How is the Antiquities System working for you in the early days?

FrancisCrawford · May 2020

I've been trying the Antiquities system, generally with the green lead supplied in various regions. So far:

Both minigames have gone fine. There may be some nuances I don't get -- are your digging efforts limited by time or by number of tries? -- but the level of confusion is acceptably low.
Some of the dig sites simply aren't there. I'm surest in Eastmarch, but I'm also pretty sure in Coldharbour and Reapers March. I've tried logging in and out. I've asked other people who seem to be doing fine. This is NOT just a problem of me looking in the wrong place(s). More precisely, they're not there for me; some other people seem to be doing fine (at least in the case of Eastmarch, and I think in Reaper's March as well).
I've had some other leads drop while I killed mobs or opened chest or whatever. I got a gold lead either from a generic mob or a Simple chest. I got a purple lead from a generic mob. Etc.

TheShadowScout · May 2020

Tried it today...

Minigames are fine, some learning curve is involved, but... you get the hang of it pretty quick I guess.

Dig sites... so far, I found every single one I scryed. Some did take a bit of looking tho, seems they like to be at some hidden corner of the blue area... but the sound helps, its much like "shhhh, there is a thieves cache nearby...", if you keep eyes and ears open... they are not too hard to spot. Not sure if maybe sometime I too will run into one "just not there", but... not yet, so far.

Leads... those are fun! Got a drop from a mob, and found one lying around... can#t use them yet due to being purple, but soon enough Imma gonna dig it!

I expect I will have a lot of fun with this, as long as I don't overdo it and do only short archeological expeditions now and then. I can see how the grindy nature of it can make some people go "Gah, not another dig site...", but... well, I like it that we have non-combat bits to play with too.

FrancisCrawford · May 2020

Upon review, some of the dig sites are outside the area indicated on the map. That's nothing new for this game, of course.

Linaleah · May 2020

use the eye to give you a direction to follow - the blue blob of light will have sparkles coming out of it, like a mini comet tail. that tail is the direction you should go in, to find the dig site. AND there are achievements associated with using the eye.
achievements that level your scrying skill line btw (I think it was scrying?)

Nori · May 2020

My map freezes everytime I use scry. Need to relog to be able to travel again. Other than that it works fine and is fun!

FrancisCrawford · May 2020

Linaleah wrote: »

use the eye to give you a direction to follow - the blue blob of light will have sparkles coming out of it, like a mini comet tail. that tail is the direction you should go in, to find the dig site. AND there are achievements associated with using the eye.
achievements that level your scrying skill line btw (I think it was scrying?)

Of course. I do wish the cooldown were less.

Linaleah · May 2020

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

use the eye to give you a direction to follow - the blue blob of light will have sparkles coming out of it, like a mini comet tail. that tail is the direction you should go in, to find the dig site. AND there are achievements associated with using the eye.
achievements that level your scrying skill line btw (I think it was scrying?)

Of course. I do wish the cooldown were less.

oh for sure. though it seems i was wrong about achievement. that's just for tracking still it helps a little, so..

FrancisCrawford · May 2020

OK. I think I've now learned:

There are multiple possible exact dig locations per "dig site" area.
Some of those are far outside the apparent scope of the area.

Taken together, those points seem to explain my inability to find certain digging mounds.

prof-dracko · May 2020

I've enjoyed it. At low levels at least the scrying can take a bit of thought to get all the nodes. The digging is pretty basic, I've yet to fail a dig but I'm only on level 2 there. I love some of the leads I've found so far. A few from random drops, but one was an interactable object in the overworld and one popped up when I saw "something" going on while I was exploring. i like the variety and the lore bits that come with it, however brief.

Eruceninde · May 2020

I simply cant find one in coldharbour. No idea if its just missing or I am not looking in the right place

FrancisCrawford · May 2020

Eruceninde wrote: »

I simply cant find one in coldharbour. No idea if its just missing or I am not looking in the right place

The first freebie is near the "Orchard" area, which is the one with bloodfiends, normally accessed by getting pretty far into the regional main quest. I struggled with finding the dig spot they assigned me, as it was outside the area indicated on the map and indeed outside the bloodfiend area as well.

