How to finally FIX/BALANCE BATTLEGROUNDS (in my opinion)

validifyedneb18_ESO

ahem.

-clears throat-

Delete Nightblades.

Girl_Number8

DivineFirstYOLO wrote: »

INTRODUCTION

Hey, sooo I was asking people in twitch chats and also collecting opinions on the forums and on discord servers about ideas to improve Battlegrounds. Most of the players are asking to separate premade from solo queue (sources: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/461405/seperate-premades-from-randoms-in-bgs/p1 ; https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/400077/premade-groups-are-ruining-battlegrounds/p1 ) and I totally understand why. Especially in lower MMR matches solo players are not really helping each other and basically getting rolled over one by one. The obvious fix is to separate premades from solo queue.

The problem is that there are not enough premade teams to create their own premade queue. Since the latest changes in the queue system my team has to wait for 30 minutes just to get into a match with a broken lobby (2vs3vs4).

Therefore I present you an idea how to solve this situation (and to make BGs a „lucrative“ place for players and for ZOS):

MAIN IDEA

a) separate solo from premade queue.

b) since there are not enough people interested in playing as a group right now, how about adding incentives? Add a serious ranking system for premade groups so that people can queue for „ranked" matchmaking. So basically there is going to be normal non ranked "solo" queue and the "ranked" queue.

The new „solo“ queue should only allow solo and duo teams. (let me know if you want 2 man teams also removed from the „solo“ queue, I think they should stay so that people can learn to fight together to eventually be ready for „ranked“ queue – but up to you guys.
If you don't want to lose points in the „ranked“ queue you can always go and play solo or as a duo in the normal non ranked queue.

Top 5% (or any other number, just not top 100 players please) that participate in the „ranked" queue will get special end of season rewards – mounts, skins, pets, maybe gold, etc. That does not necessarily mean that you guys at ZOS have to completely design new mounts and skins. Simply use old but very popular skins/mounts like the Dro-m'Athra skin/senche and use different colours.

Forgive me, this was created in a rush:

Dro-m'Athra skin


Dro-m'Athra senche

A season should either be one or two weeks, more than two weeks is too long and one week is probably too short (but that's just my opinion, adjust as you need it)

Suggestion:
Use one of them as end of season reward and put the other one into crown store. Most players are completionists, they will buy the skin or senche to complete their outfit or collection. (return to cover your costs for adding this new system). You could also add furnishing recipes as rewards and sell the corresponding house in the crown store at the same time.

About the ranking system: I've heard WoW has a good system, but I know Counterstrike definitely has a good one. Please consider adding your own team's score, opposing team's score, damage/healing done, win/lose, kill/death/assists and some more modifiers (some listed in picture below) into the ranking equation (don't forget about healers that usually don't get many kills).

example equation:

There needs to be a skill floor – where every new player/team has to start at. People within a certain level will be matched against each other. If you queue solo for a „ranked“ match and win, you should get a few more points than the 2 or 3 man premade in your team. If your team loses to lower rank players you should lose more points.

Everyone else that does not get a skin/mount/pet/etc should still get rewards, a system like in Cyrodiil (rank 1 – rank 3 rewards) is needed. Being/staying on top of the „ranked“ leaderboard should not be too easy tho!

There is one thing that bothers me:
Should matches be 4vs4 or continue to be 4vs4vs4 – right now, having 3 teams prevents that one team completely dominates the other 2 teams (in theory). I guess, with a better ranking system matches could become 4 vs 4, but not sure on that one. Need opinions please!


Further wishes:

- If you decide to add ranked matches, please also consider to balance some skills – blockade of ice and snares in general are overperforming.


CONCLUSION

Battlegrounds are such an awesome place, hardly any lag, no zergs, no sieges. Please show them some love (no more new maps for now, rather fix the queue as soon as possible).

Before somebody comes with the „why reward only ranked, we want mounts/skins for normal solo queue as well“ argument: this is still a MMO, people putting time and teamwork into the game should get rewards (take a look at group dungeons, trials). Solo queue will finally be for solo players, that's good enough and what people were asking for.

I'm pretty sure I forgot something, but let me know what you guys are thinking, add some feedback/ideas please. Discuss rewards, I just gave an idea, I'm not a ZOS employee so I won't go further into detail xD

Thanks for reading!

@ZOS_MattFiror ; @ZOS_GinaBruno ; @ZOS_JessicaFolsom ; @ZOS_RichLambert ; @ZOS_BrianWheeler ; @ZOS_RobGarrett ; @ZOS_Gilliam
@Masel - a common friend told me to add you, because you're doing a great job. Feely is his name and Schaden is his game.

