Ways to discourage one faction stack in IC?

Necrotech_Master · January 2022

when i solo in IC i usually stick to the sewers, solo banner bosses which are faster to kill than surface still give 1200 tel var at x3 multiplier if you solo kill them (molag bal event solo in the sewer center gives about 3x as much as the banners but obviously takes longer to kill) (also not to mention numerous numerous still existing bugs with the banners AI where they just stop attacking entirely)

my least favorite thing about the surface is that controlling the flags also prevents enemy respawns in those zones as it makes it very hard to try to do quests to stock up on coffers (which is why i like the arena district tower i dont have to drop down which means its easy to do the quest regardless who controls the district)

district control only grants like 8% increased tel var gains only in that district (it does not stack across districts anymore like it used to)

the top 3 ideas i think to help improve IC surface:

remove respawn limitations, everyone should be able to spawn in any district
add an NPC that allows you to stash tel var without needing to go back to sewer base (to help reduce load screens)
give some kind of other bonus to factions who DONT own the district (not sure what would be the best option here, or possible even just remove the bonus for owning the district, but give significantly more AP for capturing districts)

divnyi · January 2022

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

district control only grants like 8% increased tel var gains only in that district (it does not stack across districts anymore like it used to)

What makes you say that?

Bonus applies in the districts.

+33% * 6 = +200%

I know that it actually works like this because I stole overland bosses a lot, when you have full control it's easy 10k telvars. Without control, it's tiny ~3k.

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

banner bosses which are faster to kill than surface still give 1200 tel var at x3 multiplier

You mean those roaming bosses? They also hit harder, so you need perfect soloer char to be able to handle them.

Necrotech_Master · January 2022

i may have misread the bonus thing then "bonus applying only in districts" and thought it was referring to only that district so thats my bad lol

i personally find the banner bosses pretty easy, but it depends on which type of banner boss

the red banner bosses are significantly harder than the blue banner bosses

red banner bosses (especially the fire dmg one that can also apply heavy dots to you too) can do a huge amount high dmg aoe and have a lot of range attacks to hit you without moving, these ones can be quite challenging to fight without enough heals

blue banner bosses are all melee ones and have virtually no ranged attacks except the occasional "vampire drain" like ability (the 2h and 1h/shield blue banners are especially easy, the duel wield blue banners can hit pretty hard when they are enraged and but can be kited like the 2h banners when they do that spinny attack)

there are several areas where banner bosses just bug out (some of the red ones get stuck and stop attacking, or get stuck in a loop trying to use a skill that wont fire, and there are some areas with AI bugs that prevent melee enemies from even getting to you even though there is nothing apparent blocking them and can just range them to death)

when i solo in IC, i balance risk v reward, to me it is riskier fighting a surface boss solo due to significantly higher chance of pvp (im not anti-pvp but not all my toons are set up for that, but i like farming in IC and use banners bosses to test builds, which is quite a challenge when under battle spirit debuff for "pve"). i also find it a fun challenge to solo to molag bal in the center and then come back and do it without dying (i can still net 8-10k tel var when i do this, but it can take an hour depending on how many banners i run into between base and center)

Kwoung · January 2022

Seems to me if flags flipped a bit faster in IC, that would help liven things up as well. Maybe its just me, but the flags in IC seem to take considerably longer to flip that any in Cyrodiil. Even with 6 people standing on them in IC, it feels about the speed of solo flipping a Cyro keep... or am I mistaken?

Daffen · January 2022

Kwoung wrote: »

Seems to me if flags flipped a bit faster in IC, that would help liven things up as well. Maybe its just me, but the flags in IC seem to take considerably longer to flip that any in Cyrodiil. Even with 6 people standing on them in IC, it feels about the speed of solo flipping a Cyro keep... or am I mistaken?

The speed for flipping flags in IC is same for 1 person as it is 6 ppl on flag.

Iriidius · January 2022

divnyi wrote: »

Iriidius wrote: »

divnyi wrote: »

Iriidius wrote: »

although they gain almost nothing from this.

They kill bosses in circle run with 6-flag control. That's more than what you can get being on the other side, with zero city control and constantly threatened to have 1v10 fight, where you can't down even a single digit because they all cross-heal.

geonsocal wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

^ That is why people stack. For protection. Same reason why animals form herds - for protection. Less likely for some predators to attack, and even if - it is easier to defend.

That is the reason why I think IC is a wasted content. For the most part it is like 90% PvE stuff, but the added PvP just ruins it. That is the reason why IC is pretty much empty 24/7. Because it is not enjoyable from PvE perspective and also not enjoyable from PvP perspective.

