Destroying Legends

Heishi · December 2014

Whenever I beat certain quest, I find myself sometimes thinking about the rewards. More specifically, I think about how all these "special" items, just get smelted/broken down.

It happens all the time, people give you some treasured relic that was passed down in their family, but they want you to have it for being their hero. Then just pbbbbbt right into the scrap pile.

Even items like the Fang of Sithis dagger, the Prismatic Weapon, tossed right on in there and destroyed. Broken down for a few ingots, resins, and trait stones.

If not broken down they end up sold off to whatever merchant happens to be around. The Fang of Sithis some Shadowscales threaten to kill you if you don't hand it over, and aspect of Sithis even speaks with you and tells you to keep it even though it theoretically is a bane on society. In your hand it's clearly safe, until you sell it for like 15 gold.

Anyway it's not like this stops me from doing it, but it's just something that pops up in my head every now and then.

dharbert · December 2014

Every quest reward item is absolutely worthless, unless you need the trait that it has for research.

Rodario · December 2014

That thought regularly pops into my head. Which is why my storage alt that keeps all dungeon trophies and pets and junk, also keeps some quest rewards from especially emotional quests.

Moonshadow66 · December 2014

Sometimes it hurts when I have to sell/research/deconstruct one of these "special" items, depends on the story. But what other choice do we have, there's not enough room to keep all of these items (and they would never actually be used anyways).

Jitterbug · December 2014

It would be cool to have them on display somewhere (I guess like player housing), or to be able to convert some weapons or armor to trophy status.

Heishi · December 2014

dharbert wrote: »

Every quest reward item is absolutely worthless, unless you need the trait that it has for research.

Oh I completely agree with this. I was referring to the clash of lore vs game mechanics. There's not reason from a game standpoint to keep these items which are already useless when you get them. But from a lore perspective these weak items are supposed to be these amazing relics that just get smelted down or sold for practically nothing.

Heishi · December 2014

Jitterbug wrote: »

It would be cool to have them on display somewhere (I guess like player housing), or to be able to convert some weapons or armor to trophy status.

That's a pretty interesting idea, I do that in single player TES games. Even though these amazing items may be useless, I display them in my house.

Heishi · December 2014

Rodario wrote: »

That thought regularly pops into my head. Which is why my storage alt that keeps all dungeon trophies and pets and junk, also keeps some quest rewards from especially emotional quests.

I agree, but I only keep the trophies and pets. The quest rewards I just have a moment of guilt and chuck it on the anvil. I keep some of the costumes too.

felinith66 · December 2014

And then I realize that every player playing the game probably were rewarded these items too thereby making said items less special

Heishi · December 2014

felinith66 wrote: »

And then I realize that every player playing the game probably were rewarded these items too thereby making said items less special

Yep, there are thousands of prismatic cores handed out like candy.

Thebe · December 2014

I had a few epics drop in the dungeons I ran last night, deconstructed every single one. I'd have to break up my set pieces to use them. I'd rather have traits work like enchants so they could be applied to drops and quest rewards.
They'd still eventually become useless, but at least I would use them for a bit.

zaria · December 2014

Read a WOW comic about this. It was worse as in WOW you could disenchant everywhere and it was recommended not to do it in front of the quest giver.

RDMyers65b14_ESO · December 2014

With dungeon scaling now, I regret finishing the fighters guild quest line as the prismatic weapons are not the endgame weapons that I feel they should be.

Heishi · December 2014

zaria wrote: »

Read a WOW comic about this. It was worse as in WOW you could disenchant everywhere and it was recommended not to do it in front of the quest giver.

I tried to find it for about an hour with no luck. I did find a charming comic about megaman however. That and TVTrope which apparently is a popular thing I never heard of.

@zaria‌ you got any links? I played WoW up until the 3.0 patch for lich king then couldn't do it anymore.

redspecter23 · December 2014

Quest reward items are trash as virtually none of them have set bonuses. You can go craft a simple set requiring 2 traits and it would be better than an equivalent quest item. I can only assume this is by design for some odd reason. The one major item that sticks out as potentially useful is the prismatic weapon. If scaled to max level, it might even be quite useful against daedra. I haven't seen a v12 - v 14 version yet so can't say for sure.

