Request for a change in hireling timer mechanics

Corlantis

Needs fixing. Moving to a 10/20 hours schedule would do it.

The only issue that would remain is that server maintenance will still often use up all that buffer time.

AlexDougherty

ArRashid wrote: »

Also, if you worry about abuse, then make hirelings only send mails to the LAST ONLINE CHARACTER OF AN ACCOUNT (so exploiters won't have 8 characters farming).

God no, I log in each day to my characters, to make sure each one is researching a new item (or three), the hireling mails help me build a decent selection for crafting.

I'm certainly not farming them, I'm just strategically collecting resources (two hireling per character). It helps when I want to craft and enchant a weapon (just did that and armour for two characters).

This would harm my crafting capacity, I'm still building up a decent repetoire before looking for a merchant guild.

Zabalah

I gave up trying to figure out when my hirelings would deliver. Now I view every new hireling delivery like Santa dropping off new toys! It's great fun!

Hamfast

I had not realized the way the hireling mechanics worked, I did realize that I was not getting the 2 per day packages for my level 3 hirelings, but not that it was triggered by my logging in...

That being said, the idea that a hireling, who has no idea of my adventuring schedule (saving the world on a daily basis, hobnobbing with kings, queens and lords can be quite taxing) fails to send the package he was contracted to send me just because he did not get the "@PlayerName.Name has logged in" notice is a fine example of poor customer service (the Hireling, not ZOS)...

I have a contract with them, they are to send me stuff every day, some times twice a day, regardless of my schedule, the timer does not need to be changed, they need to do what they have been contracted to do... Send me stuff, I would prefer useful stuff, Contracting a Level 3 Blacksmith Hireling to send me Stuff that results in 5 ore... I expect that from his level 1 flunky, the lazy bastage, but I have contracted with the Level 3 Hireling, I expect more from him (or her for that matter).

I should expect to get mail once or twice a day, for as long as the contract is in force, I expect the Level 3 Hireling to work harder to fill my order then just a small pile of ore or a single Jejota runestone when they feel like sending it, and if I don't get close to a mailbox for a day or 2, I should find several packages waiting for me when I do.

If, like with the post office in this fantasy world we call "Earth" tried to deliver mail to my PO Box and my box was full, they stuff a note in to come see them to get the rest... so limit how much mail can be in my mailbox, if I fail to clean it out every so often, send me a note that says my box is full... if I still don't empty it, return the mail to the sender because I am dead and really don't care about my mail anymore.

Rodario

EDIT: updated the description to be more clear / replaced "chest" with "delivery" (i miss the feeling of opening those chests btw) / added 4.

Alephen

as a possible middle ground:
say you should get a mail at 8 am and 8 pm. the mail times are fixed 12 hours apart, but do not come if the previous one has not been collected. (alternatively not sent if the previous toon has not been received by logging in. this way you could leave the mail in the box and get the next.)

the counter on the mail starts is fixed at 8am. if the mail has not been claimed by 8pm, you do not get the 8 pm mail. but if you pick up the mail at 8 AM mail at 7:30 pm the next mail comes at 8 pm. as long as you can log in once before and once after 8 pm, you get both mails. of course with this there may need to be a way to set the fixed time, since if the mails came at 4am and 4pm, someone who could only log from 5-9 would not receive both. but i would suggest this occurs only once, when the skill is picked.

thus you have 12 hours to collect the mail or lose it. however, you would not be penalized because you can only log in between 5 and 9 pm daily.

i would be a bit concerned with with having multiple mails, since then a number it would stack to has to be chosen and there will be unending arguments regarding how many should stack.

Bazzakrak

Nice suggestion from @Alephen‌ sure hope that @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ and @ZOS_GinaBruno‌ will pass on the suggestion to the appropiate people.

This would solve alot of the problems that people have with the hireling system as it is, and would get past the problem that Zos create for us since we dont get the mails when they patch at the time we should have gotten them, and thus move the whole schedule for some players.

Reb

Rodario wrote: »

3. Set the timers to 20 hours after last pickup and send both deliveries simultaneously for tier 3.


.

