ZOS Help! I have 92 surveys to do

Calm_Fury

As others have said, this might be a problem, but personally I would rather have a "glue" or something, like they used to have for crystal motifs back in the day, to just make several surveys into one by loosing efficiency.

If you want full rewards and have the time, you can do it 5 times.

If you don't have the patience, you pay, say, 1k gold to get the glue, join 5 but they end up worth 3.5 surverys or something like htat, just to reduce the actual time, with the corresponding penalty for the convenience.

tmbrinks

Starlock wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

I need those mats. How else am I supposed to be self-sufficient and not be at the mercy of the guild traders?

Then collect the surveys. They are most definitely worth doing, there are almost no other activities (other than the daily writs themselves) that are as efficient on a value/time ratio in the game.

I am doing them, as I said in my original post. I have done them in the past. I'm asking for a quality of life improvement. Who would argue against that?

Welcome to the official ESO forums - where some customers will routinely argue against sensible quality of life improvements.

Personally, I don't care one way or another on surveys, but it makes sense for our characters to be able to use our hirelings to collect surveys. They already collect bits and scraps, so why can't we tell them to also go to this spot and gather things? It would make sense.

It's your opinion that they're sensible. Some of us are looking at the overall health of the economy of the game, and not just out for ourselves and our own niche playstyle.

You... you do realize that caring so much about the alleged overall health of the economy of the game is also a niche playstyle, right? Trading is a totally optional activity in this game.

Perhaps... although I've always been understood that niche activities and things are smaller in nature. The "economy" touches virtually all aspects of the game (but not all admittingly).

It's just interesting that most people who post an idea in these forums seem to think that it should just gain universal approval and that ZoS should just immediately implement it... as if there shouldn't be any debate or dissention at all. (This isn't exclusive to ESO, it's a universal thing)

I get the frustration when you think you have a great idea and you propose it and then some people don't like it... or even hate it... or provide feedback on it that is negative... I've had plenty of them here myself.

StarOfElyon

Some people expect you to abandon your idea because they don't like it. I like the idea. I disagree with the counter argument. I'm not budging. How hard is it to stop insisting?

TheImperfect

It would be great if when you got 10 you could collect all 10 at once.

redspecter23

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Some people expect you to abandon your idea because they don't like it. I like the idea. I disagree with the counter argument. I'm not budging. How hard is it to stop insisting?

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what other players think or even what you think. It only matters what ZOS thinks. We can speculate back and forth about what they might do if given the choice. It's my belief that they have no desire to make things any easier on players unless it also comes with a nerf to the overall yield. It might benefit players, but so would a PVE weapon that does 500,000 damage per swing. You have to consider all implications of any proposed change. The change that you have proposed is 100% beneficial to players. Often these sort of changes come with some sort of downside to compensate.

Hotdog_23

What I wish ZOS would do for QOL is place them in a special part of our bag that all of our characters can access as we play the game and not have to remove them from inventory to each character personal bag in order for the surveys to show up.

Makes sense to me to collect them naturally as I play the game and not as a separate task, that I set out to do. As it stands now, they are just piling up in my bank.

How about even grouping them up in one in inventory. Say all the Glenumbra survey together in the bank. This would make it easier to at least pull them out of the bank to do in each zone rather then sort them by all alchemy, all blacksmithing together etc.

Do this grouping for each zone with all treasure chest maps as well with the surveys

Stay safe and have fun

techyeshic

It's really not bad if you just do them as you go. Let them pile up like that, then of course it will feel tedious. Just imagine if you could collect daily writs for a month, then had to turn each 1 in before starting the next one of that craft. Would you want hireling to do that for you as well?

Now they might get the idea of a fix by having your survey expire after 24 hours. Backlog issue solved.

tmbrinks

Hotdog_23 wrote: »

What I wish ZOS would do for QOL is place them in a special part of our bag that all of our characters can access as we play the game and not have to remove them from inventory to each character personal bag in order for the surveys to show up.

Makes sense to me to collect them naturally as I play the game and not as a separate task, that I set out to do. As it stands now, they are just piling up in my bank.

How about even grouping them up in one in inventory. Say all the Glenumbra survey together in the bank. This would make it easier to at least pull them out of the bank to do in each zone rather then sort them by all alchemy, all blacksmithing together etc.

Do this grouping for each zone with all treasure chest maps as well with the surveys

Stay safe and have fun

By all means, they should be in the crafting bag, thus accessible by all characters at any time.

