Is Emperor still "sold" on PC/NA at this point?

Transairion

I've got a friend with far too much money and far too little PvP skill, and he keeps going on about how the campaigns "are all empty" most of the time.

Don't shoot the messenger (much)!

Crown

Emperor was never sold.. There were however quite a few people who paid to be carried with a solid group who would go to a dead-ish campaign and flip the map.

Even with very little PvP skill, all your friend has to do is go to one of the dead campaigns on reset day, make sure he/she has all of the quests ready to turn in (having completed them on an active campaign), bring 2-3 friends along, and start taking resources. Your friend will quickly get a few tens of thousands of AP. Get the AP buff from killing a delve boss about 5 minutes before you start on the campaign too. Suicide to mobs after you kill the boss, and rez at the wayshrine for a quick way out.

I wrote this about making AP a while back. Take a read through as well.

Once your friend is 20k or more ahead of the next person on the leader board, start flipping keeps. Bring a LOT of siege. You can flip a keep with only a few people, though having 6 makes it a lot quicker. Don't bother with a ram as that takes time to kill the guards on the doors. If each person drops 3 stone trebs, you can take down a wall very quickly.

If there's really no opposition, you can take the ring in about an hour (with six people). Don't bother with your tri-keeps, outposts or resources, just take the six middle ring keeps.

If you plan for it well, and there's nobody competing with your friend, it should be a nice easy hour or two.

Chakei

I think your friend is trolling you.

Rickter

This:

Crown wrote: »

Emperor was never sold.. There were however quite a few people who paid to be carried with a solid group who would go to a dead-ish campaign and flip the map.

Though the OP is most likely referring to the leaked fiasco that was the Server close of Almalexia/Perma-Emp

The sad truth is that sort of thing happens all the time. Just this time someone decided to leak the screen shot.

/shrug

the honest ones know who they are. and thats all that matters.

Crown

Rickter wrote: »

the honest ones know who they are. and thats all that matters.

@Rickter None of it really matters.. It's a video game, and 5 years down the road nobody is going to care, and few will remember. Right now there are too many people with too low self esteem that getting something *virtual* in a game is the only way that makes them feel marginally better about themselves.

That doesn't just apply to Emperor in ESO, it applies across all MMOs and to a lesser degree many other games. There was an article a few years ago written about how the "ding ding ding achievement earned" in video games keeps people playing and makes them feel good. I don't recall where I read it, though if anyone has seen anything like that I'd love to read it again taking this into context.

If you ask 100 players if they'd rather spend an extra hour every day playing a game that rewards them with pixels on a screen for instant gratification, or spend an extra hour every day at the gym working on their fitness, long term health, and overall attractiveness (among other things) for long term benefit, I wonder how many would choose each option across different demographics.. I'd hazard a guess that there would be more who chose the "ding ding ding".

Crown

Chakei wrote: »

I think your friend is trolling you.

@Chakei When are you going to take the few hours it takes on a reset day so that we can get you the pretty red colour and costume?

Publius_Scipio

No one cares about emp. And no I am not being sarcastic.

Crown

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

No one cares about emp. And no I am not being sarcastic.

@Publius_Scipio I would preface that with "almost", as there are a lot of people who haven't had it who would like to get the colour and costume. It's still my favourite costume when the chain link is dyed in a light colour with a gold or other metallic colour on the edging, and faction colour on the under cloth. Perhaps we should say that no one cares about being emp, though many care about having been emp.

Rickter

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

No one cares about emp. And no I am not being sarcastic.

$500 USD says people still care about emp.

the rampant emp flipping on multiple campaigns says people still care about emp

the eternal battleground of 3 1/2 years says people still care about emp

i love you as the promised son of daggerfall @Publius_Scipio but i must disagree with your assessment on the concern for emperorship.

Crown wrote: »

5 years down the road nobody is going to care, and few will remember. Right now there are too many people with too low self esteem that getting something *virtual* in a game is the only way that makes them feel marginally better about themselves.

