Empty zones

rhubbert_ESO

I played for a few months at launch then left. I have been playing for about a month now. I have found that on the NA megaserver, the zones I am in when I play my VR4 character (Ebonheart Pact playing Cadwell's Silver) are almost completely empty. Is this just due to my level or are a lot of zones empty?

Chuggernaut

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

tpanisiakb16_ESO

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

I played for a few months at launch then left. I have been playing for about a month now. I have found that on the NA megaserver, the zones I am in when I play my VR4 character (Ebonheart Pact playing Cadwell's Silver) are almost completely empty. Is this just due to my level or are a lot of zones empty?

This is due to the fact that ZOS thought it would be a great idea to segregate the endgame population. A lot of people really, really don't like doing the Cadwell's stuff. You can love the game 1-50, but I know a fair bit of people who have stopped playing (some stopped playing again) due to how ridiculously stupid the endgame progression is. I'm struggling to keep a couple of friends still playing but since attaining VR1 it's just way too much of the same for them. Nothing like climbing an awesome mountain, fighting an awesome bad guy, finishing up the main quest line, then being dropped off the summit into a ***-hum quest grind, doing quests in areas you probably don't care about lore-wise, RP-wise, Alliance-wise.

Then there are people who are doing alternate things (re: segregated playerbase..) to grind CP / VR levels. Some are doing Cyrodiil, others Craglorn and Craglorn grindings, vet dungeons, reg dungeons, and some sitting around hoping one day end game progression gets streamlined or becomes somehow better.

Cadwell's Silver / Gold remains to be a barrier that wears and weeds players out of the game. Some like it (I did the first time), others absolutely detest it (I do the second + third time).

It's not all surprising to be in empty zones after Coldharbour to the end of Cadwell's Gold.

rhubbert_ESO

Chuggernaut wrote: »

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

Oh, I see. I guess if I get tired of questing I will go to Craglorn.

Robbmrp

My wife and I experienced the same thing when we were doing those area's late last year. With being in a different "phased" version than the faction that actually lives there, you hardly EVER see anyone from your faction. With all the game lag Cyrodil experiences it doesn't surprise me that they did it this way. Although, if they had setup the game to show all factions at the same time we probably wouldn't be dealing with daily game lag now as it would have been resolved prior to launch.

tpanisiakb16_ESO

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

Chuggernaut wrote: »

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

Oh, I see. I guess if I get tired of questing I will go to Craglorn.

Good luck finding someone on the same set of Craglorn quests as you. It's easier to find someone to group grind with than it is to find someone to do the actual content.

Unless you have a pretty good guild / friends than maybe it's not troublesome for you.

Egonieser

Plenty of people in EU.
Every zone at every level i've played, even some that feel deserted are never deserted. Unless in the middle of the night, there isn't a time i don't bump into someone.

rhubbert_ESO

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

I played for a few months at launch then left. I have been playing for about a month now. I have found that on the NA megaserver, the zones I am in when I play my VR4 character (Ebonheart Pact playing Cadwell's Silver) are almost completely empty. Is this just due to my level or are a lot of zones empty?

This is due to the fact that ZOS thought it would be a great idea to segregate the endgame population. A lot of people really, really don't like doing the Cadwell's stuff. You can love the game 1-50, but I know a fair bit of people who have stopped playing (some stopped playing again) due to how ridiculously stupid the endgame progression is. I'm struggling to keep a couple of friends still playing but since attaining VR1 it's just way too much of the same for them. Nothing like climbing an awesome mountain, fighting an awesome bad guy, finishing up the main quest line, then being dropped off the summit into a ***-hum quest grind, doing quests in areas you probably don't care about lore-wise, RP-wise, Alliance-wise.

Then there are people who are doing alternate things (re: segregated playerbase..) to grind CP / VR levels. Some are doing Cyrodiil, others Craglorn and Craglorn grindings, vet dungeons, reg dungeons, and some sitting around hoping one day end game progression gets streamlined or becomes somehow better.

Cadwell's Silver / Gold remains to be a barrier that wears and weeds players out of the game. Some like it (I did the first time), others absolutely detest it (I do the second + third time).

It's not all surprising to be in empty zones after Coldharbour to the end of Cadwell's Gold.

Yea I sort of quit playing because I didn't like the vet progression system. I quit right when Craglorn was released and I have not been there. Maybe I will try to find a guild that likes to do a lot of vet dungeons because I have the most fun doing those.

