Battlegrounds [Feedback/Suggestions]

YoshinJaa · October 2018

I am an Xbox player that has been really getting into Battlegrounds even more recently. Since the inception of BG's in Morrowind, I always saw it as having a lot of potential, even in the likelihood of its own competitive scene being derived from it. There are some feedback and suggestions I would like to look at regarding certain systems only pertaining to Battlegrounds (and not Cyrodiil) to hopefully get either some insight or improvements done in future updates.

I have categorized each suggestion so that it may be easier to view. I am open to modifying the list from other individual's feedback or suggestions, but if you do, please give a good reasoning behind your idea. I have browsed this sub-forum recently collecting the thoughts of other posts that I have seen individuals being concerned about and hopefully, I have gotten most of the main issues listed below:

Last updated: November 3, 2018

[General]

Reduce the Deserter penalty timeout from 20 minutes to 15 minutes.
This should be in line with the Dungeon Finder penalty.
Opportunity to rejoin a current match from a disconnection, instead of automatically having the Deserter penalty applied to you.
Nothing is more frustrating when you either experience a server disconnect or packet loss that causes you to disconnect from a match and no longer have the opportunity to try to win. Looking at Overwatch's Competitive Mode, players should be given a limited amount of time to make it back in the session before being kicked from idling. Perhaps a 3-minute timer before kicking and trying to backfill would be a better option.
Improve or remove load screens prior to respawning mid-match.
Not only for immersion purposes but also because load screens can lead to 'hanging' causing the game to not respawn the player appropriately and forcing them to quit the application, causing Deserter penalty as well. From an observer/spectator perspective, especially from those watching a stream of someone playing, the load screens seem very unecessary.

[Matchmaker]

Improve matchmaking by better prioritizing solo and group queue instances for better-balanced teams.
Players want to have a better-balanced game and some experiences may be negative because of a pre-made group of 3 or 4 going against 2-3 solo players. This may have a negative impact on MMR (Matchmaking Rating).
Games should not start/begin match countdown until all teams are even (either 3v3v3 or 4v4v4).
Uneven teams lead to a major disadvantage especially with the above solo/group queue issue as the highest team count can get well ahead in the score, especially in objective game types. This, in turn, may cause additional quit outs or lack of effort to re-queue after the match.
Fixing issues with the queue where players are stuck in "Waiting for Players" indefinitely in pre-game, forcing them to quit the game and having Deserter applied to them.
Another negative experience that can lead to players ultimately not wanting to enjoy this aspect of the game, causing frustration (@Odnoc).

[Gameplay]

Ultimates should be reset to 0 after loading into the battleground.
Players having their ultimates ready as soon as a match starts should not be a thing, mainly because this could lead to an early advantage in any game mode, such as a team having coordinated Dawnbreakers and Destro ults ready to go when pushing a relic. Note: disable potion use in pre-game to prevent Nightblade ult generation.
The respawn system should be either on a static timer (instead of the current dynamic one) or emphasis on how the respawn system works to better understand it.
A static timer would better suit team coordination and pushes instead of not being for certain when players will be back up on both the team and opposition. I suggest a 10 second spawn for Deathmatch and 10 or 15 seconds for objective games.
For maps that support mounting (Istirus Outpost), the Riding Speed of all players should be set to 30-40, and Riding Stamina set to 30, for balance purposes and only during the match.
This is to balance movement speed and stamina of all players in the match while mounted, making each opportunity to mount fair on all teams.

[Features]

Custom Battlegrounds for pre-made groups of 12.
Being able to launch a private battleground match has many perks:
- Players can experiment and learn maps without the added pressure to perform well.
- Players can host matches for fun or for competitions/tournaments.
- Adjustable settings, like match duration, score limit, respawn time.
Healer and Tank achievements and/or titles.
Support players should feel more warranted in groups and achievements and titles specific to tanking/defending damage or healing high amounts throughout should be rewarding.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_BrianWheeler @ZOS_RichLambert Hopefully we can have a discussion more in-depth about Battlegrounds and its future, with some community requested implementations added. I would love to see BG's thrive and have its own scene someday soon, but the community needs certain tools/features and quality of life/improvements to get there. Thank you for taking the time to read mine and others' suggestions.

ccmedaddy · October 2018

Brilliant. These changes would definitely make me want to play BGs more often.

