Q/A DEV Panel Top 3 Questions - What would you ask? - A PvP rally from Vokundein

Zintair

As one of the guilds being invited to the exclusive Q/A DEV Panel for completing VET DSA I want to make sure the PvP Community is represented. The other two guilds Hodor and Dafunkt I do not believe even PvP. So that means it is up to us to represent EP/DC and AD. We have already compiled a list within our guild of the major points we would like to address regarding PvP however...

I want to pitch it to the community to gain your top 3 points you would ask if you had this chance. As a fellow dedicated PvPer I want it to get better and I want it to be successful.

Let's put aside our differences for a thread and try to get some answers DIRECT from the DEVS.

Top 3 Questions/Topics I would ask the DEVS
1.

2.

3.

Ifthir_ESO

Dafunk pvps for sure I have seen zb there plenty.

1. When can I as a paying customer expect you, the vendor, to address the glaring PvP bugs/balance issues that have faced this game since launch.
2. When can we as paying customers expect the development team to release feature and content updates for PvP? Quarterly? Yearly? Never?
3. Why is enforcement of the forum naming and shaming far more staffed than enforcement of exploiting in Cyrodil?

LonePirate

1. What is the true status of the broken door bug? Why does it happen? Why has it not been fixed? When can we expect a fix?

2. What, if anything, are they doing about the unbreakable CC problem?

3. Why haven't they released the small scale Colovian Crossing PVP content which they have showcased at PAX, Quakecon, etc?

ETA: One of the ZOS mods said in this thread yesterday that a fix for the postern door problem is coming soon. A substitute item for #1 would be if they feel the current massive number of vampires in Cyrodiil as being a problem and if so, do they plan on thinning the herd somehow.

Icy

Thanks for this! Great idea.

1. Are you planning to change the use of forward camps? For example addressing the use of troll camps (naming players placing them, restricting placement, etc) or limiting the ability of fast travel across the map
2. What ideas to you have to balance the campaigns so that there are always good fights, rather than the dismal all blue/red/yellow campaigns there are at the moment? For example, removing the bonuses outside of your home campaign
3. What are your plans to reduce emperor trading? Or are you planning to give people another way to track their performance in Cyrodiil along with extra achievements (like top NB in a campaign, most heals in a campaign, etc, as per @Ifthir_ESO‌ 's suggestion at http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/1249262/)

Dudis

I wouldn't ask them about bugs because i'm sure they are already aware of them and their only answer would be "we're working on it".


1. Do you view the current situation with Forward Camps as a problem and if you do, what plans do you have for a solution/compromise?
2. Are you adding more pvp only rewards at some point (like the current assault/support trees)?
3. Do you have any plans for promoting open field skirmishes? The first few months, Cyrodiil was buzzing with life everywhere. People were doing quests/solo dungeons, getting skyshards etc. Now there's hardly ever anyone more than 30 meters away from a keep.


Edit: When is this happening and where can i watch it?

Sotha_Sil

This thread is awesome. I just hope they look at it and take it seriously. But you know...

Lionxoft

Zintair wrote: »

As one of the guilds being invited to the exclusive Q/A DEV Panel for completing VET DSA I want to make sure the PvP Community is represented. The other two guilds Hodor and Dafunkt I do not believe even PvP. So that means it is up to us to represent EP/DC and AD. We have already compiled a list within our guild of the major points we would like to address regarding PvP however...

I want to pitch it to the community to gain your top 3 points you would ask if you had this chance. As a fellow dedicated PvPer I want it to get better and I want it to be successful.

Let's put aside our differences for a thread and try to get some answers DIRECT from the DEVS.

Top 3 Questions/Topics I would ask the DEVS
1.

2.

3.

1. Why did you make the <expletive> decision to make gap closers spammable and cause legitimate cc, effects and significant damage? Couldn't other abilities use small buffs instead of a one stop shop ability?

2. Why did you make the <expletive> decision to base Emperor rankings solely on AP gained leaving room for extreme AP farming? Couldn't you have brainstormed better than that?

3. Why did you make the <expletive> decision to add new systems to the game before patching, communicating or even mitigating HUGE EXPLOITS? Couldn't you have... Oh, wait. I said something along the lines of communicating. Meh, forget all of this I guess.

