Q&A with Brian Wheeler on ESO Live

Lava_Croft

Great to see @ZOS_BrianWheeler on ESO Live again and even better that it's a Q&A! I'd love to know the following, but am unsure if it's suitable for this Q&A:

• The Alliance War has been raging for about a year now and has clearly seen some good and bad times. What do you see as the greatest accomplishment of the Alliance War and its greatest failure? What are you the most proud of and what the least?
• There are a lot of metrics being collected when it comes to the Alliance War. Is there any chance we could get a regularly updated set of the most 'popular' metrics? Things like population graphs, heat maps to show where most kills occur, things like that. You could even just show some different metric each time. For science!

Last, I again want to note the appreciation that basically everybody has for your renewed vigor when it comes to direct communication with the PvP community. The experienced mutual respect is very, very warm and fuzzy. Keep it up and kudos to the rest of the team!

Jitterbug

Any concrete plans for XvX PvP arenas / battlegrounds?

Soulac

Can we expect more ingestible objectives between keeps like gates, bridges, villages etc. for more small scale around the map? Also what about keep upgrades like strengthen the walls, permanent sieges or stronger guards?

emma666

One simple question - Are there any plans to make Alliance War rank account wide?

olsborg

Any plans to expand pvp beyond just the AvAvA in cyrodiil atm?

Samadhi

Now that you guys have committed to improving PvP with new changes such as increase in experience while in Cyrodiil and the excellent changes to siege weapons, would you be able to give us a timeline or further details on plans to implement small-scale PvP objectives in the quest hub towns?
Will they be modified as new instances or remain objectives on the existing map?
Are you planning 5 different modes for 5 different towns, or will we see similar styles popping up?
Are your plans for small-scale PvP objectives limited to the towns, or do you have things on the drawing boards for Ayleid Wells (perhaps provides a larger buff if your alliance owns a nearby objective?) and bandit encampments (competitive world bosses that drop unique PvP loots?)?

Do you realize how truly awesome the new siege changes are?
As someone who does not play using siege at all, have noticed a very favourable impact on all frontline engagements. People are spreading out more frequently and it is significantly more easy to engage and fight small battles across the larger warzone.

Could you please give a hearty congratulations to your PvP team for a job well done?

Generic_08_15

You mentioned something a week ago, about making towns a playground for small scale pvp. You have thrown different styles like murderball, CTF, etc... into the room. Could you elaborate more on these things and how serious those ideas are?

Samadhi

You have previously posted about how there was, at one point, limited cross-faction communication to help prevent toxicity between players in PvP ( in this thread )

Many players cite poor sportsmanship and toxic player behaviour as their reasons for not joining PvP in Cyrodiil -- as someone who would like to see PvP expanded to reach more of the playerbase, this kind of behaviour is a concern to me even though I do not personally feel negatively impacted by it.

Riot games have done research into player toxicity and its impacts on player experience in PvP gameplay.
One of their interesting experiments examined the impact of limiting the chat feature between enemy teams.

A video is available here: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017940/The-Science-Behind_shaping-Player
It is possible to use the menu on the side to quick-jump directly to the "Cross-Team Chat Experiment" chapter for easier access.

Out of curiosity, how serious of a concern is this to ZOS? You mentioned that it was not clear when, or even if, such limitations would be implemented -- does this mean that the feature is still considered undesirable by the company, or does this mean you are still tossing around ideas on how to best handle it?

@ZOS_GinaBruno and @ZOS_JessicaFolsom
Even if this question does not get selected for the episode, you might be interested in checking out the video seeing how community management is kind of your thing

Sublime

Q 1: What is your favourite PvP playstyle? (ganking, siegeing, skirmishing etc.)
Q 2: Have you played PvP on both megaservers? Was there any difference or is the PvP experience mostly the same?

And no, I'm unfortunately not a member of the band "Sublime". But we probably chose the name for the same reason.

Helluin

Q1: Collisions in Cyrodiil, what do you think about them from a technical point of view and for PvP opportunities - gameplay?
With improved performances, would you ever consider them?

Q2: but for addons, it would be nice to have a panel with killing blows, kills, deaths and their ratio. Would you be able to track these?
Then it could be interesting to have an additional leaderboard with these data (daily, weekly and/or for the entire duration of the campaign), so players with less playtime could still have a competition not just based on time played like AP one is.

