Possible solution to PVE Cyrodiil: just add a neutral mode?

Syy101

First I want to clarify that I do both pve and pvp. I have no problem solo questing, farming skyshards, clearing delves/dolmens/bosses in both Cyrodiil and IC, but I see that there are many threads concerning a pve version of Cyrodiil on the forum. I totally understand the unwillingness some players have towards entering a pvp zone (I myself was too afraid to step foot in Cyrodiil until recently), but instead of making a new instance of Cyrodiil, I think simply adding a "neutral mode" is more easy, light-weighted and can achieve the same goal as well.

It's kind of like the "safe mode" in GTAOL. Players in this mode cannot attack or be attacked by other players and keep guards. They can only interact with npc and enemies in the wildness. In GTAOL players can send npc thugs to attack others in safe mode, but it isn't the case in ESO, so players in neutral mode can safely explore Cyrodiil as they will, farming skyshards, clearing stuffs, doing quests (they may even watch some great battles!).

Of course something should be done to avoid exploiting. E.g. players cannot enter/exit neutral mode when enemy players are around so that they can't use this to gank others. Neutral players cannot speak in zone chat or speak to a non-neutral player to avoid easy spying.

What's your thought?

Sylvermynx

*shrug* I think that won't fly because the devs set it up the way it is on purpose. I despise pvp, but when I get ready to sink into Oblivion nostalgia, I'll just get dead as often as it takes.

Jhalin

I’m gonna go with a solid no. There’s no penalty for death in Cyrodiil, so it’s not really needed. Additionally, zone chat is not the primary way people spy, nor do they even need to say anything at all to follow around enemy faction players.

They could roam around in enemy zergs without recourse, their presence alone would unstealth small scalers.

Warping an entire zone to accommodate players that refuse to adapt to the area is a poor choice. The quests will always be there, and at worst they’ll be slightly inconvenienced having to run back to the quest location.

jcm2606

Yeah, this would do nothing to stop spying. All that needs to happen is the guy in question who goes neutral would sit in a Discord call or something with a raid leader of the opposing faction, and boom, able to spy freely with zero consequence.

LeHarrt91

Wouldn't a new Campaign that has enemy combat disabled be easier? so basically its like the rest of Tamirel.

G1Countdown

If ZOS were to ever address the request (by some of the playerbase) of a pve Cyrodiil they would have to do it in a new campaign that had disabled PVE. And, then they would need to modify the rewards greatly so that the pvp playerbase wouldn't be up in arms.

technohic

There are so many times different instances of Cyrodiil is empty. Just go then

idk

First, and foremost. Zos designed Cyrodiil with clear intent. Threads like this seem not understand that or choose to ignore that the occasional thread on the subject is regularly ignored by Zos because none of them, including this one, gives Zos a compelling reason to rethink their design. Without that it is empty words.

Second. for the PvE aspect in Cyrodiil it so easy to complete and rarely experience PvP. It really adds a great element that one cannot find in PvE which is an air of possible danger due to the PvP chance. Between the two characters doing the quests I think I might have seen 3 PvP encounters. It is sad some are to scared to risk that very small bit of danger.

It is even more fun when doing Sky Shards and Delves with a group. Early in the game I often lead groups into Cyrodiil from the social guild I was in. Doing the delvs and shards with the group was fun. Yes we encountered PvP from time to time but all the above was back when there was a lot more PvP in Cyrodiil than there is now.

Again, without a reason that is compelling enough to get Zos to change their mind this thread is rather pointless. Zos clearly chose to put certain into Cyrodiil with the intent that players would have to engage in PvP or at least risk dealing with it to gain those items, skill points, sky shards, quests, titles and important skills for any serious healer, tank or stam DPS.

Edit: as pointed out, go to a campaign with low population for a lower chance at having to deal with PvP. Problem solved.

Syy101

Jhalin wrote: »

I’m gonna go with a solid no. There’s no penalty for death in Cyrodiil, so it’s not really needed. Additionally, zone chat is not the primary way people spy, nor do they even need to say anything at all to follow around enemy faction players.

They could roam around in enemy zergs without recourse, their presence alone would unstealth small scalers.

