Deconstruction Bug

BossPurple

I have a character that is level 19. He is level 44 in blacksmithing, and in the 40s for both clothing and woodworking aswell. Today I deconstructed items in blacksmithing and clothing ranging from level 30 or so up to VR 1 or 2. On all of these I got a notification saying "You lack the skill to recover all the materials from this item."

I also have 3 skill points invested into each of the passives that increases the chance of material recovery from deconstruction. I also have 9/9 proficiency in blacksmithing.

I tried deconstructing a level 1 item, and did not receive this notification. I have never had this notification come up before.

Is this a bug, or is there some new mechanic that involves my character level in the deconstruction of items?

DBHAShadow

I get this for clothing as well, I'm level 12 (character) but I'm 30+ for clothier and woodworking. I got this trying to break things down. I have max skill points in everything except tailoring, I'm 8/9 but I'm only trying to break down iron thread and silver weave (which I can craft)

Salmonleap

I'm seeing this for woodworking and clothing. At this point I presume the game is now checking character level rather than crafting proficiency when deconning items. Since my blacksmith is my main, he's only deconning stuff near his level anyway.

BergisMacBride

Getting the same problem with my Clothier, who is level 35 and maxed in the skill. I have not yet checked my other crafting chars. Pretty big bug that needs to be fixed, IMO.

MissBizz

I'm hoping this is a bug. Your skill level should compare to your skill in the craft, not you. If I can craft it I should be able to receive items when I decon the same level of item! I, as well as others have mentioned this in the known issues thread. Hopefully it gets resolved

Siliconhobbit_ESO

Deconstructing, and the items you recover from that process, is tied to your character level, not your crafting level.

Thus, deconstructing items that are higher level then you will result in less material returned, and often times none at all if the level of the item is much greater then your own character level. In essence, if you cannot personally USE that item, do not expect to get materials back from that items deconstruction.

It's always been this way.

DBHAShadow

Siliconhobbit_ESO wrote: »

Deconstructing, and the items you recover from that process, is tied to your character level, not your crafting level.

Thus, deconstructing items that are higher level then you will result in less material returned, and often times none at all if the level of the item is much greater then your own character level. In essence, if you cannot personally USE that item, do not expect to get materials back from that items deconstruction.

It's always been this way.

Not true, up until this patch, I've been deconstructing perfectly fine, I have never received that message, I use my alt to make my light pieces for my VR main, I leveled to that level of woodworking and tailoring by deconstruction. I wouldn't have as huge of a surplus of clothing and woodworking mats if this was true. It's based on crafting level and number of skill points placed.

Seravi

I've never had any issues deconstructing items above my alts level. I have deconstructed many vet level items with my lvl 15 alt and had no issues. I have not tried this since the update but I can test my alt today and see if she has any issues.

Seravi

Just tested this with an item I made with my V4 character. I went to deconstruct using my lvl10 mule and I did get the message the OP is talking about and I did NOT receive any upper level materials.

Before yesterdays update I would receive upper level mats deconstructing so either it wasn't working properly before and they fixed it OR it was working properly before and now it is broken. I can see not allowing upper level mats on lower level deconstructs but it was never an issue before so I would like to know how this should be working.

Can a ZOS person chime in here and let us know how this is suppose to work?

DBHAShadow

It shouldn't be character level based, regardless. What is the point in having skill levels and skill points to put into the skill if it just goes "pfff, you need to go level" My clothier / woodworker is only level 12, but I went to cyrodiil and all throughout the zones of the AD to get enough skyshards to put max points (Minus the three for the detection skill since he has all hius mats sent to him) He has 8/9 for crafting and is level 35 + in crafting.

The whole reason I made my alt for crafting was so I could free up skill points on my main to play the way I want. I don't see how crafting on low level alts, when you work to level those crafting skills would be detrimental to gameplay.

Divinius

If this was intentional, it's stupid. And you can't use the argument of "well if you can't wear it, you shouldn't be able to get mats from it." That's still stupid, because you can still craft items that are well above your level.

