Improving Cyrodiil Gameplay: More objectives

Jamini

Recently, between running at the front of the yellow zerg, pounding on keep doors with seige, and dumpy my hot, sticky load on the heads of unsuspecting blues, I've started to explore the area in Cyrodiil outside of the Emperor keep circle/Alessia bridge. Mostly due to skyshards and to see what the quests in PvP zones are like, and partially because I've found Cyrodiil to be a very pretty zone once you get past the gaudy traitorous blue Khajiit vampires wearing hot pink and pact supertanks. I've been pleasently suprised by most of the zone in Cyrodiil, especially the distribution of crafting resources, dolmens, and delves. (all of which have objectives within them that are valuable to both PvE and PvP players)

It would be nice if there was more incentive for groups to spread out and fight over more than just keeps and resources. More so than just holding the three quest hub/spawn towns, as all three are really, really far away from the action most of the time. That got me thinking: wouldn't it be nice if there were more objectives/spawn areas outside of the standard fray? (and the occasional odd delve)

Cyrodiil is covered in ruins and buildings. Many of which would be perfect for an attacking army to use as a base of operations except for one small, itsy-bitsy issue: Forward camps are useless unless they are literally on top of a resource for a keep. They have virtually no range.

This is not a thread to change forward camps. They serve their purpose at the front lines, supplying respawns for over-extended allies and keeping pushes going after a keep flags. No. This is an idea for something completely different, and ideally would help cut down on the "Horse riding simulator online" complaints about Cyrodiil PvP.

I would love to see several of the ruins and other special locations that dot cyrodiil be incorporated into the war to an extent. My own preferred solution would be as follows:

• Certain map locations in cyrodiil, especially those close to home and side keeps, would become potential "Forward Base" locations. By default these locations would not be pinned on the map.
• These locations would be filled, as they are currently, with hostile bandits or other monsters.
• In the center of these locations, ideally in a protected location, there would be a single neutral flag. A player of any faction can attempt to claim this flag.
• Capturing this flag will cause all hostile NPCs in the area to aggro on the capturing player until it flips, forcing them to clear it out (or die/retreat)
• Once captured and cleared out, the location becomes an active spawn for the faction that captured it. A friendly siege merchant and two handful of weak guards (the ones that aren't CC immune.) spawn in.
• Like forward camps, Forward bases have a limited re-spawn radius. This radius is significantly larger than a forward camp, and should incorporate one or more alliance objectives entirely.
• Fifteen minutes after the base is captured, hostile NPCs will re-spawn as an assault force and try and retake their camp. The process takes fifteen minutes for the forward camp to flip back, and is halted if the bandit force is defeated.
• If a faction holds a Forward Base for more than thirty minutes, a flag appears on the map for all factions identifying the base to all factions.
• Forward Bases can be upgraded with AP at the siege merchant. Such upgrades could be destructable walls, additional guards, or gates. These upgrades should be expensive (At least as much as a forward camp). Upgrading a forward base will reduce how long a Forward Base remains unflagged for enemy factions. Upgrades do not stop the bandit raid timer, and additional guards will cause the bandit raids to be larger.
• Certain locations on the map would be modified to have similar behavior. Namely: The Alyssia-Sejanis bridge, the Ash-Nikel gates, and The Chalman-Bleakers gate. All three would have two flags added apiece (Each side of the bridge, and one flag on the second/third stories of the gatehouses) and a single quartermaster. (No guards or NPCs. Due to the high traffic of these areas.)
• Defending these locations would grant defensive AP ticks, similar to defending a resource or keep.