Why did ZOS feel the need to introduce a ridiculous grind for new mats?

Jayne_Doe · February 2017

STEVIL wrote: »

[
You do not have to grind housing and furnishing crafting.
It does not have to be grindable to completion in a few days.
It does not have to take over your activities in game and drive you to doing grinding you dont like.
Just play as regular and you will see patterns come up from time to time and you will see bast and othe rmats come up and accumulate and other furnishings drop in some cases and so on...

To me this is just an added part of my play now, not a massive grindy takeover for a short time.

Its good to see content that wont be "done" in two weeks.

Hmm...so if I play as normal, I won't see ANY of the housing mats, though I will probably find a furniture plan or two.

Basically, lately, most of my normal play has been doing writs, but guess what? You CAN'T get any of the new mats from writs. I understand that they removed these mats from the surveys because people were saving up their surveys so they could go and harvest a bunch of building mats once Homestead dropped. I agree with that decision to a point - they should have at least given these mats the same drop chance as Nirn from the Crag surveys. But, perhaps that would have still been too much at launch. I am hopeful, though, that they will add a chance for these mats to the surveys in future. Also, there should be a chance for these to drop from hirelings.

So, my NORMAL play will have to change. Granted, my normal play changes from time to time - right now, I'm just in maintenance and writ mode, but will probably do some more questing when Homestead hits, as I don't want to grind constantly, but will gather as I'm wandering around doing quests, as I normally do when questing.

I, too, believe that furnishing a home should take time, but really, this system isn't designed so much as to make it a gradual accomplishment, as it is to push players to the Crown Store.

Now, yes, people can make furnishings to sell, but you have to grind for the mats and plans in order to do so. At least make more furniture available from merchants. Still have it all be basic items. But seriously, your only options are to grind, grind, grind or buy from the Crown Store [EDIT: or buy from guild traders]. No option to really furnish a home with gold? No option to purchase a fully furnished home with gold?

They've created a time-consuming and perhaps enjoyable system for some, but it can all be COMPLETELY bypassed with Crowns - even the achievements needed to purchase the homes in-game with gold.

Mephisto939 · February 2017

Yeah, at the bare minimum the new mats should drop with surveys. Maybe at the same rate as casserite in Wrothgar. How many people would have realistically saved their surveys anyhow? I doubt it would have had much of an impact.

Minalan · February 2017

Happily selling farmed furniture mats at ridiculously exorbitant prices.

Yeah. Nothing to see here.

PhxOldGamer68 · February 2017

Good to know. My apartment will have book shelves full of Lusty Argonian books.

scorpiodog · February 2017

Mephisto939 wrote: »

So let me get this straight.... I can craft a magic staff with only wood and resins, but can't make a simple chair without some stupid new rare resource components that I have to waste my time farming resource nodes for? This was a terrible... terrible idea. I thought the idea was to use up some of the thousands of useless mats I carry around in my crafting bag. This only compounds things. And why don't these mats drop on surveys? Another terrible... terrible idea. If ZOS wants the game to be enjoyable, they should not introduce pointless mechanics that force players to needlessly waste time.

Because reasons

But really, this is one of the worst things that modern MMO's have made standard. They want to make something difficult to attain but they place it behind a tedious task that requires no skill at all. Just a completely un-fun tedious time waster really. Just like RNG and Horse training and several other things.

STEVIL · February 2017

Jayne_Doe wrote: »

STEVIL wrote: »

[
You do not have to grind housing and furnishing crafting.
It does not have to be grindable to completion in a few days.
It does not have to take over your activities in game and drive you to doing grinding you dont like.
Just play as regular and you will see patterns come up from time to time and you will see bast and othe rmats come up and accumulate and other furnishings drop in some cases and so on...

To me this is just an added part of my play now, not a massive grindy takeover for a short time.

Its good to see content that wont be "done" in two weeks.

Hmm...so if I play as normal, I won't see ANY of the housing mats, though I will probably find a furniture plan or two.

