The eternal struggle of storage space

Ringeren

How do you guys manage to find room for all your stuff? I'm trying to get back into the game after almost a year break, and i find my bank has 460/480 slots taken, i got all 8 housing coffers full, 2 bank alts ~100 slots and ofcourse i got craft bag.

Item sets are by far the biggest part, and even though i'm sure i could sell off a small part of them, most needs to be collected because you never know when they change a set bonus or release a new set that synergise perfectly with an existing set. And it's not like i hoard everything, only the sets that i think has potential.

Furniture takes some room (~150), i could just drop them off in apartments but it would be a mess to find and collect in the downtimes you spend decorating.

I have lots (200+) of cooking recipes, furniture designs and crafting motifs that are blue and above. These are items i would sell off if i find a new trading guild, but i find the trading guild system to be rather casual unfriendly. I used to be in a good one with quotas and fees etc, but the 30 item cap when you have 300 items to sell and constantly get new ones is horrible. Now you can just say "join more trading guilds", but that imo sounds like a logistical nightmare.

And then there are the ESO+ rewards, master writs i don't have motif for yet, soul shards (i have sold thousands of them, just keep a safety stock), the runebox fragments etc.

So do you guys have any helpful tips and tricks? I just can't motivate myself to do sotryline quests or dungeons or anything because i know i don't have room for more items, and that just turns me away from coming back

Glurin

You think you got storage problems? Try doing it with half the storage space and no crafting bag.

Ringeren wrote: »

And it's not like i hoard everything, only the sets that i think has potential.

Said every hoarder ever.

For starters, you could make some decisions regarding those sets. Maybe add some extra filters besides "has potential", like how hard was it to farm and how easy would it be to replace if you do decide to get it later. Or maybe make a judgement call as to just how likely it is that that set will be worth something "someday".

Next, join a trade guild. Don't want to join more than one? That's fine. Just join the one and do what every other retailer does when they have too much stock. Lower your asking price. Encourage the item to sell faster. That will have the added benefit of attracting more customers to that guild's store. Don't let greed override logic and practicality. You don't need to get top dollar on every item.

For furniture, get yourself a warehouse or two. I nice large house with lots of furnishing slots is best, but even small ones will do. Yeah, it can be a pain to retrieve the items later, but it gets them out of your bank, and the bank is where you want items with a shorter turnaround time.

Once you're done sorting out your inventory, maintain it. Don't just keep throwing stuff in there thinking "I'll sort it out later." because when later comes you're going to have this huge pile of junk to sort through all at once.

Saucy_Jack

Get the Magic Sorter addon, and assign various houses to be "storage" houses. Run it, clear your furniture out of inventory, off of alts and out of your bank.

I have SO much more room now.

ShawnLaRock

Fingers-crossed for an extra mule, err, “character“ slot - so I can pack ‘em full o’ junk after I experience the Greymoor story.

S.

Nightowl_74

I deconstruct or sell almost all gear, store extra furniture in apartments, and if my recipes get out of hand I use them with another character to avoid feeling they entirely went to waste. My inventory stays at around 120/180 bank slots and 110/160 on my person....I don't buy storage coffers and I think the one I got for free is filled with some junk I put there ages ago.

That's just the system I use now because at one point I was constantly juggling a bare minimum of free slots and I could see that buying more would be a short-lived solution.

Mix

The more room they give me, the more stuff I find to fill it lol.

I am really into housing though so most of my space is filled with furniture, including several storage houses (DecoTrack is amazing), but I also store some things on my mules (especially gear I am not sure I want to decon yet)

Tigerseye

Ringeren wrote: »

How do you guys manage to find room for all your stuff?

I don't.

It's getting increasingly awkward, as I don't rate the "Make loads of alts and alt accounts." storage solution, which is always offered.

All I can do is decon most gear (whether I might need it, in future, or not) and reconsider my future in the game.

Whether that is in general, or just as far as taking part in any serious content is concerned.

[snip]

That just adds insult to injury.

We deserve better, especially if we pay anything extra for this game (via a sub and/or Crown purchases).

As a reminder, all other games of this kind I have played provide extra storage on a regular basis.

Each and every time there has been a content expansion (and therefore, an expansion of drops), there has been a storage expansion to go with it.

Whether that be via bigger bags/a bag space expansion and/or more bank space being made available.

There is, therefore, no way anyone is ever going to convince me that this game should have some kind of special dispensation to be different from these other games, in this way, or that it is the players' fault, somehow, when they don't enjoy it when it is.

[Edited to remove Baiting]

OrphanHelgen

navystylz_ESO wrote: »

Ringeren wrote: »

How do you guys manage to find room for all your stuff?

