The year ahead...I missed the part on Arenas?

Uberkull · January 2016

So, not a single mention of Arenas or Battlegrounds in the plans for 2016. Not even a mention of 'different' pvp modes or a IC update. Just a Cyrodiil performance update.

The only thing I see as a glimmer of hope for PVP is this part of the article...
The Dark Brotherhood DLC game pack and update will come in the second quarter. It will be set on the Gold Coast of Cyrodiil (around the towns of Anvil and Kvatch), and will contain some new gameplay elements and story content. We'll release more information about it when we get a little closer to debuting it on the PTS.
We do have plans for DLC after Dark Brotherhood, but you'll have to wait for details.

Is that a tease for new PvP modes, maybe Arena or Battlegrounds? I'd say thats a reach.

Timeline for 'The Year Ahead'...
We have Thieves in Q1 ( January, February and March (Q1)) and Brotherhood Q2 (April, May and June (Q2)). So we are most likely talking September announcement for something new while we recover from all the bugs and issues that come with June release of the Brotherhood DLC. Thats if we recover from the Thieves DLC issues by June. If the issues are too big or game breaking, that may push Brotherhood out past a June release which pushes the entire yearly plan. Lets be real, ZOS doesn't have a great track record for delivering quality...but we live with it and continue to play.

Summary
Perfect world
- Thieves March release, patch and fix updates April through May.
- Brotherhood June release, patch and fix updates July through September.
- New, unannounced DLC released in November which could include Arena and BGs.

Reality
- Thieves April release, patch and fix updates May through July.
- Brotherhood August release, patch and fix updates September through November.
- Year over for new content other then the flood of crown store items. Wait for 'The Year Ahead' article in 2017.

I don't see how we get any new PvP modes or elements given the plan presented in 'The Year Ahead'.

TheBull · January 2016

Seems like it could be another lie. Idk. I know I will no longer hang on paying a sub because they said "this is in development".

Selique · January 2016

There are two whole unannounced DLC's slated to hit after the two currently revealed DLCs. The pessimism is strong with you. Just relax, and go with the flow until the DLC's are released. You don't have any idea what will be in them (Speculation revloves around Murkmire being one, but who knows for sure?)

kfronckowiak · January 2016

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

Uberkull · January 2016

I know that @Sypher @KingRichard and @Lefty_Lucy Lucy are going to cover it in their podcast. I see a mixed reaction from these streamers based on watching their latest streams. I think @FENGRUSH is on the fence, believe it when i see it approach.

I think it's going to have to be a push from these top streamers and the community here to make this 2016 schedule line up more with the 'Perfect World' scenario I presented.

ZOS should take notes.

MornaBaine · January 2016

I was pretty darned surprised that there was zero mention of dueling or arenas. And with the loss of the PvP aspect of the justice system confirmed things are looking pretty grim for the PvP crowd. Meanwhile, my fellow roleplayers are getting all excited "because they announced player housing and character changes!" Um, no guys, they said the were "going to start talking" about those things. Which pretty much tells ME that we will NOT be seeing them implemented probably ANY time in 2016.

Go ahead ZOS, make my day and prove me wrong.

So pretty much all it looks like we can count on seeing in 2016 is stuff they've actually been working on since 2014.

There's a reason there's so much pessimism on these forums gang.

Recremen · January 2016

The Arenas were only announced as of last ESO Live, they are probably not going to come out this year.

DaniAngione · January 2016

Come on, we don't know what the 'new gameplay systems' are. We don't even know how many of them. Could be 1, could be 35 (I don't believe in 35, just an example by exaggeration).

We do know that Thieves' Guild (Abah's Landing) will be all about thievery, mischief and piracy (Crafty Lerisa is involved, after all)
This fits with duelling/spars and such.

As for Arenas, I think this will be left for Q2 (Dark Brotherhood) - Kvatch had a great arena, just saying...

Also, I do think they'll stick with their timeframe. They managed to succeed with both IC and Orsinium on their respective quarters, why not now?