On the plus side, although I've done the quest that makes them non-hostile to me, I aggroed a few by mistake, and got my first gold lead in the loot.

SydneyGrey · May 2020

I'm having fun with this. I've already gotten scrying/excav to level 4, but it's going soooooo slow now. Apparently the first three levels were the easiest, I guess.

I found a gold lead in Summerset (for an emote) due east from Cey-Tarn Keep, on a stream where a ghost was dancing. (South of Rellenthil.)

Also, the innkeeper in the Sisters of the Sands Inn in Sentinel is selling a lead for a map, and a dremora merchant at the entrance to Maelstrom Arena (Wrothgar) is also selling a map. You have to have the pathfinder achievements for those areas in order to buy them, though.

bluebird · May 2020

It's incredibly frustrating.

Drop rates for Leads are very low (even when I know where they come from - e.g. Furnishing lead from Treasure Chests in Auridon).

A ton of Lead locations are also unknown (some are confirmed to come from Thieves' Troves, Treasure Chests, Fishing, etc.) or just totally random (kill mobs? what?). So it's almost impossible to get the items you're looking for.

Low drop rates are one thing, but the location of leads should be known. Like you know that a dungeon item drops from certain bosses and has a low drop chance, that was you can work for it without feeling like it's a colossal waste of time while also not being sure that there is even a chance for your item to come from whatever you're doing.

SydneyGrey · May 2020

Every zone comes with one green-level lead already. How I got to level 4 already is that I went to every zone and did that one green-level excavation.
*Edit* LOL. I just learned that you can actually do that same initial green-level lead as many times as you want to, so technically you could stay in the same zone and do it over and over.

Ryath_Waylander · May 2020

Eruceninde wrote: »

I simply cant find one in coldharbour. No idea if its just missing or I am not looking in the right place

Well I hit a luck there. Was in Coldharbour for ten minutes before the server went down. Going through Public dungeon, Village of the Lost looking for the Impossible to find "Daedric Fence Section" recipe. A gold lead for a Void Crystal Anomaly dropped from a trash mob. Not even a boss. Surprising. Now I'll have to make work of levelling the skill to scry the darn thing. Ofc that is also dependent on whether or not I find the other 2 pieces. I wonder if any more will drop here or do I have to leave the public dungeon?

Ryath_Waylander · May 2020

bluebird wrote: »

It's incredibly frustrating.

Drop rates for Leads are very low (even when I know where they come from - e.g. Furnishing lead from Treasure Chests in Auridon).

A ton of Lead locations are also unknown (some are confirmed to come from Thieves' Troves, Treasure Chests, Fishing, etc.) or just totally random (kill mobs? what?). So it's almost impossible to get the items you're looking for.

Low drop rates are one thing, but the location of leads should be known. Like you know that a dungeon item drops from certain bosses and has a low drop chance, that was you can work for it without feeling like it's a colossal waste of time while also not being sure that there is even a chance for your item to come from whatever you're doing.

This website at least explained it a little better than others teso.mmorpg-life.com/antiquities-leads-locations-hidden-entry-relics/ but yes, this is one way to make people go back to old content.

FrancisCrawford · May 2020

I'm having a little trouble telling the different qualities/levels of dirt apart.

Also, I don't see where there excavation timer is.

And I'm doing all my excavation with mouse clicks because the keyboard shortcuts don't seem reliable.

Is there a good guide that helps with any of this?

Ryath_Waylander · May 2020

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

I'm having a little trouble telling the different qualities/levels of dirt apart.

Also, I don't see where there excavation timer is.

And I'm doing all my excavation with mouse clicks because the keyboard shortcuts don't seem reliable.

Is there a good guide that helps with any of this?

Here is a written guide https://attackofthefanboy.com/guides/the-elder-scrolls-online-excavation-basics-guide-how-to-excavate-antiquities/ It lacks pictures of the various layers though.

The excavation "Timer" is a greyish bar at the top of the screen. It's not really a timer per se. As you use up your turns, it gets smaller shows less and less hh:mm:ss. I would assume, with more passives, it shrinks slower. Good point about the difference in dirt layers. I will make the effort to post screenshots of different layer samples i.e. 1-7 etc as soon as I can login again. So far I can scry purple and it looks like about 5 layers so far. Oh yes, I use mouse clicks too.

