Surveys need an update

Lady_Galadhiel · October 2022

I would be for a survey collector NPC, like the banker,merchant,deconstruction or armory asisstant. I would drop 5k crowns for it as soon as it would be on crown store because it would be a massive time saver and I would have some extra time to do something else in the game.
I only do writs on 7 characters and I sometimes end up with 2 or 3 of the same type in the same area survey,and yes, sometimes you need to go very far away for it to reset.

NettleCarrier · October 2022

tmbrinks wrote: »

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.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that surveys are bad. They are great additional income if you do them. They cost me absolutely nothing to sit in my bank, aside from the spaces that a single survey of each type would take up so they are just there as a rainy day fund. This doesn't stop me from wishing there was some better way of collecting them than figuring out the arbitrary draw distance to run from the survey spot. I know you know this better than anyone else as your guides have notes (which I've used) on the best direction to travel to reset each survey.

At this point they simply exist for me, I don't make my money doing writs or surveys anymore as it takes me too long to switch characters and I'd rather play something else for an hour than go through all of them.

kargen27 · October 2022

Arunei 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.

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 get motifs fairly often. I can't use them and some are not worth bothering to sell. So I dump them. I like doing the activities that gives me so many motifs.
Surveys are pretty much the same. You get them for something I assume you like doing in the game. It is then up to you to decide are they worth the effort or not. If not then trash them.
Surveys are what they are to help populate zones. ZoS doesn't want the game to look and feel empty. Surveys entice us to visit areas we might otherwise avoid. Same with antiquities, endeavors, dailies and other stuff. They are in the game to give us reason to visit a variety of areas.
If they were made more simple to gather the rewards would need to be reduced to reflect that. They are already one of the better ways to make gold.

Mithgil · October 2022

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

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.

Only?

What about Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, The Gold Coast, Murkmire... Summerset is not the only one, not to mention many of the DLC zones that come out later as part of a chapter.

Edit: Just correcting myself some (as I do further into the thread). Clockwork City and Murkmire released as DLCs and they were free to those who had/have ESO Plus; those that don't sub can only get the zones via the Crown Store. Technically Summerset is now a DLC (semantics, yes) but my point is there are other zones that released without getting survey locations added in.

whitecrow · October 2022

Mithgil wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

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.

Only?

What about Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, The Gold Coast, Murkmire... Summerset is not the only one, not to mention many of the DLC zones that come out later as part of a chapter.

Summerset is the only one of those that is a chapter.

Mithgil · October 2022

whitecrow wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

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.

Only?

What about Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, The Gold Coast, Murkmire... Summerset is not the only one, not to mention many of the DLC zones that come out later as part of a chapter.

Summerset is the only one of those that is a chapter.

Chapters are technically just DLC for the current "year", behind a paywall. Those that I mentioned would have been Chapters, and Murkmire and Clockwork City released as Chapters, so I disagree that Summerset being the only one of those. Summerset has been a DLC since Elsweyr launched as a chapter.

I'm saying that Summerset is not alone in this as there have been other Chapters-to-DLC that don't have surveys appear in them.

Edit: Correcting myself, as I do above and further into the thread. Murkmire and Clockwork City released as DLC packs and available for Crowns in the Crown Store, or "free" if you're an ESO Plus subscriber. I would have received them this way. My "confusion" comes from buying Morrowind expansion followed by getting Clockwork and Murkmire for "free" in the following years, then buying Summerset.

Mithgil · October 2022

I see both sides of the argument that surveys are a "problem".

You have those players, like me, who tend to get them done as we get them, perhaps not everyday, but most days. And there are those that decide to "save" them to do another time due to playtime restrictions, or even just playstyle choices. A good friend of mine she has dozens of stacks of surveys and it's growing.

At least they stack. Would one way to "solve" it be to have to "activate" the survey? Then it's a secondary step for everyone to have to "put up with". Is that something ZOS could program in? I think if they could make that work then it solves the problem of having to go "x amount of distance to allow the respawn" when the player would have to activate the spawn? I know that would just add time to a player like me who tends to go out and get them done "as I get them".

I can see how they can't have multiples of the same "spot" existing at once. Treasure maps operate in a similar fashion, but they are tradeable/sellable but they cannot stack.

We can't make everyone happy. Our choices are ours in terms of playstyle and time commitment, but that isn't necessarily a ZOS problem.

heaven13 · October 2022

Mithgil wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

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.

Only?

