To Whom It May Concern - Re: Writ Compensation

Siliconhobbit_ESO · November 2014

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Taurius Marcurio. I am a Master Crafter in all 6 professions. I have spent many a year honing my crafts and becoming the best at each and every profession in Tamriel. It has taken me a very long time and in doing so, I have collected a stockpile of crafting supplies that would make even the great houses of Tamriel blush.

To that end I have employed 6 other individuals that help collect, sort, and store all of the supplies I have. On a daily basis, my travels take me far and wide to collect every manner of crafting material so that I may have, at my disposal, ANYTHING I would need to craft equipment for anyone. These 6 other 'individuals' 'mule' all of my supplies in various locations and should I need anything, I have but to 'visit' them and collect what is needed.

Beyond that, the 'company' that I belong to: "Sinister Swarm", is host to many more individuals like myself who are some of the best crafters throughout Tamriel. Each one of these individuals is like myself in that they also have great store-houses of materials in storage. The "Sinister Swarm" also plays host to an entire storage facility that the companies' members have free access to in the case that they would ever want or need to craft something themselves. This store house is constantly filled with materials from the mundane to the rare and everything in between.

Needless to say, myself and my compatriots have access to any crafting materials we would ever need to craft anything we could ever want. We do this on a daily basis and never do we have a lack of supplies.

My concern grows regarding the Writs that a master crafter can acquire. While the Writs themselves are generally easy to complete and only require a small amount of time and resources, the COMPENSATION for the completion of these Writs is quite lack-luster, if not downright insulting.

With the completion of a Writ, a Master Crafter acquires case, satchel, crate, coffer, or other such container that contains various materials that the Master Crafter can use in plying their trade. There is also the off-chance that these containers have within them a Survey Map for Craglorn. These maps give vague directions on where to find various caches of premium crafting materials. Quite the boon for the Master Crafter. If only these Survey Maps were included in EACH and EVERY container...

The problem comes in regarding the BASIC compensations that are contained within the containers. Items like: Citrines, Rubies, and White Grapes. Sometimes these containers hold items like weapons and armor of low level qualities and traits, such as the Voidsteel Battle Axe with the Ornate trait on it that I received today.

Frankly, these items are useless to a master Crafter such as myself and my compatriots, as well I am sure to MANY a Master Craftsmen across the whole of Tamriel. In addition, the measly amount of gold packaged inside of these containers seems quite the pittance compared to the daily cash I can make, plying the trades myself.

In conclusion, the compensation for the completion of Writs is tantamount to an insult to one of my skills and abilities. I can only imagine what the rest of the Master Craftsmen and Women across Tamriel think of these 'rewards'. It would behoove you, and those of you that administer these Writs, to rethink the compensation given for their completion, and provide the MASTER CRAFTERS across Tamriel with rewards more FITTING to their station.

Thank you for your consideration,
Taurius Marcurio

Now on to some seriousness.

TLDR Summary: Rewards for Writs are bad. Please consider making the rewards better.

The rewards for completing Writs WOULD have been awesome, IF each reward container ALWAYS contained a Survey Map. As the chance for the Survey map appears to be random, and you do NOT get one with every Writ completion, the rest of the rewards are pretty much an insult.

My main character is a Master Crafter in all 6 professions. I have 6 Alts/Mules that I use to collect, sort, and store ALL of the crafting supplies I have collected since day one. They are ALL packed full with any material I could possibly want for the purposes of crafting.

Beyond that, the community I belong to. Sinister Swarm, manages a SECOND guild JUST for the purposes of storing crafting materials. Our community has a rich crafting environment and anyone in the community that needs ANYTHING for crafting, has full access to the crafting bank which is always full of crafting materials of any level. We even hold weekly 'gathering' events just to supply the guild with MORE resources for crafting.

Needless to say, we have everything we need to craft anything of any level at any time. To that end, seeing basic crafting mats, motif stones, trait gems, and white gear as rewards for completing Writs is rather insulting.

Also...WHY are you including green provisioning recipes in Writ Rewards?
Aren't there ENOUGH Sweetroll recipes scattered throughout Tamriel already?
Who's bright idea was it to give me a Sweetroll recipe as a REWARD for completing a Writ?
Why was this not a recipe I DIDN'T know?

