144051-confused-and-annoyed-at-an-apparent-change-to-starting-areas

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			I finally got around to starting a Mordesh... and I start in Greenleaf Glade, instead of Whisperwind Hollow. If this is deliberate, it’s a far more boneheaded and ridiculous move than “streamlining” the tutorial by removing everything that made it worthwhile, as it basically removes any point to doing a given starting area more than once and one of the few major differences between races besides available classes and aesthetics, and if it’s an accident I have no idea how they managed to glitch things up that badly.	
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			Can't you just turn around and click the control pad to go to the other starter zone? Pretty sure I did this on a mordesh last night or the night before. Is this what you're talking about? I may be missing something here...	
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Can't you just turn around and click the control pad to go to the other starter zone? Pretty sure I did this on a mordesh last night or the night before. Is this what you're talking about? I may be missing something here...
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(S)He's referring to how they changed the starting zone locations so that they pick between what was the Granok, Aurin, Cassian, and Chua starting locations.
 
Personally, the only thing I like out of the changes was the Dominion Arkship story with Jaillyn Sweetspur.  The lore on the arkships--the Vigilant Church, the Relic Room, the Rockin' Rowsdower, and the lore behind the races--I don't see why they got rid of that.
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(S)He's referring to how they changed the starting zone locations so that they pick between what was the Granok, Aurin, Cassian, and Chua starting locations.
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ummm not totally cor
 
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Ohh, so you're saying every race used to have its own starter zone? Interesting. That does suck. I guess they wanted people together, to feel like more people are playing? Maybe it was a time issue and they only had time to redo the 4 zones? Hm.
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ummm not totally cor
 
 
no, the mordesh and aurin could be in everstar grove, they just came in at different points.  they had slightly different storylines.  Same for other races like Chua and Draken, Human and Grannok, etc.   It was not a huge difference, but it was there.
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Ohh, so you're saying every race used to have its own starter zone? Interesting. That does suck. I guess they wanted people together, to feel like more people are playing? Maybe it was a time issue and they only had time to redo the 4 zones? Hm.
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Ahh now i get it...i notice that the Northern Wastes starting point moved around slightly but i dont pay attention to it too much.  BUT Dominion side pairings for Levian Bay and Crimson Isle always got the same stories.  Cassian and Mechari got dropped off in the exact same spot on Levian Bay and had to the the exact same quests for Artemis Zin.  Chua and Draken got paired up and they got dropped off in the exact same spot in Crimson Isle and had to do quests for Mondo.  Northern Wastes Human and Granok got dropped off in the same place and had to do quests for Deadeye.  Aurin and Mordesh is actually the only one i dont remember.  I rolled a few Aurin and Mordesh a few months back but i wasnt paying too much attention.  I may vaguely remember some weirdness with their starting areas. Like I remember doing that Aurin/Mordesh zone and having this "i'm lost feeling" when i was playing on one of my toons.  And it was probably cause i did it on an Aurin and then on a Mordesh but it was different so i was a little disoriented.
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			EDIT:  Whoops, meant to edit my previous post.  
			
				
	Edited October 18, 2015 by Remorrhaid	
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Humans were in the crash grannok were in the drop pods, again - slightly different.
 
I remember Draken had to swim to shore because they did not fit the chua craft.
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I have no idea why they changed what they did.  IMO the Dominion starting ship quests were pretty cool.  Add the esper spy and they would have been even better.  But they were better before they had the guts cut out of them.
 
The Exiles - that could have been totally redone and made better.  Without spoiling anything - it could have been redone and no loss to story at all.  In fact, it was always second to the dominion as far as my opinion.  Dominon was polished more, had more lore, etc.  Exiles just felt slapped together, and I am an Exile player. :-/
The two staging areas in starting zones I can not understand why those were changed.  It did not really change anything other than it was a change for change sake.	
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OK but they still end up in the same area right? and their quests were still the same right? with Mordesh and Aurin how far apart did they used to be? and how different were the stories?  A human in a crash and a granok in a drop pod 5 feet away isnt going to disrupt your questing much if you are playing with friends and you all have a mix of races.  But if the Mordesh are far apart and their quests are different then i would imagine that might cause some disruption when friends are trying to play together.
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OK but they still end up in the same area right? and their quests were still the same right? with Mordesh and Aurin how far apart did they used to be? and how different were the stories?  A human in a crash and a granok in a drop pod 5 feet away isnt going to disrupt your questing much if you are playing with friends and you all have a mix of races.  But if the Mordesh are far apart and their quests are different then i would imagine that might cause some disruption when friends are trying to play together.
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Sometimes you read a thread and think to yourself: OMG he/she really had to dig deep to come up with this lame complaint.
 
There are other times where you don't and the thread makes perfect sense, this is not one of those times.	
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Yes, beyond that first quest where they start, everything was ultimately the same.  The only thing different was how (and where) they started.
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			I noticed this too when I started on my human spellslinger.  my Mordesh was my first Exile character and when I made my human, he started elsewhere.  I just assumed it was a Mordesh thing...so I suppose that's no longer a thing?  That stinks. 	
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They were actually pretty close together.  You could still group with your friends in a matter of minutes.  Again, it was just a minor change with the Mordesh dealing with an outbreak and zombie killing vs Aurin (and anyone else) killing birds and freeing trapped people.  Very minor change.  So OBVIOUSLY that had to be changed right?  RIGHT?  
 
