PvP: Progressive AP bonus incentive for all keeps/castles/forts in Cyrodiil

DTStormfox

Introduction
As of lately, I have been thinking about the map design of Cyrodiil. More particularly, I have been thinking about how the map can be used more. In my experience, which has been confirmed by many other players I discussed this with, most of the map isn't used. Most fights take place in three main areas - in clockwise order: the area between (a) Blue Road Keep and Castle Alessia, (b) Castle Roebeck and Fort Ash, and (c) Fort Aleswell and Chalman Keep (magenta on image).

To capture any of the Elder Scrolls, one has to take at least the Keeps: Arrius + Kings or Farragut, the Castles: Faregyl + Black Boot or Bloodmayne, or the Forts: Glademist + Rayles or Warden. Hence the other bulk of fighting takes place between these objectives (cyan on image). Currently, however, when one Alliance holds all scrolls, or when one Alliance has no scrolls, there is no incentive to capture objectives in the previously indicated areas (cyan on map). As such, these objectives are (often, not always) ignored when the scrolls are not in their designated Scroll Temple.

Often, Drakelowe Keep, Castle Brindle, and Fort Dragonclaw are only captured for tactical purposes. The reasoning is pretty straightforward. When you take a "home objective (Keep, Castle, or Fort)" from the enemy alliance, they lose their bonuses; and capturing these objectives allow for a bit of flanking (yellow on map).



Problem identification
The problem is that most of the time, the bulk of the fighting takes place in either of these marked areas and not in all areas at the same time. This often seems to occur during prime-time when the Alliances are somewhat of equal population. It appears to me that most of the fighting is - then - concentrated in the magenta coloured areas on the map. An unending tug of war between these Emperor objectives, with the Outposts Sejanus, Bleakers, and Nickel being the central locations of those fights. As a result, in my experience, this often leads to huge zergs or faction stacks forming around these areas. Which, in turn, results in action dead zones in the cyan and yellow marked areas on the map (in this context, with an action dead zone, I mean: an area where there is virtually no PvP action - not a zone where you die as a result of PvP action). This also means that when you decide to go and take an objective in the cyan or yellow area, you are often playing PvDoor - taking empty objectives.

Proposition
To solve this issue, my proposition is to implement - what I call - a progressive AP bonus for Keeps, Castles and Forts. For obvious reasons, this bonus should have a cap, it should not increase indefinitely. What does the progressive AP bonus do?

1. An AP bonus applies to a Keep/Fort/Castle that has not been 'tagged' for 30 minutes or more.
2. This AP bonus increases every 10 minutes it has not been 'tagged' after the priorly mentioned 30 minutes period.
3. This AP bonus increases 7 times: +2% AP at 30 minutes, and +1% AP for every 10 minutes thereafter. Resulting in a total (and maximum) bonus of +8% AP after 90 minutes have passed.
4. This AP bonus does not increase while the Keep/Fort/Castle is 'tagged' (i.e. it retains the bonus that applied the moment it was 'tagged').
5. This AP bonus applies to both capturing and defending the Keep/Fort/Castle (incentive for both attacking and defending the objective).
6. After the Keep/Fort/Castle has been 'detagged' (i.e. it was successfully flipped or defended), the timer and bonus are reset. After 30 minutes of not being 'tagged', the bonus starts applying again to the same Keep/Fort/Castle.

Notes and discussion
Please note that these timeframes and AP bonus percentages are only illustrative. Also, the trigger to start the progressive bonus to apply is just a suggestion. Currently, I state 'tagged' - as in: one of the walls/doors is <50% and takes damage. However, you are able to get a 'def tick' from defending a Keep/Fort/Castle that has not been 'tagged'. Maybe the timer of the bonus should stop when a player takes damage from another player in the area (similar to the area that determines whether you are on the list for receiving a defence or offence tick), instead of when it is 'tagged'.

Another problem may be that people may be inclined to wait until the full bonus of 8% applies rather than attacking it after (say) 40 minutes when the bonus is only 3%. The point of this proposition, however, is to incentivize people to spread out on the map more - instead of bouncing between two or three Keeps/Forts/Castles and Outposts the entire evening.

Anyhows, this proposition is just a draft of an idea. Let me know what you think of this.

finehair

AP idea is good to bring more action to unused places.
I also would love to see more keeps and outposts or conquest objectives in the map.
The coloured places in your map are the fighting locations nearby keeps and routes leading them. Other areas, which are not coloured however, are almost PvE exclusive stuff, a place for a ball group to farm AP with scroll, or literal empty forests.
There should be more porting locations on the map, or pvp marked locations like Bruma vlas and cropsford. There are tons of forests on the right side of the map for example, make a marker on it as "forest of something" and make it so that it serves as disconnected village where people can port with stones or res like Bruma crops and vlas used to be. This would make the map more alive in prime time and people would scatter around more objectives and fights would occur all over the map.
Also marked locations called "battlefields" near mid waypoints like lunar bridge or kingscrest milegate to serve as a quick fighting place, and to draw more people here to launch attacks on side keeps and to routes leading there. There could be some bonus while fighting in these battlefields, like %10 more AP for each player kill

kargen27

I think you are trying to find a solution where there is no problem. Cyrodiil was designed for large battles. That is why there are chokepoints such as gates and why the keeps are situated as they are. The large open area is needed to allow some strategy to exist in taking the map.

I also see this could lead to an unfair advantage for players that can be online during non peak hours. Also creates incentive for more PvD and less PvP.