How does picking an Alliance matter?

Davor · September 2018

What is the purpose of an Alliance? I still don't get it. I understand what it is but I don't get why. I mean we can create so many characters and each character can be in any alliance a person can be in all 3. So what is the purpose of being in an Alliance and do Alliance battles because you can go in and out of any Alliance to play. What am I not seeing here?

While I only do PvE right now, all my characters are from Aldmeri Dominion. I am wondering if I should be picking another Alliance if I start a new character or keep it AD. I don't understand. Just feels weird if I ever do PvP or the Alliance battles, being non AD just doesn't seem right.

All I can see is for spies. Someone is really on Alliance but acting as another Alliance to act as a spy or what not. This might be cool. It can also work as sabotage, which I do not find cool. Does this really happen or am I over thinking it?

Just like to understand why picking more than one alliance and playing both or all three really work. For me I would be feeling I am being a traitor to what I picked. Please help me understand.

Finviuswe · September 2018

It matters a ton.

I mean, it matters in terms of which alliance you are fighting on in PvP. With that being said, you can make toons on various alliance, so "alliance loyalty" isn't nearly a thing.

If you are doing PvE, it has next to no effect. Simply will affect the locations of certain things.

eso_nya · September 2018

alliances determines the order of the basegame zones and your spawnpoint in cyrodiil.

they dont have any real purpose besides creating an artifical gap between players to have them fight each other. same as in any other game where u get to pick a side.

max_only · September 2018

It doesn’t matter.

I have characters in each but because of my bad experiences with Ebonheart players I never play those. Every time I think about giving EP another chance someone reminds me of why I gave up on them. I only play support roles and I’m not going to support people like the ones I meet in game.

One advantage of having characters in different factions is that some pvp sets drop in a faction style. So my AD characters will never get Daggerfall style clothes from Cyrodiil. However, now that the world is opened up, it doesn’t matter I can just buy the styles on a guild trader.

Your one character will be asked to do all 3 faction quests eventually anyway so there’s no point in stressing about what you’re missing.

If you pvp with friends often, that is the only reason why alliance matters.

TheShadowScout · September 2018

eso_nya wrote: »

alliances determines the order of the basegame zones and your spawnpoint in cyrodiil...

Well, and the color of that shield icon floating above your head in cyrodil.

But yeah, the only real game-effect left is which side you PvP for; ever since One Tamriel anyhow.

Lorewise its a different kettle of fish...
But that is all about your character backstory. Some people associate with their characters, other see each character as seperate individual, and enjoy playing from this side one day, and from that the other.

Me, I made my characters all across the alliances back before I was aware of cadwells... back when I thought I needed a character in every alliance to experience every alliances questlines.
If I had known... hmmm... I might have been tempted to make only EP characters, since I like the pact best! But I tent to PvP on my pact mainy only anyhow, so...

AlnilamE · September 2018

If you don't PvP, then it only affects what zone you start in. But since One Tamriel that isn't that critical anymore since you can go anywhere right away.

DanteYoda · September 2018

Its meaningless.. At release it had some meaning because we were somewhat locked into it.. These days it doesn't mean a thing..

I have characters in all factions and races in opposite factions.. it really is meaningless.

usmguy1234 · September 2018

If it didn't mean being in a campaign where the other two alliances run 50 deep and avoid each other and continuously pound the underdog from both sides, I'd say it didn't matter at all.

VaranisArano · September 2018

I started out EP before One Tamriel, joined guilds that were EP, and currently play with an EP loyalist PVP guild, so my choice of Alliance turned out to matter quite a lot to me.

Blood for the Pact!

But for everyday PVE gameplay, it doesn't impact much. Heck, even in PVP it only dictates which character plays on each alliance if you prefer cross-faction play or join a PVP guild that allows cross faction play.

However, there is no Alliance change token, so once chosen, it cannot be changed.

Minyassa · September 2018

It's basically game flavor, another way to customize your toon to make it more enjoyable to play, like customizing its appearance. If you've already played in all three zones and have a preference for a certain story arc, or think that one zone is a little easier on non-CP characters, it might be a way to make leveling easier, too.

Enkil · September 2018

Game could have been guild vs. guild but they had to contrive the alliance war to make it realm vs. realm (like WOW and Dark Age of Camelot) instead.

Varana · September 2018

It had a huge impact when the game launched back in 2014 - you were locked out of other alliance's zones until you had completed the quest line for your alliance, or attained veteran rank (before they introduced Champion Points). You also could create characters only from your alliance's race (so only EP players could be Dark Elves, or only DC players Orcs) unless you purchased an upgrade.

The whole game was gated to your alliance. It was not a good idea, and they abolished it in 2016.
Since then, the alliance has only minor impact (explained above). The prominence that it is given during character creation and UI is mainly a leftover from those earlier days.

