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Faction Lock Idea: Allow us to forego campaign rewards to remain unlocked

CameraBeardThePirate
CameraBeardThePirate
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Look, I just want to PvP with my friends. Next patch, it seems like I won't be able to do that unless I fork over money to buy a bunch of alliance change tokens, or unless I play Vengeance (which is just not fun lol).

I couldn't possibly care less about campaign rewards. You get less from campaign rewards than you do for completing about 5 Battlegrounds matches.

If the big worry with removing Faction Lock is that people would alliance hop to always be on the winning side, why not keep Faction Lock in place but add an option to remove it for your account in exchange for giving up your campaign rewards for your whole account?
Edited by CameraBeardThePirate on April 20, 2026 1:56PM
  • MincMincMinc
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    Look, I just want to PvP with my friends. Next patch, it seems like I won't be able to do that unless I fork over money to buy a bunch of alliance change tokens, or unless I play Vengeance (which is just not fun lol).

    I couldn't possibly care less about campaign rewards. You get less from campaign rewards than you do for completing about 5 Battlegrounds matches.

    If the big worry with removing Faction Lock is that people would alliance hop to always be on the winning side, why not keep Faction Lock in place but add an option to remove it for your account in exchange for giving up your campaign rewards for your whole account?

    @CameraBeardThePirate Also fun to point out you can pay the 20-25$usd for an alliance change token to play with your friends, except your account will still be alliance locked for the 30 day campaign. Which means you are basically told to not play the game for a month........great design concept.

    The faction system should just be replaced with a conscription system at the start of each campaign. In order to enter a campaign for the first time each reset you just pick a faction. You can break conscription and forgo all rewards for the rest of the campaign. This way the solo casual small groups can still be fluid while the larger guilds will still be happy with players being incentivized to stay locked in for the campaign. I would also suggest zos going away from the 30 day concept and do a 1 or 2 week campaign instead with the resets happening on friday night primetime. This is a good way to drive player involvement of newer players and weekend warriors to help break up the 10 year veteran coordinated groups ruling the servers.
    Edited by MincMincMinc on April 20, 2026 3:25PM
    I only use insightful
    BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
    PvP needs more incentives, even simple potion mats or gold would be better than rewards for the worthy inventory bloat
  • Kartalin
    Kartalin
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    The faction system should just be replaced with a conscription system at the start of each campaign. In order to enter a campaign for the first time each reset you just pick a faction. You can break conscription and forgo all rewards for the rest of the campaign. This way the solo casual small groups can still be fluid while the larger guilds will still be happy with players being incentivized to stay locked in for the campaign. I would also suggest zos going away from the 30 day concept and do a 1 or 2 week campaign instead with the resets happening on friday night primetime. This is a good way to drive player involvement of newer players and weekend warriors to help break up the 10 year veteran coordinated groups ruling the servers.

    I like this idea, and have supported it or similar in the past. The only issue is ZOS will no longer be able to make money on alliance change tokens, which I suspect is a non-trivial amount.
  • MincMincMinc
    MincMincMinc
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    Kartalin wrote: »
    The faction system should just be replaced with a conscription system at the start of each campaign. In order to enter a campaign for the first time each reset you just pick a faction. You can break conscription and forgo all rewards for the rest of the campaign. This way the solo casual small groups can still be fluid while the larger guilds will still be happy with players being incentivized to stay locked in for the campaign. I would also suggest zos going away from the 30 day concept and do a 1 or 2 week campaign instead with the resets happening on friday night primetime. This is a good way to drive player involvement of newer players and weekend warriors to help break up the 10 year veteran coordinated groups ruling the servers.

    I like this idea, and have supported it or similar in the past. The only issue is ZOS will no longer be able to make money on alliance change tokens, which I suspect is a non-trivial amount.

    That would be a concern......but the marketing question is what is the two paths?
    1. Keep alliance change tokens. Keep friend groups split and cause people to not play together and potentially not stay in the game or quit all together. But hey you made 20$ from one person maybe?
    2. Get rid of the alliance change tokens and help people play together in an mmo. Potentially keeping groups of 5+ players playing together and peer pressure enjoyment keeping them invested in the game buying eso+, crowns, and DLC releases.

