Improve the usefulness of Treasure

Billium813

I understand that this may be a minor topic to everyone else, but it's always bothered me that Treasure items in the game are almost entirely useless and don't integrate into any other sections of the game! I would love to see future game updates integrating back into these abandoned elements of the game and I think players would enjoy the feel of more game elements integrating together.

Treasures were added to the game way back in the Brotherhood and Thieves Guild expansions for pick-pocketing and Legerdemain. In those areas, "stolen" Treasures at least serve some kind of purpose for Thieves Guild and achievements. But "clean" Treasures are almost entirely useless in the game. There is almost NO reason to launder stolen Treasures, outside the Illustrious Launderer achievement! You sell them to merchants for a bit of gold... the Blackfeather Court daily requires them sometimes... and that's it? However, Treasures are consistently given as rewards in non-Thieving activities. I slay a dragon in Elsweyr and get a Dragon's Treasure, which looks like a cool goblet, but I learn that this awesome looking purple Treasure is only good for 1000 gold to any merchant in Tamriel. I dig up some Antiquities and get some Treasure. Dailies and chests hand out Treasures like they are candy! And they are all useless, inventory filling, wastes of time. You might as well just give me the gold then and there and not waste me time.

Now, that isn't to say I want the Treasure "litter" removed from the game and just replaced with it's value in gold! I love how Treasures make the world feel more deep and lived in. Many Treasures have fun names and players do collect those! But as Treasures exist now in the game, they feel disjointed and more of a bother to most players, when so much effort seems to have been invested in their creation! I mean, it just feels like such a waste in the game. Some of the Treasures actually look like they could be cool furnishings or be integrated into crafting. The developers went through the hassle of adding Treasure Type to all the treasures and outside the Thieves Guild having a couple dailies, which only care about "stolen" treasures, it feels like a complete waste. I just think it would be great if Treasures had some other use in the game other than being annoying inventory filler for players.

... or maybe I'm wrong. Let me know what other ways Treasures can be used, other than selling to merchants for a pittance.

Dawnblade

They only exist to stuff up our already limited inventories - MMO design 101.

LikiLoki

they just have to remove the binding to the character. Then people will collect rare treasures, sell them at auctions and give them to other players. Did another player ask you for coins? It would be a good tone to give a treasure instead.

SeaGtGruff

I believe one of the repeatable Thieves Guild quests does require you to launder your stolen treasures before taking them to the lady who wants them, so laundering treasures does serve a purpose other than going for an achievement.

However, I think some of the treasures have amusing or interesting descriptions, and it can be easy to miss out on those if all you're ever doing is stealing items and then fencing them. It could be fun to have some sort of display case or similar sort of furnishing that we could put treasures in, even if there were no objects per se that we could look at, merely a list of items that we could click on one at a time to view their popup descriptions.

Same goes for those rare fish and monster parts; some sort of display case or trophy mount furnishing could be fun.

bmnoble

Take away the treasures being bound and add a merchant somewhere, something along the lines of in your OP you mention the Dragon treasure looking like a cool goblet.

The new merchant would let you exchange the treasure for a piece of furniture that looks like the picture on the treasure or matches the flavour text of the treasure.

You can't buy the items initially with gold you can only exchange the specific treasure for the one you want, but once you have unlocked the item by buying it with the treasure item you unlock a gold purchase option if you want copies.

That would encourage more people to thieve or do activities for treasure items, which could then be sold to people on traders who have no interest in doing the activities for a large amount than the ornate value of the items.

WiseSky

bmnoble wrote: »

Take away the treasures being bound and add a merchant somewhere, something along the lines of in your OP you mention the Dragon treasure looking like a cool goblet.

The new merchant would let you exchange the treasure for a piece of furniture that looks like the picture on the treasure or matches the flavour text of the treasure.

You can't buy the items initially with gold you can only exchange the specific treasure for the one you want, but once you have unlocked the item by buying it with the treasure item you unlock a gold purchase option if you want copies.

That would encourage more people to thieve or do activities for treasure items, which could then be sold to people on traders who have no interest in doing the activities for a large amount than the ornate value of the items.

