In Cyrodiil, Alliance and castle defenses have become irrelevant!

VidmaVirtual · May 15

Hello everyone! I've been playing Cyrodiil exclusively for about 11 years now. I'd like to share my observations about how I feel in Cyrodiil today. You might agree with me, or you might not. 🙂
As the game has progressed, I've noticed that Alliance defense has become uninteresting. It seems to me that those who fought for their Alliance and tried to defend their castles have switched to the other side, where they defend their castles better. And in our Alliance, all that's left are friends of friends who don't attack everyone; trolls who sit in one place all day and don't even defend their castles because they're bored; and farmers who complete missions and claim dolmens.
For most players in our Alliance, defense has become irrelevant.
Therefore, this kills the desire of other players to defend their castles or fight for their Alliance. So what's the point of these castles and Alliance defense if most of them don't even go to defend themselves? These castle structures only put a strain on the game server, causing FPS drops and lag.
Suggestion: Perhaps we should increase the first-place prize and leave only small consolation prizes for second and third place. Then perhaps defending castles and Alliance ands would make sense?
Because right now, it seems most players are only interested in 100-on-100 battles in the middle of the battlefield. And when others lose castles and scrolls, they simply leave the game. Because they'll still get prizes at the end of the campaign. 🙂

Necrotech_Master · May 16

its hard to have 100 vs 100 battles when the pop cap of grey host is 120 per faction lol

personally the keep fights are the most interesting, and they do still happen (unless theres a fight over alessia bridge lol), but i have problems enjoying them in the current grey host environment because siege is too easy to shrug off and theres too many virtually unkillable people wandering around that you need half a faction (60 people) to clear out 1 12 person ball group

VidmaVirtual · May 16

I won't go into detail, but sometimes it feels like there are so many of them in one place. And during these times, no one cares about defending these castles; only mass killing is important. That's why I asked why such a system is needed in the game. Maybe it's time to offer something new or somehow motivate players to start defending castles and playing for their alliance! After all, if you're just looking for simple battles, you can head to Battlegrounds or organize a duel in a PvE zone.🙂

Necrotech_Master · May 16

my guess if they arent fighting at the keeps is they want to have a big battle that lasts longer

the one problem with a keep fight is it will inevitably end (either the attacking party fails and can no longer respawn sufficiently, or the defending part is overwhelmed)

if a fight is out in the open between 2 close keeps then the fights can last longer as both parties will have a closer respawn (the keeps)

areas ive seen there be a lot of open ground fighting is like between sej and brk as both keeps are relatively close together to keep feeding people into the fight (or the fight keeps shifting between near sej or near brk depending on how strained the pushing faction gets)

if you got rid of the keeps, that would make cyro like ultra boring if the only thing you could do is fight other players, there needs to be some kind of objective to fight over to make it interesting, not to mention keeps are the respawn pts, so if there were no respawn pts except home base and forward camps, you would have to be trekking a really long way to actually get to any fights

Luneca · May 16

What? You mean faction lock isn't causing player behavior to change and no one seriously cares about the score? No way!

I wonder why people with free will won't just listen to some guy shouting in zone over a score that doesn't matter because there are forces that will make it closer (on PC NA), and do what they want.

I wonder why they won't sit at an empty keep that gives no real AP when no one is coming for 20 min+ unless there's a scroll there.

I wonder why they won't defend the keep that is near impossible to defend against a ball alone unless you have 4+ coldfire and even that's not enough, because siege is almost useless unless you're using 4-6 of them.

Different people have a different definition of fun and what "PVP" is in this game. That means lock doesn't matter; incentive doesn't matter; they can and will do what they want.

AP and the end rewards are both useless in the end. AP only matters if you will be emperor, which many of us cannot ever achieve because we have lives, and the gold amount you get at the end of the campaign can be made in an hour if you really wanted it that badly.

VidmaVirtual · May 16

Having played exclusively in Cyrodiil for so many years, it remains my absolute favorite place in the game. I really don't want to see this zone turn into a mindless farm or just another deathmatch arena. I want to preserve the true meaning of the Alliance War and the actual purpose of defending our territories.🥹
However, the shift in player behavior isn't just about attitude—it is a direct result of how Cyrodiil’s core mechanics and meta have evolved. Here is a breakdown of the actual structural issues we face today, followed by concrete suggestions on how to fix them.
The Core Issues Killing Alliance Defense
The "All-or-Nothing" Defense Tick: A defense payout (AP) is only awarded if a keep successfully resets. If you fiercely defend a keep for 45 minutes but lose it at the last second, you get virtually zero AP. This high-risk gamble drives players to attack rather than defend.
The Demoralizing "Night-Capping": An alliance can successfully defend their territory all evening, only for an off-peak "night crew" to completely paint the map against zero resistance while the server is asleep. Waking up to find everything gone drains the motivation to care about map control.
"Ball Groups" Negating Fortresses: The power creep of highly optimized, cross-healing groups allows them to stack inside a breach and completely ignore boiling oil or siege fire. When a small group can wipe dozens of defenders inside their own castle, fortresses stop feeling like a tactical advantage.
Zero Value in Keep Longevity: There is no mechanical difference between a keep held for a month and one captured five minutes ago. Because keeps do not accumulate value or better faction buffs over time, players treat them as temporary spawn points rather than assets worth protecting.
Suggestions to Revive the Alliance War
To bring players back to the borders and make defense meaningful again, we need structural changes to the gameplay loop:
Dynamic Defense Ticks: Reward players with continuous AP during an active siege for repairing walls, destroying siege weapons, and getting kills inside the keep radius. Give defenders partial AP compensation based on time defended, even if the keep eventually falls.
Keep Longevity Upgrades: Implement a tier system where the longer a keep is held, the stronger it becomes. Higher tiers should grant tougher NPC guards, increased wall health, and passive combat buffs for the defending alliance inside that territory.
Night-Capping Countermeasures: Increase keep wall and gate health by 50% during low-population off-hours to discourage uncontested "map painting." Alternatively, reduce the amount of campaign score points generated during these off-peak hours.
Better Anti-Zerg Defenses: Make boiling oil and siege weapons inflict un-purgable damage or severe healing debuffs. This forces highly optimized groups to actually respect castle choke points instead of running straight through breaches.
Faction-Locked End Rewards: Offer exclusive PvP cosmetics, unique mounts, or titles to the winning faction at the end of a campaign. Lock these rewards to the alliance you started with to prevent players from switching factions mid-campaign just to claim the top prizes.
If we make defending fortresses mechanically rewarding, engaging, and impactful to the overall campaign, players will naturally flock back to protect their borders and restore the true spirit of the Alliance War.🫶

VidmaVirtual · May 16

I would also like to add that there are many players who suffer through all of this in silence. They don't write anything on the forums because they either dislike posting or face a language barrier. Eventually, tired of these systemic flaws, they just quietly leave the game.