Davor · September 2018

Thank you everyone for the replies. I have a better understanding now.

MLGProPlayer · September 2018

ESO_GOD wrote: »

If you are doing PvE, it has next to no effect. Simply will affect the locations of certain things.

Won't it affect which main story quest you can do? If you don't do your alliance's story, I don't think you get the "messages across Tamriel" quest to go to Coldharbour (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

VaranisArano · September 2018

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

ESO_GOD wrote: »

If you are doing PvE, it has next to no effect. Simply will affect the locations of certain things.

Won't it affect which main story quest you can do? If you don't do your alliance's story, I don't think you get the "messages across Tamriel" quest to go to Coldharbour (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

It minorly impacts the location of your harborage and which cutscenes you get during Messages across Tamriel (which you can receive from Vanus Galerion). However, these are all functionally the same.

iiYuki · September 2018

Alliance doesn't matter anymore, at one time it did but that time is long gone...

Drakkdjinn · September 2018

Only matters if you have one alliance you prefer for PvP; otherwise not at all.

Danikat · September 2018

I think this might have been one of the MMOs where the developers massively over-estimated the number of people who would play PvP and the importance they'd place on it. The way it was advertised before release it was like you'd pick your alliance and create your character, play through PvE to learn about who you were fighting for and against and then focus on PvP where you'd do most of the actual fighting.

If I remember correctly during the betas and possibly just after launch you couldn't go to the other alliance's PvE maps at all, once you got to level 50/finished the quests the only things left to do were dungeons and PvP and ZOS seemed to think that would be enough...at least at first. It was only after players kept saying they wanted more PvE content that the Cadwell's quests were added to let you into the other alliances zones. And then of course Craglorn was added too.

But apparently they found the system they had wasn't working - locking players into their alliance in PvE didn't make them feel more connected to it in PvP, it just left PvE players with less to do and less people to play with. So they re-worked the game with the One Tamriel update* so anyone could go anywhere at any level, and all the maps were shared (previously if you went to another alliance's maps you still only saw people from your alliance because it was a special high-level version).

And now of course they're moving away from the alliance war story entirely with Morrowind, Clockwork City and Summerset focusing on the fight against the daedric princes instead of the alliances.

*I always think it's a shame they'd already used the name Tamriel Unlimited for removing the subscription fee, that would be a much better name for One Tamriel.

Drakkdjinn · September 2018

Danikat wrote: »

I think this might have been one of the MMOs where the developers massively over-estimated the number of people who would play PvP and the importance they'd place on it. The way it was advertised before release it was like you'd pick your alliance and create your character, play through PvE to learn about who you were fighting for and against and then focus on PvP where you'd do most of the actual fighting.

If I remember correctly during the betas and possibly just after launch you couldn't go to the other alliance's PvE maps at all, once you got to level 50/finished the quests the only things left to do were dungeons and PvP and ZOS seemed to think that would be enough...at least at first. It was only after players kept saying they wanted more PvE content that the Cadwell's quests were added to let you into the other alliances zones. And then of course Craglorn was added too.

But apparently they found the system they had wasn't working - locking players into their alliance in PvE didn't make them feel more connected to it in PvP, it just left PvE players with less to do and less people to play with. So they re-worked the game with the One Tamriel update* so anyone could go anywhere at any level, and all the maps were shared (previously if you went to another alliance's maps you still only saw people from your alliance because it was a special high-level version).

And now of course they're moving away from the alliance war story entirely with Morrowind, Clockwork City and Summerset focusing on the fight against the daedric princes instead of the alliances.

*I always think it's a shame they'd already used the name Tamriel Unlimited for removing the subscription fee, that would be a much better name for One Tamriel.

Yea that’ll happen if you release PvP broken & never fix it.

JitchDaddy · September 2018

I can smell the faction vs faction arguments coming..

VaranisArano · September 2018

JitchDaddy wrote: »

I can smell the faction vs faction arguments coming..

Nah, I generally find from the forums that every alliance has about the same amount of good PVP, bad PVP, zone generals, toxic players, organized guilds, PUG wranglers, and good times.

Also that everyone thinks the other 2 alliances are clearly teaming up on them...

JitchDaddy · September 2018

VaranisArano wrote: »

JitchDaddy wrote: »

I can smell the faction vs faction arguments coming..

Nah, I generally find from the forums that every alliance has about the same amount of good PVP, bad PVP, zone generals, toxic players, organized guilds, PUG wranglers, and good times.

Also that everyone thinks the other 2 alliances are clearly teaming up on them...

I can't argue with any of that, but I was referring to the superiority complex most players form about their specific alliance.