Faction/Alliance lock is a problem, from a solo player perspective...

zDan

Hello everyone, finally got around to making a forum account which took more time than it should have lol.
Some of you may know me as 'zDan' on YouTube, where I post solo 1vX videos and builds regarding ESO PvP. But let's get to the point here.
I feel as if this alliance lock that got introduced is destroying PvP for me and many others like me, who share several characters across the 3 alliances. To put into perspective just how much time, money and effort that's been put into this game from me, here's all of the characters that I currently cannot play in PvP...
- Mag Sorc (5 days, 26 minutes)
- Stamplar (14 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes)
- Mag DK (12 days, 5 hours, 29 minutes)
- Stamblade (5 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes)
- Magden (8 days, 23 minutes)
- Stamden (3 days, 7 hours, 4 minutes)
- Magplar (3 days, 3 hours, 37 minutes)
- Stamcro (1 day, 40 minutes)

Now, this adds up to roughly 53 days of gametime. Almost 2 months worth of play-time that I cannot use anymore.
But some may say... "Oh just play in another campaign or even Imperial City"
Well, in my case, on my platform (Xbox EU) every other campaign is completely dead, everything except for the 30 day, which you cannot access on different alliances. It was so nice and refreshing being able to open world PvP on multiple different classes, almost every class mag and stam in the game. But now that has been taken away and makes half of my characters completely useless. All of that play-time, effort and money (in-game and real life) just gone to waste.

This will most likely go unnoticed but I believe it is something huge that effects many and many of players like me in a drastic way. I believe it will be the killer of PvP if it stays this route.
This is all my opinions and thoughts, coming from an experienced console player from day 1, knowing the ins and outs of every class when it comes to PvP. Just thought I would voice my concerning opinion. Thank you for reading.

FrankonPC

As a guy that plays on xbox na the best part about alliance lock is now people do not "ride the wave". I feel like since the alliance lock has happened there are a lot less 60 man faction zergs rolling around. People love to win and in the main campaign they'll just switch to the alliance that controls the map. At that point on NA the game has become unplayable because the only fight is the super zerg. In that respect alliance lock has helped a lot.

Personally I like to play as the underdog and faction lock has prevented me from getting small scale pvp in when my faction is winning. I am fortunate enough though to be on the NA server where sewers and the 7 day as well as bgs are a thing. I have the choice that you don't. I can only imagine the frustration of having all of the work go into these classes and have the inability to play them because of the low population that EU currently has.

A couple fixes that I would like to see that could potentially help both EU and NA would be to keep faction locking, but make the 7 day more appealing for transmutes than the thirty day, or at least rival it. Currently it's 10 transmutes per week in the 7 day and 50 in the 30 day. If they made it to where the 7 day got 15 transmutes per character, I think you'd see a shift into a campaign where you can faction swap. Players would have the incentive to get more transmutes and it would allow players to switch factions if they so choose.

Perhaps paying a fine for switching factions(100k gold) so that people can switch mid month wouldn't be a bad idea either. Make it an amount that isn't easy to obtain so that the average pvp'er is "punished" for betraying their faction, but allowing people to switch and find fights on another campaign. This would allow players that like to fight outnumbered to choose their faction afterwards so that they can get the fights they want.

Reducing lag and making pvp playable at all times could bring population back as well. Obviously they're working on it, but we needed cyrodiil performance increases yesterday instead of the next quarter. The longer the delay on this, the lower the population in pvp gets. The main campaign on xbox na used to be 3 bars full 24/7 as of a year ago, now it's full only at primetime hours. It's just a matter of time that NA is right where EU is without improvements.

MalcolM24

Haven't played stamsorc since the faction lock, and I don't think I'll ever do it again. Managed to 'recuperate' my mnb on another faction by racechanging a stamblade banking char.

frostz417

Faction lock has ruined PvP on Xbox NA. Population is not large enough to make faction locks effective. There simply isn’t enough people to populate other campaigns. Therefore faction lock once again like it was in the past. Is a failure, but delusional role play zerglings will deny that because they just cover their ears and scream when confronted with the facts.

Ardicer

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

HowlKimchi

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

Really? in PC NA it's just a big swarm of AD who I guess all defaulted to AD once faction lock came to be.

Neloth290

I see a lot more of alliances taking the whole map and killing the server this patch then in previous patches. The player with most points for ep was near double the highest DC player (18mil and 9mil roughly) campaign score was beyond disproportionate with ep double the score of the other 2. Ep maintained three bars for much longer then the other two factions. Since faction lock pvp feels much more one sided. I also cant play my characters on other factions rn as it stands. I understand I could create a new one but that involves deleting characters that I played previously for yrs, since the original faction lock and beyond. The amount of time I would need to put in to get back that progress (undaunted, mage guild, fighters guild, psijc, alliance rank etc) is insane. I wont pay the crowns to get that progress back next patch as that feels like bs. Allow at the very least a one time alliance change for all chars to somewhat get around this please. I realise you have said before that you won't do this, but it is the only solution I can see without reverting the lock, that seems fair to all.

