To ZOS: Master Writ Issues

SFDB · March 2017

Leaving aside concerns about drop rates and such, there are several much-needed improvements for the master writ system:

1) Inter-character voucher transfer
First because it's so commonly requested and so obvious I'm surprised it's not in there already. The number of players who split their crafting for RP or practical reasons means that some of their characters are likely capable of doing crafting that others can't, and vice versa. In my case, for example, one character knows almost every motif, but another knows almost every provisioning recipe, yet they cannot work together to acquire vouchers that benefit both of them, they have to operate independently.

2) Remove the automatic mission
When you find a master writ in your writ rewards, you can't know what it requires until after you decline the mission. Thus, unless you know every possible combination that can come up (e.g., every motif, style trait, have every DLC, etc) you have to decline to find out if you're accepting a mission that you can even do. So just have it enter inventory and let people activate it to turn on the mission, it eliminates people accidentally or unknowingly accepting missions on their character they can't do.

3) Make all IC writs gold-level items
Compared to the rest, the writs that require you to go into Imperial City are far, far more time consuming. You've got to enter a campaign, ride to the sewers and hope no one catches you along the way, get inside, enter the correct section of the city, battle or sneak your way past daedra and possibly other players, to try to get into the crafting area. I'm not saying that this is an unreasonable challenge, but realistically that is not a challenge that's worth 6 vouchers - devoting half an hour or more of your time to something that gets you slightly more than halfway to the cheapest vendor item is silly. Sure, if you wanted to run around IC anyway it's something to do along the way, but otherwise it's not worth the time requirement. So only give people writs that justify the effort this demands.

4) Tweak the mission steps for BS/WW/Cloth
These can require significant investments in materials, so it would be helpful for players if there was an indication after you have crafted the item but before you have improved it to indicate that it is the correct item (that you did not, for example, craft using the adjacent motif or made a cloth instead of leather item). While people should pay for their mistakes, having someone be out 60K in material because of a single minor slip is excessive; just being out the base materials should be punishment enough. So have the mission indicate you've successfully crafted the base item so you can upgrade it without worry that you're throwing away mats on a piece of junk no one will want.

Thanks!

davey1107 · March 2017

1. Writ transfers: I agree it's annoying, but I also find it really funny to watch people complain about his, ha ha. I think zos wanted to reward players who have invested the time and energy in multiple characters...then maybe didn't think it through since all this does is require an obnoxious transfer of items around the account.

2. It's very sloppy programming.

3. I doubt they'd go in and adjust the tagging and RNGs for minutia like that. It would require an extra layer of coding. It's easier just to suggest that if 4 vouchers isn't worth the trip, sell the writ to someone who thinks they are.

4. We'll, they are MASTER writs, right? I sympathize with people who craft a bad item, but the point of a master level quest in any category in the game is to distinguish between players who can accomplish the content and those who can't. I just look at it as needing to read like five items off a list, which is slightly more forgiving than, say, VMSA.

disintegr8 · March 2017

I agree with all points.

1. It does seem silly not being able to bank vouchers. My MW's all go to my main crafter but I can see where it might hurt people who have spread their training across multiple characters.

2. Add to that the fact that you then have to go back into the inventory menu to keep opening rewards containers, just makes it bad. The option to accept the writ should only happen when you click on the item in your inventory.

3. I don't think that the reward on a lot of the MW's is sufficient, regardless of where you need to go. 2 perfect roe for 10 vouchers, needing the imperial motif for 5, a kuta for 4 - I just don't think they offer appropriate level returns for the time and cost.

4. This is open to some costly mistakes. I used a mimic stone the other day for the first time to complete a Celestial writ and didn't realize that as soon as I selected mimic stone, it moved me back to the start of the style list. Only after improving it to epic (thank god it wasn't gold) and not seeing the 'completed' message come up did I realize I had stuffed up and made it in the wrong style.

Anyway, I managed to get my target skeleton yesterday so will now be just stacking my MW's for when I need them.

Sordidfairytale · March 2017

I would very much like to see the ability to do more than one writ of a type at a time. It is beyond aggravating to make a trip to Armor Master make the fire staff, then deliver it, then go back to Armor Master, make the shield, deliver it, armor master, lightning staff, deliver, armor master, resto staff, deliver, ad nauseum.

Soella · March 2017

Agree with p.1 and 2.

And with ability to accept more than 1 writ.

STEVIL · March 2017

davey1107 wrote: »

1. Writ transfers: I agree it's annoying, but I also find it really funny to watch people complain about his, ha ha. I think zos wanted to reward players who have invested the time and energy in multiple characters...then maybe didn't think it through since all this does is require an obnoxious transfer of items around the account.

2. It's very sloppy programming.

3. I doubt they'd go in and adjust the tagging and RNGs for minutia like that. It would require an extra layer of coding. It's easier just to suggest that if 4 vouchers isn't worth the trip, sell the writ to someone who thinks they are.

