IC Unplayable Now

  • spartaxoxo
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    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A3qOq9p9CM&feature=youtu.be

    I can't speak to other servers or times, but I have noticed a lack of people in IC when I went to check. Here's my last check.

    I've never seen a single bar on IC unless there's a guild doing runs or there's the event going. So not really a good metric

    I usually see one for at least one or two teams, sometimes two, on the weekends. Its' never pop locked but it was usually at least a bar.
  • blktauna
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    Markytous wrote: »
    blktauna wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    blktauna wrote: »
    wow dude. Just wow. Authentic gameplay.... just wow.

    I'm not seeing all these people you are talking about. And I know I'm in when you are because I see you and your blue compatriots running around.

    Maybe we have different ideas of populated.
    Your point being that if the player uptick being your faction would change your mind...? I don't group when I run IC ever, by the way. "The increase in players isn't real because they're not on my team"-type logic. Maybe your faction was full of queue-out addon exploiters. Become the authentic player in a sea of cheaters.

    I have 3 toons I pop in of 3 different factions so I have no 'team'. I'm seeing no one anywhere except DC and you with the DC hoarde. Sometimes the 3 AD team comes in but no more single questers or the little boss groups that I used to see.
    I also have toons on each faction. Your point? I just wiped a group of 16+ players with my Necromancer. Groups like that haven't been around save for maybe a Midyear Mayhem. Cope. The population is up rn.

    having just come in onl ybig group were the usual blue and a big red for about 15 mins. Lol what ever you need to tell yourself man
    PCNA
    PCEU
  • Treeshka
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    You can not queue for Tales of Tribute during Cyrodiil as far as i remember. So they may use a similar approach here.
    They will probably implement something similar to dungeon and other various queues to the Imperial City. So only way to leave it is either dying and spawning at the base or using those retreat stones.
  • sleepy_worm
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    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
  • cyclonus11
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    Just curious but what happens to your telvar in IC if you find a quiet corner and Alt-F4 out of the game or simply crash?

    After about 15 minutes, it will kick you from IC and you'll log back into the last PVE area you queued from.

    Which brings up a good point - you could always make your IC tasks the last thing you do for the day, go to one of the invulnerable areas, hit the power button on your PC, and go to bed.
  • Avran_Sylt
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    Markytous wrote: »
    Enjoy the content that you like and let players who enjoy the brutal nature of Imperial City (the way it was initially designed) enjoy it.

    Yeah, that's pretty much what I said I was going to do, and explained why. As for seeing more people since the patch, if you say so. I don't think anyone was avoiding the zone because it wasn't PVP enough or they didn't understand that was the purpose of it, so I don't see any reason why people would be drawn in now. Anyway.

    If you want the zone populated, as has historically been the complaint about the PVP zones, it needs to be more enjoyable for different playstyles. The sewer gauntlet run is annoying when you're forced to do it, but probably wouldn't be bad as its own thing for its own sake. I wouldn't know, I just associate it with the drudgery of trying to exit the zone after I've already grown tired of playing. They could give people more options for exiting, like doors you pay Tel Var to use, or more options for dropping off Tel Var, like a smuggler who takes a cut. People have already suggested making the recall stones more easily obtained. The zone can become less burdenson without making it less PVP-oriented.

    What originally drew me in was a place where I could actually setup one-shot ganks with preparation (easy to build up ult from the PvE mobs), with benchmark targets (since most people farming there out in the open build tanky, most of the time), so it was a place where I could really theory-craft one-shots.

    Then I was drawn to it being a PvE area where killing monsters actually results in tangible monetary gains through the sale of Hakeijo, partially offset by the cost of recall stones and needing to backtrack.

    Then I learned about porting out using the queue, and it all became so much easier:
    - Farm/Gank till about 5K Tel Var and port immediately.
    - Setup a port, gank and port immediately. (Not sure if this edge-case has been covered, but it should be addressed if still possible).
    - Cloak if found and setup a port after escaping, since unlike the recall stones you don't turn visible.

    Honestly I figured out how people were disappearing during fights and after turning around corners lol.

