Cyrodiil Population Cap Testing

Necrotech_Master · April 26

CrazyKitty wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

TechMaybeHic wrote: »

reazea wrote: »

It makes me sad that our fears that these "tests" would result in a further reduction of the pop cap and performance in Cyrodiil are now confirmed.

Confirmed where?

I think they meant the anecdotal evidence of weekday and weekend queues being doubled since shortly after the test ended.

Mr. Wheeler stated that they had set the pop caps back to their previous pre-test levels, but there's nothing stopping them from lowering them the next day. Clearly something has changed since then to make such a dramatic increase in wait time to get in.

i think thats still borderline conspiracy theory, larger queues could just mean more people trying to pvp

the pre-test pop caps were low enough that during prime time there were always long queues, usually enough so that it would prevent me from bothering with it or maining in blackreach because of less queues

it was quite enjoyable with the larger pop caps during the test by a wide margin, but im not supporting pessimistic conspiracy theories such as the devs are doing this out of spite or trying to kill off cyrodiil intentionally

You're clearly not a PvP player or you would know it's no conspiracy theory. ZOS lowered the pop cap yet again roughly 2 weeks ago.

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

dbonifaci_ESO wrote: »

Haven't played for a couple years now. What are the population caps in Cyrodiil these days? They seemed pretty high a couple years back.

No one knows for sure what the population limit actually is. But it is something that players figured out that the population limit has been lowered a couple of times (often it was a "ninja" nerf). Based on my observations, I would guess that currently it is something like 80 - 100 people per faction.

The pop cap was 80-100. Now it's 60-80.

ive spent enough time in cyro to get at least 1 character to rank 50 and have gotten emp twice

i dont live in there every day, true, but it doesnt take that much to get an estimate on the populations

i doubt the pop cap is 60/faction, or even less than 80/faction, at 60/faction even just 2 12-person groups being online is 50% of the entire population that is in cyro for your faction, i find that highly unlikely when you get big zergs of 30-40 players with fights still happening in other parts of the zone

Sporigudinai · April 29

Next time you guys get online, type 1 at zone chat, and start counting

TechMaybeHic · April 30

Sporigudinai wrote: »

Next time you guys get online, type 1 at zone chat, and start counting

I can tell you a lot of people do not pay attention to zone chat. Many turn it off completely. I know personally, I only look at it if I'm looking to see what's going on in case it scrolls through between random banter. Speaking of which, you'd likely get several players belting out random numbers, like 69 or 42 or whatever else comes to mind.

Desiato · May 2

Jaraal wrote: »

Desiato wrote: »

I wish they would focus on AvA gameplay changes instead of reducing population caps.

We all know there are certain scenarios involving the play style of a minority of players that disproportionately impact performance.

In that vein, the tank meta, infinite sustain and high TTK also results in fights that are long and drawn out, which is also a factor IMO.

Interesting how they keep introducing more and more tank/heal/shield meta and ball group support sets with each new update. It's pretty clear what direction they want PvP to continue to take.

I don't think they're really putting much, if any, thought or effort into shaping PVP in Cyrodiil. Maybe a couple of times a year it's an item that gets discussed in some meetings and they may make some adjustments with AvA in mind.

I think their combat adjustment agenda is focused on making PVE group content more accessible to their largest audience. IMO, those are the players that play ESO like a single player TES game.

That is why my biggest wish is for them to decouple AvA from ESO by spinning it off as its own F2P game. It may be a pipe dream, but I truly believe AvA could be an extremely popular game in different circumstances.

As it stands, AvA is an afterthought to them and probably always will be as part of ESO because the rest of the game is moving in a different direction.

IV_Deity · June 25

Does anyone know what the result of this test was? Was there a follow up?

kyle.wilson · June 25

@ZOS_BrianWheeler @ZOS_RichLambert
Was the result to cut pop cap again?

Necrotech_Master · June 25

IV_Deity wrote: »

Does anyone know what the result of this test was? Was there a follow up?

there was nothing to my knowledge in the form of a follow up, at least from a player perspective

im sure the devs have data, and probably something thats considered for their planned pvp update in Q4

but as far as im aware theres never been any public statements or mentions outside of the announcement the test was happening (this thread), and the actual test period

ProudMary · June 25

kyle.wilson wrote: »

@ZOS_BrianWheeler @ZOS_RichLambert
Was the result to cut pop cap again?

