Doing Writs in Solitude

xaraan

Those of us that are into our writs/crafting are always curious about how well a new zone will stack up to Vivec, Alinor, Rimmen, Mournhold, etc.

But Solitude comes up very short in this area. I was hoping with the city behind it's own load with a door it would be a good city to use for a home base as loading in would be smoother. But having Alchemy, Enchanting, Clothing stations behind doors will kill this as an option IMO.

I'm not concerned with it being the best option, hard to beat certain other cities for their convenience and distance between wayshrine/bank/stable is also a factor. But putting half the stations behind a door load (even though they are faster that a full load screen) will prevent it from being a decent option.

Nothing wrong with keeping an outfit station indoors or having some indoor options, but I would definitely recommend adding an outdoor station of each beside the front door. There is definitely room to put alchemy and enchanting stations on either side of it's entrance. And there should be a way to work a spot in for clothing.

Taleof2Cities

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

Hurbster

Ok, cheers for the info. By the sounds of it I'll still do my writs in Alinor. It makes a heck of a difference if you are doing writs on multiple characters. Efficiency is everything.

Hotdog_23

Guess I will stay in Civic city for writs. Thanks for the info.

Nemesis7884

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

if you have 18 characters thats 18 load screens ;-)

Nord_Raseri

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

if you have 18 characters thats 18 load screens ;-)

Take how many stations are inside and times those by 2(in and back out) and then times that by 18. After that might as well add the 36ish load screens for logging in and out for each character

Taleof2Cities

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

if you have 18 characters thats 18 load screens ;-)

Take how many stations are inside and times those by 2(in and back out) and then times that by 18. After that might as well add the 36ish load screens for logging in and out for each character

18 load screens in and out multiplied by 5 seconds each ... looks like you're missing out on a minute and a half.

Super sorry to hear that is immersion-breaking for you.

heaven13

Though there are those who choose to discuss this in a super passive aggressive tone, for many of us the convenience of writ stations and turn-ins is a huge deal. Rawl'ka is still favored by many due to the ease of access. Vivec is personally my #1 due to the convenient, open access to the bank as well as everything else. When load screens are already long between characters (and man are they ever for me), I want to do my writs with as little extra wait time as possible. There are other things I would like to do in the game and only a limited time I have available. An extra 36 load screens, per station behind a door, WILL add up. I'd love to move out of Vivec but I can't give up the convenience.

redspecter23

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

if you have 18 characters thats 18 load screens ;-)

Take how many stations are inside and times those by 2(in and back out) and then times that by 18. After that might as well add the 36ish load screens for logging in and out for each character

18 load screens in and out multiplied by 5 seconds each ... looks like you're missing out on a minute and a half.

Super sorry to hear that is immersion-breaking for you.

I'm doing 27 toons a day. 2 load screens per character at an average of 5 seconds per load screen. That's over 3 minutes of load screens a day. Over the course of the year that's over 1000 extra minutes of time spent on loading screens that are all preventable by just going to another city. For me, it has little to do with immersion and more to do with efficiency. ZOS can design their cities any way they choose. I'm not overly bothered by it. Not every city can be an ideal writ location. I just won't be doing writs there at all if it's not the fastest one for me.

Blacknight841

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

I have never had a load screen in this game that takes only 5 seconds.

Bucky_13

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

Immersion is irrelevant, time is what matters and doors add a lot of it when you do the daily writs on multiple characters. I might of daily writs there with one or two characters for a change of scenery, but that's it for me.

EDIT: I don't think you know what immersion means, the definition that's most relevant in this case is "deep mental involvement in something". Which none of us are really talking about.

xaraan

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

If you have to exaggerate to make a point, you may not have much of a point.

And I said nothing about immersion either.

I simply said it would be a deal breaker for the site being a prime spot to do writs. At no point did I even try and exaggerate that into territory where I made it sound like no one could ever do writs there. Nor did I say "game breaker."