    Hakeijo has long since dropped in price from when it was 50K per, but who knows. Now that there are fewer people farming, might be that it raises back up in price. Might be time to head back in (after I'm finished having fun with/setting up my DK for PvE)

    I do think that some of the PvE sources should have chances to reward recall stones though, as IC isn't purely a PvP zone, it's a PvEvP zone. And if added to things like chests, boss fights, the Arena, or even a chance from the various vaults (to give more reason to use the key fragments), it'd help flesh out the gameplay cycle of the area. And because hey: using a recall stone isn't instant, and makes you visible, so you'll still want to find a corner to use it if there's high-traffic.
  • sshogrin
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    sshogrin wrote: »
    sshogrin wrote: »
    IC is supposed to be a warzone not a safe space. Hope Zos keeps the change, clearly queueing out of ic to save your currency wasnt intended. If they bring any change though counter to this one, they could make queueing out of cyro in IC cost half your telvar same as a port stone, but really that defeats the purpose of those entirely.

    Idk up to them but exploits like that to escape pvping in a pvp zone should indeed be removed. There is such a thing as too much convenience in a game.

    I don't think ganking in stealth at ladders, base doors, and quest areas is intended either

    It absolutely is. Ganking is a staple of PvP combat. They wouldn't have stealth mechanics if ganking wasn't intended.
    When this all started, you had to get into IC through Cyrodiil. The change came because gankers would lay in wait stealthed, then when someone tried to enter the door, they'd get ganked and you couldn't do anything about it.

    Incorrect. Imperial City became its own campaign for server population reasons. When it was attached to Cyrodiil, Imperial City players were hogging server space (the cap of which was decreased year by year) and had no actual effect on the score of the Cyrodiil campaign. This meant that players in IC were essentially taking up space in their faction and actively putting their faction at a disadvantage in Cyrodiil.

    So what you're saying is when they made the change for queueing into Cyro or IC, queueing out was intended.
    Okay, at least there's that argument settled.
    The truth is laying in wait ganking certain areas isn't what the devs intended to happen with this change. It was a problem before that had been talked about a lot in the forums, but ignored by ZOS, and defended by gankers.
    People had an issue getting into IC because of gankers at the IC doors, so the IC population argument doesn't really hold up either.

    Holy Strawman Fallacy, Batman...

    There is absolutely no fallacy in that Joker.
  • heimdall14_9
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    coop500 wrote: »
    Radiate77 wrote: »
    coop500 wrote: »
    Radiate77 wrote: »
    Varana wrote: »
    As things stand now, this change killed the "risk and reward" gameplay some people are blathering on about completely.

    Because there's only a "risk" if you're carrying TV. If you're not, there's no risk involved. You may die, but who cares about that.

    Again, you should only be able to get as many TV as you're carrying yourself. Want to nick 3k from someone else? Carry those 3k around with you.

    This isn’t a terrible idea.
    Your gains from a player being capped by your carried Tel Var.

    So let’s say you bomb 3 people, you’re carrying 3,000, you kill one player, you get 3,000 and then Vicious Death procs and you can then gain another 6,000 from both players who died to Vicious Death.

    Would do wonders to reign in single target ganking, as the playstyle would still exist, you would just need to be smarter about it.

    I suggested this for years but people usually hate on it. But I agree that it's the only way to make it truly risk vs reward and for fairness.

    If people had an effect around them incrementally based on how much Tel Var they carried, a ganker could make an entire minigame out of it. 😂

    Not talking about a visual effect, I mean the part in which players should only be able to take based on what they're carrying (cap it at whatever you're carrying and/or use the already existing multiplier system.)

    AKA encourage gankers to also have to risk their stones if they want to rob people. I don't really care what hairsplitting way it's done, just SOMETHING.

    maybe they well allow an add-on that banks tv for you every time your over 100 then you can free travel using the add-on to quick escape, IC can be controlled by add-ons like how end game speed runs are zos just loves their add-ons controlling their game play im sue they be ok if some popular add-on maker made it as popularity in eso matters more then functionality of the add-ons made
    Edited by heimdall14_9 on March 16, 2026 7:35PM
    Nordic-Knights (PSN)/Sir-A-Crowley (PSN)/Sir_Crowley ( PC) 16 account holder !!!!!!!!!!!!! 19x emperor , 99% full game all vet HM SR ND ( U46) release day ESO VET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ww add-on takes the integrity of the GAME away
  • CameraBeardThePirate
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    sshogrin wrote: »
    sshogrin wrote: »
    sshogrin wrote: »
    IC is supposed to be a warzone not a safe space. Hope Zos keeps the change, clearly queueing out of ic to save your currency wasnt intended. If they bring any change though counter to this one, they could make queueing out of cyro in IC cost half your telvar same as a port stone, but really that defeats the purpose of those entirely.

