What is this "nightcapping"?!

Goldie

This one is for all of you who cry about nightcapping;

this is an MMO that has players from all around the world. If your campaigns are taken while you are asleep, it isn't because someone woke up to purposely "nightcap" your holdings... It is because...

PEOPLE PLAY WHILE YOU ARENT PLAYING! 8^O

Galalin

Goldie wrote: »

This one is for all of you who cry about nightcapping;

this is an MMO that has players from all around the world. If your campaigns are taken while you are asleep, it isn't because someone woke up to purposely "nightcap" your holdings... It is because...

PEOPLE PLAY WHILE YOU ARENT PLAYING! 8^O

Oh... that's why.

Why didn't anyone else think of this

DK SCRUB OUT

Sanct16

True. There has NEVER been people standing up early / staying awake to nightcap...............................................................

Xexpo

If you are mostly attacking walls, and not players, on a NA server between 3am and 9am EST, you are probably considered to be "nightcapping".
We all know the world is large.
It's the lack of other players you fight in your conquests that leave a dubious mark on your pvp achievements.

edit:bold italics

Karamis_Vimardon

kaer426 wrote: »

If you are mostly attacking walls, and not players, on a NA server between 3am and 9am EST, you are probably considered to be "nightcapping".

That would approximately be 5PM to 11PM in the +10 (+11 daylight saving) timezone, which is east coast Australia. My prime playing time...

NovaShadow

markgd88nrb18_ESO wrote: »

kaer426 wrote: »

If you are mostly attacking walls, and not players, on a NA server between 3am and 9am EST, you are probably considered to be "nightcapping".

That would approximately be 5PM to 11PM in the +10 (+11 daylight saving) timezone, which is east coast Australia. My prime playing time...

Exact same here. Although on weekends I usually catch the end of the US prime time.

ItsMeToo

Goldie wrote: »

This one is for all of you who cry about nightcapping;

this is an MMO that has players from all around the world. If your campaigns are taken while you are asleep, it isn't because someone woke up to purposely "nightcap" your holdings... It is because...

PEOPLE PLAY WHILE YOU ARENT PLAYING! 8^O

I Agree

Xexpo

markgd88nrb18_ESO wrote: »

kaer426 wrote: »

If you are mostly attacking walls, and not players, on a NA server between 3am and 9am EST, you are probably considered to be "nightcapping".

That would approximately be 5PM to 11PM in the +10 (+11 daylight saving) timezone, which is east coast Australia. My prime playing time...

c'mon ... I bolded and italicized
gonna have go caps this time

It's a NA SERVER... most PLAYERS on that NA SERVER are NOT AWAKE when you are making your PLAYER vs PLAYER conquests.
So therefore it is considered 'nightcapping' because ALL OF YOUR ENEMY PLAYERS ARE ASLEEP.
We are all real sorry that you consider killing walls PvP. We can't stay up 24/7 to fight you. (we do try tho)
So anything you do while the NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT is sleeping, is hard to take serious.


It is nothing personal, and I would bet that 'you' are just as frustrated as 'we' are.

Karamis_Vimardon

*Removed because quotations got broken, again*
Uuummm, you could not be more wrong. Quite often I find Thorn at 2+ bars for AD and EP while playing.

Ghostbane

I stay up super late to play with Americans during *your* prime time.

You are all nightcappers to me.

Karamis_Vimardon

Ghostbane wrote: »

I stay up super late to play with Americans during *your* prime time.

You are all nightcappers to me.

Perspective is reality.

kevlarto_ESO

night capping is a myth, and a silly name given to people who play while you sleep, I work they cap the map so thier day capping, work capping all kinds of capping.
What it really is people just playing in their prime time, what are they suppose to do leave things along and not disturb things while we sleep, they pay a sub to for now anyway and they play the game.

thelordoffelines

markgd88nrb18_ESO wrote: »

kaer426 wrote: »

If you are mostly attacking walls, and not players, on a NA server between 3am and 9am EST, you are probably considered to be "nightcapping".

That would approximately be 5PM to 11PM in the +10 (+11 daylight saving) timezone, which is east coast Australia. My prime playing time...

North American server.

NovaShadow

thelordoffelines wrote: »

markgd88nrb18_ESO wrote: »

kaer426 wrote: »

If you are mostly attacking walls, and not players, on a NA server between 3am and 9am EST, you are probably considered to be "nightcapping".

That would approximately be 5PM to 11PM in the +10 (+11 daylight saving) timezone, which is east coast Australia. My prime playing time...

