Has anyone else seen their hirelings slipping?

I_killed_Vivec · February 2015

I hadn't played over the weekend, so I received mails from my hirelings when I logged in at 8am Monday morning before work (do the writs, quick run round Craglorn to get the mats for the next day's writs - job done).

Monday evening I started playing before 8pm. I was still in the game at 9.15pm when the mails from my hirelings arrived. That's a slip of over an hour, and it meant that I didn't get the mails from my hirelings this morning because I had to leave at 8.30am.

I've seen this quite often recently, but usually with less of a slip - say 10 or 15 minutes a day. In itself not too annoying, but added up over three or four days and I get the same result - I'm forced to miss one set of mails. Missing one allows the timer to reset, but it's annoying that it's the timer, and not my log in times, that is causing the slip.

I know that there's been a lot of discussion about whether the timers should be changed or not, but has anyone else had the same problem with the current timers?

Amarynth · February 2015

I think that's a general problem with mail delivery while you are playing, not one specific to hirelings. If I'm expecting mail and it hasn't shown up, porting sometimes makes it show, and relogging always makes it show.

Nestor · February 2015

There has been a measure of "hireling timer creep" in the game. It usually corresponds to a Server Reboot. Helps to spend the points on hirelings during a time that won't be part of a server reboot. So, avoid 6 to 10 EST (morning or evening) for assigning those points. I try to assign mine at like 3 to 5 PM my time.

ThePonzzz · February 2015

I paste my timestamp when I logged in to collect hireling mail to my sticky notes each time. And I can say with certainty that there is a disconnect with the timer somewhere. If I log in at 10:17am, collect my hireling mail and log out, it won't be there at exactly 10:17pm. Even rounding up to the next minute sometimes doesn't get it to kick out the hireling. So I tend to keep moving later and later every day.

Woolenthreads · February 2015

If you do have this issue where your time is up but you haven't received the sys-mail try entering a delve or porting to a different region. The shift "out" of the overall region triggers the sys-mail check.

I haven't noticed a change in the existing timer creep mechanic but I have noticed that there appears to be a new lag effect between different hireling sys-mails. The first time it happened over the weekend I just figured I'd logged in at the beginning of the send sequence and entered a delve to get the other two. Last night I was too early so I entered a delve to get them but only got one even though it was clear to me that I'd gained minutes on the send time, so I had to pass the delve portal again (which I had to do to exit anyway, I admit.), making me question the timing.

ThePonzzz · February 2015

I only log in for hireling mail. So I'm not even in game. I make sure to log in at the same time every day. Or well I did. I stopped really being *** about it when I noticed the times consistently shift up a minute or two every 12 hours.

osaceeub17_ESO · February 2015

Yes I have noticed a time creep.

osaceeub17_ESO · February 2015

osaceeub17_ESO wrote: »

It would be nice if they just had a set time for hirelings, like midnight and noon. That way you could check your hireling main anytime within that 12 hour window. Just a suggestion. The hirelings are going to be nerfed if the pts is any example of what will be happening in the future.

These are the number i got from the comparison of the improvement mats between the last PTS hirelings and Live ESO hirelings. All the hirelings were maxed to level 50 and had max three hirelings.

Live ESO

9--Rosin
16-Dreugh Wax
8--Tempering alloy

28-elegant lining
17-grain solvent
17-mastic

15-Dwarven oil
46-embroidery
17-Turpin

16-hemming
7--honing stone
12-pitch

PTS server

1--Rosin
8--Dreugh Wax
1--Tempering alloy

18-elegant lining
19-grain solvent
18-mastic

28-Dwarven oil
82-embroidery
20-Turpin

18-hemming
6--honing stone
9--pitch

I did this for 8 mailings (I had to work and always get offset because of working 12 hour shifts)

osacee
v14 sorc, v14 templar, v10 (dedicated crafter) templar

gclifton58ub17_ESO · February 2015

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

I hadn't played over the weekend, so I received mails from my hirelings when I logged in at 8am Monday morning before work (do the writs, quick run round Craglorn to get the mats for the next day's writs - job done).

Monday evening I started playing before 8pm. I was still in the game at 9.15pm when the mails from my hirelings arrived. That's a slip of over an hour, and it meant that I didn't get the mails from my hirelings this morning because I had to leave at 8.30am.

I've seen this quite often recently, but usually with less of a slip - say 10 or 15 minutes a day. In itself not too annoying, but added up over three or four days and I get the same result - I'm forced to miss one set of mails. Missing one allows the timer to reset, but it's annoying that it's the timer, and not my log in times, that is causing the slip.

I know that there's been a lot of discussion about whether the timers should be changed or not, but has anyone else had the same problem with the current timers?

The reason there is slippage is because the timer does not start until you log out. It doesn't start at the same time every day such as when you log in. Read the description.

For example:
You log out at 8am. (Assuming a 24 hour timer, which is not correct). The next day you log in at 8am and collect your mail. This takes approximately 2 minutes as you collect it and put it in your bank. You then log out at 8:02am. The next day your mail is not there when you log in at 8am because 24 hours have not passed since the timer started at 8:02am. I believe this is where the creep is coming from.

I_killed_Vivec · February 2015

gclifton58ub17_ESO wrote: »

The reason there is slippage is because the timer does not start until you log out. It doesn't start at the same time every day such as when you log in. Read the description.

For example:
You log out at 8am. (Assuming a 24 hour timer, which is not correct). The next day you log in at 8am and collect your mail. This takes approximately 2 minutes as you collect it and put it in your bank. You then log out at 8:02am. The next day your mail is not there when you log in at 8am because 24 hours have not passed since the timer started at 8:02am. I believe this is where the creep is coming from.

I'll see tonight - same scenario, didn't play over the weekend, logged in this morning at 8.15am and instantly received the mails.

Logged out some time later after collecting from the surveys. If it is the log out time then it will be around 9pm this evening...

Woolenthreads · February 2015

Character log out time. I think it isn't game log out time, it's character log out time. @I_killed_Vivec if you are testing this and you have multiple characters then check one of them around 8.15AM and one of them around 9PM.

I_killed_Vivec · February 2015

Woolenthreads wrote: »

Character log out time. I think it isn't game log out time, it's character log out time. @I_killed_Vivec if you are testing this and you have multiple characters then check one of them around 8.15AM and one of them around 9PM.

It doesn't seem to have anything to do with log out time.

I was playing last night and received the mails at around 8.20pm - a slip of about 5 minutes but earlier than if it had been linked to my earlier log out time.

This morning I received the mails at around 8.25am - again a slip of about 5 minutes.

I think, as mentioned above, it's simply the lag in mail send/receipt.

Woolenthreads · February 2015

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

Woolenthreads wrote: »

Character log out time. I think it isn't game log out time, it's character log out time. @I_killed_Vivec if you are testing this and you have multiple characters then check one of them around 8.15AM and one of them around 9PM.

It doesn't seem to have anything to do with log out time.

I was playing last night and received the mails at around 8.20pm - a slip of about 5 minutes but earlier than if it had been linked to my earlier log out time.

This morning I received the mails at around 8.25am - again a slip of about 5 minutes.

I think, as mentioned above, it's simply the lag in mail send/receipt.

I usually log out the collecting character within 30s of email delivery. But you were talking of testing if it was the log out time. I was just saying that I believe that if it relates to log out then it relates, not to player log out, but to character log out.

This doesn't however answer why I have had two instances of interrupted sys-mails when they should all have occurred at once. That's not to say it bothers me much, as I've gone from dedicated player to casual player, in ESO.