Starting Messages Across Tamriel without completing your Alliance questline?

ArchMikem

I hadn't done a lick of the Alliance questline on my warden but decided to get as much of the main story done as i could. I then notice I've managed to start the Coldharbour questline after getting to the 2nd to last main story quest. The dialogue is all the same, people this character hasn't met yet are calling me Jorunn's Champion even though i haven't even saved Davon's Watch.

When did this become a thing?

MaleAmazon

One Tamriel? I dunno, but it has been a thing for a long time, since they uncoupled the MQ from levelling and made it so you could immediately do the whole MQ AFAIK.

Danikat

Yeah I think it must have changed with One Tamriel if it wasn't like that before.

It might have always been possible, but I doubt many people did the main quest without doing their alliance's quest too.

MLGProPlayer

That sounds like a bug. I've done the main story on one character post-OT and I couldn't start that quest until completing my alliance story (I was AD).

I was able to visit Colharbour whenever I wanted by porting to someone there, but there was no quest.

MaleAmazon

It´s no bug. I´ve been able to speedrun the entire main quest on my alts without touching the Alliance quest lines for a long time. I always do the whole MQ first for skillpoints, then vacuum the zones for skillpoints as I do the alliance quests.

You can start and finish the whole main quest but it´s not under Main Quest in the journal anymore after 'Messages' IIRC, it´s under Coldharbour. But you don´t need the alliance questline finished.

It might have always been possible, but I doubt many people did the main quest without doing their alliance's quest too.

IIRC back in the day you did not get the final quest unless you had completed the alliance quest line, but I´m not 100% sure. If you look at an old guide the outdated info is probably still there. The level requirements make me kind of nostalgic and I am pretty sure I did the whole alliance questline before finishing the game, also things don´t quite make sense if you don´t.

EDIT: https://www.ign.com/wikis/elder-scrolls-online/Main_Quests (outdated)

Alamakot

Yes, since OneTamriel this quest spawns during (or after one completes) Coldharbour questline; completely does not matter if you even started Aliance Line or not

ArchMikem

Interesting. Well i guess that's fine. Seriously breaks immersion though.

Jhalin

It’s about as bad as forcing new players into the final arc of a trilogy in the Daedric wars as their first narrative line

Only to go do the actual storyline and find all those people they saved/lost interacted with have no idea who they are in the main zones

pdblake

Ive just done messages across tamriel and I'm nowhere near done with the AD quest line.

MaleAmazon

Interesting. Well i guess that's fine. Seriously breaks immersion though.

It’s about as bad as forcing new players into the final arc of a trilogy in the Daedric wars as their first narrative line

Well yeah, but they don´t really force you... you can play in any order you like. Personally I benefit from the current system since I want skillpoints but I have done the quests to death so.. nice to be able to speedrun it. But dropping people in Summerset is just idiotic. It had been much better to drop people in a proper starting zone and give them an NPC or a book that explains their choices. Because yeah, it *does* wreck the story.

I guess ZOS assumes that most people who play their products are kinda dense and cannot understand simple instructions so they have to be handheld.

And judging by many in the PUGs I´ve played, theyre not entirely wrong..

starkerealm

MaleAmazon wrote: »

It´s no bug. I´ve been able to speedrun the entire main quest on my alts without touching the Alliance quest lines for a long time. I always do the whole MQ first for skillpoints, then vacuum the zones for skillpoints as I do the alliance quests.

You can start and finish the whole main quest but it´s not under Main Quest in the journal anymore after 'Messages' IIRC, it´s under Coldharbour. But you don´t need the alliance questline finished.

It might have always been possible, but I doubt many people did the main quest without doing their alliance's quest too.

IIRC back in the day you did not get the final quest unless you had completed the alliance quest line, but I´m not 100% sure. If you look at an old guide the outdated info is probably still there. The level requirements make me kind of nostalgic and I am pretty sure I did the whole alliance questline before finishing the game, also things don´t quite make sense if you don´t.

EDIT: https://www.ign.com/wikis/elder-scrolls-online/Main_Quests (outdated)

The exact trigger was completing The Den of Lorkhaj (Dominion), To Walk on Far Shores (Covenant), or Stomping Sinmur (Pact), and also completing Council of Five Companions. Technically, you didn't need to do anything else, except Den of Lorkhaj and Far Shores both require you to complete that entire zone, while Stomping Sinmur only requires playing through, I think, Securing the Pass, and nothing else. (It's been awhile.) As a result, the norm used to be that speedrunners would play Pact because it was possible to get to the final boss fight for Pact, and roll into Coldharbour with only one or two quests, where as every other alliance required you to complete the entire final zone storyline.

Since One Tamriel released, it was changed to ONLY require Council of Five Companions, which also had it's level requirements removed, so it's far more possible now to stumble into Messages long before you've completed your alliance content.