Survey Gathering strategies - looking for advice

trackdemon5512

@adirondack
I use two 60 item chest and two 30 item chests in my home. The 30 items hold my jewelry and woodworking surveys respectively. The 60 item ones hold blacksmithing/clothing and Alchemy/enchanting respectively.

I deposit my surveys once a week on my craft days in which I open a weeks worth of writ rewards all at once. I check the inventories and any survey stack that has hit 10 I take out and complete.

This manages the inventory to keep the surveys from extensively stacking and ensures that you don’t spend a ton of time doing them. I try to give myself the entire week to get them done, allowing my to do anything else I also need.

MasterSpatula

I hate getting to one of the Blacksmith Surveys in Malabal Tor, so I always just log out and in to reset that one. The rest of them, I can't say that I've ever had a problem running far enough away.

tmbrinks

Store all surveys on 1 character. (Mine is in Coward's/VO/Ring of the Wild Hunt) So, it can run fast, but can still kill any overland mobs easily.

Collect when you get 10 or more in a single location. (Saves much of the "run from wayshrine" time since you're just resetting the node for a good chunk of time)

Mike0987

Remain in place and type in zone /reloadui.

Nestor

Pick one or two zones a day, do the Surveys, then go do other things that you want.

tmbrinks

Mike0987 wrote: »

Remain in place and type in zone /reloadui.

I'm 99% sure this does not work.

Asardes

tmbrinks wrote: »

Mike0987 wrote: »

Remain in place and type in zone /reloadui.

I'm 99% sure this does not work.

Yep, you need to leave the cell, either by walking away, or relogging. I'm certain that the former is always faster, even for apparently remote surveys. Even the Malabal Tor survey is quite fast to reset, you just need to run/ride to about the moth of the cave where the Ouze quest takes place.

FlopsyPrince

This shows exactly why this needs to be revamped.

Having to figure out the exact distance to run or put load on the system by logging in/out, house viewing, etc. is ludicrous. I should be able to group them all up and collect them at once. At least let me select them in the system and have it respawn or give a note that a node is uncollected and it won't respawn which happens at times when I miss one and try running out and back.

Also keep in mind that the slot will again be taken when you get a single one of that version (location/kind), so saying you need to do them regularly to keep the bank less full doesn't work.

I am starting the pile them up now buying mats rather than running the surveys. I would rather do 20+ at a time than do 4+ 5 different times (or more).

This is another quality of life improvement that is really needed.

Minyassa

I've found "out of focus at straight line of sight" to be effective on almost all locations. What I mean by that is if I run in a straight line with no obstacles between me and the survey, I go until I can no longer make out individual plants and rocks and such at that spot, and that seems to be far enough. I have my distance loading maxed.

Malborn66

Why bother running away?

It is actually quicker to logout and then log back in!
This will not work for Treasure Maps tho.

Malborn66
PC-EU

etchedpixels

That depends on the speed buffs you have. Not having any really insane speed buffs I normally do the easy ones by bouncing back and forth between wayshrines close to some, and for the slower but worth doing ones I fold it into my crafting cycle - toon 1 craft, collector harvests, toon 2 crafts, collector harvests, toon 3 crafts etc

And then there are a few that are just so irritating to get to they go in the bin 8)

FlopsyPrince

etchedpixels wrote: »

That depends on the speed buffs you have. Not having any really insane speed buffs I normally do the easy ones by bouncing back and forth between wayshrines close to some, and for the slower but worth doing ones I fold it into my crafting cycle - toon 1 craft, collector harvests, toon 2 crafts, collector harvests, toon 3 crafts etc

And then there are a few that are just so irritating to get to they go in the bin 8)

More logouts/logins? Yech.

Feric51

Malborn66 wrote: »

Why bother running away?

It is actually quicker to logout and then log back in!
This will not work for Treasure Maps tho.

Malborn66
PC-EU

On XB-NA my logout/login turnaround time is easily 2+ minutes and that's if I don't get stuck in an endless load screen and have to dashboard which easily doubles that time. With the Wild Hunt ring on my survey collector I can run back and forth within an average of about 15 seconds.

For the ones like the Wrothgar jewelry survey on the cliff I just travel to the Wrothgar house I don't own and immediately exit. Less chance of endless loading screens than logging out.

tmbrinks

Feric51 wrote: »

Malborn66 wrote: »

Why bother running away?

It is actually quicker to logout and then log back in!
This will not work for Treasure Maps tho.

Malborn66
PC-EU

On XB-NA my logout/logout turnaround time is easily 2+ minutes and that's if I don't get stuck in an endless load screen and have to dashboard which easily doubles that time. With the Wild Hunt ring on my survey collector I can run back and forth within an average of about 15 seconds.

