The game needs a huge Continuity Patch! Players deserve a good and holistic story in TESO!

Treshcore

@UnseenCat, I seem to agree with you. Maybe there is no need to completely rework original quests, but there should be better explanations on why do you see the events in other alliances as like they were in the past. I was thinking about it in a last few days and maybe there is that way to fix these issues:

• As I told before, other alliances' story quests should really be locked until you complete the main quest. You can explore other alliances' lands, you can complete side quests in these areas, but what you can't do is completing story quests. Also, there should be straight connections of story quests between regions to prevent, for example, completing story quests in The Rift before you complete story quests in Eastmarch.
• Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold should be reworked into a story how Meridia plays with reality around you. For example, in the end of the story, in the Colored Rooms (Meridia's realm where you return your soul), it should be her who will tell you to touch the Light of Meridia in order to return to Tamriel. She may explain it like: "Touch this Light and you will be returned to Tamriel, but not the whole one. You will see the events on your alliance's lands in present as usual, but if you try to visit other alliances, you'll get into the reality made only for you to see the events that have already happened there".
  Note: "Only for you" doesn't mean that you won't see other players - they're still simple adventurers from your perspective.
• When you actually complete story quests of any of the foreign alliances, you will have the opportunity to touch the Light of Meridia once again so it will "register" you as the "present" inhabitant of the foreign alliance, making a small "Dragon Break" on the territories of their alliances which will make their "present" state reflect your actions and decisions. From Meridia's perspective, you will just "do some stuff" on other alliance's territory, then touch her Light once again and... then everyone will note that it was you who did something in their reality.

This is a hard-to-explain thing, but playing with time and reality is never easy. ZOS decided to launch "One Tamriel" without any explanation of how it will work - and now this thread exists! Now it should be brought back in order.
And yeah, about Dragon Break... This isn't a perfect way to explain it, but do we have some other choice?

RedMuse

1) I do not want to be locked out of other factions' stories. All my characters are either agnostic when it comes to faction or very utilitarian and mercenary. Only two are involved in Cyrodiil, one for money and the other because she needed to get to IP and it was the choice between going through three armies solo or through two armies with another to back her. Being calculated and at least of middling intelligence she chose option B.

2) I dislike being locked out of story content. Yes side quest X may technically come after main quest C but while it might not bother me the first time around being locked out the second time I play through is intensely annoying and keeps me from playing a lot of games more than once, or drop out of MMOs after I've played through their story once. I this is to be instituted at least it should be with the option of "jumping ahead" or skipping stories. I want to replay my favorite stories, not be force to got through 50 hours of gameplay to get to those two specific stories which I love to revisit. Sorry, no.

Personally I'm much more adverse to being locked out of story content because of "continuity" than I do with doing things in the "wrong" order.

JKorr

Totally missing the point that Cadwell explains that what Meridia is offering is the chance to experience the other factions as though your original faction story *never* happened. Cadwell's Silver and Gold are opportunities for you to experience the other faction stories as though they were your original factions. What you did in your original faction never happened, until you get to the "stop the plane meld" and "get your soul back" parts.

ZOS did this after much ranting and complaining that people wanted to do everything with one character. They didn't want to make alts to do the other two factions. After more complaints, where people wanted to do any quest in any faction in any zone at any time One Tamriel happened so all new players can be totally confused while doing anything out of order.

MerguezMan

OP, please consider what you're asking goes totally against the "One Tamriel" update, which was implemented for good reasons.

Story-wise, it is clearly said at some point, but commonly ignored that Teleport points mess not only with space, but also time itself. You should tackle zones in the historical order, what happens in Stonefalls is always before the other EP zones, whatever order you took the quests.

Whatever happens in other alliances happens simultaneously than what happened in your main alliance, as it's a vision of alternate history Meridia projects.

You're asking to add restrictions that would prevent co-op play, which is obviously a bad thing in an MMO, except for pure roleplay guilds (and even then, it would make jolly cooperation much harder, as you'd have to wait partners to clear 1-4 zones before joining you).

Yes, the Tamriel timeline is broken beyon repair, and there are time travellers everywhere. Well, it's a magic world, so we can live with that...

colossalvoids

Don't you think that instead of asking for locking story lines for other people because your personal immersion is broken or something it would be more productive not to mess with other people's experiences and "demand" an alternative vanilla start in a coldharbour with features you asked for, like locked alliance lines before doing x, y and z, etc. for newcomers that came here for the story.