I cant speak for 5 years down the road, but i can say two years after the fact, there are those that participated in a certain trade agreement in August 2014 on Wabbajack that 2 years later, desired to earn emperor again simply because they wanted the feeling of earning it rather than how they actually obtained it.

kevlarto_ESO

A lot of emps cheated their way there over and over again, swapping and so forth, exploiting AP,the whole emp thing became major joke when just about everyone of a certain faction had former emp title one of the worst ideas ever for pvp is the emp, having any kind of a pvp game with an alpha class even temporary was a bad idea, although I did enjoy killing them and getting all the achievements.

GrimJaw

WTS emp.

NightbladeMechanics

Rickter wrote: »

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

No one cares about emp. And no I am not being sarcastic.

$500 USD says people still care about emp.

the rampant emp flipping on multiple campaigns says people still care about emp

the eternal battleground of 3 1/2 years says people still care about emp

i love you as the promised son of daggerfall @Publius_Scipio but i must disagree with your assessment on the concern for emperorship.

I think he meant that people don't respect the Former Emperor title like they used to, or consider getting emp much of an achievement anymore.

Crown

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

people don't respect the Former Emperor title like they used to

Agreed.

NightbladeMechanics wrote: »

people don't consider getting emp much of an achievement anymore.

I consider it a bigger achievement that people can convince others to come flip the map for them.

Ackwalan

I was on one of the 7 day campaigns yesterday. Within a minute of someone being crowned, there was a message saying he gave up the crown. So yes, people still sell emp crowns.

Rickter

ah i understand @NightbladeMechanics

yeah i agree with that sentiment as well. i say that with sadness.

I dont wear the title but i sure do use the dye and home furnishing thrones!!

Ackwalan wrote: »

I was on one of the 7 day campaigns yesterday. Within a minute of someone being crowned, there was a message saying he gave up the crown. So yes, people still sell emp crowns.

This doesnt necessarily mean they are selling emp. Something thats very popular is that people will make a deal with their own faction to not "surpass" someone on the leaderboard if they agree to drop campaign and give the next guy a chance. I dont know how I personally feel about that though. I think ultimately, its better to make deals with your own faction than with the opposite?

Chakei

Crown wrote: »

Chakei wrote: »

I think your friend is trolling you.

@Chakei When are you going to take the few hours it takes on a reset day so that we can get you the pretty red colour and costume?

@Crown Probably when I'm recovering from surgery on at least one of my toons.

As far as it being "sold", what else do you expect people to do when the CP 30 day is full of zergs? It's difficult to emp with a guild behind you in there and there are empty campaigns. People are going to go the route of least resistance for the achieves. Not sure why people get so twisted about it. Are you not supposed to take emp keeps on low pop servers? Seems a bit silly to me. Not everyone has the time or the guild around them to battle it out on the big campaigns.

WaltherCarraway

$500 a day for virtual Emperor hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Damn can't stop laughing

Ackwalan

Rickter wrote: »

ah i understand @NightbladeMechanics

yeah i agree with that sentiment as well. i say that with sadness.

I dont wear the title but i sure do use the dye and home furnishing thrones!!

Ackwalan wrote: »

I was on one of the 7 day campaigns yesterday. Within a minute of someone being crowned, there was a message saying he gave up the crown. So yes, people still sell emp crowns.

This doesnt necessarily mean they are selling emp. Something thats very popular is that people will make a deal with their own faction to not "surpass" someone on the leaderboard if they agree to drop campaign and give the next guy a chance. I dont know how I personally feel about that though. I think ultimately, its better to make deals with your own faction than with the opposite?

Make a deal. As in pay them gold or something? That's called selling emp.

