Declining Population

Orlacc

The population on all PvP servers has dropped dramatically since the imposition on faction lock.......need to change something STAT. As a player who has been here since beta, I have toons of all three factions I have carefully curated for PvP, but only those eligible for the 30 day CP campaign have anyone to play with. Well intentioned but poorly executed.

Elsonso

Orlacc wrote: »

The population on all PvP servers has dropped dramatically since the imposition on faction lock.......need to change something STAT. As a player who has been here since beta, I have toons of all three factions I have carefully curated for PvP, but only those eligible for the 30 day CP campaign have anyone to play with. Well intentioned but poorly executed.

Might also be performance and lag issues, too...

Aaluvien

You're looking under the wrong rock. The declination of the PvP population is directly related to a deterioration in game performance.

The recent game 'simply not working 'due to kicks to desktop aren't helping much either.

If ZOS stays on this trajectory, there won't be many around to worry about faction locks. Given the 'ratcheting effect' of game performance (it goes one directly only)...I have little confidence ZOS can (or is willing) to change the performance and pop trend.

Sanctum74

I've never had a friend quit the game due to faction lock, but I've seen quite a few friends and guilds leave due to performance issues, [snip]

[edited for baiting]

Tsuriel

Sanctum74 wrote: »

I've never had a friend quit the game due to faction lock, but I've seems quite a few friends and guilds leave due to performance issues, [snip]

Game Performance wasn't any better pre-Faction lock but the bars were still locked most of the time. There's no point anymore in trying to shoot the blame towards Game Performance which has always been an issue in Cyordiil. Faction lock ruined it for me and I'm sure it did for many others.

[edited to remove quote]

Orlacc

So you honestly think the pop drop is all due to performance? Performance has sucked since day one......nothing new here.

Sanctum74

Tsuriel wrote: »

show previous quotes

Sanctum74 wrote: »

I've never had a friend quit the game due to faction lock, but I've seems quite a few friends and guilds leave due to performance issues, [snip]

Game Performance wasn't any better pre-Faction lock but the bars were still locked most of the time. There's no point anymore in trying to shoot the blame towards Game Performance which has always been an issue in Cyordiil. Faction lock ruined it for me and I'm sure it did for many others.

Performance gets worse every patch and population decreased long before faction lock was introduced and we are still locked almost every night, but yeah let's blame faction lock xD.

[edited to remove quote]

Elsonso

Orlacc wrote: »

So you honestly think the pop drop is all due to performance? Performance has sucked since day one......nothing new here.

Yeah, I do think it is performance. I think that PVP attrition in this game has been due to performance more than any other reason, by a wide margin.

dtsharples

Performance is what is keeping our little group out of PVP this past week or 2.
No point planning an evening of PVP when half of you disconnect.

Upside is I did some PVE achieves I planned to do.
Downside, when we did eventually go to Cyro tonight it was shockingly quiet and no fun at all. Just one faction stack v a few ppl. Half of them just standing around in keeps disheartened. They took too long to fix the ***.
Enjoyment level zero.

rgreenwalt1b14_ESO

I just unsubbed. Since I've changed my playstyle to mostly PvP and the performance issues in Cyro are getting worse by the day. ZoS obviously has no solution for this problem. My next step is leaving the game entirely. *** ZoS and their lack of effort in solving the PvP issues.

vamp_emily

I don't think it has anything to do with faction locks. I think what we are experiencing is a true case of "Spaghetti code" which in return is making players not wanting to play. Who in their right mind would like to play a game where every ten minutes you get disconnected or everywhere you go your frame rate drops to 15 and everything is laggy.

I know before the last patch I didn't even care to play and i'm sure everyone else is tired of it too. Even if they took off faction locks it would be the same, I think.

I was all for faction locks but it won't work as intended. Too many different types of players in PvP which causes conflict in play styles.

Morgul667

I dont play ... because of game performance and lag. Nothing to do with lock

starlizard70ub17_ESO

I stopped playing because of performance also. Since my sub runs out in Dec, I'll come back to check out Southern Elsweyr. If nothing has improved by then, I'll probably be done for good with ESO then.

lostcloud

Many of my guildmates have stopped playing due to the lack of any improvement in server performance not once was faction lock mentioned.

Major_Lag

Same.
I've mostly stopped playing PvP because the performance is absolute trash, now I only ever come to Cyro during nightcap time to easy-leech 25k AP for geodes. (or for a free port to wayshrine when the "can't port to house" bug hits)

Some of my friends are also taking a long break form PvP for the same reason of PvP being increasingly unplayable.
Only one guildmate was complaining about faction lock, but that guy just complains about everything anyway.