Yes.

ProudMary · June 25

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

CrazyKitty wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

TechMaybeHic wrote: »

reazea wrote: »

It makes me sad that our fears that these "tests" would result in a further reduction of the pop cap and performance in Cyrodiil are now confirmed.

Confirmed where?

I think they meant the anecdotal evidence of weekday and weekend queues being doubled since shortly after the test ended.

Mr. Wheeler stated that they had set the pop caps back to their previous pre-test levels, but there's nothing stopping them from lowering them the next day. Clearly something has changed since then to make such a dramatic increase in wait time to get in.

i think thats still borderline conspiracy theory, larger queues could just mean more people trying to pvp

the pre-test pop caps were low enough that during prime time there were always long queues, usually enough so that it would prevent me from bothering with it or maining in blackreach because of less queues

it was quite enjoyable with the larger pop caps during the test by a wide margin, but im not supporting pessimistic conspiracy theories such as the devs are doing this out of spite or trying to kill off cyrodiil intentionally

You're clearly not a PvP player or you would know it's no conspiracy theory. ZOS lowered the pop cap yet again roughly 2 weeks ago.

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

dbonifaci_ESO wrote: »

Haven't played for a couple years now. What are the population caps in Cyrodiil these days? They seemed pretty high a couple years back.

No one knows for sure what the population limit actually is. But it is something that players figured out that the population limit has been lowered a couple of times (often it was a "ninja" nerf). Based on my observations, I would guess that currently it is something like 80 - 100 people per faction.

The pop cap was 80-100. Now it's 60-80.

ive spent enough time in cyro to get at least 1 character to rank 50 and have gotten emp twice

i dont live in there every day, true, but it doesnt take that much to get an estimate on the populations

i doubt the pop cap is 60/faction, or even less than 80/faction, at 60/faction even just 2 12-person groups being online is 50% of the entire population that is in cyro for your faction, i find that highly unlikely when you get big zergs of 30-40 players with fights still happening in other parts of the zone

I have 4 GO's and 4 more toons above level 40.

The current population cap is 60/faction, but some claim it's as high as 80.

Jaraal · June 25

ProudMary wrote: »

The current population cap is 60/faction, but some claim it's as high as 80.

I agree with the consensus that the current cap is in that range.

It would be easy to narrow it down if someone could get every person in one faction to meet at one spot at one of the bases, during a time when there is a queue. If more than 60 show up, then the cap is higher than 60. If more than 80 show up, then the cap is higher than 80.

I'd be willing to wager that you won't get 80 to show up. Even if you make it a giveaway to encourage people to play along. And not because people wouldn't do it.... but because of the cap.

reazea · June 26

The main point is that ZOS has done nothing but lower the population cap in Cyrodiil to the point that today's cap is right about 10% of what the original cap was. Most of these cut backs were done without notifying the player base and without any kind of performance improvements resulting from the lowering of the cap.

For those of us who started playing ESO for the PvP and still mostly PvP it's an abusive relationship. ZOS has and could do better if they just tried.

Joy_Division · June 26

reazea wrote: »

The main point is that ZOS has done nothing but lower the population cap in Cyrodiil to the point that today's cap is right about 10% of what the original cap was. Most of these cut backs were done without notifying the player base and without any kind of performance improvements resulting from the lowering of the cap.

For those of us who started playing ESO for the PvP and still mostly PvP it's an abusive relationship. ZOS has and could do better if they just tried.

This is 100% right. I don;t even understand the point of arguing if it's 60, 80, or 100. It doesn't matter. It. Is. Too. Small.

Darth_Foole · June 29

Cyrodiil on PS EU is dead. Saturday evening 1 bar each, no groups whatsoever, only the same old trolls hitting on each other. Come with a regular group build and you are XP food for said trolls. Log out after 5 minutes… let’s see what Battle Royale will be like this fall. We really don’t need it with the shape Cyrodiil is in…

Bammlschwamml · June 29

Darth_Foole wrote: »

Cyrodiil on PS EU is dead. Saturday evening 1 bar each, no groups whatsoever, only the same old trolls hitting on each other. Come with a regular group build and you are XP food for said trolls. Log out after 5 minutes… let’s see what Battle Royale will be like this fall. We really don’t need it with the shape Cyrodiil is in…

Cyro on PS EU has been dead for a long time. The recent DLC didn't help.

