Are there breaks in the main quest to allow for adventuring?

basketcaseNZ

Hi everyone.

So I'm level 7 and have just reached the part in the main quest where I arrive at the city on Summerset Isles and The Prophet appears to me and bids me meet him at the Harbourage. So I go meet him and he sends me off to rescue Lyris. All good, I wanted to get that done. Then he sends me away until he can learn the location of where another of the Five Companions is being held. No sooner than I step outside he calls me back in.

What I want to know is does the main quest pause between quests so I can go off and do other things? I know I can do that anytime I want and the main quest will wait, but I'm role playing and I feel weird leaving it when he says "Come to me Vestige. Hurry!"

I get the feeling I can just keep doing the main quest right to the end since they now have level scaling. That would suck really because I'd miss most of the game.

I'm fairly new to MMOs. The only other one I've really played, Age of Conan, forced you to reach a certain level before advancing the story.

Thanks guys.

cjhhickman39

You are called back to the harborage every fifth level when you go is up to you so after you got lyrics out you probably hit level ten that's why you got the quick recall but you don't have to answer if there is something else you are doing

Mic1007

You can do whatever you want, all at your own pace. You can do the whole main quest straight through (there is no 5 levels gap anymore since One Tamriel) or ignore it entirely. Up to you.

geonsocal

level 7 - on your first time through?

if so, I am sooooooo jealous...except for the part about having to start fresh in crafting, being able to navigate pvp, understanding all the abilites, being a master vampire and werewolf, and, most imporantly - riding my mount faster than I can walk...

enjoy, do your own thing and take some chances on random strangers - there's more than a few good people out there...be patient - much like the real world, tamriel isn't always perfect...

Edit: oh yeah, pick a forum pic...if you need some help working through forum stuff - ask away...some of the best (and worst ) of tamreil hang here...

Fudly_budly

Mic1007 wrote: »

You can do whatever you want, all at your own pace. You can do the whole main quest straight through (there is no 5 levels gap anymore since One Tamriel) or ignore it entirely. Up to you.

^^
relax... have fun... play... explore... it's an adventure, live it! Go fishing. Dance...

Kamatsu

At the moment no, if you keep on doing the Main Quest you will get the next quest straight away upon leaving the Habourage. There is no way to avoid this currently - which leaves you the choice of either doing the quest's straight away, or leaving them in your quest log till you feel like doing them.

The main quest's used to be handed out every 5-10 level's prior to the One Tamriel changes. However due to the changes in the game when One Tamriel launched, we're scaled up to be the equivalent of level 50 with 160 champion points - this also applies to all level locked quest's. So previously you had to level to get access to certain quest's (such as the Main Quest, Crafting Writ quest's, the Craglorn questline, etc), whereas right now because the game see's us as max level characters... it means all level locked quest's are now unlocked and available to us right from the start.

Valethar

I ignored the main quest for months, because I got sidetracked running around exploring, messing around with crafting, and doing local quests, etc..

There's nothing tying you to the 'main' quest that will prevent you from doing anything else at any given time. Like the tooltip states, pick a direction and start running. You'll find something to do eventually.

Annalyse

I understand your pain. I recently started a new character and I felt exactly the same - every time I left and the Prophet called me back, it felt too weird to just ignore it so I went! But I can offer you some consolation in this - while the quests are continual since scaling, the target area is not. So eventually, he will tell you the next step requires you to go somewhere and it will be in the next zone rather than the one you are in currently. At this point I would pause, quest and explore in the zone until I had it cleared, and then move on.

mercster

I have this exact problem. I signed up a long time ago but never dug in (I am also level 7).

This game is confusing to me. I feel the same way about the main quest. At what point is there a "break" in the action, so that I feel like "OK, nothing is required of me this EXACT moment, so I can go wander around and find stuff by accident". It seems like if you follow the main quest line it is very linear and over "quickly".

I finished most of the side-quests in the two hubs I've been to so far. What does it mean to "clear" an area?

Also, how does one get into the community? It seems like this is not a very social game. I remember playing Ultima Online and people would hang out at the bank, chit chat, chew the cud, etc.

I really love the mechanics of this game but having a hard time diving in. It's also very complex, there seem to be 420 systems (crafting, daily things, enchanting, etc etc etc) but there's not a manual anywhere or single repository explaining the basics of everything and what you should do when.

I need my hand held I guess? I will try to get good.

idk

cjhhickman39 wrote: »

You are called back to the harborage every fifth level when you go is up to you so after you got lyrics out you probably hit level ten that's why you got the quick recall but you don't have to answer if there is something else you are doing

@basketcaseNZ

The above answer is incorrect.

The quests of the main story line may be done one right after another. The last part does require completing the main story line of Cold Harbor since it follows in line.

There is not level requirement for any of it. This is One Tamriel.

CMFan1966

I'm still fairly new as well, but I've picked up a few tricks along the way. The main quest with the Prophet and the Harborage...you can do that at your own pace. You don't have to immediately appear there as soon as you're summoned.

Clearing an area.....I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that, but I try to acknowledge every arrow pointing in my compass bar at the top of my screen so that I don't leave anything undone.

The crafting writs.....those are completely voluntary, but a great way to get materials and gold. They are the signs with the green arrows pointing at them. I don't do all the writs. Once I am more experienced, I'll take on more. I try to do the writs that involve the crafting I'm interested in. For example, I love blacksmithing, but I'm not a fan of making clothing, so I do the blacksmithing crafting writs and leave the clothing ones alone. Also, since I can't help but look in every bag, barrel, crate, backpack and whatever else there is, I have a ton of provisioning stuff and recipes. I maxed provisioning out in a single day completely by accident!

I am nowhere near able to chat while I'm in game. I did my first group boss just a few weeks ago and only died twice! I can multi-task IRL like crazy, but not while I'm playing this game! LOL! Seriously though, I've learned a lot from reading the forums, letting people know I needed help (still do sometimes) and from reading some of the sections in the 'help' (question mark in the menu at the top) area while I'm in game. Hope this helps some.

Edit for spelling mistakes.

Annalyse

CMFan1966 wrote: »

Clearing an area.....I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that, but I try to acknowledge every arrow pointing in my compass bar at the top of my screen so that I don't leave anything undone.

That's pretty much exactly what it means! Just running around completing every quest, delve, and dolmen (and bosses if possible!), collecting the skyshards, and discovering all of the points of interest. Once there is nothing left to do or see the area is cleared! I like to clear whole zones before moving on to the next one, which is why I take breaks from the main quest and guild quests when they require leaving.

The addon "Destinations" helps a lot with this. I still do a lot of exploring but I have to admit I love knowing where all of the side quests are located so that I don't miss any.