Ancient Sandstone - lack of new sources

Arunei · March 2022

BroughBreaux wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

BroughBreaux wrote: »

because there's a surplus of them. Craglorn has been in the game since 2014. There's hundreds of thousands of them sitting idle in craft bags, and getting new ones isn't that difficult. You get one guaranteed from the chest in Skyreach, and you also get a few set pieces each time you run it as well, which is about 3 ancient sandstone on average for a 4 minute walkaround farming exp. If you, for whatever reason, can't run skyreach, try harder. Anyone can do it and I can do the entire exp loop, enter load screen to exit load screen, in 4 minutes flat. I've got 400 ancient sandstone listed in stacks of 25 on my guild trader in Shimmerene.

If you can run Skyreach, that's great for you, but this mindset of "I can do it so anyone else should be able to" really needs to be done away with. What you can do and what you're capable of farming is NOT the baseline for what everyone else in the game can do.

I can also guarantee a lot of people, even those who are capable of farming there, can't do it in only four minutes. I've run numerous friends through there as they level characters and it's never been that fast, especially considering the several waves of enemies that spawn when you interact with the chest. That alone takes several minutes just because no matter how fast you kill the mobs, you still have to wait several seconds for each wave to fully spawn in.

"I can do it so everyone else should be able to" is not what I was saying. I was saying anyone can do it (factually true) and then gave examples of my speed, which I am aware is much faster than most people can run it, which is why I put my speed in my "wts" advertisement when selling runs in crag, because it justifies my rate of 10k per run.

I shouldn't reveal trade secrets because it's my main business, but all you need is a Ring of the Pale Order, Plaguebreak, and a direct damage AOE. I do the chest start to finish in 1 minute and 20 seconds average and I also pull and kill the Cursed Orator and his purple ghosts you sneak past to get to the chest, while doing the chest.

Proof video + build link in description: https://youtu.be/DVD3kI5Q1Dg

So as long as you have greymoor and can buy set pieces of plaguebreak on guild traders, then you can do skyreach xp runs. I've soloed skyreach at level 8 (with CP slotted). It took a while longer obviously, but I did it.

But anyway, sandstone is guaranteed as a drop from the chest and you get multiple Ra Gada style set pieces each run usually and can decon and usually get another sandstone. The Green CP tree has a star which increases odds for extracting mats from decon, plus there's skill tree passives for each of the professions, so it's rare if you don't get the style mat from a decon.

It's also worth noting that the price per sandstone has dropped like 2k in less than a week after it shot up when the patch went live. There's like 15 pages of them on TTC PC NA all sub-2k gold each, so I'd expect that to keep dropping lower as more people list the stacks they have in their craft bags trying to undercut the average price for quick sales.

I'm sorry, but it is not factually true that everyone can do Skyreach. That can be disproven quite easily by the fact that people need others to run them through Skyreach to begin with. Also people like @Sylvermynx can tell you that they have limitations, whatever they may be, that could prevent them from being able to do it. It's true that it's easier if you have more people farming with you, but it's not true that everyone can farm it by themselves.

Your build is also limited to people who, like you said, have Greymoor. It also requires grinding out a Mythic item, which most casual players won't care about doing in the slightest. Also new players that don't have any CP are going to likely have more issues than people who have a large number of them.

All that on top of the fact that a single specific spot should not be the only place to drop any crafting mat used in furniture plans, especially ones needed in such amounts as the Fargrave ones. It doesn't even make sense for these plans to require this mat, because Fargrave is in Oblivion, and why would Deadra use mortal materials?

As far as prices go, those stores will dry up quick with the number of Ancient Sandstone it takes to make just a handful of structure pieces. Once that initial rush of mats has been sold, the prices will likely start climbing. I would suggest stocking up while you can, to people who can find and afford the cheaper stacks.

kringled_1 · March 2022

I did some browsing at guild traders this morning and found Syvarra's scales boots for sale in both Thieves guild and Ra Gada style. Based on some very old threads I found from searches, I think the Ra Gada drops are probably from heist coffers. Technically farmable but not efficient for the furnishing needs described here.

Arunei · March 2022

kringled_1 wrote: »

I did some browsing at guild traders this morning and found Syvarra's scales boots for sale in both Thieves guild and Ra Gada style. Based on some very old threads I found from searches, I think the Ra Gada drops are probably from heist coffers. Technically farmable but not efficient for the furnishing needs described here.

