Congratulations, EP! Victory in Thornblade [NA] Cycle 4.

Agrippa_Invisus

The final day of the campaign is still counting, but it's essentially over.

Sometime overnight, the score required by AD (2nd Place currently) to overcome EP's lead reached 468 -- meaning that AD has to exceed EP's score per hour by that much every hour to win. That is beyond running the entire map yellow, as the max tick you can get (without low score/pop bonuses) is +399 per hour.

This means that AD has been mathematically eliminated from contention and can no longer achieve 1st Place. DC's required number is even higher.

Congratulations, EP!

Thank you AD and DC for all the good fights and good fun.

See you guys on the next cycle.

Thechemicals

Gratz to DC for sticking it out despite being the lowest pop server 20 out of 24 hours.

Maulkin

I'm confused. You're 468 ahead with a day left and that's mathematically impossible? How?

Or do you mean AD need 468 per hour?

Agrippa_Invisus

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

I'm confused. You're 468 ahead with a day left and that's mathematically impossible? How?

Or do you mean AD need 468 per hour?

The latter. 468 per hour.

The scores are:

EP: 97739
AD: 85570
DC: 84895

There are 26 points evaluations remaining in the campaign.

Maulkin

Interesting. How did they let you run away with it?

In EU whenever a faction gets 2-3k points lead, it gets pummeled back to its gates by the combined efforts of the other two factions. Not combined as in communicating, but combined as in knowing to attack the faction in the lead to even the scores.

As a result, all factions are within 1k points of each other as we enter the final 2 days. Pretty existing stuff.

That said, congrats to EP in NA for their win

Agrippa_Invisus

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Interesting. How did they let you run away with it?

In EU whenever a faction gets 2-3k points lead, it gets pummeled back to its gates by the combined efforts of the other two factions. Not combined as in communicating, but combined as in knowing to attack the faction in the lead to even the scores.

As a result, all factions are within 1k points of each other as we enter the final 2 days. Pretty existing stuff.

That said, congrats to EP in NA for their win

I'm sure a lot of folks will come out of the woodwork to say horrible things here, but my response will be --

Being tenacious on defense. The attempts to pound us back to our gates happened, many times, but we'd cling to Arrius like a man adrift with a life preserver. As long as we held that, we'd wait for those blue/yellow crossed swords to show up at a keep and then rush back out and regain our lost territory.

SRIBES

#EPisLove
#EPisLife

Da Sandman

Teamwork!

Bramir

Its funny...the less PUG group leaders we have demanding TS for their groups, the better we do because now because there are always PUGs running, and everyone can group if they try.

Pchela

We did pretty darn good this campaign. good job EP

Pathfinder

Thechemicals wrote: »

Gratz to DC for sticking it out despite being the lowest pop server 20 out of 24 hours.

This was from Sat. 2000EST

Maulkin

Bramir wrote: »

Its funny...the less PUG group leaders we have demanding TS for their groups, the better we do because now because there are always PUGs running, and everyone can group if they try.

Why would PUG group leaders demand TS? They would be cutting off most of the players interested in joining the pug "raid" and they would be putting themselves in contention with guild organised open raids.

I know which I'd rather join.

Agrippa_Invisus

Pathfinder wrote: »

Thechemicals wrote: »

Gratz to DC for sticking it out despite being the lowest pop server 20 out of 24 hours.

This was from Sat. 2000EST

Oof. DC needs more peoples.

The irony being that AD was the only faction to collect a low population bonus this entire cycle. They got it a few times in the early, early morning.

Maulkin

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

The irony being that AD was the only faction to collect a low population bonus this entire cycle. They got it a few times in the early, early morning.

Same happened in EU. Nobody gets low-pop bonuses these days.

My guess is: they released this bonus logic, it was bugged as hell, it was silently and stealthily removed.

Agrippa_Invisus

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

The irony being that AD was the only faction to collect a low population bonus this entire cycle. They got it a few times in the early, early morning.

Same happened in EU. Nobody get low-pop bonuses these days.

My guess is: they released these bonus logic, it was bugged as hell, it was silently and stealthily removed.

