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Eidetic Memory and what ZOS can do better
Schiffy
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In the nine years this game has been around, it's become clear that one thing a plethora of players struggle with is finding books to complete their Eidetic Memory collection. Every so often, ZOS goes back and retroactively adds books locked behind quests to specific always-accessible locations after the quest. In Cyrodiil, there were even a number of notes that were only behind one alliance's gates that have since been copied and put in harder to reach but accessible locations for the other two. Going through the patch notes, however, a lot of these fixes were before the Dark Heart of Skyrim updates in 2020, with similar changes since being much more scarce. Not nonexistent, but scarce. That said, there's still a lot of books that need to have their locations remedied.
Going through the forums, Reddit, talking in Discord servers, and making some observations of my own, I believe I can provide the closest thing to a definitive list of all the things ZOS could do to fix the remaining issues.
1. Continue to fix quest books.
This one's self-explanatory and ZOS has already been doing so.
2. Add missing entries.
A little over a hundred books (which seems large until you consider there are over four thousand), are currently not in any Eidetic Memory collection, despite being in the game.
3. (Possibly) Make Eidetic Memory account-wide.
This may or may not be a good, or popular, idea. Access to Eidetic Memory was made account-wide with Update 33, removing the need to complete The Arch-Mage's Boon on multiple characters. Like Achievements becoming account-wide, this may be a controversial issue among some players. The remaining suggestions are the most important ones, whether or not this one is done.
4. Give the Tomes of Tributes static, account-wide locations.
As they're not treasure maps and actually have text, these clues show up in Eidetic Memory. However, each clue can only be found once per account and disappears after the fact. There have been numerous threads on this issue, and by my count none of them have been responded to by ZOS staff. Suggestions have ranged from "remove them from Eidetic Memory entirely" to "put them all in or near the Gonfalon Gaming Hall". Either of these solutions could work.
5. Give all books at least one static location.
There's still a lot of books that can only be found on bookshelves. I can maybe see a justification for this being true of skill books, but that's it at most. This puts a significant handful of books locked behind pure luck. This also leads me to my next suggestion:
6. Make sure bookshelves refresh properly.
This seems to be an issue mainly with Murkmire and the Imperial City. It appears as though the bookshelves in these zones, no matter how many times you enter an exit the zone or log off and log back on, stick with the same books once a week. This is especially problematic for bookshelf-only books that are limited to these zones (e.g. Scaly Steeds of Black Marsh and 2920, Vol. 27, both of which I'm currently having trouble finding).
I would like to see ZOS at the very least consider these suggestions and respond to them. I understand not all of this can be done at once, but the number of times issues of this nature have been brought up and left seemingly ignored is astounding.
I also encourage anyone to add anything I've missed via a reply, and I'll add it with credit.
P.S.: On a more minor note, another issue that should eventually be addressed is the inconsistency in some collections. A lot of DLC dungeon books are not in the Library of Incunabula where they should be, some DLC zone and Chapter books are in sections with basegame books (for example, a few books related to A Race For Honor at Garrick's Rest on High Isle are erroneously found in Diaries and Logs rather than Systres Tomes and Srolls), and some books that have absolutely nothing to do with events are in the Impresario's Catalogue (such as the books connected to the High Isle prologue quests Ascending Doubt and A King's Retreat).
Edited by Schiffy on April 25, 2023 3:57PM Going through the forums, Reddit, talking in Discord servers, and making some observations of my own, I believe I can provide the closest thing to a definitive list of all the things ZOS could do to fix the remaining issues.
1. Continue to fix quest books.
This one's self-explanatory and ZOS has already been doing so.
2. Add missing entries.
A little over a hundred books (which seems large until you consider there are over four thousand), are currently not in any Eidetic Memory collection, despite being in the game.
3. (Possibly) Make Eidetic Memory account-wide.
This may or may not be a good, or popular, idea. Access to Eidetic Memory was made account-wide with Update 33, removing the need to complete The Arch-Mage's Boon on multiple characters. Like Achievements becoming account-wide, this may be a controversial issue among some players. The remaining suggestions are the most important ones, whether or not this one is done.
