I don't understand the point of "Favours"

Syldras · July 16

Gabriel_H wrote: »

There is one of these for each board. ZOS chose the quests based on player completion. These 3 were among the lowest completion rate (less than 5%).

Can't be one each, as I already had 4 of these in total, with 2 of them from the same board. So since I have the impression that each board has the same number of tasks per task type, it will be at least 6 of these (if not 9 or more, since it's only been 7 days of 20 yet).

Gabriel_H wrote: »

I've seen a few people use "Timesink" in this thread, which makes me chuckle for the simple fact that other than the story quests everything in the game is a timesink. Literally it's whole design is for players to sink time into until the next content release, which is just more timesink. Heck, even the story quests are not strictly immune to this, you just roll another character and there you go.

A timesink, by definition, is a thing that was designed to keep people in game in a way that feels tedious and not worthwhile. Surely that applies, sadly, to some aspects of ESO, especially in the later years; especially thinking of all those tasks which make people wait for an eternity for the enemies to spawn, meaningless chores and other types of filler content, lead grinds, etc. A story is not a timesink just because following the storyline takes a few hours.

Gabriel_H wrote: »

And not for nothing, but these quests being incredibly short and easy to complete would be the opposite of a timesink. They pale in comparison to the timesink that is Trifectas for example.

I made my comment specifically about the fishing task which is obviously designed to take longer, by needing one specific type of fish for it, instead of accepting all types. It's especially jarring since the quest flavor text (I wouldn't really call it a story) mentions helping the poor and hungry - but for some reason these only accept one specific type of fish, and not all other edible fish there are?

Syldras · July 16

Day 9:

1. "Explore location" - which meant riding to a striking locale, doing nothing there, and then returning to the writ board. This felt very weird, basically like a fetch quest (which is already boring), but without fetching anything. So basically even lesser than a fetch quest.

2. Deliver food to village (once more).

3. Same as #1.

So basically today was two fetch quests without fetching, and one inverted fetch quest. Maybe this is some kind of folkloristic lesson after all; teaching non-Dunmer why "fetcher" is a common insult in Morrowind.

Gagoimaliu · July 16

I don't hate them, but I don't really have anything to praise about them either, they're just kind of... Stuff to do? I'm doing them for the tome points but they're at least easy to do, the ones I've gotten so far are just "go here, do this delve you've done already or pick something up from a mob" the hardest one is maybe the world boss, but I got lucky and someone was already half health with it when I came.

When news first came out about this Mission Board style questing I thought it would be more like the Witcher, you'd be able to pick quests that had a short story and do it like that. Similar to what it actually is, but more like "Random npcs putting up contracts on this WB, or an item from such and such delve" not the same NPC every day. Hell, Imagine if PLAYERS could put out contracts on rare mats or items and pay for them in gold through the boards, wouldn't that be great?

ectoplasmicninja · July 16

Holgunn's letter today (I may be one day behind) had some typos. Perhaps he's too drunk to spell?

"I told Tanval was to get out of there; he had a son to raise. Poor Elf lost a drinking game the night before, though, and wouldn't listen. We charged. Those Akavari blademasters were every kind of nasty. Even the smell of their armor made me gag! I jokingly snorted to Tanvel that all they needed was a beast twice our size to even the fight. Me and my horking mouth."

The double spaces were also present in the mail.

Syldras · July 16

ectoplasmicninja wrote: »

Holgunn's letter today (I may be one day behind) had some typos. Perhaps he's too drunk to spell?
"I told Tanval was to get out of there; he had a son to raise. Poor Elf lost a drinking game the night before, though, and wouldn't listen. We charged. Those Akavari blademasters were every kind of nasty. Even the smell of their armor made me gag! I jokingly snorted to Tanvel that all they needed was a beast twice our size to even the fight. Me and my horking mouth."
The double spaces were also present in the mail.

