Crafting Survey Assistant

Desiato · July 4

SilverBride wrote: »

All players have the same chance to develop their characters to do daily crafting writs and earn surveys as any other player. Taking the time to do this is the opposite of laziness.

Selling the crafting mats I get from these is about 99% of my income, too. That's why I chose the most efficient way to do it.

Work smarter, not harder applies in this situation.

The mats you would get from a survey assistant would be WORTHLESS because everyone would do it.

What you're asking for is basically free mats because grinding crafting writs with an addon is effortless.

So if such a thing existed, more players would engage in this activity on more characters and even more accounts -- EXACTLY like we see during the Jubilee event.

Not only will this destroy the mat economy, it will destroy the fun of players who enjoy harvesting in addition to the downstream impact of those who enjoy trading and those who enjoy meaningful upgrade options.

You're basically just asking for unlimited easy mats. Not only do you seem to want a free ride, but at the expense of other players who enjoy different things. Your activities aren't in a bubble. They effect the rest of the game.

darkriketz · July 4

Cooperharley wrote: »

I'll never understand people's vehemently negative responses to optional additions. Something as minor as an assistant being added to the game to help players be more efficient with their time. We have addons and several assistants already to help you play efficiently and get to the reason why you came to play the game - to have fun. I don't find deconstructing, visiting the fence, selling to merchants, banking, collecting surveys, etc. to be fun. Having assistants that are there to make these things take less time in exchange for monetary support of the game we enjoy is a great tradeoff.

If it's optional, why do you even complain about it ? You don't want to take time traveling around to pick materials ? Don't complete daily writs. The surveys are part of the deal, you complete daily and master writs, you need ressources, either you buy the materials or go pick them with the map leads you to.

If you don't want to travel, don't complain about the map, destroy it and buy your materials. It's not forbidden. After all, you want fun and you're saying that picking up ressources isn't fun. A quick reminder though : it's a videogame, not a matter of life and death. It's not a big deal if you have to take a couple minutes to pick materials. And again : if the surveys demand you too much time according to your taste, then they're not the problem. Your greed and your 50 crafter toons are.

SilverBride · July 4

Desiato wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

All players have the same chance to develop their characters to do daily crafting writs and earn surveys as any other player. Taking the time to do this is the opposite of laziness.

Selling the crafting mats I get from these is about 99% of my income, too. That's why I chose the most efficient way to do it.

Work smarter, not harder applies in this situation.

The mats you would get from a survey assistant would be WORTHLESS because everyone would do it.

What you're asking for is basically free mats because grinding crafting writs with an addon is effortless.

So if such a thing existed, more players would engage in this activity on more characters and even more accounts -- EXACTLY like we see during the Jubilee event.

Not only will this destroy the mat economy, it will destroy the fun of players who enjoy harvesting in addition to the downstream impact of those who enjoy trading and those who enjoy meaningful upgrade options.

You're basically just asking for unlimited easy mats. Not only do you seem to want a free ride, but at the expense of other players who enjoy different things.

I've been doing daily crafting writs and selling the mats for several years now. It is not effortless as I pointed out the preparation needed to do this for each character I use. I also spend 30 minutes to an hour doing these every day so it's not instant free mats. If I don't do the writs there are no surveys or mats.

This doesn't destroy the fun of those that choose to spend a lot of time manually farming these mats. Rather having to spend the additional time to manually harvest multiple surveys a day is ruining the fun of those that don't enjoy it.

Desiato · July 4

Well, maybe it's not effortless to you, but it's effortless to a lot of gamers. It takes no prep for me. I can literally grind them 1 minute per character in Necrom. And Necrom isn't even the fastest routine, I just like it because it's not crowded.

I'm not exaggerating it. When this topic came up last year, I timed it. It took me like 55 seconds. The addon unboxes everything and all the mats go to my craft bag. I decon/sell the rest extremely quickly.

It's ridiculously easy, yet INCREDIBLY TEDIOUS. It would be a horrible design decision to reward players even more for this. It's a good way to make players hate playing your game. But like during the Jubilee, if the reward is too good to ignore, they players will do things they hate.

So it's not just about you, it's about how other players would do it including core/hardcore gamers who can optimize a routine.

SilverBride · July 4

Desiato wrote: »

Well, maybe it's not effortless to you, but it's effortless to a lot of gamers. It takes no prep for me. I can literally grind them 1 minute per character in Necrom. And Necrom isn't even the fastest routine, I just like it because it's not crowded.

