On Thursday April 17th Zenimax Online Studios announced they had identified an item duplication bug. Using the guild bank, players were duplicating stacks of items. The most popular of these items were legendary crafting materials such as Tempering Alloy and Dreugh Wax. Because of their high value and that they have a maximum stack size of 100, made these ideal for exploitation. This bug has since been fixed, and the damage looks minimal to the average player. But what does this mean for the economy going forward? How was a bug like this even possible? That, and more, will be explained.
Along with the bug being fixed, many accounts have been banned. ZOS hasn't yet stated just how many accounts have been banned. But they did have a large round of bans earlier this month. Jessica Folsom from ZOS made this statement last Wednesday "Today, we made our first major strike against those who choose to cheat
in ESO, permanently banning thousands. This is only the beginning of our
ongoing efforts to keep the game free from botters, speed hackers, and
gold spammers." I didn't see a large impact in the past week, but I did see a large impact yesterday. Each bank I walked into (both yesterday and today) had about 20-30 less players than before this latest round of bans. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that is only one phase (instance) at a time, not to mention all the other banks I didn't visit. Doing some mental math here, hundreds of accounts were banned, possibly thousands (I halved my estimate on account of this being Easter weekend). I think its safe to say we won't be seeing a large impact on the economy. Anyone who dodged the ban bullet is going to be careful not to attract the attention of ZOS.
So, just how DID this exploit come to pass? There isn't a simple answer. Lets start by looking at the engine used in the Elder Scrolls Online. Originally ZOS used HeroEngine, the same engine used in Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, they used this engine only to help get themselves off the ground. Eventually they made their own engine, from scratch. This way (in theory) they would be able to do much, much more. By using a completely custom engine instead of using an engine built by ENGINE DEVELOPERS there is bound to be a few bugs and glitches. My favorite is falling through the map and landing on a test model for terrain and different objects. Unrelated glitches aside, past Elder Scrolls games have been riddled with bugs and glitches, including item duplication.Bethesda and Zenimax have worked on other games with very few bugs, so what makes Elder Scroll games so special? Well, they almost always change engines, or modify them. If you didn't expect to encounter such a significant glitch in ESO, I have three words for you: Prepare for more.
The other large contributor to how this glitch was allowed to be exploited, lies in when it was originally reported. If you think it was originally reported sometime in April, please sit down. The answer may make you lose your balance. This bug was first reported in February. Yes, February. Some people are claiming it existed in the ALPHA build of the game. It wasn't a widespread or well documented bug at the time, and we have the NDA to thank for that (along with the fact that of course, there were far fewer people playing the game at the time). I wish I had a copy of the NDA to refer to, but I do believe we were bound to be vague in regards to late game content, and prohibited from bad publicity. Don't quote me on that.
The reason it took so long for this issue to be resolved is because it wasn't pressing at the time. Major bugs that have a widespread effect are top priority. Easy fixes and less widespread bugs are secondary. Publicity as well. Anyone else remember that bug where a few players got Veteran Rank over the course of a Beta Weekend? Yeah, well, they fixed that a few days later. While I don't encourage or condone exploiting Elder Scrolls Online, or telling others how to exploit in such a fashion, sometimes a demonstration gets the ball rolling.
Many players are calling for a server wide rollback. While this is a bit of grim news,I don't think such rash action is necessary. Any gold or materials still in the system will either be distributed through buying and selling in the coming weeks, or hoarded for later. Those hoarding for later won't be driving the economy down, and are more likely to spend over the market price for goods (since they have so much money to throw around).
This bug could have been triggered by accident. If you were banned, and feel it was unjust, you can petition an appeal by following the steps found here.
The next article I plan on writing is in regards to alchemy reagents. More specifically, the rarity of them. If you'd like to share your insights with me, drop a line in the comments below, or hit me up in-game (@SoyezFerme). I've also been known to frequent the Tamriel Gold Goblin Teamspeak.
Showing posts with label Alchemy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alchemy. Show all posts
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
The Floodgates Are Open: ESO
Friday February 14, 2014 marks the day Zenimax lifted the NDA pertaining to content available in the Beta weekends (any additional tests for any other content still have additional NDAs associated with them). And I have to say, even within my own guilds, tons of content has flooded in from beta testers, myself included. In this article, I'm going to quickly cover some aspects about ESO, with as many screenshots as possible.