This also should be more flexible, so you can force those locked quests if you desire to as new people might find out after some time that it's not the way they want to play this game, willing to do non linear stuff with their new friends etc.

Treshcore

@RedMuse, I see your point and I'll try to answer.

1) You won't be locked from other factions' stories if they will be unlocked after you complete the Main Quest.

2) Let's imagine that you like Skyrim and one of your favorite quests is the one where you infiltrate Thalmor's Embassy. You like it, but you can't jump right to it if you don't do previous quests. This is how the story goes.
Of course, TESO's story is less dependent on each others' fragments. Developers thought like this too - and they missed so many points where it is actually dependent. For example, I wonder what happens in the end of Eastmarch story where all three Ebonheart Pact races' representatives establish the Pact on the peak of Skuldafn by giving their races' artifacts as a token of their agreement. When I was there, I felt proud that it was me who recovered all the three artifacts.
With this argument, I have to say, that every game has levels/missions/quests you complete just because you want to reach some certain point you like very much. World of TESO should revolve around you, but it should revolve around logical handling of continuity.

As a compromise variant, I think that there should be different modes you're able to choose when you create your character, for example. The first mode is called "Sequential mode" where all the story quests go in a linear order preventing you to complete one quests ahead of other, and the second mode called "Adventurer mode" where you have all the stories available from the beginning with the warning that they may mess up your continuity experience.

Treshcore

@MerguezMan, I see that One Tamriel update is handled badly and should be reworked to be more logical.
In the previous commentary by me, I told about compromise variant of choosing game modes. I prefer to see a holistic, logical story rather than playing with friends. If you prefer to see a story messed up, it's your choice, but this choice shouldn't oppose some people's desire to experience not just an Elder Scrolls game, but an Elder Scrolls' story and world.
Also, this commentary may serve as an answer to @colossalvoids.

@JKorr, maybe ZOS created One Tamriel for a good reason, but they probably did it with sacrificing TESO's storyline continuity. They should implement more logic, more explanation to what happens in there, give people a choice if they want to play the game in "strictly right order" or would like to see things messed up just to participate in particular stories.

hafgood

Obviously you don't want my input but like Redmuse I do not want to be locked out of the other alliances quests, as stated in my original reply I did Silver and Gold before my own zone and also before the main storyline. And if I want to do that again on another character then that's my choice. Locking me out of them until I have done certain other storylines goes against everything One Tamriel stands for. The whole point is we can do what we want when we want.

Again I don't want to see an either / or choice when creating a new character. New players won't be aware of the constraints of your Sequential Mode and may find it restrictive.

As I have said, yes have a guide that suggests a route through the quests but do not put constraints in place saying you must do this then this then this. That approach is fine for a solo game. This is not a solo game and should not treated as one. Yes you can play solo but playing solo in an MMO is different to playing a solo RPG.

JKorr

Treshcore wrote: »

@MerguezMan, I see that One Tamriel update is handled badly and should be reworked to be more logical.
In the previous commentary by me, I told about compromise variant of choosing game modes. I prefer to see a holistic, logical story rather than playing with friends. If you prefer to see a story messed up, it's your choice, but this choice shouldn't oppose some people's desire to experience not just an Elder Scrolls game, but an Elder Scrolls' story and world.
Also, this commentary may serve as an answer to @colossalvoids.

@JKorr, maybe ZOS created One Tamriel for a good reason, but they probably did it with sacrificing TESO's storyline continuity. They should implement more logic, more explanation to what happens in there, give people a choice if they want to play the game in "strictly right order" or would like to see things messed up just to participate in particular stories.

If you want to, you can play the stories sequentially. It really isn't hard to do. However, you must keep in mind that all 3 of the faction stories take place at the same time. Its why, when I got the game, I made three characters. One for Ebonheart, one for Aldmeri, and one for Daggerfall Covenant. Many players were outraged that, in the beginning, you were locked into your faction's zones. You could go from Glenumbra to Bangkorai if you wanted and were DC. You could NOT go from Glenumbra to Auridon. The stories are coherent. Cadwell's Silver and Gold make sense if you listen to Meridia. The fact that a lot of people rush to get to the story content they want, or don't bother with story content at all grinding for "end game" or pvp doesn't mean the devs should roll back the game to the faction lock period. With all the chapters now they'd never manage to path everything so a story would be both "locked in sequence" and coherent. I think there would be a lot of angry players if everyone had to start at a tutorial and then be forced into one faction until they play all the way through ALL the story content in order before they can roam the world.

