@DeadGlad

We may not see eye to eye on crafting writs but I do like most of the rest of your suggestions.

I’ve been thinking more about this 'Second Job' feeling lately. It’s becoming a real issue. Just curious — how many hours a week do you guys actually spend on 'mandatory' chores before you even start having real fun in the game? Is the balance shifting too far?

LunaFlora wrote: »

it takes about an hour if i do writs for my 20 characters on ps eu, it used to be longer before Playstation 5 got Dolgunon's Writ Crafter add-on.
i often do only my main or first 8 characters.


i am not against these suggestions.
it would be awesome to see them happen

Exactly! An hour every single day just for writs... that's 7 hours a week of just staring at crafting menus. If you have a full-time job, that's basically all your free evening gone before you even step into a dungeon. Thanks for sharing, Luna!

DeadGlad wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

DeadGlad wrote: »

3. Inventory Management is not Creativity: You said you sell furnishings you don't need to keep your vault empty. That is exactly the point—you are forced to spend time managing inventory instead of decorating. An Infinite Furnishing Bag would allow you to keep every beautiful item you find or craft, so you’d always have the perfect piece ready for your next project without having to "clean house" first.

We aren't asking to change how you play; we are asking for tools that allow all of us to enjoy the game more efficiently.

Are there any other multi-character players here who have stopped optimizing their alts or doing daily writs simply because the UI, loading screens, and per-character costs (like Armory slots) make it feel like a second job?

The fear of "empty cities" shouldn't hold back the evolution of the game. If the only thing keeping a city alive is forcing players to run a repetitive loop, then the city’s design is the problem, not the player's desire for efficiency. Quality of Life is about choice. You can choose the social stroll; we should be able to choose a functional base of operations.

I have 20 alts (not counting any of my alt accounts here, then its even more) and I’ve pretty much stopped doing all writs as I’m exhausted from the constant load screens and inventory management that is necessary just to play the game. I agree that these suggested QoLs would be a great addition for a player like me. I also agree that forced congregating just for the “game to feel alive” to some people is inconsiderate of how others would like to play the game they paid for. Those that would take advantage of these improvements aren’t likely to be the ones you’re standing around socializing with, unless they opt to do that themselves. In which case, you’ll still have the socializing, while being considerate to others.

The biggest issue here is that this 'forced grind' on multiple alts actually hurts the game's economy. When veterans are too exhausted to do anything but basic writs, the market for rare materials and complex crafting stagnates. It's not just a QoL issue for us; it's a barrier for new players who can't keep up with the inflation caused by these repetitive chores. Is ZOS ignoring the long-term impact on the player base?

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

The move to more and more neon cartoon exloding, flapping obtrusive graphics have caused me to welcome anything that will allow me to spend less time in towns.

That’s a great point, AcadianPaladin. The visual clutter in cities has become overwhelming. Between the loading screens, inventory management, and 'neon chaos' in hubs, being in town feels more like a stressful job than an RPG. These QoL changes would finally let us get back to the actual gameplay and the beautiful world outside the crowded cities.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

DeadGlad wrote: »

Account-wide Trait Research: Why do we still have to research traits on every single character? I always end up switching to my main crafter anyway. Research progress should be tracked across the entire account.

Hard no on this one.

Master Writs and Writ Vouchers becoming worthless overnight. Very little gives crafting much meaning anymore. Lets not lessen its value any further.

I understand the concern about the economy, DenverRalphy, but should we really sacrifice actual gameplay time for the sake of Writ Voucher value? Waiting 30 days for a single trait on a 20th alt isn't 'meaningful crafting' — it's just a time gate that prevents us from actually using the gear we want. There must be a way to protect the economy without forcing players into months of idle waiting just to be functional on a sub-character.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

DeadGlad wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

DeadGlad wrote: »

Account-wide Trait Research: Why do we still have to research traits on every single character? I always end up switching to my main crafter anyway. Research progress should be tracked across the entire account.

Hard no on this one.

Master Writs and Writ Vouchers becoming worthless overnight. Very little gives crafting much meaning anymore. Lets not lessen its value any further.

I understand the concern about the economy, DenverRalphy, but should we really sacrifice actual gameplay time for the sake of Writ Voucher value? Waiting 30 days for a single trait on a 20th alt isn't 'meaningful crafting' — it's just a time gate that prevents us from actually using the gear we want. There must be a way to protect the economy without forcing players into months of idle waiting just to be functional on a sub-character.

It's not the economy I refer to specifically (though that would take a hit too). It's devaluing the crafting profession as a whole.

There's very little long term goals in ESO anymore. Making trait research account wide would be just one more very big step towards turning ESO into a massively multi-Singleplayer rpg. ESO has lost too much of its multiplayer immersion aspect as it is, and the game is suffering for it. The value of master writs doesn't come just from their gold value. They are also the only source of Writ Vouchers. Writ Vouchers in turn are very important to furnishings, guild halls, grand master tables, etc.. All of which lose value the easier they are to accomplish. The more self sufficient individual players become, the less important multiplayer immersion becomes.