How can you logically justify that my level 12 character, who has level 50 blacksmithing, is perfectly capable of constructing a VR item, but can't recover the mats from it?

kewl

If this is not a bug it's another example of bad communication. Needs to be fixed ASAP.

AlyennahsCrafting

Could this be related to the nirnhorn ingredients? That they are in theory available, but not in practice and that triggers the error? Just a thought?

Anath_Q

Seravi wrote: »

Just tested this with an item I made with my V4 character. I went to deconstruct using my lvl10 mule and I did get the message the OP is talking about and I did NOT receive any upper level materials.

Before yesterdays update I would receive upper level mats deconstructing so either it wasn't working properly before and they fixed it OR it was working properly before and now it is broken. I can see not allowing upper level mats on lower level deconstructs but it was never an issue before so I would like to know how this should be working.

Can a ZOS person chime in here and let us know how this is suppose to work?

@zos_GinaBruno can you please confirm whether this is working as intended? If not, can we expect a fix soon? Thank you.

Jaggannath

If this was a change that was to be implemented a bit of fair warning would have been nice - I have to have alts- for storage as well ,so why not make them crafters. One shouldn't have one's crafting skill tied to their adventuring level. This was one of the things EQ2 did right, it's a shame if this is "working as intended"

Halke

Siliconhobbit_ESO wrote: »

Deconstructing, and the items you recover from that process, is tied to your character level, not your crafting level.

Thus, deconstructing items that are higher level then you will result in less material returned, and often times none at all if the level of the item is much greater then your own character level. In essence, if you cannot personally USE that item, do not expect to get materials back from that items deconstruction.

It's always been this way.

Thanks for answering for me ^.^ A good thing to note is that this only applies to the base mats (like voidstone) and not refinement mats or trait stones. This is intended, and this has always been this way sadly. You will get some back, but as you level you will quickly realize you were not getting nearly as many basic mats when you were a lower level. The person I spoke to about it didn't like it either, his suggestion was to submit feedback on it.

Seraphaile

Never had a problem with this before today. When I started playing the game pre-launch I didn't want to risk running out of skill points on my main so made a character for each craft. I don't have the time to level each character and keep them all at the same level, so though their crafts are all around 35 their character levels vary between 13 and 38 (I play slowly, sue me). I'm not trying to game any systems here I just like to keep my crafts on the characters I started them on and not use up precious skill points on my main on crafts I already do on my alts, so I funnel materials and drops for deconstruction from my other characters to the relevant crafting alt. My woodworker is (for me) high level and my blacksmith is level 13 and suddenly today I'm being penalized for either not playing that alt enough or for not powerlevelling my main to the point that I have skillpoints to spare to do all the crafts on her. That's ridiculous.

Halke

mark.rats-nestb16_ESO wrote: »

Never had a problem with this before today. When I started playing the game pre-launch I didn't want to risk running out of skill points on my main so made a character for each craft. I don't have the time to level each character and keep them all at the same level, so though their crafts are all around 35 their character levels vary between 13 and 38 (I play slowly, sue me). I'm not trying to game any systems here I just like to keep my crafts on the characters I started them on and not use up precious skill points on my main on crafts I already do on my alts, so I funnel materials and drops for deconstruction from my other characters to the relevant crafting alt. My woodworker is (for me) high level and my blacksmith is level 13 and suddenly today I'm being penalized for either not playing that alt enough or for not powerlevelling my main to the point that I have skillpoints to spare to do all the crafts on her. That's ridiculous.

This isn't a new penalty sadly, it has been around. Rather than making the way the system works make sense they have just added in an alert to let you know what has been going on since the start.

Merlight

DBHAShadow wrote: »

Not true, up until this patch, I've been deconstructing perfectly fine, I have never received that message, I use my alt to make my light pieces for my VR main, I leveled to that level of woodworking and tailoring by deconstruction. I wouldn't have as huge of a surplus of clothing and woodworking mats if this was true. It's based on crafting level and number of skill points placed.

