PTS Update 21 - Feedback Thread for Elsweyr Prologue Quest

ZOS_GinaBruno · January 2019

This is the official feedback thread for the Elsweyr Prologue Quest. Note this quest will only be available to test during the first week of PTS, until January 28. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

Were you able to successfully acquire this quest with minimal confusion?
Did you run into any issues?
Do you have any other general feedback?

CyberOnEso · January 2019

The courier marked the location on my map, but it only marked one of the 3 posible locations to find Abnur Tharn.
And it seems like Abnur Tharn does not appear at either of the other two.

Additionally with the inital quest letter could you not use an alternate letter texture, like the kind Abnur Tharn would use? I think it would make it seem a lot more important.

kirgeo · January 2019

have a small question, is the prologue quest supposed to be done after the dungeons? It mentions the tablets.

TerraDewBerry · January 2019

I was able to find the quest and had no problems doing it.
I didn't run into any bugs (that I know of).
I loved the prologue quest!! Really well done, ZOS!!

Aliyavana · January 2019

We should be allowed to be more hostile to abnur for taking the amulet

TiaFrye · January 2019

kirgeo wrote: »

have a small question, is the prologue quest supposed to be done after the dungeons? It mentions the tablets.

Tharn bought the tablets himself so you don't have to do dungeons prior, but chronologically it's prior the prologue. No additional dialogue or so I was told (?).

TiaFrye · January 2019

I have a "bug" to report. Memento that is given on completion of the Halls of Colossus seems to lack the flight animation for dragon models, it's just a T-pose. I hope it's not intentional.

JD2013 · January 2019

Can we slap Abnur around a bit before helping him?

Grumblestiltskin · January 2019

Just completed the prologue quest and loved every minute. Great work.

Just one minor bug report:

During the Halls of Colossus quest, when you meet Captain Calsivius, the dialogue between Calsivius and Abnar Tharn overlaps. I know it's totally in character for Abnar to talk over people but I think this needs correcting.

LonePirate · January 2019

A couple of items here.

1. After accepting the first quest, the map pointed to a location in northwestern Davon’s Watch where Abnur Tharn would be. He was not there. Then I was pointed to a location in southwestern Davon’s Watch where he was not present either. I remembered seeing him in the Davon’s Watch Mages Guild so I headed there and found him. His location should be made static so players can find him.
2. Most of the repeatable quests (that appear after completing the two Tharn quests) require the player to kill X number of creatures in a certain area. These kill requirements, which ranged from 8-10, seemed too high based on the recent Murkmire prologue dailies for mammoths and the New Life Betnihk quest. Perhaps lowering these requirements to 4-5 would prevent player frustration once the quests are slammed come April/May.

Grumblestiltskin · January 2019

LonePirate wrote: »

After accepting the first quest, the map pointed to a location in northwestern Davon’s Watch where Abnur Tharn would be. He was not there.

As I was playing an AD char I went straight to Vulkhel Guard and he was exactly where the map showed me to go. Hopefully this will be fixed for other alliances.

TiaFrye · January 2019

Grumblestiltskin wrote: »

LonePirate wrote: »

After accepting the first quest, the map pointed to a location in northwestern Davon’s Watch where Abnur Tharn would be. He was not there.

As I was playing an AD char I went straight to Vulkhel Guard and he was exactly where the map showed me to go. Hopefully this will be fixed for other alliances.

I had my pin exactly where Tharn was playing for Covenant, in Daggefall castle. So it's probably safe to say that EP territory can be problematic here.

ZOS_GinaBruno · January 2019

kirgeo wrote: »

have a small question, is the prologue quest supposed to be done after the dungeons? It mentions the tablets.

That's the idea, yeah. It'll be launching after Wrathstone, but before Elsweyr.

Ilsabet · January 2019

Is the dialogue for the prologue quest different depending on whether or not you've previously done the dungeons?

Taolie · January 2019

From the patch notes:

"There are two quests in this series of prologue events.

