As many of you know, ESO is being built around the 3 way alliance war that is very similiar to the set up in Darkage of Camelot. Cyrodiil looks to be built identical to the PVP area in DAOC known as the frontiers. The area is massive and is divided into 3 territories with each belonging to an alliance kinda like their homelands within Cyrodiil. Each side has their own keeps and towns to protect. they also have something much more important and precious to protect, their Elder Scrolls. These Elder Scrolls will be protected the most.

Now while Cyrodiil should be a very fun experience for everyone at all times, even people who do not usually enjoy PVP because there will be the big unknown factor in Cyrodii;. There is one thing i really hope that ESO can do with Cyrodiil that no game has done since DAOC. Its not just "planning" on doing PVP or even just going to Cyrodiil for a mix of PVE with the chance PVP happening.... Its a huge a unplanned PVP event coming to the player when they are not even currently in Cyrodiil. Let me explain....

In DAOC there was always people in the PVP area but every once in a while the enemy sides would plan a "relic raid" they would amass a large army and quickly head deep into the enemy side's territory trying to avoid being seen and attack their relic keep as fast as possible. (relics will be = to Elder Scrolls in ESO). When this happened, weather it be one of your scouts spotting the enemy army or just your sides relic keep guards broadcasting the attack to your alliance, All hell would break loose in the region chat, guild chat, and alliances chat. There was chaos! Basically just about everyone would stop what they were doing and head to the PVP area and try to stop the enemy side from getting their relic. people would stop PVE, stop crafting in the capital city and even leave far away dungeons to make their way to their relic keep in the PVP zone. These were like huge adrenaline rushes and panic. Once the threat was over they would usually go back to what ever they were doing, some would stick around because they were now in the PVP mood. These were always big events because usually relics would not switch hands for months.

So im hoping ESO can bring back these huge unplanned PVP events with your alliance within your campaign. It was something that really brought your guild and allied guilds and even your whole alliance side togeather to try to protect what was yours.

On another note a few games have tried this like Warhammer, Aion, and Guild Wars 2 but they didnt come close to accomlishing it. I think that was mainly to reseting the map very often (why do anything? it will just reset tomorrow) as well as not having a map set up that was very large. they also did not use the system where each side had homeland to protect and push in to invade the enemies side. Instead everything was just up for grabs so their was no sense of needing to protect anything.

The issue with Guild Wars 2 was their bonuses, they started out way to strong, any side that owned multiple became very over powered and then they patched them they became extremely underpowered. That is the main issue that this system has and why many companies struggle with it so much. It is difficult to find the happy medium between Underpowered and no one wants to fight for them, and Over Powered and who ever owns them will always own them.

With most of the Dev team coming from a DAoC Background I think they have an advantage knowing what worked and what didn't work.

My biggest concern and my biggest excitement for ESO is the Alliance vs Alliance combat. I'm a Major DAoC fan, and Guild Wars 2 was a massive let down, I have faith in the Dev team to deliver a fantastic game on all fronts.

It wasnt just the bonuse they gave, There was a few huge problems with their orb set up as well. First, they were easly obtained (no keep wall or gate or time to get to it) and then very hard to get back from a very strong garrison. It should have been the opposite way. Next there was only ONE orb per a map. the overpowered side could just have their whole army defending it. It was not possible for the other 2 sides to team up and attack it at the same time. For the system to work they would have needed atleast 2 orbs per a map. So the overpowered side would have to split its forces to defend both while the two other sides could go with full force at each one. remember DAOC had 6 relics on the same map, it was very hard to split your defense population to protect more than 2

I think the bonuses werent really a problem, just the only reason or easy fix people could think of at the time