The armor in the above screenshot is merely a costume (replaces the textures of your equipped gear). Such costumes are obtained primarily through quests. The costume above was optional in a quest, where my character could choose to use to sneak past enemies without having to fight them. All costumes are bind on pickup (soul bound, account bound, etc), and unfortunately cannot be traded.
Any Gold Goblin (or any goblin for that matter) loves chests. I am no different. Like most MMOs, there are chests or similar containers that spawn in certain locations with loot in them. In ESO, these chests feature a lock picking system, similar to what was implemented in TES IV: Oblivion. The contents contain gold and items ranging from a plain white item (lowest rarity) to multiple items of varying rarity.
The difficulty of the chest doesn't seem to determine the contents. I've unlocked master chests in higher leveled zones and received less impressive loot. This chest only had a simple lock (simple being easiest, master being hardest). At present, chests spawn in set locations on any given map. The same is true for gathering nodes for clothing, enchanting, blacksmithing, and woodworking. This could change at any time. Such is the case with alchemy ingredients.
In my quest to unlock all the alchemy effects, I can tell you that chests and plants to not follow the same re-spawn rules. From what I've seen, chests always re-spawn in the same place. This is not (entirely) true for plants. Alchemy nodes re-spawn when another node has been harvested nearby. The type of ingredient that spawns seems to be random, as long as it meets certain conditions. Nirnroot for example only grows alongside water, and some areas only spawn certain types of plants (mushrooms or flowers for example). As for location, there are more possible locations than there are "spawned" nodes. Again with examples, say there are 10 alchemy nodes spawned at any given time, but there are 20 possible locations they could spawn to. This ensures that multiple people can farm these resources at once, but no one person can abuse this mechanic.
While (loosely) on the subject of crafting, lets talk Racial Styles.
There are a total of 14 motif books in total. Books 1 through 9 are the alliance races. These motif books are the most common, but still fetch a pretty penny. Average market price for these have been around 2k in the beta. Book 10 is Imperial, allegedly the rarest. Considering that I found one, I doubt that. Books 11 through 14 are for the non-playable races of Ancient Elf, Barbaric, Primal, and Daedric. The (beta) average market price for these are somewhat harder to determine. I've seen one person constantly trying to buy them for 10k, but people tend to start a bidding war for them. They've gone for 15k, probably higher. That is almost the price of a horse.
So in short, if you can find a way to farm those books, you really, REALLY should farm them.
In the last article I wrote, we took a look at how crafting actually works. What wasn't mentioned, is that you can craft set items. Yup, set items that are typically the pride of dungeon raiders are also craftable.
There are specific locations (some hidden) where set items can be crafted. The ones that aren't hidden are marked with a flame icon with a hammer underneath. Normal crafting stations are marked with a flame with an anvil underneath. Set items (shockingly) have additional requirements in order to craft them. Set items have tiers, and these tiers are dictated by how many traits must be researched to unlock the item. Ashen Grip for example, needs two traits researched (per item) for that item to be unlocked for crafting. When dealing with set items, whether looted or crafted, keep in mind that the set bonus takes up the enchantment slots of that item. So if the set bonus proves to be useless, then the item is worthless.
Have a question? Want to weigh in about the article? Want to learn about something specific? Just want to say hi? Drop a comment below, we'd love to hear from you.
The armor in the above screenshot is merely a costume (replaces the textures of your equipped gear). Such costumes are obtained primarily through quests. The costume above was optional in a quest, where my character could choose to use to sneak past enemies without having to fight them. All costumes are bind on pickup (soul bound, account bound, etc), and unfortunately cannot be traded.
Any Gold Goblin (or any goblin for that matter) loves chests. I am no different. Like most MMOs, there are chests or similar containers that spawn in certain locations with loot in them. In ESO, these chests feature a lock picking system, similar to what was implemented in TES IV: Oblivion. The contents contain gold and items ranging from a plain white item (lowest rarity) to multiple items of varying rarity.
The difficulty of the chest doesn't seem to determine the contents. I've unlocked master chests in higher leveled zones and received less impressive loot. This chest only had a simple lock (simple being easiest, master being hardest). At present, chests spawn in set locations on any given map. The same is true for gathering nodes for clothing, enchanting, blacksmithing, and woodworking. This could change at any time. Such is the case with alchemy ingredients.