How much were the Ra Gada Boots? It *may* be more cost efficient for people with crafters and Meticulous Disassembly to buy Ra Gada gear and decon it for Ancient Sandstone.

kringled_1 · March 2022

Arunei wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

I did some browsing at guild traders this morning and found Syvarra's scales boots for sale in both Thieves guild and Ra Gada style. Based on some very old threads I found from searches, I think the Ra Gada drops are probably from heist coffers. Technically farmable but not efficient for the furnishing needs described here.

How much were the Ra Gada Boots? It *may* be more cost efficient for people with crafters and Meticulous Disassembly to buy Ra Gada gear and decon it for Ancient Sandstone.

4k was the one I found, which is a perfectly reasonable cost for gear you're planning on using, but not viable as a source for style mats.

Arunei · March 2022

kringled_1 wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

I did some browsing at guild traders this morning and found Syvarra's scales boots for sale in both Thieves guild and Ra Gada style. Based on some very old threads I found from searches, I think the Ra Gada drops are probably from heist coffers. Technically farmable but not efficient for the furnishing needs described here.

How much were the Ra Gada Boots? It *may* be more cost efficient for people with crafters and Meticulous Disassembly to buy Ra Gada gear and decon it for Ancient Sandstone.

4k was the one I found, which is a perfectly reasonable cost for gear you're planning on using, but not viable as a source for style mats.

Oof yeah, that's close to double the price of a single Ancient Sandstone for the chance to get one.

Marcusorion1 · March 2022

BroughBreaux wrote:

"There's like 15 pages of them on TTC PC NA all sub-2k gold each, so I'd expect that to keep dropping lower"

Sorry just fact checked this and ..nope. Currently 60 pages of sales in the last 19 hours and there are some up at 1999 and 1986 ( maybe 200-300 stones total ) All the rest are above 2K and climbing as players flip the stuff / sell off their stockpiles.

Players can go check for themselves at the Guild Traders near them, prices are higher, and climbing as expected given supply /demand. Will they drop? Sure eventually as we see for many materials - but the problem remains the same : we need a better source and less demand per furnishing item.

To keep it all transparent I'll post and update the TTC data from each morning.

Mar 27 - avg : 2,273 listings: 1,426 items : 71,881

freespirit · March 2022

I am currently doing a build using the Fargrave furnishings and trust me those sandstones disappear very, very quickly.

I've never really farmed anyrhing in Craglorn but over the years I have done a lot of Craglorn trials, when I checked my craft bag on beginning the build I had a grand total of 194 of them!

They have been used and I have brought several more stacks. I totally agree with the OP, there needs to be a better source or the numbers needed, needs to be dropped.

@ZoS you sell us exceedingly expensive rl money houses BUT then you make it harder and harder for us to craft furniture to put in them! Ofc these lovely new furnishings are also available in the in house Crown Store, some of us just cannot afford to go that route.

I can sort of accept that standard furnishing mats are a bit rarer than normal mats but this habit of making items use large amounts of often even more obscure mats has got to be changed! 😕

Vylaera · March 2022

Arunei wrote: »

I'm sorry, but it is not factually true that everyone can do Skyreach.

If someone has an impairment then that sucks, but I am not being elitist or being hyperbolic when I say anyone can do it. Anyone can do it. If you can't, it's a skill issue. People started doing blackrose carries because "it gives more exp", but the real reason is that skyreach has become so mindnumbingly easy in recent updates, and some people have the mindset that they want to do things that are exclusive and feel good about themselves that they're doing something the "little people" can't, and so a lot of people switched to BRP. The actual exp difference is negligible. I've done both.

Arunei wrote: »

It also requires grinding out a Mythic item, which most casual players won't care about doing in the slightest.

Casuals probably aren't doing housing either so I'm not sure what this is even trying to say.

Arunei wrote: »

Also new players that don't have any CP are going to likely have more issues than people who have a large number of them.

You can do it without CP easy. The actual affect CP has is not what people think. You get more damage, sure, but you can do vet dlc dungeons without CP. It's not a requirement for anything except endgame. And skyreach is not endgame.

