Hallothiel wrote: »

@MasterSpatula
Nicely put. I'm not that much of an rpg player BUT I do like the idea of progression & levelling.

I like playing through the stories/quests & having the tale unfold. How is it going to make any sense unless they redo the entire faction story lines? And at various points in each story line you end up fighting enemies from one of the other factions? Again how is this going to work?

And whilst I understand how levelling works in Wrothgar & Hew's Bane etc again I do not understand how it is going to work in all the faction areas without it being a mess. It's quite fun to be able to back to Auridon as VR16 and just one hit things. I don't want it all to be VR16. (or cp or whatever system they think of next). How is this going to work with players who have already gone through it all? Nor do I want to be dropped down to a lower level for that area - I put time & effort into getting levelled up.

If they were going to do this it should have been done from the start. Doing it now just does not make sense to me.

Hmm.
So I skip around and on my first there wasn't this option but now on alts, some haven't even completed the main quest but do DLC, some silver here and there and some gold here and there. It all makes sense to me and I haven't run into any issues other than out leveling content with over 400 CPs which is one reason I happy to hear about this announcement.
Considering many people never complete each zone by level progression, I don't understand the concern of your question

Hmm, I'm getting a strong F2P vibe with this announcement.

My very initial knee-jerk reaction just reading the title of the announcement was that they were filling out the rest of the map all at once in one giant content patch making ONE Tamriel....Finish the map plz

Oh boy...

Alright, it seams that the detractors are breaking down their objections like this:

1. "We don't know how this will work, it will likely ruin the game." Well, no, we do -- like someone already said, roll a new lvl3 and take that character directly to Wrothgar -- that's how it'll work.

2. "This makes leveling pointless." Well, no, it doesn't. You won't be able to go to the "newbie" areas and one-shot PvE monsters, anymore. If that was the only reason you had for progressing your character, then I'm a bit surprised by your narrow perspective on character progression. They're not giving you free attribute points, free skill points, or free skill trees fully morphed. You *still* have to do that, yourself, if you want to progress your character. As far as I know, this change will not impact PvP, only PvE -- what does your level relative to OTHER players matter if you're not talking about PvP? As far as PvE is concerned, how can you complain about earning more experience points than you would now, should you go back to finish incomplete content from earlier zones? It bothers me that I get 5 xp per kill when I stumble upon a missed quest. That will change. There will finally be experience point parity.

3. "This breaks story-line continuity." Really? *REALLY?* It didn't bother you when Cadwell zapped you to the other Alliance zones in which you completed many quests by murdering your own countrymen by the dozens? It didn't bother you that there's an identical Harborage in three different locations? Many other people have acknowledged the fact that we shouldn't be able to use Wayshrines after we get our souls back. Why is a skeever in one zone 10x stronger/weaker than an identical skeever in another zone? How about the continuity error of fast-traveling from one zone to another, but the *same* NPC exists concurrently in both? There was NEVER any subjective continuity in ESO. ZOS is simply dropping the ridiculous pretenses à la Cadwell's Silver & Gold.

4. "This is going to cause serious lag, just like in Cyrodiil." Are you sure? Isn't that an immense false-equivalence? As it stands, there is no PvP in the PvE zones, which means the number of possible battle targets is a fixed quantity, and the battle engagements are limited to player vs. monsters, not player vs. monsters OR players. That's what causes lag: hundreds of players in the same spot targeting each other all at once -- that's at least an order of magnitude more complex than processing PvE. If it's the population density you're worried about causing lag, consider the population density in PvE zones back in May 2014. Back then, the population was extremely dense. Players clustered around quest NPCs like they were watching Hendrix at Woodstock, but my FPS did not suffer. And why, exactly, do you assume they'll simply turn off 2/3s of their hardware and throw those machines into a closet? Has it not occurred to you that they can re-purpose that hardware to consolidate & optimize server-side processing BETTER than they have with three separate instances of *the same* content? They might even rededicate some hardware to alleviating the PvP lag. This will REDUCE complexity and REDUCE overhead. One instance is easier than juggling three distinct ones. They'll have more resources available to implement more stuff, like instanced PvP arenas and dueling, which won't be needlessly complicated by having to juggle three separate instances of the *same* content.