I can walk into ANY house, building, Inn, or burnt-out dwelling in Tamriel and be guaranteed to find a Sweetroll recipe laying around somewhere. Stop giving these out to players who never want to see the recipe again. Is there a National DO NOT GIVE ME THE SWEETROLL RECIPE Registery I can sign up for? If so...Consider me on the list!

Many of us are Master Crafters, within our community, and many players ACROSS Tamriel. What use are these basic crafting mats to us? To myself...none what-so-ever.

In addition, to what purpose or end am I receiving Inspiration (crafting XP) when I complete a Writ? I have no use for it. I am a Master Crafter. Level 50 in each craft that I complete a Writ for. I can longer level up my various crafts so the Inspiration is of no use to me.

Is the Inspiration being 'banked' somehow?
Is it being saved for a later date?
Will I be able to trade in my excess Inspiration for something at a later date.
Can I use the excess Inspiration to purchase something from a vendor?
As a Master Crafter is the Inspiration gained from completing a Writ just lost to the wind and useless?

I beg of you to please reconsider the rewards you are giving us for completing Writs. Honestly, aside from the NIRNCRUX I can find from Surveys, everything else given as a reward has been and will more then likely be useless to me and any other Master Craftsman.

If the rewards do not change to reflect the time and effort we players have invested in becoming these Master Crafters, there will be no need in the future to actually do the Writs.

Your Humble Yet Crafting Expert Servant,
Taurius Marcurio

Vyle_Byte · November 2014

As a Master in everything except alchemy and enchanting, I concur 100% with this sentiment. The rewards for these are worthless to those of us who aren't new to crafting. This would have been an excellent feature say... 6 months ago.

I_killed_Vivec · November 2014

As another Master I also agree. Writs shouldn't be meaningless if you are already a Master

What's more, the "payment" seems illogical:

1. It doesn't scale with the value of your "contributions". I should be rewarded more for providing voidsteel, nightwood, shadowsilk, panaceas and monumental glyphs!
2. Armour in return for providing armour? A glyph in return for providing a glyph? Raw materials would make more sense - but not a single diamond please.
3. I don't mind random drops but there has to be an acceptable minimum.
4. I get a load of inspiration points, which currently are meaningless to me - I hope they are stacking up so they can be used in future.

I was excited about writs. I thought they would give added meaning to crafting beyond achieving lvl50. Unfortunately this has not been the case.

lpool96 · November 2014

Siliconhobbit_ESO wrote: »

I beg of you to please reconsider the rewards you are giving us for completing Writs. Honestly, aside from the NIRNCRUX I can find from Surveys, everything else given as a reward has been and will more then likely be useless to me and any other Master Craftsman.

If we only could have a few tomato's as reward.......

AlexDougherty · November 2014

Um, you are aware that these writs are supposed to be a way to get more crafting experience, allowing you to level up quicker (not hugely quicker, just a bit).

If you are at level 50 with a crafting skill, then you don't need these writs. The whole point is that the Inspiration is part of the reward, and since you don't need it, you will get less out than you put in.

Rosveen · November 2014

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Um, you are aware that these writs are supposed to be a way to get more crafting experience, allowing you to level up quicker (not hugely quicker, just a bit).

If you are at level 50 with a crafting skill, then you don't need these writs. The whole point is that the Inspiration is part of the reward, and since you don't need it, you will get less out than you put in.

If this is indeed what the devs had in mind, it's kind of a strange decision in a game where the majority of population already maxed out their chosen crafts.

hammer_fella · November 2014

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Um, you are aware that these writs are supposed to be a way to get more crafting experience, allowing you to level up quicker (not hugely quicker, just a bit).

If you are at level 50 with a crafting skill, then you don't need these writs. The whole point is that the Inspiration is part of the reward, and since you don't need it, you will get less out than you put in.

If that is the intention, it is indeed ill-conceived. I had always thought the purpose of the writs was to be the crafting equivalent of pledges, offering an engaging end game spin on systems already in place, developed with the specific intention to satisfy those solo players who are less interested in things like Trials, PvP, Vet dungeons, etc.