RedMuse

Treshcore wrote: »

@RedMuse, I see your point and I'll try to answer.

1) You won't be locked from other factions' stories if they will be unlocked after you complete the Main Quest.

2) Let's imagine that you like Skyrim and one of your favorite quests is the one where you infiltrate Thalmor's Embassy. You like it, but you can't jump right to it if you don't do previous quests. This is how the story goes.
Of course, TESO's story is less dependent on each others' fragments. Developers thought like this too - and they missed so many points where it is actually dependent. For example, I wonder what happens in the end of Eastmarch story where all three Ebonheart Pact races' representatives establish the Pact on the peak of Skuldafn by giving their races' artifacts as a token of their agreement. When I was there, I felt proud that it was me who recovered all the three artifacts.
With this argument, I have to say, that every game has levels/missions/quests you complete just because you want to reach some certain point you like very much. World of TESO should revolve around you, but it should revolve around logical handling of continuity.

As a compromise variant, I think that there should be different modes you're able to choose when you create your character, for example. The first mode is called "Sequential mode" where all the story quests go in a linear order preventing you to complete one quests ahead of other, and the second mode called "Adventurer mode" where you have all the stories available from the beginning with the warning that they may mess up your continuity experience.

1) I will be locked out. You just said I would be forced to complete the Main quest line to get to it. My whole argument was that I don't want to be fore to play for 50 hours or however long to get to specific piece of content,

2) The comparison is somewhat disingenuous and I think you're fully aware of that. Skyrim is Skyrim and ESO is ESO, they work in very different ways being not just different games but wholly different genres. For one thing Skyrim is a single player game and as such has a very important function called "save game". So if I want to play through a particular part of the story again I can just go back and reload an old save and replay from there, ESO have no such function. Maybe we should institute save function in the plot play through instead so we can go back and replay from that point? Would make a much more sensible suggestion imo.

3) I do like your suggestion of having both a Sequential mode and an "Adventurer", that would indeed solve both our problems.

hakan

i didnt read all of it but i agree with some points like story not having any weight and a character being able to do anything.

listening how powerful someone is then 2 shotting him afterwards gets old really quick and feels very trivial.

Treshcore

@RedMuse, I'm glad that in the third point we came to some sort of agreement. I think that giving player a choice is the best idea as always. TESO supports mods for UI, but it can't support quest mods, fixes, etc. This is why the ability to choose your playstyle should be implemented as well.

Iccotak

Treshcore wrote: »

snip

Look we're just going to have to acknowledge that the base game was handled poorly. There really is no fixing it beyond giving the players a chronological guide at this point.

One Tamriel sacrificed Alliance exclusivity. That is the choice they made. Personally I only level through my alliance (Blood for the Pact) but people want to be able to play with their friends.

What they can do however going forward is acknowledge and implement consequence for Alliance choice in future content.

Example: Give the player a questline in a dlc zone that is specific to their alliance. There can be three alliance camps on the map and one of them is friendly to you. You play one side of the questline. This adds some re-playability. Encourages to try out other alliance choices.

ZOS_Ragnar

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TheImperfect

I seem to remember some explanation in the dialogue for going through each areas questline as it's happening at the same timeline as your own zones quests. The way I have head cannoned it (and I'm sure it says somewhere) is that the questgivers don't see you as a member of your alliance, they see you as a member of their alliance helping them out and in my head my character is inhabiting the body of a member of the alliance for the duration and seeing what it is they experienced during that time period (and that member of the alliance wanted to help their alliance and wouldn't refuse to).

JoDiMageio

I honestly don't see the issue here...

For me, continuity and having the story make sense is important. So I went on this little tool called Google, and wrote down on a sheet of paper the correct order to do things.

For people who love lore, it's very easy to come up with RP reasons behind choices - for me, it didn't make sense to go into Coldharbour before I had helped all three alliances, so I completed Cadwell's silver and gold before even setting foot in Molag Bal's business. Then I followed all the DLC and Chapters in order. I came up with my own story. But that's exactly it... it's MY story. I don't see why my story should be imposed on anyone else, or how they want to play the game.

There's another thing called suspension of disbelief... this is a game, it's fiction. Being able to take a step back and use your brain and creativity to come up with your own headcanon that makes sense for you and the story you want to tell is important, as not everyone wants to play the game the same way.

