I had to buy ESO+ because event will punish you if you don't

ImmortalCX · April 7

I have 2500 hours, never subbed. Due to all the STUFF, it is ridiculous to manage all of it without a crafting bag.

I am convinced the event is to encourage or at least reward subscribers. Prove me wrong.

HatchetHaro · April 7

There are addons that you can use to filter through and automatically deposit/withdraw/sell/destroy items. Inventory management is atrocious without the Craft Bag, yes, but with 20 characters it should still be manageable to keep everything useful.

For example, once you max out crafting on all your characters, there's no point in keeping lower level materials like Iron and Maple around; once you max out levels as well, there's no longer any use for lower level Alchemy ingredients like Natural Water and Grease, or Enchanting runes like Jora and Jode.

Soraka · April 7

Inventory and bank management is a bit of a hot mess in this game

Orbital78 · April 7

ImmortalCX wrote: »

I have 2500 hours, never subbed. Due to all the STUFF, it is ridiculous to manage all of it without a crafting bag.

I am convinced the event is to encourage or at least reward subscribers. Prove me wrong.

The game is designed this way, you don't see?

SeaGtGruff · April 7

I have ESO Plus, all of the storage coffers, and all of the inventory pets-- and I still struggle with inventory management. Every single one of my alts is a mule, and all of them except one have nearly full inventories of 210 filled slots out of 215 total slots. The reason is because I collect junk items like clothing that I don't need to collect, save already-known motifs and recipes and scripts for when I create another alt, save runeboxes and style pages so I can trade them or give them away in the future, and choose to bank surveys and treasure maps and most of my master writs instead of completing them as I acquire them. And then there's all the furnishings and companion gear and reconstructed daggers for storing excess transmute crystals.

Don't count on ESO Plus to save you from yourself, because you can get along just fine without it if you don't hang on to stuff you don't need to hang on to. It might seem like a miraculous help for your inventory management issues when you first get it, but all of that suddenly-free space is just going to fill back up if you let it.

I keep telling myself that one day I'll use, sell, give away, or destroy all the stuff I'm filling up my inventories, storage coffers, and bank account with, but I keep putting it off because it seems too daunting. Don't be like me!

As far as whether or not events that shower us with stuff are intended to encourage players to subscribe to ESO Plus, it really just comes down to how many event coffers you're grinding and what you're doing with the stuff you're getting. Personally, I try to avoid grinding a lot of event coffers because I don't have space for everything, even with ESO Plus. But I know that a lot of players try to grind as many event coffers as they can, on as many alts as they can, presumably so they can flood the marketplace with all of those motif pages, style pages, recipes, blueprints, etc., and then lament how events destroy the game's economy. It seems like each of us has our own preferred brand of insanity.

opalcity · April 7

Create a problem, then sell you the solution. Classic.

Even when there is a free ESO+ weekend, there is usually an event soon after with hefty loot drops to fill your bank back up.

Renato90085 · April 7

9k hour, agree ,I have 1 year plus just I don't want use 5min clean my bag trash when I done each trial/dungeon

valenwood_vegan · April 7

Personally, I do just fine without eso plus. Learn what I don't know; keep what's valuable; and sell, give away, vendor, or junk the rest.

It all depends on how seriously one wants to take the event, and on a larger scale, how much stuff they wanna hoard. It's different for everyone I suppose.

ImmortalCX · April 7

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I

Don't count on ESO Plus to save you from yourself, because you can get along just fine without it if you don't hang on to stuff you don't need to hang on to. It might seem like a miraculous help for your inventory management issues when you first get it, but all of that suddenly-free space is just going to fill back up if you let it.

Like I said, I have 2500 hours without ESO+ just fine. It is the addition of anniversary boxes that fill up the inventory too quickly. I don't have any assistant to unload to, so I just accepted that a one month sub would fill up my bag with a plethora of style materials.

The many unique style materials and gear you get don't stack. This event didn't exist afaik 5 years ago when I last played, and as I said, I never had to sub before.

