Elder Inventory Online - So much play time wasted. Anyone else feel the same?

Badh0rse · August 2014

I am posting this because I really feel like I am playing Elder Inventory Online. I spend so much time managing my bag and bank that it has become very tedious. I do not like the cost of the bank nor do I like the size. It wouldn't be bad if ALL my guys didn't have to share ONE bank .. a cool feature .. until you realize you just lost 800 item slots. So there is that and I never felt the need to complain until this new guild auction system. Now I get to spend half my time in game either doing inventory or going from auction to auction to auction .... to GD auction. I refuse to use guild stores anymore and I also refuse to make any more alts .. it's just too damn frustrating. I do love the game when I actually get to play though!

stefanosbekrwb17_ESO · August 2014

yes totally agree with that, but thats how every mmo is. you just have to start picking what you loot

Badh0rse · August 2014

stefanosbekrwb17_ESO wrote: »

yes totally agree with that, but thats how every mmo is. you just have to start picking what you loot

Right, love to pickle me loots! Now if only every "individual" alt was actually an individual and could pickle their own loot!

Falmer · August 2014

Maybe in the beginning when I was first learning the system, now it isn't a problem.

My characters don't pick up the useless stuff they don't need. When a character comes back from an "expedition" they deposit everything they don't personally use into the bank. I then log on my crafters who deconstruct all the gear, transfer all materials gathered into their own personal inventories, etc. This clears the bankspace up for the next "expedition".

Once you get your crafters to the point where they can make set armors you like, you will never again use 99% of the items you get as loot. Its just deconstruction material, which is disposed of rather quickly.

NadiusMaximus · August 2014

Ooops wrong place. But yeah its time consuming as all heck trying to keep stuff organized. I usually just give up, sell everything, clean out my bank and start over.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · August 2014

Ive never really had a problem with it. I generally go threw my loot in about 5 minutes after playing long enough to fill my bags. But im also only working on 3 crafts so i don't save all the stuff for all the crafts. I could see why if you were doing that, might get a lot more interesting.

Badh0rse · August 2014

Falmer wrote: »

Maybe in the beginning when I was first learning the system, now it isn't a problem.

My characters don't pick up the useless stuff they don't need. When a character comes back from an "expedition" they deposit everything they don't personally use into the bank. I then log on my crafters who deconstruct all the gear, transfer all materials gathered into their own personal inventories, etc. This clears the bankspace up for the next "expedition".

Once you get your crafters to the point where they can make set armors you like, you will never again use 99% of the items you get as loot. Its just deconstruction material, which is disposed of rather quickly.

What you just described is very time consuming .. which is my complaint.

I also see that you are clearing your bank space by filling alts bags ... I don't want that. If I fill their bags with mats where is my space for things a leveling char actually needs. I hear you though .. it is manageable ... just a total pain in my butt and waste of time I could be playing. Not going to cancel sub over it or anything but as I said I now have no desire to make more characters and absolutely no desire to EVER use guild stores again.

Xnemesis · August 2014

Some tips for management.
-Turn off auto loot

-Keep your maps and collectibles stored on one character or just delete the trophies and pets like I did.

-Only keep racial stones for rare motifs if you have them or plan on selling them.

-Crafting mats should only be in your bank or bags if they are the current lvl you
are crafting. So if you are working on VR7-9 crafting vendor or sell the VR1-3 mats you have no need to hoard them any longer.

-Trait stones, you should only keep the ones you use and vendor/sell the rest I.E. I keep infused, impen, divines, weighted, and the crit ones.

-Provisioning is simple look at the top food and drink recipe that you own and will use and write those mats down on a sticky on your monitor. Now you know what to take from the barrels/crates and what to leave.

-Enchanting, You only need to keep the aspect and potency runes (The square and round ones) everything else you can pretty much vendor unless you have a specific one you are saving.

-Alchemy is the same as provisioning, write it down and vendor the rest or don't pick it up

-Dump as much extra gold as you can into the bank slots and personal bags as you can.

These tips should help a bit and TBH inventory management is a part of the ES series.

killedbyping · August 2014

Im forced to have an alts just for holding some crap which doesnt fit into my bank and to make sure i dont decon it accidently.

Nox_Aeterna · August 2014

ESO is the first MMO I played that requires such absurd bag/bank/mule management.

There is also some needed , but here it is absurd lols.

Use the bank manager addon , it does help quite a bit.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · August 2014

Yes, accidental deconstruction is a problem in this game. Not a big problem, but a problem. You can buy back stuff you sell in error, but you can't reconstruct stuff you deconstruct by accident. I would like to see a "keep" flag for items in the inventory, in addition to the "junk" flag. It's common sense in UI programming to put in an "undo" function or an "are you sure?" question for destructive operations.

