Grocer = Useless

morvegil

THe last 2 weeks...ive gotten 5 oats, 5 red wheat, 5 barley...THE REST IS CRAPLOADS OF GRAPES AND HOPS???/

Is there some REASON he is bring me stuff for something i dont even make? What SENSE does this make?

Nestor

I am pretty underwhelmed with the Grocer Hireling. I have L3, get both deliveries most days, and have 12 Tomatoes and 14 Oats for about 2 month's worth of deliveries. I think I got two this morning, and its been a couple weeks since the last delivery. I have gotten Salt and Pepper, but I find those quite often in the game.

I have gotten 14 Kutas and about16 Rekutas from my Enchanting hireling since just after the 1.4 patch, whenever that was.

Surfinginhawaii

I feel your pain my friend, I also have received this garbage.

I haven't received a Kuta in about 3 weeks when I used to received them pretty consistently.

ontheleftcoast

morvegil wrote: »

Is there some REASON he is bring me stuff for something i dont even make? What SENSE does this make?

My first provender leveled up both food and drink thinking they'd both be useful. Boy, was that a rude learning experience. So I just accepted the fact that as an all-purpose provender I was going to have to put up with the useless grapes and hops.

But then I specifically built up my next one with no skills dedicated to the worthless craft of beverage making. After all, what am I, a milk drinker?! And still I get the damn hopper full of hops. It's enough to drive a Nord to drink. OK, it doesn't take much to make a Nord drink but still...

I'd love to "unlearn" all my drink recipes. I wonder if you never learn even a single recipe for beverages would you avoid getting them from your hireling? Probably not.

Nova Sky

I have to agree with the OP. Out of my four hirelings, all of whom are maxed out, the grocer is the worst of the bunch.

I wish an ogre would eat him.

Beesting

I severely disagree. I made my grocer hirelings two months ago, on 8 chars 3/3 so i get two deliveries a day if i time it right before work and after work.
I am now sitting on hundreds of oats tomatoes and peppers, so many i can just make purple food to give away to my friends.
It is true i get hops and useless berries as well, but with 16 deliveries a day good stuff comes in as well. But now the price of purple food has come down to 125 a portion, i see why not everyone bothers with grocer hirelings.

MercutioElessar

morvegil wrote: »

THe last 2 weeks...ive gotten 5 oats, 5 red wheat, 5 barley...THE REST IS CRAPLOADS OF GRAPES AND HOPS???/

Is there some REASON he is bring me stuff for something i dont even make? What SENSE does this make?

That is... just... rich. Made my day. Thanks for that.

jelliedsoup

Surfinginhawaii wrote: »

I feel your pain my friend, I also have received this garbage.

I haven't received a Kuta in about 3 weeks when I used to received them pretty consistently.

In the past week or so I dont always get a aspect rune and when I do its jejota.

Yay?

jelliedsoup

morvegil wrote: »

THe last 2 weeks...ive gotten 5 oats, 5 red wheat, 5 barley...THE REST IS CRAPLOADS OF GRAPES AND HOPS???/

Is there some REASON he is bring me stuff for something i dont even make? What SENSE does this make?

Go talk to him and see what he thinks you need. I've found they're good listeners when you can find them.

Valymer

Nestor wrote: »

I am pretty underwhelmed with the Grocer Hireling. I have L3, get both deliveries most days, and have 6 Tomatoes for about 2 month's worth of deliveries. I think I got two this morning, so maybe I have 8. I have gotten Salt and Pepper, but I find those quite often in the game.

I have gotten 14 Kutas and about16 Rekutas from my Enchanting hireling since just after the 1.4 patch, whenever that was.

Just out of curiosity, where are you finding all that pepper? Salt isn't that rare, sure, but I have found maybe 4 pepper total in all the containers I've looted...

Surfinginhawaii

Valymer wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

I am pretty underwhelmed with the Grocer Hireling. I have L3, get both deliveries most days, and have 6 Tomatoes for about 2 month's worth of deliveries. I think I got two this morning, so maybe I have 8. I have gotten Salt and Pepper, but I find those quite often in the game.

I have gotten 14 Kutas and about16 Rekutas from my Enchanting hireling since just after the 1.4 patch, whenever that was.

Just out of curiosity, where are you finding all that pepper? Salt isn't that rare, sure, but I have found maybe 4 pepper total in all the containers I've looted...

I use to find pepper on a consistent basis in Daggerfall.

Evergnar

For the most part mine is worthless. It's kinda funny to think I paid for this guy (w/ skill pts) and can't even give him a grocery list. He just goes to the nearest barrel or basket and brings back whatever he finds. Tough work and often useless.

