Does the Craft Bag fundamentally changes the fun factor for the game?

BmcD73

I recently started playing again when they had the sale for all 4 DLCs. At the time I did sub as I prefer to buy the content as I go. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a craft bag. Then I came across a post searching for something else and realized that the single biggest frustration factor in the game was solved. But you had to sub to get it. I have mixed feelings about the sub and here is why. The game is fundamentally different with a craft bag. I have played the game since beta and I can't imagine how many hours I have spent TRYING to manage my inventory. I have 8 toons, 4 of which I play regularly. The process of logging in and logging out is and has been one of the most painful of any MMO to date. It takes ages even on top end hardware. It has gotten better recently but still pretty bad. Spending this amount of time managing inventory is a total drag. It's not fun. It's not immersive. It's not anything but a massive waste of time. Constantly running back and forth to town to bank stuff after every single delve or dungeon was also a pain. Now, I just pick up everything. I spend very little time worrying about my inventory. I am having more fun with this game now than I ever have. I can focus on the things I love about Elder Scrolls, the exploration, the searching every nook, turning over every stone, questing, etc. For me, this has fundamentally changed the game. This is why I have mixed feelings about this being P2W. Sure it's convenient but it is WAY more than that. It's like saying that you must walk from town to town and portals are only for subs. Sure it's convenient to be able to portal but not necessary. I know they need to make money and companies love to forecast revenues but I hope they someday change this and give it to everyone as it is a must have feature of the game. In the meantime, I was wondering how many of you feel this has changed the fun factor of the game.

Wolfshead

I would say change the fun factor it have made easy for me atlest to not worry about bag space anymore when i go on my farming trips

DM_ESO

Craft Bag has changed my fun with the game a little

I just bought 30$ worth of crowns to get some things from the store, and went with the 2 month sub option (which nets the same crowns anyways). The craft bag is huge, and changes how I play. I loot everything now and never even check my space. I only upgraded my pack on my new character as a formality. Besides that, on log in, it cleaned out my bank and freed it all up!

Only problem, I'm not sure how to access my alchemy ingredients so I can eat them?

IcyDeadPeople

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

DM_ESO wrote: »

I just bought 30$ worth of crowns to get some things from the store, and went with the 2 month sub option (which nets the same crowns anyways).

I did the same and then just kept subscribing since. I think it's a good benefit that has persuaded a lot of people to subscribe.

Digiman

Craft Bag has not changed how fun the game is

Its made the game a lot easier for crafting especially with alts as they have access to the bag and same materials.

Mr_Apollo

Craft Bag has not changed how fun the game is

So much better having a craftbag rather than having a character slot occupied for a toon who you only use to store items. I like the CraftBag and it definitely did not change my fun factor since I still need materials for crafting and still go out of my way to find them

Enslaved

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

Craft bag is best thing in ESO. Being able to loot every container without second thoughts, knowing all useful materials will end in the bag and not clutter your inventory is awesome. Being a crafter without craft bag is pure masochism.

Frawr

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

It has certainly reduced the inventory management time.

Grileenor

Craft Bag has changed my fun with the game a little

BmcD73 wrote: »

I know they need to make money and companies love to forecast revenues but I hope they someday change this and give it to everyone as it is a must have feature of the game.

Because you don't want to pay for their work? They offer you a game - nearly for free - and added an option to make this experience even better. You have not two but three choices (not to play at all is one). But you still complain.

The sub is not much. Most people pay way more for much more useless things each month. You want to use the bag? ...

trav2609rwb17_ESO

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

DM_ESO wrote: »

Only problem, I'm not sure how to access my alchemy ingredients so I can eat them?

@DM_ESO - way to get access to them is to go into craft bag and then move some back to inventory. Not sure if there is option to use it from bag. If need more details will get the exact steps when at home and online but that will be a while. Just check if you right click the item in your bag and see if get option to use (eg eat)

ChildOfLight

Grileenor wrote: »

BmcD73 wrote: »

I know they need to make money and companies love to forecast revenues but I hope they someday change this and give it to everyone as it is a must have feature of the game.

Because you don't want to pay for their work? They offer you a game - nearly for free - and added an option to make this experience even better. You have not two but three choices (not to play at all is one). But you still complain.

The sub is not much. Most people pay way more for much more useless things each month. You want to use the bag? ...

This is the best part in every crafting bag thread over there. People stating unsubs just want everything for free.
Well, I actually contribute, from my unsubbed position, keeping the lights on as much as you do.
I expend in crowns probably more than how much I would by subbing (and probably more than how much you do).
The reason I'm not subbing is that I don't play every day or every week. Still this does not mean I am here ignoring keeping the servers up has its own cost.

