We are currently investigating issues some players are having logging into the European PC/Mac megaserver. We will update as new information becomes available.
Botany of Familiar Lands
Supreme_Atromancer
✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭
✭✭
Gold Coast. Blackwood. Western Skyrim. These iconic locations have all been masterfully recreated in ESO. When I'm running around in these zones, everything feels so familiar, and I love it. The world team do an absolutely fantastic job every time- I think this is the one thing pretty much every ESO fan agrees on. Every detail is absolutely perfect.
Well, almost every detail. One little thing is very noticeably absent in each of these zones: the plants that help visually define these places. What's snowy Skyrim without Snowberries? The Reach without Juniper and Hanging Moss? The Gold Coast without Aloe and Mandrake? Or Blackwood without Bog Beacons and Solamnius? Even more egregious, what is The Deadlands without poisonous Spiddal Sticks and *actually dangerous* Bloodgrass??
One reason that these have been neglected that immediately jumps to mind is that they are all alchemy ingredients- if it isn't just a matter of server limitations, it seems quite possible that ZOS haven't yet found new ideas for alchemy traits.
So, are there alchemical trait niches you can imagine that haven't yet been covered in ESO?
Could alchemy serve broader functions than just stat buffs? Speed and invisibility are awesome alternate abilities that alchemy can provide. Are there other, similar things? Furnishing was a more dramatic deviation beyond what alchemy could do, perhaps there's more?
Alternatively, there were more plants in the previous games than there typically are alchemy niches in ESO. Perhaps we get these plants added to these areas in the future, even if they are entirely cosmetic? Would you want to see them even if they didn't give ingredients?
Edited by Supreme_Atromancer on March 31, 2023 1:44AM Well, almost every detail. One little thing is very noticeably absent in each of these zones: the plants that help visually define these places. What's snowy Skyrim without Snowberries? The Reach without Juniper and Hanging Moss? The Gold Coast without Aloe and Mandrake? Or Blackwood without Bog Beacons and Solamnius? Even more egregious, what is The Deadlands without poisonous Spiddal Sticks and *actually dangerous* Bloodgrass??
One reason that these have been neglected that immediately jumps to mind is that they are all alchemy ingredients- if it isn't just a matter of server limitations, it seems quite possible that ZOS haven't yet found new ideas for alchemy traits.
So, are there alchemical trait niches you can imagine that haven't yet been covered in ESO?
Could alchemy serve broader functions than just stat buffs? Speed and invisibility are awesome alternate abilities that alchemy can provide. Are there other, similar things? Furnishing was a more dramatic deviation beyond what alchemy could do, perhaps there's more?
Alternatively, there were more plants in the previous games than there typically are alchemy niches in ESO. Perhaps we get these plants added to these areas in the future, even if they are entirely cosmetic? Would you want to see them even if they didn't give ingredients?
5
-
SeaGtGruff✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Even if they had the same old Alchemy traits as other ingredients, the mix of traits is important. Imagine being able to select 3 different ingredients and get 4 or 5 effects in 1 potion or poison.I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than me!2 -
TinyDragon✭✭✭I'd love to see more alchemy ingredients added; there's been so few new ones. Elsweyr and Greymoor had new ingredients, but I don't think Blackwood or High Isle did?
I think it would be really fun to add effects that aren't combat specific.
A potion to calm beasts around you (perhaps some work on wild animals like bears/wolves, perhaps others work with kwama pheromones like how miners in Vvardenfell work unharmed).
Potions to increase likelihood of pickpocketing or increase stealth radius (not just invisibility).
Potions that create a light source around you (they used to exist in the single player title Oblivion, I think).
Potions to fortify skill lines. Like temporarily increase crafting skills, or increasing a particular weapon skill. Then you'd have to decide if you frontbar/backbar one weapon, or lose the potion effect on your backbar for example.
There must be so many options out there!2 -
Supreme_Atromancer✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭SeaGtGruff wrote: »Even if they had the same old Alchemy traits as other ingredients, the mix of traits is important. Imagine being able to select 3 different ingredients and get 4 or 5 effects in 1 potion or poison.
That's true.
I think it also highlights that Snakeblood passive sort of completely nullifies one of the more interesting alchemy mechanics. Few great potion combinations even have any negative effects, AND those that do are far too easily avoided completely, because 100% immunity to negative effects is so easily achieved. I think alchemy could have more interesting scope if they both dialled back Snakeblood, and made more interesting or desirable traits combined with negative ones.TinyDragon wrote: »I'd love to see more alchemy ingredients added; there's been so few new ones. Elsweyr and Greymoor had new ingredients, but I don't think Blackwood or High Isle did?
I think it would be really fun to add effects that aren't combat specific.
A potion to calm beasts around you (perhaps some work on wild animals like bears/wolves, perhaps others work with kwama pheromones like how miners in Vvardenfell work unharmed).
Potions to increase likelihood of pickpocketing or increase stealth radius (not just invisibility).
