Suggestion: Heat Map showing a general location of enemy and friendly player concentrations

ArchMikem · October 2019

Immersive Explanation: Alliances have Scouts.

Tired of being unable to find fights? Running up to empty keeps and playing PvDoor? Easily wiping the few that do come running to defend, only too late cause you already flipped it? A Heat Map overlay on the Cyrodiil map would give you a general location of medium to heavy concentrations of enemy players, so you can see in real time where the bulk of them are and you can maneuver accordingly, whether you want to avoid them, or charge. The overlay would also show us concentrations of friendly players, allowing solo players the opportunity to quickly find others to join on the field instead of spending the first twenty minutes at the gate spamming "lfg" in zone chat or sitting at an empty keep staring at the map waiting for another keep to flag so they know where to go next.

The Heat Map would not show the location of EVERY player. Solo and small groups would not show up on the map. Heat spots would only appear if the game registers 12 or more players within a certain radius of each other. In essence, Zergs could now be tracked to a general area.

VaranisArano · October 2019

My experience as a new player in Cyrodiil:
1. "I can't find any fights."
2. "There's crossed swords at that keep! I'll go there!"
3. "LFG?" "LFG?" "Anyone?" "Bueller?"
4. "Hey, if I stick around the keep/outpost that's closest to the enemy, usually there will be a fight going on eventually."
5. "Maybe if I listen to Zone chat, they'll call out what to do."

When I don't feel like grouping up, #4 and 5 is still the best way to find a fight.

ArchMikem · October 2019

VaranisArano wrote: »

5. "Maybe if I listen to Zone chat, they'll call out what to do."

When I don't feel like grouping up, #4 and 5 is still the best way to find a fight.

You must not be in the Pact on my server. The groups in there have a tendency of ignoring Zone and not telling us what they're doing.

VaranisArano · October 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

5. "Maybe if I listen to Zone chat, they'll call out what to do."

When I don't feel like grouping up, #4 and 5 is still the best way to find a fight.

You must not be in the Pact on my server. The groups in there have a tendency of ignoring Zone and not telling us what they're doing.

Most guild groups don't listen to the zone generals or call on PUGs for backup. Why should they? They're a guild.

Doesnt mean I didn't learn to pay attention to zone chat. Between the zone generals, the random chatter, and #4, I can usually find a fight when I don't want to group up.

In any case, this idea really seems like a transparent attempt to get some sort of tracking on large groups to prevent things like guilds attacking the back keeps or groups spreading out away from the emp ring where players usually hang out.

The best way to increase scouting and zone chat calls is to have players scout at keeps and call out for reinforcements. One of the best ways ZOS ever did that was by increasing the value of D Ticks. When they did that, players actually scouted keeps and called out attackers in zone chat because everyone wanted to be part of that sweet, sweet D-Tick. Oh, and it cut PvDooring dramatically because defenders crawled out of the woodwork.

Failing that, a better early-warning system would be for ZOS to implement something like CyroHUD's display of what flags are being attacked. I learned to PVP without it, and don't run it currently due to performance, but when I did use the add-on, it makes it much easier to tell where combat is happening - and does it without giving the enemy any earlier a warning that they could get by checking their map.

There's ways to make it easier for players to find battles that don't included making it possible to track the enemy, especially in a zone designed for groups of 2 to 24, and large scale battles.

Imryll · October 2019

No, thank you. My smallish guild likes to be able to pull folks away from battles by putting up lots of siege at another keep. Allowing folks to glance at their map and see that there isn't a hot spot, so there must be fewer than 12 attackers, would eliminate a whole layer of tactics.

Mr_Walker · October 2019

VaranisArano wrote: »

Doesnt mean I didn't learn to pay attention to zone chat. Between the zone generals, the random chatter, and #4, I can usually find a fight when I don't want to group up.

The best place to find fighting from DC is usually in zone. :9

Imryll wrote: »

No, thank you. My smallish guild likes to be able to pull folks away from battles by putting up lots of siege at another keep. Allowing folks to glance at their map and see that there isn't a hot spot, so there must be fewer than 12 attackers, would eliminate a whole layer of tactics.

Good point, a valid and underused tactic as most of the map chases each other around the emp circle. This would negate that, sadly removing one tactical element out of a game that is almost devoid of strategy.

Squidgaurd · October 2019

No

Pauls · October 2019

It will ruin deepstrike raids on enemy homekeeps

InvictusApollo · October 2019

VaranisArano wrote: »

My experience as a new player in Cyrodiil:
1. "I can't find any fights."
2. "There's crossed swords at that keep! I'll go there!"
3. "LFG?" "LFG?" "Anyone?" "Bueller?"
4. "Hey, if I stick around the keep/outpost that's closest to the enemy, usually there will be a fight going on eventually."
5. "Maybe if I listen to Zone chat, they'll call out what to do."

When I don't feel like grouping up, #4 and 5 is still the best way to find a fight.

@VaranisArano I thought that you were an expoerienced PvPer considering how often I see you give your opinion on PvP.

VaranisArano · October 2019

InvictusApollo wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

My experience as a new player in Cyrodiil:
1. "I can't find any fights."
2. "There's crossed swords at that keep! I'll go there!"
3. "LFG?" "LFG?" "Anyone?" "Bueller?"
4. "Hey, if I stick around the keep/outpost that's closest to the enemy, usually there will be a fight going on eventually."
5. "Maybe if I listen to Zone chat, they'll call out what to do."

When I don't feel like grouping up, #4 and 5 is still the best way to find a fight.

@VaranisArano I thought that you were an expoerienced PvPer considering how often I see you give your opinion on PvP.

Well, every experienced PVPer was new once, right? Maybe you started out as a fully formed warrior like Athena springing from the brow of Zeus, but three years ago I was a scared PVEer who decided I was going to give this PVP thing a try and then discovered I liked it!

The OP is talking about how to help new players. If it wasnt clear, my post was talking about my experiences as a new player learning how to find fights in Cyrodiil, which is something I also talk about a lot on the forums. For me, becoming experienced at PVP was a learning process (still is), and I try not to forget how confused and helpless I was when I started out.
That being said, I don't think that a heat map's helpfulness to new players outweighs the detriment it brings to certain tactics in Cyrodiil, like groups spreading off the emp ring. If improvement is needed, I'd prefer something like CyroHUD's flag warnings, which is a better visual display of what you can get from your map.

In any case, if you care to share, what was your new player experience of learning to find fights in Cyrodiil?