That's sad. In the translation I play, there were "only" 1 or 2 typos so far (and I wasn't really surprised by that - but I expected the original texts to be correct).

ectoplasmicninja · July 17

The double spaces I typed out were automatically formatted out by the forum, alas. I admittedly didn't scrutinize the previous messages as I read them, but I certainly will be doing so now! Oof...

orian34 · July 17

ectoplasmicninja wrote: »

The double spaces I typed out were automatically formatted out by the forum, alas. I admittedly didn't scrutinize the previous messages as I read them, but I certainly will be doing so now! Oof...

I noticed a number of double spaces indeed. And some typos too. Was the text finished before or after the layoffs? I wonder if it's related, or not and they didn't have an editor clean it up?

Syldras · July 17

orian34 wrote: »

I noticed a number of double spaces indeed. And some typos too. Was the text finished before or after the layoffs? I wonder if it's related, or not and they didn't have an editor clean it up?

Favors were released two days or so after the layoffs became official. The content was already produced months earlier. It was on PTS in April.

Elvenheart · July 17

Maybe this was a foray into having AI create most of a system?

Syldras · July 17

Elvenheart wrote: »

Maybe this was a foray into having AI create most of a system?

I think the opposite: If AI had created these texts, there would be no typos. So this must be human-created content. There are lots of things one can criticize about AI-generated content, but grammar and spelling are flawless.

Syldras · July 17

Day 10:

1. Destroy some type of vermin nest - which means riding to a location, killing a few enemies standing around in the landscape, with more enemies of the same type respawning a few times after they're killed. Then return to writ board.

2. Like 1.

3. Like 2 and 1.

Today I finally received Holgunn's letter about the, uhm, fascinating and epic story (as spectacular as these daily chores tasks!) about how he lost his eye. Not sure if I should put it into spoiler tags, but...

It happened during battle (Who would have guessed!). Against an enemy (No!). And he doesn't know for sure how exactly it happened. That's it.

So, this was the first half.

ectoplasmicninja · July 18

Syldras, I had the same reaction as in your spoilered brackets to Holgunn's story today. Dare we hope things get more interesting tomorrow?

Can confirm I didn't notice any typos today, but I did see some double spaces in Holgunn's letter again. Perhaps whoever wrote his letters was using a particular word processor (or notepad app, who knows) and the double spaces happened due to predictive text autocompletion?

Battlereeve Urcelmo did wonder about the identity of the Freerunner and indicated that perhaps we might meet. I would like that, and it would also be nice if he had different dialogue for a Vestige who completed the AD questline vs one who had never met him.

MasterOfWisdom1618 · July 18

Syldras wrote: »

Day 10:

1. Destroy some type of vermin nest - which means riding to a location, killing a few enemies standing around in the landscape, with more enemies of the same type respawning a few times after they're killed. Then return to writ board.

2. Like 1.

3. Like 2 and 1.

Today I finally received Holgunn's letter about the, uhm, fascinating and epic story (as spectacular as these daily chores tasks!) about how he lost his eye. Not sure if I should put it into spoiler tags, but...
It happened during battle (Who would have guessed!). Against an enemy (No!). And he doesn't know for sure how exactly it happened. That's it.

So, this was the first half.

How many quest have to be done to e.g. get the Freerunner for Old One-Eye achievement? I dont see a tracker at all....

Syldras · July 18

ectoplasmicninja wrote: »

Syldras, I had the same reaction as in your spoilered brackets to Holgunn's story today. Dare we hope things get more interesting tomorrow?

It's so anticlimactic, right? Not sure why it's built up as some kind of big mystery through the story of several letters, and then we get that. Maybe some modern "lol random" humour I don't get? I also hope the next letters will get more interesting, also about Tanval, but I'm not very optimistic, sadly. We'll see.

ectoplasmicninja wrote: »

Battlereeve Urcelmo did wonder about the identity of the Freerunner and indicated that perhaps we might meet. I would like that, and it would also be nice if he had different dialogue for a Vestige who completed the AD questline vs one who had never met him.

That message also made me wonder if at least the last letter of all 3 questgivers will be about finding out who we are, and will differ for players who have met that character before and those who haven't. It would be slightly better than no difference at all, but it's still a pity it didn't happen at an earlier point, because then, the letters and story could have possibly (and most of all plausibly) gotten a bit more personal for player characters who have finished the old questlines.

