Eidetic memory bugged to uselessness | gamebreaking [Possible Spoilers]

Malediktus

So I finished the mage guild quest line to get the eidetic memory, but to my huge disappointment it is bugged to uselessness. For me this is gamebreaking, because as a lore fan it was a must get for me (I even finished the quest at lvl 37 although quest is for lvl 43) and it caused me to log off after picking up the daily items from my hirelings.
The eidetic memory is supposed to make every book, letter, note etc you ever read in past and future appear in your library.
Now the problem: Many books I definetely read appear as locked. Revisiting them does not unlock them.
In many categories it registers 0 books as unlocked, in other it shows some but still some missing ones. In the crafting book section it says I unlocked 14 books, but none of them are actually unlocked (I definetely unlocked the cultural styles 1-9 for example.

Kililin

Yes i can confirm that.
Even all the Racial Motifs i can use, appear as missing.

Malediktus

Good that I am not the only one. I cannot believe something as simple as this is bugged. How did this bug make it past the playtesting stage? Did the testers never check if books properly unlock? I think I am going to play another game until this is fixed, to me its worse than loosing items on bank which can easily be replaced or a quest which is working again after next server restart.
But some of these books can never be aquired again, because they are in quest only instances you can never visit again after completing the quests, especially if it was a solo quest where you cannot group up with anyone to get into said instances.

Malediktus

I just added a bug report ingame about this, too.

starkerealm

I'm not sure I get how this is gamebreaking. I mean, it's really unfortunate, sure, but, it doesn't actually prevent you from playing the game. Gamebreaking bugs would be things like getting stuck outside the world and unable to move, or on an infinite loading screen in cyrodill, or having your character unable to move or attack.

This is annoying, but how is that gamebreaking?

Malediktus

It breaks completionism, a reason for many people to even play a game a long time. The issue is bad enough for me to consider rerolling (deleting character and starting from scratch) when this gets fixed. Incomplete or incompleteable lists bug me to no end.

Malediktus

And I just found the next bug with this edeitic memory. Books I never read before get added to it, but after some minutes they vanish again. I was upto 326 on the counter and a few minutes later when checking if the new book I just found got added it was back to 323 and the recently unlocked books were locked again. Very mysterious.

blauschwinge

Oh my, I am not there yet, as I am still afraid of the moral dilemma with the loss of two skill points, but this is seriously annoying, even the fact that that you can miss out on books permanently, thats not something an online game should allow, heck I even hate such faulty design in single player games.

I also lack some achievements which never properly unlocked which is especially crap since achievements are character bound and not account wide, so I cant just try again to get the missing quest achievements with an alt, No! If I ever wanted to complete them all, I would have to restart my main character and collect ALL of them again, all the while scared shitless about them bugging again, A NO GO.

I really hope, once all the trouble has cooled down you can expect tech support to properly unluck these achievements or bugged out lore entries for you, because honestly, if they dont get rid of nasty bugs like this, I see no future for myself in Tamriel since I cant bear a broken world, in which bugs prevent me from reaching my goal of completing stuff like all quests, all achievements, skillpoints and lorebooks.

I will in the meantime enjoy the beautifully designed story quests and the places, but once I am done I will probably unsubscribe and move on, like in a singleplayer game, but it would be a real shame, since I really really enjoy the game so far.

I pray that ZOS can resolve all the annoying little and bigger issues and cut the dirty raw diamond into something of extraordinary beauty and longevity.

Malediktus

Yes, I played GW2 - a game I thought I would be done with - the whole evening instead of TESO because this bug is demotivating me so much.

Soliduparrow

Greetings Traveler,

It appears that Molarg Blag has stolen your memories. Rest assured we have Gandalf and Harry Potter on the case seeking a way to reverse the memory loss.

Don't email us, we'll email you...or we wont either way leave us alone.

Thank you for support something. See you in Tamarail!

Tabbycat

I know I personally bug reported this on the PTS as getting Eidetic memory was something I was really looking forward to. I was hoping they would have fixed it on live.

Malediktus

mcconnell2_ESO wrote: »

Greetings Traveler,

It appears that Molarg Blag has stolen your memories. Rest assured we have Gandalf and Harry Potter on the case seeking a way to reverse the memory loss.

Don't email us, we'll email you...or we wont either way leave us alone.

