Where is the ink?

StihlReign

virtus753 wrote: »

StihlReign wrote: »

New zone looks awesome , the ink grind is going to be a challenge. We need a double or triple resource weekend ASAP.

How can we show-off and test the new scribing Live if there's so little ink? (I've had 2 drop)

Lower the rate later...we need more ink now!

They just had the Explorer’s Event, and Zeal of Zenithar is coming up (which doesn’t increase resources but does save you 10% off Grimoire and Script prices). They could run an impromptu 5-day resources mini-event, but it would be packing the schedule a bit tight. And they’d also have to run it once for PC and another for console due to the different launch schedules.

We told them at the beginning of the PTS (well, once it became safe to test) that there was a concern about ink drop rates. We suggested that they increase the drop rate on enemies and allow Plentiful Harvest to proc, both of which they did. (They seem to have decided not to grant the request to allow surveys to give it, though.) So they did make some effort to improve the situation in direct response to feedback, and I want to acknowledge that. That said, I’m still not sure it’s enough to sustain the interest in those “nearly 4,000” (but somehow also “over 4,000”) possible combinations for Scribing in this initial phase when people are excited about all the possibilities but don’t have the resources to actually realize them.

Reducing all ink costs to zero for a short period of time on launch might have helped, like they have done a few times for respec costs when they’ve overhauled skills or CP. But this wasn’t an already established system they changed, and I think in the end they did want people who want to get into this system to have to “chase the Ink,” so to speak.

Yeah, I recall the PTS discussions, and now that we're live, I still can't say with certainty which scripts I really want to go with. I do know, after a few hours of dedicated resource farming, this doesn't feel good. Definitely need a lot more ink in the marketplace. A cost reduction with an NPC seller would probably work best and we don't have that...soo - drop rates ZOS, drop rates. Let the ink flow.

At this rate it's going to take forever to mix and match and have fun with the 4000 or so combos they've mentioned are available.

Necrotech_Master

StihlReign wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

StihlReign wrote: »

New zone looks awesome , the ink grind is going to be a challenge. We need a double or triple resource weekend ASAP.

How can we show-off and test the new scribing Live if there's so little ink? (I've had 2 drop)

Lower the rate later...we need more ink now!

They just had the Explorer’s Event, and Zeal of Zenithar is coming up (which doesn’t increase resources but does save you 10% off Grimoire and Script prices). They could run an impromptu 5-day resources mini-event, but it would be packing the schedule a bit tight. And they’d also have to run it once for PC and another for console due to the different launch schedules.

We told them at the beginning of the PTS (well, once it became safe to test) that there was a concern about ink drop rates. We suggested that they increase the drop rate on enemies and allow Plentiful Harvest to proc, both of which they did. (They seem to have decided not to grant the request to allow surveys to give it, though.) So they did make some effort to improve the situation in direct response to feedback, and I want to acknowledge that. That said, I’m still not sure it’s enough to sustain the interest in those “nearly 4,000” (but somehow also “over 4,000”) possible combinations for Scribing in this initial phase when people are excited about all the possibilities but don’t have the resources to actually realize them.

Reducing all ink costs to zero for a short period of time on launch might have helped, like they have done a few times for respec costs when they’ve overhauled skills or CP. But this wasn’t an already established system they changed, and I think in the end they did want people who want to get into this system to have to “chase the Ink,” so to speak.

Yeah, I recall the PTS discussions, and now that we're live, I still can't say with certainty which scripts I really want to go with. I do know, after a few hours of dedicated resource farming, this doesn't feel good. Definitely need a lot more ink in the marketplace. A cost reduction with an NPC seller would probably work best and we don't have that...soo - drop rates ZOS, drop rates. Let the ink flow.

At this rate it's going to take forever to mix and match and have fun with the 4000 or so combos they've mentioned are available.

for best "short term" gains, you get 12 ink per character that completes the 4 wings of the scribing questline for free

if you had 20 toons and completed it with all of them, thats 240 ink total, enough to scribe skills 80 times

there is also the option to make a new toon and level it to 30 and then do the scribing skill line, delete, rinse repeat (though it would be rough without all the travel points lol)

with the current drop rate of ink, im not sure if this would be more or less work than just grinding for it lol

AvalonRanger

ZOS please stop stupid rare drop.
Didn't you learn from SummerSet Gayser stupid rare drop event?

Quethrosar

i have not made a new skill because i am afraid of wasting ink. this is atrocious,

James-Wayne

I 100% completed Gold Road and did not get a single ink drop even thou Scribing is what I completed first before anything else. I used my ink to try some abilities out and now I have no ink so I can no longer play with the system that I paid money for.... can I get a refund?

