Crafting Surveys: They are not fun and feel like a chore. Suggestions

ShadowWolf44

RedMuse wrote: »

Rather than bound they should be made tradable like treasure maps so that those of us who enjoy doing them could buy them off those who find them a chore.

This would be a good addition, except for one thing- those with massive wealth/speed/time, and this is to include the bots out there, would flood the zone, making it very difficult for normal crafters, even with their own speed. I admit it makes some sense, but so does their reasons, for keeping them "as is".

ShadowWolf44

This is getting to be an issue in almost all video games. People want "ease of everything". None wish to do the work, to achieve anything anymore- they want it all handed to them, in the easiest fashion possible, so they can achieve the highest level, grandest titles, and very best items, all without having to do anything to achieve them.

This is killing gaming. games are supposed to be difficult. Supposed to be "work". You're supposed to have to put forth effort, so you can not only feel the satisfaction of achieving your goals, but actually LEARN your jobs, crafts, etc., in the process.

The sad part, is they allow people to go "buy gold" or other needed things in the game, with actual money- which allows those who can afford it, to become faux "legends", in things they never earned. And this puts pressure on those who wish to achieve ACTUAL "Legend" status, to do the same.

And the gaming industries greed, allows this to happen. They used to shut down things of this nature. And what this has led to, are people ganging up on the gaming industry, to make everything "easier", because no one wants to put forth the effort anymore.

Same thing with leveling. People spam their levels, never learning their jobs, so when they join in a group event? They don't have the slightest idea what their doing. Some do learn, after they get there, but the majority don't- they only want all the benefits, without any of the work.

Just my opinion- I think it's ruining gaming, and allowing the gaming industry to create new ways to fleece this impatience and desire to have, what you've never earned- to the detriment of REAL gamers.

Feric51

ShadowWolf44 wrote: »

RedMuse wrote: »

Rather than bound they should be made tradable like treasure maps so that those of us who enjoy doing them could buy them off those who find them a chore.

This would be a good addition, except for one thing- those with massive wealth/speed/time, and this is to include the bots out there, would flood the zone, making it very difficult for normal crafters, even with their own speed. I admit it makes some sense, but so does their reasons, for keeping them "as is".

Surveys are instanced, so it doesn’t matter how many people are in the zone or how fast they are. Your survey will still be there when you get there.

There’s a handful of surveys I just delete because they’re not easy to either get to or reset and I get plenty of others in more convenient locations that I can bang out in a hurry. If they were made unbound I would gladly sell them and I assume folks out there would buy.

cnyanes

I absolutely hate them. Got a big pile of each possible survey map just taking up space in my inventory / bank. They not only feel like a chore, they feel like a boring unending chore.

I wish there were an addon or even a legit game mechanic (like a skill or a crown store item or anything at all) that would let you do all of them at once, or sell them to other people, or whatever... but just running around doing several nodes per map area like 7 or 8 times each... By Azura, it's a curse!

I guess I'll have to spend an entire week doing ONLY that... or I'll just set them all on fire. Probably the latter.

katanagirl1

I have started destroying enchanting surveys, because who needs more tas?

The one thing that I really need I can’t get from them, mundane runes.

All others are worth it for mats, though.

hundergrn

cnyanes wrote: »

I absolutely hate them. Got a big pile of each possible survey map just taking up space in my inventory / bank. They not only feel like a chore, they feel like a boring unending chore.

I wish there were an addon or even a legit game mechanic (like a skill or a crown store item or anything at all) that would let you do all of them at once, or sell them to other people, or whatever... but just running around doing several nodes per map area like 7 or 8 times each... By Azura, it's a curse!

I guess I'll have to spend an entire week doing ONLY that... or I'll just set them all on fire. Probably the latter.

Once a month, I set aside a one to two days for surveys (usually 60-100) and can get a vast majority of them done. They don't take that long but are tedious at times. The most annoying ones are the multiples of the same where you have to run out and come back for the respawn 2, 3, 4 times. Otherwise... if in a zone for a min, pull out the relevant ones and knock em out as they pass.

There is an addon that can auto-destroy them if you are tired of adding to your collection.... I think Craftstore has an option for it? Why waste space for eventual hell.

LadySinflower

Now that we have companions, how about giving us the ability to send them off to collect our surveys and maybe treasure maps too?

I don't mind surveys. I wish I got more. I don't do writs on a bunch of alts. I only play one toon. I'm lucky to get three surveys of various types in one week. There was one glorious day when five of my seven writs gave me surveys. I wish I could buy your surveys from you.

The same applies to Master writs. I get very few. It's so disappointing every day to open the writ boxes and get "shipment of ___" on every single one.

Austacker

My suggestion to make it less painful is similar to quest tracking where you can ask the quest you're on to be marked on a map, so too should this be an option for all Surveys in the game.

On PC you can use addons to do this.