Frankly, my post will make all the sense in the world to anyone that does a lot of writs every day. We've all had discussions on what makes one city prime vs. another. Obviously proximity to various points is a factor and distance between stations being one of them. A load screen, even a minor one is noticeable and makes it less useful than just using Alinor or Vivec for example. And that doesn't count that even 'quick' load screens like that can hang up for some people and end up becoming long loading screens.

I point it out because it might be something worth addressing on zos' part by doing something as easily as placing stations outside the doors in a little nook, which would take minimal effort on their part.

If your solution to anyone offering feedback in ways to improve the game is to get immediately defensive and attack them for things they did not say, you might want to take a new look at how helpful you really are to the games development.

But I do think they seem to have been on the right track the last few expansions with creating solid crafting hubs and missed an opportunity with Solitude. Add that to the fact that many like to use the new city as a home base, plus have a home there, and do their writs there, it will fall out of that as an option for some because of that.

Considering the fix doesn't involve a major rework of the city, it's very do-able if they care at all for the feedback.

Dusk_Coven

I think area design should trump efficiency. Otherwise you might as well have an efficient template you rubber stamp on every major city.
The existing stations are really already a conveniently miniaturized abstraction of the real infrastructure that should reasonably support each craft.

That said, citizens would also have an eye for efficiency and put some things closer together in a common sense way according to what layout is available. ZOS just needs to avoid a cloned look for the cities and maintain their identity and ambiance.

If there's too much running around, go somewhere else or do it in your own home where you can lay out all the tables in a convenient ring very close to the entry point, or something. All we need are two more furnishings: writ board and writ turn-in. 5k crowns a piece probably.

MajThorax

I guess it's normal to put some crafting stations inside buildings. Solitude is chilly.

SeaGtGruff

Sounds like Vulkhel Guard and Wayrest, where the Alchemy, Enchanting, Jewelry, and Provisioning crafting stations are all in a building with a door. It's like that in other cities as well, if not to the same degree. Daggerfall has the Enchanting, Jewelry, and Provisioning crafting stations in a building with a door. Windhelm has Alchemy, Enchanting, and Provisioning in one building with a door, and Woodworking in another building with a door. Honestly, it's more a question of how close together or spread apart they are, not to mention how far away the turn-in crates are. And another factor for characters who are still leveling can be how far away the stablemaster is. Vulkhel Guard stinks in that respect.

Davadin

i like Deshaan. its not great, it has loading doors, but y'know what, it's immersive to me.... so be it.

if I need speed, I'll go to Northern Elswyr.

SeaGtGruff

I prefer Vivec City over Rimmen, because all the stations are reasonably close together, the turn-in crates aren't very far away, the bank is right there in the center of the crafting stations, the outlaws refuge is also close by, and the mount trainer is also reasonably close by. Rimmen's stations are nicely arranged, but the other things-- crates, banker, fence, and stablemaster-- are much more spread out than in Vivec City.

Nevertheless, I actually do my crafting in different cities on different characters-- Daggerfall, Windhelm, Vivec City, Rimmen, and Vulkhel Guard.

Nord_Raseri

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Nord_Raseri wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

if you have 18 characters thats 18 load screens ;-)

Take how many stations are inside and times those by 2(in and back out) and then times that by 18. After that might as well add the 36ish load screens for logging in and out for each character

18 load screens in and out multiplied by 5 seconds each ... looks like you're missing out on a minute and a half.

Super sorry to hear that is immersion-breaking for you.

[snip]18 characters times the loadscreens for stations that are inside the buildings and then times that by 2( For entering and exiting said buildings). As for "Super sorry to hear that is immersion-breaking for you", not once have I made a complaint about the loadscreens in this thread(was just clarifyingnumbers) nor have I once said anything about "immersion". I do my writs wherever I happen to be.

[edited for bait]

lookstwice

That blows was looking forward to doing writs there on all my toons. Looks like I'm staying in Vivec then.

FrancisCrawford

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Sorry to hear that one load screen is a game breaker.

I’m into doing writs, too, and that extra 5 seconds on each side won’t ruin my immersion ... not even a little.

if you have 18 characters thats 18 load screens ;-)

36, actually.

