Empty Zones: Cross-faction zones & dungeons solution

Faustes · August 2014

In my opinion, ESO simply does not have the population to support the current system of fragmenting everyone into separate factions for PvE.

Zones:
Excluding Cyrodiil, there are 22 zones per alliance. Multiplied by three alliances, that's 66 zones.

Quite often, VR zones are desolate, especially during non-peak hour times. As a result, zones can't be completed since need a group to kill dolmens and world bosses. In addition, the game just feels lonely and empty. I would play a single player game and not pay monthly if I wanted this.

Dungeons
Even during peak hours, I've had trouble finding dungeon groups using the tool. If the tool was cross-faction, that would triple the pool of players and help alleviate this problem.

Faction pride already was killed through: 1) the VR questing system where we save the opposing faction 2) the storyline repeatedly emphasizing the real crisis is Molag Bal, not each other, 3) all races in all factions. Therefore, the argument of faction pride is moot here.

Here are just a few threads showing this is a real problem:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/106592/veteran-zones-seem-empty
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/115407/dead-vr-zones
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/1134420#Comment_1134420
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/104800/you-ve-made-ghost-zones-after-craglorn
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/112647/solution-to-empty-vet-group-dungeons-instances
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/107318/vr5-areas-are-empty-now-because-of-craglorn
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/1071823#Comment_1071823
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/1008165#Comment_1008165

Enkil · August 2014

I agree.. And they should at least make all new 50+ zones neutral...

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/122289/wrothgar-50-zones-please-open-up-to-all-alliances-simultaneously/p1

jamie.goddenrwb17_ESO · August 2014

I'm not sure why they didn't take this route to start with...

Most MMO's allow for cross faction meetings in the game world and most have a pvp flag so that people who have no interest in world PvP don't have to.

Perhaps it was easier to write continuous stories like this?

Phantax · August 2014

They didnt even need to bother with the PvP flagging
If your not in a PvP zone then no PvP, easy
That wont even matter when justice system goes live
And as the other guy said, all new zones should be cross-faction !

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · August 2014

Phantax wrote: »

They didnt even need to bother with the PvP

FTFY.

Faustes · August 2014

Grouping in ESO summed up:

Nazon_Katts · August 2014

I don't think that population overall is an issue, but rather that there's no sufficient incentive to quest in those zones and run (veteran) dungeons more than once or at all, even.

Neither do I believe that cross faction queuing will have that much of an effect, but since it probably won't hurt anyone, it may be worth a try. However, I'd rather have them rework rewards and add incentives, than just applying a band aid, that doesn't really help with the cause of the problem.

MrBeatDown · August 2014

Nerf Craglorn xp exploits and it will slightly improve other players using the zones and playing the dungeons.. But its almost a bit late for that and I see what you guys are saying. With the number of people still playing, they might have to make it so that you can do vet dungeons with other players in different alliances. I got till nov 7 with this game. Its probably been 4-6 days since I last logged on. I just don't feel like it anymore. Its not fun. People don't play the game like they used too. Dungeons don't get ran, the only groups you can find are xp exploiters in craglorn. I feel like ive waisted my money and im stupid for signing up for 6 months of this garbage. Wont ever happen again. Im Done playing games when they get released. Ill start waiting 2 years after they've been out before I buy another one. Then I can get some solid reviews on games that are stable and populated. Im absolutely sick of these pay to play console beta test games. No more money getting spent on crap like this. Its a waste.

Sabin1269 · August 2014

They offer no incentives for questing in the Vr crossover zones or the dungeons. I had one good dungeon in Coldharbor before I hit Vr where I got a few purple items and some blues. I ran Crows Wood after I had to play the EP quest line and got a bunch of useless green staffs and one blue light armor. For over an hour between questing and beating the bosses for the acheivment that's pretty sad. I havent gotten one purple item since going Vr, I would say 90% of my drops are staffs and light armor and since I'm playing a heavy DK 2hnder, it's all been useless. Went to Cyrodill and am still on the starter quest you get because after spending 15+ hours there I have been unable to find a group. Its impossible to group in the Vr zones because no one is ever on and when they are they're just grinding through the quest to get then done.

Welka · August 2014

Will the console players be on the PC mega servers too?

