Transmute Cap Increase is Fake QoL

acastanza_ESO · April 3

Lets be real here, increasing the transmute cap is just kicking the can down the road. This is an earned currency,, it isn't an item, there aren't "database issues", there is absolutely no reason for it to have any cap at all. Increasing this entirely artificial currency cap is lip service to QoL improvements, and not an actual improvement in any real way.

tsaescishoeshiner · April 3

Transmute stones reward random queuing and certain group activities. We've all heard of people doing Random Dungeons just for the transmute stones, which benefits queue wait times.

The cap is to keep this currency from being hoarded to the point that they're never necessary and add value to continuously earning them. An increased cap is a nice middle ground.

acastanza_ESO · April 3

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Transmute stones reward random queuing and certain group activities. We've all heard of people doing Random Dungeons just for the transmute stones, which benefits queue wait times.

The cap is to keep this currency from being hoarded to the point that they're never necessary and add value to continuously earning them. An increased cap is a nice middle ground.

Sorry, but that's complete nonsense. The people that need transmutes badly enough to run random dungeons for them aren't even close to the same people that ever run up against the transmute cap even with the old cap. In fact, I would argue that the opposite is true, because I am constantly capped with transmutes from PVP, I am less likely to run random dungeons because the reward of additional transmutes is actively unhelpful inventory clutter to me - and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Erickson9610 · April 3

Plus, the Tomes have transmute crystals as rewards. Tripling the cap gives us room to claim those transmute crystals.

acastanza_ESO · April 3

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Plus, the Tomes have transmute crystals as rewards. Tripling the cap gives us room to claim those transmute crystals.

Still fake QoL. No cap would accomplish the same thing, without just kicking the can down the road to wasting transmutes later.

PeacefulAnarchy · April 3

I agree. It makes no sense to "encourage us to use" a currency that has only personal value. It can't be traded and reconstructed or transmuted gear can't be traded. The only possible "use" for capped people is to gamble it into nirncrux, which is an extremely clunky and tedious process.

I feel like they have a cap because they wanted to keep some ESO+ benefit of doubling it there, so how about this:
Everyone has uncapped transmutes.
ESO+ subscribers can reconstruct for 5 transmutes less than non subscribers.

Everyone benefits, including ZOS's database that only has to keep track of a single number, rather than inventories full of unopened transmute stones and reconstructed storage gear.
@ZOS_Kira
please consider this for a future QoL change.

DenverRalphy · April 3

The cap on crystals keeps the stickerbook reconstruction cost relevant. Give players unlimited crystals, then the need or advantages of filling out the stickerbook is compromised. Reduce the need to fill out the stickerbook, player participation within those activities declines.

Erickson9610 · April 3

Here's an idea. Let us add any set piece to our sticker book at a cost of 1000 Transmute Crystals or so.

This would let us acquire gear without needing to run the respective content. If you're a PvP player, you don't need to run veteran trials to get that Perfected gear you want for your build. If you're a PvE player, you don't need to step into PvP to get access to beneficial sets for your build. Maybe Mythics cost 1500 Transmutes, so you can skip the Antiquity grind.

This would also help us when we're trying to get access to a specific weapon type (like daggers) but RNG isn't in our favor. The high cost in Transmute Crystals ensures that it's still more time effective to manually do this content like before... but if we have so much of these crystals stocked up, then we can finally spend it all.

As long as ZOS keeps adding new item sets, there will always be more things to spend Transmute Crystals on.

wolfie1.0. · April 3

I disagree. 3000 transmutes is enough to do a full build for 9 or ten characters from just reconstructed gear in stead of a 2 or 3.

That's quite a bit of flexibility there.

SwordOfSagas · April 3

I can never get enough of them, and why are people hoarding them? You can just turn them into potent nirncrux and make a bunch of gold.

acastanza_ESO · April 3

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

I disagree. 3000 transmutes is enough to do a full build for 9 or ten characters from just reconstructed gear in stead of a 2 or 3.

That's quite a bit of flexibility there.

