ESO - One Tamriel (what are your thoughts?)

Hallothiel · June 2016

@Tarante11a

I appreciate your view but I just don't see what will be the point of having a storyline at all if I can just run around & quest wherever. Quests done in the faction story don't make sense if done out of order.

Magenpie · June 2016

Hallothiel wrote: »

@Tarante11a

I appreciate your view but I just don't see what will be the point of having a storyline at all if I can just run around & quest wherever. Quests done in the faction story don't make sense if done out of order.

Well, you can do them in order if you want to. And the main quest. You just don't *have* to. Also, you can go back to them any time you like now.

So, as an example off the top of my head, your character is a mercenary with no faction, except you find a quest that affects them so much, they decide to join up. Or something. The storylines can still matter if you want them too, just not necessarily in terms of levels or at a forced point in your travels.

However, you'll still be able to play through your zones exactly as you do now if you prefer it.

I have no idea about this of course, but perhaps in the time before the changes are implemented, ZOS will write some quests to fill in any awkward nonsensical story gaps. I hope so.

I'm really sorry you're disappointed with the announcement though. I don't like it when a game I'm fond of changes in a way I'm unhappy with.

Hallothiel · June 2016

@Tarante11a
Thanks - and who knows it might be done well BUT Zos don't have a brilliant track record. This is quite a huge change to the entire game - for instance, how are they going to explain it to the majority who play but don't come to the forums / read stuff online?

I do love the game & want to continue to play but am also not happy about the battle-levelling suggestion & exactly how that would work - others elsewhere have mentioned their resevations so I won't repeat them.

Went on to play last night after reading about this and had very little enthusiasm for the game for the first time.

Tomg999 · June 2016

Right now I'm enjoying leveling up an alt. I bought a new slot, and am really digging progressing - "Wow! I made level 24! and got another skillpoint, I have 2! And my armor is at 25! Maybe I'll sneak into Bangkorai and try to snatch a skyshard before I am killed." So much more fun than another run with my V16, er, CP160 character running around vanilla Hew's Bane or Orsinium where everything is the same.

Alas, this too will go away....

Curtdogg47 · June 2016

I like the idea, of being able to play with anyone in any alliance in the PVE zones. But I think that it should work like the dungeons. People are invited to the group and the zone then scales to the group leader. Keep things as they are now with PVE, just allow for open world PVE grouping.

Lysette · June 2016

Kas wrote: »

incredibly disappointing. i really hope it will be combined with areas or something similar that will cater to those that have already played thousands of hours. I don't see who anyone who grinded multiple twinks through gold quests (e.g. because multiple DSA weeklies were nice at a time and you better had gold access or even done it for efficient grining at that time) and now levels twinks in a day would give a *** about this.

it's incredibly useless for old players and really caters towards new players that are expected to buy the game, one or two mounts, and then leave for the next. I guess that's already what's happening with the CP cap frozen at 501. I can see how this might work out financially, but of course, I am very frustrated as a player and personally I think ZOS might underestimate the impact of negative viral marketing.

I will certainly stop advising friends to try out ESO

The change is not "bad", however, it sounds like it's quite a bit ofwork and it basically does not even affect the players i know. Got my chars leveled (incl undaunted) and equipped. All this changes for me is the CP number next to the handful of 2-hit-mobs that I enounter on my way to a crafting station. Oh, and there may be three times as many players there with different alliance icons.

This update may be another step towards a game truly enjoyable for new players but it is like no update at all for any long-term player

Yes, but that is how things are everywhere in life - those who have all already and have done all are no longer the target group and no one will cater to them - well, some rheumatism blanket manufacturers will and pharma industry, but otherwise? - this is just how things are, and you cannot really complain as well, because you got a lot of entertainment for your bucks already. New players got nothing yet, need all and they need reasons to stay (some might not even know TES, so they are harder to convince and it has to be much more convenient for them to stay), so the focus is on them.

Thornen · June 2016

All this dev time and effort spent doing this rather than what really needs to be fixed with the game. Tamriel Ones pointless if you don't fix the bugs, and improve pvp.

Robbmrp · June 2016

For me, this raises some really big questions.

