Where is the ink?

Aurielle

KV_Tootn wrote: »

I just wanted to drop my 2 cents about scribing... I have done the main quest when it came oyut , then after i made the scribing questline.. While doing those quests i got few inks.. And after that only one ink from random dungeon.
Now this whole week all i get is those gold script thingies that are piling up in my guilbank because they dont stack , but havent got no ink at all for all this time.. Have done delves, have done veteran runs, publick dungeons , archives nothing.. Why ? were are they? Isnt scribing suposed to be cool thing? for now its just a waste of time and realy anoying thing.
Atleast ZOS could think about a seperate container for Grimors and scribing things... or make the gold script stackable?

Yup, poor implementation all around. As it stands, grinding crafting nodes for hours seems to be the best way to acquire ink. And the lack of stacking for scripts really does limit inventory space, especially if you're trying to decide which alts should learn the scripts first (which you won't really know, until you get more time to experiment with the system and learn what works and what doesn't...). If you don't have ESO plus, all those excess crafting materials farmed during the ink hunt and unstackable scripts add up really quickly. It's almost like they introduced scribing to... no, I won't say it, lest I be accused of conspiracy theories.

rothan117

The drop rate on ink has certainly put me right off pursuing creating scripts. Just not worth the time involved to create a significant number of the supposed 4000 combinations.

Taggund

rothan117 wrote: »

The drop rate on ink has certainly put me right off pursuing creating scripts. Just not worth the time involved to create a significant number of the supposed 4000 combinations.

Same, and not even bothering on Alts. I think I'll get to the point where I just junk scripts since they don't stack.

Currently at 16 ink, and 13 of those were the first night after completing the quest.

davelbier

i farmed crag for about an hour - i hate farming - but if i farm nodes I do it there so i can possibly get some nirn. In the past for an hour in crag i get a nirncrux [either] often enough to count on it. I did get my nirn, but I did not get any ink.

so i have my free meh skills but im not toying with it without more ink, and i don treally want to 'farm' it on alts to the tune of say, 3 ink an hour for 3-4 hours of questing per toon. doing the same quests every time. makes me feel dirty thinking about it.

Necrotech_Master

after another week, ive gained a total of 10 ink as drops in the past 2 weeks

i have changed my gameplay a little bit and harvesting mats a bit more than i was, and ive gotten lucky with some drops from mobs

i would say overall about 70% of my ink drops have come from harvesting

im hoping the patch today that fixes ink drops from bosses might actually start noticing a difference in ink gain rates, but as it stands ive probably tripled the amount of harvesting ive been doing and i still dont even have enough ink to scribe all of the skill at least once

the main problem is there is no repeatable, guaranteed source of ink. the questline is 12 ink per character and that is the only source of guaranteed ink, but i dont really want to run through that questline again with how repetitive and boring most of the tasks were (the biggest offender being the "go to location/dispel wards" step)

virtus753

ShadowPaladin wrote: »

I can confirm two things.

1. Plentiful Harvest does work! I looted two - yes, two (2) stacked - inks from a node.
2. Containers do drop ink. I am not sure which container it was, but I looted one ink from a container while going through the "Outcast Inn".

So far the containers confirmed to drop Ink are the ones that are in part alchemy nodes for potion solvents: Backpacks and Urns can both give water, so they can also drop Ink. (Plentiful Harvest works on the potion solvents as well as Ink from these containers.)

I have not yet seen or heard of Ink dropping from other containers (e.g. barrels, crates, flour sacks, etc.). I would be curious to know if it can drop from those. Plentiful Harvest definitely doesn't work on them.

Aurielle

The results of a very boring hour spent harvesting crafting nodes in Craglorn.

After 30 minutes of exclusively harvesting items that drop nirncrux, I had 1 potent nirn and zero ink:



I wondered, hmm, what happens if I throw some alchemy and enchanting nodes into the mix? During the next fifteen minutes, I experienced a small streak of luck, and got two ink drops that were doubled by Plentiful Harvest. But I also got three fortified nirns from two separate nodes during that time...