Q3 This question is related to general gameplay but it has a great impact on PvP, so I don't know if you can answer to it.

But for the buff to XP gain, about Champion System, are you still evaluating a changement or a catching up system for new and returning players? Are you still evaluating a changement on the curve of diminishing returns?
These matters, especially when related to PvP, are really important.
I have several guildies, PvP focused, not interested to return to TESO or start it because of this reason.

Fire_Ace

1. Is there a chance to see Vvardenfell in the game? maybe as DLC?
2. I'm eagerly waiting for thieves guild and dark brotherhood since ESO launched last year. When will you implement this?

Wakkoo

Kevinmon wrote: »

My question is, why is Imperial City not released yet when it was finished 6 months ago, and how much will it cost as DLC when it comes out next winter?

I really hope important gameplay features and important places will be free. I'd be really annoyed if I had to pay for the imperial city when its a huge part of PvP, atleast I'd assume

synnerman

emma666 wrote: »

One simple question - Are there any plans to make Alliance War rank account wide?

This Please !!! People who have spent months of gametime on 1 char and who want to try alts are being put off by having to level a new char and having the grind of the war ranks again. Champion points work this way so why not the war ranks?

Aeladiir

1. How are you fighting against the fact that veteran campaigns are for V10-14 ranks because all others can't even compete against them?

2. Have you ever considered splitting Cyrodiil into 4 seperate zones as addressed on this image: http://shrani.si/f/2c/DU/4Cej1ryX/cyrodiil.png
Zone 1: DC vs EP
Zone 2: EP vs AD
Zone 3: AD vs DC
Zone 4: AD vs DC vs EP + Imperial City

Ghostbane

1. Why was the Guild Store option removed from the Bank vendor in Cyrodiil and will it ever return?

2. The 3v3v3 player alliance gameplay, will this be coming to production in some feasible way?

3. How many days can a transit mage live eating nothing but Ice Cream?

4. Can you give us any update on the PvP nature of the justice system, assuming any part of it falls under your realm?

frozywozy

One simple question : Are there plans to make it easier to rollback a new module from a patch that may not be working as intended ? Example : the lightning patch - the sound patch - the patch that brought the multiple siege bugs, etc.

New updates need to be easily removed if they bring more problems than it actually fixes things.

Lifsteinn

Eldarth wrote: »

Can you tell us any specifics about lag investigations?

This.

Etaniel

1. Do you have any plan to rework the current "tick" mechanic?
For a while now, defense ticks have been holding back players that, encouraging them to stay at the keep instead of spreading out and moving on after a successful defense.

2.Do you have plans to add other capturable objectives to the map? Maybe new outposts or bigger ressources with palissades around them. You could fill areas such as between dragonclaw and warden, where there isn't much incentive to go.

mishimon

ATM siege hits to hard (110% health in one hit).


You have plans to REDUCE siege DMG? Because siege dmg its broken. Please Zenimax DONT avoid this question on live.

ArconSeptim

One and only thing performance, reducing these lagging issues, I remember on release till before 1.3 you could have 100 people and more on your screen without unplayable lag and fps, after that update something went really wrong so try to make a come back to these times without these problems, currently for PvP that's number one issue.

Second, please tell us about Imperial city release, what had changed since the QuakeCon last year in its progress and do you plan to complete the whole Cyrodiil province at some time, like it is seen from Oblivion map: http://images.uesp.net/6/69/OB-map-Cyrodiil.jpg
adding maybe new zone from Skingrad to Anvil, and new zone from Bravil to Leyawiin?

Making small scale PvP zones and missions? Overall making PvP zone feeling more cool exciting adventure not only for zerg of fifty people, but like you and your two or three friends having awesome things to do against other group of four.So it could be a challenge for group of four which gives advantage for your alliance, these kind of things.

DanTeales_Inferno

Do you have any intentions of changing the way defensive ticks work ? At the minute anyone in the area will be dealt the points, regardless of their actual involvement in the battle.

At the very moment where you should be forcing the enemy back, everyone is waiting in the keep for defence ticks, to me this just stops the ebb and flow of PvP and need addressing.