The Demon Weapon starts your journey, which leads into and concludes with the Halls of Colossus.
Once these two quests are complete, a series of optional daily activities opens for you to pursue bonus rewards!"

I was able to complete the prologue quests and finished up with the Halls of Colossus without any problems.

However, I can't find the questgiver for the 'optional daily activities' anywhere. I looked in the achievements under "upcoming prologues", and it says there is an NPC named Zarahi, supposedly in Grahtwood somewhere, but I have found nothing to indicate where this person is.

There should be something once you complete Halls of Colossus to point you to the dailies.

Edit: I ran through the entire Demon Weapon and Halls of Colossus quests again on a different character. This time I explored Tharn's camp area a bit instead of just leaving when the quest was over. I was able to find Zarahi this time, although she's a bit outside of camp.

Even after completing the prologue quests, there is no map marker for Tharn's camp, so once I had left it, I really had no idea how to get back to it. On my second run-through, I checked my locations after every step, so I could go back later to check for Zarahi. I didn't think to do this the first time, as it's usually not necessary.

Kalcipher1 · January 2019

On the story... Abnur Tharn is a real POS. Makes me think the bit about being a blind old fool is just pity party... fun twist! but I still want to punch him

Feedback: I am not a fan of drawn-out, fetch and grab, travel across multiple zones... opening quests. Story aside, they are boring and expected. If you open the quest line with "nothing new" what do you think I am already expecting from the remainder of the quest line... that's right, nothing new. Despite that, I am thankful you crammed it all into 1 opening quest because a series of opening quests would have been unbearable.

RaddlemanNumber7 · January 2019

Are Khamira and The Tharn just going to stand there for ever by the gate north of Cormount? Khamira says she's in a hurry, but goes nowhere.

The quest giver for the repeating daily quests is a looooong way from the nearest way shrine

In the soul trapping daily quest it is not made clear that you don't actually need any empty soul gems in your inventory, and that you don't need to use the soul trap spell on the daedra in order to "trap their souls". You only need to kill daedra to meet the quest requirements. People are going to get confused.

Some of the daily quests are just plain daft. Training to fight dragons by fighting goblins, lurchers, spiders???

Training is for AD troops but some of the troop-training quests takes place in middle of DC and EP territory despite the 3 banners war still on-going. Surely there are also many ethical questions surrounding the use of living creatures for live-fire target practice, especially a Goblin tribe, and Lamia. This is just Evil. It is genocide, an emerging trend for AD troops.

Lorriasel is a particularly bad choice for one of these quests. We are training an AD soldier in a location where AD are carrying out their genocidal campaign against the Argonians, and where there are hostile AD soldiers, including Khajiit, who the recruit will fight and kill.

The Kath Bedraud troop-training quest asks us to kill skeletons, but players on this quest will inevitably kill the Necromancers that are there as well. IIRC Those Necromancers are a quest requirement for one of the quests in the Glenumbra questline.

And so many fish in the quest rewards! But, I guess we know who to blame for that

Edit spelling

Marisana · January 2019

Were you able to successfully acquire this quest with minimal confusion?

Yes. It was easy to start from the guild store, and Anais Davaux was also very easy to spot when leaving Daggerfall without the quest. Abnur Tharn was in Daggerfall Castle, as he said he would be.

Did you run into any issues?

The quest itself went without any problems, but I encountered two bugs after it:

1. The Dragon Memento had all the Dragons floating in a T-Pose, no wing movement whatsoever. That might be as intended, but it looked very weird and unfinished.
2. While doing daily quests for Zahari, two times out of three her first dialogue line while handing in a quest was mute and not animated. This happened during the quests "Stormcrag Crypt" and "Spider Demonstration", and during "SD" her mute line was "At last, you return. Were you able to complete your assigned task?"

Do you have any other general feedback?

I had a lot of fun with the quest. I love that we are now getting teleported to most of the quest locations, that should make things a lot easier for new players!