If I were to get another question in there it would be something along the lines of forward camps being certain adjectives.

frosth.darkomenb16_ESO

1. Why did you implement a target cap and why is it still existing?
2. How many players in each faction? Are they balanced at a global level?
3. Any plans for other mobile siege equipment like the ram? Maybe a siege tower or ladders?

Makkir

Do you guys read? Some of these questions have already been addressed by ZOS in the active threads here.

@Zintair refer to this thread:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/130273/open-letter-from-the-noore-to-zenimax-addressing-unresolved-issues-driving-players-from-the-game/p1

The OP points out the main concerns surrounding PvP today. I think everyone in this community would agree we'd like our 3 questions shaped around those concerns.

1) Kicked From Game (reported since June/July 2014) - server stability, latency issues
2) Campaign Balancing
3) Auction Houses... Just Kidding. AP/Emperor Farming

I think the other issues in that thread fall behind these top 3, and some of those issues have already been acknowledged by ZOS right here in the Alliance War forum. We already know Postern Doors are in the works, and Suicide travel via FCs are being revisited.

"
ZOS_BrianWheelerZOS_BrianWheeler mod
9:18AM edited 11:12AM Staff Post
Just a quick update and while we can't comment on every note in here, we are currently discussing options with the Forward Camps as that is a primary issue noted in many posts.

Campaign adjustments are always going to be on going and monitoring the population dictates how many campaigns we open or close. We will see how the changes from Update 4 go with the removal of the Veteran Campaign, introduction of a new 30 day and the adjustments to Haderus.

Also note the Postern doors have been going through several test runs internally and on live with some internal clients and things look promising to get those finally working reliably. I know this has been a rough issue and hopefully after a few more tests we can get this up to live for everyone!"

Lionxoft

Makkir wrote: »

Do you guys read? Some of these questions have already been addressed by ZOS in the active threads here.

ZOS_BrianWheelerZOS_BrianWheeler mod
9:18AM edited 11:12AM Staff Post
Just a quick update and while we can't comment on every note in here, we are currently discussing options with the Forward Camps as that is a primary issue noted in many posts.

This is in no shape or form a solid or even tentative answer. How often has ZOS supplied a fix that truly warrants all the time spent "discussing options"? Never.

Wheeler is the PvP lead. Am I wrong? This is one of the largest problems with the current PvP meta and has been for months. The fact that they are still "discussing options" at this point in time is baffling.

Talcyndl

#1 Why? Why must you torment us so?

Draxys

I think addressing the server stability and lag must to be one of the topics. It affects everyone, without discrimination. It's ridiculous that the spam of healing springs and other AoE spells cast by both attackers and defenders of a keep can cause people's frame rates to drop below ten (some on decently powerful computers), or worse, cause a crash and even a rollback.

Another needs to be balance of the population. At the time that my guild is active, we can't get into thorn blade because it's already full. Our only choice for decent PvP is chill, where the entire blue population decides to pvdoor and make it extremely frustrating for everyone else. I'm very close to quitting due to the population imbalances, we feel like we are trying to claw our way through a concrete wall every night. Taking anything is pointless since it will be night capped or zerged away within a couple hours. This requires addressing...
{Edit: this question could also include something about the imbalance of defense vs attack of a keep. Defense of a keep is considerably easier (depending on numbers- I would say it's easier to defend until outnumbered 2+ to 1), which is one of the main causes the players on the receiving end of pvdoor feel like fighting is nearly pointless.}

Another could be PvP content. I don't care about arenas but it would be nice to see new areas, skill lines, anything to keep it fresh would be welcomed.

Zintair

Makkir wrote: »

Do you guys read? Some of these questions have already been addressed by ZOS in the active threads here.

@Zintair refer to this thread:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/130273/open-letter-from-the-noore-to-zenimax-addressing-unresolved-issues-driving-players-from-the-game/p1

The OP points out the main concerns surrounding PvP today. I think everyone in this community would agree we'd like our 3 questions shaped around those concerns.

1) Kicked From Game (reported since June/July 2014) - server stability, latency issues
2) Campaign Balancing
3) Auction Houses... Just Kidding. AP/Emperor Farming

I think the other issues in that thread fall behind these top 3, and some of those issues have already been acknowledged by ZOS right here in the Alliance War forum. We already know Postern Doors are in the works, and Suicide travel via FCs are being revisited.