4. We'll, they are MASTER writs, right? I sympathize with people who craft a bad item, but the point of a master level quest in any category in the game is to distinguish between players who can accomplish the content and those who can't. I just look at it as needing to read like five items off a list, which is slightly more forgiving than, say, VMSA.

1 - Actually what this does is reward having your crafting capacity on one character maximized. the rest can be a few maxed here a few maxed there or all maxed but if you have one character who can DO all the writs once they drop for the others you can stack your vouchers by banking the writs. So, i am Ok with it as it is now since it provides a minor functional but not quantitative bonus to those who took the single character route.

2 - yeah - i dont really get why it works that way. i see no benefits. I agree with a pop-up notice but to default to accept is bad.

3 - yeah same here. i assess each writ to see if it is worth it for my playstyles. there are folks running IC several times a week or more who would likely be happy to pay for quick voucher rest stops. Also, there may be folks like me with attuned armor ,aster station - only time i ever went into IC in fact. Might make one more trip when i get the wood station to attune.

4 - i gotta say - not having a problem with this. Its like 5 identifiers right there listed.

Taleof2Cities · March 2017

Though I've never had any issues with the pop-up notice, I totally get how players can hit the wrong button and accept the quest on the wrong character. There should be some other (better) way for a player to keep the writ sealed if he (she) wants to.

More and more players are placing IC attunable craft stations in their homes. If you work your network a little bit (e.g. friends, guildies, etc.) you can probably skip a trip to Imperial City.

redspecter23 · March 2017

I agree with all points and am completely confused that these things never occurred to ZOS while designing the system. Granted, they did have more legendary level writs in originally but people complained and we now have more epic level writs. I'd go a step further and just say that all master writs should be max level, legendary quality and reward vouchers appropriately. They are master writs after all and if someone doesn't want to do that writ because they find it too costly, they can sell it easily enough.

The automatic mission prompt is such a design disaster I'm not sure how it made it past the brainstorming phase, much less to live. It never should have even been suggested or implemented. It does nothing but potentially harass and troll players unlucky enough to accidentally accept the quest on an alt. You can't even see the requirements on the voucher before accepting. It actually shows up as a generic 0 voucher writ at all times before you accept/decline it. Nobody in their right mind would ever blindly accept a master writ on an alt so forcing the quest prompt makes no sense.

Account wide vouchers also seems like a no brainer. Just make them bankable like Tel Var or gold and you're good there. I can't think of a valid reason why that would be a bad idea, but I have to assume somebody at ZOS knows a reason and shared it with the team before it was decided to be character bound. Some insight on that decision would be very enlightening. When designing systems, remember the first rule of binding status, always unbound unless there is a reason for it not to be, then always bind on equip unless there is a reason for it not to be, then bind on pickup if necessary and only when absolutely necessary (unbound---bound to account---bound to character). ZOS, I think you should print that out and hang it in the pve dungeon dev area where all can see it.

Gandamir · March 2017

SFDB wrote: »

4) Tweak the mission steps for BS/WW/Cloth
These can require significant investments in materials, so it would be helpful for players if there was an indication after you have crafted the item but before you have improved it to indicate that it is the correct item (that you did not, for example, craft using the adjacent motif or made a cloth instead of leather item). While people should pay for their mistakes, having someone be out 60K in material because of a single minor slip is excessive; just being out the base materials should be punishment enough. So have the mission indicate you've successfully crafted the base item so you can upgrade it without worry that you're throwing away mats on a piece of junk no one will want.

Get the Lazy Writ Crafter addon that will make them for you.

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1346-DolgubonsLazyWritCrafter.html

Ashtaris · March 2017

Gandamir wrote: »

SFDB wrote: »

4) Tweak the mission steps for BS/WW/Cloth
These can require significant investments in materials, so it would be helpful for players if there was an indication after you have crafted the item but before you have improved it to indicate that it is the correct item (that you did not, for example, craft using the adjacent motif or made a cloth instead of leather item). While people should pay for their mistakes, having someone be out 60K in material because of a single minor slip is excessive; just being out the base materials should be punishment enough. So have the mission indicate you've successfully crafted the base item so you can upgrade it without worry that you're throwing away mats on a piece of junk no one will want.

Get the Lazy Writ Crafter addon that will make them for you.

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1346-DolgubonsLazyWritCrafter.html

You are mixing up normal crafting writs with master crafting writs. Two different animals. What he was getting at is that when you create a piece of armor or weapon for a Master Crafting writ, there is NO feedback if you are using the right materials, correct style, trait, etc. So you could accidentally create a Legendary Yokudan Hist Bark Inferno staff with Infused Trait instead of Defending trait like it asked for. You just wasted 8 gold mats on a now virtually useless piece. At least if you had some feedback that you created the correct item BEFORE you improve it then it could prevent that costly mistake. I write down all of the writ requirements before crafting, but it would be much nicer if ZOS just implemented a safeguard.

