Bank Space and Gold Farmers

Ummaguma

Never in my 15 years of obsesive MMO game playing have I had the urge to Buy gold, until now. I wont... but the urge is there. why? so I can stop spending every gold piece I make upgrading my bank/bags... its out of hand... I could have 300 combined slots(Bag, bank, and pony), and I still wouldn't have enough for materials.

I'm spending more time shuffling through banks and mules, then I am questing... that's not a good long term situation.

there is an easy fix... let us have guild banks at 1 member so we can use one of our 5 guild slots as a personal safety deposit box.

I cant be the only person that has considered stupidity(gold buying) over this lack of bank space.

I am not amused.

Schnoffle

I have had no issue with the bank space and I am advancing woodwork, clothing provision and alchemy. It's all about making decisions. You can't horde like you can in other games. You have to figure out what works best and what you don't need at the time.

I would also say - make an alt and use their bag space as a deposit box for the time being

Ummaguma

I am at three mules(alts)... and if I only had one toon I was focused on, I might be fine, but I'm not... My main is working on cooking and Smithing, and I have an alt working on Wood, Alchemy, and Enchanting...

knightblaster

If you are trying to do more than one character at once, the system is very difficult -- seems not designed for that. Seems designed for one character and 7 storage alts. It's fine to say you need to make choices, but the reality is that if you are playing two characters at once, you will spend a huge amount of time managing inventory relative to any other game, and also relative to other things you are doing in this game, if you want to craft.

Ummaguma

you are right... it does seem like its designed for one main and 7 storage alts... and IMHO that is a design flaw.

Schnoffle

I guess I'm not seeing the issue at all. I have one main and two alts to store with. One for gear with traits I need to research in the future and the other for just bank over flow, who's bag is never full. I also have an alt who I plan I have work on enchanting so any chants I find goes to them to deconstruct.

Again in my mind it's all about decisions. Obviously just my opinion. I don't want ZOS turning everything into easy mode. If you want two crafting characters then ya, that will take more inventory planning compared to a character only focusing on one or two crafts

knightblaster

Ummaguma wrote: »

you are right... it does seem like its designed for one main and 7 storage alts... and IMHO that is a design flaw.

I agree. But I think the designers would say something like this (not an actual quote, just a paraphrase):

using alts is not 'intended', but is accepted as a workaround given the cost to the player to do so in time and aggravation, but what we really intend is that you level one character at a time, and have 2 or so crafts on that character .. it's a soft cap on the number of crafts we'd like to see people leveling without having a hard cap of a certain limited number ... so if people want to play differently, they can, but there's going to be an aggravation cost, and a gold cost, and a logistics cost.

Which is fine, but really means that if you don't play "their intended way", and prefer to play differently, you will be heavily penalized by the design -- intentionally.

Sendarya

I'm on the fence about this. I have 2 characters, and when I played them both, it was impossible. So I decided to level one at a time, and that made my inventory more manageable.

Basically, my "main" has Wood, Smith, clothing (all the ones that take traits and styles). My "alt" does Enchanting and Provisioning.

I delete (or sell) ALL low level food stuffs, and low level wood, ore and cloth mats now, and only keep the tier I'm working on and reagents. That helps immensely. I keep all enchanting runes and glyphs of all levels since that craft is so hard to level.

I have also expanded my bank to 80, both my characters to 80, and am adding carrying slots to my "alt" horse every day. I add speed to my main, and I'll switch when I level the alt.

I am leveling all but one craft, with 2 characters, have not purchased more than 2 bag/bank 2 upgrades, and simply by keeping only the tier I'm leveling (and some higher if I find it), I'm managing.

I still spend about 30 to 60 minutes per day just managing my inventory, but I accept that as the price to pay for wanting level every craft except Alchemy. lol

Yes, inventory is a problem, but if you DO make some choices (limit level of mats on hand, or limit how many professions, one or the other), it can be done without expanding your inventory too much.

Schnoffle

Totally agree with @sendarya. I think one of the mistakes people make is they horde every provisioning mat they find as well as others. Stick to what is making you the best stuff at each tier for progressing your skill and sell/dump the rest.

