MJallday wrote: »

absolutely not. this would just about kill the game for me

How can not having to spend time on primitive routine kill the game?

Which Character would this Assistant be following? My main crafter that only gets max level materials, the Character who is max level but not maxed in the crafting skills that gets some materials at their level and some at their skill level, or the baby toon that only gets base level materials?

IMHO ZOS will not do this. They look at the number of players, the length of time a player is connected, and how often a player is connected. These numbers are used to determine the popularity of the game, which along with monthly/yearly revenue shows the parent company and investors how profitable the game is.

This is why they want you on longer to do things, and why they make the surveys so you cannot do a stack of them for a location at one time you have to run away form the harvest point and back again to keep being able to get the survey items to re-spawn. Adding a autotbot would decrees the time a player is connected. It may be only a few minutes, but a few minutes multiplied by the all the players doing surveys equals whole lot of time.

This is the sort of functionality that belongs on an Assistant. It would be similar to the Deconstruction Assistants who consume equipment and give crafting materials.

I'd like this Assistant to tackle Treasure Maps as well as Surveys — the interface could have one tab for the Surveys (with subcategories for the crafting discipline) with another tab for Treasure Maps (with subcategories for zone type, such as "DLC", "Ebonheart Pact", "Cyrodiil", "Neutral", and so on — like how item sets in the Collections menu are categorized).


ZOS has added functionality like this before, so there's little reason to assume they wouldn't do so again. We can fillet stacks of fish or refine stacks of raw materials rather than doing each one individually. We can summon an NPC to sell items to or to access our bank from. The Fence Assistant isn't from the Crown Store, so it makes sense in that case why there's a penalty incurred for using it. Plus, the other Assistants don't have their full functionality, so even then there's still a reason to head into town to access real merchants and bankers.

This is a quality of life feature that rightfully deserves to be monetized as an Assistant — we don't necessarily want everyone to never manually do Surveys or Treasure Maps, but the people who want to do those tasks automatically are willing to pay money to save time.

I suppose spending all their free game time grinding surveys is compelling gameplay for some people?
Id rather be questing or doing a random world boss, personally.

I like gathering treasure maps so i wouldn't use that part, but im not adverse to others having the option.

Except for the spares I cant pick up because they dont stack, why??? Feels bad to leave them behind.

Maybe if zos counts the number of posts on this they'll do it. Squeaky wheel and all.

mdjessup4906 wrote: »

I dont remember if surveys have leads or not, but same for them if so.

Sea-Serpent's Coil has a lead locked behind Jewelry Crafting Surveys.

mdjessup4906 wrote: »

I suppose spending all their free game time grinding surveys is compelling gameplay for some people?

Finding the locations is fun. And if I already know them, it isn't much of a grind at all.

Tradeable surveys (and leads) would really be an interesting way to address this problem, and that’s something I fully support.

People already do have symbiotic relationships with friends to send treasure maps if they don’t feel like collecting the white glyph and blue Thunderbug sabatons themselves, but their friends do find it relaxing to go about them.

I could totally see people setting up “we’ll do your surveys for a small cut!” businesses if surveys were tradeable.

Can't be bothered to do surveys --> don't do surveys

Techwolf_Lupindo wrote: »

The best way to handle this is though the hirelings by adding more skill points into each craft tree. Why? This is to address the issue of what LEVEL of crafting mats to get. The hiring emails are tied to the character skill points into each crafting tree. One point will get level 1 mats. 10 points, max crafting skill level, will get cp160 mats. When doing surveys, those skill points are used to determine what level mats you get from the surveys, level one to cp160.

How do you do that with an Assistant?

With hirelings, you put more points into the skill tree for more and better results from surveys. Only requirement is that character have the surveys in inventory, otherwise the server will not know what surveys to use up.

The only other idea that will work to make surveys tradable.

That's not a bad way to handle it. Level the survey guy the same way you do companions. Maybe "train" them by taking them with you to collect a nominal number of surveys. Not 50 like the damn horse though, 20 or so seems ok. And all professions at once NOT one at a time i can just see them trying something like that ugh.


"It is a grind you create yourself."

No, its a grind the devs created by not making the dumb things reset automatically instead of having to run all the way away and back, and in later zones placing the nodes in such awful inconvenient areas and so badly spaced that I auto junk all the ones that lead to those areas.

I hardly do them at all now, only when they are convenient and I feel like it, so I lose nothing by them not implementing a helper, only gain. But those who do the surveys and want/need the stuff will gain and stop losing time they could be spending on orher stuff, and im fine with that.

Hapexamendios wrote: »

No, you just want free mats without putting in the time to do it yourself. You want the mats, do the work.

No thanks, I play for fun not work. Surveys are a quest reward for quests that we've already done. The fact that they're locked behind more tasks after we've already completed tasks to get them is tedious and unfun. It's like earning lootbags by completing quests, but you can't just open your lootbag - you have to travel all over the gameworld to unlock the lootbags that were a supposed reward for something you've already done. It's just grind on top of grind and ESO has way too much of that in basically everything, from simple horse training all the way to its combat systems.

Surveys are intentionally designed as a grind imo. They are tedious and offer no gameplay.

Kwik1 wrote: »

If you don't want to spend time doing survey's then don't. Sell them and let someone who does want to.

Surveys are bound and can't be sold.

Kwik1 wrote: »

Really? Sorry I've only recently returned so haven't checked. They should make them sellable though IMHO.

That's a good idea.

Frayton wrote: »

Hapexamendios wrote: »

No, you just want free mats without putting in the time to do it yourself. You want the mats, do the work.

No thanks, I play for fun not work. Surveys are a quest reward for quests that we've already done. The fact that they're locked behind more tasks after we've already completed tasks to get them is tedious and unfun. It's like earning lootbags by completing quests, but you can't just open your lootbag - you have to travel all over the gameworld to unlock the lootbags that were a supposed reward for something you've already done. It's just grind on top of grind and ESO has way too much of that in basically everything, from simple horse training all the way to its combat systems.

I if i hate doing PVP for transmute stones and daily battlegrounds quests, as well as tales of tribute. Can I get an assistant to do those for me as well? Or chapter dailies?

Gathering, surveys is nothing more than really completing a daily in any other zone. It just so happens, that crafting dailies are fast and easy WHEN you exclude surveys as part of them, however, when you factor them back in they take just as much time involved per survey received.

IF an assistant is introduced and I dont think it should be. It should produce reduced results by around 35%, and it should be either a golden pursuit or quest reward and not a crown store item.