Potions that create a light source around you (they used to exist in the single player title Oblivion, I think).
Potions to fortify skill lines. Like temporarily increase crafting skills, or increasing a particular weapon skill. Then you'd have to decide if you frontbar/backbar one weapon, or lose the potion effect on your backbar for example.
There must be so many options out there!
These are all good ideas. I also like the "night eyes" effect from Oblivion.
As a completely out-there idea, perhaps they could have potions that could be "thrown" when activated, using ground targeting. Creating stuff like "pools of elemental susceptibility" or "resource regen" or even just "fire damage" could be pretty cool. The niche separating it from similar magical effects already handled by the magic or gear system could be unavoidable negative traits.
I'd even be fine with them including these plants, but having them be completely cosmetic, honestly. They've done that with Peony in the Gold Coast (I *think* they're Peony!), but they're rather indistinct. I don't want to complain about the stunning work the team has done on the newer zones, but The Reach, for instance feels like its just missing something without those characteristic grey-green Juniper shrubs all along the cliffs everywhere.
Even if they aren't planning to add new ingredients right now, I guess it would be a possibility to add the plants themselves, and in future, if the need arises, go back and have a certain proportion of them act as node spawns.1 -
spartaxoxo✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭I wouldn't mind some more decorative botany out in the wild, but I wouldn't want a ton of new alchemy ingredients. While I'm a Plus User and therefore don't have to worry about how mats impact inventory space, I feel like this game already has too many crafting materials. And it makes it really hard to manage for non-Plus users in a way that doesn't feel great from a "caring about consumers experience" standpoint. I feel better about things like renewing Plus when Plus feels optional. Every year they add more materials and every year the crafting bag feels more and more like a necessity to enjoying this game.Edited by spartaxoxo on April 2, 2023 5:44PM0 -
Carcamongus✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭They did add spiddal sticks to the Deadlands and it spews poison. The harrada is just an easily avoidable nuisance, but at least it serves nostalgic purposes - and you can even buy the non-dangerous version of it from the home furnisher. Snowberries used to be a provisioning ingredient, long ago before the craft was remade. Still, I do miss the pretty reddish plants contrasting with the bright white snow. There are juniper trees in the Reach, they just can't be harvested.
I suppose many of the alchemical plants from Oblivion and Skyrim could have been added as eyecandy, just like the bloodgrass or the harmless harrada from the Deadlands. Interestingly, a glitched plant from Oblivion's Blackwood, the pitcher, which could be harvested but never yielded anything, is present in ESO's Vvardenfell and it can very rarely drop from certain nodes (cloth or alchemy, I can't recall which).
Because of ESO, whenever I'm playing Oblivion and I find columbine I rush to it as if someone might beat me to the punch...Imperial DK and Necro tank. PC/NA
"Nothing is so bad that it can't get any worse." (Brazilian saying)2 -
Supreme_Atromancer✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Carcamongus wrote: »They did add spiddal sticks to the Deadlands and it spews poison. The harrada is just an easily avoidable nuisance, but at least it serves nostalgic purposes - and you can even buy the non-dangerous version of it from the home furnisher. Snowberries used to be a provisioning ingredient, long ago before the craft was remade. Still, I do miss the pretty reddish plants contrasting with the bright white snow. There are juniper trees in the Reach, they just can't be harvested.
You're right about the Spiddal Sticks. I miss the Harrada behaviour from Oblivion, but I agree that at least they've put them in to get the aesthetic right. I haven't noticed the Junipers in the Reach- what does exist there doesn't look much like the distinctive glaucous-leaved ones in Skyrim. You're either mistaken, or ZOS went with something they think looks more accurate. I don't know northern hemisphere botany well, so perhaps I've just got it wrong. I know there are Junipers in Bangkorai- though those are all giant forest trees.I suppose many of the alchemical plants from Oblivion and Skyrim could have been added as eyecandy, just like the bloodgrass or the harmless harrada from the Deadlands. Interestingly, a glitched plant from Oblivion's Blackwood, the pitcher, which could be harvested but never yielded anything, is present in ESO's Vvardenfell and it can very rarely drop from certain nodes (cloth or alchemy, I can't recall which).
I'd personally be totally fine with the eye candy approach. Some of those plants were so distinctive to the areas they come from that its a shame not to have them; eg. the Bog Beacons in the Blackwood bogs, Snowberries in the white, snowy areas, those big chunky Aloe flowers in the Gold Coast. There's probably still many more traits and trait-combinations they could do, but they've slowed down on it a bit on new ingredients, so "cosmetic" approaches might be the best we can hope for. Even without anything harvestable I think they belong, just for the aesthetic fidelity. Its probably testament to the amazing job they do at making them feel familiar that the absence of these things is noticeable.Because of ESO, whenever I'm playing Oblivion and I find columbine I rush to it as if someone might beat me to the punch...
Yeah! There were huge swathes of Columbine and Entoloma south of Chorrol in the great forest. There has been times where I'm mentally counting all the gold I can make before I remember which game I'm in.
0