The Scribing questline is awesome! Probably the best we ever had [Feedback] [Spoiler free]

Bo0137

I just finished the Scribing questline and I must say - it's awesome! In fact, I don't remember feeling that much awe in a quest in ESO before.

It felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie (in a good way). It managed to encapsulate everything "magic" means to the pop culture. There really is something magical about this questline. I felt like a true mage!

The plot is beautiful, it's big, it's well written.

It actually made sense for your character to be the protagonist (for the first time in an ES game lol). You actually have to prove yourself and fit worthy in order to be praised.

The characters are very well written, they make you love them in no time. Even the side characters are interesting and fulfill their role.

The puzzles are very clever. And the quests objectives are smart and make you actually want to go through.

Voice acting and dialogue is incredible!

And I also noticed new "technology" deployed into the quest? The way the NPCs gesture at you and the camera moves when you talk to them; the way the scenario changes when you progress the story further.

I would rank this questline 11/10. Everybody should try it! (Even if you are not interested in scribing)

AzuraFan

I agree with all your points and also enjoyed the questline, though I found it a bit repetitive. I would have liked it better if there was variety among the Luminary quest lines, rather than the same structure to all of them (except for the last one). But overall, I enjoyed it.

I was planning to stretch it out until I saw that the free horse was one of those double ones, which I didn't have. Still, I did it over several days, and I liked that it was completely separate from the zone's main storyline. We got two main quests in this chapter.

Indigo_Shade

I just finished on 6/11 and agree (mostly) with the OP. There were a couple of parts I hated big time (and struggled with massively), but the quests were interesting and some were different from the usual kill/fetch quests. The dialogue was excellent all around.

While I am still confused about scripting in general, this was a most pleasant change of pace.

Gaebriel0410

I loved it, the dialogue and especially the voice acting was outstanding!

I really really really like having mysterious (non-daedra!!!!!!) and not entirely explained good aligned entities, spirits, etc.
For the same reason I loved the nature spirits in the Breton year as well and this was again right up my alley.

I love the whole folklore / fable feel to it, and how their stories all had kinda wholesome life lessons in them, very classic and beautiful.

tsaescishoeshiner

I agree, the story and characters and plot were amazing! The atmosphere and vibe of the quests was really enchanting and made me want to stay there and do more quests (and the music). Honestly, it could be the main story of a whole DLC--no big bad villain needed.

It's notable that it's a questline where you build, discover, and help people, instead of fighting a big bad villain. There are some popular storylines like Murkmire that are popular where you build, discover, and help and ALSO fight a big bad villain, so it's not having villains that's an issue.

But I find that quests without a villain have to depend on atmosphere and character in order to make the player care about the quest, which I think is much more compelling. Ember's 3 personal story quests were like that to me (and the more recent 4 companion questlines in general).

This is the first quest I've done where I would want to replay it just to repeat the story. (I didn't mind the trials and challenges, but repeating some of them sounds less fun, but worth it.)

There was a sense of wonder and love for magic that the Scribing quests evoked for me. A questline where you were helping restore a martial order or a lost guild or establish a new chapter would also be great if they focus as much on atmosphere and legacy like Scribing does.

The story of Ulfsild and Shalidor was also great on its own. At times it felt touching and romantic, and other times thoughtful about love and partnership when you have different goals and ambitions, and what comes after. Ulfsild is a great character, and her passion is infectious.

RomanRex

Minus a couple enjoyable moments, I thought it was repetitive and boring.

Look at 3 things.
Look at 3 more things.
Look at 3 more things.
Find a door.
Do 3 things from a list.
Do one more monotonous thing to top it off.

Rinse and repeat this entire scenario 3 more times… and you still aren’t done.

So formulaic and inane. Painfully drawn-out just for the sake of being long.

SilverBride

I hated every minute of it. It was long and tedious and repetitive and parts were not very clear what I should be doing.

I'm just very grateful that we don't have to complete the entire chain on all our characters.

LannStone

I hope it's better than the main quest line, in which we could done without the grade-school level coaching every step of the way.
"Look at the symbols over the gate. Notice how the symbols here match. Maybe you need to touch them in the same order."
And so forth and so forth
Give us a little credit, for crying out loud

tsaescishoeshiner

LannStone wrote: »

We could done without the grade-school level coaching every step of the way.
"Look at the symbols over the gate. Notice how the symbols here match. Maybe you need to touch them in the same order."
And so forth and so forth
Give us a little credit, for crying out loud

Funny you say that, because I've seen people get incredibly confused at parts like that lol! Having tried to walk some people through them, I feel like they added a lot of contextual help for people who find quest objectives vague or unclear. I didn't have issues with the instructions myself, but I forget that people get stuck on quests or find them to be complex.