If you don't sub to eso+ and have to sell or destroy everything, you are really missing out, imo. Because everyone is innundated with materials, you can't sell for a fair price, the only play is to keep it for use later.

I am one of those people who always said I didn't need the sub, but this event is nasty without it.

Stx · April 7

There is no way I could play this game without ESO+.

The craft bag is the main reason.

demonology89 · April 7

My tips:
Buy all the inventory chests
Have a couple toons as mules
Make alt accounts
Get a guild bank

When free trial of ESO+ comes around, transfer all to your craft bag.

Wuduwasa13 · April 7

ImmortalCX wrote: »

I have 2500 hours, never subbed. Due to all the STUFF, it is ridiculous to manage all of it without a crafting bag.

I am convinced the event is to encourage or at least reward subscribers. Prove me wrong.

Good. It’s about time eso plus perks were re-visited and improved.

Danikat · April 7

I agree the game is designed to encourage players to buy ESO+, but it is possible to manage without it. I also agree that if you're struggling with inventory management ESO+ won't entirely fix it for you.

IMO the important thing is to have a system which works for you and stick to it. What specifically doesn't matter much, as long as it works.

But I also agree that an important part of that will be to be realistic about what you actually need to keep and not trying to hold onto everything 'just in case'. For example I have a housing chest where I store trait and style materials, and if I run out of space in there I pick ones to sell in my guild store (or just delete if they're not worth selling). Usually that's ones I have a lot of in the craft bag (from free trials), or ones where I don't have any of the motifs so I'm not likely to use them.

ImmortalCX · April 7

Danikat wrote: »

I agree the game is designed to encourage players to buy ESO+, but it is possible to manage without it. I also agree that if you're struggling with inventory management ESO+ won't entirely fix it for you.

IMO the important thing is to have a system which works for you and stick to it. What specifically doesn't matter much, as long as it works.

But I also agree that an important part of that will be to be realistic about what you actually need to keep and not trying to hold onto everything 'just in case'. For example I have a housing chest where I store trait and style materials, and if I run out of space in there I pick ones to sell in my guild store (or just delete if they're not worth selling). Usually that's ones I have a lot of in the craft bag (from free trials), or ones where I don't have any of the motifs so I'm not likely to use them.

My system works when I am farming for stackable items. Or running content and getting normal drops. I only have to go to the bank every other day to unload.

But during the event, bags get filled 5x as fast. I can still use my same routine, but I would have to unload after every couple hours. Or be constantly destroying items to make space, which is a hassle.

If you think ZOS are being altruistic with the event by giving all this free stuff, potentially depressing the economy, this is without a doubt a boon to ESO+ players and a punishment to those who do not.

SeaGtGruff · April 7

ImmortalCX wrote: »

It is the addition of anniversary boxes that fill up the inventory too quickly.

They only fill up inventory if you grind for them. Granted, if you do a certain number of daily quests as a normal part of your gameplay, then you're going to get an anniversary box from each of them, and that's why I generally keep any activities that generate event coffers to a minimum rather than grinding, grinding, grinding for as many as I can the way a lot of players do.

ImmortalCX wrote: »

The many unique style materials and gear you get don't stack.

Style materials do stack, as do the furnishings we're getting this year. True, they only stack with themselves-- that is, style material A won't stack with style material B, only with other style material A-- and the plethora of different raw materials, refined materials, and style materials is the main reason I finally subscribed to ESO Plus several years ago. But that's because I want to keep everything rather than sell or destroy it. I did try selling stuff years ago, and I priced my items at far below the average selling prices for those items, yet they still did not sell and were eventually sent back to me in the mail when the listings expired, so now I just sell stuff to the NPC vendors instead of trying to play the selling game.

ImmortalCX wrote: »

This event didn't exist afaik 5 years ago when I last played, and as I said, I never had to sub before.

I wasn't around during Year 1 and Year 2, but I think the Anniversary Event has been a thing every year since 2015. Back then there were simply "celebrations" rather than "events" in the form we have today, but IIRC "events" in their current form began the year that Summerset was released and event tickets were added to the celebrations. But AFAIK the older celebrations did have special loot and rewards that could be acquired during the celebration.