Lettigall

1. Is there a chance of monthly(?) event in PvP where Devs fight alongside players like it was in PTS?

2. Are the damage from siege engines finale? It needed buff but seems right now it's over the top.

3. When or if there will be new objectives in PvP?

4. And how much longer we continue to suffer from lag?

cozmon3c_ESO

Will you make Resources more important for taking a keep?
example
lumbermill - makes it so going through doors is much easy when taken by attackers but so tough that the attackers might as well not try breaking the door down if they dont have the lumber mill
Mine - same as lumber mill with walls instead.
Farm- if attackers own the farm npcs become extremely weak, if defenders own the farm then all npc's around the keep become extremely powerful. (maybe add boss npcs on the flags, only spawn when defenders own farm, despawn when attackers own farm. so can be used for last minute defense of a keep for defenders as they respawn when you take the farm as a defender and will mess up groups on the flags)

just adding these incentives to resources will make it so small groups can take and defend resources while defending or attacking a keep and make the combat more dynamic.

Can we add some siege like,

For attackers:
Mine- bombs- (picked up from mine and have to carry them, attacking makes you drop the bomb and a dropped bomb becomes armed and blows up where it is after 1 minute giving defenders a chance to disarm. bomb does 20% damage to walls or doors, 16k damage to defenders, so you have to be supported running it to a keep wall).

Lumber mill- Ladders- (like the bombs but from lumber mill, attacking or dieing makes it despawn. you run it up to a wall and place it, it lasts for 2 minutes, can be destroyed by defenders by using a kick animation next to it knocking the ladder down and breaking it).

Farm- Magic plant (this plant makes a large Magic shield when placed on the battle field, again can only be carried, when attacking drops it and causes the shield to spawn protecting allies in the shield from 20% damage from all sources, the shield lasts for 5 minutes, defenders can disarm the shield by destroying the plant with a stomp animation next to it)

only one of these siege for attackers can be active at a time, so you have to wait for one to be used and gone before you can get another one.

For Defenders:
Mine- 5 mines with high damage- defenders can pick up mines , up to 5 and place them anywhere around a keep. they do 16k aoe damage. must be run from the mine and then placed.
Lumber mill- reinforce wall/door kits, there can only be 2 active at a time, increases a walls/doors hp by 25% for a maximum of 125% for one wall/door. they can be used on damaged walls. must be run from the lumbermill to the wall/door.
Farm- plant, like attackers, but this plant increases damage by 20% in the shield instead of defense. only one can be active at a time. must be run from the farm.


so these are just some ideas to make resources more viable in the game making keep battles even more dynamic and tactful for attackers and defenders.

Neizir

Will we see Imperial City before console launch?

Wakkoo

mishimon wrote: »

ATM siege hits to hard (110% health in one hit).


You have plans to REDUCE siege DMG? Because siege dmg its broken. Please Zenimax DONT avoid this question on live.

Please dont change the damage, sieges are actually fun now! Leave the damage where it is Zinemax

mishimon

Wakkoo wrote: »

mishimon wrote: »

ATM siege hits to hard (110% health in one hit).


You have plans to REDUCE siege DMG? Because siege dmg its broken. Please Zenimax DONT avoid this question on live.

Please dont change the damage, sieges are actually fun now! Leave the damage where it is Zinemax

Maybe for u m8. Anyway this is about questions; and you dont ask nothing.

¿You think its funny? maybe because you have fun behind a wall instead of figthinng in the ground. AvA its about PvP dude, not about stupid static figths.

ZOS, dont make again a broken game, lot of people leave the game before and a lot of people comes back because the 1.6 and we love the changes, but the siege DMG its just stupid.

Please awnser my question in LIVE coz a lot off pleaploe arre asking abouit this.


YOU HAVE PLANS TO REDUCE SIEGE DMG?

TheLaw

When will we see new pvp content (i.e. arenas/bgs). Will we have to wait another year?

manny254

Why is there so many issues getting spell pen right?

DHale

No siege damage reductions, nothing to see here, working as intended. Move along folks, Fix the lag btw. Don't stand in red circles and use purge and siege shield. I do think siege shield and purge could be a little cheaper since we will be using it more.

Brizz

Many players are looking forward to the Pvp aspect of the Justice System. Is this still in development or has it been scrapped? How do you plan to reward guards if players have a large bounty but carry zero gold?