One of the little things that's bothered me about ESO is that all of the 'battles' of these three massive alliances seem to be centered on one convenient and well-defined location. Heck, about the only time I remember fighting actual troops from another army was doing the Ebonheart Pact questline on Bleakrock Isles. Otherwise its rebels or insurgents or some otherwise native population being subverted by a spy or enemy commander.

Another little issue that's bothered me is that the PvP is centered on large scale conflicts. Which are awesome, I might add, until the lag inevitably hits or the almost constant disproportion of teams causes one zerg to roll another, yadda yadda yadda. And while you can get smaller scale battles simply by roaming around in small groups, using scouts, and avoiding larger groups while you hunt even smaller groups than you

But one key element of ESO that cannot be ignored is that Cyrodiil is *supposed* to mean something for PvPers. Your home campaign is meant to be a fight worth having.

Thus, Skirmishes (not my idea, but pieced together from other posters for your viewing pleaure)

Skrimishes would be little fights happening in locations other than Cyordiil itself (mountains of Morrowind; plains of Elsewyr; forest glade in Valenwood; etc). They would have a limited number of participants (12v12). They would include different game modes per battlefield (deathmatch, capture the fort, defend the caravan, etc). Finally, winning a match would provide cheaper prices, or stronger NPC's, or better enemy intelligence for every home campaign.

That's right ... these skirmishes affect ALL campaigns, making the participants capable of giving bonuses to all other PvPers of their alliance!

The crux here is that these fights are instanced. They are queued from anywhere. The same fight could be happening for hundreds of players at one time. They can last from 5 minutes to 25 minutes, according to the fight. And kills and wins count towards a separate alliance rank and leaderboard structure (giving players the capability of distinguishing the skirmishers from the full-time soldiers).

Each fight would be balanced teams, with no limit to classes or role allocation per team. However, with unique map design, maps could be made to disuade 'class stacking'.

Those players who lead the leaderboards in skirmishes for their alliance over a weeks time would recieve the rank and title 'Commander General', including a unique costume, to go side-by-side with Cyrodiil's 'Emperor', to include command abilities and a 'former' title for those who are no longer leading. Unlike Emperor, however, there are alwyas three 'Commander Generals' at a time (one for each alliance).


Pros:
- Smaller fights mean less lag.
- Quicker fights make PvP available to those who have less time.
- Smaller fights make PvP more available (keyword, more) to those players who dislike large-scale fights.
- Allowing players to contribute to all home campaigns makes each skirmish count more for your whole alliance.
- Different ranks allow players to keep track of the difference in playstyles and what that means for accomplishments.
- 12v12 allows for the games innate balance mechanics to stay present, without putting too much emphasis on small-team combat (one thing WoW developers said they wished they could have avoided, as it distorted their games balance drastically and, in their mind, for the worst)

Cons:
- For each PvPer who skirmishes, that's one less PvPer who is in Cyrodiil.
- An allaince that is more popular could maintain more benefits, even if they lose in Cyrodiil.
- Elitism may occur between skirmish and Cyrodiil players if one is percieved to be 'truer' PvP than the other.



Your thoughts?