North American server.

Point me to the Oceanic one.

Jahosefat

From a different post but I think it applies :

The "this is a 24/7 game" and "the middle of the night is my primetime" arguments only go so far; if there was actually competition between the alliances at night I would agree but that is not the case, nor has it ever been. Early on it was AD that did this every night, now it is EP. They basically take the map uncontested and get a ton of points for it; ruing any competitive atmosphere around the actual score of the campaign. So generally people don't care about the overall score of the campaign and just focus on personal/guild success. This is thus a major game mechanic of Cyrodiil that has more or less failed since launch. Efforts to combat this (low pop bonuses) created its own host of problems.

I respect that there are many people from outside North America that play on the NA server, and I agree they should be able to play whenever they want. But there should be some incentive or mechanic that drives the oceanic players to disperse amongst the three alliances, and not just stack in one alliance.

TLDR: The problem is not oceanic players playing during their primetime (or late nighters in NA), it is all of them stacking in one alliance.

Ahdora

I find the argument "it's an NA server!" particularly annoying. Do you have any idea how many people work a different shift than first? How many people are simply night owls? How many people suffer from insomnia? How about people who just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep?

Should those people not play during their own ideal play time, just because it's less populated? Oh, but wait, then the other argument comes in. "Well then find meaningful PvP activity instead of taking keeps!" Oh, sure. Let them just magic up some players willing to get a big group together, and then magic up some other ones willing to create some opposition. Nevermind the fact that any of you "prime time" players would pitch a damn fit if someone elected to tell you how you should be spending your time in the game you paid for.

25% of the entire NA working population are in shift work. At least half of that, likely more, would be second or third shift. Second shifters may be getting off work, coming home to have dinner, then logging in and playing during the night, sleeping in the mornings. Third shifters may be playing during the night on their nights off.

There are 50 to 70 million Americans (estimated, and that's only folks in the US alone) who suffer from sleep disorders. Me being one of them, though that's irrelevant to this. These people are certainly looking for something to do to pass the time in the middle of the night when few others in their physical lives are available.

Now, an estimated 67% of households (again, US statistics) play video games.19% of this audience plays online games. 37% of those playing online games play MMOs.

So, estimated number of households in the US: 117,538,000
67% of those play video games: 78,750,460
19% of those play online games: 14,962,587
37% of those play MMOs: 5,536,157

Five and a half million households play MMOs in the United States alone. That's households, not people. Average household is 2.6 people. Though, most households probably only have one computer gaming at once (mine has two, but again, irrelevant).

Let's just assume for the sake of this that 75% of these gaming households have a working member, and that this member is the player. This is the first number I'm pulling out of my ass, the rest are statistics. That would be 4,152,118 households. Let's extrapolate, based on the percentage of workers who do shiftwork, that 25% of these gaming households fall into the same category. 1,038,030 households that play MMOs and work a shift job. Now, I'll be generous and say only half of these fall into second/third shift versus first (though it's likely more). That's still 519,015 MMO-playing, second-or-third-shift-working individuals.

I wouldn't know where to begin to pull out a number of how many of those play ESO, or how many of those PvP, etc. Just trying to give an idea of the sheer size of the potential pool of people who could have fully legitimate reasons for PvPing in the middle of the NA "night." And that's not even including ANY OTHER reasons for playing in the middle of the night. Just purely schedule-based.

Lord_Draevan

Nah, it's not people playing at different times. It's planned, it's intentional, a conspiracy I tell you! Organised by the Illuminati and our lizard overlords to annoy the other factions. Oh no, I've already said too much! They're coming for me send hel..........



No, I was wrong. There is no conspiracy. Everything is fine. Everyone carry on >_>

ishilb14_ESO

markgd88nrb18_ESO wrote: »

*Removed because quotations got broken, again*
Uuummm, you could not be more wrong. Quite often I find Thorn at 2+ bars for AD and EP while playing.

Agreed. I think anyone who cries about nightcapping needs to hush and suck it up or suck on a fatty

Goldie

Can we start calling it Night QQappers?

Goldie

Ahdora wrote: »

I find the argument "it's an NA server!" particularly annoying. Do you have any idea how many people work a different shift than first? How many people are simply night owls? How many people suffer from insomnia? How about people who just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep?

Should those people not play during their own ideal play time, just because it's less populated? Oh, but wait, then the other argument comes in. "Well then find meaningful PvP activity instead of taking keeps!" Oh, sure. Let them just magic up some players willing to get a big group together, and then magic up some other ones willing to create some opposition. Nevermind the fact that any of you "prime time" players would pitch a damn fit if someone elected to tell you how you should be spending your time in the game you paid for.

