An Idea to Combat Resource Tower Sieges: Allow Siege Engines to Damage Them
El_Borracho
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Like them, hate them, not here to debate the virtues or evils of resource tower sieges. But, as I fought in yet another prolonged battle at the farm of Roebeck yesterday, I wondered why resource towers can not be destroyed by siege engines.
Attacking a resource tower occupied by a semi-organized group is like a traditional siege of a keep. The attacking force needs to enter a keep through an entry point and overwhelm the defenders. Those entry points are either the front door or a hole in the wall. The defenders have an advantage because the entry point is also a choke point. But, if you get bogged down at one entry point, you can always make a second opening. The same goes for outposts.
This is not true when attacking a resource tower as siege engines do not damage resource towers. There is one opening, and that is it. If anything, this makes a resource tower more defensible than a keep (or outpost) which makes zero sense. The walls to a farm tower should not be impregnable while a massive castle holding a scroll can be reduced to rubble in under a minute with a decent force.
It makes even less sense when you remember that bridges and milegates can also be destroyed with siege engines. For example, when a small group takes over a tower of the bridge north of Lessy, you can just blow up the tower instead of fight the group inside. The same should be possible for resource towers.
Attacking a resource tower occupied by a semi-organized group is like a traditional siege of a keep. The attacking force needs to enter a keep through an entry point and overwhelm the defenders. Those entry points are either the front door or a hole in the wall. The defenders have an advantage because the entry point is also a choke point. But, if you get bogged down at one entry point, you can always make a second opening. The same goes for outposts.
This is not true when attacking a resource tower as siege engines do not damage resource towers. There is one opening, and that is it. If anything, this makes a resource tower more defensible than a keep (or outpost) which makes zero sense. The walls to a farm tower should not be impregnable while a massive castle holding a scroll can be reduced to rubble in under a minute with a decent force.
It makes even less sense when you remember that bridges and milegates can also be destroyed with siege engines. For example, when a small group takes over a tower of the bridge north of Lessy, you can just blow up the tower instead of fight the group inside. The same should be possible for resource towers.
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Mall0ry✭✭It was possible to destroy them years ago.
They removed it.
Idk why.Hear the singing of our blades
death has come, foes be afraid!4 -
Necrotech_Master✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭It was possible to destroy them years ago.
They removed it.
Idk why.
my understanding was to try to help improve performance
less destructible environment = less checks/items the server needed to keep track of
personally i think it was not a great idea though because it just gives more power to tower trolls who just bait people to run around in the tower for 45+ minutes until they finally get zergedplays PC/NA
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L_Nici✭✭✭✭✭
✭Oh yes, great idea, wonder why they never thou...oh
Well Siege towers once were destroyable, as well as the upper part of the big gate keeps, they changed it to fix performance and it didn't even do that, but never bothered changing it back.PC|EU1 -
ValarMorghulis1896✭✭✭✭✭
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That one is ok as it is now, cos it was misused for trolling only.as well as the upper part of the big gate keeps
...But i agree: ressource towers should be destroyable again!
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MincMincMinc✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Necrotech_Master wrote: »It was possible to destroy them years ago.
They removed it.
Idk why.
my understanding was to try to help improve performance
less destructible environment = less checks/items the server needed to keep track of
personally i think it was not a great idea though because it just gives more power to tower trolls who just bait people to run around in the tower for 45+ minutes until they finally get zerged
If that was true they would have not added the destroyable bridges and would have gotten rid of the keep tongues.
Sadly for some reason zos moved away from incorporating resource nodes in cyrodil. Before they used to play a far more pivotal point which gave more objectives to solo and smallman groups to split away from the herd. Instead cyrodil only has content for large guild groups which helps drive lag.
You always see people hate on 1vX things like tower farming, but realize that if 1vXers have to go to that extent to solo then there is a fat chance that noobs trying to learn pvp will be able to survive on their own. For pvp to grow again you need to support environments that help solo and small groups of friends to pvp without needing dedicated guilds to participate. (no I am not saying to remove guilds or coordinated groups from cyrodil, just they shouldn't be the primary demographic for pvp to successfully grow again)I only use insightful
BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
PvP needs more incentives, even simple purple/gold mats would suffice.2 -
Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭MincMincMinc wrote: »If that was true they would have not added the destroyable bridges and would have gotten rid of the keep tongues.
They specifically mentioned that they were removed due to performance.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6062166/#Comment_6062166
Additionally for those who don't remember resource towers were always a nuisance for pugs because once they re-captured a resource the tower was immune to their siege meaning that the tower had to be sieged prior to flipping the enemy resource back which takes a greater level of coordination than is generally available in such scenarios.Edited by Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO on February 16, 2026 4:10PM@Solar_Breeze
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MincMincMinc✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO wrote: »MincMincMinc wrote: »If that was true they would have not added the destroyable bridges and would have gotten rid of the keep tongues.
They specifically mentioned that they were removed due to performance.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/6062166/#Comment_6062166
Additionally for those who don't remember resource towers were always a nuisance for pugs because once they re-captured a resource the tower was immune to their siege meaning that the tower had to be sieged prior to flipping the enemy resource back which takes a greater level of coordination than is generally available in such scenarios.
Yeah ima call [snip] on that one, removing those did as much for performance as removing the cyrodil deer. Thanks for digging that one up for us though. Again if they caused performance issues they would not have added destroy-able bridges that cause factions to bundle up in one direction. Or have added the hammer that causes the entirety of the server to focus on one pinpoint of the map.
Pugs wise all they needed to do was make all towers destroy-able and repairable for any faction just like the bridges are now. The problem is that now gameplay wise towers are not dynamic so when people see other players go into towers.....they just walk away or wait instead of tearing down the tower uprooting the enemy. Or having the tower farm slowly break the structure like how old tower farms used to go.
Again gutting the resource nodes only lead to the cyrodil gameplay loop leaning more towards keep seige and big team battles over and over which directly contributes to more player density and lag. Resources were supposed to be a tool to spread players out before and after seiges.
[edited for profanity bypass]Edited by ZOS_Icy on February 23, 2026 12:39PMI only use insightful
BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
PvP needs more incentives, even simple purple/gold mats would suffice.2