Official Discussion Thread for "Homestead Guide: Master Writs"

Enodoc

Jaeysa wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom - is there a fix planned for the deadly strike master writs? As of last night, they were still requiring Deadly Strike.

I think they said this was a 2-part fix. They already fixed it so they don't appear any more, and they were working on doing something with the existing ones.

TheRealPotoroo

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Only Purple- and Gold-quality provisioning recipes and completed Motifs increase your chances of getting a Master Writ. Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances.

Seriously??? Which bright spark decided that 13/14 was worthless? Can you sack them, or at least beat them around the ears until they bleed?

driosketch

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom Is it intended that Writ Vouchers can't be banked?

Currently, yes. As the system is new, we’re constantly evaluating decisions such as this and taking player feedback into consideration. This may change in the future, or it may remain as-is.

If I can make a suggestion, if you decide to leave vouchers unbankable, could you instead increase the voucher rewards per master writ, particularly the consumables? Otherwise the system penalizes those who specialized crafters across alts.

redspecter23

ZOS, can we get some numbers please? What is the base chance at a master writ. How much IN ACTUAL NUMBERS does trait research or motif knowlelge factor in. We're basically still playtesting this system but we're doing it blind. My main with all traits and all motifs except two of the new ones has never pulled an equipment master writ. My rate of acquisition for equipment master writs is miniscule compared to my rate on consumable master writs. I'd provide you with some exact numbers to help you trouble shoot this issue but according to ZOS, numbers aren't important.

Zypheran

James-Wayne wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Ashtaris wrote: »

One thing I noticed was there was NO mention of Motif knowledge increasing your chances to get a MCW. The only thing mentioned in the blog article was research knowledge. Has the motifs been taken away from the chance formula?

We may go back and adjust the wording in the article if it's coming across that way. To clarify, Motif knowledge does matter for obtaining Master Crafting Writs.

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

I'm having a similar issue. The drop rate seems low. It's very disheartening to watch those loved by RNGesus comment about how easy it is to get writs. I have 3 master crafters, 1 with 8-9 traits on everything and most motifs... I've gotten NOTHING. I get the same thing almost every time - a decorative armor piece, a trait stone and a box of ingots I don't need!!
RNGesus hates me

Integral1900

Yesterday I spent, sorry... wasted, two hours combing every blasted guild store in tamriel for purple redguard or Breton bookcases. Plans or finished items..... and found absolutely nothing, not of any style....

Two

Blasted

HOURS!!!!!

I reached such a frenzy of frustration that at one point I would of happily paid a quarter of million gold per bookcase! No more though, I give up, it can't be done, either the drop rate is screwed up or ZOS forgot to include them. Never thought I'd say this but I reackon I'm going to buy them from the crown store....

I know when I'm beaten

VerboseQuips

I am very worried with this line:

Will you be adding to the Master Writ system in future updates?

As we add new motifs, traits, and crafted sets, we do plan to eventually add them to the Master Writ rotation of requested goods. And, as we add new features, tools and décor to the player housing system, you can expect Rolis Hlaalu's inventory to grow and change.

Does it mean that some items will disappear from Rolis Hlaalu's inventory at some point? Will they become permanently inaccessible then? If yes, how much time do we have to buy everything we want?

(Also, if yes, then I guess I will never, ever, have a house, since I will already spend all my gold on sealed writs to finish collecting crafting knowledge before it's too late. )

VerboseQuips

Also, does crafting knowledge factor in only the chance of getting any sealed writ, or does it also factor in the number of vouchers awarded?

gard

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Icy wrote: »

Where does the Glass Motif fall in this? I've (nearly) collected it all in game, but you could also buy it in the Crown store after a while. When my Glass Motif is complete, will it count towards my Master Writ chance? Or does it not count at all as it was also in the Crown store? Thanks.

The completed Glass Motif does count toward your Motif knowledge and increase your chances of getting Master Writs. Only Motifs that were only ever available exclusively in the Crown Store do not count.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom Kudos to you guys for that. Thank you for not locking master writs behind a crown store purchase.
Sometimes you guys get it right!

Synfaer

Are you guys aware that some top level provisioning writs are still dropping the old writ reward boxes that have no chance of dropping a master writ?

Autolycus

Drop rates on master writs are awful, even knowing a great deal of traits, styles, recipes, etc. seems to make little difference. Everyone I know who has every motif page and trait (including all alchemy and provisioning stuff) does dozens of writs per day and most of them haven't even gotten one yet. And these are people who spent millions of gold to buy up their motif pages pre-Homestead.

Honestly, it just seems like the drop rate is intentionally kept just (painfully) low enough to make purchasing stuff from the crown store still a matter of convenience. I doubt crown store furnishing would be all that attractive if actually playing and earning writs and vouchers paid off.

