Suggestion: Account factions instead of characters factions

IceJudge

I didn't expect faction lock to be implemented like this at all. I'm not a fan of having characters that are simply unable to enter cyrodiil due to the current system. Many players are also unhappy with being unable to play cyrodiil with their friends and guildmates.

I think the best option would be to tie a player's faction to the entire account for the duration of the selected campaign rather than on a per character basis.

Thoughts?

bulbousb16_ESO

IceJudge wrote: »

I think the best option would be to tie a player's faction to the entire account for the duration of the selected campaign rather than on a per character basis.

Thoughts?

My first thought is, I don't get it. Are you suggesting that characters could magically and temporarily switch faction?

VaranisArano

1. The current implementation of faction locks is not exactly as you describe. CP PVPers have the option to go to Cyrodiil with all their characters on the 7 day campaign, with the idea that if enough people actually want to play with unlocked factions, the 7 day campaign won't be empty. This is also why No CP Players deserve a chance to see if they can make their own unlocked 7 day campaign work.

2. In their pre-Elswyer run-up Q&A, they said they weren't interested in Alliance changes. I suspect that's because Alliance ties into things like which Mages/Fighters Guild you have to join, which zones TG/DB sends you to while leveling, the fact that there is no "Cadwell's Bronze" for your home alliance quests, etc.

So, its an interesting, but IMO unlikely idea.

IceJudge

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

IceJudge wrote: »

I think the best option would be to tie a player's faction to the entire account for the duration of the selected campaign rather than on a per character basis.

Thoughts?

My first thought is, I don't get it. Are you suggesting that characters could magically and temporarily switch faction?

To clarify I'm saying that faction should be chosen for your entire account. When you enter a campaign you select which faction all of your characters commit to for the duration of that campaign.

bulbousb16_ESO

IceJudge wrote: »

To clarify I'm saying that faction should be chosen for your entire account. When you enter a campaign you select which faction all of your characters commit to for the duration of that campaign.

That would involve them switching factions... temporarily. In response to request for Alliance-change tokens, the Devs have stated that this would be a very heavy lift for them, there's no way they could do it regularly and temporarily.

josh.lackey_ESO

I fully support this. My only DK is not on my main faction. It effectively means I can't play DK anymore.

Once you faction lock your account, all your characters should queue into locked campaigns on the account-locked faction.

I don't so much mind which faction I have to play my DK on, but I do hate not being able to play a DK at all.

josh.lackey_ESO

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

My first thought is, I don't get it. Are you suggesting that characters could magically and temporarily switch faction?

This is literally the main ESO storyline.

albesca

josh.lackey_ESO wrote: »

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

My first thought is, I don't get it. Are you suggesting that characters could magically and temporarily switch faction?

This is literally the main ESO storyline.

My AD main is doing Cadwell Silver in EP (well, doing is a bit of a strong word, he left it halfway through Bleakrock Isle) and I'm pretty sure he still counts as AD for all intents and purposes

ellahellabella

albesca wrote: »

josh.lackey_ESO wrote: »

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

My first thought is, I don't get it. Are you suggesting that characters could magically and temporarily switch faction?

This is literally the main ESO storyline.

My AD main is doing Cadwell Silver in EP (well, doing is a bit of a strong word, he left it halfway through Bleakrock Isle) and I'm pretty sure he still counts as AD for all intents and purposes

Why are my dc toons defending Davon's watch from his own alliance then?

IceJudge

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

IceJudge wrote: »

To clarify I'm saying that faction should be chosen for your entire account. When you enter a campaign you select which faction all of your characters commit to for the duration of that campaign.

That would involve them switching factions... temporarily. In response to request for Alliance-change tokens, the Devs have stated that this would be a very heavy lift for them, there's no way they could do it regularly and temporarily.

It seems the dev's don't have an issue with switching factions, it's just the frequency of doing so is what they're trying to minimize. I don't have an issue with that. My problem is with having characters I can't bring into an active pvp CP-Cyrodiil campaign.

As far as ease of implementing a good faction lock system I don't think that would be impossible. Someone above noted you can do it in the main quest, there's even a crown option to untether race from faction during creation. But it could be as you say, poor original design is severely limiting what they're capable of fixing now. I'm not wanting it to be a regular thing, just whenever you're starting a pvp campaign.

Kilcosu

albesca wrote: »

josh.lackey_ESO wrote: »

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

My first thought is, I don't get it. Are you suggesting that characters could magically and temporarily switch faction?

This is literally the main ESO storyline.

