ZoS NEED Improvement to Columbine, Bugloss, Namira's Rot Availability Please

Fshober28b14_ESO

Not sure if this topic has been mentioned as I scoured a few pages in the crafting forum, and didn't see a thread on this recently. If it was and I missed it please excuse this post.

The Issue:
I have found with just these 3 plants(Columbine, Bugloss, Namira's Rot) that it is next to impossible to get even a handful let alone any meaningful quantities just for minimal conservative daily personal consumption. COLUMBINE especially is the most impossible of plants to find, and it's the cornerstone plant of a majority of potions... more than any other plant. This is further compunded by player competition for nodes, very sparce numbers of nodes across all zones, and very lackluster spawn chance.

The Experience:
I spend hours trying to get bare minimum to use to keep at least with my rate of very conservative use and it's impossible. I traverse multiple zones from Auridon up to the Vet Zones, and at best I come up with 1-2 if I am very fortunate a 3rd of any one of the above plants.

Players will also NOT pick nodes of less useful plants like Wormwood, Water Hyacinth, Nirn Root, Emetic Russula, White Cap, Stink Horn...so those nodes never get refreshed with the chance to respawn as one of the other needed plants.

So then players such as myself and others are forced to come behind them, pick all those passed over nodes and never get what we need...just for them or another person to take something more useful that 'might' spawn in its place. It's a system that is a problem cause by the system itself and the player behavior involvement.

The Result:
As an Alchemist with full points invested in this craft, and I truly enjoyed this craft most of all, I cant get what I need to make anything useful for myself. So now my craft is dead in the water and useless to me, and likely others like myself. I tried advertising to buy from other players, but NOBODY and I mean nobody is selling it...I have tried for almost 2 weeks - not even any guilds stores have it available anywhere.

Despite all my time, effort and progress made investing in this craft with the hopes of utilizing it daily in my game play time, I can't make anything I need because im crippled by this problem.

The Request:
Please Zos Team look at this system and improve it in some meaningful way. I don't have any issues going out to the zones and putting in time gathering for 1-2 hours daily if I can at least find what I need so I can at least utilize my Alchemy Craft. You made ore and wood zone specific, but the plants suffer a different system that hampers it's crafts usefulness.

Thanks!

Isibis

While I'm not ab alchemist myself, I hear that certain plants spawn in certain spots. For example, water hyacinth are water plants, and you always find them near water. Columbine in the other hand is found in grassy hills, and would never spawn from same nodes as the water plants. I have a feeling it was made really inconspicuous on purpose.
I heard coldharbor is a really good place for alchemy mats. Good luck.

Fshober28b14_ESO

Isibis wrote: »

While I'm not ab alchemist myself, I hear that certain plants spawn in certain spots. For example, water hyacinth are water plants, and you always find them near water. Columbine in the other hand is found in grassy hills, and would never spawn from same nodes as the water plants. I have a feeling it was made really inconspicuous on purpose.
I heard coldharbor is a really good place for alchemy mats. Good luck.

Thanks Isibis....I know, my problem isn't locating where they spawn, and I am aware of Cold Harbor as well as the rest of the server, but it's the same issues there anyhow, and the player element is the biggest obstacle of the compound issues that I mentioned the issues in my op... I appreciate the help tho!

Woolenthreads

I have commented on this from time to time, only to be pooh-poohed. I suspect that this is actually an issue relating to bots and players. I suspect that many alchemical components, like many other crafting mats are being bot-farmed (to make potions). This doesn't eliminate them but it does make them rarer. However, it does mean that everyone is having a much harder time, because players like you are making it harder for budding alchemists to even level up their skill because your stripping what's left as they try to find stuff to train with.

For certain, this is not how the dev's conceived their game design though. They probably set it up to be what they thought was reasonable for leveling players throughout the game rather than players stripping the regions of mats. The problem is that when there are more players in the game the resources are stripped faster and therefore less available.