Kiralyn2000 · March 2022

That doesn't change the fact that grinding a few limited locations, for a small number of drops, for something you need hundreds of, isn't a reasonable solution.
(heck, it would barely be reasonable even if they dropped the amount needed to 2 per craft. But it's crazy at 6-16)

I don't trial or "farm XP". I did Crag questing back in the day, on my first character - a stealth archer Stamblade (yes, the "I came here from Skyrim!" build). So as soon as I hit the "you need a group to do this" wall, I left and never went back. Been back periodically to do a survey or some dailies for an event. So, yeah - the 33 sandstone I have likely came as random drops from Anniversary boxes. I really enjoy decorating houses, though - it's not something that needs groups, dungeons/trials, or DPS checks.

Rutger74 · March 2022

1.2K here, might have run a lot of Craglorns

Rutger74 · March 2022

Rutger74 wrote: »

1.2K here, might have run a lot of Craglorns

Ohhhh and i am a hoarder LOL

Arunei · March 2022

BroughBreaux wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

I'm sorry, but it is not factually true that everyone can do Skyreach.

If someone has an impairment then that sucks, but I am not being elitist or being hyperbolic when I say anyone can do it. Anyone can do it. If you can't, it's a skill issue. People started doing blackrose carries because "it gives more exp", but the real reason is that skyreach has become so mindnumbingly easy in recent updates, and some people have the mindset that they want to do things that are exclusive and feel good about themselves that they're doing something the "little people" can't, and so a lot of people switched to BRP. The actual exp difference is negligible. I've done both.

Arunei wrote: »

It also requires grinding out a Mythic item, which most casual players won't care about doing in the slightest.

Casuals probably aren't doing housing either so I'm not sure what this is even trying to say.

Arunei wrote: »

Also new players that don't have any CP are going to likely have more issues than people who have a large number of them.

You can do it without CP easy. The actual affect CP has is not what people think. You get more damage, sure, but you can do vet dlc dungeons without CP. It's not a requirement for anything except endgame. And skyreach is not endgame.

You completely (and conveniently) overlooked the whole point disproving that "everyone can do Skyreach" and if they can't it's a skill issue; the fact that so many people are still looking for carry runs. You yourself even turned around and admitted if someone can't do it then it's a skill issue. How can something be that easy and yet there be skill issues? It's because the simple fact is it's easy for YOU. You cannot claim that everyone else can do it when things like physical impairments, lag and high ping, and inexperience with the game are all reasons people can't. You cannot speak for every single person that plays this game, and trying to do so does come across as elitist. You're trying to say everyone should be held to some standard simply because it's something you can do.

As for your point about casuals not doing Housing stuff, you're wrong about that as well. A lot of people do overland, delves, or farm mats for gold, and then use that for doing Housing stuff. I myself am a casual, I don't do end-game content, the hardest dungeons I do tend to be normal DLC ones. I mostly RP in ESO and still do a whole bunch of Housing stuff, as do a lot of RPers. So yes, causal players can and do do Housing. I'm not sure why you would think otherwise.

CP isn't just for DPS, it's for healing and tanking things too, which can help boost defenses. But the main reason I mentioned CP was because you did, when you mentioned Meticulous Disassembly to get more mats back. That CP itself takes fifty to unlock, as well as all the prerequisite CP you need to take to reach it in the first place. That's 85 you need to spend on the Green Tree, which means you need around 255 CP altogether to be able to get Meticulous unlocked since only 1/3 of the CP you get are for any given Tree. Also, I'm pretty sure Meticulous Disassembly is bugged and not giving back as many mats as it should be.

Ultimately, whether someone can or cannot do Skyreach shouldn't matter either way because this should not be the only place to get Ancient Sandstone. Regardless of how easy or hard any piece of content is, it should not be the only way to get materials that are needed in the numbers these ones are. There should be different ways to get these mats, such as increasing the amount you can get from chests as well as making them drop more often.

Nomadic_Atmoran · March 2022

Northwold wrote: »

I can't believe they've done this again, and with such high requirements. It looks geared to encouraging crown store use.

At this point there should be no confusion about their motives. There are two metrics they care about. Activity and Purchases. The more active a player the more likely they are to turn to the crown store to ease the pain points that are intentionally placed in the players way. It might not be as blatant as mobile games but it is there and its the driving theory behind what they do.

Vylaera · March 2022

Arunei wrote: »

You completely (and conveniently) overlooked the whole point disproving that "everyone can do Skyreach" and if they can't it's a skill issue; the fact that so many people are still looking for carry runs. You yourself even turned around and admitted if someone can't do it then it's a skill issue. How can something be that easy and yet there be skill issues?