Chuggernaut

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

Chuggernaut wrote: »

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

Oh, I see. I guess if I get tired of questing I will go to Craglorn.

Yeah my v4 is sort of dead in the water, all the people I started with quit when we got to silver so I mostly just skyshard hunt or craft writ with him and play my other 2 alts.

Cadwells should have really been sabotage missions and not just vr ranked starter missions.

Bfish22090

Me personally, I have 2 alts at v14 and 2 at v1 in ep, DC and ad. So I have done the storylines many times through at many levels. I would much rather go to craglorn and do challenging content than do the same quests over and over

Rev Rielle

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

I played for a few months at launch then left. I have been playing for about a month now. I have found that on the NA megaserver, the zones I am in when I play my VR4 character (Ebonheart Pact playing Cadwell's Silver) are almost completely empty. Is this just due to my level or are a lot of zones empty?

This is due to the fact that ZOS thought it would be a great idea to segregate the endgame population. A lot of people really, really don't like doing the Cadwell's stuff. You can love the game 1-50, but I know a fair bit of people who have stopped playing (some stopped playing again) due to how ridiculously stupid the endgame progression is. I'm struggling to keep a couple of friends still playing but since attaining VR1 it's just way too much of the same for them. Nothing like climbing an awesome mountain, fighting an awesome bad guy, finishing up the main quest line, then being dropped off the summit into a ***-hum quest grind, doing quests in areas you probably don't care about lore-wise, RP-wise, Alliance-wise.

Then there are people who are doing alternate things (re: segregated playerbase..) to grind CP / VR levels. Some are doing Cyrodiil, others Craglorn and Craglorn grindings, vet dungeons, reg dungeons, and some sitting around hoping one day end game progression gets streamlined or becomes somehow better.

Cadwell's Silver / Gold remains to be a barrier that wears and weeds players out of the game. Some like it (I did the first time), others absolutely detest it (I do the second + third time).

It's not all surprising to be in empty zones after Coldharbour to the end of Cadwell's Gold.

It's not the best mechanic, no (re silver and gold). But all the blame doesn't go there. Almost every MMO's mid to mid-high level zones are largely deserted compared to the end- and beginning-zones. It's just the way the player base spreads out naturally. It happens across the 1-50 zones as well. Personally I think it's been an enduring problem for many years now, and one that hasn't really been addressed properly. Maybe one day...

AlnilamE

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

Chuggernaut wrote: »

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

Oh, I see. I guess if I get tired of questing I will go to Craglorn.

Good luck finding someone on the same set of Craglorn quests as you. It's easier to find someone to group grind with than it is to find someone to do the actual content.

Unless you have a pretty good guild / friends than maybe it's not troublesome for you.

Well, at least they fixed the phasing issues and you can now help people who need help even if you've done the quests already.

I really enjoy the Craglorn questline. I've done all on my main, and Lower Craglorn on my sorc. Looking forward to doing UC and clearning the rest of the map with her and then doing the same thing with my templar.

Meanwhile my main needs to finish quests from Alik'r onwards, but I am getting on that.

NukeAllTheThings

I could stomach Cadwell's Silver & Gold before the gutted XP for dolmen, dungeons, world bosses and main quests. I used to rarely run into anyone doing side quests but there were always groups running through those things. If you just did those particular things you would get about 70-80% XP needed to level. I could then grind a little bit or knock out a few quests to level.

Since they chopped XP on that, the only things worth doing are grabbing skyshards and getting the few skill points on the table then go grind somewhere. I took 2 characters through that and the process was ok. After that I took 2 others straight to Craglorn to get to VR14. My other 2 VR1's sit there today crafting because I would rather do anything than grind every quest to level. It is obvious I am not alone because when I go back to those levels to crafting stations or to change my mundus buff the zones are empty and nothing being said in zone chat.

vovus69

Well, this is the way I like it in vet zones Init areas are really overcrowded. Just spin the alt and go to init island or init zone - you will have people everywhere and they will spoil all immersion.

thesilverball_ESO

This is nothing new. The VR zones have always had few people in them.

I see both good and bad. Good if you want to do content solo and be left alone, bad if you're looking for friends to help with dolmens and such.

vovus69

You don't need groups for anything but probably group dungeons. WB and dolmens are doable solo.