There are ways that this could be improved in the future, either by retroactively adding set bonuses, even if they were just duplicates of sets already in the game or by adding some passives that give bonuses for each non set piece you have equipped. For example "+1% xp for each bound, non set item equipped" or other abilities along those lines.

driosketch · December 2014

Well a lot of them are just "here's the weapon or armor of the enemy you just killed". No problem deconstructing those. A few of them are here's a prize possession of mine, though often these are like "I'm moving on with my life, take this which I no longer need." I may keep these for a bit before getting rid of them.

Then there are a select few who want you to remember them, and/or who my character really made a connection with during their quest. I not only keep these few quest rewards forever, I actually improve them to higher quality so I don't accidentally get rid of them.

dharbert · December 2014

RDMyers65b14_ESO wrote: »

With dungeon scaling now, I regret finishing the fighters guild quest line as the prismatic weapons are not the endgame weapons that I feel they should be.

Even if you waited until you were VR14 to finish the Fighter's Guild questline, the prismatic weapons would only be VR12 and they can't be upgraded with tempers. So again, useless.

Kartalin · December 2014

I have saved a few items from my travels: my prismatic bow, Varen's staff, that crappy necklace I got for finishing Cadwell's gold, and a few other things. But as others have said, most are eventually sold or deconstructed.

zaria · December 2014

Heishi wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

Read a WOW comic about this. It was worse as in WOW you could disenchant everywhere and it was recommended not to do it in front of the quest giver.

I tried to find it for about an hour with no luck. I did find a charming comic about megaman however. That and TVTrope which apparently is a popular thing I never heard of.

@zaria‌ you got any links? I played WoW up until the 3.0 patch for lich king then couldn't do it anymore.

Don't remember now, has to look if I can find it, it had lots of fun jokes, that is not the coolest one.

poodlemasterb16_ESO · December 2014

RDMyers65b14_ESO wrote: »

With dungeon scaling now, I regret finishing the fighters guild quest line as the prismatic weapons are not the endgame weapons that I feel they should be.

My Vampire Witch had as good a weapon at level 36 when she was handed the Prismatic Weapon, put it away and never used it. I think she broke it down, she does wood. My tough sorc still has his but needs 4 more levels before he can use it.

Endgame weapon, ROTFLMFAO.

Kartalin · December 2014

poodlemasterb16_ESO wrote: »

My Vampire Witch had as good a weapon at level 36 when she was handed the Prismatic Weapon, put it away and never used it. I think she broke it down, she does wood. My tough sorc still has his but needs 4 more levels before he can use it.

Endgame weapon, ROTFLMFAO.

My prismatic weapon is level 46, and when the CS comes in maybe it wouldn't be as bad of an option?

abigfishy · December 2014

Heishi wrote: »

Whenever I beat certain quest, I find myself sometimes thinking about the rewards. More specifically, I think about how all these "special" items, just get smelted/broken down.

It happens all the time, people give you some treasured relic that was passed down in their family, but they want you to have it for being their hero. Then just pbbbbbt right into the scrap pile.

Even items like the Fang of Sithis dagger, the Prismatic Weapon, tossed right on in there and destroyed. Broken down for a few ingots, resins, and trait stones.

If not broken down they end up sold off to whatever merchant happens to be around. The Fang of Sithis some Shadowscales threaten to kill you if you don't hand it over, and aspect of Sithis even speaks with you and tells you to keep it even though it theoretically is a bane on society. In your hand it's clearly safe, until you sell it for like 15 gold.

Anyway it's not like this stops me from doing it, but it's just something that pops up in my head every now and then.

<- Problem.

Solution -> Housing!

Yet again Housing is the answer. Display The Fang of Sithis proudly on the wall of your new home between your Prismatic Weapon and mounted mudcrab head. Hearthfire was made years ago and there was even good quality housing in Oblivion many years ago so why can't they impliment housing now?

