I want the Original Coldharbour Intro Tutorial

Iccotak · April 2021

EDIT JUNE: I discuss the new intro scene in this thread - https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/575654/eso-new-intro-cinematic/p1

Basically I think this new intro is a good compromise as it brought focus back to the base game main storyline.

POST
The original Coldharbour introduction was the best one they made. It taught the basic mechanics and it was EPIC.
You start as a lowly prisoner escaping gruesome and terrifying torture, sneaking around to avoid the guards, fighting your way out with the tattered prison rags on your back and escaping the Prince of Domination - what great way to start the game!

It set the scene, it set the stakes, and it gave you direction!
....There was not any of this confusing business to find the original introduction....

The Original & EPIC Intro

https://youtu.be/jY6070A_hi8

Original Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFtHxkKJzWE

Look here's how it should go down

- Intro
- Character Creation
- Talk to the Prophet
- Lyris breaks you out
- Talk to Lyris
- Grab Weapon, Learn mechanics
- Make way to Armory
- Grab gear of your choice
- Defeat the Forge Master
- Get Out
- Sneak & Destroy the Eyes
- Meet Cadwell
- Break into Sewers
- Go to Prophet Prison
- Break him out
- Defeat Child of Bones
- Escape Coldharbour
- Find yourself on starter island

Or you can choose to skip all that and find yourself on starter island. Either way - there's a boat to go to a major city or you can take the wayshrine. Those things can be made abundantly clear to the player when they wake up. I get that the devs really want to sell that you can go anywhere at any level - cool, that is still achieved with the original intro because once you get to a wayshrine you can go anywhere.

It should be simple, after character creation
- you can start at the very beginning in Coldharbour, .
- you can skip introductions and just get right into the game

Some players proposed that the devs could make the portals in the new tutorial to take you to the other previously existing tutorials - but that seems like an unnecessary amount of hoops to jump through just to start the game at the proper beginning point.

Players should start in the base game with the choice to go wherever they want from there. That's where the majority of the content is anyway, especially the Guild storylines & Undaunted. If a player wants to go the the latest chapter - then they can just take a wayshrine at Starter Island, or the boat.

This whole system of having to go find the original Main Quest - which then takes you to Starter island - is annoying & confusing for new players. Now players go from one tutorial to a stripped down tutorial just to properly start the actual main story of the game? That does not make any sense.

If the devs want, they could make Carts & Boats that lead to the Chapter Introductions. Those are the intros that should get the "Find X person" treatment because they are the expansions - it is also WAY less confusing than having to go find the original intro for the Base Game. The way it is now is completely backwards.

Keep it simple. Start in Coldharbour - or skip the tutorial to go straight into the game.

EDIT: plus this way ZOS can use Direnni island & tower for different content. Maybe they could make it the new starter island...

EDIT #2: @ZOS_GinaBruno & Devs, please add an option in settings to use the Original or New introduction/tutorial when starting a new character.

EDIT #3: The point being that First Impressions actually Really do matter and the first Coldharbour intro & tutorial was one of the best first impressions in the franchise

Shewolf075 · April 2021

I agree. The old Coldharbour mainstory is one of the best and most memorable, and there doesn't need to be multiple tutorials when we already have one. If folks want to jump into any chapter story after that then they can start them from the Collections menu.

SirAndy · April 2021

I totally agree.

There's a lot of players out there that have never even seen or played that original intro and that really is a shame.

Shewolf075 · April 2021

SirAndy wrote: »

I totally agree.

There's a lot of players out there that have never even seen or played that original intro and that really is a shame.

That is crazy. They are missing out on these cool scenes later on

BlueRaven · April 2021

I always wondered why they did not just keep the cold harbour intro and just had us deposited at the “new” chapter location.

Even if it just dovetailed into an intro for the new zone.

FlopsyPrince · April 2021

Can't everyone do this already? I do it on all my alts, at least I assume it is what you are talking about.

I know the mechanics already, but it is fairly easy skill points.

Iccotak · April 2021

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Can't everyone do this already? I do it on all my alts, at least I assume it is what you are talking about.

I know the mechanics already, but it is fairly easy skill points.

You have to go out of your way to find the original intro - with no direction, and because you've already been playing with a tutorial it undermines the Coldharbour experience.

