The old tutorial quests?

FabresFour · February 2025

So, I have always been in favor of letting the tutorial quests stop being the start of the game and bringing back the Coldharbour tutorial quest. That's because 90% of ESO doesn't make sense without the Coldharbour quest. However...

The old tutorial quests are still in the game, and they were such interesting pieces of content to just be left aside. The Western Skyrim tutorial, for example, has a really nice reference to the game Skyrim and even provides some great insights into the content we’ll experience in the zone as a whole, even featuring an appearance from Rada al-Saran. And the Vvardenfell tutorial? It adds the exploration of a super interesting island!

I think these tutorial quests should be reintroduced in ESO as side quests that lead us to the DLC maps. For example, you could pick up the Skyrim tutorial quest in Eastmarch, near where the prologue quest takes place, making the cart ride to Skyrim actually make sense and tying your arrival in the province together much better! I think this focus on the arrival in new provinces would be great. Simply teleporting to a wayshrine feels like such a lazy way to start a new DLC, you know? Getting there should be a journey, an adventure.

The Summerset tutorial, even though it wasn’t exactly an introduction to the islands, was still a SUPER UNIQUE and fun quest—and it was simply removed from the game. It also provided some great insight into the Sloads and related lore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK5t5RWUB5w

AzuraFan · February 2025

Great idea! Would the tutorial quest come before or after the prologue quest? I'm thinking after because the tutorial quest usually ends with you in the associated DLC zone. Sounds like you also think that would make sense.

FabresFour · February 2025

AzuraFan wrote: »

Great idea! Would the tutorial quest come before or after the prologue quest? I'm thinking after because the tutorial quest usually ends with you in the associated DLC zone. Sounds like you also think that would make sense.

I’d say afterward, really. The Skyrim tutorial quest, for example, takes place during our journey to Skyrim, which happens after the prologue quest. We’re in the cart until we get captured by vampires and taken to a Nordic cave. It’s a really interesting quest hub.

Or even at the start of Morrowind, where we’re attacked by slavers in the middle of the sea and begin Morrowind the "right" way—through Seyda Neen, after help Naryu!

SeaGtGruff · February 2025

I have always thought that turning the old tutorials into "zone introduction" quests would be nice, but I think they would need to be reworked a bit due to things like combat tutorials and dialog that sounds like we're just starting out in the game. I also liked the tutorial that was added with Blackwood, although that would probably need to be reworked even more due to all of the portals at the end of the tutorial.

katanagirl1 · February 2025

I like this idea, that way the content can still be experienced in a way that would make sense. It would have to work on characters who have already traveled to the zone and done the quests already, though. I do all achievements like that on my main character, who has pretty much done everything except some PvP achievments.

I know we have AwA but I still want certain characters to get certain things.

zaria · February 2025

FabresFour wrote: »

So, I have always been in favor of letting the tutorial quests stop being the start of the game and bringing back the Coldharbour tutorial quest. That's because 90% of ESO doesn't make sense without the Coldharbour quest. However...

The old tutorial quests are still in the game, and they were such interesting pieces of content to just be left aside. The Western Skyrim tutorial, for example, has a really nice reference to the game Skyrim and even provides some great insights into the content we’ll experience in the zone as a whole, even featuring an appearance from Rada al-Saran. And the Vvardenfell tutorial? It adds the exploration of a super interesting island!

I think these tutorial quests should be reintroduced in ESO as side quests that lead us to the DLC maps. For example, you could pick up the Skyrim tutorial quest in Eastmarch, near where the prologue quest takes place, making the cart ride to Skyrim actually make sense and tying your arrival in the province together much better! I think this focus on the arrival in new provinces would be great. Simply teleporting to a wayshrine feels like such a lazy way to start a new DLC, you know? Getting there should be a journey, an adventure.

The Summerset tutorial, even though it wasn’t exactly an introduction to the islands, was still a SUPER UNIQUE and fun quest—and it was simply removed from the game. It also provided some great insight into the Sloads and related lore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK5t5RWUB5w

Never seen this before and just did the Western Skyrim and Reach quests. Including the Skyrim prologue quest
Love the cart start as an obvious reference to TES 5 Skyrim.

And the Tutorial should follow the prologue quest, the Morrowind tutorial was best I say as it felt like an real ESO quest.

VoxAdActa · February 2025

I was actively angry when I came back to ESO and found myself stuck in the Wailing Prison again. The tutorial with the portals at the end which allowed you to pick where you starts (base game or individual chapters) was perfect, but even the Morrowind tutorial was 1000x better than the Wailing Prison.

The Wailing Prison is so old, and it really shows its age. If in no other way than in not allowing you to select which weapon you want your char to use without grinding out RNG. Do you know how hard it is to get a feral shriven to drop a shield or three pieces of medium armor?? At least we get a guaranteed bow at the end of it.

One of the first things that changed with the new tutorials was dropping you into an armory with every weapon and a full set of every weight of armor. Now that's gone, and we have the oldest, most out-of-date tutorial of the whole lot. Whose idea was that?

tomofhyrule · February 2025

VoxAdActa wrote: »

I was actively angry when I came back to ESO and found myself stuck in the Wailing Prison again. The tutorial with the portals at the end which allowed you to pick where you starts (base game or individual chapters) was perfect, but even the Morrowind tutorial was 1000x better than the Wailing Prison.

The Wailing Prison is so old, and it really shows its age. If in no other way than in not allowing you to select which weapon you want your char to use without grinding out RNG. Do you know how hard it is to get a feral shriven to drop a shield or three pieces of medium armor?? At least we get a guaranteed bow at the end of it.

One of the first things that changed with the new tutorials was dropping you into an armory with every weapon and a full set of every weight of armor. Now that's gone, and we have the oldest, most out-of-date tutorial of the whole lot. Whose idea was that?