It's the same thing as everyone being able to light attack weave. Light attack weaving is easy, and if you can't do it, it's a skill issue. It's not hard to do and any type of player can do it. It's a learned skill that anyone can learn. You don't have to have access to trial sets or even dungeon sets to do it. You can run the thing with trash tier crafted sets just fine (which a ton of people are willing to craft for you for free), and you don't need CP depending on your class (templar and sorcerer can do it without CP). If not, bare minimum required is the mag/stam resource restore star from the red tree and the 7% healing when doing damage star from the blue tree. I've soloed SR on a below-level-50 nightblade before.

People looking for carries are people leveling alts and are paying for speed and 0 effort. I outright refuse to sell/give carries to new players because they need to level 1-50 by their own merit and learn how the game works rather than being handed level 50 and CP fresh off the boat. I always direct them to their faction city and tell them to talk to the hooded figure. I explain the game is very complex and nothing like the single player ES games and there's a lot to learn. The base game teaches you things at a gradual and comfortable pace, etc.

Also, if casuals are doing overland stuff and farming then what's stopping them from getting Pale Order? All the leads come from overland sources and none of them are quest locked. The hardest one is the Wrothgar World Boss drop, but there's always a few dozen people there doing them so you get carried for free. And leveling scrying and excavation requires only time and patience.

kalimar44 · March 2022

I will admit I'm a hoarder, I have over 2k of the stone atm.😁

Kiralyn2000 · March 2022

kalimar44 wrote: »

I will admit I'm a hoarder, I have over 2k of the stone atm.😁

The only style mat I have anything like that amount of is Molybdenum, because I restock to a couple thousand, from the NPC vendor, whenever there's a free ESO+ week. Since they're the first style in the crafting list, it's what I craft all my writs in.

Everything else is a few hundred or less.

Arunei · March 2022

BroughBreaux wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

You completely (and conveniently) overlooked the whole point disproving that "everyone can do Skyreach" and if they can't it's a skill issue; the fact that so many people are still looking for carry runs. You yourself even turned around and admitted if someone can't do it then it's a skill issue. How can something be that easy and yet there be skill issues?

It's the same thing as everyone being able to light attack weave. Light attack weaving is easy, and if you can't do it, it's a skill issue. It's not hard to do and any type of player can do it. It's a learned skill that anyone can learn. You don't have to have access to trial sets or even dungeon sets to do it. You can run the thing with trash tier crafted sets just fine (which a ton of people are willing to craft for you for free), and you don't need CP depending on your class (templar and sorcerer can do it without CP). If not, bare minimum required is the mag/stam resource restore star from the red tree and the 7% healing when doing damage star from the blue tree. I've soloed SR on a below-level-50 nightblade before.

People looking for carries are people leveling alts and are paying for speed and 0 effort. I outright refuse to sell/give carries to new players because they need to level 1-50 by their own merit and learn how the game works rather than being handed level 50 and CP fresh off the boat. I always direct them to their faction city and tell them to talk to the hooded figure. I explain the game is very complex and nothing like the single player ES games and there's a lot to learn. The base game teaches you things at a gradual and comfortable pace, etc.

Also, if casuals are doing overland stuff and farming then what's stopping them from getting Pale Order? All the leads come from overland sources and none of them are quest locked. The hardest one is the Wrothgar World Boss drop, but there's always a few dozen people there doing them so you get carried for free. And leveling scrying and excavation requires only time and patience.

All right friend, whatever you say. You're clearly not willing to accept that not everyone plays the game at the same level as you think they should. But I will say if Skyreach is as easy and fast as you want to say, no one should be needing to ask for carries because according to you it takes 0 effort and only a handful of minutes to begin with.

Farming and doing other casual stuff also doesn't mean people feel like spending potentially weeks farming specific parts of the game, like that WB. Some people don't feel like sitting there waiting for the boss to spawn, instead preferring to spend the time doing other more productive things. Or maybe they don't like doing WBs for whatever reason. You can't act like people aren't playing the game right just because they won't take part in X activity if they're doing Y. There's a difference between farming mats or questing and grinding for leads. Remember the nonsense for that one Lead for the Kilt, the Bead one? And how people were camping water plant nodes until ZOS added the Lead to all alchemy plants? Just because something is part of overland doesn't make it something people want to spend their time doing.