Players should not have to go find a "Hooded Figure" to properly start the main story.

In my opinion - unless the player skips the tutorial - they should just start in the Coldharbour introduction at the very beginning.

Hoolielulu · April 2021

I was so disappointed when I could never do it again.

Gythral · April 2021

I want the very oriinal cold harobur escape, not the current find the "hooded man" version wee get today,

but I guess the only way is to go back in time to 2014

Shewolf075 · April 2021

Gythral wrote: »

I want the very oriinal cold harobur escape, not the current find the "hooded man" version wee get today,

but I guess the only way is to go back in time to 2014

ESO Classic

BlueRaven · April 2021

Gythral wrote: »

I want the very oriinal cold harobur escape, not the current find the "hooded man" version wee get today,

but I guess the only way is to go back in time to 2014

I still remember the much longer “beta” version.

Hurbster · April 2021

Do you want the very original or when they tweaked it slightly to actually give a wide range of weapons in the second or third room?

Iccotak · April 2021

Hurbster wrote: »

Do you want the very original or when they tweaked it slightly to actually give a wide range of weapons in the second or third room?

actually the very original in the beta gave you an armory room to grab various weapons & armor. That's the room I'd put in before fighting the Forge-Master

Gythral · April 2021

Hurbster wrote: »

Do you want the very original or when they tweaked it slightly to actually give a wide range of weapons in the second or third room?

Guess

Shazanti · April 2021

I've recently returned to the game after about a 2 year break. Originally, back then, I had played through Coldharbour (multiple times). It was great. This time I start a new character and I do the Greymoor tutorial, and I really enjoyed it! But then... I go back to the original starter city for my faction, and my quest journal suddenly says "I died, but that was only the beginning. I awoke in Oblivion...." Um...no, I hadn't died, and I definitely hadn't woken up in Oblivion, until after I'd started the quest that already said I'd done that.

Jeez. Had I not done the Coldharbour tutorial many times years ago, I would have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what the heck that meant or what was going on. Sure, Lyris in Greymoor has a fine "So we never met before but one day maybe I'll tell you about being trapped in Oblivion" (which of course never gets commented on again, until I experience it out-of-order via Hooded Man), but as a player? I would have no clue what was going on.

Very bad. I really, really hope this new tutorial will find some way to coalesce all of the threads from the tutorials and MAKE CERTAIN that the player gets the Coldharbour information first, or at least in a logical order, SOMEHOW. It's kind of incredibly important, y'know? I will say again, I really enjoyed the Greymoor tutorial story, I liked the experience with Fenn and getting to know him there where it made sense to, but it is terribly disjointed from the original/main storyline. They need some way to make sure all tutorial experiences can tie together somehow, or at least tie to the main story- which is that of being The Vestige: of dying, being soul shriven, and escaping Coldharbour.

Iccotak · April 2021

Shazanti wrote: »

I will say again, I really enjoyed the Greymoor tutorial story, I liked the experience with Fenn and getting to know him there where it made sense to, but it is terribly disjointed from the original/main storyline.

They need some way to make sure all tutorial experiences can tie together somehow, or at least tie to the main story- which is that of being The Vestige: of dying, being soul shriven, and escaping Coldharbour.

Actually at this point, if they just go back to the Original introduction - that right there solves the disjointed narrative and won't leave the player clueless for the base game - which really is the information that is more important.

If the devs want, they could make Carts & Boats that lead to the Chapter Introductions like;
- being captured in Skyrim
- the ship to Vvardenfel being crashed
- The Dragon attacking your cart
- The Summerset cave in

Those are the intros that should get the "Find X person" treatment because they are the expansions, the add on content - it is also WAY less confusing than having to go find the original intro for the Base Game (which is still the majority of the content)

The way it is now is completely backwards.

EDIT: Another couple of things worth pointing out

First
The Coldharbour story arc encompasses 5 zones per alliance (minus Cyrodil) that's 15 zones in total!

Meanwhile the other "tutorials" are for storylines that encompass primarily 2 zones. (The Daedric War arc being the exception with 3)

I'd say that the tutorial for the story arc that is primarily involved in the base game including the guilds, and has the most zones, should take priority over a tutorial that won't even be relevant next year.