Starlock

tmbrinks wrote: »

Perhaps... although I've always been understood that niche activities and things are smaller in nature. The "economy" touches virtually all aspects of the game (but not all admittingly).

It's just interesting that most people who post an idea in these forums seem to think that it should just gain universal approval and that ZoS should just immediately implement it... as if there shouldn't be any debate or dissention at all. (This isn't exclusive to ESO, it's a universal thing)

I get the frustration when you think you have a great idea and you propose it and then some people don't like it... or even hate it... or provide feedback on it that is negative... I've had plenty of them here myself.

That's fair. Doesn't hurt to make the suggestion, though. As I said, I don't really consider myself having a horse in this particular race because I don't do daily writs consistently - plus I rather like wandering the beautiful landscape sometimes and collecting them. Still, it wouldn't bother me if survey collection was automated it to some degree for the hardcore writ folks who want to do other things with their time.

RedMuse

StarOfElyon wrote: »

I've been doing my surveys off and on over the past couple of days and I still have 92 left in my inventory. I can't do this. I do not have time.

I've asked in the past if you could implement a way to help us deal with these surveys. We have hirelings. I don't know if anyone puts points into that perk but I don't. I would if I could give 1 - 3 surveys of each type to my hireling to retrieve the mats for each day.

I feel overwhelmed by the grind of this game. Everything is a grind. I can't spare the time to even simply play and enjoy the game.

Then don't let that many gather before you go and collect them? Like why? I go survey gather after 2-4 days depending on how many drop, I rarely have more than 10 or so at the same time. This isn't a grind, [snip]

[Edited to remove Baiting]

RedMuse

StarOfElyon wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

I need those mats. How else am I supposed to be self-sufficient and not be at the mercy of the guild traders?

Then collect the surveys. They are most definitely worth doing, there are almost no other activities (other than the daily writs themselves) that are as efficient on a value/time ratio in the game.

I am doing them, as I said in my original post. I have done them in the past. I'm asking for a quality of life improvement. Who would argue against that?

Welcome to the official ESO forums - where some customers will routinely argue against sensible quality of life improvements.

Personally, I don't care one way or another on surveys, but it makes sense for our characters to be able to use our hirelings to collect surveys. They already collect bits and scraps, so why can't we tell them to also go to this spot and gather things? It would make sense.

It's your opinion that they're sensible. Some of us are looking at the overall health of the economy of the game, and not just out for ourselves and our own niche playstyle.

I've already explained why the "economy" will be fine. If players want to gather their own materials, ZOS should help them. The only people who lose out are the sellers - sellers that might be using bots to gather mats - who can't jack prices up sky high because the demand MIGHT drop if everyone on ESO decided to gather their own materials. But we all know that many would rather depend on the convenience and the instant gratification of guild traders than to do writs and collect their materials. This hurts nothing. Give it up.

ZOS is already helping by letting us get surveys, which drops a much higher number of mats per node than a normal node. There is your help and you're whining about it.

Idk maybe ZOS should remove the surveys and that artificial boost to mat gathering, and just let us all do it the old fashioned way?

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Some people expect you to abandon your idea because they don't like it. I like the idea. I disagree with the counter argument. I'm not budging. How hard is it to stop insisting?

Um, back at ya? You don't want to budge but demand the rest of us do?

LadySinflower

You folks who don't want your surveys... I wish you could send them to me. I would happily collect them. I've never done writs on more than one character so I'm not collecting insane numbers of surveys weekly. The most I've ever accumulated at one time is about 50-60, and it took a very long time of not doing them to get that many. My qol suggestion is to unbind them so the ones who don't want them can sell/give them to the ones who do. I'm being sarcastic here but I do truly wish I could take the "burden" of your surveys off your hands for you.

etchedpixels

Stuff them all into chests and let them stack. Once you have 10 or more of a given map you go there and just keep collect, ride a short way off out of sight and back and repeat. There are a few that it's a pain to get far enough from but most you can just spin in a loop collecting them all.

volkeswagon

I do writs on 18 toons and always find the time to do them. Don't let them build up like you do. It's sort of like a hoarder asking for help to clean their house when if they did housework once a week there wouldn't be a problem.

Sephyr

tmbrinks wrote: »

I have a few to collect as well (maybe I'll edit in my main account when I get to it, still doing writs on the alt)... but I know that part of doing daily writs (and the ENORMOUS rewards that they have) is that I have the OPTION to go and collect the surveys for BONUS rewards.