Thank you for support something. See you in Tamarail!

Thanks for the good laugh, but when I emailed the support the answer was even more useless than yours
Ticket # 140417-061614

Greetings []!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.

We understand the frustration you must have,and We apologize for any inconveniences you may have experienced today. We assure you We will have this issue resolved as soon as possible.

There are several ways to try and fix a stuck character:

Type /stuck in the command line of the Chat Box (this will kill the character and send them to the nearest wayshrine)
Note: This does NOT work in the PvP zone, Cyrodiil.
Type /reloadui in the command line of the Chat Box
Use /camp to log out, exit game server, wait 15 minutes, and then attempt to log back in
Teleport to a friend via the Contact list [O]

Another way to reset the character is to travel to a wayshrine manually. To do this, follow the steps below:

Open the Map up by pressing the [M] key.
Once the Map appears, look for Quests on the right-hand side.
Click on the map pin icon on the list of icons at the top.
Select a desired destination.
The map of that area should appear, and all discovered wayshrines in that region should be visible.
Click on a wayshrine to return to that region. This will have a gold cost.

You can find more information about The Elder Scrolls Online on our website and social channels (Facebook, Twitter, and Google+).

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Warm Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

As you can see they didnt even read my ticket, because it didnt even contain the word stuck or the like Of course they also marked my ticked as solved and sent me a survey about their service...
The support is really terrible for a pay to play game. Even in free to play / buy to play games you get better answers.

Malediktus

Tabbycat wrote: »

I know I personally bug reported this on the PTS as getting Eidetic memory was something I was really looking forward to. I was hoping they would have fixed it on live.

This makes it even worse. I cannot believe a bug like this was allowed to into the release version. If some patch shortly before release broke it, I maybe could understand it, but if your word is true, which is likely, I am shocked.

LazerusKI

interesting...that explains a lot.
in what section there would a racial motif be? could not find them there (we need a search-function for so many books^^)

Malediktus

Motifs would be in the Crafting Books section I believe.

nudel

Likewise @Tabbycat‌. I was super excited when I first heard about Eidetic Memory on the PTS and couldn't have been more disappointed when it wasn't working. Immediately after receiving it, I began personally logging (pen and paper old school) every single book I found and whether or not it worked with Eidetic Memory.

My findings?
Out of 241 books which I personally checked, only 49 actually worked as intended.

Some single books would 'unlearn' themselves...as in I would find it in the world. It would be useable in the Eidetic Memory interface for a time. Then it would randomly grey out as though not found and no longer be accessible.

Some books never unlocked even when I found them again.

Some whole categories would bug out, zeroing out the number found after only 15-20 minutes of play.

All told I submitted 18 bug reports in a series cataloguing every single book that did not work. Not counting the initial report before I took on this more thorough testing.

Needless to say, I am still disappointed. This time I'm writing down every single book as I find it in the process of leveling my character(s). When I get to Eidetic Memory, it's gonna be a long process of logging every single one that does or doesn't work. Gonna blow up their bug inbox when I get there.

nudel

Malediktus wrote: »

This makes it even worse. I cannot believe a bug like this was allowed to into the release version. If some patch shortly before release broke it, I maybe could understand it, but if your word is true, which is likely, I am shocked.

To be fair, as frustrating as this is for us, there are far worse bugs in this game right now. I'm not surprised that they did not get to it given the severity of some of the other bugs they're wrestling with.

Magischzwei

Half the game doesn't even work properly and you sit here complaining about not working readable books.

I understand this personally sucks for you but there is so much that needs to be addressed prior to this its not even funny.

Udaku

Everything we ever read is messed up? Oo
Nice, when we wanted, in the betas, to postpone the launch for a month or two so they can fix bugs, most testers trolled us saying "Noob, go play WoW this is beta!" And how about now? Excuses? First month maybe?

This is not a blocking progression bug, but it sure shades this game in a grey color of developing shallowness that happened during pst and betas...
This Alzheimer's bug must be fixed!

Malediktus

nudel wrote: »

Malediktus wrote: »

This makes it even worse. I cannot believe a bug like this was allowed to into the release version. If some patch shortly before release broke it, I maybe could understand it, but if your word is true, which is likely, I am shocked.

To be fair, as frustrating as this is for us, there are far worse bugs in this game right now. I'm not surprised that they did not get to it given the severity of some of the other bugs they're wrestling with.