Xeres14 · August 2014

I do very much like the shared bank but there should also be a per character bank as well. I tend to keep a lot of stuff "just in case" and I don't mind making a bank alt for that. Like for instance, I've kept every shield, bow and staff I've looted because I knew I'd make an alt who'd do woodworking and I'd have enough to research / get materials from. So I made a bank character.

Elsonso · August 2014

One of the frustrating things to me about the game is that really there is only one character, @Me, and that is all. @Me is in up to 5 guilds. @Me has the bank space. @Me has the friends. @Me gets all the mail.

Calling our avatars a "vestige" is more than appropriate in this game.

"a part or organ of an organism that has become reduced or functionless in the course of evolution"

At the beginning of the game, this bugged me. Eventually, I adapted to the fact that there is only one character, @Me, and the vestiges are just how I interact with the game world. They are hand puppets, and nothing more.

I started the game like so many other games with different characters and the intent to make them different. This turned out to be a mistake and part of the adaptation has been to realign how I do characters to match the needs of @Me.

I store crafting materials in the bank. Each of my vestiges deals in Clothing, Blacksmithing, and Enchanting because those are the skills @Me is most interested in. As each collects materials, I store the materials in the bank and throw away everything else that is used for crafting Alchemy and Provisioning. In this manner, I have just enough bank space for right now but will probably have to purchase additional bank space as I grow more proficient in these skills, or drop Enchanting, which is a real bank space hog.

My suggestion is to look into the idea of aligning play with developer design. I did this with inventory and bank space by being more selective on what I am doing in the game. They clearly made this space limited to prevent hoarding and to make it more challenging to do it all at once. Don't try to be really diverse with your vestiges, instead treat them as extensions of the single main character. Rather than doing all of the crafting skills at once across multiple vestiges, pick a couple skills and focus on them. When that is done and crafting materials can be discarded, add other skills.

I like other parts of the game more than I like vestige diversity, so I adapted rather than walked. If I want to explore a more diverse game, in terms of character development, I do have several WoW characters that are feeling abandoned.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · August 2014

I've kept every shield, bow and staff I've looted because I knew I'd make an alt who'd do woodworking and I'd have enough to research / get materials from. So I made a bank character.

You would be better off making a woodcrafting character instead, and deconstructing the loot as you go along. The sheer amount of items you need to deconstruct to get experience is insane and would fill more than an entire guild bank, and you had better start your trait research right away if you are serious about making a useful crafting alt.

Kego · August 2014

I have no issues with inventory or bank. On a 2hr game session I spend around 5 Mins for selling stuff and banking materials.

There is nothing more to do with both.

Badh0rse · August 2014

lordrichter wrote: »

One of the frustrating things to me about the game is that really there is only one character, @Me, and that is all. @Me is in up to 5 guilds. @Me has the bank space. @Me has the friends. @Me gets all the mail.

Calling our avatars a "vestige" is more than appropriate in this game.

"a part or organ of an organism that has become reduced or functionless in the course of evolution"

At the beginning of the game, this bugged me. Eventually, I adapted to the fact that there is only one character, @Me, and the vestiges are just how I interact with the game world. They are hand puppets, and nothing more.

I started the game like so many other games with different characters and the intent to make them different. This turned out to be a mistake and part of the adaptation has been to realign how I do characters to match the needs of @Me.

I store crafting materials in the bank. Each of my vestiges deals in Clothing, Blacksmithing, and Enchanting because those are the skills @Me is most interested in. As each collects materials, I store the materials in the bank and throw away everything else that is used for crafting Alchemy and Provisioning. In this manner, I have just enough bank space for right now but will probably have to purchase additional bank space as I grow more proficient in these skills, or drop Enchanting, which is a real bank space hog.

My suggestion is to look into the idea of aligning play with developer design. I did this with inventory and bank space by being more selective on what I am doing in the game. They clearly made this space limited to prevent hoarding and to make it more challenging to do it all at once. Don't try to be really diverse with your vestiges, instead treat them as extensions of the single main character. Rather than doing all of the crafting skills at once across multiple vestiges, pick a couple skills and focus on them. When that is done and crafting materials can be discarded, add other skills.

I like other parts of the game more than I like vestige diversity, so I adapted rather than walked. If I want to explore a more diverse game, in terms of character development, I do have several WoW characters that are feeling abandoned.

Well said sir. You basically said exactly how I feel .... much better than I would have. You are 100% correct in your line of thought and it is an aspect of the game I really hate. I want different characters not the @Me system. I do however like the game enough to deal with it .. for now anyway. We'll see how it feels 6 months down the road.