Second
The New "Permanent" Tutorial drops players off in either a chapter zone or an alliance zone of their choosing - but no matter what you choose, you will still have immediate access to a wayshrine to go wherever you want. Making the Portal room pointless.

Also you still have to go "Find the Hooded Figure" to start the game at its proper beginning. Even after that - they will still have wayshrines that can take them wherever they want to go. New Intro Portals would still be pointless.

Meanwhile the Chapters can be started by just going there. No confusing "Find X person" required. So the new tutorial adds pointless feature and wastes time - which is ironic because that is what the Developers were trying to avoid.

VDoom1 · April 2021

I have one opinion about tutorials.

No matter when you purchased ESO, if you're new or a returning player. All new characters should start with the main quest tutorial in Coldharbour, end of story. They should start from the chronological beginning, chapter 1. After that quests should be made available in a chronological timely order.

I understand the whole "players should be able to choose if they want to go to Elsweyr right away or somewhere else." That can still be an available option, after the Coldharbour beginning. Otherwise a majority of the game and the very base game gets very confusing.

New players are jumping around in the timeline without realizing it...

Minyassa · April 2021

I always thought it was a terrible shame that they got rid of that and started putting in new tutorials with the new chapters. That just never made sense to me. They all have wayshrines you can use to go to them at any time, so why skip the basics just to get people playing in them 15 minutes sooner?

Iccotak · April 2021

Moved comment

FlopsyPrince · April 2021

Iccotak wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Can't everyone do this already? I do it on all my alts, at least I assume it is what you are talking about.

I know the mechanics already, but it is fairly easy skill points.

You have to go out of your way to find the original intro - with no direction, and because you've already been playing with a tutorial it undermines the Coldharbour experience.

Players should not have to go find a "Hooded Figure" to properly start the main story.

In my opinion - unless the player skips the tutorial - they should just start in the Coldharbour introduction at the very beginning.

It didn't seem that "out of the way" to me. It is also a lot less annoying than "The guild needs your help!" I constantly get.

I don't know the original though, so I don't know what I am missing.

FlopsyPrince · April 2021

Minyassa wrote: »

I always thought it was a terrible shame that they got rid of that and started putting in new tutorials with the new chapters. That just never made sense to me. They all have wayshrines you can use to go to them at any time, so why skip the basics just to get people playing in them 15 minutes sooner?

An annoying thing to me is that you can never do the other tutorials again.

RedMuse · April 2021

Only done Elsweyr and Greymoor in addition to Coldharbor tutorial but of those three Coldharbor is the most boring and tedious to slog through. I'm glad we're not forced to do that one unless we want the old man story.

Bradyfjord · April 2021

I think first time players need to play through it once on their first character, due to it's explanation of what the Vestige is. Once a player gets through the Escape from Coldharbour, they should be able to pick whichever one they like in my opinion.

phantasmalD · April 2021

To be honest, the new Balfiera tutorial almost perfectly complements the original to the point that it feels like a natural continuation. At the start it's established that you randomly fell out of a portal with a Harvester following in close pursuit, which works perfectly with the ending of the Coldharbour tutorial where you enter a portal to return to Nirn.

Grega · April 2021

Iccotak wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Can't everyone do this already? I do it on all my alts, at least I assume it is what you are talking about.

I know the mechanics already, but it is fairly easy skill points.

You have to go out of your way to find the original intro - with no direction, and because you've already been playing with a tutorial it undermines the Coldharbour experience.

Players should not have to go find a "Hooded Figure" to properly start the main story.

In my opinion - unless the player skips the tutorial - they should just start in the Coldharbour introduction at the very beginning.

I have exact opposite problem. I wish the hooded figure would not appear automatically if traveling to any 3 alliance cities. And that it would appear as a quest marker instead of forced started quest.

Iccotak · April 2021

phantasmalD wrote: »

To be honest, the new Balfiera tutorial almost perfectly complements the original to the point that it feels like a natural continuation. At the start it's established that you randomly fell out of a portal with a Harvester following in close pursuit, which works perfectly with the ending of the Coldharbour tutorial where you enter a portal to return to Nirn.

Doesn't make any sense actually because that provides no context for new players.
"Wait I came out of a portal and along with a Monster?"

