dkeithia wrote: »

I completed the quest in the Endless Stair many months ago in Coldharbor. Recently I have been going back to areas where I have already gained quest completion in order to obtain all the books I need. There is a book called How Locks Work that is in an area of the Endless Stair after the statue room. Currently that area and beyond is not accessible. The command to open the door is grayed out. Because of this I cannot obtain the book How Locks Work. I am also unable to access that area if I am in a group of players who have not completed the quest. The first picture shows where the book is located, the second shows the door that I need to go through to get to the area where the book is.

You are right. The PC has access only while completing the quest during which the area behind that door is available.

For what it is worth, the same problem exists with access to the three "districts" of Arenthia in northeastern Reaper's March. Entry into each district is through a large double-door gate, and the Interactive Prompt for access is grayed-out unless the PC currently has the quest during which each one must be entered. After the quest is completed and the PC receives the reward for it, access should remain available to that PC, but it is again grayed-out. The quest cannot be repeated by that PC, even as a member of a group in which another PC has the quest (it cannot be shared with a PC which has completed it).

These two respective flaws, in particular, are not fair to any player whose character completed the associated quest(s) before gaining the gift of Eidetic Memory.

Also, there is no information in the NPC dialog after which a PC receives the gift of Eidetic Memory, which clearly tells the player to enable the Eidetic filter pin for the Map after the character receives that reward for completing the primary Mages Guild Quest. Perhaps the filter can be enabled before the gift is obtained, but presumably enabling the filter won't have any effect until the gift is obtained -- if so, the filter should be enabled by default.

Many Lore Books which increase Mages Guild experience (Shalidor's Library) can be found in more than one location, usually in the vicinity of their other locations. Multiple locations increase the likelihood that a PC will find it, nonetheless any specific Shalidor Lore Book might not be found at one or more of the multiple Map pins for it.

If a player doesn't enable the Eidetic filter for the Map, then they will never know about the existence of some "Lorebooks". Many in the Eidetic Library are unlikely to be discovered in the normal course of play, even if a player is aware of the existence of these features of the game.

Ordinarily, Eidetic Library documents have only one location. Many are found primarily -- whether only -- by searching Book Shelves. Some are not where an Eidetic filter pin shows them to be on the Map, whether they are anywhere else. Some are available only during a specific quest, which may or may not be repeatable, so they appear in the course of play only when the PC has the associated quest. Some of those remain available after the PC receives the reward for the quest, but others either do not remain available, or they become inaccessible.

There are also "gotchas" to searching for them. One is a document that is in a certain location on the 2-dimensional Map when two or more points for that same "location" are on different elevations, such as on different floors of a building, delve, or dungeon, or ones that are in a tower, tree or cave, etc. Another is that the "glow" which usually highlights an Eidetic document might not be present, so it is difficult to discern its presence. There are also a few books and documents which can be read by a PC which are neither in Shalidor's Library nor in the Eidetic Library. (In my experience, the game client does not display the notice "Lorebook Found" when they are read by a PC, but there could be one or more lore books in either or both of those libraries for which the game client also does not display that notice. )

Be that as it has been, personally, I have enjoyed this feature of the game as much as any other, and always have an eye out for any Lore Book or other "document" which my PC can read.

Make sure you submit your own bug report on those books @Shadowshire. One of the things ZOS promised to fix were issues like this, either they would un-grey out the area so its accessible or they would move a copy of the book to the entrance area that can be accessed once the quest is completed.

is this book still lock behind quest?

After I have jumped down to the top of the bookshelf.