Fix the pacing of the Base Game Main Story

Iccotak

Bringing focus back to the Main Story of the Base Game in the New Intro/Tutorial was a great move this year as it makes for a good first impression to New Players and is just overall more cohesive.

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With that said, the constant back and forth and the decision to rush the main story just rubs me wrong. It's not enjoyable - it pulls me out of the immersion and it is also just not a great experience for new players getting into the game.

I am of the opinion that the Main Story of the Base Game should be paced with the Base Game content. It was so much more meaningful, deeper, and rewarding to go through the main story as you completed the storyline of your alliance and the guilds - all to get to Coldharbour and defeat Molag Bal.

We had understandable changes for One Tamriel BUT it totally sacrificed good story pacing and made the story experience far worse off - now you have to purposefully pace yourself lest you find yourself rushing through it and making a mediocre and anti-climatic experience -- but the average player isn't going to know how to properly pace it. Hence why we have numerous threads on how to play the story in order.

It's one thing to play zones out of order - it is a another thing if you can defeat the Main Story Boss without having to go through the rest of the story.

In my opinion, We cannot pace by levels anymore because
1. it is much faster to level now compared to how things used to be at launch
2. New players can also play through the plethora of DLC content which means it's highly probable that they'll out-level any supposed level requirements of the Main Story before going anywhere near it.

but I think there is a way we can pace the Main Story with the Base Game.

By creating requirements to complete other questlines/zones to continue the Main Story - because the story is that you gather forces to breach Coldharbour.

I mean Zone Quests with this icon which are tracked in the zone guide:

There are two ideas I have
(EDIT: These ideas would be optional systems that the players could turn on if they wished - for those of us that would like the option of a more linear story)

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Idea #1
The Player can advance in the Main Story by completing Zone Quests for any Alliance

Example:
I have a Main Story Progress bar - completing the Zone Quests for any zone of any alliance will contribute to my progress bar. Every 5-10 Zone Story Quests I complete in ANY base game zone will advance me in the Main Story.

This helps provide some structure while emphasizing player freedom

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Idea #2
The player has to complete the Zone Storylines of one alliance to advance in the Main Coldharbour Storyline - completion order is irrelevant.

Example:
Each Alliance has their own separate progress bar. So if I want to progress in the main story then I have to complete zone story quests for one alliance. For every 5-10 quests I complete of a Zone Story - I can do a quest in the Main Storyline.

To be clear; I don't get locked out of the other alliances - it's just that completing a zone for one alliance does not contribute to the progress I made for another alliance.

To better explain what I mean:

Zone Story Progress

Let's say I played through AD zones; Kenarthi's Roost -> Auridon -> Grahtwood. By playing through three zones of one alliance, I have will have unlocked several quests in the Main Story.

- If I continue to play through another AD zone like Greenshade, then I will progress further in AD and thus I will unlock further quests in the Main Story
- However, if I play the zone story of another alliance like EP: Bleakrock, then that does not contribute to the progress I made with AD and thus I do not unlock any Main Story quests

That said, if I play through EP: Bleakrock -> Stonefalls -> Deshaan -> Shadowfen, (in no particular order) then that progress will unlock more of the Main Story

-- because I would have more progress in EP with 4 zones compared my AD progress which is at 3 zones. Making progress in one alliance does not contribute to the other

I can complete the zones of one alliance in any order. But I have to play a certain number of quests to progress in the Main Story and I have to play through all the Zone Storylines of One Alliance to get to Coldharbour and face Molag Bal.

I can play through all the base game zones and not touch the Main Story at all - but this way when I decide to do the Main Story I will have already done the zones and made the progress. I think that is a better alternative to simply "out-leveling" it.

Completing the zones of one alliance unlocks Cadwell's Silver. Completing the progress bar of two alliances unlocks Cadwell's Silver.

This leans a bit on Railroad while still allowing player freedom, albeit having to pick a direction and stick with it - if a player wants to do the Main Story at a consistent pace.

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BUT What do you think?

Do you like either of these ideas?
What would you do to better pace the Main Story of the Base Game?

VaranisArano

As odd as this is going to sound, given that I do think players get the best experience doing everything in chronological order the first time through...I don't like it.