Falmer · August 2014

Population isn't the problem. Its just that the VR zones aren't worth doing. What's the point exactly? Just to play the same character through everything?

Not as many people want to do that as the developers seem to think. I know I have no desire to keep replaying content with the same characters, when they are best done with alternate characters.

If anything the 1-50 zones are overly packed. Its hard to ever find a dungeon that you can just explore by yourself.

Doskias · August 2014

Personally they should have never forced a VR player to go to other alliances to run their quest line. If anything they should have did a revisit of their faction doing different set of quests with new challenges. From my understanding of how it was working in beta I thought this is how it was originally going to be. With the current cross alliance VR stuff it makes me feel choosing an alliance is meaningless. If I wanted to experience another alliance I would have made a character in that alliance... Scaling dungeons to your level in the future updates will help with this but that is only a band aid.

Enodoc · August 2014

There should definitely be more cross-faction PvE zones. It shouldn't be technically difficult, and there's even a lore-friendly reason for some of them:

Coldharbour: Every version of this zone is the same (lvl 44-50), so that should mean it is technically relatively easy to make it cross-faction. Lore-wise, we know that entry to Coldharbour is brought about due to a cross-faction agreement, so it just makes sense.
Craglorn: Craglorn is a Neutral Zone and has no alliance affiliation, therefore there's no reason not to make it cross-faction. Again, all versions are the same (Vet 11-12), so should technically not be very difficult.
Future Veteran Zones: Wrothgar, Murkmire etc. Same reasoning as Craglorn. Neutral and the same across all factions anyway.

It would be technically more difficult perhaps to do cross-faction within Alliance zones due to the fact that there are three different versions; 1-50, V1-V5, V6-V10. I would still like to see a way for this to happen though.

Dungeons. The Undaunted are a cross-faction NPC Guild, so it should be lore-friendly to do all their related content (the Group Dungeons and Trials) with Undaunted members from other factions. Since the content is all the same level, this should be no more technically difficult than making Coldharbour and Craglorn cross-faction. The group-finder could search for groups that are cross-faction or not, depending on a toggle setting. Otherwise, cross-faction friends/guildies should be able to just group up and port to the dungeon directly.

Welka wrote: »

Will the console players be on the PC mega servers too?

No. Each console will have its own megaserver, meaning a total of six megaservers.

Considering this, cross-faction PvE zones and dungeons may be necessary just for grouping to be viable for some players.

FreedomDude · August 2014

Enodoc wrote: »

There should definitely be more cross-faction PvE zones. It shouldn't be technically difficult, and there's even a lore-friendly reason for some of them:
Coldharbour: Every version of this zone is the same (lvl 44-50), so that should mean it is technically relatively easy to make it cross-faction. Lore-wise, we know that entry to Coldharbour is brought about due to a cross-faction agreement, so it just makes sense.

Craglorn: Craglorn is a Neutral Zone and has no alliance affiliation, therefore there's no reason not to make it cross-faction. Again, all versions are the same (Vet 11-12), so should technically not be very difficult.

Future Veteran Zones: Wrothgar, Murkmire etc. Same reasoning as Craglorn. Neutral and the same across all factions anyway.

It would be technically more difficult perhaps to do cross-faction within Alliance zones due to the fact that there are three different versions; 1-50, V1-V5, V6-V10. I would still like to see a way for this to happen though.

Dungeons. The Undaunted are a cross-faction NPC Guild, so it should be lore-friendly to do all their related content (the Group Dungeons and Trials) with Undaunted members from other factions. Since the content is all the same level, this should be no more technically difficult than making Coldharbour and Craglorn cross-faction. The group-finder could search for groups that are cross-faction or not, depending on a toggle setting. Otherwise, cross-faction friends/guildies should be able to just group up and port to the dungeon directly.

Welka wrote: »

Will the console players be on the PC mega servers too?

No. Each console will have its own megaserver, meaning a total of six megaservers.

Considering this, cross-faction PvE zones and dungeons may be necessary just for grouping to be viable for some players.

But what if they add areas like Vvardenfell or Summerset Isle? which are obviously members of one of the three factions?

Enodoc · August 2014

FreedomDude wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

There should definitely be more cross-faction PvE zones. It shouldn't be technically difficult, and there's even a lore-friendly reason for some of them:
Coldharbour: Every version of this zone is the same (lvl 44-50), so that should mean it is technically relatively easy to make it cross-faction. Lore-wise, we know that entry to Coldharbour is brought about due to a cross-faction agreement, so it just makes sense.

