Uhh, Differrent beginnings???

EvilMakaroni · July 2018

So, recently after buying Summerset DLC I noticed that it changed the beginning of the game. It begins in Summerset and changes the... main quest? Uhh, nevermind. I want to know, can I decide which beginning I want to play with my new character? Also, I just don't want to play big DLCs so early. :<

BTW, what about new players that have bought ESO Collection? If I am right... They have no idea about the actual beginning of ESO. Because after the creation of their character they instantly start playing Summerset DLC. Is it meant to be that way? :v

Cpt_Teemo · July 2018

You can always teleport back to the main vanilla areas using wayshrines or friends/guildies, and yes I find it quite dumb they didn't give you the option on where to start your game at should have atleast have options for Vanilla, and Chapter areas.

Danikat · July 2018

Yes you start in Summerset if you own it, and no there's no way to choose. For whatever reason ZOS decided it was better to push new players into the latest expansion first.

If you know what you're doing you can get a boat or wayshrine from the starting point to your Alliance's main city and then you'll be approached by an NPC who will start the main quest for you. (Which is still annoying for some people who care about their characters story and cannot find a way to make any sense of them travelling to an island only to immediately leave again.)

If you don't know what you're doing or don't have a plan...I guess you end up doing Summerset first and then maybe picking up the main story later. I don't know if the timeline of events makes any sense that way, especially with NPCs you're supposed to have met and worked with long before Summerset, but maybe it doesn't bother many people?

The sole upside to this I've seen is 1 person saying they just roamed around picking up whatever quests they happened to find without worrying about whether they were part of the main story or not, sometimes got on boats and ended up in new locations and ended up joining the Dark Brotherhood and that freedom/randomness made it feel like a real Elder Scrolls game for them. But IMO the One Tamriel system (which means everything is scaled to the same level) achieved the same thing without needing to start players in the most recent release.

ShionRasenka · July 2018

I'm a new-ish player myself, and I found it very disconcerting that I didn't start from the vanilla portion of the game. ZOS should definitely put in an option to let players choose where in the story they want to start.

EvilMakaroni · July 2018

Is there any way ZOS will read this?

MLGProPlayer · July 2018

EvilMakaroni wrote: »

Is there any way ZOS will read this?

They already said last year that they are firm on starting new players in the latest expansions. It's a marketing decision that they refuse to back down from, cohesive storyline be damned.

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO · July 2018

I think none of the main quests should be available out of order, i.e., you can't just go do the main alliance story quests in Grahtwood until you've finished all of them in Auridon (of which I think there are like 5 or 6 in each zone). But all of the other side quests and area quests would be available, just not the ones concerning the main, through-story.

Although that would mean that ZOS couldn't push Summerset on new players, as that quest line builds directly off of previous quest lines. So it's not something they will likely ever do, as they use expansions to bring in new players more than to cater to older players.

tinythinker · July 2018

EvilMakaroni wrote: »

Is there any way ZOS will read this?

Read? Sure

Act? Doubtful

The same thing happened with the Morrowind chapter. During the beta for Morrowind people mentioned this. They didn't add an option for Morrowind or a year later for Summerset. Even if they wanted to start you in the latest expansion, they could make it so that when you leave you get shipwrecked or something in some tiny zonelet and captured by the Worm Cult to make sure that all of the story references to "not having a soul" in the base game make sense. I suggested as much. Same is true for adding an NPC representative of a certain power to explain briefly why you can go to enemy zones and not be seen as the champion of another faction.

And for the sake of having the option for continuity with the One Tamriel changes, again I ask that the quest log have a special marker for quests associated with the main story of each faction. Like a red bookmark with a dragonhead for EP, a yellow one for AD, etc.

Stovahkiin · July 2018

Nope, players have no choice in regards to where they start. It’s just another case of Zeni adamantly shoving product down your throat, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense at all.

Tyrobag · July 2018

No, you can't choose which beginning to start with. You should be able to, and its something we've been asking for since Morrowind, but ZoS has completely ignored the requests.

Wildberryjack · July 2018

I wish we could choose. I liked the little starting island for Morrowind but the one for Summerset is small, boring, and there isn't hardly anything there. Hate it.

Sylvermynx · July 2018

I found it odd for sure, since I was a couple of weeks into my first girls before I bought Summerset. So for those first couple of characters, Summerset is still sitting there waiting - though of course since I did ESO+ they actually started in Morrowind. But for the ones I've created since, of course, they all start in Summerset....

The last couple, I've chosen not to play the tutorial, and immediately move them to their "home city" using the Shimmerene Wayshrine.

And in fact since all of my girls are pretty low level while I figure out gameplay, I'm considering restarting all but my crafter and just move them as above, and pick up the MQ first thing. I keep feeling as if I'm missing out on a BUNCH of stuff....