Do these three upcoming features spell the end of Any Race, Any Alliance?

Enodoc · June 2016

One Tamriel
Race Change
Alliance Change (rumoured, not confirmed)

With the combination of these three features (note that Alliance Change is on the "maybe" list, not the "confirmed" list), will that be the end of the pre-order and Adventure Pack perk "Any Race, Any Alliance"?

Say that it isn't, and Any Race, Any Alliance still exists. What would that mean?

One Tamriel - With this opening up all zones to all alliances immediately, you will be able to play through any content as any race in any alliance zone in any order. While your alliance itself may still be restricted to your race, and would affect your PvP alliance, it doesn't determine what order you can do the PvE content in. So where's the benefit to ARAA owners in PvE now?
Race Change - If Any Race, Any Alliance was still a thing, theoretically you'd only be able to change to one of the other races in your alliance if you didn't have this perk. That means there's only a choice of two races that you would get for the purchase of Race Change. Is Race Change worth it if you don't have ARAA?
Alliance Change - If this was implemented, only those who have the Any Race, Any Alliance perk would be allowed to change alliances. Meaning you'd have to buy that on top of the Alliance Change token. I don't see that being a popular choice.

Discuss!

Gidorick · June 2016

I personally think the Any-Race, Any-Alliance perk should inform the Race and Alliance change.

For Race change, let players change race to the races in their alliance... so only 2 others without the perk.

For alliance change, ZOS allow an alliance change (at no cost) to Any-Race, Any-Alliance players.

I think the largest city in each zone should have a Alliance War recruiter. This recruiter will give players information on the Alliance War and will offer players passage to faction's base in Cyrodiil.

This recruiter will provide the player with motivation to join the fight and will spout motivational slogans. If the player speaks to the recruiter prior to level 10, the player will be told to come back when they've got a bit more experience under their belt. Once the player accepts recruitment for that faction, the player will fight for that faction from then forward.

If the player travels to a different faction's zone and joins up with a recruiter of a different faction, their alliance will change. In this way, a player's alliance will remain in flux for the duration of their own personal narrative. As the player levels, the recruiters should mention to the player the need to commit. Saying things like, "Don't you think it's about time to dedicate yourself to The Covenant?"

Players could be given incentives to join, such as faction tabards and "Commitment Bonuses" like 10% bonus XP while adventuring in their home faction. This would help players feel as if they are making an actual choice as it pertains to their faction.

This would also help with the narrative of your character giving a contextual reason why players help the leaders of each faction throughout the questlines. Being a free agent, they are open to help whomever they would like to help.

Players who have any race any alliance would be dropped randomly in any faction and can switch around factions at will... Players who DON'T are dropped in the faction of the race they choose and they can still go to the other factions but would be met with a snide and racist recruiter if they try to join another faction. ZOS could even have different slurs for the different races, like...

•"It'll be a warm day in Coldharbor before I'll accept a flea ridden Khajiit under my command."
•"The last thing I need is an Altmer trying to tell my commanders how to do their job."
•"Aren't you a Bosmer? Are you just looking to snack on our dead?"
•"I'm not going to reforge all my healms to make room for those teeth."
•"I'd rather not have to worry about my neck being slit in the middle of a night. Take your scaly hide back to Black Marsh."

Enodoc · June 2016

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

Gidorick · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

heheh.. COPY PASTE FTW!

I really think it's a good way to handle this. Put some in-world immersion in for the different factions. Heck the recruiters could even scoff at you if you are from another faction.

"Aren't you a bit too far north Dominion rat?"
"I thought I smelled the stink of sulfer..."
"Is it warm enough for you Northlander?"

I think this would be a huge addition to the immersion and the feeling of faction loyalty.

And since I am 1000% for community involvement... hold a contest to have your insult included in the various options quips of the Recruiters. Not one single winner but a whole bunch of them.