But that's the point, DenverRalphy — I'm already 'self-sufficient' because I just log over to my main crafter to make whatever I need, including Master Writs. Making trait research account-wide wouldn't change my social interaction with other players; it would only save me from 10 minutes of meaningless loading screens and character swapping every time I want to tweak my build.
Waiting 30 days for a trait isn't 'multiplayer immersion' — you aren't interacting with anyone while that timer ticks. True immersion comes from doing trials, dungeons, and PvP. Making alts accessible actually lets us get into group content faster with different roles, instead of burning us out with months of idle waiting.

twisttop138 wrote: »

We back to LLM replays? Ugh.

As for the requests, was pretty bummed out on the 500 space bag. It filled up quickly with 10 years of furnishings. Doubling it would be a nice addition for ESO plus that is losing value in this new battle pass Tamriel. But if they don't, eh.

I like populated towns but it kinda feels like people are only there cause they're forced to be. Little weird to encourage that, given some prevailing attitudes on the forums these days but again, either way not a big deal for me, so, cool if they do it.

I'm unsure how they could make loading faster. As @Gabriel_H pointed out, this can have a lot to do with your add-ons. Also your connection, ping and system.

Maybe I am just a very efficient robot, or maybe I’m just tired of the same loading screens since 2014! You hit the nail on the head — people are in towns because they're forced to be, not because they want to socialize. That’s a design flaw, not a 'vibrant community'. And 500 slots for furnishings is definitely not enough for a 10-year-old game. ESO Plus needs better value.
(And yes, I do use tools to help process and translate my thoughts into clear English, because I want these points to be heard and understood correctly by the community and ZOS.)

DeadGlad wrote: »

I’ve been thinking more about this 'Second Job' feeling lately. It’s becoming a real issue. Just curious — how many hours a week do you guys actually spend on 'mandatory' chores before you even start having real fun in the game? Is the balance shifting too far?

0 hours on chores. I make gold playing the game and it never feels like a job.

Elvenheart wrote: »

DeadGlad wrote: »

ESO Quality of Life Improvements

I’m calling on the community to hear my plea, and I hope the developers take these suggestions to heart!
Without diving into complex gameplay issues like light attack weaving or PvP class balance, I’d like to propose some general Quality of Life (QoL) improvements:

In-home Crafting Writ Boards and Turn-in Stations: Currently, player housing is mostly used for crafting, relaxing, and hitting raid target dummies. Adding the ability to pick up and turn in Daily Writs from home would give housing much more utility.

"Return to Previous Location" after Teleporting Home: We need a way to jump to a house and then teleport back to exactly where we were. It’s incredibly inconvenient to use the "unowned house preview" trick just to return to a spot, or to get stuck in places like Apocrypha where there are no players to "travel to" nearby.

Optimize Character Swapping: I have 20 characters, and doing daily tasks on all of them takes 1–2 hours just because of the constant logging in and out. The transition between characters needs to be much faster and more streamlined.

Account-wide Trait Research: Why do we still have to research traits on every single character? I always end up switching to my main crafter anyway. Research progress should be tracked across the entire account.

Infinite Furnishing Storage for ESO Plus: We have way too much furniture! A bottomless "Craft Bag" style storage specifically for furnishings would be a massive relief for ESO+ subscribers.

Account-wide Armory Slots: Buying Armory slots for every individual character feels excessive. If the developers don't make these account-wide, players will just keep using add-ons as a "crutch" to bypass the limitation.

... I believe these changes would let us spend less time in menus/loading screens and more time actually playing the game. What do you think, community?
@ZOS_Kevin — would love to hear if any of these QoL improvements are already on the team's radar!

I love most of these ideas, really, really love them! Some of them I’ve asked for before myself over the years. I’m neutral on account wide armory slots only because I don’t use them, and I personally don’t care for account wide trait research, simply because strangely enough I liked doing this separately on my 13 characters over the years, but that’s just me and I would live with it if they were to ever go account wide.

Thank you for the support, Elvenheart! It means a lot to hear that these ideas resonate with veteran players who have been here for years. I truly believe that making these QoL changes would benefit everyone, especially those of us who enjoy managing multiple characters. Let's hope ZOS is listening!

DeadGlad wrote: »

If the QoL changes I proposed were implemented—faster character swapping, account-wide traits, and in-home writ boards—you could manage 15 or 20 characters in the same 45 minutes you currently spend on 7. You would have more freedom, not less.

In-home writ boards

In-home writ boards would not be as efficient as you think.

