Increase Cyrodiil CAP plis!

Punitio

65 queue and literally 60 vs 60 vs 60 server current pop cap (according to every single Cyrodiil player on PC-NA).
This is ridiculous and is killing Cyrodiil pvp.

Photosniper89

Punitio wrote: »

65 queue and literally 60 vs 60 vs 60 server current pop cap (according to every single Cyrodiil player on PC-NA).
This is ridiculous and is killing Cyrodiil pvp.

Zero chance they will do this. The servers can barely handle a 12 man fight on the map as is.

Although, at this point I would much rather suffer through lag then have the ghost town we have now (with a big ass q)

Punitio

Photosniper89 wrote: »

Punitio wrote: »

65 queue and literally 60 vs 60 vs 60 server current pop cap (according to every single Cyrodiil player on PC-NA).
This is ridiculous and is killing Cyrodiil pvp.

Zero chance they will do this. The servers can barely handle a 12 man fight on the map as is.

Although, at this point I would much rather suffer through lag then have the ghost town we have now (with a big ass q)

Well, sadly Cyrodiil pvp will be dead soon if they don't solve this issue.

adirondack

I’m done with cyrodiil. Maybe this is what was intended or maybe the ZOS team is doing their best. Hard to tell since we don’t get much into. Either way I’m done dealing with the queues and low pop.

Enjoy the open spaces. I’m starting trials full time.

Punitio

Yep, i only enjoy playing pvp and if pvp die eventually then i will not keep playing.

Punitio

1 Hour queue and after 15 min of playing:

darvaria

I tried earlier tonight and que number was 93.

Not sure what the solution is but apparently the servers can't hold more.

The map is too big for 3 60 player teams. But the game handle 40 v 40 like AV or even 15 v 15 like ab in wow. We really need a much smaller map and a timed 60 v 60 event. TWO factions. An event that has a timer.

PVP apparently isn't dying. No one waits one plus hour for event. Put in another event. OMG there are tons of models to follow. WOW has mastered BG's. LOOK and learn. And not a bunch of layered maps like current BG's. Players want a simple playing crown. I HATE most of the maps at the current BG's.

EF321

And yet, if all these people gather together at one keep fight, I am still getting thrown out of server...

Bammlschwamml

I just woke up from a beautiful dream: After trying to reallocate insufficient resources for so long, the ESO team finally decided to invest in more server hardware and more personnel. They did population cap tests in Cyrodiil and free to play events to see how much is needed, and then they ordered double, just in case. It's already been installed and tested and ready to go online before the pvp event in July. Also Microsoft helped out with fixing all the bugs so the game will be bug free after next maintenance on July 22. This (and flying mounts) is supposed to be a big surprise, so don't tell anyone.

Punitio

Bammlschwamml wrote: »

I just woke up from a beautiful dream: After trying to reallocate insufficient resources for so long, the ESO team finally decided to invest in more server hardware and more personnel. They did population cap tests in Cyrodiil and free to play events to see how much is needed, and then they ordered double, just in case. It's already been installed and tested and ready to go online before the pvp event in July. Also Microsoft helped out with fixing all the bugs so the game will be bug free after next maintenance on July 22. This (and flying mounts) is supposed to be a big surprise, so don't tell anyone.

That is literally a dream, i wish that too but it will never happen sadly

Parasaurolophus

Bammlschwamml wrote: »

I just woke up from a beautiful dream: After trying to reallocate insufficient resources for so long, the ESO team finally decided to invest in more server hardware and more personnel. They did population cap tests in Cyrodiil and free to play events to see how much is needed, and then they ordered double, just in case. It's already been installed and tested and ready to go online before the pvp event in July. Also Microsoft helped out with fixing all the bugs so the game will be bug free after next maintenance on July 22. This (and flying mounts) is supposed to be a big surprise, so don't tell anyone.

So I’m wondering why you are so sure that the problem is solely in the equipment? Why can’t you accept the idea that improving the equipment most likely won’t solve the problem?

zaria

Photosniper89 wrote: »

Punitio wrote: »

65 queue and literally 60 vs 60 vs 60 server current pop cap (according to every single Cyrodiil player on PC-NA).
This is ridiculous and is killing Cyrodiil pvp.

Zero chance they will do this. The servers can barely handle a 12 man fight on the map as is.

