Time For a new "Alliance War future plans and update"

WebBull

It's going on three months since the last one (still pinned at the top of this forum). Any chance Brain can provide a fresh update?

Keron

WebBull wrote: »

...Brain...

Where is this "brain" and are you sure that it exists in these sacred halls?

Yolokin_Swagonborn

I can guess what they will say...

Alliance War future plans and update:

We intend to continue ignoring PvP and cranking out more PvE content as that is what our marketing department has determined is the best course of action.

We know that PvP'ers have much more patience than their carebear counterparts so we will continue to grease the squeakiest wheels and churn out more PvE lighting and cosmetic improvements that reduce framerates in Cyrodiil by 10FPS each.

We know you all want new content and have begged for small scale Arenas and the ability to duel your friends but we would rather just crank out more craglorn quests so that you can talk to more ghosts and have to grind PvE to get the best gear..

ThyIronFist

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

I can guess what they will say...

Alliance War future plans and update:

We intend to continue ignoring PvP and cranking out more PvE content as that is what our marketing department has determined is the best course of action.

We know that PvP'ers have much more patience than their carebear counterparts so we will continue to grease the squeakiest wheels and churn out more PvE lighting and cosmetic improvements that reduce framerates in Cyrodiil by 10FPS each.

We know you all want new content and have begged for small scale Arenas and the ability to duel your friends but we would rather just crank out more craglorn quests so that you can talk to more ghosts and have to grind PvE to get the best gear..

That was brilliant. I cried.

Observant

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

Bahaha, brilliance! You still playin EP Blackwater?

Lord_Draevan

As I recall there's a big change for PvP coming in Update 5:

"All buffs received from Campaigns will be local to the Campaign you're physically located in while in Cyrodiil. When outside of Cyrodiil, your Home Campaign buffs will be applied."

So no more "buffs servers" for PvP.

A smaller change in Update 5/Patch 1.5.1:

"Flaming Oil will now only affect targets that are at least 6 meters below you; oil will no longer do any damage if used on the ground."

This means a) no more farming at resource towers, but also b) zergs will be harder to bust, so... mixed blessing.

Also ZOS has mentioned they're working on changing Forward Camps so that you can only spawn if you died in it's radius, so no more mass-suiciding at a resource at the other end of the map and spawning at an FC to hit a keep or whatever. "Suicide Resources/Death Ports" will be gone. There's no date set for this, though.

Draxys

Everyone agrees that performance was better before the "lighting improvements." The fix seems obvious to me...

kewl

@Yolokin_Swagonborn‌ Wish I could have hit the awesome button five times, instead have +5 bacon.

kewl

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

"Flaming Oil will now only affect targets that are at least 6 meters below you; oil will no longer do any damage if used on the ground."

This means a) no more farming at resource towers, but also b) zergs will be harder to bust, so... mixed blessing.

Are AoE caps being modified in Update 5? If not, this change should be delayed. Oil nerfs should be done in conjunction with removal of AoE caps. Not before.

Lord_Draevan

kewl wrote: »

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

"Flaming Oil will now only affect targets that are at least 6 meters below you; oil will no longer do any damage if used on the ground."

This means a) no more farming at resource towers, but also b) zergs will be harder to bust, so... mixed blessing.

Are AoE caps being modified in Update 5? If not, this change should be delayed. Oil nerfs should be done in conjunction with removal of AoE caps. Not before.

Supposedly they're being changed so that Healing AoE is capped at 6 but Damage AoE will have some scaling based on how many people are hit.

"The solution ZOS is currently considering involves healing remaining capped at 6 targets, but AoE damage being unlimited in the number of targets it can affect, but subjecting that damage to a damage falloff effect where as an AoE hits more and more targets the damage dealt to additional targets decreases by some scaled percentage."

LonePirate

At the very least, I would think the information released during the recent Guild Summit could be used as the foundation or even the content of a new "Future Plans" updated post. If the Imperial City is indeed coming with update 1.6, then an official announcement would work as well.

Yolokin_Swagonborn

Lord_Draevan wrote: »

"Flaming Oil will now only affect targets that are at least 6 meters below you; oil will no longer do any damage if used on the ground."

This means a) no more farming at resource towers, but also b) zergs will be harder to bust, so... mixed blessing.

The Oil change is terrible. The main people celebrating the change are the casual PvE roleplay types that venture into cyrodiil ocasionally and think oil in the middle of a field ruins their immersion but somehow don't mind that you can pull 5 inflatable fire trebuchets out of your pocket and set them up already lit.

Oils already had plenty of counters. They are slow to set up, and degrade very quickly when not manned and can be hit with other siege. Dying to oil means you aren't paying attention or don't know how to press the purge button.

Removing oil is a HUGE disadvantage to defenders and really supports nightcappers and PvDoor activities.

Since @Observant‌ mentioned Blackwater Blade, here is an awesome story that would have been almost impossible without oils.

On my EP non-vet toon, with a group of about 24 people, we manage to hold off a huge 70+ DC zerg that flooded our quiet non-vet server of Blackwater Blade from thornblade on their non-vet alts.

It was a real sparta moment but we are used to the blackwater "super-NPCs" and thus knew the terrain better than the attacking force. We kicked them out of both BRK and chalman in two huge battles and sent them packing back to lagblade. .

If you have every watched a video of a small group holding the alessia bridge or an imperial gate against a horde of attackers you would know that oil gameplay was a fun and exciting part of this game. I will miss it.


TL:DR: Small nerfs and tweaks aren't "adding new PvP" content. They are improvements that should have been made a while ago. And some make things worse.

Oughash

Even if they released a "list of thoughts on PvP" without tying it to a specific vision, that would be helpful.

Honestly, though, I want a vision. Several paragraphs, bulleted items, numbered fixes, changes, etc., which explain where the development team is taking Cyrodil PvP. This could also be leveraged into an larger dialog with the player base where upon ZOS solicits the PvP community for suggestions on how to craft changes in Cyrodil to achieve certain types of fights (e.g. Zerg-ing has been declared unintended. Well, what is the developer vision of "intended" fights?).

Davadin

My only thought on oil: It should have a radius where the user needs to get away from it, or else they'll get burned too. I mean, I wouldn't want to pour hot oil on my boots, even if I can take 5 trebuchets out of my pocket...

Lord_Draevan

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

TL:DR: Small nerfs and tweaks aren't "adding new PvP" content. They are improvements that should have been made a while ago. And some make things worse.

I know, I said these are changes, not adding new PvP content.

c0rp

LMAO why an update? Every single topic of Brians post is still pending and nothing is on the live server. The rate at which things get accomplished PVP wise is laughable.

Not to mention he doesnt even talk about AOE caps and forward camps ruining the game. Cyrodiil is so broken I cant even stomach to play it. So im just leveling alts in preparation for champion system.

Lettigall

Meanwhile in PvP department:



Only new content for Cyrodiil gonna be Imperial city and gods know when they implement it.

Even if devs would make unique designs for keeps once a while it still would be much appreciated by players. Making cities possible and worth to capture, fighting in streets and cleaning house after house from enemy would be awesome.

There are so many things that would make Cyrodiil great but sadly zos don't care much about PvP playerbase.