They should change it so that each survey is one piece of 5-8, with a randomized location that you can use a surveying tool to track (similar to archaeology but on a larger scale).

Then have the rewards worth 10 to 100 times more. (can always make specific pieces harder to obtain like number 4 glenumbra is the rare one).

I would be happy if the survey reset the moment you finished harvesting the last node or a few seconds after on the current survey with out all the running or riding off into the distance to get the next one to appear, some you only have to move a short distance and it will reset others you have to ride off into the sunset to get the same result.

That and I would like them consolidated somewhat, for regions like Wrothgar/Craglorn/Coldharbour that have 3 locations for each survey type, would rather they had only one of each type instead, like every other region in the game.


I store all mine on one of my alts inventory's, I make a point to only do 10 of each alchemy and enchanting ones, and then 1 of each of the other types that have the most surveys accumulated, at most I end up doing 60 surveys total in one sitting but it usually ends up being a lot less than that.

I do that once every second day, instead of trying to do hundreds all in one go, haven't felt burnt-out since doing surveys that way.

I like them the way they are. It's not a big deal for me. I just do them when I get the urge (or need the mats) and no, I don't stockpile them - I run them about once a week on all my six mains (3 accounts, both PC megaservers).

I've been wanting them to change or add an alternative means of gathering surveys for a while now. I have a few different ideas regarding this.

1. Have all duplicate surveys for the spot you're at collected at once. Additionally, surveys could have a single large node that's unique to crafting surveys to easily distinguish it. This is the most practical option imo.
2. Create a "survey box" to drop your surveys off in, then literally hire your hirelings to go out and collect them for you for a set cost per-survey. This adds another gold sink to the game and lets you avoid doing the work yourself... lazy.
3. Send your non-combat pets out on survey expeditions (and other expeditions too). It's about time those little freeloaders made themselves useful.
4. Add a perk to each crafting skill tree (or to the champion system) that lets your character go out and collect surveys on your behalf while you're not on that character.
5. While we're on the subject, maybe add poison ingredients, mushrooms and water plants to alchemy surveys?

BloodyStigmata wrote: »

I've been wanting them to change or add an alternative means of gathering surveys for a while now. I have a few different ideas regarding this.

1. Have all duplicate surveys for the spot you're at collected at once. Additionally, surveys could have a single large node that's unique to crafting surveys to easily distinguish it. This is the most practical option imo.
2. Create a "survey box" to drop your surveys off in, then literally hire your hirelings to go out and collect them for you for a set cost per-survey. This adds another gold sink to the game and lets you avoid doing the work yourself... lazy.
3. Send your non-combat pets out on survey expeditions (and other expeditions too). It's about time those little freeloaders made themselves useful.
4. Add a perk to each crafting skill tree (or to the champion system) that lets your character go out and collect surveys on your behalf while you're not on that character.
5. While we're on the subject, maybe add poison ingredients, mushrooms and water plants to alchemy surveys?

I would love those and/or other suggestions, but ZOS has not said a peep on the issue in my entire time playing.

NeKryXe wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

The run to reset is much quicker most of the time than the initial run to the site for the first one. I like when I get multies because that means more material in a much shorter period of time. At least they let them stack unlike treasure maps. So the inventory thing is mostly a non issue.
Last time I did my surveys I got 21 Chromium Grains. Definitely worth running around doing surveys for that.

It was supposed to be a reward that turned into a forced grind with no game. I'd prefer a faster or enthusiastic way to collect it.

It is a reward. One I feel is good for the time involved. If they were made quicker to collect the rewards would need to be reduced to keep in line with other aspects of the game. As is surveys are one of the quickest ways in game to make gold.

For those of us on console just showing survey locations on the map once you find them the first time would be a good start

Amottica wrote: »

If people are not doing them and just collecting them they are creating their own problems. As far as changes in the game the remedy should not be a priority for Zenimax.

When doing crafting dailies on 18 characters per day, I receive about 15-20 *different* surveys every day. Collecting that many, every day, is practically impossible. As I am not playing with add-ons, I will actually have to find the locations. Which would take me a little over an hour a day to do the crafting dailies + 5 mins for each survey ( 15x 5 min ) = 75 mins. Doing this would cost me a daily minimal time of 2h 15mins.
Which means I might as well quit the game, as this would leave me hardly any time to actually play the game anymore. Not even going to mention the maintenance days, daily endeavours, or ticket events.

Surveys are a good way to gain crafting materials, and collecting them is alright except for the time it takes. Getting surveys as a crafting daily reward isn't an issue as well. But ZOS does need to come up with a way to mass collect many surveys at once.

PS: Atleast surveys stack above 100.

Amottica wrote: »

If people are not doing them and just collecting them they are creating their own problems. As far as changes in the game the remedy should not be a priority for Zenimax.

One thing that I think should be changed is to limit the survey locations to the highest level alliance zone for the character that did the writ. Make it so there are three node locations for each survey type and this would limit the total number of unique surveys and how much space they take up in our inventory. They way they are spread out does not make sense.

