The Elder Scrolls Online PvP and Cyrodil Detailed

Prepare for war.

Bethesda has revealed that The Elder Scrolls Online's version of Cyrodil will take around 30 minutes to traverse north to south.
The information comes courtesy of an Elitist Jerks Forum Q&A with lead PvP developer Brian Wheeler, who also took some time to explain how the more competitive elements of the game would work.

In case you weren't aware, Cyrodil is the main PvP (player versus player) area of the game, so the fact it'll take so long to cross means it's going to be pretty sizeable indeed. Wheeler also explained that if one of the game's Alliances is in the lead, then its players will earn fewer Campaign points for things like capturing keeps, while members of the other two Alliances that are trailing will get bonuses. Presumably this is to encourage the losing teams not to throw in the towel.
He also reassured players that there will be a serious place for skill in TESO's PvP combat thanks to its action-focus. "Skill is a tricky thing to measure as when most people talk about skill in Elder Scrolls it’s referring to headshots with a bow, blocking, power attacks or dodging at the right time," he wrote. "In Elder Scrolls Online we have many opportunities for players to show their skill as we also have blocking, roll dodging, and sneaking up on enemy players without getting detected.
“There are opportunities to block power attacks which knock your enemy off balance, opening them up for a power attack of your own! That being said we do have to account for network latency so while it’s not pinpoint, there is some wiggle room for dodging that we’ve found to work quite nice in our Cyrodiil battles.”

There's a heap more content over on the forum thread, but most of it will only really appeal to hardened PvP players who want to know the ins and outs of how competitive play will work in the upcoming MMO. If that's you, feel free to leap on in and read more, otherwise check out our impressions of PvE play thus far.