[Suggestion] Ishammael's Vision for Cyrodiil Improvements (with a Map!)

Ishammael · May 2016

Bottom Line, Up Front: I love the Elder Scrolls Online RvR battlefield: Cyrodiil. When functioning correctly, it is the most fun I have had playing a video game, ever. I believe the zone is gorgeous but deserves some TLC. Even today, after two years of fighting I find new and interesting locations. I think the Imperial City zone and concept is amazing. However, neither Cyrodiil nor the IC are utilized as fully as they could be for PvP. The following post is a set of improvements and ideas I have for Cyrodiil, the AvA battlefield, and the Imperial City.

EDIT: Tagging @ZOS_BrianWheeler @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_DaryaK @ZOS_GinaBruno for visibility at the suggestions of posters below!

Goals:

Reduce Lag by spreading players out
Create new, varied, dynamic, and interesting fights
Minimize downtime between PvP engagements
Enable and incentivize contribution to the Cyrodiil Alliance War for all group sizes (1…24)
Meaningful rewards and reasons to fight

Methods:

Introduce new objective locations throughout the Cyrodiil battlefield
Couple the Imperial City and Imperial Sewers with Cyrodiil
Revamp campaign scoring and rewards system

Shown below is the Cyrodiil map with new items listed. Most of my suggested improvements utilize assets and locations which already exist in the game. Some require new development.

Cyrodiil Interaction with IC:

First, implement all of @KenaPKK's suggestions for the IC and sewers listed in this thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/265284/kenas-take-on-imperial-city-pvp-objectives-a-guide-for-zos-with-pitchurs-3/p1
The Imperial Sewers should be re-designed to allow a player to enter from Cyrodiil on one end and exit to Cyrodiil on the other.
IC Sewer Bases should be adjacent to entrances, not the entrance itself. Alliance Home bases should have a portal to their IC Sewer Base
Something amazing/terrible needs to happen if you bring an Elder Scroll to Molag Kena in the center of the sewers

Towns (White Circles):

Each of the five towns – Bruma, Cheydinhal, Cropsford, Vlastarus, and Chorrol – gets two flags
Flags are defended by guards just like a resource at a keep. Flags can be captured just like a resource.
When an alliance owns a town they contribute points to the Alliance War score
If ownership of a town remains under a particular alliance for a certain amount of time it reverts to “neutral” standing and will require re-capture

Farms / Estates (Orange Circles):

There are a diverse range of farms and estates scattered throughout Cyrodiil.
On a random and rotating basis, each farm or estate produces a “crop” of a particular material type (Mountain Flower, Lady’s Smock, Wood, Iron, etc.)
If an alliance controls the corresponding town, they may harvest the crop

New “Scroll” (Black Star):

Each alliance now owns a new “scroll” (pick a new name) which is located at the center of their home-base inner triangle. This scroll will be guarded similar to an Elder Scroll temple.
The new “scroll” may be picked up by an enemy alliance and taken to their home “scroll”. If they own their own “scroll”, they capture the enemy scroll and are rewarded with a substantial AP and Alliance War score bonus.
Once captured, the new “scroll” automatically resets.
An alliance may not capture an enemy scroll if they do not own their own “scroll”.
Once picked up, the new “scrolls” reset on a one-hour timer just like the Elder Scrolls

New Towers (Green Stars):

New towers will be added around the map. The towers will be modeled after the Empire Tower location south of Aleswell.
Each tower has a single flag with guards on top and an open door on the bottom.
The towers will be connected by a rapid transit system independent of keeps. If you own adjacent towers you may travel between them. See dashed green lines on the map.
When an alliance owns a tower they contribute points to the Alliance War score

Bridges (Blue Rectangles) and Doors (Yellow Squares)

The bridges which connect the mainland of Cyrodiil to the Imperial City will be rebuilt
Players will be able to access the IC districts by traveling across the bridges an entering outside doors. Players should be able to leave the IC districts to the IC island via the same doors.
Towers will be constructed on the IC island to capture and defend

Scoring and Rewards:

Keeps: 5 pts, Towers: 3 pts, Towns: 2 pt, Resources: 1 pt
End of campaign rewards are Alliance War Tokens (AWTs). With AWTs you can buy: Purple and Gold Mats, “Trait-Change” item , Gold jewelry, Coldharbor siege, Monster Sets, ???
Rewards for the Worth loot table includes crafting materials and siege in addition to current season of PvP gear
All prior PvP season gear available for purchase via AP vendors
Character history and rank now includes number of home campaigns finished first, second, and third

Minno · May 2016

I have nothing to add.
In fact I would rather complain about any potential issues while playing this version of cyro instead of waiting for it to be made.

Make it happen!!