In general, the way it is now, the letters feels so strangely off to me - we know these people, sometimes for years, but they don't know who we are (And obviously we can't add our name or a short personal message to that "proof" we send to them after every single task?), but still, they share info with us (on private topics, as well as official ongoing secret investigations...) that one wouldn't share with a random stranger. It doesn't really fit.

And that big High Isle spoiler in one of Arabelle's letters also seems to have been written with the idea in mind that we've supposed to have finished that questline already. (Let alone such a spoiler should not be a thing at all in content that is accessible even to the newest players - especially not without a warning pop-up).

MasterOfWisdom1618 wrote: »

How many quest have to be done to e.g. get the Freerunner for Old One-Eye achievement? I dont see a tracker at all....

I haven't looked at the achievement list yet, but probably the whole questline? So 20?

ectoplasmicninja · July 18

Dear Diary,

Today my old colleagues asked me to do them some more favours. Of course, they don't know it's me. I'm not sure why I don't just include a letter from myself or, you know, include my name somewhere in the proof I send them daily. I guess it must be fun having them interact with me so generically for some reason. Why am I like this?

Urcelmo had me deliver some sweetrolls. Again. In his letter he continues to describe suspicious behaviour on the part of his troops that he doesn't really do anything about. He also notes that I cannot respond to him. I'm not sure why, since the proof I place in the dropboxes must go somewhere.

Lady Arabelle had me kill a delve boss. Again. Well, at least Bangkorai is a little bit safer. She has taken on a mage adept to pass on her expertise. She says she reads every report about my activities passed along by the Post. I guess they also don't know who I am, despite the fact that everyone else in Tamriel seems to recognize me due to the assistance I have rendered them in the past. Oh well.

Holgunn also had me kill another delve boss. Again. He continues to space his letters strangely, though at least his spelling has improved. The tale he told me about losing his eye somehow in a battle isn't true! Can you believe it? I can't wait to find out what really happened. He has already indicated it will take a letter or two, since one paragraph seems to be as much as he can manage at a time. I suppose I should be glad that he can write at all.

- The Vestige

katanagirl1 · July 18

ectoplasmicninja wrote: »

Syldras, I had the same reaction as in your spoilered brackets to Holgunn's story today. Dare we hope things get more interesting tomorrow?

Can confirm I didn't notice any typos today, but I did see some double spaces in Holgunn's letter again. Perhaps whoever wrote his letters was using a particular word processor (or notepad app, who knows) and the double spaces happened due to predictive text autocompletion?

Battlereeve Urcelmo did wonder about the identity of the Freerunner and indicated that perhaps we might meet. I would like that, and it would also be nice if he had different dialogue for a Vestige who completed the AD questline vs one who had never met him.

I hadn’t noticed any double spacing but I read them fairly quickly. I do use double spaces after a period in sentences because that was the way I was taught in school in ye olde times and I think that has fallen out of favor for some reason.

Syldras · July 18

Day 11: Deliver food (this time, there wasn't even a quest item as a proof anymore), kill delve boss, kill delve boss. I thought they were randomized?

ectoplasmicninja wrote: »

The tale he told me about losing his eye somehow in a battle isn't true! Can you believe it? I can't wait to find out what really happened. He has already indicated it will take a letter or two, since one paragraph seems to be as much as he can manage at a time. I suppose I should be glad that he can write at all.

This is so weird. Several messages building suspense, then a totally mundane to vacuous explanation, then the next message about how this was not the real reason, but but but!!!!! He'll tell us the real reason soon, promised! But!!!!!! It will take some more messages. But after that he will really tell us the true reason, really!!!

This is not building suspense, this is being annoying and causing me to lose the last bit of interest. (And it's also weirdly out of character, considering he's supposed to be an older adult, a seasoned fighter, not a giggling school kid.)

ectoplasmicninja · July 19

Syldras wrote: »

This is so weird. Several messages building suspense, then a totally mundane to vacuous explanation, then the next message about how this was not the real reason, but but but!!!!! He'll tell us the real reason soon, promised! But!!!!!! It will take some more messages. But after that he will really tell us the true reason, really!!!

