PTS Update 42 - Feedback Thread for Scribing (Quest, Functionality, UI)

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for Scribing, specifically focused on the quest, UI and overall functionality of the system. If you would like to give feedback on Scribed skills specifically, please visit this thread.

After you have a chance to fully test the Scribing system, we would appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey. Note that once you begin the survey, you cannot go back to change your answers so please ensure you have spent enough time with Scribing first.

Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Quests & Content
  • Did you have any trouble starting the questline or finding the quest giver?
  • Was the tutorial for Scribing an ability clear?
  • Were any Wards overly difficult to locate during the True-Sight Lens gameplay?
  • Were all the quest objectives clear? Did you find any of them confusing?
  • How far did you make it into the Scribing questline?
  • What did you think about the overall length of the quests, with the knowledge that the quest rewards often unlock account wide benefits?
  • Did you understand the storyline in the quests?
• Script/Grimoire Acquisition and Crafting
  • Which Grimoires and Scripts did you focus on collecting?
  • Were you able to figure out how to collect any Grimoire or Script you were interested in?
  • What did you think about how Grimoires and Scripts were acquired?
  • How did the overall pace of Grimoire, Script, and Ink acquisition feel?
• Scribing UI
  • Are you using Gamepad or Keyboard UI?
  • Were there any parts of the Scribing process that you felt were tedious or confusing?
  • While Scribing a skill, were there any pieces of information missing from the screen that you feel would be helpful in making your desired skill?
  • While browsing your previously created skills in the Archive section of Scribing, were there any pieces of information that would help you more quickly identify and revert back to your desired version of the grimoire/skill?
  • Inside of the Skills menu, did you encounter any difficulty with finding and selecting any of your previously scribed skills?
• Do you have any general feedback?

spartan62893_ESO

In "The Wing of the Dragon", all three true-sight points around the Fort Grimwatch area are not visible or interactable. On the character I am attempting to do the quest on I've completed the zone story quests in the area, putting it into the phase where the Dro M'athra have been removed.

Editing to Add: I was able to briefly see the true-sight point when entering and exiting the area

DeathStalker

spartan62893_ESO wrote: »

In "The Wing of the Dragon", all three true-sight points around the Fort Grimwatch area are not visible or interactable. On the character I am attempting to do the quest on I've completed the zone story quests in the area, putting it into the phase where the Dro M'athra have been removed.

Editing to Add: I was able to briefly see the true-sight point when entering and exiting the area

I will add to this that I had the same problem. I posted in the scribing bug thread with screenshots about this as has another person.

chessalavakia_ESO

Quests & Content

Did you have any trouble starting the questline or finding the quest giver?

I didn't have any issues.

Was the tutorial for Scribing an ability clear?

It seemed pretty clear.

Were any Wards overly difficult to locate during the True-Sight Lens gameplay?

Not once I remembered to look up.

Occasionally, the Lens didn't start when I had just been in combat or had been moving quickly when I went to activate it.

Were all the quest objectives clear? Did you find any of them confusing?

I found them to be clear.

How far did you make it into the Scribing questline?

I completed it.

What did you think about the overall length of the quests, with the knowledge that the quest rewards often unlock account wide benefits?

I hit the occasional moment where it felt long but, much of the time I was enjoying myself (For comparison I hated the Psijic Quest Line even on time one). I generally liked the characters and the environments enough that it didn't feel that long.

Obviously, I might be enjoying myself less running it on a bunch of alts but the first go through was quite good.

Did you understand the storyline in the quests?

Yeah. I thought it had a solid ending.

Additional Comments

The fox was adorable.

XamXam777

Did you have any trouble starting the questline or finding the quest giver?

I can not see the quest giver on my copy character (I'm assuming they're next to the portal?) The Scholarium portal is also invisible but I can still go through it and get to The Scholarium.

Ardriel

@XamXam777 I have the same problem: couldn't start the scribing quest because quest giver is invisible. I tried with 2 copied toons. I will try it with a template toon today. Maybe you can start it only with a template?

EF321

Seeing all those people in scribing area spamming skills... and that's just PTS... we really need scribing furnishing for our homes

Also ability to right click a skill and link it in chat might be nice QoL, with all those possible combinations.

