QoL Request - Please make gathering Survey Maps easier!

FlopsyPrince

I have noted this before, but these remain a real pain. That is especially because of the need to go an uncertain distance away and then come back to get things to respawn.

And I will still gather them up because spending hours gathering mats, which I just pile up in my craft bag (ESO+) is not fun play when I have so much else to do.

- Ideally let me gather multiples at once. The only one this could negatively impact is Alchemy and Enchanting, but I could workaround the first by only gathering a set at a time. The latter would just iterate more loops to how it works now so should not matter.
- Or simply add a "respawn" feature if I select the survey map. Make it something I could put on my wheel and I could harvest all the items and reset the set without running an unknown distance away. I could live with the risk of missing a node because I counted wrong, though that would not happen on the PC with whatever addon I am using for this.

This would not ultimately be harmful to anything, except that a few more mats MIGHT get sold since they are being justly earned already. I would probably never sell the mats and instead would likely gather them more often, especially if I could just gather a stack at once!

DenverRalphy

Or you could just preview a home you don't own, immediately leave the home, and voila! You're right back at the exact same spot with the nodes respawned.

Just open your map, move to the Houses tab, select any random house from the Not Owned list, and clicky. That simple.

FlopsyPrince

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Or you could just preview a home you don't own, immediately leave the home, and voila! You're right back at the exact same spot with the nodes respawned.

Just open your map, move to the Houses tab, select any random house from the Not Owned list, and clicky. That simple.

I own far too many of the homes now, so that is very non-trivial. Plus it is often crashing now for me like that, especially on the PS5.

That method still added too much overhead, but did make things better when I didn't own many homes. Though I see no valid reason for not going with bulk collection.

TaSheen

I love wandering around completing surveys. I do not want them made "easier". I like them the way they are.

zaria

Surveys should just reset after you picked the 6th. The run X distance to reset is annoying. X depend on direction as you need ti cross an invisible line who can be 10 meter in one direction but 200 in another.

FlopsyPrince

TaSheen wrote: »

I love wandering around completing surveys. I do not want them made "easier". I like them the way they are.

How would them being easier for some harm you? Just keep one in your inventory at a time and you would be set.

zaria wrote: »

Surveys should just reset after you picked the 6th. The run X distance to reset is annoying. X depend on direction as you need ti cross an invisible line who can be 10 meter in one direction but 200 in another.

Exactly! Some sites are hard to run from as well. One in the south of Wrothgar is really bad, but one on an island in Eastmarch is annoying as well. (I just cleaned out Eastmarch today.)

I already went through the effort to find the location! (I t is even worse on the PS5 when I forget the exact spot. At least my addon marks the location on the PC.)

StarOfElyon

Surveys are already easy enough. Come on man this just too much.

Now treasure maps, those are a pain in the butt for little reward.

The_Boggart

You can always port to imperial city then exit thru the door

Jack-0

It’s tedious and dull and I have several hundred surveys banked as a result. It’s even worse that in more recent dlc, the nodes tend to be spaced further apart from each other, too. Players have been asking for a bulk collection method for years now, I hope we get it one day soon.

Elsonso

The survey node contents should just multiply by the number of matching surveys in inventory, then the game consumes all of them instead of just the first one.

derkaiserliche

Imo lazyness should not be rewarded (in terms of stacking stuff in the bank)

People already abuse these daily crafting rewards pretty hard, so letting them have all the surveys at one go would be not the best idea.

Barovia87

I wouldn't mind the running around so much if it wasn't something I was constantly being "forced" to do because my inventory is clogged with 10,000 "unique" surveys and my only options are to a.) do them or b.) destroy them (and all the materials they represent). At least writs and maps I can give away or sell if I just don't feel like doing them.

I will never understand why games feel the absolute NEED to make Inventory Management™ a separate, tedious, mini-"game". The sheer quantity of different surveys, crafting materials, etc, is just asinine-bonkers for a game with severely limited storage space. ESO+ only helps so much. They don't have to design so much bloat in, but they do it anyway. You don't need to be a virtual "hoarder" to run into this, either. Just engage with their crafting system AT ALL. Start decorating AT ALL. Suddenly your ESO inventory is a second job, subscription or not.

I'm just... tired of games that are designed explicitly to be frustrating and tedious. It's a game. It should center fun. So much of this is clearly decided by Business Trolls™ who don't actually play the game itself or respect the playerbase. "Line must go up" and all that. Wasting our time is part of that mentality. They don't care if we're unhappy: we were present. And they're not thinking past next quarter profits on the loss of goodwill. There's always fresh meat who hasn't been burned, right?

LalMirchi

MMOs are by design time wasters therefore it's quite doubtful that 1-click solution would be forthcoming.

DoofusMax

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Now treasure maps, those are a pain in the butt for little reward.