I think players deserve the choice to play chronologically or not. Locking parts of the Main Quest behind completion of base game zones is railroading the story. For my Alts, it's forcing me to redo content I've already done several times in order to advance the Main Quest and the Soul Magic skill line.

To be clear, I think the original pre-One Tamriel story order presents the clearest story.

But I don't think players should be forced down that story path, especially on multiple characters.

logan68

i have all my new toons do the main quest first and i then try to do the DLC in order.

Chips_Ahoy

Iccotak wrote: »

not a great experience for new players getting into the game.

How many new players have you talked to about it? 100? 1000? 100,000?

Most of us are casual gamers and we care little or nothing about history.

But as long as it's optional, you have my vote.

Iccotak

Chips_Ahoy wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

not a great experience for new players getting into the game.

How many new players have you talked to about it? 100? 1000? 100,000?

Most of us are casual gamers and we care little or nothing about history.

But as long as it's optional, you have my vote.

In my experience it was my friends that I introduced to the game who were turned off by it.

but I'd be on board if it was optional - let players have something like a railroad that they can Choose to follow sounds good to me.

opaj

Your solutions are complicated and take away choice from people who do want to inject a non-stop stream of main quest directly into their veins. Furthermore, it restricts freedom by forcing you to basically be "allied" to various degrees to one Alliance or another in order to save the world. Let me present to you my own overly complicated solution to this problem.

I would make three changes to how the main quest progresses:

1. The Prophet will not appear to give you the next quest in the chain until you meet the level requirement as it was pre-One Tamriel. (So basically, every 5 levels.)
2. There will also be a cooldown after you complete a MQ before the Prophet will appear again. This way, if you're already "overleveled" for the MQ, you still have a moment to breath before the next crisis is upon you. If it was up to me, the cooldown would be 24 hours, but that's probably too long for most.
3. At any time you can go to the Harborage and accept the next quest in the chain, regardless of your level or whether or not the Prophet has appeared to you. This way, people who want to burn through the whole questline don't have to wait.

I see what you mean about leveling being faster now, but I don't know that I'd bend over backwards to accommodate people who are power-leveling.

Iccotak

opaj wrote: »

Your solutions are complicated and take away choice from people who do want to inject a non-stop stream of main quest directly into their veins. Furthermore, it restricts freedom by forcing you to basically be "allied" to various degrees to one Alliance or another in order to save the world. Let me present to you my own overly complicated solution to this problem.

I would make three changes to how the main quest progresses:

1. The Prophet will not appear to give you the next quest in the chain until you meet the level requirement as it was pre-One Tamriel. (So basically, every 5 levels.)
2. There will also be a cooldown after you complete a MQ before the Prophet will appear again. This way, if you're already "overleveled" for the MQ, you still have a moment to breath before the next crisis is upon you. If it was up to me, the cooldown would be 24 hours, but that's probably too long for most.
3. At any time you can go to the Harborage and accept the next quest in the chain, regardless of your level or whether or not the Prophet has appeared to you. This way, people who want to burn through the whole questline don't have to wait.

I see what you mean about leveling being faster now, but I don't know that I'd bend over backwards to accommodate people who are power-leveling.

I think that is much simpler and is a good compromise between how things are now and the idea I proposed. If nothing else comes of this thread then at a later date (if you have not already) I will post the idea and make sure to credit you.

Iccotak

VaranisArano wrote: »

As odd as this is going to sound, given that I do think players get the best experience doing everything in chronological order the first time through...I don't like it.

I think players deserve the choice to play chronologically or not. Locking parts of the Main Quest behind completion of base game zones is railroading the story. For my Alts, it's forcing me to redo content I've already done several times in order to advance the Main Quest and the Soul Magic skill line.

To be clear, I think the original pre-One Tamriel story order presents the clearest story.

But I don't think players should be forced down that story path, especially on multiple characters.

I get what you are saying - I just think that at least for the First Character Run the player should have an optional system in place that allows them to play that content in their proper order.

it totally makes sense being able to forgo that with alt characters - but it'd be nice to have the option to do things in the "Classic Order"