It's time to retire Cadwell's Almanac

Enodoc

The original purpose of Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold was to enable characters from one Alliance to play through the storylines of the other two alliances after Level 50 without having to create a new character. This presented a convoluted but viable explanation for why characters in the other two alliances didn't recognise you, even if you'd already met them in Coldharbour.

With One Tamriel, the core purpose of Cadwell's Almanac became redundant - players could visit the other Alliance territories anyway, with the convoluted explanation for why this was possible within the confines of the storyline being bypassed. Player choice was the name of the game there, but you still had Cadwell's quests stuck in your journal - as Main Quests, they can't be abandoned. Rather than a guide to the other alliances, they became a burden on the journal and a bane to completionists.

Since then, the other novel features of Cadwell's Almanac have also been replaced by more useful alternatives - rather than the Almanac's frequently inaccurate counter of the critical objectives in a zone (as I documented many years ago), we now have the Zone Guide, which has an (almost) accurate list of every story quest in a zone (going beyond those that were considered "critical" by the Almanac, actually including all of them).

The Keywright's Gallery in the new tutorial doesn't lend itself to the original continuity of Cadwell's Almanac either, as it allows you to go straight to the Starter Islands without doing Soul Shriven in Coldharbour (which you could of course do anyway since One Tamriel, and there has been new dialogue to account for that alternative, but this further reduces the logic of being rescued from the sea at that location as a hook to lead into the questline, because you've already been there and done it). There is therefore no comparative logic to end up there in Cadwell's Almanac either, as you may still have already done the quests.

All that remains in Cadwell's Almanac now is a list of base game zones (which could be directly replaced with a Story Guide tab as a companion to the Zone Guide to help players complete all zones and prologue quests in each individual storyline in the right order), and the motif and jewellery rewards, which could instead be tied to completion of all the relevant quest achievements. Cadwell's dialogue meanwhile can stay, and the Light of Meridia could become a simple repeat-use teleporter between the three different Harborages for those who want to retain that aspect of the original concept.

Overall, Cadwell's Almanac has served its purpose admirably for the last seven years, but nobody likes it being stuck in the journal and there are many better alternatives now to enable what it was originally designed for, so it makes most sense to just quietly retire the quests and move their rewards into a couple of achievements instead.


Edit following discussions below: Keep the quests for Cadwell's Silver and Gold, but move them out of the Main Quest category so they can be picked up and abandoned at will. At the same time, replace the Cadwell's Almanac tracker with a Story Guide that tracks not just Cadwell's quests, but every other storyline as well.

Amottica

I have been playing ESO for less than two months so my reply is from a new player perspective. Also one that may misunderstand what cadwells almanac is.

I initially played through my alliances story and after I handsomely defeated Molag Bal Caldwell sent me on a quest through one of the other alliances and then the third when that was completed. I assume that is. Cadwell’s almanac.

As such I found the soft guidance helpful. I don’t see how this is objectionable as it doesn’t create a problem I can see. Maybe a player who’s been around this game for years might find it objectionable but it served me, as a new player, very well.

Enodoc

You're definitely right that the soft guidance is helpful, and I definitely wouldn't want to get rid of that - my argument is that Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold are no longer the best way to do it. What a lot of players object to is Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold sitting in the journal forever, as many players have multiple characters that they don't want to send through all three alliances.

The soft guidance can be maintained with Cadwell's dialogue unlocking the Light of Meridia as a teleporter to the other alliances (and make that permanent, rather than a one-off use), and the creation of a Story Guide telling you what zones you need to go to and in what order. Both of those can exist without the need to stick a quest in your journal that you can never abandon.

VaranisArano

I appreciated the soft roleplaying excuse from Cadwell of "Hey, even though you are a staunch Pact Loyalist after the Covenant burned your towns and the Dominion slaughtered your people, it's totally okay for you to go find out what life is like "on the other side.""

Amottica

It appears the best solution is to leave the design as it is and permit players to drop it if they so choose. Of course, it would require a triple layer of confirmations all typed out in full caps.

Enodoc

Being able to pick them up and abandon the quests at will would certainly go a long way to addressing everyone's concerns without needing to outright get rid of them.

I think that would be a good compromise - move the quests for Cadwell's Silver and Cadwell's Gold out of the Main Quest category so it is possible to accept and abandon them at will, and also update the journal tab currently used as the Cadwell's Almanac tracker to be a more useful Story Guide and tracker for all story arcs, not just Silver and Gold.

Athan1

Amottica wrote: »

I initially played through my alliances story and after I handsomely defeated Molag Bal Caldwell sent me on a quest through one of the other alliances and then the third when that was completed. I assume that is. Cadwell’s almanac.

You completed/reached Cadwell's Gold in less than two months?! Moons be praised!

In any case, there are serious continuity issues with all these alliance storylines. If anything Cadwell's Almanac explains that you basically go back in time, which actually makes more sense since you see characters that already know you and they treat you like a stranger of their own alliance. I like that. The problems are that 1) the Almanac stays in your journal forever, which is kind of annoying, and 2) that you can start other alliance quests before you reach Cadwell's Almanac.

Idk the game is a mess story-wise, I guess it's up to players to play in the order they want

Enodoc

Athan1 wrote: »

I guess it's up to players to play in the order they want

This is definitely what they're aiming for, I just wish they had a bit more continuity control for players who do that...

SydneyGrey

They need to just raise the number of open quests you can have in your journal at one time.

Nestor

I kind of like the Caldwell Quest, as making it active does not put an arrow on my compass. Gives me a clean compass.

However making it droppable is good, and Caldwell is pretty easy to find again to pick it up.