Today we wanted to give you all a heads up regarding what the Alliance War (PVP) team is looking into for the future, as well as what we’re currently working on for Cyrodiil. As a general reminder, the Alliance War team is responsible for all things Cyrodiil, the Imperial City, and the Campaign system as a whole, so this post will be centered on those topics.

Campaign Durations – We are closely watching the populations of the new campaigns that we introduced in Update 3, and are tracking the in-game numbers daily. Future campaigns and plans thereof will rely greatly on the live in-game information we’re currently gathering from both the US and the EU servers.

Client Hitches/Crashes – As mentioned in the Quakecon presentation, we’re working on many game client optimizations that will address client hitching and crashes by allowing you to fine-tune your FX settings. These changes, along with continued server optimization, will help address the quality of combat and encounters in Cyrodiil.

Home Campaign Buffs – Originally, home campaign buffs were intended as a means to attach ownership to your Campaign, however it’s been observed (at great length) that Alliances have chosen various home campaigns and guest into other campaigns to earn as many buffs as possible. In the future, we plan on having home buffs travel with you into PVE, but while in Cyrodiil, you only get buffs from your local campaign (the campaign you’re physically located in at that time).

Emperor Trading – We are still monitoring this after the 1.3 patch with the changes made to the leaderboard requirements, limited campaign choices, and siege decay changes. For future updates, we may change the method of leveling up Emperorship and Ex-Emperor buffs.

Guest Pass/Jump-to-Player – Being that ESO is an MMO, adding limits to when/where I can play with friends is a key issue we’re aware. That’s why the Jump-to-Player option is currently allowed to enter Cyrodiil. It’s our belief that allowing players to group up and play together is one of the most important aspects of an MMO, and removing the capability to jump to your friends or use a guest pass would be detrimental. That being said, with the Campaign Home Buffs being adjusted to Local Campaigns only in the future as well as introducing more campaigns options, this will hopefully cut down on the Jump-to-Player/Guest Pass abuse.

mperial City – The final piece of the Alliance War “Meta-game” is coming, and will definitely change the landscape and goals of players in Cyrodiil. We are aware of the population waves that this will introduce on a Campaign-by-Campaign basis, and will be closely monitoring this when the Imperial City launches.

Alliance War Future – After Imperial City launches, we are looking to add more content into Cyrodiil in some of the emptier locations. We will, of course, continue adding to the Keep system, too. We’re also looking to add more Alliance-specific gear to give more options for individual identity to the Aldmeri, Ebonheart and Daggerfall communities.