That is still my leading theory for the painfulness of raising enchanting for new players because you need to obtain the leveled potency runes from lower levels if your skill hasn't progressed enough. It happens to apply in this instance as well.

Natjur

There are a few areas that have tons of Columbine (5-10 spawns in a row) but as they are in high demand, they are farmed 24/7

I don't think the issue is the number of spawn spots for Columbine, I think its cause they are farmed too much.

When they add a passive that allows you to get 2-3 per 'harvest' or add housing where you can grow your own. Then it will be fixed.

Natjur

Each plant as a 'spawn' loc, and it shares that with some other types, but not all.

Eg Blue Entoloma, Imp Stool, Namira's Rot (all mushrooms) all share a spawn spot but do not take from Columbine spots

Columbine (flower -plains) shares with Dragonthorn, Bugloss, Blessed Thistle and Cornflower

But Dragonthorn, Blessed Thistle and Cornflower is useless so no one farmed those and therefore Columbine has a less chances to spawn

GnatB

*shrug* Maybe you need more of an EQ philosophy when it comes to potion use as opposed to diablo chug-a-thon? Maybe the good ones are supposed to feel expensive and rare and should only be used in the most dire of emergencies?

SirAndy

I got multiple stacks of each of them.

In general, keen eye helps with finding them as Columbine likes to hide in the grass and shrubbery.

PlagueMonk

The problem isn't farming or lack of availability, it's the fact that out of all the plants, about 5 are lynchpins for the potions everyone wants (especially Columbine) No single plant should be that singularly important and there should be a number of different combos that would yield similar potions.

Then there is the fact that snakeblood has NEVER worked so those plants with negative effects can't be utilized.

xaraan

Weird, other than Namira's Rot, which I don't use for much, I've had no problem finding tons of the other plants (or some of the other popular ones for other potion types). Maybe you just have a run of bad luck?

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

Woolenthreads wrote: »

I have commented on this from time to time, only to be pooh-poohed. I suspect that this is actually an issue relating to bots and players. I suspect that many alchemical components, like many other crafting mats are being bot-farmed (to make potions).

I don't think I've ever seen a bot farming herbs, ever, certainly the legion of pathing/tele/poshack bots I've seen have only been interested in harvesting the 'production' mats, if you like.

Pele

xaraan wrote: »

Weird, other than Namira's Rot, which I don't use for much, I've had no problem finding tons of the other plants (or some of the other popular ones for other potion types). Maybe you just have a run of bad luck?

This is my experience as well.

nudel

Terrible idea.

Think of Columbine and Namira's Rot as the Pepper, Oats, and Tomatoes of the Alchemy world. They're rare on purpose b/c they're used to make the best items.

Their rarity creates demand for your crafted goods. The more of those plants you are able to acquire through gathering or purchases, the more valuable you are as an alchemist because your supply is good. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot as an alchemist, wanting two of the rare plants to become common.

tengri

They are not that rare if you bother to pick them up as u drive by; I always have plenty to supply all my chars with ease.

But of course if you are looking to make a buck re(selling) to other ppl there are probably not enough out there. Still, not a problem for most players.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

tengri wrote: »

They are not that rare if you bother to pick them up as u drive by; I always have plenty to supply all my chars with ease.

Me too, but then I run everywhere and rarely if ever get on a horse, I find in all MMOs I gather a ton more than most because of that, alone.

kewl

@Fshober28b14_ESO I appreciate the time and effort you put into crafting this thoughtful post.

Magdalina

Fshober28b14_ESO wrote: »

Not sure if this topic has been mentioned as I scoured a few pages in the crafting forum, and didn't see a thread on this recently. If it was and I missed it please excuse this post.

The Issue:
I have found with just these 3 plants(Columbine, Bugloss, Namira's Rot) that it is next to impossible to get even a handful let alone any meaningful quantities just for minimal conservative daily personal consumption. COLUMBINE especially is the most impossible of plants to find, and it's the cornerstone plant of a majority of potions... more than any other plant. This is further compunded by player competition for nodes, very sparce numbers of nodes across all zones, and very lackluster spawn chance.