Warping an entire zone to accommodate players that refuse to adapt to the area is a poor choice. The quests will always be there, and at worst they’ll be slightly inconvenienced having to run back to the quest location.

Oh didn't think about that. Maybe make neutral players cannot see or be seen by non-neutral. But I guess there're always some exploits.

Taleof2Cities

No PvP rewards without doing PvP ... pretty simple really.

I've said in prior threads that I would be fine with a PvE Cyrodiil.

But the rewards would have to be different (e.g. no Alliance Points, no Skyshards, etc.) ... that I don't think players would even go there. Much less the devs spending valuable time on such a proposition ...

Syy101

idk wrote: »

First, and foremost. Zos designed Cyrodiil with clear intent. Threads like this seem not understand that or choose to ignore that the occasional thread on the subject is regularly ignored by Zos because none of them, including this one, gives Zos a compelling reason to rethink their design. Without that it is empty words.

Second. for the PvE aspect in Cyrodiil it so easy to complete and rarely experience PvP. It really adds a great element that one cannot find in PvE which is an air of possible danger due to the PvP chance. Between the two characters doing the quests I think I might have seen 3 PvP encounters. It is sad some are to scared to risk that very small bit of danger.

It is even more fun when doing Sky Shards and Delves with a group. Early in the game I often lead groups into Cyrodiil from the social guild I was in. Doing the delvs and shards with the group was fun. Yes we encountered PvP from time to time but all the above was back when there was a lot more PvP in Cyrodiil than there is now.

Again, without a reason that is compelling enough to get Zos to change their mind this thread is rather pointless. Zos clearly chose to put certain into Cyrodiil with the intent that players would have to engage in PvP or at least risk dealing with it to gain those items, skill points, sky shards, quests, titles and important skills for any serious healer, tank or stam DPS.

Edit: as pointed out, go to a campaign with low population for a lower chance at having to deal with PvP. Problem solved.

As I said I do pvp, but there's a large player base that constantly asks for pve Cyrodiil. That's the voice from customers and should give Zos something to think about. Maybe not compelling enough because not many players drop the game because of the lack of pve Cyrodiil, but at least there's the request that lasts for years.

And tbh, all these aggressive talks like "pointless", "deal with it" will just stop pve players from ever trying pvp.

Artim_X

A PvE version of Cyrodiil/IC seems more reasonable than a neutral mode (if something can be exploited it will be exploited).

Following stealthed players (neutral players should not be able to see a stealthed player even if right on top of them), they should not count towards a faction's overall population (this would probably require better servers to account for the increase in players), chilling inside an enemy keep and telling guildmates in guild chat or discord that a keep is fresh for the taking (neutral players should be automatically kicked out from a keep their faction does not own), causing the game to not play smoothly (a large group of neutral players watching a skirmish or a full on AvAvA might cause even more lag than the game can handle), as the OP mentioned neutral players should not be able to deactivate neutral mode when near a potential player target (I think it would be better for a neutral player to have to reenter the campaign if they want to actively participate in the war), and neutral players might make it even more difficult for others to farm tel var (even if tel var gain was deactivated for neutral players if they are killing the same enemies as those who are willing to risk PvP then it becomes even more difficult to maximize tel var gains especially in relation to bosses).

Even if they wanted to I don't think ZOS can implement a fair neutral mode that works perfectly alongside the regular PvP mode.

Minyassa

The only way to keep non-PvP players from affecting PvP would be to have it in a separate instance, which pretty much just amounts to a PvE Cyrodiil. Since we're able to move in and out of a shadow realm and travel in the past and other such instanced situations on the same server as the rest of the world, seems this would be possible if they wanted such a thing, but they really don't seem to. ZOS has set this game up to push PvP as much as possible, from putting so many BiS skills in the Alliance line to making resource nodes non-instanced to players will have to compete for them. They wouldn't have done that if they wanted to make it carebear friendly.

MattT1988

I hate PvP as much as the next guy but I just don’t think this is needed. We in PvE land get so many lands to PvE in, I don’t think we need Cyrodill, I say let PvP keep it.