[Quoted post was removed]

You don't "need" anything if this is your argument. This game is reworking sets every patch, that's my reason at least for holding on to sets. Also, someone have playstyle of changing builds and making new builds. It's true tho, maybe you don't have inventory issue, but others have. Game come out with 9 new sets and 20 reworks, and what we get for inventory management? A crown store pet with +5?

Tigerseye

Glurin wrote: »

You think you got storage problems? Try doing it with half the storage space and no crafting bag.

...or you could try not calling the people who finance your playing of the game rude names?

You play for free, over and above the original purchase price, which may be next-to-nothing if you wait and shop around.

So, maybe you consider anything you get to be a bonus?

However, some of us pay-to-play and have good reason to believe we are not receiving what we are paying for, relative to other games of this type.

Remember, when you are calling people "hoarders" that there are equally (or more) rude names people can call people who don't pay their way for things...

Tigerseye

Tigerseye wrote: »

Ringeren wrote: »

How do you guys manage to find room for all your stuff?

I don't.

It's getting increasingly awkward, as I don't rate the "Make loads of alts and alt accounts." storage solution, which is always offered.

All I can do is decon most gear (whether I might need it, in future, or not) and reconsider my future in the game.

Whether that is in general, or just as far as taking part in any serious content is concerned.

...and I don't appreciate certain people calling me a hoarder.

That just adds insult to injury.

We deserve better, especially if we pay anything extra for this game (via a sub and/or Crown purchases).

As a reminder, all other games of this kind I have played provide extra storage on a regular basis.

Each and every time there has been a content expansion (and therefore, an expansion of drops), there has been a storage expansion to go with it.

Whether that be via bigger bags/a bag space expansion and/or more bank space being made available.

There is, therefore, no way anyone is ever going to convince me that this game should have some kind of special dispensation to be different from these other games, in this way, or that it is the players' fault, somehow, when they don't enjoy it when it is.

[Edited to remove Baiting]

Edited to make my post make sense, again, without the offending description of those people.

Glurin

Tigerseye wrote: »

You play for free,

Hardly. Just because I don't drain my wallet with a monthly sub doesn't mean I pay nothing or that my opinion is somehow less valuable.

But more to the point, you're complaining about 480 bank slots not being enough to keep all your stuff in when I seem to do fine with half that and no crafting bag to indiscriminately shovel mats into. And that doesn't even take into account storage chests, bag and furnishing slots. How exactly does that say you're not a hoarder when I consider myself to be a bit of one?

LuxLunae

Ringeren wrote: »

How do you guys manage to find room for all your stuff? I'm trying to get back into the game after almost a year break, and i find my bank has 460/480 slots taken, i got all 8 housing coffers full, 2 bank alts ~100 slots and ofcourse i got craft bag.

Item sets are by far the biggest part, and even though i'm sure i could sell off a small part of them, most needs to be collected because you never know when they change a set bonus or release a new set that synergise perfectly with an existing set. And it's not like i hoard everything, only the sets that i think has potential.

Furniture takes some room (~150), i could just drop them off in apartments but it would be a mess to find and collect in the downtimes you spend decorating.

I have lots (200+) of cooking recipes, furniture designs and crafting motifs that are blue and above. These are items i would sell off if i find a new trading guild, but i find the trading guild system to be rather casual unfriendly. I used to be in a good one with quotas and fees etc, but the 30 item cap when you have 300 items to sell and constantly get new ones is horrible. Now you can just say "join more trading guilds", but that imo sounds like a logistical nightmare.

And then there are the ESO+ rewards, master writs i don't have motif for yet, soul shards (i have sold thousands of them, just keep a safety stock), the runebox fragments etc.

So do you guys have any helpful tips and tricks? I just can't motivate myself to do sotryline quests or dungeons or anything because i know i don't have room for more items, and that just turns me away from coming back

TAke a month and destroy everything....

or wait until zos packages it as a QoL crown store item...

while tossing EVEN MORE ITEMS AT US!!!

Wandering_Immigrant

Gear sets: I make a few distinctions here. First, is it overland or dungeon? Overland is easy to farm and even easier to buy off a trader, so unless I know I'm going to use it, like I'm currently leveling a character I'm planning to give it to, I'm far less likely to hold onto it. Second distinction is weapon/body/jewelry. Weapons can be hard to get, especially when you need a specific one, so I'm far more likely to hold onto weapons from a set that I may or may not ever use. Same with jewelry, unless it's overland from a zone with dolmens, in which case I only hold them indefinitely when they're purple. Third is trait, if I have a couple pieces with the ideal trait I might keep those and get rid of the rest.

