Crafting Hireling Delivery Bug

xaraan · July 2014

I filed several bug reports over the last couple months as this issue repeated and finally got a response last time (140701-000402) but not a very satisfactory one. It was the canned response I've received on every report that you guys "are aware and will be fixing in a future patch." My issue is that 1. I don't see how this is that difficult an issue to fix and 2. How long am I (or we, I'm sure this happens to others) going to get screwed over on this issue?

Problem is: Max hireling you are supposed to get two deliveries a day and this is not happening. Yes, I'm aware that you have to log in, relog, rezone, play, etc. Trust me, I'm on the game enough, relogging and waiting over twelve hours between deliveries, etc. I've spent many nights just waiting for the second deliveries to show up and end up not getting anything by 12-1 in the morning and nothing.

I've recently started tracking the issue, previously I just commented in reports that I had not received deliveries, but after my last report I started keeping track, so here is an example of what I missed since just 7/1:

Not received 14 smithing deliveries, 8 enchant deliveries, 19 clothing deliveries, 14 woodworker deliveries, and 7 provision deliveries.

Now, that is just for a couple of weeks, magnify that by the fact it has been going on for months since my first report and you can imagine my irritation. I have three vet characters all with max/high crafting and hirelings - I haven't had eight alts sending me stuff constantly since day one, these are guys I've worked up to get these deliveries and they aren't coming. I don't get why it's so hard to just have deliveries go out twice a day at given times as long as we've logged in within twelve hours of that time.

Grim13 · July 2014

I didn't get my second delivery tonight, either. It's rather annoying, tbh.

Anex · July 2014

I like NEVER get the second delivery. I'm also not sure anyone truly understands how the hirelings are supposed to work. It says when you log out. Do they mean just the character? The game? Does that mean I can't be playing when the mail comes? Well that can't be true because I have received mails in the middle of playing. The wording is not very clear, and it is truly annoying.

I also don't think that I SHOULD have to log in twice in a 24 hour period to receive them (there's room in the mailbox) but that is just something I wish would change. I can see why it is possibly required to only reward people actually playing instead of potentially bot/hoarding it up to sell or something.

Seravi · July 2014

To get the second delivery you must be online. Most of the time mine shows up without doing anything while I am online. But sometimes I have to either use a wayshrine or log out to the character select screen and log back in and then I will receive it.

I have two characters that receive them twice a day. I must log into each character to get them. Doesn't matter that I am online playing with my main character. When the time rolls around for the email to show up for my alt, I have to log out to the character select screen, pick my alt and log in to get the second one for that character.

Anex · July 2014

I got my second ones again, I had just misjudged the login time. Still not sure about that timer though.

The weirdest and suckiest thing though though was last night when I logged in for the second one, one of my hireling mails had ZERO attachment to it. Just a letter. It really sucked as that was my Clothier hireling

My provisioner was just fine.

Arizona_Willie · July 2014

This game has more bugs than an ant colony.

DeLindsay · July 2014

Whether the Hireling mechanic is how we like it or not this is an example of how it actually works:

Hireling 1 (with 3/3) arrives at 1:30pm while that character is logged in.

Hireling 2 will arrive no earlier than 1:30-1:31am and ONLY if that character is logged in (might have to zone to force the mail) or logs in after ~1:30am.

If you receive Hireling 1 at 1:30pm but do not log in until 10am the following day, 10am is when Hireling 2 will arrive and you will then have to wait until 10-10:01pm for Hireling 1 to arrive again.

If you have all 8 characters with 1-5 Hirelings each, you have to log onto those characters each day or twice each day to spawn the mail. There is a thread here already asking ZoS to change the mechanics to 20/10 hours (similar to Horses with the 20hr cd), and to force the mail to spawn even if one is offline. I can see them changing the timers but not the offline spawning tbh. Having a mechanic that requires you be logged in to receive the Hireling mail encourages you to play more often, and that's probably why they did it that way.

Arizona_Willie · July 2014

Why would they care how often you log on as long as your monthly payment is made?

Origin · July 2014

xaraan wrote: »

I've spent many nights just waiting for the second deliveries to show up and end up not getting anything by 12-1 in the morning and nothing.