Too me this is worse than duping or loosing items. Items can be replaced/deleted. Most items are easily replaced, CE items can be retrieved by contacting the support. But many of the book areas cannot be revisted after finishing a quest. So since they cannot even retroactively reward achievements of quests you finished, you will most likely be forced to reroll your character.
Thus I am on the fence of cancelling my subscription since I have lost all motivation to continue to play.

Xandarth79

The books appear in multiple locations Malediktus. I was running around with friends in Cyrodil grabbing skyshards last night and we were regularly finding lore books that only some of us could see despite never having been to that location before.

I checked my achievements for one of the books they found and saw I'd already read it.

I doubt seriously that you will be permanently unable to find the book again if you need to.

Malediktus

I am not stupid. There are books which appear in several locations, but there are also quest related books/notes/letters you can only find in one location. It wouldnt make sense to find a copy of someones diary with his evil plans in Cyrodiil right? Besides I already visited large parts of the Ebon pact area and Cyrodiil and never found quest related stuff anywhere else. You are probably thinking of the blue glowing lorebooks.

Malediktus

bump

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_GinaBruno please look into this

Wulfhen

As someone who didn't even know this achievement existed.. finding out there are things you should have done in now locked areas from level 1 onwards when you're now level 40-50.. is lame in general. Horrible design, not even counting the fact it is bugged.

The only way I can even possibly see this being a good idea, is if it automatically added the books/notes from locked quests if you've completed the quest previously.

Malediktus

Yes, personally I would say this should be unlocked from start of the game and not in a lvl 43 quest. But most people who care about these books probably explored as much as possible anyway instead of rushing through all the quest only areas. I know I did, but I also knew about this eidetic memory from reddit since beta.

Auto unlocking all quest related books/letters/notes after finishing the quest is also a great idea to be honest. Being able to miss content forever if you dont delete and start from scratch is a bad design, which fits a single player game but not a MMO.

Wulfhen

Malediktus wrote: »

Yes, personally I would say this should be unlocked from start of the game and not in a lvl 43 quest. But most people who care about these books probably explored as much as possible anyway instead of rushing through all the quest only areas. I know I did, but I also knew about this eidetic memory from reddit since beta.

Auto unlocking all quest related books/letters/notes after finishing the quest is also a great idea to be honest. Being able to miss content forever if you dont delete and start from scratch is a bad design, which fits a single player game but not a MMO.

I was the same, reading everything and picking up every note.. on the first character. Then I found out the order in which I'd done quests had locked me out from a few others quests in Stonefalls and deleted, breezed through then. Got to say, being able to be "screw things up" in an MMO is not fun. For a single-player game, where you've got save/reload sure thing. In a game where there is no reload and you've already put tens of hours into a character? Yeah. You're not providing longevity, you're just annoying/frustrating people.

Malediktus

It was probably some side thought anyway. If they cared one bit about it, they wouldnt have released this feature with one gazillion of bugs.

... and another day is over where I played other games instead of TESO because of this bug. I guess I will unsubscribe if this not listed under known issues by the end of this month.

Magischzwei

Judging by the magnitude of other issues atm i wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't adressed for at least a few months.

Malediktus

Well in that case my subscription will be cancelled by the end of this month / start of next month. The completionist in me cant enjoy this otherwise good game with so many bugged achievements and this eidetic memory. Why do they even add it to the game if they cannot ensure that it will work without bugs? Surely they could have added the mage guild in a few months with a patch instead.
Its a real shame because I usually play MMOs for a long time (1 year+) before quitting. Loosing the completionists in your MMO is not good for the longterm of the game. Completionists are usually hooked to the game much longer than the average person, because filling all these checklists takes much longer than just normal playing through the content.

Antonie

I know how frustrating this can be guys. Luckily there is an add-on out called Librarian which does the same as "EIDETIC MEMORY". Hope it alleviated the pain of finding another bug a bit.

Lorgren_Benirus

Personally I can't even care less about it, I'd have been h appy if they'd replaced that silly thing with a "purple staff", just like the "purple weapon" at the end of another guild's quest. But no, they had to add this silly newspaper thing and it's bugged to boot. Now, I don't mind the bugs, they get fixed in time. However, as a reward it's completely useless.