4. Give the Tomes of Tributes static, account-wide locations.
As they're not treasure maps and actually have text, these clues show up in Eidetic Memory. However, each clue can only be found once per account and disappears after the fact. There have been numerous threads on this issue, and by my count none of them have been responded to by ZOS staff. Suggestions have ranged from "remove them from Eidetic Memory entirely" to "put them all in or near the Gonfalon Gaming Hall". Either of these solutions could work.
5. Give all books at least one static location.
There's still a lot of books that can only be found on bookshelves. I can maybe see a justification for this being true of skill books, but that's it at most. This puts a significant handful of books locked behind pure luck. This also leads me to my next suggestion:
6. Make sure bookshelves refresh properly.
This seems to be an issue mainly with Murkmire and the Imperial City. It appears as though the bookshelves in these zones, no matter how many times you enter an exit the zone or log off and log back on, stick with the same books once a week. This is especially problematic for bookshelf-only books that are limited to these zones (e.g. Scaly Steeds of Black Marsh and 2920, Vol. 27, both of which I'm currently having trouble finding).
I would like to see ZOS at the very least consider these suggestions and respond to them. I understand not all of this can be done at once, but the number of times issues of this nature have been brought up and left seemingly ignored is astounding.
I also encourage anyone to add anything I've missed via a reply, and I'll add it with credit.
P.S.: On a more minor note, another issue that should eventually be addressed is the inconsistency in some collections. A lot of DLC dungeon books are not in the Library of Incunabula where they should be, some DLC zone and Chapter books are in sections with basegame books (for example, a few books related to A Race For Honor at Garrick's Rest on High Isle are erroneously found in Diaries and Logs rather than Systres Tomes and Srolls), and some books that have absolutely nothing to do with events are in the Impresario's Catalogue (such as the books connected to the High Isle prologue quests Ascending Doubt and A King's Retreat).
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joergino✭✭✭✭✭Books being account wide should have been the way to do things in this game before the first book was even written.
The special books that advance the mages guild could still retain their special status, and so could the books that start or advance a quest.3 -
Kitziboo✭✭✭I didn’t realise that bookshelves changed books so I’ve learnt something valuable today thank you. I used to click every bookcase every time but stopped as I thought I was wasting my time.
I agree with all the above and this week I also discovered how dangerous book hunting is. One of my mains ventured into Kyne’s Aegis looking for the two remaining W. Skyrim books and was caught by the vampires and died. She remained stuck in battle for a while as I patiently waited. I tried restarting my XBox, then tried ‘Get me unstuck’ which simply moved her, still dead, to the wayshrine. I had to send for help and leave her there. Thankfully, I received a very helpful response and when I logged back on some time later, she was free.1 -
Treeshka✭✭✭✭✭
✭Shalidor Library and books that start quests or reveals locations in map should stay per character but other books should be account wide in my opinion. It will also further decrease the data stored in server.1 -
kyatos_binarini✭✭✭For all my years in ESO I read less than 10 books and still I have a crazy desire to collect them all😂 ZOS know how to play on our completionism0 -
Mesite✭✭✭✭If I was bothered (I don't chase achievements) then my problem was that every time I created a new toon I effectively had to start again...if I was less indecisive then I'd have collected all of the one I have found on my main character.0
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RoseVex✭✭✭There is one book that only shows up in the Imperial City Sewers, The Distributed Soul, that i have looked for for ages now. Bookshelves down there are limited anyway and I've noticed that out of the 5 (i think) I know of, only one or two seem to reset in 24 hours, the rest stay the same. I went down there every day for about a week looking for this book and leaving map markers of what book i found in that spot.
Royal Messengers Fate in the Wrothgar Writings collection is one of the bugged ones i think.
She who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven.
Sovali - AD Dunmer DK tank
Vinicia - DC warden tank
Viratha - AD Altmer sorcerer DPS
Melicine - Breton templar healer1 -
Schiffy✭✭I didn’t realise that bookshelves changed books so I’ve learnt something valuable today thank you. I used to click every bookcase every time but stopped as I thought I was wasting my time.
Most shelves change after either leaving the zone and coming back or the next day after reset (not entirely sure). The two zones I mentioned, however, seem to only be on Sundays at reset. I don't know if ICP and WGT suffer the same problem.There is one book that only shows up in the Imperial City Sewers, The Distributed Soul, that i have looked for for ages now. Bookshelves down there are limited anyway and I've noticed that out of the 5 (i think) I know of, only one or two seem to reset in 24 hours, the rest stay the same. I went down there every day for about a week looking for this book and leaving map markers of what book i found in that spot.
