Blackwood Zone will connect Northern Elsweyr and Shadowfen!

cmetzger93

Confirmed in the stream today by Gina! This is great news and a welcome change

Seraphayel

Yeah, this is a very little change but it adds cohesiveness to the world. I hope they’re doing this sooner or later with all zones that aren’t connected yet.

Tommy_The_Gun

Funny thing is that Shadowfen zone actually has unused road & gate in the south-west corner, the leads to nowhere... So I would imagine it will be the place where we can get to new zone.

cmetzger93

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Funny thing is that Shadowfen zone actually has unused road & gate in the south-west corner, the leads to nowhere... So I would imagine it will be the place where we can get to new zone.

Never noticed that before but it makes sense. Thank you for pointing that out

opaj

Fantastic news. This means we will finally be able to walk from any alliance capital to any other capital, if you don't mind taking a detour through Blackreach and you count the cart near Markarth as "walking".

That road in southern Shadowfen was originally meant to connect to Murkmire, before Murkmire was moved to the coast. It even used to say "Murkmire" in grayed-out text when you hovered your reticule over the gate, but they removed that years ago.

Athan1

I feel so good when zones are contiguous. Elsweyr zones are killing me

Recremen

Athan1 wrote: »

I feel so good when zones are contiguous. Elsweyr zones are killing me

Counterpoint: opportunity for a DLC later that takes us into the mountains and unlocks a Monk class or Unarmed skill line from all those hidden monasteries and adeptoriums.

Sylvermynx

It's not a worry or priority for me. What happens happens.

TheUndeadAmulet

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Funny thing is that Shadowfen zone actually has unused road & gate in the south-west corner, the leads to nowhere... So I would imagine it will be the place where we can get to new zone.

That unused gate has been there since before Greymoor, probably before Summerset as well. I think it was supposed to be used for an earlier version of the Argonian zone DLC that was supposed to come after the Guild DLC's, but got delayed and became Murkmire. Seems like it's in a weird spot if you want to connect to Blackwood.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Now they just need to connect the Reach to Bangkorai and then we will beable to walk from Glenumbra to Greenshade, starting from Glenumbra you can take this route...

Glenumbra
Stormhaven
Bangkorai
The Reach
Arkthzand Caverns
Greymoor Caverns
Mzark Caverns
Eastmarch
The Rift
Stonefalls
Deeshan
Shadowfen
Blackwood
Northern Elsweyr
Ghratwood
Greenshade

Dark_Lord_Kuro

TheUndeadAmulet wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Funny thing is that Shadowfen zone actually has unused road & gate in the south-west corner, the leads to nowhere... So I would imagine it will be the place where we can get to new zone.

That unused gate has been there since before Greymoor, probably before Summerset as well. I think it was supposed to be used for an earlier version of the Argonian zone DLC that was supposed to come after the Guild DLC's, but got delayed and became Murkmire. Seems like it's in a weird spot if you want to connect to Blackwood.

Was there before one tamriel! When murkmire was supposed to be an adventure zone like og craglorn

Dark_Lord_Kuro

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Funny thing is that Shadowfen zone actually has unused road & gate in the south-west corner, the leads to nowhere... So I would imagine it will be the place where we can get to new zone.

I think it would make more sense to make a new connection in the southwest part of shadowfen and keep the existing one for an eventual blackmarch chapter

It all depend on the shape they want to give to the zone
It will most likely connect near annequina and may even reach the north shore of the topal bay(i didnt finish the strem yet so not sure if it was said)

Maitsukas

Dark_Lord_Kuro wrote: »

TheUndeadAmulet wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Funny thing is that Shadowfen zone actually has unused road & gate in the south-west corner, the leads to nowhere... So I would imagine it will be the place where we can get to new zone.

That unused gate has been there since before Greymoor, probably before Summerset as well. I think it was supposed to be used for an earlier version of the Argonian zone DLC that was supposed to come after the Guild DLC's, but got delayed and became Murkmire. Seems like it's in a weird spot if you want to connect to Blackwood.

Was there before one tamriel! When murkmire was supposed to be an adventure zone like og craglorn

That was there since the game's release

Tommy_The_Gun

TheUndeadAmulet wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Funny thing is that Shadowfen zone actually has unused road & gate in the south-west corner, the leads to nowhere... So I would imagine it will be the place where we can get to new zone.

