Too easy to hold a large number of keeps on uneven pop servers

cliveklgb14_ESO · May 2014

There is no thinning of resources for the more keeps you hold so on servers where population is imbalanced, it is really easy for the large pop faction to hold everything.

It is far too easy to defend when 1 faction is even at 2:1 vs the other 2 factions combined.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have a penalty for population.

But I do think after a certain threshold in the number of keeps held, it should be easier to take keeps from a faction with a lot of them. It would represent their forces being spread more thinly. It isn't a population penalty, but a keep count penalty which would reflect thinning supply lines.

kijima · May 2014

Have you tried running with a small group of keep busters, it's hilarious.

Go in quickly with keep that doesn't have a lot of players to defend, use the ram and break down the door quickly, kill everyone inside then get out before the zerg come to reclaim.

It annoys the hell out of the over populated enemy.

ElSlayer · May 2014

Moonraker wrote: »

From the PTS forum for all to view here (No NDA in place)

NOTE: THESE PATCH NOTES ARE FOR THE PTS CLOSED TEST SERVER ONLY, NOT LIVE. THEY WILL CHANGE OVER TIME BEFORE GOING LIVE.

Edit: Update was added to clarify AOE changes. Post on this copied here and updated in notes.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom Administrator, Moderator admin
April 26 edited April 26 Staff Post

[...]
Alliance War Changes
A new population underdog bonus has been added. When your alliance is outnumbered in a campaign (determined over several days of population samples), it will receive a bonus to potential scoring and alliance points. You’ll see an indication of this bonus in the scoring UI if it is active.
[...]

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/87867/patch-notes-v-1-1-inc-craglorn-from-pts/p1

Rev Rielle · May 2014

The single worst thing in PvP is the addition of scoring. It's just a points grab these days.

PvP is no longer about actually player verse player combat, it's seemingly just about getting to the top of a points list. It's very sad.

Good PvP is when, even in unbalanced populations, balanced battles are able to be engaged in where player skill determines the outcome. Points should have nothing to do with it. At the moment, the stronger alliance is given bonuses to become even stronger, creating a greater divide. It's counter productive to what it should be I think.

SwampRaider · May 2014

at the moment it takes 4-5 people to take a keep, hell, 2 VR10's can take an outpost.

This is what happens on low pop servers. The VR players split up in to 2-4 man groups and attack multiple keeps and take them

How is the patch that upgrades all guards to VR5 going to affect low pop servers, where 10-30 are on at a time for each side?

cliveklgb14_ESO · May 2014

ElSlayer wrote: »

Moonraker wrote: »

From the PTS forum for all to view here (No NDA in place)

NOTE: THESE PATCH NOTES ARE FOR THE PTS CLOSED TEST SERVER ONLY, NOT LIVE. THEY WILL CHANGE OVER TIME BEFORE GOING LIVE.

Edit: Update was added to clarify AOE changes. Post on this copied here and updated in notes.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom Administrator, Moderator admin
April 26 edited April 26 Staff Post

[...]
Alliance War Changes
A new population underdog bonus has been added. When your alliance is outnumbered in a campaign (determined over several days of population samples), it will receive a bonus to potential scoring and alliance points. You’ll see an indication of this bonus in the scoring UI if it is active.
[...]

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/87867/patch-notes-v-1-1-inc-craglorn-from-pts/p1

Not really a solution for imbalanced population servers.

There are a couple in particular that one faction is full while the others the population doesn't even register. You look at the map and that full pop has every keep and the fight is as the starting point for the other two factions.

The lower pops are camped at the starting point gates, if there is any pvp at all on those servers.

With that faction having population advantage 2:1 over the other two combined, there is no way to for those faction to even try to cut off supply lines reliably. There just isn't time.

My idea isn't a perfect solution, and certainly won't swing the fight in favor of the low populations. But it does give them a bit more incentive to participate on that server, especially combined with the patch notes.

There has got to be some sort of population balancing before the next season, or what will continue is there will be a couple balanced servers with max pop, and three others with one faction dominating that server.

That really doesn't make for good game play except on the max pop servers.

e.gamemarkb14_ESO · May 2014

Unfortunately, there are several "power guilds" who moved to a low population campaign with the sole intent to dominate that campaign with little to no resistance, and then systematically get a large number of their members the Emperor status by rotating their point lead and using alts that role separate faction to de-throne them.

We encountered a power guild tonight on one of the low pop campaigns that is dominated by AD, with no competition, with the intent to help take back some keeps.

Results were that AD sent a full compliment of VR 10's to defend and a large number of them were touting the "former emperor" titles, all from the same guild.

The system has been abused by these power / elitist guilds which seem to plague any MMO today. There is very little care given and so for many of these power guilds, keeping total dominance on a campaign and then using alts to flip the inner keeps so they can log back in and take it back to make their next guild member Emperor, is just appalling.

We have already seen similar tactics on Auriels Bow in which guilds are rolling an enemy faction DK that they use to "chain pull" up their main faction friends to bypass the outer walls, and then take keeps in a few short minutes before anyone has warning that the keep is under attack.

There will always be exploiters and those hell bent on destroying any enjoyable PvP experience for the rest of the community. Real shame ZOS won't weed these accounts out and send them on their way.