They only added the message. You were getting inspiration, tannins, style and trait materials, but no base materials. It's been that way for a long time, I can't say whether from the beginning. I noticed that a few months back, when I was deconstructing wooden items with an alt around level 10, and got 0 sanded wood from deconstructing hundreds of items level 35-50. Back then I even found a topic where someone said you stop getting base mats if the item is 20 levels above yours. Recently I've been playing with another alt, and IIRC around level 25, he was not getting any Calcinium from VR1-3 items. Yesterday (before patch) he was level 34, deconstructed a few VR4-6 items and got some Galatite, so I'm inclined to believe the 20 levels theory.

Epona222

Yep, it was definitely like this before, it's only the message telling you what is happening that is new.

I particularly noticed this when my main outlevelled my other crafters (I have crafting spread over 3 characters) a couple of weeks ago.

I don't agree with it however, how many expert blacksmiths are also expert at fighting and being heroes? If people decide they want a character to be an expert crafter rather than an adventurer, just hang around town and make stuff for people, then they should be able to do everything they have put skill points into. Should be skill based, not character level based.

DBHAShadow

Merlight wrote: »

DBHAShadow wrote: »

Not true, up until this patch, I've been deconstructing perfectly fine, I have never received that message, I use my alt to make my light pieces for my VR main, I leveled to that level of woodworking and tailoring by deconstruction. I wouldn't have as huge of a surplus of clothing and woodworking mats if this was true. It's based on crafting level and number of skill points placed.

They only added the message. You were getting inspiration, tannins, style and trait materials, but no base materials. It's been that way for a long time, I can't say whether from the beginning. I noticed that a few months back, when I was deconstructing wooden items with an alt around level 10, and got 0 sanded wood from deconstructing hundreds of items level 35-50. Back then I even found a topic where someone said you stop getting base mats if the item is 20 levels above yours. Recently I've been playing with another alt, and IIRC around level 25, he was not getting any Calcinium from VR1-3 items. Yesterday (before patch) he was level 34, deconstructed a few VR4-6 items and got some Galatite, so I'm inclined to believe the 20 levels theory.

I have trouble believing you don't get crafting mats back, considering I have woods and hides that I have not gathered myself from deconstruct. I used to get heaps of mats from deconstruct both material, racial, improvement, now I get on average per piece, one item, usually a racial item.

Seraphaile

It's still ridiculous. Crafting skills should trump character level for recovery of materials.

Usstan

This should be really simple, if you know how to create an item, then you should know how to deconstruct the same type of item too.

I suggest that everyone that doesn't like this new change should file an ingame bug report and/or an ingame feedback.

Lets make some noise!!

This change doesn't really resolve anything, except maybe delaying a bit the ability to deconstruct, after all, all I have to do is to level an alt up high enough, then reset skills and put all skill points into crafting skills and we're back to the same as it was before the patch

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO

The base materials are not a big deal to me, but I can't help but wonder what their intended purpose was for this limitation. It's not as if you ever get a lot of material back anyway, and no crafting mats are expensive to buy or hard to find.
Seems arbitrary to me.

Epona222

DBHAShadow wrote: »

Merlight wrote: »

DBHAShadow wrote: »

Not true, up until this patch, I've been deconstructing perfectly fine, I have never received that message, I use my alt to make my light pieces for my VR main, I leveled to that level of woodworking and tailoring by deconstruction. I wouldn't have as huge of a surplus of clothing and woodworking mats if this was true. It's based on crafting level and number of skill points placed.

They only added the message. You were getting inspiration, tannins, style and trait materials, but no base materials. It's been that way for a long time, I can't say whether from the beginning. I noticed that a few months back, when I was deconstructing wooden items with an alt around level 10, and got 0 sanded wood from deconstructing hundreds of items level 35-50. Back then I even found a topic where someone said you stop getting base mats if the item is 20 levels above yours. Recently I've been playing with another alt, and IIRC around level 25, he was not getting any Calcinium from VR1-3 items. Yesterday (before patch) he was level 34, deconstructed a few VR4-6 items and got some Galatite, so I'm inclined to believe the 20 levels theory.