ImmortalCX wrote: »

If you don't sub to eso+ and have to sell or destroy everything, you are really missing out, imo. Because everyone is innundated with materials, you can't sell for a fair price, the only play is to keep it for use later.

I am one of those people who always said I didn't need the sub, but this event is nasty without it.

My experience is that most of these events are "nasty" even with an ESO Plus subscription, but I realize that that's largely due to my own hoarding tendencies and reluctance to bite the bullet and get serious about inventory management. It blows my mind how players grind, grind, grind for as many event coffers as they can get, both during this event and others. They even flip out if ZOS makes any changes which result in not being able to acquire as many event coffers as before. /shrug

ImmortalCX · April 7

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

ImmortalCX wrote: »

It is the addition of anniversary boxes that fill up the inventory too quickly.

They only fill up inventory if you grind for them. Granted, if you do a certain number of daily quests as a normal part of your gameplay, then you're going to get an anniversary box from each of them, and that's why I generally keep any activities that generate event coffers to a minimum rather than grinding, grinding, grinding for as many as I can the way a lot of players do.

ImmortalCX wrote: »

The many unique style materials and gear you get don't stack.

Style materials do stack, as do the furnishings we're getting this year. True, they only stack with themselves-- that is, style material A won't stack with style material B, only with other style material A-- and the plethora of different raw materials, refined materials, and style materials is the main reason I finally subscribed to ESO Plus several years ago. But that's because I want to keep everything rather than sell or destroy it. I did try selling stuff years ago, and I priced my items at far below the average selling prices for those items, yet they still did not sell and were eventually sent back to me in the mail when the listings expired, so now I just sell stuff to the NPC vendors instead of trying to play the selling game.

ImmortalCX wrote: »

This event didn't exist afaik 5 years ago when I last played, and as I said, I never had to sub before.

I wasn't around during Year 1 and Year 2, but I think the Anniversary Event has been a thing every year since 2015. Back then there were simply "celebrations" rather than "events" in the form we have today, but IIRC "events" in their current form began the year that Summerset was released and event tickets were added to the celebrations. But AFAIK the older celebrations did have special loot and rewards that could be acquired during the celebration.

ImmortalCX wrote: »

If you don't sub to eso+ and have to sell or destroy everything, you are really missing out, imo. Because everyone is innundated with materials, you can't sell for a fair price, the only play is to keep it for use later.

I am one of those people who always said I didn't need the sub, but this event is nasty without it.

My experience is that most of these events are "nasty" even with an ESO Plus subscription, but I realize that that's largely due to my own hoarding tendencies and reluctance to bite the bullet and get serious about inventory management. It blows my mind how players grind, grind, grind for as many event coffers as they can get, both during this event and others. They even flip out if ZOS makes any changes which result in not being able to acquire as many event coffers as before. /shrug

Im not grinding explicitly for them, just doing several zone dailies. After the first day of the event, my free inventory had filled with many different style mats, mementos, consumables, etc etc.

If you are playing as to not take advantage of the many gift boxes, that is a shame. This really is the time to stock up on materials and fill missing pages in your style book.

NoSoup · April 7

Hahah yeah, given the tens of thousands of mats I have in my crafting bag dropping my ESO+ sub is no longer plausible.

zaria · April 8

Soraka wrote: »

Inventory and bank management is a bit of a hot mess in this game

I think I quit ESO after around a year because of the inventory mini game took so much time.
Back then it was less stuff but you had to keep gear who might be useful.

Grizzbeorn · April 8

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I wasn't around during Year 1 and Year 2, but I think the Anniversary Event has been a thing every year since 2015. Back then there were simply "celebrations" rather than "events" in the form we have today, but IIRC "events" in their current form began the year that Summerset was released and event tickets were added to the celebrations. But AFAIK the older celebrations did have special loot and rewards that could be acquired during the celebration.

Event Tickets were introduced with the Witches Festival in 2018.

