Faction Lock was a great first step towards improving the competitive spirit in Cyrodiil, but one more plague exists and it needs to be dealt with if there's to be an actual competition in Cyrodiil. For those who don't know, the act of nightcapping is storming a map during off-hours and gaining many points completely unopposed. For many players, this behavior is met with negativity because it leads to a skewed score increase that is unrepresentative of the contributions and hard work of others in the campaign. The solution to handling this problem is rather simple: place daily faction score caps on each faction's progress for 1st/2nd/3rd place. To be absolutely clear, these would be caps on daily FACTION SCORE gain, NOT player AP.
By implementing a daily cap on the amount of points a faction can earn, factions that perform hard work to overcome resistance during their play hours will not be undermined by players who are online during hours where the enemy is not present. Any player during any time of the day can make progress for their faction, but that progress will be capped each day, regardless of whether they capture 10 or 60 keeps during the night. This means that a faction that earns their 1st place lead and can only be beaten by a faction that rallies together and denies that 1st place faction progress on the battlefield. Yes, this change will lead to a player surge in activity at the start of a campaign, but a 1st place lead is only as good as the effort put forth to maintain it. With both faction lock and daily faction score caps, Cyrodiil's score system will promote healthy competition, regardless of a player's timezone.
EDIT: I'm aware of the fact that players in other timezones are not all maliciously trying to gain an advantage - I know it's just the time you happen to be playing the game. For you, I'm sure NA "primetime" feels like nightcapping, so this change helps everyone out. I think the negative connotation derives from a history of players being shortchanged by a score system that doesn't take into account timezone disparity. If anything, this is the biggest reason why this change needs to happen.
EDIT 2: To be more clear, what I'm looking to do is a stagnated daily scoring cap in 6-hour cycles. This would help combat the issue so that every timezone can contribute. After the cap is reached, the leading faction must still maintain the board state so that their next 6-hour cycle is fruitful, otherwise they risk losing their lead. This still provides an opportunity for trailing factions to mount a comeback from a reasonable score gap.
By implementing a daily cap on the amount of points a faction can earn, factions that perform hard work to overcome resistance during their play hours will not be undermined by players who are online during hours where the enemy is not present. Any player during any time of the day can make progress for their faction, but that progress will be capped each day, regardless of whether they capture 10 or 60 keeps during the night. This means that a faction that earns their 1st place lead and can only be beaten by a faction that rallies together and denies that 1st place faction progress on the battlefield. Yes, this change will lead to a player surge in activity at the start of a campaign, but a 1st place lead is only as good as the effort put forth to maintain it. With both faction lock and daily faction score caps, Cyrodiil's score system will promote healthy competition, regardless of a player's timezone.
EDIT: I'm aware of the fact that players in other timezones are not all maliciously trying to gain an advantage - I know it's just the time you happen to be playing the game. For you, I'm sure NA "primetime" feels like nightcapping, so this change helps everyone out. I think the negative connotation derives from a history of players being shortchanged by a score system that doesn't take into account timezone disparity. If anything, this is the biggest reason why this change needs to happen.
EDIT 2: To be more clear, what I'm looking to do is a stagnated daily scoring cap in 6-hour cycles. This would help combat the issue so that every timezone can contribute. After the cap is reached, the leading faction must still maintain the board state so that their next 6-hour cycle is fruitful, otherwise they risk losing their lead. This still provides an opportunity for trailing factions to mount a comeback from a reasonable score gap.