To be honest provisioning can be done rather quickly if you have the recipes. I went from 30 to 50 in a single evening.

ripchicken_b

ESO does make it more difficult to craft. But, not in a bad way, really. It makes you cut back on the hoarding. For smithing, woodworking, and clothing this is no big deal as the number of unique mats are small per level. However, for enchanting, provisioning, and alchemy you have lots of mats at each level. This is where the problem of space comes into play.

I don't mind it. In fact I might like it in the end. I like how the game is sticking to the Elder Scrolls style. I hope they don't deviate from that much. When I get annoyed at something like bag and vault space I remember there's a reason I love Elder Scrolls games and this is their MMO. Love it!!!

SexyVette07

Create alts for each type of material. I use 5 characters and their bags are all full. The storage in this game is ridiculous. There is no choice as they are emphasizing on whether or not to keep or sell stuff. All it did was serve to *** off most of its player base.

For provisioning alone im at 80 slots on that alt all the time. And thats JUST provisioning!

Abeille

I was having this problem until I stopped trying to do everything with my main.
I send through the bank the gear that I get with any of my characters to my smithing/clothing/woodworking character and immediately deconstruct it (I just keep the ones with traits that I want to research on that character). I only take runes that I need, and unless it is a rare rune I only take it if I am playing with my main character (she is leveling enchanting). I send the recipes I find to my provisioning character, which is the only one that loots ingredients. Likewise, my alchemist is the only one that loots reagents and water.

Still, I would like to have more bag space, or a bank tab that was only for materials (like GW2's collectibles tab). I also think that this game would be better if it had the weight system and not the slot system. Then they could just make the weight of some materials be close to zero and solve the problem.

Ummaguma

the main point has been missed... which is prob my own fault.

The current design limits players by making them pay tons of gold for extra bag space or causing them to make "rough" choices. this acts acts as a gold sink to limit the amount of gold in the world, thus keeping inflation at bay... the problem is. with Repair costs so high, mounts costing so much, and bag space being so expensive... there are currently too many money sinks. which will cause people weaker then myself to turn to gold sellers, half of which(if not more) are scams.

I'm making due with my 110 bags slots, and 100 bank slots... but it is taking from my immersion into ESO.

TL;DR - A Lack of bag space is encouraging gold Buyers/Sellers.

Xen91

Schnoffle wrote: »

I have had no issue with the bank space and I am advancing woodwork, clothing provision and alchemy. It's all about making decisions. You can't horde like you can in other games. You have to figure out what works best and what you don't need at the time.

I would also say - make an alt and use their bag space as a deposit box for the time being

I agree 100%. I see nothing wrong with the way things are now.

Ummaguma

just morbidly curious... those of you that don't see an issue, how high is your Provisioning?

Catches_the_Sun

Schnoffle wrote: »

I guess I'm not seeing the issue at all. I have one main and two alts to store with.

If you are using 2 characters as storage mules, then you are certainly seeing the issue. You just aren't acknowledging it as such.

Murra

I have 1 character and no alts and I'm having little to no issue with space. At first I did because I was hoarding stuff I didn't need, then I got smart.
Even though they're rare, I got rid of mats I was too low level/unskilled for. I keep no more that 2 full stacks of a refined mat.
I just hit Provisioning lvl 42, my character is lvl 16 herself. Originally it was the food stuffs that took up too much space, but I had to post myself a sticky note of the stuff I was looking for, and so I would only pick up those items when I saw them in the containers.
I keep only 8 race style mats in the bank (I really could cut it to 3 but I like to switch up styles from time to time), and the trait stones I only keep the ones I use.
I keep ALL the refining mats I find (honing stone, pitch, hemming, ect...) even the yellow and purple ones I get from my hireling. I don't a ton of those yet though, so they're not taking a lot of room.
I even have about 5 things hanging out in the bank waiting to be researched.