I do still have hoarder tendencies and hold on to anything that seems vaguely usefully, but, I go through a spring cleaning process whenever inventory starts to get tight, where I ask myself a few questions. Have I levelled the type of character that I'm holding this set for? If so did I bother using the set? If not then I'm probably not going to and it can go, maybe I'll keep the weapons maybe not. If I did try it, did it come anywhere near what I envisioned it doing, have I given it any thoery crafter thoughts since trying it or did I just stuff it back in storage and not think about it again? If I haven't even levelled the character yet, am I going to? How much of a niche build is this set good for, and do I already have a character that fills that niche with another setup I already like? Is it something I'm excited about trying or do I only ever think of it when I see the set? If I'm excited about it ok then let's make that character already, even if I'm not ready to level I can still move that gear from the bank to their inventory to get it out of my way.

You have to be honest with yourself and discerning, and some decisions might seem hard at the time, but for the most part, the stuff I've cleaned out, I've never thought about again.

Furniture: Get a warehouse. One big one, not a bunch of scattered apartments. I use the free house in rimmen because it's max capacity and has open spaces that actually look like a warehouse. I actually really enjoy arranging the furniture in there to look like an actual storage warehouse because I'm OCD AF. That place is as much one of my designed homes as any other, I use the outdoor area for my training dummy and always enjoy passing through the entry area where the warehouse is. It's like going to your parent's house and rummaging through the garage where they keep all your old junk you didn't take with you when you moved out.

Recipes: If you don't want to join a guild there's no point in holding them to put on a trader. Your only other options are to dispense them out to your other characters or NPC them. You could also seek out one of those open world live auctions that go on and try to sell them as a package, but if guild traders aren't casual enough for you I doubt that would be. I find the trader system to be pretty casual. I'm in 4 social guilds who actively seek out traders, we don't go for the top spots but we get some pretty decent ones, we don't always win our bids but between the four guilds I always have a trader available. All of them are free to use for all members, I have donated on occasion just because I appreciate having a trader, but there's no pressure in any of my guilds to do so.

Most importantly, just be organized, have a system and stick to it. Every chest/coffer should have a specific purpose. Anything used by a certain character should stay on that character, this compartmentalizes things so every character only has to worry about their own inventory, I go so far as if 2 characters use same set I'll farm 2 versions of it rather than share 1, sure it takes up more inventory overall that way but it's also more organized, which is more important than the actual slot count.

No MMO I've ever played has had infinite inventory, you always have to manage it in some way. I'm not maxed in any of my inventories, my bank has 440, the most any character has is 180, and I still have 2 or 3 chests/coffers to go, but I always have room in my bank to stuff junk in as I go through my day. And that's with 2 chests and a coffer being wasted on treasure maps and quest disguises because I am, at heart, a bit of a hoarder.

Tigerseye

Glurin wrote: »

Tigerseye wrote: »

You play for free,

Hardly. Just because I don't drain my wallet with a monthly sub doesn't mean I pay nothing or that my opinion is somehow less valuable.

If we take your argument to its logical conclusion, someone who buys something from a thrift store, for 1/100th of its original price, has every right to go into the store that originally sold it, with no intention of buying anything on sale, let alone for full price.

...then to rudely tell the genuine customers there, who are giving their heartfelt feedback, that there is something wrong with them and they should stop complaining, because the thrift store customer is happy with his bargain.

Because the thrift store customer's opinion is, according to your logic, as valuable as the genuine customer's opinion.

They would kick someone like that out of the store...

I have no idea what you, personally, do or don't spend on the game and I have no desire to offend people who, genuinely, can't afford to pay regularly for the game and who are not being rude to others, who do.

However, I do know that people, who regularly pay a sub, should have a right to voice their opinion on here, without being trolled by people who don't.

Glurin

Really? That's where you want to take this? You spend more money therefore only your opinion is "genuine"? Think hard about that before you decide to continue down this path, because it's not going to go well for you.

Dusk_Coven

Mostly it's about mindset. Ultimately you will probably have to change what you decide to keep. https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/519855/bank-space-if-we-had-more-space-would-you-still-run-out-of-space/p1

SWTOR has a huge amount of storage space, even before giving their version of the Crafting Bag for free. And some people still have all that space jammed with stuff (mostly, I think, with common drops from their version of crown crates, which doesn't have a convert-to-gems type option).

Ringeren wrote: »

Furniture takes some room (~150), i could just drop them off in apartments but it would be a mess to find and collect in the downtimes you spend decorating.

Finding it later isn't so bad because you don't have to locate it in the house. There's a list of all the furnishings currently placed and you can pick from that list to recall it to inventory.