    Idk up to them but exploits like that to escape pvping in a pvp zone should indeed be removed. There is such a thing as too much convenience in a game.

    I don't think ganking in stealth at ladders, base doors, and quest areas is intended either

    It absolutely is. Ganking is a staple of PvP combat. They wouldn't have stealth mechanics if ganking wasn't intended.
    When this all started, you had to get into IC through Cyrodiil. The change came because gankers would lay in wait stealthed, then when someone tried to enter the door, they'd get ganked and you couldn't do anything about it.

    Incorrect. Imperial City became its own campaign for server population reasons. When it was attached to Cyrodiil, Imperial City players were hogging server space (the cap of which was decreased year by year) and had no actual effect on the score of the Cyrodiil campaign. This meant that players in IC were essentially taking up space in their faction and actively putting their faction at a disadvantage in Cyrodiil.

    So what you're saying is when they made the change for queueing into Cyro or IC, queueing out was intended.
    Okay, at least there's that argument settled.
    The truth is laying in wait ganking certain areas isn't what the devs intended to happen with this change. It was a problem before that had been talked about a lot in the forums, but ignored by ZOS, and defended by gankers.
    People had an issue getting into IC because of gankers at the IC doors, so the IC population argument doesn't really hold up either.

    Holy Strawman Fallacy, Batman...

    There is absolutely no fallacy in that Joker.

    There was. I told you the history of the IC Queue, and you misconstrued it into an argument I was not making. That is the definition of a Strawman.
  • scrappy1342
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    cyclonus11 wrote: »
    Just curious but what happens to your telvar in IC if you find a quiet corner and Alt-F4 out of the game or simply crash?

    After about 15 minutes, it will kick you from IC and you'll log back into the last PVE area you queued from.

    Which brings up a good point - you could always make your IC tasks the last thing you do for the day, go to one of the invulnerable areas, hit the power button on your PC, and go to bed.

    i think this only happens if there are population issues/queues. i leave my characters in ic and cyro for the entire duration of midyear mayhem and they have never been kicked out. granted, the ic one is right near the exit, but the one in cyro i leave way far out from any sort of wayshrine/exit/teleportation stone. they are always right where i left them when i log in the next day
    pcna
  • CameraBeardThePirate
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    cyclonus11 wrote: »
    Just curious but what happens to your telvar in IC if you find a quiet corner and Alt-F4 out of the game or simply crash?

    After about 15 minutes, it will kick you from IC and you'll log back into the last PVE area you queued from.

    Which brings up a good point - you could always make your IC tasks the last thing you do for the day, go to one of the invulnerable areas, hit the power button on your PC, and go to bed.

    i think this only happens if there are population issues/queues. i leave my characters in ic and cyro for the entire duration of midyear mayhem and they have never been kicked out. granted, the ic one is right near the exit, but the one in cyro i leave way far out from any sort of wayshrine/exit/teleportation stone. they are always right where i left them when i log in the next day

    This is correct. IC will not kick you out of the server while offline unless it needs to, which only really happens during Mid-year Mayhem. Cyrodiil actually works the same way, but most of the Cyrodiil servers will experience pop cap while you're offline unlike IC, so Cyrodiil will usually kick you out if you're in Grey Host.
    Edited by CameraBeardThePirate on March 16, 2026 7:36PM
  • Orbital78
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    Just pvd in Cyrodiil, I tagged along with a pvp guild and made 6 million ap during mym in a few nights. I unlocked the emperor dyes too. Addons are being updated to hotkey ic retreat runes.
  • s3dulo
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    Bottomline: PVP in IC needed to be incentivesed. Make people want to go there and PVP and nobody will be porting out for Cyro. It's not complicated. Instead they took a suffering zone and made it terminal.
  • Markytous
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    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheap and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.
    Edited by Markytous on March 18, 2026 3:57PM
  • spartaxoxo
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    Markytous wrote: »
    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheat and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.

