This is a small question:

In ESO will I be able to meet other players randomly in Cities / Nature / and other areas?

Or is it Singleplayer in all of tamiriel until I group up to the maximum of 4 players? This is a very important factor for me and my old school mmo friends and our decision on buying and paying for this game will rely solely on this.

To make a decent anology will it be like Wow freedom: If X and Y player is at Z location, will X and Y see eachother at Z location? Granted they have never met or planned their encounter: A random encounter.

Do anyone have more information about this?

I couldn't find another topic about this, I could've missed it though.

Yes.

It is a vast open world with many other people to meet and play with. It is like Wow or EQ in this aspect.

So in short: To go further on that statement, Me and e.g. 50 other friends can meet up at a random location? (Cyrodil a given)

Yes. You will have to make sure you are in the same channel/instance, but yes.

So in other words it won't be a random encounter?

EDIT:

Meeting 50 random people on same location, more accurately said.

You will indeed see many other players dashing by you at full speed pursuing their individual objectives. Some may even be standing around idle while their players are afk.

i'm pretty sure you can meet random people at random locations which makes it random encounter.

if you're meaningfully meeting people you know it won't be random. what is the point of stating this out.

I have something that i did not understand related to the megaserver way of filtering, i heard that the number of players you see on screen is also influenced by your PC's performance ? Is that true ? And if so there will be players that will see you but you won't see them and vice-versa ?

The reason I made this thread was to get some kind of knowledge of how the system works. Because me and my friends don't want to play a game whereby everyone is in their own sphere until they group up in instance/pvp etc.

From what I've heard/seen, everyone's running all over the place together, stomping on each others' toes, fighting for the same rare spawns/resources (something I hate, but the price of open world)... the instances that people mention are likely only triggered when population gets to a certain number and it would be more efficient to create a new instance.

Seems like I also read where if Player A had done a mission that resulted in the destruction of a town, eg, they would see burned out husks of buildings, but their friend Player B who had not yet done that mission would see something different. That kind of 'phasing' could be problematical if two players want to join up --- not sure whose "reality" would be presented.

But in general, for 'random' encounters with other players, the only restriction would be if the area in question is slammed and you happen to be one of the first people in the new instance.... and possibly the restriction that you have to all be on the same phase to see each other (not sure about this part ---- could be you WOULD see other players that are on different phases but that opens another kettle of fish).

The game is a persistent world. You will cross paths with MANY random players who are also adventuring in your area. There will be systems in place to allow you to find and meet up with your friends in order to adventure together.

You can also group up with strangers you meet along your way and possibly make new friends! Once you do group up with your friends, you will continue to see other players running around and adventuring.

Well yeah, but if you are arranging a meeting between you and 50 of your friends, then no. You could meet up to 500 people randomly in the world, I'm sure. The main cities will be full of people I imagine.

Ok good, I wonder how large the limit is for X amount of players in the same area.

they said 200 on the same screen so i'd imagine it to be larger than that.

If you and your friends are all interested in say ... Role-play, you and all your friends will be placed in an instance with others who share your view. Should one of your friends be interested in Player vs Player, that friend will have to switch to your instance, or you to theirs, in order to 'randomly encounter' him. Other wise, you will not see them. You will however, encounter more RP players who are of like mind to you in your travels.

Short version: If you are an RP player, PvP player, or Raider. You will only encounter those who have chosen the same instance as you. Each instance is set towards a certain purpose.

A big YES. You will not be alone. As long you don't act like a child. You will get players to help you if you get into trouble. That if you don't act like a child. Let them help you. If you see a player in trouble help them. Sometime you be working as a team.