Although, at this point I would much rather suffer through lag then have the ghost town we have now (with a big ass q)

Looking at the client in the room. Servers does not care who mounts or outfit you use, client does.
They keep adding more styles and mounts while the minimum client requirement has stayed the same outside of PC where the game could run on much more crappy stuff at launch.
You have people complaining about populations in towns or events. Yes they will struggle in huge fights.
And its pc players with worse hardware than an PS 4. PC is less efficient as it has to support all sort of stuff.
Do some Alki'r dolmens, if you have serious lag you are on an potato and will not enjoy Cyrodil.

Nharimlur_Finor

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Bammlschwamml wrote: »

I just woke up from a beautiful dream: After trying to reallocate insufficient resources for so long, the ESO team finally decided to invest in more server hardware and more personnel. They did population cap tests in Cyrodiil and free to play events to see how much is needed, and then they ordered double, just in case. It's already been installed and tested and ready to go online before the pvp event in July. Also Microsoft helped out with fixing all the bugs so the game will be bug free after next maintenance on July 22. This (and flying mounts) is supposed to be a big surprise, so don't tell anyone.

So I’m wondering why you are so sure that the problem is solely in the equipment? Why can’t you accept the idea that improving the equipment most likely won’t solve the problem?

lol

Orbital78

Hopefully there are a lot of CP campaigns for event harvesting.

Bammlschwamml

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

So I’m wondering why you are so sure that the problem is solely in the equipment? Why can’t you accept the idea that improving the equipment most likely won’t solve the problem?

I am not sure of anything. But after the server hardware refresh ESO worked like a charm for a while. A lot better than the months and years before the refresh.

I know, i know... causality vs correlation... just because it happened at the same time doesn't mean it's connected...

BUT: they didn't refresh the hardware on all platforms at the same time. That's interesting because the performance improvement was most noticeable the days and weeks after the server hardware refresh (it was just soooooo much better for so many players!) and then started to deteriorate again. For every platform. At different times of the year. So while some platforms (like pc na) already suffered from major performance issues again, other platforms (like ps eu) felt the same improvement after their delayed server hardware refresh (in this case 1 year later if i remember correctly). And then it slowly started to get worse too.

ESO is growing and getting more complex every year, so i just assumed that the game would benefit extra from regular hardware upgrades and a growing team.

I just feel like it would be worth a shot. Even if it doesn't fix everything, it might make some things better and easier. They could start with just one platform. Mine. Ps5 eu. Just to see what happens. If it doesn't do anything then at least we know for sure.

Dojohoda

Cyrodiil is much much more enjoyable when more people can enter and participate in the chaos.

Aurielle

Number 51 after an hour in the queue... Guess I'm not going to Cyrodiil tonight...

And before anyone says "just go to Blackreach," this is why I can't:



The results of an hour's worth of PVP in Grey Host earlier today. The same amount of time on BR would have been spent doing little more than capping resources and getting zerged down by team green while solo, because BR is more or less completely dead if you play EP these days. One glance at the campaign score will tell you why. I don't go to Cyrodiil to cap resources and PVDoor -- I go to actually engage in open field PVP and epic keep sieges with lots of countersiege/opposition. So Grey Host is the only option.

The current population caps are ridiculous, and they make Cyrodiil a shadow of what it once was. I realize it's a Saturday night and NA prime time, but the queue times feel like they're getting longer and longer by the day. People obviously want to PVP, but they just can't, unless they have the freedom to play during off-peak hours.

reazea

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Bammlschwamml wrote: »

I just woke up from a beautiful dream: After trying to reallocate insufficient resources for so long, the ESO team finally decided to invest in more server hardware and more personnel. They did population cap tests in Cyrodiil and free to play events to see how much is needed, and then they ordered double, just in case. It's already been installed and tested and ready to go online before the pvp event in July. Also Microsoft helped out with fixing all the bugs so the game will be bug free after next maintenance on July 22. This (and flying mounts) is supposed to be a big surprise, so don't tell anyone.

So I’m wondering why you are so sure that the problem is solely in the equipment? Why can’t you accept the idea that improving the equipment most likely won’t solve the problem?

From the years 2016-2021 or so Cyrodiil performance would actually improve for the MYM events. ZOS would do some maintenance right before the event, performance would improve, then the event would end, ZOS would do maintenance, then performance would go back to what it was prior to the MYM event.