Insinuating that there is something wrong and demanding the game be fixed and played only in one way seems a little extreme to me. To each their own.

Treshcore

@ZOS_RyanM, I completely agree with this decision since I feel that this conversation became a little unconstructive at certain points. This thread was made for highlighting the problem of broken story lines' continuity and finding solutions to fix this.
Commentaries like "I don't need it" indeed make me a little angry. The problem I talk about objectively exists and should be fixed. People who write it there like "It's not a major problem, we don't care" seem to not understand that they are playing an Elder Scrolls game - a game in the series which is famous for it's lore and story. They are right to see MMO in TESO, but it's not just an MMO game in the view of dedicated TES fans. It won't be helpful if ZOS developers will come here, look through the discussion and just say: "Well, this isn't required by the most of the players". Well sorry, but if there was a full mod support, these "most of the players" would've installed anime mods - why TESO still doesn't have anime style then?
I will not answer to this kind of commentaries again to prevent other violations and mess. But I want to put it clear that the problem of story continuity objectively exists and it must be fixed to fit the standards of The Elder Scrolls games. This thread is made for finding a better way to do this. Thank you.

Treshcore

I was just thinking about all of this and... probably discovered a source of the problem.
But first, I'd like to sum up what we've got here. There should be two modes: "Linear mode" and "Non-linear mode". Non-linear mode should be something what we're having now (maybe even more disconnected), linear mode - a strict line of story quests through all the alliances. Even with the further details I believe that alliances' overall quests should be more connected in the linear mode because they are - three really good stories... If told in the right way.
And now goes the meaty part...

Imagine if you own Summerset DLC, play as Daggerfall Covenant soldier, but decide to play through Summerset first. You will have one character who is dead/disappeared in Summerset... But appears completely alive and healthy in a DC storyline.
First, I thought that there should be supporting characters who would replace dead/disappeared characters, but then I thought that it will be too expansive. Plus, even newer DLC may refer to the events of the older DLC. With realizing the scale of work to be done to achieve full consistency of the global plot, I think that...

The game itself should accept that it's timeline is broken, so one of the first quests should introduce it as an explained feature of the game, maybe even giving you the right order of stories to complete.
The next question is how would the game do it. There used to be a different suggestion now - definitely a crazy one. However, I ​found a video showcasing the new tutorial which will be available for everyone (I suppose) with Blackwood update. I was really happy to see how the new tutorial is handled, and don't worry about spoilers ahead: there's none of them about Blackwood.
In general, you are called "a chosen one" since the beginning. And of course you don't know why and don't remember anything that was before you arrived in Tamriel. This is already a half of the work to explain everything.

In my vision, there should be more strange things coming during your playthrough after it.
Even though many people don't like the idea of Dragon Break, we should look on things clearly. Dragon Break was created as a tool to explain six different endings in TES II: Daggerfall. Since this moment it was never clearly used in the game series, though mentioned by many lore books. Dragon Break is an entry point in discussing TES metaphysical lore - and this is the real reason why it's hated sometimes: it's overused by bad lore-masters ("masters") to explain everything - even bugs. We shouldn't look on them but should look on the facts. TESO timeline is broken, but our hero is definitely the chosen one who deserves to be in that kind of things. This is the moment when Dragon Break explanation should be used as a tool of emergency need.
If we have Dragon Break, it's possible to say that every alliance, every DLC region is set in it's own timeline - thanks to Varen who did much bigger "job" with the Amulet of Kings. And this is why we can see dead people alive, this is why newer DLC refer to the events of the older DLC... And this is why we don't ask any questions. Our characters' personality, attitude and loyalty may be dependent on a region where he/she is located. If you're in one of the three alliances - you're loyal to these alliances, if you're on some non-alliance territory, well - you're just an adventurer with no loyalty. With some Dragon Break, it is possible to put different parts of Tamriel into different times as well as "multiply" our hero's personality based on the needs of these territories.

I hope that I explained it as clearly as possible. Of course, many people wouldn't like Dragon Break explanation, but I have to say that they may don't know how rarely Dragon Break is used throughout not the lore, but games. TESO is a great game with the lack of continuity explanations - and this is the rightest moment since 2002 when this explanation can be really useful.