They actually did make several updates to that tutorial. For example, the combat practice from the previous was transplanted onto the first two encounters, there's a new stealth section, the pathing is a bit different through the zone.

It is annoying that you're railroaded into a weapon again though. They did set it so that your class determines the first two weapons you find, but one of the big things we talked about when this was on PTS was the fact that the Balfiera tutorial did allow you to choose weapons completely. It would be nice if that came back.

Still, in terms of story progression, no tutorial made as much sense as the Coldharbour one. It would be nice if the others were still accessible in terms of a story quest (especially considering the Elsweyr one is referenced in the Elsweyr quest whether you did it or not and the Greymoor one is the place the game actually teaches you how to do Harrowstorms), but the Balfiera one did have a tendency to break the story flow if you didn't know where you were supposed to go next (i.e. a DC character starting in Stros and playing the story through Daggerfall would then get sent back to Stros after the first MQ and have no indicator of where to go next).

Also... didn't we literally have this thread three days ago? Was the old thread not good enough?

TaSheen · February 2025

VoxAdActa wrote: »

I was actively angry when I came back to ESO and found myself stuck in the Wailing Prison again. The tutorial with the portals at the end which allowed you to pick where you starts (base game or individual chapters) was perfect, but even the Morrowind tutorial was 1000x better than the Wailing Prison.

The Wailing Prison is so old, and it really shows its age. If in no other way than in not allowing you to select which weapon you want your char to use without grinding out RNG. Do you know how hard it is to get a feral shriven to drop a shield or three pieces of medium armor?? At least we get a guaranteed bow at the end of it.

One of the first things that changed with the new tutorials was dropping you into an armory with every weapon and a full set of every weight of armor. Now that's gone, and we have the oldest, most out-of-date tutorial of the whole lot. Whose idea was that?

I quite agree. I'll never set up a new account again, because I am NOT going to do that whole icky start ever again. I can skip it on my current accounts (as long as I have character slots of course....)

Danikat · February 2025

FabresFour wrote: »

So, I have always been in favor of letting the tutorial quests stop being the start of the game and bringing back the Coldharbour tutorial quest. That's because 90% of ESO doesn't make sense without the Coldharbour quest. However...

The old tutorial quests are still in the game, and they were such interesting pieces of content to just be left aside. The Western Skyrim tutorial, for example, has a really nice reference to the game Skyrim and even provides some great insights into the content we’ll experience in the zone as a whole, even featuring an appearance from Rada al-Saran. And the Vvardenfell tutorial? It adds the exploration of a super interesting island!

I think these tutorial quests should be reintroduced in ESO as side quests that lead us to the DLC maps. For example, you could pick up the Skyrim tutorial quest in Eastmarch, near where the prologue quest takes place, making the cart ride to Skyrim actually make sense and tying your arrival in the province together much better! I think this focus on the arrival in new provinces would be great. Simply teleporting to a wayshrine feels like such a lazy way to start a new DLC, you know? Getting there should be a journey, an adventure.

The Summerset tutorial, even though it wasn’t exactly an introduction to the islands, was still a SUPER UNIQUE and fun quest—and it was simply removed from the game. It also provided some great insight into the Sloads and related lore.

I agree.

I'm happy that new characters get to start at the beginning of the game again, but it would also be nice to be able to play the other tutorial quests as an introduction to their respective chapters. Maybe with fewer restrictions on what you can do, and fewer tutorial elements, for example taking out the sections which introduce you to light and heavy attacks and blocking, but still playable as a story quest as part of starting the chapter's main story. Or as a follow-up to the prologue, either would work.

tomofhyrule wrote: »

It is annoying that you're railroaded into a weapon again though. They did set it so that your class determines the first two weapons you find, but one of the big things we talked about when this was on PTS was the fact that the Balfiera tutorial did allow you to choose weapons completely. It would be nice if that came back.

I'm sure there was a version of the Wailing Prison where one of the first rooms you went into was an armoury with 1 of every weapon laid out, where you were told to take whichever ones you wanted. It wasn't like that when I first started in 2015, and I can't remember when that step was added, but I remember the room, and being relieved they'd added it because I always seem to have bad luck getting the weapons I want as drops in a tutorial.

FabresFour · February 2025

tomofhyrule wrote: »

VoxAdActa wrote: »

Also... didn't we literally have this thread three days ago? Was the old thread not good enough?

It’s less about “the old thread isn’t enough” and more about “I was playing ESO, thought about it, and went to create a thread on the forum.”

Let’s be honest, it’s relatively uncommon for someone to open page 2 or 3 of the forum threads before posting something.

And if someone else made a similar thread, well, that just shows how much this is something requested by different individuals.

FabresFour · February 2025

BTW:

In the Wailing Prison, weapons are available to the player along the path to free the Prophet, in the corridors. You can find almost every type of weapon while facing skeletons and passing through traps—just pay attention to the environment.

Personally, I much prefer the Wailing Prison, even though it’s more dated than the other tutorials. The other tutorials serve only as that—tutorials—but they leave the player COMPLETELY lost in ESO’s overland and don’t bother explaining the most important thing: the reason they are there.

Wailing Prison is ESSENTIAL if you want to understand how Skyshards work and why you're capable of dealing with half of the base game’s overland problems. If you haven’t done the Wailing Prison, I swear, there’s no reason for a large part of the quests to even happen! The Daggerfall Covenant’s main quest itself ends with its foundation tied to the Vestige’s journey. Not to mention the various events related to you not having a soul (like Ulvor not taking your body because it’s tainted by Coldharbour, for example).

In short, the original tutorial could maybe get a visual revamp, but overall, I think it did a much better job of preparing the player for the overland than any other tutorial we’ve had so far.