On console, you're stuck having to do every survey MANUALLY

And that's why I have a 60 slot chest that holds nothing but surveys because it's that painful to do them on console.

FrancisCrawford

I've been packratting them for years. If I actually need a material for crafting writs -- which mainly happens with platinum -- I almost always buy it rather than using surveys.

Hawco10

I have noticed that since the latest patch.. survey drops are a lot rarer. I’m doing all crafting dailies on 6 different toons each day and I’m maybe getting 1 survey every 3 days.

Jaimeh

A lot of things in the game can be unfun and griny, and it's up to the player and what they want to get out of their game whether they do these things or not... surveys can be tedious, but I think they are fine as it is. The only improvement I could think of is for consoles to have a map indication, like the pc addons, and for the respawn to happen immediately if you have multiples of the same spot, but even without that, they don't take too long. Now if you do lots of writs and therefore get a lot of surveys, then that's up to you to gather them or not. It's an extra reward, it requires some effort, the way I see it.

tmbrinks

Hawco10 wrote: »

I have noticed that since the latest patch.. survey drops are a lot rarer. I’m doing all crafting dailies on 6 different toons each day and I’m maybe getting 1 survey every 3 days.

Just poor RNG. It would take at least 2 months of doing 6 writs a day to discern if there's been a change.

I'm not doing as many writs as before, but there's no evidence of change in my (admittingly limited) sample.

whitecrow

I enjoy them. As soon as I get a survey, I travel there and harvest it. I really don't understand how people can amass quantities of them, and then complain about it.

tmbrinks

whitecrow wrote: »

I enjoy them. As soon as I get a survey, I travel there and harvest it. I really don't understand how people can amass quantities of them, and then complain about it.

I amass great quantities of them (I don't collect until I have at least 10 at a location), but I'm not going to complain about it, as I know they are a bonus resource and only serve to make writs even more valuable!

Sephyr

tmbrinks wrote: »

Hawco10 wrote: »

I have noticed that since the latest patch.. survey drops are a lot rarer. I’m doing all crafting dailies on 6 different toons each day and I’m maybe getting 1 survey every 3 days.

Just poor RNG. It would take at least 2 months of doing 6 writs a day to discern if there's been a change.

I'm not doing as many writs as before, but there's no evidence of change in my (admittingly limited) sample.

I started doing mine a lot again and I honestly haven't noticed any difference either.

bridgetrose

I do my craft dailys and any survey's /treasure maps next. Then I go on to whatever else I want to do. I don't mind doing them and I don't have enough bag space, even with plus to let them backup. Also with 5 leveling crafters I've only had to buy mats twice.

newtinmpls

Lugaldu wrote: »

Maybe they could make them more attractive if we could find a furnishing plan or antiquity leads in between.

Last weekend, I was burning through surveys, finding missed skyshards, found a bunch of chests, found a bunch of leads, fought a few world bosses I hadn't done on such and so character, and got a few more drops for my sticker book.

Oh, and swung by a dolmen and finally got my first necklace for a companion (oddly off a trash mob, not the actual dolmen, but I thought it was cool).

Surveys work out great for me, because I'm too chaotic of a person to "only do one thing at a time"

deejayvee

newtinmpls wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

Maybe they could make them more attractive if we could find a furnishing plan or antiquity leads in between.

Last weekend, I was burning through surveys, finding missed skyshards, found a bunch of chests, found a bunch of leads, fought a few world bosses I hadn't done on such and so character, and got a few more drops for my sticker book.

Oh, and swung by a dolmen and finally got my first necklace for a companion (oddly off a trash mob, not the actual dolmen, but I thought it was cool).

Surveys work out great for me, because I'm too chaotic of a person to "only do one thing at a time"

Yeah, I usually spend a few hours on the weekend just doing surveys and constantly get distracted by skyshards and delves I haven't got on the toon yet, or a dolmen is up. I enjoy just having a vague goal of getting the survey and just wandering around.

Orange_fire_dragon

Make that if you have several surveys in 1 location, you collect them all in one go. Instead of having to waste time running off and back.

Hotdog_23

Nestor wrote: »

My solution is to pick a zone or two and do the surveys in that zone. I go alphabetically. Sure, I may get some surveys for Alikir a few days after I do that zone, I just wait until Alikir is in the rotation again.
.

That's what I do when I do them which is not often. Only wish they would stack in the bank according to zones and not all clothing etc. together so that i have to hunt and search the ones I need for said zone.

Stay safe everyone and ZOS please fix the green tree micromanaging

arun_rajputb16_ESO

elven.were_wolf wrote: »

Crafting Surveys are such a chore, that I stopped doing writs all together. As whenever I get one I just put it on a pile of them in my inventory and procrastinate doing them, because they are such a bother.
My suggestion would be that we only have to do them once and after we do them/“collect” them we instead get a survey cache with resources roughly the same as we would get from manually harvesting them.

