Skip Starter Island Option should be on Island

riccifacce

I was really disappointed that we didn't automatically wind up on the islands this time. I've only played Ebonheart during the beta and even now. I've now since the island three times. Returning to the island after walking up unceremoniously in Davons Watch feels awkward and names the dialogue nonsensical. 'Oh, you're up?' I've been out of town for a few weeks apparently. How do you people remember my face?

hrdndv_ESO

The original content at the Starter Island was not all that gentle but it was a great place to gain a few needed levels. The quests were fun! My only complaint about the Starter Islands was that there were too many walled off areas. They needed to remove the walls and open up the Islands so you could explore them. Even wading across the river I got eaten by vicious slaughter fish. That was immersion breaking. Since Argonians can breathe underwater, I guess swimming will be opened up eventually, but you need to be able to swim from the main island to the nearby islands to give the Starter Island an open world feeling. There also needed to be a lot more caves and dungeons on those islands.

Qutayba

The good thing about this being an MMO is that they can keep improving the experience through patches after release, and it's totally normal. The bad thing is that a lot of these things seem noticeably like holdovers and useful-at-the-time shortcuts from the beta to get people to test Cyrodil faster.

For a completely new player who doesn't already know the story on the island, I expect it's utterly bewildering. First impressions can be really important in this market (or any market really). There are so many things (like the visual and world design, combat system, music, crafting, and skills) that are superb and innovative in this game - it is not a WoW clone but still accessible - but these are subtle things that take a while to sink in. It would be a shame if the project gets weighed down by poor quality control of the story and quest progression (progress-breaking bugs are few, but they're doozies and create truly dead ends in the main quests), but unfortunately, that's the aspect that is most noticeable to most players.

Elsonso

""The option to skip the starter island should be on the island."

Sadly, they have ignored this sage advice.

When you go to the island, you will note that some dialog still assumes you never left the island.

foxsyd

I like to pretend I never left the island. That's what I'm doing at moment when I create a new character, rushing back to island and pretending I never left.

I can make better story progression better than ESO.

CelticMarauder

I'm glad I'm not the only one to feel this way. It really messes up the immersion of the early-game experience, in my opinion. Hopefully they decide to change it, but I'm not that optimistic. They've already changed it once, and they might be worried about appearing indecisive if they change it again.

Pelerin2014

I agree. The option to skip the starter island should be on the island, instead of the option to do the starter island being in the main city - it doesn't make sense.

Darkleaf

While I agree with you, there are some benefits to it happening this way. You can now buy your Imperial Horse if you have the Imperial Edition and then go to the start islands. You can also join the Fighters/Mages/Undaunted guilds. Although only the Fighters can be advanced on the starter islands. But it does seem a bit disjointed this way.

netodec

The story makes no sense now. I don't see why the people who wants to skip stuff can't do so without ruining it for the rest of us. The story used to be very smooth... now its just awkward.

xtamsynx

Arrived in city, went straight to Island boat. But only because I was in beta and knew how cool it was. Otherwise I would have missed it and got caught up in the big shiny.

Artajörn

The game is now very disconcerting. You start at a huge place in which you have to find a NPC without any kind of brand to go to a smaller area.

The dialogues have no sense. There are no guides who teach you how to play.

Bad, very bad.

EDIT: This topic should be a poll.

foxsyd

Artajörn wrote: »

The game is now very disconcerting. You start at a huge place in which you have to find a NPC without any kind of brand to go to a smaller area.

The dialogues have no sense. There are no guides who teach you how to play.

Bad, very bad.

EDIT: This topic should be a poll.

I agree about a poll. Not sure how to do it. I'm currently at work so my access is limited. I could work it out when I get home tonight, which is 7 hours away... Or someone could beat me to it

Edit: if anyone makes a poll. Be sure to make it clear nobody is against the skip option, just that those who choose to not skip are suffering as a result of how it was managed.

Remember it's about where the skip option was put, it should be ON THE STARTER ISLAND!

jackalpup83b14_ESO

i cannot agree enough. it really messes things up when i start and run back to the boat. and if i happen to meet the main quest giver and talk to them before going back to the start island, it breaks all sorts of immersion when i talk to them again and they act like they have never met me or say odd things.

seems like an easy fix to simply be able to start on the 'tutorial island' then just get on the boat and go to mainland right away if you want.

lesso

I also agree with the OP whilst the option to skip the starting island can be seen to give players more freedom it's current implementation left me scratching my head for a moment upon leaving the tavern/inn, had I not been paying attention I never would have known about the starting island.

It is where I learnt the fundamental game mechanics of combat, collecting resources, levelling up and the general flow of PVE content that players will be experiencing once they leave. I would be far worse off had I missed that vital piece of information pertaining to the starting islands existence.

And like many other gamers there are times when I think "I don't care about the plot just be quiet Mr NPC and give me the next objective!!!" which ultimately results in players missing this sort of information.

corsairseporthis_ESO

I agree.

Besides being confusing to the player, it doesn't make any lick of sense. All the dialogue (including the ones from the Prophet) suggest that you were recently 'fished' from the ocean, and nowhere near a big city.

I had to direct several of my friends who didn't play the Beta to go do the Starter Islands.

Besides:
[SPOILERS]
The Beltnik island for Daggerfall Covenant actually show you future events that will happen to the player. New players are missing awesome 'Ah Ha! Deja Vu!' moments later in the game.

It ruins the flow of the immersive story-telling that the developers have crafted. Besides that, it is a terrible game design choice that requires new players to back-track to a zone they should have arrived on in the first place.

Trust me, Zenimax, you will retain a lot more players for the subscription fees if you returned to the old system. My friends who have not played Beta are extremely frustrated with the 'hard' quests, and the 'overload' of information. If it wasn't for my prior knowledge, they would have already given up.