Hellkiteacus · December 2014

If you get bored lvl an alt with only the gear you pick up along the way. No crafting anything. These pieces will become useful and meaningful again. You might even have fun.

Merlin13KAGL · December 2014

It is kind of like a bad gift exchange sometimes, isn't it?

"Ooohh...what do we have here? A warrior in heavy plate. Let's see what we have for you..."

"How about this bow?"

Next

"A little spellcaster. Aren't you just precious!"

"I bet you've always wanted a really powerful..."

"Two handed mace!?"

Next

"You look like a little nightblade...you get the most special gift of all..."

"The Potato of Increase that-thing-you-never-use!"

Some of the storylines, it fits in. "We're poor, this is the one thing we have in the world, and it's yours." (I can live with that, I'd even give it back and then some.)

Purple jewel encrusted longsword, with enchant and enhancement...

Then you save the King from certain doom...and in all the vastness of his kingdom, he can't find a single relevant item to give you for your undying loyalty.

Makes it kinda hard to feel bad.

If quest rewards, at least some of them, were as Epic and even looked different as they should, more people would hold onto them.

Sallington · December 2014

You should be able to upgrade items with the right crafting ingredients.

If I get an awesome level 12 helm as a reward, I should be able to pour some ingots and gems into it and keep it relevant. Almost all of the most unique gear is sub-50 quest rewards.

If I save a city from an unspeakable evil, and they reward me with a relic of their people to honor my unyielding courage, I'd rather not just deconstruct it for 5 crafting mats.

Darkrogue671 · December 2014

Heishi wrote: »

Jitterbug wrote: »

It would be cool to have them on display somewhere (I guess like player housing), or to be able to convert some weapons or armor to trophy status.

That's a pretty interesting idea, I do that in single player TES games. Even though these amazing items may be useless, I display them in my house.

@Heishi - I did the same thing in Skyrim. I had serious issue with the display case and grab mode. My toon had to go into some awkward places just to display the item right, only to have it move or end up on the floor when I walked back in the building. At one point in Markarth, as soon as I walked in the door, I'd hear about a dozen items drop throughout the home. Some of them got lost to Aetherius and were never found it again.

Now in Morrowind, that first house you pick up from that Orc, I used to stack potions on that shelf by the front door. Took me almost 2-3 minutes to load it on the Xbox when I clicked on the door to enter.

Potenza · December 2014

A trophy room would be nice. Right now I have a trophy toon.

tonemd · December 2014

Jitterbug wrote: »

It would be cool to have them on display somewhere (I guess like player housing), or to be able to convert some weapons or armor to trophy status.

One of the many things I miss from Skyrim. What I didn't miss was that rare sword that I put up on display that would disappear forever or never again be retrievable.

If they are tracking our data I would love to see all of these rewards statically place in some kind of trophy room.

Nestor · December 2014

Heishi wrote: »

More specifically, I think about how all these "special" items, just get smelted/broken down.

Which is one reason why I would not want Daedric Artifacts in this game, no place to keep them.

All loot is Decon/Research/Vendor Fodder for me. I am not even deconning Greens anymore.

If I had a place to keep them, then I would be keeping every single unique item, each set item and quest reward. Because that is what I have done with every other TES Game I have ever played before this one.

In fact, they should add to the Pets/Trophies storage area coming up, all Bind on Pickup items, since we can't do anything with them anyway.

Heishi · December 2014

Hellkiteacus wrote: »

If you get bored lvl an alt with only the gear you pick up along the way. No crafting anything. These pieces will become useful and meaningful again. You might even have fun.

That's an interesting idea. I do have a number of challenge alts I've played around with. I haven't done one that I just use pickup gear, at least not after lv16 where the first appearance change happens.

Dekkameron · December 2014

(SPOILER!)

When the Last Ayleid King dies at the end of the Coldharbour quests and gives you his sword. The first thing i did was snap the thing in two for a honing stone. Just as i did it i thought that was a bit rude.

Also most famous Daedric weapons/armour/things generally are unique and only goto another person if they're summoned or used up by someone and they magically appear to a new owner.
So it would be a bit silly for everyone to own something that there is only one of.