Necrotech_Master

the story and dialog: A+

the unimaginative and repetitive set of actual "tasks": F

if i wasnt desperate for ink, i would never consider re-running this whole questline again (and with ink drops as they are im actually considering rerunning them to get more ink)

i also find it a problem that the challenges quest it did not note your quest objectives on the journal entry for the quest, so it took extra time to decipher the lorebook list of challenges and then tracking which challenges you actually made progress on

xylena_lazarow

What's next? Is it... more wards to dispel??? Hooray just what I wanted after already doing 60 of these!

To each their own, for me this quest was horrendously boring, and detracted from my enjoyment of Scribing.

Windy_Player

I agree that it's a very nice quest line. But it's long. Took me about a day and a half INGL i skipped quite a few of the dialog and cut scenes.

But I'm confused. I got the achievement, and got the two rider mount.

But now I'm helping a friend and it looks like I need to do it all again.

Look folks. I have a dozen characters and there is no way that I'm spending that much time repeating this quest on each one.

Did they really make a quest line as long as some zones that you NEED TO DO ON EVERY CHARACTER to enable scribing?

tsaescishoeshiner

Windy_Player wrote: »

I agree that it's a very nice quest line. But it's long. Took me about a day and a half INGL i skipped quite a few of the dialog and cut scenes.

But I'm confused. I got the achievement, and got the two rider mount.

But now I'm helping a friend and it looks like I need to do it all again.

Look folks. I have a dozen characters and there is no way that I'm spending that much time repeating this quest on each one.

Did they really make a quest line as long as some zones that you NEED TO DO ON EVERY CHARACTER to enable scribing?

What do you need to do it again for? You only need to do the intro Scribing quest (where you enter the portal to discover the Scholarium) to unlock Scribing for a new character. Which is like 5-10 minutes I think. Otherwise, completing each of the four wings gives you an account-wide Sigil (under Upgrades) that lets all your characters find scripts etc.

(I forget if you need to re-do the Indrik quest to have access to the vendor guy)

Necrotech_Master

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Windy_Player wrote: »

I agree that it's a very nice quest line. But it's long. Took me about a day and a half INGL i skipped quite a few of the dialog and cut scenes.

But I'm confused. I got the achievement, and got the two rider mount.

But now I'm helping a friend and it looks like I need to do it all again.

Look folks. I have a dozen characters and there is no way that I'm spending that much time repeating this quest on each one.

Did they really make a quest line as long as some zones that you NEED TO DO ON EVERY CHARACTER to enable scribing?

What do you need to do it again for? You only need to do the intro Scribing quest (where you enter the portal to discover the Scholarium) to unlock Scribing for a new character. Which is like 5-10 minutes I think. Otherwise, completing each of the four wings gives you an account-wide Sigil (under Upgrades) that lets all your characters find scripts etc.

(I forget if you need to re-do the Indrik quest to have access to the vendor guy)

you only need to do the first quest to access the scholarium + the vendor, all of the other 5 wings are optional for alts

the primary reason to redo the wings at all would be the guaranteed 12 ink

Windy_Player

What do you need to do it again for? You only need to do the intro Scribing quest (where you enter the portal to discover the Scholarium) to unlock Scribing for a new character. Which is like 5-10 minutes I think. Otherwise, completing each of the four wings gives you an account-wide Sigil (under Upgrades) that lets all your characters find scripts etc.

(I forget if you need to re-do the Indrik quest to have access to the vendor guy)[/quote]

you only need to do the first quest to access the scholarium + the vendor, all of the other 5 wings are optional for alts

the primary reason to redo the wings at all would be the guaranteed 12 ink[/quote]

Thanks for clarifying

shadyjane62

Never came so close to chucking this game. Doing this quest was way more tedious than it should have been for so little reward.

After hours of trying to get across the invisible path at the end I lost all interest in scribing and have yet to to even try it.


The grind for inks and scripts is real. And though I thought I was doing well getting inks, the number needed is daunting.

And tbh I don't think they are going to make a bit of difference in my performance. I still won't be able to kill Vaermina at th end of Necrom. I have always been able to finish the chapters til now.


For me it will always be a box unchecked. And that is unacceptable. No last boss should be so hard that a casual can't do it.

tsaescishoeshiner

For people who found it grindy or repetitive to do even once--what would you want the quest objectives to be so that it didn't feel that way?

