Loot Add ons and "Leftovers"

Thysbe · July 7

Just did a whole lot of Antiquity leads all over Tamriel with a toon wich hasn´t levelled crafting yet and I am really shocked about the amount of leftover nodes all over the place. Usually, with a fully levelled character I dont see this and wonder why ink drops sometimes quite often and then hardly at all. Now I know...

A rough estimation is 1/3 to half of the blacksmithing nodes were touched before (should see iron, see rubedite node) and its especially bad with woodworking, at least half of the nodes had been looted before only leaving the base material in there.

Clothing and Jewelry seem to be fully looted - I assume because of the higher material value.

So if you see lots of Woodworking and Blacksimithing nodes but hardly and clothing and jewelry you can quite safely assume that its pointless to go there for ink thanks to bots and players who leave their leftovers for others to clean up. This behaviour is alreay super annoying with treasure chests but I guess its gottenw ay worse with ressources thanks to the ink grind.

please please despawn containers and nodes 30 sec after they were opened or ban Add Ons that leave half of the loot in them

Orbital78 · July 7

Or give craftbag for free

if the market value of wood items is nothing except Heartwood, this will continue.

Major_Toughness · July 8

Orbital78 wrote: »

Or give craftbag for free if the market value of wood items is nothing except Heartwood, this will continue.

If they give craft bag for free I genuinely believe they will lose like 80% of their ESO+ subscribers

MasterSpatula · July 8

Orbital78 wrote: »

Or give craftbag for free if the market value of wood items is nothing except Heartwood, this will continue.

Man, using an unearned sense of entitlement to justify selfish behavior is a bad look.

virtus753 · July 8

Thysbe wrote: »

Just did a whole lot of Antiquity leads all over Tamriel with a toon wich hasn´t levelled crafting yet and I am really shocked about the amount of leftover nodes all over the place. Usually, with a fully levelled character I dont see this and wonder why ink drops sometimes quite often and then hardly at all. Now I know...

A rough estimation is 1/3 to half of the blacksmithing nodes were touched before (should see iron, see rubedite node) and its especially bad with woodworking, at least half of the nodes had been looted before only leaving the base material in there.

Clothing and Jewelry seem to be fully looted - I assume because of the higher material value.

So if you see lots of Woodworking and Blacksimithing nodes but hardly and clothing and jewelry you can quite safely assume that its pointless to go there for ink thanks to bots and players who leave their leftovers for others to clean up. This behaviour is alreay super annoying with treasure chests but I guess its gottenw ay worse with ressources thanks to the ink grind.

please please despawn containers and nodes 30 sec after they were opened or ban Add Ons that leave half of the loot in them

What level/CP is that character, and what level in Blacksmithing on that character?

If you are 1/10 in Blacksmithing on a max level character, some nodes will be rubedite.

If you are expecting to see only iron on a character because of their 1/10 in Blacksmithing, you are missing half the picture. You can confirm this by testing on the PTS and/or by grabbing a blacksmithing survey and observing that half the nodes are based on your character level and half based on your character's rank in the craft (the first passive).

Orbital78 · July 8

MasterSpatula wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

Or give craftbag for free if the market value of wood items is nothing except Heartwood, this will continue.

Man, using an unearned sense of entitlement to justify selfish behavior is a bad look.

Just saying it how it is. Personally I loot everything because I do loops and it would be counterproductive to leave some up.

AlterBlika · July 8

Tbh can relate to such players, without sub you'd better not loot crafting junk items, because afterwards you have to dispose of it (sell for nothing to vendors) and it takes time

Thysbe · July 8

AlterBlika wrote: »

Tbh can relate to such players, without sub you'd better not loot crafting junk items, because afterwards you have to dispose of it (sell for nothing to vendors) and it takes time

But you can´t relate to the other person who has to loot and dispose of, without a chance on the lootworthy item, which takes way more effort? I can see how this is true for junk treasure chest armor, but those items stack, so I am sure that you pass a merchant on your tours more often that you would have to sell.

Not having a sub is just a weak excuse for selfish behaviour. Most of the time I dont have a sub myself.