Besides if this were to ever happen the map would need significant change, it’s massive and, well, mainly empty. It would probably have to be either scaled down or much much more content added into it to make it remotely interesting for questers.

Not worth the development costs and time in my humble opinion.

Tarys

I see zero chance for a "neutral" pvp cyro or a pve version of the current cyro. But i can think of a rather "expensive" way to implement something like that:

During Summerset you can join those timecontrolling mages who play around with that staff or whatever it was and during a quest it showed different versions of a npc. Something like "if that would have happened you would have become xy". So by making an event where you can speak to one of those mages grants you the ability to visit cyro before its fall and state of total war. No enemy players around. Maybe not even resources to farm or mobs to kill. Just a sightseeing tour with all shards, books and points of interest. And of course everything destroyed by the war would still be fine.
And by using this alternate or former version event you could even change a pve zone into a pvp one. Talk to the event npc and maybe Eastmarch will be available as open pvp zone where the other 2 factions lay siege to the city and certain places.

mague

Syy101 wrote: »

What's your thought?

So 50 blue fight 50 yellow at Nickel and 150 "white" players watch the fight ? Most probably that wont work due to technical limitations.

JumpmanLane

Just go to Shor late night or Sotha. They are relatively empty geeze...

BigBragg

Abigail

I don't PvP, but I acknowledge that some do and they certainly have a right to a place in Tamriel. Were PvP areas made neutral, or if there were alternate PvE zones, fewer players would attempt PvP (finding they enjoy it), and that aspect of the game would be even less relevant.

Knootewoot

Syy101 wrote: »

idk wrote: »

First, and foremost. Zos designed Cyrodiil with clear intent. Threads like this seem not understand that or choose to ignore that the occasional thread on the subject is regularly ignored by Zos because none of them, including this one, gives Zos a compelling reason to rethink their design. Without that it is empty words.

Second. for the PvE aspect in Cyrodiil it so easy to complete and rarely experience PvP. It really adds a great element that one cannot find in PvE which is an air of possible danger due to the PvP chance. Between the two characters doing the quests I think I might have seen 3 PvP encounters. It is sad some are to scared to risk that very small bit of danger.

It is even more fun when doing Sky Shards and Delves with a group. Early in the game I often lead groups into Cyrodiil from the social guild I was in. Doing the delvs and shards with the group was fun. Yes we encountered PvP from time to time but all the above was back when there was a lot more PvP in Cyrodiil than there is now.

Again, without a reason that is compelling enough to get Zos to change their mind this thread is rather pointless. Zos clearly chose to put certain into Cyrodiil with the intent that players would have to engage in PvP or at least risk dealing with it to gain those items, skill points, sky shards, quests, titles and important skills for any serious healer, tank or stam DPS.

Edit: as pointed out, go to a campaign with low population for a lower chance at having to deal with PvP. Problem solved.

As I said I do pvp, but there's a large player base that constantly asks for pve Cyrodiil. That's the voice from customers and should give Zos something to think about. Maybe not compelling enough because not many players drop the game because of the lack of pve Cyrodiil, but at least there's the request that lasts for years.

And tbh, all these aggressive talks like "pointless", "deal with it" will just stop pve players from ever trying pvp.

There is also a large player base asking to fix cyrodill performance and additional PvP love. That voice should be heard first. A PvE cyrodill will only lead to threads like
- Cyrodill has to few wayshrines and i dislike horse riding
- Cyrodill has to little content for such a large area
- I got all skyshards and done all delves. Please make more content in cyrodill. No reason to go there anymore
- Please make battlegrounds PvE only

Cyrodill won't get any new recruits and will die out. PvP'ers leave the game. Next thread 1 year later
- Please merge servers EU and NA.

Game shuts down on December 19th, 2021.

Minyassa

People keep saying they wish that all of Tamriel was open PvP, too. Honestly I don't see why PvPers and PvEers can't both have their wish...other games have PvP servers and PvE servers that are separate. It would save people having to respec, it would save inventory space and people having to save different gear sets. And I simply cannot believe that ZOS pays their staff so much that they can't afford another server.

