UPDATE! One Tamriel is coming! ZOS realized the need for open-world access to all zones of all factions and they are responding!
With One Tamriel, we are opening up the entire playable world to everyone, no matter their level. This is a pretty big deal. One Tamriel makes the game much more grouping and social-friendly, as the player base will no longer be divided into thirds and also won't be divided by player level. The reasons we are doing this are simple: we want to make it easier for ESO players to group together, and to promote the sense of freedom to explore that Elder Scrolls games are known for. In other words, we're bringing the same auto-leveling system (called “battle leveling") that has been so successful in our DLCs to the entire game.
Here are the basics:
•Characters will have their level scaled the same way that we currently scale players to the level of DLC zones (Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood).
•You will be able to explore the entire world in any sequence you wish - just walk across the world and you will always find appropriately leveled content.
•You will be able to play and group with anyone in the game at any time (outside of PvP). No longer will you have to create a lower level character to play with a friend who has just joined the game. You will be able to group and adventure together from the moment your friend emerges from the tutorial.
•We are dropping all PvE Alliance restrictions. You will be free to explore of all Tamriel, including other Alliances. It is up to you how you want to role-play your character while doing this. “Silver" and “gold" versions of zones will be replaced by Cadwell quest storylines that you can do in any order you wish.
•Alliance restrictions will still be enforced in all PvP areas, of course. One Tamriel will not affect the PvP systems in Cyrodiil.
•In general, higher level players will be the same “level" as lower level players, but they will have far more tools in their arsenal: better gear, more abilities, and of course more Champion points.
•We will adjust gear rewards to scale appropriately to make sure that there is always a way to get more powerful via crafting, questing, PvP, and dungeon/trial boss loot drops.
•All Trials and Dungeons will continue with standard and Veteran difficulty modes, and you will have to be Veteran level to play veteran dungeon modes.
•The Coldharbour zone will be “roped off" from players who have not yet completed the quests that lead there. However, if you are invited to a group that is already there, or travel to a friend who is there, you can immediately access the zone.
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2016/06/12/matt-firors-message-from-be3
Original thread below:
Moving forward, I truly believe the best thing ZOS can do for The Elder Scrolls Online is to find a way to combine all the faction players into one instance. Remove the concept of Silver and Gold and allow players from all factions and all levels to play together across Tamriel.
ZOS should keep all the zones the same level as they are in the home faction and provide players with a downscaling function that will give them appropriate XP for their level. This would be so a player who downscales their power to a lower level will still gain XP at the same rate they would if they were fighting mobs at their current level.
That is the high level concept of what I believe would be the single greatest boon to the future of ESO.
For those who are worried about adding more players to the existing world, which seems to be the primary concern... Overpopulation won't be an issue because of the way ESO phases players.
While I don't know exactly how the system works, my assumption is that there are population caps on each zone. When a zone's population gets to a certain percentage of that cap, a new phase is created.
This would simply mean there would be more phases, not necessarily more people.
Now, let’s get down to the nitty-giddy how this could be accomplished.
Below are the details of how ZOS could possibly go about achieving this Tamriel United playing environment. While there are many other grander changes that I could suggest, the following concepts try to adhere to what ZOS currently has in place.
Overarching Main Narrative:
To encourage players to experience the narrative of each of the factions, ZOS should stretch the main questline of ESO to cover all zones in all factions. To accomplish this, ZOS could detach the Main questlines from being unlocked by the player's level and have the determining factor be zone completion.
Since there are 5 zones to each faction and 10 quests within the Main questline (not including the first quest to escape Coldharbor) ZOS could have the Main quests flag at the same points of each of the Faction quest lines. Main quests would flag at the beginning of the 2nd zone, the end of the 3rd zone, and the beginning of the 5th zone of each faction. The last questline would only activate after the last quest of the 3rd faction has been completed.
Since the main level quests already scale to the player it wouldn't be that big of a change to detach the access from the player's level. This way, the main narrative stretches across all the zones and isn't completed until the last quest off the last zone is completed.
Also, the player should be able to travel to any Harborage in any faction to continue the Main questline.