That unused gate has been there since before Greymoor, probably before Summerset as well. I think it was supposed to be used for an earlier version of the Argonian zone DLC that was supposed to come after the Guild DLC's, but got delayed and became Murkmire. Seems like it's in a weird spot if you want to connect to Blackwood.

Well, one of the Devs on the recent ESO stream (additional chapter zone preview) mentioned that some areas of new Chapter zones were actually originally designed as a "Murkmire 1.0" - but it got rejected and scrapped so Murkmire was re-made as a different zone entirely. Same dev even said that one NPC in Gideon (probably important to the story) was planned to be added in Murkmire, but it was altered, so said NPCs did not appeared in Murkmire DLC, but it will appear in this new Zone.

Supreme_Atromancer

This is awesome. Thanks ZOS for appreciating how important it is to us that the world feels connected!

Dark_Lord_Kuro wrote: »

I think it would make more sense to make a new connection in the southwest part of shadowfen and keep the existing one for an eventual blackmarch chapter

Agreed. That gate would have originally lead to Helstrom in the original Murkmire, well east of anywhere Blackwood chapter could reach. We'll see how they handle it.

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

Now they just need to connect the Reach to Bangkorai and then we will beable to walk from Glenumbra to Greenshade, starting from Glenumbra you can take this route...

Yep! Would still love it if they ditched the boring cart and made the gate at Jackdaw Cove actually lead somewhere.

StarOfElyon

Arx Corinium II please!

phantasmalD

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Agreed. That gate would have originally lead to Helstrom in the original Murkmire, well east of anywhere Blackwood chapter could reach. We'll see how they handle it.

I don't remember Helstrom ever being mentioned in the context of old MM.
The original plan for Murkmire was for it to go diagonally down along the western border, with Gideon being the featured main city.

If I know my Black Marsh well enough, Helstrom would be a bit to the east of the text on this map, kinda far from the planned playable area.

Danikat

This is good news, but I'm a bit disappointed by how exciting it feels. IMO the default should be that maps are adjacent and connect whenever possible, barring geographical features which make it impossible. Of course if a map is off on it's own (like Summerset or Murkmire) then it makes sense that the only connection to other maps is by boat or caravan. But it annoys me that they sealed off the two parts of Elseweyr and left that little gap between them so they don't even connect to each other.

I hope this is a shift in their plans and in future zones will connect whenever it makes sense to do so.

phantasmalD

Danikat wrote: »

But it annoys me that they sealed off the two parts of Elseweyr and left that little gap between them so they don't even connect to each other.

That's not just a random gap, it's an actual area that they just haven't covered yet, containing well established, historically important cities (like Corinthe, Torval) and the majority of the Tenmar Forest.

I far prefer the gap in this specific case as it leaves room for a future khajiit-centered dlc, so we don't just get 5 hammerfell expansions in a row because they ran out of space every other race.

Sure, the shape is a bit awkward and it's sad that they didn't add dummy gates to NE and SE, but connecting the two zones would have been worse as that would have been lore erasure.

Also, it's actually not even a small hole, it's about the same size as Southern Elsweyr, just stretched out.

Supreme_Atromancer

phantasmalD wrote: »

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Agreed. That gate would have originally lead to Helstrom in the original Murkmire, well east of anywhere Blackwood chapter could reach. We'll see how they handle it.

I don't remember Helstrom ever being mentioned in the context of old MM.
The original plan for Murkmire was for it to go diagonally down along the western border, with Gideon being the featured main city.

If I know my Black Marsh well enough, Helstrom would be a bit to the east of the text on this map, kinda far from the planned playable area.

So on the Anthology map, as well as the Arena map, Helstrom is directly south of Stormhold. You can see on the map that you linked features of Shadowfen, including the circular Ayleid ruins, directly south of Stormhold. However, they would have had some play with it in either direction, so dunno. And I could very well be remembering it wrong, tbh. I'll have a look for old info later.

Danikat

phantasmalD wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

But it annoys me that they sealed off the two parts of Elseweyr and left that little gap between them so they don't even connect to each other.

That's not just a random gap, it's an actual area that they just haven't covered yet, containing well established, historically important cities (like Corinthe, Torval) and the majority of the Tenmar Forest.

I far prefer the gap in this specific case as it leaves room for a future khajiit-centered dlc, so we don't just get 5 hammerfell expansions in a row because they ran out of space every other race.

Sure, the shape is a bit awkward and it's sad that they didn't add dummy gates to NE and SE, but connecting the two zones would have been worse as that would have been lore erasure.

