@zos: please figure out text search for guild traders

Lynx7386 · February 2018

Try to understand what a problem this is. I've spent the past week searching guild traders far and wide for a trinimac shield motif page. Each trader tends to have a minimum of 6 or 7 pages of motifs, most of which have similar names and all of which are purple.

Scrolling through those damn pages for hours on end gives me a migraine, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this issue.

Your guild trader system has sucked from the get go, but not even having a simple text search makes trying to find specific items a convoluted mess and am exercise in futility.

Please get with the times. Simple options like this are what can make or break a game for a lot of people .

Twenty0zTsunami · February 2018

Agreed. AGS is a nice bandaid but after using text filters a couple times, it gets jacked up and I have to waste time reloading, often times have to reload 3 or 4 times before I've been able to scan all the merchants in a zone.

And frankly we shouldn't have to resort to addons for such a simple thing as an intuitive, fluid interface.

Lynx7386 · February 2018

Not to mention console players can't rely on add-ons to cover the developers' shortcomings

Apache_Kid · February 2018

When you think about how long this game has been out its absolutely mind-blowing that the guild-store UI is so pathetic.

LordGavus · February 2018

I still don't understand why this was missing from the UI from the start.

Narvuntien · February 2018

I don't know why they haven't just hired the Awesome Guildstore guy to do it for them or pay them for their code and use it.

They have finally started improving parts of their UI in recent patches so perhaps its coming..... slowly.

JitchDaddy · August 2018

This thread isn't getting nearly enough attention. This is a huge issue for a lot of people. Trading guilds alone make up a massive amount of the eso population.

Additionally, console seems to get the short end of the stick with add ons. Why does Skyrim allow add ons for console but not ESO? I'm tired of console being an afterthought.

jaws343 · August 2018

Agreed. I just want to be able to search a trader by set piece. Instead of scrolling through 15 pages of trash gear to find the one chest piece I need for the 1 set I am looking for.

Vanthras79 · August 2018

@ZOS_GinaBruno who is the dev I need to tag to let know that well all really want this?

P.S. The reason I ask is I made 2-3 similar threads in the past, and assumed it was @ZOS_BobbyWeir

(Do King of the Hill jokes work well in kidding Bobby?)

Dottzgaming · August 2018

God id love to have this. AGS is great an all, but like Tsunami said, it's a bandaid. It's glitchy, hangs up my UI, doesnt work sometimes, but unfortunately it's all we have

If the base UI got a text based search id drop the addon instantly.

fatback1974 · August 2018

I'm fairly certain that an easy search option would crash the economy. I would always search before I listed an item. Then I would undercut the lowest price to move my item. This would most likely snowball very quickly. So as much as I would love it, probably shouldn't hapen. Now if you limited the search to only the trader you are currently visiting, that would probably mitigate some of that problem.

LiquidPony · August 2018

fatback1974 wrote: »

I'm fairly certain that an easy search option would crash the economy. I would always search before I listed an item. Then I would undercut the lowest price to move my item. This would most likely snowball very quickly. So as much as I would love it, probably shouldn't hapen. Now if you limited the search to only the trader you are currently visiting, that would probably mitigate some of that problem.

I believe OP is asking for a text search limited to the trader you're currently visiting, at least based on the motif search pain point (which I am very familiar with).

Can't tell you how many times I had a master writ that I eventually just gave up on and sold because I couldn't find the motif in a trader.

Sergykid · August 2018

they wouldn't even say why they don't do it.

General_Zeranth · August 2018

As a person always searching guild traders for that last motif page that I need when I am sick to death from farming, please god yes!

Even just a small drop down menu under the motif section that adds like what page piece you are searching for like shoulders, swords, shields. Something is better than nothing!

Franieck · August 2018

100% agreed

ZeroXFF · August 2018

AGS isn't really a solution either. You still have to click through multiple pages of stuff, it's just empty pages...

So yeah, search function would be a massive upgrade.

And a universal AH would be an even bigger one, but it seems to trigger people on the forums who like to defend market inefficiency.

goldenflameslinger · August 2018

I mostly agree. I need like 12 pages left of random motifs for 100% completion and it is a total pain to go look for them. The completionist in me really wants to do it, but I hate wasting my gaming time looking in 50+ traders for a needle in a haystack.

It also pisses me off when I want something and I do not know which category to search under....is it a trophy? consumable? Half the time I just give up looking and move on with life.

I think the fact that add-ons exist for half the population (PC/Mac), gives Zeni a great reason not to waste their time on such QOL efforts. It's a crutch for them. Why create QOL improvements when they can spend their time making content to sell? We get a few QOL changes sprinkled in with the big updates, just enough to quell the uprising. The only people really missing out are console players and, sadly, we are used to being slighted.

However, I do kinda worry that a trader search for console would change the market too much. Right now, everyone has the ability to get lucky and find a good deal. If a search were available, I think the ESO rich would get richer, buying up all the good deals and therefore jacking up overall prices. It would level off eventually, but I think we would be headed for major inflation.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for making a buck and I am not hating on the ESO elite. I just think that if we make trading mega easy, we would lose a little bit of nostalgia like when we used to find some noob listing wax for $100. That stuff would be bought up instantly by some bot or mega trader within 5 seconds if there were a search function. Good deals would probably be a thing of the past with all those educated and informed buyers and sellers!

Shardaxx · August 2018

Yes please, or a style dropdown, or filter known/unknown, or just anything to filter long lists like motifs.

TheUndeadAmulet · August 2018

Just add a god damm text search in guikd trader. No reason why it Shouldn't exist. Going through 10 pages of prple motif chapters for each guild trader is ridiculous.

JitchDaddy · September 2018

In response to the "it will change the market" guys...

