Feature suggestion: Recommended Previous Quests

HelathAndrethi · November 2019

Let's admit it, the quest lines out there are becoming a big pile of mess scattered across Tamriel. As there are more and more quests added to ESO with every Chapter and DLC, I hear complaints from new players who care about roleplay about the quest lines increasingly often. Many of them completed Summerset before finishing Clockwork City, or Elsweyr before the Main Quest, or Chapter/DLC quest lines before their Prologue quest, or completed Reaper's March before Khenarthi's Roost. It totally breaks their immersion/headcanon when they roll back to older contents and found that the events are supposed to take place before the quests they've done.

I understand that ESO wants to stay true to the Elder Scrolls series which value freedom of exploration and roleplay. However ESO quest lines were designed to be linear and serial from the get-go (albeit partly due to the outdated leveling system). The Alliance zones had linear quests that followed a strict order from the starter island to the last zone, at the end of which you get the quest leading to Coldharbour. The Fighter's Guild quests and the Imperial City quests are tied to the Main Quest. The DLC and Chapter quest lines are, to a greater or lesser extent, a sequel to the previous one with continued plots and recurring characters (with the exception of Craglorn, TG, DB and Murkmire; Orsinium has a thing that should happen after the Main Quest and before at least Clockwork City); this is especially true for the Daedric Triad quests from Morrowind to Summerset. If you didn't follow the right order your toon's story becomes the tale of a schizophrenic time-traveler. I started the story from Vvardenfell (coz I bought Basic) which was fortunately only loosely connected to its prequel quests, and I had to Google the right order myself to decide which quests to pick and which to avoid until a later timepoint.

My suggestion is to add some info into the starting quest of Zone storylines suggesting which quests are recommended to be done before this quest. In this way new players can be directed to do the earlier quests in ESO storytelling and simply need to follow through, and still keeping the roleplay freedom without enforcing hard prerequisites. For example, for the first quest you pick up in Clockwork City if you haven't completed those prequel quests:
"*Recommended previous Zone Story: Vvardenfell. Quest giver: Canon Valasa at Seyda Neen, Vvardenfell.
*Recommended Prologue quest: Of Knives and Long Shadows. Quest giver: Order of the Eye Dispatch, at any Mages Guild hall."
It can be added either into the Quest Journal (minimal intrusion), or at the end of the dialog where you accept the quest (I prefer this, it's also possible to add a Recommended Next Zone in this way when needed and no one would miss it). Or maybe both.

Just my two cents to help out new players who want to enjoy an epic journey. And in this way ZOS can direct them to get story DLCs or ESO Plus. Everyone wins right? @ZOS_GinaBruno

p.s.How many of you dropped your quests for Orsinium after "DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU?"

Danikat · November 2019

I like this idea.

It would also be really helpful if there was some way to distinguish starter quests for DLC and chapters from normal quests in starter cities. Unless you remember all the quests it can be hard to know which is which until you suddenly find yourself being sent off to a new map. Maybe the quest markers could be a different colour, like the daily quests are?

It wouldn't solve all the problems. It's pretty jarring that my low level alt goes from being in the Harborage being told about how Abnur Tharn betrayed the Companions and is working with Mannimarco and we'll have to hunt him down to heading into town to be told he's sent me a letter and wants to meet up for a chat!

But I'm not sure how to fix that. The obvious answer is to hide quests like that until you're at a point in the story where it fits, but that doesn't fit with the open-ended design they're aiming for now. Unless it was an optional thing players could set for each character?

Huyen · November 2019

I for one dont understand why every dlc needs its own prologue questline. If you are a new player with eso plus, you get swarmed with quests these days. Even for a veteran like me its annoying.

FierceSam · November 2019

Huyen wrote: »

I for one dont understand why every dlc needs its own prologue questline. If you are a new player with eso plus, you get swarmed with quests these days. Even for a veteran like me its annoying.

Aside from being free content that gives players a flavour of the upcoming content, these invariably coincide with the main trade shows in the US. This gives visitors to those shows a quick, largely self-contained piece of new content that might encourage them to buy the game.

Given their promotional nature they tend to be quite inventive. I liked the Wrathstone prologue a load more than the first two dungeon DLC pack. There was a clear, interesting story centered around Khajiiti culture and their storytelling, all of which seemed to be entirely absent from the two dungeons.

If by prologues you mean “irritating questgivers who whine at me every time I go past them”, I entirely agree. ZOS would do well to find a more effective way of letting players know where the quest lines start that also let me permanently ‘mute’ it should I choose.

HelathAndrethi · November 2019

Danikat wrote: »

I like this idea.

It would also be really helpful if there was some way to distinguish starter quests for DLC and chapters from normal quests in starter cities. Unless you remember all the quests it can be hard to know which is which until you suddenly find yourself being sent off to a new map. Maybe the quest markers could be a different colour, like the daily quests are?

It wouldn't solve all the problems. It's pretty jarring that my low level alt goes from being in the Harborage being told about how Abnur Tharn betrayed the Companions and is working with Mannimarco and we'll have to hunt him down to heading into town to be told he's sent me a letter and wants to meet up for a chat!

But I'm not sure how to fix that. The obvious answer is to hide quests like that until you're at a point in the story where it fits, but that doesn't fit with the open-ended design they're aiming for now. Unless it was an optional thing players could set for each character?

ESO has added a special icon to Zone quests to distinguish them from side quests, and categorized quests by Zones in the Quest Journal. But like you said it's not enough and still causing confusion. TES5 Skyrim had those themed symbols added to Journal Entries of different quests but they're not too obvious. I think ESO can work further on the quest icons over quest giver NPCs to do something similar. Like adding a Molag Bal head to the Main Quest icon, an Alliance emblem for Alliance zone quests, a Daedric Letter V for the Vvardenfell quests and so on.