Abigail

Minyassa wrote: »

People keep saying they wish that all of Tamriel was open PvP, too. Honestly I don't see why PvPers and PvEers can't both have their wish...other games have PvP servers and PvE servers that are separate. It would save people having to respec, it would save inventory space and people having to save different gear sets. And I simply cannot believe that ZOS pays their staff so much that they can't afford another server.

This will never happen. It's not cost effective in this stage of the game's life cycle; moreover, there are not enough PvP'ers to justify it. I've played on a number of PvP-only servers and they usually degrade into empty wastelands populated only by roaming bands of gankers hunting for the rare solo player.

Minyassa

Abigail wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

People keep saying they wish that all of Tamriel was open PvP, too. Honestly I don't see why PvPers and PvEers can't both have their wish...other games have PvP servers and PvE servers that are separate. It would save people having to respec, it would save inventory space and people having to save different gear sets. And I simply cannot believe that ZOS pays their staff so much that they can't afford another server.

This will never happen. It's not cost effective in this stage of the game's life cycle; moreover, there are not enough PvP'ers to justify it.

The forum posts here make it seem like this game is like 80% PvPers. Especially since things keep getting nerfed and adjusted for PvP. In the two years I've played I've seen one nerf that was mentioned that it was specifically for PvE...usually it's something to address PvP issues and PvE just has to suck it up. Or at least that is how the forum looks!

Syy101

Artim_X wrote: »

A PvE version of Cyrodiil/IC seems more reasonable than a neutral mode (if something can be exploited it will be exploited).

Following stealthed players (neutral players should not be able to see a stealthed player even if right on top of them), they should not count towards a faction's overall population (this would probably require better servers to account for the increase in players), chilling inside an enemy keep and telling guildmates in guild chat or discord that a keep is fresh for the taking (neutral players should be automatically kicked out from a keep their faction does not own), causing the game to not play smoothly (a large group of neutral players watching a skirmish or a full on AvAvA might cause even more lag than the game can handle), as the OP mentioned neutral players should not be able to deactivate neutral mode when near a potential player target (I think it would be better for a neutral player to have to reenter the campaign if they want to actively participate in the war), and neutral players might make it even more difficult for others to farm tel var (even if tel var gain was deactivated for neutral players if they are killing the same enemies as those who are willing to risk PvP then it becomes even more difficult to maximize tel var gains especially in relation to bosses).

Even if they wanted to I don't think ZOS can implement a fair neutral mode that works perfectly alongside the regular PvP mode.

Good points. What my suggest is just a raw idea and is sure to have many ways to exploit. A real implementation (if any ever) should have more careful approach. And I admit I didn't think about the performance issue.

Syy101

Knootewoot wrote: »

Syy101 wrote: »

idk wrote: »

First, and foremost. Zos designed Cyrodiil with clear intent. Threads like this seem not understand that or choose to ignore that the occasional thread on the subject is regularly ignored by Zos because none of them, including this one, gives Zos a compelling reason to rethink their design. Without that it is empty words.

Second. for the PvE aspect in Cyrodiil it so easy to complete and rarely experience PvP. It really adds a great element that one cannot find in PvE which is an air of possible danger due to the PvP chance. Between the two characters doing the quests I think I might have seen 3 PvP encounters. It is sad some are to scared to risk that very small bit of danger.

It is even more fun when doing Sky Shards and Delves with a group. Early in the game I often lead groups into Cyrodiil from the social guild I was in. Doing the delvs and shards with the group was fun. Yes we encountered PvP from time to time but all the above was back when there was a lot more PvP in Cyrodiil than there is now.

Again, without a reason that is compelling enough to get Zos to change their mind this thread is rather pointless. Zos clearly chose to put certain into Cyrodiil with the intent that players would have to engage in PvP or at least risk dealing with it to gain those items, skill points, sky shards, quests, titles and important skills for any serious healer, tank or stam DPS.

Edit: as pointed out, go to a campaign with low population for a lower chance at having to deal with PvP. Problem solved.

As I said I do pvp, but there's a large player base that constantly asks for pve Cyrodiil. That's the voice from customers and should give Zos something to think about. Maybe not compelling enough because not many players drop the game because of the lack of pve Cyrodiil, but at least there's the request that lasts for years.