I'm LOL'ing a bit over this one since I spent a couple of hours last night clearing out some of those from the Bank (and discovering wayshrines on the way, which is kind of like seeing a pile of manure and looking for the pony). Net result from about a dozen? Chump change gold, a few pieces of Malachite, and a bunch of appropriately-leveled gear suitable for deconning. There is now room in the Bank for a bit more useless stuff, so yet another pony hunt.

FlopsyPrince

derkaiserliche wrote: »

Imo lazyness should not be rewarded (in terms of stacking stuff in the bank)

People already abuse these daily crafting rewards pretty hard, so letting them have all the surveys at one go would be not the best idea.

How is saving them up "laziness"? And how is using things we have "abuse"? Please elaborate.

Yes, some continue to claim that, but why must they all be acted on in a tedious manner?

LalMirchi wrote: »

MMOs are by design time wasters therefore it's quite doubtful that 1-click solution would be forthcoming.

Possibly, but would you have expected multi-crafting before it was implemented? I remember a guild member making me a stack of enchants so I could learn them to master the skill line. It took a LONG TIME one at a time.

Some would say multicrafting encouraged laziness. Or that only showing items needed for a quest encouraged that. Neither is true of course, but tedium for the sake of tedium is bad.

That was the final straw for me with World of Warcraft. I was too much of an altoholic there too, but I got tired of repeating the same thing on different alts. I had a customer service agent there tell me "but MMOs are grinds" as if no more grinds existed.... (End of Mists BTW)

Yes, MMOs have a griind, but making gathering surveys easier would not reduce a bit of that and would make it easier to collect them. That is a win-win as the saying goes, at least for most of us.

DustyWarehouse

I'd pay 5k crowns for an assistant that goes and "collects" my surveys. Just give them the surveys, and some time later you can take the materials from them.

Grec1a

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Surveys are already easy enough. Come on man this just too much.

Yeah - I just get the nodes to respawn by logging out and back in again. Minimal effort!

kargen27

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Or you could just preview a home you don't own, immediately leave the home, and voila! You're right back at the exact same spot with the nodes respawned.

Just open your map, move to the Houses tab, select any random house from the Not Owned list, and clicky. That simple.

I own far too many of the homes now, so that is very non-trivial. Plus it is often crashing now for me like that, especially on the PS5.

That method still added too much overhead, but did make things better when I didn't own many homes. Though I see no valid reason for not going with bulk collection.

So long as there is one home you don't own this will work. That aside for what you get running a bit and going back isn't much activity for the reward. And if you kill a few critters along the way in the base zones you have a chance of snagging an Aetheric Cipher.
The game activities do not need to be farther streamlined.

DUTCH_REAPER

ZOS I will pay real money for an Npc that goes out and collects my surveys. J/s

Dojohoda

I want to ride past the survey nodes and they all jump into my pockets.

twev

Jack-0 wrote: »

It’s tedious and dull and I have several hundred surveys banked as a result. It’s even worse that in more recent dlc, the nodes tend to be spaced further apart from each other, too. Players have been asking for a bulk collection method for years now, I hope we get it one day soon.

See post #13.
The game aims to maximize your engagement with it over time.
Therefore they use time-sinks, and survey map collection is a big one.
Your actual enjoyment is secondary.

twev

Barovia87 wrote: »

I wouldn't mind the running around so much if it wasn't something I was constantly being "forced" to do because my inventory is clogged with 10,000 "unique" surveys and my only options are to a.) do them or b.) destroy them (and all the materials they represent). At least writs and maps I can give away or sell if I just don't feel like doing them.

I will never understand why games feel the absolute NEED to make Inventory Management™ a separate, tedious, mini-"game". The sheer quantity of different surveys, crafting materials, etc, is just asinine-bonkers for a game with severely limited storage space. ESO+ only helps so much. They don't have to design so much bloat in, but they do it anyway. You don't need to be a virtual "hoarder" to run into this, either. Just engage with their crafting system AT ALL. Start decorating AT ALL. Suddenly your ESO inventory is a second job, subscription or not.

I'm just... tired of games that are designed explicitly to be frustrating and tedious. It's a game. It should center fun. So much of this is clearly decided by Business Trolls™ who don't actually play the game itself or respect the playerbase. "Line must go up" and all that. Wasting our time is part of that mentality. They don't care if we're unhappy: we were present. And they're not thinking past next quarter profits on the loss of goodwill. There's always fresh meat who hasn't been burned, right?

See posts #13 and #21.

Amottica

The simple solution is to have them located in only one to three zones instead of most of the base game zones. It creates less traveling which speeds up the process significantly.

As for being able to harvest multiple maps at once, that is extremely unlikely since Zenimax is not likely to desire such a change due to the risk of opening up survey maps to exploitation again. There is a history of this, and we know that making a change has the chance of unintended consequences. Especially with this type of change considering the previous exploit.

Amottica

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

MMOs are by design time wasters therefore it's quite doubtful that 1-click solution would be forthcoming.

Possibly, but would you have expected multi-crafting before it was implemented?