My AD main is doing Cadwell Silver in EP (well, doing is a bit of a strong word, he left it halfway through Bleakrock Isle) and I'm pretty sure he still counts as AD for all intents and purposes

it would be a nice implementation to have cadwell show up in cyrodiil to explain how exactly your ad toon is fighting ad players and honestly it's cadwell so I'd just roll with it if they did.
but I do like the idea of it. un assign your home campaign alliance at the end of the 30 days or whatever and let you pick again.
idk would definitely need ironing out more

Derra

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

IceJudge wrote: »

I think the best option would be to tie a player's faction to the entire account for the duration of the selected campaign rather than on a per character basis.

Thoughts?

My first thought is, I don't get it. Are you suggesting that characters could magically and temporarily switch faction?

Are you suggesting that magically not being able to enter cyrodiil because another faction character from the same account was in there isn´t in the same realm of improbable?

idk

Zos has apparently stated it would be technically complicated to do faction change and that is essentially what OP is asking for in a round about way.

Yes, I know OP is not asking for the ability to change the faction of individual characters, but it is still essentially the same in appearance as it would be a temporary faction change.

kpittsniperb14_ESO

idk wrote: »

Zos has apparently stated it would be technically complicated to do faction change and that is essentially what OP is asking for in a round about way.

Yes, I know OP is not asking for the ability to change the faction of individual characters, but it is still essentially the same in appearance as it would be a temporary faction change.

There's quite a bit that's apparently technically complicated when it comes to this development team and faction change isn't at the top of the list.

josh.lackey_ESO

idk wrote: »

Zos has apparently stated it would be technically complicated to do faction change and that is essentially what OP is asking for in a round about way.

Yes, I know OP is not asking for the ability to change the faction of individual characters, but it is still essentially the same in appearance as it would be a temporary faction change.

They already have the tech, they use it for battlegrounds. See this reddit post.

bulbousb16_ESO

josh.lackey_ESO wrote: »

They already have the tech, they use it for battlegrounds.

Not the same at all. Also, Battlegrounds was designed from the ground up to work this way. They aren't going to redesign Cyrodiil. Especially not for a suggestion that doesn't make sense on its face. My characters have factions. They have backstories. They aren't going to just switch sides willy-nilly from month to month.

It's a complete non-starter.

Dutchessx

I personally believe this would fragment and reduce the population even more. Majority of my characters are EP along with all my GOs. However, am I to completely never play on my GOs ever again now that I play DC? Also as many of you read my other replies. What about playing with the remainder of my friends from my guild or the guild that was my primary guild before that, they also play on occasion? Who do you decide to not play with? As it is we who play No CP have no choice for an unlocked 7- day server as it is. People have spent years making cross faction characters, some even back when faction locks were a thing the first time around. If your goal is to ruin gameplay for all the people who did that or who like me rerolled for one reason or another then implement what the OP is suggesting.

#FreeNoCP

edited for grammatical error.

Derra

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

josh.lackey_ESO wrote: »

They already have the tech, they use it for battlegrounds.

Not the same at all. Also, Battlegrounds was designed from the ground up to work this way. They aren't going to redesign Cyrodiil. Especially not for a suggestion that doesn't make sense on its face. My characters have factions. They have backstories. They aren't going to just switch sides willy-nilly from month to month.

It's a complete non-starter.

You know what makes no sense for these characters with backstories that zos encouraged to level on multiple factions? To magically no longer be able to enter cyrodiil.

You know what would/could actually make sense? Working as a mercenary for one faction you didn´t initially align to because they offer you shiny.

SirAndy

IceJudge wrote: »

I think the best option would be to tie a player's faction to the entire account for the duration of the selected campaign rather than on a per character basis.

I don't belong to any faction. My in-game characters do, of course.
I'm perfectly capable of separating the virtual game world of ESO from the real world i'm living in.

So no, your suggestion would not work for me.

bulbousb16_ESO

Derra wrote: »

You know what makes no sense for these characters with backstories that zos encouraged to level on multiple factions? To magically no longer be able to enter cyrodiil.

I agree that would suck! Let's hope that never becomes an issue in ESO.

Derra

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

Derra wrote: »

You know what makes no sense for these characters with backstories that zos encouraged to level on multiple factions? To magically no longer be able to enter cyrodiil.

I agree that would suck! Let's hope that never becomes an issue in ESO.

Oh it is sad reality - If we consider a campaign that´s not void of enemy players to be a mandatory requirement to have fun in an open pvp zone.

zyk

There is no technical reason why this can't happen. It is absurd to suggest otherwise. We all know ZOS hates to spend money on PVP, but that's not a valid reason not to do things properly. In particular, making it so the change is exclusive to IC and Cyrodiil won't open the can of worms that a universal faction change might represent.

Unfortunately, half-assed is the only way ZOS does things.