In addition, performance was never better right after their hardware upgrade.

We actually have quite a lot of evidence that better or more server resources can, does and will improve performance in Cyrodiil. It's not anecdotal evidence either. We've seen how Cyrodiil performance improvements and declines happen over and over and over again over the years.

moderatelyfatman

If they downward trend in population keeps continuing, Cyrodiil will become indistinguishable from BGs.

tonyblack

Aurielle wrote: »

Number 51 after an hour in the queue... Guess I'm not going to Cyrodiil tonight...

And before anyone says "just go to Blackreach," this is why I can't:



The results of an hour's worth of PVP in Grey Host earlier today. The same amount of time on BR would have been spent doing little more than capping resources and getting zerged down by team green while solo, because BR is more or less completely dead if you play EP these days. One glance at the campaign score will tell you why. I don't go to Cyrodiil to cap resources and PVDoor -- I go to actually engage in open field PVP and epic keep sieges with lots of countersiege/opposition. So Grey Host is the only option.

The current population caps are ridiculous, and they make Cyrodiil a shadow of what it once was. I realize it's a Saturday night and NA prime time, but the queue times feel like they're getting longer and longer by the day. People obviously want to PVP, but they just can't, unless they have the freedom to play during off-peak hours.

If all people who complain about lag, disconnects and long queue on grey host would join blackreach we’d have 2 balanced populated campaigns. But nope, it’s better to waste 1 hour to queue and then disconnect 15 minutes later. Blackreach is not faction locked, there are always people to fight against and the score is irrelevant for anyone who is there for pvp. Honestly, some people totally deserve what they get…

OsUfi

tonyblack wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

Number 51 after an hour in the queue... Guess I'm not going to Cyrodiil tonight...

And before anyone says "just go to Blackreach," this is why I can't:



The results of an hour's worth of PVP in Grey Host earlier today. The same amount of time on BR would have been spent doing little more than capping resources and getting zerged down by team green while solo, because BR is more or less completely dead if you play EP these days. One glance at the campaign score will tell you why. I don't go to Cyrodiil to cap resources and PVDoor -- I go to actually engage in open field PVP and epic keep sieges with lots of countersiege/opposition. So Grey Host is the only option.

The current population caps are ridiculous, and they make Cyrodiil a shadow of what it once was. I realize it's a Saturday night and NA prime time, but the queue times feel like they're getting longer and longer by the day. People obviously want to PVP, but they just can't, unless they have the freedom to play during off-peak hours.

If all people who complain about lag, disconnects and long queue on grey host would join blackreach we’d have 2 balanced populated campaigns. But nope, it’s better to waste 1 hour to queue and then disconnect 15 minutes later. Blackreach is not faction locked, there are always people to fight against and the score is irrelevant for anyone who is there for pvp. Honestly, some people totally deserve what they get…

But that also means leaving their communities and friends. It's an MMO. It's social. I've found the PvP communities more social than the PvE communities in some ways. If I hit an RND daily, I'll never see the same people each day. If I go to Cyro daily I will meet the same people over and over. I'll form some sort of bond with them. Be in teams with them daily. Make connections. Whenever I've shifted campaign before (RW to GH, then back to RW last year) I leave everyone I know behind and start again.

The culture on both campaigns is incredibly different as well. AD Ravenwatch is a lot quieter and less rowdy than the Greyhost AD. When you're talking about an online game, these things make a big difference.

It's really not as easy as swapping campaigns for a lot of people.

Aurielle

tonyblack wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

Number 51 after an hour in the queue... Guess I'm not going to Cyrodiil tonight...

And before anyone says "just go to Blackreach," this is why I can't:



The results of an hour's worth of PVP in Grey Host earlier today. The same amount of time on BR would have been spent doing little more than capping resources and getting zerged down by team green while solo, because BR is more or less completely dead if you play EP these days. One glance at the campaign score will tell you why. I don't go to Cyrodiil to cap resources and PVDoor -- I go to actually engage in open field PVP and epic keep sieges with lots of countersiege/opposition. So Grey Host is the only option.

The current population caps are ridiculous, and they make Cyrodiil a shadow of what it once was. I realize it's a Saturday night and NA prime time, but the queue times feel like they're getting longer and longer by the day. People obviously want to PVP, but they just can't, unless they have the freedom to play during off-peak hours.

