The Elder Scrolls Online

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Hireling Cooldown Timer Change Request

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robertsian87b14_ESO
robertsian87b14_ESO
Soul Shriven
This has probably already been discussed, but I haven't really seen any threads on it... so I'd be curious to hear others' thoughts on the matter.

The fact that hireling cooldowns are on a 24 hour timer being reset at the time of log-in is extremely undesirable. It essentially forces you to log in at the exact same time every day. That log-in time is going to slip day by day until the player is forced to wait over night or over the work day, essentially losing an 8 hour log-in opportunity. This may seem trivial, but it really does add up in a hurry over time, causing a lot of lost opportunity.

Lets say I get my hireling mail at 4:30pm on Saturday. Then Sunday I'm online at noon, but then tied up with a family activity until 6pm. Can't get my package until 6. Then Monday I have a family dinner from 6 to 7:30, but I may have already logged on right after work, or whatever. Doesn't matter, can't get the package till 7:30. Tuesday - similar scenario, and it slips to 9. Well, pretty quick I can't wait any later and need to go to bed. Now I can't get my mail until the morning. The hireling timer has now lost over 12 hours over the course of 3 or 4 days. Then, it's patch day, so I can't get the package in the morning before work, so I have to wait till the afternoon. There's another 8 hours lost.

This net slippage essentially accounts for a loss of 24 hours at least once a week, for me at least. I find that very frustrating.

Here's what I would like to see implemented instead. A) Set the timer to reset at 12 midnight for all hirelings every day. That limits us to still getting one package per day, but we can log in at any time over that day to get it. B ) Set the timer to a 20 or 21 hour cooldown (similar to the horse). That allows for a few hours here or there to slip due to real life stuff, but we can make up for it the next day with the few hour cooldown buffer.

This issue is magnified at the 3/3 hireling skill... essentially forcing you to log in every 12 hours to get the most out of the skill. That needs to be changed, in my opinion. Just not practical for a working adult. Make the hireling come once a day and send twice the volume, or make both timers dependent on the same log-in. Or something!

Finally - I'm aware of the whole hireling exploit thing across alts. This discussion/issue is completely unique from that exploit. So, yes, I'm aware you can get 7x the stuff just by having a few alts... but that will mostly be fixed next patch. I haven't seen this thread's issue addressed yet though.
Edited by robertsian87b14_ESO on 15 May 2014 14:17
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