ZOS has never learned that players are stakeholders too. We don't "invest" cash, but we do invest our time and mindshare to a game we plan to play for a while. We become invested socially and through the characters we build over time.

Unfortunately, the decision makers at ZOS are inconsiderate of these facts and treat players like production units.

Whether one supports faction locks or not, everyone should be able to see how poorly locks were implemented.

bulbousb16_ESO

zyk wrote: »

There is no technical reason why this can't happen.

This is correct. It COULD happen. It would take a ridiculous amount of time and money to accomplish, though, and is a very poor idea on its face. So, there is absolutely zero chance anyone is going to sign off on that amount of effort for a niche request.

zyk

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

zyk wrote: »

There is no technical reason why this can't happen.

This is correct. It COULD happen. It would take a ridiculous amount of time and money to accomplish, though, and is a very poor idea on its face. So, there is absolutely zero chance anyone is going to sign off on that amount of effort for a niche request.

It's inconceivable it would take a ridiculous amount of time and money. Most of the work would be interface design and QA. The actual coding could be done by interns as it would be so simple. The majority of potential problems would be bypassed by allowing factions to currently exist as they currently do outside of Cyrodiil and IC.

It would require planning and vetting by ZOS dev leads who would have bandwidth issues -- which is one reason I say AvA should have its own small team capable of making changes outside of ZOS bureaucracy.

In the end, ZOS has done a disservice to players who prefer locks by implementing them in such an inelegant way. They needed to take a more nuanced approach that mitigated the harm caused to those who do not prefer locks.

I haven't "officially" quit ESO, but I don't play anymore because this company treats its players like crap. I say this as someone who prefers AvA games with faction locks and whose level 50 characters are all AD. I may not have been negatively impacted by the change, but I feel terrible for everyone with characters they love which aren't viable to play anymore and friends who have been divided. This change has caused a lot of legitimate pain that could have been greatly reduced or avoided with a little extra work.

bulbousb16_ESO

zyk wrote: »

[I feel terrible for everyone with characters they love which aren't' viable to play anymore and friends who have been divided. This change has caused a lot of legitimate pain that could have been greatly reduced or avoided with a little extra work.

People are upset, but their that doesn't mean their concerns are well-founded. A lot of hand-wringing has been made over circumstances which have not come to pass or are easily mitigated. For every person that seems to be ticked off by faction locks, there seems to be three which are pleased.

Ranger209

They already have the code, logic, and concepts to create faux factions or teams in battlegrounds known as storm Lords, pit daemons, and fire drakes. These faux factions allow for battlegrounds teams to be made up of individuals of differing factions in game proper. These faux factions also allow people of the same faction in game proper to kill each other while in battlegrounds.

The same concepts could be incorporated into how a campaign is homed for the Cyrodiil campaigns on an account name level rather than a character name level. By creating faux factions such as Ebonheartpactservername and using those faux factions within each campaign to assign which banner people fight under.

This would allow the rest of the game to see each character as it's proper alliance while allowing each campaign in Cyrodiil to see the player accounts as a faux factions used only to fight within itself like battlegrounds currently do This would allow for main story line quests and any other things that are of issue in regard to changing factions moot as factions would never actually change in game proper.

bulbousb16_ESO

You seem to be conveniently forgetting that battlegrounds were coded that way from the ground up.

Are you suggesting that they refactor Cyrodiil completely so this silly suggestion to be implemented?

Ranger209

You are completely overestimating what this would take

Marginis

Account locking is just the same thing but worse. The problem of people not being able to play with their friends is the result of ANY locking, which is, if we're being honest here, only really to help hardcore PVPers in that it stops those who abused faction switching from doing so. The hardcore players are more important than the casual players in any place where locking is used. Same thing with the old One Tamriel update but the opposite direction. It made the game a hell of a lot more accessible to more casual players, but allowed for a lot more abuse. We just so far have tolerated most of that abuse or have sought other methods to stop it, rather than outright going back to separate alliances.

I think ZOS is just trying this out for now, because some of the community demanded it, and is trying to see how bad the community outcry is against it to see if it's worth keeping it this way. Then again, I'm just a dude on the internet, so I could be completely wrong and ZOS might just be punishing casual players because they're sadistic like that.

bulbousb16_ESO

Marginis wrote: »

I think ZOS is just trying this out for now, because some of the community demanded it, and is trying to see how bad the community outcry is against it to see if it's worth keeping it this way.

How bad has the outcry been?

Ranger209

bulbousb16_ESO wrote: »

Ranger209 wrote: »

I think ZOS is just trying this out for now, because some of the community demanded it, and is trying to see how bad the community outcry is against it to see if it's worth keeping it this way.

How bad has the outcry been?

Umm that's not me saying that