    Someone enjoying IC doesn't mean they enjoy Cyrodiil or vice versa. The sigils are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio for many players. And they are certainly not worth buying to get a daily done.

    And the port was only an issue from people exploiting during combat. A leave command that stunned you for 15 seconds or whatever and couldn't be used in combat with fix that without making people have to go through a bunch of loading screens. It can even keep the Tel-Var cost. I wouldn't care. I just don't want to be attacked in loading screens, don't want people running up on me for death taxis, and don't want to have spend 10 minutes trying to haul 20 seconds worth of gems to base.
    Edited by spartaxoxo on March 17, 2026 2:33AM
  • Markytous
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    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheat and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.

    Someone enjoying IC doesn't mean they enjoy Cyrodiil or vice versa. The sigils are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio for many players. And they are certainly not worth buying to get a daily done.

    And the port was only an issue from people exploiting during combat. A leave command that stunned you for 15 seconds or whatever and couldn't be used in combat with fix that without making people have to go through a bunch of loading screens. It can even keep the Tel-Var cost. I wouldn't care. I just don't want to be attacked in loading screens, don't want people running up on me for death taxis, and don't want to have spend 10 minutes trying to haul 20 seconds worth of gems to base.
    Sincerely, what is wrong with the Sigils of Imperial Retreat?
  • spartaxoxo
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    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheat and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.

    Someone enjoying IC doesn't mean they enjoy Cyrodiil or vice versa. The sigils are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio for many players. And they are certainly not worth buying to get a daily done.

    And the port was only an issue from people exploiting during combat. A leave command that stunned you for 15 seconds or whatever and couldn't be used in combat with fix that without making people have to go through a bunch of loading screens. It can even keep the Tel-Var cost. I wouldn't care. I just don't want to be attacked in loading screens, don't want people running up on me for death taxis, and don't want to have spend 10 minutes trying to haul 20 seconds worth of gems to base.
    Sincerely, what is wrong with the Sigils of Imperial Retreat?

    I literally just explained it. They are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio.
  • Markytous
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    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheat and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.

    Someone enjoying IC doesn't mean they enjoy Cyrodiil or vice versa. The sigils are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio for many players. And they are certainly not worth buying to get a daily done.

    And the port was only an issue from people exploiting during combat. A leave command that stunned you for 15 seconds or whatever and couldn't be used in combat with fix that without making people have to go through a bunch of loading screens. It can even keep the Tel-Var cost. I wouldn't care. I just don't want to be attacked in loading screens, don't want people running up on me for death taxis, and don't want to have spend 10 minutes trying to haul 20 seconds worth of gems to base.
    Sincerely, what is wrong with the Sigils of Imperial Retreat?

    I literally just explained it. They are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio.
    Imperial City was designed to be Cyrodiil's Public Dungeon (PVP). You're not even supposed to come in unless you have AP. Not a satisfactory explanation to why Sigils don't work.
    EDIT:inb4 "enjoy your ghost town"
    Edited by Markytous on March 17, 2026 2:46AM
  • spartaxoxo
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    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheat and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.

    Someone enjoying IC doesn't mean they enjoy Cyrodiil or vice versa. The sigils are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio for many players. And they are certainly not worth buying to get a daily done.

    And the port was only an issue from people exploiting during combat. A leave command that stunned you for 15 seconds or whatever and couldn't be used in combat with fix that without making people have to go through a bunch of loading screens. It can even keep the Tel-Var cost. I wouldn't care. I just don't want to be attacked in loading screens, don't want people running up on me for death taxis, and don't want to have spend 10 minutes trying to haul 20 seconds worth of gems to base.
    Sincerely, what is wrong with the Sigils of Imperial Retreat?

    I literally just explained it. They are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio.
    Imperial City was designed to be Cyrodiil's Public Dungeon (PVP). You're not even supposed to come in unless you have AP. Not a satisfactory explanation to why Sigils don't work.

    That was quickly ditched years ago for being bad for the game and then they did a bad job of adjusting the gameplay and items of IC to cover that. At this point, IC has been it's own thing longer than it has not.

    So yeah, actually, it is a good reason. The item that actually makes the mode tolerable being locked behind a completely separate game mode is bad design.
    Edited by spartaxoxo on March 17, 2026 2:48AM
  • Markytous
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    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheat and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.