Khamira looks like an interesting character, and the Halls of Colossus were simply beautiful.

The new daily quest giver was easy to find. I tried three different daily quests ("Stormcrag Crypt", "Mighty Weapons" and "Spider Demonstration") and they were all easy to do. I was happy to see furniture as one of my rewards from a daily reward crate, and think that is a great idea!

Contraptions · January 2019

Were you able to successfully acquire this quest with minimal confusion?

Yes, the crown store item is pretty self explanatory.

Did you run into any issues?

Both quests completed with no problems.

Do you have any other general feedback?

Please move the daily quest giver Zahari nearer to a wayshrine. If we're going to do her dailies regularly putting her in the middle of nowhere is going to get very annoying very fast if people have to travel long distances. I suggest placing her in Redfur Trading Post, it's near a wayshrine and makes sense as well. This is my only complaint about the event.

Footfalls · January 2019

Regarding the dragon reveal in the prologue quest, two things I think would improve that scene tremendously:

1. Have Kaalgrontiid shout "Fus" instead of a generic roar when he knocks Abnur and Khamira down with his shout.
2. Have the Player Character also be knocked down during the shout, as it is currently you sort of stumble but can still walk around which is a little immersion breaking.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · January 2019

Haven't done any of the dailies yet, but here's my feedback for the prologue quest itself.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Were you able to successfully acquire this quest with minimal confusion?

I was able to find the starting quest in Vulkel Guard on my AD character without issue.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Did you run into any issues?

Tharn seemed to be missing a line of dialog as we entered the Halls of Collosus
Concur with @TiaFrye that the memento Dragons seem to be lacking animations. I played it three times to check but they just look like flying statues.
There were a few cases where my character was commenting on dialogue that didn't occur (EX: when the Captain attacks us in the Halls of Collosus, afterwards I'm asking Tharn about something the Captain said about seals...except the Captain never said anything about seals. And I have NPC text turned on in chat just to check that sort of thing.)
This was more lack of perception on my part, but as I didn't realize Tharn appears after giving the Khajiit the mushrooms, I ported away and then had to run back when I realized he'd appeared where I'd already been.
Tharn overuses the 'I can't keep this portal open indefinitely' line. It's especially obvious after the Dragons break out; a major disaster just occured and it's largely his fault, yet he sounds like he hasn't has his morning cup of Colovian coffee. This is especially noticable as the rest of his dialogue for that scene is more fitting in tone. I understand why you'd want to reuse the assest and that re-recording the line might be problematic; maybe just cut the line to 'Come along'? By this point he's pulled the portal trick often enough he shouldn't feel the need to repeat himself.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Do you have any other general feedback?

'Go gather mushrooms' as the opening quest is tedious, boring, and has nothing to do with the rest of the questline. If they'd turned out to be Dragon-repelling mushrooms, or the Khajiit loremaster turned up to talk to us at the end while making soup out of them it could have tied back into it, but as it is? It feels tacked on.
I was pleased that the prologue mostly took place in AD territory rather than bouncing around all of Tamriel for no reason except to include the other Alliances.
Every time Tharm mentioned his 'shadow' I kept thinking back to the Summerset prologue. XD Especially since he's a mage.
It was nice that Tharn teleported me to the next area rather than making me run to a Wayshrine; I wasn't expecting that.

SirIronclad · January 2019

A little nitpick with the story:

I was really confused when at the end the dragon just talks English.

That "We're free, brothers." line or however it went would be WAY more badass if twas re-recorded in the Dragon Language. If you really want them to be understood, have a dragon address one of the human characters.

Also, although the breakout moment was pretty great to behold, why not add some spice by having the dragons cast some spells (aka actually use the Thu'um) in a fitting manner. Let them shout for reinforcements, give them a battle cry or even change the weather for a really dramatic finale.

