Hope you all enjoyed Hunting for Ancestral Reach Motifs, because Ancestral Akaviri is the same!

B0SSzombie

Really cool that ZOS listened to all that feedback on how horrible the grind for Ancestral Reach was! Just great!

Make sure you hold on to those Blackwood Maps when you find them, don't let people fool you into selling them for cheap!

cmetzger93

So annoying. I was really hoping ancestral reach was a one off. Grinding for the maps and specific leads is a chore and as a motif farmer it really puts me off playing

NiteFire

I don't see a problem with it, it keeps people hunting for the maps and it's fun when you do get the lead to dig it up. Things are supposed to feel special and awesome to get

Starlight_Whisper

NiteFire wrote: »

I don't see a problem with it, it keeps people hunting for the maps and it's fun when you do get the lead to dig it up. Things are supposed to feel special and awesome to get

But it's still a game. People don't want it to feel overwhelming tedious and difficult

Contraptions

[snip] ZOS.

If they're gonna insist on this route for future Ancestral styles they should at least add a way to farm maps for a zone, I'll take anything over pure RNG.

[edited for profanity bypass]

colossalvoids

Well, rip another one.

NiteFire

I don't think hunting down a treasure map and digging up the antiquity is tedious or difficult

CaffeinatedMayhem

I'm STILL missing Ancestral Reach bows. I refuse to pay 20k+ for a map, and I very rarely get W. Skyrim or Reach maps. Ridiculous.

CaffeinatedMayhem

NiteFire wrote: »

I don't think hunting down a treasure map and digging up the antiquity is tedious or difficult

How about not being able to buy a treasure map for less than 100k? Because these aren't going to be abundant.

DreadDaedroth

NiteFire wrote: »

I don't see a problem with it, it keeps people hunting for the maps and it's fun when you do get the lead to dig it up. Things are supposed to feel special and awesome to get

It's not special, it doesn't require any skill, just lot of time spent that could be used in funnier activities.

jaws343

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

I'm STILL missing Ancestral Reach bows. I refuse to pay 20k+ for a map, and I very rarely get W. Skyrim or Reach maps. Ridiculous.

I have the Skyrim, Reach, and Blackreach maps on my trader search routine. If I see them listed under 5K I buy them. Some people don't know what they have and list them for like 500 gold.

B0SSzombie

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

NiteFire wrote: »

I don't think hunting down a treasure map and digging up the antiquity is tedious or difficult

How about not being able to buy a treasure map for less than 100k? Because these aren't going to be abundant.

On the bright side, all the maps will have "Blackwood" in the name, and not be split between 4 different zones. It will be much easier and faster to spend upwards of Millions of Gold in Guild Vendors.

CaffeinatedMayhem

jaws343 wrote: »

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

I'm STILL missing Ancestral Reach bows. I refuse to pay 20k+ for a map, and I very rarely get W. Skyrim or Reach maps. Ridiculous.

I have the Skyrim, Reach, and Blackreach maps on my trader search routine. If I see them listed under 5K I buy them. Some people don't know what they have and list them for like 500 gold.

Yes. That's great if your game day is nothing but searching traders. Not everyone wants to play that way.

Froil

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Can we get some insight, or point us to the correct party(ies) to complain(?), as to why Ancestral Akaviri will still need treasure maps despite it saying found while digging for Antiquities, same with Ancestral Reach?

The lead drops need to be corrected or these descriptions need to be updated to say "found in hidden treasure chests".

jaws343

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

I'm STILL missing Ancestral Reach bows. I refuse to pay 20k+ for a map, and I very rarely get W. Skyrim or Reach maps. Ridiculous.

I have the Skyrim, Reach, and Blackreach maps on my trader search routine. If I see them listed under 5K I buy them. Some people don't know what they have and list them for like 500 gold.

Yes. That's great if your game day is nothing but searching traders. Not everyone wants to play that way.