There are at least two bookshelves in every IC Sewers base. There's like five all sitting together in the Temple District, right under the Dominion spawn point. There might be one or two scattered elsewhere.Edited by Schiffy on April 25, 2023 3:57PM0 -
virtus753✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭There is one book that only shows up in the Imperial City Sewers, The Distributed Soul, that i have looked for for ages now. Bookshelves down there are limited anyway and I've noticed that out of the 5 (i think) I know of, only one or two seem to reset in 24 hours, the rest stay the same. I went down there every day for about a week looking for this book and leaving map markers of what book i found in that spot.
Royal Messengers Fate in the Wrothgar Writings collection is one of the bugged ones i think.
Royal Messenger's Fate was fixed. You can find it on live in Wrothgar (where the blue-green arrow is, not the waypoint):
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7829510/#Comment_7829510
The first post in the Eidetic Memory thread here has a guide to IC bookshelves. There are far more than 5, though some are easier to reach than others:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/270549/eidetic-memory-bugs-comments-help
That thread has a lot more information about bugged and fixed lorebooks, in case you are looking for any others.0 -
RoseVex✭✭✭There is one book that only shows up in the Imperial City Sewers, The Distributed Soul, that i have looked for for ages now. Bookshelves down there are limited anyway and I've noticed that out of the 5 (i think) I know of, only one or two seem to reset in 24 hours, the rest stay the same. I went down there every day for about a week looking for this book and leaving map markers of what book i found in that spot.
Royal Messengers Fate in the Wrothgar Writings collection is one of the bugged ones i think.
Royal Messenger's Fate was fixed. You can find it on live in Wrothgar (where the blue-green arrow is, not the waypoint):
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7829510/#Comment_7829510
The first post in the Eidetic Memory thread here has a guide to IC bookshelves. There are far more than 5, though some are easier to reach than others:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/270549/eidetic-memory-bugs-comments-help
That thread has a lot more information about bugged and fixed lorebooks, in case you are looking for any others.
Thank you, will go get Royal Messengers Fate when I'm next online. As for the other one, that lists the bookcases in the City not in the Sewers and that's where the book I need is supposed to beShe who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven.
Sovali - AD Dunmer DK tank
Vinicia - DC warden tank
Viratha - AD Altmer sorcerer DPS
Melicine - Breton templar healer0 -
virtus753✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭There is one book that only shows up in the Imperial City Sewers, The Distributed Soul, that i have looked for for ages now. Bookshelves down there are limited anyway and I've noticed that out of the 5 (i think) I know of, only one or two seem to reset in 24 hours, the rest stay the same. I went down there every day for about a week looking for this book and leaving map markers of what book i found in that spot.
Royal Messengers Fate in the Wrothgar Writings collection is one of the bugged ones i think.
Royal Messenger's Fate was fixed. You can find it on live in Wrothgar (where the blue-green arrow is, not the waypoint):
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7829510/#Comment_7829510
The first post in the Eidetic Memory thread here has a guide to IC bookshelves. There are far more than 5, though some are easier to reach than others:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/270549/eidetic-memory-bugs-comments-help
That thread has a lot more information about bugged and fixed lorebooks, in case you are looking for any others.
Thank you, will go get Royal Messengers Fate when I'm next online. As for the other one, that lists the bookcases in the City not in the Sewers and that's where the book I need is supposed to be
The ones that can be found on bookshelves in the Sewers can also be found on bookshelves in the Districts. The pool is the same.0 -
RoseVex✭✭✭There is one book that only shows up in the Imperial City Sewers, The Distributed Soul, that i have looked for for ages now. Bookshelves down there are limited anyway and I've noticed that out of the 5 (i think) I know of, only one or two seem to reset in 24 hours, the rest stay the same. I went down there every day for about a week looking for this book and leaving map markers of what book i found in that spot.
Royal Messengers Fate in the Wrothgar Writings collection is one of the bugged ones i think.