JKorr

Treshcore wrote: »

@ZOS_RyanM, I completely agree with this decision since I feel that this conversation became a little unconstructive at certain points. This thread was made for highlighting the problem of broken story lines' continuity and finding solutions to fix this.
Commentaries like "I don't need it" indeed make me a little angry. The problem I talk about objectively exists and should be fixed. People who write it there like "It's not a major problem, we don't care" seem to not understand that they are playing an Elder Scrolls game - a game in the series which is famous for it's lore and story. They are right to see MMO in TESO, but it's not just an MMO game in the view of dedicated TES fans. It won't be helpful if ZOS developers will come here, look through the discussion and just say: "Well, this isn't required by the most of the players". Well sorry, but if there was a full mod support, these "most of the players" would've installed anime mods - why TESO still doesn't have anime style then?
I will not answer to this kind of commentaries again to prevent other violations and mess. But I want to put it clear that the problem of story continuity objectively exists and it must be fixed to fit the standards of The Elder Scrolls games. This thread is made for finding a better way to do this. Thank you.

The story continuity of the elder scrolls games....like the one where you can have a dwemer artifact in your inventory, give it to Lord Fyre way ahead of when you need to give it to him for "story continuity" and totally bork the main quest of the game? That kind of story continuity? Notice any issues with the in-game books? Just like Meridia, Hermeus Mora sort of intervened, and all books ever published in Tamriel are in the game no matter when they were actually created. The "continuity" of the Elder Scrolls is fluid and evolving at best. Everything in the game is from the viewpoint of my Vestige; she doesn't really care what is happening in other parts of the world. Everything is relevant in relation to her when she gets there, no matter when that might be. Check the Imperial Library; they have a lot of timelines and story line information if you want it. https://www.imperial-library.info/content/elder-scrolls-online Not bad for a game that started off as a fighting game. https://www.imperial-library.info/content/go-blades

WiseSky

I wish for the devs to accommodate as many players as possible. And I would like to see this feature in the game.

For now lets do the best we can as a community, some players have taken things into their own hands and made things that where once features in addons now added to the base game.

Here are some tools that you can use to have the Chronological order. Its not perfect but its the best we have for right now.

An Excel Sheet Explaining in which order to do the quests and side quests in most zones, up until SummerSet If anyone would like to help or continue this it would a great resource for people, since its only explained till SummerSet.

---

THE QUESTING GUIDE

» «

• A list of compiled quests where you'll find each major storyline in the game listed in chronological order, (defaulting to order of content release), where you can follow along or even check off your list you may have left uncompleted years ago.

The Questing Guide Menu Showing the chronological order of quests by zone and a summary of your actions in each quest

---

As a WiseMan once said, ask not what Your Game can do for you, but what you can do for your Game.

phantasmalD

Treshcore wrote: »

Imagine if you own Summerset DLC, play as Daggerfall Covenant soldier, but decide to play through Summerset first. You will have one character who is dead/disappeared in Summerset... But appears completely alive and healthy in a DC storyline.
First, I thought that there should be supporting characters who would replace dead/disappeared characters, but then I thought that it will be too expansive. Plus, even newer DLC may refer to the events of the older DLC. With realizing the scale of work to be done to achieve full consistency of the global plot, I think that...

The conversation with Darien Gautier addresses this. If you met him before Summerset, he greets you like an old friend but if that's where you meet him first, this is the conversation that takes place:

What do you want to talk about?
"This might sound like a strange question. In fact, depending on how you answer it, it is a strange question.
Do you—do you remember me? I'm not talking about here in Summerset. I mean—from someplace else."
Not that I can recall. The first time I saw you was when you were wearing your golden armor.
"You don't remember me? I was afraid of that. Meridia told me that time worked differently in Oblivion, but I didn't believe her. What's happened to me hasn't happened to you yet.
That doesn't matter now. What matters is I found you."

So you see, in this case at least, ZoS does make an effort to tackle such continuity errors. Darien straight up tells you why you can meet with him out of order, because he himself got lost in time.

Gaebriel0410

Cadwell's Silver/Gold is just a necessarily flimsy excuse to be able to play the other alliances' zones. Since well, it's a videogame and players will want to see all of them. Personally I would've preferred if they didn't try and make a lore excuse for it (because super special chosen one time travel and reality bending is never my thing), but I do think it's cool that they tried and justify it anyways.

