Shalidor's Library - Biggest Housing Disappointment

mr_wazzabi · February 2017

Besides the dps dummy, having my hard earned hours of lorebook hunting to be displayed as a library was the only thing I was looking foreward to in homestead. Hearing all these problems is really disappointing.

arasysb14_ESO · February 2017

I am glad I tried this on PTS last weekend, I had plans for building a library with some of the books I found over 3 years now I am scratching my head trying to figure out how to furnish my huge library. First of all, not being able to stack the series and be able to read them through a simple layer of interface is lazy.

In order to make a full looking library we either have to:

1st option (without use of crowns):

sacrifice item limit by almost half in most cases (I have 600 item limit for my large house -300 if I stop subscribing- , it's 400 for subscribers with small/medium house and 200 for non subscribers) AND try to adjust each and every book to levels of OCD in order to make them usable and looking somewhat tidy.

Checking mages guild or alchemy/enchanting stores for items like papers, signed contracts, scrolls, decorative books (I don't think they are available at all), inkwells and quills but the drop rates are horrible, I ended up with 3 quills after farming all week.

2nd option with crowns:

scrolls go for 55 crowns for each, and decorative books(rows and stacks) are going for 25 which seem to be a lot more time and space saving in terms of house item limit.

with 100 crowns a player can easily fill up 4 shelves looking nice and tidy whereas someone who wants to decorate their homes with in-game means has to go through unnecessary pain here. If we could place books as stacks (the containers we all initially thought usable as book stacks) problem can be solved.

Tyrion87 · February 2017

I agree... I already made a thread regarding this and much more:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/322206/housing-related-bugs

But I feel so disheartened right now and I lost my whole excitement about housing

Tasear · February 2017

Awe, I hadn't gotten to the interior yet. Could we at least have them count as sets? Seems easy enough.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2017

Tasear wrote: »

Awe, I hadn't gotten to the interior yet. Could we at least have them count as sets? Seems easy enough.

That alone would go a very long way. If they came in sets similar to the fake books you can buy, you could probably deal with displaying them in your home. It would still be a huge pain with how bad the shelves are, but I think it would be doable.

Mix · February 2017

Great post Bear:)

I tried out the Shalidor Library books on the PTS and did report the issues with getting them on the bookshelves, suggested a lock feature for the bookshelf so at least you couldn't target and move that, but even that would really be too little.

I was really looking forward to a Library. A Library House rather since the item limits make putting an extensive library in my main house too restrictive.

At the moment I plan to only place select books, mostly on tables for flavour (like "Sithis" on my desk in my DB room).

The not readable books when placed too far onto a bookshelf really removes any feature of actually using Shalidor books.

It looks like many people may need a buyback option if they bought all these already:(

To players who think all the books look the same: within a set the books all use the same model, but between sets there is a difference, I think 5 or 6 different models in total.

Hopefully we can get some better options for these books in the future with Skyrim-like bookshelf interactivity or option to display them as a set. Wouldn't mind if they counted towards a different limit than the other furnishings either..

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2017

Mix wrote: »

Great post Bear:)

I tried out the Shalidor Library books on the PTS and did report the issues with getting them on the bookshelves, suggested a lock feature for the bookshelf so at least you couldn't target and move that, but even that would really be too little.

I was really looking forward to a Library. A Library House rather since the item limits make putting an extensive library in my main house too restrictive.

At the moment I plan to only place select books, mostly on tables for flavour (like "Sithis" on my desk in my DB room).

The not readable books when placed too far onto a bookshelf really removes any feature of actually using Shalidor books.

It looks like many people may need a buyback option if they bought all these already:(

To players who think all the books look the same: within a set the books all use the same model, but between sets there is a difference, I think 5 or 6 different models in total.

Hopefully we can get some better options for these books in the future with Skyrim-like bookshelf interactivity or option to display them as a set. Wouldn't mind if they counted towards a different limit than the other furnishings either..

@Mix
I think this is also the part where you get to say, "I told you so." I do like the idea of simply adding a book count as another limit on hosing. 300 would do the trick.

Stopnaggin · February 2017

Have a question here, when you read from the library they are individual books, how could they make them a stack and still be able to read individual books? I would like to be able to show off my books but I'm not sure I want to spend the spaces I need just for books.

