Are the alliance territories connected through game?

Orety6 · July 2014

When I bought this game, as a great Elder Scrolls games fan, I had idea, that my character would be some kind of explorer of Tamriel. Discovering all the places that I have previosly visited in Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim seemed great experience to me.

I thought, that I might be able to travel from Summerset Isles to Morrowind or to Skyrim just by riding my horse, without any teleporters... I thought, that game world is one but giant in terms of size map, without transition screens - just like other games in ES series.

I tried to do that journey with my low-level character - starting from Auridon, through Grathwood, throug Reaper's march. Unfortunately, I have found NO entance to Cyrodiil, where it should be.

Of course, later I had travelled to Cyrodiil, by using Alliance War option. But this way of travelling seems unnatural, and breaks my immersion to the game.

Isn't it possible to freely travel from province to province? Especially that zone borders (like between Cyrodiil and Reaper's march) seemed to be connected on Tamriel interactive map.

And the next question: will I be able to do some optional quests from different than mine alliance zones with the same character?

ebondeath · July 2014

Cyrodiil is a bit tricky because it's instanced for pvp and the multiple campaigns. I also want to say that it's not possible to travel to different alliance zones via horse, again probably because of instancing. I'll explain below.

Once you defeat the main quest in its entirety, you will move on to Veteran Rank content, which involves doing the other factions' questlines. The other faction zones will always be VR instanced for you, so it's impossible to enter them before beating the main quest. I think it's impossible to cross into other faction territory on foot or horse because you'd have to go through Cyrodiil, and with the instancing mechanics, the only way to leave Cyrodiil is via wayshrines.

Not what you wanted to hear, I know, but it is what it is because of game mechanics.

Orety6 · July 2014

What a pity. I hope we still have a chance to connect all the maps in game...

Aortick · July 2014

Orety6 wrote: »

I thought, that I might be able to travel from Summerset Isles to Morrowind or to Skyrim just by riding my horse, without any teleporters... I thought, that game world is one but giant in terms of size map, without transition screens - just like other games in ES series.

It took Years to get from Morrowind to Cyrodiil to Skyrim with quite the Loading screen (game install).

smeeprocketnub19_ESO · July 2014

Aortick wrote: »

Orety6 wrote: »

I thought, that I might be able to travel from Summerset Isles to Morrowind or to Skyrim just by riding my horse, without any teleporters... I thought, that game world is one but giant in terms of size map, without transition screens - just like other games in ES series.

It took Years to get from Morrowind to Cyrodiil to Skyrim with quite the Loading screen (game install).

Not if you were playing Arena and I think Daggerfall actually.

IIRC they were both all of Tamriel. And if you tried to actually run from one end to the other, it could take a very very very long time.

isengrimb16_ESO · July 2014

Orety6 wrote: »

What a pity. I hope we still have a chance to connect all the maps in game...

Probably not possible. I'm not even sure if Craglorn is connected, or if you have to port to it.

While WoW has contiguous continents (with one exception - there is a loading screen between Plaguelands and the Ghostlands, because Ghostlands and Eversong Forest (?memory?) are instanced to another server and a different expansion - you do get loading screens when traveling to different continents. However it does not, and never did (probably never will have) the level of phasing that exists in ESO, which probably puts the same sort of load on one instance/server/whatever as a whole continent does in WoW.

This isn't a single player game.

Nestor · July 2014

The last thing you ever wanted to do was walk/run/ride the map in real time when playing Daggerfall. Besides there being little to see, it took forrrrrreeeeeevvvvveeeerrr to get anywhere.

Enodoc · July 2014

isengrimb16_ESO wrote: »

Probably not possible. I'm not even sure if Craglorn is connected, or if you have to port to it.

It would be interesting to see this tested actually. We need a DC player who has completed the whole DC storyline and the Main Quest to try going from Bangkorai to Craglorn or vice versa. There's definitely a gate connecting them; it would be good to know if you can actually use it.

nvsg · July 2014

ya know I thought this game was going to be open world pvp but sadly I was mistaken still enjoy it though

Cody · July 2014

im just getting annoyed by all these loading screens. cant we at least be able to travel to the next zone without watching a loading screen?

Dominoid · July 2014

NookyZooky wrote: »

im just getting annoyed by all these loading screens. cant we at least be able to travel to the next zone without watching a loading screen?

Loading screens in this game are quite minimal.

Apothecy · July 2014

Enodoc wrote: »

isengrimb16_ESO wrote: »

Probably not possible. I'm not even sure if Craglorn is connected, or if you have to port to it.

It would be interesting to see this tested actually. We need a DC player who has completed the whole DC storyline and the Main Quest to try going from Bangkorai to Craglorn or vice versa. There's definitely a gate connecting them; it would be good to know if you can actually use it.

Just tried it from Craglorn and Bangkorai. It's not possible to travel to either zone from the other.

Circuitous · July 2014

smeeprocketnub19_ESO wrote: »

Not if you were playing Arena and I think Daggerfall actually.

Arena was all of Tamriel, while Daggerfall was just a good chunk of High Rock and Hammerfell. In both cases, the landscape outside of cities was bland and difficult to recognize until you stumbled upon a location.

As for ESO, as cool as it'd be to just walk to other provinces, I can't see the game supporting that well from a server standpoint, and the terrain as-is just isn't friendly to the idea. Lots of convenient natural barriers.

Enodoc · July 2014

Apothecy wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

isengrimb16_ESO wrote: »

Probably not possible. I'm not even sure if Craglorn is connected, or if you have to port to it.

It would be interesting to see this tested actually. We need a DC player who has completed the whole DC storyline and the Main Quest to try going from Bangkorai to Craglorn or vice versa. There's definitely a gate connecting them; it would be good to know if you can actually use it.

Just tried it from Craglorn and Bangkorai. It's not possible to travel to either zone from the other.

Cool, thanks for the test! I'm guessing you're a DC player? Did you notice any NPCs at the gate saying why you couldn't use it, or is the gate just essentially a piece of scenery?