Dutchessx

If I went over my characters I can’t play now you would be talking over 5 years worth of work, since I started playing during prelaunch. This includes 2 GO’s that I have also emp’ed on multiple times over. A fully leveled DK that I was planning on making my next main. Several other higher ranking alliance war characters as well. Out of 16 characters 10 of them are fully leveled EP, which I can’t play because I play no-cp and the only active pvp guild I am in is DC. My EP friends who remain in the game play at different times than I do because of time zones. However, I can’t play with them even on days I could because of faction lock. I also have AD friends I can’t play with for the same reason faction locks. My 2 AD characters are also higher ranks, that I can’t play.

With the exception of performance issues, it is my belief faction locks have hurt the pvp population more than anything else.

Marginis

For what it's worth, I have over 80 days of game time on just one character on just xbox, and I've been against faction locked PVP from the start. Haven't checked any of my other characters or on my PC account anywhere near recently. Just to give a +1 to the post.

Tsuriel

1+
PvP sucks now, barely anyone online now and I've also got a series of character simply collecting dust now.
Sad.

BaiterOfZergs

Yeah I’ve played a lot less because of this. I still find fights but it can be too many or I’m facing the same people over & over. Plus, performance doesn’t help.

InvictusApollo

I simply left because of lag and faction lock.

Heatnix90

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

1. Faction locks actually exacerbate the issue of one faction dominating the others. Case in point: NA PC. On the CP campaign, AD is dominating because everyone bandwaggoned over after they won the last campaign, and on the nonCP campaign DC is dominating because everyone wants to be on the same faction as the streamer and his zerg.
2. ZOS already said they have zero intention of introducing a faction-change service to the Crown Store.
3. The solution is simple, revert faction locks. They tried it, it failed, so back to the drawing board.

HaruKamui wrote: »

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

Really? in PC NA it's just a big swarm of AD who I guess all defaulted to AD once faction lock came to be.

They swarmed to AD because AD won the last campaign.

HowlKimchi

Heatnix90 wrote: »

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

1. Faction locks actually exacerbate the issue of one faction dominating the others. Case in point: NA PC. On the CP campaign, AD is dominating because everyone bandwaggoned over after they won the last campaign, and on the nonCP campaign DC is dominating because everyone wants to be on the same faction as the streamer and his zerg.
2. ZOS already said they have zero intention of introducing a faction-change service to the Crown Store.
3. The solution is simple, revert faction locks. They tried it, it failed, so back to the drawing board.

HaruKamui wrote: »

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

Really? in PC NA it's just a big swarm of AD who I guess all defaulted to AD once faction lock came to be.

They swarmed to AD because AD won the last campaign.

Yes I know.

Ranger209

Heatnix90 wrote: »

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

1. Faction locks actually exacerbate the issue of one faction dominating the others. Case in point: NA PC. On the CP campaign, AD is dominating because everyone bandwaggoned over after they won the last campaign, and on the nonCP campaign DC is dominating because everyone wants to be on the same faction as the streamer and his zerg.
2. ZOS already said they have zero intention of introducing a faction-change service to the Crown Store.
3. The solution is simple, revert faction locks. They tried it, it failed, so back to the drawing board.

HaruKamui wrote: »

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

Really? in PC NA it's just a big swarm of AD who I guess all defaulted to AD once faction lock came to be.

They swarmed to AD because AD won the last campaign.

1. Totally false, the only thing AD has going for it is that off peak hours at the lowest population time slots everyone plays AD and PvDoors the map, get emperor, and take all scrolls unopposed. They can gain 1000 points on the other factions any time they want in a single day. There have been campaigns, prior to faction lock, where DC has had 2000 points on them with 3 days left, and ends up losing to them by 1000. It has been this way for going on 2 years. Faction locks change nothing in that regard either way. They would be losing big time if it wasn't for what happens at this particular time of day, day in, day out for years.

TheBonesXXX

frostz417 wrote: »

Faction lock has ruined PvP on Xbox NA. Population is not large enough to make faction locks effective. There simply isn’t enough people to populate other campaigns. Therefore faction lock once again like it was in the past. Is a failure, but delusional role play zerglings will deny that because they just cover their ears and scream when confronted with the facts.

Same zergy guilds ruined NA..

Factions are just *** to begin with.