If all people who complain about lag, disconnects and long queue on grey host would join blackreach we’d have 2 balanced populated campaigns. But nope, it’s better to waste 1 hour to queue and then disconnect 15 minutes later. Blackreach is not faction locked, there are always people to fight against and the score is irrelevant for anyone who is there for pvp. Honestly, some people totally deserve what they get…

I personally prefer faction locks. Blackreach would probably be a lot better with them in place. There’s an awful lot of faction flipping and abuse of the low pop bonus that goes on in Blackreach for the sole purpose of farming AP, rather than engaging in meaningful AvAvA PVP or playing for the campaign. Grey Host is far more balanced. Score might not matter to you, but it matters to others. It’s demoralizing being reduced to capping resources solo, then getting run down by an entire AD/DC zerg because your entire alliance has given up in the face of overwhelming odds.

tomofhyrule

I don't know much about Cyrodiil faction caps or locking or anything like that, but - at least for as little as I PvP, the fact that Blackrreach is so unbalanced for the past few months has really turned me off from going in even casually.

When you see scores are 70k/70k/30k for Blackreach, it's obvious that one of the alliances just isn't there.

I'm not in a PvP guild. I PvP super casually and I don't really have friends to come with me in my faction. So the fact that Grey Host is always sweaty and locked and Blackreach is perpetually gated for EP means that there's really nothing that EP who want to get into PvP can do.

It's become a running joke in my social guild that every time I go into PvP, the other alliances will hone in on me, even if the big fight is clear on the other side of the map. As such, I don't go into PvP anymore because it's 0% fun to die on repeat and make zero progress for AP or alliance level.

I don't have an answer for this. Blackreach used to be a nice place to go that wasn't as sweaty as Grey Host, but now it's effectively two-faction and and entire third of potential PvPers is cut off from doing anything. Since there's no faction lock, it'd be nice if some of the AD/DC players would swap to EP in there to try to get it competitive again, but I guess it's better to block EP new players from getting into Blackreach in the first place?

Ah well. We'll see what the 'new PvP' thing is. Because if it's something major, we might see a massive pop shift out of Cyro and into the new thing... and how will Cyrodiil or the other PvP modes handle that pop loss?

JustLovely

tonyblack wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

Number 51 after an hour in the queue... Guess I'm not going to Cyrodiil tonight...

And before anyone says "just go to Blackreach," this is why I can't:



The results of an hour's worth of PVP in Grey Host earlier today. The same amount of time on BR would have been spent doing little more than capping resources and getting zerged down by team green while solo, because BR is more or less completely dead if you play EP these days. One glance at the campaign score will tell you why. I don't go to Cyrodiil to cap resources and PVDoor -- I go to actually engage in open field PVP and epic keep sieges with lots of countersiege/opposition. So Grey Host is the only option.

The current population caps are ridiculous, and they make Cyrodiil a shadow of what it once was. I realize it's a Saturday night and NA prime time, but the queue times feel like they're getting longer and longer by the day. People obviously want to PVP, but they just can't, unless they have the freedom to play during off-peak hours.

If all people who complain about lag, disconnects and long queue on grey host would join blackreach we’d have 2 balanced populated campaigns. But nope, it’s better to waste 1 hour to queue and then disconnect 15 minutes later. Blackreach is not faction locked, there are always people to fight against and the score is irrelevant for anyone who is there for pvp. Honestly, some people totally deserve what they get…

So what we deserve to get is the elimination of Blackreach and double the pop cap in Grey Host. That's what most PvP players would vote for if we had the choice.

EdjeSwift

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I don't know much about Cyrodiil faction caps or locking or anything like that, but - at least for as little as I PvP, the fact that Blackrreach is so unbalanced for the past few months has really turned me off from going in even casually.
When you see scores are 70k/70k/30k for Blackreach, it's obvious that one of the alliances just isn't there.

The scores are generally due to playstyles for each of the factions. Over the past few weeks I've hopped into PvP for Script farming and stayed for a few hours each night for the various factions in Blackreach. DC is generally best at using the low pop bonus effectively and taking as much and holding it for as long as possible before AD comes in and counter pushes then overnight with a certain person everyone in Blackreach knows comes in and yellows the whole map for the late night grind and racks up the points.