Tandor

Ardriel wrote: »

@XamXam777 I have the same problem: couldn't start the scribing quest because quest giver is invisible. I tried with 2 copied toons. I will try it with a template toon today. Maybe you can start it only with a template?

Same here, no quest giver visible for my copied level 33 character despite him having the quest to talk to him.

chessalavakia_ESO

Script/Grimoire Acquisition and Crafting

It seemed to be that acquiring most of the scripts would mean a little over two weeks of doing dallies per char assuming it doesn't provide duplicates.

That doesn't seem to be too bad for people that don't have many chars but, I'd likely need to spend half of the year doing dallies to do it on all of my chars since they seem to just drop for the first daily.

The Class Script seems like it might be a bit of a pain with the need for 50 pieces.

Grimoire Acquisition didn't seem to be too bad.

Ink might be too slow or I might be doing the wrong activities. I earned six ink according to the achievement and I finished off most of the quests in Gold Road.

Gorø

Quests & Content

Did you have any trouble starting the questline or finding the quest giver?

No, it was next to the wayshrine so it was easy to figure out.

Was the tutorial for Scribing an ability clear?

Crystal clear.

Were any Wards overly difficult to locate during the True-Sight Lens gameplay?

I struggled a bit with some of them, notably with the wing of the dragon quest until I realized that I needed to do limited movement.

Were all the quest objectives clear? Did you find any of them confusing?

I really hated how all of them were clear except the dragon one. I get the "hahaha it's Elsweyr, time to put riddles" but tbf it was more annoying than anything (yes you can ask a npc to translate said riddles but even translated you have to look at your inventory all the time)

How far did you make it into the Scribing questline?

Finished it on 6 different characters

What did you think about the overall length of the quests, with the knowledge that the quest rewards often unlock account wide benefits?

The account benefits are VERY GOOD, GG ZOS! The length however is left to be desired.. I felt like all the quests were too long. I would like at least to have the wing of the indrik size reduced as you will have to do it on all characters (maybe by having to do only 1 challenge instead of 2). On the bright side, quests rewarding enough ink for a full skill is very nice, thanks!

Did you understand the storyline in the quests?

Yes, pretty nice overall.

Script/Grimoire Acquisition and Crafting

Which Grimoires and Scripts did you focus on collecting?

I didn't have a focus for grimoires as you could buy 90% of them in one go, as for scripts I was focusing on getting enough scraps for the class mastery to test out the drop rate (spoilers: low)

Were you able to figure out how to collect any Grimoire or Script you were interested in?

Yes, I just read the rewards (account upgrades) I earned from the quests.

What did you think about how Grimoires and Scripts were acquired?

I like grimoires but I HATE scripts. Although it seemed that dailies have a guaranteed drop, the thought of doing around 49 dailies per char is discouraging. It's even more discouraging for the class mastery as those scraps have low drop rates. The fact that they are not account bound means spending 100K gold per char for all grimoires, 49 dailies and 50 scraps (again per char) which is absurd for someone who has multiple chars (12 on live for my case, that's 600 scraps needed. I would have been okay with this if the knowledge was account wide.

How did the overall pace of Grimoire, Script, and Ink acquisition feel?

For grimoires and scripts, (excluding class mastery) it was. Ink seems abysmal though. Managed to get one from resource nodes after some farming and despite running 10 different dungeons and 7 skyreach runs, I haven't seen a single ink drop from enemies.

Do you have any general feedback?
Outside of everything I said, please make the crow wing accessible after finishing the quest. I liked the layout and would like to revisit it for time to time. I would also say to add a map marker for the merchant? A lot of people I've seen on PTS didn't even know there was a merchant.

Elvenheart

I did the unlock quest, and understand that every character on your account can buy grimoires from the Chronicler. But does every character have to find scripts separately, and how/where are they found/unlocked?

Edit: And I thought I read that once one character on your account has bought the grimoire, other characters on your account would be given a discount by the chronicler, but this didn’t seem to be the case.