What I think would be much better especially for new players, is an ingame chronological story guide that lists the 'correct' order to do the zones/areas in, for story continuity. Since the continuity does make sense if you do it in the order of release. Of course that guide should also include the various prologue questgivers in that, since those are all over the place and are rather overwhelming and confusing for new players. In that same guide, there should also be a note that the enemy alliance zones are excempt from this continuity.

Of course you can google such a guide anywhere, but things like this should really be accessible in the game itself!

Treshcore

@phantasmalD, well, if they do make hints that the game's timeline is intentionally broken, well... They're doing it like if we played a TES game dedicated to Dwemers only without discovering truth about Dwemer disappearance.
I mean, it is strange that we are free to make theories about the timeline we're playing in TESO. I don't know how to explain this more correctly, but if we're moving in the fourth dimension in TESO, I'd like more clear explanation of this rather than some hints.
I worry about the new players, so I'd like the game to say you about it's broken timeline in the beginning. Like: "You know, time flows strangely in Tamriel now. It feels like you're one person there, but the other person on the other edge of this land, and all the other people feel like this too. Be careful to not to be confused in your adventure".

@thrashtilldeath666cub18_ESO, in continuing my previous answer, I think that the guide many people are talking about should be not a straight guide but more like a prophecy. The series called "The Elder Scrolls", right? Why can't there be your own Elder Scroll which you can carry with yourself to read more about the order your prophecy should be fulfilled? I think that this can be a cool feature of our protagonist: if The Last Dragonborn in Skyrim had inherited ability to perform shouts, our character may have an ability to read The Elder Scrolls with no harm.

phantasmalD

In general ESO's timeline is not anymore broken than previous games'. TES is a roleplaying series and as such always offered flexible story telling to its players in order to help them shape their own path.

For example, in Skyrim, right at the start many people would head to Riverwood, do Bleak Falls Barrow then go to Whiterun. But you are free to ignore all of that and instead head to Solitude or Winterhold. If you follow the main quest you'll at one point be directed to the College of Winterhold, but you may visit the place way before that.

Or in Morrowind you can for example become Hortartor and Nerevarine in any order you wish.
Daggerfall only had the barest linearity to the point that the game can take anywhere from a few months to literal decades and has six official endings.
The games also had faction systems which further muddles official continuity as some players maybe best buddies with Jarl Ulfric, while others are mortal enemies.

So having an extremely rigid quest progression goes against certain basic principles of the series.

That being said, ESO itself does have strict quest continuity in many places, like pretty much all main storyline quests can only be done in a specific order. You can't start Castle of the Worm before you finish Chasing Shadows, for example.

The only reason the original 15 zones' quests are kinda broken is because the system that kept them linear (leveled zones) was removed without adding some additional quest requirements. Probably because doing so would leave many areas completely empty and reworking the base game would be a costly endeavour.

Treshcore

@phantasmalD, I think that there is some difference between TESO and other TES games.

Yes, such thing as "official continuity" really exists. But the "official" continuity works for all the games in the series... And for no one in particular. It just states like: "Alright, there was a year 3E 433, Oblivion crisis occurred... Wait, you completed it in 3E 434? WELL GO F...#!&$$*#, I'm writing that it happened in 3E 433!".
What I want to say is that the official timeline goes separate from the one that player makes in games. The player is free to do everything, but in the official timeline it won't be the players' character. I mean, "player" like me, you, someone else. No, the official timeline knows only the abstract Eternal Champion, The Agent, Nerevarine, Champion of Cyrodiil and The Last Dragonborn. As well as The Vestige (even though this is no longer appropriate nickname for Online's protagonist).

However, The Elder Scrolls Online's timeline is kind of broken "inside" the game. And it's not good because, well, even though it's an online game, for me, as for a dedicated The Elder Scrolls fan, it's an individual piece of art... which can't really be torn into separate pieces without a proper reason.
I'm writing it here because I want this reason to appear clearly. I mean, I am okay if I will see characters who died or disappeared in one region being alive and healthy in the other region, but please give me a universal in-game explanation why does this happen and give me a lore-included note that will explain me an order in which I should do all the quests. I used to ask for more, but now I'm okay if everything that happens in TESO is intentionally and good-explained broken timeline.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

The way i see it is that at the end of the planemeld story line, meridia manage to "retcon" the event of the other alliance so my character took part in them

So basicly my character was at in Stonefall, Glenumbra and auridon at the SAME time

Treshcore

@Dark_Lord_Kuro, well, if it was like that, this thread would've not appeared. This explanation worked perfectly at these dark times when there was no One Tamriel update, when the game was as original as it was in the beginning. But after players gained access to all the territories since the beginning of the game (which isn't bad at all, it's good), all the explanations became outdated.

