Why 'Block' an Anchor Pinion?

Danikat · July 21

This might be me over-thinking a random interaction, but I'm wondering if anyone can guess what, if anything, this person was doing?

I was doing a dolmen alone and about 1/2 way through another player showed up. I'd ignored the anchor pinions until enemies stopped spawning and they didn't touch them either. Once there was nothing to fight I ran round closing them and when I got to the last one the other player was running side to side in front of it, but facing away from it and towards me, so I don't think they were having trouble targeting it.

It looked exactly like 'body blocking' people will do in games with player collision - physically stopping you getting to something they don't want you to touch. I know ESO doesn't do that (even in PvP) but that was my first thought - they didn't want me to close the last anchor pinion for some reason. So I stopped and waited a minute or so but they didn't say anything or do anything else, just kept standing between me and it, moving when I moved but nothing else.

At that point I just wanted to get the dolmen finished and move on, and I decided if they weren't going to actually communicate I wasn't going to try to worry about it so I closed the last one, we finished the dolmen and I carried on with my day, but I still found myself wondering about it. I know some people have invented 'codes' using actions for times they can't or won't talk, like blocking when you meet an enemy player in a Cyrodiil delve to say you won't attack if they won't. But if this was one of those times I'm not sure what it was supposed to mean.

AcadianPaladin · July 21

Never seen that before. The only thing I can think of is perhaps they had a friend on the way and had shared the relevant daily FG quest for that zone's dolmens. . . but that is kind of a stretch and a few words in /say would have done a much better job.

DoofusMax · July 21

Lacking any other information, I'd guess that they had a friend or guildie who was on the way and were trying to delay spawning the final boss until they could get there. Of course players do things for reasons which make sense to them, but that's the only thing that comes to mind and I'd give that explanation a bit more credence if it were one of the more out-of-the-way dolmen like the northern ones in Glenumbra or Malabal Tor which aren't anywhere close to wayshrines.

Soarora · July 21

People need to use their words. That said, I have had people be mad about closing pinions because they were using a dolmen as an xp farm attempt. That was ages ago, though.

SilverBride · July 21

Sounds like trolling to me.

Danikat · July 22

Soarora wrote: »

People need to use their words. That said, I have had people be mad about closing pinions because they were using a dolmen as an xp farm attempt. That was ages ago, though.

That would be my first guess, except I'd waited until enemies stopped spawning to close them. I know some people think dolmens will run indefinitely if you don't close them, but nothing had spawned at this one for a minute or two.

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

Never seen that before. The only thing I can think of is perhaps they had a friend on the way and had shared the relevant daily FG quest for that zone's dolmens. . . but that is kind of a stretch and a few words in /say would have done a much better job.

Maybe that was it. It would explain watching me close 3 then standing in front of the 4th, but if that was what they were doing saying something would be much more effective. Even if I didn't understand the language at least I'd know there was a reason (and I could have thrown it in Google translate.)

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO · July 22

Maybe they were waiting for a friend and trying to stop the dolmen from completing.

Gabriel_H · July 22

There is an achievement for dolmen pinions. Maybe it was that?

Danikat · July 22

Gabriel_H wrote: »

There is an achievement for dolmen pinions. Maybe it was that?

If that was it I'd expect them to rush around closing them ASAP once they saw I'd started, but even after they got me to stop they didn't do anything with it, just stood there keeping between me and the pinion.

SeaGtGruff · July 22

If they were waiting for a friend to arrive, but the dolmen was essentially shut down except for the final boss (which usually takes under a minute or less

SeaGtGruff · July 22

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

If they were waiting for a friend to arrive, but the dolmen was essentially shut down except for the final boss (which usually takes under a minute

to kill), then it seems like they could just go do the next dolmen.

Aislinna · July 22

Why didn't you communicate with them since you are the one still wondering what their intent was?

Nestor · July 22

I run through other players all the time. It is only NPCs that have collision. So dancing around the Pinion should not stop you from activating it. Unless you were in Cyrodill and Player Characters have collision there?

Attorneyatlawl · July 22

Nestor wrote: »

I run through other players all the time. It is only NPCs that have collision. So dancing around the Pinion should not stop you from activating it. Unless you were in Cyrodill and Player Characters have collision there?

No, players do not have collision in Cyrodiil.

Danikat · July 23

Nestor wrote: »

I run through other players all the time. It is only NPCs that have collision. So dancing around the Pinion should not stop you from activating it. Unless you were in Cyrodill and Player Characters have collision there?

I know they weren't actually stopping me, but the way they were moving side to side in front of me looked like when someone in a game with player collision is body blocking an objective. I assume they knew it wouldn't work if I'd decided to walk through them, but also assume they were hoping I'd understand whatever they were trying to do and choose to comply.

Aislinna wrote: »

Why didn't you communicate with them since you are the one still wondering what their intent was?

I did, I forgot to say that in my first post. Or rather I did say it, then decided the whole thing was too long and rambling and cut it down and obviously cut that part out entirely. I asked "what are you doing?" then waited about a minute for them to say or do something before giving up and finishing the dolmen.

jle30303 · July 23

There are times when I refuse to close dolmen pinions because I've long ago got the achievement for closing them, and some other person at the dolmen might still need that achievement, so I step back to let them do it.