Current system performance is based off 1/3 of the player base. Meaning we only see those within our faction. What's that going to do to server performance when we can now see everyone in the entire zone? What is Zenimax doing to ensure that this will still be a "playable" game? Some Campaigns in Cyrodil are already over encumbered with server lag, is the entire game going to be this same way now? If they can pull it off with the performance we need to enjoy the game as it should be, then this should be a great change.

@ZOS_MattFiror, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom, @ZOS_BrianWheeler, @ZOS_GinaBruno anyone care to comment on the above?

Lysette · June 2016

You never see everyone - with more players, the server opens a new phase and is placing them there - load balancing between the phases - there can be thousands of people in a city, and you see just those few dozens in your phase.

DisgracefulMind · June 2016

I feel like they should be putting some effort into PvP before focusing on this change.

Lysette · June 2016

DisgracefulMind wrote: »

I feel like they should be putting some effort into PvP before focusing on this change.

They won't, this is to be phased out IMO - they focus on the real strength of TES now.

The change to One Tamriel promotes cooperative gameplay - TES with friends - not against them.

Kas · June 2016

Lysette wrote: »

Kas wrote: »

incredibly disappointing. i really hope it will be combined with areas or something similar that will cater to those that have already played thousands of hours. I don't see who anyone who grinded multiple twinks through gold quests (e.g. because multiple DSA weeklies were nice at a time and you better had gold access or even done it for efficient grining at that time) and now levels twinks in a day would give a *** about this.

it's incredibly useless for old players and really caters towards new players that are expected to buy the game, one or two mounts, and then leave for the next. I guess that's already what's happening with the CP cap frozen at 501. I can see how this might work out financially, but of course, I am very frustrated as a player and personally I think ZOS might underestimate the impact of negative viral marketing.

I will certainly stop advising friends to try out ESO

The change is not "bad", however, it sounds like it's quite a bit ofwork and it basically does not even affect the players i know. Got my chars leveled (incl undaunted) and equipped. All this changes for me is the CP number next to the handful of 2-hit-mobs that I enounter on my way to a crafting station. Oh, and there may be three times as many players there with different alliance icons.

This update may be another step towards a game truly enjoyable for new players but it is like no update at all for any long-term player

Yes, but that is how things are everywhere in life - those who have all already and have done all are no longer the target group and no one will cater to them - well, some rheumatism blanket manufacturers will and pharma industry, but otherwise? - this is just how things are, and you cannot really complain as well, because you got a lot of entertainment for your bucks already. New players got nothing yet, need all and they need reasons to stay (some might not even know TES, so they are harder to convince and it has to be much more convenient for them to stay), so the focus is on them.

i'm happily paying my eso plus fee. i'd be willing to pay a lot more for eso. my post is not supposed to say that i feel betrayed for what I paied for the game but that i'd be part of a market to serve more things for. pvp arena dlc for 80€? Can i pay 160 and have it tomorrow?

Unlikely_Ghostbuster · June 2016

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. /sarcasm.

Aaaaand, precisely NONE of that questing/progression will change. I don't believe I said or even implied that the changes will benefit the max-level power-grinding crowd. I simply said we'll finally be getting XP parity: a quest == a quest == a quest, regardless of zone. That in now way, shape, or form impugns upon your style of play, does it? The only thing that changes is that you cannot go back to old zones and rofl-stomp low-level monsters. Is *that* what you believe the point of story/questing is?

What about this change forces you to do the quests in a different order? That's right: nothing. As *I* have said before, randomly encountered quest NPCs will still be randomly encountered, while story-line NPCs will still be part of the linear story. It will work *exactly* like Wrothgar does.

You say this change will make questing/story pointless, but you don't say how. Sorry, but I don't see the merit of your "objection" that logically entails your exaggerated /sarcasm

SantieClaws · June 2016

Khajiit will make everything alright again.

Anyone who is unhappy with this decision may get one free puddles worth of fishing company from this one - also possibly a fishy stick.

Travel is at your own expense. Puddle time must be taken during the Fishmas Festival - between 24 and 30 of Evening Star.

This offer is not limited to any alliance but is limited to European Tamriel.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Unlikely_Ghostbuster · June 2016

Robbmrp wrote: »

For me, this raises some really big questions.

