Hello TESO community!

On TESO's roleplaying forum, teso-rp.com, there has been a lot of discussion recently about the fact that we are unable to communicate cross-faction in Cyrodill. Right off the bat, for those of you who do not roleplay, I should state that roleplayers are very tenacious and stubborn. If the game does not give us right away a way to do what we'd like to do, we often wriggle our way around it, and figure out a new way to do it. However, most of us believe that the fact that we are not allowed to communicate cross-faction is a real killer for roleplayers. Because think about it: the roleplaying community is small to begin with, and we are already sliced in half by the two megaservers. Afterwards, both halves are then cut in three pieces known as the three factions. Most of us figured this wasn't that big a problem, hoping we could just head over to our buddies on the other factions, but nope, that seems to be an impossiblity all of a sudden. This is because of the way Zenimax has made it so that once we enter the regions of opposing factions, we are suddenly tossed into our own little snug instance of those regions, only for people of our own faction. I, personally, see that this is going to be very hard to change, and might be rather unrealistic in the long run. There might be people who disagree with me about this, but that is how I see it.

However, this leaves us clinging to the hope that we can at least meet our friends on the battlefield of Cyrodill and shout in-character profanity at them before we lop their heads off in an epic display of roleplaying. However, this too seems to have been robbed from us, and needless to say, many of us are rather dismayed about it. As mentioned before, the roleplaying community is sliced in half at the very beginning, but now it seems that we are left with only a sixth of the roleplaying community to actually roleplay with. Many of us think this to be outrageous, no less.

So I've thought of a little idea, which I hope can reach Zenimax sooner or later. As far as I have heard, the main problem about allowing cross-faction communication is because of the grief it will cause from the other side. Understandable enough, but we think it is a rather harsh move to cut it off completely as a way of countering that problem. Instead, I believe the solution is either of the two: an inter-faction /ignore option, in case someone is shouting at you, or a check box that toggles on/off of blocking cross-faction communication. If you're a regular player who just wants to play the game and not be disturbed by grievers, you simply toggle the option on, and automatically ignore all cross-faction communication. And if you are a roleplayer, you can simply check it off, so that we can keep our precious cross-faction roleplay.

I know the roleplaying community is small, but this is something I'd like for Zenimax to hear. I have sent them an e-mail concerning the matter as well. I encourage anyone else concerned about this matter to do the same. Thank you for your time

~Ju'Rimaar, a concerned roleplayer.

If they are in the enemy faction then they are not your friends anyways.

If you are all in the same guild you can talk to each other afaik. Tested it outside of Cyrodiil only.

I don't see a problem w/ their system. I usually roleplay in my spare time.

First of all while I can see a value in this from a roleplay stand point I also think there are far better avenues in a role play spirit for doing so. Battlefields are hectic, noisy places with far too much going on for singling out an individual except when they are near or a lull in action has occurred. Enemies who have something of a friendly competition going on are more likely to deliver messages or leave ones for their friends to find etc. So message boards - much like a tavern you know your friend will eventually enter are better venues. If there is a true need then outside communications tools such as Teamspeak are available.

No - this seems more of a mask to sell the ability while disguising the true reason for getting it passed. The ability for spying and other usefully ideas in a factional war. It is far more useful for spying, reporting on cross-faction movement and setting up things like ambushes etc. You can still do it - using the aforementioned Teamspeak but it is not so readily done ad-hoc.

Now were there enough interest then perhaps an RP only instance would be a better solution where the rules are different.

Just my thoughts - I choose to roleplay on servers from time to time and it seems far more in line to do so via message boards than to have cross communication chat in the game - I mean we are still enemies, just ones with allowances made for one another.

I wouldnt mind being able to see everyone's /say in game.... I'd like to use it when I am /playdead

I mentioned this in my survey after the last beta. I fully support something like this.

If you are in the same guild and in different factions, you will not be allowed into the same instance of cyrodiil.

unless your fighting for a different guild I think..then you could use /guild2 to talk to the other guild >w>

I don't understand..