And then, by the end of one hour, I finished with:

2 Potent Nirncrux (2 nodes)
4 Fortified Nirncrux (3 nodes)
2 Kuta (1 node)
4 Luminous Ink (2 nodes)




So for me, at least, harvesting Luminous Ink is rarer than harvesting Nirncrux, even after increasing the possible drop pool for the ink relative to the nirn. Just... LOL.

After an hour that I would have rather spent in Cyrodiil or running dungeons, I can craft two nirn weapons, four nirn armour pieces, two gold glyphs, and one scribed skill.

EF321

If you are after ink only, Craglorn is a bad place to farm it, because of how scarce resource nodes are there.

Aurielle

EF321 wrote: »

If you are after ink only, Craglorn is a bad place to farm it, because of how scarce resource nodes are there.

You’re missing the point. I ended my hour of farming with more Potent/Fortified Nirncrux than Luminous Ink, even after I increased the potential drop pool for ink relative to nirn by harvesting runestones and select alchemy reagents in the last thirty minutes in addition to the sources that drop nirncrux.

Also, if that’s how much ink I get after an hour of dedicated crafting node farming… you see how people who are casually harvesting crafting nodes between quest points or while doing dailies are struggling to obtain ink, yes?

Necrotech_Master

Aurielle wrote: »

EF321 wrote: »

If you are after ink only, Craglorn is a bad place to farm it, because of how scarce resource nodes are there.

You’re missing the point. I ended my hour of farming with more Potent/Fortified Nirncrux than Luminous Ink, even after I increased the potential drop pool for ink relative to nirn by harvesting runestones and select alchemy reagents in the last thirty minutes in addition to the sources that drop nirncrux.

Also, if that’s how much ink I get after an hour of dedicated crafting node farming… you see how people who are casually harvesting crafting nodes between quest points or while doing dailies are struggling to obtain ink, yes?

i tried the "casually harvesting nodes between quests" the first week after release and it resulted in 0 ink lol

ive had to actively go out of my way to harvest nodes in increments like you have in order to get any ink

Aurielle

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

EF321 wrote: »

If you are after ink only, Craglorn is a bad place to farm it, because of how scarce resource nodes are there.

You’re missing the point. I ended my hour of farming with more Potent/Fortified Nirncrux than Luminous Ink, even after I increased the potential drop pool for ink relative to nirn by harvesting runestones and select alchemy reagents in the last thirty minutes in addition to the sources that drop nirncrux.

Also, if that’s how much ink I get after an hour of dedicated crafting node farming… you see how people who are casually harvesting crafting nodes between quest points or while doing dailies are struggling to obtain ink, yes?

i tried the "casually harvesting nodes between quests" the first week after release and it resulted in 0 ink lol

ive had to actively go out of my way to harvest nodes in increments like you have in order to get any ink

Ditto. When I’m just casually grabbing crafting nodes while doing dailies for scripts, I usually don’t get any ink. It took several days before I got even one drop through casual gathering. I have to consciously grind crafting nodes for an hour or two at a time to see a small amount of ink — and I’d rather watch a thick application of paint dry on a muggy, humid day.

This is why it’s pretty darn obvious that most of the people defending this abysmal drop rate are profiting off it and want to keep things that way.

Overamera

This is just simply not healthy, having to spend so many hours farming nodes just pressing E around the map. Just for a few ink. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

Necrotech_Master

Aurielle wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

EF321 wrote: »

If you are after ink only, Craglorn is a bad place to farm it, because of how scarce resource nodes are there.

You’re missing the point. I ended my hour of farming with more Potent/Fortified Nirncrux than Luminous Ink, even after I increased the potential drop pool for ink relative to nirn by harvesting runestones and select alchemy reagents in the last thirty minutes in addition to the sources that drop nirncrux.