SeaUnicorn

Are you using Gamepad or Keyboard UI?
Keyboard
Were there any parts of the Scribing process that you felt were tedious or confusing?
When re-scribing existing skill it shows the skill in its un-scribed state and requires you to press every single component instead. Quite tedious
While Scribing a skill, were there any pieces of information missing from the screen that you feel would be helpful in making your desired skill?
When re-scribing existing skill let us see current config and change one or 2 components rather than having to click all 3 components.
While browsing your previously created skills in the Archive section of Scribing, were there any pieces of information that would help you more quickly identify and revert back to your desired version of the grimoire/skill?
Before and after view similar to how we morph skills would be nice
Inside of the Skills menu, did you encounter any difficulty with finding and selecting any of your previously scribed skills?
It seemed odd that they appear in front of the list. If I was to progress from noobie to fully unlocked I would expect them to appear in order of acquisition, so scribing skills appear at the end of the list.

Tandor

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*] Did you have any trouble starting the questline or finding the quest giver?

Post today's patch I can still only see the quest giver with a full template character, he doesn't appear for my copied level 33 character with no CPs.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

I did most of the Gryphon’s quest and I gotta say the Fox looks creepy. I think it’s the eyes, they look painted on.

dnbranch

In the wing of the crow, the middle of the three podiums where you take the vows, the character on it was up in the air rather than standing on the platform. I had to make my toon jump to synergize with the figure to take that vow.

RaddlemanNumber7

Quests & Content
Did you have any trouble starting the questline or finding the quest giver?

No

Was the tutorial for Scribing an ability clear?

Yes

Were any Wards overly difficult to locate during the True-Sight Lens gameplay?

No, although a few of them took a couple of minutes longer to find than others.

Were all the quest objectives clear? Did you find any of them confusing?

The bit where we have to prove our commitment to "Justice", or a sense of humour, or whatever by doing 2 from 4, or 3 from 5 objectives was a little unconvincing. Often, the required actions didn't seem to have anything to do with the stated ideal. I just followed the quest markers.

How far did you make it into the Scribing questline?

Completed it.

What did you think about the overall length of the quests, with the knowledge that the quest rewards often unlock account wide benefits?

The story quests are worth doing regardless of the account-wide Scribing benefits. I intend to do the whole questline on more than one character once this goes on Live.

Did you understand the storyline in the quests?

Yes, I think so, apart from all the mysticism of course.

Script Grimoire Acquisition and Crafting
Which Grimoires and Scripts did you focus on collecting?

The ones in the merchants, the mages guilds and from base-game daily quests.

Were you able to figure out how to collect any Grimoire or Script you were interested in?

I wasn't trying to target specific ones.

What did you think about how Grimoires and Scripts were acquired?

It was OK. Not too much effort, apart from the Class Mastery script fragments.

How did the overall pace of Grimoire, Script, and Ink acquisition feel?

Grimoires and scripts OK, apart from the Class Mastery script fragments. I don't do any of the activities that reward Class Mastery script fragments, and I've no plans to start doing them.
Ink drops were non-existent, other than the ones I got for completing the actual Scribing questlines.

Scribing UI
Are you using Gamepad or Keyboard UI?

Keyboard

Were there any parts of the Scribing process that you felt were tedious or confusing?

No

While Scribing a skill, were there any pieces of information missing from the screen that you feel would be helpful in making your desired skill?

No

While browsing your previously created skills in the Archive section of Scribing, were there any pieces of information that would help you more quickly identify and revert back to your desired version of the grimoire/skill?

No

Inside of the Skills menu, did you encounter any difficulty with finding and selecting any of your previously scribed skills?

No

Do you have any general feedback?

I can't find much use for Scribed skills. They mostly offer no advantages over the skills my characters already use. After a full audit I identified only two characters who would benefit from using one scribed skill each. My characters all use Oakensoul, so skill slots are limited, and their builds are already very highly tuned.
I'm mystified as to what the alleged "Role Play" benefits of Scribing are, unless it's the opportunity to play "The Bouncing Bowman of Bangkorai" or something.

chessalavakia_ESO

It might be helpful if a minor indicator was added to show if a script just impacts you or if it also impacts allies.

It might also be beneficial to indicate if being in combat is required to get an impact. For example, using Heroic Torch doesn't generate any ultimate if you are out of combat.

virtus753

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Were there any parts of the Scribing process that you felt were tedious or confusing?

@ZOS_GinaBruno Could you please let us know whether surveys are meant to drop Luminous Ink or not?