Sange13

You guys are forgetting the dumbest part of all this: The inventory limitations are entirely arbitrary and contrived. Even discounting the craft bag side of it that forces you into the monthly sub, there's not really a good reason we should even have to sort through and choose which sets to keep--especially given the time, effort, or resources put into acquiring them in the first place.

MasterSpatula

Inventory Management is the real endgame.

LadyNalcarya

Yeah, they keep adding new sets and items, but no new inventory space (except for that boar pet). Why not to add a few extra upgrades for banks/inventories and more coffers to buy? Those are sold in crown store as well, after all.
They also need to add a crafting bag for furnishings. Managing them is a nightmare, I have several storage houses and it's really annoying to teleport back and forth to pick stuff.

VoxAdActa

You being psychologically unable to deconstruct a pair of boots from the most garbage set in the game really sounds more like a "you" problem than a "ZOS" problem.

Consider for a second, all the replies you've gotten. There exists a large number of people who don't have this kind of trouble that you're describing. In fact, MOST people don't have this kind of trouble. I'd be willing to bet that even having 480 bank slots is in the top 2% when comparing everyone's bank slot purchases. Perhaps put some reflection into why this problem isn't even close to universal.

That said, you can mail items to an alt account, or someone you trust, and they'll stay there for 30 days, at which point you mail them back. My ex and I used to do that with Cyrodill siege equipment so it didn't take up bank space. There's still an upper limit to the amount of mail you can have in your inbox, and the number of items on each letter, but maybe that will help?

merevie

Price. If it is cheap why keep it. Buy it when it's needed.

Nerfed. Let go of BIS armor from the past -unless gold/prismatic enchant.

BIS -top 3 sets for that toon or not?

Niche or going to be regularly used?

Weapons from DLC dgs -keep or cry later

Weapons from other dgs -if you pvp (stones) you can convert them to the best trait rather than keep collecting and hoping

Jewelry -get the golden sets from pvp weekend trader steadily following BIS principal -zone purples are cheap so no go on those unless being worn -this also takes away millions of hours of pve grind -just have to be patient with rotation during the year

Keep the sets a toon wears on that character -so healer may carry all 4 of its sets -easier to find too

Guild banks -I have two guilds where there is genuine shared gear in the bank -that can go very wrong -but useful stuff I don't need atm goes there and every now and then I raid them for a piece

Friends -experienced player friend groups have pretty much everything waiting to find a home among their friends -ask around -give out yourself

*If you build a housing furniture warehouse put shelving in for objects first...floor piles get out of control

I have one 'pack' toon. She holds key fragments, bits of collectibles and gold sets that are far from BIS atm.

Donate often -I have a guild with lots of new people, pvp and pve guilds -if it's under 2k, useful to someone but too annoying to sell I just drop things there e.g. intricates

Narvuntien

I sell my materials in a guild store, several guide stores and when they don't sell they stay in my mail for 30 days. So that is two months not in my inventory.

I decon anything that doesn't have good traits and only keep if they are from a popular or valuable set.

radiostar

I went through and deconned all my impen traited armor since that is going to be in the battle spirit this patch. That freed up a lot, since I banked things for 16 chars. I'll probably regret it later, but I can always rerun content or retrait stuff.

Kiyakotari

Everyone knows that the IMMG (Inventory Management Mini Game) is the true end game of all MMO.

mikikatze

Mix wrote: »

I am really into housing though so most of my space is filled with furniture, including several storage houses (DecoTrack is amazing), but I also store some things on my mules (especially gear I am not sure I want to decon yet)

Thanks for the addon tip - sounds good, will download!

Wandering_Immigrant wrote: »

I use the free house in riften because it's max capacity and has open spaces that actually look like a warehouse.

Which house is that, and is it still available for free?

Wandering_Immigrant

Uh I meant Rimmen not riften sorry, the one you get for doing the northern elsweyre quest line. Hall of the lunar champion.

mikikatze

Ah, OK. Yes, that's my storage house as well.

Moonsorrow

As a player who does both pve and pvp with account(s) full of characters.. the strugge is real. I have always bank full, storage chests full and characters full on gear/items.

I wish Bank space would be doubled again in potential capacity. I mean on top of ESO+ double space. I need way more room.

I have so many sets golded up, so many jewelries and weapons with different traits for different setups.. but space is running out and new sets come so fast.

ZOS please HELP!

So hard to even move gears between characters without it being sometimes so painful process that not even wanna do it..

Also, i wish Alliance War Sieges would STACK. That alone would help a bit atleast.

AlAbaster

Ringeren wrote: »

How do you guys manage to find room for all your stuff? … So do you guys have any helpful tips and tricks?