Aliniel · April 8

I'll never play ESO without ESO+. The game is designed to be extremely irritable without a craft bag. Just look at the number of materials being added over the years and we're still sitting at 200 (+15 with pets) max bag slots from the base game.

Spacefish2323 · April 8

Isn't this sort of like a trust fund baby complaining that being born rich might rob them of their ambition? Heaven forfend I be punished by being given too much free stuff the next time karma decides I have it coming.

Pixiepumpkin · April 8

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Isn't this sort of like a trust fund baby complaining that being born rich might rob them of their ambition? Heaven forfend I be punished by being given too much free stuff the next time karma decides I have it coming.

No, the OP clearly laid out their issues. Your assertion is an idea you made up that has nothing to do with the original post.

Spacefish2323 · April 8

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Isn't this sort of like a trust fund baby complaining that being born rich might rob them of their ambition? Heaven forfend I be punished by being given too much free stuff the next time karma decides I have it coming.

No, the OP clearly laid out their issues. Your assertion is an idea you made up that has nothing to do with the original post.

You understand hyperbole when it suits you but not when it doesn't. The entire game encourges you 1) to play and 2) to subscribe. And the event encourages you to play, so by the transitive property, sure it ENCOURGES you to subscribe. Every activity rewards items, and in RPG items must be managed. The event just accelerates the rate at which you acquire items (Oh no, free stuff!). A subscription makes that inventory management less onerous with or without a change in the rate of loot due to an event. If you see an encouragement you don't way to pay for, so be it, but its not punishment. The event boxes are as rewarding to subs as non-subs, who are just having to do what they always have to do with their inventory with the extra stuff.

Pixiepumpkin · April 8

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Isn't this sort of like a trust fund baby complaining that being born rich might rob them of their ambition? Heaven forfend I be punished by being given too much free stuff the next time karma decides I have it coming.

No, the OP clearly laid out their issues. Your assertion is an idea you made up that has nothing to do with the original post.

You understand hyperbole when it suits you but not when it doesn't. The entire game encourges you 1) to play and 2) to subscribe. And the event encourages you to play, so by the transitive property, sure it ENCOURGES you to subscribe. Every activity rewards items, and in RPG items must be managed. The event just accelerates the rate at which you acquire items (Oh no, free stuff!). A subscription makes that inventory management less onerous with or without a change in the rate of loot due to an event. If you see an encouragement you don't way to pay for, so be it, but its not punishment. The event boxes are as rewarding to subs as non-subs, who are just having to do what they always have to do with their inventory with the extra stuff.

1. Incorrect. This has nothing to do with what suits me.
2. I would use a different word than "encourage" as ESO without ESO+ (for the craft bag) falls into the frustrating category regarding inventory management.
3. The event accelerates how much junk is put into the craft bag, making my point above even MORE relevant, not having ESO+ is 100% punishing with this event. There is literally no way to manage inventory while maintaining the required items to play the game. There is an unrealistic expectation in how much one has to play to dig up all material maps, move inventory around while maintaing a spreadsheet (console users can not use addons), finding where all the museum type items go, along with writs, multiple sets of armor that can not be deconed due to the craft cost of golding items and their required material in inventory to start wtih.

This game is absoutely punishing when one does not have ESO+, and even more so during events like this. I am doing my dailies on 20 characters (as is my wife) and we chuckled and had a laugh on the first day when discussing how this would be impossible without ESO+.

That is unless you do not work and can play for 14 hours a day doing bag management.

Thysbe · April 8

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

This game is absoutely punishing when one does not have ESO+, and even more so during events like this. I am doing my dailies on 20 characters (as is my wife) and we chuckled and had a laugh on the first day when discussing how this would be impossible without ESO+.

That is unless you do not work and can play for 14 hours a day doing bag management.

without ESO+: doing crafting dailies + 2 WW dailies on 19 chars for the event and have no issues with inventory managament

just sell whats not worth to keep to vendor - if you hoard crap it´s no suprise you cant manage and ESO+ is not a real fix for the problem. Took a bit to get the right order of which char takes what but now its smooth.

