A question about Factions and PVP

[Jeelius-Tei]

I have been wondering, what if I do not wish to be a part of the PVP. What if I prefer to wander Cyrodiil as a civilian, and not a member of the conflict? Would I somehow get caught up in the war eventually, and forced into the fray? Or would I be safe to travel the roads, with no worry of soldiers attacking me?

Also, is it possible to not be part of a faction?

[Marelo]

You will have to be a member of one of the three factions in order to play. The races are tied to the factions.

[Jeelius-Tei]

You will have to be a member of one of the three factions in order to play. The races are tied to the factions.

That's ok, but is it possible to avoid the PVP war, without getting involved, while in Cyrodiil?

[Marelo]

Maybe? They've said things about being able to play in Cyrodiil on your own, but usually in the context of contributing to the war effort without being in a group. We don't know enough about it yet to say for sure one way or the other.

[Enodoc]

That's ok, but is it possible to avoid the PVP war, without getting involved, while in Cyrodiil?

I would say that it's highly likely, at some point or other, that you will run into a member of another faction who will try to kill you. But you should be able to keep away from the larger battles if you want to, and just try to deal with individuals or smaller groups as they appear.
You could always try to RP a civilian, or perhaps even get a disguise as one (not sure if that's possible), and see if players from the other factions let you off. That's definitely something I'll be trying occasionally when I'm trying to be neutral.

[Jeelius-Tei]

You could always try to RP a civilian

That's exactly what I meant. I usually tend to play as characters who are aren't really that special in terms of role-playing. I suppose since it is a MMO I could tell the assaulter to stop, but that is assuming that they would believe me, and not take me as a spy.

[Enodoc]

It's always worth a try. There's likely to be some that will believe you, and some others who just won't care and will attack anyway, but it would be interesting to see how it turns out. You may be able to find a cross-faction group of "civilian" players somewhere once the game is out and find out some of their strategies for avoiding the conflict. I'll be looking out for them, as I don't want to be part of the battle that much either!

[Yaije]

i'm guessing that if you're in Cyrodiil you'll likely not be able to play as some neutral faction.

I'm not holding my hopes out for the idea. Likely you'll be able to get some civ looking attire going on, but unless there are some ways to prevent players from acting out the "if it dies it was bad" mentality you'll not be able to avoid conflict.

Though as far as I understand... no 'normal' entities will be roaming free within the realms held by those alligned with Molag Bal.

[rpbraley868]

I'm fairly certain that Cyrodiil will be a lot like Guild Wars 2's battleground area. While you can walk around, but if you see an opposing faction they will kill you no matter what you say to them, and there would be no way for you to explore enemy controlled sections, no matter how "friendly" you say you are.

[LGAllastair]

I don't think you can avoid being killed in Cyrodill, or attacked. Unless of course you fight back

Honestly, PvPers won't respect your roleplay. If you roleplay as a civilian but you come accross an enemy you won't be able to talk to them, cross faction communication is not in, you can't tell them you are a civilian, so they will just kill you and move on. I for one will kill any enemy players I see, unless I have a reason to not want to start a fight at that moment. Cyrodiil is a big place, you could certainly avoid the big battles, but when they come to you I am afraid you can only run, fight or die.

[Yaije]

I'm fairly certain that Cyrodiil will be a lot like Guild Wars 2's battleground area. While you can walk around, but if you see an opposing faction they will kill you no matter what you say to them, and there would be no way for you to explore enemy controlled sections, no matter how "friendly" you say you are.

Actually, I think you can explore. Just know that you'd likely be considered KOS by anyone of another faction when roaming around the region.

[odinlima]

i've never plaied an MMO, and i'm also curious about what happens if your char dies?....the items etc...are taken from the winner?, and about saves? I want to play this game mostly offline like the others... but would it be fun..? I dont know...

[Ilaro]

i've never plaied an MMO, and i'm also curious about what happens if your char dies?....the items etc...are taken from the winner?, and about saves? I want to play this game mostly offline like the others... but would it be fun..? I dont know...

You can't play this game offline because it is a MMO, were the O stands for online.

