Suggestion: casual & ranked battlegrounds queues (premades only on weekends)

HeroOfNone · November 2017

We need to make adjustments to make battlegrounds fun for casuals and worthwhile for premades again. Here are the problems I see and my suggested solutions

Parts of the Problems
There are numerous problems with PVP, bit for battlegrounds specific you have issues with premades verses casuals, a lack of match making, & lack of progression.

The current state of battlegrounds is horrible with 1 premade dominating most of the match and casuals spending time waiting for the match to be over. This is not the fault of the premades, it's just the game is not designed well enough to handle a group with complimentary skills and organized communication verses under leveled and random group's slapped together. The assumption was, at one point, if a strong group shows up then the other two would team up and fight them. Instead in most pug situations most players go for easy kills to try an salvage some of the match. On top of this, there is no match making so the folks against a skilled premade are beaten over and over with no chance of getting anything, discouraging them from even playing again. Finally there is no real progression with the current leaderboards, the players on top are not necessarily the best, but the ones that had the most time to play that week

Solutions
Allow only solo queuing on the weekdays for the casuals with random group formation in the short term.

This will bolster interest with casuals to try their hand at playing again, not sure if they will be playing with or against other casuals and veterans. The random teams doesn't mean things will be balanced, just that it has a chance to be, which is a far cry from what we have now.

On weekends hold "ranked queues", with rewards like it's own leaderboards, double AP, and bonus loot for premades and solo queues. This is a short term solution.

This would help consolidate that skilled PVP action to weekends to make sure we have high numbers. Weekend warriors who can't battleground every day will also have a chance at their own queue as well. While solos can opt to join in, it will be a much harder alternative to the casual queues. If this gets enough interest then it could be expanded

Create a better match making system that takes into account player levels, pvp rank, and leaderboards to try dividing up the members in the long term.

This is what makes and breaks other PVP games. New & unskilled players want to play against others in their skill brackets. Other players want to have a rank to grind up to show how much better they are. Veteran players want to fight other veterans for the challenge. Intelligent matchmaking scratches that itch in a good way.

ZOS to host bracketed tournaments on holidays & for DLC releases. This is a long term solution.

Coupled with the matchmaking, bracketed tourneys is another layer for competitive play and progression that some PVPers love. It's also a good way to hype events and DLC. It will never be an E-Sport like other games, it can still be hyped to build that interested crowd

Thanks for reading this suggestion and I wish all of you have at least one fun battlegrounds match this season.

Thogard · November 2017

No.

It would be better to just block people from solo queuing. It would allow for better competition, better match making, and would potentially get more people in the BGs as people would get their friends to queue up with them instead of solo queueing.

The BGs are meant to be small group PvP. Not solo....

If you dont have a small group, you should make one.

But banning small groups from competiting in the dedicated small group PvP format for 5 days a week is absurd.

Because let's be honest... if you are solo queuing these days against a premade, there's really only so much you can take before you just stop queuing. Youd be more likely to requeue if you were already in a group.

JWillCHS · November 2017

There needs to be a system that tracks a player's performance to pair them up with others in their skill range. So when you are queuing, premade or not, the skill level is a bit more even. Right now they just throw in the first 12 people in the queue available to fight.

Make battlegrounds available to every ESO player.

DosPanchos · November 2017

A separate ranked que on the weekend is a great idea. Maybe they should just add that feature to filter out some of the better premades from the pugs on the weekends. Everyone wins.

Strider__Roshin · November 2017

Top reasons why battlegrounds are terrible:
1) Can't choose match type
2) No competitive mode
3) No non-CP option
4) Pre-made groups will wreck pug groups
5) 4v4v4 < 6v6, 4v4, 3v3
6) AP earned is terrible

del9 · November 2017

Daus wrote: »

Top reasons why battlegrounds are terrible:
1) Can't choose match type
2) No competitive mode
3) No non-CP option
4) Pre-made groups will wreck pug groups
5) 4v4v4 < 6v6, 4v4, 3v3
6) AP earned is terrible

I think you have the wrong thread. Maybe the wrong section of the forum. Play a couple and then come back and try to offer something constructive on=topic.

del9 · November 2017

I don't see them ever implementing a Queue tied to certain days only. If there was enough population I'd be for a Casual Queue and a Ranked Queue. Pop has to increase before any additional Queues are added. I don't know if we'll ever get there.

Alternate Solution: Queue with friends. If you are all grouped and obliterating pugs, then Solo Q all together and see where the cards fall. It is great fun

Strider__Roshin · November 2017

del9 wrote: »

Daus wrote: »

Top reasons why battlegrounds are terrible:
1) Can't choose match type
2) No competitive mode
3) No non-CP option
4) Pre-made groups will wreck pug groups
5) 4v4v4 < 6v6, 4v4, 3v3
6) AP earned is terrible

I think you have the wrong thread. Maybe the wrong section of the forum. Play a couple and then come back and try to offer something constructive on=topic.

This is a thread within the battlegrounds category. I'm agreeing with the OP in reference to the lack of a competitive mode while also expanding on the other issues with battlegrounds. The solutions to the list of my aforementioned issues are obvious. Unless you need that hand fed to you too?

JWillCHS · November 2017

If we had a larger pool of players you would not encounter the same premade groups or individual players several times in a gaming session.

Do you know what it feels like to see Stand Still in 5 back to back games? It's nerve wrecking. lol

Thogard · December 2017

JWillCHS wrote: »

If we had a larger pool of players you would not encounter the same premade groups or individual players several times in a gaming session.

Do you know what it feels like to see Stand Still in 5 back to back games? It's nerve wrecking. lol

That orc really knows how to rock that two piece. I personally think that that group’s stamden is the real MVP IMO, but everyone is certainly entitled to their opinions

HeroOfNone · December 2017

Thogard wrote: »

No.

