Which Currencies Should Be Bankable?

Erickson9610

Many of the currencies in ESO are not bankable (Archival Fortunes, Transmute Crystals, Undaunted Keys, etcetera) while there are others that are unique to each character and are bankable (Tel Var Stones, Writ Vouchers, Gold, etcetera). What is the purpose of certain currencies being bankable and others not? Here, I'll list all of the currencies in ESO and talk about them.

• Alliance Points
  • Earned through PvP activities. Not account-wide, but can be banked.
• Archival Fortunes
  • Earned in the Endless Archive. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Crown Gems
  • Awarded for extracting gems out of Crown Crate items. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Crowns
  • Purchased (premium) currency. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Event Tickets
  • Earned through participating in in-game events, or purchased from the Crown Store. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Gold
  • Earned through nearly all forms of gameplay. Not account-wide, but can be banked.
• Outfit Change Tokens
  • Bought from the Crown Store, or occasionally earned from Daily Rewards. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Seals of Endeavor
  • Earned from completing Daily and Weekly Endeavors, or occasionally earned from Daily Rewards. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Tel Var Stones
  • Earned in the Imperial City. Not account-wide, but can be banked.
• Transmute Crystals
  • Earned through various activities, namely through leaderboard rewards and daily mail rewards. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Undaunted Keys
  • Earned from completing Undaunted daily quests. Account-wide currency, cannot be banked.
• Writ Vouchers
  • Earned from completing Master Writs. Not account-wide, but can be banked.

This is the complete list of all of the currencies which currently show up in the Currency tab of the inventory screen. For most of these, it's obvious why the currency isn't bankable. Any currency relating to the Crown Store (Crown Gems, Crowns, Event Tickets, Outfit Change Tokens, Seals of Endeavor) should be account-wide, independent of character and bank inventories. Some currencies make sense to be character-bound, such as Gold (which you can lose if one character has a bounty and is killed by a guard) and Tel Var Stones (which you can lose if you die in the Imperial City). You would want to bank currency that can potentially be lost.

However, some currencies don't make sense as they are currently implemented. Why are Archival Fortunes account-wide, while Writ Vouchers are bankable? Undaunted Keys and Transmute Crystals can't be banked, so why can Alliance Points be banked? If currency has a reason to be stored in the bank, then it shouldn't be account-wide.


I would suggest making Alliance Points and Writ Vouchers be account-wide, since they are used to buy things — like Archival Fortunes — and have no reason to be banked because they cannot be lost. Archival Fortunes being account-wide is convenient, as players don't need to store this currency in the bank and withdraw it every time they want to purchase items on different characters, so this should be the new standard for currency.

Alternatively, the opposite approach could be taken. Currencies like Archival Fortunes, Transmute Crystals, and Undaunted Keys should be made bankable. Players would be able to deposit currency and withdraw specific amounts to avoid overspending.


In short, these currencies should be made consistent with one another. The currencies tied to the Crown Store should be account-wide and not bankable, but everything else should be either bankable or also account-wide, excluding currencies which can be lost.

EdjeSwift

There's a pretty simple reason if you look at it. Age. AP, Tel-Var and Gold are from launch or near. Undaunted Keys were converted to currency from items at one point.

TybaltKaine

AP is tied to PVP skill line progression, which is character specific.

Erickson9610

TybaltKaine wrote: »

AP is tied to PVP skill line progression, which is character specific.

Right, but you can transfer this currency between characters once you've earned it. Why should we go through the bank to transfer AP to a character that we want to spend the currency on?

TybaltKaine

Because this would functionally be the same as making PVP skill ranks account wide.

Erickson9610

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Because this would functionally be the same as making PVP skill ranks account wide.

You only make progress in your Alliance Skill Lines from earning Alliance Points, not actually having it on your character. You can transfer millions of AP stored in your bank to a new character and it won't level their Alliance War skill lines. The currency is separate from the experience you gain for the Alliance Skill Lines and your Alliance War Rank.

TybaltKaine

But the proposal is to make the currency account wide. That would mean that all characters would be credited as acquiring the AP. This would be the same as making the skill progression account wide, since AP is functionally the same as EXP for the purposes of PVP.