Zershar_Vemod

Cadwell's Silver / Gold were virtually empty for me. Was good to have an empty chat and I was able to solo virtually everything before 1.6. Was nice to see a few other players on the map to tackle WBs / dolmens at a faster pace though.

tpanisiakb16_ESO

AlnilamE wrote: »

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

Chuggernaut wrote: »

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

Oh, I see. I guess if I get tired of questing I will go to Craglorn.

Good luck finding someone on the same set of Craglorn quests as you. It's easier to find someone to group grind with than it is to find someone to do the actual content.

Unless you have a pretty good guild / friends than maybe it's not troublesome for you.

Well, at least they fixed the phasing issues and you can now help people who need help even if you've done the quests already.

I really enjoy the Craglorn questline. I've done all on my main, and Lower Craglorn on my sorc. Looking forward to doing UC and clearning the rest of the map with her and then doing the same thing with my templar.

Meanwhile my main needs to finish quests from Alik'r onwards, but I am getting on that.

I'm very jealous! My OP really came across as curt towards ZOS. While I venomously oppose the Veteran Ranks the first character I leveled it was a lot of fun doing the quests. I learned that, while I'm EP-centric through-and-through I really enjoyed the DC-based quests more than AD and EP. In fact I believe EP quests paled compared to both, but DC certainly takes center stage as far as the amazing quest content goes.

It's just a bummer leveling an alt now. I've seen and done everything so thoroughly on my main that it's mindless now and I see the VR-climb as a mostly unnecessary evil. I can't get consumed in the lore or atmosphere anymore since I'm slamming "e" on the quest givers, trying to get my objective then racing out to do it. I've tried to slow it down for my alts but I feel like I'm wasting so much time. I'm not one who can enjoy a book or movie a second time, especially so quickly.

I want to enjoy Craglorn. This is why I am jealous of you. I've done a couple of quests. I don't know what's going on with the quests in this zone since the few I've done the people I was with were impatient to say the least. They're already at the objective spot, "tank were r u/?/" as I try to suck in the quest dialogue. It's the same with dungeons. Oblivion Knows what's going on in there because people are running and pulling as I'm reading / listening. Ugh. Now I can't ever seem to find people to continue where I left off, which is okay at this point since Craglorn is bust and no longer fun for me. I love, love, love, love the aesthetics of this place though.

So if you can do Craglorn with people man, do it. Really get in there and enjoy it.

Sucks not having friends who play this game. The ones who I did have hit the brick wall at VR1 and returned to other games. It's hard to convince those people to return when I'm trying to pull two alts through Silver / Gold. At this point every single other game is looking more and more appealing to me.

Grr ZOS.

vovus69

Craglorn is the zone for the groups of if you want to test some build against 6-7 enemies in a pack. If you join the group - it will be almost always bad because they are mostly farming and did this thing dozens of times. You are the first timer and will be punished for that. I hope ZOS will release solo content (Murkmir I suppose) soon enough and I will not need this Craglorn stuff anymore. Will see.

tpanisiakb16_ESO

vovus69 wrote: »

Craglorn is the zone for the groups of if you want to test some build against 6-7 enemies in a pack. If you join the group - it will be almost always bad because they are mostly farming and did this thing dozens of times. You are the first timer and will be punished for that. I hope ZOS will release solo content (Murkmir I suppose) soon enough and I will not need this Craglorn stuff anymore. Will see.

Yup. A whole zone dedicated to group content is certainly a bit too much, especially in a game that tips itself towards solo-players. Group-centric zones did not work in Wildstar and it assuredly doesn't work well in ESO. The only reason why it's not an empty zone is because it's currently the best place to grab a group and grind. And grinding / farming is what (I would hazard to say) most people are doing in Craglorn. Not the content itself.

I'm all for group content by the way, but it seems pretty unfair and punishing to stuff the endgame with a zone made for VR10+ players and make it entirely group-focused. People with staggered schedules, no friends / unhelpful guilds, etc. get kind of stuck in a weird limbo. Granted with some soft grinding (IE: killing mobs on the way to quest locations) you should be very close to VR14 if you're doing all the quests / content in Silver / Gold. I was VR10 when I entered Greenshade. I ended up Spellscar grinding before 1.6 for the last couple of ranks.

AlnilamE

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

AlnilamE wrote: »

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

Chuggernaut wrote: »

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

Oh, I see. I guess if I get tired of questing I will go to Craglorn.