I can only speak for myself, but frankly I would like to not still be furnishing my first house when the one-year anniversary of Homestead rolls around. At this rate actually, it'll take longer ^.^

Slurg

Autolycus wrote: »

Drop rates on master writs are awful, even knowing a great deal of traits, styles, recipes, etc. seems to make little difference. Everyone I know who has every motif page and trait (including all alchemy and provisioning stuff) does dozens of writs per day and most of them haven't even gotten one yet. And these are people who spent millions of gold to buy up their motif pages pre-Homestead.

See the official post, you need the post-homestead motifs too.

Gotta already have the Ebon motif to win the master writs to get the Ebon motif.

Sigh.

Oh wait it's Ebony isn't it? Not like I have it or will anytime soon, too many other things I'd rather buy.

Woolenthreads

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

Yes, the Master Crafting Writs are working as intended but it sounds like what you've experienced is on the very low-end of the possible drop-rate range. If you keep with it, you should see the rates even out a bit over time. Even with an optimal chance of getting one based on your knowledge (research and known Motifs), Master Writ invitations are quite uncommon. That said, we recently discovered a bug that causes Provisioning Writs in particular to award Master Writs roughly half as often as intended. We are currently working on a fix, so you can expect these to appear a little more often once that fix is in.

That means a lot of my Guild mates are on the low-drop rate end. My experience on PTS was that my most knowledgable crafter got the least number of MW's and the least knowledgable got the most. I wrote this off as being RNG since I could only run them for two weeks. When it went live though I had exactly the same issue, which was annoying though not beyond the realms of chance. One of my Guildmasters and her Significant Other were both upset that they weren't even getting any for some time. I shared this with my guild mates because I figured it would help them work out whether it was the achievements causing them issues. I warned them that the crafting achievements might not be the only ones contributing to the drop rate though. The Guild Master reported that she had more motifs and achievements, as did her S.O., and she still only had 4 MWs. At the moment from the sheet you can see that my least capable crafter is still ahead, but only because I picked up 8 MW's last night and he got 3 of them (#1 and #2 Crafters having gotten 2 each).

# Edit: I'm not claiming anything here, this is just data. I actually suspect my characters are on the high side of RNG but that sort of data is just as important and being on the low side.

Arthmoor

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

Yes, the Master Crafting Writs are working as intended but it sounds like what you've experienced is on the very low-end of the possible drop-rate range. If you keep with it, you should see the rates even out a bit over time. Even with an optimal chance of getting one based on your knowledge (research and known Motifs), Master Writ invitations are quite uncommon. That said, we recently discovered a bug that causes Provisioning Writs in particular to award Master Writs roughly half as often as intended. We are currently working on a fix, so you can expect these to appear a little more often once that fix is in.

I'm not sure that this is working the way you guys wanted, at all. In my own experience, knowing all traits on all types, having all but 2 food recipes (one blue, one purple), knowing all runes, all potions, all poisons, I've had a grand total of 1 master writ every 3rd day or so and not one of them has been worth more than 5 vouchers. The forums are littered with stories similar to mine, and my own guild members have all had the same experience. So IMO, SOMETHING is not right.

I think the theory put forth that the drop chance calculations are backward hold some merit since I see lots of people with barely any crafting knowledge or achievements getting huge master writs worth dozens or hundreds of vouchers. That simply HAS to be some kind of mistake.

I really think this needs a good, hard, serious look by the dev team who wrote this stuff to see if they didn't make some kind of silly error in the code somewhere. Cause if this is truly intentional, it's logic is backward, and the system is reaching a point where many of us are just going to stop wasting time and resources on it and then you'll have nothing but bad feedback from those who are left.

AVES7A

Hello,
I've got an alchemy Master Writ recently which I believe is impossible to make! My task is to create 20 poisons that have the following traits:
• Ravage Health
• Ravage Magicka
• Speed (really? Make my target speedy on use?)
I tried every single combination and even used easy to craft alchemy addons, but there is no such thing to make!
Any ideas? Should I post this on "Report bug" section too?

EDIT: I didn't have the right reagents now I can make it now. My expert friends told me it's a broken writ and I should report it, so it's not a bug sorry!

Woolenthreads

Arthmoor wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

Yes, the Master Crafting Writs are working as intended but it sounds like what you've experienced is on the very low-end of the possible drop-rate range. If you keep with it, you should see the rates even out a bit over time. Even with an optimal chance of getting one based on your knowledge (research and known Motifs), Master Writ invitations are quite uncommon. That said, we recently discovered a bug that causes Provisioning Writs in particular to award Master Writs roughly half as often as intended. We are currently working on a fix, so you can expect these to appear a little more often once that fix is in.