Thysbe · July 8

virtus753 wrote: »

If you are 1/10 in Blacksmithing on a max level character, some nodes will be rubedite.
.

you are right - I really missed that - she is max level

but I will probably leave most of my overland characters on 2/10 at least for woodworking to stop bothering with worthless nodes

LucyferLightbringer · July 8

Major_Toughness wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

Or give craftbag for free if the market value of wood items is nothing except Heartwood, this will continue.

If they give craft bag for free I genuinely believe they will lose like 80% of their ESO+ subscribers

Yup i myself would drop my ESO sub in a heartbeat.

ValueDrift · July 8

Looting an alchemy ingredient plant which doesn't even have the plant and just an insect is pretty funny. But yeah, this is one of those thousand small issues that will never be addressed.

AD_Tuggo · July 8

Bots don't have crafting bag and need all the space.

Lykeion · July 8

Disabling the addon doesn't make sense. Those players who leave a remnant will do the same thing with or without the addon

Elsonso · July 8

ValueDrift wrote: »

Looting an alchemy ingredient plant which doesn't even have the plant and just an insect is pretty funny. But yeah, this is one of those thousand small issues that will never be addressed.

I suspect that it is intended. As this is a multiplayer game, it is certainly reasonable for one player to leave stuff they don't want for another player that happens along before the node goes away. Maybe it is something they can use, even if the first player does not want it.

I would much rather have the chance to pick up what they don't want than for them to destroy it or sell it in the guild store. Even insects.

In actual fact, I come across these leftovers rather uncommonly.

AD_Tuggo wrote: »

Bots don't have crafting bag and need all the space.

I don't have ESO Plus on XBox and the biggest problem that I have is with the primitive UI, not with a missing crafting bag. On PC, if my inventory is filling up, I can back off or be more selective with the farming. I run an addon that keeps me updated on my inventory space. On XBox, my free inventory is always a surprise. Free inventory space should be on the UI as part of the loot history. One line at the bottom would be all that is necessary.

cyclonus11 · July 8

I have been seeing an increase of just worms in alchemy nodes lately.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · July 8

I noticed this behavior this past weekend. I was farming ink when I noticed a player running up to nodes and then running to the next and so on, but the nodes remained. I was wondering what was going on then realized they were only interested in ink and leaving everything else for the unfortunate next person. It's shameful behavior.

fizl101 · July 8

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

I noticed this behavior this past weekend. I was farming ink when I noticed a player running up to nodes and then running to the next and so on, but the nodes remained. I was wondering what was going on then realized they were only interested in ink and leaving everything else for the unfortunate next person. It's shameful behavior.

Hard agree, I've seen similar. My hopes are that when it is added to treasure chests that it rolls the chance for getting an ink on emptying the chest, not opening it, otherwise even more chests will be left with no gold (and potentially no ink) than are left around now

Woozywyvern · July 8

Make Ink Bind on Pickup - it would reverse this behaviour straight away.

EdjeSwift · July 8

Woozywyvern wrote: »

Make Ink Bind on Pickup - it would reverse this behaviour straight away.

It's not an ink problem per se. As @DenverRalphy noted in this thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/661981/spot-the-problem-whats-wrong-in-the-pic#latest

Questionable players are possibly hitting nodes for furnishing materials only as well. As @Thysbe the OP stated this is an issue because of how the taps are treated you get whatever the initial player hit the node gets which means if they didn't even have Gold Road/Scribing unlocked there would be no ink in there anyway.

Alastrine · July 8

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

I noticed this behavior this past weekend. I was farming ink when I noticed a player running up to nodes and then running to the next and so on, but the nodes remained. I was wondering what was going on then realized they were only interested in ink and leaving everything else for the unfortunate next person. It's shameful behavior.

Makes you wonder if the drop rates are low or is it just because the nodes are picked over and left so much.
Needs to be you take everything on a node or you can take nothing, and it respawns.
Let treasure maps stack and do the same thing with chests.

virtus753 · July 8

Alastrine wrote: »

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

I noticed this behavior this past weekend. I was farming ink when I noticed a player running up to nodes and then running to the next and so on, but the nodes remained. I was wondering what was going on then realized they were only interested in ink and leaving everything else for the unfortunate next person. It's shameful behavior.