I'll say it one more time; being able to farm Skyreach or not doesn't matter. Even if everyone in the game COULD farm here, it shouldn't be the answer to this problem. A single place shouldn't be the only way to reliably get mats to drop, considering the numbers they're needed in. Since this topic is about that, the low drop rate compared to how many are needed, I'm not going to reply back on the matter of who can and can't farm Skyreach any more.

Arunei · March 2022

kalimar44 wrote: »

I will admit I'm a hoarder, I have over 2k of the stone atm.😁

I'm a hoarder too, since I do a whole slew of crafting, but I checked and I only have about 430 or so. I've been playing since launch, too. I feel inadequate now haha.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · March 2022

With this high cost in style material for furniture they are doing lately they should just add the damn things to style material merchants along with the base game ones.

Because many who do housing is having enough with this utter -censored-. It's all increase in gold cost, increase in material cost, increase in ridiculous rare style material cost. Lower and lower drop rates on blueprints and harder to obtain leads for antiquities furniture. It's not fun doing housing any more. Many of us can't do housing any more because we are out of material and gold and we don't want to do endless farming for the 7935th time.

Arunei · March 2022

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

With this high cost in style material for furniture they are doing lately they should just add the damn things to style material merchants along with the base game ones.

Because many who do housing is having enough with this utter -censored-. It's all increase in gold cost, increase in material cost, increase in ridiculous rare style material cost. Lower and lower drop rates on blueprints and harder to obtain leads for antiquities furniture. It's not fun doing housing any more. Many of us can't do housing any more because we are out of material and gold and we don't want to do endless farming for the 7935th time.

I feel this so hard, especially for Heartwood and Mundane Runes. It would be really nice if they would add a lot of the Style mats to the equipment vendors, and added something similar to the Alchemy satchels you can get in IC that contains Housing mats instead. Please, it would give me something to spend my TV on. I would suffer IC if doing so would make Housing easier.

Wolf_Eye · March 2022

Honestly, it is indeed concerning that the number of style mats needed for these new pieces are exponentially higher than previous furnishing pieces in the past. If this is going to be the trend going forward, then it's a very worrying trend...They might end up accidentally encouraging people to simply use older furnishing styles instead of the newest and latest anymore.

Vylaera · March 2022

Marcusorion1 wrote: »

BroughBreaux wrote:

"There's like 15 pages of them on TTC PC NA all sub-2k gold each, so I'd expect that to keep dropping lower"

Sorry just fact checked this and ..nope. Currently 60 pages of sales in the last 19 hours and there are some up at 1999 and 1986 ( maybe 200-300 stones total ) All the rest are above 2K and climbing as players flip the stuff / sell off their stockpiles.

Players can go check for themselves at the Guild Traders near them, prices are higher, and climbing as expected given supply /demand. Will they drop? Sure eventually as we see for many materials - but the problem remains the same : we need a better source and less demand per furnishing item.

To keep it all transparent I'll post and update the TTC data from each morning.

Mar 27 - avg : 2,273 listings: 1,426 items : 71,881

nice deboonk there but you're still wrong.
21 pages before you find one listed at 2,000 each.
https://us.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=12662&SortBy=Price&Order=asc&page=21
When the patch went live these were selling like hotcakes for 4 to 5 thousand each. Now you're pressed to actually sell one at 2k.

Marcusorion1 · March 2022

Apparently we get different TCC views on our searches for some reason ( not to mention the time difference between posts)

My view shows most recent offers first..the older, cheaper ones are no longer in stock. The first offer shown on your link was already 18 hours old so don't play games with the data, it speaks for itself.

At time of posting this : https://us.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=12662&ItemNamePattern=Ancient+Sandstone

Regardless I will post the TCC stats for the next few days just to see what the tend is.

Also, as mentioned by others it is the 1) the current sourcing of the specific material and 2) the amount required per item which is the basis of the query for this thread as both are out of tradition with previous furnishing item requirements.

ApoAlaia · March 2022

This has a very simple solution.

As it happens with the racial styles, once you learn a full motif you should be able to buy the relevant style material from the regular vendors.

Not everything has to be a grind within a grind within a grind.

Besides, it would highlight the absurdity of the current system when one has to scroll through umpteen lines at the vendor.