For the ones like the Wrothgar jewelry survey on the cliff I just travel to the Wrothgar house I don't own and immediately exit. Less chance of endless loading screens than logging out.

Agreed.

There are only 1 or 2 surveys where this might actually be a time saver (The wrothgar jewelry, although I try and pair it with the wrothgar alchemy nearby) and the Northern Elsweyr blacksmithing (which I will actually go into the delve nearby)

There are a multitude of surveys where you literally only have to travel a few seconds in any direction to reset it, and I also feel like many of them got even shorter when they did the asset redo that made us re-download the whole game a few patches back.

FlopsyPrince

We still should not have to fight against the game to do things like this. It should be a simple part of collecting them once you have them, not figuring ways to make the spot reset in ways that vary each time.

The easiest way would be to simply stack them and let me collect them all at once. Allowing their selection to respawn the nodes at least would also work, though I would prefer the former.

tmbrinks

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

We still should not have to fight against the game to do things like this. It should be a simple part of collecting them once you have them, not figuring ways to make the spot reset in ways that vary each time.

The easiest way would be to simply stack them and let me collect them all at once. Allowing their selection to respawn the nodes at least would also work, though I would prefer the former.

While I understand your premise.

I also understand the game's way of doing it, as a way to slow down the process. Since daily writs are already one of the best sources of income and resources, doing too much to adjust that could throw the economy's balance off.

The duplicates are only a result of doing a whole train of crafters, or by not collecting them for a multitude of days. So it's possible to not to have to ever 'reset' a node by collecting the surveys immediately upon receipt each day. (While I wouldn't do that, since is WAAAAAY more efficient to collect them en masse, even if I have to run back and forth)

The other issue is what do you do with Alchemy nodes, where you know when you run up what you're going to get? You could just run away and reset the survey until you get 4 or 5 (or even 6) corn flower nodes because those are the reagents that are worth the most. While you can still do that now for a single survey, it's significantly more time consuming when you have a stack of 20.

I don't disagree with your premise. But I also don't think it's feasible. You'd be much more subject to the whims of "RNG" if you're collecting 20 of the same survey as to if you're going to get an 18 or 20 out of your node... or if it's doubled, in which case are all 20 doubled?

Taleof2Cities

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

The easiest way would be to simply stack them and let me collect them all at once.

That would be an insult to players like me, however ... players that actually spend the time to collect surveys.

Being able to collect stacked surveys rewards laziness instead of rewarding a player's time.

FlopsyPrince

I fail to see why this is bad or an insult to those who suffer through things now.

You could argue that the recent sticker book is an insult to those who farmed their gear, especially since you can now get whatever trait you want (if I follow it correctly).

You could also argue that multi-crafting was an insult to those who did it the old tedious way. (And use that as a reason to not allow multi-fileting fish.)

Those who did it earlier got the benefits earlier.

And using this as a gate is improper as well. I earned all that I am filling my bank with. I can spend hours playing the game (leveling characters, seeking skillpoints, etc.) or I can spend hours gathering surveys. That is not a good tradeoff for content players.

The game changes and tedious things get made simpler. Not doing that may not kill a game by itself, but can contribute to a game's death.

Dusk_Coven

adirondack wrote: »

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.

Pretty sure it's related to some sort of cell boundary.

For example, if there's a cave nearby (not a delve door with loadscreen, just a cave mouth for example), or if the node is in a cave, if you pass the cave entrance the node will refresh.

Asardes

What I've noticed is that for most zones you get on average N surveys of the same type over 6 months if you have N characters doing the writs every day for that period. For some DLC zones there seems to be a higher multiplier, where you get ~1.5xN surveys ex. Northern Elsweyr, Western Skyrim, Vvardenfell.

tmbrinks

Asardes wrote: »

What I've noticed is that for most zones you get on average N surveys of the same type over 6 months if you have N characters doing the writs every day for that period. For some DLC zones there seems to be a higher multiplier, where you get ~1.5xN surveys ex. Northern Elsweyr, Western Skyrim, Vvardenfell.

My theory is that the "chapter" zones have higher drop rates (and I'm including Wrothgar and Craglorn) in this.

We don't notice it for Wrothgar and Craglorn as they are more spread out (there's 3 versions of each of the surveys), but with the 3 you mention (N. Elsweyr, W. Skyrim, Vvardenfell), there is only 1 of each version in those zones.

Just a theory

Stinkyremy

Gonna ask a on/off topic question in the thread instead of starting a new one.