I'm not sure that this is working the way you guys wanted, at all. In my own experience, knowing all traits on all types, having all but 2 food recipes (one blue, one purple), knowing all runes, all potions, all poisons, I've had a grand total of 1 master writ every 3rd day or so and not one of them has been worth more than 5 vouchers. The forums are littered with stories similar to mine, and my own guild members have all had the same experience. So IMO, SOMETHING is not right.

I think the theory put forth that the drop chance calculations are backward hold some merit since I see lots of people with barely any crafting knowledge or achievements getting huge master writs worth dozens or hundreds of vouchers. That simply HAS to be some kind of mistake.

I really think this needs a good, hard, serious look by the dev team who wrote this stuff to see if they didn't make some kind of silly error in the code somewhere. Cause if this is truly intentional, it's logic is backward, and the system is reaching a point where many of us are just going to stop wasting time and resources on it and then you'll have nothing but bad feedback from those who are left.

Regrettably I spoke to my Guildmaster about the issue she was having and the cause and it seems both our theories bit the dust, revolving around the same Motif but with utterly opposite results. So RNG .

Tornaad

Are there master writs for all of the crafting skills or do some of the crafting skills not have master writs available for them?

Woolenthreads

Zuboko wrote: »

Are there master writs for all of the crafting skills or do some of the crafting skills not have master writs available for them?

All of them. One of the reasons that the MW vouchers for Alchemy, Enchanting and Provisioning are so low is because it takes very little effort or cost to get up to the maximum achievements IMO.

Tornaad

Woolenthreads wrote: »

Zuboko wrote: »

Are there master writs for all of the crafting skills or do some of the crafting skills not have master writs available for them?

All of them. One of the reasons that the MW vouchers for Alchemy, Enchanting and Provisioning are so low is because it takes very little effort or cost to get up to the maximum achievements IMO.

How rare are the writs? Or are there more requirements than just being maxed skills? I have been trying unsuccessfully for a while to get a provisioning writ.

disintegr8

I got my first provisioning writ last night after only 9 days (on PS4). It was on my only crafter who knows any gold recipes. He also knows about 60 purples, all of the Orsinium recipes (Orzorgas) as well as all of the 'event' recipes that have come and gone over the last 12 months.

It did call for knowledge of Psijic Ambrosia, as I had to make 8 potions, so it used up 2 perfect roe - for the awesomely huge reward of................... 10 vouchers.

Katahdin

I think learning the Ebony style decreases your drop rate for master writs. My master crafter has all crafts maxed, almost all provisioning recipes known (all gold ones except mytheric), all alche my reagents known, all runes known, all 9 traits on everything, and all (40) but 3 motifs completely known (missing Akaviri, silken ring, and Mazzitun).

Since learning Ebony 4 days ago, has has gotten 1 writ worth 6 vouchers. Before learning Ebony, he was getting them almost every day.

The other character I am doing it on knows 6 motifs and doesn't have more than 6 traits on anything has gotten 1 motif worth 5 vouchers in the same time frame.

Woolenthreads

Zuboko wrote: »

Woolenthreads wrote: »

Zuboko wrote: »

Are there master writs for all of the crafting skills or do some of the crafting skills not have master writs available for them?

All of them. One of the reasons that the MW vouchers for Alchemy, Enchanting and Provisioning are so low is because it takes very little effort or cost to get up to the maximum achievements IMO.

How rare are the writs? Or are there more requirements than just being maxed skills? I have been trying unsuccessfully for a while to get a provisioning writ.

Provisioning Writs seem to be the ones that drop the least. There could be a possibility though of my not noticing them as much, some how, since running the approximate numbers in my head they seem to be about the same rate as everything else. There was also a period in the beginning where their drop rate was acknowledged as lower and then changed in a patch.

Arthmoor

Woolenthreads wrote: »

Regrettably I spoke to my Guildmaster about the issue she was having and the cause and it seems both our theories bit the dust, revolving around the same Motif but with utterly opposite results. So RNG .

Know what sucks even more? Since I posted that, I've had exactly one master writ. One, in 9 days. There's GOT to be something screwed up here. That simply shouldn't happen.

crachaus

James-Wayne wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Ashtaris wrote: »

One thing I noticed was there was NO mention of Motif knowledge increasing your chances to get a MCW. The only thing mentioned in the blog article was research knowledge. Has the motifs been taken away from the chance formula?

We may go back and adjust the wording in the article if it's coming across that way. To clarify, Motif knowledge does matter for obtaining Master Crafting Writs.