    Someone enjoying IC doesn't mean they enjoy Cyrodiil or vice versa. The sigils are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio for many players. And they are certainly not worth buying to get a daily done.

    And the port was only an issue from people exploiting during combat. A leave command that stunned you for 15 seconds or whatever and couldn't be used in combat with fix that without making people have to go through a bunch of loading screens. It can even keep the Tel-Var cost. I wouldn't care. I just don't want to be attacked in loading screens, don't want people running up on me for death taxis, and don't want to have spend 10 minutes trying to haul 20 seconds worth of gems to base.
    Sincerely, what is wrong with the Sigils of Imperial Retreat?

    I literally just explained it. They are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio.
    Imperial City was designed to be Cyrodiil's Public Dungeon (PVP). You're not even supposed to come in unless you have AP. Not a satisfactory explanation to why Sigils don't work.

    That was quickly ditched years ago for being bad for the game and then they did a bad job of adjusting the gameplay and items of IC to cover that. At this point, IC has been it's own thing longer than it has not.

    So yeah, actually, it is a good reason. The item that actually makes the mode tolerable being locked behind a completely separate game mode is bad design.
    All patting one's self on the back aside, the reasoning fails to coincide with the fact that the exploit is on its way out of the game completely, clearly showing the intent of the current dev team and what the vision of the Imperial City aught to be. Players looking to not participate in amorphous PvPvE gameplay where their opponent might just vanish suddenly out of fear of losing are now returning to the Imperial City for the first time in a long time. Contending with this fact is the challenge, one can suppose.
    Edited by Markytous on March 17, 2026 2:51AM
  • spartaxoxo
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    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    spartaxoxo wrote: »
    Markytous wrote: »
    Stop calling people cheaters. It's childish.
    If you're still able to queue out by means of jumping from CP to Non-CP Imperial City, you can still cheat.

    I don't get why anybody is upset. Sigils of Imperial Retreat have always been available to leave when you wanted to. The only thing that was changed was an exploit that let you leave risk-free, defeating the purpose of the Imperial City entirely. If Sigils of Imperial Retreat are "too expensive" for you, then why are you trying to force yourself into PVP content? If you can't find the AP to purchase 1-2 Sigils (they're cheat and can be found for free occasionally), what are you trying to do forcing yourself to play PVP content when you don't like PVP? This is the question that everybody dodges when trying to defend/lament an exploit and it being fixed by the developers.

    Someone enjoying IC doesn't mean they enjoy Cyrodiil or vice versa. The sigils are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio for many players. And they are certainly not worth buying to get a daily done.

    And the port was only an issue from people exploiting during combat. A leave command that stunned you for 15 seconds or whatever and couldn't be used in combat with fix that without making people have to go through a bunch of loading screens. It can even keep the Tel-Var cost. I wouldn't care. I just don't want to be attacked in loading screens, don't want people running up on me for death taxis, and don't want to have spend 10 minutes trying to haul 20 seconds worth of gems to base.
    Sincerely, what is wrong with the Sigils of Imperial Retreat?

    I literally just explained it. They are a stunningly poor cost to use ratio.
    Imperial City was designed to be Cyrodiil's Public Dungeon (PVP). You're not even supposed to come in unless you have AP. Not a satisfactory explanation to why Sigils don't work.

    That was quickly ditched years ago for being bad for the game and then they did a bad job of adjusting the gameplay and items of IC to cover that. At this point, IC has been it's own thing longer than it has not.

    So yeah, actually, it is a good reason. The item that actually makes the mode tolerable being locked behind a completely separate game mode is bad design.
    All patting one's self on the back aside, the reasoning fails to coincide with the fact that the exploit is on its way out of the game completely, clearly showing the intent of the current dev team and what the vision of the Imperial City aught to be. Players looking to not participate in amorphous PvPvE gameplay where their opponent might just vanish suddenly out of fear of losing are now returning to the Imperial City for the first time in a long time. Contending with this fact is the challenge, one can suppose.

    I see less population on my server. Used to see a bar at peak time went in and saw none. Cyrodiil was full but nobody in IC. Neither of us knows population numbers so both are speculation based off anecdotal observations and not fact.