Nestor · June 2016

The whole Alliance structure is really for PvP. On the PvE side, the Alliances don't matter other than where you start the game and what order you do the Silver and Gold in. I thought if the Zones were separated by alliance, then we should not go along and work for that zone on their side in Silver and Gold, instead against them. Of course that would be re-writing the entire game to support that.

As for changing Class, it does not really matter to me if they offer this or not. I have all 4 classes, I have no need to change Classes, I just load up the one I want to play.

Going back to the OP, it does kind of make the best Upgrade in the game meaningless if we can play anywhere as any race now, just the difference being where we are dropped after the Wailing Prison. So, it really only applies to the first few hours of the game, if that.

dsalter · June 2016

the any race any alliance thing has to go tbh, and i'm one of those who got it as a pre-order.
people i bring to the game new feel gimped if they cant pick from all the races.

Turelus · June 2016

*looks at the names posting*

It's like a bitter vet meeting in here, not sure I yet am vet enough to be included.

I don't think any of the alliance stuff will really change and as such I would imagine they will keep the any race/alliance store upgrades as well. They would have to hand out so many crowns for people who have it if they didn't.

It's going to be a whole different and strange game to see players from other factions running around though. I really can't figure out how they will pull this off and stay friendly to the story and lore already in place from the game.

Llilium · June 2016

tbh it sounds they're throwing everything out the window. this entire game feels like its non-canon anymore. it's getting to a point where they're beyond giving a *** anymore, i think.

Korah_Eaglecry · June 2016

I can see it having an impact on what Alliance you choose when you first jump in the game. I wouldnt be surprised if youre still asked what Alliance you want to be in, then give the options of races. If you have the Any Race, Any Alliance unlocked youll be able to choose as you see fit. If not youll still be asked to choose the Three that traditionally make up that Alliance. You may be free to go where ever you please but youll still be locked into a choice over Alliance when going into Cyrodiil.

Race Change wont really impact this in my opinion. Its on par with the Any Race, Any Alliance perk. Youre paying for it.

Thats not to say they wont decide to get rid of the Any Race, Any Alliance perk. But I cant say that they need to or that this change necessarily destroys the need for Any Race, Any Alliance. If they chose to get rid of it. This far into the games existence wouldnt be that bad. Most of the people that took advantage of it at the time.

Enodoc · June 2016

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

Race Change wont really impact this in my opinion. Its on par with the Any Race, Any Alliance perk. Youre paying for it.

But if you could use the Race Change to choose any race in any alliance, doesn't that smack in the face of people who have the Explorer/Adventurer Pack? If it worked like that, someone without ARAA would be able to create a character, buy a race change, and end up with the same benefit as someone with ARAA, while someone with ARAA who wanted a race change would have to pay for that on top of the ARAA.

Legoless · June 2016

I think it would be good to see the back of race limitations, but if the Adventurer Pack keeps selling after One Tamriel then I don't see the harm really.

Turelus · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

Race Change wont really impact this in my opinion. Its on par with the Any Race, Any Alliance perk. Youre paying for it.

But if you could use the Race Change to choose any race in any alliance, doesn't that smack in the face of people who have the Explorer/Adventurer Pack? If it worked like that, someone without ARAA would be able to create a character, buy a race change, and end up with the same benefit as someone with ARAA, while someone with ARAA who wanted a race change would have to pay for that on top of the ARAA.

If they charge crowns for it though you could always look at is it more cost effective to have a pack which lets you do this with every new character you make, or pay for the change when you need it.

Also they could go down the route of simply only allowing you to change to a race you have access to at character creation, meaning everyone has to buy that pack in order to make full use of it, or own Imperial edition to change to an Imperial.

Silver_Strider · June 2016

Turelus wrote: »

*looks at the names posting*

It's like a bitter vet meeting in here, not sure I yet am vet enough to be included.

I don't think any of the alliance stuff will really change and as such I would imagine they will keep the any race/alliance store upgrades as well. They would have to hand out so many crowns for people who have it if they didn't.

It's going to be a whole different and strange game to see players from other factions running around though. I really can't figure out how they will pull this off and stay friendly to the story and lore already in place from the game.