OGNZ3

faction lock + game performances + ZoS communication = declining population

O_LYKOS

Games performance has been poop for years, it's never changed. The performance isnt driving players away. It's the changes being made to the game that people don't like

ganzaeso

I also have not been playing PvP due to performance.

OGNZ3

O_LYKOS wrote: »

Games performance has been poop for years, it's never changed. The performance isnt driving players away. It's the changes being made to the game that people don't like

Come consoles you’ll see what we call « bad perf » since Elsweyr game is like unplayable, no joke here

Kelces

Orlacc wrote: »

So you honestly think the pop drop is all due to performance? Performance has sucked since day one......nothing new here.

No it hasn't. You'll know that, if you remember the time when deer were still running around in Cyrodiil. Not to mention the maximum population numbers for each faction. All declined since..

InvictusApollo

Both faction lock and lag are to blame for the decline in Cyrodill population. Both problems should ba adressed.

Vlad9425

Some people quit because of faction lock but most of the people quit because of awful balancing decisions and terrible game performance.

NekoN3ko

The crashing nonsense steered me away from this current 30 day camp - simply unplayable.

Doing BGs but that gets stale fast. Everything is stale right down to the combat. The rolling meta is not the answer to spicing up PvP.

msalvia

Serious question, how do we know population is declining? Is this information that ZOS publishes somewhere? Or is this just more forum logic, based around anecdotal evidence and how we "feel"? Cyro seems to be popping as usual for me...

Elsonso

msalvia wrote: »

Serious question, how do we know population is declining? Is this information that ZOS publishes somewhere? Or is this just more forum logic, based around anecdotal evidence and how we "feel"? Cyro seems to be popping as usual for me...

Population indicator on the campaigns. If they are usually locked at the time someone plays, but are increasingly not locked, then it is an indicator that fewer people are playing in the Campaign. It does not imply they left the game, just not playing in that particular Campaign.

ellahellabella

I lost quite a few friends due to faction lock. They decided if zos didn't care about killing accessibility to half of their toons and not provide a viable middle ground, there were other games to play.
[snip]
But as many friends I've lost due to the locks, I've lost five fold more due to performance.

I looked on the bright side with server performance, I've seen it in a worse state than this so I was hopeful that it would get touched up again soon. But losing friends from Els changes and being divided from others that chose other factions has just made me bitter.
Another bleed meta was the final nail in the coffin. I've since canned my subscription and have no desire to return for some time. [snip]

[edited for bashing]

Tsuriel

O_LYKOS wrote: »

Games performance has been poop for years, it's never changed. The performance isnt driving players away. It's the changes being made to the game that people don't like

Agreed, Game performance was always an issue since day 1. It's only gotten worse lately and those quitting/leaving PvP now are more than likely those who either accepted faction lock, support(ed?) it or had hopes ZOS would still remove it at some point. I myself quit PvP when faction lock hit months ago and I can safely say that I do not envy those who stayed around til now.

Voltranox

I got to the stage where all my characters were geared nicely and was looking forward to just playing pvp and experimenting with different builds.

I bought Els to try necro, but my mag and stam are just gathering dust at level 20. So are my toons on other factions. I tried out the other campaigns to keep them active, but there is hardly any population when I try.

On top of all the performance issues we had before, comes a bunch more serious ones. I unsubbed months ago, and will never buy crowns again.

I inspected my friends list the other day. Only about 20 active players are left. Then it's pages of haven't logged in for 1 month, 3 months, 9 months.

Why do I continue? I don't know. Habit? Maybe because I had finally reached a perfect end-game state after 4 years of play. Gathered all the sets and materials I want. Was supposed to be the golden time of fun after the grind.

Builds? Bah. Every time I play these days, I come across all these god-mode characters that are like superman...including flying. Yes, I've watched toons flying through the sky recently. Only the first 12 hours after a patch feels fun...until the script kiddies update their third-party software. Just pointless.

These are the reasons population is declining. I am stubbornly holding on, but it won't be long now. Bummer.

Marcus684

Faction locks don’t keep people from playing, they just prevent some people from playing all of their characters in a locked campaign. Horrendous lag and frequent disconnects affect all players to varying degrees. Seems obvious to me which one is having more affect on Cyrodiil populations.

TheRealPotoroo

OGNZ3 wrote: »

faction lock + game performances + ZoS communication = declining population

Something's changed more recently, I suspect, because the in-game price of Alliance motifs has gone the roof (especially on NA).

Mr_Walker

Performance on XNA is roughly the same as what it always has been for me.

Population, however, has decreased dramatically. As predicted.