The only silver lining I can find is that they have stopped with the whole 'unrefined' version of the style materials.

Northwold · March 2022

Arunei wrote: »

Farming and doing other casual stuff also doesn't mean people feel like spending potentially weeks farming specific parts of the game, like that WB. Some people don't feel like sitting there waiting for the boss to spawn, instead preferring to spend the time doing other more productive things. Or maybe they don't like doing WBs for whatever reason. You can't act like people aren't playing the game right just because they won't take part in X activity if they're doing Y. There's a difference between farming mats or questing and grinding for leads. Remember the nonsense for that one Lead for the Kilt, the Bead one? And how people were camping water plant nodes until ZOS added the Lead to all alchemy plants? Just because something is part of overland doesn't make it something people want to spend their time doing.

Having done a house involving a lot of Alinor furnishings, and consequently having had to spend an inordinate amount of time doing the same dailies over and over again just to get enough style materials to build bits of wall, I've basically given up on the game until things change. Seeing this latest move made me uninstall.

I have better things to do with my life than to embark on a pointless grindfest of the same content on repeat to get the basic building blocks of a house. It simply isn't fun and involves a scary amount of time when I could do something that actually enriches my life like reading a book or talking to human beings.

I have no idea what's going on with the game design recently, but it is going in the wrong direction.

markulrich1966 · March 2022

Northwold wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Farming and doing other casual stuff also doesn't mean people feel like spending potentially weeks farming specific parts of the game, like that WB. Some people don't feel like sitting there waiting for the boss to spawn, instead preferring to spend the time doing other more productive things. Or maybe they don't like doing WBs for whatever reason. You can't act like people aren't playing the game right just because they won't take part in X activity if they're doing Y. There's a difference between farming mats or questing and grinding for leads. Remember the nonsense for that one Lead for the Kilt, the Bead one? And how people were camping water plant nodes until ZOS added the Lead to all alchemy plants? Just because something is part of overland doesn't make it something people want to spend their time doing.

Having done a house involving a lot of Alinor furnishings, and consequently having had to spend an inordinate amount of time doing the same dailies over and over again just to get enough style materials to build bits of wall, I've basically given up on the game until things change. Seeing this latest move made me uninstall.

I have better things to do with my life than to embark on a pointless grindfest of the same content on repeat to get the basic building blocks of a house. It simply isn't fun and involves a scary amount of time when I could do something that actually enriches my life like reading a book or talking to human beings.

I have no idea what's going on with the game design recently, but it is going in the wrong direction.

Alinor still is ok, guaranteed drop from the dailies. So it is ok for farmers like me to run the delves and worldbosses, and craft and sell those furniture for reasonable prices.
E.g. an Alinor floor would be like 10-12k.
But I can offer fargrave items just at a much higher price, tried to sell a pair of the wide benches, no buyer found. Of course not, as I have to take 24k gold for each to have a profit of just 5k.
So I will skip offering the new furniture, just bought 1000-2000 ancient sandstone for myself and on direct request.

Northwold · March 2022

markulrich1966 wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Farming and doing other casual stuff also doesn't mean people feel like spending potentially weeks farming specific parts of the game, like that WB. Some people don't feel like sitting there waiting for the boss to spawn, instead preferring to spend the time doing other more productive things. Or maybe they don't like doing WBs for whatever reason. You can't act like people aren't playing the game right just because they won't take part in X activity if they're doing Y. There's a difference between farming mats or questing and grinding for leads. Remember the nonsense for that one Lead for the Kilt, the Bead one? And how people were camping water plant nodes until ZOS added the Lead to all alchemy plants? Just because something is part of overland doesn't make it something people want to spend their time doing.

Having done a house involving a lot of Alinor furnishings, and consequently having had to spend an inordinate amount of time doing the same dailies over and over again just to get enough style materials to build bits of wall, I've basically given up on the game until things change. Seeing this latest move made me uninstall.

I have better things to do with my life than to embark on a pointless grindfest of the same content on repeat to get the basic building blocks of a house. It simply isn't fun and involves a scary amount of time when I could do something that actually enriches my life like reading a book or talking to human beings.

I have no idea what's going on with the game design recently, but it is going in the wrong direction.