Sometimes change is good, sometimes it sucks and sometimes change is just change.
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			3-7?  Dude it was one quest or 2 at most.  Literally they met at the crossroads and it was exactly the same from there.  It is so minor a change I just wonder WHY they did it.  I mean, spend that time changing the actual Arc Ship quests to make exile as good as dominion was and put the portal things down in 8 places vs 4.  Done.  And better spent to me.	
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Personally, the only thing I like out of the changes was the Dominion Arkship story with Jaillyn Sweetspur.  The lore on the arkships--the Vigilant Church, the Relic Room, the Rockin' Rowsdower, and the lore behind the races--I don't see why they got rid of that.
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I've mixed feelings on this. The Vigilant Church came across as evil to the core and corrupt as you can get on the arkship, and then when I got down to the planet there's all these heroic church folk and it was a little baffling at first.
 
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I dont know why you would get that impression with the Vigilant Church.  Did you ever read the dialogue from the virtues when you knelt to them?  A few months back someone objected to the idea of "bowing down to their gods" when in fact bowing/kneeling brought up the following dialogue:
 
-Purity, honest intentions guiding a flawlessly honest spirit
-Justice, judging fairly and distributing consequences
-Knowledge, exploring the depths of reality and collecting its marvels
-Courage, the clarity of mind to see past your fear
-Devotion, the fusion of your being with a singular purpose
-Strength, the force necessary to impose your will
 
How can you call an organization that preached those things as "evil"?  The final lady in the BDSM outfit you knelt in front of but she was basically just wishing you a safe journey on Nexus.  I dont think there was even any you shall worship this God and only this God, you shall not make false idols or anything like that.  Those 6 virtues i listed is all that is shown when you bow in front of their altars.
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Sometimes you read a thread and think to yourself: OMG he/she really had to dig deep to come up with this lame complaint.
 
There are other times where you don't and the thread makes perfect sense, this is not one of those times.
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See for me the dominion starting area was much more robust as far as giving an idea on what the side was about.  The church was opressive (that may have changed planetside I only got to around level 12 or so with any dominion character).  You got a feel for the chua with Mondo and his experiments.  From the Warlord you got to see the exiles at least how the Draken see them (if not the whole dominion): Humans were hicks, Grannok were lazy drunks, Aurin were hippy tree huggers and Mordesh were zombies.  Then you are shown to the emperor, told the secret, and it is laid out to you that the Eldan created the Dominion, if anyone has a claim to Nexus it is the dominion and you were chosen to help the Empire claim what was its by right and manifest destiny.
 
As opposed to the Exiles where you are told to save a guys wife (yeah just that nearby console dude, really hard work and has ZERO Impact on the story from shortly after), meet a doctor for said wife (yeah it is Victor, but you get ZERO info on Mordesh from him), go to a pub, Head to ops and get caught in a dominion attack, learn a bit of history from Belle Walker while disarming bombs, save the veggies and are sent to planet.  Nothing really explains to you WHO your side really was (well Belle did a bit).
 
Now you get to planet side:  Mordesh get a bit of info on their one quest starting area, Aurin were told to save people from birds, Humans crash, Grannok arrive in drop pods, Chua and draken storm a beach, humans and mechari go tomb raiding with Artemis.  (I believe that each starting stage was similar but slightly different for every race.  IE Draken are met by a draken who gives them the mission, chua by chua, etc.  so the Mordesh starting area was not that special really).
 
To rework the starting area for the exiles to actually show you WHO your people are and WHY exactly you are there, etc. would have made more sense.	
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There's a lot better things to change, and they removed the parts of the tutorial that were actually important or worthwhile -- meeting more than a handful of NPCs, actually getting told how paths work, explaining the lore/collectible system (which is a bit different from how many MMOs handle such things), etc.
 
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Erm... no, everyone used to have about the same amount of difference. The first quest or two was different to one degree or another, the exact start point was different, and that's it. They met up almost immediately and were the same from there on out. If there was a greater degree of difference between Aurin/Mordesh than anyone else, it was trivially so.
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I've mixed feelings on this. The Vigilant Church came across as evil to the core and corrupt as you can get on the arkship, and then when I got down to the planet there's all these heroic church folk and it was a little baffling at first.
 
On the ship, it was the Vatican under the House of Borgia, and on the planet its the Vatican under Pope Francis (you even do a quest to purge a corrupt member - which in a less violent version was an early theme for Francis).
 
The Relic Room made a LOT of players dislike Artemis Zin. When she shows up in Wildvine though, she was a bit of a fun feature because you realize she's utterly incompetent, vain, and you're carting her around like a fashion model in a war zone... It was comedic rather than annoying.
 
I don't remember the Rowsdower... so have no comment there. In general I think they needed to clean out a lot of the Dominion Arkship stuff because it seems written back at a time when they intended the faction to be like the Star Wars Dark Side... and by the time they got around to writing the planetside quests they took a very different angle of writing them like a hybrid between the Roman and British empires - where every bad deed has a good side and every good deed has a bad side.
 
(This is why I like Dominion - when it has a moral failing its complex, and when it has a moral rising its equally complex. Exile though just does good with a square jaw and evil with a cowboy vs the natives gun - They were so into writing Exile as 'the heroes' that they didn't add complexity to it, and everytime they had to write them as bad, they just had them do bad stuff without deep motives leaving you to wonder WTF your toon just did... comic booky).
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Why does everyone say the church is/was oppressive?
 
Like, I can get people being a bit sensitive to the word "church" given real-life issues and what not - but in-game it's never stated as anything bad.  all members of the dominion have a choice to be "in" the church or not.  They just teach it's virtues (which are just decent morals).
 
Where is it ever stated that it's awful?  Because they don't like you talking against it or trying to dismantle it?	
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Why does everyone say the church is/was oppressive?
 
Like, I can get people being a bit sensitive to the word "church" given real-life issues and what not - but in-game it's never stated as anything bad.  all members of the dominion have a choice to be "in" the church or not.  They just teach it's virtues (which are just decent morals).
 
Where is it ever stated that it's awful?  Because they don't like you talking against it or trying to dismantle it?
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