ZO$: *sees posts like this*
Also ZO$: Our plan is working as intended..... $$$$$
It should be free for ppl who add char before the change.
White wabbit wrote: »Sure that zos said they had no intention of doing this , so starting the many thousand threads isn't likely to change that
It should be free for ppl who add char before the change.
White wabbit wrote: »Sure that zos said they had no intention of doing this , so starting the many thousand threads isn't likely to change that
Where did they say this?
White wabbit wrote: »Sure that zos said they had no intention of doing this , so starting the many thousand threads isn't likely to change that
Where did they say this?
VaranisArano wrote: »White wabbit wrote: »Sure that zos said they had no intention of doing this , so starting the many thousand threads isn't likely to change that
Where did they say this?
During the Q&A event before Elsweyr.
The relevant quote:
"Alliance Change and Separating Alliances
Discussing the new faction locked campaigns with Rob we spoke about how ZOS wanted to keep the accessibility of people playing with any of their friends but also bring back something to encourage team and faction loyalty.
I spoke with Rob about breaking alliance choice away from character creation (something I’ve wanted to see in ESO for a long time), we spoke about how there are technical issues (which is why they don’t and won’t offer faction changes) and whilst these could be overcome with a large investment of time ZOS needs to balance between if these would be good use of that time vs other things they could be working on."
VaranisArano wrote: »White wabbit wrote: »Sure that zos said they had no intention of doing this , so starting the many thousand threads isn't likely to change that
Where did they say this?
During the Q&A event before Elsweyr.
The relevant quote:
"Alliance Change and Separating Alliances
Discussing the new faction locked campaigns with Rob we spoke about how ZOS wanted to keep the accessibility of people playing with any of their friends but also bring back something to encourage team and faction loyalty.
I spoke with Rob about breaking alliance choice away from character creation (something I’ve wanted to see in ESO for a long time), we spoke about how there are technical issues (which is why they don’t and won’t offer faction changes) and whilst these could be overcome with a large investment of time ZOS needs to balance between if these would be good use of that time vs other things they could be working on."
Well considering how much money this would make them, I don't see why it wouldn't be in their best interest to do it. Or allow it to be done only on characters who have completed Caldwell's gold.
trackdemon5512 wrote: »Players want this solely for PVP. The problem is that there are quite a number of quests that actually change depending on your faction. So adding a faction change token means that ZOS would have to go back in and address every single one of those quests as they would have to account for a change at any point. Caldwell’s Gold and Silver would also be affected.
And then there is how to deal with Cyrodiil. You may want to just play with your friends but then there are those that will faction switch to try and cheat via spying or AP farming not to mention allowing players to potentially bypass a faction lock. It is legitimately too much of a headache to do all this when they can just focus on trying to improve servers and overall game performance instead.
trackdemon5512 wrote: »Players want this solely for PVP. The problem is that there are quite a number of quests that actually change depending on your faction. So adding a faction change token means that ZOS would have to go back in and address every single one of those quests as they would have to account for a change at any point. Caldwell’s Gold and Silver would also be affected.
And then there is how to deal with Cyrodiil. You may want to just play with your friends but then there are those that will faction switch to try and cheat via spying or AP farming not to mention allowing players to potentially bypass a faction lock. It is legitimately too much of a headache to do all this when they can just focus on trying to improve servers and overall game performance instead.
So what you're saying is it can be done?
What about a "Mercenary" option for non-faction-locked Cyrodiil/Imperial City campaigns ONLY?
You still retain your alliance association in PvE, in Cyrodiil/Imperial City. But it doesn't apply to your alliance leaderboard ranking at all. Earn gold instead of AP. No Rewards for the Worthy drops. You just get to fight for money and play with your friends.
No ranking or contribution to leaderboards heads off much of the value for cheating by contributing to another alliance's emperor run. Yes, you can fight, but it adds nothing to the stats, which devalues the role of a mercenary's contribution. Essentially, it reduces the role to just a body that fights or dies so the role can't easily be used to push stats toward emperorship. But a player can still have fun with cross-alliance friends, and then go back to making a difference for their own alliance when they play on their own side.
More complex, but even more way to limit the influence an alliances -- if you go in as a Mercenary, you automatically forfeit your leaderboard progress in all campaigns except for your faction-locked one. So you can only advance in a faction-locked campaign, and can only play your appropriate faction character(s) there. For the rest, you're a merc for the rest of the campaign(s) with nothing but gold to gain.
Players with a goal of advancing their alliance or competing for Emperor won't play as Mercenaries, since they'd be giving up too much. Players who just want to have fun in the Cyrodiil sandbox won't care. In the greater Cyrodiil conflict, they're just bodies on the battlefield and that's fine.
As to Emperor campaigns that want to use Mercenaries to turn the tide of battles in order to advance? Would it be cheating? Not necessarily. It's a legitimate strategy throughout real-world history. Need soldiers but can't afford the cost of properly equipping and supporting them? Hire mercenaries for gold! In ESO, mercenary guilds would likely form for the sole purpose of fighting to earn gold. Alliance campaign leaders would have to weigh the cost of paying them per-battle, or paying them more to stay loyal throughout an entire campaign rather than showing up the next day (or even next battle) on the opposite side. That, too, was a real-world historical strategic problem.
Let's face it. Spying and mercenary behavior happens in Cyrodiil campaigns. It can't be stopped as long as players can organize and communicate out-of-band through email and Discord chat. Instead, put in a formal structure that affects that hidden aspect of gameplay. Cross-faction "cheating" gets checks and balances applied to gameplay. Now players have incentives and disincentives to use or not use it.