Jake1576

The current number one guy on ad leaderboards for ad in vivec PS4 north America server. payed the person above him 100 dollars PayPal to drop the campaign. and gave a blue guild 2 million gold to stop pushing so he could get emperor. no joke either lol he even admits to doing it. and the guild master that's from the blue guild he payed came to ad text chat and confirmed he gave him two million gold to not push with his guild. lmao the way emperor is obtained is ridiculous only the same people keep getting it over and over. or you pay real money to get it there is nothing about it that's fair it needs reworked.

Jake1576

This happens on ps4 na i know that lol

zyk

I think it's really naive to think no one has paid for emp before. Read the "how much have you spent on Crowns?" threads to see how much money some people are willing to spend on vanity. I imagine some guild leaders have profited more than most will ever know.

And players have been openly mocking the former emp title at least since 1.5. Remember buff servers? When being a former emp came with permanent stat boosts, all competitive PVP and PVE wanted it. It was commonly traded.

What one does with emp can definitely be a measure of ability, but obtaining emp is a measure of influence. Pretty much any player can find a way to sit atop a leaderboard. Getting others to flip the keeps for you is the challenging part.

Chakei

Honestly, who cares? People pay to grind toons and get achieves all the time. I wish I had that kind of disposable income.

zyk

I care about integrity. Once everyone stops caring, then what of value remains? If everyone cheats, then even the motive to cheat disappears because winning is completely meaningless.

I'm proud of my emp runs because my guildmates and faction teammates thought enough of me to assist. That felt really nice. My hands trembled as I sent to zone something like, "THANK YOU AD, I LOVE YOU!" Had I paid for it, I would derive no satisfaction from it at all.

pcar944

WaltherCarraway wrote: »

$500 a day for virtual Emperor hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Damn can't stop laughing

well fwiw, there have been lots of stories of people paying FAR more then that in other games and they weren't even getting a costume or a dye

if you spend some time in any Cyro zone chat, you'll hear all kinds of things about Former Emps being bad etc, so I think in that sense when people think that Emp is constantly being traded/sold Kena is right - and so is Crown because I would love the dye/costume, but realistically, that stuff is not for everyone, and it shouldn't be

Qbiken

Crown wrote: »

Emperor was never sold.. There were however quite a few people who paid to be carried with a solid group who would go to a dead-ish campaign and flip the map.

Even with very little PvP skill, all your friend has to do is go to one of the dead campaigns on reset day, make sure he/she has all of the quests ready to turn in (having completed them on an active campaign), bring 2-3 friends along, and start taking resources. Your friend will quickly get a few tens of thousands of AP. Get the AP buff from killing a delve boss about 5 minutes before you start on the campaign too. Suicide to mobs after you kill the boss, and rez at the wayshrine for a quick way out.

I wrote this about making AP a while back. Take a read through as well.

Once your friend is 20k or more ahead of the next person on the leader board, start flipping keeps. Bring a LOT of siege. You can flip a keep with only a few people, though having 6 makes it a lot quicker. Don't bother with a ram as that takes time to kill the guards on the doors. If each person drops 3 stone trebs, you can take down a wall very quickly.

If there's really no opposition, you can take the ring in about an hour (with six people). Don't bother with your tri-keeps, outposts or resources, just take the six middle ring keeps.

If you plan for it well, and there's nobody competing with your friend, it should be a nice easy hour or two.

Been thinking about that guide for a long time, but couldn´t come up with where I saw it the first time. Thanks @Crown

Rickter

Ackwalan wrote: »

Rickter wrote: »

ah i understand @NightbladeMechanics

yeah i agree with that sentiment as well. i say that with sadness.

I dont wear the title but i sure do use the dye and home furnishing thrones!!

Ackwalan wrote: »

I was on one of the 7 day campaigns yesterday. Within a minute of someone being crowned, there was a message saying he gave up the crown. So yes, people still sell emp crowns.

This doesnt necessarily mean they are selling emp. Something thats very popular is that people will make a deal with their own faction to not "surpass" someone on the leaderboard if they agree to drop campaign and give the next guy a chance. I dont know how I personally feel about that though. I think ultimately, its better to make deals with your own faction than with the opposite?