To add to that... the difference in AD and DC's score is about what AD made up in that faulty Low Population bonus they were receiving. If I were DC I'd be livid. With an /actual lower population/ they have the points where they would have 2nd place if not for ZOS's mishandling of the Low Population Score bonus just giving away 2nd place to AD.

Oughash

Pathfinder wrote: »

Thechemicals wrote: »

Gratz to DC for sticking it out despite being the lowest pop server 20 out of 24 hours.

This was from Sat. 2000EST

This was more-or-less the norm for most of November. I think Dragon Age and WoW played are large part in stealing players.

AhPook_Is_Here

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Interesting. How did they let you run away with it?

In EU whenever a faction gets 2-3k points lead, it gets pummeled back to its gates by the combined efforts of the other two factions. Not combined as in communicating, but combined as in knowing to attack the faction in the lead to even the scores.

As a result, all factions are within 1k points of each other as we enter the final 2 days. Pretty existing stuff.

That said, congrats to EP in NA for their win

Oddly EP was constantly tag-teamed by both factions for most of the campaign. The last week though, AD and DC have had lower participation allowing EP to hold large sections of the map.

Agrippa_Invisus

Ishammael wrote: »

Pathfinder wrote: »

Thechemicals wrote: »

Gratz to DC for sticking it out despite being the lowest pop server 20 out of 24 hours.

This was from Sat. 2000EST

This was more-or-less the norm for most of November. I think Dragon Age and WoW played are large part in stealing players.

DC would typically be locked for only 2-4 hours most nights. Last to lock, first to unlock.

Oughash

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pathfinder wrote: »

Thechemicals wrote: »

Gratz to DC for sticking it out despite being the lowest pop server 20 out of 24 hours.

This was from Sat. 2000EST

This was more-or-less the norm for most of November. I think Dragon Age and WoW played are large part in stealing players.

DC would typically be locked for only 2-4 hours most nights. Last to lock, first to unlock.

Yup. Really tough fielding full groups on DC side.

Roechacca

Well ok then . But most people wait till the official end of the game to gloat . But go ahead an have at it . I'm making bacon N eggs N toast .

Agrippa_Invisus

Ishammael wrote: »

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Pathfinder wrote: »

Thechemicals wrote: »

Gratz to DC for sticking it out despite being the lowest pop server 20 out of 24 hours.

This was from Sat. 2000EST

This was more-or-less the norm for most of November. I think Dragon Age and WoW played are large part in stealing players.

DC would typically be locked for only 2-4 hours most nights. Last to lock, first to unlock.

Yup. Really tough fielding full groups on DC side.

Yeah. From this point out, on NA side, any rerolls or new players should be steered towards DC. They need the manpower.

Thechemicals

Ep's numbers were too great for DC to continue pushing that faction. Ep was mostly passively attacking then pushing back and collection on the string of dc players filtering in to them for easy kills. DC attempted to push AD but they didn't do much better there either. I believe DC lost its #1 pug warlord and also, a large immigration of DC player who left to AD and EP due to excessive beatdown. The population is very small now and we still have guilds that are simply not interested in the campaign itself though they claim to be.

Kaghei

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Interesting. How did they let you run away with it?

Because ad are stupid.
Guilds would stay on late when ep's main crew went off, take their scrolls and not expect to be double teamed during prime time. I see two main reasons for this, 1 guild quit and 1 guild changed faction.
People need to realise that 400 potential points for 10 hours is not more points that 200 for 5 days.

Agrippa_Invisus

Kaghei wrote: »

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Interesting. How did they let you run away with it?

Because ad are stupid.
Guilds would stay on late when ep's main crew went off, take their scrolls and not expect to be double teamed during prime time. I see two main reasons for this, 1 guild quit and 1 guild changed faction.
People need to realise that 400 potential points for 10 hours is not more points that 200 for 5 days.

This. The night flipping, in the end, cost AD more than it gained them. They'd lose scrolls for several days at a time to have the red/blue scrolls for a handful of hours and emp for about the same duration.

EP spends a lot of effort pulling the reigns on emperor pushes from their side. Why? Because there's no reason to invite the double team and aside from the HP buff, Emperor gives nothing that services the scoreboard.

One powerful player does not equate to the massive double teaming that's about to happen. The few times we had emp, scrolls/Arrius were always a higher priority to maintain than the Ruby Throne.