25% of the entire NA working population are in shift work. At least half of that, likely more, would be second or third shift. Second shifters may be getting off work, coming home to have dinner, then logging in and playing during the night, sleeping in the mornings. Third shifters may be playing during the night on their nights off.

There are 50 to 70 million Americans (estimated, and that's only folks in the US alone) who suffer from sleep disorders. Me being one of them, though that's irrelevant to this. These people are certainly looking for something to do to pass the time in the middle of the night when few others in their physical lives are available.

Now, an estimated 67% of households (again, US statistics) play video games.19% of this audience plays online games. 37% of those playing online games play MMOs.

So, estimated number of households in the US: 117,538,000
67% of those play video games: 78,750,460
19% of those play online games: 14,962,587
37% of those play MMOs: 5,536,157

Five and a half million households play MMOs in the United States alone. That's households, not people. Average household is 2.6 people. Though, most households probably only have one computer gaming at once (mine has two, but again, irrelevant).

Let's just assume for the sake of this that 75% of these gaming households have a working member, and that this member is the player. This is the first number I'm pulling out of my ass, the rest are statistics. That would be 4,152,118 households. Let's extrapolate, based on the percentage of workers who do shiftwork, that 25% of these gaming households fall into the same category. 1,038,030 households that play MMOs and work a shift job. Now, I'll be generous and say only half of these fall into second/third shift versus first (though it's likely more). That's still 519,015 MMO-playing, second-or-third-shift-working individuals.

I wouldn't know where to begin to pull out a number of how many of those play ESO, or how many of those PvP, etc. Just trying to give an idea of the sheer size of the potential pool of people who could have fully legitimate reasons for PvPing in the middle of the NA "night." And that's not even including ANY OTHER reasons for playing in the middle of the night. Just purely schedule-based.

WOW! That really broke it down for everyone! I just settled with a short and simple, "ITS NOT NIGHTCAPPING" lol

You Overachiever!

Angavar

The problem is not people wanting to play at night.

The problem is the disparity in population at night.

This was very evident a week ago when all 3 factions were within a few hundred points of each other, and competition was fierce.

For the next week, EP was 3 bars at night to AD and DC's 1 bar each. Hence the current 20k point lead EP has in thornblade NA.

You can point to populations now and say 'oh but they're even at night', but when it mattered, they definitely werent.

Ahdora

Angavar wrote: »

The problem is the disparity in population at night.

What do you suggest that people do about that, though? Not play their chosen faction? Or not play on their chosen campaign? I still don't understand why this is a problem laid at the feet of those who play during the NA "night."

Not one person has given me a compelling reason that they feel animosity toward "nightcappers."

Jaxsun

Sanct16 wrote: »

True. There has NEVER been people standing up early / staying awake to nightcap...............................................................

Nightcapping is part of the game, it's the way the system works, if you don't want your *** taken then play all the time to defend it.

Jaxsun

Goldie wrote: »

Ahdora wrote: »

I find the argument "it's an NA server!" particularly annoying. Do you have any idea how many people work a different shift than first? How many people are simply night owls? How many people suffer from insomnia? How about people who just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep?

Should those people not play during their own ideal play time, just because it's less populated? Oh, but wait, then the other argument comes in. "Well then find meaningful PvP activity instead of taking keeps!" Oh, sure. Let them just magic up some players willing to get a big group together, and then magic up some other ones willing to create some opposition. Nevermind the fact that any of you "prime time" players would pitch a damn fit if someone elected to tell you how you should be spending your time in the game you paid for.

25% of the entire NA working population are in shift work. At least half of that, likely more, would be second or third shift. Second shifters may be getting off work, coming home to have dinner, then logging in and playing during the night, sleeping in the mornings. Third shifters may be playing during the night on their nights off.

There are 50 to 70 million Americans (estimated, and that's only folks in the US alone) who suffer from sleep disorders. Me being one of them, though that's irrelevant to this. These people are certainly looking for something to do to pass the time in the middle of the night when few others in their physical lives are available.

Now, an estimated 67% of households (again, US statistics) play video games.19% of this audience plays online games. 37% of those playing online games play MMOs.

So, estimated number of households in the US: 117,538,000
67% of those play video games: 78,750,460
19% of those play online games: 14,962,587
37% of those play MMOs: 5,536,157

Five and a half million households play MMOs in the United States alone. That's households, not people. Average household is 2.6 people. Though, most households probably only have one computer gaming at once (mine has two, but again, irrelevant).