Royal Messenger's Fate was fixed. You can find it on live in Wrothgar (where the blue-green arrow is, not the waypoint):
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7829510/#Comment_7829510
The first post in the Eidetic Memory thread here has a guide to IC bookshelves. There are far more than 5, though some are easier to reach than others:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/270549/eidetic-memory-bugs-comments-help
That thread has a lot more information about bugged and fixed lorebooks, in case you are looking for any others.
Thank you, will go get Royal Messengers Fate when I'm next online. As for the other one, that lists the bookcases in the City not in the Sewers and that's where the book I need is supposed to be
The ones that can be found on bookshelves in the Sewers can also be found on bookshelves in the Districts. The pool is the same.
wait really? because if so that is fantastic and i love youShe who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven.
Sovali - AD Dunmer DK tank
Vinicia - DC warden tank
Viratha - AD Altmer sorcerer DPS
Melicine - Breton templar healer0 -
Schiffy✭✭
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7829510/#Comment_7829510
The first post in the Eidetic Memory thread here has a guide to IC bookshelves. There are far more than 5, though some are easier to reach than others:.
All the images in that first post appear to be broken, damn0 -
agwm_2014✭✭
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7829510/#Comment_7829510
The first post in the Eidetic Memory thread here has a guide to IC bookshelves. There are far more than 5, though some are easier to reach than others:.
All the images in that first post appear to be broken, damn
This doesn't seem known by many (hoping that changes now), the IC city lorebooks can be found in (at least) one PVE area as well:
I was missing like you 'The Year 2920, Vol. 27' and another one IC related, and after months trying daily without success in IC I found both by chance when doing the Northern Elsweyr quest with my main, they were in bookshelves at Sandswirl Manor:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Sandswirl_Manor
You can't imagine my joy that day!
Interestingly, that is an Imperial style location, which makes me wonder if it's the only PVE place where those could be found, or there could be more Imperial places where one could check (I didn't need to do it after that day, as I completed my IC related books with that lucky discovery)Edited by agwm_2014 on May 2, 2023 10:58AM1 -
Schiffy✭✭
I was missing like you 'The Year 2920, Vol. 27' and another one IC related, and after months trying daily without success in IC I found both by chance when doing the Northern Elsweyr quest with my main, they were in bookshelves at Sandswirl Manor:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Sandswirl_Manor
You can't imagine my joy that day!
Interestingly, that is an Imperial style location, which makes me wonder if it's the only PVE place where those could be found, or there could be more Imperial places where one could check (I didn't need to do it after that day, as I completed my IC related books with that lucky discovery)
Hm, didn't find anything in one visit to Sandswirl but I'm definitely gonna add it to my rotation of places to periodically check. It does raise the question of if there are other places like it, however.0 -
virtus753✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭
I was missing like you 'The Year 2920, Vol. 27' and another one IC related, and after months trying daily without success in IC I found both by chance when doing the Northern Elsweyr quest with my main, they were in bookshelves at Sandswirl Manor:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Sandswirl_Manor
You can't imagine my joy that day!
Interestingly, that is an Imperial style location, which makes me wonder if it's the only PVE place where those could be found, or there could be more Imperial places where one could check (I didn't need to do it after that day, as I completed my IC related books with that lucky discovery)
Hm, didn't find anything in one visit to Sandswirl but I'm definitely gonna add it to my rotation of places to periodically check. It does raise the question of if there are other places like it, however.
The UESP log viewer can sometimes be helpful to find locations like this.
Here is an example of the log data viewer entry for Introduction to Aedric Studies, an IC book:
https://ts.uesp.net/esolog/viewlog.php?action=view&record=book&id=2324
And here are the locations provided to the log. This is not a complete list of every time anyone has found a book, but it does give some idea of the range of potential locations.
https://ts.uesp.net/esolog/viewlog.php?record=location&filter=bookId&filterid=2324
You can actually see Northern Elsweyr listed there, and if you find the coordinates, you will find the bookshelf.
ETA: You can search for anything in the top right of the page.Edited by virtus753 on May 2, 2023 5:21PM0 -
Schiffy✭✭
The UESP log viewer can sometimes be helpful to find locations like this.
