ZOS is padding the score in Cyrodil ?

Theignson · October 2021

Just now in PC NA GH, AD (as usual at this hour) had 3 bars, ep and DC one bar. AD was zerging the map.

BUT the "low pop" bonus was being given to AD. And, they just got 300+ points at eval even though they had all the players on.

Also, AD had 3 bars for several hours. So the last 3 hours did not cause this bonus. Some people have suggested various complicated formulas to explain this. But,

Obviously its absurd to give a low pop bonus to a faction taking every keep on the map with 3 bars to 1.

I had been thinking that the campaigns were closer in the last 6 months or so.

But no-- ZOS is just padding the score?

Or is the low pop bonus broken?

If you don't care about the campaign score that's fine but I wonder if anyone has a definitive explanation of this. I log on, saw this happen and logged off

xxslam48xxb14_ESO · October 2021

Yes. Everything you just said is simultaneously true. This is ESO.

Reverb · October 2021

Anecdotally, the low pop bonus has always seemed to favor AD, and posts from our EU brethren as different points over the years suggests they see the same.

Honestly though, as long as EP has high pop 22 hours out of each day on PCNA Greyhost, it’s irrelevant.

xylena_lazarow · October 2021

This system clearly wasn't designed to handle such volatile server pop swings.

MEBengalsFan2001 · October 2021

Reverb wrote: »

Anecdotally, the low pop bonus has always seemed to favor AD, and posts from our EU brethren as different points over the years suggests they see the same.

Honestly though, as long as EP has high pop 22 hours out of each day on PCNA Greyhost, it’s irrelevant.

On PSN it favors EP and DC in all campaigns from my experience.

I tried to look up how points are calculated and how population is calculated. Here is my me understanding of how low population is determined.

Population is calculated every hour by a 24 hour period; meaning every hour there is a new calculation within the last 24 hours for the low population review.

Going into a delv, dungeon, etc... right before calculation re-evaluated removes said players from the calculation (not sure on this one but I heard it a bunch from players)

Calculation of player include players in Imperial City and Cyrodiil.

I think the population point bonus is stupid and should go away. I believe a better alternative would be giving the alliance(s) with lower population a buff. The lowest population alliance would get a 10% buff to all offensive stats and defensive stats. The second lowest population alliance would get a 5%. When two alliance both have the lower population, they get 5% buff.

Example 1: DC has 3 bars, AD has 2 and EP has 1 bar. EP would get a 10% buff to all offensive and defensive stats. AD would get 5% buff to all offensive and defensive stats.

Example 2: DC, AD and EP all have 3 bars - no buff

Example 3: DC & EP have 3 bars and AD has 2 bars - AD 10% buff

Example 4: AD has 3 bars and DC and EP has 2 bars 5% buff to DC and EP

With this change the population bars would need to be adjusted/fixed to ensure fairness.

Speaking of fairness. Why is the AD area mostly flat compared to the other two alliances. AD forts are so easy to siege on compared to DC or EP. What is more annoying is that if you played all three alliances AD maps were the worst with hills, mountains, etc.. yet our area is mostly flat in Cyrodiil.