You know, if he hadn't gone on to assure us that he did in fact lose his eye, I would think that perhaps he actually has an eye under there after all and that his nickname is just an attempt to make him seem cooler than he is and that that was the big secret all along...

ectoplasmicninja · July 19

Holgunn had me deliver food. Again. The story of his eye apparently begins in his childhood, in Whiterun. He continues to use strange spacing (a space before a fullstop, for some reason, but not all the time). This seems to be a lengthy tale indeed. Shoutout to Dragonsreach for appearing in this episode.

Urcelmo had me help a retired pirate, which struck me as a bit odd as you'd think he wouldn't want to encourage that sort of thing, but I suppose helping an old blind man get away from Maormer and to Anvil was innocent enough. He indicates that he is in hiding. He mentions a group who claim loyalty to the Dominion but feel it should be more aggressive, and asks me if I've heard of them. Ha - where should I begin? I must say, extremism seems to be a problem that plagues the Dominion in particular.

Arabelle had me recover druid remedies stolen by ogres. The people of Bergama shall be healthier today than yesterday. She is irked by her mage adept paying too much attention to her despite the fact that she can't seem to get enough of tooting her own horn, and apropos of nothing declares that she is not much of a scrivener and has no authorial ambitions. Given the ample evidence of her being the author of the Investigator Vale tracts, methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Gagoimaliu · July 19

The food ones I think are funny, the "deliver sweets/alcohol" ones. Like I'm a hero who's saved the world (and maybe even the universe) multiple times over and over and Holgunn hits me with the "Hey kid can you get your old man a cool one" but at least my Dominion character is being a patriot by petting kittens (this one likes being petted) and delivering sweets

Lady Arabelle had me rip out 12 Ogre Hearts in Stormhaven, I don't remember what for but twelve ogre hearts seems like a lot, maybe she's going to make tacos or something? Didn't invite me

Syldras · July 19

ectoplasmicninja wrote: »

You know, if he hadn't gone on to assure us that he did in fact lose his eye, I would think that perhaps he actually has an eye under there after all and that his nickname is just an attempt to make him seem cooler than he is and that that was the big secret all along...

I thought the same when I read that message yesterday. Either that or perhaps some really mundane and embarrassing household accident (like that weird "stepping on a rake" comedy cliché).

Elvenheart · July 19

I’m lucky, although I didn’t do this on purpose. I started doing these favors on my newest character, a theme character sporting a zookeeper build just for the chaos that I recently made to try out, and it’s completely natural for her to not be known by the benefactors. That’s worked out well in dealing with these inconsistencies that have been noticed. And they definitely need to rewrite that one letter that contains such a huge spoiler.

Edited to add: My theme character is a Fabled that actually due to a mishap in the IA got imbued with a portion of Esalinwe‘s soul which is what has caused her to become trapped in the IA and asking people to kill Fabled and Marauders, and catapulted my character into the real world. Anything she summons is not actually real, but I came to a vivified ink creation, even any companions. This is what I’ve got so far. 🙂

emilyhyoyeon · July 19

I liked this proof of task completion icon for eliminating a werewolf pack (the text saying physical evidence of a dead werewolf)

SeaGtGruff · July 19

emilyhyoyeon wrote: »

I don't understand why the make desserts quest took without warning my sugar skulls instead of the banana bread my character made

The text for that quest suggested any sweets would do, and IIRC mentioned 2 craftable items, so I crafted 1 of them-- except it didn't progress the quest. Then I saw that the text mentioned finding or buying, but didn't say "make," so I went looking for some to buy. I couldn't figure out where I could buy Mistral Banana Bread, so I tried picking up a Crusty Sweetroll and that did count, so I just kept going back to the same location until I was able to get 5 Crusty Sweetrolls.

Solariken · July 20

With regular daily quests you get a box of junk you have to delete. With favors you get a box of junk to delete AND spam in your inbox you have to delete.