I love this Idea

Would love to see also Quests that have the need for specific items that can only be stolen to continue

Dr_Con

WiseSky wrote: »

bmnoble wrote: »

Take away the treasures being bound and add a merchant somewhere, something along the lines of in your OP you mention the Dragon treasure looking like a cool goblet.

The new merchant would let you exchange the treasure for a piece of furniture that looks like the picture on the treasure or matches the flavour text of the treasure.

You can't buy the items initially with gold you can only exchange the specific treasure for the one you want, but once you have unlocked the item by buying it with the treasure item you unlock a gold purchase option if you want copies.

That would encourage more people to thieve or do activities for treasure items, which could then be sold to people on traders who have no interest in doing the activities for a large amount than the ornate value of the items.

I love this Idea

Would love to see also Quests that have the need for specific items that can only be stolen to continue

This exists already, but the stolen items are guaranteed, except for certain leads. People do still complain about it, but I feel that builds anticipation for the reward.

10/10 suggestion. With some refinement and inclusion of furnishing (maybe even a random blueprint for turning in treasure to some npc), I feel they could really do something with this, though I should stress that if they make it about treasure only and not caring about what the name of the item is, people will likely be excavating instead of stealing from pockets/chests.

Paulytnz

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I believe one of the repeatable Thieves Guild quests does require you to launder your stolen treasures before taking them to the lady who wants them, so laundering treasures does serve a purpose other than going for an achievement.

However, I think some of the treasures have amusing or interesting descriptions, and it can be easy to miss out on those if all you're ever doing is stealing items and then fencing them. It could be fun to have some sort of display case or similar sort of furnishing that we could put treasures in, even if there were no objects per se that we could look at, merely a list of items that we could click on one at a time to view their popup descriptions.

Same goes for those rare fish and monster parts; some sort of display case or trophy mount furnishing could be fun.

That's a good idea, I would love something like this. They could also add to it that you can keep on adding duplicates to it as a way to show off wealth sort of. For example the case shows the list of names and a number next to it showing how many of each item has been added.

Of course they would have to allow it to be added to after placed etc. But just imagine going into someone's house and seeing they have thrown in 10,000 of an item - the work/commitment and gold they could have had instead!

Kiralyn2000

Treasure = gold. Therefore, it's always/automatically useful.

(I think the point of enemies dropping Treasure/trash/vendor items is that it makes a bit more "sense" than for random monsters to be carrying piles of cash around with them.)



re: quests that demand you go steal specific random items. Eh, I already avoid the crow quests because trying to track down the exact right stolen items is just obnoxious. And trying to keep stocks of them in your bank is Yet More Storage Space. Add more quests like that, and I'll just continue using Treasure for it's inherent usefulness - turning it into gold at a fence/vendor. /shrug


It would be interesting if they could be placed as housing decorations, though.

Billium813

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

Treasure = gold. Therefore, it's always/automatically useful.

(I think the point of enemies dropping Treasure/trash/vendor items is that it makes a bit more "sense" than for random monsters to be carrying piles of cash around with them.)

I can understand that Treasures may be a seen by developers as a more thematic and realistic method of distributing gold. That makes sense and the effort is appreciated! However, that notion completely fails in practice because that "realistic gold" is just "gold with extra steps" and those steps are unfulfilling, uninspiring busy work (any merchant buys them and it's the same prices everywhere). So the "thematic gold" just needlessly fills players inventories so that the player feels obligated to STOP playing the content and find a generic merchant to unload gobs of items that end up amounting to a pittance. It's bad design. Also, many times, when you receive Treasures, you ALSO receive gold too... so it makes Treasures redundant filler.

Now, they could improve this system by making the process of unloading Treasures more fulfilling or interesting. Incorporate rare Treasures into the Mages or Fighters guilds or Antiquities mechanic. Make some merchants (Brewers, Grocers, Chefs, Blacksmiths, Armorers) pay WAY more for specific Treasures to make it worth it. Start a new Merchants Guild and have Treasures as part of leveling that system. Add Treasures to furnishing recipes (would require removing the Bound status). There are loads of ways to creatively make Treasure items more interesting or useful without having them as they exist: pointless filler.

bmnoble wrote: »

Take away the treasures being bound and add a merchant somewhere, something along the lines of in your OP you mention the Dragon treasure looking like a cool goblet.