What about Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, The Gold Coast, Murkmire... Summerset is not the only one, not to mention many of the DLC zones that come out later as part of a chapter.

Summerset is the only one of those that is a chapter.

Chapters are technically just DLC for the current "year", behind a paywall. Those that I mentioned would have been Chapters, and Murkmire and Clockwork City released as Chapters, so I disagree that Summerset being the only one of those. Summerset has been a DLC since Elsweyr launched as a chapter.

I'm saying that Summerset is not alone in this as there have been other Chapters-to-DLC that don't have surveys appear in them.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. Zones like Murkmire, Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, etc are small DLC zones. Murkmire and Clockwork City never released as chapters.

Compare them to Summerset, Elsweyr, Wrothgar, etc. 2 world bosses vs 6, 2 delves vs 6, no dolmen type of event vs dolmen event, 6 skyshards vs 18. Chapters (even though, yes, they are also DLC and Chapter is just a clever way of branding to make more money) are larger in size/land mass and these, other than Summerset, all have surveys unlike small-zone DLCs which never have.

Nestor · October 2022

Stop looking at all the Surveys as something you need to do all right now.

If you are doing writs on multiple characters you can dedicate an alt to Farming Surveys. Equip them with Speed Gear and have them carry all the Surveys.

Then, log into that alt every day or three and pick a zone or two or three. Farm the surveys, spend about 15 minutes. then log to another alt and do something else.

BenevolentBowd · October 2022

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?

Most likely solution to be implemented would be a survey assistant that they would sell in crown store for 6000+ crowns. Hehe.

Personally, I store thousands of surveys on one character and hit a location with a stack of 10+ to restock my crafting bag as needed. I think the most I have had on a character is over 4k and consumed around 178 slots.

Mithgil · October 2022

heaven13 wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

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.

Only?

What about Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, The Gold Coast, Murkmire... Summerset is not the only one, not to mention many of the DLC zones that come out later as part of a chapter.

Summerset is the only one of those that is a chapter.

Chapters are technically just DLC for the current "year", behind a paywall. Those that I mentioned would have been Chapters, and Murkmire and Clockwork City released as Chapters, so I disagree that Summerset being the only one of those. Summerset has been a DLC since Elsweyr launched as a chapter.

I'm saying that Summerset is not alone in this as there have been other Chapters-to-DLC that don't have surveys appear in them.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. Zones like Murkmire, Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, etc are small DLC zones. Murkmire and Clockwork City never released as chapters.

Compare them to Summerset, Elsweyr, Wrothgar, etc. 2 world bosses vs 6, 2 delves vs 6, no dolmen type of event vs dolmen event, 6 skyshards vs 18. Chapters (even though, yes, they are also DLC and Chapter is just a clever way of branding to make more money) are larger in size/land mass and these, other than Summerset, all have surveys unlike small-zone DLCs which never have.

I pre-purchased Murkmire and Clockwork City as Chapters. They may have "less" content re wbs, skyshards, etc., but they were chapters. You had to purchase them at the time prior to the next Chapter if you wanted their content.

Edit: to correct myself here and in the thread. Yes, Murkmire and Clockwork released as DLCs and they were "free" to ESO Plus subscribers (which I was and am) and they were not Chapters nor could they be pre-purchased. My confusion comes from pre-purchasing the Morrowind expansion prior to them and then pre-purchasing Summerset after them.

redlink1979 · October 2022

NeKryXe wrote: »

(...) I believe that at this moment most players just delete the surveys. (...)

Your assumption is not correct.

wolfie1.0. · October 2022

Mithgil wrote: »

heaven13 wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

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.

Only?

What about Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, The Gold Coast, Murkmire... Summerset is not the only one, not to mention many of the DLC zones that come out later as part of a chapter.

Summerset is the only one of those that is a chapter.

Chapters are technically just DLC for the current "year", behind a paywall. Those that I mentioned would have been Chapters, and Murkmire and Clockwork City released as Chapters, so I disagree that Summerset being the only one of those. Summerset has been a DLC since Elsweyr launched as a chapter.

I'm saying that Summerset is not alone in this as there have been other Chapters-to-DLC that don't have surveys appear in them.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. Zones like Murkmire, Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, etc are small DLC zones. Murkmire and Clockwork City never released as chapters.