And tbh, all these aggressive talks like "pointless", "deal with it" will just stop pve players from ever trying pvp.

There is also a large player base asking to fix cyrodill performance and additional PvP love. That voice should be heard first. A PvE cyrodill will only lead to threads like
- Cyrodill has to few wayshrines and i dislike horse riding
- Cyrodill has to little content for such a large area
- I got all skyshards and done all delves. Please make more content in cyrodill. No reason to go there anymore
- Please make battlegrounds PvE only

Cyrodill won't get any new recruits and will die out. PvP'ers leave the game. Next thread 1 year later
- Please merge servers EU and NA.

Game shuts down on December 19th, 2021.

I don't see how my idea conflicts with yours. I know Cyrodiil pve is boring, that's EXACTLY why I think a neutral mode is better than a pure pve instance of Cyrodiil. Pve players can just enter neutral mode, do whatever they want with the zone and be done with it. Everything else can be left intact. I admit that I fail to realize the performance overhead that it will bring to the already laggy Cyrodiil, but listening to one player base doesn't mean ignoring the other. (though zos tends to ignore both)

And nobody ever asks to make battleground pve only. False accusation.

Abigail

Minyassa wrote: »

Abigail wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

People keep saying they wish that all of Tamriel was open PvP, too. Honestly I don't see why PvPers and PvEers can't both have their wish...other games have PvP servers and PvE servers that are separate. It would save people having to respec, it would save inventory space and people having to save different gear sets. And I simply cannot believe that ZOS pays their staff so much that they can't afford another server.

This will never happen. It's not cost effective in this stage of the game's life cycle; moreover, there are not enough PvP'ers to justify it.

The forum posts here make it seem like this game is like 80% PvPers. Especially since things keep getting nerfed and adjusted for PvP. In the two years I've played I've seen one nerf that was mentioned that it was specifically for PvE...usually it's something to address PvP issues and PvE just has to suck it up. Or at least that is how the forum looks!

It's doubtful the forums are statistically representative. Casual players generally do not visit forums; whereas, meta chasers and PvP'ers are over-represented. Also, your claim that PvP drives the nerfs is simply untrue; i.e.: the shield nerf.

TheShadowScout

Syy101 wrote: »

I think simply adding a "neutral mode" is more easy, light-weighted and can achieve the same goal as well.

Whoever said that the goal of PvE players to do all the cyrodil stuff without getting ganked -should- be achieved???

Also, only if you also add a "bandit mode" so PvPlayers can gank whoever they wish, whenever they want, wherever they choose.
Which would suc... uhm... be a bad idea.

And... any "neutral mode" would be rather exploitable unless you pretty much make it "sightseeing only" and disable ALL the reward options (so no healing, no keep repairing, no AP or TV gain, no nothing...) And that would make it useless anyhow. Also, yeah, it could still spy quite easily through third party chat programs, not like people can't do that already anyhow.

Finally from an immersion point of view... That's how it goes in a friggin warzone! You meet an enemy combatant, they try to kill you before you can kill them. Working as intended. How would any "neutral mode" work? Waving a white flag? That gets you captured and taken to a PoW camp, (which actually might make a nice addition to PvP - being able to capture "slain but not respawned yet" players waiting for a rez if you get to them first, and habing a daily "capture enemy for interrogation" mission, but that's a different discussion I guess), if not slain outright just to be sure. Not like the geneva convention or war crimes exist in a medieval-ish setting, right?

So the most likely effect for a "neutral mode" would be... yellow as in "attackable but non hostile", which may not be quite what the OP is looking for... (and also might get your character attacked by their own side as defector)

The obvious solution is... to change nothing. Leave the PvE regions all PvE, and leave the (few) PvP places all PvP.

And let people learn how to stop worrying and live with the inevitable gank. Not like it has any drawbacks, ecxept respawning elsewhere. And then you just go to another corner of cyrodil and do the quests around where the gankers are lurking another day.