I'm not exaggerating it. When this topic came up last year, I timed it. It took me like 55 seconds. The addon unboxes everything and all the mats go to my craft bag. I decon/and sell the rest extremely quickly.

I've timed it too, doing them at Vivec City. Even with provisioning and alchemy mats pre crafted it takes me a minimum of 3 minutes per character moving as fast as I can. But I don't run at full speed so it normally takes me 5 minutes per character. And that is without deconstructing and selling. That is just getting to the location, picking up the writs, doing them then turning them all in.

Tandor · July 4

SilverBride wrote: »

RealLoveBVB wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

RealLoveBVB wrote: »

If you need the mats so badly, isn't it way cheaper to sell your many, many crowns and buy the mats with all your million earned gold?

Many players don't gather mats from surveys because they need them. They gather them to sell.

If there was a survey assistant I would use it.

Then they should invest the time to harvest them, like everyone else who is harvesting mats several hours a day to make some gold.

This sounds like "I want money, but don't want to work for it".

I'm here to play and have fun, and I'm not going to spend my time farming resources.

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

SilverBride · July 4

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

Desiato · July 4

SilverBride wrote: »

I've timed it too, doing them at Vivek City. Even with provisioning and alchemy mats pre crafted it takes me a minimum of 3 minutes per character moving as fast as I can. But I don't run at full speed so it normally takes me 5 minutes per character.

I'm not arguing that *you* can do them in under a minute. I'm saying they are easy to do within a minute to a motivated gamer. And I'm not some young whippersnapper.

You keep personalizing this without seeming to realize the point is about the impact it has on the rest of the game. Even if everyone was limited to your slower pace, the impact would still be huge.

Even without an assistant or a gift box event, and even after the mat price collapse (in part from grinding writs), writs are so rewarding, they make sense to grind on as many characters possible, it's just horrible gameplay.

And for everyone who says they enjoy it, I don't believe any of you would do it without the rewards. That's the only thing "fun" about it.

DenverRalphy · July 4

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I'd argue that they are a quest. You're given a map showing the location of a prize, you follow the map, you get your prize. Just because there's no dialog tied to it, does that mean it's not the same thing?

OutLaw_Nynx · July 4

I don’t mind doing surveys now as a console player bc I have an add on that tells me where it is.

SilverBride · July 4

Desiato wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I've timed it too, doing them at Vivek City. Even with provisioning and alchemy mats pre crafted it takes me a minimum of 3 minutes per character moving as fast as I can. But I don't run at full speed so it normally takes me 5 minutes per character.

I'm not arguing that *you* can do them in under a minute. I'm saying they are easy to do within a minute to a motivated gamer. And I'm not some young whippersnapper.

You keep personalizing this without seeming to realize the point is about the impact it has on the rest of the game. Even if everyone was limited to your slower pace, the impact would still be huge.

Even without an assistant or a gift box event, and even after the mat price collapse (in part from grinding writs), writs are so rewarding, they make sense to grind on as many characters possible, it's just horrible gameplay.

And for everyone who says they enjoy it, I don't believe any of you would do it without the rewards. That's the only thing "fun" about it.

I don't enjoy doing writs, nor do I hate it. What I don't enjoy is the time it takes from other things I'd rather be doing, and I especially don't enjoy having to spend additional time to then gather surveys. But I am not one to let them stack up, and I do every survey I get right after I complete all my writs for the day.

I would be fine if a survey assistant would charge a fee to gather these for me. Either in gold or in a reduced amount of resources gathered.

DenverRalphy · July 4

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

I don’t mind doing surveys now as a console player bc I have an add on that tells me where it is.

Over the past week, one of the things I see most on the PSNA server are players expressing their astonishment over how easy PC players have had of it due to add-ons. I mean they always knew at some level. But until they recently experienced it first-hand, it blows their minds.

I switched to consoles a couple years back now, and I was still surprised at how much I'd forgotten.

SilverBride · July 4

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I'd argue that they are a quest. You're given a map showing the location of a prize, you follow the map, you get your prize. Just because there's no dialog tied to it, does that mean it's not the same thing?

A quest sends the player to complete an action for an NPC and is related to the story or the zone. That is very different from gathering a survey, or a treasure map, or a lead, which are all just picking things up with no affect on the world.

Ragnarok0130 · July 4

kargen27 wrote: »

This would not be good for the game. We need more reasons to visit existing zones not less.