Also, if that’s how much ink I get after an hour of dedicated crafting node farming… you see how people who are casually harvesting crafting nodes between quest points or while doing dailies are struggling to obtain ink, yes?

i tried the "casually harvesting nodes between quests" the first week after release and it resulted in 0 ink lol

ive had to actively go out of my way to harvest nodes in increments like you have in order to get any ink

Ditto. When I’m just casually grabbing crafting nodes while doing dailies for scripts, I usually don’t get any ink. It took several days before I got even one drop through casual gathering. I have to consciously grind crafting nodes for an hour or two at a time to see a small amount of ink — and I’d rather watch a thick application of paint dry on a muggy, humid day.

This is why it’s pretty darn obvious that most of the people defending this abysmal drop rate are profiting off it and want to keep things that way.

to add more data, this weeks weekly endeavor offerings had a "harvest 100 material nodes" endeavor, i harvested 100 individual non-survey nodes and not a single ink drop

i was expecting to get at least one at least, but this is just awful

whatever the actual drop rate of ink is, it needs to be increased like 5-10x of what it currently is to make the system useable

the drop rate from enemy mobs probably doesnt need to be increased as much (since farming 1000 mobs is easier than farming 1000 material nodes)

Nathrai

Aurielle wrote: »

After an hour that I would have rather spent in Cyrodiil or running dungeons, I can craft two nirn weapons, four nirn armour pieces, two gold glyphs, and one scribed skill.

I didn't take note of how many nirncrux I found during testing. But yesterday I refined the materials I've collected since the beginning of the month. I got about 50-60 golden mats PER TYPE. The same amount of harvesting (including plants and water) amounted to 8 inks.

On the bright side, I might spoil another one of my characters with gold equipment. On the other hand, I can try out two of thousands of possible script combinations ... \o/

(Something I won't do - I don't want to risk 200k worth of inks on a skill that probably will turn out to not work for my build.)

Elsonso

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

whatever the actual drop rate of ink is, it needs to be increased like 5-10x of what it currently is to make the system useable

the drop rate from enemy mobs probably doesnt need to be increased as much (since farming 1000 mobs is easier than farming 1000 material nodes)

Honestly, they should have added Ink nodes to the world rather than taking the easy way out and bundling it with whatever.

tsaescishoeshiner

Imagine if ink was added to Enchanter surveys, making them finally useful since Kuta is so cheap and the rest of the runes are mega dirt cheap.

Vonnegut2506

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Imagine if ink was added to Enchanter surveys, making them finally useful since Kuta is so cheap and the rest of the runes are mega dirt cheap.

Or just let them drop from surveys at all.

Mathius_Mordred

Well since the patch i've killed 15 bosses in group dungeons and a RND and no inks.

Necrotech_Master

Mathius_Mordred wrote: »

Well since the patch i've killed 15 bosses in group dungeons and a RND and no inks.

ive heard of people getting them from WBs and such, but the drop rate is still horrendous, though it might be slightly higher than base mobs (though that chance is already very low)

TaSheen

Did the 100 resources weekly on my original main (who has finished the quest line) - got two inks, both from rune nodes.

Aurielle

My progress so far with the Ink Accumulator achievement, versus the dates when I earned the achievements necessary to drop ink:



I've played every day since unlocking scribing, often for at least 3-4 hours at a time, sometimes longer. I've killed thousands upon thousands of mobs during that time. I've harvested a considerable amount of materials between daily objectives. Tell us more about how the drop rate is "fine," how we're exaggerating the grind, how scribing is accessible to casual players who play this game way less than I do.