@Turelus
That's the thing, it's not going to be friendly to the lore or story. There are entire story segments that just wouldn't make scene if you are allowed to just hop around the map and do the story of each faction. There was some mild justification for the Silver and Gold areas as just a "how it could have been" but now, there isn't any of that. You can wake up in Bleakrock and watch the Covenant destroy it and immediately afterwards go and do the entirety of the DC questline as though you didn't just witness them invade and destroy an innocent community, unless you're some hardcore RPer that gets their jolly from watching that sort of thing but even then the DC story line doesn't exactly scream ruthless invaders either. Then you go into PvP and start helping EP even though you were named a Champion of the Covenant. What's the point of Any Race Any Alliance when Alliances don't even matter outside of PvP? How do you do the Cadwell Silver and Gold quests if you decide to just start off doing those areas immediately? It's all very muddled if you ask me.

Then, we have to consider the impact on the severs by having cross faction members now available within the same instances as each other. The servers can barely handle the game as is, so I have very little faith that allowing even more players into the server isn't going to do it any favors, even with different instances of the game. Not to mention how toxic the community can get with the whole "faction" loyalty extremist and the PvP crowd constantly shouting in /zone like it's going out of season about how their alliance is better and so on.

Finally, comes issues with crafting materials and zone scaling. Since Silver and golds were typically instanced towards only 1 alliance, it's going to be a nightmare to gather materials for CP10-CP140 as now they are competing with people of other alliances and the prices of said materials is going to skyrocket as a result, which says nothing on how the whole "Scaling of each zone" part of 1 Tamriel is going to go. Do the materials scale to your crafting level? Will that mean it will be impossible for you to get low level mats in low level areas? Will it be half low level and half max level? What will happen to all the materials from CP10-CP140?

It all leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

notimetocare · June 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

heheh.. COPY PASTE FTW!

I really think it's a good way to handle this. Put some in-world immersion in for the different factions. Heck the recruiters could even scoff at you if you are from another faction.
"Aren't you a bit too far north Dominion rat?"

"I thought I smelled the stink of sulfer..."

"Is it warm enough for you Northlander?"

I think this would be a huge addition to the immersion and the feeling of faction loyalty.

And since I am 1000% for community involvement... hold a contest to have your insult included in the various options quips of the Recruiters. Not one single winner but a whole bunch of them.

Immersion would mean 'Dominion rat' would be executed... lol

Gidorick · June 2016

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

heheh.. COPY PASTE FTW!

I really think it's a good way to handle this. Put some in-world immersion in for the different factions. Heck the recruiters could even scoff at you if you are from another faction.
"Aren't you a bit too far north Dominion rat?"

"I thought I smelled the stink of sulfer..."

"Is it warm enough for you Northlander?"

I think this would be a huge addition to the immersion and the feeling of faction loyalty.

And since I am 1000% for community involvement... hold a contest to have your insult included in the various options quips of the Recruiters. Not one single winner but a whole bunch of them.

Immersion would mean 'Dominion rat' would be executed... lol

Lol. I can't really argue with that @notimetocare

Well... except that even in times of war, home lands needn't be torn. Maybe Tamriel is progressive in that way.

notimetocare · June 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

heheh.. COPY PASTE FTW!

I really think it's a good way to handle this. Put some in-world immersion in for the different factions. Heck the recruiters could even scoff at you if you are from another faction.
"Aren't you a bit too far north Dominion rat?"

"I thought I smelled the stink of sulfer..."

"Is it warm enough for you Northlander?"

I think this would be a huge addition to the immersion and the feeling of faction loyalty.

And since I am 1000% for community involvement... hold a contest to have your insult included in the various options quips of the Recruiters. Not one single winner but a whole bunch of them.

Immersion would mean 'Dominion rat' would be executed... lol

Lol. I can't really argue with that @notimetocare

Well... except that even in times of war, home lands needn't be torn. Maybe Tamriel is progressive in that way.

