Official Discussion Thread for "Homestead Guide: Master Writs"

Enodoc

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom Is it intended that Writ Vouchers can't be banked? As a physical item of currency, like Gold and TV Stones, it would make more sense if they could be. This would allow for players who have 6 characters, each as a master of a different craft, to pool their rewards in the same way as someone who has a single dedicated crafter.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Chalinal wrote: »

Since Homestead release, I have gotten TWO master writ invitations, one for 2 vouchers from enchanting, and one that was for 21 vouchers from woodworking. These are my results from doing all writ dailies every day on two characters- my main (master crafter), and my alt (max level and tier, few motifs/recipes, no traits).

On the other hand, I have a friend that is only 8 trait in clothing and woodworking and 6 trait in blacksmithing, no other professions, and he only has the basic class motifs plus three others learned. This friend has gotten master writ invitations every day - not only that, but they are for large amounts like 49, 82, 121, etc. + vouchers.

That almost sounds like they implemented it backwards - having each Motif etc. you know decrease your chances of getting a survey.

Cherryblossom

James-Wayne wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Ashtaris wrote: »

One thing I noticed was there was NO mention of Motif knowledge increasing your chances to get a MCW. The only thing mentioned in the blog article was research knowledge. Has the motifs been taken away from the chance formula?

We may go back and adjust the wording in the article if it's coming across that way. To clarify, Motif knowledge does matter for obtaining Master Crafting Writs.

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

IT's still RNG, I have the same on my Master Crafter with all traits, but I've had much better success with characters that are only 50 with very few traits researched, so either we are really unlucky with RNG or something has damaged the chance when you do have all Traits researched.

silvereyes

Things I've heard from people about Master Writs:

My master crafter is getting fewer or the same number of Master Writs as other characters that have no trait mastery.

To really compare drop rates, you need a lot more data. Like thousands of data points.

We have right now a *maximum* of 36 data points per master crafter toon (12 days - if you saved Sunday's quests - x3 equipment skill lines). Most people have only one master crafter that knows all traits.

36 data points is the very definition of a small sample size when it comes to RNG.

More people have multiple master consumables crafters, since learning all glyphs or alchemy traits can be done in less than an hour. And unsurprisingly, the anecdotal evidence I've seen so far seems to indicate these are the lines dropping writs the most.

My master crafter isn't getting enough Master Writs to make me feel rewarded for my investment in crafting research

This is the real crux of the issue. Trait research seems to play a *minor* factor in drop rates, but not enough to override RNG. No matter what your craft knowledge is, Master Writs are still rare drops. They are just slightly less rare for master crafters.

At this rate, it's going to take years to get all the things I want from the Master Writ voucher store

Yes. Working as intended

The good news is, normal supply/demand should bring the prices of Master Writs down on guild traders over the next few weeks. This stinks if you wanted to sell them for a big payday, but it's good for consumers in general.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Thanks for the comments and questions, all. We're working on getting some additional answers for you.

Zaldan

James-Wayne wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Ashtaris wrote: »

One thing I noticed was there was NO mention of Motif knowledge increasing your chances to get a MCW. The only thing mentioned in the blog article was research knowledge. Has the motifs been taken away from the chance formula?

We may go back and adjust the wording in the article if it's coming across that way. To clarify, Motif knowledge does matter for obtaining Master Crafting Writs.

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

This is more to do with ZO$ RNG than anything else, already proven by ZO$ that individual players will never see correct drop rates as the RNG system is tuned for the entire player base, in other words you would need to complete millions of writs to experience the correct drop rate

GwJSVDShark

My 0.02.

I got 2 of these in yesterday's writs, and was quite happy about it, so I open them both.

First surprise, once opened, they become quests, they are no longer items in the inventory. Thus if you want to trade them, do not accept the quest.

The items were very specific, a sharpened axe, Altmer style, Song of Lamae set, Epic. So off I went to Eastmarch (south of Kynesgrove) to do my one item. Once created, the quest updates and tells you to go to Mourhold to see a buyer, it was the guy who accepts daily writs stuff just south of the shrine.

I give my item ... and he pays me 300 gold. Oh ok, and 5 vouchers too. So well the gold was nothing, really. Not near enough the effort, game time, and definitely not to cover the mats. Maybe the vouchers were the real reward?