The new merchant would let you exchange the treasure for a piece of furniture that looks like the picture on the treasure or matches the flavour text of the treasure.

You can't buy the items initially with gold you can only exchange the specific treasure for the one you want, but once you have unlocked the item by buying it with the treasure item you unlock a gold purchase option if you want copies.

That would encourage more people to thieve or do activities for treasure items, which could then be sold to people on traders who have no interest in doing the activities for a large amount than the ornate value of the items.

It would be slightly annoying to have to turn Treasures INTO furnishing by moving them through another system... but it would be a HUGE step in the right direction and I like the idea! We have achievement furnishing vendors so I don't see why we couldn't have a new type of vendor to handle this in a similar way. Or, better yet, have existing Merchants handle it, but only if the Treasure Type matches the Merchants specific trade type (Armorers, Bartenders, Chefs, Tailors, Alchemists, Brewers, ect). The Merchants could have a new tab that list the furnishings they sell, but require payment in Treasures of specific types.

prof-dracko

I know Runescape has a collection log with it's antiquities skill line where you could see pictures and a short description of the relics as well as how much you've collected. ESO could do something similar with treasures, trophies and fish and it'd save them having to make whole 3D models for furnishings.

Raammzzaa

I agree with you there is a lot of potential for treasures in ESO. If they unbound them, or at least made them worth significantly more I might have more interest. As it is, I only save the ones with funny names for linking in zone chat.

Billium813

It's really unfortunate that High Isle didn't expand on Treasures. I had kind of hoped that an "island archipelago" themed expansion might improve on a base game system like Treasures and Treasure Maps, but sadly no. Perhaps that would have been too similar to Antiquities?

I would say that any ideas for ZOS to implement would need to be something a new expansion can do, so my desire for them to integrate Treasures with existing NPCs (Brewers, Carpenters, Chefs, Weaponsmiths, ect) most likely CANNOT ever happen. ZOS is loath to make any changes to base game content (which is a pity).

Another idea I had is adding a new NPC to the game: Treasure Appraiser. Maybe taking lower quality Treasures to this NPC, along with a small fee, could allow the player the possibility of upping the quality? This would need to be done in tandem with an update that makes rare Treasures important for some reason. Perhaps if a new expansion added a new PvP zone we could have a Treasure Hunting mechanic? That may be a bit of a tangent, but it could be an interesting DLC zone design with a PvP zone where players hunt for rare Treasures (to trade to furnishing Vendors or motif Vendors). Appraisers may be a minigame that adds a small gambling mechanic where lower quality Treasure could be upgraded for a fee. Appraisers would NOT take stolen Treasures, giving a bit more of a reason to launder Treasures.

Billium813

I thought of another idea for Treasures

Consider that we already have the following in the game:

• Each zone has zone specific furnishings in Fine, Superior, and Epic qualities. Furniture plans can be pickpocketed or looted from containers in their respective zones.
• Furnishing plans are aligned with specific Skills: Diagrams for Blacksmithing, Formulae for Alchemy, Praxes for Enchanting, Designs for Provisioning, ect.
• Treasures have specific types (Artwork, Drinkware, Magic Curiosities, Smithing Equipment, Oddities, ect) and many of these existing types can be easily matched up to related Skills and Trades.

-- Suggestion --

What if there were new zone merchants/vendors who sold Superior and Epic quality recipes & furnishing plans respective of their zone? However, being professional artisans, and these recipes/plans being their closely guarded trade secrets, they are not interested in mere gold for trade, no no no. These vendors will only trade their items for Superior and Epic Treasures and only Treasures of a type that match their professional skill! Also, they require high skill levels in the appropriate skill lines; I mean, they can't let just anyone with a bag of treasures to have their professional plans and recipes.

-- Example --

I would like to obtain Blueprint: High Isle Table, Compass Rose.