Bramir

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Bramir wrote: »

Its funny...the less PUG group leaders we have demanding TS for their groups, the better we do because now because there are always PUGs running, and everyone can group if they try.

Why would PUG group leaders demand TS? They would be cutting off most of the players interested in joining the pug "raid" and they would be putting themselves in contention with guild organised open raids.

I know which I'd rather join.

This was the case for the first few months of the game...you were lucky if there was even one group not insisting on TS. Now, it is rare to see an advert in zone chat for a TS only group. This is a good thing.

A guild organised open raid is still a PUG, imo...they may not like to think of themselves that way, but its the truth...half the guilds in the game refer to themselves as 'hardcore pvp' it seems, but their squads are really just PUGs that start off with a few players from the same guild. Nothing against them, except I think voicecomms are vastly overrated for this type of group...unless you like nerdrage...

LonePirate

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

From this point out, on NA side, any rerolls or new players should be steered towards DC. They need the manpower.

ZOS really needs to allow players to change factions. I understand there might be some leveling and content issues, so why not allow players to change their faction once they have completed Cadwell's Gold and they have earned the Complete X number of Quests achievement in each of the 15 major zones? These players will be VR9 or better in most circumstances and they will have completed the bulk of the faction specific content. A faction change would be a nice reward for all of that game play.

SoulScream

Well done!

From what I saw EP played for first, AD/DC played for 2nd and still fight over it.

Agrippa_Invisus

LonePirate wrote: »

Agrippa_Invisus wrote: »

From this point out, on NA side, any rerolls or new players should be steered towards DC. They need the manpower.

ZOS really needs to allow players to change factions. I understand there might be some leveling and content issues, so why not allow players to change their faction once they have completed Cadwell's Gold and they have earned the Complete X number of Quests achievement in each of the 15 major zones? These players will be VR9 or better in most circumstances and they will have completed the bulk of the faction specific content. A faction change would be a nice reward for all of that game play.

Agreed. Throttle the change so you can't switch to a heavily populated faction to maintain integrity, or just make it free to the lower population, paid to the higher populations.

Either way, DC needs more bodies. If you're a new player reading this, or an old player thinking of a switch -- go to DC.

Maulkin

Winning emperorship has proven to be more hindrance than a perk here too. The moment you get it you get DP'ed by both other factions.

In one occasion when DC got Emp in TB (Jamyy, I think it was), they lost it in a record of 1h09m and then got pushed even harder after that.

We have late-night, early morning capping here too, but the populations seem very balanced here so the scrolls return quickly after a double-teaming and then the game is about preserving score balance.

And DC in EU are as strong if not stronger than the other factions this time round. They have 2-3 large teams and 2-3 medium-sized but strong teams too. It's been pretty fun bar the dreaded lag at prime-time.

Agrippa_Invisus

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Winning emperorship has proven to be more hindrance than a perk here too. The moment you get it you get DP'ed by both other factions.

In one occasion when DC got Emp in TB (Jamyy, I think it was), they lost it in a record of 1h09m and then got pushed even harder after that.

We have late-night, early morning capping here too, but the populations seem very balanced here so the scrolls return quickly after a double-teaming and then the game is about preserving score balance.

And DC in EU are as strong if not stronger than the other factions this time round. They have 2-3 large teams and 2-3 medium-sized but strong teams too. It's been pretty fun bar the dreaded lag at prime-time.

This entire post will be an IMO post.

IMO, the Emperorship is a carrot to incentivize a powerful alliance (either good momentum, high population, or just good players) into pushing for something that does not directly benefit their scoreboard standing while provoking the double team on themselves.

Basically, ZOS wanted to make sure that the faction that was in the lead was doing something that would cheese off the other two alliances enough to beat them back down into a semblance of balance.

Which is precisely why I have no interest in pushing emperor and try to influence EP to follow the same course. *


* -- with the exception of pushing it once to get emp for a toon that's never been crowned before, and always giving up emp to save Arrius/Scrolls.

Satiar

Fantastic campaign, lots of good fights all around. Dee Tick be praised.

I'm fairly certain we win the Turtling' at Arrius award, too.