This is not normal. Having a game mechanic that requires to login at 12 hours interval is really a bad implementation. Hopefully the next patches will address this issue too.

xaraan · July 2014

DeLindsay wrote: »

Whether the Hireling mechanic is how we like it or not this is an example of how it actually works:

Hireling 1 (with 3/3) arrives at 1:30pm while that character is logged in.

Hireling 2 will arrive no earlier than 1:30-1:31am and ONLY if that character is logged in (might have to zone to force the mail) or logs in after ~1:30am.

If you receive Hireling 1 at 1:30pm but do not log in until 10am the following day, 10am is when Hireling 2 will arrive and you will then have to wait until 10-10:01pm for Hireling 1 to arrive again.

If you have all 8 characters with 1-5 Hirelings each, you have to log onto those characters each day or twice each day to spawn the mail. There is a thread here already asking ZoS to change the mechanics to 20/10 hours (similar to Horses with the 20hr cd), and to force the mail to spawn even if one is offline. I can see them changing the timers but not the offline spawning tbh. Having a mechanic that requires you be logged in to receive the Hireling mail encourages you to play more often, and that's probably why they did it that way.

Yes, I realize all of this, and do this. That's the problem, it's still not working correctly even within the system they have established.

Edit for more detail: I've never worried about my deliveries if I could only log on once a day or not at all. Every example I speak of is when I log in first thing in the morning (8-11am) on my gaming computer when I boot up my work computer (to all my characters to get the morning delivery), play off and on when I get a chance, usually playing more when the evening comes and I relog often during the day as well. Every instance I spoke of has the second delivery not arriving by, like I said, I've stayed up til 1230-1am in the morning waiting for it to show up. Once I know it's past the 12 hours, I relog and rezone several times, changing between characters trying to get the mail to trigger.

My complaint isn't about how it should work (though I'd love a change), it's that it doesn't work right as it is.

Origin · July 2014

I think our input is important and if we see that some functionality is not well implemented or is annoying, it is the best to let ZOS to know our opinion.

I still consider that the main problem is not the fact that the current implementation has a bug, but the bad design that is forcing the players to login at predefined moments to get the delivery. So, since we are talking about this, then let's address the real problem.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · July 2014

Arizona_Willie wrote: »

Why would they care how often you log on as long as your monthly payment is made?

Well, ZOS may not but those who play 24/7 demand better rewards than those that don't (see other threads on here ATM) so ...

GTech_1 · July 2014

I'll throw my hat in on this one as well.
Being told to log in every 12 hours is pretty out of control.
Honestly, it feels like an oversight to me.
The hireling mails ideally *should* operate on a simple server-side timer.
Send them out at 6 AM and 6 PM every day.

If I log in once per day, I should have two mails from my hireling everyday. That is indeed why I spent the skill point. I thought spending the skill point would make it easier, not more difficult / time consuming to manage.

Additionally, if I take a weekend off of the game, I should not feel like I am being "punished" for it by a screwy mechanic.

I don't feel that this was the intended design.
Please fix this bug by attaching these mails to a server-side delivery timer.

Ashtaris · July 2014

I'm with the rest of you who feel that we are being punished with the hireling not being able to play 24/7. I do have a job and life outside the game and just can't get on every 12 hours. And as another poster pointed out, it shouldn't matter to ZOS if we log on regularly as long as we still pay the monthly subscription fee. The way they do the Tier 3 hireling timer really needs a overhaul.

sidekick069 · July 2014

I have never gotten a second delivery on my blacksmithing since day one when I maxed out on it.

Relmyna · July 2014

Has this ever been acknowledged by ZOS as either "working as intended" or a bug? I've seen this issue in the forums since April, but I don't think I've ever seen a green response.

xaraan · July 2014

Elokin6 wrote: »

Has this ever been acknowledged by ZOS as either "working as intended" or a bug? I've seen this issue in the forums since April, but I don't think I've ever seen a green response.

The only response I've gotten was the "known issue" form letter on a help request about it a month ago, but no response either on the forum or on my follow up email.

Would be nice to hear from ZoS (like a dev, not just another form letter response).

Sy_Tarn · September 2017

I have not gotten a single delivery since i put a SP into this. except maybe the very first mail of them thanking me for the job. that being said i have not recieved a single one since then. when will this be fixed?

ZOS_Bill · September 2017

As this is an old thread from three years ago, we are closing the discussion since some of information is outdated. If you are running into issues with your hireling please start a new thread in the Bug Report forum.