Alinor still is ok, guaranteed drop from the dailies. So it is ok for farmers like me to run the delves and worldbosses, and craft and sell those furniture for reasonable prices.
E.g. an Alinor floor would be like 10-12k.
But I can offer fargrave items just at a much higher price, tried to sell a pair of the wide benches, no buyer found. Of course not, as I have to take 24k gold for each to have a profit of just 5k.
So I will skip offering the new furniture, just bought 1000-2000 ancient sandstone for myself and on direct request.

Alinor I found extremely annoying but tolerable. Blackwood then made things worse because Ivory Clasps are harder to obtain. But this latest just strikes me as plain ridiculous. It's the direction of travel that has been ever-more-onerous requirements. If I have paid 70 quid, or the equivalent of 70 quid in "bonus" (ahem) crowns from ESO plus, for a house, I take an active dislike to mechanics that try to push me to the crown store rather than provide enjoyable gameplay. I do not exist as a cash machine for ZOS. If you want my money I expect to be entertained in return.

markulrich1966 · March 2022

Northwold wrote: »

markulrich1966 wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

Farming and doing other casual stuff also doesn't mean people feel like spending potentially weeks farming specific parts of the game, like that WB. Some people don't feel like sitting there waiting for the boss to spawn, instead preferring to spend the time doing other more productive things. Or maybe they don't like doing WBs for whatever reason. You can't act like people aren't playing the game right just because they won't take part in X activity if they're doing Y. There's a difference between farming mats or questing and grinding for leads. Remember the nonsense for that one Lead for the Kilt, the Bead one? And how people were camping water plant nodes until ZOS added the Lead to all alchemy plants? Just because something is part of overland doesn't make it something people want to spend their time doing.

Having done a house involving a lot of Alinor furnishings, and consequently having had to spend an inordinate amount of time doing the same dailies over and over again just to get enough style materials to build bits of wall, I've basically given up on the game until things change. Seeing this latest move made me uninstall.

I have better things to do with my life than to embark on a pointless grindfest of the same content on repeat to get the basic building blocks of a house. It simply isn't fun and involves a scary amount of time when I could do something that actually enriches my life like reading a book or talking to human beings.

I have no idea what's going on with the game design recently, but it is going in the wrong direction.

Alinor still is ok, guaranteed drop from the dailies. So it is ok for farmers like me to run the delves and worldbosses, and craft and sell those furniture for reasonable prices.
E.g. an Alinor floor would be like 10-12k.
But I can offer fargrave items just at a much higher price, tried to sell a pair of the wide benches, no buyer found. Of course not, as I have to take 24k gold for each to have a profit of just 5k.
So I will skip offering the new furniture, just bought 1000-2000 ancient sandstone for myself and on direct request.

Alinor I found extremely annoying but tolerable. Blackwood then made things worse because Ivory Clasps are harder to obtain. But this latest just strikes me as plain ridiculous. It's the direction of travel that has been ever-more-onerous requirements. If I have paid 70 quid, or the equivalent of 70 quid in "bonus" (ahem) crowns from ESO plus, for a house, I take an active dislike to mechanics that try to push me to the crown store rather than provide enjoyable gameplay.

yes, I sell Leyawiin stuff for 15k instead of 10k for Alinor, as it takes much longer to acquire the material.
In a different thread I already wrote, that such a development is the main reason that I did no preorder High-Isle and even might wait for a discount depending on other setbacks.

Such changes completely suck the fun out of the game.

Arunei · March 2022

It really is ridiculous that they make these furnishing plans take such ridiculous numbers of mats that are hard to obtain in the necessary numbers, or ones that just take outrageous mats period. I would be willing to bet a good 80% of plans take Heartwood and Mundane Runes when there's absolutely no reason for those plans to require them, especially not in such large numbers. Then you have things like the Elsweyr Grill that takes a damn Diminished Aetherial Dust, Gold JC plans that take Chromium PLATINGS rather than just the Dust, the Curious Turtle Trinket Box takes like 16 of I think the Redoran Style mat (despite how fricken tiny it is), these Fargrave plans that can take up to 16 Sandstone to make...

It really does feel like ZOS does this to push people towards the CS because that's easier than the worsening grind to get a useable amount of mats.

fizl101 · March 2022

kalimar44 wrote: »

I will admit I'm a hoarder, I have over 2k of the stone atm.😁

Similar - I just had to have a look and I have 1.7k. Obviously spend way to much time in Craglorn!