I run a guild on AD and I've seen this a lot too. We'll usually notice it when suddenly a resource counts for twice the usual AP, and then five minutes later, half that. It's absolutely bugged and players seem to be mostly in the dark regarding how the bonus is evaluated, what the populations actually mean in terms of people, how often it is assessed or awarded. We notice certain behaviors anecdotally, ie. "it looks like it updates every half hour" and those are rarely consistent observations that can be relied upon.

I also don't think it should ever be awarded to a faction that controls 50% or more of the map, as in your screenshot. It makes little sense to overcorrect a "disadvantage" that isn't actually disadvantageous. Truthfully I don't think low pop bonus should apply to score at all, I'd prefer it merely buff the AP of individual players and push a notification to the lowpop faction homed in that campaign that they could currently earn double AP, just as you can set it to provide notifications of scroll movements etc.

I can assure you the faction doesn't log out en masse, unless, of course, they're losing and salty about it. It is absolutely impossible, to a level that is beyond aggravating, to get AD to do anything that coordinated or strategic. At best, mindless, braindead zerging of usually unnecessary or unhelpful objectives is about as organized as it tends to get. That said I guess it is plausible people will log off if there are no fights left to be had. Again, I really think the underdog bonuses should have a way of checking to see if the faction receiving them is, actually, the underdog at the time they're awarded.

I guess you play on PC NA, on PC EU it's DC who gets the low pop bonus all the time but yeah, it works here the same way.

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

AJones43865 wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

Mayrael wrote: »

I guess you play on PC NA, on PC EU it's DC who gets the low pop bonus all the time but yeah, it works here the same way.

PS4NA it’s ALWAYS DC that gets the bonus. Never AD

On PC NA it's almost always DC that gets the bonus too. OP just happened to do screen shot when AD was going bananas. (yep, pun intended)

For about six months now it's seemed like DC on PC NA have been playing to maximize their low pop bonus. Last week there were three days out of four that DC moved to first place on their low population bonus alone.

I understand the aim of the low pop bonus, but the way it's working now is just plain broken and unfair.

Low pop bonus fails for a number of reasons. Besides not going to the teams that are actually experiencing low populations, it doesn’t even serve as an incentive. There is no notification that Low Pop is going on anywhere to help nudge you to Cyrodiil. If you know about the symbols then maybe you decipher them and go. But for the casual player? They’ll never know it’s happening nor what it does for them.

We got low pop today, but there were so few players that we couldn't do anything, and got zerged down at every keep and resource. I ended up doing town quests and Fighters Guild bounty quests for double AP until more people logged in, which of course removed the low pop bonus.

Low population bonus may be triggered by having a few guilds-full going into delves at the appropriate time. I haven’t seen this myself but some guild mates say they see AD doing this in Gray Host.

It sure is broken atm. Yesterday, all 3 factions were pop-locked, AD had Emp, the hammer, all ring keeps & the low pop bonus! No shade on AD though... it happens to all the factions.

I doubt it is being manipulated by guilds... though I could well be wrong. I think it just got broken the last time ZOS changed the population caps. (also just speculation by me).

Unknown_Redemption wrote: »

Am I missing something? There is about 40 AD running around and I only see 5 DC with me, yet they get the bonus?

The only thing bothering me more than the low pop bonus feature is that the way ad placed those scrolls on emp keeps

just make a new rule :
when you have your home keeps + emp, your faction cant have low population bonus.

seems legit

U guys do know how scoring & the bonus works right? I don’t think it has to do with population but rather the scoreboard

low pop bonus totally broken and has been for some time. Regularly exploited by AD too (log out/in trick).

Any acknowledgement/action happening from ZoS ?

I really wish the additionals campaign will leave with update 33, because all people are split in empty campaign making lowpop abuse like said before.

Xarc wrote: »

just make a new rule :
when you have your home keeps + emp, your faction cant have low population bonus.

seems legit

No it doesn't, because having Emp and your Home Keeps has nothing to do with low pop bonus. Punishing people for what they have because of something completely unrelated that you don't like doesn't solve anything. If an Alliance has their Emp online and can rally enough to keep their Home Keeps despite being at a population advantage, why should they be punished? It doesn't make any sense when the two things have nothing to do with each other.

Indigogo wrote: »

I've tried pinging Kevin in another post. Hopefully we get a reply during work hours.

As I said in the other thread, if this was happening in a trial, it would've been fixed by now and anyone profiting from a bug/exploit would be banned in an instant. What's the difference in looting a boss you used an exploit on, and earning double ap while under the influence of a low pop that is bugged/induced?

When this broken low pop kicks in on alliances with numbers and map control, they should be living in fear that taking stuff will get them banned.

Dumb double standards.

You're trying to use double standards as an excuse when that's not the same thing here. When people use exploits in trials or dungeons it's usually something specific that needs to be done, and usually only the people exploiting get into trouble. You're trying to claim that everyone getting low pop bonus should be punished because they're all exploiting, which implies every single person in an Alliance getting low pop is purposely taking part in whatever exploit you all THINK is happening. What exactly do you expect low pop Alliances to do? Just...not play? How is that healthy for PvP at all?

There's a huge difference between purposefully and actively using and taking advantage of an exploit, and not being able to help getting rewarded because the game is broken and there's literally nothing you can do to avoid the "exploit" short of not playing the bugged content. I'm not sure how you think this is a double standard because the two situations are completely different.

And also, people have still provided no actual proof of this exploit other than anecdotal evidence, which proves nothing. And again, if it's so easy to do, why isn't this exploit being done across the board? It's nothing more than a conspiracy theory and reminds me of all the rumors involving pinions at Dolmens and getting Generals to spawn that people believed years ago. Can't we just accept that the low pop bonus is broken instead of needing to resort to calling other players cheaters?

starlizard70ub17_ESO wrote: »

doesurmindglow wrote: »

I can assure you the faction doesn't log out en masse, unless, of course, they're losing and salty about it. It is absolutely impossible, to a level that is beyond aggravating, to get AD to do anything that coordinated or strategic. At best, mindless, braindead zerging of usually unnecessary or unhelpful objectives is about as organized as it tends to get. That said I guess it is plausible people will log off if there are no fights left to be had. Again, I really think the underdog bonuses should have a way of checking to see if the faction receiving them is, actually, the underdog at the time they're awarded.

I have to agree, for the last few years AD can barely keep 5 people together to take a resource, and 2 of them will still wander off. Have you seen how well coordinated AD's sieges usually are? There's no way AD players could get together and trigger low pop bonus on purpose.

Sadly, this. It's infuriating, but i've often said that AD is as coordinated as a box of frogs, or a bowl of noodles. I wish it weren't the case, but unless you're taking part in, or watching an actual faction group run around together for the fleeting times that they do, most seem to go and do their own thing and little gets done.

As for the map picture, i was there that day and part of the 'night shift' players who made it happen, there weren't many of us on but for once we actually banded together with PUG groups and got stuff done and defended the keeps as best we could. it was glorious, no cheating involved. There was even one keep that hadn't been repaired, so.. yea, that's a ball drop right there.