I have trouble believing you don't get crafting mats back, considering I have woods and hides that I have not gathered myself from deconstruct. I used to get heaps of mats from deconstruct both material, racial, improvement, now I get on average per piece, one item, usually a racial item.

Actually it's always been the same way. If you decon something higher than your level, you get a reduced return of the base material. It has never been the case that you never get any base mats.

It was most noticeable (before the latest update even!) that deconstructing daggers or wooden weapons higher than your level would return fewer base materials than dagger or wooden items at a level you could use. This is because daggers and wooden weapons consist of very few base mats. You can still get base mats by deconning an item that contains more mats in the first place, even if it is above your level, but you won't get as many mats as you could do if the character deconning the item were of the same character level as the item (or within the levels needed to use an item made with that mat).

So yes, you could well have built up stocks of those base mats whilst deconstructing stuff above the crafter's level - but not as much of them as you would have done if the crafter was at a level where they were able to use the deconstructed item.

It has never been the case that you are guaranteed NO base mats from deconstructing an item of a level higher than you can use, just that you will stand a reduced chance of getting base mats, and even if the RNG gods are in a good mood you will get less of the base mats, regardless of crafting skill. So if an item is made from 10 base mats you might still recover a couple, just not the full amount that you might have got if your crafter had that experience level. If an item is made from 4 base mats, good luck getting any base mats back.

EDIT: I do completely disagree with the way it is implemented however, I shouldn't have to take my woodworker to V12 to deconstruct V12 items and get the maximum possible return of V12 mats, I should just be able to put enough skillpoints into materials that I know how to work with V12 mats - if I can construct it without penalty, I should be able to deconstruct it without penalty.

ZOS_JasonLeavey

Hey there, everyone. We wanted to provide some clarity on the deconstructing issue described in this thread. Previously, if your character’s level was not as high as the item you were deconstructing, you would receive an increasing penalty, which would potentially reduce the amount of material you’d get from deconstructing the item – this would depend on how far below your character level was compared to the item itself. However, there was no clear indication that this was the case.

In Update 4, we added an error message that now appears providing that information -- no change was actually made to the mechanic itself. However, based on your feedback, our team is going to change this in a future update so that we’ll check your passive skill rank level in addition to your character level, using whichever is higher to help give you the full deconstruct credit easier. As always, thanks so much for your feedback on this issue, and for helping us to improve the game.

Halke

ZOS_JasonLeavey wrote: »

Hey there, everyone. We wanted to provide some clarity on the deconstructing issue described in this thread. Previously, if your character’s level was not as high as the item you were deconstructing, you would receive an increasing penalty, which would potentially reduce the amount of material you’d get from deconstructing the item – this would depend on how far below your character level was compared to the item itself. However, there was no clear indication that this was the case.

In Update 4, we added an error message that now appears providing that information -- no change was actually made to the mechanic itself. However, based on your feedback, our team is going to change this in a future update so that we’ll check your passive skill rank level in addition to your character level, using whichever is higher to help give you the full deconstruct credit easier. As always, thanks so much for your feedback on this issue, and for helping us to improve the game.

You win the internet today. Thank you, on behalf of the crafters of Tamriel, thank you.

Divinius

Halke wrote: »

You win the internet today. Thank you, on behalf of the crafters of Tamriel, thank you.

Seconded. That is excellent news.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO

I am pleasantly surprised. Thank you!

Anath_Q

Very pleasantly surprised! Thank you for listening to us!

GreyRanger

Sorry, but I have to ask: Is there any idea on the priority timeline on the change (it is an important core game mechanic).

Can you tell us how the current mechanic works: the base percentage, degree of penalty, and whether the penalty applies to all materials e.g.: base materials versus tempers versus upgrade stones