The Experience:
I spend hours trying to get bare minimum to use to keep at least with my rate of very conservative use and it's impossible. I traverse multiple zones from Auridon up to the Vet Zones, and at best I come up with 1-2 if I am very fortunate a 3rd of any one of the above plants.

Players will also NOT pick nodes of less useful plants like Wormwood, Water Hyacinth, Nirn Root, Emetic Russula, White Cap, Stink Horn...so those nodes never get refreshed with the chance to respawn as one of the other needed plants.

So then players such as myself and others are forced to come behind them, pick all those passed over nodes and never get what we need...just for them or another person to take something more useful that 'might' spawn in its place. It's a system that is a problem cause by the system itself and the player behavior involvement.

The Result:
As an Alchemist with full points invested in this craft, and I truly enjoyed this craft most of all, I cant get what I need to make anything useful for myself. So now my craft is dead in the water and useless to me, and likely others like myself. I tried advertising to buy from other players, but NOBODY and I mean nobody is selling it...I have tried for almost 2 weeks - not even any guilds stores have it available anywhere.

Despite all my time, effort and progress made investing in this craft with the hopes of utilizing it daily in my game play time, I can't make anything I need because im crippled by this problem.

The Request:
Please Zos Team look at this system and improve it in some meaningful way. I don't have any issues going out to the zones and putting in time gathering for 1-2 hours daily if I can at least find what I need so I can at least utilize my Alchemy Craft. You made ore and wood zone specific, but the plants suffer a different system that hampers it's crafts usefulness.

Thanks!

Actually, lemme make your day...do you have acces to Coldharbour yet? If you do, there's a great, awesome, gorgeous place there. Alchemist's dream. If you have Keen Eye for alchemy(and I highly recommend getting it, Columbine is like invisible otherwise), it lights up like Christmas tree, 30 or so spawns within 30 m from each other.

I'll reveal you the secret of the trade - it's near one of the exits from Hollow City(City itself has plenty of nodes, too, but those get picked up fast), one that's near the abyss; directly out the city walls. I'm sure you can find it, like only place in Coldharbour where green grass grows.

I used to think same way as you do, but ever since I found the place...well, I always have a spare 100-200 potions now=P

Vuron

The nodes aren't really that rare and I wouldn't have a problem with it even if they were.

Seriously, can't we have any sort of challenge or obstacles in this game? All you need to do to create potions is stand in front of a station and keep hitting "R". There should be some things that are risk/reward or time/reward and alchemy and provisioning are about the easiest things you can do in the entire game.

There was an argument above about newer players having trouble leveling because all the good mats are being harvested by others. I leveled alchemy from 1-50 in less than 2 hours by using the mats that nobody else wanted. Most of the potions that you create to level are pretty much worthless, so why use the best mats to level?

Question... what potion are you making that requires Namira's Rot? Are you sure there aren't other combinations that make the same potion?

Fshober28b14_ESO

Natjur wrote: »

There are a few areas that have tons of Columbine (5-10 spawns in a row) but as they are in high demand, they are farmed 24/7

I don't think the issue is the number of spawn spots for Columbine, I think its cause they are farmed too much.

When they add a passive that allows you to get 2-3 per 'harvest' or add housing where you can grow your own. Then it will be fixed.

yeah gathering 2-3 per node rather than just 1 per node would be a good idea for sure thats a simple fix to the current system.

Fshober28b14_ESO

GnatB wrote: »

*shrug* Maybe you need more of an EQ philosophy when it comes to potion use as opposed to diablo chug-a-thon? Maybe the good ones are supposed to feel expensive and rare and should only be used in the most dire of emergencies?

By your coment, you either didn't fully read my op or you skimmed right over those parts. I did mention twice that I use my potions conservatively. I don't 'chug' my potions. I further state that even with conservative use, it's impossible to replensih even my minimal daily usage under the current conditions.