What is your actual argument for keeping this pointless bit of inconvenience in the game though?

acastanza_ESO · April 3

DenverRalphy wrote: »

The cap on crystals keeps the stickerbook reconstruction cost relevant. Give players unlimited crystals, then the need or advantages of filling out the stickerbook is compromised. Reduce the need to fill out the stickerbook, player participation within those activities declines.

You aren't "giving" players unlimited crystals, players still have to EARN each and every crystal they have. This doesn't "compromise" anything at all. This is nonsense.

Yudo · April 3

It just increased the buffer for me, but once you reach the cap the same problem occurs of course from an inventory perspective. The geodes pile up, and you have to clear the buffer to sort inventory. From this perspective yes, it is kicking the can further.

I think the QoL here is the buffer. In my specific case, I right now have 4 chest full of recreated items, that is 120 items x 25 = 3000 total. I don't have eso+ so I now have a 1500 buffer instead of 500, I am considering to use those chests for something else now, knowing that I should probably have enough when time calls for it.

When I reach the cap I have to do the nirn conversion, and get some money back. I don't like it but i can live with it i guess.
The better news is that this step I have to do 3 times less often. Maybe that is QoL as well, even though the core system is still the same.

DenverRalphy · April 3

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

The cap on crystals keeps the stickerbook reconstruction cost relevant. Give players unlimited crystals, then the need or advantages of filling out the stickerbook is compromised. Reduce the need to fill out the stickerbook, player participation within those activities declines.

You aren't "giving" players unlimited crystals, players still have to EARN each and every crystal they have. This doesn't "compromise" anything at all. This is nonsense.

You're proposing giving players the ability to hold on to unlimited crystals. Which essentially equates to the same thing. Since there's no effective way to introduce a currency sink for Transmute Crystal into the game, there's a game design need to keep them capped. Honestly, I was shocked that they increased it as much as they did. The better solution would have been to manufacture a need to spend them.

JHartEllis · April 3

I really just want more stuff to spend crystals on since my transmute needs are small. I never go out of my way to get crystals and still end up doing potent nirn cycles.

acastanza_ESO · April 3

DenverRalphy wrote: »

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

The cap on crystals keeps the stickerbook reconstruction cost relevant. Give players unlimited crystals, then the need or advantages of filling out the stickerbook is compromised. Reduce the need to fill out the stickerbook, player participation within those activities declines.

You aren't "giving" players unlimited crystals, players still have to EARN each and every crystal they have. This doesn't "compromise" anything at all. This is nonsense.

You're proposing giving players the ability to hold on to unlimited crystals. Which essentially equates to the same thing. Since there's no effective way to introduce a currency sink for Transmute Crystal into the game, there's a game design need to keep them capped. Honestly, I was shocked that they increased it as much as they did. The better solution would have been to manufacture a need to spend them.

Again, what game design need is there to keep them capped? We don't have other capped currencies. Do you think gold should be capped? No. That's absurd on the face of it. Transmutes are no different.
Having a cap or not changes precisely nothing about reconstruction costs. People just save the geodes instead. The only other sink is conversion into Nirncrux, again, something that is completely irrelevant to there being a cap or not. In fact, you could argue that having a cap only serves to devalue Nirncrux farming, by creating pressure to burn excess transmutes to create it instead of getting it from it's proper Craglorn farm thus directly devaluing an entire game zone.

acastanza_ESO · April 3

JHartEllis wrote: »

I really just want more stuff to spend crystals on since my transmute needs are small. I never go out of my way to get crystals and still end up doing potent nirn cycles.

I agree, there should be more transmute crystal sinks in the game. But the way it is right now, having a cap on the currency, with the only real sink being conversion into Nirncrux, actively devalues the entire zone of Craglorn, by encouraging people to burn transmutes into nirncrux over "hoarding" them, and instead farming the overland zone.

heimdall14_9 · April 3

as an player that has always been maxed on limits able to hold i have something like 300 transmute bags 85% being 50 crystals ( pvp comp awards ) held up in my bag space , id love to one day get them slots back for other needed items but with being limited i dont see that happening for a few years if not longer as my gear sets are all transmuted gear sets and i get back what i use if im doing an new sets because meta has changed