If an update goes flawlessly in the future, I'll almost be disappointed

Orbital78

James-Wayne wrote: »

I 100% completed Gold Road and did not get a single ink drop even thou Scribing is what I completed first before anything else.

You are exaggerating or have the worst RNG or do very little harvesting. Casual harvesting has got me around 10-20.

ApoAlaia

Orbital78 wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

I 100% completed Gold Road and did not get a single ink drop even thou Scribing is what I completed first before anything else.

You are exaggerating or have the worst RNG or do very little harvesting. Casual harvesting has got me around 10-20.

May not be hyperbole, casually harvesting nodes on the way to and fro picking up surveys - which regrettably don't seem to drop ink - both yesterday and today netted me exactly 0 ink.

That is - being very, very conservative in the estimate (assuming 2 'wild' nodes harvested per survey) -100 nodes, no ink.

Jerdeh

Zos really need to increase the drop rate of ink. One would assume the maingoal of ZOS once new chapter or new feature releases, would be that people could and would actually play it and use it. Here it seems to be just the opposite, because people don't have enough resources to use the new feature. As a system, i feel like this is coming to replace Jewelry Crafting, like it was back in the day.

I really think that drop rate should be increased and also sources where one can obtain ink. Maybe from some dailies or crafting writs?

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

AlienSlof

And here we are yet again with silly drop rates and endless grind.

Sorry ZOS, I'm not grinding in a game for anything. It's a game, not work. Games are supposed to be fun. Still, I have many other games to play.

SkaraMinoc

Orbital78 wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

I 100% completed Gold Road and did not get a single ink drop even thou Scribing is what I completed first before anything else.

You are exaggerating or have the worst RNG or do very little harvesting. Casual harvesting has got me around 10-20.

He's not exaggerating and you have the best RNG because the drop rate is ridiculously low.

ApoAlaia

AlienSlof wrote: »

And here we are yet again with silly drop rates and endless grind.

Sorry ZOS, I'm not grinding in a game for anything. It's a game, not work. Games are supposed to be fun. Still, I have many other games to play.

I did mention during the PTS that the way they are turning up the gas in terms of 'grind' (sorry, can't say 'chase' without cringing so hard that I risk compromising my teeth enamel and rolling my eyes out of their sockets) it may only make sense to play ESO if they are planning on making us 'interns' instead of 'players' and provide a stipend.

I mean Square Enix envisioned 'get paid to play' games (although that went nowhere when - and thanks Z'en for that - the whole NFT nonsense's bottom fell out); looks like other publishers (ZOS is not unique in this regard) tried to salvage some of the elements of the concept itself, but without the 'get paid' part.

Yamenstein

Harvested like 20 nodes. Nothing. Would have liked at least 1. Honestly. Introduce a system like this why? I can only assume because you need to stretch out the grind for longer because you don’t have your normal release later this year.

StihlReign

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

I 100% completed Gold Road and did not get a single ink drop even thou Scribing is what I completed first before anything else.

You are exaggerating or have the worst RNG or do very little harvesting. Casual harvesting has got me around 10-20.

He's not exaggerating and you have the best RNG because the drop rate is ridiculously low.

Seriously...we're waaaaay past casual lol. We're at the hardcore, stop at every node this could be my chance!

nope - Nothing.

10-20? I need that route. Please share.

Synapsis123

Okay the best way to get ink is to buy it from other players. Confirmed.

ivelbob

Adding ink as a resource cost to scribing was never meant to improve player quality of life or enjoyment. It's manufactured inconvenience. Development hours were spent to code this bottleneck and create new assets just to pad out the gameplay and increase player time spent/grind.

olsborg

I spent 15 minutes harvesting nodes, got 1x after 3-4 mins and then another node at the 15 min mark that gave me 2 inks.

ApoAlaia

olsborg wrote: »

I spent 15 minutes harvesting nodes, got 1x after 3-4 mins and then another node at the 15 min mark that gave me 2 inks.

Which only highlights a broken implementation where some seem to get all the stuff and others none of it.

xylena_lazarow

StihlReign wrote: »

At this rate it's going to take forever to mix and match and have fun with the 4000 or so combos they've mentioned are available.

Working as intended, I would imagine. It's a shame though, people are just going to lose interest.

Kallykat

Daily Endeavors sometimes give seals plus gold. Maybe ZOS should add an ink to the seals given in weekly ones? At least then you'd be guaranteed (more or less) at least one ink a week. Having anything be fully up to RNG is maddening.

Yamenstein

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

StihlReign wrote: »

At this rate it's going to take forever to mix and match and have fun with the 4000 or so combos they've mentioned are available.

Working as intended, I would imagine. It's a shame though, people are just going to lose interest.

I’ve always lost interest

sarahthes

Tsukiino wrote: »

The drop rate has to be 1% or below.