Also, I don't have an issue with certain plants being inherently a little more rare than others, but it's the current system and the compound issues that have evolved around it that makes it to where it's not just rare, but to where it's not obtainable nearly 24/7...big difference.

Fshober28b14_ESO

SirAndy wrote: »

I got multiple stacks of each of them.

In general, keen eye helps with finding them as Columbine likes to hide in the grass and shrubbery.

Like I stated, im max Alchemy point invested, that's not my issue.

Fshober28b14_ESO

PlagueMonk wrote: »

The problem isn't farming or lack of availability, it's the fact that out of all the plants, about 5 are lynchpins for the potions everyone wants (especially Columbine) No single plant should be that singularly important and there should be a number of different combos that would yield similar potions.

Then there is the fact that snakeblood has NEVER worked so those plants with negative effects can't be utilized.

Agreed 100%

Fshober28b14_ESO

kewl wrote: »

@Fshober28b14_ESO I appreciate the time and effort you put into crafting this thoughtful post.

ty

Mountain_Dewed

For those that have many stacks, I will gladly trade and Ancient Elf or Daedric Motif for a stack of each(3)of the good ones?

Fshober28b14_ESO

nudel wrote: »

Terrible idea.

Think of Columbine and Namira's Rot as the Pepper, Oats, and Tomatoes of the Alchemy world. They're rare on purpose b/c they're used to make the best items.

Their rarity creates demand for your crafted goods. The more of those plants you are able to acquire through gathering or purchases, the more valuable you are as an alchemist because your supply is good. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot as an alchemist, wanting two of the rare plants to become common.

You are approaching this as a merchant minded player that wants to make this a 'corner the market' system. I am sure there is a way to make the system more viable for those that like to create their own, and the merchant players can still keep viable business for themselves(sorry no Comcast monopoly in Tamriel). That's why we pay ZoS the big bucks(insert sarcasm), that's their job to figure it out...not ours.

Fshober28b14_ESO

tengri wrote: »

They are not that rare if you bother to pick them up as u drive by; I always have plenty to supply all my chars with ease.

But of course if you are looking to make a buck re(selling) to other ppl there are probably not enough out there. Still, not a problem for most players.

yeah, that's not me I am not a potion supplier...this is like I stated just some for my personal daily conserative use. I can understand a fluke of being in a bad run of luck on a day here and there cause of the rng and player factors, but for 2 weeks+ now its the same thing every day, for my it has become unobtainable, again for the mentioned compound reasons.

If I can just get 5...maybe even up to just 10 Columbine daily that would more than sufficient for my daily use...in fact 10 columbine would get me thru 2 days since I use conservatively...which you would think would be so super easy to get right? Nope, I only manage 2-3 if that, for an average of up to 3 hours of plant hunting across multiple zones for just Columbine. Not to menton the others I still need as well not just the Columbine. Like I mentioned, I can't even get anyone to sell me any at all anywhere I advertise in chat including the main trading zones... and we know why.

Mountain_Dewed

I keep forgetting about the money-grubbers. I am in this for the crafting aspect and maybe sell some to break even enough to craft the pots I need. I hate when I offer something for trade in chat and the greedy ones respond with "lol, good luck getting that deal" or something to those terms...

Fshober28b14_ESO

Actually, lemme make your day...do you have acces to Coldharbour yet? If you do, there's a great, awesome, gorgeous place there. Alchemist's dream. If you have Keen Eye for alchemy(and I highly recommend getting it, Columbine is like invisible otherwise), it lights up like Christmas tree, 30 or so spawns within 30 m from each other.

I'll reveal you the secret of the trade - it's near one of the exits from Hollow City(City itself has plenty of nodes, too, but those get picked up fast), one that's near the abyss; directly out the city walls. I'm sure you can find it, like only place in Coldharbour where green grass grows.