Open Zone Access:
From the moment the player falls out of Coldharbour, they should be allowed to travel to every zone across Tamriel. There same captain that will take the players to the starting Zones should also offer passage to the other Zones. There could be a throwaway line about having to switch ships along the way to explain why the same ships aren't in each stating zone. This means a player will have the option to play any faction's quest line in any order they wish.
The player would be seen as a wandering hero with no particular alliance to any of the factions. This will require some changes to the way Faction Loyalty works in ESO.
Alliance War Recruitment:
First and foremost, ZOS should remove Faction Choice during Character Creation. Every player should be randomly dropped in one of the three faction's starting zones. To facilitate this, the largest city in each zone should have a Alliance War recruiter. This recruiter will give players information on the Alliance War and will offer players passage to faction's base in Cyrodiil.
This recruiter will provide the player with motivation to join the fight and will spout motivational slogans. If the player speaks to the recruiter prior to level 10, the player will be told to come back when they've got a bit more experience under their belt. Once the player accepts recruitment for that faction, the player will fight for that faction from then forward.
If the player travels to a different faction's zone and joins up with a recruiter of a different faction, their alliance will change. In this way, a player's alliance will remain in flux for the duration of their 1-50 leveling. As the player levels, the recruiters should mention to the player the need to commit. Saying things like, "Don't you think it's about time to dedicate yourself to The Covenant?"
Players could be given incentives to join, such as faction tabards and "Commitment Bonuses" like 10% bonus XP while adventuring in their home faction. This would help players feel as if they are making an actual choice as it pertains to their faction.
This would also help with the narrative of your character giving a contextual reason why players help the leaders of each faction throughout the questlines. Being a free agent, they are open to help whomever they would like to help.
Players who have any race any alliance would be dropped randomly in any faction and can switch around factions at will... Players who DON'T are dropped in the faction of the race they choose and they can still go to the other factions but would be met with a snide and racist recruiter if they try to join another faction. ZOS could even have different slurs for the different races, like...
- "It'll be a warm day in Coldharbor before I'll accept a flea ridden Khajiit under my command."
- "The last thing I need is an Altmer trying to tell my commanders how to do their job."
- "Aren't you a Bosmer? Are you just looking to snack on our dead?"
- "I'm not going to reforge all my healms to make room for those teeth."
- "I'd rather not have to worry about my neck being slit in the middle of a night. Take your scaly hide back to Black Marsh."
Slowing the roll
Since players will now be traveling through all three factions during the main quest ZOS should perform an XP gain drop across the board. Personally, I think the XP drop could be as much as 50%. Players would still reach level 50 prior to competing the main quest line, but it would no longer be 1/3 the way though the factions.
This would also allow players who wish to progress more quickly to take greater advantage of the 10% XP gain bonuses for Home Faction, Rings of Mara, ESO+, and XP Scrolls/Potions if they want to level more quickly.
PVE Battle Leveling
Since each Zone would be set up as they are now, and players would be leveling as a slightly different speed than they currently do, it would be beneficial for ZOS to institute Battle Leveling throughout Tamriel. This would perform two functions in PVE
- Level the player DOWN to the Zone Level
- Level the player UP to the Zone level
No matter the Level, the player should receive the XP appropriate to their level, even though their stats are leveled to the zone. In this way, two players who are different levels could travel and adventure together within a zone, but each player receive the appropriate XP for their level.
If a player decides to turn battle leveling off they will then perform at their actual level and will receive the appropriate XP, if they receive any at all.
Battle Leveling should be auto-toggled to ON.
With these few changes, players would be allowed to travel to any zone at any time and partake in quests and adventure with other players, regardless of their level or affiliation. This would open Tamriel up in a way never before seen. The denizens of Tamriel would experience a freedom of play that just simply isn't currently possible.
No matter how they achieve the end goals, ZOS needs to find a way to unite players of all factions so players are not locked away from other one another and allow a freedom of play across Tamriel no matter the player's level.
#TamrielUnited
What ESO really needs is an Auction Horse.
That's right...
Horse.
Click
HERE to discuss.
Want more crazy ideas? Check out my
Concept Repository!