In the original idea, you had to touch the Light of Meridia to travel other alliances with your identity hidden. However, after One Tamriel you can visit other alliances freely, complete all the quests without any problems. Meet their alliance' leaders who would like to kill you on the first sight. And everything - without any "magical protection". This means that this Light of Meridia is just a useless trick which only throws you into the ocean while your identity has already been hidden by something bigger since the beginning of the game.
Also, even before One Tamriel there was the "disappearing Darien" who could appear in Camlorn even after Coldharbour. And only four or five years later, in Summerset, it was explained where he really was taken - and this was the moment when we could actually ask him where he disappeared! Not in Camlorn if we visit it after Coldharbour's story, but in Summerset!

This means that the game's timeline is split into regions as well as our protagonists' memories. I mean, any base regions' story always goes before Coldharbour, any DLC story goes after Coldharbour and Main Quest. Our protagonist may remember about base story in Coldharbour and DLCs in dialogue variants, but he/she won't usually remember about Coldharbour or DLC events in the base regions.

I think that developers (or, particularly, story-writers) should create a new explanation for it. Telling the truth, I feel that Dragon Break was a fantastic explanation for what have happened in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, so I believe that they can create a new clear and genius explanation of the "broken" timeline in TESO.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

No matter the order someone decide to do the zone there will always be a "real" order of event for exemple bal foyen always happend after bleack rock no matter the order is played in


Leave it as it is as it satisfy mostly everyone
Poeple who dont care for it can do it in any order they want and poele who like it will continue to do it in order

Hallothiel

For what it’s worth, I do care about doing things in the correct order. With most of my 18 characters, they go through one alliance storyline, then Coldharbour/finish MQ, then Orsinium, to Clockwork City to Summerset to Elsweyr to Dragonhold to Skyrim to The Reach. I might slip off & do Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood & Murkmire when I choose. Have to admit though there are some regions I skip, or rush through as dislike them (Malabal Tor & Coldharbour for example).

But I’ve been playing since before One Tamriel. And have never had a problem with continuity as if you actually read & listen to the game, it explains what is going on. Maybe that is not to the OP’s liking, and they would like a different explanation, but to say there is none is not correct.

So you can CHOOSE to do the quests in ‘order’ or you can run around madly doing whatever in whatever order. That’s the fun of the game. And yes, IT IS A GAME. To be enjoyed in many different ways.

Thing is, it’s not just you playing the game, OP, and you ‘demanding’ they adjust things to fit with what you want, when you can do it yourself, is not going to happen.

Also, please don’t be rude to people & tell them they can’t comment on ‘your’ thread when they don’t agree with you; this is a public forum, and if you post here, be prepared to have people disagree.

Treshcore

@Dark_Lord_Kuro, I agree that the players who don't care would play in any order and the players who care will play in a right order. What I want is formalization of it. Making a clear story and lore basis for this kind of disorder. What I'm thinking about are few additional dialogues that will explain you what's going on here. It's not about the perception of a simple player that came here after Skyrim, it's about the perception of the ones who care about lore. We love it when things are intentionally mystical (like Dwemer disappearance), but it's not good when the game itself has some inconsistencies that were accidentally left by developers.

@Hallothiel, as I promised to @ZOS_RyanM, I won't discuss the rules of this forum as well as tell anyone to leave. I agree that I was a little harsh in my "demands". I chose this tone because I understand that 90% of the players care more about game mechanics rather than TES lore and story. All I wanted is to underline that the needs of dedicated TES fans are important too and if this minor explanation will be added, the community will notice and probably appreciate such attention.
As I told before, all I ask now is to formalize the irregularity of timeline and add some more dependencies between quests in a common region (for example, if Eastmarch story quests will be technically more linear, not too many people are going to complain - but the story itself will be more beautiful in it's consistency). Look on these prologue quests ZOS make to promote new DLC and chapters, how big they actually are. I'm asking for something even lesser: just a few "unskipable" dialogues in the beginning that will clearly explain what's going on with Tamriel timeline in 2E 582. Especially if the new tutorial is going to be set in the legendary Adamantine Tower which was an important place in the probably the most "meta-mystical" game of the series - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.