I also want to say that ZoS did an oopsie with spaghetti code and the Ink doesn't drop in DLC areas, so only base game + Craglorn. (I've got screenshot of getting Ink in Craglorn from a node)

😂😂😂

I got it in northern elsweyr.

Orbital78

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

James-Wayne wrote: »

I 100% completed Gold Road and did not get a single ink drop even thou Scribing is what I completed first before anything else.

You are exaggerating or have the worst RNG or do very little harvesting. Casual harvesting has got me around 10-20.

He's not exaggerating and you have the best RNG because the drop rate is ridiculously low.

Maybe so, I have ~30 of them and they are selling for ~100k on PC-NA.

Necrotech_Master

i also did scribing first before anything else, and about 95% done with west weald zone, and not a single ink drop from either nodes or enemies yet

as far as i can tell, the best source for ink is just rerunning the scribing storyline on alts, at least the 4 wings which give 12 units of ink in total

Elsonso

Wonderful. Another grind?

darvaria

They need to increase the ink drop immediately. Don't turn ink into another commodity where certain guild stores can charge outrageous amounts. (And ZOS you do know where a lot of that gold goes ..... if I can catch them on their discords using pay pal you should be able to catch them too)

INCREASE drop rate immediately.

sarahthes

darvaria wrote: »

They need to increase the ink drop immediately. Don't turn ink into another commodity where certain guild stores can charge outrageous amounts. (And ZOS you do know where a lot of that gold goes ..... if I can catch them on their discords using pay pal you should be able to catch them too)

INCREASE drop rate immediately.

Ink will increase over time. It doesn't need to drop like candy. Most people will barely use it. I expect even at current drop rates it's going to end up costing maybe 1K a piece within a few months.

Necrotech_Master

sarahthes wrote: »

darvaria wrote: »

They need to increase the ink drop immediately. Don't turn ink into another commodity where certain guild stores can charge outrageous amounts. (And ZOS you do know where a lot of that gold goes ..... if I can catch them on their discords using pay pal you should be able to catch them too)

INCREASE drop rate immediately.

Ink will increase over time. It doesn't need to drop like candy. Most people will barely use it. I expect even at current drop rates it's going to end up costing maybe 1K a piece within a few months.

if it gets that low its because nobody is willing to interact with the system

with the drop rate as low as it is, theres no way to experiment with skills at all (and theres supposed to be ~4000 combinations)

if i had a hundred ink, i could see myself burning that in an afternoon just trying different combinations of scripts on a single grimoire once ive actually got the full library of scripts

sarahthes

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

darvaria wrote: »

They need to increase the ink drop immediately. Don't turn ink into another commodity where certain guild stores can charge outrageous amounts. (And ZOS you do know where a lot of that gold goes ..... if I can catch them on their discords using pay pal you should be able to catch them too)

INCREASE drop rate immediately.

Ink will increase over time. It doesn't need to drop like candy. Most people will barely use it. I expect even at current drop rates it's going to end up costing maybe 1K a piece within a few months.

if it gets that low its because nobody is willing to interact with the system

with the drop rate as low as it is, theres no way to experiment with skills at all (and theres supposed to be ~4000 combinations)

if i had a hundred ink, i could see myself burning that in an afternoon just trying different combinations of scripts on a single grimoire once ive actually got the full library of scripts

The endgamers got spreadsheets telling them which combos to use already, and there's an add-on that will sim combinations for the PvPers so they know what to make before they make it.

Necrotech_Master

sarahthes wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

darvaria wrote: »

They need to increase the ink drop immediately. Don't turn ink into another commodity where certain guild stores can charge outrageous amounts. (And ZOS you do know where a lot of that gold goes ..... if I can catch them on their discords using pay pal you should be able to catch them too)

INCREASE drop rate immediately.

Ink will increase over time. It doesn't need to drop like candy. Most people will barely use it. I expect even at current drop rates it's going to end up costing maybe 1K a piece within a few months.

if it gets that low its because nobody is willing to interact with the system

with the drop rate as low as it is, theres no way to experiment with skills at all (and theres supposed to be ~4000 combinations)

if i had a hundred ink, i could see myself burning that in an afternoon just trying different combinations of scripts on a single grimoire once ive actually got the full library of scripts

The endgamers got spreadsheets telling them which combos to use already, and there's an add-on that will sim combinations for the PvPers so they know what to make before they make it.

not everyone is going to use those

personally i could care less what is considered "meta" for each skill, i dont even know what people consider the best for each skill, and would want to figure out stuff that would work for my specific builds

the addon could be useful to see combinations, but "seeing" the result and "trying it" are 2 different things (and not available for console)

it may look good on paper but you might not like how it feels once you use it

Ulvich

So far I have picked up 12. Not sure from where. I just loot anything and everything I come across, so it could have been from anywhere.