Chaos2088 · October 2018

Agree with everything/all of the above 😁

frostz417 · October 2018

Just completely remove the MMR system and done.
But these ideas are very good, would love if they implemented some of these.

brandonv516 · October 2018

Very good suggestions, I support them all.

I especially like the idea of grouping 12 players and letting them play against each other.

jhall03 · October 2018

I ageee with all of this. Well said

Mojomonkeyman · October 2018

I agree with all points except tank achievements. Strongly disagree here, tanks that cannot kill shouldn't be encouraged to participate in BGs. ESO tanking is too easy to achieve when ignoring kill potential, that is offset in Cyrodiil by the numbers game - not so much in BGs.

The moment full tanks can achieve high medalscores other playstyles become inferior. Why go for the risky kill if you can just stand their holding block into meditate into block again (while being healed by your just as tanky healbots) and still score high?

I've played 4k+ BG matches by now across 4 different characters so I like to think I have sufficient experience building an educated opinion on the matter.

WoppaBoem · October 2018

I agree with most points would very much improve gameplay. Please take this up ZOS. Playing the game now for 12 months and I almost quit until I started playing BG's and I am planning to stick around because of them.

For the respawn. It is working good now. You respawn together with your team mates instead of one by on. Team play is why BG's are fun. All game fuctions should be focussed on team work so also the respawns.

Qbiken · October 2018

Give me the options to play a BG where the MMR isn´t activated (and also let me see any indication of what kind of MMR I´m currently at). These non-MMR games would only be solo-queue option and you can face anyone at any MMR level. But these games doesn´t give you any points towards the weekly leaderboard.

YoshinJaa · October 2018

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

I agree with all points except tank achievements. Strongly disagree here, tanks that cannot kill shouldn't be encouraged to participate in BGs. ESO tanking is too easy to achieve when ignoring kill potential, that is offset in Cyrodiil by the numbers game - not so much in BGs.

The moment full tanks can achieve high medalscores other playstyles become inferior. Why go for the risky kill if you can just stand their holding block into meditate into block again (while being healed by your just as tanky healbots) and still score high?

I've played 4k+ BG matches by now across 4 different characters so I like to think I have sufficient experience building an educated opinion on the matter.

I definitely understand your position regarding tanks. I do think there should be some sort of incentive, but it shouldn't cause an effect where everyone should play tank over the other roles.

Rizz_the_Filthy_Dino · October 2018

I 100% agree with your original post and just want to add that I am crashing to login consistently, let me help you fathom here how frustrating that is.

1. I'm playing with a team, and soon as the game crashes me to login, I cannot rejoin them. I am their healer, rip.
2. I get the 20 minute penalty, and based on just how frequent I crash on my Warden healer, I've probably been penalized a total of 6 hours so far total time in waiting.
3. I don't at all get the AP for completing the game, period.
4. Because of how frequently I crash (like 40% of the time I crash to login), my team is starting to not want to bring me in with them to BG's because I consistently can't finish a match with them.

YoshinJaa · October 2018

Zemiousb14_ESO wrote: »

I 100% agree with your original post and just want to add that I am crashing to login consistently, let me help you fathom here how frustrating that is.

1. I'm playing with a team, and soon as the game crashes me to login, I cannot rejoin them. I am their healer, rip.
2. I get the 20 minute penalty, and based on just how frequent I crash on my Warden healer, I've probably been penalized a total of 6 hours so far total time in waiting.
3. I don't at all get the AP for completing the game, period.
4. Because of how frequently I crash (like 40% of the time I crash to login), my team is starting to not want to bring me in with them to BG's because I consistently can't finish a match with them.

Certainly sounds really frustrating, hopefully, they can implement rejoin so you no longer have to experience that.

YoshinJaa · October 2018

Added to [Gameplay]:
For maps that supported mounting (Istirus Outpost), the Riding Speed of all players should be set to 30-40, and Riding Stamina set to 30, for balance purposes and only during the match.

Nevasca · October 2018

Ultimates should be reset to 0 after loading into the battleground.
Players having their ultimates ready as soon as a match starts should not be a thing, mainly because this could lead to an early advantage in any game mode, such as a team having coordinated Dawnbreakers and Destro ults ready to go when pushing a relic. Note: disable potion use in pre-game to prevent Nightblade ult generation.

