Things should be done to make Quests and Inventory less chaotic to manage

Scarefish · May 26

I think one of the biggest hurdles in the game is the issues of managing the limited Quest Log space (Currently 25) and managing inventory space (Even for those who have max upgrades and the Crafting Bag for subscribing).

One of the biggest issues I have with the quests are the way that most of your limited space is taken up by quests that essentially always need to be there if you're at-all interested in playing efficiently. I think the following types of quests should be separate and shouldn't be included in this limit:

-Holiday Quests
-Crafting Dailies (x7)
-Battlegrounds Repeatable
-Bounty Repeatable
-Tales of Tribute Repeatable
-Undaunted Pledges (x3)
-Trials/Arena Weeklies
-Daily Guild Quests (Companion) (x3)
-Imperial City Dailies (x7)
-Cyrodiil Main Dailies (x7)
-Dark Brotherhood Contract

Siegemaster Coffers should also have a timer symbol at least indicating that the merit reward is on-cooldown.

If data storage is an issue, I have an alternative idea here. Crafting Dailies, Undaunted Pledges, Trials/Arena Weeklies/Imperial City Dailies which are essentially predetermined or static should be just be synchronous with all players and should just trigger the quest rewards when first-completed for the day, probably with a screen one can bring up showing which ones a player has completed for the day and when each resets. There is a sacrifice here in that players cannot hold onto such quests and do them on another day, but I think this change would keep the game current and would clear up space that's taken up by people hoarding stale daily quests for extended periods of time.

Also, for quests, updating the quest log and adding a minimap with quest indicators could be useful as well. Adding a quest log section showing completed quests. Adding anything to signify that a quest is in progress rather than just started would be nice, like perhaps a color update once a quest's description has been updated beyond what it is when it's first started. This would allow players to confidently clear their quest log without worrying that they're clearing quests they have made significant progress on.

To further optimize questing just a little bit, it would be nice to tweak companions and allow an easy way to see the following:

-Companion Guild levels
-Companion special passive
-Companion rapport
-Companion questline status (Completed/incomplete)

Currently, for inventory, the options are purchasing and utilizing the coffers, and even these are a bit needlessly tedious requiring two loading screens to get into and out of your house. After this, you're left with a couple of awkward workarounds, namely creating mule characters that hold various junk items. You could also create a private guild to store 500 items, though this requires you to get 9 other players to join and stay who are willing to waste one of their 5 guild slots. This works, but I don't think these should be an option that players should be pushed towards.

It would also be nice if we could rework various items to make the inventory a bit easier to manage.

Key Fragments -> Currency
Vault Keys -> Currency
Siege of Cyrodiil Merit -> Currency
Runebox Fragments -> Create a new section [Collectibles Fragments] for these sorts of items
Lockpick -> Create a new section [Tools] for these sorts of items
Repair Kits -> Create a new section [Tools] for these sorts of items

Also, it would be nice if disguises could be reworked. Upon completion of a quest you should unlock the disguise as a wearable costume.

This might also be a stretch, but I think Furniture should also be weightless given how it functions in the game. Currently I have to use houses as junkyards for furniture and I don't think this is an ideal solution. Alternatively, I think you could make a furnishing bank that increases in size as you acquire additional housing in the game. Placing junk in your houses is a sloppy workaround at the moment.

I think the following items should also be weightless:
-Dyes
-Scrolls
-Surveys
-Motifs
-Style Pages
-Items left over after completing quests
-Disguises (Quest Items)
-Museum Pieces (Quest Items)

Also the following crafting materials:
-Durables - Quality Improvement Materials
-Durables - Style Materials
-Durables - Trait Materials
-Alchemy - Solvents
-Enchanting - Aspects
-Provisioning - Bait
-Furnishing Parts

One-of-a-kind items should also be reconstructible after being destroyed.

I think also that your storage coffers should be accessible from the inventory screen as well. Maybe this changes their functionality too much, but I think all that is cut out is the fast travel to the house to get to the chests. Perhaps you should be able to place items into these from anywhere, but you must travel to a house to retrieve said items, giving some sort of unique inventory management strategy to using these while cutting the tedium in half.

