Won't work, PVE is taken first in consideration. I know a lot of people that switched AD for PVP then still PVE on their blue/reds. Zeni won't do anything that will negatively impact PVE in any way. Just saying..

Its a game not a prison, you should be allowed to talk to who ever you like

TBH I have met some AMAZINGLY nice and cool players simply by sending and receiving whispers cross-faction, for some reason most seem to be in DC. We are all players in this game all playing the same game. Sure we are opposition in Cyrodiil but in the end we all put our pants on the same way, albeit different colors. Trust me all my communication with the opposition has been about a dual we just had, builds and gear, etc. And I think most, if not all, would NEVER share battlefield "intelligence" as it is in poor taste and quite frankly pathetic. I am STEADFASTLY loyal to AD btw.

As much as I don't condone it, interracial espionage is part of the game and adds another layer of complexity to pvp. Spies are gonna be a thing and you have to be vigilant. But sometimes the greatest threat comes from your own faction unfortunately.

Teamspeak, Mumble, etc. Always ways spies can communicate. No point blocking cross faction chat.

I hate spies. I hate that we have to be careful about spies. I don't use them, nor accept info from them directly nor indirectly, but I do have contact with some rivals in cyro, and never was I asked for such info.
Spies are a huge problem, but I rather deal with them than to lose the ability of congratulating an enemy raid leader for outsmarting me, or gloating when we take out twice our numbers. Some might think this post is a less than qualified reason, but it is mine.

Blocking all communication within the game isn't going to do anything to stop any kinds of alliances or friendly communications between Factions, as such I feel time spent doing so is only going to cause negatives towards the social aspects of the game.

The reason I say this won't stop communication is because players can speak outside of the game via forums, TeamSpeak, IM and social media.
Creating blocks in game to stop communication whilst stopping quick access to people won't stop people determined to contact each other.

I currently like the system in place as it stops most basic trolling as players don't have a cross faction zone chat, but it does allow people to remain social and contact each other if they wish via a whisper.
If someone is smack talking or trolling you it's a simple ignore command to stop them but it means players are free to use it to thank their opponents for a good fight or arrange a duel or skirmish if they're interested.

This system for communication has also build new friendships and even in some cases had members move from one faction to another because they found guilds and players they felt fitted their social style more.

I also like the idea that factions can attempt to make alliances against a stronger force, I don't think it's as common as people posting on the forums would like to believe (and normally a product of just attacking the winning or weakened faction) however I think it adds an interesting dynamic to PVP.

If you faction is steam-rolling the other two and smacking/mocking them for it, why should the other two factions be denied the chance to make an alliance of convenience to put the third in its place.
None of these alliances will ever survive long term due to players drive to win as well as the inability for anyone to organise an entire faction.

In regards to spying this is something which is going to happen even with lockouts, in fact I would dare say it would become more common and easier.
Right now you can see which players have alts in which faction when they log in on them (unless they mask it with being offline) as guilds are account based. If the removal of shared guilds was implemented it would require that guilds move to a character based system, this would remove the chance to see other characters each member has.

The counter to spies within guilds is to ask for a screenshot of the character selection screen, this will show up all characters on the listed account.
While images can be manipulated it's a lot of work for most players to go through just to spy inside a rival guild.

This of course can be overcome by owning a second account, and if EVE Online has taught me anything it's that if someone is very dertermed to get a spy in somewhere, they will find a way.

heroofnoneb14_ESO wrote: »

Even if you lock communication down in game you can't stop out of game communication like teamspeak and instant messenger. If you really want to put a dent in the cross faction BS then ZOS just needs to flag then investigate when 2 or more of the opposite faction are constantly around each other but never attacking. That should deal with some of the major damaging cross faction issues in pvp.

Wouldn't this entirely abolish the chance for a 1v1 or organised group vs group?
While I don't partake in these myself I understand and respect that some people want to try their team vs their enemies. With a system that flags you under such conditions it removes the only viable way (currently) to do team based balanced PVP.

I love that we can communicate between factions. I love getting random hate messages when my victims get frustrated, and I love getting random questions from my victims who want to know how I killed them. It wouldn't make any sense to take our communication away. Why would I not be able to speak to a lizard 3 feet away from me?

So far as spying goes, who *** cares? Their spies aren't going to spill the beans on where your armory is located. They can't assassinate your emperor from the inside. They can't do much more than someone on other team could. "Oh they said they're going to Roe." "Yeah, we saw them ride out."

If it's such a concern for you, get a guild and practice some counter espionage. Keep your guild's activity secret, and spread misinformation for the spies. Problem solved.

I do believe we should be able to tar and feather known spies, but I also believe they should be able to spy all they want.

I'm too bitter with so many things and can only offer this crucial input:

dilemma*

As annoying as spies can be, they are a gameplay element. I know we're not striving for "realism" here, but having spies creates more gameplay above and beyond what came in the box which is always nice to have. I run a guild that recruits across all three factions and we run events for people on each faction so having communications limited is a non starter.

Roselle wrote: »

I'm too bitter with so many things and can only offer this crucial input:

dilemma*

@Roselle Actually the spelling of Dilemna/Dilemma has been a debated topic since the 1500's. While the origins of the word come to us from the Latin 'Dilemma' it has been widely taught in the Americas, as well as England, France and several other European countries as 'Dilemna'.

Thanks for your 2 cents though!
Lets not be bitter, lets be better...
8^D

But I enjoy talking to the people I have killed and give them pointers on how to be better at PVP also vice versa I enjoy hearing "goodfight" or try x,y,z to help.

Oh and the typical ranting at each other about not to block all the time.

I've caught a few spies, most will not have a major affect on a campaign all the time.

In a few cases though I've seen them work to obviously spot enemies on the other faction by running around their "alliance" mates while they are stealthed. In other cases we have suspicions, noticing a large numbers of other alliances searching areas for us we haven't been fighting in and coming to intercept. kick a person or two that won't get in teamspeak and suddenly we're outflanking the enemy.

the major issue is when they are either grouped up with ninja keep sieges and bomb groups, where they warn the location and give the enemy proper warning to counter. The griefers that would chain enemies up to keeps, put up fake siege or intentionally use up respawns on forward camps was also annoying, but ZOS did a good job addressing that with 1.3, 1.4, and1.5.

Either way, we know there are some, and unless they are being blatantly obvious about it I wouldn't worry about the text communication. I doubt many are using it and even if they restricted it there are still ways around that. I'd much rather them spend their time investigating suspicious behavior.

I don't like this at all, most of my friends are EP while I mainly play on AD. Besides you can't talk to them all at once unless you're in an EP only guild, you have to whisper someone one by one. Information travels slowly like that unless you're actually trying to spy.... Which is just stupid