Let's just assume for the sake of this that 75% of these gaming households have a working member, and that this member is the player. This is the first number I'm pulling out of my ass, the rest are statistics. That would be 4,152,118 households. Let's extrapolate, based on the percentage of workers who do shiftwork, that 25% of these gaming households fall into the same category. 1,038,030 households that play MMOs and work a shift job. Now, I'll be generous and say only half of these fall into second/third shift versus first (though it's likely more). That's still 519,015 MMO-playing, second-or-third-shift-working individuals.

I wouldn't know where to begin to pull out a number of how many of those play ESO, or how many of those PvP, etc. Just trying to give an idea of the sheer size of the potential pool of people who could have fully legitimate reasons for PvPing in the middle of the NA "night." And that's not even including ANY OTHER reasons for playing in the middle of the night. Just purely schedule-based.

WOW! That really broke it down for everyone! I just settled with a short and simple, "ITS NOT NIGHTCAPPING" lol

Anyone that reads this and still complains about nightcapping is an ***.

Vorpan

I don't think most people have any problems with people playing during their prime time.

It is more of when the campaign is getting to mid point, or close to ending, and a certain alliance realizes that they are not in first place, then decide to use a time when the population is low for the other two alliances to go and cap every single thing night after night to get 10k+ points ahead.

There's a difference between PVP and 'nightcapping'. PVP during your primetime and have fun, just don't be a jerk about it and ruin the fun for everyone else.

Roechacca

This is Nightcapping

Angavar

Ahdora, I am simply pointing out that the problem exists, and has since launch. Except back then, it was AD doing the zerging caps during the other factions off peak hours.

The responsibility to fix the issue lies with ZOS, not the players. There are a number of solutions, but recognising its actually a problem would be a good start.

Ahdora

Angavar wrote: »

Ahdora, I am simply pointing out that the problem exists, and has since launch. Except back then, it was AD doing the zerging caps during the other factions off peak hours.

The responsibility to fix the issue lies with ZOS, not the players. There are a number of solutions, but recognising its actually a problem would be a good start.

Thanks, Angavar, for the response. This is one of the most reasonable replies I've seen on the subject. The vast majority seem to blame players who are simply playing the game at non-peak hours.

I can understand how it would be frustrating to see the map owned by an enemy first thing in the morning, and I'm not downplaying that. I just don't get the animosity that seems to be aimed at players because of it.

Angavar

Its not just logging in to a single colour map. For myself, being an Aussie, I generally log in at 6:30pm our time during the week, or roughly midnight US time.

Mostly, the map looks quite balanced at first. No faction has a clear advantage, and there's a decent amount of fights going on, back and forth between keeps.

Within a few hours, most US players get tired and start to log out, and those that are left are either oceanic or late night players.

For whatever reason, EP currently has, or had over the last week, far greater numbers during this period. This results in very one sided fights, in which the defenders have little to no chance at successfully holding a keep. So the last few hours of my playtime each night consist of riding to defend, only to lose the keep to twice our numbers.

Of course, now that EP has such a huge lead, they don't do it as often, but the damage is done.

What I would like to see is some form of dynamic balancing when one faction has significantly higher population than the others. Whether it be adjusting the player cap, or boosting NPC/keep health for the defending factions, either of these would go a long way to keeping the campaigns enjoyable for those who mostly play in off peak times.

Alternatively, free faction transfers or guilds rerolling would also help, but this relies on the players, and many would be unwilling to leave the dominant faction.

My 2c on the matter.

ToRelax

What people denying the existence of "nightcapping" don't seem to acknowledge is that there are indeed players who are playing at for them otherwise unusual times to achieve their goals when most of the enemies are sleeping.
If there are people calling someone a "nightcapper" because he plays at other times that is silly indeed but can't deny that some players are indeed "nightcapping".
I already said I did that myself. Not often, but sometimes. I don't understand how one could still deny it.

Ahdora

ToRelax wrote: »

What people denying the existence of "nightcapping" don't seem to acknowledge is that there are indeed players who are playing at for them otherwise unusual times to achieve their goals when most of the enemies are sleeping.
If there are people calling someone a "nightcapper" because he plays at other times that is silly indeed but can't deny that some players are indeed "nightcapping".
I already said I did that myself. Not often, but sometimes. I don't understand how one could still deny it.

I'm sure there are, but you won't convince me that the majority of the population for one faction are made up of such people. Not without hard evidence.