The point is, there really is no reason at all to do anything about this just because some people are afraid of getting PKed in cyrodil, no more then there would be any reason to give PvPlayers all the PvE stuff without them having to PvE for it.

If someone wants something, they will do things they don't like much for it. If they don't wanna do those things, they will have to do without.

I suck at the PvPness, and I did it, sneaking a lot, taking many, many days going very, very slowly through cyrodil before I had it sll done with my main. And will do it again on the alts, whenever I feel like it. Yeah, I got ganked dozends of times. And I even managed to gank a few people myself (though half the time, by attempts to nightblade-backstab resulted in my pool lil character getting rekt when I happened to meet someone who knew how to PvP).
So what?
I still managed to grab every skyshard, clear every dwelve, find every location, do every quest.
It just took a lot more time, and a lot more apprehension.
That's the price for those things.
Just accept that, people!

Minyassa

Abigail wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Abigail wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

People keep saying they wish that all of Tamriel was open PvP, too. Honestly I don't see why PvPers and PvEers can't both have their wish...other games have PvP servers and PvE servers that are separate. It would save people having to respec, it would save inventory space and people having to save different gear sets. And I simply cannot believe that ZOS pays their staff so much that they can't afford another server.

This will never happen. It's not cost effective in this stage of the game's life cycle; moreover, there are not enough PvP'ers to justify it.

The forum posts here make it seem like this game is like 80% PvPers. Especially since things keep getting nerfed and adjusted for PvP. In the two years I've played I've seen one nerf that was mentioned that it was specifically for PvE...usually it's something to address PvP issues and PvE just has to suck it up. Or at least that is how the forum looks!

It's doubtful the forums are statistically representative. Casual players generally do not visit forums; whereas, meta chasers and PvP'ers are over-represented. Also, your claim that PvP drives the nerfs is simply untrue; i.e.: the shield nerf.

That shield nerf is the one example I mentioned that was stated to be PvE based.

Knootewoot

Syy101 wrote: »

Knootewoot wrote: »

Syy101 wrote: »

idk wrote: »

First, and foremost. Zos designed Cyrodiil with clear intent. Threads like this seem not understand that or choose to ignore that the occasional thread on the subject is regularly ignored by Zos because none of them, including this one, gives Zos a compelling reason to rethink their design. Without that it is empty words.

Second. for the PvE aspect in Cyrodiil it so easy to complete and rarely experience PvP. It really adds a great element that one cannot find in PvE which is an air of possible danger due to the PvP chance. Between the two characters doing the quests I think I might have seen 3 PvP encounters. It is sad some are to scared to risk that very small bit of danger.

It is even more fun when doing Sky Shards and Delves with a group. Early in the game I often lead groups into Cyrodiil from the social guild I was in. Doing the delvs and shards with the group was fun. Yes we encountered PvP from time to time but all the above was back when there was a lot more PvP in Cyrodiil than there is now.

Again, without a reason that is compelling enough to get Zos to change their mind this thread is rather pointless. Zos clearly chose to put certain into Cyrodiil with the intent that players would have to engage in PvP or at least risk dealing with it to gain those items, skill points, sky shards, quests, titles and important skills for any serious healer, tank or stam DPS.

Edit: as pointed out, go to a campaign with low population for a lower chance at having to deal with PvP. Problem solved.

As I said I do pvp, but there's a large player base that constantly asks for pve Cyrodiil. That's the voice from customers and should give Zos something to think about. Maybe not compelling enough because not many players drop the game because of the lack of pve Cyrodiil, but at least there's the request that lasts for years.

And tbh, all these aggressive talks like "pointless", "deal with it" will just stop pve players from ever trying pvp.

There is also a large player base asking to fix cyrodill performance and additional PvP love. That voice should be heard first. A PvE cyrodill will only lead to threads like
- Cyrodill has to few wayshrines and i dislike horse riding
- Cyrodill has to little content for such a large area
- I got all skyshards and done all delves. Please make more content in cyrodill. No reason to go there anymore
- Please make battlegrounds PvE only

Cyrodill won't get any new recruits and will die out. PvP'ers leave the game. Next thread 1 year later
- Please merge servers EU and NA.

Game shuts down on December 19th, 2021.