Makes you wonder if the drop rates are low or is it just because the nodes are picked over and left so much.
Needs to be you take everything on a node or you can take nothing, and it respawns.
Let treasure maps stack and do the same thing with chests.

Drop rates are very low. This can be verified on PTS, where you are much less likely to encounter other players and certainly less likely to find them looting the nodes you want.

My drop rate on PTS was 0.6% for resource nodes. I'm actually doing a bit better on live (just over 1%).

LPapirius · July 8

I think ZOS should take away the option to loot individual items from nodes and chests. Either loot it all or loot none of it should be the only two options.

virtus753 · July 8

Thysbe wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

If you are 1/10 in Blacksmithing on a max level character, some nodes will be rubedite.
.

you are right - I really missed that - she is max level

but I will probably leave most of my overland characters on 2/10 at least for woodworking to stop bothering with worthless nodes

Thanks for confirming!

In that case, your findings from your OP are exactly in line with what you should expect - that about half your nodes are tied to your character level by design, not due to others touching the nodes first.

While it's true that nodes can be partially looted, it is only possible to know that it has happened in one of two circumstances:

1) The base mat matches neither your crafting rank nor your character level, or
2) The node is missing its guaranteed mat and has had a non-guaranteed mat left in it.

Even if you see someone stopping at a node in front of you, you will never know what they took or didn't take. They might not have taken anything at all, if it still has its base mat. If they took Ochre or Pulverized Titanium or Ink from a jewelry seam but left the dust, you will never know the Ochre or Pulverized Titanium or Ink had been there at all. The node would look the same for you either way. If the node is missing its base mat and has non-guaranteed items only, you will know that either the person you saw or someone before them took the base mat, whatever it was and however much there was of it. (You will know nothing of the latter, beyond the amounts theoretically possible, and you can at best guess the former in further limited circumstances.)

Granted, it's indisputable that some nodes are left partially looted, but confirmed cases are very, very rare due to the circumstances required. (I counted two in over 10,000 nodes.) And even though partial resource node looting assuredly happens more often than we can definitively prove, its impact is vastly overshadowed by that of drop chances and RNG, as testing shows.

virtus753 · July 8

LPapirius wrote: »

I think ZOS should take away the option to loot individual items from nodes and chests. Either loot it all or loot none of it should be the only two options.

My supposition is that it doesn't occur often enough or have a big enough impact for them to change that. Partially looted chests decay on a timer, which was 10 minutes as of 2020. While some feel that's too high, the decay timer allows players to manage their inventory and still have access to the contents of the chest. Changing that timer to 30 seconds would be a huge detriment to QoL, imo.

Another suggestion from years ago that more strongly appeals to me is an option to destroy the chest once you're done, getting rid of any trash and not misleading other players into believing they've found a fresh chest. Reduced inventory management for the looter, reduced frustration for others who come by.

It would also be an extremely frustrating change to be unable to loot chests partially in dungeons, arenas, and trials, where leaving items you don't want in there doesn't impact anyone else's loot or loot chances in the least. Even with ESO+ inventory space can be at a premium, and those who respect their groupmates' time generally don't want to sit there playing Equipment Sorting Online just to get some of the items from a chest. All-or-nothing chest looting would necessitate more inventory management when it's most inconvenient.

kringled_1 · July 8

virtus753 wrote: »

It would also be an extremely frustrating change to be unable to loot chests partially in dungeons, arenas, and trials, where leaving items you don't want in there doesn't impact anyone else's loot or loot chances in the least. Even with ESO+ inventory space can be at a premium, and those who respect their groupmates' time generally don't want to sit there playing Equipment Sorting Online just to get some of the items from a chest. All-or-nothing chest looting would necessitate more inventory management when it's most inconvenient.

I turned off auto loot this weekend when I was in nhof for the endeavor. Past experience is that hof drops an enormous number of non set gear,and I preferred not to have to have the decon assistant out all the time.