5. "I didn't hear Matt F talk about the thing I wanted to hear him talk about." Ya, so, and, what? Personally, I was hoping for more details about Q3 DLC, but I got this instead. I wanted a preview of Player Housing and Vvardenfell details. I wanted to see a teaser for the Clockwork city. I was hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, they would take Spell Crafting off the back-burner. The fact that I didn't get *precisely* what I wanted out of the E3 presentation has nothing to do with "Tamriel One."

6. "The game is now pointless because I can skip around from zone to zone." Quests for the main story in all three alliances *WILL* continue to be linear and the random quests will continue to be random. Have you not noticed how a new quest-giver pops up once you've completed the main story quest for a zone, telling you to move on? Have you not contrasted this with the quest-giving NPCs who are sporadically placed everywhere for you to randomly encounter? The randomly encountered quests will *continue* to be randomly encountered and the linear story will *stay* linear.

7. "No more privacy in empty zones in the Cadwell's Gold areas." If you want privacy, then why are you playing an MMO? More people around is a *good* thing in an MMO. Zones should not be ghost towns, especially when the public dungeon requires another player to stand on a button to start the group challenge, as the case is with a certain group challenge in one of the Dagerfall public dungeons. It's easier to get a pick-up-group. You'll be able to actually SEE your cross-alliance guild-mates and do content with them.

Largely, all of these complaints are petty, short-sighted, and without merit. Seriously, people. Most of you are complaining simply for the sake of complaining and are NOT thinking this through. Merging the instances will make things better for players and easier for developers. Implementing the group-finder for dungeons, trials, and other group content won't need to fuss around with cross-instance porting to and from PvE zones because they'll all be the *same* instance. One Auridon. One Deshaan. One Rivenspire. One Wrothgar. One Hew's Bane. One Gold Coast. In fact, getting a pick-up group, completing group content, even world bosses will get *better* with more people around. Craglorn might be a VIABLE zone, again. This is a GOOD change. Stop being so petulant.

Hallothiel wrote: »

@MasterSpatula
Nicely put. I'm not that much of an rpg player BUT I do like the idea of progression & levelling.

I like playing through the stories/quests & having the tale unfold. How is it going to make any sense unless they redo the entire faction story lines? And at various points in each story line you end up fighting enemies from one of the other factions? Again how is this going to work?

And whilst I understand how levelling works in Wrothgar & Hew's Bane etc again I do not understand how it is going to work in all the faction areas without it being a mess. It's quite fun to be able to back to Auridon as VR16 and just one hit things. I don't want it all to be VR16. (or cp or whatever system they think of next). How is this going to work with players who have already gone through it all? Nor do I want to be dropped down to a lower level for that area - I put time & effort into getting levelled up.

If they were going to do this it should have been done from the start. Doing it now just does not make sense to me.

I can't for the life of me understand this. You're not going to be questing in one alliance, then suddenly find you've stumbled your character into another alliance's area. This is especially true if you do indeed like the stories/lore/quest and how their tales unfold, because in that case you'll be paying more attention to them than most do.

No one is forcing to you to quest/play any different if you don't want to. This is all about additional options that they're giving us. Nothing more.

Just because you have the option to go everywhere at once does not mean you have to go there. If you want to play completely through one alliance and not through any of the others, that's entirely up to you and your right, or if you want to chop and change around you can do that too. We now have options; our hands are not being forcible held any more with regards to where we can and can't go to quest because of our character's level.

I actually like this. I like the exploring more than the quest content anyway. I do quests when I feel like doing them.

"In general, higher level players will be the same “level" as lower level players, but they will have far more tools in their arsenal: better gear, more abilities, and of course more Champion points."

It sounds like the players will be leveled to the zone, so a level 50 CP 160 character will be like playing a level 3 CP160 character with lots of skills added in.

As to gear, I really would like to be able to craft some gear with the lower level appearance in the higher values.

@Unlikely_Ghostbuster I think it would be a problem lore wise as in I am pretty sure that Aldemeri Dominion would not accept someone they know is in another alliance. You think they wouldn't know? Rumours get spread around like wild fire in Elder Scrolls. But of course how can I forget "Dragon break" I hate that its a lore error get out of jail free card.