I don´t have to relog on any other char so inventory mgmt costs me only the time to sell crap and the time to bank what another one takes out - about 2 min per char. Loading Screens take 3-5 times of the time.

Edit: the only thing that really pains me is furnishings - keeping them in houses and travel all the time when you are on a project is super annoying. So I would get ESO+ if a furnishing bag was included but I don´t need it for crafting bag.

Spacefish2323 · April 8

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Isn't this sort of like a trust fund baby complaining that being born rich might rob them of their ambition? Heaven forfend I be punished by being given too much free stuff the next time karma decides I have it coming.

No, the OP clearly laid out their issues. Your assertion is an idea you made up that has nothing to do with the original post.

You understand hyperbole when it suits you but not when it doesn't. The entire game encourges you 1) to play and 2) to subscribe. And the event encourages you to play, so by the transitive property, sure it ENCOURGES you to subscribe. Every activity rewards items, and in RPG items must be managed. The event just accelerates the rate at which you acquire items (Oh no, free stuff!). A subscription makes that inventory management less onerous with or without a change in the rate of loot due to an event. If you see an encouragement you don't way to pay for, so be it, but its not punishment. The event boxes are as rewarding to subs as non-subs, who are just having to do what they always have to do with their inventory with the extra stuff.

1. Incorrect. This has nothing to do with what suits me.
2. I would use a different word than "encourage" as ESO without ESO+ (for the craft bag) falls into the frustrating category regarding inventory management.
3. The event accelerates how much junk is put into the craft bag, making my point above even MORE relevant, not having ESO+ is 100% punishing with this event. There is literally no way to manage inventory while maintaining the required items to play the game. There is an unrealistic expectation in how much one has to play to dig up all material maps, move inventory around while maintaing a spreadsheet (console users can not use addons), finding where all the museum type items go, along with writs, multiple sets of armor that can not be deconed due to the craft cost of golding items and their required material in inventory to start wtih.

This game is absoutely punishing when one does not have ESO+, and even more so during events like this. I am doing my dailies on 20 characters (as is my wife) and we chuckled and had a laugh on the first day when discussing how this would be impossible without ESO+.

That is unless you do not work and can play for 14 hours a day doing bag management.

It's not punishment to be given extra rewards just because you feel like they are junk. Most of the items in the game are junk outside of the statsticks and consumables if your mindset is pure optimization. Where then is the limiting principle: without ESO+ you shouldn't be inflicted with motifs? Furnishings? What else? Nothing but gear ugprades and BIS consumables? Punishment would be not being given those items and what choice you have to do with them, event or no.

No one is forcing anyone to dig up maps or do anything with their inventory besides vendor dump. Those are choices, and choices have tradeoffs. Don't have enough bank space for all your gear because transmute isn't good enough in your opinion because tempers aren't free? Okay, play less characters. Wait, you want to play more characters, but that might mean managing them? And that management is easier if you make the choice to buy ESO+? That choice is yours.

If items coming into your inventory is punishment, then ESO is self-flagellation. You feel like the majority of the reward are trash? Okay, fair enough. But they are trying to reward players with the event, the exact opposite of punish them. And the difference is entirely in the eye of the ungrateful beholder.

Pixiepumpkin · April 8

Thysbe wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

This game is absoutely punishing when one does not have ESO+, and even more so during events like this. I am doing my dailies on 20 characters (as is my wife) and we chuckled and had a laugh on the first day when discussing how this would be impossible without ESO+.

That is unless you do not work and can play for 14 hours a day doing bag management.

without ESO+: doing crafting dailies + 2 WW dailies on 19 chars for the event and have no issues with inventory managament

just sell whats not worth to keep to vendor - if you hoard crap it´s no suprise you cant manage and ESO+ is not a real fix for the problem. Took a bit to get the right order of which char takes what but now its smooth.

I don´t have to relog on any other char so inventory mgmt costs me only the time to sell crap and the time to bank what another one takes out - about 2 min per char. Loading Screens take 3-5 times of the time.

I do not horde anything, I keep what I need which is often 4 gear sets on any given character, required potions, food, etc along with items I have not had to the time to get to (writs, harvest maps, treasure maps).

