Mundus Stones in DLC Zones

Radiate77 · July 23

Lately I’ve been going through and playing expansion questlines again on Vestige and one thing that stood out to me as interesting, was that oddly enough there are no Mundus Stones located within those zones…

Would it be possible to do a pass through these zones and put a few stones for players to discover, themed to their region, and scattered throughout?

Examples being…
Warrior & Lord - Western Skyrim
Shadow & Serpent - Murkmire

Eldovar · July 23

Yeah this always irked me as well. Good idea.

How is a replay on vestige on these DLC’s? Thinking of running the main DLC stories again since otherwise I don’t have any story content left in this game.

Does it improve the pacing? The issue I always had with DLC stories that it always felt like 15 minutes of audiobook talking, 2 mins of action and back to 10 minutes ‘lets talk another 8 minutes about what happened in the previous room.

frogthroat · July 23

Methinks the reason is that the base game zones were designed to work together as a whole. Doesn't matter which alliance you pick, their respective zones combined contain all the mundus stones.

DLCs, on the other hand, were designed to be self-standing zones with no link to other zones. So if they were to put mundus stones in DLC zones, how would they distribute them? Should all of them be in each DLC zone? But then might as well just put them all in one place next to each other, like in many guild halls.

Or should they add 3-4 per zone, and then when designing the next zone, put 3-4 other mundus stones? That would mean they need some continuity between separate, independent zones.

Cyrodiil is big enough that you can have all the stones in one zone. But I don't think it would work in PVE zones. And splitting them between different DLC zones would make designing new zones difficult.

I don't actually know the reason, but this is what my headcanon says.

Radiate77 · July 23

Eldovar wrote: »

Yeah this always irked me as well. Good idea.

How is a replay on vestige on these DLC’s? Thinking of running the main DLC stories again since otherwise I don’t have any story content left in this game.

Does it improve the pacing? The issue I always had with DLC stories that it always felt like 15 minutes of audiobook talking, 2 mins of action and back to 10 minutes ‘lets talk another 8 minutes about what happened in the previous room.

Yeah; it’s alot more fun.

Wish there was more of a risk though, because when you die you just get back up and try again.

That said, I’ve wondered how long it would take new players to find a mundus stone when they start in a DLC zone, I would wager they don’t even have one by the time they finish it’s MSQ.

Radiate77 · July 23

frogthroat wrote: »

Methinks the reason is that the base game zones were designed to work together as a whole. Doesn't matter which alliance you pick, their respective zones combined contain all the mundus stones.

DLCs, on the other hand, were designed to be self-standing zones with no link to other zones. So if they were to put mundus stones in DLC zones, how would they distribute them? Should all of them be in each DLC zone? But then might as well just put them all in one place next to each other, like in many guild halls.

Or should they add 3-4 per zone, and then when designing the next zone, put 3-4 other mundus stones? That would mean they need some continuity between separate, independent zones.

Cyrodiil is big enough that you can have all the stones in one zone. But I don't think it would work in PVE zones. And splitting them between different DLC zones would make designing new zones difficult.

I don't actually know the reason, but this is what my headcanon says.

Yeah, I’m in no way advocating for every mundus stone to be in each DLC zone, but throwing 2-3 of them, fitting two-three separate playstyles themed to the culture or storyline of said zones, would be nice.

frogthroat · July 23

Radiate77 wrote: »

That said, I’ve wondered how long it would take new players to find a mundus stone when they start in a DLC zone, I would wager they don’t even have one by the time they finish it’s MSQ.

That's an excellent point. In Skyrim when you first start to wander around after Helgen, the first thing you'll find is the three Standing Stones, The Thief, The Warrior and The Mage. Those work for the 3 main archetypes in Skyrim -> the stealth archer, the unga-bunga who will switch to be a stealth archer, and the magic build that will turn into a stealth archer.

Something similar could be near a starting point in each DLC zone. Like, when you first spawn in with your fresh character, one of the closest places would be three Mundus Stones. Something like The Atronach for mag builds and healers, The Serpent for stam DDs, and The Steed for tanks and powerlevellers. Those are ok in the beginning, but would not be the ones you'll use in end game. Perfect for your first Mundus.

Well, in U51 they will swap around some of the effects. So perhaps just The Apprentice (increased XP and inspiration) would be enough near a spawn point.

LunaFlora · July 23

Yes it would be nice if zones in Nirn had Mundus stones

prof-dracko · July 23

At the very least maybe add a new book in DLC zones that explains to new player what the stones are and which zones they're in if they want to go find them.

Eldovar · July 23

Radiate77 wrote: »

Eldovar wrote: »

Yeah this always irked me as well. Good idea.

How is a replay on vestige on these DLC’s? Thinking of running the main DLC stories again since otherwise I don’t have any story content left in this game.

Does it improve the pacing? The issue I always had with DLC stories that it always felt like 15 minutes of audiobook talking, 2 mins of action and back to 10 minutes ‘lets talk another 8 minutes about what happened in the previous room.

Yeah; it’s alot more fun.

Wish there was more of a risk though, because when you die you just get back up and try again.

That said, I’ve wondered how long it would take new players to find a mundus stone when they start in a DLC zone, I would wager they don’t even have one by the time they finish it’s MSQ.

Going to give it go and roll a new character soon then.

I did noticed when I tried out a new DK they mention mundus stones during levelling up. At some point I saw a red notice during levelling ‘you still haven’t activated a mundus power’ or something like that. It’s an improvement for new players because back in the day starting out I was massive overwhelmed and lost what was important and what was ‘endgame’

katanagirl1 · July 23

I never thought that having new players start out in dlc zones was a good plan. You have to make your way back to base game zones to do a lot of things, not just Mundus stones. There’s the MQ, FG, MG, and Undaunted just to name a few, and most builds still require skills from at least FG and MG. Undaunted requires picking up pledges in the base game zones to run dungeons. We need reasons for players to retire to these zones, not opportunities to remove them.

Besides, players aren’t starting out in dlc zones anymore from what I read so the reason is OBE. This would just clutter up all of the zone maps more and make more work for the reduced number of staff that remains.