[Enodoc]

i've never plaied an MMO, and i'm also curious about what happens if your char dies?....the items etc...are taken from the winner?, and about saves? I want to play this game mostly offline like the others... but would it be fun..? I dont know...

Indeed, as Ilaro says, it's an MMO so it's always online. As for your other questions; when you die, you have a choice to either respawn where you are by using a soul gem, or respawn at a wayshrine. Your armour will be damaged, so if you keep dying you'll need to go repair that before coming back. You keep all your items when you die; if you were killed by another player I believe they receive some random loot. There will be no "saves" in the standard sense as it's a persistent online world; the server or client will remember your state when you close the game, and will restore you to that state when you start up again.

[LGAllastair]

i've never plaied an MMO, and i'm also curious about what happens if your char dies?....the items etc...are taken from the winner?, and about saves? I want to play this game mostly offline like the others... but would it be fun..? I dont know...

AS other hasve said, there is no offline option, you either loggon to the megaserver to play, or you don't play at all. When you die in ESO you won't lose your items, normally what happens is that you take a durability damage to your gear and then you should have a mechanic to resurrect in place (that has a cooldown if you die too much) or teleport to the nearest wayshrine (safe zone). No one knows the details on the system yet, but you can rest asured your items will be safe with you.

[Yaije]

much to my displeasure.... your equipment is kept upon death.

The game will usually save your progress almost all the time and will only ever miss something in the event of an unplanned server disconnect, but even then it will only be a matter of seconds to minutes of progress lost and never something like hours.

Spoiler:

The loot bit probably means most of your expected gearing options will include low droprate sources on some time restriction eventually enforced to prevent extreme players from wasting away (quite literally) as they attempt to get them. Also probably going to see more 'soulbound' stuff that will only be usable to the character it's equipped to and then is better off trashed...

I quite enjoy how players change up for the "use what your willing to lose" mentality and how that becomes a gold sink to be a top performer rather than everyone in game sitting on steadily growing piles of in game wealth with no real outlets *looking at WoW* (just watch the AH prices tack on zeroes with every expansion)/endrant

[Jeelius-Tei]

So, it would seem that pvp would be almost unavoidable. Guess I will just have to run from my enemies. :\

[LGAllastair]

So, it would seem that pvp would be almost unavoidable. Guess I will just have to run from my enemies. :\

That is the whole point of having a PvP zone. If people could just easily avoid PvP in the PvP zone, there would be a design problem. If you want to avoid it, stay out of Cyrodill.

[odinlima]

, well I think I will have to pass this one...

[Jeelius-Tei]

That is the whole point of having a PvP zone. If people could just easily avoid PvP in the PvP zone, there would be a design problem. If you want to avoid it, stay out of Cyrodill.

Aww damn. Cyrodiil is my favorite province. Oh well, off to Hammerfell.

[Mattbott]

, well I think I will have to pass this one...

i have been in a quandray about pvp, cos i know i won't be up to scratch in the combat stakes and will be slaughtered by same level players who spent all their beans on magic swords, poison perks and mega strength, where i did some roleplaying and decided to spend 20 hours fishing instead of max power

but i think it'll be interesting so i am not writing it off

my usual skillset with low level characters involves 1. not being detected, 2. running fast if i am, and 3. being able to hit back if i am cornered lol..

[Musicman247]

, well I think I will have to pass this one...

Just to avoid any confusion, this is not the next TES RPG game. This is not the successor to Skyrim. This is a TES MMO made by Zenimax Online. Bethesda studios will still be making a new TES single player RPG, probably after Fallout 4.

[Karkat Vantas]

Compulsory PvP? Thank gog. Well crops to Zenimax for having some good design choices. Naturally occurring PvP encounters is what makes (some) MMO's great. So maybe, just maybe (I'm high on skepticism here), we'll get some good faction warfare brewing.

[Yaije]

Really depends on how other things are implemented. Natural pvp is often forgotten about when there's something like... say... battlegrounds/warzones/jump-in-and-go pvp.

Never under estimate the power of instant gratification.

[Mattbott]

just think of Cyrodiil as the arena..