"
ZOS_BrianWheelerZOS_BrianWheeler mod
9:18AM edited 11:12AM Staff Post
Just a quick update and while we can't comment on every note in here, we are currently discussing options with the Forward Camps as that is a primary issue noted in many posts.

Campaign adjustments are always going to be on going and monitoring the population dictates how many campaigns we open or close. We will see how the changes from Update 4 go with the removal of the Veteran Campaign, introduction of a new 30 day and the adjustments to Haderus.

Also note the Postern doors have been going through several test runs internally and on live with some internal clients and things look promising to get those finally working reliably. I know this has been a rough issue and hopefully after a few more tests we can get this up to live for everyone!"

GReat Post! I have spoken with D. in PMs and I have read his thread extensively with A LOT of great points.

Performance/lag is obviously on the top.

Forward Camps are as well

Guesting and PvE bonuses from PvP.

Many others.

Great posts so far I am compiling these and will do my best to sift through what we already have answers too and how we can consolidate these to get the most bang for our buck!

Draxys

Zintair wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

Do you guys read? Some of these questions have already been addressed by ZOS in the active threads here.

@Zintair refer to this thread:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/130273/open-letter-from-the-noore-to-zenimax-addressing-unresolved-issues-driving-players-from-the-game/p1

The OP points out the main concerns surrounding PvP today. I think everyone in this community would agree we'd like our 3 questions shaped around those concerns.

1) Kicked From Game (reported since June/July 2014) - server stability, latency issues
2) Campaign Balancing
3) Auction Houses... Just Kidding. AP/Emperor Farming

I think the other issues in that thread fall behind these top 3, and some of those issues have already been acknowledged by ZOS right here in the Alliance War forum. We already know Postern Doors are in the works, and Suicide travel via FCs are being revisited.

"
ZOS_BrianWheelerZOS_BrianWheeler mod
9:18AM edited 11:12AM Staff Post
Just a quick update and while we can't comment on every note in here, we are currently discussing options with the Forward Camps as that is a primary issue noted in many posts.

Campaign adjustments are always going to be on going and monitoring the population dictates how many campaigns we open or close. We will see how the changes from Update 4 go with the removal of the Veteran Campaign, introduction of a new 30 day and the adjustments to Haderus.

Also note the Postern doors have been going through several test runs internally and on live with some internal clients and things look promising to get those finally working reliably. I know this has been a rough issue and hopefully after a few more tests we can get this up to live for everyone!"

GReat Post! I have spoken with D. in PMs and I have read his thread extensively with A LOT of great points.

Performance/lag is obviously on the top.

Forward Camps are as well

Guesting and PvE bonuses from PvP.

Many others.

Great posts so far I am compiling these and will do my best to sift through what we already have answers too and how we can consolidate these to get the most bang for our buck!

Thanks for your effort. I hope you guys can make some ground on these issues and help put the game back on the right track.

s7732425ub17_ESO

Please do NOT ask about the doors. There was a post on the forums a week ago stating they still don't know the cause behind this, so there's probably nothing useful that question would bring.

Ifthir_ESO

The doors are usually in line with the inability to weapon swap.

Usually if I sheath weapon (or hold down heavy attack with resto, then sheath) it lets me use the door.

Dleatherus

Ifthir_ESO wrote: »

The doors are usually in line with the inability to weapon swap.

Usually if I sheath weapon (or hold down heavy attack with resto, then sheath) it lets me use the door.

hrmmm - interesting - going to have to try that when i log into cyrodiil later

ty

D.

Dan_Fazzyub17_ESO

1. Are you aware of the issues caused by Harness Magicka and Shield Stacking as a whole and do you plan on addressing them in the near future?

2. What plans do you have for making other Armor's more appealing? When I say appealing I mean using Heavy over Light/Medium, since there's no reason to be running anything but Light Armor at this point in the game and Medium Armor if you're running Dual Wield or Bow set ups and like sneaking around.

3. Do you plan to adjust forward camps so there is an actual penalty for dying rather than allowing mass groups of players traveling instantly from one side of the map to the other?

Talcyndl

Dan_Fazzyub17_ESO wrote: »

1. Are you aware of the issues caused by Harness Magicka and Shield Stacking as a whole and do you plan on addressing them in the near future?