Unless the two were unbound, you can't make the currency account wide. That's a large headache to untangle in the code when the current system works just fine.

Erickson9610

TybaltKaine wrote: »

But the proposal is to make the currency account wide. That would mean that all characters would be credited as acquiring the AP. This would be the same as making the skill progression account wide, since AP is functionally the same as EXP for the purposes of PVP.

Unless the two were unbound, you can't make the currency account wide. That's a large headache to untangle in the code when the current system works just fine.

The experience is only gained for the character that is logged in when the currency is earned. It's impossible for a character who isn't logged in to earn experience for any skill line. The game isn't going to retroactively update the experience for every character you have, because the experience and the currency are already unbound.

That is, you earn the experience the moment you complete the action which rewards the AP. You do not earn the experience the moment the game checks your AP value.

Soarora

I bank AP so I don’t overspend in shopping sprees. I’ll pull out, say, 1mil and then buy a bunch of deadly boxes. Writ vouchers should be account wide though, I thought they already were tbh.

TybaltKaine

I know how the system works. The idea is DOA because of the way the system currently works.

Making AP an account wide earn is the same as making it an account wide EXP. That's it, that's the rub.

Panderbander

Alliance War experience is not the same as Alliance Points. They are earned simultaneously, but there is a reason War Tortes don't increase AP gain while giving extra Alliance War experience.

Amottica

I may have missed something but each currency mentioned can be shared account-wide. Some require being banked but that means they are still account-wide, just not automatically stored account-wide.

Very minor and not much of an issue.

As some have pointed out, AP currency may not be so easy to change. That is something we do not know and assumptions on how easy it would be if it would be an issue at all is just that, an assumption.

Panderbander

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

TybaltKaine

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

They do, per UESP:

"In addition, Alliance Points are frequently given out as Daily Rewards. These rewards will increase your alliance rank and skill lines just like those earned by participating in PVP, but only for the character that claims the rewards, so if you have multiple characters, be mindful of which one you use to claim Alliance point rewards."

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

Panderbander

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Many of the currencies in ESO are account-wide (Archival Fortunes, Transmute Crystals, Undaunted Keys, etcetera) while there are others that are unique to each character (Tel Var Stones, Writ Vouchers, Gold, etcetera). What is the purpose of certain currencies being account-wide and others not? Here, I'll list all of the currencies in ESO and talk about them.

• Alliance Points
  • Earned through PvP activities. Not account-wide, but can be banked.
• Archival Fortunes
  • Earned in the Endless Archive. Account-wide currency.
• Crown Gems
  • Awarded for extracting gems out of Crown Crate items. Account-wide currency.
• Crowns
  • Purchased (premium) currency. Account-wide currency.
• Event Tickets
  • Earned through participating in in-game events, or purchased from the Crown Store. Account-wide currency.
• Gold
  • Earned through nearly all forms of gameplay. Not account-wide, but can be banked.
• Outfit Change Tokens
  • Bought from the Crown Store, or occasionally earned from Daily Rewards. Account-wide currency.
• Seals of Endeavor
  • Earned from completing Daily and Weekly Endeavors, or occasionally earned from Daily Rewards. Account-wide currency.
• Tel Var Stones
  • Earned in the Imperial City. Not account-wide, but can be banked.
• Transmute Crystals
  • Earned through various activities, namely through leaderboard rewards and daily mail rewards. Account-wide currency.
• Undaunted Keys
  • Earned from completing Undaunted daily quests. Account-wide currency.
• Writ Vouchers
  • Earned from completing Master Writs. Not account-wide, but can be banked.

This is the complete list of all of the currencies which currently show up in the Currency tab of the inventory screen. For most of these, it's obvious why the currency isn't character-bound. Any currency relating to the Crown Store (Crown Gems, Crowns, Event Tickets, Outfit Change Tokens, Seals of Endeavor) should be account-wide. Some currencies make sense to be character-bound, such as Gold (which you can lose if one character has a bounty and is killed by a guard) and Tel Var Stones (which you can lose if you die in the Imperial City).