Balfiera would certainly be a great new Starter Island after Coldharbour. I could see ZOS wanting to give players a more interesting starter island after Coldharbour.

That said, again, Coldharbour just provided so much needed info and context for the base game, which is where many players are going to be spending alot of time.

Context & Impressions are important and Coldharbour nailed that.

Tensar · April 2021

please add a new tutorial every months please!!

joking you broke your story

phantasmalD · April 2021

Iccotak wrote: »

phantasmalD wrote: »

To be honest, the new Balfiera tutorial almost perfectly complements the original to the point that it feels like a natural continuation. At the start it's established that you randomly fell out of a portal with a Harvester following in close pursuit, which works perfectly with the ending of the Coldharbour tutorial where you enter a portal to return to Nirn.

Doesn't make any sense actually because that provides no context for new players.
"Wait I came out of a portal and along with a Monster?"

Balfiera would certainly be a great new Starter Island after Coldharbour. I could see ZOS wanting to give players a more interesting starter island after Coldharbour.

That said, again, Coldharbour just provided so much needed info and context for the base game, which is where many players are going to be spending alot of time.

Context & Impressions are important and Coldharbour nailed that.

Pretty much where I was going with that thought, but I guess I didn't really finish typing it all out.

Restoring the Coldharbour tutorial and sending you to Balfiera afterwards would def solve many issues, it'd direct you towards the original story almost seamlessly while also allow you to jump into the new chapter right away if you so desire.
Would also eliminate the silly starter island loop that exist currently where you go Bleakrock -> Bal Foyen -> Stonefalls -> Hooded Figure -> Coldharbour -> Bleakrock -> left confused in the middle of a burning village.

Iccotak · April 2021

phantasmalD wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

phantasmalD wrote: »

To be honest, the new Balfiera tutorial almost perfectly complements the original to the point that it feels like a natural continuation. At the start it's established that you randomly fell out of a portal with a Harvester following in close pursuit, which works perfectly with the ending of the Coldharbour tutorial where you enter a portal to return to Nirn.

Doesn't make any sense actually because that provides no context for new players.
"Wait I came out of a portal and along with a Monster?"

Balfiera would certainly be a great new Starter Island after Coldharbour. I could see ZOS wanting to give players a more interesting starter island after Coldharbour.

That said, again, Coldharbour just provided so much needed info and context for the base game, which is where many players are going to be spending alot of time.

Context & Impressions are important and Coldharbour nailed that.

Pretty much where I was going with that thought, but I guess I didn't really finish typing it all out.

Restoring the Coldharbour tutorial and sending you to Balfiera afterwards would def solve many issues, it'd direct you towards the original story almost seamlessly while also allow you to jump into the new chapter right away if you so desire.
Would also eliminate the silly starter island loop that exist currently where you go Bleakrock -> Bal Foyen -> Stonefalls -> Hooded Figure -> Coldharbour -> Bleakrock -> left confused in the middle of a burning village.

I edited the OP to include the idea, because after I watched it - and thought about, I have to agree that it would have made a lot more sense for Belfiera to be the new "Starter Island" after Coldharbour.

If Zos were to do this then the island would have to be re-made though to have various side quests and to be a location that people could return to..

Iccotak · April 2021

Video look at new tutorial

I agree with Hack the Minotaur that it's at 80%.

After the new tutorial - if the portal took you through the old tutorial that was retrofitted as a quest to provide story context to the player then that would be a good compromise.

But again I would like it if I could just change my introduction in the settings menu. I know where I want to start for any character I make - I don't want to have to go find a hooded figure - or go through one bland tutorial to then do the actual start of the Base Game main quest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScsviyVFjPo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iBLaviR7Ao

Wolfshade · April 2021

Totally agree with this and big thanks for this great memories. It was surely the best and it gave the line. Original Intro with the actual end of the new tutorial, think it would work. The new npc at the end is a very good option, but the whole tutorial, damn, meaningless, no story, no line, not epic, even worse.

Personally, this Intro with the Tutorial in Couldharbour was the soul, the heart and the tone of ESO. I think the original Intro with an NPC at the end of the tutorial in Couldharbour who tells something about the Chapters and let the Player choose would give it back!