Melian · August 2014

Falmer wrote: »

When a character comes back from an "expedition" they deposit everything they don't personally use into the bank. I then log on my crafters who deconstruct all the gear, transfer all materials gathered into their own personal inventories, etc. This clears the bankspace up for the next "expedition".

Yeah, mine too. Having to do this so often takes up quite a bit of time.

Badh0rse · August 2014

Kego wrote: »

I have no issues with inventory or bank. On a 2hr game session I spend around 5 Mins for selling stuff and banking materials.

There is nothing more to do with both.

WHAT?! 5 minutes ... do you have a T.A.R.D.I.S. (time machine)
Seriously though .. what level are you and what crafting skills do you have?

TehMagnus · August 2014

Badh0rse wrote: »

I refuse to use guild stores anymore and I also refuse to make any more alts .. it's just too damn frustrating.

Game is as it is. If you want more inventory space: Pay for it. If you have bought & maxed out the bank slots and still want to deposit more items but your bank is full: Destroy/sell some.

I think this has to be stressed a bit more: Game is as it is and if the system is like this it's prolly because ZOS estimated that you only needed that much space. You have the right to disagree and make a constructive post here and ask for a change (there is actually a pool about inventory space where a lot of people have voted).

Just coming here to cry after saying your refuse to use the workarounds that the game provides just because you don't like it, is utterly useless.

sargon666777b14a_ESO · August 2014

It can be a pain.. I use Bank Manager http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info629-BankManager.html and set it up so my main dumps into the bank on open, and then my alts pull to inventory based on profession.. Its not ideal, but its really the only choice I've seen. That and I expand my bag slots on my main.. have a "carry" horse, and expand my bank as much as is feasible..

I'm not suggesting ZOS shouldn't change it (its really dumb to make it this hard to manage your bags), but at least this will help you work around it.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · August 2014

Badh0rse wrote: »

Kego wrote: »

I have no issues with inventory or bank. On a 2hr game session I spend around 5 Mins for selling stuff and banking materials.

There is nothing more to do with both.

WHAT?! 5 minutes ... do you have a T.A.R.D.I.S. (time machine)
Seriously though .. what level are you and what crafting skills do you have?

It as about the same for me. VR7 Blacksmith, woodworking, enchanting.

Couple addons i have that save a bunch of time are an autoseller of junk and whatever i preset it to sell. So just walking to a vendor sells junk and white items. And a banker addon that deposits anything that i already have a stack of started in the bank. So just opening the bank usually auto deposits 50% of my inventory. Now every couple of days i will have to spend another 5 mins pulling out stacks of 100 and selling them or moving them to an alt.

My trips to town, stop by a vendor autosell junk and whites, auto repair. Deconstruct anything green and above, save what i need to research. Go to vendor to sell crap racial ingredients i got deconstructing, go to bank to auto deposit the materials, manual deposit anything i kept for research. Done.

thorspark · August 2014

Or you can use wonderful addons like LootFilters, BankStuffer, JunkBuster, Personal Assistant ...

you take 15 min in configuration at start, and the you can loot everything in the game without having any inventory issues. All your characters get what they need, all trash is destroyed or junked as you want ...

Badh0rse · August 2014

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Badh0rse wrote: »

Kego wrote: »

I have no issues with inventory or bank. On a 2hr game session I spend around 5 Mins for selling stuff and banking materials.

There is nothing more to do with both.

WHAT?! 5 minutes ... do you have a T.A.R.D.I.S. (time machine)
Seriously though .. what level are you and what crafting skills do you have?

It as about the same for me. VR7 Blacksmith, woodworking, enchanting.

Couple addons i have that save a bunch of time are an autoseller of junk and whatever i preset it to sell. So just walking to a vendor sells junk and white items. And a banker addon that deposits anything that i already have a stack of started in the bank. So just opening the bank usually auto deposits 50% of my inventory. Now every couple of days i will have to spend another 5 mins pulling out stacks of 100 and selling them or moving them to an alt.

My trips to town, stop by a vendor autosell junk and whites, auto repair. Deconstruct anything green and above, save what i need to research. Go to vendor to sell crap racial ingredients i got deconstructing, go to bank to auto deposit the materials, manual deposit anything i kept for research. Done.