    They made the queue change after feedback. They have made numerous changes after feedback. So, leaving feedback here about our issues with their approach is appropriate and the best to hope for them to be resolved. Whether that involves increasing the limit, putting a new method of leaving in, or simply increasing access to sigils. I wouldn't care. I don't have a problem with them trying to ensure that people can't leave within combat. I do have a problems with them making us trek out 10 minutes across a bunch of loading screens because of less than 30 seconds of "farming." The limit is so laughably low that it's easy to hit it within seconds of dropping.
    Edited by spartaxoxo on March 17, 2026 3:21AM
  • Oblivion_Protocol
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    Markytous wrote: »
    All patting one's self on the back aside, the reasoning fails to coincide with the fact that the exploit is on its way out of the game completely, clearly showing the intent of the current dev team and what the vision of the Imperial City aught to be. Players looking to not participate in amorphous PvPvE gameplay where their opponent might just vanish suddenly out of fear of losing are now returning to the Imperial City for the first time in a long time. Contending with this fact is the challenge, one can suppose.

    Yeah, no. I don’t know where you’re getting all of these mythical PVP players returning to IC like it’s a healed ecosystem, but the place is a ghost town when I go in. I’ll see maybe three people in an hour if I’m lucky.

    To be clear, I like PVP. I enjoy fights and will engage with both IC and Cyrodiil. But when I went into IC before, I’d farm for a bit, leave to bank what I got, come back, farm some more, and so on. I’d do this about three or four times in a session.

    Sigils of Imperial Retreat cost 10,000 AP a pop. Do you think I want to spend 30,000 to 50,000 AP every night just for the “privilege” of not walking somewhere for ten minutes and soaking up a bunch of load screens? Does anyone want to do that?
  • Orbital78
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    It was a feature at this point, I didn't hear about a banwave.
  • Markytous
    Markytous
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    Markytous wrote: »
    All patting one's self on the back aside, the reasoning fails to coincide with the fact that the exploit is on its way out of the game completely, clearly showing the intent of the current dev team and what the vision of the Imperial City aught to be. Players looking to not participate in amorphous PvPvE gameplay where their opponent might just vanish suddenly out of fear of losing are now returning to the Imperial City for the first time in a long time. Contending with this fact is the challenge, one can suppose.

    Yeah, no. I don’t know where you’re getting all of these mythical PVP players returning to IC like it’s a healed ecosystem, but the place is a ghost town when I go in. I’ll see maybe three people in an hour if I’m lucky.

    To be clear, I like PVP. I enjoy fights and will engage with both IC and Cyrodiil. But when I went into IC before, I’d farm for a bit, leave to bank what I got, come back, farm some more, and so on. I’d do this about three or four times in a session.

    Sigils of Imperial Retreat cost 10,000 AP a pop. Do you think I want to spend 30,000 to 50,000 AP every night just for the “privilege” of not walking somewhere for ten minutes and soaking up a bunch of load screens? Does anyone want to do that?
    You don't sound like a person who likes PVP. Sigils can be found free. If you actually played Imperial City on your own time you'd know this. Also, here's an alternative to leaving that doesn't involve using a Sigil of Imperial Retreat; using Faction Base Camps :D Telling me you like PVP but you don't like spending a couple minutes in a PVP zone. Come on.
  • Oblivion_Protocol
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    Markytous wrote: »
    You don't sound like a person who likes PVP. Sigils can be found free. If you actually played Imperial City on your own time you'd know this. Also, here's an alternative to leaving that doesn't involve using a Sigil of Imperial Retreat; using Faction Base Camps :D Telling me you like PVP but you don't like spending a couple minutes in a PVP zone. Come on.

    You’ve misconstrued my words. I didn’t say I don’t like spending time in a PVP zone. I said I don’t like needing to spend extra time and effort just to leave the PVP zone. If faction base camps were a good option, there wouldn’t be complaints period.

    Yes, Sigils drop in the zone, but not really from fights. I can’t kill a player and be rewarded with Sigils. NPCs rarely drop them. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to open a treasure chest in IC. So, again we come back to the AP spending issue.