Compare them to Summerset, Elsweyr, Wrothgar, etc. 2 world bosses vs 6, 2 delves vs 6, no dolmen type of event vs dolmen event, 6 skyshards vs 18. Chapters (even though, yes, they are also DLC and Chapter is just a clever way of branding to make more money) are larger in size/land mass and these, other than Summerset, all have surveys unlike small-zone DLCs which never have.

I pre-purchased Murkmire and Clockwork City as Chapters. They may have "less" content re wbs, skyshards, etc., but they were chapters. You had to purchase them at the time prior to the next Chapter if you wanted their content.

Chapters, come with the big updates of the game and are large zones. Chapters are released as game versions, and for a limited time are only available for sale in real life currencies and were not made available for crown purchase and eso plus until after the next chapter was released. Clockwork city and murkmire where both released as crown only purchases (murkmire was a daily login reward as well)

Regardless, what I have stated above is how ZOS defines chapters. As game versions, dlcs are the smaller zones. This is how they define it.

So that said per ZOS's own definition, summerset is the only chapter zone that doesn't have surveys.

wolfie1.0. · October 2022

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

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.

You are sort of correct. The real fact is that people are playing how they want to play within the confines that ZOS has set for them to play.

Zos may change things sure.

Still though players letting their surveys stack to large levels is still a player created problem. ZOS intended for players to go out and find these and redeem them in the world one by one. Whether you choose to do that is a player choice.

Personally there are a lot of gameplay choices that I would prefer that ZOS let me do to ESO. I for one would love to have a one shot bow build that would let me snipe from 75 to 200m away from a target. I would also love to be able to have uncapped housing limits. I would love to have more than 500 members in my guilds. I would love to be in Werewolf form 100% of the time. I would even love to install skyim style mods to the game.

Those things won't happen because they are outside the confines of how ZOS has limited the game.

ZOS may change things. I guess we will see. But honestly the most I would expect from them is to either decrease the drop rate, make them tradeable, or as indicated above offer an assistant to go redeem them for which they will charge 6 to 10k crowns for.

Mithgil · October 2022

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

heaven13 wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

Mithgil wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

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.

Only?

What about Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, The Gold Coast, Murkmire... Summerset is not the only one, not to mention many of the DLC zones that come out later as part of a chapter.

Summerset is the only one of those that is a chapter.

Chapters are technically just DLC for the current "year", behind a paywall. Those that I mentioned would have been Chapters, and Murkmire and Clockwork City released as Chapters, so I disagree that Summerset being the only one of those. Summerset has been a DLC since Elsweyr launched as a chapter.

I'm saying that Summerset is not alone in this as there have been other Chapters-to-DLC that don't have surveys appear in them.

Sorry, but that's incorrect. Zones like Murkmire, Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, etc are small DLC zones. Murkmire and Clockwork City never released as chapters.

Compare them to Summerset, Elsweyr, Wrothgar, etc. 2 world bosses vs 6, 2 delves vs 6, no dolmen type of event vs dolmen event, 6 skyshards vs 18. Chapters (even though, yes, they are also DLC and Chapter is just a clever way of branding to make more money) are larger in size/land mass and these, other than Summerset, all have surveys unlike small-zone DLCs which never have.

I pre-purchased Murkmire and Clockwork City as Chapters. They may have "less" content re wbs, skyshards, etc., but they were chapters. You had to purchase them at the time prior to the next Chapter if you wanted their content.

Chapters, come with the big updates of the game and are large zones. Chapters are released as game versions, and for a limited time are only available for sale in real life currencies and were not made available for crown purchase and eso plus until after the next chapter was released. Clockwork city and murkmire where both released as crown only purchases (murkmire was a daily login reward as well)

Regardless, what I have stated above is how ZOS defines chapters. As game versions, dlcs are the smaller zones. This is how they define it.

So that said per ZOS's own definition, summerset is the only chapter zone that doesn't have surveys.

I will concede that Murkmire and Clockwork City were launched as DLCs. I didn't purchase them via the Crown Store so perhaps I got them due to being an ESO Plus subscriber.

FlopsyPrince · October 2022

Androrix 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.

Honestly this does not make sense to me. I don't understand how it is different from saying I have 18 characters and it takes too much time to manage them. ESO needs a system for me to auto manage 18 characters. Why not just have the number of characters you can comfortably manage in your available time. Or just don't do the surveys.

ZOS sells things (character slots) that encourage that behavior. So yes, they bear a responsibility to support it.

whitecrow wrote: »

I just did a couple doubles recently and didn't have to go far away at all. Not in Wrothgar admittedly.
Didn't think the nodes in High Isle were "spaced out." Unless a few feet is spaced out...
Anyway I enjoy them.