It isn't that though. It's not like the motifs need to be completed immediately. If I am looking at what a trader has to offer, I also search for the maps.

jaws343

Froil wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Can we get some insight, or point us to the correct party(ies) to complain(?), as to why Ancestral Akaviri will still need treasure maps despite it saying found while digging for Antiquities, same with Ancestral Reach?

The lead drops need to be corrected or these descriptions need to be updated to say "found in hidden treasure chests".

The action to actually dig up motif is through antiquities though. All the treasure maps do is drop the lead. Which is a part of antiquities.

Froil

The way it's worded makes it sound like they're found as additional treasures when digging. Nothing about them says anything about treasure maps and, therefore, isn't clear.

Chaos2088

Really???? Just boring tbh.

virtus753

jaws343 wrote: »

Froil wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Can we get some insight, or point us to the correct party(ies) to complain(?), as to why Ancestral Akaviri will still need treasure maps despite it saying found while digging for Antiquities, same with Ancestral Reach?

The lead drops need to be corrected or these descriptions need to be updated to say "found in hidden treasure chests".

The action to actually dig up motif is through antiquities though. All the treasure maps do is drop the lead. Which is a part of antiquities.

To add to the post two above:

These leads only come from chests that have treasure maps pointing to them, not random chests found in the wild. That is literally their only source in game. No treasure map, no lead.

The fact that the description does not mention chests at all, much less “treasure chests,” means the description fails as an explanation, because it does not explain the actual source. The fact that it reads quite differently to many players makes it even worse. And that’s on top of the horrendous method of going about getting them. No need to add insult to injury by being so unclear with the description as to make people believe something else entirely.

The problems of interpretation are compounded by the patch note from Markarth: “The Ancestral Reach Motif can be found occasionally by digging for Antiquities in The Reach.” The motif is in fact *guaranteed* as a drop when you have the lead. The lead itself, on the other hand, is guaranteed *never* to drop from antiquities excavations, only from treasure chests.

As someone who parses language for a living, I find this an absolute failure of an explanation, and the devs have never acknowledged any of it, much less taken any steps to correct any of it.

It would be like saying Wayward Guardian is found “as loot in some containers,” which is technically true, without explaining that is potential loot only from a specific daily quest reward coffer or how to get said coffer. But the Wayward Guardian description is very clear: do dailies for this specific NPC in this specific location for a chance at a motif page. The description for Ancestral Reach is hopelessly mixed up by comparison.

FluffWit

Seems the simple solution would be to add the lead to regular treasure chests (with a fairly low scaling chance) as well as having it drop from treasure map chests with a high drop chance.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

People forget? The Reach is a tiny zone, Blackwood is a BIG zone, one only has a few maps the other will have several.

renne

NiteFire wrote: »

I don't see a problem with it, it keeps people hunting for the maps and it's fun when you do get the lead to dig it up. Things are supposed to feel special and awesome to get

I've never got a lead off any of the maps it's supposed to drop from. It's just a disappointment, then you see the guild traders with the motif listed by people who can obviously afford to pay ludicrous amounts for the maps, without a single piece of the motif under a couple hundred k gold.

It's not fun. Not when the maps almost never drop and when they do you never get a lead.

B0SSzombie

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

People forget? The Reach is a tiny zone, Blackwood is a BIG zone, one only has a few maps the other will have several.

Ancestral Reach could be found with 4 Western Skyrim Treasure Maps, 2 Blackreach: Greymoor Maps, 1 The Reach, and 1 Blackreach: Arkthzand Map. So a total of 8 Maps could yield a lead.

Blackwood will have 6 Maps, so no, Blackwood will not have more maps.

virtus753

B0SSzombie wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

People forget? The Reach is a tiny zone, Blackwood is a BIG zone, one only has a few maps the other will have several.

Ancestral Reach could be found with 3 Western Skyrim, 3 Blackreach: Greymoor, 1 The Reach, and 3 Blackreach: Arkthzand Treasure Maps. So a total of 9 Maps could yield a lead.

Blackwood will have 6 Maps, so no, Blackwood will not have more maps.