Currently:
Character logs in, presumably in a town
Runs ~20 seconds to the writ board
Runs ~20 seconds in between crafting stations
Runs ~15 seconds to crafting hand in location

Total: ~55 seconds

With In-House Writ boards:
Character logs in, presumanly in a home
Runs ~10 seconds to the writ board - House size dependent
Runs ~15 seconds in between crafting stations
Teleports (will ignore gold cost) to a town - takes anywhere from 5 - 15 seconds (more on that in a moment)
Runs ~15 seconds to the crafting hand in location
Teleports (will ignore gold cost) back to house - takes anywhere from 5 - 15 seconds (more on that in a moment)

Total ~50 to 70 seconds

---

Account-wide traits

Presumably you have other characters, because you play them. So you are logging in on them, so you can refresh the timers on the research. I honestly don't see the benefit of having these accountwide, and there are some significant reasons not to have them so.

---

Faster Character Swapping - this would be the "more on that in a moment" I mentioned earlier

The game runs on two forms of code: C++ and LUA. C++ is what makes everything work, and LUA is what handles the interface and UI. LUA runs slower than C++, and takes longer to load into memory, especially large chunks of it at a time. The more LUA code, and also Saved Variables for that LUA code, the longer your load times. That is both initial loadscreen - which bears the brunt, and every subsequent loadscreen - changing zones, entering instances including houses.

Here is a link to the ZOS LUA code. By all means go take a look and see just how big it is. Every menu, everything static display you see on screen, your inventory, all the interfaces are controlled through the LUA code: https://esoapi.uesp.net/101047/.

The reason LUA code is used is because it is incredibly simple for a scripting language, it's faster than a lot of alternatives (but not C++ or Java), doesn't need compiling, and allows for modding/addons.

To get the faster character swaps you want would require ZOS to re-write all of that code in C++, and all that would do is maybe save you 5 seconds on the initial loadscreen and 0.5 seconds on the subsequent ones - AND - it would effectively remove and bar all addons from the game. That includes Lazy Writ Crafter btw.

If you want faster load times you need to disable all addons and just leave LWC. This is not a problem ZOS can solve.

Edit: Typos

Gabriel_H wrote: »

DeadGlad wrote: »

If the QoL changes I proposed were implemented—faster character swapping, account-wide traits, and in-home writ boards—you could manage 15 or 20 characters in the same 45 minutes you currently spend on 7. You would have more freedom, not less.

In-home writ boards

In-home writ boards would not be as efficient as you think.

Currently:
Character logs in, presumably in a town
Runs ~20 seconds to the writ board
Runs ~20 seconds in between crafting stations
Runs ~15 seconds to crafting hand in location

Total: ~55 seconds

With In-House Writ boards:
Character logs in, presumanly in a home
Runs ~10 seconds to the writ board - House size dependent
Runs ~15 seconds in between crafting stations
Teleports (will ignore gold cost) to a town - takes anywhere from 5 - 15 seconds (more on that in a moment)
Runs ~15 seconds to the crafting hand in location
Teleports (will ignore gold cost) back to house - takes anywhere from 5 - 15 seconds (more on that in a moment)

Total ~50 to 70 seconds

---

Account-wide traits

Presumably you have other characters, because you play them. So you are logging in on them, so you can refresh the timers on the research. I honestly don't see the benefit of having these accountwide, and there are some significant reasons not to have them so.

---

Faster Character Swapping - this would be the "more on that in a moment" I mentioned earlier

The game runs on two forms of code: C++ and LUA. C++ is what makes everything work, and LUA is what handles the interface and UI. LUA runs slower than C++, and takes longer to load into memory, especially large chunks of it at a time. The more LUA code, and also Saved Variables for that LUA code, the longer your load times. That is both initial loadscreen - which bears the brunt, and every subsequent loadscreen - changing zones, entering instances including houses.

Here is a link to the ZOS LUA code. By all means go take a look and see just how big it is. Every menu, everything static display you see on screen, your inventory, all the interfaces are controlled through the LUA code: https://esoapi.uesp.net/101047/.

The reason LUA code is used is because it is incredibly simple for a scripting language, it's faster than a lot of alternatives (but not C++ or Java), doesn't need compiling, and allows for modding/addons.

To get the faster character swaps you want would require ZOS to re-write all of that code in C++, and all that would do is maybe save you 5 seconds on the initial loadscreen and 0.5 seconds on the subsequent ones - AND - it would effectively remove and bar all addons from the game. That includes Lazy Writ Crafter btw.

If you want faster load times you need to disable all addons and just leave LWC. This is not a problem ZOS can solve.

Edit: Typos

Thanks for the technical breakdown, Gabriel_H! However, you missed a key part of my proposal: I suggested both pickup boards AND turn-in stations for the home. That removes the teleport to town entirely, saving much more time than your calculation suggests.
Regarding the technical side: I’m not asking ZOS to break addons, but many modern MMOs handle character switching much more efficiently than ESO. It’s about the process being a chore, not just the loading bar.
As for traits: 'Refreshing timers' on 20 characters isn't gameplay, it's a second job. Why defend a system that forces us to wait months for something we've already achieved on our main?