselves and not the game. Could sure use some improvement for non group members, though.

You both play EU, EP? To be honest I didn't really believe the first guy, but you confirmed what he was saying. On NA, DC we're like the exact opposite. Solo players call into guilds like airstrikes and all guilds communicate. We literally ran off a couple guilds who put their ego's/priorities before that of DC's.

Don't stand for that garbage man. Other will stand with you.

AFrostWolf · January 2015

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

One of the things PvP needs is better indication of where friendly forces are at... if for no other reason than to allow those of us who do not want to put up with guild drama and guild politics a way to find the battles.

There are many reasons why guilds stick to their own, some that don't apply to the Vet campaigns. I play on Blackwater Blade. Since it is a non vet campaign, you have to deal with the problem that people around you do things you don't want to be done. Pulling extra guards, Not using stealth and giving positions away, Not listening when we do communicate. BWB is very competitive, and we constantly see a spy or 2 looking for the location of our forces. The fact that it's possible for the other alliances to access the same campaign with multi faction toons makes it so you have to vet anyone you add to your group.

Perphection · January 2015

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Some of the things mentioned in the Summit (and on these forums) will be addressed in Update 6, such as Siege damage, keep wall health, and underscore bonus time frames in the 30 day campaigns. We're also adding Veteran 13 and 14 gear to the rewards you can receive in Cyrodiil, in Update 6.

We are well aware there are more things to address in Cyrodiil (making fights more meaningful and general population balance to name a few), but to be direct, our immediate primary focus is addressing the performance spikes. Granted, I don't know C++ and digging into the nitty-gritty of our net-code and engine, but we do have people that are working on this complex issue. I hear it every day, not just from you (the players) but internally too. We are working on it, and will continue to do so.

The population change was not something we did lightly and while the deer and torchbug nuke was seen as something a bit silly, it does help in the overall game performance in Cyrodiil. We know there are more recent concerns with population and finding fights, and we are looking at addressing those in the future as well. There are several changes in Update 6 with underlying systems to tweak and push performance to achieve improvements, and I know they are not nearly as fancy as new systems and new gear, but all of that is for nothing if performance is not up to par.

So, thank you for continuing to voice your concerns and suggestions. We do see them, and are dedicated to improving the PVP experience in ESO for all our current and future players.

See you all on the battlefield!

Did you ever consider going back to the patch that really *** up PvP, and removing the lighting changes you implemented? That's when *** really went downhill.

TheLaw · January 2015

Wow, Brian is alive... Now let's get some small-scale PvP going, please!