    Why are you so adamant that people not have a convenient way to leave IC when they’re done with it? No one is arguing that we should be able to just zap away from fights in-progress. We’re arguing that it’s dumb that you need an entire separate item with a cost to leave AT ALL, and that you can't queue out from your alliance base if you have too much Tel Var, which makes no sense whatsoever because what fight are you running from? It’s literally the safe zone.
  • Markytous
    Markytous
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    Markytous wrote: »
    You don't sound like a person who likes PVP. Sigils can be found free. If you actually played Imperial City on your own time you'd know this. Also, here's an alternative to leaving that doesn't involve using a Sigil of Imperial Retreat; using Faction Base Camps :D Telling me you like PVP but you don't like spending a couple minutes in a PVP zone. Come on.

    You’ve misconstrued my words. I didn’t say I don’t like spending time in a PVP zone. I said I don’t like needing to spend extra time and effort just to leave the PVP zone. If faction base camps were a good option, there wouldn’t be complaints period.

    Yes, Sigils drop in the zone, but not really from fights. I can’t kill a player and be rewarded with Sigils. NPCs rarely drop them. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to open a treasure chest in IC. So, again we come back to the AP spending issue.

    Why are you so adamant that people not have a convenient way to leave IC when they’re done with it? No one is arguing that we should be able to just zap away from fights in-progress. We’re arguing that it’s dumb that you need an entire separate item with a cost to leave AT ALL, and that you can't queue out from your alliance base if you have too much Tel Var, which makes no sense whatsoever because what fight are you running from? It’s literally the safe zone.
    The Sigil is the silver bullet to your discord/guilds' arguments. There's literally nothing wrong with it if you enjoy PVP and no excuses can sidestep this. There is nothing inconvenient about it. If you literally want to fight players and nothing else (kill Trove Scamps/Open Chests/Buy From Vendor), there are Battlegrounds available. I've told PVE players that maybe IC isn't for them and now I am telling a so-called PVP player that maybe IC isn't for them. Its a unique PvPvE environment that I enjoyed just how it was before exploits were set in motion. Call it a ghost town all you may, it deserves to exist as it is, just as PVP and PVE content exists in the game.
  • Oblivion_Protocol
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    Markytous wrote: »
    The Sigil is the silver bullet to your discord/guilds' arguments. There's literally nothing wrong with it if you enjoy PVP and no excuses can sidestep this. There is nothing inconvenient about it.

    Clearly, you think that thousands of AP a night is a trivial cost to someone who prefers IC over Cyro, and I’m just going to have to disagree with you on that point.
    Markytous wrote: »
    If you literally want to fight players and nothing else (kill Trove Scamps/Open Chests/Buy From Vendor), there are Battlegrounds available. I've told PVE players that maybe IC isn't for them and now I am telling a so-called PVP player that maybe IC isn't for them. Its a unique PvPvE environment that I enjoyed just how it was before exploits were set in motion.

    I’ll tell you what. You pay for my subscription, and then you can tell me what parts of the game are or aren’t “for me”. Until then, please keep those kinds of comments and so-called thoughts to yourself.

    It’s nice that you enjoy it, but you can’t just brush aside the fact that others don’t, and for good reasons.

    Once again, I will point out that no one is bothered about not being able to queue out during a fight, which is what the exploit argument boils down to. People are upset that the solution wasn’t to simply block queuing out while you’re in combat. I mean, you can’t log out or shut the game down while in combat. Why is preventing queues so hard?
    Markytous wrote: »
    Call it a ghost town all you may, it deserves to exist as it is, just as PVP and PVE content exists in the game.

    When a company sinks resources into a product, and the product does worse than it did before the resources went into it, one of two things happen. Either the changes get rolled back, or the product gets shelved. I don’t want to see IC shut down. But at this rate, the playerbase for it isn’t growing. It’s shrinking. And I would think that you would notice the fact that you’re the only one in this entire thread championing this so hard, and maybe pivot or try to see other perspectives, rather than smugly declaring that there’s no argument against this.
    Edited by Oblivion_Protocol on March 17, 2026 6:10AM
  • Markytous
    Markytous
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    Markytous wrote: »
    The Sigil is the silver bullet to your discord/guilds' arguments. There's literally nothing wrong with it if you enjoy PVP and no excuses can sidestep this. There is nothing inconvenient about it.