"Unlimited" item stacks should be increased in stack size as much as would be reasonable without sacrificing game stability (Currently ~4.2 billion)

I think the following items should have their stack size increased
-Coffers (1 -> 10)
-Treasure Map (1 -> 5)
-Junk Items (100 -> Unlimited)
-Crafting Items (200 -> 1200)
-Cyrodiil Repair Kits (100 -> Unlimited)
-Soul Gem (200 -> 1000)
-Poisons (1000 -> Unlimited)
-Potions (Various -> 200)

Additional Quality of Life features that should be in vanilla:
-Quick-sell junk (With options to toggle Ornate items, Treasures, "Sell to a merchant" items, Monster Trophies, Traitless Gear, Potions based on rarity, Food based on rarity)
-Quick-deconstruct equipment (With options to toggle Intricate Gear, Gear based on rarity, Traitless Fear
-Auto-deposit (With options to toggle Treasure Maps, Researchable Gear, Companion Gear, Furnishings, Writs, Disguises)

For those with many characters, it would be very handy if the game could determine if a gear's trait is researchable for any of your characters, or if it is known by all.

Siegemaster's Coffers also function as Character Bound even though they are meant to be Bound. They should be tradeable to other characters on the account.

I also think surveys should be reworked in general. There should be a way to spawn in the resource nodes without moving/reloading.

Guild Store listings should be increased maybe to 100. 30 feels too limiting given there's already taxes on each listing and guild traders are bidded upon.

Allow writs to be abandoned without destroying the writ, and show what's in a writ before you accept it.

Danikat · May 26

Why are you holding onto so many daily quests? Even if you want to do them all in one day on one character surely that means you're completing them and can then turn them in before collecting more.

The only ones I regularly do are the crafting dailies and they're only in my quest log for a few minutes at most. (It helps that I do them in Alinor where the boards, crafting stations and drop-off are all close together.)

But the only time I've heard of players wanting to hold onto completed daily quests is when an Imperial City event is coming up, because it's much easier to do the dailies in advance when the zone is almost empty and then just turn them in during the event, avoiding the gankers.

Hapexamendios · May 26

I can't say I've ever had a problem with either the quest log or inventory that hasn't been manageable. Most problems are self induced imo.

Scarefish · May 26

Danikat wrote: »

Why are you holding onto so many daily quests? Even if you want to do them all in one day on one character surely that means you're completing them and can then turn them in before collecting more.

The only ones I regularly do are the crafting dailies and they're only in my quest log for a few minutes at most. (It helps that I do them in Alinor where the boards, crafting stations and drop-off are all close together.)

But the only time I've heard of players wanting to hold onto completed daily quests is when an Imperial City event is coming up, because it's much easier to do the dailies in advance when the zone is almost empty and then just turn them in during the event, avoiding the gankers.

Some of the quests are long-term quests, like Kill 150 players. I have these quests at all times because I'm only really going to progress them when they appear as daily endeavors (Play a battlegrounds match, play Tales of Tribute, etc.). You also pretty much always need 7 free slots for the crafting writs.

SilverBride · May 26

I didn't know long term quests even existed. If these are daily quests though aren't they meant to be done in a day?

Khrogo · May 26

For console players, the biggest quality-of-life improvement would be account-wide inventory search. PC users have Inventory Insight. Console players have to relog and pray. It beggars belief that this is still the case after 9 years.

TaSheen · May 26

Hapexamendios wrote: »

I can't say I've ever had a problem with either the quest log or inventory that hasn't been manageable. Most problems are self induced imo.

Me either.

BretonMage · May 27

Quest limits have not increased even though DLCs, and therefore story quests and dailies, have been added yearly. I agree that quest limits should be increased.

There are story quests that I am deliberately taking my time to finish because I don't want to rush through quest lines. Zone quests and companion quests are examples.

Sometimes I accept an undaunted or DLC daily that I don't have time to finish, but I don't want to abandon because it's one I like for any reason. Destozuno's quest can carry over for a few days if you're only doing Arc 1 of the IA.

There are quests that one can pick up in the middle of a zone somewhere that one doesn't have time to finish. Every new DLC adds more of those. Then there are quests one wishes to add just so NPCs would stop nagging us, Sorinne Gaerard or Amelie Crowe, for example.

All these add up. I've been in situations where I haven't been able to accept all the crafting dailies because I've maxed out the quest log.

One could say it's player-induced, but all I'm doing is trying to enjoy the game and savour its quests the best way I can.

katanagirl1 · May 27

I do a lot of stuff but have never had an issue with the number of quests I can do.

I do know someone who does pick up a lot of quests - my hubby. He picks up every new one he sees in a zone because he says he might not remember where to pick it up later.

Personally, I think it’s the lack of a quest completion journal that causes this. At least on console, there is no indication of the completed quests done or even how many per zone there are.