Hapexamendios · July 20

Doing them until the stories are complete the not touching them.

ectoplasmicninja · July 20

Urcelmo's letter today described how he was "promoted" away from command of Ayrenn's royal guard, and how he believes it was linked to the vision of the end of the Dominion that we all participated in where he betrayed her. I like that callback, and it was good to hear that something has changed, although since ESO's Tamriel doesn't really progress, we may never actually see this evolution as we can currently find Ayrenn in several places and Urcelmo with her at some of them. I would like a Season Two of ESO where the status quo does in fact evolve a bit once we have finished all of these zone storylines etc.

Arabelle's adept was rifling through her desk. The audacity! She contemplates the possibility of him being a spy, but couldn't bring herself to dismiss him. Girl, he's probably just a fan of Investigator Vale and is onto you and hunting for manuscripts for a sneak peek of the next novel. Or not, he could totally be a spy. Either way, this Juberic better not be Juberic Gane, because I definitely killed him.

Holgunn tells us how his father signed him up to guard the Thane of Whiterun and abandoned his mother in their forest hovel alone to presumably starve or be killed by reavers. Sounds like a stellar dude. Holgunn, if you don't tell me you did something about that guy, I'll be very disappointed.

Syldras · July 22

Day 12: Ogrecliff whatever / a quest already done / deliver food because of a failed mammoth hunt (again - these seem to fail quite often).

Day 13: "find or craft cheese" / kill random delve boss / fetch.

Day 14: feed cats / feed dogs (Why are there masses of stray Irish Wolfhounds in a Khajiit city?) / fetch.

Day 15: another quest already done (never missed any yet, it seems) / kill foes at specified location / kill more foes at a different specified location (waiting for them to respawn for half an eternity).

Of course Holgunn had a tragic past. They all have. There are no people who just live a happy life, or a normal/mixed one, or even a sad one without big tragic pasts.

In the next few letters it even turned out he had a super super super tragic past, which does not really feel to be rooted in Nord culture in any way, but his story needed something over the top tragic, so they needed to come up with something after all. Somehow I like Holgunn less now - he seemed a more believably written character when we met him in base game. But who knows, maybe he's just fooling us again and he did lose his eye in an embarrassing toilet accident after all.

Urcelmo keeps blurting out important secret info and tells us how much he trusts us for some reason, while still believing us to be a random stranger.

And Arabelle keeps being Arabelle, which is bad enough.

ESO_player123 · July 23

Syldras wrote: »

Day 12: Ogrecliff whatever / a quest already done / deliver food because of a failed mammoth hunt (again - these seem to fail quite often).

Day 13: "find or craft cheese" / kill random delve boss / fetch.

Day 14: feed cats / feed dogs (Why are there masses of stray Irish Wolfhounds in a Khajiit city?) / fetch.

Day 15: another quest already done (never missed any yet, it seems) / kill foes at specified location / kill more foes at a different specified location (waiting for them to respawn for half an eternity).

Of course Holgunn had a tragic past. They all have. There are no people who just live a happy life, or a normal/mixed one, or even a sad one without big tragic pasts.

In the next few letters it even turned out he had a super super super tragic past, which does not really feel to be rooted in Nord culture in any way, but his story needed something over the top tragic, so they needed to come up with something after all. Somehow I like Holgunn less now - he seemed a more believably written character when we met him in base game. But who knows, maybe he's just fooling us again and he did lose his eye in an embarrassing toilet accident after all.

Urcelmo keeps blurting out important secret info and tells us how much he trusts us for some reason, while still believing us to be a random stranger.

And Arabelle keeps being Arabelle, which is bad enough.

I just can't understand why Urcelmo keeps blabbing his secrets to a random person. Today's letter (day15?) felt especially weird for some reason. Or may be I'm just fed up with this story that does not make much sense.

BahometZ · July 23

I wish zos would never do kill delve boss quests ever again. Spawn rates are atrocious and they have so little health that they die in an instant. Just a horrid combo for the volume of people trying to get it done. If we must visit a delve, just make it collect an item.

Ever since account wide achievements were added delve boss spawn rates have stagnated at five minutes. It used to be that a characters first time in a delve the boss would spawn afresh as they approached. Now every delve is treated as if you've been there before regardless of character experience.