My tactics are wasteful and I cringe when I toss purple runes out, but it's just too much. They DO need to fix the bag/bank space, but really it truly is manageable. I don't even have all the upgrades and I have room to store my Used Bait that I'll mail to my brother when he finally gets the game (it's an inside joke). I suspect I'll have more issues though once I start getting into those higher levels... But still! If you prioritize it does make things a lot better.

ouchouch2003_ESO

My issue with Bank space is that you are provided a set limit with your first toon. then they DO NOT increase it for ay additional toon you create. I feel in all fairness there should at least be an addition of bank space for each alt...it does ot have to be the full amount you gt for the first Half would be nice.EX 1st cgar gets 50 the additional alt would expand the bank to 75(50+25) and so on for each added char Please ESO think about it!

Dax

I have a private guild bank that's full now of nothing but mats, literally only mats.

I think it's silly how little storage there is in the game, I would like to see something similar to GW2 (mats having their own tab, not taking up main bank space) then it wouldn't be that bad.

At least let mat stacks go higher then 100, 10 stacks of the same item is just silly.

Falmer

I run about 3-4 characters actively, and not having too much of a problem. I still am only playing 1 character at a time, when I switch to play someone else, I just load up that characters inventory with stuff out of the bank, making them a temp 'mule'.

Sure, its a little bit awkward to have to then dump it all back into the bank should you want to switch back to that character, but its not all that bad, IMO. Yes, I do have a crafter of each profession too.

Celless

Provisioning and prepping for an enchanting and alchemy alt destroyed my inventory.

Even the three equipment crafts have about 8 or more gems, up to 12 improvement items, processed and unprocessed materials, and researchables.

In other ES games, we had houses with unlimited space and the hoarding habit was formed. It's been difficult, but I stopped looting crates, barrels, and sacks after I got provisioning to 50 and batch processed a helluvalot of food and NPC'd. I also stopped gathering plants while I'm in "questing" mode. Once I stopped trying to be efficient for all crafts, I found my enjoyment of the game world increased.

I think if people turn to gold buying, it may be for the horse alone that makes them go, "I need more money now!" And they won't bother gathering as much, so they may not worry about bag space the way we do. They'll just buy some of the items they see in shouts and be ready to go.

meglon978ub17_ESO

The only game that's ever done inventory right has been Eve. The designers here have pushed people into spending more time with inventory management than with playing, which is flat out ludicrous. The question they really need to ask is: why?

Do they want people to play the game, or do they want people to sit on an alt in the bank all day?

It's easy, increase the bank size by a lot... 250-500 size, charge for backpack upgrades, and for cry out loud make the bank UI sortable with customizable tabs you can add as you want.

Marovec

Make bank alts. I have one for provisioning, one for enchanting (and gems), one for alchemy, one for regular crafting mats.

Since your bank i account shared, just use it to transfer the items to the proper alt. Yes, it takes a little time, but it works wonderfully.

Paks_ESO

I think if Zeni made it a bit more obvious what materials and necessary for making what level provision item, for example, that might make storing items for Provisioner a lot better. As it is I try to match items with recipes I use a lot but that doesn't always work out because I'm either alt-tabbing to see what I need or scribbling it down somewhere. The result is I still keep a lot of stuff for Provisioner then still have to play the inventory management game at one point of another in game. Enchanter has a bit of the same problem with the glyphs that are not marked because I just do not know whether to keep them or throw them away. The easiest crafts to manage materials for, in my opinion, are Woodworking, Blacksmith, and Alchemy.

Right now I have one main and 3 alts and rotate items in and out of the bank as I play one of the characters. That alone is annoying without the rest of the problems I mentioned that goes along with managing your inventory. Inventory management came up I don't know how many tim3es during beta but they still need to work things out to make it less of an annoyance. It's not the players, it's the system, and this inventory system definitely needs some aggressive tweaks.

Also, when I get to the point of wanting to buy gold just to overcome an annoyance in game then it's time for me to quit. Taking that position means you don't give a damn about the community and how supporting gold sellers no matter the reason affects everyone else. Blaming a decision to buy gold on game design just shows an unwillingness to accept responsibility for one's decisions. No one and no thing forces anyone to buy gold because buying gold or not buying gold is a choice that you and you alone make.