This is the way single player games are done but I do not know if MMOs are able to do this. Maybe PCs have an add-on to keep track of this.

fizzylu · May 27

Can't say I relate to the quest log issue.... but I'm the type to do quests shortly after getting them and don't like it when they pile up. I also could not imagine juggling multiple zones worth of quests. I have to 100% a zone before I start another and even have a system on how I make my way through zones to complete them.
I also refuse to hoard things in game. I don't do so irl, so I don't virtually as well (I've even deleted surveys just because I was too lazy to do them, but didn't want to hold onto them for too long either). The only time I struggle with inventory is when I've just taken apart a house I've decorated and have all of the furniture on my character (I don't use "storage houses").... but that's not an issue once I list what I no longer plan to use on a guild trader and place the stuff I am keeping in the new house I'm decorating.
I do like the idea of having a tools section and some things added to currency though, would be a huge improvement to the UI of the inventory. The consumables section especially could use some major cleanup in general.

SilverBride · May 27

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I do a lot of stuff but have never had an issue with the number of quests I can do.

I do know someone who does pick up a lot of quests - my hubby. He picks up every new one he sees in a zone because he says he might not remember where to pick it up later.

Personally, I think it’s the lack of a quest completion journal that causes this. At least on console, there is no indication of the completed quests done or even how many per zone there are.

This is the way single player games are done but I do not know if MMOs are able to do this. Maybe PCs have an add-on to keep track of this.

Journal Quest Log keeps track of every quest in the zone, even those that aren't part of map completion. It doesn't show the quests locations though so sometimes I have to look up where to start them.

There is another add-on that does show the locations, but I don't use it. I forget what it's called.

Scarefish · May 27

Maybe this will explain my questing issue more clearly; for instance, in Vvardenfell I found that trying to quest efficiently resulted in numerous issues.

Often, a quest would take you to another point of interest with additional quests. You pick up several quests there and start doing them. They take you away from the point of interest and to another, where you pick up several more quests. These quests also take you away from the point of interest, and some of them take you back to the prior points of interest. If I had 15 open slots for questing then I'd be able to complete a single zone with minimal backtracking. Since the quest log is so limited, I constantly have to ignore quests along the way til I clear other quests, then return to pick them up.

SilverBride · May 27

When I start a new zone I run around clearing all the map objectives (world bosses, dolmens, delves, etc.) so that all that is left are the story and side quests. I pick up every quest I see along the way and only do the quick ones as I go, and have not run out of quest slots yet.

Then I do all the story quests in order and move on to the side quests last.

Scarefish · May 27

This is what my Quest Journal looks like at the moment.

barney2525 · May 27

I have never, ever, ever had any issue with Quest inventory. but, I have only been playing a bit under 10 years.

And where does this term " weightless " come from? There are no weight limitations to our inventory. I am carrying Siege Weapons in my backpack.

This is a fantasy game, and we have super duper bags of holding so the bag never breaks no matter what you put in it.

Scarefish · May 27

barney2525 wrote: »

I have never, ever, ever had any issue with Quest inventory. but, I have only been playing a bit under 10 years.

And where does this term " weightless " come from? There are no weight limitations to our inventory. I am carrying Siege Weapons in my backpack.

This is a fantasy game, and we have super duper bags of holding so the bag never breaks no matter what you put in it.

Weightless comes from the mainline Elder Scrolls games. For instance, arrows used to weigh 0.1 in Oblivion but were made weightless in Skyrim.

SilverBride · May 27

I only pick up quests in one zone at a time. There are not enough slots to pick up quests in multiple zones at a time.

Amottica · May 27

The issue with our inventory is the sheer number of things we can collect. I noticed I carried a lot of stuff I did not need to carry around. Once I figured that out and how to best use the tools we have been given to manage inventory space things became much easier.

BretonMage · May 27

Well, I don't know, I guess it's admirable that there are so many players who are systematic about questing in ESO, but I don't really like playing RPGs that way. One of the things I love about open world Elder Scrolls is that the approach really suits the way I like to play: go anywhere, do anything, whenever.

I love hopping between regions and doing a few quests here and there. Tamriel feels vast, alive and persistent that way. Any time you revisit a zone, there are more things to do and people to meet. So I have quests from Summerset, Elsweyr, Solitude and Necrom running concurrently. I like that, and it makes Tamriel feel alive.

But the quest journal fills up

SilverBride · May 27

I prefer to quest one zone at a time because I like to play through that zone's story, and even the side quests are related to what is going on in the zone. I can't get into the story if I am leaving the zone to go work on a story in another zone.

We all have our own way of questing so it's good that we can go anywhere. This allows us all to play how we prefer.

colossalvoids · May 27

Honestly surprised that's an issue, I'm most of the times taking the quest to be done with it in couple minutes/session and my perma ones are bg's and some longer Cyro ones which is nothing basically.