Ishammael · May 2016

Minno wrote: »

I have nothing to add.
In fact I would rather complain about any potential issues while playing this version of cyro instead of waiting for it to be made.

Make it happen!!

Thanks, Minno

Serjustin19 · May 2016

I would 100% gladly support these ideas you have. Totally awesome. If it also does spread people out like you mention. I be so happy. I thought there was going be town capture in the future. It what I heard. I'm not to sure. But I also like the new scrolls and flag ideas.

I also hardly do Imperial City. The changes of what you suggested does seem awesome. But with the new changes to imperial city when Dark Brotherhood comes out. I might start playing Imperial City more.

Minno · May 2016

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_BrianWheeler
Check this out. Very comprehensive!

Zheg · May 2016

Zheg's vision for cyrodiil improvements: VD with map-wide radius. It was such a good idea when it was introduced that we might as well make it even better!

Minno · May 2016

Zheg wrote: »

Zheg's vision for cyrodiil improvements: VD with map-wide radius. It was such a good idea when it was introduced that we might as well make it even better!

Isnt that an artist's depiction of lag?

mertusta · May 2016

Great ideas. They really need to add new objectives & goals to cyrodiil. We are sieging same keep for over 2 years. Pvp needs love!

LegendaryChef · May 2016

Now this is something that I would actually return to play.

forzajuve212 · May 2016

This is awesome, @ZOS_GinaBruno please share this with the development team

DKsUnite · May 2016

I thought they already fixed all pvp problems by adding the new flag in the IC districts that means absolutely 0?

Azurethe · May 2016

@Minno

Minno wrote: »

Zheg wrote: »

Zheg's vision for cyrodiil improvements: VD with map-wide radius. It was such a good idea when it was introduced that we might as well make it even better!

Isnt that an artist's depiction of lag?

Naw, if this was a description of cryrodiil that gif would be at about 15 FPS, not very accurate, immersion ruined

PainfulFAFA · May 2016

Yes please!

Joy_Division · May 2016

The idea I like most of your excellent ideas is the farm/estate one. If there was a columbine farm, people will go off the beaten Zerg path and seek to capture them! If ZoS would put these sorts of incentives in, it would really encourage people to actually spread out.

I also like that your map is providing alternate routes to advance into enemy territory. I actually don't think the pop caps are too high. The problem is there is no reason for us to go to 90% of the map.

It's unacceptable that we have been fighting on the exact same map for over two years now.

KenaPKK · May 2016

10/10 fully behind this. All hail LORD ISHAMMAEL!

Omg if we had all of these changes implemented alongside my suggestions for IC...I don't think I could ever stop playing PvP... ESO would truly be worthy of the "Best MMO of the Year" award for once.

RinaldoGandolphi · May 2016

@Ishammael absolutly excellent suggestions. Hopefully they make it happen!

kevlarto_ESO · May 2016

Some good ideas, also need to make factional rewards more rewarding your personal gain depends more on factional rewards, remove VD, proxy det, add soft caps back in, to help things round out, and bring back more competitive fights, not just falling over dead from VD, talk about a no skill kill.

One thing that throws a spanner in the works is the population imbalance, as it stands now.

Eirella · May 2016

Some really great ideas here! I hope Zos takes a look at this...

Bashev · May 2016

Awesome post!
The issue is even if ZoS read it and they decide to implement something, they need at least 6 months to do it. The game is 2 years old and pvp didnt evolved. This is the reason that a lot of good PvP guilds left or they are not active anymore.

r.jan_emailb16_ESO · May 2016

Really nice ideas, would give more players a reason to leave the Glademist-Arrius highway and the likes. But...

Bashev wrote: »

Awesome post!
The issue is even if ZoS read it and they decide to implement something, they need at least 6 months to do it. The game is 2 years old and pvp didnt evolved. This is the reason that a lot of good PvP guilds left or they are not active anymore.

I'm afraid this is very true.

Ishammael · May 2016

DKsUnite wrote: »

I thought they already fixed all pvp problems by adding the new flag in the IC districts that means absolutely 0?

Didn't you hear about the deer?

PainfulFAFA wrote: »

Yes please!

RinaldoGandolphi wrote: »

@Ishammael absolutly excellent suggestions. Hopefully they make it happen!

Jinxycat wrote: »

Some really great ideas here! I hope Zos takes a look at this...

Thanks!

KenaPKK wrote: »

10/10 fully behind this. All hail LORD ISHAMMAEL!

Omg if we had all of these changes implemented alongside my suggestions for IC...I don't think I could ever stop playing PvP... ESO would truly be worthy of the "Best MMO of the Year" award for once.

Pretty much this.

Joy_Division wrote: »

The idea I like most of your excellent ideas is the farm/estate one. If there was a columbine farm, people will go off the beaten Zerg path and seek to capture them! If ZoS would put these sorts of incentives in, it would really encourage people to actually spread out.