No we don't, people doing crafting surveys add nothing to the existing zones. They jump in at the nearest way shrine in the middle of nowhere, gather the survey, and immediately leave (usually by portaling from the survey site to the nearest way shrine in the next zone) to do the next survey in the next zone. They are not doing content or interacting with other players.

DenverRalphy · July 4

SilverBride wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I'd argue that they are a quest. You're given a map showing the location of a prize, you follow the map, you get your prize. Just because there's no dialog tied to it, does that mean it's not the same thing?

A quest sends the player to complete an action for an NPC and is related to the story or the zone. That is very different from gathering a survey, or a treasure map, or a lead, which are all just picking things up with no affect on the world.

Doesn't matter how the quest or task is assigned. Be it from an NPC, a writ board, or even a scrap of paper laying atop a rock in middle of nowhere.

The player is tasked with a time-sink to accomplish an objective and receive a reward or compensation for their time. Survey and Treasure maps fit that criteria. Doesn't matter one bit whether it's tied to a story or has dialog.

Wildberryjack · July 4

If they do that they might as well just give us the mats instead of the surveys.

sshogrin · July 4

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I'd argue that they are a quest. You're given a map showing the location of a prize, you follow the map, you get your prize. Just because there's no dialog tied to it, does that mean it's not the same thing?

How can it be a quest when it doesn't show up in your quests?
Your argument doesn't work. If they showed up in the quest tracker I could maybe see your point, but since they don't, it isn't a quest.

Tandor · July 4

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I don't see a distinction personally, they're different aspects of a game which recognises writs as quests, e.g. for the purpose of doing Endeavours. People are free to choose which aspects they enjoy and want to do, and to leave things they don't enjoy. I don't like a constant move towards trivialising the game by saying if you don't want to do something then it should be done for you.

sshogrin · July 4

Tandor wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I don't see a distinction personally, they're different aspects of a game which recognises writs as quests, e.g. for the purpose of doing Endeavours. People are free to choose which aspects they enjoy and want to do, and to leave things they don't enjoy. I don't like a constant move towards trivialising the game by saying if you don't want to do something then it should be done for you.

Endeavors and Golden Pursuits are NOT quests. They don't show up in the quest tracker. There is a difference.

Tandor · July 4

sshogrin wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I don't see a distinction personally, they're different aspects of a game which recognises writs as quests, e.g. for the purpose of doing Endeavours. People are free to choose which aspects they enjoy and want to do, and to leave things they don't enjoy. I don't like a constant move towards trivialising the game by saying if you don't want to do something then it should be done for you.

Endeavors and Golden Pursuits are NOT quests. They don't show up in the quest tracker. There is a difference.

Nonetheless, writs qualify as quests for Endeavours.

However, let's look at housing. If someone doesn't enjoy furnishing a house, and not all of them come with a furnished option, should they be able to buy a Furnishing Assistant to do it for them?

DenverRalphy · July 4

sshogrin wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I'd argue that they are a quest. You're given a map showing the location of a prize, you follow the map, you get your prize. Just because there's no dialog tied to it, does that mean it's not the same thing?

How can it be a quest when it doesn't show up in your quests?
Your argument doesn't work. If they showed up in the quest tracker I could maybe see your point, but since they don't, it isn't a quest.

It's inherently obvious that I was speaking from a functionality standpoint. Nitpicking over semantics doesn't help your case.

SilverBride · July 4

Tandor wrote: »

Nonetheless, writs qualify as quests for Endeavours.

Doing a daily writ is a quest, but the surveys they award aren't.

Edited to correct.

DenverRalphy · July 4

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Nonetheless, writs qualify as quests for Endeavours.

No they don't. Endeavors are tasks, not quests.

"The Endeavors system is a free addition to the ESO base game that all players can utilize. With this system, you can complete daily and weekly tasks, called Endeavors, that grant you various rewards (such as Gold or Experience) and a currency called Seals of Endeavor."

https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/answer/53060

Actually, daily writs do indeed satisfy "Complete X quests" endeavors.

SilverBride · July 4

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Nonetheless, writs qualify as quests for Endeavours.

No they don't. Endeavors are tasks, not quests.

"The Endeavors system is a free addition to the ESO base game that all players can utilize. With this system, you can complete daily and weekly tasks, called Endeavors, that grant you various rewards (such as Gold or Experience) and a currency called Seals of Endeavor."

https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/answer/53060

Actually, daily writs do indeed satisfy "Complete X quests" endeavors.

