Jaerlach wrote: »

Grunim wrote: »

I'm curious how you came to the conclusion that AD has the highest overall population outside of PvP for the NA megaserver. When I go to various areas with my EP characters, they seem at least as populated as the AD areas I visit. Is there something ZOS published that I'm not aware of that shows that AD currently has an overall higher population than the other two alliances?

Observation. I have characters in neither faction, but AD has substantially more endgame PVE guilds, and has a much easier time maintaining a buff server (which is why NA typically only has one buff server, and it is yellow if it isn't invaded).

Glurin wrote: »

Faction transfer makes population disparities worse, not better. Especially when you're talking about PvP. Nobody wants to be on the losing side, so they move over to whatever side is winning and then whine that there's nobody left to fight.

The way to solve it in PvE is simply to allow grouping cross faction for dungeons. Maybe even make it guild only or something to maintain some degree of faction separation.

Jaerlach wrote: »

The answer is that they certainly would if they were allowed. And they should not be allowed to do so.

I propose a simple solution: Faction transfer should be sold per-character, on a specific basis only (eg EP to DC character faction change, 1000 crowns). This would allow Zenimax to only sell faction transfers that would facilitate rebuilding of an underpopulated or diminished faction. At this time, for example, perhaps only EP to DC and AD to DC faction transfers would be allowed. EU may have different needs, and different options could be deployed there. This would allow the faction transfer to both generate revenue and improve the overall game experience for the playerbase by presenting the option to travel to an underpopulated faction.

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Varicite wrote: »

Dysturbed wrote: »

We do not need faction changes..

Why not? You're already forced to play every faction anyway.

I have to help this stupid queen throughout all of these zones, but I can't choose to fight for her if I want to?

Jaerlach wrote: »

For example, they would not permit DC to AD or DC to EP transfer, only players moving to DC, for the time being.

While I can see why you would want to do this, the truth is that EP and DC players are generally actually happy where they are, while some DC players are unhappy w/ being in the underdog faction.

Personally, I deleted my EP toons except for my Clothier and rerolled everything else on DC for that exact reason. But some people want to jump ship, and I can't really blame them.

You're going to make those people pretty upset if you allow faction changes to everyone EXCEPT the people who are unhappy.

Jaerlach wrote: »

I propose a simple solution: Faction transfer should be sold per-character, on a specific basis only (eg EP to DC character faction change, 1000 crowns). This would allow Zenimax to only sell faction transfers that would facilitate rebuilding of an underpopulated or diminished faction. At this time, for example, perhaps only EP to DC and AD to DC faction transfers would be allowed. EU may have different needs, and different options could be deployed there. This would allow the faction transfer to both generate revenue and improve the overall game experience for the playerbase by presenting the option to travel to an underpopulated faction.

Why would this be attractive? Who would do it?

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Jaerlach wrote: »

One of the great, unacknowledged challenges ESO faces in both PVE and PVP endgame are the factional population disparities. I am a DC-NA player and it is astounding how small our endgame playerbase really is - both for PVE and PVP, everyone knows everyone's guild, and many people are members of multiple. DC currently supports about 5 PVP guilds/dedicated enough for nightly raiding, and a similar number of PVE/Trials guilds, nearly none of which are working on progression or hardmodes (only 2 guilds have completed the SO speedrun achievement, and no one has completed SO hardmode in DC-NA).

This small player pool has a number of highly negative effects, and makes it increasingly difficult to find new groups of people to pursue content with. People slowly vanish due to attrition (either leaving the game entirely or faction swapping), and next to no one is swapping back in. As this continues, it becomes harder and harder to proceed outside the same pool of people, and people are further incentized to move on or reroll.

On the NA Megaserver, AD has the highest overall population, and EP has the highest PVP population by a substantial margin (EP only recently started having a lot of representation on trial leaderboards, and seems to support only 1 serious progression PVE guild). EP is capable of poplocking 4 or even all 5 servers at once when it wants to, whereas DC struggles to lock more than 2 (AD typically accounts for 3-4). As these problems continue, player departure will cause them to worsen, further shrinking the less-populated sections of factions.

But wait, you ask, wouldn't paid faction change make this problem worse? Wouldn't DC players be heavily incentivized to swap to a more populous faction where they could find more people to play with?

The answer is that they certainly would if they were allowed. And they should not be allowed to do so.

I propose a simple solution: Faction transfer should be sold per-character, on a specific basis only (eg EP to DC character faction change, 1000 crowns). This would allow Zenimax to only sell faction transfers that would facilitate rebuilding of an underpopulated or diminished faction. At this time, for example, perhaps only EP to DC and AD to DC faction transfers would be allowed. EU may have different needs, and different options could be deployed there. This would allow the faction transfer to both generate revenue and improve the overall game experience for the playerbase by presenting the option to travel to an underpopulated faction.

Why would this be attractive? Who would do it?

Imagine for a minute you are a PVP guild in EP-NA. Its not uncommon for your faction to have Emperor 3/4 or all of the veteran level campaigns simultaneously. Sometimes you are poplocked out of every server with queues over 100. It is difficult for your members to play together, and when they do, you often face little resistance and work with the other capable PVP guilds in your faction.

How much more fun could you have if your entire guild faction swapped? You could evade queue times and find higher number of organized, skilled opponents, instead of fighting the same fights against Mega Best Friends, Legion of Magnus, Axious Nekrous, or TFL every single night. Would every EP guild be interested in that? Probably not. Would some? Probably.

The population issuse are only worsening and are unlikely to self-improve without action by Zenimax. The game is going through a somewhat understandable content drought during the console launch, and this is only going to increase attrition and compound the problem further. At some point, whether its via new press, content launch or something else, returning and new players will becoming into the game. Zenimax currently does nothing to influence faction related decisionmaking or encourage people towards underpopulated factions. Faction change can be one way to address the issue before it becomes unrecoverable.

Potential Issue:

Quest progression. What happens to people's quest progression when the order of their zones is swapped?

I think this doesn't matter. The simple solution is to only allow characters who have completed Cadwell's Gold to faction transfer. Then all quests can be left in their current completed/not completed status.

I would be interested in hearing perspectives both from EU players and from players in EP/AD NA about what they see as far as the population imbalances. From the DC side, it feels a bit worse every week.