That's a somewhat narrow-minded way of looking at it. Surveys get thrown at us fairly regularly, especially people who do crafting on numerous characters and/or across different accounts. And for those of us who spam crafting writs during the Jubilee for our reward boxes and such, we can easily wind up with hundreds.

For people without add-ons, they then have to spend hours either trying to find the location in-game, and even using outside things like YouTube to find the exact location, it still takes a lot of time to search for the location, watch the video, go to the location, rinse and repeat for however many other surveys they have.

Many people also only have a limited amount of time they can play every day/week, and having to take time to run around collecting surveys eats into that play time. People generally have other things they want to do when they play than just doing surveys, so of course they're going to limit the time they spend doing that.

As surveys pile up, clearing them out becomes more and more tedious. I'm sitting on probably over a hundred from the Jubilee because there are no add-ons on Stadia and trying to look up each location just takes too long.

People not doing them aren't making their own problems, ZOS has made it a pain to collect them by having dozens of redundant maps and making it that you can only collect one map's worth of mats at a time. When a number of people stop doing something because the effort isn't worth the reward, it's probably worth looking at the system and finding out what can be done to make it more efficient. Getting rid of all the redundant maps would be a good start; why do there need to be 3-5 different locations for plants to spawn, for example? Just make it one set location for each craft in every zone and that alone would cut down on the run-around by a considerable amount.

I struggle with those that feel that "I have time to do daily writs on X characters", but "I don't have time to collect the surveys"

You make the choice to do that number of writs, you could always do fewer characters of writs, and then you'd have fewer surveys, and you'd have the time to do it.

Every choice has an opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of doing writs on 18 characters is that you'll have to spend more time collecting surveys.

Even though collecting surveys is probably one of the single most effective ways of making gold in the game (on a time basis), I thank those of you who don't do them, as it makes the time I spend on them even more valuable.

Yeah, they're boring to do. I throw a show on the other screen when collecting them. Refine the rewards... and I just got 10m worth of materials in a few hours. Short of selling carries, I can't make it faster than that.

I'm all for the option to trade in your survey for 15 top-level materials and 10 random materials at a lower level (7 and 3 for jewelry), which is what you would have gotten had you NOT gotten a survey from your writ reward box.

I fail to see how surveys are a problem.

At least a problem that ZOS should address.

To me it seems that having loads and loads of surveys is a player made issue. As in, if I didn't do loads of crafting quests and just let the surveys stack in inventory then it's a problem I created for myself.

Look at it this way. Surveys as a whole are already the laziest way to farm mats without paying someone else to do the farming for you. You can in a matter of minutes collect more raw materials than you can in the open world. I challenge you to try it. Test me on it.

Also, as far as trashing surveys? No one I know trashes any surveys other than a few that trash enchanting surveys at most what they do is let them stack.

Crafting writs are already the fastest way to make gold in this game, the time spent to go do surveys is a balancing method.

As far as "solutions" go. I will suggest the same thing I have on other such threads about this topic. Simply this. Make surveys tradeable and thus sellable. That way those that farm can get a boon and those that hate surveys can get gold.

It's a reasonable solution that doesn't impact the time investment needed to complete them.

JobooAGS wrote: »

I’m curious as to why summerset has no surveys

Your not the only one. It's the only chapter that doesn't have any.

TaSheen wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

I like them the way they are. It's not a big deal for me. I just do them when I get the urge (or need the mats) and no, I don't stockpile them - I run them about once a week on all my six mains (3 accounts, both PC megaservers).

So you like them, so everyone else must suffer? Why would simplification harm your play?

I don't like things "simpler". I like changes to be optional.

You failed to address my point. Take one at a time out of your bag if you insist on doing it "the old way". Most of the rest of us would like simplification.

Amottica wrote: »

Sarannah wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

If people are not doing them and just collecting them they are creating their own problems. As far as changes in the game the remedy should not be a priority for Zenimax.

When doing crafting dailies on 18 characters per day, I receive about 15-20 *different* surveys every day. Collecting that many, every day, is practically impossible. As I am not playing with add-ons, I will actually have to find the locations. Which would take me a little over an hour a day to do the crafting dailies + 5 mins for each survey ( 15x 5 min ) = 75 mins. Doing this would cost me a daily minimal time of 2h 15mins.
Which means I might as well quit the game, as this would leave me hardly any time to actually play the game anymore. Not even going to mention the maintenance days, daily endeavours, or ticket events.

Surveys are a good way to gain crafting materials, and collecting them is alright except for the time it takes. Getting surveys as a crafting daily reward isn't an issue as well. But ZOS does need to come up with a way to mass collect many surveys at once.

PS: Atleast surveys stack above 100.

Yes, I can see how that can work to create a problem. It is another example that we can easily create our own problems. Maybe do them on fewer toons or set aside time to complete the associated tasks.

No, players are not "creating their own problems". They are playing the game how they want to play, supposedly a key feature. ZOS needs to add some QoL tweaks to simplify collection.