Basically the crown bag only for subs is a poor design choice. It's a complete gamebreaking perk that gives subs an unfair advantage in every side of the game. I admint that there should be some kind of perk for subs and I would have used the merchant and banker assistants for this purpose. Assistants are usefull still not breaking any balance of the game, like the crafting bag does.

In my opinion, whoever deny that craft bag is unbalanced and unfair, is just using bad faith, neglecting a sign of bad health of the game.

modaretto

I wouldn't know how to play this game anymore without a craft bag. It is a great convenience. At the same time though I don't believe it is P2W at all. People who pay for sub should have some advantage in game and this is a really good one. You don't get better gear or skills it's purely about convenience and for those who don't sub there are still good ways to extend your bag space both for toons and bank. Not even to mention guild banks. I don't agree that additional legwork is about P2W

White wabbit

Crafting bag is the only thing Zos had got right on this game so far

Turelus

Craft Bag has not changed how fun the game is

It's made my life easier but hasn't changed my fun at all. The difference is I don't have to spent 5 mins ditching things into banks, but my fun is normally the story/quests/adventure.

Rev Rielle

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

It's been a great addition. Definitely has made it more enjoyable personally.

But it's certainly not pay-to-win. And it's certainly not a 'must have' feature; you simply just have to prioritize what you collect/harvest/store/sell/traded/gave-away/etc. That worked fine for most of us back at launch.

What it is I think is pay-to-have-fun; something we're all doing anyways in one form or another. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Kytana

Craft Bag has not changed how fun the game is

I admit that I love the craft bag.

A_Pig

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

Craft bag and being able to dye costumes (all my 8 characters wear one now) are what pushed me to sub and i don't think i could go back.

Sengra

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

The crafting bag makes me want to subscribe and that's another reason I don't want to subscribe (apart from the fact that I already have another sub game). Does that make sense?
Also they have kind of reduced the amount of crowns that you get from subscribing by raising the prices for everything in the shop. It feels more and more like they're forcing the sub on us again - and I've already bought the DLCs that I want.

Pixel_Zealot

Craft Bag has changed my fun with the game a little

Yeah it makes the game easier, but it's not P2W.

If subbing allowed me to have access to a advanced tier of gear or abilities then yeah, scream 'P2W' and grab your torches and pitchforks.

But the crafting bag is one of the few advantages subbing gets. People need more reason to sub, not less. The more people sub the less **** will be featured in the CS with insane price-tags on them.

tunepunk

Craft Bag has changed my fun with the game a little

I wouldn't say it's significant, but it sure helps. You don't have to go sell and deconstruct that often, and opens up more slots in your main bank. If you're a crafter it helps a lot. Game is still playable without it, but it's a nice-to-have.

Nerouyn

Wolfshead wrote: »

I would say change the fun factor it have made easy for me atlest to not worry about bag space anymore when i go on my farming trips

Not just for farming trips I think, but definitely this.

It doesn't make the game more fun. At all.

It makes it less annoying and saves you a bit of time having to log alts in and out and auto-suck things in and out of their inventories with the bank manager add-on.

With a big enough inventory though I don't think the differences is huge. Buy the banker or park your alts at an unpopular bank and you can do that inventory shuffle reasonably quickly.

Wanderinlost

I am extremely bitter about the craft bags. Waited for 2 years of very casual play mainly due to the pain of not having them. Spent around $330, I added it up. Finally they get craft bags in and bam u got a sub forever.. So screw that. It's a betrayal, and it completely undermines B2P and DLC. So I will take what I can and reduce my spending to maybe $15 per year tops. ESO will forever be on the B list. Corporate greed is to be expected but it was getting to see the typical subscriber elitism supporting it that was even worse. People seem to begrudge the entire idea of crafting bags being sold like every other feature in the game, even though it literally does not detract from their experience at all. The craft bags are literally the only thing that mattered and they screwed an entire half of the playerbase out of it.

GaldorP

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

The crafting bag completely changes inventory managament in this game. I've yet to see another MMOG (even free to play ones) where a premium subscription has such a huge impact on inventory management. You can often get additional storage or inventory slots with a subscription in other games, but the crafting bag in ESO is basically an account-wide additional bank/inventory with unlimited space and unlimited item stack size that can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and all the materials you obtain are automatically placed in there.

To be honest, I couldn't imagine playing the game without crafting bags now. Most of my characters are already at like 100/200 inventory just holding all the dropped set items from dungeons, trials, VMA, etc. that I want to keep (and I only keep the good ones with the best traits that I might eventually use for a build).

I believe it's kinda wrong though how the game without subscription now has a more cumbersome inventory system than it had at launch. Pretty much every major update since IC has introduced new materials, and at the same time, there haven't been any updates to regular inventory and bank size in a long time. There's many new style materials, the poisons system added like 30 new mats, housing will add new mats as well and require some additional inventory space, especially since completed furnishing items do not stack. So I hope for all the non-subscribers that there will be a storage upgrade that can be obtained in game (not purchased with crowns), at some point. People should be able to enjoy the base game fully without the need to subscribe, in my opinion.