Now if Dolgubon handled the Master Crafting writs, that would be awesome. I'd have to send him more gold in that case

redspecter23 · March 2017

Ashtaris wrote: »

Gandamir wrote: »

SFDB wrote: »

4) Tweak the mission steps for BS/WW/Cloth
These can require significant investments in materials, so it would be helpful for players if there was an indication after you have crafted the item but before you have improved it to indicate that it is the correct item (that you did not, for example, craft using the adjacent motif or made a cloth instead of leather item). While people should pay for their mistakes, having someone be out 60K in material because of a single minor slip is excessive; just being out the base materials should be punishment enough. So have the mission indicate you've successfully crafted the base item so you can upgrade it without worry that you're throwing away mats on a piece of junk no one will want.

Get the Lazy Writ Crafter addon that will make them for you.

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1346-DolgubonsLazyWritCrafter.html

You are mixing up normal crafting writs with master crafting writs. Two different animals. What he was getting at is that when you create a piece of armor or weapon for a Master Crafting writ, there is NO feedback if you are using the right materials, correct style, trait, etc. So you could accidentally create a Legendary Yokudan Hist Bark Inferno staff with Infused Trait instead of Defending trait like it asked for. You just wasted 8 gold mats on a now virtually useless piece. At least if you had some feedback that you created the correct item BEFORE you improve it then it could prevent that costly mistake. I write down all of the writ requirements before crafting, but it would be much nicer if ZOS just implemented a safeguard.

Now if Dolgubon handled the Master Crafting writs, that would be awesome. I'd have to send him more gold in that case

I'd be happy if the quest objective stayed on the screen while I was in the craft station UI. This is such a basic fail that ZOS should be ashamed by it. "Hey, go make this thing, but as soon as you start making that thing, I'll remove all the info about that thing from your screen."

helediron · March 2017

Ashtaris wrote: »

Gandamir wrote: »

SFDB wrote: »

4) Tweak the mission steps for BS/WW/Cloth
These can require significant investments in materials, so it would be helpful for players if there was an indication after you have crafted the item but before you have improved it to indicate that it is the correct item (that you did not, for example, craft using the adjacent motif or made a cloth instead of leather item). While people should pay for their mistakes, having someone be out 60K in material because of a single minor slip is excessive; just being out the base materials should be punishment enough. So have the mission indicate you've successfully crafted the base item so you can upgrade it without worry that you're throwing away mats on a piece of junk no one will want.

Get the Lazy Writ Crafter addon that will make them for you.

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1346-DolgubonsLazyWritCrafter.html

You are mixing up normal crafting writs with master crafting writs. Two different animals. What he was getting at is that when you create a piece of armor or weapon for a Master Crafting writ, there is NO feedback if you are using the right materials, correct style, trait, etc. So you could accidentally create a Legendary Yokudan Hist Bark Inferno staff with Infused Trait instead of Defending trait like it asked for. You just wasted 8 gold mats on a now virtually useless piece. At least if you had some feedback that you created the correct item BEFORE you improve it then it could prevent that costly mistake. I write down all of the writ requirements before crafting, but it would be much nicer if ZOS just implemented a safeguard.

Now if Dolgubon handled the Master Crafting writs, that would be awesome. I'd have to send him more gold in that case

Dolgubon's DOES handle also master writs.

No Thank You addon can turn off the automatic master quest.

Ashtaris · March 2017

I looked at Dolgubon settings last night and see that LWC does do Master Crafting Writs now, great

However, I'm not sure if it will save me much time. What I like to do is save all of writs across my alts and do them all at once, kind of doing a "Master Writ Day". So I write down all the equipment writ requirements, go to each of the crafting stations, craft my weapons/armor, and then turn them into Rolis all at once. Saves time that way

Using LWC you can only do one writ at a time because it requires you to turn them in before it will do the next.

helediron · March 2017

I think LWC is good within the limits the game sets. There is always a pile of two voucher alchemy and enchant writs to grind. Because of them we need to jump back to Rolis multiple times anyway so the gear writs get done along first rounds of consumable writs. I prefer LCW because of it's accuracy. Only time i make a gear manually before starting the writ quest is if i have multiple writs to IC.

I bought Snugpod to my mule account and put consumable crafting stations in. I start the master writ quests and head out to set stations. After the gear writs are done i teleport into Snugpod, make consumable writs, step out to Rolis and finish one round. If there is a big pile of consumables left i burn them away in Mournhold where alchemy and enchant stations are close to Rolis without any loading screens.

After LWC got bugs out it surely has saved some golden whoopsie-doopsies. I sometimes end up to wrong station. For some strange reason i always mix up Lamae with Alessia. Earlier i just made the wrong item. Now LCW refuses to work, giving me a second chance to look at the writ - whoops! With LWC i use Potion Maker for alchemy writs. It can make most of the potions.

Back to OP, i no longer worry about which character has vouchers. I have bought all skeletons, stations and Ebon motif. I spend now vouchers to purple plans and they cost ten each. There is only up to nine vouchers locked in.

The automatic writ quest start is really stupid and should be replaced with on-screen notification. But on PC the No Thank You addon can shut it down.