The dude who accepts the item, is also a vendor, and he takes vouchers for household stuff, so far so good, and then the prices. 250 vouchers for an Ebony Curiass lesson. 250! That’s like 50 completed epic writs just to purchase one item! And then you need the mats for Ebon, which are about 10 vouchers each.

I walk away more than a little annoyed as, well, just blew 20 precious minutes of game time, plus mats for a level 150 epic axe. I thought, well, let me do the other one. I see it is a shield, epic, so on, with Aldmeri Dominion style. I do not own this style, and in 2 years of game time, I have never had a single drop of this style. So I head to the crown store, 5000 crowns for this style! That’s $39.99 USD! This is not Bitcoin or Mexican Pesos, this is half my ESO+ membership. My dilemma, do I want to blow $40.00 so I can get 300 gold, and 5 vouchers? Hell no.

I am not impressed.

I have 2 questions.

One, can the reward be more than 300 gold and 5 vouchers? That’s all I got for my epic song of Lamae level 150 axe. The vendor that takes vouchers sell the good stuff at 250 vouchers, and at this rate it will take me 50 days of getting lucky each day to buy one ebon trait lesson. Being that I got 2 such since they launched, and I do my writs (all 6) daily, that’s real unlikely I will ever get to 250 vouchers.

Second, can you please revise it so the writs are only for the usual traits? I am not paying 5000 crown ($40.00) for the Almeri Dominion trait so I can make 300 gold and 5 vouchers. Seriously.

I don’t know. It was kind of fun to create a real specific item. But the reward (lol), ok the payment for it is absolute bs.

Next time I get one, if I ever get another one, because like Nirncrux and perfect roe you only get 2 per character’s life time it seems, I think I am just going to sell it off.

ChandraNalaar

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Thanks for the comments and questions, all. We're working on getting some additional answers for you.

Ty so much!

Recremen

This system was one of my favorite surprises for this patch! I was not expecting a system to challenge master crafters and give them such interesting rewards, but the team pulled through!

I do have one criticism, and it has to do with the difference in Master Writ drop rate between a fully-trained crafter and an untrained/half-trained one. We only have a little over a week of data, so I'm taking this observation with a grain of salt, but there doesn't seem to be a huge difference in the drop rate for knowing all traits and motifs, knowing all recipes, etc. versus someone with few or no traits/motifs learned. I even know every single provisioning recipe except the two mythic ambrosia ones, and have seen extremely few drops on that. Is this just me being an unlucky ducky, or is the drop rate mostly random with a very tiny bonus for knowing traits, motifs, and recipes?

It just seems that untrained crafters are getting a better deal out of the current scheme since they can sell all their writs to actual master crafters and use their surplus gold to buy anything the master crafters might then sell, while still making a profit. I think adjusting how much known motifs and traits matter might even things out a bit, but we'll see how it goes in the coming weeks!

Sordidfairytale

silvereyes wrote: »

...
To really compare drop rates, you need a lot more data. Like thousands of data points.

We have right now a *maximum* of 36 data points per master crafter toon (12 days - if you saved Sunday's quests - x3 equipment skill lines). Most people have only one master crafter that knows all traits.
...

There are actually 6 skill lines that can generate writs, so we're looking at 72 possible data points from a single source. Across 8 characters, 576 data points. 10 characters, 720. I don't expect to get master writs from 648 of those data points but I would expect 72 of those data points to have an exceptionally high probability to generate them. And I'd expect to get more than 1.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

James-Wayne wrote: »

This is still false, I have all research on all crafting and all motifs including Crown ones and ive gotten 2 master writs (worth 6 each) since launch with doing all crafting dailies every day.

Is this working as intended?

Yes, the Master Crafting Writs are working as intended but it sounds like what you've experienced is on the very low-end of the possible drop-rate range. If you keep with it, you should see the rates even out a bit over time. Even with an optimal chance of getting one based on your knowledge (research and known Motifs), Master Writ invitations are quite uncommon. That said, we recently discovered a bug that causes Provisioning Writs in particular to award Master Writs roughly half as often as intended. We are currently working on a fix, so you can expect these to appear a little more often once that fix is in.

LadyHermioneSophia wrote: »

Thank you for the article but it did not really clarify what we already knew in general about the chances to get Master Writs.
Is it blue, purple, and gold recipes that increases your chances or only purple and gold?
Does each Chapter of a motif increase your chances or only when a Motif is completed?
Does completing Achievements in general on the character increase your chances or only the crafting achievements?