But increasing count on things like poison, potions etc. is indeed a must same as stackable treasure maps.

BretonMage · May 28

SilverBride wrote: »

I prefer to quest one zone at a time because I like to play through that zone's story, and even the side quests are related to what is going on in the zone. I can't get into the story if I am leaving the zone to go work on a story in another zone.

Yes, I can see the attraction of it. It's something I weigh up sometimes, but I always end up on the other side of the balance

The_Boggart · May 28

Please change the antiquity preview
The list of available jobs should list in expiry time soonest at the top

Elyu · May 28

Agree that many quests could be moved to a "passive" interface.

e.g. world boss daily quest in [insert DLC here] would auto-complete when you kill a world boss in the respective zone, maybe held in the "zone guide" tab (left of screen when map is open) and with a "collect reward" dialogue option.

Regarding currencies - absolutely they should go into the currency tab, not the main inventory (I'm thinking the shards from IC dungeons, or the keys from scamps in SH - you have to decon them with the dialogue confirm...so they just clog up the inventory)

Aurielle · May 28

BretonMage wrote: »

Quest limits have not increased even though DLCs, and therefore story quests and dailies, have been added yearly. I agree that quest limits should be increased.

There are story quests that I am deliberately taking my time to finish because I don't want to rush through quest lines. Zone quests and companion quests are examples.

Sometimes I accept an undaunted or DLC daily that I don't have time to finish, but I don't want to abandon because it's one I like for any reason. Destozuno's quest can carry over for a few days if you're only doing Arc 1 of the IA.

There are quests that one can pick up in the middle of a zone somewhere that one doesn't have time to finish. Every new DLC adds more of those. Then there are quests one wishes to add just so NPCs would stop nagging us, Sorinne Gaerard or Amelie Crowe, for example.

All these add up. I've been in situations where I haven't been able to accept all the crafting dailies because I've maxed out the quest log.

One could say it's player-induced, but all I'm doing is trying to enjoy the game and savour its quests the best way I can.

Did you know that you can abandon quests and pick them up again? There’s quite literally no need to have multiple zone story quests in your log if you’re not actively doing them. Just travel to the zone, open up the map, and select “continue zone story” or whatever it is and it’ll pick up right where you left off.

The only quests I keep in my log are half completed Cyrodiil dailies and the main quest on my alts.

WiseSky · May 28

We have like 2K+ quests in the game, some people would want that many quest slots, other like me do one quest at a time and are ok with 1 main quest that we cant abandon and the other one being the quest we are doing.

If ESO had quests like kill 20 Bears, then another one like kill 10 wasps and another one kill 30 wolfs, then maybe having more quests would make sense.

Other MMO make questing like a TODO list and you have to be efficient at it, compared to ESO I think quests are Immersive where following the story is the main ride where we cant focus on 10+ narratives from quests , but that could only be me hence the Addon project we are making.

BretonMage · May 28

Aurielle wrote: »

Did you know that you can abandon quests and pick them up again? There’s quite literally no need to have multiple zone story quests in your log if you’re not actively doing them. Just travel to the zone, open up the map, and select “continue zone story” or whatever it is and it’ll pick up right where you left off.

The only quests I keep in my log are half completed Cyrodiil dailies and the main quest on my alts.

Thanks, I may be taking my time to do these quests, but I am doing them. It's useful for me to keep them in the quest journal so it stays on the forefront of my mind.

I'm genuinely surprised not more people support extending the quest journal limits. I would have thought that with the amount of extra content added yearly, it was reasonable to need more journal space than what we were given at the beginning.

TaSheen · May 28

It would be fine with me if they did, though I don't personally need it. The most I ever have in my log is the Prophet MQ (which I REALLY wish I could get rid of) and the daily writ quests, plus 1 or 2 master writ quests though not every day or on every character of course.

When I decide to do a quest line on someone, that's the only quest line I pick up, and I don't do anything other than daily writs until I'm finished with it.

SilverBride · May 28

BretonMage wrote: »

I'm genuinely surprised not more people support extending the quest journal limits. I would have thought that with the amount of extra content added yearly, it was reasonable to need more journal space than what we were given at the beginning.

I would find it overwhelming to have more than 25 quests all at once. In fact I've never had more than 15 because of the way I choose to play.

I know we can go anywhere and work on multiple zones at a time but I personally can't do that. I prefer to move through the zones in a linear manner because it makes the story make more sense to me.

The fact that there is more content each year doesn't make me want to have all of it going on at once. It just gives me another zone to experience as I quest through the content.