Current system performance is based off 1/3 of the player base. Meaning we only see those within our faction. What's that going to do to server performance when we can now see everyone in the entire zone? What is Zenimax doing to ensure that this will still be a "playable" game? Some Campaigns in Cyrodil are already over encumbered with server lag, is the entire game going to be this same way now? If they can pull it off with the performance we need to enjoy the game as it should be, then this should be a great change.

@ZOS_MattFiror, @ZOS_JessicaFolsom, @ZOS_BrianWheeler, @ZOS_GinaBruno anyone care to comment on the above?

Like I said on a previous page, saying PvE areas will be laggy like the PvP area is a false-equivalence because there is no such thing as PvP encounters in the PvE areas. If your concern is that there will, once again, be more people around in a single instance, recall the population density shortly after launch. I'll say it again: back in April 2014, people were clustered around quest NPCs like they were seeing Hendrix at Woodstock and FPS did not suffer one bit.

There is no risk of overwhelming any given PvE zone by simply combining the instances. In fact, tossing out the currently mandatory distinction of alliance faction means one less check on a character the server needs to perform when doing things like fast-traveling to and from different zones, dungeons, and trials either with or without the group-finder. The desegregation will reduce overall complexity, server-side. I'm absolutely certain ZOS is making this change because they're aware of the benefits merging the instances will have in terms of bringing down the overhead.

And again, if it *is* true that they have individual machines for each of the three instances of each zone, they're not going to simply unplug the 2/3 machines they're no longer using and throw them in a closet. Realistically, those machines would be re-purposed to either balance performance issues in problem areas OR be made available for new, interesting content down the road.

Keep in mind this was the EXTENT of ZOS's contribution to E3 2016. Do you seriously believe they'd announce this move having not considered how it will be done, and what the advantages of implementing "Tamriel One" will be? Zones will once again have respectable player populations and overall server-side overhead will be reduced. Suggesting this change will somehow break the game by making things *simpler* is pointless gaslighting.

Hallothiel · June 2016

@Unlikely_Ghostbuster

So main & faction quest lines will be locked so they can't be done out of synch?

That's what I mean about story not meaning anything anymore, if you can jump from a faction quest in Auridon to one in Reaper's March without doing any in between.

Unlikely_Ghostbuster · June 2016

Hallothiel wrote: »

@Unlikely_Ghostbuster

So main & faction quest lines will be locked so they can't be done out of synch?

That's what I mean about story not meaning anything anymore, if you can jump from a faction quest in Auridon to one in Reaper's March without doing any in between.

You can go to Reaper's March and encounter the random, area-specific (but non-story) quests, but the quests that depend on story-line events will not be available unless you've done the required story-line quests leading up to them. The Dark Mane won't be waiting in Reaper's March if you have not yet done the story-line quests in Malabol Tor, let alone Auridon. Naemon won't betray Queen Ayrenn unless you've already recovered the Staff of Magnus. The NPCs who offer those story-line quests are only enabled once the necessary events that precede them are completed. In the Dominion, that NPC is usually Raz, and he doesn't show up to make the next story-line quest available to you until the previous story-line quest is completed.

However, if you want to skip straight from Auridon to Reaper's March and complete the Five Finger Dance quests in which you prank random people to get access to some weird party, you can do THAT because it isn't story-line -- it's one of the randomly encountered quests that you have always been free to skip or do whenever (provided you are of an appropriate level, which is what's changing). That's all.

Uriel_Nocturne · June 2016

Hallothiel wrote: »

@Unlikely_Ghostbuster

So main & faction quest lines will be locked so they can't be done out of synch?

That's what I mean about story not meaning anything anymore, if you can jump from a faction quest in Auridon to one in Reaper's March without doing any in between.

You can do that now. On Tamriel won't change that one bit.

I have a Templar who (because of the Thieves Guild DLC) went from Stormhaven (in the Daggerfall Covenant) straight to Auridon. Once I had completed Auridon, I took him along the proper roadways and he manually traveled to Reaper's March, and he's almost done with that Zone of Cadwell's Gold. (because, thanks to Cake Week, that Templar was a VR9 when I hit Stormhaven, and a VR10 when I got to Reaper's March. He's VR11 now as I prepare for the DB to drop.

)

There's nothing that forces a player to experience the different Alliance MQ's in linear order, nor to even experience Cadwell's Silver/Gold in order.

So how will One Tamriel screw that up?