Here is an example of the log data viewer entry for Introduction to Aedric Studies, an IC book:
https://ts.uesp.net/esolog/viewlog.php?action=view&record=book&id=2324
And here are the locations provided to the log. This is not a complete list of every time anyone has found a book, but it does give some idea of the range of potential locations.
https://ts.uesp.net/esolog/viewlog.php?record=location&filter=bookId&filterid=2324
You can actually see Northern Elsweyr listed there, and if you find the coordinates, you will find the bookshelf.
ETA: You can search for anything in the top right of the page.
I didn't consider this but there are times where it's giving me weird results. For example, one book I was looking for had a location in Windhelm (the city's map, not the Eastmarch zone on the whole) with the coordinates 0.67, 0.297, which is just... on the road in the northeast of the city where there isn't a bookshelf in sight. Just for kicks I tried swapping the coordinates, but that was just south of the southwestern wall.0 -
virtus753✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭
The UESP log viewer can sometimes be helpful to find locations like this.
Here is an example of the log data viewer entry for Introduction to Aedric Studies, an IC book:
https://ts.uesp.net/esolog/viewlog.php?action=view&record=book&id=2324
And here are the locations provided to the log. This is not a complete list of every time anyone has found a book, but it does give some idea of the range of potential locations.
https://ts.uesp.net/esolog/viewlog.php?record=location&filter=bookId&filterid=2324
You can actually see Northern Elsweyr listed there, and if you find the coordinates, you will find the bookshelf.
ETA: You can search for anything in the top right of the page.
I didn't consider this but there are times where it's giving me weird results. For example, one book I was looking for had a location in Windhelm (the city's map, not the Eastmarch zone on the whole) with the coordinates 0.67, 0.297, which is just... on the road in the northeast of the city where there isn't a bookshelf in sight. Just for kicks I tried swapping the coordinates, but that was just south of the southwestern wall.
Did you try layers? There are interiors in Windhelm that are under the city in terms of vertical coordinates. You might need to try heading inside a building to get to the right spot.0 -
Schiffy✭✭
Did you try layers? There are interiors in Windhelm that are under the city in terms of vertical coordinates. You might need to try heading inside a building to get to the right spot.
Yeah this point definitely doesn't have any layers. It's on the road right outside the Skald King's Temporary Court (one of Jorunn's permanent locations for pie-throwing during Jester's).
Another of these weird locations was something between the Elinhir Wayshrine and the the Fulminant Anomaly to the north on that thin road.
The only way these coordinates make sense is if someone read it in their inventory and the spot they were in got sent to the log, but the books I'm looking at data for shouldn't have inventory versions. I gotta look into this, maybe ask some people in the UESP Discord.0 -
Tra_Lalan✭✭✭✭✭
3. (Possibly) Make Eidetic Memory account-wide.
This may or may not be a good, or popular, idea. Access to Eidetic Memory was made account-wide with Update 33, removing the need to complete The Arch-Mage's Boon on multiple characters. Like Achievements becoming account-wide, this may be a controversial issue among some players. The remaining suggestions are the most important ones, whether or not this one is done.
I personally would love to see that, as I'm missing a lot of quest related lore books. Account wide eidetic memory would be a nice motivation to redo some story quests on my alt characters (just to get those books in my collection).
Also wouldn't mind if they exlcuded Shalidors books from that and leave the mages guild progress as it is.
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virtus753✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭
Did you try layers? There are interiors in Windhelm that are under the city in terms of vertical coordinates. You might need to try heading inside a building to get to the right spot.
Yeah this point definitely doesn't have any layers. It's on the road right outside the Skald King's Temporary Court (one of Jorunn's permanent locations for pie-throwing during Jester's).
Another of these weird locations was something between the Elinhir Wayshrine and the the Fulminant Anomaly to the north on that thin road.
The only way these coordinates make sense is if someone read it in their inventory and the spot they were in got sent to the log, but the books I'm looking at data for shouldn't have inventory versions. I gotta look into this, maybe ask some people in the UESP Discord.
What book is the one you're looking for in Windhelm? Or is it a shelf?0 -
Schiffy✭✭
What book is the one you're looking for in Windhelm? Or is it a shelf?
It was definitely a book-shelf only book. The ones I've been trying to find lately that pointed me to some of these weird locations were Thief of Virtue, and the inexplicable other version of A Request For Relief that's in the Crafting Motifs collection (not the one that's in Skill Books).0