I think they are going to have to change how items are counted. 1 book should not take up as much space as an entire bookshelf. Had the same complaint with bank space, how does 1 recipe take as much space as the entire meal it makes?

Tasear · February 2017

Stopnaggin wrote: »

Have a question here, when you read from the library they are individual books, how could they make them a stack and still be able to read individual books? I would like to be able to show off my books but I'm not sure I want to spend the spaces I need just for books.

I think they are going to have to change how items are counted. 1 book should not take up as much space as an entire bookshelf. Had the same complaint with bank space, how does 1 recipe take as much space as the entire meal it makes?

Too much effort, and this will ruin gardeners. Hmm in regards to the issue at hand redesign it so we can pull them together and pull them apart when we want to read or move around the copies.

Soella · February 2017

Library was my idea from the day I learnt about upcoming housing, and I am decorating my home with this image in mind. But I will wait with adding book there until better UI will be implemented. Or addon writers will save ZOS again.

Jitterbug · February 2017

When you have enough to fill a whole shelf you can place that shelf, filled. Premade.
Just like you can place the dungeon statues.

We need to decorate with our Achievements and Collectibles. If not, Homestead is worthless.

Edit: I don't mean you can do this, I mean you should be able to!

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2017

Jitterbug wrote: »

When you have enough to fill a whole shelf you can place that shelf, filled. Premade.
Just like you can place the dungeon statues.

We need to decorate with our Achievements and Collectibles. If not, Homestead is worthless.

Edit: I don't mean you can do this, I mean you should be able to!

Yes. This exactly. I cared about housing for 2 reasons.

1. We needed test dummies (not that this necessarily requires housing, but that's the route they went).

2. I want to be able to display progress. One of my favorite things about TES games in the past was collecting all the unique items and setting them in my house. This is especially true for me in ESO because I play too many alts. My achievement point totals are laughable on my toons, but I have completed 99% of PVE content at least on one of my toons. This was my chance to put it all together. If we cant effectively do this, then as you said, it's kind of worthless. A library with all the Lore seems essential to this role. I was actually very much looking forward to giving it a thorough reading once I got it setup.

iNSiPiD1 · February 2017

This problem exposes a serious Quality Assurance oversight by ZOS. It's clear the programmers did what they were asked, but that the functionality of what they did was not checked on.

I would highly recommend that you, ZOS, look into whatever workflow produced this problem, as this is a glaring oversight that should have been caught by your QA team prior to release. Paying customers should not be exposed to things like this that are totally predictable, and hence preventable.

starlizard70ub17_ESO · February 2017

I have the same experience as everyone else here. Thankfully I only bought 1 set of books and won't buy another. Scrolls, paper and books all have the same problems, they don't align properly and they hover above the shelves in bookcases. Took over an hours to get the books to look even passable. I ended up putting most of them on tables and nightstands. One would think after more than 10 years of Fallout and TES housing, the devs could have gotten this right the first time.

SpiderKnight · April 2017

Bumping this because right now I have 18 stacks of books standing on shelves, it was the first thing I purchased when housing released, I was excited to put up a library in my home. I spent probably over 5 hours trying to figure out shelf placement and lining books on them. Columns don't work because you can't read the shelf directly above. After placing most of the books and shelves (and even on desks...), I had someone tell me basically "it looks like crap". Now I cannot even get into housing anymore, I've given up decorating because I can't accomplish a simple library. Anyone just toss away all the books or is there a better way than standing them up on shelves?

Betheny · April 2017

Jcorv58 wrote: »

Bumping this because right now I have 18 stacks of books standing on shelves, it was the first thing I purchased when housing released, I was excited to put up a library in my home. I spent probably over 5 hours trying to figure out shelf placement and lining books on them. Columns don't work because you can't read the shelf directly above. After placing most of the books and shelves (and even on desks...), I had someone tell me basically "it looks like crap". Now I cannot even get into housing anymore, I've given up decorating because I can't accomplish a simple library. Anyone just toss away all the books or is there a better way than standing them up on shelves?

Best way is to get a cheap house just for books, and stack books up on the floor...then walk away and never use that house again.