ESO replied to a comment made by a poster on twitter yesterday:

http://twitter.com/TESOnline/with_replies

http://twitter.com/ESonlinepl
http://twitter.com/TESOnline will players from one faction be able to visit the areas of other factions?

http://twitter.com/TESOnline
http://twitter.com/ESonlinepl Currently, the plan is to keep players within their home faction’s areas to encourage alliance identity and camaraderie.
6:38 AM - 1 Oct 12

Not too surprising as this is exactly the same approach DAoC took. Now that this isn't just purely player speculation, what are the community's thoughts on this? Are you happy with this conclusion? Would you like to see it changed post-launch?

Discuss.

I agree, it is likely to have the same dynamics of DAOC with designated free for all zones. (that is implied from past experiences and PvP)

I don't like it - but these are the facts. It's a tad biased - if your the Aldmeri dominion - you get three new provinces to explore , whereas the Daggerfall covenant get Two (let's be honest - TES II is a bit dated to really show off the province) and Ebonheart Pact only get one. We should he able to explore each territory - even if it's open PvP or we're only allowed to look and do dungeons.

The Ebonheart Pact gets three provinces: Morrowind, Skyrim, and Blackmarsh. One could really only claim that the Daggerfall Covenant is at a geographic disadvantage, but it won't really be relevant as the war won't be moving into faction territories. I'm sure ZOS will likely also compensate for this by making the Daggerfall Covenant territory larger if necessary for the PvE experience.

Keep in mind this is their current path for launch. Who knows what they could do post-launch, but certainly they are staying close to the book when it comes to emulating DAoC and RvR.

Nail on the coffin for me... Not getting it.

Terrible new. Really terrible. In Elder Scrolls game, where the FREEDOM was main factor, everytime, we will be restricted to our home provinces? They wont allow us to explore whole world?

WHAT THE HELL, WHY?

I do hope that they will reconsider this, because.. really.. Its starting to feel not like TES, but like TOR. I am so excited for this game like lifelong Elder Scrolls fan.. But this decision really wont help to the game.

While I agree that exploration has always been one of the driving forces of the TES games, we have to remember this isn't a sequel to Skyrim. ZOS is building a new kind of TES game, and with that there will be changes that contradict traditional principles of TES games. I believe ZOS has a valid reason for choosing to go this route for a variety of reasons. Is it lame that we can't explore the entire continent on one character though? Sure it is. We'll just have to make three characters from the different factions to experience Tamriel in its full glory.

MMOs are a lot bigger then standalone games too folks.... being restricted to an area is still a huge area.

This is very true. ZOS has already stated that the size of a province in ESO will be comparable to the size of a province in Skyrim/Oblivion/etc. Now put multiple provinces together for each faction and you are talking about an area much larger than we have explored in a TES game for a while (I don't really count Arena or Daggerfall as they were randomly generated).

With the fact that each faction will also have its own independent and unique story, as well as faction areas having unique quests, you are talking about a lot of content in a huge world. It may not be exactly what people wanted, but we are still getting all of Tamriel, and there will be a lot to cover.

You know, except in TOR, you could go explore everywhere regardless of faction. Just sayin'.

While I agree with your point, and I may be nitpicking here, but you technically couldn't go to the enemy faction's starter worlds or their capital world.

I digress though. I think ultimately people will just need to play the game for themselves and understand why ESO is taking this route. For DAoC, it was essential to lock factions in their territory and I believe people will agree with this sentiment when they try it. For the purpose of RvR, faction unity, and player-driven politics, this will be pivotal.

I feel faction-locked provinces is the best way to go about it. I'm not upset by this, but I wouldn't mind it either way, to be honest.

I think you misread what I said - while the Ebonheart Pact has 3 provinces - only 1 of those has not had it's own game or been seen in any other game (excluding Arena)

Oh okay, sorry. I misunderstood what you meant. That certainly is true, but really every province (even Skyrim) is going to be new as ZOS will take a different approach than BGS did. More than likely though Skyrim and Cyrodiil, in particular, will look closest to their BGS counterparts as they are the most recent TES games.

I am not saying that territories of alliances will be small, sure they wont. It will be huge for sure. However, the feeling that "I can go there and do that" will be missing with this lame system. I liked WoW, before several expansions, because of huge open world. I could go anywhere i wanted. I could even walk. Or ride a steed.

Possibilities.

Trustworty world.

This all falls with traveling restrictions.

Restricting us to our alliance territories is a bad thing to do. I would like to know their reasons. For a PvE servers, why not? If PVErs are so scarred from ganking, let it be like that. But even for PvP and RPPvP realms? I really do hope that they will reconsider this.


No, thats not true. I played TOR as well, i am not just a hater towards that game, so i know.

Oxymoronic! PVErs can't be ganked because they are PVErs

We'll have to see what ZOS decides to do about server types. That is something we will not know probably until very close to launch. If ZOS again follows DAoC down a similar path, the majority of servers were RvR, of which ESO is standing by. There was also a PvE server, where all borders were opened and the RvR and factions were irrelevant. Mythic even had a FFA PvP server, which again made the RvR irrelevant and factions pointless.

We'll just have to see how ZOS decides to approach servers and if this is an option they feel they will need to supply players.

I think a better term he could have used would be newcomers in a low level area being threatened by a hostile and red veteran player. His statement seems to suggest that open borders would have allowed FFA PvP. This is generally an unpopular practice though so I wouldn't even consider it being an option. If anything, even if borders were open, one would just see a player from another faction passing by. It wouldn't necessarily affect the other player's experience, but it could harm faction identity, of which ESO certainly wants to protect.

I saw it coming myself, like tell me one game where you can actually go and do something meaningful. Thats how its.

I understood what he was implying Red.... its called sarcasm.

Cool. Really hard to tell when I can't actually hear the sarcasm in your voice.

So 3 race per alliance, there better be good at least decent char customization or we really are clones of each other.

we tried to tell you this is DAOC 2 with a TES setting it is not in fact TES

I'm expecting we'll get access to a lot of different presets and then we'll be able to make modifications if we choose (similar to Guild Wars 2 but more). Certainly since players will predominantly being seeing the same races in their own territories, there needs to be diversity.

ZOS stated from the very beginning this game wasn't going to be Skyrim. This is a new kind of game for the TES franchise and how it's received will be up to every individual fan.