Edit: But then again, looking at alternatives that would encourage people to subscribe just as much as crafting bags do, most of them would probably be unfair (like an increased chance to get drops or rare mats, for example) and wouldn't create a lasting incentive as well as crafting bags do. The bags at least don't give anyone an advantage in obtaining things (XP, loot, rare mats, or gold) faster, they just save a lot of time and hassle on inventory management.

Gandrhulf_Harbard

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

GaldorP wrote: »

The crafting bag completely changes inventory managament in this game. I've yet to see another MMOG (even free to play ones) where a premium subscription has such a huge impact on inventory management. You can often get additional storage or inventory slots with a subscription in other games, but the crafting bag in ESO is basically an account-wide additional bank/inventory with unlimited space and unlimited item stack size that can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and all the materials you obtain are automatically placed in there.

^ This.

Having returned to ESO in December and subbed for three months the impact the Craft Bag has had on how I play the game has been so significant that I simply can not envision how it would be possible for to go back to playing without it.

Now, that is a two edged sword for Zeni. Because for as long as I can afford a Sub I will continue to Sub because that Craft Bag is now integral to my enjoyment of the game. The flip side of that is if it ever gets to a point where I can't justify the Sub playing F2P is now not an option. Maybe Zeni need to consider a Crown Store Unlock for the Craft Bag - even if thy choose to limit to prior subscribers who have paid for the benefit of the Craft Bag.

All The Best

Kalathir

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

I agree that the craft bag change drastically the gameplay and fun in the game. Forcing the player to have multiple mules, using the mail system as storage, logging on and off between characters with a long loading time, returning constantly to towns to unload your inventory, generally playing the ¨inventory minigame” it is awful. This is a game, it´s main purpose it is to provide entertainment, so the first question the developer needs to ask before implementing something is ¨Is it fun?”. If the answer is no, then you change it.
The craft bag is a way of profiting from active players by making inventory a bore to manage. But how many people are not playing because they consider it tedious?. How many more players would be active if this was implemented for everyone?.
I know people will say "But ZOS need to make money!!!!!".
Sure. But not charging monthly for a fix to a bad gameplay mechanic. This is like paying monthly for a patch.
GW2 had craft bags since the beginning and it is still active. They can sell a thousand cosmetic items on the Store to make money, but fixes for boring gameplay mechanics should be free, otherwise they are just decreasing their player base, which does decrease the potential income of the game.

Vipstaakki

Craft Bag has not changed how fun the game is

I would not say that the craft bag has made the game more fun but it has made the game easier.

danno8

Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »

GaldorP wrote: »

The crafting bag completely changes inventory managament in this game. I've yet to see another MMOG (even free to play ones) where a premium subscription has such a huge impact on inventory management. You can often get additional storage or inventory slots with a subscription in other games, but the crafting bag in ESO is basically an account-wide additional bank/inventory with unlimited space and unlimited item stack size that can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and all the materials you obtain are automatically placed in there.

^ This.

Having returned to ESO in December and subbed for three months the impact the Craft Bag has had on how I play the game has been so significant that I simply can not envision how it would be possible for to go back to playing without it.

Now, that is a two edged sword for Zeni. Because for as long as I can afford a Sub I will continue to Sub because that Craft Bag is now integral to my enjoyment of the game. The flip side of that is if it ever gets to a point where I can't justify the Sub playing F2P is now not an option. Maybe Zeni need to consider a Crown Store Unlock for the Craft Bag - even if thy choose to limit to prior subscribers who have paid for the benefit of the Craft Bag.

All The Best

If you choose to stop subbing, create a single mule (or two) that you exclusively send crafting materials to. You can still drain your current crafting bag and when you choose to resub, all those materials on your mule will be transferred to your bag.

I imagine it would take me several months to drain anything completely from my crafting bag at this point.

Cadbury

Craft Bag has changed my fun with the game a little

The craft bag has turned me into a hoarder. And I like it.

Now, nothing is safe in any house in Tamriel. That corn on your table? Mine now. Those linen pants? Gimme.

anadandy

Craft Bag has changed my fun with the game a little

The craft bag has improved my enjoyment of the game, because I don't feel that pressure choose between gathering craft materials and leaving space for any loot. I probably would have given up on crafting if I didn't have the bag - which is a shame because I really enjoy it. And I don't think its P2W at all - crafting is hardly a big money maker or advantage in this game as it stands now.

The_Protagonist

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

Craft bag is the reason I started subbing.

Gorgoneus

Craft bag has significantly changed how fun the game is

I wont play the game what requaired 30% ingame time for inventory manipulations. And ZoS adding more and more crafting trash.