Adding Matching Population Locks in Cyrodiil

Soliss · August 2014

There are many problems with the implementation of Cyrodiil from what Zenimax has done so far.

I think everyone would be in favor of a fair fight. They are planning on implementing some changes like buffs only in the campaign you are Home'd, but I don't think that's enough.

The real problem is when one alliance has a much higher population (even if for a couple of hours) vs alliances that have little or no population. It's no fun to be vastly outnumbered.

Fix this by putting in matching population locks.

If Blue only has 100 people in the campaign, then other factions are capped at 100 as well. Everyone else is in a queue to get in.

When the low population goes up, the other factions can bring in more people.

There should be a +/- tolerance to make it acceptable for calculation purposes and ease of use.

Remove the concept of a "guest" campaign. You Home in one campaign and if it's locked, you are free to try out any other campaign.

KBKB · August 2014

I see the pro's here, but you can't lock the camp to X amount of players because the other faction is lazy =(

Tintinabula · August 2014

Or make two campaigns..Vet/Non vet..problem solved.

The state of PVP is as follows..EP owns one campaign..AD owns another and DC owns another .The 4th ,AD owns as well cause we all know everyone and their gramma chose AD.

Its human nature to choose the path of least resistance but seriously how is it fun to roll over an enemy when the odds are ten to one in your favor?

Komma · August 2014

That would hurt some guilds that want to play together but not everyone is a vet.

Bushrat · August 2014

Soliss,

Its funny, me and some friends were saying the same thing tonight as the EP was owing everything on Thornhblade EU because there was not enough ppl to defend against them I would be in favour of such a cap in order to make the game more fair. Also the idea of freedom to move to another campaign if your home one is locked would be cool, or maybe while you are in the que you can go to another campaign.

Contagious · August 2014

I'm also playing on Thornblade EU and I have to say ZOS has to do something about it. EP has for the most part of the day FULL status while DC and AD has LOW and MEDIUM. The fact is the only fighting chance DC and AD has againts EP is at peak time and even then its a mirracle to take back our own scrolls only to lose them (and every single keep in Cyroriil) during the night. I don't know why so many ppl chose EP but its ruining PVP if you have to fight lets say with 100 ppl in DC 100 in AD vs 300 in EP.
The only reasonable solution to this is to add a soft cap on players of the faction with the highest amount of players let's say 1 rank higher then the lowest on the server. So if DC has LOW population AD has LOW EP can have MEDIUM as a soft cap. That would balance of the issue of EP taking all the keeps and scrolls and the other 2 factions not being able to anything about it.
And please don't tell me its our fault that we can't get enough people together and form organized group. The fact is EP has about twice the ammount of ppl playing on it than DC or AD. I don't know the reason for it (the love for Skyrim and Nords or maybe the Dunmer passive which gives you free Fire resist which we know it really important in pvp and not just for vampires.
I hope ZOS will look into this because a lot of us are playing ESO only for the pvp content and right know it gets boring as hell.

Krinaman · August 2014

Whatever they do, they need to do something. As it is now the outcome of the campaign is determined by who has the most population on.

Xsorus · August 2014

This happened in DAOC as well, but it was less of a problem. Do you know why? Because DAOC didn't have this huge point system for everyone to see.

Whenever game developers add a point system, the focus doesn't become on the day to day fights but in the end goal of winning the "match". Even if you won nothing for doing it people still hate be considered the loser if a population disparity exists.

For example....Albion on Merlin in DAOC had a metric ton of people. Often times they could have a couple giant zergs on the map taking multiple things at once...But the realm I was in...Midgard often didn't lose hope because we only viewed it as a day to day fight..We didn't have this point system killing all moral down the road.

This is one of those things ZOS copied from GW2....and that is never a good thing....For any future developer..Stop copying GW2 WvW system...it was awful.

Soliss · August 2014

xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »

This happened in DAOC as well, but it was less of a problem. Do you know why? Because DAOC didn't have this huge point system for everyone to see.

Whenever game developers add a point system, the focus doesn't become on the day to day fights but in the end goal of winning the "match". Even if you won nothing for doing it people still hate be considered the loser if a population disparity exists.

I think you're absolutely right @xsorusb14_ESO‌ - Zenimax thought they were adding a point system to motivate people, but instead it has the complete opposite effect. It makes people not want to play in a campaign they are losing and instead flock to where they are winning. Should also probably remove the population numbers from view completely.

Bramir · August 2014

Basing population locks on all three factions is a fantastic idea.

And I don't think people are being demotivated by the scoreboard...I think it has far more to do with trying to fight against overwhelming numbers not being fun, especially when you are already backed up into your spawn area because of nightcapping.

Krinaman · August 2014

One look at NA Thornblade will show you the problem.

Locked vs 2 bars vs 2 bars. Most common phrase in chat.

"screw this going to play another game/alt"

SBR_QuorTek · August 2014

Just remove all campaigns but one, then people only has one place to go.

jnjdun_ESO · August 2014

I agree with @xsorusb14_ESO about the scoring. It should not be shown. It definitely has the potential to discourage the lower scoring team.

Now, one might say, but we can still see that AD is locked or DC is locked versus EP with two bars, whatever the case may be. The ideal thing for Zeni to do is to just show population as being Low, Medium or High, but not show the faction populations separately. Sort of how most games just show their server status.

DAoC has never shown any population numbers in their frontiers. The only way you could guess how many were on your side was do a /who and even that didn’t count anonymous players. People just went and fought without a scoreboard or numbers. It's worked for 13 years for them and game is still going pretty strong. This game copied so much from DAoC RvR, it's too bad they messed up with this perpetual scoring system.

I know it's old school and some of the newer generation of gamers has to know how they are doing at all times, but really it's just a lot more fun to not worry about crap like that and just go out and wreck people just for the pure joy of it.

One last thought before I stop ranting is this.….take away the scoring, BUT add in the death announcements like DAoC had.

Trust me, those " PwnzerX was just killed by FaceSmasher in Xzone" messages were highly motivating.

Artemiisia · August 2014

I have almost given up on pvp for the time being, due to lag, crashes but more seeing this

............189 in queue

im not waiting 20-30 minuets to get into pvp, fully knowing I might lag out/crash in the first 5 minuets...

I hope upcoming patch fixes some of these problems as well

Rune_Relic · August 2014

SBR_QuorTek wrote: »

Just remove all campaigns but one, then people only has one place to go.

Seems to me the only way to stop people jumping ship.
I believe they are time locking your campaign soon anyway.

Artemiisia · August 2014

Rune_Relic wrote: »

SBR_QuorTek wrote: »

Just remove all campaigns but one, then people only has one place to go.

Seems to me the only way to stop people jumping ship.
I believe they are time locking your campaign soon anyway.

yeah its like 3 days if I remember right that you will be locked into the campaign without being able to jump, thats coming, thats a great start for sure.

Nox_Aeterna · August 2014

Nope , totally dont agree with it.

I would play on the same day i queue.

It would become even worse when you consider people wouldnt be able to guest.

dbishop · August 2014

Artemiisia wrote: »

I have almost given up on pvp for the time being, due to lag, crashes but more seeing this

............189 in queue

im not waiting 20-30 minuets to get into pvp, fully knowing I might lag out/crash in the first 5 minuets...

I hope upcoming patch fixes some of these problems as well

That size queue isn't taking 20-30 mins. More like 1-2 hours.

They need a bigger map for a single campaign.