However, some currencies don't make sense. Why are Archival Fortunes account-wide, while Writ Vouchers are not? Undaunted Keys and Transmute Crystals are account-wide, but why aren't Alliance Points account-wide? If currency has a reason to be unique to each character, then it should be character-bound.


I would suggest making Alliance Points and Writ Vouchers be account-wide, since they function like Archival Fortunes and have no reason to be character-bound like Gold and Tel Var Stones are. Archival Fortunes being account-wide is convenient so this should be made the standard for currencies where it makes sense.

So the only functional reason I can see why it would be better to store currencies that can be transferred between characters on a per character basis rather than account-wide is that it provides a functional increase in the limit of how much of the currency can be accrued on an account. Storing it account-wide would effectively reduce the cap by increasing the possibility of exceeding the limits of the data type used to store it.

Panderbander

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

They do, per UESP:

"In addition, Alliance Points are frequently given out as Daily Rewards. These rewards will increase your alliance rank and skill lines just like those earned by participating in PVP, but only for the character that claims the rewards, so if you have multiple characters, be mindful of which one you use to claim Alliance point rewards."

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

No, they don't. UESP is a publicly editable Wiki and is not an official source.

Erickson9610

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

They do, per UESP:

"In addition, Alliance Points are frequently given out as Daily Rewards. These rewards will increase your alliance rank and skill lines just like those earned by participating in PVP, but only for the character that claims the rewards, so if you have multiple characters, be mindful of which one you use to claim Alliance point rewards."

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

I have gotten Alliance Points from Daily Login Rewards and have never noticed an increase to my Alliance War rank. I specifically logged into a character who had never PvP'd before, and there was no progress to the skill lines or rank after claiming the AP.

TybaltKaine

As someone who frequently makes use of the daily AP logins specifically to level non PVP characters in order to gain skills like Cleanse for my PVE healers, I have to say that either this change is extremely recent or you are mistaken.

Kendaric

Panderbander wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

They do, per UESP:

"In addition, Alliance Points are frequently given out as Daily Rewards. These rewards will increase your alliance rank and skill lines just like those earned by participating in PVP, but only for the character that claims the rewards, so if you have multiple characters, be mindful of which one you use to claim Alliance point rewards."

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

No, they don't. UESP is a publicly editable Wiki and is not an official source.

They do. It's how my characters gain any alliance rank at all since I don't PvP. Ever.

TybaltKaine

Panderbander wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

They do, per UESP:

"In addition, Alliance Points are frequently given out as Daily Rewards. These rewards will increase your alliance rank and skill lines just like those earned by participating in PVP, but only for the character that claims the rewards, so if you have multiple characters, be mindful of which one you use to claim Alliance point rewards."

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

No, they don't. UESP is a publicly editable Wiki and is not an official source.

UESP rigorously tests and verifies all information as it is posted to the site. In the 20 + year history of the site I have found that any erroneous information is always corrected and that all information can be traced to a source link. They even have a specific in game guild devoted to gathering information for this massive game, in addition to maintaining pages for every other ES game. Framing them as akin to Wikipedia is disingenuous.

Panderbander

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Panderbander wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

They do, per UESP:

"In addition, Alliance Points are frequently given out as Daily Rewards. These rewards will increase your alliance rank and skill lines just like those earned by participating in PVP, but only for the character that claims the rewards, so if you have multiple characters, be mindful of which one you use to claim Alliance point rewards."

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

No, they don't. UESP is a publicly editable Wiki and is not an official source.

UESP rigorously tests and verifies all information as it is posted to the site. In the 20 + year history of the site I have found that any erroneous information is always corrected and that all information can be traced to a source link. They even have a specific in game guild devoted to gathering information for this massive game, in addition to maintaining pages for every other ES game. Framing them as akin to Wikipedia is disingenuous.

Yeah?

Panderbander

There is a single source cited for that page, and it is a forum post from 2014 from Brian Wheeler. In it, it describes that experience is gained from participating in activities in Cyrodiil. Everything else is just conjecture without a source.