Craglorn: Craglorn is a Neutral Zone and has no alliance affiliation, therefore there's no reason not to make it cross-faction. Again, all versions are the same (Vet 11-12), so should technically not be very difficult.

Future Veteran Zones: Wrothgar, Murkmire etc. Same reasoning as Craglorn. Neutral and the same across all factions anyway.

It would be technically more difficult perhaps to do cross-faction within Alliance zones due to the fact that there are three different versions; 1-50, V1-V5, V6-V10. I would still like to see a way for this to happen though.

Dungeons. The Undaunted are a cross-faction NPC Guild, so it should be lore-friendly to do all their related content (the Group Dungeons and Trials) with Undaunted members from other factions. Since the content is all the same level, this should be no more technically difficult than making Coldharbour and Craglorn cross-faction. The group-finder could search for groups that are cross-faction or not, depending on a toggle setting. Otherwise, cross-faction friends/guildies should be able to just group up and port to the dungeon directly.

Welka wrote: »

Will the console players be on the PC mega servers too?

No. Each console will have its own megaserver, meaning a total of six megaservers.

Considering this, cross-faction PvE zones and dungeons may be necessary just for grouping to be viable for some players.

But what if they add areas like Vvardenfell or Summerset Isle? which are obviously members of one of the three factions?

Interesting point on Summerset, but the same could apply to Wrothgar, as that's ostensibly a Covenant area (I think the questline is even based on that fact). Vvardenfell isn't part of Pact territory according to the map though, and according to the lore it's a temple preserve until 3E 414. The Tribunal may see a greater threat than alliance warfare emerge on Vvardenfell, and therefore open it as neutral. (This is similar to Craglorn, which is in Hammerfell and therefore Covenant territory, but is considered neutral because the Celestial threat is more important.)

FreedomDude · August 2014

Enodoc wrote: »

FreedomDude wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

There should definitely be more cross-faction PvE zones. It shouldn't be technically difficult, and there's even a lore-friendly reason for some of them:
Coldharbour: Every version of this zone is the same (lvl 44-50), so that should mean it is technically relatively easy to make it cross-faction. Lore-wise, we know that entry to Coldharbour is brought about due to a cross-faction agreement, so it just makes sense.

Craglorn: Craglorn is a Neutral Zone and has no alliance affiliation, therefore there's no reason not to make it cross-faction. Again, all versions are the same (Vet 11-12), so should technically not be very difficult.

Future Veteran Zones: Wrothgar, Murkmire etc. Same reasoning as Craglorn. Neutral and the same across all factions anyway.

It would be technically more difficult perhaps to do cross-faction within Alliance zones due to the fact that there are three different versions; 1-50, V1-V5, V6-V10. I would still like to see a way for this to happen though.

Dungeons. The Undaunted are a cross-faction NPC Guild, so it should be lore-friendly to do all their related content (the Group Dungeons and Trials) with Undaunted members from other factions. Since the content is all the same level, this should be no more technically difficult than making Coldharbour and Craglorn cross-faction. The group-finder could search for groups that are cross-faction or not, depending on a toggle setting. Otherwise, cross-faction friends/guildies should be able to just group up and port to the dungeon directly.

Welka wrote: »

Will the console players be on the PC mega servers too?

No. Each console will have its own megaserver, meaning a total of six megaservers.

Considering this, cross-faction PvE zones and dungeons may be necessary just for grouping to be viable for some players.

But what if they add areas like Vvardenfell or Summerset Isle? which are obviously members of one of the three factions?

Interesting point on Summerset, but the same could apply to Wrothgar, as that's ostensibly a Covenant area (I think the questline is even based on that fact). Vvardenfell isn't part of Pact territory according to the map though, and according to the lore it's a temple preserve until 3E 414. The Tribunal may see a greater threat than alliance warfare emerge on Vvardenfell, and therefore open it as neutral. (This is similar to Craglorn, which is in Hammerfell and therefore Covenant territory, but is considered neutral because the Celestial threat is more important.)

This can be found in Bal Foyen:

I'd presume it would just be like the other Veteran zones anyway...