I misread so I went back and edited to correct.

sshogrin · July 4

Tandor wrote: »

sshogrin wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I don't see a distinction personally, they're different aspects of a game which recognises writs as quests, e.g. for the purpose of doing Endeavours. People are free to choose which aspects they enjoy and want to do, and to leave things they don't enjoy. I don't like a constant move towards trivialising the game by saying if you don't want to do something then it should be done for you.

Endeavors and Golden Pursuits are NOT quests. They don't show up in the quest tracker. There is a difference.

Nonetheless, writs qualify as quests for Endeavours.

However, let's look at housing. If someone doesn't enjoy furnishing a house, and not all of them come with a furnished option, should they be able to buy a Furnishing Assistant to do it for them?

No, that's a completely different topic all together.

sshogrin · July 4

DenverRalphy wrote: »

sshogrin wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Someone else may say "I'm here to PvP and have fun, I'm not going to spend my time doing quests". Do you support them being able to have a Quest Assistant who can complete all the quests for them?

Of course not. But gathering surveys is a task, not a quest.

I'd argue that they are a quest. You're given a map showing the location of a prize, you follow the map, you get your prize. Just because there's no dialog tied to it, does that mean it's not the same thing?

How can it be a quest when it doesn't show up in your quests?
Your argument doesn't work. If they showed up in the quest tracker I could maybe see your point, but since they don't, it isn't a quest.

It's inherently obvious that I was speaking from a functionality standpoint. Nitpicking over semantics doesn't help your case.

Arguing that doing a survey is a quest doesn't help your case at all considering it's NOT a quest.
What you are trying to argue is that if you're doing a quest and the NPC says go pick that up, that's one quest, bring it back to me is another quest, all inside of one actual quest.
The daily crafting writ IS the quest, the survey is a reward, it's not a quest starter. It's NOT semantics.

sshogrin · July 4

DenverRalphy wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Nonetheless, writs qualify as quests for Endeavours.

No they don't. Endeavors are tasks, not quests.

"The Endeavors system is a free addition to the ESO base game that all players can utilize. With this system, you can complete daily and weekly tasks, called Endeavors, that grant you various rewards (such as Gold or Experience) and a currency called Seals of Endeavor."

https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/answer/53060

Actually, daily writs do indeed satisfy "Complete X quests" endeavors.

You are agreeing that daily writs are quests and that endeavors aren't a quest, but a reward for doing things that are on the endeavor list.

Desiato · July 4

Let's also do:

- perfected gear assistant that gives me perfected trial and arena gear
- blueprint assistant that gives me blueprints
- levelling assistant. WHY DO I HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL THE TROUBLE OF LEVELLING ALTS???
- CP assistant. It's such a grind.
- Mount upgrade hireling. I am so sick of going to the stable every day.
- trader assistant. Why am I listing my own items for sale!?
- lazy craft writ assistant. Why do I have to go through all the trouble of accepting the quest and going station to station?
- login assistant. I mean, how many times do I have to do that?!
- Assistant assistant with so many assistants, I'd like a master assistant that handles them for me

SilverBride · July 4

Assistants are a thing already. Why are some ok but others aren't?

sshogrin · July 4

Desiato wrote: »

Let's also do:

- perfected gear assistant that gives me perfected trial and arena gear
- blueprint assistant that gives me blueprints
- levelling assistant. WHY DO I HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL THE TROUBLE OF LEVELLING ALTS???
- CP assistant. It's such a grind.
- Mount upgrade hireling. I am so sick of going to the stable every day.
- trader assistant. Why am I listing my own items for sale!?
- lazy craft writ assistant. Why do I have to go through all the trouble of accepting the quest and going station to station?
- login assistant. I mean, how many times do I have to do that?!
- Assistant assistant with so many assistants, I'd like a master assistant that handles them for me

This is just being completely overboard and nobody's asked for any of that.

Besides you missed the most important, just an assistant that gives you everything, every achievement, and you don't even have to play the game at all...

The devs have talked about QoL improvements, and having a survey assistant fits into QoL improvements.
As some have pointed out, the banker, merchant, ragpicker, and armorer are all QoL improvements. Having companions is QoL improvements.
I don't see why we can't have the companions go do like 10 or 20 surveys per daily reset.
Isobel-blacksmithing
Ember-enchanting
Zarith Var-alchemy
Sharp As Night-clothing
Bastion-woodworking
Tanlorin-jewelry

You could only put 10-20 writs on them per daily reset, and couldn't recall or use them while they are doing surveys. We have done the work to get them, most of the time they aren't being used, so they could be useful.