I used to think same way as you do, but ever since I found the place...well, I always have a spare 100-200 potions now=P

yeah, I knew about Coldharbor a long long time ago, but then so did everyone on the megaserver, so yeah that died real quick when everyone runs in front of you to snatch a node from you that your character is just about to kneel down to do the gather animation and get. It's so over farmed you'd think plants don't even exit there to gather. If it werent for the passed over wormwood, nirn root and water hyacinth...you'd never know lol.

Fshober28b14_ESO

Vuron wrote: »

The nodes aren't really that rare and I wouldn't have a problem with it even if they were.

Seriously, can't we have any sort of challenge or obstacles in this game? All you need to do to create potions is stand in front of a station and keep hitting "R". There should be some things that are risk/reward or time/reward and alchemy and provisioning are about the easiest things you can do in the entire game.

There was an argument above about newer players having trouble leveling because all the good mats are being harvested by others. I leveled alchemy from 1-50 in less than 2 hours by using the mats that nobody else wanted. Most of the potions that you create to level are pretty much worthless, so why use the best mats to level?

Question... what potion are you making that requires Namira's Rot? Are you sure there aren't other combinations that make the same potion?

the more I read, some of the responses like this one, it's becoming clear some people just aren't reading, or fully comprehending, or just making up their own versions in their head than what I actually wrote for then they go to reply to what I posted. Nothing you replied with has anything to do with my post.

Fshober28b14_ESO

Mountain_Dewed wrote: »

I keep forgetting about the money-grubbers. I am in this for the crafting aspect and maybe sell some to break even enough to craft the pots I need. I hate when I offer something for trade in chat and the greedy ones respond with "lol, good luck getting that deal" or something to those terms...

yeah, that last part you mentioned....unfortuntely is indicitave of a growing apathetic and disconnected type of people that just don't get it. they are making up more and more of our gaming community that's becoming a more prevalent issue as mmos become even more main stream and try to grab even wider audiences for the cash grab...and the 'true' gamers, the 'hardcore' gamers are getting swallowed up in it all....but thats a topic for a different discussion.

Vuron

Fshober28b14_ESO wrote: »

Vuron wrote: »

The nodes aren't really that rare and I wouldn't have a problem with it even if they were.

Seriously, can't we have any sort of challenge or obstacles in this game? All you need to do to create potions is stand in front of a station and keep hitting "R". There should be some things that are risk/reward or time/reward and alchemy and provisioning are about the easiest things you can do in the entire game.

There was an argument above about newer players having trouble leveling because all the good mats are being harvested by others. I leveled alchemy from 1-50 in less than 2 hours by using the mats that nobody else wanted. Most of the potions that you create to level are pretty much worthless, so why use the best mats to level?

Question... what potion are you making that requires Namira's Rot? Are you sure there aren't other combinations that make the same potion?

the more I read, some of the responses like this one, it's becoming clear some people just aren't reading, or fully comprehending, or just making up their own versions in their head than what I actually wrote for then they go to reply to what I posted. Nothing you replied with has anything to do with my post.

How does it not have anything to do with your OP. You stated that you couldn't find Columbine, Bugloss, and Namira's Rot.

I stated that the nodes weren't that rare, meaning that I harvest them constantly and have no trouble finding enough to make stacks of potions. In one of your later posts, you claim to not even be able to find 10 a day. If this is true, than something is seriously wrong. You could be harvesting in the wrong zones where lots of others are doing the same thing or you're looking in the wrong areas. Others pointed out that certain mats grow in specific areas like hills, grasslands, along water, etc.

Now, the middle part of my post was more of a rant stating that I thought they SHOULD be rare, so I apologize.

My question at the end was very relevant to you. What specific potions are you trying to create. What are you creating that requires Namira's rot? There is more than 1 recipe for many potions and it might benefit you if you could replace rot with a mat that is more readily available. I asked this specifically because one of the "less useful plants" is one that I use constantly.