Now if you are suggesting these are only viable in the early stages of character creation and afterwards become meaningless, then this begs the question: why introduce them at all? If not with mechanisms included to reward master crafters, then I suppose it is only to devalue the crating professions entirely, making it easier for others to learn them without providing any incentive for those who already have.

AaronMB · November 2014

^ What most of these folks said. ^

AlexDougherty · November 2014

Rosveen wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Um, you are aware that these writs are supposed to be a way to get more crafting experience, allowing you to level up quicker (not hugely quicker, just a bit).

If you are at level 50 with a crafting skill, then you don't need these writs. The whole point is that the Inspiration is part of the reward, and since you don't need it, you will get less out than you put in.

If this is indeed what the devs had in mind, it's kind of a strange decision in a game where the majority of population already maxed out their chosen crafts.

hammer_fella wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Um, you are aware that these writs are supposed to be a way to get more crafting experience, allowing you to level up quicker (not hugely quicker, just a bit).

If you are at level 50 with a crafting skill, then you don't need these writs. The whole point is that the Inspiration is part of the reward, and since you don't need it, you will get less out than you put in.

If that is the intention, it is indeed ill-conceived. I had always thought the purpose of the writs was to be the crafting equivalent of pledges, offering an engaging end game spin on systems already in place, developed with the specific intention to satisfy those solo players who are less interested in things like Trials, PvP, Vet dungeons, etc.

Now if you are suggesting these are only viable in the early stages of character creation and afterwards become meaningless, then this begs the question: why introduce them at all? If not with mechanisms included to reward master crafters, then I suppose it is only to devalue the crating professions entirely, making it easier for others to learn them without providing any incentive for those who already have.

Yeah, I know, it's a mix of bad reward and not enough crafting XP for the effort we put in, but the fact crafting XP (inspiration) is in there, means it has to be for that. Otherwise it's all stupid and pointless.

Garetth · November 2014

If the writs are for lower levels learning the crafting professions why would you have the termination point for the writs in Craglorn where you can't even get access until V1 and then put survey map locations next to groups of V11 mobs.

Sounds pretty stupid to me...oh wait this is ZOS, never mind.

Esha76 · November 2014

Excellent for those still leveling crafting skills. Those at 50... a pointless waste of resources. Even with the surveys, I still burn up more mats than the survey returns. Having done writs in every craft (alchemy when it works...) everyday since 1.5, the only return of value I have gotten is about 4 or 5 nirnhoned mats. I've wasted too many resources for useless returns. And I do not recall reading anything about the devs stating these writs were only intended for those still leveling. A big disappointment.

Gyudan · November 2014

I have 50 in every professions on 3 different characters and have stopped doing writs because of the bad rewards.
10+ clothing/BS/wood writs and 0 nirncrux stones but random weapons and armors instead that I can sell for a fraction of material prices? No thanks.

Ysne58 · November 2014

You also get a small amount of regular experience. I didn't notice that on my vr character, but you get from level 3 to almost level 5 just by getting certified in all the crafts. That still isn't enough compensation for higher level crafters.

poodlemasterb16_ESO · November 2014

I just do for the XP, the rewards are poor. None of my 50 level crafters, except the BS, will do em'.

Stickleback · November 2014

Also level 50 in every profession, and I agree with the original poster.

Not only am I burning through my materials pretty fast (about 100 materials per writ), sometimes I would get "1 Citrine" out of my reward.

I've been able to get survey for wood, blacksmith, clothier, enchanter and alchemist, and the only one to provide me with Nirncrux stones was the blacksmith one. So I might just start with only doing the BS one like one guy mentioned in the above posts.
I'm happy with the provisioning reward of 10 vendor bought items (needed to complete the writ) saving me 630 gold.

I also noticed that these "quests" do not count towards the quest achievement "INDOMITABLE ADVENTURER" (complete 1500 quests). Was this intended?

duncan_cougarpreeb18_ESO · November 2014

While this one agrees with OP, he would be so bold as to suggest a different solution, more tailored to the real master crafters and not just the ones still trying out their trade.

Have - in addition to the basic crafting writs - also some "special customer requests".