Also, it's actually not even a small hole, it's about the same size as Southern Elsweyr, just stretched out.

I'm well aware of what's supposed to be there, that's why I'm annoyed that they excluded that strip from maps which otherwise cover all of Elseweyr (except the bit which was already in Reaper's March).

Especially since I'm not convinced they will include it in future releases. Look at the size of the space compared to the other maps; apart from Imperial City and the starter islands they're all bigger. I don't think the number of cities and other locations which are supposed to be there matters to ZOS (otherwise a number of maps would be quite difference, Glenumbra for a start). It wouldn't surprise me if the nearest ZOS ever gets to acknowledging the omission is saying it's too small for a DLC map so nothing will happen to it.

phantasmalD

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

phantasmalD wrote: »

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

Agreed. That gate would have originally lead to Helstrom in the original Murkmire, well east of anywhere Blackwood chapter could reach. We'll see how they handle it.

I don't remember Helstrom ever being mentioned in the context of old MM.
The original plan for Murkmire was for it to go diagonally down along the western border, with Gideon being the featured main city.

If I know my Black Marsh well enough, Helstrom would be a bit to the east of the text on this map, kinda far from the planned playable area.

So on the Anthology map, as well as the Arena map, Helstrom is directly south of Stormhold. You can see on the map that you linked features of Shadowfen, including the circular Ayleid ruins, directly south of Stormhold. However, they would have had some play with it in either direction, so dunno. And I could very well be remembering it wrong, tbh. I'll have a look for old info later.

Which is about where I said I'd have put it as well, just used different POIs :B

Tbh tho, the Anthology map is kinda unapplicable to ESO, or at least to Black Marsh and Morrowind, there are several places that are missplaced.
For example, Mournhold and Narsis. But also Stormhold.
On the Anthology map the city of Stormhold is below the line you'd draw from the southern edge of the Tear peninsula, but in ESO it's above it.
(In other words, on the Anthology map Stormhold is south-west from Tear, while in ESO it's merely west from it.)

There's actually one city in ESO that correctly corresponds with the location of Stormhold on the Anthology map: Hissmir. So my headcanon is that Hissmir is actually the city that's marked as Stormhold on 3rd era maps :P
And the current Stormhold is actually a Dunmer city that's only a part of Shadowfen due to some early Ebonheart Pact secessions.

Danikat wrote: »

phantasmalD wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

But it annoys me that they sealed off the two parts of Elseweyr and left that little gap between them so they don't even connect to each other.

That's not just a random gap, it's an actual area that they just haven't covered yet, containing well established, historically important cities (like Corinthe, Torval) and the majority of the Tenmar Forest.

I far prefer the gap in this specific case as it leaves room for a future khajiit-centered dlc, so we don't just get 5 hammerfell expansions in a row because they ran out of space every other race.

Sure, the shape is a bit awkward and it's sad that they didn't add dummy gates to NE and SE, but connecting the two zones would have been worse as that would have been lore erasure.

Also, it's actually not even a small hole, it's about the same size as Southern Elsweyr, just stretched out.

I'm well aware of what's supposed to be there, that's why I'm annoyed that they excluded that strip from maps which otherwise cover all of Elseweyr (except the bit which was already in Reaper's March).

Especially since I'm not convinced they will include it in future releases. Look at the size of the space compared to the other maps; apart from Imperial City and the starter islands they're all bigger. I don't think the number of cities and other locations which are supposed to be there matters to ZOS (otherwise a number of maps would be quite difference, Glenumbra for a start). It wouldn't surprise me if the nearest ZOS ever gets to acknowledging the omission is saying it's too small for a DLC map so nothing will happen to it.

Precisely because of provinces like High Rock is why they would leave gaps like this middle Elsweyr one. They foolishly filled in HR (and Valenwood) during early development and now they can't really do Breton content anymore, so Bretons are stuck with almost 10 years old content and style.

Unless the game dies before they get back to Elsweyr, there's no reason to think they won't utilize that gap. If they didn't want to ever use it then they WOULD have filled it in. It's empty because they want to eventually use it.


Also, it's not a small area. Here:

Cut out the gap and overlayed it on Northern Elsweyr (gave it red outline for visibility). About 50% of NE, or 100% SE.
I also included Hew's Bane for comparison, about 1/4 of the size of NE.

If Hew's Bane was big enough for a DLC then an area twice as big will be as well.

Iccotak

Now in about three years we’ll get another Skyrim chapter that connects eastern and western Skyrim