Nobody is making you collect them. If they're a hassle, destroy them.

Unrelated, what addon are you using to track those? That would make my math so much easier!

tmbrinks

Sephyr wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

I have a few to collect as well (maybe I'll edit in my main account when I get to it, still doing writs on the alt)... but I know that part of doing daily writs (and the ENORMOUS rewards that they have) is that I have the OPTION to go and collect the surveys for BONUS rewards.

Nobody is making you collect them. If they're a hassle, destroy them.

Unrelated, what addon are you using to track those? That would make my math so much easier!

Dolgubon's has a chat command to track the ones on your character or in your bank. IIRC it's /countsurveys (not in-game, so not 100% sure)

burglar

It would be nice if when using a survey the nodes give you the option to just multiply your results by the number of surveys in your inventory. I know this would decrease the diversity of what you receive, but it would be a nice compromise for those of us who don't want to run out of view of the node repeatedly just to get it to spawn hundreds of times.

Sephyr

tmbrinks wrote: »

Sephyr wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

I have a few to collect as well (maybe I'll edit in my main account when I get to it, still doing writs on the alt)... but I know that part of doing daily writs (and the ENORMOUS rewards that they have) is that I have the OPTION to go and collect the surveys for BONUS rewards.

Nobody is making you collect them. If they're a hassle, destroy them.

Unrelated, what addon are you using to track those? That would make my math so much easier!

Dolgubon's has a chat command to track the ones on your character or in your bank. IIRC it's /countsurveys (not in-game, so not 100% sure)

Sweet! I didn't know that about it! I guess I need to go back through my addons that've been updated over the past few years instead of just updating through minion. You're the best!

LadyDestiny

StarOfElyon wrote: »

I've been doing my surveys off and on over the past couple of days and I still have 92 left in my inventory. I can't do this. I do not have time.

I've asked in the past if you could implement a way to help us deal with these surveys. We have hirelings. I don't know if anyone puts points into that perk but I don't. I would if I could give 1 - 3 surveys of each type to my hireling to retrieve the mats for each day.

I feel overwhelmed by the grind of this game. Everything is a grind. I can't spare the time to even simply play and enjoy the game.

Why not collect the mats as you get the surveys? Why let them build up to this point of having that many?

StarOfElyon

LadyDestiny wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

I've been doing my surveys off and on over the past couple of days and I still have 92 left in my inventory. I can't do this. I do not have time.

I've asked in the past if you could implement a way to help us deal with these surveys. We have hirelings. I don't know if anyone puts points into that perk but I don't. I would if I could give 1 - 3 surveys of each type to my hireling to retrieve the mats for each day.

I feel overwhelmed by the grind of this game. Everything is a grind. I can't spare the time to even simply play and enjoy the game.

Why not collect the mats as you get the surveys? Why let them build up to this point of having that many?

Let's say I get on the game at around 10:00 pm. If I do my daily writs on about six characters, that can chew up some time and I can get a lot of surveys (and treasure maps). But it's also important for me to do them because I have to craft gear for characters so this gets me the gold level materials that I need (and the money to buy what I don't have). So the survey gets deposited into my bank as I switch from character to character, dealing with slow loading screens and even crashes on load screens. After that, I want to actually have some fun and play the game. I can do a daily dungeon or a daily BG. Maybe I can do two dungeons. If it's a vet DLC dungeon, that might be my whole night. It'll be after midnight before I know it. This is just how it goes. The game is designed to eat up your time. I don't have a lot of it to spare. If my clothing hireling that I put skill points into could take even just one survey per day, that would be a huge help.

Katahdin

Ive found letting them pile up then it becomes and undaunting task.
I do them at least once or twice a week and it keeps them down to a manageable level.

The only way the proposed idea would be acceptable is if you had some kind of penalty for it. Such as you have to give the hireling 2 of the same type (ie blacksmith) and you only got the mats back for one, kinda like a payment to them. Otherwise its just too easy to be lazy. If you want the greater reward of the extra mats, run them yourself. Dont want to then you lose half the potential

Destai

I've said it before, but I believe these surveys and treasure maps should be treated the same ways as antiquities. It shouldn't be something in your inventory when they already have that cool system. I'd envision trading them as a consumable. Once you consume it, it gets added as a counter on your collections that you can complete.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Adrikoth @ZOS_JessicaFolsom These are the kinds of requests you guys need to be seeing and letting us know if they devs can or will ever entertain it. Frequent requests should be getting some CM feedback and engagement.

keiths

I don't know - I have to say I haven't bothered with the surveys and am never short of mats. I just go out harvesting and killing to get stuff and level up a bit. I also run 8 toons through the writs - takes, what, 5 minutes a toon if you are in the right place. It is basically free gold.