Yolokin_Swagonborn · January 2016

Sounds like another year of cosmetic crown store items and shafting PvP players.

blur · January 2016

Arenas and battlegrounds will be the death of Cyrodiil.
You can say whatever you want, even now it's dying. Adding a WoW clone function is only going to be the nails in the coffin. For crying out loud they can't even get Cyrodiil right (2 years now) and you people want them to add even more crap? Rofl...

Sausage · January 2016

I think Arena is bad move, its never-ending loop of balancing. Cyrodil's kind of mass-PVP thing doesnt needs to be so perfectly balanced, so its great.

Uberkull · January 2016

DaniAngione wrote: »

Also, I do think they'll stick with their timeframe. They managed to succeed with both IC and Orsinium on their respective quarters, why not now?

IC was supposed to be delivered right after release wasn't it? And neither IC or Orsinium were clean releases, full of bugs and broken mechanics. Some still aren't fixed.

If there was something more we could do as players and customers to help ZOS deliver faster and better product, ZOS should let us know what it is. I pay the monthly sub to support their efforts, yet it's not required. I buy stuff from the crown store, most of the items I don't even pull out anymore.

I've dumped a lot of money into this game....I'm gonna stick around, but I'm not sure ill be around for another year without some sort of arenas or battlegrounds. Small scale, objective based pvp.

Korah_Eaglecry · January 2016

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

Uberkull · January 2016

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

Taleof2Cities · January 2016

Selique wrote: »

There are two whole unannounced DLC's slated to hit after the two currently revealed DLCs. The pessimism is strong with you. Just relax, and go with the flow until the DLC's are released. You don't have any idea what will be in them (Speculation revloves around Murkmire being one, but who knows for sure?)

^This.^

They've talked about it in a recent ESO Live ... and yesterday's 'Road Ahead' didn't mention it as being pushed to the backburner like spellcrafting. Best that can be said is be patient ...

Korah_Eaglecry · January 2016

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

The community was ecstatic about IC when they heard about how much of a gankfest it was going to be. A number of threads were created praising it for being innovative and taking PvP in a different direction from Cyrodiil Proper. Yet here we are months later and now the PvP community is venomous and claiming to hate IC. Ironic how you could go from 'IC is gonna be amazing because of XYZ features' to 'IC sucks because of XYZ features'. I wonder, could it be that this community just enjoys whining?

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

Uberkull · January 2016

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

Lol....you mean like ZOS posting 'spread out' that will help with the lag. You can't force gamers to play a certain way. You create a system that allows them to play how they want.

PvPers don't need to change their play style if the game they play allows it. The developer shouldn't advertise a system, large scale siege pvp, if they can't support it..

ralonasan · January 2016

It's another thing that will be scrapped or part of another cash grab DLC or Xpac .

ralonasan · January 2016

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

The community was ecstatic about IC when they heard about how much of a gankfest it was going to be. A number of threads were created praising it for being innovative and taking PvP in a different direction from Cyrodiil Proper. Yet here we are months later and now the PvP community is venomous and claiming to hate IC. Ironic how you could go from 'IC is gonna be amazing because of XYZ features' to 'IC sucks because of XYZ features'. I wonder, could it be that this community just enjoys whining?

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

Lag cannot be and never will be the fault of the player. They added AoE caps and their stupid lightning patch destroyed us into lagblivion even harder.

Jaronking · January 2016

To be honest with everyone am starting to think they will just a scrap arenas and BattleGrounds like they did the PVP portion of the justice system.Am losing faith in ZOS daily.

Uberkull · January 2016

Jaronking wrote: »

To be honest with everyone am starting to think they will just a scrap arenas and BattleGrounds like they did the PVP portion of the justice system.Am losing faith in ZOS daily.

Seems there's not much to scrap. It's probably some dry-erase marker scribble on a whiteboard in the back meeting room that has a old pizza box in it.

Jura23 · January 2016

Jaronking wrote: »

To be honest with everyone am starting to think they will just a scrap arenas and BattleGrounds like they did the PVP portion of the justice system.Am losing faith in ZOS daily.

They can't, because they would lose all credibility they have left. They know it. But I can definitely see them doing something like they did with spellcrafting.

