The new starting/tutorial zone is interesting, but if you're taking suggestions...

EramTheLiar

So as interesting as the Blackwood expansion is -- it's not my absolute favorite of the DLCs because that will always be Thieves Guild, but I still enjoyed it -- I was a lot more fascinated by the new tutorial/start zone. In terms of ESO story, it's pretty generic, but I like that it lets you choose to start out in one of the older DLCs, or in one of the Alliance starting points, if that's what you want to do. It's a nice way to manage where you start, instead of doing what I normally do, which is hit the boats and shrines, ignoring everything until I get to the zone I want.

That said, if I could reshape it any way I'd like, I would further tweak it so that when you choose the starting point it dumps you into that starting points starting area -- only a reworked starting area that took out all the "learn the game" bits and made it more of a "starting delve". There were parts of the starting areas in some of the DLCs I really liked, story-wise. I liked the intro movie for Elsweyr, and waking up in the monastery and the idea of having to fight your way free, encountering the dragon, encountering the disgraced monk who becomes somewhat more important later in the story arc. I *really* liked the intro movie for Skyrim, and meeting Fennorian in the cell and the mini-arc where you disrupt the proto-harrowstorm -- I think that's one of the strongest openers ESO did. The Morrowind one was pretty fun, escaping from slaver island, and it makes the mission where you get sent back a little more in-game satisfying.

(And thematically I like the idea that you wake up in prison in the starting area (because it's the elder scrolls, it's practically a contractual obligation at this point) then you choose a portal to go somewhere else... where you might very well wind up in prison again, and then you're bopping along until you activate the vestige storyline... at which point you wind up in prison AGAIN...)

... actually, if I could do one thing, I would tweak ALL of the starting areas so that you always start in prison. Yes, that's absolutely what I'd do.

That aside, the new tutorial zone is a nice efficient mechanism to give a new character access to any of the starting zones the game already has, and I'm glad they created it to accomplish that. I'm not super jazzed about the new tutorial's story, but it has to be generic enough to accommodate the trans-Tamriel gatehouse at the end so I'm not really opposed to it either.

Fennwitty

Agree, a lot of people want to do the original tutorials with or without the mechanical instruction.

Lots of color and a better introduction to the zone stories that way.

I really would like the option to start from the 'Soulshriven in Coldharbour' quest line too.

The current tutorial options still require you to go to the alliance 'starter' town and find the Hooded Figure yourself. That then makes a very awkward circular situation where you can start in Stros M'kai for instance, do the whole quest and go to Daggerfall, talk to the Hooded Figure and then ... you're back in Stros M'kai.

EDIT: Maybe they took that part out and the Soulshriven quest dumps you back where you were, I haven't repeated the tutorial.

spartaxoxo

I agree, should be an option.

EramTheLiar

Yeah, depending on where you start it can get convoluted, but at least now the hooded figure tracks you down. When I went through Blackwood, the hooded figure approached me there and I got a mission to visit the house in Daggerfall, which was a little awkward but doable.

But I had another character start at Stros M'kai and that went pretty much the way you described. I was put in front of the boat, and the dialog with Captain Kaleen was changed as if she hadn't fished me out of the water. Then I did Betnikh, made Kaleen mad by destroying the necrothingy, got kicked off her boat in Daggerfall, got accosted by the hooded figure, went to the house, went to coldharbor, left coldharbor...

...and wound up in Stros M'kai, in the hold of Captain Kaleen's boat. Awkward.

So that needs a little cleaning up.

Destai

What the new tutorial does, it does well, but it doesn't do enough. I feel like the whole thing misses the point of what the community was asking for. All we wanted was a way to enjoy the stories chronologically and have a cleaner experience. The tutorial should be progressively guiding the character through each system, and when completed, gives the player a character that's ready for the world.

They had so much PTS feedback and feels like they ignored most of it. There's also been ample feedback here on the forums, and again, zero responses. It'd be nice if people like @ZOS_GinaBruno or @ZOS_Kevin, and the other CMs actually acknowledged these frequent suggestions and relayed what the developers' thoughts are.

For illustration of what needs changing, none of the threads below have any ZOS input:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7215279#Comment_7215279
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7212847#Comment_7212847
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7211288#Comment_7211288
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7193827#Comment_7193827
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7148310#Comment_7148310
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/571303/pts-update-30-unofficial-feedback-thread-for-the-new-tutorial
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/574976/official-discussion-thread-for-update-30-preview-new-tutorial

The tutorial doesn't explain any of the following:
1. Crafting writs certifications.
2. Guild skill lines.
3. Weapon swapping.
4. Lockpicking.
5. Builds.
6. The oodles of prologue quests.
7. The order in which the game is supposed to played.
8. The stories tabs.

The new player experience is still noisy and hard to navigate. I don't think that serves the game well. The tutorial should do more than explain what a controller does before dumping my character into a pile of quest givers barking at me out of chronological order.

waterfairy

wait so they got rid of the old coldharbour tutorial?

FluffWit

Vigarr wrote: »

wait so they got rid of the old coldharbour tutorial?

It still exists but it's just a quest now.

katanagirl1

I haven’t started a new toon since Summerset, I think.

I’d like to at least be able to enter the starting area in each new zone on my old toon just to have a look around and see what’s in there. I found the area for Greymoor but I could not enter.

I see what I think is a picture of the one for Blackwood and it looks very beautiful.

Fennwitty

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I haven’t started a new toon since Summerset, I think.

I see what I think is a picture of the one for Blackwood and it looks very beautiful.

The tutorial that released with Blackwood is the new 'general purpose' tutorial. The tutorials will no longer be directly tied to the latest chapter.

It is pretty, but honestly there's no story. If you have a free character slot go ahead and try it but you're not missing anything.