In my quest to unlock all the alchemy effects, I can tell you that chests and plants to not follow the same re-spawn rules. From what I've seen, chests always re-spawn in the same place. This is not (entirely) true for plants. Alchemy nodes re-spawn when another node has been harvested nearby. The type of ingredient that spawns seems to be random, as long as it meets certain conditions. Nirnroot for example only grows alongside water, and some areas only spawn certain types of plants (mushrooms or flowers for example). As for location, there are more possible locations than there are "spawned" nodes. Again with examples, say there are 10 alchemy nodes spawned at any given time, but there are 20 possible locations they could spawn to. This ensures that multiple people can farm these resources at once, but no one person can abuse this mechanic.
While (loosely) on the subject of crafting, lets talk Racial Styles.
There are a total of 14 motif books in total. Books 1 through 9 are the alliance races. These motif books are the most common, but still fetch a pretty penny. Average market price for these have been around 2k in the beta. Book 10 is Imperial, allegedly the rarest. Considering that I found one, I doubt that. Books 11 through 14 are for the non-playable races of Ancient Elf, Barbaric, Primal, and Daedric. The (beta) average market price for these are somewhat harder to determine. I've seen one person constantly trying to buy them for 10k, but people tend to start a bidding war for them. They've gone for 15k, probably higher. That is almost the price of a horse.
So in short, if you can find a way to farm those books, you really, REALLY should farm them.
In the last article I wrote, we took a look at how crafting actually works. What wasn't mentioned, is that you can craft set items. Yup, set items that are typically the pride of dungeon raiders are also craftable.
There are specific locations (some hidden) where set items can be crafted. The ones that aren't hidden are marked with a flame icon with a hammer underneath. Normal crafting stations are marked with a flame with an anvil underneath. Set items (shockingly) have additional requirements in order to craft them. Set items have tiers, and these tiers are dictated by how many traits must be researched to unlock the item. Ashen Grip for example, needs two traits researched (per item) for that item to be unlocked for crafting. When dealing with set items, whether looted or crafted, keep in mind that the set bonus takes up the enchantment slots of that item. So if the set bonus proves to be useless, then the item is worthless.
Have a question? Want to weigh in about the article? Want to learn about something specific? Just want to say hi? Drop a comment below, we'd love to hear from you.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Americans Are Boring
So this weekend, as many readers are aware, is Elder Scrolls Online's biggest beta weekend yet, with over 500,000 beta keys being given away by Curse.com. After combing through leaked footage, and footage recently released by various media outlets, I have come to the conclusion that Americans are boring and predictable. All of the English speaking videos I've seen depict Questing, PvE, and PvP, with a strong focus on the first hour of gameplay. The only videos I have found depicting crafting come from outside North America, from our Spanish and German speaking friends. Unfortunately the German video I found also has a German UI, so I can't really comment on what is going on in the video. The Spanish video (also embedded below) is using the English UI, so be prepared for my breakdown on the crafting system!
Before I begin on my analysis on the video, I would just like to say sorry in advance if the videos linked are leaked gameplay footage. I respect ZOS, and respect their NDA. With that said, let us listen to some very fast speaking Spanish.
So the first thing you'll notice is that both the Clothing and Blacksmithing stations are located near each other. This is somewhat of a standard in MMOs, to have different crafting stations within close proximity. I for one am glad to see this. I find it a huge time sink to run all over town to work on my different crafts, especially if you need to craft components from one craft to make something in another. If you haven't experienced this, I envy you.
We can also get a glean into the crafting skill lines. They are: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Clothing, Enchanting, Provisioning, and Woodworking. In the video we see some of the Blacksmithing skill line. Metalworking lets unlock new materials to craft higher tier items. Keen Eye: Ore makes it easier to spot ore gathering nodes (probably some sort of graphic appears on screen). The Miner Hireling will send you crafting materials and possibly "other items" everyday (I suspect these are additives, tempers, or style materials).
Now let us take a look at the crafting interface. On the Creation tab we see Type, Material, Style, and Trait. Also note that there are check boxes for 'Have Items' and 'Have Knowledge'. These will let us filter out what we can't craft, and help us plan how to progress in our crafting skills. The Type and Material toggles are pretty standard for MMOs, so we'll all feel at home with those. As would be expected (espcially if you've played past TES games) the material used affects the look of the item. But here is where it gets interesting with Style. We can craft items in the different racial styles (Dunmer, Altmer, Orc, Nord, etc), which also affect the appearance of the item. Spoiler: Ancient Elf, Reach, Primitive, Daedric and Imperial are also craftable styles. We've already been introduced to the (easiest) way to unlock Imperial. The rest however are not playable races, so there is probably a lot of grinding and opening sacks involved in finding these racial styles. Rest assured, there will be money to be made if you can craft Ancient Elf or Daedric armor. Moving along then, Traits. Traits as we can see are the "additive" ingredients we have long heard about, but never seen. They add effects to crafted items such as Precise which increases weapon and spell critical values, and Defending which increases total armor and spell resistance. We don't get to see all the traits in this video, but I would bet you a sweetroll some traits that are more useful than others. So keep an eye out for Traits.