This please it would actually make tier 3 worth it then

elderscrollsb16_ESO109

Agree, the hireling timer mechanism really need to be changed !

DeLindsay

20/10, make it happen cappin.

Mendoze

I think the easiest solution would be to use last logged in date. When you first time log in any given date you should get what your hirelings have sent you. If you have 3/3 points in hirelings you should get 2 mails at once.

And to make system perfect, game could count the difference between last log in date and current date, so you don't lose all those nice boosters when you go to holiday. I don't know what's the maximum size of our mail boxes, but game could send as many hireling deliveries as you have free room in your mail box.

Postumus

Bump. 20/10 is a good idea - better would be to just deliver both of the tier 3 hireling mails at the same time.

twev

I don't see any problem with hirelings delivering 12 hours apart, so long as it's always 12 hours apart. If I skip a day, I don't want my hireling taking the day off.

otoh, If I go play something else for a week, I don't expect to come back to 14 deliveries stacked up, either.

If I'm logged in to any character on my account, ALL the characters on my account should trigger a delivery. And If I'm logged on for 14 hours over the course of a (weekend/anytime) session, I should get that 2nd delivery whether I log on/off/on or not.

zhevon

I have only ever gotten hireling mail when logging on or shortly there after; I don't think I have ever gotten the hireling mail when already logged on.

zhevon

twev wrote: »

I don't see any problem with hirelings delivering 12 hours apart, so long as it's always 12 hours apart. If I skip a day, I don't want my hireling taking the day off.

otoh, If I go play something else for a week, I don't expect to come back to 14 deliveries stacked up, either.

If I'm logged in to any character on my account, ALL the characters on my account should trigger a delivery. And If I'm logged on for 14 hours over the course of a (weekend/anytime) session, I should get that 2nd delivery whether I log on/off/on or not.

Pretty much - and yes it ticks me off to have to log in to each of my 3 "mains' to get my hireling mail.

huntgod_ESO

I think it's iffy they make you pay for a perk that is geared to promote daily play. I understand games that offer incentives to log in daily (Neverwinter did a great job with this with prayer) but ESO actually makes you pay for the privilege.

Change it to 20hrs and have tier 3 just double the quantity in a single shipment...problem solved and we can find more productive things to grouse about.

LadyDestiny

They should just make the hirelings deliver both mails at the same time everyday or just double the amount we get in one mail. No more lost hireling mails or having to log in at the right time everyday. Mine only work half the time regardless if I log in or not. After having spent the skill points on this, we should be getting the items no matter what. Stupid that you have to log in a certain time to get the mails. Who can play all these hours everyday all the time in RL? If they are worried about mail overload, then just have them only deliver up to a certain number of days like 3 or something until you actually log in and then have the mails arrive. Some people do go on vacation, end up in the hospital or other things......

Chuggernaut

I agree with the OP on the problem with the shifting timer and the fact that maintenance days compound the issue further. Also its almost pointless not to fully upgrade the hireling to rank 3 since the rank 2 hireling only sends 4 wood or metal/email.

What I think would make more sense if you paid for the 2 a day shipments, you should get the 2 shipments, but the timer stops for the next days shipment until the previous day's shipment email items attachments are removed and the emails deleted.

Requielle

Just adding my voice to the chorus of "I really, really dislike the current implementation". I would much prefer the bags go out at a fixed time every day - much like other games reset your timers for the assorted 1x/day things every day at server reset. Heck, can we get the horse feeding set to a real once-per-day rather than a 20-hour stopwatch, too?

I don't like the time creep. I don't like keeping track of when I last logged in who. I don't like that I've spent skill points that by design give less than their stated value. I don't like the lack of immersion that comes from "and how, again, does my hireling who's miles away know to send their next package later just because I opened my mail later?"

I have pointedly refused to spend the points for the final tier of the hireling perk on any of my crafters strictly because I don't think doubling the above issues to twice a day qualifies as "fun".

GnatB

1. 20 hour refresh works. Having the tier 3 give better chance of higher end upgrade materials is a good start, but I'd still say it should be 2x the resources instead of simply reducing the delivery timer by 1/2.