Here the real masters of the trade are asked to step forward in providing a lesser amount of better quality gear, respectively items

For master blacksmiths, clothiers and woodworkers for example, these would ask them to provide
- items made with a specific trait or in a specify style or both
- items made at a dedicated crafting station
- items with certain improvements
and/or any mixture of that

It goes without saying that the return for crafting these items should be at least on par with the cost and/or amount of materials that went into making them !

So yes, if the request is to make a legendary sword, as the very minimum you should get more legendary tempers out of the reward than you put in!

Also the reward should scale with the amount of effort that went into mastering the craft to that point, i.e. a the reward for items only requiring 2 traits should be much less than let's say for something requiring 6 or 8 or even 9!
As the time to research these scales by a factor of two, well you will eventually figure it out

In a similar vein this could also be implemented for the master provisioners and chefs, that is asking them to provide better quality items
- better quality food and drink
- food and drink requiring rarer ingredients
- providing for a special occasion (menu style) mixing things at various levels (not only end game food)

Similarly master alchemists could be asked to make
- better level potions
- potions with 3 ingredients
- potions with rare ingredients
The possibility to unlock new potion recipes / combinations as an outcome would sure be highly appreciated as well.

And last but not least these could mean for the master enchanters to make
- better level runes
- runes for special items
- glyphs with rare ingredients
As a reward for some of these, there could at some point be the ability to create runes that allows them to be used on different then normal gear, like putting a jewelry glyph also on an armor ... (or even in addition to the standard) and vice versa.

Siliconhobbit_ESO · November 2014

Oh yes, it would be bold of my to suggest some solutions, however there are some pretty good suggestions for solutions already floating around in this section of the forums already.

On top of that, you have posted some great suggestions as well.

Unfortunately, my faith in Zeni is waning and I personally do not feel that any amount of suggesting solutions or ideas will change what is already in place.

Much like my opinion on Dark Anchors, the IDEA was solid with a lot of potential, but the execution fell short, or was just poorly implemented to begin with.

I sometimes wonder just what the developers are thinking when they have ideas like these and then we the players see the results and just /facepalm.

Nestor · November 2014

I refuse to do any more crafting writs until I get back more in materials than I put into the process. Why should I have less to show for the effort?

poodlemasterb16_ESO · November 2014

Yes. It's just not worth it, unless you luck out, and even then I only break even, in 4 woodworking surveys so far.

Woolenthreads · November 2014

Garetth wrote: »

If the writs are for lower levels learning the crafting professions why would you have the termination point for the writs in Craglorn where you can't even get access until V1 and then put survey map locations next to groups of V11 mobs.

Sounds pretty stupid to me...oh wait this is ZOS, never mind.

The termination point relates to the level of the character perks. For instance my healer has a provisioning skill of L50 but only a recipe improvement of L39 and delivers to the city in Shadowfen.

neueregel · November 2014

I said this on a post in the general chat, I can take the same amount of mats required for a single writ, create items of that same craft with my main player and put them in the bank. Then log on the lower level player, go to a craft station and deconstruct those items. I get much more xp in about 1/3 the time it takes... the rewards for these are so bad, I dont think they should be called "rewards", they need to be called "needles under your fingernails"...

Oh, and if you dont have another player to do this, you can get a friend to do this with that is similar in craft level... we have been doing this since the start of the game...

Grim13 · November 2014

They've nerfed the bs writ nirncrux drop rates with 1.5.4... writs are now officially useless.

EQBallzz · November 2014

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Um, you are aware that these writs are supposed to be a way to get more crafting experience, allowing you to level up quicker (not hugely quicker, just a bit).

If you are at level 50 with a crafting skill, then you don't need these writs. The whole point is that the Inspiration is part of the reward, and since you don't need it, you will get less out than you put in.

Where is it stated that this is the intended purpose? Yes, you could use them to level up quicker (not like it's hard to level up anyway) but my understanding is that these are essentially daily crafting quests like found in other games which would apply to anyone regardless of level. The reward is supposed to be worthwhile because you know..you can only do it once per day! That's the point of a DAILY quest. I'm sorry but claiming this is a leveling only activity doesn't cut it. The rewards are terrible.

