Upcoming Changes to Battleground Queues

alexlalas

Magio_ wrote: »

Aurahna wrote: »

I would rather take a 20 minute queue then be stuck in a deathmatch loop

Lol, 20 minutes is wishful thinking. Try "hours", which ZOS doesn't want to happen.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

I think those are excellent suggestions!

They're not new suggestions. ZOS already shot it down saying there's not enough population to support that many different queues, specially the objective mode only ones now that there is Solo and Group versions for every queue.

The problem (not tried by ZOS before) is the reward for random queue being given to the specific queues. This is not aligned with the original concept of giving special rewards to the ones who are open to anything to get the XP bonuses. This if properly done would reduce the queues to 20 min or less.

So they make a poor testing and inform they got poor results... nothing changes and another player migrates to a different game. Good news, it'll soon be over, due to decresasing interested people.

Ratharel

I'm furious with this changes.
For the last days I queued 20+ times in random solo and group queues and it was ALWAYS deathmatch, not a single game of other type! I don't like deathmatches, but that's fine for me if it's really random and once a few games I play one.
This is not a random in any way, you just killed other modes apart from deathmatches! I don't care if I'm in the queue longer, I want to have a CHOICE, which was just taken from me cause the people playing the least popular mode were vocal on the forums.
Thanks ZOS, you killed PvP for me. I want be playing BGs anymore.

Ratharel

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hello all!
One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically.

We’ll continue to monitor the sentiment and participation rates with Battlegrounds once this rolls out next month, and we’ll let you know if we plan for any additional changes. Thanks again for posting all your thoughts during this time!

No, it's not random at all. I went back to the game like 2 weeks ago and got 20+ deathmatches in a row. Please revert this changes, you killed all modes but deathmatches. I don't want to play deathmatches, don't care if I wait a little longer to play preffered type of game. I'm quitting battlegrounds because you have taken posiibility to make a choice and just bruteforce deathmatches.

GuildedLilly

Add me to those who are quitting BGs until ZOS adds an ACTUAL CHOICE back in. Right now, they're trolling players who want to play objectives by giving them an illusion of choice, and brute forcing DM on us all. 98-99% DM isn't 'random'. The players who liked variety in their BGs have noticed. The DM only test was bad enough-- but at least ZOS was honest about the fact that Death Match was the only mode available.

Now that the DM only test left the BG population 'in an unhealthy state' ZOS paid lip service to bringing back objective games to sucker the players they alienated into returning, while tinkering with the random Queue to insure that DEATHMATCH is popping for 98-99% of all games. The result is:

• Objective players still don't have their modes back--they're being used as cannon fodder for the DM crowd.
• Those who liked VARIETY in their BGs still don't have their modes back--they're being used to fill bodies for the DM crowd.
• Those who LOVE DM and could do it all day everyday STILL have own own dedicated Q, there is NO REASON why ZOS needs to pull from Random to keep their Q popping if it's really as popular as the devs and certain players want us to believe. It should be more than capable of sustaining on its own--unless the population of hardcore DMers after the changes in recent months is soooo small that they NEED to trick and sucker the rest of us by providing a theoretical Random Q, that in reality mainly functions to backfill for DM.

Separate the Queues. Death Match & Random Objective for solo and group. DMers can slaughter each other to their heart's content, and objective players can finally get their modes back as well. Those who like both modes can still play both. I don't care if the Queue time is longer-- I'm sick of having DM only crammed down my throat and I won't be back to battlegrounds until ZOS fixes what they INTENTIONALLY broke.

the1andonlyskwex

Every time I'm tempted to re-subscribe to ESO Plus, I come back to this thread and the temptation passes.

(I also remind myself how much I hate it when a random vet dungeon queue results in a 90 minute slog through DLC, but that's off-topic for this thread, and I've been willing to overlook that annoyance in the past.)

Kelinmiriel

If the reason we're being given that we can't have an option for "random objective battleground" is that the queue would take too long, perhaps a possible solution would be to combine solo and group for objectives, similar to how it was originally, but simpler, not splitting into different types of objective games. Also, I like the idea of changing the order.

1. Random objective game (no deathmatch)
2. Solo deathmatch
3. Group deathmatch (2-4)

Also, any test involving random objectives without deathmatch would have to be fairly lengthy at this point, to be fair, because it's been so long since those who don't want to play deathmatch have had the opportunity to do so. It would take time for word to get around, for those players to find out things have changed, to get them to return to the battlegrounds again.

CooltrainerLouis

I hate that the game doesn't remember your BGs preference and defaults to Solo Deathmatch every time you login.

Would it be possible to change the default option to Solo Random Battleground? Therefore forcing the people who requested the deathmatch option to click through the menu and select Solo/Team Deathmatch Battleground.

I imagine this could increase the odds of getting a game mode other than deathmatch just from all the people who can't be bothered to click through the menu.
----
Also, coming from an other mmo with only one pvp game mode, it was really nice getting different flavours - so this sucks.

