Why does everything have to be locked?

moo_2021

Talking about the map and quests, not high level contents.

There is zero flexibility, despite being an open world game. You must do X first in order to reach Y or open door Z or go through certain route. It's not just doors, but also unpassable low mountain edges or fences that a normal kid would just jump over or climb easily (just lift the god damned feet!), and when we fall to water we can't just climb from any edge with hands.

What's the point of such restrictions? There are games without those arbitrary limits and their environments are super fun to explore! Imagine you can just climb mountains in Coldharbour. No stucking between stones or following roads all the time, and ZOS can add a lot more contents on existing maps.

Tandor

I very rarely follow roads, especially in a zone I've not been in much or at all before. While I accept you can't go everywhere, there's so much to explore, and so much to find - just one of the reasons why although on PC I don't use addons, I want to find everything for myself rather than get new DLC content and follow the pointers on a map.

However, the short answer to your question is continuity in respect of quests, and a mixture of development resources and performance concerns in respect of restricted accessibility.

Franchise408

I too get frustrated by the terrain and the constant funneling you clear around to opposite ends of zones in order to get to something that's right in front of you. It is very frustrating world design

Everest_Lionheart

I don’t think they want you going into the keep where the final zone boss is waiting for you until it’s time to enter that particular part of the story. It would be nice to see it before and even to revisit after (you get locked out of many places after completing also.)

Maybe it comes down to no wanting to write code for 2-3 separate instances of the same content. Although some of the instances where it happens looks pretty crazy sometimes like in Rimmen you have so many quests that originate and return to the castle and you have multiple players each within a different quest instance. It’s like being stuck in a weird time loop!

Saxhleel

I hate that mountains are the most overpowered thing in ESO. You accidentally step on it wrong and you somehow slid off of it and into Aetherius. Same with invisible barriers. I always disable them in Oblivion and Skyrim, but in ESO you can't jump over some rocks because of the barriers. Same with cities and dungeons. Random doors are unusable, doors just don't agree with your activate key, and you have to go along a certain path. This makes dungeons seem larger, but they are actually about 10x smaller. When I first went to Vvardenfell, I was quickly slapped in the face by invisible barriers when I tried to go to Arkngthand and death fish when I tried to go to Sheogorad. I understand it isn't as open world as other TES games, but come on. I know I can climb this mountain because Todd promised me, but I can't. I want to go in this random house in the vain attempt that maybe I will find an Imperial crafting motif in some random chest, but I can't unless they are important or because ZoS wants this random house to be special.

Sheridan

I understand and can accept that some doors / areas are locked until I get to a specific stages of the quest - that's the usual (even if a little far-fetched) tool for establishing a consistent storyline. But why many doors become locked again right after I complete the quest and exit the area? It is annoying and has no plausible explanation. Well, except for the last second escapes from a collapsing caves, closed portals to another planes etc. But very often it's just a door of some shack or a gate that won't let me back for all eternity the moment I stepped over the porch. Too much of a railroading for me, if you can't even take a step back. And I don't like the idea that despite the fact that I completed most of the game (moreover - as a result of that), big part of the content is permanently locked for me.

I live in Mathiisen Manor and half of the town (town hall, docks) is blocked for no reason (because several years ago I completed the quest, liberating it from the enemies). It's ridiculous.