Necrotech_Master

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

For people who found it grindy or repetitive to do even once--what would you want the quest objectives to be so that it didn't feel that way?

at least have each wing being different, like if we could just entirely skip the 2 most repetitive steps (the dispel wards and 3 challenges parts), then each wing would have felt unique and different for the most part

going to point A dispelling 3 wards, and repeating this step in 3 different locations for every wing except the 5th was probably the most annoying and repetitive part of the entire questline

the challenges part would be less annoying if the journal entry for the quest tracked the progress better, because at least the tasks you had to do were different for each wing

LannStone

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

LannStone wrote: »

We could done without the grade-school level coaching every step of the way.
"Look at the symbols over the gate. Notice how the symbols here match. Maybe you need to touch them in the same order."
And so forth and so forth
Give us a little credit, for crying out loud

Funny you say that, because I've seen people get incredibly confused at parts like that lol! Having tried to walk some people through them, I feel like they added a lot of contextual help for people who find quest objectives vague or unclear. I didn't have issues with the instructions myself, but I forget that people get stuck on quests or find them to be complex.

I guess they geared the chapter to people who have never ever played an RPG before. All the "puzzles" are straight out of Skyrim and/or previous chapters Anyway, I've not done the scribing quest line yet, so I guess I'll find out if it's similar

CP5

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

For people who found it grindy or repetitive to do even once--what would you want the quest objectives to be so that it didn't feel that way?

like what Necrotech_Master said, I'll summarize the wing quests to give you an idea of what my time with the quest was like.

Indrik Wing:
Listen to ghost, read book, go to new location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Go through door, have cinematic talk with Indrik, learn about the challenges, with the ones I did being...
Do a auridon dolmen, like I had done a decade ago...
Do a delve right next to the dolmen, that I did a decade ago...
Go to dungeon place and blitz through it since any enemies were dead, quest done

Gryphon Wing:
Listen to ghost, read book, go to new location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Go through door, have cinematic talk with Indrik Gryphon, learn about the challenges, with the ones I did being...
Harvest plants while running past overland enemies in a pit I've visited a few times before, maybe
Pickpocket an npc who was right in front of me at the wayshrine
Another delve boss, that I had gone through a decade ago
But now the fun part
I had gone to the hermaeus portal first, but the quest bugged so I left without getting the thing I needed, so after going to the other two locations (and learning that people could grief others by killing the shade that needed to be pickpocketed) I had to go to apocrapha and walk to the delve to get the hermaeus mora fragment, since the portal there in Greenshade was gone, which was a really irritating bit
Quest, done

Dragon Wing:
Listen to ghost, read book, go to new location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Go through door, have cinematic talk with Indrik Gryphon DRAGON, learn about the challenges, with the ones I did being...
Slay a world boss, with a half dozen other players, a boss I had first killed a decade ago
Pick more flowers
Kill random monsters while in that zone
Then some more, stand here, press e nonsense, but with reading books instead! Just like you do in every single quest to begin them, but at least it didn't bug out
Quest, done

Netch Wing:
Listen to ghost, read book, go to new location, but not without one of the scripted scenes bugging out since I got there to quickly...
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, stand here, press e, look there, press e, pick up key, go to next location
Go through door, have cinematic talk with Indrik Gryphon DRAGON NeTcH, learn about the challenges, with the ones I did being...
Kill deadra in vvardenfel, which to be fair is more recent than 10 years old, basic but uninspired
Fish
And I think I did the public dungeon one as well, I honestly forget
Then, uniquely, dealing with some random person ghost, quickly running through 3 quick delves followed by a quick fight with that shade, and...
Quest, done

The crow wing at least mixed things up a bit, but no riddle really matters when ZOS can't let players fail such important quest, so just smashing your face into the keyboard will give you success, and with all the 'witty humor' that clings to so much of the dialogue, I find it grating and skipped through that as much as I could. So my time with the quest was running around in locations I have been in for the better part of ten years, doing the same dull task over and over, listening to npcs who I couldn't care less about (I love how the quest says "ask your allies for help" when I don't think I was ever introduced to anyone except the merchant guy) all to fully unlock a system that should be able to introduce the most dynamism into the game. Why does it have to be so dull and stagnant?

So, to answer your question, creativity. Something to actually make me pay attention, and not load up a video on the second screen to watch while I aimlessly navigate from E to E over and over. This is spellcrafting, with apparently powerful ancient entities, why not have unique and thematic quest in each of these creatures pocket realms based on their personalities and the way they contribute to the system? I don't know, but anything except the same thing every single time would have been nice...