There is something wrong either with the current implementation of getting Ink or with the description of how to do so in the patch notes. Both "tedious" and "confusing" apply here.

From the patch notes: "after completing the quest "The Wing of the Netch" Luminous Ink will rarely drop from harvesting crafting materials."

In my experience so far Ink has not dropped from harvesting survey nodes, even though that quite clearly fits the description of "harvesting crafting materials."

I've gotten 4 ink from 486 non-survey resource nodes. That's a rate of 0.823%, which is somewhat tedious but (imo) acceptable as long as Ink remains tradable.

I'm now up to 113 surveys, though, and have gotten 0 Ink from those 678 nodes.

I see a few possibilities here, but there's no way to tell what's going on without hearing from the dev team:

1. There is a bug where survey nodes are not currently eligible to drop Ink. Please fix this so survey nodes properly drop Ink.
2. Survey nodes are eligible to drop Ink, but I've coincidentally only gotten it from non-survey nodes. This would mean that the overall drop rate is actually very low (0.34% so far). That would be too tedious.
3. Survey nodes are not meant to drop Ink at all. Please correct the patch notes to reflect this, just like you routinely note this exception for events that increase resources. Please also note that there will be immense frustration due to surveys not counting as the resource nodes they are for other purposes (Plentiful Harvest procs, zone-specific mats like Aetherial Dust/Nirncrux/Cassiterite, antiquity leads, etc.). This would feel like yet another artificial way to draw out a process that already demands a huge investment of gold (450k gold for the first 9 Grimoires? 100k per set per alt?) and time (gating rewards from quests like Fighters Guild dailies so they can only drop one script per *account* per day?). But at least this would clear up the confusion here.

I_CraftwithPntButter

Quest/Area : Wing of the Crow

The gate won't open after solving the brazier riddle . I have tried : reloadui , abandoned quest and redid it, logged out then back in , no change

K_G

Same issue as above ^^ I solved the riddle and the gate is closed. Also, the door that you use to enter/exit the area disappeared (when it bugged out, the door was there prior to touching the braziers) - the archway is still there, but the animated door part is not.

Abandoning the quest to redo it has me interact and listen to the echo and Nahlia, but then it automatically progresses to where it bugged out and skips the first room.

Logging in to a different character and back actually does reset the quest and has me do the first room, but once I solve the second, the gate remains closed. Going back to the first room results in two Nahlias - the one not following the player cannot be interacted with.

LonePirate

The PTS obviously exists for players to try out the new content on their varied systems using their different approaches to playing the game. However, I have now found three major bugs within the various scribing quests that the ZOS team should have caught before the new content ever reached the PTS: (1) the missing wards at Fort Grimwatch for the Dragon quest; (2) the missing foxroot in The Rift during the Gryphon quest; and (3) the gate that will not open during the Crow quest.

Some of us don't mind helping out but all three of these issues are effectively quest blockers that never should have reached the PTS. Players complain when big problems reach the live server that were never caught on the PTS and a good portion of the time it's because players are blocked on the PTS due to bugs which ZOS should have caught in their QA processes. Even worse, the second and third issues are still present in the second PTS patch so they went unfixed (and undiscovered?) during the first week of PTS review.

ZOS, you need to do better here. Between the PTS data reaching the live server and the long life of these PTS issues which never should have reached the PTS in the first place, it's no wonder the player base is losing their confidence in your abilities and product.

K_G

The issue of the final quest gate not opening has been fixed. I liked the story of the quest and the characters, but the back and forth within the zones during the different wings was a bit tedious and felt like it served no real purpose other than to have the player constantly porting.

Also the achievement furnishings for scribing are dope.

ThelerisTelvanni

It is kind of sad that we got send to rather old areas of the game for some of the quests. I personally don't visit the old areas anymore unless I have to, since they are rather outdated. Doing for example the world activetys in Auridon did not feel like I was on a magical quest to discover magical secrets. Recyceling that old content like that does not feel good and somewhat undermines the quest for ancient magical secrets.

Enodoc

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Inside of the Skills menu, did you encounter any difficulty with finding and selecting any of your previously scribed skills?

Not "difficulty" per se, but it would be nice if Scribed Skills had some sort of embellishment or other identifying feature in the UI to distinguish them from the basic skills.