That's a pretty good system you have going there. I apparently need to get some more addons. I use some already but no banker addon. Thanks for the input ... I still wish we either had separate banks or a much larger one though.

edit: Thanks to all of you who took the time to say how you manage your inventory.

elphaba_thropp · August 2014

I would like to manage these housekeeping jobs *out of the game* via a website.

e.g. In your browser, login to manage.elderscrollsonline.com and select your character, then you can do these tasks:
- assign skill points/abilities/skillbar
- manage bank deposit/withdraw
- do crafting (not including sets ofc)
- buy/sell to npc vendor
- buy/sell from guild store + bank

This would be very useful for someone like myself who has limited time in the evening to PLAY the game and would prefer to do this kind of housekeeping during the day via a browser at work.

thorspark · August 2014

elphaba_thropp wrote: »

I would like to manage these housekeeping jobs *out of the game* via a website.

e.g. In your browser, login to manage.elderscrollsonline.com and select your character, then you can do these tasks:
- assign skill points/abilities/skillbar
- manage bank deposit/withdraw
- do crafting (not including sets ofc)
- buy/sell to npc vendor
- buy/sell from guild store + bank

This would be very useful for someone like myself who has limited time in the evening to PLAY the game and would prefer to do this kind of housekeeping during the day via a browser at work.

THAT is a good idea !

Nestor · August 2014

Each and every time I log in, I spend an hour or more managing inventory. What is even worse is I have to log in an out of Alts as I am dropping stuff off at the bank because I can't put all the items for deconstruction in the bank at once, nor can my Alts take all the items from the bank for their crafting uses.

This really impacts game time. Almost half of the time I do spend is spent on shuffling inventory around between my crafters, and parking mats with Mules.

Tediousness for the sake of Tediousness is not good game design. This does not add Friction to the game, it adds frustration. Plus, all my friends get to watch all my logins as I do this, and I get to watch theirs.

What I think we should do is all form Guilds so we each have a 500 Slot Bank to use. Oh, wait, we need 10 for that and the math does not work out.

elphaba_thropp · August 2014

I just found this addon: Dustman
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info97-Dustman.html

It reduces most of the tasks to clear your bags of low value items.

Then, this addon helps you to sort out the remaining items which you may want to use/sell:
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info245-AdvancedFilters.html

Gonna try it tonight.

Thralgaf · August 2014

Falmer wrote: »

Maybe in the beginning when I was first learning the system, now it isn't a problem.

My characters don't pick up the useless stuff they don't need. When a character comes back from an "expedition" they deposit everything they don't personally use into the bank. I then log on my crafters who deconstruct all the gear, transfer all materials gathered into their own personal inventories, etc. This clears the bankspace up for the next "expedition".

Once you get your crafters to the point where they can make set armors you like, you will never again use 99% of the items you get as loot. Its just deconstruction material, which is disposed of rather quickly.

Which was exactly his point. Tedious.

Spottswoode · August 2014

You guys should download Minion. http://minion.mmoui.com/ It has a number of banking and inventory addons and it will autoupdate for you. Saves me a lot of time.

Badh0rse · August 2014

Spottswoode wrote: »

You guys should download Minion. http://minion.mmoui.com/ It has a number of banking and inventory addons and it will autoupdate for you. Saves me a lot of time.

I use minion for mine too .. it is the sh ...... poop.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · August 2014

Badh0rse wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Badh0rse wrote: »

Kego wrote: »

I have no issues with inventory or bank. On a 2hr game session I spend around 5 Mins for selling stuff and banking materials.

There is nothing more to do with both.

WHAT?! 5 minutes ... do you have a T.A.R.D.I.S. (time machine)
Seriously though .. what level are you and what crafting skills do you have?

It as about the same for me. VR7 Blacksmith, woodworking, enchanting.

Couple addons i have that save a bunch of time are an autoseller of junk and whatever i preset it to sell. So just walking to a vendor sells junk and white items. And a banker addon that deposits anything that i already have a stack of started in the bank. So just opening the bank usually auto deposits 50% of my inventory. Now every couple of days i will have to spend another 5 mins pulling out stacks of 100 and selling them or moving them to an alt.

My trips to town, stop by a vendor autosell junk and whites, auto repair. Deconstruct anything green and above, save what i need to research. Go to vendor to sell crap racial ingredients i got deconstructing, go to bank to auto deposit the materials, manual deposit anything i kept for research. Done.

That's a pretty good system you have going there. I apparently need to get some more addons. I use some already but no banker addon. Thanks for the input ... I still wish we either had separate banks or a much larger one though.

edit: Thanks to all of you who took the time to say how you manage your inventory.

Something to keep in mind if you do go for a bank stuffer addon of some sort make sure you set up you storage alts differently or just turn it off for them. The last thing you want to do is open your bank with a storage alt and dump everything back into the bank. It sucks! Trust me!