Daemons_Bane · May 2020

Working fine so far.. The only that's really going to annoy me, is that if you get an orange lead early on, you apparently only have 30 days to get it solved.. So now it feels rushed instead of relaxed

Skauron · May 2020

My experience of it so far has been that I find it fun to do as a side activity to the main game and i can see my Fiancéé playing many hours searching for these antiquities too.

I stumbled onto the initial quest shortly after trying out the new zone with yet another new alt, but found the initial quest area to be overloaded with other players, so was glad when I got out into the main map and then proceeded with completing the green level antiquity in Western Skyrim. Easy mode one yes, but it was still fun.

Checked the levelling skill tree for Scrying and excavation and noted that not all the skills require skill points, but do wonder if the skill point spend is just for the initial unlock or whether you have to spend a skill point per level in 'that'. Ok this is fine, but likely will land me with running around collecting more Skyshards or completing skillpoint offering quest lines to dock these in. I don't mind that though.

I liked the Scrying mini game and also the excavation one but my only concern will be if they mess up spawn points for mobs and you end up in combat mid excavation.. i hope that doesn't happen.

Overall, I've only really touched the surface of this if i'm honest, but so far at least, i've really liked what i've seen.

mague · May 2020

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

OK. I think I've now learned:
There are multiple possible exact dig locations per "dig site" area.

Some of those are far outside the apparent scope of the area.

Taken together, those points seem to explain my inability to find certain digging mounds.

Not sure if 2 points in skill are required, but dig sites make a sound. Similar to Nirnroot. It helps a lot in weird places like Grathwood where you easily miss a site behind a tree..

Lintashi · May 2020

I'm having fun. I do it as addition to my questing and pve activities. I go into zone, scry, then go survey, quest ( if unfinished nearby) and on the way, I dig antiquity. Sometimes I farm mats and chests, and try to do some antiquity too. I do only green and blue ones. Will do the rest after I get all skillpoints, and after issues from pts will be fixed ( legendary and mythical items sometimes cannot be dug out).

kind_hero · May 2020

My problem with this system is finding the dig site. Yesterday I spent like 30 minutes trying to find it in Glenumbra, in the area with harpies and traps, which is almost a maze of rocks and ledges. I had a perk to see the dig sites from further away. The indicated area should be smaller. I am not asking for an arrow mark over it, but it could be smaller, so we don't spend so much time looking for it. The big issue is with the areas who have all sorts of rocky ledges, like Coldharbour, Grahtwood, Malabal Tor, etc, you need to go around a lot.

I am interested in the furnishings you can get from this, other than that the system is too grindy for my taste (and I play mmos for 15 years)

Jaimeh · May 2020

The mini games worked fine; for scrying I would have prefered it if it wasn't accompanied by bright flashes every time it opens and closes (they are too bright and intrusive, even with gamma levels adjusted low), and if the foci where more prominent in the pattern. The only issue I had was with the eye not working in some dig sites, saying 'you can only use this in an active dig site', when in fact I was in an active dig site. Others have reported this too. For me it only happened when there were more than one dig sites, and I went to one of them, it never happened when the dig site was the only candidate.

In terms of general feedback for the system, I think it's fun to have something new to break the routine, and in cases where someone doesn't want to level it fast, it will be an interesting, additional activity to do, and break the routine. Now, if someone wants to level it as soon as possible, then it will get really repetitive really fast, as it's super grindy. Furthemore, it would be better if scrying and excavation were condensed in a single skill line, and didn't require so many skill points. I also don't like the correspondence so far; comparing it with the Psijic order line, the Augur's dialogues were so much better, though I get that Antiquarians are academics and it's not the same thing, but I still think the correspondence could be more humorous (I guess it might it later levels, when you're more aquainted with the NPCs?). Finally, the whole process, at least in my view, seems kind of strange to the overall sense of the game, it's great that we have the Antiquarian circle for the lore aspect, but the mini games are like a sore thumb.