Racism
Slavery
Kings
Progressive? :P @Gidorick

Gidorick · June 2016

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

heheh.. COPY PASTE FTW!

I really think it's a good way to handle this. Put some in-world immersion in for the different factions. Heck the recruiters could even scoff at you if you are from another faction.
"Aren't you a bit too far north Dominion rat?"

"I thought I smelled the stink of sulfer..."

"Is it warm enough for you Northlander?"

I think this would be a huge addition to the immersion and the feeling of faction loyalty.

And since I am 1000% for community involvement... hold a contest to have your insult included in the various options quips of the Recruiters. Not one single winner but a whole bunch of them.

Immersion would mean 'Dominion rat' would be executed... lol

Lol. I can't really argue with that @notimetocare

Well... except that even in times of war, home lands needn't be torn. Maybe Tamriel is progressive in that way.

Racism
Slavery
Kings
Progressive? :P @Gidorick

We can't really apply our real world politics to Tamriel. Just because there's racism (not enough imo) slavery acne kings doesn't mean they can't be progressive in things like sexual preference (which they are), freedom of religion (which they sort of are), and women's rights (which they REALLY are).

I think it could make sense that the citizens of Tamriel aren't xenophobic. Of course, I'd prefer it if they were. Heheh.

Korah_Eaglecry · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

Race Change wont really impact this in my opinion. Its on par with the Any Race, Any Alliance perk. Youre paying for it.

But if you could use the Race Change to choose any race in any alliance, doesn't that smack in the face of people who have the Explorer/Adventurer Pack? If it worked like that, someone without ARAA would be able to create a character, buy a race change, and end up with the same benefit as someone with ARAA, while someone with ARAA who wanted a race change would have to pay for that on top of the ARAA.

Not in my opinion. We dont even know what the price of the Race Change will be.

notimetocare · June 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

heheh.. COPY PASTE FTW!

I really think it's a good way to handle this. Put some in-world immersion in for the different factions. Heck the recruiters could even scoff at you if you are from another faction.
"Aren't you a bit too far north Dominion rat?"

"I thought I smelled the stink of sulfer..."

"Is it warm enough for you Northlander?"

I think this would be a huge addition to the immersion and the feeling of faction loyalty.

And since I am 1000% for community involvement... hold a contest to have your insult included in the various options quips of the Recruiters. Not one single winner but a whole bunch of them.

Immersion would mean 'Dominion rat' would be executed... lol

Lol. I can't really argue with that @notimetocare

Well... except that even in times of war, home lands needn't be torn. Maybe Tamriel is progressive in that way.

Racism
Slavery
Kings
Progressive? :P @Gidorick

We can't really apply our real world politics to Tamriel. Just because there's racism (not enough imo) slavery acne kings doesn't mean they can't be progressive in things like sexual preference (which they are), freedom of religion (which they sort of are), and women's rights (which they REALLY are).

I think it could make sense that the citizens of Tamriel aren't xenophobic. Of course, I'd prefer it if they were. Heheh.

We can judge racism and slavery still lol. And technically they are only partially sexually progressive. Nobility is still very frowned upon for same sex relations... but thats a political issue :P

Gidorick · June 2016

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@Gidorick Some of that post seems strangely familiar

heheh.. COPY PASTE FTW!

I really think it's a good way to handle this. Put some in-world immersion in for the different factions. Heck the recruiters could even scoff at you if you are from another faction.
"Aren't you a bit too far north Dominion rat?"

"I thought I smelled the stink of sulfer..."

"Is it warm enough for you Northlander?"

I think this would be a huge addition to the immersion and the feeling of faction loyalty.

And since I am 1000% for community involvement... hold a contest to have your insult included in the various options quips of the Recruiters. Not one single winner but a whole bunch of them.

Immersion would mean 'Dominion rat' would be executed... lol

Lol. I can't really argue with that @notimetocare

Well... except that even in times of war, home lands needn't be torn. Maybe Tamriel is progressive in that way.