Master_Kas

Give us back our freedom! :>

Katahdin

Heatnix90 wrote: »

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

1. Faction locks actually exacerbate the issue of one faction dominating the others. Case in point: NA PC. On the CP campaign, AD is dominating because everyone bandwaggoned over after they won the last campaign, and on the nonCP campaign DC is dominating because everyone wants to be on the same faction as the streamer and his zerg.
2. ZOS already said they have zero intention of introducing a faction-change service to the Crown Store.
3. The solution is simple, revert faction locks. They tried it, it failed, so back to the drawing board.

HaruKamui wrote: »

Ardicer wrote: »

I see your problem here zDan but I cannot deny that it has helped reduce the dominance of one faction over the others in our server.
As a solution (and this will sound good in their money hungry eye's) they could add a crown store item that will faction change all your characters to the same color.
That way they will all be playable once more.

Really? in PC NA it's just a big swarm of AD who I guess all defaulted to AD once faction lock came to be.

They swarmed to AD because AD won the last campaign.

EP won the one before that by a very large margin, why didn't they swarm there?

Could it be because of the 100+ ques EP had every night because everyone had already bandwagoned there before faction locks?

I was an opponent of reintroducing faction locks at first, but now seeing it in action in Kaal for the first 3 campaigns since, I am not so opposed, but reserve final judgement to give it more time.

As for the no CP campaign, it was already a DC buff campaign before faction locks. I'm not surprised it still is because the streamer plays DC. So nothing has really changed at all.

Mr_Walker

Dutchessx wrote: »

If I went over my characters I can’t play now you would be talking over 5 years worth of work, since I started playing during prelaunch. This includes 2 GO’s that I have also emp’ed on multiple times over. A fully leveled DK that I was planning on making my next main. Several other higher ranking alliance war characters as well. Out of 16 characters 10 of them are fully leveled EP, which I can’t play because I play no-cp and the only active pvp guild I am in is DC. My EP friends who remain in the game play at different times than I do because of time zones. However, I can’t play with them even on days I could because of faction lock. I also have AD friends I can’t play with for the same reason faction locks. My 2 AD characters are also higher ranks, that I can’t play.

With the exception of performance issues, it is my belief faction locks have hurt the pvp population more than anything else.

I feel your pain I am in much the same boat.

One Tamriel. Go out, meet new friends, who we will make it really difficult for you to play with in a couple of years when we change our minds (yet again) about our "vision" for the game.

Marcus684

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

Kadoin

Mr_Walker wrote: »

Dutchessx wrote: »

If I went over my characters I can’t play now you would be talking over 5 years worth of work, since I started playing during prelaunch. This includes 2 GO’s that I have also emp’ed on multiple times over. A fully leveled DK that I was planning on making my next main. Several other higher ranking alliance war characters as well. Out of 16 characters 10 of them are fully leveled EP, which I can’t play because I play no-cp and the only active pvp guild I am in is DC. My EP friends who remain in the game play at different times than I do because of time zones. However, I can’t play with them even on days I could because of faction lock. I also have AD friends I can’t play with for the same reason faction locks. My 2 AD characters are also higher ranks, that I can’t play.

With the exception of performance issues, it is my belief faction locks have hurt the pvp population more than anything else.

I feel your pain I am in much the same boat.

One Tamriel. Go out, meet new friends, who we will make it really difficult for you to play with in a couple of years when we change our minds (yet again) about our "vision" for the game.

Personally, I just dance or play my lute when I see my friends in other factions in Cyrodiil. Even gone fishing before!

Well, that is if there isn't a huge mass behind them...

zDan

Marcus684 wrote: »

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

I like to switch and play between several different characters daily to make the game less boring. Waiting a whole month to play a couple from one alliance then doing the same for another month is just not on

Tsuriel

Marcus684 wrote: »

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

Pew pew who exactly?
Everybody left after the faction lock.

Katahdin

Tsuriel wrote: »

Marcus684 wrote: »

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

Pew pew who exactly?
Everybody left after the faction lock.

Yea "everybody left", that's why we have 3 poplocked bars every night on kaal.

Hashtag_

Katahdin wrote: »

Tsuriel wrote: »

Marcus684 wrote: »

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

Pew pew who exactly?
Everybody left after the faction lock.

Yea "everybody left", that's why we have 3 poplocked bars every night on kaal.

Primetime is pop locked, who would have guessed. About midnight central to about 2-3 in the afternoon central to find kaal poplocked is rare. Used to be pop locked at all times

Katahdin

Hashtag_ wrote: »

Katahdin wrote: »

Tsuriel wrote: »

Marcus684 wrote: »

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

Pew pew who exactly?
Everybody left after the faction lock.

Yea "everybody left", that's why we have 3 poplocked bars every night on kaal.