The next tab we see is Improvement. Pretty straight forward. Select item, toggle quantity value, press Improve. Moving on. Extraction is another common theme in MMOs that we should all be comfortable with. Select item, press Extract, get crafting materials. Moving on.
Research. From what we see here each piece of gear needs each trait to be researched. if we flip back to 0:58 in the video, we see a skill called Metallurgy. I'll bet you TWO sweetrolls this skill has something to do with research. If you're in the beta and have an interest in crafting, I encourage you to check out that skill to learn more.
At 3:18 in the video we get a look at Alchemy, one of the three consumable types of crafting (the others being Provisioner and Enchanting). The interface here is much different than Blacksmithing, which I suspect is why they are showing it. After selecting a Solvent (base liquid, Natural Water in this case) you can select two Reagents. Sadly they didn't have any Reagents to show us in this video. Reagents are things like Mountain Flowers, Imp Stool, Nirn Root, etc. These are harvestable flowers and plants you can find in game.
We also get a look at a blacksmith vendor, where you can buy Style materials. I can't say I'm a fan of this. One of the (what should be rare) materials needed for crafting can be bought from an npc for 21 gold, including the ones for the rare styles (Ancient Elf, Reach, etc). This will severely reduce the value of crafted gear.
Now that you've watched the Spanish video, and understand what they are showing you, I recommend watching the German video. They played a higher level character and better show the Extraction and Improvement process.
Before I begin on my analysis on the video, I would just like to say sorry in advance if the videos linked are leaked gameplay footage. I respect ZOS, and respect their NDA. With that said, let us listen to some very fast speaking Spanish.
So the first thing you'll notice is that both the Clothing and Blacksmithing stations are located near each other. This is somewhat of a standard in MMOs, to have different crafting stations within close proximity. I for one am glad to see this. I find it a huge time sink to run all over town to work on my different crafts, especially if you need to craft components from one craft to make something in another. If you haven't experienced this, I envy you.
We can also get a glean into the crafting skill lines. They are: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Clothing, Enchanting, Provisioning, and Woodworking. In the video we see some of the Blacksmithing skill line. Metalworking lets unlock new materials to craft higher tier items. Keen Eye: Ore makes it easier to spot ore gathering nodes (probably some sort of graphic appears on screen). The Miner Hireling will send you crafting materials and possibly "other items" everyday (I suspect these are additives, tempers, or style materials).
Now let us take a look at the crafting interface. On the Creation tab we see Type, Material, Style, and Trait. Also note that there are check boxes for 'Have Items' and 'Have Knowledge'. These will let us filter out what we can't craft, and help us plan how to progress in our crafting skills. The Type and Material toggles are pretty standard for MMOs, so we'll all feel at home with those. As would be expected (espcially if you've played past TES games) the material used affects the look of the item. But here is where it gets interesting with Style. We can craft items in the different racial styles (Dunmer, Altmer, Orc, Nord, etc), which also affect the appearance of the item. Spoiler: Ancient Elf, Reach, Primitive, Daedric and Imperial are also craftable styles. We've already been introduced to the (easiest) way to unlock Imperial. The rest however are not playable races, so there is probably a lot of grinding and opening sacks involved in finding these racial styles. Rest assured, there will be money to be made if you can craft Ancient Elf or Daedric armor. Moving along then, Traits. Traits as we can see are the "additive" ingredients we have long heard about, but never seen. They add effects to crafted items such as Precise which increases weapon and spell critical values, and Defending which increases total armor and spell resistance. We don't get to see all the traits in this video, but I would bet you a sweetroll some traits that are more useful than others. So keep an eye out for Traits.
The next tab we see is Improvement. Pretty straight forward. Select item, toggle quantity value, press Improve. Moving on. Extraction is another common theme in MMOs that we should all be comfortable with. Select item, press Extract, get crafting materials. Moving on.
Research. From what we see here each piece of gear needs each trait to be researched. if we flip back to 0:58 in the video, we see a skill called Metallurgy. I'll bet you TWO sweetrolls this skill has something to do with research. If you're in the beta and have an interest in crafting, I encourage you to check out that skill to learn more.
