PvP NEEDS changes structurally to survive

Messy1

It's no secret, based on posts in this forum and others, that PvP in ESO needs changes in order to become a fun, viable, and dynamic once again.

The novelty of the initial PvP model in ESO has worn off and now legitimate concerns (foremost the server lag issue) are threatening to derail continued interest and development in Cyrodil

Suggestions:
-Change the way keep and outpost battles are conducted
-Add more PvP related quests to the Cyrodil map, Cyrodil seems a little barren as it is and needs more to fill it up
-Make drastic changes until something good works out

Thanks.

Keron

Messy1 wrote: »

-Make drastic changes until something good works out

Considering track record, this may well be a not-so-good suggestion. Other than that, I agree very much, especially to your first point. I'd suggest a more complex capping method than "zerg flag with many whelps". Ideas:

• A few Boss NPCs that require a group (in the range of 5 players +/-) to kill. Loot an item from each, use those to "unlock" the flags and then cap them.
• Require a player (or, alternatively, up to 6 players at the same time) to stand at the flag and "channel" raising the new banner (same time as capturing has right now). Make the channel non-interruptible aside from killing that player, but have a let's say 30 second delay before you can try again after one of the "flaggers" has been killed. Addition: Make killing one disrupt the channel for all of them - the more people you have channeling, the faster the cap is but the higher the risk of being interrupted.
• Have portals distributed inside inner keeps (e.g. two below, one on the upper level) that will spawn a group of NPCs every 15 seconds untill you kill the two portal mages keeping it open. Just to have more than two places an attacking army has to care about.
• Rebuild the keeps so that oils are a valuable means of defence again. Make sure that there are strategically placed "platforms" that are more than 6m above the main paths of attack.
• Adjust the layout of the keeps to make all of them a little more individual. Use different methods and/or number of flags for home keeps (the three gate keeps) as opposed to the outlying keeps (the emperor circle and the 3 border keeps)

and so on.

Messy1

You have some really good suggestions along the lines of what I was thinking. I did not list all my suggestions on the initial post for this thread because I did not want people to see the wall of text and skip over it.

One of my ideas is:

• Make outposts less like "mini" keeps by changing the structure and objectives for taking them.
• Outposts should not have the large scale stone walls that keeps are known for, instead it should be a small base with a tough boss inside that needs to be killed
• Additionally, each outpost should have 3-5 patrols, which travel randomly around the outpost in a certain radius, made up of 5-10 NPC characters that need to be attacked and destroyed before attacking the boss in the main outpost.
• An additional catch would be is that sometimes patrols could team up with one another in mini camps that are around the main outpost making it desirable to catch the patrols in an ambush when they are alone.
• Outposts might also have structures around them in which players could take cover and defend the outpost with and maybe gain a slight defensive bonus while in the area. For example, maybe one camp has fire arrows that can be used by archers to do extra damage to attacking players, or another camp could have a magic circle that sorcerers could use to direct powerful magical attacks.

I'm not totally suggesting that the addition of more NPCs is necessary to improve PvP, but just different and more varied objectives so players will feel compelled and encouraged to participate.

Keron

Also nice ideas. Haven't given the outposts deeper thoughts beyond "Do something so it is more possible to defend them because right now the port lines to enemy keeps are way to easily disrupted".

Elaborating a bit more on my above ideas:

Keron wrote: »

A few Boss NPCs that require a group (in the range of 5 players +/-) to kill. Loot an item from each, use those to "unlock" the flags and then cap them.

Have several (e.g. two) for each flag. All items need to be placed at the respective flag (use flag with a short channel to place it). Killing the boss yields the same item for all players involved in the kill but it needs to be placed only once. Bosses can be fought in parallel and all items can be placed in parallel.

Balance bosses around a 5 man Veteran Rank 14 Alliance Rank 24 group. Position them so that two have to be dealt with at once. This will also make night capping more difficult for small groups.

Keron wrote: »

Have portals distributed inside inner keeps (e.g. two below, one on the upper level) that will spawn a group of NPCs every 15 seconds untill you kill the two portal mages keeping it open. Just to have more than two places an attacking army has to care about.

This one goes well together with the "channel to cap"-idea. Have those NPCs spawning target flag channelers preferably and have them be high damage low defense type. You can get rid of them easily but if you don't close the portals, you'll probably never be successful with the cap channel.

Messy1

Actually, I take it back . . . for the outposts players could be able to attack the main base with the boss, but then all the patrol/remaining patrols would rush back to defend the base and the boss.

And (this is a joke) NPCs shoudl spam AOEs and use lag to their advantage to defend. LOL

AltusVenifus

1. Change the way AOE works in PVP. IMO if AOE hits your own players, you should lose magicka based on amount of players hit. The current AOE groups are extremely effective, but it makes PVP a 1 button mashing game with zero thought. It also promotes AP farming, where groups hide out in mills or buildings and farm AP. Cyrodiil should promote completed objectives to support your alliance.

2. Discontinue block casting.

Francescolg

I want fairness in terms of Ultimate Point regeneration by healing for example. Devs should rework the way how certain abilities give back Ultimates.

1. Healing Springs vs. Puryfying ritual: Both GTAE and PBAE group heals should give back THE SAME amount of Ultimates (if comparable/equal numbers of players/crit heal ticks
2. Successful Purging/debuffing should also give back Ultimate Points given that many players just do that most of the time when in siege battles, give them a reward compared to the fotm-ae-dmg builds.
3. Make support roles more lucrative by fair Ultimate Point and PvP (kill-)point share if and only if supporters do their job well (quick, substantial heals, lots of debuffing, etc., using skills that are far from pure dmg skills..)

cozmon3c_ESO

How bout we change how the resources work.
Instead of being just speed bumps with very little effect on how a keep seiging plays out.

Mine makes it so walls are easily taken down while in offensive control (much like the pace it is now). When defenders control the walls take 3 times as long to take down and are able to repair the walls even if under attack.

Lumber mill similar to mine. Also increases seiging damage within the range of the keep depending on who has control of the mill.

I like the idea for bosses but we should also keep the flags as well here's why.

Farm offense control- npc's become there weak lvl 50 sells like before they upped the level of a them to v5. Bosses despawn on the flags.
- defensive control- npc's are again v5 and bosses spawn on the flags.
- control of the farm effects the level of the npc's of other resources around the keep as well.

This will add strategy and timing for keep battles and make it much more dynamic and interesting for attackers and defenders.

Scenarios
-attackers are in the inner keep, own farm and are about to hop on flags. If time right defenders can take farm and spawn bosses on them and increase npcs level to v5. Defenders coordinated group come in and help bosses wipe attackers.

-attackers want to ninja a keep, and to do so efficiently they will need to take the mine or lumber mill giving defenders time to get there. But attackers can use strategy by beating on a wall for instance til about 50% then take mine and then put it under attack.

In a dynamic fight keeps will be more then just beating on a wall if these changes are implemented, small groups can drastically effect a keep battle, which I believe it's the way it should be. Resources will need to be defended if the attackers or defenders want to succeed.

Preyfar

Part of me feels Cyrodiil is too big. It's a great PVP playground but there's just too many open, empty areas. Even if Cyrodiil is poplocked it can still manage to feel empty unless you're in the heat of the action.