I agree, but I think they're a chore because they can be tricky to find. Just add them as a quest with a quest marker and it'll be much quicker and less tedious. I hate having to look up where a woodworking survey is online and then match that up to where I am. Alternatively, when you discover it, add it to your map as an eye icon or something.

katanagirl1

arun_rajputb16_ESO wrote: »

elven.were_wolf wrote: »

Crafting Surveys are such a chore, that I stopped doing writs all together. As whenever I get one I just put it on a pile of them in my inventory and procrastinate doing them, because they are such a bother.
My suggestion would be that we only have to do them once and after we do them/“collect” them we instead get a survey cache with resources roughly the same as we would get from manually harvesting them.

I agree, but I think they're a chore because they can be tricky to find. Just add them as a quest with a quest marker and it'll be much quicker and less tedious. I hate having to look up where a woodworking survey is online and then match that up to where I am. Alternatively, when you discover it, add it to your map as an eye icon or something.

This is actually a really good idea!

I generally remember where the surveys are, but they could do the same for those tedious treasure maps too. They are so hard to find.

whitecrow

arun_rajputb16_ESO wrote: »

elven.were_wolf wrote: »

Crafting Surveys are such a chore, that I stopped doing writs all together. As whenever I get one I just put it on a pile of them in my inventory and procrastinate doing them, because they are such a bother.
My suggestion would be that we only have to do them once and after we do them/“collect” them we instead get a survey cache with resources roughly the same as we would get from manually harvesting them.

I agree, but I think they're a chore because they can be tricky to find. Just add them as a quest with a quest marker and it'll be much quicker and less tedious. I hate having to look up where a woodworking survey is online and then match that up to where I am. Alternatively, when you discover it, add it to your map as an eye icon or something.

If they'd do that, why not just put it in your bag and be done with it?

The fun is in finding the location. Yes they can be tricky. A lot of things in games can be tricky.

Ruj

Oliviander wrote: »

It would br great if they went into the crafting bag,
So that each of my toons could see the locations when they are near a writ spot
So that they could be done when you are near a spot anyway.

This would be a nightmare.

Imagine doing them on an alt with zero crafting leveled.

I foresee tears.

Ruj

Instead of surveys, we should just get the mats.



But if they insist on making us travel around and deal with the loading screens:

A treasure chest but for mats. One "survey chest" per survey.

Less time wasted clicking on resources over and over and over again when we have stacks of surveys.

wolfie1.0.

Ruj wrote: »

Instead of surveys, we should just get the mats.



But if they insist on making us travel around and deal with the loading screens:

A treasure chest but for mats. One "survey chest" per survey.

Less time wasted clicking on resources over and over and over again when we have stacks of surveys.

I prefer the node option, since there are instances where RNG will bless me with potent nirn or aether dust. The one thing I would like added is for housing mats to have a chance to drop from surveys. Especially enchanting since it would bring value and a reason other than kuta to collect them.

stefj68

+1 for a hirelings that you could send do a surveys or multiple!!!

elven.were_wolf

I play on console, so when you have a lot of surveys stacked, going through a bajillion loading screens and having to ride around all over the place that the game almost turns into a riding simulator, then manually match the area of the survey with your map marker and look up guides online if you take forever finding it days on end isn’t fun.
It’s not that I hate earning stuff that require a challenge, or hate grinding, because I have done a whole lot of grinding earning all the monster trophies. It’s just when grinding isn’t fun, that’s an issue with game design. An activity in a game shouldn’t feel like a chore.
Sure you might discover new areas or loot some treasure chests along the way, but when you’ve been playing for 7 years you already discovered everything and got all your gear. So having a hireling to send to survey locations, or just “unlocking” a survey location so it’s on your map, or even getting a chest with mats in it after you discovered the survey previously is a quality of life feature I think a veteren to the game would appreciate.

Ken_Koerperich

elven.were_wolf wrote: »

I play on console, so when you have a lot of surveys stacked, going through a bajillion loading screens and having to ride around all over the place that the game almost turns into a riding simulator, then manually match the area of the survey with your map marker and look up guides online if you take forever finding it days on end isn’t fun.
It’s not that I hate earning stuff that require a challenge, or hate grinding, because I have done a whole lot of grinding earning all the monster trophies. It’s just when grinding isn’t fun, that’s an issue with game design. An activity in a game shouldn’t feel like a chore.
Sure you might discover new areas or loot some treasure chests along the way, but when you’ve been playing for 7 years you already discovered everything and got all your gear. So having a hireling to send to survey locations, or just “unlocking” a survey location so it’s on your map, or even getting a chest with mats in it after you discovered the survey previously is a quality of life feature I think a veteren to the game would appreciate.

THIS, is exactly why I NEVER do them...

llande

Surveys are fun for me and a reson to visit zones I have not been to for a long time. Usually go there, do a survey, kill a world boss if there is one nearby, make a side quest or delve, move on to the next.