Ryath_Waylander · May 2020

kind_hero wrote: »

My problem with this system is finding the dig site. Yesterday I spent like 30 minutes trying to find it in Glenumbra, in the area with harpies and traps, which is almost a maze of rocks and ledges. I had a perk to see the dig sites from further away. The indicated area should be smaller. I am not asking for an arrow mark over it, but it could be smaller, so we don't spend so much time looking for it. The big issue is with the areas who have all sorts of rocky ledges, like Coldharbour, Grahtwood, Malabal Tor, etc, you need to go around a lot.

I am interested in the furnishings you can get from this, other than that the system is too grindy for my taste (and I play mmos for 15 years)

Do yourself a favour, while levelling, from 1 to 5 (up to purple items) use Gold coast. Smaller areas are easy to manage and you begin to remember the digsite locations.

Ryath_Waylander · May 2020

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

I'm having a little trouble telling the different qualities/levels of dirt apart.

Also, I don't see where there excavation timer is.

And I'm doing all my excavation with mouse clicks because the keyboard shortcuts don't seem reliable.

Is there a good guide that helps with any of this?

Ugh, the print screen detail is poor. Have a look at about 8:00 of this video. https://youtube.com/watch?v=RWP4yB2qp4E The layers I've found so far:
Base layer (Treasure) - Plain very dark brown
Layer 1 - Dark brown with small fragments (one layer above treasure, only use shovel or paintbrush, trowel will damage it)
Layer 2 - Dark brown with bigger fragments (two layers above treasure, only use shovel or paintbrush, trowel will damage it)
Layer 3 - Big grey stones Dark brown in gaps (3 layers above treasure, can safely use trowel without damaging treasure)
Layer 4 - Light brown with small fragments.

This is for blue level scrying. I need to find another purple lead to find the next layer.

preevious · May 2020

We should be able to sell leads. That would makes the system (I love it, by the way!) less grindy, and will allow the lucky player to make a bit of gold.

Bucky_13 · May 2020

Ryath_Waylander wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

My problem with this system is finding the dig site. Yesterday I spent like 30 minutes trying to find it in Glenumbra, in the area with harpies and traps, which is almost a maze of rocks and ledges. I had a perk to see the dig sites from further away. The indicated area should be smaller. I am not asking for an arrow mark over it, but it could be smaller, so we don't spend so much time looking for it. The big issue is with the areas who have all sorts of rocky ledges, like Coldharbour, Grahtwood, Malabal Tor, etc, you need to go around a lot.

I am interested in the furnishings you can get from this, other than that the system is too grindy for my taste (and I play mmos for 15 years)

Do yourself a favour, while levelling, from 1 to 5 (up to purple items) use Gold coast. Smaller areas are easy to manage and you begin to remember the digsite locations.

That one is good. Arteum seems to be the best one though as it's the smallest one. Yesterday, I saw more players there than I ever saw during Summerset. It goes very fast there.

preevious · May 2020

Ryath_Waylander wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

My problem with this system is finding the dig site. Yesterday I spent like 30 minutes trying to find it in Glenumbra, in the area with harpies and traps, which is almost a maze of rocks and ledges. I had a perk to see the dig sites from further away. The indicated area should be smaller. I am not asking for an arrow mark over it, but it could be smaller, so we don't spend so much time looking for it. The big issue is with the areas who have all sorts of rocky ledges, like Coldharbour, Grahtwood, Malabal Tor, etc, you need to go around a lot.

I am interested in the furnishings you can get from this, other than that the system is too grindy for my taste (and I play mmos for 15 years)

Do yourself a favour, while levelling, from 1 to 5 (up to purple items) use Gold coast. Smaller areas are easy to manage and you begin to remember the digsite locations.

Bal foyen, kenarthi's roost and stross m'kai are also nice choices.

Edit : also, the small nord isle, don't know it's english name.

Recent · May 2020

Shimmer has an amazing antiquities guide that covers everything. Her guides are phenomenal.
😊❤I'm very grateful to this lady, she saved me hours of grief and frustration. By using her guide i got off to a great start.

FrancisCrawford · May 2020

Jaimeh wrote: »

The only issue I had was with the eye not working in some dig sites, saying 'you can only use this in an active dig site', when in fact I was in an active dig site. Others have reported this too. For me it only happened when there were more than one dig sites, and I went to one of them, it never happened when the dig site was the only candidate.

I always rescry until I'm down to a single dig site, and I had that problem a couple of times today.