Sallington · January 2016

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

The community was ecstatic about IC when they heard about how much of a gankfest it was going to be. A number of threads were created praising it for being innovative and taking PvP in a different direction from Cyrodiil Proper. Yet here we are months later and now the PvP community is venomous and claiming to hate IC. Ironic how you could go from 'IC is gonna be amazing because of XYZ features' to 'IC sucks because of XYZ features'. I wonder, could it be that this community just enjoys whining?

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

Well, that's mostly because what we were told we were getting was a PvP-centric content update. What we got was a PvE content update where you could PvP if you wanted (but was often frowned upon because people were farming their precious TV stones.

ralonasan · January 2016

Sallington wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

The community was ecstatic about IC when they heard about how much of a gankfest it was going to be. A number of threads were created praising it for being innovative and taking PvP in a different direction from Cyrodiil Proper. Yet here we are months later and now the PvP community is venomous and claiming to hate IC. Ironic how you could go from 'IC is gonna be amazing because of XYZ features' to 'IC sucks because of XYZ features'. I wonder, could it be that this community just enjoys whining?

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

Well, that's mostly because what we were told we were getting was a PvP-centric content update. What we got was a PvE content update where you could PvP if you wanted (but was often frowned upon because people were farming their precious TV stones.

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssss

Uberkull · January 2016

ZOS doesn't even have to create all new content. Take the dead IC DLC and revamp the districts.

Maybe add some simple PVP modes?

How about we turn these districts into...
- Add Capture the Flag to a district. Make the 'flags' something related to the story.
- Add Domination to a district. Control three bases. Again, mold it into the story
- Add Control. Faction with most points after 20 minutes, whens game. Points come from kills.

If you do this you wouldn't have to take months to create the battleground environemts, you have them. Add a 4 player per team queue system and go. Worry about class balance after you see players playing these battlegrounds. This will help you figure out how to develop Team vs Team arenas where it's just pure killem all.

Korah_Eaglecry · January 2016

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

Lol....you mean like ZOS posting 'spread out' that will help with the lag. You can't force gamers to play a certain way. You create a system that allows them to play how they want.

PvPers don't need to change their play style if the game they play allows it. The developer shouldn't advertise a system, large scale siege pvp, if they can't support it..

Do I really have to break this down into ABCs for you guys.

A.) Players are aware there is lag. Goes to the Forums and Reddit and complains about the lag.
B.) ZOS announces whats causing the lag, including Player behavior. States its not an easy fix and will take time.
C.) Players continue to participate in said behavior that is compounding the lag.
D.) Players return to the Forums and Reddit time and time again to complain about the very thing theyre helping to create.

PvPers, knowing full well what is creating the lag, coming on here to complain about lag while participating in behavior that is causing the lag are being hypocrites.

Nothing is stopping you from doing the things that create lag, but theres nothing stopping you from taking responsibility for your actions and finding ways to avoid the lag either.

Uberkull · January 2016

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

Lol....you mean like ZOS posting 'spread out' that will help with the lag. You can't force gamers to play a certain way. You create a system that allows them to play how they want.

PvPers don't need to change their play style if the game they play allows it. The developer shouldn't advertise a system, large scale siege pvp, if they can't support it..

Do I really have to break this down into ABCs for you guys.

A.) Players are aware there is lag. Goes to the Forums and Reddit and complains about the lag.
B.) ZOS announces whats causing the lag, including Player behavior. States its not an easy fix and will take time.
C.) Players continue to participate in said behavior that is compounding the lag.
D.) Players return to the Forums and Reddit time and time again to complain about the very thing theyre helping to create.

PvPers, knowing full well what is creating the lag, coming on here to complain about lag while participating in behavior that is causing the lag are being hypocrites.

Nothing is stopping you from doing the things that create lag, but theres nothing stopping you from taking responsibility for your actions and finding ways to avoid the lag either.

As a player you can't control the actions or force the playstyle of other players. So for ZOS to tell its players on the forums to spread out in Cyrodiil is absurd. It is impossible to control player behavior through forums. Only a very small percentage of players use gaming forums, so whatever your crusade that you want to communicate will miss its target for most players.