First, I might go to Jeran Antieve, the High Isle Achievement Furnisher, but they only sell furnishings, not plans or recipes.

Next, I try going to Archibert Stental, the Carpenter that hangs around Bayside Artisans in Gonfalon Bay. However, they only sell Normal and Fine blueprints. Talking with Archibert Stental however reveals that there is a way to obtain rarer blueprints and he knows of a Woodworking Artisan that travels High Isle. For a small fee, he even lets me know the last location he was spotted, which changes randomly as the artisan travels around regularly for inspiration!

Upon tracking down this Woodworking Artisan, I find that they do indeed sell Blueprint: High Isle Table, Compass Rose! Joy! However, this artist does not want gold for trade, they want Superior and Epic Treasures! Specifically, this Woodworking Artisan requires 4 Superior Treasures, each one a different type (they change depending on the spawn location): Furnishings, Tools, Oddities, & Artwork. Also, they require 1 Epic Treasure of the type: Oddities.

Trading these 5 Treasures to the Woodworking Artisan grants me 1 Blueprint: High Isle Table, Compass Rose!

Necrotech_Master

i hardly even notice this treasure, some of them are entertaining

the reasons i hardly notice them:

• use an addon that auto marks as junk
• use an addon that auto sells junk when visiting a merchant
• use an addon that auto repairs at merchant

so when i visit a merchant to do armor repair, i just hit the option on the dialog to open the shop and my inventory is clean

the auto sell junk when visiting the merchant also works with the merchant assistants, so if i needed to clear the junk earlier, i would just pop up a assistant and spend 2 sec to sell

boi_anachronism_

There are some truly hilarious and awesome treasures. I'd love to be able to put them in my house lol like why can't I put a crystal sweet roll on my table? Come on now 😂

Finedaible

Dawnblade wrote: »

They only exist to stuff up our already limited inventories - MMO design 101.

and to promote ESO+ subscription.

Technically they did give treasures/lootables a use with the dailies given by the Bursar of Tributes in Clockwork City but I don't think they've tried doing anything similar since.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

When these first came out, I held on to a number of things hoping I’d be able to display them in a house at some point.

…I’m still disappointed that I can’t. 😕

Indigo_Shade

As a part-time thief I am have seen some awesome Treasures that for sure ought to be furnishings. And I currently have locked and save two "risque" Treasures, one of which mentions Darien...no way am I deleting that.

This is the kind of Treasure (along with artsy and off-the-wall Treasures) I would totally display in my house.

Not saying have all treasure be furnishings though.

And yes, it's mega frustrating to get Treasure that to me, would be worth 3k crowns if I could just BUY it as a useful item.

Billium813

At the bare minimum, I think players just want the ability to display their Treasures in some kind of furnishing. Maybe some kind of Display Case furnishing that acts like a storage box and can hold like 12-15 Treasures. Could work with Monster Trophy items as well.

Personally, I want way more integration, but anything would be better then just more game bloat. Treasures IMO should just be furnishings. There just shouldn't be two different items.I'm so tired of ZOS creating brand new items that only duplicate existing items because they are so compartmentalized in their designs. Giving players crappy furnishings just helps introduce them into player housing! Otherwise, they'll just sell the furnishings like Treasures anyway.

A bit off topic, but having REAL bookcases that actually hold the hundreds of Literature books we have in the game now, would also be amazing. And armor stands to hold our armor has been requested ad nauseam. There are 100 furnishing improvements ZOS really needs to do and I think Treasures integrates really well with a Homestead/ThievesGuild/Brotherhood 2.0 DLC. Which is like 8 years old at this point and in DIRE need of fixing up. The new Grand Master Crafting Stations really gives me hope since I think they were a smashing success.

Araneae6537

Totally agree regarding the treasures!

Regarding bookcases, we do have bookcases that will fit all the books and allow interaction with them, although there are a number of annoying bookcases that fail in one or both of these regards.

If you mean bookcases like in Skyrim, I really hated those. I recall it being a pain to order the books and them always falling over. I’m very interested in which books I include in any of my houses as well as where and how I display them, how they’re ordered, etc. But a different type of bookcase that handled books differently for those who wanted less such hassle, sure, options are always good things.