I highly disagree. This request is to simply make it easier to find the item you are looking for in each individual trader. We're not asking for a Tamriel-wide search, and knowing a little bit about programming and coding, we aren't even asking for something that's difficult to do. The market would feel very little impact from people spending less time scrolling through trash.

To suggest that changing search times from 20 minutes to maybe a minute would impact the trader market is a ridiculous notion. This isn't a complicated thing we're asking for, it is simply a small function added with minimal effort to improve gameplay for a massive portion of ESO players.

lygerseye · September 2018

Imagine walking into a store or shop and the sales person NOT helping you find it.

“Hi. Do you have any Bouyant Armiger pages in stock?

“...” <blink><blink>

“Um... Ok, then... I’ll just look through the seemingly endless stack of completely unorganized stuff. Oh, look... It’s stored by price. How... Convenient?”

JitchDaddy · September 2018

lygerseye wrote: »

Imagine walking into a store or shop and the sales person NOT helping you find it.

“Hi. Do you have any Bouyant Armiger pages in stock?

“...” <blink><blink>

“Um... Ok, then... I’ll just look through the seemingly endless stack of completely unorganized stuff. Oh, look... It’s stored by price. How... Convenient?”

EMPLOYEE: "Well sir, if every store helped you find what you were looking for it would severely impact the economy."

Linaleah · September 2018

fatback1974 wrote: »

I'm fairly certain that an easy search option would crash the economy. I would always search before I listed an item. Then I would undercut the lowest price to move my item. This would most likely snowball very quickly. So as much as I would love it, probably shouldn't hapen. Now if you limited the search to only the trader you are currently visiting, that would probably mitigate some of that problem.

given that something like that is very much possible AND being done on PC right now and yet economy has yet to crash? that is a strawman of the highest order.

proper in game search function for guild stores is an absolute MUST.

blunned · September 2018

It terrifies me that there is so much hype around being able to sort your characters at the log-in screen. If only one quality of life fix trickles in every single patch we are absolutely screwed. I am on console and am starting to think more and more about switching back to Destiny 2. I don’t even enjoy exploring Tamriel anymore because I dread having to stop and open a full screen map anytime I want to actually take a turn or a different path. I have started just using my PvE build for PvP because I can’t stomach spending the at least 30 minutes it would take to switch to pvp gear, skills, cp, etc. I refuse to buy or even look for anything uncommonly sold from a guild trader because I know I will have to spend an endless amount of time paging through page after page after page after page to find what I want. These could (and already are on PC) fixed by adding a mini-map, a build switcher (akin to the outfit station), and a search bar for each specific guild trader respectively.

ZoS could definitely learn a thing or two from how well Bungie has handled discontent with their game. It’s amazing how far a simple “we hear you, these things are definitely a problem, we are here to try and fix those problems and produce the game you pay regularly for and deserve.” Even a “we agree these are problems, here are the reasons why we can’t or won’t fix them,” is much better than the deafening silence we currently get. I know time and resources are scarce and I don’t know how big of a company ZoS is, but the crown store sure seems to have a lot of time, effort, and energy put into it. On PC, the game’s glaring shortcomings and baffling UI decisions can be fixed with add-ons. On console, the only way to avoid these problems (there are many more than I listed - ie lack of useful and customizable buff/dot trackers, etc.) is to not play. Console players aren’t going to spend money in your highly polished, resource draining crown store if they have stopped playing.

f047ys3v3n · September 2018

It is amazing how limited the UI in the game is in general. ZOS relies heavily on add ons despite their primarily console player base. They also constantly unnecessarily mess with back end stuff that breaks the add on stuff they rely on. Ever since they did the whole new, deconstructable, old not deconstructable jewelry thing my inventory insight has been throwing UI errors on all the old stuff. What a pain in the ass, and worse, ZOS went a long way out of it's way to do this just to be *** and keep us from deconstructing a few pieces of old, gold, jewelry. Now I will forever get UI errors on all the old jewelry that I still use. Thanks ZOS.

lagrue · September 2018

TheUndeadAmulet wrote: »

Just add a god damm text search in guikd trader. No reason why it Shouldn't exist. Going through 10 pages of prple motif chapters for each guild trader is ridiculous.

Anytime I need to do a Master Writ I don't have motif for, this is the hell I go through.

Even better is you can go through like 20 traders and not find what you need. Having to go through every page looking for "Use to Add to your Lore Library" - it takes way too long and hurts they eyes to try to process them all by name unless you go snail speed.

Also don't know if it exist on other systems, but when going through the pages I often get stuck perma-loading the guild's stock, and then the bug spreads to every trader and I'm forced to relog which is like 5 minutes of loading screens just to get back to suffering through page after page.

damn I hate the current state of traders.

Revelzdevelz · September 2018

The guild store functionality is laughable. Even the 90s MMOs did better.

Neyane · September 2018

Yeah I really don't get how they haven't improved it... It is so bad, plus it gives me bad headaches when I'm looking for something. Zos please make our lives a little easier!

jaschacasadiob16_ESO · September 2018

Full text search can be heavy on the database. They should be careful to avoid injection or undesired options, such as the asterisk. I am sure many of you experience quite often a search getting stuck for a minute or so.

A viable option would be being able to save predefined searches , so that you don't have to get through all the options over and over again. Another option, would be to filter out, if needed, recipes and motifs we already know.

SirAxen · September 2018

It would be nice, for sure. On the flip side, it DOES make finding the item you really really wanted all the more satisfying. I both love and hate the guild trader system all at once.

Wise_Will · September 2018

I agree with you OP, I'm sick of going through each guild trader for 1 motif page. It takes hours and hurts my eyes, please ZOS give us console peasants a search function.