Racism
Slavery
Kings
Progressive? :P @Gidorick

We can't really apply our real world politics to Tamriel. Just because there's racism (not enough imo) slavery acne kings doesn't mean they can't be progressive in things like sexual preference (which they are), freedom of religion (which they sort of are), and women's rights (which they REALLY are).

I think it could make sense that the citizens of Tamriel aren't xenophobic. Of course, I'd prefer it if they were. Heheh.

We can judge racism and slavery still lol. And technically they are only partially sexually progressive. Nobility is still very frowned upon for same sex relations... but thats a political issue :P

What I mean is we can't look at our own world as an example as how Tamriel should view things. We can't say "when our world had widespread slavery and kings, this is how our world was so that is how Tamriel should be."

They have their own set of sociopolitical norms. Just because the people of our world might have trouble separating a war with it's people, it doesn't mean that Tamriel should also.

But again... I would prefer there be more racism and xenophobia in ESO but I don't think that is going to happen. Even though Tamriel shouldn't follow our norms, the world exists as a product of ours so it does kind of reflect our sensibilities to an extend.

Egonieser · June 2016

I think ZoS just created a big, muddled mess. Unless they have already made rock solid plans to back up all these changes, such as revamping entire quest lines and the narrative as a whole - there will be a lot of confused and perhaps even angry people. I do hope they have thought this through, but judging from all the major changes that have happened in the past, I have my most serious doubts.

Tbh, I have NEVER seen a MMO that changes their entire game around so many times in such a short cycle. Sure, I've seen games do that in like 7-8 years into their life to spice things up, update the engine and make the game fun and relevant again, but the heck man, ESO is only 2 years old and it has gone through more changes than most games ever will. Not to mention I have rarely seen a game change the narrative completely, especially a MMO.

It seems like we've all been playing the pre-beta stage to help ZoS determine what they want this game to be before it establishes it's true identity, because at it stands, it changes from DLC to DLC. And I bet (as someone already mentioned) the game will be rebranded again when this finally happens.
"Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, the GoTY Extreme Edition!" Mark my words...

Actually_Goku · June 2016

I don't mind everyone having access to whatever race they desire - bar Imperial, which I believe you should still have to buy the Imperial edition for.

I do however, think alliance change is a bad idea. I don't need to go into great detail on why, as it should be obvious. The ramifications for PVP especially should be obvious.

Rohamad_Ali · June 2016

It was inevitable . If the game can make money from it they will . No one has said race will be open to change to any alliance race as of yet . It maybe limited to choosing race inside faction parameters for all we know right now . A purchase of the Imperial addition maybe required to swap to any race from any faction . It's just speculation at this point until ZOS makes a statement . If open to any race , I can see some imperial edition owners feeling a little bamboozled by the preorder exclusive . We'll have to wait and see .

Iluvrien · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

One Tamriel

Race Change

Alliance Change (rumoured, not confirmed)

With the combination of these three features (note that Alliance Change is on the "maybe" list, not the "confirmed" list), will that be the end of the pre-order and Adventure Pack perk "Any Race, Any Alliance"?

Yes, but let's be honest with ourselves, that boat started getting ready to sail as soon as the sneaky rename took place and the ARAA option hit the crown store. After that, it was only going to be a matter of time (i.e. until the money for the Adventurer's Pack started to dry up) before they either tried to re-monetise it, or dropped it altogether.

baratron · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

Race Change wont really impact this in my opinion. Its on par with the Any Race, Any Alliance perk. Youre paying for it.

But if you could use the Race Change to choose any race in any alliance, doesn't that smack in the face of people who have the Explorer/Adventurer Pack? If it worked like that, someone without ARAA would be able to create a character, buy a race change, and end up with the same benefit as someone with ARAA, while someone with ARAA who wanted a race change would have to pay for that on top of the ARAA.

As far as I'm concerned, I've had use of the Any Race, Any Alliance perk since 30th March 2014. That's getting on for 2 years and 3 months. If Zenimax decide that they want to change how the game works now, I am hardly going to be crying about it. Especially when One Tamriel is the way the game should have been all along.