Necrotech_Master

Aurielle wrote: »

My progress so far with the Ink Accumulator achievement, versus the dates when I earned the achievements necessary to drop ink:



I've played every day since unlocking scribing, often for at least 3-4 hours at a time, sometimes longer. I've killed thousands upon thousands of mobs during that time. I've harvested a considerable amount of materials between daily objectives. Tell us more about how the drop rate is "fine," how we're exaggerating the grind, how scribing is accessible to casual players who play this game way less than I do.

i finished the entire scribing questline on monday 6/3, and ive accumulated even less ink than you by a whole 7 units lol (i think im only at about 22 units, 10 of which were from the original questline)

Elvenheart

Elsonso wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

whatever the actual drop rate of ink is, it needs to be increased like 5-10x of what it currently is to make the system useable

the drop rate from enemy mobs probably doesnt need to be increased as much (since farming 1000 mobs is easier than farming 1000 material nodes)

Honestly, they should have added Ink nodes to the world rather than taking the easy way out and bundling it with whatever.

Agreed…I know it’s a fantasy world, but after ten years of harvesting, “suddenly” we are rarely finding tiny bottles of ink in the ground under plants, under runestones, in tree limbs, in ore… at least finding it on enemies makes sense because they could’ve found it before we did and been carrying it in their pockets, or in the case of creatures, they could’ve eaten someone with the ink or just swallowed a bottle they found on the ground. Where was all this ink for the last 10 years? I guess we just have to suspend belief.

Aurielle

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

My progress so far with the Ink Accumulator achievement, versus the dates when I earned the achievements necessary to drop ink:



I've played every day since unlocking scribing, often for at least 3-4 hours at a time, sometimes longer. I've killed thousands upon thousands of mobs during that time. I've harvested a considerable amount of materials between daily objectives. Tell us more about how the drop rate is "fine," how we're exaggerating the grind, how scribing is accessible to casual players who play this game way less than I do.

i finished the entire scribing questline on monday 6/3, and ive accumulated even less ink than you by a whole 7 units lol (i think im only at about 22 units, 10 of which were from the original questline)

I suggest farming in Craglorn until your eyes dry out! You might not catch up to me during that time (seven units, ugh, you're looking at at least two or three full game sessions filled with nothing but boring, boring farming, if not more), but at least you'll get some Potent Nirncrux! You know, that super rare crafting node drop that you'll probably never have to use more than 12 times to max out weapon research on a character, versus the literal hundreds of ink you'll need to fully experiment with scribing on one character?

sunsrest

I did some material farming today on my main for the weekly endeavor, got an ink drop after 44 nodes. Was picking up all nodes except for runestones and alchemy. I have Indrik/Netch/Dragon wings completed. Let's see if I get a second ink before completing the endeavor.

Edit: 2 more at 66. Assuming it's 2 because of plentiful harvest.
Edit: 1 more at 71.

Nathrai

I can top that ...

Completed both quests 2 days before you. Earned 6 inks less so far. Am on sick leave right now, barely able to move, and thus have been playing a lot more than 3-4 hours a day.


I switched to Steam on the first of June. Playtime since then:

(Note: I forgot to close the launcher a couple of times and have spent some time in Cyro, so the 230 is not completely accurate. But even if I generously half that time, I'm still at AT LEAST 6-7 hours a day.)

Either the account part of RNG is broken, or currently this system is not meant to be accessible for casual players. Pick your poison, guys, but stop telling me that everything is working fine just because YOUR account is actually BENEFITING from the bug.

Aurielle

Elvenheart wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

whatever the actual drop rate of ink is, it needs to be increased like 5-10x of what it currently is to make the system useable

the drop rate from enemy mobs probably doesnt need to be increased as much (since farming 1000 mobs is easier than farming 1000 material nodes)

Honestly, they should have added Ink nodes to the world rather than taking the easy way out and bundling it with whatever.

Agreed…I know it’s a fantasy world, but after ten years of harvesting, “suddenly” we are rarely finding tiny bottles of ink in the ground under plants, under runestones, in tree limbs, in ore… at least finding it on enemies makes sense because they could’ve found it before we did and been carrying it in their pockets, or in the case of creatures, they could’ve eaten someone with the ink or just swallowed a bottle they found on the ground. Where was all this ink for the last 10 years? I guess we just have to suspend belief.