Its impossible to manage on multiple characters while maintaining all the items necessary to crafft any given item upon request.

ChuckyPayne · April 8

Personal Assistant addon help a lot, save lots of time. Auto-junk, auto-sell, auto-deposit, auto-widraw, auto-refine, auto-repair etc., etc. It help lot without eso+, but helps with eso+ too.

If I would play without eso+, 2 way. 5 merchant guild and sell everything, or 0 merchant guild and junk and auto sell everything. End maybe find an auto-destroy addon to destroy gold event containers.

Pixiepumpkin · April 8

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

It's not punishment to be given extra rewards just because you feel like they are junk. Most of the items in the game are junk outside of the statsticks and consumables if your mindset is pure optimization.

"Junk" items are mostly crafting materials that have little value at the trader, but are valuable when it comes time to craft and therefore can not be done without. They are not "junk" in the sense of items we should vendor, but "junk" in t he sense that they take up a ton of space.

The entirety of this game is desinged to funnel the player to use ESO+ and to purchase crown crates. This is not a conspriacy theory but a very basic observation (and EXTREMELY obvious to those with design educations). The craft bag and amount of drops from any given source illustrate this.

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Where then is the limiting principle: without ESO+ you shouldn't be inflicted with motifs? Furnishings? What else? Nothing but gear ugprades and BIS consumables? Punishment would be not being given those items and what choice you have to do with them, event or no.

What is the limiting principle? The craft bag should be base game, NOT eso+.
Also two things can be punishable at the same time.

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

No one is forcing anyone to dig up maps or do anything with their inventory besides vendor dump.

So you are suggesting that one should not play part of the game because t hey do not have ESO+? That proves my point.

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Those are choices, and choices have tradeoffs. Don't have enough bank space for all your gear because transmute isn't good enough in your opinion because tempers aren't free? Okay, play less characters.

So, we are given the choice to play alts, but then punished when we play alts? That makes no sense.

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

Wait, you want to play more characters, but that might mean managing them? And that management is easier if you make the choice to buy ESO+? That choice is yours.

Everything we do in life is a "choice", but there are also methods of manipulating people to make those choices, this is well documented and in part what the entire advertising world is built around. The game is extremely time consuming (without needing to be) and frustrating if one intends to play the game fully without ESO+.

Spacefish2323 wrote: »

If items coming into your inventory is punishment, then ESO is self-flagellation. You feel like the majority of the reward are trash? Okay, fair enough. But they are trying to reward players with the event, the exact opposite of punish them. And the difference is entirely in the eye of the ungrateful beholder.

The rewards are fine and I have no issue with them, but without ESO+ they are punishing as the OP stated. The amount of inventory management and time required to balance multiple characters is insane without ESO+

Which takes me back to...."The Craft Bag should be baked into the base game, and not a feature of ESO+".

But then, few would sub to ESO+ right?

Pixiepumpkin · April 8

ChuckyPayne wrote: »

Personal Assistant addon help a lot, save lots of time. Auto-junk, auto-sell, auto-deposit, auto-widraw, auto-refine, auto-repair etc., etc. It help lot without eso+, but helps with eso+ too.

If I would play without eso+, 2 way. 5 merchant guild and sell everything, or 0 merchant guild and junk and auto sell everything. End maybe find an auto-destroy addon to destroy gold event containers.

Is that available on consoles?

Thysbe · April 8

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Its impossible to manage on multiple characters while maintaining all the items necessary to crafft any given item upon request.

Just because you cannot/don´t want to do it doesn´t mean its impossible. If you stack 4 gear sets on each of 20 chars + old suryes and TMs - no surprise.

I have all the items necessary to craft at any given time either by filling crafting bag during free ESO+ but I also take ESO+ once or twice a year to dump mats and do housing (the double slots). Suryes I stack until such a time and then dump all the mats in bag.
Writs I can stack until double XP event without any troubles.

But I admit it takes some planning and effort. I can understand that people don´t want to bother with that and appreciate the convenience of having everything at hand. But it´s simply not impossible.