I don't see how my idea conflicts with yours. I know Cyrodiil pve is boring, that's EXACTLY why I think a neutral mode is better than a pure pve instance of Cyrodiil. Pve players can just enter neutral mode, do whatever they want with the zone and be done with it. Everything else can be left intact. I admit that I fail to realize the performance overhead that it will bring to the already laggy Cyrodiil, but listening to one player base doesn't mean ignoring the other. (though zos tends to ignore both)

And nobody ever asks to make battleground pve only. False accusation.

A neutral toon in Cyrodill can

- Spy for alliances without penalty
- give away stealhed players without penalty
- Attribute to lag

and i am sure there will be many more things to can and will abuse

And the BG was a joke but apparently PvE don't have humor.

Syy101

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Syy101 wrote: »

I think simply adding a "neutral mode" is more easy, light-weighted and can achieve the same goal as well.

Whoever said that the goal of PvE players to do all the cyrodil stuff without getting ganked -should- be achieved???

Also, only if you also add a "bandit mode" so PvPlayers can gank whoever they wish, whenever they want, wherever they choose.
Which would suc... uhm... be a bad idea.

And... any "neutral mode" would be rather exploitable unless you pretty much make it "sightseeing only" and disable ALL the reward options (so no healing, no keep repairing, no AP or TV gain, no nothing...) And that would make it useless anyhow. Also, yeah, it could still spy quite easily through third party chat programs, not like people can't do that already anyhow.

Finally from an immersion point of view... That's how it goes in a friggin warzone! You meet an enemy combatant, they try to kill you before you can kill them. Working as intended. How would any "neutral mode" work? Waving a white flag? That gets you captured and taken to a PoW camp, (which actually might make a nice addition to PvP - being able to capture "slain but not respawned yet" players waiting for a rez if you get to them first, and habing a daily "capture enemy for interrogation" mission, but that's a different discussion I guess), if not slain outright just to be sure. Not like the geneva convention or war crimes exist in a medieval-ish setting, right?

So the most likely effect for a "neutral mode" would be... yellow as in "attackable but non hostile", which may not be quite what the OP is looking for... (and also might get your character attacked by their own side as defector)

The obvious solution is... to change nothing. Leave the PvE regions all PvE, and leave the (few) PvP places all PvP.

And let people learn how to stop worrying and live with the inevitable gank. Not like it has any drawbacks, ecxept respawning elsewhere. And then you just go to another corner of cyrodil and do the quests around where the gankers are lurking another day.

The point is, there really is no reason at all to do anything about this just because some people are afraid of getting PKed in cyrodil, no more then there would be any reason to give PvPlayers all the PvE stuff without them having to PvE for it.

If someone wants something, they will do things they don't like much for it. If they don't wanna do those things, they will have to do without.

I suck at the PvPness, and I did it, sneaking a lot, taking many, many days going very, very slowly through cyrodil before I had it sll done with my main. And will do it again on the alts, whenever I feel like it. Yeah, I got ganked dozends of times. And I even managed to gank a few people myself (though half the time, by attempts to nightblade-backstab resulted in my pool lil character getting rekt when I happened to meet someone who knew how to PvP).
So what?
I still managed to grab every skyshard, clear every dwelve, find every location, do every quest.
It just took a lot more time, and a lot more apprehension.
That's the price for those things.
Just accept that, people!

Exploitable? Yes, but what I propose is just some raw model and of course can have much improvement.

Breaking immersion? I don't think so, because there're already many neutral npc in Cyrodiil, and it seems everybody is ok with them. Adding neutral players don't seem different, except that players can exploit things, and again...improvement can be done.

I myself don't have problem solo farming pvp zones. For the past two days I solo cleared the entire IC sewer except the central part, and even managed to hide from two high rank enemy players in the enemy section. I love the excitement it gives me, but there're always those who don't.

mague

Blue Entoloma + Namira's Root or Nirnroot or Spider Egg = 12 secs invisible. It is possible to escape almost anything with this.

I did a lot of the PvE part with this and never did any PvP. I just started to PvP for the skills and the motifs because i wanted to earn them honest.