It varies greatly. Sometimes it is quick, sometimes not. No notice when you are far enough except whether things are back up when you return.

NettleCarrier wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

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.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that surveys are bad. They are great additional income if you do them. They cost me absolutely nothing to sit in my bank, aside from the spaces that a single survey of each type would take up so they are just there as a rainy day fund. This doesn't stop me from wishing there was some better way of collecting them than figuring out the arbitrary draw distance to run from the survey spot. I know you know this better than anyone else as your guides have notes (which I've used) on the best direction to travel to reset each survey.

At this point they simply exist for me, I don't make my money doing writs or surveys anymore as it takes me too long to switch characters and I'd rather play something else for an hour than go through all of them.

They do cost quite a bit of bank space....

kargen27 wrote: »

Arunei 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.

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 get motifs fairly often. I can't use them and some are not worth bothering to sell. So I dump them. I like doing the activities that gives me so many motifs.
Surveys are pretty much the same. You get them for something I assume you like doing in the game. It is then up to you to decide are they worth the effort or not. If not then trash them.
Surveys are what they are to help populate zones. ZoS doesn't want the game to look and feel empty. Surveys entice us to visit areas we might otherwise avoid. Same with antiquities, endeavors, dailies and other stuff. They are in the game to give us reason to visit a variety of areas.
If they were made more simple to gather the rewards would need to be reduced to reflect that. They are already one of the better ways to make gold.

They are not doing a good job if that is true. Surveys do not make areas crowded. I rarely see ANYONE even when I collect some.

Nestor wrote: »

Stop looking at all the Surveys as something you need to do all right now.

If you are doing writs on multiple characters you can dedicate an alt to Farming Surveys. Equip them with Speed Gear and have them carry all the Surveys.

Then, log into that alt every day or three and pick a zone or two or three. Farm the surveys, spend about 15 minutes. then log to another alt and do something else.

I want to play the other parts of the game, not the picking simulator (with parts of the walking simulator). I am someone who would go through the quests on every alt I have, but I am pushed away from it because I don't want to give up the value of surveys.

kargen27 · October 2022

"They are not doing a good job if that is true. Surveys do not make areas crowded. I rarely see ANYONE even when I collect some."
Funny, I run into people out and about all the time. Not at every survey but fairly often I am at the survey with at least one other player. It bugs me a tiny bit I can't actually see them harvesting but I know why that is.
I tend to take my time doing surveys. I kill and harvest everything on the way. I get distracted by world bosses, dolmen and all kinds of other things. If a player asks for help in zone I go help them then get back to my surveys. Doesn't feel like a grind at all to me.

FlopsyPrince · October 2022

This clearly a concern, because these threads always get many "yeah I want that" replies each time they come up.

Of course they also get many "I don't want anything here changed" as well, but I can't think of a requested change that would not get that kind of response.

Heartrage · October 2022

Surveys and crafting dailies have burned me out of eso. Repeating the same risk-free mindless routine with 1/3 of the time being loading screens, running around and inventory managing is not playing but a chore. It’s a great way to make gold and it’s why I did it but I don’t want to touch these activities anymore.

I think Zos could make these more interesting in different ways and generally improve crafting all together.

TaSheen · October 2022

kargen27 wrote: »

"They are not doing a good job if that is true. Surveys do not make areas crowded. I rarely see ANYONE even when I collect some."
Funny, I run into people out and about all the time. Not at every survey but fairly often I am at the survey with at least one other player. It bugs me a tiny bit I can't actually see them harvesting but I know why that is.
I tend to take my time doing surveys. I kill and harvest everything on the way. I get distracted by world bosses, dolmen and all kinds of other things. If a player asks for help in zone I go help them then get back to my surveys. Doesn't feel like a grind at all to me.

Me too. Today I did a bunch of surveys (at least one each of every variety and multiples of of blacksmith/woodworking) on my newest account. There were 5-7 (and once 8) other players at each survey for blacksmith and woodworking mats on PC NA.

