The ludicrous bank/store space mini-game

EQBallzz · June 2014

I think we can all agree that crafting, storage space and an auction house (or broker or store or whatever) are all closely tied together in any MMO. What I'm trying to wrap my head around is the desired interplay between those elements in this game (in the developer's eyes). How did they envision this all working together in any sort of symmetry? I don't get it.

I am working on all of the crafts on two characters and have most of them maxed out. I have a couple alts for material overflow. I'm a guild leader managing the guild bank as well so there are lots of "donations" (code for everyone dumps everything in there because they have NO ROOM) to the guild bank. Even with a guild bank and mules I can't stay on top of the storage space so a good chunk of my time in game is spent playing the "free up space" mini-game.

I could sell materials or use some of the stacks to craft items to sell since I do have lots of crafting skills and researched traits but I can only put up 30 things per trading guild which doesn't come close to keeping it under control. Why? Because the trading guilds have at most 300-500 people (probably more than half are not even active anymore) so things sell at a snails pace and with limited access to other players the bulk of stuff sits there unsold but taking up a store slot while more mats and items pile up.

So what is the expected outcome of all this? Just start deleting or vendoring everything? Travel around to every zone spamming all my crap for sale in huge, colorful paragraphs to zone chat (since there is no trade channel)? Is this the intended outcome of this system? Seems rather ludicrous. Why is there (at the very least) no way to purchase more than 30 store slots and more guild bank storage?

It just seems this whole system is contrived to try and create item scarcity for the sake of the mega-server system but instead it's creating more buyer scarcity than item scarcity. Has there been any info that this is changing or is the current system thought to be "working as intended"?

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · June 2014

EQBallzz wrote: »

Has there been any info that this is changing or is the current system thought to be "working as intended"?

There's been plenty of info about this since release, umpteen threads on here .. ZOS DESIGNED IT THIS WAY, they've said so, to prevent players being able to easily get one or more characters to cap all crafts, ZOS intends a single player only to level a couple of crafts and beyond that ZOS intend it to be utterly painful.

It's entirely WAI.

EQBallzz · June 2014

This isn't about one character. This is the whole guild bank and guild store system. Even if I only had a single craft I wouldn't be able to manage the amount of crafting mats that flow into the guild bank versus what can be used/crafted/stored/sold in this system. The total space (both personal and guild space) is too limited and the lacking visibility to potential buyers in the guild stores makes it worse.

MrMT · June 2014

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

beyond that ZOS intend it to be utterly painful.

Why any developer thinks that making something "utterly painful" would be a route to success is beyond me.

I, for one, play games to have fun. I suspect most other people do also.

twev · June 2014

One small aspect few people appreciate is that game devs have little/no desire to make your game play 'efficient', as doing so speeds your way through the game even more than you might otherwise be capable.

Right up front I want to say that I don't want a game I'm done with in a long weekend fueled by Cheetos and Mt Dew.

But:

Thats why the bank, wayshrines and services don't all tendto be in the same building. Thats why NPCs have huge collision boxes and stand in hallways and doorways. Thats why you don't have bank space and cheap access to more, thats among the reasons why they don't have an auction house and an auction channel.

They don't care if you have to vendor everything every day, and buy more tomorrow. The important thing is that you don't have a clear path to quick and easy trade. One aspect is the clunky guild store interface. Another is the limited number of trade spaces you have. It's not like 30 spaces was easy to program, but 50 spaces was hard to write, and 100 was going to get somebody hurt.

They do care if it takes weeks/months for some people to save to buy a horse, as that takes money out of the economy, and the alternative is the paywall the horse is stabled behind. The part that seriously surprises me is that wayshrine travel is so cheap.

There are too many people near 'end game' as it is for an 'EPIC' game only 3 months old, and many of them were there a month ago. The devs need to slow you down if they want to get some sub money out of you, or you'll finish the game in under a month, and you won't be back for month #2.

These are of course just my opinions, and therefor I won't be required to cite any internal emails detailing the plans behind it all. But look at your inv size, and look at the cost of the 90 to 100 step increase. Was that impimented to make your life easy?

Fleymark · June 2014

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

EQBallzz wrote: »

Has there been any info that this is changing or is the current system thought to be "working as intended"?

There's been plenty of info about this since release, umpteen threads on here .. ZOS DESIGNED IT THIS WAY, they've said so, to prevent players being able to easily get one or more characters to cap all crafts, ZOS intends a single player only to level a couple of crafts and beyond that ZOS intend it to be utterly painful.

It's entirely WAI.

That doesn't mean it's not an utterly bad design decision.

They should have limited crafting in other ways, say, FUN ways like some actual challenge.

It's almost as if they didn't want people rolling crafting alts so they made it necessary to have 5 storage alts instead. Meanwhile crafting itself is just stupid easy. /rolls eyes.

It's just another thing on the long list of ass backwards design elements of this game.

steveb16_ESO46 · June 2014

I don't see where not having basic search facilities on stores is anything other than an annoyance.

Sindala · June 2014

I mite aswell let you know now since it's just made my day......not.
Treasure maps of the same don't stack....ok that's fair enough....until..
You have over 40 and decide to drop them all on another alt mule to clear more space in the vault (yes I have 6 mules now....) to find you can only hold 1 of each type also. looks like mule 7 is also gonna have to carry T-maps too.....
It's beyond a joke now , it's just pathetic.....