The only way to somehow make IC more popular is to either remove PvE or PvP (so only one would be left & tel-var will be for killing players only, not mobs) or just to separate it into 2 instances - one PvE only, & the other PvP only.

or, make it so that no one can group, no alliances - pve zone with pvp rulesets...it would be interesting to see what would happen...

You mean free for all? I know what would happen. People on voicechat would still group up and now they won't have anyone to oppose them.

And often Players in the Zerg are strong enaugh to kill Bosses solo, they just prefer zerging. If you kill a boss with 10 players the Tel Var you get is very low.

Zerg surfers are generally bruisers, and it might take em very long time to solo the boss.

You get 800-1200 telvars on x3. Given how fast you can kill bosses with a group, it's still faster than to solo bosses under all-enemy flags for 3.6k.

Or you could solo the boss on the faction that holds all flags and get 10,8k tel var per boss or get 1000 tel var by killing 5 xyvkin.
I also dont know why it is self-defense/protection to chase players as soon as you see them on horizon for minutes until they die or throw other players off their horses.
Next MYM will be fun again. There was a blockade in Arena district somewhen where it was impossible to pass without getting zerged.

Brrrofski · January 2022

Get rid of the flag system.

That change killed IC

The appeal of IC for a lot of us was getting into a fight quickly. No longer the case

Also, raising the stone value above ground killed off the sewers massively.

Necrotech_Master · January 2022

Brrrofski wrote: »

Get rid of the flag system.

That change killed IC

The appeal of IC for a lot of us was getting into a fight quickly. No longer the case

Also, raising the stone value above ground killed off the sewers massively.

i dont mind the flags, although i wish they captured faster with more people like a cyro resource, as they are the only source of AP in IC besides player kills

the only part i dislike about them is in a couple districts the story quests have locations you have to go directly under the flags, which can make it more difficult to avoid pvp on your way there

DrSlaughtr · January 2022

The only way to discourage faction stacking is to prevent one faction from gaining a significant population advantage over the other two. Unfortunately, there's no way to do that without making people mad but for the lulz, here are some suggestions.

Remove factions from IC. You queue in as a group or solo. Everyone else is an enemy. I would love this. IC doesn't come across to me as a warzone for the factions. It feels more like a city in complete chaos, where roving hordes of monsters and crazy powerful warriors test their mettle.

If you insist on keeping factions, increase the telvar gained and decrease the telvar lost on death for lower pop factions, thus encouraging people to switch around. The issue here is that it's yet another thing for the servers to keep track of.

Remove flags. The flag system is silly. At the end of the day, IC is death match with some PVE quests thrown in for the hell of it. You already have bosses where groups converge. Flags were never needed and only serve to add an objective that isn't required. When you die, you should just rez at the base, allowing you to go back up to wherever you want, keeping combat moving.

Sewers need a major redesign that will never happen. Blue base isn't bad. Red base to center is a giant pain in the butt and, depending on if you have to wait on bosses to pass, can take the better part of 10 minutes to navigate. Yeah, that's fun. Or don't redesign and add a sewer opening in the city that takes you to Molag Bal.

Drdeath20 · January 2022

Loss of telvar is main reason everyone I know refuses to step foot in IC again.

Spend a few hours being careful and sneaking kills only to lose half bcz a ganker was camping your door.

divnyi · January 2022

Drdeath20 wrote: »

ganker was camping your door.

Can exit to cyro from anywhere, if you didn't already knew this.

guarstompemoji · March 2022

Outside of MYM, IC is mostly gankertown or a place for nightblade training. There are groups, but...more solos, more nightblades, and so on that I've seen, though maybe my times are different than others?

Ingenon · March 2022

Kwoung wrote: »

It is the main thing that keeps me away, as it just isn't a good feeling to actually lose something, especially when the guy taking it is generally built specifically for that purpose and will never give you a chance to get it back. I don't honestly believe they could make IC fun enough to warrant the loss... and I probably wouldn't play Cyro either if I lost AP every time I died. I can deal with dying, I can deal with long rides/runs back to the fight, but the second someone has their hand on my wallet... yeah no thanks.

^ This

The 50% telvar loss on death is the main thing that keeps me away from IC.

I mainly PvE, and will take on DLC WB solo, or Maelstrom Arena, or Vatesharn Hollows, knowing that I could end up dying a few times. But I'm not losing half my wallet each time I fail, so I'm OK with that. But I'm not going after bosses in IC knowing that bombers will take half my wallet a few seconds after I succeed in taking out the boss, before I even have time to queue for Cyrodiil.