Whatzituyah wrote: »

@Unlikely_Ghostbuster I think it would be a problem lore wise as in I am pretty sure that Aldemeri Dominion would not accept someone they know is in another alliance. You think they wouldn't know? Rumours get spread around like wild fire in Elder Scrolls. But of course how can I forget "Dragon break" I hate that its a lore error get out of jail free card.

The point I was trying to make in #3 was that it's futile nit-picking ESO for continuity, given the gaping plot holes and inconsistencies (of which I only named a few) that are rife in this game. So please, don't be that guy. Lore and continuity errors are small, infrequent, and eclipsed by the realities of this particular MMORPG. Two words: repeatable content. How many millions of people have personally defeated Molag Bal in the last two years? I've done it -- four times, now. I've also rescued Merrick a bunch, but I'll be darned if he's not abducted again every single time I roll an alt (he's like Daphne on Scooby Doo). So unless Groundhog Day is part of the official Elder Scrolls canon, all debates over lore & continuity are moot.

I'm sure there are lots of forum threads about lore and continuity errors. There's probably even one dedicated to the fact that food & drink are everywhere, but there isn't a single lavatory to be found. There's also only ONE female giant in the whole world -- is she like Smurfette? I also can't recall encountering any children in this game -- did the Daedra eat them all? Why are we squabbling over the Ruby Throne when all the kids are missing? These are all ODD and wildly inconsistent -- yes, agreed, the ESO story is a house of cards in a tornado. I just don't think such oddities are a sound objection to make against "Tamriel One" being implemented.

Really and truly, I think most folks just want the game to be fun and playable. I have no "data" to support this, but I strongly suspect more people would simply like to find a group more than they'd like the game's quests, dialogue options, story, NPCs, and progression overhauled for the sake of consistency (plot, lore, or LOGIC). Indeed, I am aware the High Elves are pretentious xenophobes, but this fact did not stop me from completing their quest line as a Dark Elf, then an Argonian, then an Imperial, now a Khajit, and being hailed as their *one* hero and savior -- all four times. No kidding, I was just thankful the quests weren't bugged!

Nowadays, what halts my game is trying to find people for a dungeon with a broken group-finder tool in an abandoned zone, not the cultural shortcomings of the High Elves. That's why I think merging the instances is GOOD for the game, even if it adds a few more drops in the huge ESO barrel labeled "Plot & Lore Irregularities."

WHERE is my pvp content?

Hallothiel wrote: »

@Unlikely_Ghostbuster

Not everyone wants to find a group & do whatever. There are those who play this game because they enjoy the quests & the story & the progression - they don't want rush through just to get to max level in 5 hours.

And this change makes story / quests pointless.

As I have said elsewhere why not just make everyone level 50 with access to the same gear etc. No need for crafting! No nasty levelling issues! No need for any story or inconvenient quests! Can all just run around doing dungeons etc over & over again without worrying that we may come up against something hard. We all win.

Hey there @Hallothiel

I don't feel this way at all. I'm definitely an RP/PvE/Explorer kind of player. I have no interest in end game or PvP or getting the best gear.

I feel OT will open up the game to me, in a very lore friendly way too. I can take whatever quests I like, to suit whatever character I'm playing at the time, yet I will still be able to advance my characters skills if I leave some things out. I can go to whatever zones I want to, again, to suit my character's story. I don't think it makes quests pointless, rather it can make them much more relevant to whoever I'm playing at the time.

As I see it, my characters will gain better gear and money through payment, treasure hunting or because they can gradually afford better materials to craft, rather than this rather strange miraculous thing where somehow, the fates happily provide me with better armour. Obviously, realism is very subjective in games, but to me, this seems a more honest way of getting improved items.

Most importantly for me, I don't HAVE to be this special snow-flake, in a world of special snow-flakes. Now, you can reasonably say I can use RP to forget that, but I prefer the idea that my fellow players are running about telling their own stories too, not just the one The Game is making us follow.

We still get to progress and get better skills, it's just that the obvious numbers are less important now. And really, apart from in PvP, what's wrong with everyone 'winning' to a certain extent? There are other ways of showing off the stripes you've earned in the game aside from level numbers. I hope more of those things will be added.

Hope that makes sense.

P.S. - with regard to alliances/factions - I think it's much more interesting and er...realistic...to acknowledge that people change their views, alliances or don't even have any, during war. It's a vague grey complicated thing a lot of the time.