Tabbycat

I think we're supposed to be able to use both a food and drink buff at the same time in some future update but I don't know which one. Perhaps that will make receiving some of these cooking ingredients less painful.

For the most part, though, I think the only value of the hirelings is in the stories in the mails they send.

Nestor

Valymer wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, where are you finding all that pepper? Salt isn't that rare, sure, but I have found maybe 4 pepper total in all the containers I've looted...

I have 63 Pepper and probably 20 of them came from the hireling. And this is across 3 characters VR2 and two VR4's. I think most of it did come from the DC zones. I knew some things were rare like the flours and the seasonings and things like that, so I would grab anything I knew was a pain for people to farm as I played the game. I left most prov ingredients behind once I got one to 50 and another to 40 in provisioning.

Oh, and I have 12 tomatoes and 14 oats.

MercutioElessar

Nestor wrote: »

I have 63 Pepper and probably 20 of them came from the hireling.

Oh, and I have 12 tomatoes and 14 oats.

Heared similar numbers from others and I do have to say I'm a bit scared by those low ones. How is it, you guys don't recaive/ find more? Can't explain it and I am really curious since I don't really use them.

Had to take a look but at least I got two full stacks of pepper and at least 50-60 tomatos. And Tons of oats.
Maybe I should sell them to you...

AlexDougherty

morvegil wrote: »

THe last 2 weeks...ive gotten 5 oats, 5 red wheat, 5 barley...THE REST IS CRAPLOADS OF GRAPES AND HOPS???/

Is there some REASON he is bring me stuff for something i dont even make? What SENSE does this make?

Randomly generated content is random, that is the only reason.
I have Red Wheat and occasionaly Pepper from my hireling, but I have yet to received the rarest ingredients, and it bugs me too. But life is tooshort for some hassle.

Oh and don't refer to him as your Grocer, the Grocers are vendors who sell half the ingredients usually stuff like flour and stock or Glace Viande (not sure what it is, but it is useful for recipes), he/she is your best friend.

Kartalin

Yeah, grocers are helpful, it's the hireling that is frustrating. I never save the second ingredient in a recipe because grocers will have it.

Moonshadow66

I think I posted this a while ago somewhere else, but to say it again, it would be nice (if not even "appropriate") if we could find Oats and Tomatoes like we can find Pepper. Pepper is rare, but it still is, well, findable..

About the provisioning hirelings: why don't we also get these "Pinguis" (whatever that is), or Imperial Stock and such? They are also ingredients for purple food, but the prices are so high that it's almost as painful as waiting for the hireling-oats and tomatoes to be delivered.

I think everything should be findable, more or less rare, depends on the recipe they are used for. Because, what sense does a purple recipe make when you never get the ingredients to actually cook/brew it?

Janduin

Random Number Generator pulling from a table of percentages. Its not broken, just bad luck. Some have a higher chance than others. RNG is...random.

ontheleftcoast

Janduin wrote: »

Random Number Generator pulling from a table of percentages. Its not broken, just bad luck. Some have a higher chance than others. RNG is...random.

Random would be nice. I'd love to see random. But every other day I'm all but guaranteed one of my two provender hireling mails will contain

2 Juniper Berries
2 Canis Root
2 Snowberries

Exactly that. This is easily 30% of the mails I receive. I get that's it's a slot in the table. But what are there, 3 entries in the table?

Kartalin

Raygee wrote: »

About the provisioning hirelings: why don't we also get these "Pinguis" (whatever that is), or Imperial Stock and such? They are also ingredients for purple food, but the prices are so high that it's almost as painful as waiting for the hireling-oats and tomatoes to be delivered.

I agree about the oats and tomatoes and hirelings being their only source, but pinguis, imperial stock, and other "2nd" ingredients can be bought at a grocer for 63g each The catch is you have to at least be in your second alliance, Cadwell's silver, to find a grocer that has those ingredients. But I think it's not a bad price.

You could also try guild traders.

starkerealm

milthalas wrote: »

Raygee wrote: »

About the provisioning hirelings: why don't we also get these "Pinguis" (whatever that is), or Imperial Stock and such? They are also ingredients for purple food, but the prices are so high that it's almost as painful as waiting for the hireling-oats and tomatoes to be delivered.

I agree about the oats and tomatoes and hirelings being their only source, but pinguis, imperial stock, and other "2nd" ingredients can be bought at a grocer for 63g each The catch is you have to at least be in your second alliance, Cadwell's silver, to find a grocer that has those ingredients. But I think it's not a bad price.

You could also try guild traders.

Also, Craglorn's grocer carries them, which is probably the easiest one to access once you've gotten access to Cadwell's Silver.

