Right now, Cyrodiil keeps all seem to share the same basic layout, which looks something like this:

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii155/Kaeldaron/TESO/cyrodiilkeep-1.jpg

You have your outer wall that needs to be breached, then you reach the inner courtyard, where you have to use a ram to break down the door to the inner keep. Then you slaughter some NPCs, get the flags and you're done.

Essentially, all keeps sieges are exactly the same. Now, for balance that's all well and good, but is it going to be fun in the long run? I'm not sure. It would be a lot more interesting if different keeps had different layouts and mechanics, and required a different approach to besiege or defend.

I'll provide two examples of fairly minor adjustments to provide alternative layouts, which I think could work well.

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Example 1: The Two Towers

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii155/Kaeldaron/TESO/CyrodiilKeep2.jpg

This keep has a pair of destructible inner walls that separate the courtyard with the gate to the inner keep from a larger area inside the outer walls. The courtyard can be directly accessed from a breach in the southern subsection of the outer walls, but those walls are thicker than the others and it takes more effort to bring them down.

Unlike the regular inner keep - where all flags are easily accessible at ground level once the inner gate is broken down with a ram - there are two large towers beyond the main building, each with a spiraling staircase that leads up to the top of the towers. There's another flag on top of each of these two towers. The besiegers either have to split up their force to take control of all flags at the same time, or they can stick together and try to take the flags one by one. The defenders may be able to overwhelm the besiegers if they decide to split up. But if the besiegers stick together, they can try to run around the keep and take back the flags where the enemy is not present.

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Example 2: Draw Bridge

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii155/Kaeldaron/TESO/InnerKeep2.jpg

This keep has the regular outer walls and courtyard, but the inner keep can't be accessed with a ram. Instead, there is a drawbridge over a moat that is raised by default. There are two guard towers, one on either side of the drawbridge, that hold a mechanism that has to be operated by the players to either raise or lower the bridge. Attackers can only lower the bridge, defenders can only raise it.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii155/Kaeldaron/TESO/InnerKeep2B.jpg

In order to reach the guard towers from the outside, players have to swim through the moat (OMG Argonian racial useful in PvP!). While swimming, they're vulnerable to ranged attacks from the walls surrounding the moat. The central wall can be reached by going up a set of stairs after the moat is crossed. The wall section directly above the drawbridge should be accessible from the inner keep, but this should be one-way. Perhaps through a magical barrier, or something like that. The central wall should not have NPC guards on it, so it's possible for players to sneak over it and reach the drawbridge mechanisms without fighting if they are left unguarded.

Once the drawbridge is down, the besiegers can enter the inner keep and take the flags as usual. But perhaps they could be placed on the second floor instead of ground level, for the sake of variety.

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As you can see, I was a bit bored and decided to mess around in Stronghold HD for a while to construct keep ideas

But there are many, many more possibilities for elements they could use to spice the keeps up. They could add subterranean tunnels and sewer systems to access keeps from below, traps, magical barriers that can be disabled/enabled, secret passages hidden behind tapestries, maze-like structures with hard-to-reach flags. The list goes on and on.. Or just completely different layouts, like the bases in Planetside 2.

Do you think it would be interesting to see more variety in the Keeps of Cyrodiil? Feel free to share ideas/thoughts/opinions!

I'm up for cosmetic changes, but I'm wary that varying the keeps too much will make PvP rigid. For example, if a certain keep has sewer access, then every time you defend the keep you need a unit stationed at the sewers. Or someone working the magic barrier. A unit dedicated to getting a drawbridge down. Now you know what you're going to be doing in those keeps every single time you play them, you've turned them into a mini-game. There'd be less room for creativity or spontaneity. I'm doubtful as well about the kind of organization it would take to assault and defend them. It was hard enough during beta to get everyone to attack the same keep(s). Requiring organization would be not only more difficult (impossible?) but might prohibit pick-up-and-play PvPers.

I agree, they all look mostly the same and some more variance would be quite nice. This is something that they might implement in the future and let's hope so.

Wait.. is that in the screenshots Stronghold Crusader?

Anyway +1 to everything you said.

+2 if it was Stronghold.

A LOT can and should be done about keeps layout.

edit. oh yes it is Stronghold

This should be specific on campaign since this could make specific keeps stronger to have then other ones.

Sure, would be cool to have some unique castles. Altho i do think this can wait a long time. Huh, how do i all of a sudeen start styping crooked, seriously how do i turn this off!?

Anyway, i chose gameplay over cosmetics anyday.

But this isnt just cosmetic it greatly affects the gameplay.

It would always remain a question just how many people you want to spare to guard or assault a specific part of the objective. In more complex keep layouts, it might also be the case that you have multiple options to get inside. You might have a squad trying to take down a magic barrier, while another is sneaking through the tunnels and disarming traps. In my mind, this actually grants more room for creativity. Because right now, you're always doing the same three things in the same order (breach wall, ram gate, take flags).

Although I understand your concerns about the organisational difficulties, most people in Cyrodiil in the beta haven't had the chance to get the hang of it for more than a few days and were just trying things out at their own pace. I'm confident that the vast majority of players who has spent a week or more in Cyrodiil understands exactly how it works and will be prepared to join raid groups and follow orders to conquer keeps. This is when it becomes a routine, and there's a very real chance that it gets stale pretty quickly when every single siege requires the same approach.

For the record, there's already a fair bit of variety in the surroundings of keeps. For some there are ruins which the attackers can hide behind, some have walls and stairs before you reach a plateau on which the keep stands, some have water and bridges. This is all pretty well done, but once the siege itself starts, it's always pretty much the same.