This option is even better for the RPG part and less creepy than the meta of a popping window purposing a choice.

All that needed to be done was not LOCK transportation to the mainland until after the questline, let unlocked right at start, and maybe add a dialog line from the first questgiver that direct the players to the transport if all they want is to "reach the mainland" (just for first timers that are really in a hurry or seomthing). That way its most likely thye will still get at least 1 lvl getting to the mainland, without forcing alts to go through another 4-5 hours of gameplay.

Should definitely start you on the starter island and give you an NPC with a boat who offers to let you skip it if you want.

I kind of like that everyone gets a sword at the beginning, to emphasize that no matter what your class is, you can use any weapon. I think that concept can be expanded in the future to add some fun combos (mage + 2 hander, healer + bow, etc) . However, I did vote that I missed it because it makes getting to your real weapon more difficult.

I think the starter zone spit up into multiple areas where each area requires a different weapon to complete. Need a sword to start, shield later to block arrow volleys, a 2-handed axe to break through a wall, a resto staff to heal an npc, a bow to range down a big bad guy, a fire staff to kill some tree-monster, etc.

As for going to the main city first, I do think that kills a bit of the adventure for first timers. You start in civilization and then choose to go to some random island to help them out, vs starting in the boondocks and slowly working your way to the hub. The latter just seems like a more heroic storyline.

@Gruey

Now I imagine having to change weapons to face different encounters in the prison to let me test them all, a real tutorial, like the one in Firefall. It would be a bit difficult to put into a story, but feasible.

pretty much agree with everyone here, i don't mind the coldharbour changes as much but going to the mainland first and finding your way back to the starter islands was a stupid way to do it

Was not a fan of the absence of choice in weapons during the Coldharbor tutorial, it's fine if you want to teach players how to swing a sword and block/interrupt attacks using a sword, but I should have the option to pick something more suited to my intended role shortly after. Guildmates that I happened to be on Teamspeak with mentioned that they had found armor and weapons in the chests scattered throughout the Wailing Prison and the rest of the Tutorial but by the end of the entire island even after looting everything I could find I still hadn't found anything other than the Greatsword dropped by the Child of Bones, not exactly what I was looking for as a Sorceror. The "cache" I received from the Prophet after completing the tutorial and arriving in my capital city contained a Heavy Armor chestpiece and a Bow, neither of which I found to be interest (I later found out after rolling a couple of other characters that this cache always seemed to contain a bow and a random chestpiece of light/medium/heavy).

As for the being forced to "skip" the Tutorial islands (in my case, Stros M'kai and Betnikh as I played DC this weekend) it really wasn't a desirable option, upon completing the 3 or 4 quests located just outside my starting point in Daggerfall city, I found myself considerably under-leveled for the other quests I had picked up in town (both of which were Fighters and Mages guild starters), so I found myself having to find my way to the "skippable" zones just get caught up before venturing out elsewhere in Glenumbra. While the Prophet does have a dialogue option that vaguely directs you to the dock that allowed me to travel to the previous starting zones, it is very easily missed and there is no real referral there once his "Avatar" has despawned following your conversation post-tutorial.

Really not impressed with the new character experience. As someone who just introduced a family member to MMOs for the first time a few months ago, I can't imagine trying to help them through this starting experience because it simply isn't intuitive or enjoyable enough to catch someone in that first hour or two they play.