2. What plans do you have for making other Armor's more appealing? When I say appealing I mean using Heavy over Light/Medium, since there's no reason to be running anything but Light Armor at this point in the game and Medium Armor if you're running Dual Wield or Bow set ups and like sneaking around.

3. Do you plan to adjust forward camps so there is an actual penalty for dying rather than allowing mass groups of players traveling instantly from one side of the map to the other?

Two thumbs up! Nice and straight to the point.

DDuke

Awesome of you guys to do this

1. AoE Caps. Can we expect any changes regarding them in the future?

2. Any "special objectives" or such planned for Cyrodiil? Would be nice to have some more variety, besides the keeps, outposts & resources.

3. Imperial City. When? Anything new that could be revealed about it?

Khaer

There's some great feedback in this post. Any other ideas floating around out there?

Columba

why don't you deal with blatant cheating? Is it because your employees use these exploits?

Moltier

1. AoE caps. Why is this in the game? A lenghty reasoning is required.
2. Why does it take so long to fix bugs/game mechanics? It took 1+2 weeks to "hotfix" 2 gamebreaking bugs, and non of them actually fixed these completly.
3. Ability lag.

Zintair

Columba wrote: »

why don't you deal with blatant cheating? Is it because your employees use these exploits?

I know there have been some members out in Cyrodiil who do this but if you were to list specifics I would definitely elevate that to one of the more important questions.

It's solutions like taking away the DK Pull off keeps because people abuse it that I don't agree with their methodology of fixing. Don't remove the option correct the problem. Pulling off or on keeps was fine but fix the actual issue with the scrolls and gates.

Not to derail too much here. Still some really good suggestions! Looking forward to hearing when the actual Q/A will be.

We were under the impression it was going to be before 1.4 dropped but that is not the case obviously lol.

Columba

Zintair wrote: »

Columba wrote: »

why don't you deal with blatant cheating? Is it because your employees use these exploits?

I know there have been some members out in Cyrodiil who do this but if you were to list specifics I would definitely elevate that to one of the more important questions.

It's solutions like taking away the DK Pull off keeps because people abuse it that I don't agree with their methodology of fixing. Don't remove the option correct the problem. Pulling off or on keeps was fine but fix the actual issue with the scrolls and gates.

Not to derail too much here. Still some really good suggestions! Looking forward to hearing when the actual Q/A will be.

We were under the impression it was going to be before 1.4 dropped but that is not the case obviously lol.

Certainly. The exploit is associated with mistform. It allows perma invulnerability while allowing the exploiter to attack others. Game breaking. Thanks for asking.

Phinix1

Do you currently employ any QA testers?

Would you like to?

david.haypreub18_ESO

1. When is Imperial City coming?

2. What is being done to help heavy armor builds?

3. Are Templars, DKs and Vampires currently considered balanced?

Insurrektion

That you Zintair and Vokundein for giving us a voice!
1)What are your future plans to bring the pvp server populations between the 3 factions closer in par with one another when only 1 or 2 of the factions have the manpower to fill 1 or 2 bars each but a 3rd is pop capping the server?

2)Given that various factions are taking scrolls and crowning emperors on empty servers to give their faction buffs both inside other pvp servers as well as pve, are you considering altering pvp buffs so that they cannot be used outside of the server from which they are obtained or possibly eliminating them all together?

3)The current metagame has, for example, pushed for players to use the impenetrable trait on all their armor to protect against critical strikes. It seems that the state of balance rewards players for this one trait more so than any of the others. It could be due to efficiency and it could be due to the strength of critical strikes. Regardless, it has caused a stale metagame where everyone has impenetrable and there are no players properly executing builds surrounding critical strike. One suggestion could be to set a sort of benchmark for such an ability, wherein a player can augment his or her characters to improve damage by 10% of spells with 1 trait, for example, or opt for a critical strike build that would, on the average, offer the same amount of improved damage output. On the flip side of this, such armor defenses would offer flat damage reduction which would be less effective defending against a critical strike build, and a critical strike defense, which would be less effective against a build that offers a flat damage improvement. Is anything, such as the suggested balancing, being done to give players more variety of viable builds for pvp?