ZOS works at a snails pace to deliver fixes and when they do, they often break more things then they fix. Cyrodiil has been out for 2 years now and ZOS still hasn't figured out how to fix the lag issues? Wheeler showed us what the issue is a few podcasts ago. What gets me is that it seems he just figured out that a large setting like Cyrodiil, with many players in it, could cause intense lag when multiple people are AOEing and the server has to calculate all that data for all the players within that area. Really? Cause this is a new concept in gaming? Players attacking other players with AOE abilities in a large battlefield setting. Man....I don't think that's ever been done. /facepalm /sarcasm

ZOS put it on the box. Massive scale, siege pvp. Either you know what your getting into or you don't release what you can't support.

This is why they should be focusing on small scale pvp modes. Arenas and Battlegrounds. They may be able to handle that.

petraeus1 · January 2016

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

uberkull wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

kfronckowiak wrote: »

Game will die if they continue to neglect the community-truth

The community will continue to claim the sky is falling even when they get what they want - truth.

I think you miss the point. The state of PvP is stale. It has no variety and doesn't support small scale, objective based pvp. IC is just a gankfest full of NB and zergs. Cyrodiil is great large scale pvp...when it's not a lagfest of unplayable crap.

If you want to hold the PvP community, you have to add PvP content.

The community was ecstatic about IC when they heard about how much of a gankfest it was going to be. A number of threads were created praising it for being innovative and taking PvP in a different direction from Cyrodiil Proper. Yet here we are months later and now the PvP community is venomous and claiming to hate IC. Ironic how you could go from 'IC is gonna be amazing because of XYZ features' to 'IC sucks because of XYZ features'. I wonder, could it be that this community just enjoys whining?

As for the lag, theres no denial that its a lagfest. Not as if they arent working on it. Its not going to solve itself over night thats for sure. Maybe if the PvP community itself took responsibility for its own actions, saw that its behavior in Cyrodiil whether it be their own true faults or not, was detrimental to their own enjoyment of the game. And decided to split up more, run in smaller groups or maybe spread out across the already sparsely populated and less popular campaigns. Cyrodiil wouldnt be so unplayable. But no, again. The Community would rather run here and cry and whine about things that have been stated and criticized to no end than actually do something like change campaigns or cut back on running in zergs. God forbid the PvP community would have to change its tactics until ZOS could get the lag under control.

You're talking like the PvP community has a hivemind through which they voice their complaints and organize their stuff. I am a casual PvE-player, play PvP, I don't know what I'm doing, run to swords on the map and see the game freeze and get dc'd. Sure ZOS can't fix this over night, I don't expect them too, but even if I did that would be only as unreasonable as expecting 'the PvP community' measure out their relative distance to avoid performance issues. I'd agree that there is a sizeable group of individuals that mainly play PvP that regularly voice their complaints on the forums, and while I wish the tone was different, having experienced the issues myself (as a mainly PvE player) I can imagine their frustration.

Back on topic: Arenas have only been announced 1 month ago - Brian Wheeler said they were still discussing things such as whether it be three-ways, two-ways, arenastyle or battlegroundsstyle. To me that indicates it was still on the drawing board. No art assets even remotely finalized or maybe even started yet. No UI design. No tech to facilitate arena entrance, exit, scoring. No setting in the larger context of Tamriel. We might hear something new tonight on ESO Live, but I personally don't expect news (other than 'we're working on it') until after Dark Brotherhood.

Uberkull · January 2016

We might hear something new tonight on ESO Live, but I personally don't expect news (other than 'we're working on it') until after Dark Brotherhood.

Yea, and that will cause a mass exit of the few hardcore PvPers that are left. There are already major pvp guilds that moved on.

To little, to late. And if they introduce a new CP cap, new gear, revamped skills, all things that cause players to re-grind to compete, those PvPers that left won't want to come back and grind CP, regear, and respec. Too much work, moved on.

Uberkull · January 2016

Duct tape and glue. Well, that ESO Love pretty much confirmed no Arenas or BGs for 2016. The current pvp won't hold players for another year.

reguvin · January 2016

I wish ESO would Focus more on Adding PvE and PvP Endgame Gameplay