Survey Gathering strategies - looking for advice

adirondack

So my typical approach has been to allow my surveys to pile up and then take a weekend and do them all at once. This past weekend I completed over 1500 surveys. Not at all exciting but freed a lot of bank space.

What I generally do is put all of the surveys on one "harvesting" character and use Lost Treasure. I'll go to a node - for example the Alchemy node in Auridon up by the College Warshrine, collect the materials, and then run some distance away from the node to allow it to repopulate, and repeat until all surveys for that node are finished.

My question is - how far do I need to run? It varies for each node; some you need to run to hell and back, and others you just need to be a few steps away.

Has anyone figured out /exactly/ how far away for each node you need to be? I'm sure those of us who collect surveys have our own approach, and by memory know where to run to for each survey.

Caveat:
I know some may just go preview and house and walk out... personally I find the double loading screen of that approach undesirable. I'm looking for the shortest distance my Super Speedy Stam Sorc with Steed (SSSSwS) needs to run away from the survey node in order for it to refresh.


Maybe there is already an addon that shows this?
Maybe there is a simple way to telling that I am as yet unaware?
Maybe people have posted "how to gather surveys smarter" somewhere?


Thank you for any feedback.

Giraffon

You are already doing about the only thing I know to do. Let them stack on a location and then do them in batches. If you don't have Wild Hunt ring or Cowards Gear, you might look into those. You could also try timing yourself. Run out for a certain period of time and then run back. Maybe there is a "sweet spot" where if you run so many seconds unhindered it will always be reset when you return.

adirondack

Current Build: 1x Bloodspawn, 5x Cowards Gear (body), 5x Darkstride (1 body, 2 jewelry, weapons) and Ring of the Wild Hunt. Steed Mundus. Orc. Windrunning passive. All divines gear.

Fiords would go a little faster but I like the reduced cost of sprinting. I've tried both, not a huge different with a stam sorc.

I'm over the speed cap. No need to transmute jewelry to swift. Besides with the buff to divines I think it would be close to a wash for a character that exists for this one function.

I a way I hope there ISN'T a better way cause I wish I'd found it before now. But I'm putting out the question to see what others are doing.

adirondack

Another example, the Clothier survey in Shadowfen - you pretty much have to run a marathon to get the node to refresh. What do other people do to get that little PITA to refresh - or know when it is ready again?

Frankly its the only node where I do use the house preview technique.

driosketch

It depends on the site. My usual rule of thumb is far enough that you can't see items spawned in that spot. My favorite is Morrowind Jewelry. You LoS it by circling the little island and it's respawned when you get back.

Taleof2Cities

I don’t think anyone has published a “distance map” for survey node respawn, @adirondack.

Looks like you’d be breaking new ground by gathering and publishing this info to the crafting community.

adirondack

I'm looking for the previously broken ground; I'm old and lazy.

Taleof2Cities

adirondack wrote: »

I'm looking for the previously broken ground; I'm old and lazy.

Not lazy enough to complete 1,500 surveys ... you'd be surprised how many players are too lazy to complete 20 surveys.

I'm the same way, though, I collect surveys about once per week so it's not a burden on inventory.

adirondack

I finished a good audiobook while doing those surveys - doesn't count. (grins)

AshfieldLad

So far only the blacksmith survey in northern elyswer won’t refresh for me unless I basically wayshrine out. I only get maybe 10 surveys a week between 5 writ guys, is there anyway to up there drop? I’m grand master already

tmbrinks

Survey drops are consistent throughout levels. They're about a 1 in 8 chance of getting one. I've found no way of increasing it.

For the blacksmith survey in N. Elsweyr, that one has a LONG reset distance. I basically run out (away from the delve), then hang a right down the hill. Go touch the tree that's out there and run back and it'll reset. It's one of the more annoying resets of all the surveys in the game (Shadowfen jewelry sucks as well).

OldManJim

Rapids also helps. Until it’s taken away from us...

AshfieldLad

tmbrinks wrote: »

Survey drops are consistent throughout levels. They're about a 1 in 8 chance of getting one. I've found no way of increasing it.

For the blacksmith survey in N. Elsweyr, that one has a LONG reset distance. I basically run out (away from the delve), then hang a right down the hill. Go touch the tree that's out there and run back and it'll reset. It's one of the more annoying resets of all the surveys in the game (Shadowfen jewelry sucks as well).