AlexDougherty · November 2014

EQBallzz wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Um, you are aware that these writs are supposed to be a way to get more crafting experience, allowing you to level up quicker (not hugely quicker, just a bit).

If you are at level 50 with a crafting skill, then you don't need these writs. The whole point is that the Inspiration is part of the reward, and since you don't need it, you will get less out than you put in.

Where is it stated that this is the intended purpose? Yes, you could use them to level up quicker (not like it's hard to level up anyway) but my understanding is that these are essentially daily crafting quests like found in other games which would apply to anyone regardless of level. The reward is supposed to be worthwhile because you know..you can only do it once per day! That's the point of a DAILY quest. I'm sorry but claiming this is a leveling only activity doesn't cut it. The rewards are terrible.

Well, I'm sure some mod said their main purpose is levelling, and the fact that part of the reward is inspiration (crafting XP by another name) sort of reinforces this.

But yeah, the rewards suck big time, I did a few and moved on, even the surveys aren't enough for the effort and mats you have to put in.

Nestor · November 2014

neueregel wrote: »

I can take the same amount of mats required for a single writ, create items of that same craft with my main player and put them in the bank. Then log on the lower level player, go to a craft station and deconstruct those items. I get much more xp in about 1/3 the time it takes...

Even better is to farm a Public Dungeon at or near your level, then offload the loot to the low level crafter. It took me about 6 hours to get 4 mules from L1 in crafting to L12 in Clothing, Woodworking and Blacksmithing just deconstructing the white loot. The White stuff was about half the haul, the rest Greens, Blues and Purples. If I had deconned all the loot, it would have been twice as fast. But I was not giving up the Tempers.

That and the now 280% Inspiration Boost on Intricates, it is much better to decon your way to Crafting Levels.

Rosveen · November 2014

They would be okay if they didn't require so many mats. I mean, look at Provisioning: with passives I can craft four servings at once, but the writ asks only for one. So for the last few days I didn't have to do ANYTHING, the quest autocompleted the moment I took it because it kept asking for leftovers from earlier writs. Zero effort, one minute of my time (I'd actually call it unbalanced too, just in the opposite way). Now compare it to Clothing...

Siliconhobbit_ESO wrote: »

Also...WHY are you including green provisioning recipes in Writ Rewards?

Aren't there ENOUGH Sweetroll recipes scattered throughout Tamriel already?

Who's bright idea was it to give me a Sweetroll recipe as a REWARD for completing a Writ?

Why was this not a recipe I DIDN'T know?

Because when you start doing writs with a new character, recipes are the biggest problem. I spent two days looking for one - none of my characters knew it, nobody could sell it to me, I did not find it on my own. It would be nice if they programmed it to give only recipes we don't already know, but either way it can be useful.

For the record, my guildmate got a purple recipe from a Provisioning writ today.

Wreuntzylla · November 2014

Dear Taurius Marcurio,

I am scribe to the illustrious Archmage Calcar Dei, Co-provost of Hackdirt. I hope this missive finds you in good health.

It has come to the Provost's attention that you are unhappy with the compensation you receive in rendering aid to the many ongoing operations throughout Tamriel. As you well know, a writ is a command requiring the performance of a specified act, or giving authority and commission to have it done. Any compensation you have received is merely incidental to the reward of loyal obedience to the issuer of the writ, and is sent as a generosity and not under any aura of obligation.

Yes, your compensation is less than you would receive from local merchants. However, with a sense of honor as keen as yours, the provost believes you must abhor war profiteering and bids you meet your duty, without compulsion. Tamriel is at war, make no mistake, and coins should not separate duty from sacrifice.

It has also come to the Provost's attention that the word "contract" is found on at least some of the writs. This is done purely for residents of backwater jurisdictions. For example, Minnesota and Scotland. If you are from either jurisdiction, a bottle of whisky and a letter from your father reminding you that deals cannot be broken will follow.

The Provost has fallen asleep. Planning how to rid his jurisdiction of the current tenants has proven to be a longer endeavor than even I expected. However, I am sure he would bid you well and enclose another compulsive writ for your attention. I have taken the liberty of enclosing a writ requiring you to remove the bandits from Hackdirt. I tire of this camp.

Yours in service,

Milker-of-Netches