What if it gave ult to everyone upon entering a match? I agree that it creates disadvantages to the people unaware, but I think starting with ult makes the game more fun, since you can immediatly engage instead of kiting to build ult and then finally start a teamfight.

YoshinJaa · October 2018

What if it gave ult to everyone upon entering a match? I agree that it creates disadvantages to the people unaware, but I think starting with ult makes the game more fun, since you can immediatly engage instead of kiting to build ult and then finally start a teamfight.

Possible, say like everyone got set to 100 for example, that would be another solution.

Pink_Violinz · October 2018

I do agree with healers needing a little more love. Using my group as an example, whenever I am on my warden healer our win rate increases, players stay alive longer, and their kill rate increases a fair amount. Yet, I'm happy if I don't finish last on the team, which is usually the case.

It's a bit unfair when all four of us agree a healer greatly helps, but I am not awarded for my side of the work. Wrangling up three other people and keeping them alive is a full time job, and then I have the added bonus of other teams targeting me because they see trees and a resto. On my best matches I'm pushing 500k healing, but I'm still low on the totem poll because I don't have kills or assists.

A big yes, yes, yes on the match not starting before all the teams are even. I feel so bad when another team is unfinished and we have to fight them, and it sucks when you're the short team.

I agree that the respawn timer either needs to be clarified or just made the same for every case. I only learned how it works (sort of) very recently, and I'm not new to battlegrounds. A lot of players just wait for another person, so forcing everyone to respawn together doesn't help anything. It just means they sit in the revive screen for longer.

I'm not sure if I agree on the ultimates though. There is nothing stopping you from grinding it out really quick, and I can't say I can recall a group ulti bombing at the very start of a match. If anything, start people off with a flat amount rather than erasing it.

YoshinJaa · October 2018

Pink_Violinz wrote: »

I do agree with healers needing a little more love. Using my group as an example, whenever I am on my warden healer our win rate increases, players stay alive longer, and their kill rate increases a fair amount. Yet, I'm happy if I don't finish last on the team, which is usually the case.

It's a bit unfair when all four of us agree a healer greatly helps, but I am not awarded for my side of the work. Wrangling up three other people and keeping them alive is a full time job, and then I have the added bonus of other teams targeting me because they see trees and a resto. On my best matches I'm pushing 500k healing, but I'm still low on the totem poll because I don't have kills or assists.

A big yes, yes, yes on the match not starting before all the teams are even. I feel so bad when another team is unfinished and we have to fight them, and it sucks when you're the short team.

I agree that the respawn timer either needs to be clarified or just made the same for every case. I only learned how it works (sort of) very recently, and I'm not new to battlegrounds. A lot of players just wait for another person, so forcing everyone to respawn together doesn't help anything. It just means they sit in the revive screen for longer.

I'm not sure if I agree on the ultimates though. There is nothing stopping you from grinding it out really quick, and I can't say I can recall a group ulti bombing at the very start of a match. If anything, start people off with a flat amount rather than erasing it.

Thank you for your feedback, even more so on the healer side which I agree with you on completely. I have had some games start out in tandem with 3v3v4 and the team of 4 ult dump in Capture the Relic on a lesser team, basically giving them a guaranteed cap right within the first 1-2 minutes of the match. I am hoping ZOS at least re-evaluates that and balances it out accordingly, either with a preset amount for all or none.

ccmedaddy · October 2018

I'm just gonna keep bumping this thread until the devs acknowledge this thread's existence lol

YoshinJaa · October 2018

Bump

Looking forward to some feedback or discussion about BG's @ZOS_Gilliam @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_BrianWheeler

YoshinJaa · November 2018

Added to [General]:
Improve or remove load screens mid-match.

Cinbri · November 2018

Zos should chane spawning zones or make it like in IC. It is sad when you get relic mode and you cant pick it coz there is someone stay in safe zone and spam interrupt on you or healbot spamming heals from safety. Deeping Drome is only map where it balanced as spawn splitted from relics spawn points.

tolgeee · November 2018

They won't give attention while busy with creating more crown store cosmetic items to get your money. This game is like Sims more than medieval mmo.

YoshinJaa · November 2018

Bump

Rizz_the_Filthy_Dino · November 2018

They aren't going to read this, they don't read or reply to PvP related topics. Just look at this entire forum and if a single ZOS employee has read or replied.

ccmedaddy · December 2018

♥︎*~*bUmP*~*♥︎