Yes, I've argued as well that having random drops from existing crafting nodes makes ZERO sense. How did that bottle of ink get inside the rubedite ore node in the first place? Yes, yes, I know, this is the same universe where mudcrabs apparently carry around destruction staves in their pockets, but come on...

Ink should be a new type of harvestable crafting node with predictable spawn locations that are no rarer to find than any of the other types of crafting nodes. It just makes sense. ZOS wants us to actually use and play around with scribing, right? Then ink should not be a limiting factor. Ink should be readily available so we can actually try out different skills with different builds on different characters.

Aurielle

Nathrai wrote: »

I can top that ...

Completed both quests 2 days before you. Earned 6 inks less so far. Am on sick leave right now, barely able to move, and thus have been playing a lot more than 3-4 hours a day.


I switched to Steam on the first of June. Playtime since then:

(Note: I forgot to close the launcher a couple of times and have spent some time in Cyro, so the 230 is not completely accurate. But even if I generously half that time, I'm still at AT LEAST 6-7 hours a day.)

Either the account part of RNG is broken, or currently this system is not meant to be accessible for casual players. Pick your poison, guys, but stop telling me that everything is working fine just because YOUR account is actually BENEFITING from the bug.

Right? At this rate, maybe you'll have earned the 500 inks required to max out the final stage of the achievement by ESO's 20th anniversary.

Elvenheart

Aurielle wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

whatever the actual drop rate of ink is, it needs to be increased like 5-10x of what it currently is to make the system useable

the drop rate from enemy mobs probably doesnt need to be increased as much (since farming 1000 mobs is easier than farming 1000 material nodes)

Honestly, they should have added Ink nodes to the world rather than taking the easy way out and bundling it with whatever.

Agreed…I know it’s a fantasy world, but after ten years of harvesting, “suddenly” we are rarely finding tiny bottles of ink in the ground under plants, under runestones, in tree limbs, in ore… at least finding it on enemies makes sense because they could’ve found it before we did and been carrying it in their pockets, or in the case of creatures, they could’ve eaten someone with the ink or just swallowed a bottle they found on the ground. Where was all this ink for the last 10 years? I guess we just have to suspend belief.

Yes, I've argued as well that having random drops from existing crafting nodes makes ZERO sense. How did that bottle of ink get inside the rubedite ore node in the first place? Yes, yes, I know, this is the same universe where mudcrabs apparently carry around destruction staves in their pockets, but come on...

Ink should be a new type of harvestable crafting node with predictable spawn locations that are no rarer to find than any of the other types of crafting nodes. It just makes sense. ZOS wants us to actually use and play around with scribing, right? Then ink should not be a limiting factor. Ink should be readily available so we can actually try out different skills with different builds on different characters.

I agree with all of this. Or, the ink could’ve been a recipe made with existing common ingredients. not some super rare gold, expensive ingredient. I would think introducing one new recipe to the game would be better than introducing an entirely new resource to strain the servers.

Nathrai

Aurielle wrote: »

ZOS wants us to actually use and play around with scribing, right?

By now, I'm not so sure anymore. This is starting to feel like a deliberate setup to fail.

Aurielle wrote: »

Then ink should not be a limiting factor. Ink should be readily available so we can actually try out different skills with different builds on different characters.

The thing is, even IF this system is meant to be limited, it already is by the need to collect scripts for every single alt - with only a small subset being rotated in each week at the two vendors.

The scripts part works well in my opinion. Lots of work to intially setup the system for a character. Once you managed to collect everything, be free to play around with it. Same system as with skill points and CP - it takes an eternity to collect them, but once you did, feel free to try out what works best for you.

(Now, imagine we'ld have to spent 3 Perfect Roe every time we wanted to redistribute skill points or CP ... Actually ... I have three times the amount of Perfect Roe than I have Luminous Ink ... )