Billium813

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Regarding bookcases, we do have bookcases that will fit all the books and allow interaction with them, although there are a number of annoying bookcases that fail in one or both of these regards.

If you mean bookcases like in Skyrim, I really hated those. I recall it being a pain to order the books and them always falling over. I’m very interested in which books I include in any of my houses as well as where and how I display them, how they’re ordered, etc. But a different type of bookcase that handled books differently for those who wanted less such hassle, sure, options are always good things.

I'm fine with placing books in empty bookcases like we can now, except
1) too many bookcases can't even fit books

2) It takes like 30 furnishing slots just to fill 1 bookcase! If we had a higher furnishing cap limit, this wouldn't be much of a problem.

prof-dracko

Billium813 wrote: »

At the bare minimum, I think players just want the ability to display their Treasures in some kind of furnishing. Maybe some kind of Display Case furnishing that acts like a storage box and can hold like 12-15 Treasures. Could work with Monster Trophy items as well.

Personally, I want way more integration, but anything would be better then just more game bloat. Treasures IMO should just be furnishings. There just shouldn't be two different items.I'm so tired of ZOS creating brand new items that only duplicate existing items because they are so compartmentalized in their designs. Giving players crappy furnishings just helps introduce them into player housing! Otherwise, they'll just sell the furnishings like Treasures anyway.

A bit off topic, but having REAL bookcases that actually hold the hundreds of Literature books we have in the game now, would also be amazing. And armor stands to hold our armor has been requested ad nauseam. There are 100 furnishing improvements ZOS really needs to do and I think Treasures integrates really well with a Homestead/ThievesGuild/Brotherhood 2.0 DLC. Which is like 8 years old at this point and in DIRE need of fixing up. The new Grand Master Crafting Stations really gives me hope since I think they were a smashing success.

That would be FAR more modeling work that ZOS would ever do, sadly. Monster trophies would be neat, since there's a finite amount of those, but actual "treasures" number in the hundreds and more are added each update.

What WOULD be feasible is a list of all the treasures we've had previously, like the Eidedic Memory or set collection.

Braggar

Billium813 wrote: »

I understand that this may be a minor topic to everyone else, but it's always bothered me that Treasure items in the game are almost entirely useless and don't integrate into any other sections of the game! I would love to see future game updates integrating back into these abandoned elements of the game and I think players would enjoy the feel of more game elements integrating together.

Treasures were added to the game way back in the Brotherhood and Thieves Guild expansions for pick-pocketing and Legerdemain. In those areas, "stolen" Treasures at least serve some kind of purpose for Thieves Guild and achievements. But "clean" Treasures are almost entirely useless in the game. There is almost NO reason to launder stolen Treasures, outside the Illustrious Launderer achievement! You sell them to merchants for a bit of gold... the Blackfeather Court daily requires them sometimes... and that's it? However, Treasures are consistently given as rewards in non-Thieving activities. I slay a dragon in Elsweyr and get a Dragon's Treasure, which looks like a cool goblet, but I learn that this awesome looking purple Treasure is only good for 1000 gold to any merchant in Tamriel. I dig up some Antiquities and get some Treasure. Dailies and chests hand out Treasures like they are candy! And they are all useless, inventory filling, wastes of time. You might as well just give me the gold then and there and not waste me time.

Now, that isn't to say I want the Treasure "litter" removed from the game and just replaced with it's value in gold! I love how Treasures make the world feel more deep and lived in. Many Treasures have fun names and players do collect those! But as Treasures exist now in the game, they feel disjointed and more of a bother to most players, when so much effort seems to have been invested in their creation! I mean, it just feels like such a waste in the game. Some of the Treasures actually look like they could be cool furnishings or be integrated into crafting. The developers went through the hassle of adding Treasure Type to all the treasures and outside the Thieves Guild having a couple dailies, which only care about "stolen" treasures, it feels like a complete waste. I just think it would be great if Treasures had some other use in the game other than being annoying inventory filler for players.

... or maybe I'm wrong. Let me know what other ways Treasures can be used, other than selling to merchants for a pittance.