At 3:18 in the video we get a look at Alchemy, one of the three consumable types of crafting (the others being Provisioner and Enchanting). The interface here is much different than Blacksmithing, which I suspect is why they are showing it. After selecting a Solvent (base liquid, Natural Water in this case) you can select two Reagents. Sadly they didn't have any Reagents to show us in this video. Reagents are things like Mountain Flowers, Imp Stool, Nirn Root, etc. These are harvestable flowers and plants you can find in game.
We also get a look at a blacksmith vendor, where you can buy Style materials. I can't say I'm a fan of this. One of the (what should be rare) materials needed for crafting can be bought from an npc for 21 gold, including the ones for the rare styles (Ancient Elf, Reach, etc). This will severely reduce the value of crafted gear.
Now that you've watched the Spanish video, and understand what they are showing you, I recommend watching the German video. They played a higher level character and better show the Extraction and Improvement process.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Elder Scrolls Preparation
In order to get the creative juices flowing, I often like to start the morning out with a Yoohoo and a protein shake. I mix them, in my Blenderball from GNC. Just as soon as the frothy milk reaches the top of the bottle I slam it like a sorority sister from Nebraska on her 21st birthday. That's my breakfast. I eat generally 6 times a day with my diet. I do whatever keeps my metabolism as high as possible. What does not get my metabolism moving, is the fact that every close friend of mine, now has a key to the progressive beta of Elder Scrolls online. So now until they end the beta, my friends are in the world of Tamriel without me. With the NDA and my understanding of how Zenimax works, I refuse and they refuse to break that Non-disclosure agreement.
It sort of puts me at a loss, here I am making the necessary preparations for my gold making website, which is meant to be 100% free to the public mind you. I am unable to start my research in to how things are going to go on the money front. Without any information what so ever from the beta, this has put me in a bad mood.
So with that disaster, I went forth to find things to keep myself occupied. I have updated the website no less to support this blog, as well as a few other things. I now have 2 writers in my employ. Both are close friends, and they both have access to the *&*^$ beta. However, we have made an agreement that we shall not disclose any information, as it could get us sued up and down. So it's server, website, and blog work for me.
When dealing with this level of boredom, often times you must find a way to keep yourself occupied. Lest you do not go insane and end up assaulting a renegade band of beavers. Their only plight being to rid the world of flowing water, as they build a large dam. I decided, "No, I am not going to kill, Slopdop, the friendly monk beaver for his information regarding beaver world domination."
Instead rather I will spend my time gloriously looking for ways to better prepare myself for the onslaught of endless gaming nights. The sad fact of the matter is, while I am writing this totally stupid entry, that will be read back years from now, I will realize that I should have been working on the website. Instead of course making myself laugh early in the morning with talks of beavers. It's unfortunate really. With nothing to write I can always find a way to write totally ridiculous material. I understand, and like many of you out there, all 5 of you even, that I am not funny. Well you know what I say to that?
You're right. I am not funny.
But.. I need material on my blog to test with.
Future me. Sorry for the time lost.
-CB
It sort of puts me at a loss, here I am making the necessary preparations for my gold making website, which is meant to be 100% free to the public mind you. I am unable to start my research in to how things are going to go on the money front. Without any information what so ever from the beta, this has put me in a bad mood.
So with that disaster, I went forth to find things to keep myself occupied. I have updated the website no less to support this blog, as well as a few other things. I now have 2 writers in my employ. Both are close friends, and they both have access to the *&*^$ beta. However, we have made an agreement that we shall not disclose any information, as it could get us sued up and down. So it's server, website, and blog work for me.
When dealing with this level of boredom, often times you must find a way to keep yourself occupied. Lest you do not go insane and end up assaulting a renegade band of beavers. Their only plight being to rid the world of flowing water, as they build a large dam. I decided, "No, I am not going to kill, Slopdop, the friendly monk beaver for his information regarding beaver world domination."
Instead rather I will spend my time gloriously looking for ways to better prepare myself for the onslaught of endless gaming nights. The sad fact of the matter is, while I am writing this totally stupid entry, that will be read back years from now, I will realize that I should have been working on the website. Instead of course making myself laugh early in the morning with talks of beavers. It's unfortunate really. With nothing to write I can always find a way to write totally ridiculous material. I understand, and like many of you out there, all 5 of you even, that I am not funny. Well you know what I say to that?
You're right. I am not funny.
But.. I need material on my blog to test with.
Future me. Sorry for the time lost.
-CB
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