Make a deal. As in pay them gold or something? That's called selling emp.

no. I said: "to not "surpass" someone on the leaderboard if they agree to drop campaign and give the next guy a chance."

meaning they promise not to compete with each other and work together. Again, seeing as how that is arranged within the same faction, i feel like its a gray area.

NBrookus

If you've had a good emp run, dropping or switching characters so someone else gets a chance is courteous, especially if you've had the support of other guilds who helped you get there in the first place.

There's a big difference between that and emp flipping. And by emp flipping I mean:

Faction A logs onto server en masse, zergs map, crowns emp. Logs off and makes no attempt to defend.
Faction B logs onto server and dethrones, possibly crowns own emp.
Faction A logs back in when dethroned and cycle repeats.

If you have two guilds on opposite factions participating, you can emp flip. They don't have to be colluding, and probably aren't. One faction doesn't even have to be deliberately participating. All it takes is for faction A to be weak enough without the emp flipper guild to be unable to prevent a dethrone.

Ackwalan

Rickter wrote: »

Ackwalan wrote: »

Rickter wrote: »

ah i understand @NightbladeMechanics

yeah i agree with that sentiment as well. i say that with sadness.

I dont wear the title but i sure do use the dye and home furnishing thrones!!

Ackwalan wrote: »

I was on one of the 7 day campaigns yesterday. Within a minute of someone being crowned, there was a message saying he gave up the crown. So yes, people still sell emp crowns.

This doesnt necessarily mean they are selling emp. Something thats very popular is that people will make a deal with their own faction to not "surpass" someone on the leaderboard if they agree to drop campaign and give the next guy a chance. I dont know how I personally feel about that though. I think ultimately, its better to make deals with your own faction than with the opposite?

Make a deal. As in pay them gold or something? That's called selling emp.

no. I said: "to not "surpass" someone on the leaderboard if they agree to drop campaign and give the next guy a chance."

meaning they promise not to compete with each other and work together. Again, seeing as how that is arranged within the same faction, i feel like its a gray area.

Trading is a form of selling. In that scenario, they made a deal to not interfere with each other to get emp. Just because gold was not exchanged, does not mean emp position was not sold.

zyk

NBrookus wrote: »

If you've had a good emp run, dropping or switching characters so someone else gets a chance is courteous, especially if you've had the support of other guilds who helped you get there in the first place.

There's a big difference between that and emp flipping. And by emp flipping I mean:

Faction A logs onto server en masse, zergs map, crowns emp. Logs off and makes no attempt to defend.
Faction B logs onto server and dethrones, possibly crowns own emp.
Faction A logs back in when dethroned and cycle repeats.

If you have two guilds on opposite factions participating, you can emp flip. They don't have to be colluding, and probably aren't. One faction doesn't even have to be deliberately participating. All it takes is for faction A to be weak enough without the emp flipper guild to be unable to prevent a dethrone.

I agree with this 100%. To me, it crosses the line in your emp flipping example or when there are RMT inducements.

Ackwalan

I was just running around collecting motifs today, and the Xarxes emp kept flipping back and forth. There must of been 5 or 6 people (at least) that made emp then gave up the title only to have emp change alliance, and the next in line to get it. I watched the map for awhile, and it was real obvious what was going on, as the keeps were flagged, there was no siege on them, just the emp keeps were being flipped.

gabriebe

lol yea, and those emp flippers got mad and salty af yesterday when I did the right thing, which is bring my own people, build my own lead and emp myself on DC. We wiped the same group on EP, and later when they came back as ADs. I got dethroned later when that group of EP sieged Alessia, killed the NPCs, then let the ADs flip the flags. It is so ridiculous lol. Just look at the leaderboards to see how ,much of a racket that is.

You could tell they were only used to fighting NPCs. It was very fun fighting them as emp and farming the crap out of these guys.