Alright i'll try this thanks

and re rapids, i made lvl 7 in MyM so im good lol

Asardes

I have a 6 month rotation for surveys, so each zone's turn comes every 6 months. In that time I stack 15-20 surveys at the same location so the reset is very short. I usually do 4-5 zones in the Sunday closest to the 1st, whether it's 29th, 1st, 2nd etc.
The process takes around ~1 hour per zone (all 6 surveys), 4-5 hours in total, and nets me 2-2.5m in materials (post refining).

MonkLoHan

adirondack wrote: »

What do other people do to get that little PITA to refresh - or know when it is ready again?

Frankly its the only node where I do use the house preview technique.

Have you tried porting out to view a home that is listed in the Crown Store then immediately exiting the home? Sometimes that works and puts you right back at the node from the survey. Or, like what I do sometimes is just port back to my house in Reapers March, the immediately run out to the wayshrine to get back to the node.

Nestor

adirondack wrote: »

My question is - how far do I need to run? It varies for each node; some you need to run to hell and back, and others you just need to be a few steps away.

You need to run to the Next Cell border and then come back. Some Surveys are near Node Borders, some are more in the middle. So, your right it varies. For example, there is one Metal Survey in Wrothgar that is right next to a Wayshrine, I just run around the WS and the nodes respawn. There is also one like that in Vvardenfell. These are examples of nodes close to borders. Thing is, on PC, we barely notice these border loads, so see the next statement:

What serves me well, is to go far enough away that I no longer have Line of Site to the Survey Location. This is not all that far away in most cases. Then run back. This is much faster thana zone reload would be.

What I have never tried is cranking down the View Distance to see if that has any impact on the distance you need to go, I doubt it does, but it could be a fun experiment.

Feric51

Nestor wrote: »

adirondack wrote: »

My question is - how far do I need to run? It varies for each node; some you need to run to hell and back, and others you just need to be a few steps away.

You need to run to the Next Cell border and then come back. Some Surveys are near Node Borders, some are more in the middle. So, your right it varies. For example, there is one Metal Survey in Wrothgar that is right next to a Wayshrine, I just run around the WS and the nodes respawn. There is also one like that in Vvardenfell. These are examples of nodes close to borders. Thing is, on PC, we barely notice these border loads, so see the next statement:

What serves me well, is to go far enough away that I no longer have Line of Site to the Survey Location. This is not all that far away in most cases. Then run back. This is much faster thana zone reload would be.

What I have never tried is cranking down the View Distance to see if that has any impact on the distance you need to go, I doubt it does, but it could be a fun experiment.

I know on PC there is a way you can see actual map grid coordinates as I sometimes see things like survey/treasure map locations referenced with "lat/long" style coordinates.

I wonder if these cell borders are based on a 10x10 grid size, or something similar. If so, by knowing the coordinates you could reasonably assume the direction to run in order to have the shortest reset distance.

Has anyone on PC ever looked into this technique? I'm on console and we have no way of seeing the map coordinates.

tmbrinks

adirondack wrote: »

Another example, the Clothier survey in Shadowfen - you pretty much have to run a marathon to get the node to refresh. What do other people do to get that little PITA to refresh - or know when it is ready again?

Frankly its the only node where I do use the house preview technique.

If you run up into the camp above the node, you have to just go to the back of the camp (there's a large tree-stump or rock) back there, and come back down.. that's the shortest I've found.

Running up or down the coast is a long run

adirondack

G

tmbrinks wrote: »

adirondack wrote: »

Another example, the Clothier survey in Shadowfen - you pretty much have to run a marathon to get the node to refresh. What do other people do to get that little PITA to refresh - or know when it is ready again?

Frankly its the only node where I do use the house preview technique.

If you run up into the camp above the node, you have to just go to the back of the camp (there's a large tree-stump or rock) back there, and come back down.. that's the shortest I've found.

Running up or down the coast is a long run

I will totally try that thank you!

tmbrinks

Feric51 wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

adirondack wrote: »

My question is - how far do I need to run? It varies for each node; some you need to run to hell and back, and others you just need to be a few steps away.