Kuratla

Given the RNG, I prefer 3/3 hireling as it is, twice a day and would not like it to be double resources once a day. You got a pretty small chance of getting a yellow improvement, even with 3/3 hireling, so I prefer to have two chances per day of getting them. I don't care about all the other mats, even the purples (those are cheap enough to buy and easily obtained via refining). It's all about the yellow improvements with 3/3 hireling.

The every 12 hours does suck because you inevitably miss out on one or two mails per week due to the time always pushing forward when you go through your alts logging in to get their hireling mail, feeding the horses, checking research, etc.

Changing to 20 hours for 1 or 2/3 hireling and 10 hours for 3/3 hireling would solve that extra lost time. Very few people would be able to exploit that and be online exactly every 10 hours to get hireling mail. Only people without lives or jobs would be able to do that.

Bazzakrak

There is another problem that a change in the mechanics would solve.

It is required for us at the moment, if we want our mails to log in through all our alts, and I am sure that your group/raid/PvP partners are/will be pretty mad if you say:
"Hey, sorry guys, got to log out and in on all my alts right now, to get my hireling mails, please stay right here and wait for me, will be back in XXX minutes"

Basicly, IF we want to get our mails everyday and dont want the time to be pushed to much, we mess with other players as well.

Haewk

cliveklgb14_ESO wrote: »

Would prefer it to just check when you log in, if you have any unclaimed Hireling chests, then mail them to you retroactive.

It then just becomes changeable character data per character, rather than a glut of unread hireling mail in the system.

If you haven't logged in for 2 days it could even pack 4x deliveries into 1x mail. Maybe cap it at a max of 10 deliveries so you will need to log in with your alts at least every 4 or 5 days to maximize the return on your skill points. Every 12 hours just seem stupid.

What is the reason for forcing you to log in? I just can't grasp the logic of it. It is not as if I am actually playing the game. Just log in, wait for the mail notification, log out, rinse repeat for all alts. Log into main and play.

I don't get it.

Hamfast

10/20 hours would stop the time creep, but it would not fix the problem, Hirelings should not be worried about when we log in, they should send the package every 12/24 hours regardless. if I have a 3/3 hireling, I should be getting better quality stuff twice a day, if I have 1/3 then I should get the piddly crap once a day... no matter if or when I log in...

Want to limit how many I can have at one time, put an expiration on it like all the other mail, 3 days, 7 days, 30 days, what ever, but if I log in, I should have those shipments waiting for me, regardless of when I got the last shipment.

Rodario

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ @ZOS_GinaBruno‌ @ZOS_MichelleA‌ could we please get any statement on this? Even a "never gonna happen" would be appreciated, as we could then at least stop thinking about it.

flemmingrohdb16_ESO

yeah it would be nice to hear an official statement on this
the current implementation sucks

Oevaag_Bur

Even if you could just fix the thing where the mail doesn't arrive if you're already logged in at the time it's due. Yesterday I forgot and have gone from my 1:30pm/1:30am schedule to 3:05 (still had to re-log to get that btw ^^).

It really is becoming a pain in the bottom !

zhevon

flemmingrohdb16_ESO wrote: »

yeah it would be nice to hear an official statement on this
the current implementation sucks

Yes it would be nice ...

I think in this case and the case of inventory issues - ZoS is in design denial (I was going to phrase more crudely - but I decided to behave) I almost think they want their game to fail - their all these trivial annoyances (and not so trivial annoyances) are buidling up.

CaptainSilverbrow

The timer should be permanently set according to the tier, and when the last point was deployed into said talent tier, period. God forbid I should leave for a week, unable to log in at any time, and not get every single parcel for those departed points. It doesn't take Blizzard's finest developers or ZOS' worst to cogitate on this and think maybe, just maybe, espousing a valuable, virtual mercantile mechanic (i.e. money) with your logins and not a set timer is, perhaps, in a game sold to adults with adult concerns and adult lives, a bad idea. On the other hand, that it isn't on a timer to begin with leads me to believe there's another reason for the system as is, and into which we don't have insight, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

two_beer

I was just coming to the forum to post a new thread about this exact issue - I'm all for the reduction to a 20 hour timer like the horses - this current system punishes those who work or sleep...