It would be better to just block people from solo queuing. It would allow for better competition, better match making, and would potentially get more people in the BGs as people would get their friends to queue up with them instead of solo queueing.

The BGs are meant to be small group PvP. Not solo....

If you dont have a small group, you should make one.

But banning small groups from competiting in the dedicated small group PvP format for 5 days a week is absurd.

Because let's be honest... if you are solo queuing these days against a premade, there's really only so much you can take before you just stop queuing. Youd be more likely to requeue if you were already in a group.

I see a lot more solo over premade groups, so you'd likely see a further drop in attendance with only premades. If it were the case allowing only premades would increase interest I believe you'd see high numbers than what we have now. Rarely have I see folks complain "that group of 4 random totally wrecked our premade, ZOS needs to ban them", it's the total opposite. If folks are complaining that their premade group was too easy, they would simply solo queue.

Restricting the days is a compromise, allowing the solo folks a queue they can use and grind out while giving the premades and competitive players a short burst of competitive pvp on the weekends they won't need to attend 24/7 to stay atop of. I also wouldn't be opposed to the premade/competitive queue expanding from that, but I think we need to test and see if the community will support that or if we still have bad numbers.

Daus wrote: »

Top reasons why battlegrounds are terrible:
1) Can't choose match type
2) No competitive mode
3) No non-CP option
4) Pre-made groups will wreck pug groups
5) 4v4v4 < 6v6, 4v4, 3v3
6) AP earned is terrible

I can agree with most of these, but focused mostly on ways to bolster numbers for solo queues and even for premades. Hopefully some of suggestions offered can address 2, 3, and 6 minimally.

Side note on 1: I did think that it could be made to give folks an option to vote on one of 2 or 3 modes, but ZOS really wants folks to play all modes.

Thogard · December 2017

HeroOfNone wrote: »

Thogard wrote: »

No.

It would be better to just block people from solo queuing. It would allow for better competition, better match making, and would potentially get more people in the BGs as people would get their friends to queue up with them instead of solo queueing.

The BGs are meant to be small group PvP. Not solo....

If you dont have a small group, you should make one.

But banning small groups from competiting in the dedicated small group PvP format for 5 days a week is absurd.

Because let's be honest... if you are solo queuing these days against a premade, there's really only so much you can take before you just stop queuing. Youd be more likely to requeue if you were already in a group.

I see a lot more solo over premade groups, so you'd likely see a further drop in attendance with only premades. If it were the case allowing only premades would increase interest I believe you'd see high numbers than what we have now. Rarely have I see folks complain "that group of 4 random totally wrecked our premade, ZOS needs to ban them", it's the total opposite. If folks are complaining that their premade group was too easy, they would simply solo queue.

Restricting the days is a compromise, allowing the solo folks a queue they can use and grind out while giving the premades and competitive players a short burst of competitive pvp on the weekends they won't need to attend 24/7 to stay atop of. I also wouldn't be opposed to the premade/competitive queue expanding from that, but I think we need to test and see if the community will support that or if we still have bad numbers.

Daus wrote: »

Top reasons why battlegrounds are terrible:
1) Can't choose match type
2) No competitive mode
3) No non-CP option
4) Pre-made groups will wreck pug groups
5) 4v4v4 < 6v6, 4v4, 3v3
6) AP earned is terrible

I can agree with most of these, but focused mostly on ways to bolster numbers for solo queues and even for premades. Hopefully some of suggestions offered can address 2, 3, and 6 minimally.

Side note on 1: I did think that it could be made to give folks an option to vote on one of 2 or 3 modes, but ZOS really wants folks to play all modes.

I just don’t think you understand what you’re suggesting.

The game mode is designed for groups vs groups. And you want to ban groups from queueing? That makes no sense. Everyone would quit BGs because we couldn’t play with our friends. BGs would become the most anti social aspect of ESO.

We could have an LFG tool for solo players who are looking for groups can get paired up. But the tool would keep them together so they could learn to play together. Also, hopefully, it would use the same group composition system that the dungeon finder uses so that all PUGs have, at the very least, a healer.

The biggest threat facing the BG population isn’t premades.. as mentioned earlier, if we got rid of premades then nobody would play because we couldn’t group with our friends.

The biggest threat facing BG population is the solo queuer who queues once, gets stomped, and doesn’t queue again. Would yoU rather have 12 people who queue 10 times each or 20 people, 10 of whom only queue once? The first would lead to more active BGs.

You’re trying to take the premades out. I’m trying to make it so that nobody gets stomped. My strategy would be more effective.

And yes, premades complain about solo queuers all the time. As @del9 mentioned, there’s no fun in stomping a pig as a premade... we want competition. When we’re the only premade on, we all solo queue at the same time so that it randomizes whose team were on. It’s also a great way to have fun with more than 4 but less than 8 people.

CatchMeTrolling · December 2017

There’s way more people playing bgs solo than there is people playing in premade groups , making it group only is silly. Just will drop the population even more by adding another wall in order to play , add two queues or keep it the same but I assure you if it’s two queues premades would barely get any action.

Bgs are casual at best and that was the entire premise to start and personally I don’t understand the excitement of getting on everyday pug stomping. In most respected competitive games the higher tiers are dominated by solo players and it’s usually the most challenging.

Mihael · December 2017

Both banning groups or banning solo que will kill bgs, if right now you ban solo queen I can guarantee you your premade won’t have anyone to play against.

The main issue that stops a solution from Working is that there is not enough pop.

Zos needs to make battle grounds better so more serious groups and solo/duo players want to play and then they will be able to make separate ques or a proper ranking system that will make everyone happy

Waffennacht · December 2017

As a solo player whom's constantly on the leaderboards, I hate your idea