M0ntie

There is already a solo DM queue. Just make the random BG queue a forced even distribution of all the BG modes. ZoS have destroyed BGs for the significant number of players who want to do all modes. This forum is mostly complaints about this change and still NOThING from ZoS.

ZOS_GinaBruno

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know we've been analyzing all the data from winter break and should have an update for you all on next steps regarding Battlegrounds soon. Thanks for your patience!

ob1ken0bi

I don’t mind DM every once in a while in a random choice but like everyone else here, getting DM every time is annoying and now no longer play BG. Actually, a lot of people in my guilds quit BG a while ago.
No idea what the test was but showing Random option and getting DM 100% of the time is very deceiving and frustrating as a player.
If they really wanted to find out what people really like, do DM only and non DM option.
I don’t mind waiting in queue longer for non DM, already wait long in dungeon queue so won’t be any different.
Hope they really fix this and able yo get players to play BG again.

Erissime

This is being mentioned in threads ever since the so called "choice" was given back - since deathmatch only was never an option. I have stopped playing bgs for the period the "deathmatch only" test was going on - returned right after the choices were supposed to be back - but alas - we just have two tabs with deathmatch only, and zero choice. I have said it and before - and will say it again - it is good that deathmatch has its own personal tab - now be fair to all the other ones and give everything else to it EXCEPT deathmatch on the other tab.

YoshinJaa

Please look at adding custom/private BGs in the future using a preset group of 12. Would open up a lot in terms of potential community events/tournaments.

CyberOnEso

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know we've been analyzing all the data from winter break and should have an update for you all on next steps regarding Battlegrounds soon. Thanks for your patience!

Thank you very much for this Gina!
The communication is really appreciated

RedTalon

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know we've been analyzing all the data from winter break and should have an update for you all on next steps regarding Battlegrounds soon. Thanks for your patience!

Good to hear cause things have gotten odd to say the least, look forward to hearing the news thank you for the heads up.

thesarahandcompany

Thank you, Gina! So many people have enjoyed being able to play deathmatch this patch and we are looking forward to seeing what insights you have.

mazeru

Am I the only one concerned about them analysing just the "data"? Because frankly, at this point, this is looks like it's going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They are literally setting this up to "well we have conducted analysis and found that people are okay with Deathmatch only" without giving a rat's ass about the fact that the data is going to be biased precisely because they made a lot of people quit BG entirely with the Deathmatch-only change.

Deathmatch players have been ruining the enjoyment for non-DM players for months now and yet were the only ones thrown a bone. Having backlash over that from literally everyone else, they are now analysing data that is a result of majority of non-DM players having completely slinked away from BGs and those who still kept playing in the hope of getting anything else through the random queue being still forced into DM matches 99% of the time on top of a lot of people possibly not even realising they were queueing for DM-only due to that being the default.

Unless they actually take community feedback here into account, all they're going to get is "well the data confirmed that people like Deathmatch only, so we're keeping it as it is!". Because the setup of the testing itself was inherently flawed, and it's impossible to tell from just the data, how many people queued for DM while thinking they were queueing Random, and how many people quit because of the DM being the only mode available...

Really hoping ZOS will prove me wrong on that one, but I wouldn't hold my breath over that.

alexlalas

Poor testign design, poor data, poor decisons. They could at least be minimally respectful to players and remove the objective-related achievements from the game, since they are not achievable any more.

ZOS_GinaBruno

First off, thanks to everyone for participating in all the Battlegrounds queue tests over the past few months, including the most recent addition of Deathmatch-only queues over winter break. We were able to gather a lot of data from these tests regarding Battlegrounds participation and ultimately found it did not significantly affect the participation and population, and also took into account the feedback received about the majority of Battleground games being Deathmatch. We did see the suggestions for adding additional queue options and considered those as well, but doing so would splinter the Battlegrounds population too much and would lead to much longer queue times; we want to ensure the healthiest population and player experience. As such, we are making the call to remove the Deathmatch-only queue option.

Starting in Update 33, the default option for Battleground queues will be “Solo Random” and the dropdown selection will have “Group Random”. Remember, the group queue will take solo, duo, trio and full groups of players, but the solo queue will only include players that queued solo. All games modes will be in both of these queues.

This will be the last change we make to Battleground queues for the foreseeable future. Thanks again for partaking in these tests and aiding us in gathering very valuable feedback.

hafgood

@ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the wrong decision and I cannot believe that you as a company have decided to implement it.

What this means is that every battleground will be treated as a deathmatch, so back how it was before you made the deathmatch queue.

What you should have done is leave the split between deathmatch and random but removed deathmatch from the random queue.

That way those wanting a deathmatch get a deathmatch, those wanting to play the other modes get to play the other modes.

You talk about longer queue times, I would welcome a longer queue time if it meant I got a non deathmatch game without anyone playing it as a deathmatch

I'm sorry but this was the only logical decision to make, reverting to one solo & one group queue is a huge backwards step.