Good luck finding someone on the same set of Craglorn quests as you. It's easier to find someone to group grind with than it is to find someone to do the actual content.

Unless you have a pretty good guild / friends than maybe it's not troublesome for you.

Well, at least they fixed the phasing issues and you can now help people who need help even if you've done the quests already.

I really enjoy the Craglorn questline. I've done all on my main, and Lower Craglorn on my sorc. Looking forward to doing UC and clearning the rest of the map with her and then doing the same thing with my templar.

Meanwhile my main needs to finish quests from Alik'r onwards, but I am getting on that.

I'm very jealous! My OP really came across as curt towards ZOS. While I venomously oppose the Veteran Ranks the first character I leveled it was a lot of fun doing the quests. I learned that, while I'm EP-centric through-and-through I really enjoyed the DC-based quests more than AD and EP. In fact I believe EP quests paled compared to both, but DC certainly takes center stage as far as the amazing quest content goes.

It's just a bummer leveling an alt now. I've seen and done everything so thoroughly on my main that it's mindless now and I see the VR-climb as a mostly unnecessary evil. I can't get consumed in the lore or atmosphere anymore since I'm slamming "e" on the quest givers, trying to get my objective then racing out to do it. I've tried to slow it down for my alts but I feel like I'm wasting so much time. I'm not one who can enjoy a book or movie a second time, especially so quickly.

I want to enjoy Craglorn. This is why I am jealous of you. I've done a couple of quests. I don't know what's going on with the quests in this zone since the few I've done the people I was with were impatient to say the least. They're already at the objective spot, "tank were r u/?/" as I try to suck in the quest dialogue. It's the same with dungeons. Oblivion Knows what's going on in there because people are running and pulling as I'm reading / listening. Ugh. Now I can't ever seem to find people to continue where I left off, which is okay at this point since Craglorn is bust and no longer fun for me. I love, love, love, love the aesthetics of this place though.

So if you can do Craglorn with people man, do it. Really get in there and enjoy it.

Sucks not having friends who play this game. The ones who I did have hit the brick wall at VR1 and returned to other games. It's hard to convince those people to return when I'm trying to pull two alts through Silver / Gold. At this point every single other game is looking more and more appealing to me.

Grr ZOS.

Since you are in EP (and I hope NA!) feel free to friend me in game. I'll be happy to run Craglorn quests with you and i'm sure I can get a group together most evenings.

Skullemainia

when I start cadwells silver and gold I just go to every zone and do all the main quests (because of the skillpoints) and I do all the dungeons to find all the skyschards.

Elsonso

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

I played for a few months at launch then left. I have been playing for about a month now. I have found that on the NA megaserver, the zones I am in when I play my VR4 character (Ebonheart Pact playing Cadwell's Silver) are almost completely empty. Is this just due to my level or are a lot of zones empty?

I have a EP VR 3 that I am slowly leveling in Cadwell Silver. I am spending a lot of time in Rivenspire and there are quite a few players in there. Not nearly as many as one can find in the non-Vet versions, but still enough that I run across someone all the time.

They should have done Cadwell so that all of the veterans from all of the alliances played in the same zones rather than having a special one for each starting alliance, but I guess they were rushed putting this in at the end (from what others say) so cobbled together is pretty much what it is.

likewow777

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

AlnilamE wrote: »

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

rhubbert_ESO wrote: »

Chuggernaut wrote: »

Actually both. It seems like most people just grind xp in Craglorn and in PvP, and skip silver and gold for the most part.

Oh, I see. I guess if I get tired of questing I will go to Craglorn.

Good luck finding someone on the same set of Craglorn quests as you. It's easier to find someone to group grind with than it is to find someone to do the actual content.

Unless you have a pretty good guild / friends than maybe it's not troublesome for you.

Well, at least they fixed the phasing issues and you can now help people who need help even if you've done the quests already.

I really enjoy the Craglorn questline. I've done all on my main, and Lower Craglorn on my sorc. Looking forward to doing UC and clearning the rest of the map with her and then doing the same thing with my templar.

Meanwhile my main needs to finish quests from Alik'r onwards, but I am getting on that.