The only difference I could see, is that the Zones will be phased/instanced per character, and then leveled appropriately to the character.

This means to me; if I have a CP160 character, and I'm running around with my wife and her level25 character, when we run into a mob out in the world, they will appear as CP160 enemies to me, but only lvl25 enemies to her.

It is possible to have this done, and other MMO's have done it with success in the past.

But as far as "story continuity" is concerned, there is absolutely nothing forcing you to tackle the various alliances and zones in any particular order as it is right now (aside from the prerequisite condition that you must hit level 50 before you can explore Cadwell's Silver/Gold zones), and One Tamriel won't change that a bit.

Elsterchen · June 2016

Actually, for me this comment by greg bay nicely summarizes everything I fear from one tamriel.

the comment:
As an ESO player, I find this to be a most welcome change. When I first started playing the game last year, I was put off by the fact that I could only visit portions (albeit giant portions) of the Elder Scrolls world on a particular character, and if I wanted to visit the rest, I would have to create a character from the opposing faction. For awhile, I didn’t consider ESO to be a “true” Elder Scrolls game, due to the fact that I couldn’t explore wherever I wanted to (which is a staple of the Elder Scrolls series); with the inclusion of One Tamriel, I may start to have a whole new appreciation for ESO and Zenimax Studios. While it is expected to be released this Fall, there is no specific release date yet.

(source: https://filmgamesetc.com/2016/06/skyrim-remaster-confirmed-eso-one-coming-consoles-pc-fall/ )

If already a not-so-new-newbie feels inclined to utter such BS and jumps into conclusions... how will real newbies manage? (fyi: read up on: cadwells silver and/or cadwells gold)

SantieClaws · June 2016

Khajiit admits.

It's going to be an interesting stress test when this hits the PTS

Yours with party paws
Santie Claws

AugustoCP · June 2016

Dromede wrote: »

I think that devs operate under an assumption that they already have an extremely loyal customer base - which is true

No, it is not. Need I remind you about the first year of ESO? I was here for the beta. I was NOT here for the first year. Why? Because the game was ***. The devs improved the game and lots of people returned, so now they seem to think they can just *** on the playerbase.If you want to keep your fanbase, you need to actually think your decisions through.

Hallothiel · June 2016

@Uriel_Nocturne

Ok I did not realise you could actually do this already - I mean I know I can do it for Cadwells silver / gold but I did not know I could just take the alts I am levelling (now 22 - 25) and just do their faction quests as I please. So my AD sorcerer can just skip the stuff with the Silvenar? And it wont make a difference to later on?

That's really pants. And makes me sad.

Uriel_Nocturne · June 2016

Hallothiel wrote: »

@Uriel_Nocturne

Ok I did not realise you could actually do this already - I mean I know I can do it for Cadwells silver / gold but I did not know I could just take the alts I am levelling (now 22 - 25) and just do their faction quests as I please. So my AD sorcerer can just skip the stuff with the Silvenar? And it wont make a difference to later on?

That's really pants. And makes me sad.

Yep.

Even in your home alliance, you can do the Zones out of order. So your AD Sorc could hop on his/her mount, and then run all the way to Rawl'kha in Reapers March if you were so inclined. The only thing holding you back is the level difference between the Zone you're going to and your character.

If you can kite enemies well enough, I'd imagine you could do well enough in Reaper's March, even at such a relatively low level.

But no, there's nothing stopping you from jumping ahead in the Zones for your home Alliance, even with a character sub-lvl50. You can even do that Zone's "Main Quest" while skipping entire other Zones. The continuity of the story will be kinf of whacked, but you can still do it. Even if you skip the Silvenar stuff, the Zone after that will comment on the previous Zone as if you had done all of the Quests in the previous Zone. You can always go back and do them later, but it doesn't stop any story progression as each Zone is considered it's own segregated mini-story, and only mildly references the Zones before it.

Tomg999 · June 2016

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

Hallothiel wrote: »

@Uriel_Nocturne

Ok I did not realise you could actually do this already - I mean I know I can do it for Cadwells silver / gold but I did not know I could just take the alts I am levelling (now 22 - 25) and just do their faction quests as I please. So my AD sorcerer can just skip the stuff with the Silvenar? And it wont make a difference to later on?

That's really pants. And makes me sad.

Yep.