    When you have marketing roadblocks preventing people from even playing the game they WANT to play.....ehhhh thats just bad money making strategy for a fleeting tiny money grab.
    Edited by MincMincMinc on April 20, 2026 3:52PM
    I only use insightful
    BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
    PvP needs more incentives, even simple potion mats or gold would be better than rewards for the worthy inventory bloat
  • Tigor
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    Just a question. Was there officially some mentioned about the lock for GH? Every player has access to all aliances. Just make good agreements on which alliance your group wants to play. Then there is no need to remove the lock.
    Decimation Elite (Ebonheart Pact) GM 5xAR50 PC-EU
  • CameraBeardThePirate
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    Tigor wrote: »
    Just a question. Was there officially some mentioned about the lock for GH? Every player has access to all aliances. Just make good agreements on which alliance your group wants to play. Then there is no need to remove the lock.

    Some of us are in multiple guilds or are friends with people across different alliances. You cannot expect multiple friend groups that may not even know each other to all agree to a single alliance. I am part of one guild on AD and another guild on DC. That means for 30 days at a time, I am prevented from playing in Cyrodiil with one of those guilds.

    Additionally, some of us have many different characters across all 3 factions. Why should I be expected to shill out real life money to purchase multiple faction tokens (which cost about $20 USD each) to consolidate all of those characters on a single alliance?

    ZOS is removing the unlocked campaigns next patch in favor of Vengeance, which a good chunk of PvPers don't particularly enjoy. That means that my only options for a normal Cyrodiil experience are going to be to drop a boatload of money to consolidate all of my characters onto one Alliance (which I will NOT be doing lol), or to simply not play 2/3rds of my characters for a month at a time.

    Faction Lock is inherently an anti-social mechanic in a game that should be about playing with your friends.
    Edited by CameraBeardThePirate on April 20, 2026 4:38PM
  • MincMincMinc
    MincMincMinc
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    Tigor wrote: »
    Just a question. Was there officially some mentioned about the lock for GH? Every player has access to all aliances. Just make good agreements on which alliance your group wants to play. Then there is no need to remove the lock.

    Well that argument doesnt justify needing the lock or hefty QoL problems that come with it.

    There is always the problem of having multiple friend groups that simply end up on other factions. After 12+ years in pvp you are bound to know people on all factions. Especially in the smallman or 1vX community
    I only use insightful
    BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
    PvP needs more incentives, even simple potion mats or gold would be better than rewards for the worthy inventory bloat
  • Kartalin
    Kartalin
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    Tigor wrote: »
    Just a question. Was there officially some mentioned about the lock for GH? Every player has access to all aliances. Just make good agreements on which alliance your group wants to play. Then there is no need to remove the lock.
    There is always the problem of having multiple friend groups that simply end up on other factions. After 12+ years in pvp you are bound to know people on all factions. Especially in the smallman or 1vX community
    It is the same in the ball group community, largely
  • MincMincMinc
    MincMincMinc
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    Kartalin wrote: »
    Tigor wrote: »
    Just a question. Was there officially some mentioned about the lock for GH? Every player has access to all aliances. Just make good agreements on which alliance your group wants to play. Then there is no need to remove the lock.
    There is always the problem of having multiple friend groups that simply end up on other factions. After 12+ years in pvp you are bound to know people on all factions. Especially in the smallman or 1vX community
    It is the same in the ball group community, largely

    Really GH has been the campaign because it has always been top on the list. The first campaign people saw....even lowbie players would choose it because it was first. Then probably even if 10% of the population earlier on cared about faction locks when spying and whatnot was relevant........over time people just followed where the main population was. Constantly giving GH the benefit over other campaigns because players know the diehards are also going to be there. More coordinated groups will flock to the campaign to kill these roleplayer guilds because they know they'll be there.
    I only use insightful
    BG MMR should NOT reset, zos sponsored smurfing is a terrible design choice.
    PvP needs more incentives, even simple potion mats or gold would be better than rewards for the worthy inventory bloat
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