I already said something in the other thread similar WITHOUT THE NERFS!!

Bgs are fun but a procfest and Cyro would need the same love too. I disagree with the skin reward, that should be a PvE thing not a PvP thing. I feel PvE players already lost enough to us. The nerfs you asked for is just low as PvE needs them. Plus, there should not be nerfs to make up for any players lack of counter or because they don't like someone elses playstyle, especially in bgs. That is not balance.

Something less grand could be done and quite simply.


Original quote

"They should separate pre-mades but I feel since it does take more effort to have a good pre-made group, that bgs should offer a new incentive for the top scoring groups. It would be interesting if rather then one match for premades they had a mini tournament that ended every week. Allowing for randoms to have fun and premades something exciting with a better rewards option for participating. Doubt it would happen but an unique option."

Mojomonkeyman

Tried my first grp bg yesterday after being off for 4 weeks - we waited 30 min to get a 4v3v3 match. ZOS has to stop going back and forth with those MMR adjustments. Not even discussing stuff with the playerbase, just adjusting MMR back and forth every 1-2 patches like helpless kids.

I wont wait 30 min for a (possibly broken lobby) 12 min match at max.

That's terrible design. It is beyond me how ZOS can go back to the state of the game where high MMR players are basically excluded from participating in their favorite content. We had this already for many, many months - it was disgusting.

And now again? Honestly, I'm so tired of the management of this game. Not the game itself, but how it is managed. Minimum effort, no insights, repeating the same mistakes over and over.

luchide_27

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

And now again? Honestly, I'm so tired of the management of this game. Not the game itself, but how it is managed. Minimum effort, no insights, repeating the same mistakes over and over.

mojo - u read my mind - lets hope for better days : )

Urvoth

labambao wrote: »

It's not even fun

Yeah, they really need to do something about queue times. I think better incentives for playing BGs would help a lot. The rewards are pretty bad atm.

zergbase_ESO

If they had bracket system I would BG more. Since it really doesn't and they don't put pre-mades into their own queues I refuse to touch bg's with 100ft pole. Not even with my friends pole I would touch BG's with.

TriangularChicken

DivineFirstYOLO wrote: »

INTRODUCTION



a) separate solo from premade queue.

b) since there are not enough people interested in playing as a group right now, how about adding incentives? Add a serious ranking system for premade groups so that people can queue for „ranked" matchmaking. So basically there is going to be normal non ranked "solo" queue and the "ranked" queue.

The new solo queue should only allow solo and duo teams. (let me know if you want 2 man teams also removed from the solo queue, I think they should stay so that people can learn to fight together to eventually be ready for ranked queue – but up to you guys.
If you don't want to lose points in the ranked queue you can always go and play solo or as a duo in the normal non ranked queue.

Top 5% (or any other number, just not top 100 players please) that participate in the ranked queue will get special end of season rewards – mounts, skins, pets, maybe gold, etc. That does not necessarily mean that you guys at ZOS have to completely design new mounts and skins. Simply use old but very popular skins/mounts like the Dro-m'Athra skin/senche and use different colours.

Yes please, new/old players will come with rewards and a better matchmaking system. Queue times at the moment are horrible..if I want to play with friends we have to wait for 20 mins, if I want to play solo it takes 15 mins (cause high mmr? who knows).

Please no more new maps, channel your people towards fixing the queue and adding a ranked system.

Thogard

I’m ok with long queues for groups. It incentivizes solo play.

I’d rather have separate queues though. BUT..

1. Allow premades to queue for the “solo” queue. If they choose the solo match then the group gets split up randomly among the three different BG teams.
2. Allow groups larger than 4 (up to 12) to do this, in essence creating “private lobbies”
3. Make the “group” queue leaderboard based off of the outcome of the matches and the ranking of their opponents, similar to leaderboards for sports teams.
4. Make the group queue leaderboard a month long leaderboard.
5. Increase the rewards for a top 4 and top 10 finish in those leaderboards. Preferably master weapons / BRP / VMA. Also a special costume would be cool.

TriangularChicken

Thogard wrote: »

I’m ok with long queues for groups. It incentivizes solo play.

It incentivizes solo play? Maybe. Question still is why do you want to punish people playing together in a MMO? Every other game has multiple queues, normal - ranked where people can play as a premade without waiting for half a hour.

Thogard

RealDolanTrump wrote: »

Thogard wrote: »

I’m ok with long queues for groups. It incentivizes solo play.

It incentivizes solo play? Maybe. Question still is why do you want to punish people playing together in a MMO? Every other game has multiple queues, normal - ranked where people can play as a premade without waiting for half a hour.