Tandor wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

[*] Did you have any trouble starting the questline or finding the quest giver?

Post today's patch I can still only see the quest giver with a full template character, he doesn't appear for my copied level 33 character with no CPs.

Same issue here - had to make a template character to unlock the quest giver on my existing (copied) character.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Were all the quest objectives clear? Did you find any of them confusing?

I wasn't sure whether the luminary trial objective to "Close an incursion portal in West Weald" (or something to that effect) was referring to the main Mirrormoor Mosaic locations, or whether there are smaller incursion portals dotted around the zone elsewhere (like the Dark Fissures, Abyssal Pools and Lava Vents which are small versions of Dark Anchors, Abyssal Geysers and Volcanic Vents respectively in other zones).

RemarkableMax

Regarding Scribing UI:

I used gamepad while scribing. I've found the UI to be mostly straightforward as it draws a similar organization structure from enchanting. I've also found it relatively easy to navigate to scribed skills in my skills menu. I have 2 suggestions for improvement however.

1) Currently when selecting scripts, incompatibles scripts in other categories completely disappear rather than greying out to indicate that they are incompatible. This prevents any brainstorming on what you want out of the skill from the other two scripts once you've locked in one of the three scripts already. I suggest greying out incompatible options rather than hiding them completely, perhaps with a lock icon to indicate conflicting scripts.

2) Seeking out previous versions of grimoires seems to produce an unorganized list of all previously scribed grimoires. I recommend dividing these grimoires into groups similar to how different armor weights are separated in the inventory. All custom grimoire versions should be grouped together with others from the same base (Ulfhild's Contingecny in one group, Trample in a different group, etc.). These should then be navigated optimally by trigger presses on the controller to quickly scroll down to the grimoire group you want, then switch to joystick or d-pad selection for the specific version.


Regarding Quest:

I find the objectives of the questline to be quite thoroughly explained and easy to navigate. I noticed the ward on the central column in Ondil disappears if you run all the way down the stairs before attempting to dispel that one, but otherwise had no trouble dispelling it by simply running back up to the half-landing of the staircase. The Do'Krin Monastery ward at the top of the central building took a fair bit of moving around to find the button prompt to dispel it as it seems to be out of range until about halfway between the focal point and the ward.

I've only completed Indrik and Dragon thus far, so I have yet to see the other two paths' wards.

Papalapagas

Wing of the Dragon: Riddle of the Moon - gather four Bent Dance Bloom flowers at Moonmont - THE CROW TELLS YOU THEY GROW AT DO'KRIN MONASTERY!

Papalapagas

It's extremely annoying that you have to complete all the trials for each of your characters to learn all aspects of Scribing. I could see a MAIN trial for each but only one character, per account, should have to complete them all.

Papalapagas

Scribing is a serious let down. I don't want to change my weapon skills, I want to alter my CLASS SKILLS! Nobody can see what is going on in any battlefield due to all the NEON GREEN effects from Arcanists surrounding every player. Let us scribe our way out of that NEON GREEN mess and into something more subtle, PLEASE!?

I would also love to tone down the audio of several OVERLY EXPLOSIVE skills. I love the Sorcerer skill "Crystal Fragments" but would like to alter the sound effect. I know it blows stuff up, let's just do it not quite so loudly, OK? And, while we're at it - I've advanced the skill to its max, let me speed up the casting time to instant, with Scribing, yeah?

Papalapagas

I feel like 70% of the time spent in the Gold Road DLC is spent on Scribing, not the lost Prince story. Scribing should be it's own DLC.

Papalapagas

I feel like 70% of the time spent in the Gold Road DLC is spent on Scribing, not the lost Prince story. Scribing should be it's own DLC. We didn't spend near the same amount of time, exploring Ithelia's alternate paths as we did on the Luminaries riddles and quests. I can't pinpoint how, but I feel like Ithelia's story is incomplete; I was left somehow, unsatisfied.

CrushDepth

Papalapagas wrote: »

Wing of the Dragon: Riddle of the Moon - gather four Bent Dance Bloom flowers at Moonmont - THE CROW TELLS YOU THEY GROW AT DO'KRIN MONASTERY!

Well, I have been all over the monastery, outside and inside and have not found them.