Syldras wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

The "they" in the Companion descriptions would sound more natural if instead it changed to match the Companion--but maybe their skill display code doesn't allow for contextual adjustments like that?

Must be possible since it's correctly gendered for each companion in some translations/languages that simply know no neutral form, like in German and French.

I have the feeling it is probably just simply an oversight.

As someone said, they probably do the passives/bonuses/skills before they even start on the companion, so they don't know what pronoun to use at that point. then they just forget to go back and change it.

I have seen it in a lot of games, to be honest, where it would probably not take that long to have the pronouns match the gender of the character, but they don't.

Might even be two different departments/people doing the different things, so the one just grabs the text that the other comes up with and applies it and doesn't even change it *shrugs*

Edit: naturally posted and realized something else.

The reason why it would be translated correctly for other languages, is because someone is already looking at that particular bit of code, with the companion already created, to translate it, so they can make the necessary adjustments at that point, because they already know the gender of the companion and so which pronoun to use.

1) Re the proc rate of Plentiful Harvest supposedly not being 50%:

In 8061 pulls of blacksmithing, clothing, jewelrycrafting, and woodworking that I've recorded since they fixed Plentiful Harvest (which, yes, used to be capped at 40% due to a bug, but has been fixed), outside of resource events, I have the following rate of drops for the base mats:

3x: 3406 (42.25%)
4x: 620 (7.69%)
6x: 2907 (36.06%)
7x: 1046 (12.98%)
8x: 82 (1.02%)

Since 3x and 4x represent no PH proc, while 6x, 7x, and 8x represent a PH proc, these are the rates for the proc from those pulls:

No PH proc: 49.94%
PH proc: 50.06%

For alchemy nodes, I have fewer pulls but the following info:

1x: 186 (49.87%)
2x: 187 (50.13%)

I'm not sure how much closer to 50% it's reasonable to expect it to get. If you have data that doesn't seem to align with this, I would very interested to see the numbers.

Note, though, that Plentiful Harvest doesn't double the whole yield of the node. It procs on a per-mat basis on eligible mats from eligible sources. It only procs when you draw one of those mats to begin with, so on average over time it doubles the amount you get, but it doesn't change the chance of getting anything in the first place.

2) Plentiful Harvest doesn't work the same way on all the things it procs on, again probably due to bugs:

Number of base mats: For BCJW non-survey nodes, you can get 3 or 4 without a PH proc, and then 6, 7, or 8 when it procs. For surveys you can get 18 or 20 without PH, and then 36, 38, or 40 when it procs.

The distribution matches what we'd expect if the game is rerolling the number again when PH procs.

But for alchemy, PH always doubles the number. That's why you can only get 4, 6, 8, or 12 (4 or 6 being no PH, as you noted, and 8 and 12 being the PH procs for those numbers, respectively). Unlike BCJW surveys, you will never get a mix and match of the two base rolls, so no 10s. Just 4 x 2 or 8 x 2, never 4 + 6 or 6 + 4.

Other things it works irregularly on:

Pulverized Titanium: PH dramatically increases - at least about doubles, according to my numbers - the normal chance of getting Pulverized Titanium x1 from a jewelry seam. It also provides a tiny chance of getting x2 from the same node, which doesn't appear to be possible without it. I believe it may be providing another independent roll at this mat rather than rolling only when it's drawn initially, as is the case for other mats.

Bait: PH works (in an unexpected way, akin to Pulverized Titanium) on bait from clothing surveys, enabling 4x bait from a single clothing node, but PH doesn't work on bait from alchemy nodes (survey or otherwise) and doesn't work on bait from non-survey clothing nodes.

No, none of this noted in PH's tooltip, which is incorrect anyhow. That's unfortunately consistent with the way many, many things in this game are not adequately explained in the game. It's also quite possible these exceptions in #2 are bugs, in which case they wouldn't be explained because they wouldn't be intended.

3) Whether Botanist achievement/trait knowledge is a factor in getting the 6x from alchemy surveys is testable on the PTS, since template characters get surveys but do not come pre-formatted with trait knowledge. The PTS is an EU copy right now, and I don't have the Botanist achievement on that server.

On my first survey I got 4x, 4x, 6x, 4x, 4x, and 6x. It's not exactly the 50%-50% split I expect over time, but it's only 6 nodes. On the PTS it's possible to get 6x without Botanist or knowing any traits on any of these reagents:

If you did indeed get only 4x and 8x for 240 pulls, then something is going on, but unless it's a bug that is coincidentally getting fixed next patch, it isn't this achievement or trait knowledge causing the issue.

ETA: I'll test if it's a bad interaction between Plentiful Harvest and Botanist/trait knowledge, but it definitely isn't the latter on its own.

Nope, got 6x and 12x with Plentiful Harvest maxed.

With fix I mean, the questline takes a really long time to do because you have to wait SO long for all the necessary dialogue npc's and they also tend to often bug out and then not be available...
You feel really bad for your party if you are the one making everyone wait all the time...
The easiest fix would be to just speed up the time it takes until each npc becomes available to talk to instantly or with a very short delay and not that long as it takes...

For those that don't know, Julian LeFay was the chief creative behind The Elder Scrolls games of the 1990s (Arena, Daggerfall, and Battlespire). Some rumors from back in the day even suggest that Tamriel was a setting he created as a pen & paper game in the years before he joined Bethesda Softworks. He passed in July 2025.

As The Elder Scrolls series was Julian's most famous and lauded work, I think it would be quite cool and classy of ZOS to honor LeFay and his works by putting together some content themed around the divine "Julianos" -- the God of Wisdom and Logic named for Julian. Off the top of my head, an in-game holiday, or perhaps a permanent memorial or temple in the region around Daggerfall (the city-state which LeFay's most famous work was based around) would be wonderful.