Or, if it's three different buildings, then 108.

Banana

Yep. Doors are bad.

alterfenixeb17_ESO

Actually in this case yes and no.

Yes: Consumables and jewel crafting are indeed behind the door so one needs to use it.
No: They are in the same room so the biggest issue may be number of players doing writs and not the door itself. Other than that it is same design as in Craglorn really - you need to use door twice: to enter the room and to leave it.

Basically it is indeed not as efficient as in Alinor but then let's face it - no other location matches Alinor in terms of writs completion (not even Vivec or Rimmen, sorry) but it is definitely close to Vivec and Rimmen and better than in Craglorn. Comparing to Viivec and Rimmen it's rather matter of taste than writ completion efficiency (and also lag in case of Rimmen). Compared to Craglorn location of all those outdoor stations is much better. Not much running and jumping around just to complete 3 writs - all in a single place still.

Sturmfaenger

Its a cold northern country, so of course they will do crafting indoors. They are indoors in Wrothgar too, for example. Imagine you try to tailor a skirt outside with shivering fingers, or your alchemy ingredients freezing in their bottles.
I will keep doing my crafting dailies in Mournhold though (where alchemy, enchanting, provisioning and jewelry are also behind doors, which I don't mind) - its a free world.

xaraan

So what I'm seeing is that most people that even make excuses for the way it's designed or don't care, still actually agree.

It's less efficient than any of the new Expansion Cities that have come out since Morrowind and less than a couple other main cities.

So I think it's worthwhile feedback.

As in, if they didn't realize they set it up in a way that will make people less likely to use it for serious use, then it's something they now know and can look at. If they did think about that and didn't care or actually wanted to push people away from using the city in that manner in hopes to create an impression the server was more stable, then it won't matter.

kylewwefan

How do you deal with RawlKa? That place is terrible. Same with Vivec.

It’s Alinor or bust for me. I couldn’t get used to anything else now at this point.

luen79rwb17_ESO

Oh dear, not every city has to be absolutely convient in that matter. That would make each city design boring, bland and predictable. There are plenty of city options if you want to do fast writs.

xaraan

Meh, setting two stations outside into nooks on either side of an entrance to a shop wouldn't change the city design or make it more bland, etc.

woufff

I am getting sick when I read the word "efficiency" in a game...

I need to be enough "efficient" in my job, when I'm in a game I want to pass time, not be "efficient"

ku5h

redspecter23 wrote: »

I'm doing 27 toons a day. 2 load screens per character at an average of 5 seconds per load screen. That's over 3 minutes of load screens a day. Over the course of the year that's over 1000 extra minutes of time spent on loading screens that are all preventable by just going to another city.

Sry but this had me laughing.
You're doing 27 toons every, but you're concerned about 15h of loading over a year.
How much time do you loose doing 27 toons worth of writs every day for a year? A month?

Dagoth_Rac

kylewwefan wrote: »

How do you deal with RawlKa? That place is terrible. Same with Vivec.

It’s Alinor or bust for me. I couldn’t get used to anything else now at this point.

The crafting stations and bank and wayshrine and outlaw dens and guild traders are too spread apart in Alinor. Yes, if all you do is log in, do writs, log out, Alinor might be good. But if you do any other kind of content in addition to writs, Vivec City is fantastic. That peninsula to the west of the cantons might be the most wonderfully service dense area in the game. It might be an unintentional side effect of the city being under construction and having to cram goods and services into a smaller footprint of usable land.

kind_hero

@xaraan , I feel you

I also feel the need for a convenient crafting place. The problem with Vivec is exactly how convenient it is, because so many people use it. That's why other good crafting places like that are needed. People will choose the place according to their preference, they will pick the town they like. I like Alinor, but in Vivec you have the banker so close. I get several intricate items which I do not need anymore, but I like to put them into guild banks for people who might need those. So, I tend to use the guild banker/trader after writs.

I hope they will look at the feedback and create a Vivec style crafting hub either in Solitude or in Blackreach.