If battle royale is really all that's coming (i hope it's not, and i don't know why you would say that) then it would just show how little they understand their own game and the whole gaming community.

kyle.wilson · June 29

a battle royal addition would be 2 years too late for peak popularity. Plus I think ESOs general demographics are significantly older than the average free to play battle royal game.
It seems that many of the popular streamers from those types of games are finally seeing their dirty laundry aired in public.

MedicInTheWild · July 4

It has been December since an @ZOS has updated this chat with any info on this forum.
Can we have an updated path forward?
People slowly leaving this game because things have remained broken for so long and no responses.

I can name a few things off that really need some attention that have been a subject for a while

Stuck in combat - This just needs fixed, The worse part is when you go to 1v1 someone and they streak halfway across the map to avoid dying then you are stuck in combat and cant mount. Easy solution is make when person(s) who proc'd the combat on you move greater then 25 meters away (Maybe a bit more say 4 streaks cause obviously they don't want to fight or die) then I should not stay in combat when they want to run across the map to avoid PVP.

Healing over Time - Lets just say this should have a cap or reduction, A thought would be each HOT added to you will be reduced by 50%, so example my 4th HOT on me would only be 12.5% effective.( this is probably to high of a number just an example)

PVP performance - Seems like we done some testing and did not get any results/data which could of some use to understanding what is going on, just we set pop caps back to where they were and nothing after.
Seems like we could get a we don't know yet, or even a we gave up on fixing PVP performance.
we had a glimpse of hope when the server updates happened and for almost a week performance was top notch. Was it the wipe and restart? I would gladly see the servers go down for maintenance for 12 hours a week to fix the issue's if it gave us that type of performance again. Is it not worth the try?

I will stop there as their are lots of things that need responses that I'm sure others can bring to light or are probably in the forums already and thought update 43 preview would answer but no we got more PVE related things and was gifted the curated PVP set drops, I am sure those that focus on housing as end game love all the new housing UI features, I just think when you say QoL improvement, I think of things like I don't lag in a vet trial or vet dungeon because I'm forced in their to get BIS gear or I can use a keep door when I am trying to go in or I don't crash in PVP when 3 ball groups are fighting inside a keep.

Looking forward to a productive response

Also another big thing is when you DC from cyrodill because of an "error" you should not have to wait in a Q again. That person has already waited in Que and should not suffer because of the poor/under performance of the server.
So many fights change due to people lagging/crashing out during big fights. The worst part is when you have fought for a long duration you loose out on lots of AP.

Wolfkeks · July 4

Low-key wondering what happened to the server restructure and if we could get a cap update? 😅 (Did it happen already or not?)

MedicInTheWild · July 15

Nothing??

Silence only

I heard the other day someone wondering if they could get all their money back from the mounts they have purchased since they cant use them anymore being stuck in combat/
Could they?? I mean they purchased the mount thinking they would be able to mount anytime they needed to go any distance in PVP but no they cant. They sit in collections not being able to be used.
I think that should be an option, I mean if you guys cant give the few seconds to update us on correction of broken issues then we should be able to get a refund on the items affected by the issues.

Rlacoste · August 18

performance is way worse since last patch, it isn't population problem

CrazyKitty · August 18

I'm still bitter that every time the PvP community has endured these "tests" it has resulted in a lowering of the population caps and never in a performance improvement despite the reduced population caps. How does that work?

Jaraal · August 18

MedicInTheWild wrote: »

Nothing??

Silence only

I heard the other day someone wondering if they could get all their money back from the mounts they have purchased since they cant use them anymore being stuck in combat/
Could they?? I mean they purchased the mount thinking they would be able to mount anytime they needed to go any distance in PVP but no they cant. They sit in collections not being able to be used.
I think that should be an option, I mean if you guys cant give the few seconds to update us on correction of broken issues then we should be able to get a refund on the items affected by the issues.

They won't refund money spent on arms packs that were rendered useless by changes they made to the Grim Focus skill. So I can't imagine any scenario where they would refund money spent on mounts that you can't use through no fault of your own.

eternalshockcable · August 20

Regardless of the population caps its exploited and whole zergs from the other camps come into one to flip the entire map. Unbalance of the population destroys the fluidity of the map. Even with these current caps the map gets flipped then there nothing for people to do but leave with a locked out map or play small scale/solo vs zerg.