When I'm on EP they don't seem to care about keeps or scrolls, it's all about the big fights. Last night was a perfect example where EP held BRK for hours while their trikeeps were taken. Keeps, scrolls and such are how the scores are tabulated and it just seems like many EP don't care about "PvDoor" as people derogatorily call it, but that's how the scores are counted.

tomofhyrule

EdjeSwift wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I don't know much about Cyrodiil faction caps or locking or anything like that, but - at least for as little as I PvP, the fact that Blackrreach is so unbalanced for the past few months has really turned me off from going in even casually.
When you see scores are 70k/70k/30k for Blackreach, it's obvious that one of the alliances just isn't there.

The scores are generally due to playstyles for each of the factions. Over the past few weeks I've hopped into PvP for Script farming and stayed for a few hours each night for the various factions in Blackreach. DC is generally best at using the low pop bonus effectively and taking as much and holding it for as long as possible before AD comes in and counter pushes then overnight with a certain person everyone in Blackreach knows comes in and yellows the whole map for the late night grind and racks up the points.

When I'm on EP they don't seem to care about keeps or scrolls, it's all about the big fights. Last night was a perfect example where EP held BRK for hours while their trikeeps were taken. Keeps, scrolls and such are how the scores are tabulated and it just seems like many EP don't care about "PvDoor" as people derogatorily call it, but that's how the scores are counted.

But herein lies the problem: do you expect that new PvP-curious people will see a campaign with less than half the score and owning nothing and think "Oh, this is good!", or are they likely to see that they can't transitus anywhere and then they get killed immediately by team green and say "screw this" and leave? I get that a lot of PvPers don't care about PvDoor. But if you have no keeps and no score and no ability to get anywhere easily... well, that's not exactly effective for getting new people involved.

I'm mainly speaking from the viewpoint of someone who's very much not a PvP main. And I'm seeing that for EP, my choices are: 1) to not get in to Grey Host, 2) to not be able to do anything and therefore earn no AP in Blackreach, or 3) to not have CP or sets in Ravenwatch and therefore need to change my build completely. So what am I going to do? Obviously, that means I'm not going to PvP.

I notice a lot of PvPers here are falling into a fallacy where they don't realize that the PvP population is a finite resource as the majority of the playerbase is... not exactly enthusiastic about it, and especially if there are not new people coming in. That's also a thing I wonder about with this upcoming PvP thing in Q4, because if it's something that'll take population from other modes, then we won't have as much population in the original modes. I'm expecting all of these "we need higher caps!" threads will soon be "why is Cyro dead?" threads as soon as we get the update.

Again, no easy answer here. But the fact remains that one faction getting stomped on repeat will mean that the members of that faction will PvP less... and there are a lot of casuals who won't want to hop on a 'new main' just to go into Cyro, they'll just not do PvP instead.

katanagirl1

tomofhyrule wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

I don't know much about Cyrodiil faction caps or locking or anything like that, but - at least for as little as I PvP, the fact that Blackrreach is so unbalanced for the past few months has really turned me off from going in even casually.
When you see scores are 70k/70k/30k for Blackreach, it's obvious that one of the alliances just isn't there.

The scores are generally due to playstyles for each of the factions. Over the past few weeks I've hopped into PvP for Script farming and stayed for a few hours each night for the various factions in Blackreach. DC is generally best at using the low pop bonus effectively and taking as much and holding it for as long as possible before AD comes in and counter pushes then overnight with a certain person everyone in Blackreach knows comes in and yellows the whole map for the late night grind and racks up the points.

When I'm on EP they don't seem to care about keeps or scrolls, it's all about the big fights. Last night was a perfect example where EP held BRK for hours while their trikeeps were taken. Keeps, scrolls and such are how the scores are tabulated and it just seems like many EP don't care about "PvDoor" as people derogatorily call it, but that's how the scores are counted.

But herein lies the problem: do you expect that new PvP-curious people will see a campaign with less than half the score and owning nothing and think "Oh, this is good!", or are they likely to see that they can't transitus anywhere and then they get killed immediately by team green and say "screw this" and leave? I get that a lot of PvPers don't care about PvDoor. But if you have no keeps and no score and no ability to get anywhere easily... well, that's not exactly effective for getting new people involved.