Erickson9610

Soarora wrote: »

I bank AP so I don’t overspend in shopping sprees. I’ll pull out, say, 1mil and then buy a bunch of deadly boxes. Writ vouchers should be account wide though, I thought they already were tbh.

This is a good argument in favor of keeping Alliance Points per-character. Banking currency to prevent from overspending is a valid use of the system. On that note, let's consider the alternative to making more currencies account-wide.


If more currencies were made character-specific, then we should make Archival Fortunes, Transmute Crystals, and Undaunted Keys all be character-specific and bankable. This would make these currencies more in-line with existing non-"Crown Store related" currencies like Gold, Alliance Points, Tel Var Stones, and Writ Vouchers.

The main benefit of this change would be to allow us to bank currencies we don't need right away so we don't overspend them.

virtus753

I was close enough to level 4 in the alliance skill lines on a fairly new character that taking the most recent AP login reward pushed me over. I was not in any PvP area at the time - I’d just logged in in Vivec City.

I remember being very surprised because I thought they’d changed it so login rewards didn’t count that way, or at least wouldn’t give credit towards Rewards for the Worthy after that 150k daily bonus spammed my mail with them.

Something may have gotten reverted in a recent update.

zaria

Erickson9610 wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

AP is tied to PVP skill line progression, which is character specific.

Right, but you can transfer this currency between characters once you've earned it. Why should we go through the bank to transfer AP to a character that we want to spend the currency on?

Like gold you can keep it on account to use or store in bank so any character can redraw and use it.
For Tel-var its an mechanic how much you keep on you and how much you earn.

But its a bit of a mess, undaunted keys, and writ vouchers was character locked.
They changed it so keys was always account based while vouchers was bankable.

JemadarofCaerSalis

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

Also chiming in to say they do. I haven't set one single little toe into Cyrodil, yet I have a higher alliance rank due to the AP given out through the dailies.

https://imgur.com/Aj5Tzh3.png

https://imgur.com/OhiKFGc.png

I am rank 4, started in July, and haven't even *dueled* another player. I have one other character that is still in the tutorial area (created him for the name)

I got a notification that my alliance rank had increased after I claimed the AP in the daily login rewards.

Amottica

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Panderbander wrote: »

I would also like to ask if nobody has noticed that AP gained from daily login rewards doesn't increase Alliance War rank?

They do, per UESP:

"In addition, Alliance Points are frequently given out as Daily Rewards. These rewards will increase your alliance rank and skill lines just like those earned by participating in PVP, but only for the character that claims the rewards, so if you have multiple characters, be mindful of which one you use to claim Alliance point rewards."

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

That is not the only source that says the Daily Reward AP increases ranks. Below is a Reddit thread where several people respond that they do increase the ranks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/136he87/do_daily_reward_ap_level_you_up/

In this second Reddit thread, one person responded they leveled up the alliance rank for one character to level 5 or 6 exclusively using the daily reward alliance points. He said it took a year.

https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/136he87/do_daily_reward_ap_level_you_up/

The first linked thread was from 6 months ago. The second from 3 days ago.

spartaxoxo

TybaltKaine wrote: »

But the proposal is to make the currency account wide. That would mean that all characters would be credited as acquiring the AP. This would be the same as making the skill progression account wide, since AP is functionally the same as EXP for the purposes of PVP.

Unless the two were unbound, you can't make the currency account wide. That's a large headache to untangle in the code when the current system works just fine.

They aren't linked that way. Alliance Point ExP and Alliance Point Currency are calculated separately.

spartaxoxo

IIRC the daily login rewards used to level up your alliance rank, but they changed it a while back. I'll have to try and find if that's true though.

JemadarofCaerSalis

spartaxoxo wrote: »

IIRC the daily login rewards used to level up your alliance rank, but they changed it a while back. I'll have to try and find if that's true though.

It had to have been fairly recent (as in the last couple of updates).

I have only been playing since July, and the AP given out through the calendar leveled me up to 4. Only the last AP given out didn't level me up, and that might be because it wasn't enough for me to reach a new level, but I don't know.

SilverBride

If the currency can be put in the bank then removed by another character there is no logical reason to require these extra steps.