Guilds are account bound, you can only be in 5, and you can't be in a Cyrodiil campaign on a different faction than any of your guilds.

That right there. If you are in multiple cross faction guilds, you are locked out of all them, not just one at a time.

I stand corrected ^w^ and eases my worries, though well have to leave guuilds once level 50 then lol

Mama always said anyone who is part of another alliance is not really your friend...

But I agree with nosavy- cross alliance communication will invariably be used for spying purposes. I'm confused...I would think an RP purist would be vehemently opposed to this type of communication. If you were truly playing in character, wouldn't you and your friends all make it a point to join the same alliance?

Each guild has to declare what alliance they are supporting. They can have characters from a different alliance in the guild, they just won't be able to be in the same campaign that the guild has selected to be in.

You wouldn't have to leave any guild as long as there were no conflicts on which instance of Cyrodiil the differing guilds were fighting in.

Roleplayers will be speaking the language of their race. So the other factions shouldnt be able to understand them anyway. Whats the problem here?
"A hiberian says something in a language you don't understand"
Remember what great rvr game this came from?

I don't play pvp much, for a variety of different reasons, but at least a couple of issues seem to be fairly obvious.

PVP battlezones like Cyrodill cater to at *least* two different mindsets - the people that want to be competitive and WIN (perfectly fine - nothing wrong there), and the people that revel in the opportunities for creating cross-faction rivalries that are easily a place to also enjoy role-playing.

NORMALLY - this would be a fantastic opportunity to give fun and entertainment to two different mindsets. Those RP oriented players that want to immerse themselves in the cross-faction rivalries can taunt their fellow RP enemies, they can play out lethal dramas on the battlefield...etc...etc. Whereas the victory counting PVP'ers will be able to count kills and keeps captured and battlefield victories...everyone's happy...right? Right?!

sadly, the victory PVP people will DEFINITELY AND AGRESSIVELY use any and all features/tactics to ensure victory. This isn't villainous. To them, it's simple logic. The game has mechanics and objectives. My objective is to win. The mechanics are what I use to win. I'm entitled to use the mechanics to win in whatever innovative and clever fashion I can conceive of. However, this mentality ABSOLUTELY extends to using cross faction chat to spy on the tactics and strategies of the opposing side, to undermine them and win. That means planting spies in the enemy camp (faction) and monitoring their chat, and using the magic of 3rd party communication tools, informing on the enemy camp and using that to subvert their plans.

and truth be told, I find this to be *half* reasonable mentality.

on the other hand, for the PVP'ers, cross-faction chat exists to play out scenarios and dramas involving their own friends, and their *friends* that exist on the other side for the sake of drama. My best friend in real life can be my Nemesis from the opposing faction, and we can revel in how we taunt each other about the failure of our respective philosophies; then we battle, and one of us treacherously wounds the other, only to slink away so that we may confront one another on another battlefield.

The problem with all this, is that while one group would use the tool for the sake of entertainment, the other group would definitely have people using the tool as a tactical/strategic tool with which to *beat* the enemy. You both would use the same tool to different purposes, and at least ONE of you would suffer, quite possibly both, with the abuse of a particular side-effect of that feature.

Honestly, I'd like to see what you're talking about, except somehow extended to a technology that managed to further separate the competitive PVP from the RPVP crowd. I'd love to see some kind of "dramatic" pvp tag that could both reward a particular player for interacting in a RP fashion with other RPVP tagged players, while still being able to contribute to the overall PVP nature of the battlefield, while also FAILING to INTERFERE with the more competitive PVP crowd on the battlefield.

I don't know how to make that actual plan *work*, mind you - I just think it would be nice if it could.

So, point is - I'd like to see what you suggest, but I know people with completely reasonable objections that would not - because, what you're suggesting would, as-is, present problems for the other mindset in the pvp area of ESO - so the question *really* becomes, can we create a 3rd option, that manages to give you the opportunities you're hoping for, while also managing to be a benefit, and not just an exploitable side-effect, of the OTHER mindset

here's to hoping we find a solution that works for everyone!

All the playable races speak the same language.