Primetime is pop locked, who would have guessed. About midnight central to about 2-3 in the afternoon central to find kaal poplocked is rare. Used to be pop locked at all times

It was never poplocked at all times except maybe in the first year of the game.

I've played during the day at times (days off, home sick or due to work schedule) and it was never poplocked outside prime time except on Saturday or Sunday and during Midyear Mayhem or other PvP event.

thankyourat

That’s what I see the biggest problem is. You simply can’t play some of your characters. I think ZoS has to give players a one time alliance change token that allows you to switch all your characters to one alliance. if they don’t want to do that they need to remove the alliance lock. I have actually erased my sorc to level up a new one on EP because that’s where the rest of my characters play. It’s ridiculous that I’m forced to do that.

As for the gameplay I’m not seeing a big difference Cyrodiil is still full of tank zergs that do no damage and just Zerg you down with sheer numbers. The game hasn’t changed in that regard. The campaign score is still unbalanced and dominated by the faction with the largest population during off hours. The only thing I’ve noticed is the population of the 7 day has decreased some and that’s because most people want to get into the 30 day so prime time ques have increased. The 7 day also has to share population with imperial city now I’ve noticed the population in the sewers have gone up. Overall though the game is still a tank Zergfest that hasn’t changed one bit.

SweepsAllClowns

Well at least you're still able to log in and play with one alliance characters, my Xbox EU account has been completely stuck since Wrathstone so 5 months after 4 days. My gamertag is Icebaker and I've played for about 4 years, when Wrathstone came it was just my third main campaign break since I started playing pvp long ago in Azura's Star campaign, on those times alliance colors still mattered something unlike nowadays. I have 10 red characters and I've been always Pact on Xbox EU even I haven't cared for campaign wins for few years anymore, I have 3 smurfs and 2 jellies also and they are mostly for writs and other pve stuff. I created 2 breton characters on NA server and played for about 5 weeks there, my both characters are blue there, on first days in Cyrodiil I got surprised when I rode past some red resource and the guards attacked me, after playing 4 years red it took some time to realize they were enemies, L2P issue I guess. I've also spent much time and money on this game and it's been hard to accept my ESO times are probably all over, I'll be missing my Pact characters, much sweeping has been done on the saltfields of Cyrodillos!

Beardimus

zDan wrote: »

Marcus684 wrote: »

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

I like to switch and play between several different characters daily to make the game less boring. Waiting a whole month to play a couple from one alliance then doing the same for another month is just not on

Neither was the AP boosting / farming / flipping we suffered.

Lock is like marmite, for everyone that has a worse experience others have a better one. Hence the very vocal cry to get it turned on. On or off will never see everyone happy.

Don't hate the lock though. Hate the players that made it a neccisity with how they were playing (cheating)

Also why on earth haven't people spread the hell out!!! That's part of what ZOS want and will do us all good. Yet all the folks moaning about faction lock still sit in 30day CP lol, make 7 day a thing, stick with it, encourage guilds to spread out. ..... Heck even the lag is less in the others.

Players are the issue.

Ps personally id prefer a locked 7 day, and 30 day noCP, if folks want to sit and boost in a zergy lag fest caring not about the actual campaign let em have at it.

BRogueNZ

a locked 7 day perhaps solves the waiting for a month issue?
Have never played 7 day I assume 4 x rewards works out about the same *shrug*

zDan

Beardimus wrote: »

zDan wrote: »

Marcus684 wrote: »

So much hyperbole, so little reason. You can still flip factions, just now you have to wait 30 days instead of doing it several times a day. Your characters in the other alliances aren’t “unusable”, you just have to wait til next campaign. It’s a frickin’ game. Adapt and overcome. Less QQ and more pew pew.

I like to switch and play between several different characters daily to make the game less boring. Waiting a whole month to play a couple from one alliance then doing the same for another month is just not on

Neither was the AP boosting / farming / flipping we suffered.

Lock is like marmite, for everyone that has a worse experience others have a better one. Hence the very vocal cry to get it turned on. On or off will never see everyone happy.

Don't hate the lock though. Hate the players that made it a neccisity with how they were playing (cheating)

Also why on earth haven't people spread the hell out!!! That's part of what ZOS want and will do us all good. Yet all the folks moaning about faction lock still sit in 30day CP lol, make 7 day a thing, stick with it, encourage guilds to spread out. ..... Heck even the lag is less in the others.

Players are the issue.

Ps personally id prefer a locked 7 day, and 30 day noCP, if folks want to sit and boost in a zergy lag fest caring not about the actual campaign let em have at it.

I agree that players should spread out but the main 30 day is barely pop locked half the time. But still I'd like it to be at least one bar in the 7 day then it would be somewhat playable