If your focus is on stuff, no amount of extra space will ever be sufficient because your desire for stuff will always increase to 120% of however much space you are given. This is how the hoarding mindset that plagues our culture works, and why "self storage" is a multi-billion dollar industry.

The trick is not to find enough space for your stuff. It is to eliminate the compulsion for stuff from your mind. I suggest you start by getting rid of everything you aren't going to actively use in the next ten days. That would be your first step to recovery

aussie500

I have played both with and without ESO+, it was very stressful without, since the adventures were curtailed by how much storage space I had before I had to deconstruct. I have 3 accounts now, all with at least 2 trading guilds, main has 3. Main account originally went the way of creating a lot of characters with maxed out storage space to hold all the armor and weapons, they also tried out a lot of the sets, since they can all fight, they are not just bank mules. Some unfortunately had to retire to hold yet more stuff, they are mainly writ rats now. The guild I used to do a lot of stuff with has mainly all left to play other games, so ESO is more a single player game for me these days. My main account started with no ESO+, I could not afford it at the time, which is how they ended up with 16 characters as ZOS kept adding more stuff to the game we had to find space for.

Second account was so to get more bank space and one of my guilds needed another guild bank, for storage, you think it is bad for us as players, think of the trading guilds who have to try and stuff everything for auctions and raffles in only 500 slots, along with treasure maps and rune boxes that either cannot be stored in a guild bank or do not stack. A lot of my guilds just gave up when the guild system was so painfully slow.

My third account had to play for a long while with no ESO+, they were going the multiple characters path and got up to 5, they will eventually get 6. All 3 accounts currently have ESO+ I got sick of juggling things around all the time. They improved the guild bank situation where I could actually use it without tearing my hair out and wanting to mash the keyboard to bits, I slowly gave each account back it's ESO+. I was not subscribing to play a game that caused me so much aggravation and where something as basic as problems with disconnects in the guild bank usage was not fixed. I originally cancelled all 3 ESO+ subscriptions because of that attitude, I could still play without ESO+, but it was not as much fun.

Fortunately only the main account collects furniture items, everything for housing ends up in one account using all the house chests and a lot of bank space, some has spread out being dumped in houses I have not decorated yet, but most was collected and stored when I got ESO+ back so it could be accessed during decorating. I was a bit disappointment with housing and have lost a lot of enthusiasm for it, but eventually will decorate all the houses, till then I will just keep hoarding the stuff, with the new chapter, make character 17 to carry around yet more armour, weapons and stuff on my main account. Only the main account is getting the new chapter.

The alt account with only 2 characters had space in the bank, with ESO+ they have more space than they are ever going to need, they do not collect housing items, do not collect much armor and manage to sell off most of the good stuff they gain in their travels, not even their house chests are full, although my main account might yet contribute to that.

The alt account with 5 characters has run out of space, most are not going to be doing research, it just takes up too much space saving all that stuff, only one character is doing it and he shortly will have to take all his research gear out of the bank and carry it himself. The others research the odd trait they might need to transmute their own gear, most of the stuff gets deconstructed. Only the youngest 2 are still deconstructing jewelry and glyphs, shortly they will be finished, there is one main account baby still doing jewelry. Main character on each account usually carries all the surveys and treasure maps, but on the 3rd account the third character is shortly going to get that job. Second character needs space to go adventuring. All 3 accounts do master writs, but still most go to my over achieving master crafter on the main account, since she knows all the motifs, the master writs do not get a chance to build up. I try to not let the surveys build up, with no events recently I almost have that under control. I have finally sold off nearly all those gold runeboxes we got with all the events, I have a guild bank that was holding them, and all the recipes, furniture plans, motifs, war supplies, unbound stuff I want to keep and fragments of things. It is great having a guild bank to store stuff in, and especially useful to move stuff between accounts. All three gradually sell them off till the next event brings in more. Anything white or green and not worth much is read by any who do not know it yet, with no guild to donate them to these days, they might all eventually get vendored. A lot of max level green recipes are just sold to the NPC vendor, the excess filled soul gems go the same way. It would be nice if they added some gold value to lockpicks, I used to give them away to the new players, but these days I never get time.

Tigerseye

Glurin wrote: »

Really? That's where you want to take this? You spend more money therefore only your opinion is "genuine"? Think hard about that before you decide to continue down this path, because it's not going to go well for you.

Yes, that is where I'm taking this, because "this" is a conversation about a product we buy, namely ESO+.

A product that some of us do not think ZOS is delivering enough on, relative to similar subs in other games.

When you pay for a product, you have a right to comment about it; that is how "this" works.

Welcome to the world.