It's actually busy out there.

peacenote · October 2022

I can't speak for everyone, but here are some personal sentiments:

-I never delete my surveys, not even the enchanting ones
-I mostly enjoy gathering them. It's peaceful and I feel like the mats are nice rewards.
-Returning to get a second copy doesn't bother me either

-I wish the surveys didn't take up inventory space. I prefer to do them in clumps, when I'm in the mood to do them
-I wish some of the extra annoying spots in Wrothgar and Craglorn especially could be revisited

-I would be fine with any QoL changes as long as they didn't reduce the loot gained or ruin the experience of gathering the surveys for people who enjoy them.

boi_anachronism_ · October 2022

I would be happy if they just marked em on the map after you can done them already

FlopsyPrince · October 2022

peacenote wrote: »

I can't speak for everyone, but here are some personal sentiments:

-I never delete my surveys, not even the enchanting ones
-I mostly enjoy gathering them. It's peaceful and I feel like the mats are nice rewards.
-Returning to get a second copy doesn't bother me either

-I wish the surveys didn't take up inventory space. I prefer to do them in clumps, when I'm in the mood to do them
-I wish some of the extra annoying spots in Wrothgar and Craglorn especially could be revisited

-I would be fine with any QoL changes as long as they didn't reduce the loot gained or ruin the experience of gathering the surveys for people who enjoy them.

Allowing you to reset a spot when you have gathered all 6 would be helpful, a method without requiring running away an indeterminate distance.

One thing that is annoying me a LOT lately is that I often get in the "not harvesting mode" when collecting them. Probably some timer in the system, but it is really annoying to press -e- to gather and stand around and do nothing! This is aggravated when you are picking up many surveys.

katanagirl1 · October 2022

I don’t really enjoy doing surveys and treasure maps, especially since I don’t have an add-on to tell me exactly where to go and occasionally have to google the location if I don’t remember. I run out of inventory space and have to do them weekly since the bank stays pretty full. I do like free stuff though so I keep doing them, I figure it’s like having to take out the trash and do laundry, just something you have to do. I would much rather have time spent on fixing bugs like: the UI lockup, the guild trader history not saving, stuttering frame rates in cities, endless battle music for BoW and Cyrodiil, no exclamation point for new items in your inventory, and several others.

Amottica · October 2022

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

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.

Doing more writs than they want to do surveys for seems to be a choice. If we choose to not do the writs, let them stack up until our inventory is burgeoning and the time it takes has become hours instead of minutes that is all due to our choice in how we play the game but it is also creating our own problem It is no different than hoarding gear and getting upset that oru inventory is so full.

The_Boggart · October 2022

Mapping the nodes ,
I use uespwikki in my phones Internet, each map is saved as an item , and searching that map for 'surv' finds the locations

FlopsyPrince · October 2022

Amottica wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

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.

Doing more writs than they want to do surveys for seems to be a choice. If we choose to not do the writs, let them stack up until our inventory is burgeoning and the time it takes has become hours instead of minutes that is all due to our choice in how we play the game but it is also creating our own problem It is no different than hoarding gear and getting upset that oru inventory is so full.

No, it is ZOS making a feature that is hard to use.

Please quit blaming players because they save things.

FlopsyPrince · October 2022

The_Boggart wrote: »

Mapping the nodes ,
I use uespwikki in my phones Internet, each map is saved as an item , and searching that map for 'surv' finds the locations

They can still be quite the pain to find on consoles. I switched to the PC for addons for things like this. It should have been built into the game however.

dutchusuk · October 2022

The companions we don't use can do the job for us. For example 1 survey in 1 hour (also offline). When they are doing the job you can not summon them, you have to wait when they are ready.

Dr_Con · October 2022

Androrix 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.

Honestly this does not make sense to me. I don't understand how it is different from saying I have 18 characters and it takes too much time to manage them. ESO needs a system for me to auto manage 18 characters. Why not just have the number of characters you can comfortably manage in your available time. Or just don't do the surveys.

[snip] You have to realize, they have a different mentality. They can't help but farm and collect... many people in this very small fraction of the community have convinced themselves that ZOS is going to come out with a companion or hireling that does surveys for them. Yes they are loyal and paying customers, and yes I think they need to run the surveys themselves, but realize at the end of the day they are satisfied with the master writs, gold, and mat chance. Redoing the system to make it more convenient is... a pipe dream. If these players really needed the gold, they'd run the surveys, but that's not part of grindy rote gameplay. "Maybe one day," they tell themselves, "I'll collect enough and want to run them." But they don't need the mats otherwise they'd run them.

The same sort of grindy mentality is seen in people who run dolmens for hours a day- it's just in their nature/programming to do these things.

P.S.

[edited for baiting]