The surveys just seem to be too much work to be honest when you could be doing something else.

As to the hirelings getting them - if you are getting 21K off the merchant for the contents then you should have to go and get it. That is ridiculous if there is no effort involved.

Grey17

Destai wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Adrikoth @ZOS_JessicaFolsom These are the kinds of requests you guys need to be seeing and letting us know if they devs can or will ever entertain it. Frequent requests should be getting some CM feedback and engagement.

Agree utterly Destai, but unfortunately by design or otherwise, history tells us communication isn't ZoS's strongest suit

QenQuni

Surveys can be turned into gold by doing them, then refining the materials collected, and sell the upgrade materials in traders... Complaining about having to many surveys equals complaining about having to much gold.. Devs wont take it serious, like with everything you need to put the time in to get the benefits thats how games work

keiths

QenQuni wrote: »

Surveys can be turned into gold by doing them, then refining the materials collected, and sell the upgrade materials in traders... Complaining about having to many surveys equals complaining about having to much gold.. Devs wont take it serious, like with everything you need to put the time in to get the benefits thats how games work

Pretty much this - ended up doing a few and its not like they are hard. Also makes you explore more which is good imho.

Still don't understand why folks expect to get gold for doing nothing. The crafting writs are almost that already especially where I am at (max char is 22). I have no hope of matching the gold I get from 1 hour of writs from 8 chars doing anything else as far as I can see.

etchedpixels

QenQuni wrote: »

Surveys can be turned into gold by doing them, then refining the materials collected, and sell the upgrade materials in traders... Complaining about having to many surveys equals complaining about having to much gold.. Devs wont take it serious, like with everything you need to put the time in to get the benefits thats how games work

It's not worth my time in the general case - jewellery excepted. If I could sell them then people who had time and needed materials could buy them and do them and it would cut down on the farmbots and prices. Right now the fact they can't be sold just causes a market distortion.

Porter_H

I usually do mine on the weekend. Writs on 10 characters add up during the week.

Grab the ones by wayshrines first instead of trying to clear zones. It helps some.

I wish there was an option to cash them in for a third of the mats but don't think I care for the hireling idea. There should be some trade off for not actually doing them.

Icy_Waffles

I’ve literally never done one. What do you get?

I do daily writs on 12 characters all with maxed crafting. I don’t even sell gold mats I use them. (Until I get like 200 rosin then I sell for example) but I just bank the cash and use it to buy mats when I need them. Are the surveys really good?

Feric51

Icy_Waffles wrote: »

I’ve literally never done one. What do you get?

I do daily writs on 12 characters all with maxed crafting. I don’t even sell gold mats I use them. (Until I get like 200 rosin then I sell for example) but I just bank the cash and use it to buy mats when I need them. Are the surveys really good?

Surveys are a concentrated location of 6 "rich" raw material nodes that are usually clustered really close together. In the case of jewelry, woodworking, and blacksmithing, each node will award between 18-40 (if you have plentiful harvester passive unlocked) units of raw material.

Clothing has 4 cloth nodes and two leather nodes (called furrier traps). The cloth nodes follow the quantity pattern I just mentioned, with the furrier traps offering slightly higher output at 28-56 units per node.

Enchanting surveys have 6 "protean" runestones that tend to be more spread out than the material crafting surveys, but generally within about a 20-meter radius of each other. Each protean runestone gives (I think) 6 runes total. I never really pay attention when I harvest them.

Alchemy surveys have a collection of 6 botanical nodes (no fungi nor animal nodes) that can award 4-12 units per. One thing to note on the alchemy nodes is: because some plants are more valuable than others (cornflower vs dragonthorn for example), if you approach an alchemy survey and you notice it is dominated by cheaper plants, don't harvest any and if you leave the zone and return, it may change the composition of the plants.

There are currently no surveys for provisioning.

The benefit to surveys is simply an abundance of raw materials that you can choose to either sell outright or refine for tempers to sell, or to simply replenish your own stocks used up by crafting.