I'm mainly speaking from the viewpoint of someone who's very much not a PvP main. And I'm seeing that for EP, my choices are: 1) to not get in to Grey Host, 2) to not be able to do anything and therefore earn no AP in Blackreach, or 3) to not have CP or sets in Ravenwatch and therefore need to change my build completely. So what am I going to do? Obviously, that means I'm not going to PvP.

I notice a lot of PvPers here are falling into a fallacy where they don't realize that the PvP population is a finite resource as the majority of the playerbase is... not exactly enthusiastic about it, and especially if there are not new people coming in. That's also a thing I wonder about with this upcoming PvP thing in Q4, because if it's something that'll take population from other modes, then we won't have as much population in the original modes. I'm expecting all of these "we need higher caps!" threads will soon be "why is Cyro dead?" threads as soon as we get the update.

Again, no easy answer here. But the fact remains that one faction getting stomped on repeat will mean that the members of that faction will PvP less... and there are a lot of casuals who won't want to hop on a 'new main' just to go into Cyro, they'll just not do PvP instead.

Even PvP players like me don’t want an empty campaign.

PS NA GH DC is so low pop compared to the others now that it’s well into the evening before we hit 3 bars mostly, even 2 bars on weekends. 4 people show up to take back a home keep but 20 come to defend it.

Maybe the event will help us, but with virtually no one running groups it could still be a disaster.

There is nothing worse than spending hours in Cyrodiil but not getting enough AP to receive even one RoTW reward.

Jaraal

Punitio wrote: »

1 Hour queue and after 15 min of playing:

Yep, I got that one several times last night while waiting in the queue. Got tired of re-queueing and played something else.

darvaria

I don't think size can be increased and remain playable for most players.

Even WOW was lagging in their new event Blood Moon.

It seems about 40 v 40 is a really good size. Just put in some normal BG's. I only play WOW to enjoy the BG's. I'm sick of month long campaigns and always playing against 2 other teams.

We still want more than 4v4v4. Something 40 v 40, that lasts like 1 hour. 15 v 15. There are excellent models in the industry to observe.

tonyblack

Aurielle wrote: »

tonyblack wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

Number 51 after an hour in the queue... Guess I'm not going to Cyrodiil tonight...

And before anyone says "just go to Blackreach," this is why I can't:



The results of an hour's worth of PVP in Grey Host earlier today. The same amount of time on BR would have been spent doing little more than capping resources and getting zerged down by team green while solo, because BR is more or less completely dead if you play EP these days. One glance at the campaign score will tell you why. I don't go to Cyrodiil to cap resources and PVDoor -- I go to actually engage in open field PVP and epic keep sieges with lots of countersiege/opposition. So Grey Host is the only option.

The current population caps are ridiculous, and they make Cyrodiil a shadow of what it once was. I realize it's a Saturday night and NA prime time, but the queue times feel like they're getting longer and longer by the day. People obviously want to PVP, but they just can't, unless they have the freedom to play during off-peak hours.

If all people who complain about lag, disconnects and long queue on grey host would join blackreach we’d have 2 balanced populated campaigns. But nope, it’s better to waste 1 hour to queue and then disconnect 15 minutes later. Blackreach is not faction locked, there are always people to fight against and the score is irrelevant for anyone who is there for pvp. Honestly, some people totally deserve what they get…

I personally prefer faction locks. Blackreach would probably be a lot better with them in place. There’s an awful lot of faction flipping and abuse of the low pop bonus that goes on in Blackreach for the sole purpose of farming AP, rather than engaging in meaningful AvAvA PVP or playing for the campaign. Grey Host is far more balanced. Score might not matter to you, but it matters to others. It’s demoralizing being reduced to capping resources solo, then getting run down by an entire AD/DC zerg because your entire alliance has given up in the face of overwhelming odds.

And what’s bad about switching factions? You can play on either low populated or over populated, it’s totally your choice, you can clearly see what’s imbalanced and pick the fights you’d enjoy, instead of being stuck on one colored map with zergiest faction and no option to switch. Like in your example, you can join low pop faction if it’s truly low pop or defend against it if it’s ap farmers.

Score only matters for those who can play at odd hours at night or in the morning as the faction which holds majority of the map during this time wins. Anywhere close to prime time contribution of solo players or even groups is absolutely negligible. Many campaign i played (on EU at least) have unbalanced score due to this on both grey host and blackreach so faction lock doesnt even matter.