Even in your home alliance, you can do the Zones out of order. So your AD Sorc could hop on his/her mount, and then run all the way to Rawl'kha in Reapers March if you were so inclined. The only thing holding you back is the level difference between the Zone you're going to and your character.

If you can kite enemies well enough, I'd imagine you could do well enough in Reaper's March, even at such a relatively low level.

But no, there's nothing stopping you from jumping ahead in the Zones for your home Alliance, even with a character sub-lvl50. You can even do that Zone's "Main Quest" while skipping entire other Zones. The continuity of the story will be kinf of whacked, but you can still do it. Even if you skip the Silvenar stuff, the Zone after that will comment on the previous Zone as if you had done all of the Quests in the previous Zone. You can always go back and do them later, but it doesn't stop any story progression as each Zone is considered it's own segregated mini-story, and only mildly references the Zones before it.

Yes, this is what I have been doing all along, and what I am sad will now be messed up due to battle-leveling.

MercyKilling · June 2016

I stopped doing dungeons because of "battle leveling". Now it's applied to the whole world?

Guess what that means.

nimander99 · June 2016

As far as people arguing that this breaks continuity I'll say this: All the Elder Scrolls Games had a Main Quest Line and Side Quest Stories, Dark Brotherhood, Fighter's Guild etc. Plus local city quest lines and the like. Allowing us to just head in any direction we want and start any of the quest lines we want actually makes this game (finally!) extremely similar to the original games.

IMO this is the healthiest change that Zenimax could do for the longevity of the game.

Just look at what Warcraft is doing with their newest expac, zone scaling and any order completion which I bet they are planning on rolling out to all their past content as well if its well received.

Content waste in Theme Park MMO's is fast becoming a thing of the past. The sooner the better.

Uriel_Nocturne · June 2016

nimander99 wrote: »

As far as people arguing that this breaks continuity I'll say this: All the Elder Scrolls Games had a Main Quest Line and Side Quest Stories, Dark Brotherhood, Fighter's Guild etc. Plus local city quest lines and the like. Allowing us to just head in any direction we want and start any of the quest lines we want actually makes this game (finally!) extremely similar to the original games.

IMO this is the healthiest change that Zenimax could do for the longevity of the game.

Just look at what Warcraft is doing with their newest expac, zone scaling and any order completion which I bet they are planning on rolling out to all their past content as well if its well received.

Content waste in Theme Park MMO's is fast becoming a thing of the past. The sooner the better.

I wish I could mark this as Insightful, Agree, and Awesome; sadly, I can only choose one...

Well said.

Hallothiel · June 2016

Yes but in Skyrim you had to follow the quest line of whichever thing you chose. You could not skip a couple of the quests, there was progression. From one quest to the next. And you gained skill doing this. And levelled up.

Magenpie · June 2016

Hallothiel wrote: »

Yes but in Skyrim you had to follow the quest line of whichever thing you chose. You could not skip a couple of the quests, there was progression. From one quest to the next. And you gained skill doing this. And levelled up.

Hey again @Hallothiel - have to say, like many people, I've notched up over 400 hours of Skyrim and haven't finished the main quest once. For the vast majority of the time, I narrowly avoid getting my head-chopped off at the beginning, look at the situation being offered me...and run in the opposite direction.

I take your point that if you do the main quest you follow it in sequence, yes. I just don't do it at all. It's actually a tiny bit of the game really.

I just like doing my own thing.

Hallothiel · June 2016

Hey back at ya @Tarante11a!

No problem with that - I played stupid hours on Skyrim & chose to follow the quest lines - my choice. One of my sons who had watched me & then his brother do the same quests chose to play in a different way - but if he did start a quest line he didn't / couldn't jump steps in the progression in that quest line. I don't know of any game where you can. But that is apparently what this One Tamriel will allow - or apparently even does now although people have said different things on this - and that really doesn't make sense to me! And I do think that doing the quests & seeing how the story unfolds is a big thing for RPGs.

I totally get the desire to just wander - playing witcher 3 I would sometimes just sail around gor a while heading nowhere in particular - but I also loved the story & the levelling of gear & the progression & the fact you chices had real blooming consequences!

I would just like some mystery to remain. I don't want to be able to have everything or go anywhere or kill things easily as that would just be dull dull dull.