Only Purple- and Gold-quality provisioning recipes and completed Motifs increase your chances of getting a Master Writ. Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances. Achievements are factored into Master Writ chances by way of learning associated Alchemy reagent traits and Enchantment glyph translations.

Slurg wrote: »

Does that include the new motifs that were just introduced with this patch?

Yes, Motifs that aren’t Crown Store-exclusive (including the ones added with Update 13) are factored into Motif knowledge for the chance to receive Master Writs, with the playable race cultural Motifs being the exception. You may be asked to craft items in the playable race cultural Motifs to complete a Master Writ, but they do not contribute to your chances of getting a Master Writ.

CREEP wrote: »

-How much knowledge of Motifs helps to increase the rate of getting Master Writs?

Completing all of your research and learning all the applicable Motifs is weighted very similarly.

CREEP wrote: »

-With the introduction of furnishing crafting schematics, does knowledge of these influence Master Writ chances as they are "craftable goods"?

This doesn’t factor in at the moment, but we’ll be evaluating it for future growth of the system.

Enodoc wrote: »

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom Is it intended that Writ Vouchers can't be banked?

Currently, yes. As the system is new, we’re constantly evaluating decisions such as this and taking player feedback into consideration. This may change in the future, or it may remain as-is.

bloodthirstyvampire

Can i get a list of what Rolis hlaalu sells please

LadyHermione

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

LadyHermioneSophia wrote: »

Thank you for the article but it did not really clarify what we already knew in general about the chances to get Master Writs.
Is it blue, purple, and gold recipes that increases your chances or only purple and gold?
Does each Chapter of a motif increase your chances or only when a Motif is completed?
Does completing Achievements in general on the character increase your chances or only the crafting achievements?

Only Purple- and Gold-quality provisioning recipes and completed Motifs increase your chances of getting a Master Writ. Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances. Achievements are factored into Master Writ chances by way of learning associated Alchemy reagent traits and Enchantment glyph translations.

Thank you very much for your Reply and helping us better understand how to increase our chances! I will assume any other achievements will not count to increase our chances to get Master Writs other than the ones you stated above. ^_^

Icy

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Slurg wrote: »

Does that include the new motifs that were just introduced with this patch?

Yes, Motifs that aren’t Crown Store-exclusive (including the ones added with Update 13) are factored into Motif knowledge for the chance to receive Master Writs, with the playable race cultural Motifs being the exception. You may be asked to craft items in the playable race cultural Motifs to complete a Master Writ, but they do not contribute to your chances of getting a Master Writ.

Where does the Glass Motif fall in this? I've (nearly) collected it all in game, but you could also buy it in the Crown store after a while. When my Glass Motif is complete, will it count towards my Master Writ chance? Or does it not count at all as it was also in the Crown store? Thanks.

Dominoid

ViciousVamps1 wrote: »

Can i get a list of what Rolis hlaalu sells please

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2017/02/homestead-master-crafting-writs/

silvereyes

Icy wrote: »

Where does the Glass Motif fall in this? I've (nearly) collected it all in game, but you could also buy it in the Crown store after a while.

Only Crown Store *exclusive* motifs (i.e. Grim Harlequin and Stalhrim Frostcaster) and the base racial motifs are excluded. You can buy many motifs in the Crown Store that also drop in-game, and those would be factored in. However, they are ridiculously expensive.

code65536

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances.

That's good to know; thanks for clarifying. Though I am disappointed that it took this long to get this sort of basic information out to players--there were multiple requests on the PTS forum to clarify chapter-vs-completion that were never answered.

feyii

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Only Purple- and Gold-quality provisioning recipes and completed Motifs increase your chances of getting a Master Writ. Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances. Achievements are factored into Master Writ chances by way of learning associated Alchemy reagent traits and Enchantment glyph translations.

Thanks for carifying this! I would also be interested in how exactly the completed Motifs increase our chances to receive a Master Writ. Is it each known Motif or the percentage of known Motifs out of all that are currently available which increases our chances? In the latter case, this would mean, whenever new Motifs are introduced, our chances are reduced again.

ldzlcs065

I just wonder what dose "difficult trait" mean? Nirnhoned or the 9th traits you researched whatever they are?