JinKC98 · July 9

Some changes are definitely needed for the harvest nodes or treasure chests out there. Maybe quicker decay, as in quicker despawn and respawn rate. Or a more drastic course of action is to permanently disable selective looting for all players (I mean like loots from a single source, not sure how consolidated looting works). I always to understand and relate with whoever it is in front of me that doesn't have ESO+ active; but I don't think the same person tries to relate with us either.

RexyCat · July 9

If I remember correctly we had that discussion for ages about chests being farmed selectively for items and left with items that "nobody wants" and in the end a dev explained that chests will despawn independent on if it was being farmed or not with the same countdown from when it first spawned. The only difference when a container like chests are empty if will vanish from that map until it will be triggered again with a spawn for all containers (nodes like alchemy included).

This discussion seem to be back with Ink farming, but the solution isn't to change how fast anything spawns as that could also lead to problems like when you see an alchemy or chests in the distant and start to run towards it that it will just disappear or be replaced with another node or worse you will lose chest item if you interact and discover your inventory where full and need to clean out space and then take rest of item in chest.

I can't say that I have noticed any extreme amount of items left in any nodes or chests that where "left overs" from other players, but then I also have both Bank, Decon and Merchant Assistant and maxed out Inventory Space on both PC and Bank. I autoloot everything and decon items that aren't worth too keep or move it to Bank, sell items with merchant that are junk items or can't be decon. Naturally I also have ESO+ with unlimited material space, so that also make it easy to decon.

As far as I can tell as an old player in ESO (started in 2014 with breaks in between) is that nodes and chests are respawning faster then in the old days.

Try to stand at a chest that you have made empty and see how long time it will take for it to respawn or any node. You will notice it doesn't take much time and it will respawn (even nodes that haven't been interacted with vanish to be replaced with a new node).

The distance between nodes seem also to have been reduced, so you have several nodes in very short distance on most maps, even maps that aren't starter zone maps.

The main issue is the base chance to get Ink as part of the loot table, not how often a node exist.

We don't have any official documentation for how this loot table are calculated or how the chance are dependent on what items or action (except that you need to interact with a node or container like chests) to trigger a chance to get Ink.

The very reason why maxing out Champion Points in Plentiful Harvest [should give 10% increase for getting double yield from normal nodes - have been suspected to be bugged on forum] and Master Gatherer [increase speed on gathering strikes by only needing one strike instead of two to complete for harvesting nodes] is necessary is that it will increase your loot table chance for that container (when using CP relevant for that container type or node; Treasure chest have their own CP).

Increasing chance by adding Heavy Bags and Treasure Chests means other type of CP will come into play, the same way as Gathering CP have done for Ink farming. Chest farming will need keys to be useful and that in turn will instead move the demand for keys to unlock chests into another issue as you will now need to have luck with getting enough keys to open chests (Treasure Maps do not need keys to open, so they will become even more demand on those if they can provide a chance on getting Ink).

SeaGtGruff · July 9

LucyferLightbringer wrote: »

Major_Toughness wrote: »

Orbital78 wrote: »

Or give craftbag for free if the market value of wood items is nothing except Heartwood, this will continue.

If they give craft bag for free I genuinely believe they will lose like 80% of their ESO+ subscribers

Yup i myself would drop my ESO sub in a heartbeat.

Even despite the doubled bank space and doubled housing space?

LaintalAy · July 9

Partial looting has been going on forever. No-one cared before...

I don't see why it should take more than one person to clear the node.

I don't see why when I clear the half-empty node up, some other goose will come along after me to a fresh one to start the whole cycle over.

I won't do the Psyjic skill line ever again. Portals are in the same boat.

Moot point now. The only reason Im harvesting now is to ensure less nodes for ink-farmers. Mats are worthless.

Playing as I like...

ApoAlaia · July 9

Just make all resource nodes instanced like the survey ones and all these potential issues go away.

vsrs_au · July 9

It's past time all resource nodes changed to all-or-nothing.

In other words, when you interact with it, if you have enough inventory space for all its items, you automatically get them all, with no option to select only some. If you don't have enough inventory space for all its items, the looting never starts.