Is the workaround for guesting going to be addressed in 1.3

Rylana · July 2014

Not really a discussion, more of a question, but a discussion on the topic is always valid anyway.

So @ZOS_BrianWheeler‌

Can we expect the workaround to guesting rules to be addressed in the upcoming update?

For those that dont know, or maybe even the devs havent figured it out yet, guesting restrictions are easily bypassed (both same faction and cross faction) by simply traveling to a player in your guild, group, or contacts that is currently in the campaign youre trying to guest to.

For example.

If I am homed on Dawnbreaker, Guested on Wabbajack, but I want to get to Bloodthorn right now, all I have to do is ask a friend or guildie if they have either homed or guested, they go in, and i use the right click/travel to player feature and I am in Bloodthorn without ever changing my guest campaign.

This also works for opposing faction alts on the same account. (I.E.: my EP alt could get onto Dawnbreaker if I had someone on Dawnbreaker in EP on my friends list, or so I hear)

So I ask, is this going to be addressed?

ZOS_BrianWheeler · July 2014

Traveling to player is something being discussed but will not be changed in 1.3. We are aware of the issues that it brings with bypassing the Guest/Home system and discussing what can be reasonably done without splintering population/guilds/friends from friends by limiting the jump to player functionality. With Campaigns going down to 5 in 1.3, we will be monitoring this behavior closely.

Rylana · July 2014

Thank you for your response, and while it is disappointing to hear you wont be changing it immediately, it is good to know it is being discussed.

I would offer up for consideration, however, that this mechanic is being abused quite liberally currently and has been for some time. The lockouts put in place make it obvious you intended there to be a lockout, but the lockout has no teeth.

My main concern is that despite increasing the guest time to 72 hours, it will serve no deterrence to the current trend. With even fewer campaigns the issue compounds upon itself. People will quickly realize they are losing one campaign, jump ship to the other to start their faction winning it, and then switch it to home as soon as they have the AP for it. We may very well see the same dead/bloated campaign problem we do today.

A proposed solution would be to simply flag the Cyrodiil map as one that cant be traveled to via the group/guild system. It has a queue system for a reason.

So at least consider that.

SC0TY999 · July 2014

@ZOS_BrianWheeler Possibly a solution to this would be the guest campaign automatically changes to the campaign that the player is using the travel to player feature locking them to that campaign for the said 72 hours before they can change again.

A bit difficult to explain so I'll give an example! If I'm using the travel to player feature to join friends etc.. in a campaign that's not currently my guest/home campaign then it automatically changes my current guest campaign to be the one which I'm travelling to using the travel to player feature.

GunemCleric · July 2014

I would say (as an additional or counter point) that there is no benefit to Guesting. Why wait 72 hours when I can travel to a friend? Why even set guest except as a way to a campaign when no one has guest/home set to said campaign.

In this sense why set guest at all? I now set guest to a campaign I do not want to go to in case i want to switch it in a hurry. As far as I know i get no benefit to being in my "Guest" camp. I can still see all the info of the "Local" campaign without a problem when I am in a foreign camp (of course I see details of Guest details outside Cyro. but again, who cares).

With the next switch I will be setting Guest to something I do not want for the same reason as before. There should be some incentive for Guest other than as a bookmark.

Then there is the other problem with the travel-to-player method. Not sure if anyone has notice the "what campaign am i in" noobs, but it points at the section of people who look at the roster of their trade guilds and tour randoms until they find a/the campaign that interests them (the noobs being the ones who have yet to figure out the "Local" dropdown). I have even had contacts ask me what campaign I am in when I am in Cyro and one or more servers are locked. One of my contacts did this the other day when Wabba was locked, he said a GM told him to (I assumed he meant guild master).

If you are smart you make notes about where some contacts like to run in case you want to travel to thier camp. The fact ZOS has "Local" as a option implies they intended the traveling, not to mention the "group" traveling option. There are some possible issues, but the up coming changes may alter this trend.

I have not seen this really as an issue yet because i think the traveling is the only thing that keeps some campaigns active. Though it would put a damper on the dueling stuff. But if they want it to be less of an issue they need to make Guest useful first.

bruceb14_ESO5 · August 2014

Join guilds that are in multiple campaigns and simple. No one needs to guest, bound to be someone where you want to go. 5 campaigns coming up. Not looking forward to abuses of this system and the overpopulation results in performance. There are good things about the visiting system, I'm just hoping the new campaigns will reflect that and not some of the problems and abuses of the present.

zScars · August 2014

thanks for sharing this, i had no idea

Zadian · August 2014

ZOS_BrianWheeler wrote: »

Traveling to player is something being discussed but will not be changed in 1.3. …

Sad to read that you won't fix this game breaking mechanic. From what I've seen traveling to friends is being abused and resulted in dead buff/farm campaigns completely controlled by a fraction.
I guess I will have to wait and see which of the new campaigns get dominated by my fraction so I can get all the buffs and then just travel to a friend where ever my fraction is winning … That would be very boring, but obviously that's the way you intended it to be.
Why increase the amount of time between changing guest or home campaigns if nobody needs to change the campaign as everybody can go to every campaign?

How about:
- only the home campaign gives buffs and only if the player is inside that campaign or in a PvE area.
- only the home and guest campaign will give the player AP
- traveling to friend won't give AP or rewards, it's only a way to help that friend until everybody can agree on a home and a guest campaign.

Or how about just removing the campaign buffs or just let them stack and while you are at it just make everybody Emperor … It's harder to find a Ta rune than it is to get those "rewards".

Shaggygaming · August 2014

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌ - Why do guest players get all their campaign buffs?

Why do you see it is okay for people to use travel to player instead of the system you designed?

hamon · August 2014

Adonikam wrote: »

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌ - Why do guest players get all their campaign buffs?

Why do you see it is okay for people to use travel to player instead of the system you designed?

agree. i can't ever get into my damn home campaign and this complete joke is why.. this needs fixing pronto.. not some lame "we,re looking at it" just like they been looking to fix templars since months now......

Eucken · August 2014

I don't really have a problem with the current situation and thats because the travelling to players option doesn't work when a campaign is full and there is a queue.

That means smaller campaigns can easly get a bit more action if others from your guild decide to join you for one evening, which in my opinion is nice and gives a lot of flexibility for everyone.

Mitharus · August 2014

hamon wrote: »

agree. i can't ever get into my damn home campaign and this complete joke is why.. this needs fixing pronto.. not some lame "we,re looking at it" just like they been looking to fix templars since months now.

I use travel to because I can't have two chars home/guest'd in the same campaign; Yet that's the campaign where the folks I know play.

@ZOS_BrianWheeler
But I completely agree that the home/guesting/travel-to needs tweaking. IMO, if a campaign is pop locked, and someone who has it set as their home tries getting in (either because they logged out from Cyro, or try getting into the queue), they need priority over others in their faction that don't have it set as their home campaign.

Meaning:

The server kicks a random user who has used 'travel-to' (i.e. Campaign isn't home/guest) from the campaign.
If there are no users for who the campaign isn't set as Home/Guest, start kicking a random Guest user.
If we're here, that means everyone that's in the Campaign has it set as their Home. Sit in the queue and wait.

I hope it goes with out saying, that only other players in the users faction should be kicked.

If there isn't a way to get the player in by kicking from their own faction, then let them wait in the queue. Theoretically, that would mean everyone in the campaign for their faction has it set as their Home campaign.

-M

Edit: Small edits.