AdeusObsidiusCorvus

Agreed. All my toons are now back in their starter islands after faffing around moving from the updated start areas. I liked the starter quests in the beta and although I have already 'done them' in that sense I want get the XP and to source the island shards etc before plunging into the mainland quests.

This suggestion of an island skipping option is just the most sensible by far. Can't believe the devs discarded it as a possible workaround to be honest as it is so obvious. Can only assume that there was some other reason - even if it was only a question of the current method being easier or quicker to implement (less testing needed maybe?) before the 5 day pre-launch or something. If not it was just a bad call.

mlecho74

Ignore this post. I had two tabs open and accidentally posted to the wrong thread.

Lisa

My favorite part about Daggerfal was coming in from the docks for the first time and seeing it tower in the distance. Now, it is dull, no sense of awe or wonder.

Artajörn

Poll here: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/65010/should-the-game-be-modified-relocating-the-starting-islands

foxsyd

I couldn't answer the poll myself, I don't know if it's because I just woke up, but I couldn't figure out what Yes or No was in relation to the question. The poll is too vague

yoshi71089

The option NEEDS to be on the starter islands. Waking up in the city is disorienting, and incredibly immersion-breaking. None of that dialogue makes sense, and it breaks the story flow terribly.

Leave the option to skip in, but move it to the islands!

Brasseurfb16_ESO

Yeah, it is confusing, been sent on a boat (and he payed a lot of gold for that!) just to wake up and be sent back from the island you came from is very awkward.

I understand the idea behind some players to skip tutorial areas, but the implementation of that feature should be done in a more immerive and newcomer friendly way.

So I totaly agree with the comments above, this is how it should be done : Coldharbour (possibility to skip after 1th run) -> Starter Islands (possibility to skip with quest) -> Mainland

Tesarus

Second time in my life I see a release worse than beta. It is not so hard for complainers to quick-do the quests on Bleakrock and move along, I don't see a reason there for re-work. Most of these people are just grinders and 1-2 hours means nothing to them. What I see is a completely ruined immersion, two different people saying different things how you were found, captain Rana is not a quest giver and you need to put story together from different NPC you can easily miss. Since I've played Pact storyline in beta it is annoying but manageable, I really hope devs do something with this issue and i will definitely not start a new character until this mess is fixed.

foxsyd

I do hope the developers are paying attention to our comments. It might sound harsh, but putting the skip quest option at the main city , and ruining story immersion feels a bit like a spit in the face to all the players who love story immersion, and roll playing , and earning their way etc.

Vortex500

Hilgara wrote: »

When you start in an area you assume that's where your supposed to be. I saw the ship that takes you to the starting area but assumed it would take me to the next area of progression so ignored it. I've done a couple of Beta weekends but still missed this so someone seeing this for the first time almost certainly will.
I thought the leveling was a bit tougher than I remembered. No wonder. I've skipped the 1st half dozen levels of easy content.

I have not been in beta or read much on the forums. I'm in the same boat. I woke up in Daggerfall and thought the boat was for the next area of progression and ignored it. Leveling up many levels and leveling felt wrong somehow with many yellow and red quests.

Come here to check what is going on and see this. Feels like a weird way to put the quests like that. Skipping to the city from the island would have made sense, but to go back from city to island feels wrong. Easy to misunderstand for new players like me.

EDIT: When I woke up in Daggerfall it made no sense to go to a new area as I just arrived at this one.

rawne1980b16_ESO

KerinKor wrote: »

I only played since the first tranche of beta invites in February (B16), but I see no change in Coldharbour.

What did I miss?

They changed the starter weapon pickup.

It went from weapon racks with a decent selection to just a sword to now a sword, shield, 2 hander and a staff .... no bow or option for dual wield.

They nerfed the chests. You could farm those treasure chests for hours if you so wished during beta (which I did for gear to break up for crafting) yet now you can only loot them once, some were removed and some you can't loot at all.

They also took a section away where you had to run over a wooden platform with some skeletons on it ... that's gone.

Asava

When I arrived in AD I never saw the starter island NPC Sugar Claws at the dock. I wandered into the city and started looking for quest NPCs. I didn't find the starter island until I was around L12. It's a little late then to do it. There should of been a script to direct you to the island npc instead of relying on blind luck to see the NPC on your map when you show up at level 4.

foxsyd

Asava wrote: »

When I arrived in AD I never saw the starter island NPC Sugar Claws at the dock. I wandered into the city and started looking for quest NPCs. I didn't find the starter island until I was around L12. It's a little late then to do it. There should of been a script to direct you to the island npc instead of relying on blind luck to see the NPC on your map when you show up at level 4.

The NPC (the prophet I think) outside your door gives you a speech about meeting a NPC outside to direct you to docks if you so choose. But it's way too much information put on a person at once. So the information isn't "sticky " even for those better at paying attention to quest details and options.

Gets even worse once you step outside the building and you are confronted with a whole lot of busy busy around you.

I'm still hearing of many reports of confusion. Even I've been confused, and I was in beta before they implemented this disaster.

Jadeviper1974

I will be honest I didn't realize that those were "starter" islands. I have just been saving them until I get the quests in the city done. Nice to know.

Sallakat

I don't care about the first impressions and going to a city all hero and whatnots, I just think it's misleading. There are so many players that haven't played beta or read about the change with the starter island thing that just don't know that you SHOULD go to the starter island or that such place exists. Then we have loads of people on our hands wondering why they die all the time and are under leveled in the area theyre' in, not knowing there is many levels to grind in the starter island before you should start the 'first area'.

Just like the Wailing Prison, when you've cleared it once and creating a new character you get the question if you want to skip the prison, the same way it should be done with the starting island too imo.