You need to run to the Next Cell border and then come back. Some Surveys are near Node Borders, some are more in the middle. So, your right it varies. For example, there is one Metal Survey in Wrothgar that is right next to a Wayshrine, I just run around the WS and the nodes respawn. There is also one like that in Vvardenfell. These are examples of nodes close to borders. Thing is, on PC, we barely notice these border loads, so see the next statement:

What serves me well, is to go far enough away that I no longer have Line of Site to the Survey Location. This is not all that far away in most cases. Then run back. This is much faster thana zone reload would be.

What I have never tried is cranking down the View Distance to see if that has any impact on the distance you need to go, I doubt it does, but it could be a fun experiment.

I know on PC there is a way you can see actual map grid coordinates as I sometimes see things like survey/treasure map locations referenced with "lat/long" style coordinates.

I wonder if these cell borders are based on a 10x10 grid size, or something similar. If so, by knowing the coordinates you could reasonably assume the direction to run in order to have the shortest reset distance.

Has anyone on PC ever looked into this technique? I'm on console and we have no way of seeing the map coordinates.

I don't think that's the case. There are some (like the Shadowfen Clothing mentioned) where you can run for longer than average to reset the node in both the North AND the South direction, which wouldn't be the case if it were a rectangular grid.

My guess is the cells are on average the same size, in terms of area, but the ones along the edges or along other impassable features might be long and narrow, whereas some more in the middle are closer to squarish in shape.

It's may also be likely that the "zones" that you see from antiquities are related to the cell areas (at least that makes sense to me) and was probably easier to code it (or I'd think so...)

Beardimus

This was the only bad thing about One Tamriel.

Use to be the zone you dropped off in you got the surveys for.

Now I'm sat on 100s I can't be bothered doing untill I get 5 the same location

Hotdog_23

You are right as there is no defined distance you need to run away to rest a node but in general with the wild hunt ring on I can pop rapids run for 7-8 seconds away at most then pop rapids again for the 8 second boost to run back and the nodes are always rest. Usually just find a tree, brush or rock to run around as a reference point to circle back.

Be safe and have fun

volkeswagon

i think getting the location out of the redraw range helps so it has to redraw the surroundings when you go back and thus respawning the survey

Ufretin

This may sound weird but I don't run away from a node to reset it, I ride

Pevey

AshfieldLad wrote: »

So far only the blacksmith survey in northern elyswer won’t refresh for me unless I basically wayshrine out. I only get maybe 10 surveys a week between 5 writ guys, is there anyway to up there drop? I’m grand master already

For this one, just go into the nearby delve and back out again.

MonkLoHan

I can confirm that what works is after gathering everything at the node, just port out to visit/view any of the homes listed in the crown store. Then immediately leave the home and you'll instantly port back to your location where node has refreshed. Easier and faster than running/riding away waiting for it to respawn then running/riding back.

tmbrinks

MonkLoHan wrote: »

I can confirm that what works is after gathering everything at the node, just port out to visit/view any of the homes listed in the crown store. Then immediately leave the home and you'll instantly port back to your location where node has refreshed. Easier and faster than running/riding away waiting for it to respawn then running/riding back.

Yes, this works. But for a mass majority of the nodes in this game, the time in 2 load screens is substantially longer than the time you would spend riding away and back on a mount to get it to reset. (I have an m.2 drive, so I have fairly short load screens, and it is still substantially longer for me to do the "port to crown store house" method)

The blacksmithing node in N. Elsweyr might be the one exception (as I think that's the furthest ride I've discovered)

redlink1979

I don't let them stack that much: the lack of willingness to pick those up is inversely proportional to the survey's stack size.

kargen27

My method usually ends up being I do one survey, pick out a tree or large rock to run around and head that direction. I see something to harvest so I deviate from my path. Harvesting that I see another flower or rock just a little farther. Next thing I know I am halfway across the map and remember oh yeah I'm doing surveys.
World bosses distract me also.

Takes me a long time to do surveys.

Malborn66

If you have a Survey and another in the bank:
Go to site and collect the one in hand.
Then summon the banking assistant and get the one out of the bank.
Now, logout to Select and then on again.
This gets you the second drop.

---

Malborn
PC-EU

trackdemon5512

AshfieldLad wrote: »

So far only the blacksmith survey in northern elyswer won’t refresh for me unless I basically wayshrine out. I only get maybe 10 surveys a week between 5 writ guys, is there anyway to up there drop? I’m grand master already

@AshfieldLad run down the hill into the large clearing and to the large cacti and tree in the middle. That is the nearest reset distance.