I'm very jealous! My OP really came across as curt towards ZOS. While I venomously oppose the Veteran Ranks the first character I leveled it was a lot of fun doing the quests. I learned that, while I'm EP-centric through-and-through I really enjoyed the DC-based quests more than AD and EP. In fact I believe EP quests paled compared to both, but DC certainly takes center stage as far as the amazing quest content goes.

It's just a bummer leveling an alt now. I've seen and done everything so thoroughly on my main that it's mindless now and I see the VR-climb as a mostly unnecessary evil. I can't get consumed in the lore or atmosphere anymore since I'm slamming "e" on the quest givers, trying to get my objective then racing out to do it. I've tried to slow it down for my alts but I feel like I'm wasting so much time. I'm not one who can enjoy a book or movie a second time, especially so quickly.

I want to enjoy Craglorn. This is why I am jealous of you. I've done a couple of quests. I don't know what's going on with the quests in this zone since the few I've done the people I was with were impatient to say the least. They're already at the objective spot, "tank were r u/?/" as I try to suck in the quest dialogue. It's the same with dungeons. Oblivion Knows what's going on in there because people are running and pulling as I'm reading / listening. Ugh. Now I can't ever seem to find people to continue where I left off, which is okay at this point since Craglorn is bust and no longer fun for me. I love, love, love, love the aesthetics of this place though.

So if you can do Craglorn with people man, do it. Really get in there and enjoy it.

Sucks not having friends who play this game. The ones who I did have hit the brick wall at VR1 and returned to other games. It's hard to convince those people to return when I'm trying to pull two alts through Silver / Gold. At this point every single other game is looking more and more appealing to me.

Grr ZOS.

I've done many Craglorn quests, and all of the delves, and the repeatable quests multiple times. Throughout all of that, I've rarely ever understood a fraction of what the hell is going on. It's actually sad, really, because I've now gotten into the habit of just skipping dialogue to keep up with the group. I don't even think about it. And I usually like to feel immersed in the world, read the dialogue, actually understand what's going on. I'm doing Cadwell's gold and silver again because I like the quests and seeing the sights, etc.

It's probably why I like playing in VR areas that don't have people. I can go at my own pace and relax. Plus, if ever I do see "LFG Craglorn quests/delves", I jump on-board immediately, even if I've already done quests they haven't. That way, I think if I do them enough times quickly, I'll understand what's happening.

Hypertionb14_ESO

i will note, that playing in shadowfen for the first time in months.. not only was it MORE ACTIVE THAN IT WAS 7-8 months ago, but it was that way for a constant period

tpanisiakb16_ESO

I've done many Craglorn quests, and all of the delves, and the repeatable quests multiple times. Throughout all of that, I've rarely ever understood a fraction of what the hell is going on. It's actually sad, really, because I've now gotten into the habit of just skipping dialogue to keep up with the group. I don't even think about it. And I usually like to feel immersed in the world, read the dialogue, actually understand what's going on. I'm doing Cadwell's gold and silver again because I like the quests and seeing the sights, etc.

It's probably why I like playing in VR areas that don't have people. I can go at my own pace and relax. Plus, if ever I do see "LFG Craglorn quests/delves", I jump on-board immediately, even if I've already done quests they haven't. That way, I think if I do them enough times quickly, I'll understand what's happening.

Ugh, I know the feeling. I thought being a tank would mean I could make people wait for me. In every single group dungeon someone always just went ahead and pulled the group with me standing at the quest giver. I should have just let them die instead of "goodbye"-ing in the middle of the dialogue and optional sub-dialogues, but instead I turned tailed and charged into the group.

I really, really wanted to get immersed in Craglorn since I love the look of the entire zone. Same thing; people are too damned impatient for that which is its own problem with Group Zones.

Fingers crossed that Craglorn is the first and last group-only zone. I just don't see it working out for most of the playerbase.

As much as I spat in ZOS's direction about the empty Silver / Gold zones I agree with you on the point that it's nice they're empty -- hah. It's a treat to jump into a Doleman and solo it without other people joining in, trivializing that content.

I love it when a WB location comes up on my map, and I love it more if I struggle the first / second / third time downing it. I love having to change up my strategy, or if my solo-play build can do it I feel proud, etc. I wish there was more challenging solo-friendly content but I know I'm asking too much and being picky, and me, me, me. But it would be cool. So, yeah, *** for that I actually enjoy the solitude of Vet-zones.

I really should jump into random Craglorn groups. I really would hate to spend an evening on quests I can't get yet, though.