Brennan

At the time of this post my Crafting skills on my one crafting character are as follows:

Alchemy: 50
Blacksmithing: 30
Clothing: 30
Enchanting: 23
Provisioning: 50
Woodworking: 34

I have 3 mule alts that support this one character.

One that holds on to weapons and armor that are waiting to be researched. Luckily, I've put points in Metallurgy, Stitching, and Carpentry (all 3/3) so I am able to research 3 items at a time. As the inventory on this alt dwindles due to getting the research completed, this alt will no longer be necessary.

Another alt holds on to Enchanting Runes and has also engaged in some Enchanting himself (up to 7 now). When I am ready to craft glyphs with my Enchanting buddy, I drop these runes in the bank and go nuts making glyphs. In the process of making those glyphs, I always get rid of the Potency and Essence runes that I have the least of first so that when runes go back into the bank, the goal is to have fewer different ones and the ones I have a lot of can sit there and rot.

The last one is holding on to trait gems and improvement materials. Generally this stuff is sitting here for the purposes of end game crafting.

That leaves me with 4 more character slots that I can use for 1 of each class that does no crafting at all and therefore does not pick up anything. So those 4 can just kill, kill, kill!! \o/

Alpha_Protocol

The mailing system is my overflow bank... it has hundreds of slots.

taylorwilenskiub17_ESO

You just need to be smarter with your inventory and stop hoarding. I have one character with 100 bank slots and 116 inventory slots (16 are from my horse). When I quest fresh, after selling deconstructing I have a solid 60 spaces for loot.

anfmofo

I think prices are steep in anything useful in game. Ie horse, respec, increase inventory, armor repairs.. Does anyone actually spend money on anything else?

Food4Thought

I have one character and no storage alts. I am also crafting across all professions with this character. Is it doable? So far it has been, but I am not going to lie and say it won't difficult. It is always difficult. I upgrade my space every chance I get and I am always sitting on a maxed out inventory.

But that is not to say there aren't ways to manage it. And here is how I do it.

1. Don't keep rare items on your person. These belong in the bank. Keep stuff that you will like find multiples of so they will stack.
2. Make choices about provisioning. I open every bag and barrel that crosses my path. But just because I open them doesn't mean I take what is inside. Provision recipes I already know, low grade provisioning items, etc. just don't have a place for.
3. Enchanting resources have to be kept to a min. I swear there must be a hundred of the triangle pieces, a dozen quares, and like 4 circles. As soon as I learn the meaning for a triangle piece I tend to get rid ot it. If it isn't a common drop (end up with mroe than 4) or is a piece I will likely use, then I am not keeping it in the inventory.
4. Deconstruct everything either through research of resource harvesting. As I have researched all three main weapon and armor professions, managing looted items has become easier. It takes me about a minute to look through the items I have picked up and decide what to hold on to in order to learn a trait or deonstruct to earn the experience and resources. Initially this is hard on the inventory management, but as you learn more traits you keep fewer and fewer weapons and armor in your invenotry for research.
5. alchemy tends not to be to hard either. The trick to alchemy is to always look for the highest water you can find to make potions to level the skill and ignore the lower level water.
6. Try to start out with at least 30 empty inventory spots when you go out questing. and expect that as soon as you finish a quest line in an area you will be completely filed up with items.

And that about covers it. The sad reality of this game is I spend 10% of my time questing and 90% of my time gathering and managing my resources. I am sure there is more than a few people running around at max level and gear. But as a full on crafter I definately ain't one of them.

MasterSpatula

Bank slots, inventory slots, repair costs, horse cost... This game has a crap-ton of gold sinks, all of which hit lowbies the hardest.

Seems to me that slamming the lowbies completely misses the point of a gold sink.

Opioid

Or the lowbies can manage their gold wisely until they're at a high enough income level to invest in said gold sinks.

Taking gold out of the hands of high level players with more than they know what to do with is the whole point of a gold sink.