The Elder Scrolls Online's lead PvP developer Brian Wheeler dropped a lot of juicy info at the Elitist Jerks forum recently, and today a new blog post at
elderscrollsonline.com offers even more details about crushing your enemies in the game's PvP content.
The blog post answers questions from fans, including questions from fans at the German site ESO-Schatzsucher and the French site JeuxOnline. Not all of the info is new, but it adds to our developing picture of the complexities and mechanics of the PvP.
The post reveals that there will be 50 PvP ranks with 25 titles and grades. A higher-ranking character needs to watch out, because killing them is worth more alliance points than killing a lower-ranking character. The developers also promised that success in combat is about more than levels, a highly skilled player can take out a higher level character, and a group of lower level characters can be successful against one high level character.
It also reveals that the game provides some meat for those who crave one-on-one battles. Combat in The Elder Scrolls Online is about more than huge sieges and group battles. There are opportunities for solo skirmishes.
And there are some details about grouping and traveling in Cyrodiil. Players can easily form large groups of up to 24 players. Those players will probably want to invest in horses, which are a more convenient and faster way to travel. And there are fast travel routes to keeps under your Alliances control, but these can be strategically cut off by the opposing side to help turn the tide of battle.
The post also hints that there is a balancing act to be considered when expanding territory. Holding more keeps provides more bonuses to the players in the alliance, but keeping those keeps yours can become increasingly difficult to manage as the territory becomes more spread out and vulnerable.
Some more highlights below.
On how to capture a keep or structure:
"No declaration of war is required to attack a keep—they can be assaulted at any time. Let’s say a keep is entirely undefended by players. In that situation, it might take around 15 minutes to take over the keep using a ram and around three groups of players. Capturing an undefended resource won’t take quite as long and should only require one group. However, you’ll have to have healing available in both cases—even if there aren’t any players around, the NPC guards will still be on duty, and they aren’t just for show."
Alerts when a keep is under attack:
"When a keep is under attack, everyone in the zone will see an icon on the map that indicates the assault status, so you’ll be able to easily determine which keeps are in danger. Some events are broadcast across the entire game; for instance, you’ll see a message when an emperor is crowned or an Elder Scroll is captured no matter where you are. As far as spying goes, there are only so many systems we can put in place to prevent it before we end up getting in the way of fun, so we need to be cautious. We can, for example, prevent players from joining a campaign if they have a character of an opposing alliance assigned to that campaign."
Siege weapon variety:
"Besides the ram and camps, there are trebuchets, catapults, ballistae, and flaming oil. Trebuchets are best used against keep walls, and ballistae excel at taking down other siege weapons. Catapults are good for covering a wide area with duration effects like disease or snares, and you can pour flaming oil down onto enemy ram operators to drive them away from your keep’s doors. "
More information about how campaigns work and how to access them:
"You’ll be assigned to a campaign when you create a character, and you can access Cyrodiil from the Alliance War interface once you’re level 10. There may be queues in some campaigns to retain balance between the alliances, but you can join another via a guest pass if you don’t want to wait or you can jump into a campaign with another player in your group.
You’ll be able to see available campaigns in the Alliance War interface. Your home campaign, guest campaign, and the campaigns your friends are assigned to will be noted on the list. You can become a guest in your friends’ campaign or even choose to change your home campaign (though this is limited)."
There's much more at the full post. Check it out at
http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2013/12/23/ask-us-anything-cyrodiil.