Yeah I’d rather have multiple queues. And even when there’s just one queue, if there are 3 premades queueing then hopefully they all get a queue pop quickly and can fight each other.

I’m only for premades waiting longer if those premades are getting ready to fight nothing but solo queuers.

ccfeeling

Don't expect everyone solo que before u enter the BG.

Fake Remedy

you think weaker solo players have it hard now? having a solo only queue for deathmatch battlegrounds will result in matches being won/lost before the game even starts.

target cp100/yolo/"hey! im just farming motifs!"/"how do i exit cyrodiil???""bro you are in a battleground, rip"/gankblade/healing springs spammer/[insert any shocking solo, anti group gameplay here] - execute - rinse and repeat. gg

deathmatch battlegrounds would be reduced to ranged glass cannon cloak pvp aka magnbgrounds

Iskiab

You know yesterday I was doing BGs and solo queued every one, and I usually do the daily and then spam death matches. I kept track of my record; 11 wins - 4 2nd place - 1 last place. It’s not that bad really.

I have days like you’ve said but pvp has a steep learning curve in ESO. I think it took me like 20 BGs before I felt like more than dead weight, and even more before I was able to fine tune my build.

I think there aren’t a lot of BG pvpers and I see the same names all the time. You’ve got to cut new players slack because ESO pvp takes a long time to get used to. I prefer more players for more variety of opponents, and shorter queues, and for that to happen you’ve got to be welcoming to new players.

TriangularChicken

It's a pity that this thread doesn't get more attention. You mentioned all the points that people want,

-solo queue,
-ranked/premade queue,
-better rewards,
-better MMR system and
-meaningful leaderboards.

Even showed possible skin and mount!

It's a shame.. BGs are such a great place, there is so much potential. I don't understand why ZOS created them in such a poor way, I mean they had their software engineers work on BGs so why not implement them without bugs and with a serious system right at the start? Now everbody is crying and they will have to spend their ressources a 2nd time to fix the bugs.

Swiftfox_Bouncyface

Fake Remedy wrote: »

you think weaker solo players have it hard now? having a solo only queue for deathmatch battlegrounds will result in matches being won/lost before the game even starts.

target cp100/yolo/"hey! im just farming motifs!"/"how do i exit cyrodiil???""bro you are in a battleground, rip"/gankblade/healing springs spammer/[insert any shocking solo, anti group gameplay here] - execute - rinse and repeat. gg

deathmatch battlegrounds would be reduced to ranged glass cannon cloak pvp aka magnbgrounds

Well that's not exactly true imo, facing your premade numerous times as solo queue I've had both losses and wins. Just RNG how the non premade team can work together

Iskiab

Agreed

Swiftfox_Bouncyface wrote: »

Fake Remedy wrote: »

you think weaker solo players have it hard now? having a solo only queue for deathmatch battlegrounds will result in matches being won/lost before the game even starts.

target cp100/yolo/"hey! im just farming motifs!"/"how do i exit cyrodiil???""bro you are in a battleground, rip"/gankblade/healing springs spammer/[insert any shocking solo, anti group gameplay here] - execute - rinse and repeat. gg

deathmatch battlegrounds would be reduced to ranged glass cannon cloak pvp aka magnbgrounds

Well that's not exactly true imo, facing your premade numerous times as solo queue I've had both losses and wins. Just RNG how the non premade team can work together

Agreed, I always solo queue and assume I’m not playing a premade unless I see them act in ways that are improbable if they weren’t in voice chat. I’m probably still encountering them though.

I kept track of my win ratio one day I was spamming death matches and went 11 wins - 4 2nd and 1 loss. Solo queuing works fine, only real issue is when you get a late 4th player on your team, or none at all.

Other issue is a plethora or NBs on your team because you don’t see them often in premades for obvious reasons.

Cążki

Simple:

1. Random BG - grouping option.off

2. Team BG - grouping option on

Iskiab

Did a bunch of BGs today and they all went terribly. I started with 3 or joined a match late 5 games in a row.

I think this has become the biggest issue for me. I don’t mind a challenge and fighting a premade, fighting with three people is too large of a disadvantage though and is what makes pvp lopsided.

wheem_ESO

Iskiab wrote: »

Did a bunch of BGs today and they all went terribly. I started with 3 or joined a match late 5 games in a row.

I think this has become the biggest issue for me. I don’t mind a challenge and fighting a premade, fighting with three people is too large of a disadvantage though and is what makes pvp lopsided.

Just wait until you have to sit in the queue for 15 minutes before you get into those games. It's super duper enjoyable.

TriangularChicken

With faction lock coming I bet a lot of people will migrate to BGs. Hope ZOS finally starts fixing the problems in there...