PTS : Coldharbour accessibility issues

Taleof2Cities

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

redspecter23 wrote: »

I also want a portal to the end chest of vMSA and directly to the end fight of vSO. I'm supposed to be able to freely roam anywhere. Please read the thread.

/sarcasm

Freely roaming does NOT mean you automatically get access anywhere you choose. There will still be some locked areas. That doesn't mean you can't go there. There are ways to get there.

Normally I'd agree with you @redspecter23 ... the zone is tied to quest progression and is one of the very few zones that is quest reliant. You can even get a port from another player to undiscovered wayshrines without doing the quest.

However, this is PTS and the zone should be accessible for doing testing. It's as simple as that.

@Taleof2Cities : it is available for testing on a template. That's not the issue. The issue is, as you say, that it is quest reliant, and according to the very definition/concept of One Tamriel, it shouldn't be. Porting to players is a workaround, not a design fix.

Got it. Not sure whether I support your argument, however.

On the one hand, I agree, the point of One Tamriel is to go anwhere you want in an open world ... a la other Elder Scrolls games.

On the other hand, we're talking about only one zone out of 26 total zones in the game ... if you can't be bothered doing the questline for access (or getting a port from another player), how lazy are you?

anitajoneb17_ESO

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

On the other hand, we're talking about only one zone out of 26 total zones in the game ... if you can't be bothered doing the questline for access or getting a port from another player, how lazy are you?

I'm signaling a bug/design issue, not requesting something for my own convenience.

If ZOS says "working as intended, Coldharbour is an exception because such and such reasons", then I'm fine with it. But for now imho it's something they have simply forgotten to adjust.

redspecter23

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

redspecter23 wrote: »

I also want a portal to the end chest of vMSA and directly to the end fight of vSO. I'm supposed to be able to freely roam anywhere. Please read the thread.

/sarcasm

Freely roaming does NOT mean you automatically get access anywhere you choose. There will still be some locked areas. That doesn't mean you can't go there. There are ways to get there.

Normally I'd agree with you @redspecter23 ... the zone is tied to quest progression and is one of the very few zones that is quest reliant. You can even get a port from another player to undiscovered wayshrines without doing the quest.

However, this is PTS and the zone should be accessible for doing testing. It's as simple as that.

@Taleof2Cities : it is available for testing on a template. That's not the issue. The issue is, as you say, that it is quest reliant, and according to the very definition/concept of One Tamriel, it shouldn't be. Porting to players is a workaround, not a design fix.

That's the real question though, isn't it. Should there be areas, even in the overworld that are still locked behind quest progression. My example took it to the extreme, but there will be a line drawn somewhere. My best guess is that ZoS still wants northern Coldharbor locked behind quest progression. The VoM door trick is clearly a workaround. Even if you try to port to someone at a wayshrine in northern Coldharbor, it will often send you to the far western area of the map instead, which implies to me that you aren't intended to be able to port to northern Coldharbor. So, has ZoS' intention changed regarding that particular area with One Tamriel. My thought is that they have not changed their stance. Yes you can get there, but the intended method would still be to do the quest chain leading up to that point. The alternative is to add some sort of lore friendly method of gaining access. You could use a lore method to explain away the VoM door workaround if you chose to, meaning no extra coding would need to be done at all. Just have an NPC inside VoM state that if you want, you can walk out the door to "sneak" into an area of Coldharbor that is currently locked off. There, lorewise you'd be covered.

anitajoneb17_ESO

redspecter23 wrote: »

That's the real question though, isn't it. Should there be areas, even in the overworld that are still locked behind quest progression.

Exactly. That's the question, and I'm not sure whether ZOS has given it a thought, or simply not seen the issue. I agree with your suggestions, that could be one way to "solve" it.

However, as I just found out by testing with an entirely new character, the problem is not only the northern part. As it is now, you cannot access Coldharbour at all unless you do the entire main quest... so that's a concern for the entire zone, in fact.

bebynnag

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

redspecter23 wrote: »

That's the real question though, isn't it. Should there be areas, even in the overworld that are still locked behind quest progression.

Exactly. That's the question, and I'm not sure whether ZOS has given it a thought, or simply not seen the issue. I agree with your suggestions, that could be one way to "solve" it.

However, as I just found out by testing with an entirely new character, the problem is not only the northern part. As it is now, you cannot access Coldharbour at all unless you do the entire main quest... so that's a concern for the entire zone, in fact.

I am a console player so i do not have access to PTS,
the aspect i would want to check given this new information is do i need to do the whole questline for my faction in order to access coldharbor?

(following contains info about quest progression some may not want to read)

or by skipping straight to my factions last zone (reapers march/the rift/bangkorai) and completing that maps main quest or even the final quest in the quest series is the 'summit' quest which takes us to coldharbour triggered?

hopefully you will be kind enough, or someone else with access to pts will be kind enough to test my ***

not sure why the word for single queries was **'d out

Dubhliam

I think Coldharbor should be the only inaccessible zone until you can get to it via progressing the main story.
However, you can still circumvent this by traveling to a friend.

ZOS should limit the Coldharbor CE maps to players that have explored at least one COldharbor wayshrine.
Also, the nothern treasure map locations should be moved to the southern part of Colharbor.

Enodoc

Considering you can theoretically skip most of the Alliance Story, all of the Main Quest, and only complete the last set of quests in the last zone of your alliance to unlock the Coldharbour access quest, getting there is really easy even without porting to a friend. And that was all possible even without One Tamriel if you could survive the Lvl 43 quests that were required.

At this point, ZOS might as well go the whole way and unlock a wayshrine in Coldharbour straight away. Alternatively, they should lock down story progression completely and disable porting to friends in Coldharbour, meaning it could only be accessed after Stirk.