    Clearly, you think that thousands of AP a night is a trivial cost to someone who prefers IC over Cyro, and I’m just going to have to disagree with you on that point.
    Markytous wrote: »
    If you literally want to fight players and nothing else (kill Trove Scamps/Open Chests/Buy From Vendor), there are Battlegrounds available. I've told PVE players that maybe IC isn't for them and now I am telling a so-called PVP player that maybe IC isn't for them. Its a unique PvPvE environment that I enjoyed just how it was before exploits were set in motion.

    I’ll tell you what. You pay for my subscription, and then you can tell me what parts of the game are or aren’t “for me”. Until then, please keep those kinds of comments and so-called thoughts to yourself.

    It’s nice that you enjoy it, but you can’t just brush aside the fact that others don’t, and for good reasons.

    Once again, I will point out that no one is bothered about not being able to queue out during a fight, which is what the exploit argument boils down to. People are upset that the solution wasn’t to simply block queuing out while you’re in combat. I mean, you can’t log out or shut the game down while in combat. Why is preventing queues so hard?
    Markytous wrote: »
    Call it a ghost town all you may, it deserves to exist as it is, just as PVP and PVE content exists in the game.

    When a company sinks resources into a product, and the product does worse than it did before the resources went into it, one of two things happen. Either the changes get rolled back, or the product gets shelved. I don’t want to see IC shut down. But at this rate, the playerbase for it isn’t growing. It’s shrinking. And I would think that you would notice the fact that you’re the only one in this entire thread championing this so hard, and maybe pivot or try to see other perspectives, rather than smugly declaring that there’s no argument against this.
    So you're saying basically that if exploiters fund the game content, exploits should run the game. Can't agree there.
    "But the cash cows and whales are all exploiters and exploit-promoting individuals! Follow the money!"

    Imperial City is free and included with the base game. This is the place (the forums) to try to ask the developers to change Imperial City back to a more exploit-centric "content", however this is also the place where players such as myself will make counterarguments in favor of less dishonest "gameplay". This thread only exists because an exploit was patched (and yet as of now is still in the game). If a person does not enjoy District Roaming, Sewers Roaming, PVP, PVE farming, Treasure Chest farming, Cunning/Trove Scamp hunting, etc., then its valid to suggest that they should look elsewhere to spend their time. Nobody should be trying to argue that they should go stub their toes repeatedly because eventually the thing they keep kicking to stub their toes will eventually change (or in this case stay the same). Why stomp out the identity of the Imperial City when options for PVP and PVP exist elsewhere? Its about easy currency, isn't it? And, if it isn't about easy currency, then why care so much? PVE players have loads of content to select. PVP players have Battlegrounds (I hesitate to mention Cyrodiil because players complaining about inconvenience in IC must hate mounting for a moment keep to keep). People are very upset that Imperial City's exploitable state is finally under the lens of ZOS. I think the solution to all of this is for people to just stick to what content they enjoy. This is good life advice as well. Less stress is happier living.

    Just be happy that Lightning Staff Tri-Focus glitching for 1shots is still in the game. Hopefully that exploit is also patched one day.

    EDIT: Appealing to the mob is kinda crazy. Just because everyone's eating junk food, doesn't mean its healthy or I should do it.
    Edited by Markytous on March 17, 2026 6:53AM
  • spartaxoxo
    spartaxoxo
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    Everyone can play any content that they please and the forums are a place specifically for suggestions. Given that IC cannot muster even a single bar of population each time that I have checked and IC is never pop locked, the idea that it is popular content seems highly unlikely. Also, you can tell by the price of Hakeijos that there's not a huge amount of suppliers. I hope that ZOS nevertheless someday addresses the most common pain points over the years as to why people don't participate in IC.

    The ones that I have seen are as follows:

    Gankers and large groups have low risk but high reward, while others have much higher risk. I've seen suggestions that you can only take as many Tel-Var as you carry. Idk if that would work but it's an idea.

    It takes too long to get back to a fight after a kill if your team doesn't control the district. This results in too much PvE and not enough PvP.

    Daily Quest rewards are bad. Incentivize people to come do these.

    And a new pain point that has been widely discussed in this thread, other threads, and on other social media outlets is that people want to be able to leave.
  • ZOS_Icy
    ZOS_Icy
    mod
    Greetings,

    We have recently removed some unnecessary back and forth from this thread. This is a reminder to keep the discussion civil and constructive. Please keep our Community Rules in mind moving forward.

    The Elder Scrolls Online Team
    Staff Post
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