Does anyone have the actual number of total different surveys in the game now?
Would be nice to know if possibly after stickerbook where most of us will have an abundance of space if we would be able to get an or X amount of mule toons to have space for every single location, meaning stacking every single survey and literally only ever needing to go do them if we need that mats rather than need the space!

tmbrinks

Stinkyremy wrote: »

Gonna ask a on/off topic question in the thread instead of starting a new one.

Does anyone have the actual number of total different surveys in the game now?
Would be nice to know if possibly after stickerbook where most of us will have an abundance of space if we would be able to get an or X amount of mule toons to have space for every single location, meaning stacking every single survey and literally only ever needing to go do them if we need that mats rather than need the space!

156 unique surveys

6 x 3 x 2 = 36 (3 of each type in Craglorn & Wrothgar)
6 x 2 x 1 = 12 (2 of each type in Coldharbour)
6 x 1 x 15 = 90 (1 of each type in each base game zone)
6 x 1 x 3 = 18 (1 of each type in Chapter zones, Vvardenfell, Elsweyr, Greymoor)

I already hold all of my surveys on one character that is dedicated to collecting them.

Edited because I'm dumb and thought there were only 5 per zone instead of six

kringled_1

tmbrinks wrote: »

Stinkyremy wrote: »

Gonna ask a on/off topic question in the thread instead of starting a new one.

Does anyone have the actual number of total different surveys in the game now?
Would be nice to know if possibly after stickerbook where most of us will have an abundance of space if we would be able to get an or X amount of mule toons to have space for every single location, meaning stacking every single survey and literally only ever needing to go do them if we need that mats rather than need the space!

130 unique surveys

5 x 3 x 2 = 30 (3 of each type in Craglorn & Wrothgar)
5 x 2 x 1 = 10 (2 of each type in Coldharbour)
5 x 1 x 15 = 75 (1 of each type in each base game zone)
5 x 1 x 3 = 15 (1 of each type in Chapter zones, Vvardenfell, Elsweyr, Greymoor)

I already hold all of my surveys on one character that is dedicated to collecting them.

Shouldn't most of the 5s in there be 6 instead? Clothing, Woodworking, Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Enchanting, Jewelry.

tmbrinks

kringled_1 wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

Stinkyremy wrote: »

Gonna ask a on/off topic question in the thread instead of starting a new one.

Does anyone have the actual number of total different surveys in the game now?
Would be nice to know if possibly after stickerbook where most of us will have an abundance of space if we would be able to get an or X amount of mule toons to have space for every single location, meaning stacking every single survey and literally only ever needing to go do them if we need that mats rather than need the space!

130 unique surveys

5 x 3 x 2 = 30 (3 of each type in Craglorn & Wrothgar)
5 x 2 x 1 = 10 (2 of each type in Coldharbour)
5 x 1 x 15 = 75 (1 of each type in each base game zone)
5 x 1 x 3 = 15 (1 of each type in Chapter zones, Vvardenfell, Elsweyr, Greymoor)

I already hold all of my surveys on one character that is dedicated to collecting them.

Shouldn't most of the 5s in there be 6 instead? Clothing, Woodworking, Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Enchanting, Jewelry.

You're right. That's what I get for trying to do it while distracted. I'll edit

FrancisCrawford

Some general speed ideas:

• Ring of the Wild Hunt is becoming more accessible for alts due to reconstruction.
• Thief characters are good for moving quickly without fighting.
• So are Stage 4 vampires.
• An alternative to logging out and in is to preview a house you don't own or travel to somebody else's house, then leave it again.

And I find that Lost Treasure gives me a pretty good idea as to whether I've gone far enough away from the location for the nodes to respawn.

CaffeinatedMayhem

Just going to say, cell sizes do not appear to be square or even uniform, but dependent on terrain. As has been said - surveys can be all over the cell, so some you only need to walk a few steps and they reset, some you do have to run a decent distance.

Using a farming build will help immensely. I keep one charcter permenantly spec'd for farming, just to make this all easier. She still does traditional farming when I need housing materials.

I do not let surveys pile up. I only have 11 characters doing writs, so collecting them every other day is a decent amount of time. If you want to be extra fast about getting them, just prepare to spend the gold to port to the next location and dont run back to wayshrines. I don't have enough space to store surveys, not with armor taking up 7/8 storage chests and 50-75% of my bank. Even if I had free space I'd still collect surveys regularly. I sell those mats. :P

daim

If you have gathered 1500 surveys at one go you should have pretty good idea of each node and how far to run. My tactic is if you have a road close by you should start with that at as it usually seems to be the point what resets the nodes.

After that it's just testing and running. Most are fast but there are some annoying ones too.

FlopsyPrince

I will repeat my past assertion: We should not have to find a way to work around this inconvenience!