I think there are actually only 8 for Ancestral Reach: there are 4 in Western Skyrim, 2 in Blackreach: Greymoor Caverns, 1 in Blackreach: Arkthzand Cavern, and 1 in the Reach.

B0SSzombie

virtus753 wrote: »

B0SSzombie wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

People forget? The Reach is a tiny zone, Blackwood is a BIG zone, one only has a few maps the other will have several.

Ancestral Reach could be found with 3 Western Skyrim, 3 Blackreach: Greymoor, 1 The Reach, and 3 Blackreach: Arkthzand Treasure Maps. So a total of 9 Maps could yield a lead.

Blackwood will have 6 Maps, so no, Blackwood will not have more maps.

I think there are actually only 8 for Ancestral Reach: there are 4 in Western Skyrim, 2 in Blackreach: Greymoor Caverns, 1 in Blackreach: Arkthzand Cavern, and 1 in the Reach.

Yeah, I misremembered. Fixed it.

Still doesn't change my point though.

preevious

well, everything can't be cheap, that would be even more boring.

Those motifs are expensive, so, farm them, or raise gold to buy them.

OneWingedAnge7

I recently decided I'd go and try and dig up Ancestral Reach motif pages, didn't want to pay for maps so lots of Harrowstorms and chest farms were had. Amassed 12 maps and only got 1 lead.
From now on I'm just selling the maps and buying the motif pages. The rate that I was getting leads vs the value in maps it's a no brainer.
I'll be selling maps for 40k a pop until the value plummets on them.

When the next chapter drops, every map is going straight on the trader for a fortune and I'll just buy the pages as I find them.

It really sucks, but needs must.

virtus753

B0SSzombie wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

B0SSzombie wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

People forget? The Reach is a tiny zone, Blackwood is a BIG zone, one only has a few maps the other will have several.

Ancestral Reach could be found with 3 Western Skyrim, 3 Blackreach: Greymoor, 1 The Reach, and 3 Blackreach: Arkthzand Treasure Maps. So a total of 9 Maps could yield a lead.

Blackwood will have 6 Maps, so no, Blackwood will not have more maps.

I think there are actually only 8 for Ancestral Reach: there are 4 in Western Skyrim, 2 in Blackreach: Greymoor Caverns, 1 in Blackreach: Arkthzand Cavern, and 1 in the Reach.

Yeah, I misremembered. Fixed it.

Still doesn't change my point though.

Indeed, even more to the larger point: the leads are an occasional drop from only 8 maps in game. That's 14 leads from 8 maps, and I still haven't been able to figure whether particular pages come from particular maps.

Meanwhile, the Ancestral High Elf/Orc/Nord leads dropped much more frequently from their respective treasure maps for me, and there are many more maps per page: with the exception of the starter zones, there are two pages per zone, and 6 maps per zone. That means you can narrow down which maps you're buying based on which pages you're looking for and still have (usually) 6 maps to choose from. That's a huge difference compared to farming 14 Ancestral Reach pages from 8 maps, apparently indiscriminately. The motif pages themselves are therefore very rare and expensive even for those willing to forgo the codex entries. The pages didn't drop from the Anniversary event either, so there was no catching up there.

Starlight_Whisper

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

I'm STILL missing Ancestral Reach bows. I refuse to pay 20k+ for a map, and I very rarely get W. Skyrim or Reach maps. Ridiculous.

🤦‍♀️ Here I have been doing 5k selling them

Fontecc

I just posted my opinion of this topic in the official feedback thread:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7247137/#Comment_7247137

I'd highly recommend going there and posting your suggestions, could be the best shot to fix what's been an issue ever since Greymoor launched.

CGPsaint

That's going to be a hard pass for me. The Ancestral Reach Leads have completely put me off of this type of grind. I burned through 25-30 maps early on without a single lead, only to find out that the drop rate might have been bugged. Now the maps are selling for 20K+ and playing normally for 4-5 hours at a time doesn't yield a single needed map. I get that MMOs are can be a grind fest, but this is just ridiculous, especially for a style that I don't intend to use. I'll just have to avoid Master Writs that require those styles.