I also like that your map is providing alternate routes to advance into enemy territory. I actually don't think the pop caps are too high. The problem is there is no reason for us to go to 90% of the map.

It's unacceptable that we have been fighting on the exact same map for over two years now.

Columbine or Mountain Flower. Hell... what if there was a seekrit fishing spot with much higher chance of perfect Roe?

If we could spread the population out more then there might be the possibility of raising pop caps again.

Could you imagine a sneak attack to enemy territory through sewers? Or running the scroll across the IC island? Or taking the scroll to Molag Kena?

Bashev wrote: »

Awesome post!
The issue is even if ZoS read it and they decide to implement something, they need at least 6 months to do it. The game is 2 years old and pvp didnt evolved. This is the reason that a lot of good PvP guilds left or they are not active anymore.

You are, of course, correct. And if you read between the lines of ZoS publicity they don't seem terribly interested in adding to PvP which is a huge shame.

HOWEVER, what I have tried to do here is outline possibilities. That is, I want ZoS to know that Cyrodiil still has -- even 2 years late -- enormous potential. The gameplay really is a great mash-up of traditional MMO with action RPG. And the Elder Scrolls lore makes the setting quite rich.

Sallington · May 2016

Oh my. This would be a dream come true.

Stratforge · May 2016

Awesome ideas! I love the tower idea a lot, especially the part about modeling them on the Empire Tower. Such a sick spot.

Ishammael · May 2016

Sallington wrote: »

Oh my. This would be a dream come true.

Stratforge wrote: »

Awesome ideas! I love the tower idea a lot, especially the part about modeling them on the Empire Tower. Such a sick spot.

Tell your friends! Would love to have ZOS acknowledge the ideas like they did in Kena's thread.

Bashev · May 2016

Ishammael wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

Oh my. This would be a dream come true.

Stratforge wrote: »

Awesome ideas! I love the tower idea a lot, especially the part about modeling them on the Empire Tower. Such a sick spot.

Tell your friends! Would love to have ZOS acknowledge the ideas like they did in Kena's thread.

Then let's summon @ZOS_BrianWheeler !

Jaronking · May 2016

Bashev wrote: »

Ishammael wrote: »

Sallington wrote: »

Oh my. This would be a dream come true.

Stratforge wrote: »

Awesome ideas! I love the tower idea a lot, especially the part about modeling them on the Empire Tower. Such a sick spot.

Tell your friends! Would love to have ZOS acknowledge the ideas like they did in Kena's thread.

Then let's summon @ZOS_BrianWheeler !

We should do what we did with Kena thread keep tagging them until they come @ZOS_BrianWheeler @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_DaryaK can you guys check this out we would love these changes and help bring people new and old back to PVP.

Armitas · May 2016

Lotro had a similar layout to Cyrodiil. It had an overworld with capture points as well as an underworld called the Delving of Fror. For most of the game the delving had no purpose beyond PvE loot and so everyone just sat at the same overworld locations because that was where all of the action was. The other overworld locations were just too far away so PvP stagnated at the same fight spots. Then they opened up the delving as a fast transit area to the over world and it changed the battlefield completely. Now there were fights in the overworld, the underworld and all over the map. It turned a stagnant and predictable map into a dynamic and fun map. It was a fantastic change and we should see the same result here.

This would be amazing. It would be crazy not to do this.

Those alchemy farms, those transits, that spontaneous and dynamic pvp, that small group and solo pvp. I want I want.

Minno · May 2016

@Ishammael don't you dare tease me with that sewers sneak attack idea!

Lyar09 · May 2016

That crazy thing is....it could take less than a week to put this together and code it right. I would be fine with even their infamous copy and paste method of design. Most coding would go into scoring and functionality.

This would truely spread pvp out and make for a more strategic use of the entire cyrodiil map. 10/10 Ish. Good job buddy

Ishammael · May 2016

Lyar09 wrote: »

That crazy thing is....it could take less than a week to put this together and code it right. I would be fine with even their infamous copy and paste method of design. Most coding would go into scoring and functionality.

This would truely spread pvp out and make for a more strategic use of the entire cyrodiil map. 10/10 Ish. Good job buddy

Thanks, mate!

Minno · May 2016

Lyar09 wrote: »

That crazy thing is....it could take less than a week to put this together and code it right. I would be fine with even their infamous copy and paste method of design. Most coding would go into scoring and functionality.

This would truely spread pvp out and make for a more strategic use of the entire cyrodiil map. 10/10 Ish. Good job buddy

In cyro, yes it actually could be super easy.
Integration with the IC island I'd expect one full dlc to get a working version just because I assume there's nothing there to work with.