I agree with you. I destroy most of the treasure maps I find. Now even skip many chests, I encounter around Tamriel. Found some neat paintings inside long ago. But that is seldom. The content is basically really not worth it. I find better material, in heavy sacks lol. A treasure chest, should contain like 15k or 30k gold. Or what about chromium platings, or other useful material? That would increase the reason, to hunt down chests. I expect from a treasure chest a LOT of gold, diamonds and pearls etc. Not some extra armor and weapons.

SilverBride

Indigo_Shade wrote: »

I currently have locked and save two "risque" Treasures, one of which mentions Darien...no way am I deleting that.

Wait! What?! Where!?

I must have this...

Araneae6537

Billium813 wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Regarding bookcases, we do have bookcases that will fit all the books and allow interaction with them, although there are a number of annoying bookcases that fail in one or both of these regards.

If you mean bookcases like in Skyrim, I really hated those. I recall it being a pain to order the books and them always falling over. I’m very interested in which books I include in any of my houses as well as where and how I display them, how they’re ordered, etc. But a different type of bookcase that handled books differently for those who wanted less such hassle, sure, options are always good things.

I'm fine with placing books in empty bookcases like we can now, except
1) too many bookcases can't even fit books

2) It takes like 30 furnishing slots just to fill 1 bookcase! If we had a higher furnishing cap limit, this wouldn't be much of a problem.

Re 1) Agreed, some of the bookcases have rather short shelves and then several of the Shalidor’s library sets are HUGE! We need additional bookcases with taller shelving space like the large Apocrypha bookcase added this year.

Re 2) I hear that! I’m in the process of trying to fill ten of the large Apocrypha bookcases! I usually go with a combination of pre-made book rows and a few individual books due to furnishing limits (and because I am very picky regarding which actual books I include).

Indigo_Shade

SilverBride wrote: »

Indigo_Shade wrote: »

I currently have locked and save two "risque" Treasures, one of which mentions Darien...no way am I deleting that.

Wait! What?! Where!?

I must have this...

Illicit Letters of Daggerful,
Writing Treasure, Blue

Flavor Text: Steamy correspondence from Darien Gault of Camlorn. The frequent references to bread must be some form of code.

And sorry, no effing idea where this dropped. I travel all over Tamriel and got it 2 weeks ago.

barney2525

LikiLoki wrote: »

they just have to remove the binding to the character. Then people will collect rare treasures, sell them at auctions and give them to other players. Did another player ask you for coins? It would be a good tone to give a treasure instead.

No they won't

These items are Not real. You can't put them out for display. They ARE gold, pure and simple. You sell them to merchants. That is their Only purpose. instead of giving you gold coins, and nothing else, you get an item, which just adds to the 'flavor' of the game. Looking purely at game mechanics, it is simply Gold.

Treeshka

I think when the game first released these treasures net players a lot of gold as there were not much gold in circulation. Their purpose was just that and still is but it is less noticeable.

Nowadays you can not even buy one Columbine with purple Treasure item in some servers.

KiltMaster

I have stolen some treasures before that I wish I could turn into a furnishing.

Just like how I have a safebox in my home where I store 3 (and counting) stuffed cuddly hoppers. Let me put them around my house!!!

EDIT: I'd also like this to happen with trophy fish as well. I keep hanging onto my purple one from Wrothgar because you're unable to put it into a safebox. It'd be cool to give it a neat skin so I can put it above my mantle in my home or something.

Billium813

Treeshka wrote: »

I think when the game first released these treasures net players a lot of gold as there were not much gold in circulation. Their purpose was just that and still is but it is less noticeable.

Nowadays you can not even buy one Columbine with purple Treasure item in some servers.

Yeah, the inflation over the years is real for sure! It really just makes Treasures feel less and less valuable as their only job: thematic gold. I can spend an hour pick-pocketing NPCs, fill my inventory with Treasures, then sell them to the local Thieves Guild for a whole 5,000 gold... As the "gold" part of that becomes less valuable, players put more weight on the "thematic" part and long for the ability to actually use these items.