DenverRalphy

I'd like a method where we can choose what they bring back...

For example.. I need oats. If I have 3/3 in the hirelings passive, instead of rolling the dice every 12 hours, I can request a specific item that will be guaranteed to show up in 24/36 hours. Basically a mechanism that allows for requested items, but bumps the wait time as a consequence to guarantee it.

So you'd have an option... Take what you randomly get every 12 hours, or guarantee your acquisition but guarantee a longer wait.

[edit] Oh! On top of that! Add the ability to pad both the time required and/or the quantity received by paying gold out of pocket.

SlayerSyrena

My provisioner has enough grapes and hops to supply the war effort with drink for years.

Too bad he doesn't brew often enough to use them. (I need more tomatoes and oats too! And why is the Imperial Flour and etc at the grocer so expensive per item?)

ontheleftcoast

SlayerSyrena wrote: »

And why is the Imperial Flour and etc at the grocer so expensive per item?

Any time you ask why "X" is so expensive (or why that sword you paid 2500 for is now worth 38) in an online game the answer is almost always the same...

(All together now) "It's a gold sink!"

If they don't suck the money out of the economy before very long the established players are all walking around with 10,000,000 gold in their bank accounts (or what ever max gold is) and new players won't be able to buy even one pepper or green enchanted item let alone a stack of ingredients because it'll be 5,000 for that flour in the market.

DenverRalphy

SlayerSyrena wrote: »

My provisioner has enough grapes and hops to supply the war effort with drink for years.

Too bad he doesn't brew often enough to use them. (I need more tomatoes and oats too! And why is the Imperial Flour and etc at the grocer so expensive per item?)

Imperial Flour etc... is actually dirt cheap. Especially when you consider that you can make 4 servings a pop, and given how much the food you make sells for.

Evandus

It seems to me that the reason the hirelings are programmed the way they are is due to crafting mule use by players. For example I know and know of a lot of people who have 1-2 characters they play, then 6-7 alts that are holding items and picking up daily tier 2/3 mats from hirelings.

I'm not sure the devs are going to be inclined to change the system to benefit us more due to this practice. For awhile, there were even tutorial videos on youtube showing people how to do this.

starkerealm

Evandus wrote: »

It seems to me that the reason the hirelings are programmed the way they are is due to crafting mule use by players. For example I know and know of a lot of people who have 1-2 characters they play, then 6-7 alts that are holding items and picking up daily tier 2/3 mats from hirelings.

I'm not sure the devs are going to be inclined to change the system to benefit us more due to this practice. For awhile, there were even tutorial videos on youtube showing people how to do this.

I may be mistaken, but weren't hierlings the reason given that players couldn't buy additional character slots, at one point?

Rosveen

ontheleftcoast wrote: »

Janduin wrote: »

Random Number Generator pulling from a table of percentages. Its not broken, just bad luck. Some have a higher chance than others. RNG is...random.

Random would be nice. I'd love to see random. But every other day I'm all but guaranteed one of my two provender hireling mails will contain

2 Juniper Berries
2 Canis Root
2 Snowberries

Exactly that. This is easily 30% of the mails I receive. I get that's it's a slot in the table. But what are there, 3 entries in the table?

I receive this one very often too (but not 30% of time :P) And the one with nothing but hops/grapes/whatever the hell they are, I don't even pay attention anymore.

But I recently realized there's nothing wrong with the hirelings. They should brings us a lot of drink ingredients - and it will be working just fine when the Provisioning revamp comes around and drinks become useful. Although they still need to fix rare ingredients. Either make all lootable, or none. This half-assed division we have now is mind-boggling.

AlexDougherty

milthalas wrote: »

Raygee wrote: »

About the provisioning hirelings: why don't we also get these "Pinguis" (whatever that is), or Imperial Stock and such? They are also ingredients for purple food, but the prices are so high that it's almost as painful as waiting for the hireling-oats and tomatoes to be delivered.

I agree about the oats and tomatoes and hirelings being their only source, but pinguis, imperial stock, and other "2nd" ingredients can be bought at a grocer for 63g each The catch is you have to at least be in your second alliance, Cadwell's silver, to find a grocer that has those ingredients. But I think it's not a bad price.

You could also try guild traders.

Yeah, I'm annoyed about never getting oats or Tomatoes.

However I found the grocer was selling Imperial Flour and Pinguis in the first alliance in Cold Harbour, might also have been selling them in last Tamriel zone too.

alkoriak

The hirelings only bring ingredients that are part of a purple food or drink so that's a good thing. You can also find the pinguis and imperial floor at the grocer when you finish the mages guild questline (I did it at level 37 so no need to be VR or to have access to Coldharbourg).