Basically, lately, most of my normal play has been doing writs, but guess what? You CAN'T get any of the new mats from writs. I understand that they removed these mats from the surveys because people were saving up their surveys so they could go and harvest a bunch of building mats once Homestead dropped. I agree with that decision to a point - they should have at least given these mats the same drop chance as Nirn from the Crag surveys. But, perhaps that would have still been too much at launch. I am hopeful, though, that they will add a chance for these mats to the surveys in future. Also, there should be a chance for these to drop from hirelings.

So, my NORMAL play will have to change. Granted, my normal play changes from time to time - right now, I'm just in maintenance and writ mode, but will probably do some more questing when Homestead hits, as I don't want to grind constantly, but will gather as I'm wandering around doing quests, as I normally do when questing.

I, too, believe that furnishing a home should take time, but really, this system isn't designed so much as to make it a gradual accomplishment, as it is to push players to the Crown Store.

Now, yes, people can make furnishings to sell, but you have to grind for the mats and plans in order to do so. At least make more furniture available from merchants. Still have it all be basic items. But seriously, your only options are to grind, grind, grind or buy from the Crown Store [EDIT: or buy from guild traders]. No option to really furnish a home with gold? No option to purchase a fully furnished home with gold?

They've created a time-consuming and perhaps enjoyable system for some, but it can all be COMPLETELY bypassed with Crowns - even the achievements needed to purchase the homes in-game with gold.

Yes, if you limit yourself to just one small sub-element of one subsystem (only writs in crafting) you WILL find there to be more than a few parts of the game (old and new) where you dont have as functional a time in it as you like.

Wonder where the "I only run delves and dont get enough monster set drop" threads are?

STEVIL · February 2017

scorpiodog wrote: »

Mephisto939 wrote: »

So let me get this straight.... I can craft a magic staff with only wood and resins, but can't make a simple chair without some stupid new rare resource components that I have to waste my time farming resource nodes for? This was a terrible... terrible idea. I thought the idea was to use up some of the thousands of useless mats I carry around in my crafting bag. This only compounds things. And why don't these mats drop on surveys? Another terrible... terrible idea. If ZOS wants the game to be enjoyable, they should not introduce pointless mechanics that force players to needlessly waste time.

Because reasons

But really, this is one of the worst things that modern MMO's have made standard. They want to make something difficult to attain but they place it behind a tedious task that requires no skill at all. Just a completely un-fun tedious time waster really. Just like RNG and Horse training and several other things.

I would say they sought to make furnishing slow progress not difficult to attain. Its just going to take a while but not be difficult.

Mephisto939 · February 2017

STEVIL wrote: »

I would say they sought to make furnishing slow progress not difficult to attain. Its just going to take a while but not be difficult.

The slow progress should be the achievement based furnishing, not the basic stuff.

j.j.hillsaveryb16_ESO · February 2017

Just normal play and foraging as you come across stuff is dropping loads of the new mats well for me anyway.

It only becomes a grind when you are desperate for the mats, just chill and enjoy yourself.

Soella · February 2017

Vouchers are still great RNG dependency, mainly because we have only 6 attempts/day on character to get them. It definitely get smoother with time.

Everything else - patterns, new mats, furniture - seems very attainable for me if you know how to do it. Need patterns - go stealing or hit something like Old Orsinium with hundreds or urns. Need mats - farming fill in your bags pretty fast, sell raw mats to get even more furniture mats.

You don't have to do mindless grind. You need to do your homework.

STEVIL · February 2017

Mephisto939 wrote: »

STEVIL wrote: »

I would say they sought to make furnishing slow progress not difficult to attain. Its just going to take a while but not be difficult.

The slow progress should be the achievement based furnishing, not the basic stuff.

Depends on the details.

The current achievements dont hinder my progress at all. i can get to mostly whatever i want since i have chars who have completed most content. So if it weren't for the speedbumps they put in with material and recipe availability - i could be done with this content PDQ and watching threads about "another lousy over in no time content add for eso" to pass the time.

Never gonna satisfy everyone - some want it now now now while others want content that lasts... so far the vast majority of contetn has been more in line of the now now now variety.

i am glad this one isn't and will take some time to get thru but does not require its own outside the norm effort to do.

obviously not for everyone.