Thank you for not listening to the player base

KKolly

Well it makes sense that if the "Random" BG mode is essentially Deathmatch-only, you might as well merge the nominal Deathmatch-only queue back in. At least queue times will decrease. That's only logical, even if its not what a lot of the community is asking for.

Thanks for the update Gina, and congrats on the promotion. But I, for one, will continue to stay away from Battleground queues for the foreseeable future.

jaws343

So, back to 80% objective game modes that most of the PVP playerbase doesn't actually want to do. At least weight Objective and DM at 50/50 in the queue.

lordskrub

i think alot of people was just ignoring the drop down and making only dm pop chaning it to random at the top is a great step and the DM only players can easily just select it if thats all they like

Bashev

What is wrong with you ZoS? Dont you see that both tests failed? Half of the population complains that is only Death-match the other half complains that is only objectives. Just bring back the old selections where players can queue what they want.

Alucu

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

First off, thanks to everyone for participating in all the Battlegrounds queue tests over the past few months, including the most recent addition of Deathmatch-only queues over winter break. We were able to gather a lot of data from these tests regarding Battlegrounds participation and ultimately found it did not significantly affect the participation and population, and also took into account the feedback received about the majority of Battleground games being Deathmatch. We did see the suggestions for adding additional queue options and considered those as well, but doing so would splinter the Battlegrounds population too much and would lead to much longer queue times; we want to ensure the healthiest population and player experience. As such, we are making the call to remove the Deathmatch-only queue option.

Starting in Update 33, the default option for Battleground queues will be “Solo Random” and the dropdown selection will have “Group Random”. Remember, the group queue will take solo, duo, trio and full groups of players, but the solo queue will only include players that queued solo. All games modes will be in both of these queues.

This will be the last change we make to Battleground queues for the foreseeable future. Thanks again for partaking in these tests and aiding us in gathering very valuable feedback.

So, the conclusion is that the people who didn't like Deathmatch were a minority even before the tests?

Also, this decision feels very discouraging, looks like we are back where we started. I for one, think the issue with the population and participation should not start with that we already have. (Game modes, queues and whatnot.)

It should start by making BGs and PvP overall more enticing for the majority of the playerbase. Perhaps better rewards, better tutorials. The curve of learning is really really tough in PvP, that causes the PvP playerbase to be low in the big scheme of things in ESO, and the people who are proficient in PvP even lower.

nightstrike

lordskrub wrote: »

i think alot of people was just ignoring the drop down and making only dm pop chaning it to random at the top is a great step and the DM only players can easily just select it if thats all they like

The DM only choice is being removed

rdk

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

First off, thanks to everyone for participating in all the Battlegrounds queue tests over the past few months, including the most recent addition of Deathmatch-only queues over winter break. We were able to gather a lot of data from these tests regarding Battlegrounds participation and ultimately found it did not significantly affect the participation and population, and also took into account the feedback received about the majority of Battleground games being Deathmatch. We did see the suggestions for adding additional queue options and considered those as well, but doing so would splinter the Battlegrounds population too much and would lead to much longer queue times; we want to ensure the healthiest population and player experience. As such, we are making the call to remove the Deathmatch-only queue option.

Starting in Update 33, the default option for Battleground queues will be “Solo Random” and the dropdown selection will have “Group Random”. Remember, the group queue will take solo, duo, trio and full groups of players, but the solo queue will only include players that queued solo. All games modes will be in both of these queues.

This will be the last change we make to Battleground queues for the foreseeable future. Thanks again for partaking in these tests and aiding us in gathering very valuable feedback.

you might be joking?

Give us place where we can fight and don't care about stupid flags or chaos ball.

Trandaner

There literally hasn't been any new PvP content since 2017 while we get 4 new PvE DLCs each year and now instead of listening to the feedback of the PvP community they decide it would be a good idea to remove the last bit of playable PvP.

KKolly

jaws343 wrote: »

So, the conclusion is that the people who didn't like Deathmatch were a minority even before the tests?

That's not what happened. The problem is that there ended up being two nearly identical queues. One that was 100% Deathmatch, and one that was 95% Deathmatch.

So any increase in participation attributable to a DM-only queue was completely wiped out by the tons of people who just simply quit BG's because the random queue was almost literally nothing but DM. If they don't roll back to what it was before the changes (which they didn't say they would do), you'll see exactly what I mean once you queue for the random queue about 30 times.

FeedbackOnly

Definitely will play more with objectives finally back. The death match only crowd was wrong

P.S should of just been death match vs objective queues

lordskrub

nightstrike wrote: »

lordskrub wrote: »

i think alot of people was just ignoring the drop down and making only dm pop chaning it to random at the top is a great step and the DM only players can easily just select it if thats all they like

The DM only choice is being removed

no its not they're just putting random at the top and dm only second so newer or no pvers dont just keep picking dm only