WuffyCerulei

I really think the RNG on these writs needs to be inproved, as I have not gotten a single blacksmithing, clothing, or woodworking one thus far.

Slurg

code65536 wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances.

That's good to know; thanks for clarifying. Though I am disappointed that it took this long to get this sort of basic information out to players--there were multiple requests on the PTS forum to clarify chapter-vs-completion that were never answered.

Seconding this. I am very pleased we are getting these details now, but wish I had it at launch before I started buying random underpriced chapters in the hopes of getting an advantage for my alts. I'll have to commit or give up.

Better late than never, though. And my alts seem to be getting as many master writs as my main crafter so far, but my main doesn't have all the new motifs yet.

Zaldan

Only Purple- and Gold-quality provisioning recipes and completed Motifs increase your chances of getting a Master Writ. Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances. Achievements are factored into Master Writ chances by way of learning associated Alchemy reagent traits and Enchantment glyph translations.

I'm hoping that the drop chance for each type of mast writ is different considering completing alchemy 100% is doable in less than a hour but clothing/blacksmithing is time locked due to research.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Icy wrote: »

Where does the Glass Motif fall in this? I've (nearly) collected it all in game, but you could also buy it in the Crown store after a while. When my Glass Motif is complete, will it count towards my Master Writ chance? Or does it not count at all as it was also in the Crown store? Thanks.

The completed Glass Motif does count toward your Motif knowledge and increase your chances of getting Master Writs. Only Motifs that were only ever available exclusively in the Crown Store do not count.

MissBizz

I'm really disappointed about chapters vs full motif.

Essentially you're saying have 6 motif sets with 1 page missing from each... is absolutely equivalent to having no pages of those motifs at all.

Furniture crafting seems to be the black sheep of crafting. Pages don't matter, you cannot receive any of the furniture specific materials from other crafting sources - survey reports, hirelings or writs (as in - receive mats as a reward from regular writs). I'd really love to see furniture crafting embraced into the crafting system rather than be the odd one out with so many special rules.

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

feyii wrote: »

Thanks for clarifying this! I would also be interested in how exactly the completed Motifs increase our chances to receive a Master Writ. Is it each known Motif or the percentage of known Motifs out of all that are currently available which increases our chances? In the latter case, this would mean, whenever new Motifs are introduced, our chances are reduced again.

Your chance to get Master Writs will not go down when new Motifs are added to the game; your chance will only go up in small increments as you get more.

Jaeysa

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom - is there a fix planned for the deadly strike master writs? As of last night, they were still requiring Deadly Strike.

STEVIL

Zaldan wrote: »

Only Purple- and Gold-quality provisioning recipes and completed Motifs increase your chances of getting a Master Writ. Individual Motif Chapters do not increase your chances. Achievements are factored into Master Writ chances by way of learning associated Alchemy reagent traits and Enchantment glyph translations.

I'm hoping that the drop chance for each type of mast writ is different considering completing alchemy 100% is doable in less than a hour but clothing/blacksmithing is time locked due to research.

i hope it isn't

the presumption is this is being done by master crafters not newbies. so while some research may apply mostly that is done and done.

Triggering ongoing long term frequencies to temporary one time delays is bad design. the frequency hit remains long long long long after the research issue is history.

cynaes

I really really would like to know if skill points distributed in each craft skill do play a role in the equation in any way. If so, I'd also like to know if all or just some passives are important.

GwJSVDShark

Question, can the Master Writs be for only the main crafting styles?

Last night I got another one, but I cannot make it because it is for one of the $40.00 crafting styles from the crown store.

I hear that some of those motifs are in game drops as well, but in 2 years of playing i only have 4 glass motifs, and only Barbaric special motif. And I am not spending $40.00 in the crown store to make Aldmeri Dominion style.

Moloch1514

GwJSVDShark wrote: »

Question, can the Master Writs be for only the main crafting styles?

Last night I got another one, but I cannot make it because it is for one of the $40.00 crafting styles from the crown store.

I hear that some of those motifs are in game drops as well, but in 2 years of playing i only have 4 glass motifs, and only Barbaric special motif. And I am not spending $40.00 in the crown store to make Aldmeri Dominion style.

You can search guild traders for a specific chapter of most motifs, AD included.