We had multicrafting before Zenimax added it to the game.

So yes. Very much yes. Yes, a thousand times.

WiseSky

all for it, might be bias

Nerouyn

Barovia87 wrote: »

I'm just... tired of games that are designed explicitly to be frustrating and tedious. It's a game. It should center fun. So much of this is clearly decided by Business Trolls™ who don't actually play the game itself or respect the playerbase.

True, and there are inherent dangers in that.

I'm back playing and broadly speaking I think ESO is heading in a good direction, but where once the bulk of my Elder Scrolls experience was playing cutting edge brilliant games like Morrowind which was in its day literally peerless, now it's cycling through alts in ESO doing mindless crafting writs with the auto-addon, to get myself enough gold / mats / vouchers to have fun with housing.

So unbearably tedious that years ago having reached the point of acquiring pretty much all of the furniture plans etc. to furnish my few fave homes, I gave myself a day off.

Then another. And another.... Cos not playing ESO is more fun.

If not for scribing I don't know if I'd have returned.

And now that I have, it's to among other things, a mountain of writs and surveys.

Zenimax have crafted an absolutely stunning world. The environments in this game might be the best in the genre. I think surveys are intended to get players back out into them.

But the experience is that you let them pile up then go out and try to find that sweet spot of shortest distance you need to move away to reset the survey location, then just running back and forth between the two. A lot.

I wouldn't call it a value adding experience.

hiyde

When it comes to the inconvenience of making them respawn, I remind myself how long it would take to collect that amount of mats running around regular nodes.

As for resetting them, I usually just pop something good to watch on Netflix and then use Easy Travel addon to port to the same preview house. "/tp aut" takes me to the Autumn's Gate preview house without going through any menus.

I wouldn't mind being able to scoop up multiple survey rewards in one shot (except alchemy, NO NO NO lol) but also not too put out by the current system.

FlopsyPrince

Amottica wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

MMOs are by design time wasters therefore it's quite doubtful that 1-click solution would be forthcoming.

Possibly, but would you have expected multi-crafting before it was implemented?

We had multicrafting before Zenimax added it to the game.

So yes. Very much yes. Yes, a thousand times.

You didn't on console!

Too many only think of PC for things!

WiseSky wrote: »

all for it, might be bias

You have more than I do!

I completely agree that the current system adds no value to the game. Plenty to engage otherwise. If surveys are the only thing keeping you engaged you will either stay engaged no matter what or you will be leaving soon!

FlopsyPrince

Amottica wrote: »

The simple solution is to have them located in only one to three zones instead of most of the base game zones. It creates less traveling which speeds up the process significantly.

As for being able to harvest multiple maps at once, that is extremely unlikely since Zenimax is not likely to desire such a change due to the risk of opening up survey maps to exploitation again. There is a history of this, and we know that making a change has the chance of unintended consequences. Especially with this type of change considering the previous exploit.

How would it be exploitable? Make it a "get them all why you are there or you lose it, like I think it works now. I see no other way to exploit it. I just want to gather mine much easier and with far less tedium.

I am still searching for skyshards, wayshrines, etc. Plenty to keep even "intense casual me" playing. Eliminating grinds like this are very helpful and make the experience much better.

I would gladly pay for the assistant (5K Crowns) to get them as someone else noted! I would even pay 10K Crowns for that QoL changed!

Hotdog_23

kargen27 wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Or you could just preview a home you don't own, immediately leave the home, and voila! You're right back at the exact same spot with the nodes respawned.

Just open your map, move to the Houses tab, select any random house from the Not Owned list, and clicky. That simple.

I own far too many of the homes now, so that is very non-trivial. Plus it is often crashing now for me like that, especially on the PS5.

That method still added too much overhead, but did make things better when I didn't own many homes. Though I see no valid reason for not going with bulk collection.

So long as there is one home you don't own this will work. That aside for what you get running a bit and going back isn't much activity for the reward. And if you kill a few critters along the way in the base zones you have a chance of snagging an Aetheric Cipher.
The game activities do not need to be farther streamlined.

So, no-add-ons for PC players because it just streamlines the game to much and encourages laziness. ZOS can just disable them, and we all can have the pure game the way the developers intended.

Finding a home you don't own and jumping in and out would take even more time to do them and is not a good idea.

Just don't understand someone asking to help the grind be a little easier and people just attack them. Even if they do it attack them kindly. All they are asking for is just a little help to ease the grind the same way add-ons ease the game for PC players. After all, a lot of people on the forums were complaining about the grind in the last event.

Stay safe

DMuehlhausen

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Or you could just preview a home you don't own, immediately leave the home, and voila! You're right back at the exact same spot with the nodes respawned.

Just open your map, move to the Houses tab, select any random house from the Not Owned list, and clicky. That simple.

Due to load times on different computers this will almost always take you longer than mounting up and running off and back. Like it's a creative idea, but really doesn't solve the problem only makes it take longer.