Why not make a great moment truly epic as would befit this momentous occasion?

majulook · January 2019

1. Prologue Quest was easy to obtain.

2. Prologue Quest(s) lots of fun.

3. Location of Zahari the daily quest giver is out in the middle of nowhere. This is just bad design.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · January 2019

I did a once-through of the dailies so here is my feedback for those:

They're very repetitive. Half of them are 'go get a scroll from Tomb X' and half are 'go kill Y number of mob Z with some NPC help'. We could be digging up ore for weapons or directing refugees out of Elsweyr or hiring smiths or transporting gear to training recruits, building siege weapons to hit flying foes - lots of things! Instead we have essentially two quests, repeated about four times each. Which leads me to point number two...
About half of those quests don't make sense. Digging up Nord scrolls on the subject is logical as is soul-trapping Daedra to boost our weapons' quality, but most of the mob fights are ridiculous - fighting Goblins will not teach you tactics to fight Dragons.
- They are a fraction of the size.
- Their magic is completely different.
- They're usually in largish tribes rather than individuals or (at most) small groups.
- Their tactics are different, as Goblins tend toward skulking around and not directly invading.
- They don't fly.
The same or similar problems exist for most of the other mobs. At the very least pick mobs where one or more of the Dragons' traits are present - go after Wamasu for their size and power, Harpies for their flight. Pick on bigger and badder monsters for practice, not trash mobs.
As others have noted, having the questgiver out in the middle of nowhere is a bother.
As others have noted, having to kill X number of mobs in a tiny area is going to be a nightmare on live with everyone competing for kills.

SirIronclad wrote: »

That "We're free, brothers." line or however it went would be WAY more badass if twas re-recorded in the Dragon Language. If you really want them to be understood, have a dragon address one of the human characters.

Also, although the breakout moment was pretty great to behold, why not add some spice by having the dragons cast some spells (aka actually use the Thu'um) in a fitting manner. Let them shout for reinforcements, give them a battle cry or even change the weather for a really dramatic finale.

Why not make a great moment truly epic as would befit this momentous occasion?

I'm going to second all of this.

Mudcrabber · January 2019

Since the quest sends you to Wormroot Depths I thought I would try doing The Tharn Speaks (AD) at the same time as the prologue:

It worked. Two Tharns at once.

Apart from that, only one unrelated thing seemed off with the quest, right at the beginning. When you first meet Tharn, Tharayya is saying something to him, but he just stood silent and didn't respond to her. It felt unnatural, like an omitted line.

green_villain · January 2019

i cant find quest giver for it
they disables prologue or what?

sozo108 · February 2019

I also can't find the quest giver, and the starter is not in the crown store. Were the prologue quests removed?

Karminathevamp · February 2019

Guys, read the first post from Gina carefully.

sozo108 · February 2019

Karminathevamp wrote: »

Guys, read the first post from Gina carefully.

Oof, I'm blind. Thanks for pointing that out.

Skotty · February 2019

General feedback:

In the end scene of Halls of Colossus, Abnur Tharn has a out-of place dialogue in the NPC chat dialogues:

Abnur Tharn: "SAT Music"

Lore-related Feedback:

The fact that those Khajiit Secret Rooms are inside of Ayleid Ruins made me a bit think. Are those Ayleid Ruins supposed to be existent in Valenwood before the refugees from the Prosecution by Pelinal Whitestrake etc came? If those Ruins were made by the refugees, it would mean that the Dragons cannot be imprisonated for too long. Else, if the ruins are supposed to be far older than Alessian Empire, it is okay.

I liked how hints were made that the Dragon Reliefs were added to the Halls of Colossus later. Hinting out this place is even much older.

QuinnTheWolf · March 2019

cant play the quest... somehow the queststarter npc doesnt appear near the impressario, and when i open the crownstore item the quest doesnt activate, i red the note and traveled to the davons watch mages guild, they didnt apear either...

please i beg of you to fix this or to add the quest to my main char (he is my second char i made) ofc i have more chars but i want to do it whit him as he is my quest char too