Zintair

Columba wrote: »

Zintair wrote: »

Columba wrote: »

why don't you deal with blatant cheating? Is it because your employees use these exploits?

I know there have been some members out in Cyrodiil who do this but if you were to list specifics I would definitely elevate that to one of the more important questions.

It's solutions like taking away the DK Pull off keeps because people abuse it that I don't agree with their methodology of fixing. Don't remove the option correct the problem. Pulling off or on keeps was fine but fix the actual issue with the scrolls and gates.

Not to derail too much here. Still some really good suggestions! Looking forward to hearing when the actual Q/A will be.

We were under the impression it was going to be before 1.4 dropped but that is not the case obviously lol.

Certainly. The exploit is associated with mistform. It allows perma invulnerability while allowing the exploiter to attack others. Game breaking. Thanks for asking.

I was aware of this one but thought it was corrected, regardless these issues need to be resolved faster. 75% perma reduction while being able to attack is no good.

Insurrektion

Dan_Fazzyub17_ESO wrote: »

1. Are you aware of the issues caused by Harness Magicka and Shield Stacking as a whole and do you plan on addressing them in the near future?

2. What plans do you have for making other Armor's more appealing? When I say appealing I mean using Heavy over Light/Medium, since there's no reason to be running anything but Light Armor at this point in the game and Medium Armor if you're running Dual Wield or Bow set ups and like sneaking around.

3. Do you plan to adjust forward camps so there is an actual penalty for dying rather than allowing mass groups of players traveling instantly from one side of the map to the other?

To be honest lets take a look at the skillsets of each class and a look at the game as a whole and I'll weigh in my take.

Heavy vs Medium vs Light

Heavy armor offers better protection against physical weapon attacks, fighters guild skills, dragon leap, and weapon skills. As a whole, it seems to me the fighters guild skills are lackluster at even countering vampires and werewolves in pvp, and the weapon skills severely lack in capability compared to class skills (which, besides dragon leap, I'm pretty sure are 100% spell-based).

Medium armor offers a bit better protection against these skills, but really only gives better resource management over your stamina, which has already been established as an inferior resource pool compared to magicka. It also offers the negligible bonus of increased weapon attack speed and gives you the opportunity to have more critical strikes denied by impenetrable trait. And sneaking? Who really cares? Honestly do you really need to be an inch in front of a guy before you realize you need to be behind him?

Light armor gives absolutely garbage armor. That being said, it helps you have better resource management over your highly important magicka, will let your spells deal more damage, will help you resist spell damage from all those other casters, and will let you watch more of your spells have their critical strike damage denied by impenetrable.

DK vs Sorc vs NB vs Templar
Why would a DK do anything other than be a spellcasting-based DK in light armor and augment their lack of physical defense with Razor Armor? Have the best of all worlds!

Sorcs have a couple skills to augment their armor. Nothing on par with a DK, mind you, but a little something to help them survive physical attacks. Paired with a couple pieces of heavy armor and Bolt Escape, Sorcs have decent means of sustaining damage and maintaining survivability.

NBs have it rough in this category. Really rough. They can blur, dodging physical attacks for 15 seconds. I'm pretty sure that's it. Am I missing anything here? Keeping in mind that all their assassination damage revolves around magicka, you'd think you want to put your NB in a dress to kill your enemy right away. Think again! Unlike the other classes, NBs are sitting ducks without considerable heavy armor to mitigate the random physical attacks they receive, and magicka glyphs to augment their magicka-based damage skills.

Templars have the ever-interesting damage bubble aka sun shield (and it's morphs). Templars that go down a pure cloth build will receive a higher damage output via spell penetration from the cloth armor skill line as well as more frequent casts from less armor than their heavy armor brethren. Templars in a pure heavy armor setup will have amazing defenses and be difficult to take down. They can also be anywhere in between and be OK.

tl;dr (or didn't figure out what my point is): Other armor has viability for all the wrong reasons unless you are a templar.

dennis.schmelzleb16_ESO

1. Are you really happy with what is called PvP in this game.
2. Do you really play this game and is it ok for you
3. Do you think things like unbreakable cc, impulse zergs, 2sec kills, unkillable tanks, campaigns with one faction ruleing 24/7 and exploiters is fun to play for someone who wants tactical action driven pvp