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

The drop rate for MCW is punishingly low, on PS/4 at any rate, and the writs offered give paltry amounts. Attunable Crafting Stations are an unreachable goal and should be removed as a tease. As a paying customer for ESO Plus, and constant crown purchases, what are you doing for me? I understand your EULA basically states 'you accept whatever we're serving up' but, you really are screwing the pooch here. People are not happy about it. People are leaving. Smarten up. Someone in Accounting needs to TALK to someone in Marketing, and they BOTH need to talk to the developers. Get this fixed. It's broken. The mega-server is up and down like a toilet seat, and I can't even HOPE to make an attunable crafting station despite a year and a half of training 9 trait crafting on all pieces, and of course, hundreds of hours and thousands of hard earned gp on motifs research. It's really disappointing, I can't even store one usable item in a house, I can't make a house more than minimally useful, then, try owning three manor homes. Normally, I like to get kissed first. This feels rapey.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

disintegr8 wrote: »

It did call for knowledge of Psijic Ambrosia, as I had to make 8 potions, so it used up 2 perfect roe - for the awesomely huge reward of................... 10 vouchers.

This is why I have something like 15 Writs sitting in my character's inventory right now. Sure, most of the Writs are fairly simple Alchemy Writs...but most of the rewards are in the 2-5 voucher range. I have better things to do than go through (at least) two load screens every time I want to complete one of these things.

(I did find out you can craft the thing they want in advance, so for example if I have 5 Enchanter Writs, I can make all the Glyphs at once and then just open them and turn them in in succession. It's still enough of a bother that I've only been going through them about every two weeks, though.)

Woolenthreads

Arthmoor wrote: »

Woolenthreads wrote: »

Regrettably I spoke to my Guildmaster about the issue she was having and the cause and it seems both our theories bit the dust, revolving around the same Motif but with utterly opposite results. So RNG .

Know what sucks even more? Since I posted that, I've had exactly one master writ. One, in 9 days. There's GOT to be something screwed up here. That simply shouldn't happen.

The mistake I think that people are making here is the belief that the RNG is based on Formula 1 rather than formula 2.

Formula 1 being something like N1/U1xT+N2/U2xM+N3/U3xA
where N1 to 3 are representative of the characters development of Traits, Motifs and Achievements,
U1 to U3 are representative of All Finished Traits, Motifs and Achievements and,
A, M and T represent the Achievement, Motif and Trait breakup of the highest achievable value (which would give a semi-averaged value IMO)

Formula 2 being N/Un
where N is representative of the characters development of Traits, Motifs and Achievements individually for each craft skill line,
Un is representative of All Finished Traits, Motifs and Achievements as a whole (which IMO would give a value ranging from 1 to Un where the formula controls whether you are allowed a MW)

My explanation sucks but an analogy is getting an value off of 11 10-sided dice (-10) vs 1d100. With the former the values will be mostly regular between 45-55 and with the latter they will be all over the place with higher reliance on chance.

EDIT: I should add this is still a hot topic of conversation for at least one of my Guilds because we'd like to know how to reduce the frustration caused by the disparity in MW drops that players are seeing.

crachaus

It seems to me that a lot of Zenimax employees have completely forgotten CS101. There is NO random number generation. It's not random. Any implementation that relies on 'random number generation' is flawed at the conceptual stage. Please go back to school, and stop providing paying customers with a 'loyalty perk' free upgrade that plays like a punishment. I have gone 6 days with ZERO master writs on a crafter that has 9 traits researched on all traits and is only missing the most recent motifs. That character has completed ALL of the crafting achievements and still, a character with zero achievements, and zero traits researched gets 'master' writs more often. It's not difficult to understand that your firm has a problem with the concept of 'mastery.' Take computer science for example, and random number generation. The implementation is broken, therefore fail. Fix it please, as soon as you can get yourself some CS101, I guess. That's like 3 months of late nights, coffee, and object orientation. I believe in you! You can do it!

crachaus

Integral1900 wrote: »

Yesterday I spent, sorry... wasted, two hours combing every blasted guild store in tamriel for purple redguard or Breton bookcases. Plans or finished items..... and found absolutely nothing, not of any style....

Two

Blasted

HOURS!!!!!

I reached such a frenzy of frustration that at one point I would of happily paid a quarter of million gold per bookcase! No more though, I give up, it can't be done, either the drop rate is screwed up or ZOS forgot to include them. Never thought I'd say this but I reackon I'm going to buy them from the crown store....

I know when I'm beaten

crachaus

wait, isn't that racketeering?

crachaus

From Wikipedia:

A racket is a service that is fraudulently offered to solve a problem, such as for a problem that does not exist, that will not be put into effect, or that would not otherwise exist if the racket did not exist. Conducting a racket is racketeering. </flame>

have your lawyers call me. we can settle.