[Hireling Mail timer] Could ZOS please re-examine this, especially with login issues

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

Especially with login issues -- and I have more of these than most, with frequent disconnects (sometimes 20 DAILY) -- could the Hireling delivery timer be changed? It would help managing alts much easier.
At 24 hours, the time just gets inched forward constantly from:
- disconnects
- pausing to grab the mail so your inbox isn't full
- pausing for IRL situations
- pausing to answer chat
- wanting to do your daily writs at the same time

* The easiest thing to do would be to set the timer from 24 hours to 20 hours. This way, players have leeway every day to move it back up to their preferred scheduled time to handle Hireling mail (and writs) in case of delay.

* A better thing to do would be to not require logins at all but (a) dump the delivery automatically into the Crafting Bag (whether someone has ESO+ or not) and (b) unlock the mail for (re)reading in the text collections.

ADDENDUM: The Dark Brotherhood Shadowy Supplier could be adjusted as well. It's not a material per se and shouldn't normally go into the Crafting Bag, but that unlimited storage is a very handy tool for all these (and any future) deliveries.

@ZOS_RobGarrett

AlnilamE · June 2019

I feel like switching to a 20/10-hour timer would be the best solution.

Taleof2Cities · June 2019

The timer isn’t 24 hours though. It’s 12 hours between mails with passives fully unlocked.

ZeroXFF · June 2019

If we could just collect all hireling mails on the first char we log in, it would be perfect. I don't even care if they change the timer then, because I won't waste half an hour of my play time just relogging.

AlnilamE · June 2019

ZeroXFF wrote: »

If we could just collect all hireling mails on the first char we log in, it would be perfect. I don't even care if they change the timer then, because I won't waste half an hour of my play time just relogging.

That would be nice, but the game would have to go through your character list and figure out what hirelings they have unlocked and what crafting levels they have, so I don't know how long a query like that would take to run. Plus, it would probably try to run it on every character you log in.

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

ZeroXFF wrote: »

If we could just collect all hireling mails on the first char we log in, it would be perfect. I don't even care if they change the timer then, because I won't waste half an hour of my play time just relogging.

First of all it might flood your mailbox, and I've experienced incidents where there wasn't room in the mailbox and I never got that Hireling mail after I cleared the mailbox.
Imagine if the first time you opened your mail it was already full or near-full with Guild Store sales. You might lose all your Hireling deliveries for that day, on all your toons.

Also, I think they coded the structure badly to begin with and it'd take more than tweaking a couple of constant declarations in the code. Just the fact that the timer starts when you first get the skill suggests they did it toon-specific.
They'd have to tear out that structure and that requires debugging … because you know for sure it's gonna be buggy the first time around.

If they committed to doing that, then a wider dialog on what's the best replacement should definitely precede it.

Shaie · June 2019

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

The timer isn’t 24 hours though. It’s 12 hours between mails with passives fully unlocked.

It's supposed to be, but I do not get two mails in any 24 hour period anymore. It's been that way for months.

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

Login errors continue to get posted.

Bumping this so that hopefully it'll get inserted in the in-house ZOS dialog somewhere @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

darthgummibear_ESO · June 2019

At least putting it on a 20 hour timer to put it on par with the other timers would be nice.

ZonasArch · June 2019

Yeah... 20h/10h would be nice enough. Still "two per day", only for real. Usually I end up getting about 10-12 sets of mail in a week because of this rolling effect. Not that it would change all that much, but it would be nice to get all 14 possible sets for a little bit extra gold.

Not that big of an issue though... Let's be honest. Just a minor annoyance.

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

ZonasArch wrote: »

Yeah... 20h/10h would be nice enough. Still "two per day", only for real. Usually I end up getting about 10-12 sets of mail in a week because of this rolling effect. Not that it would change all that much, but it would be nice to get all 14 possible sets for a little bit extra gold.

Not that big of an issue though... Let's be honest. Just a minor annoyance.

I wouldn't want to be as dismissive and say "not that big of an issue" since for different people what is merely a "minor annoyance" to you is really frustrating to them. And I don't want to be judgmental of that either -- everyone has a pet peeve that irks them more than it irks others.

A change to 20h is actually really profound because you can now adjust the schedule of picking up your mails *backward* instead of only forwards. If you could only push it forwards you'll end up hitting a point where you really can't log in at that time and have to jump ahead several hours. And with the unexpected happening such as login issues, that just screws things up -- when you finally get to log in, your mailbox might first be full of guild store sales and then it's iffy if you even get your Hireling mail.

Furthermore, with a change to 20h, you have the relaxing and convenient option of logging in merely at *approximately* your preferred time of day to get your Hireling mail. Instead of trying to be at the same time all the time lest you nudge that time forward too much again.

rsantijw13 · June 2019

Why not have it set times? 10am 10pm hireling stuff is sent out to those with the passives. That makes the most sense. To the point where I dont even want the passives because I miss days or times for a character or two

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

rsantijw13 wrote: »

Why not have it set times? 10am 10pm hireling stuff is sent out to those with the passives. That makes the most sense. To the point where I dont even want the passives because I miss days or times for a character or two

That would be pretty good too. However,
(1) I'm not sure they coded it that way and it would be easy to make such a change compared to changing a number from 24 to 20.
(2) If you have 8 or even 18 toons, your mail would be full and you might lose hireling mail. It's happened to me that my mailbox was full of guild sales and I don't think I got the mail for that toon I logged onto. Again, I think they coded it without expecting people to have alts.

So definitely I think your idea has merit if instead of mail, they dumped it right into the Crafting Bag, whether someone has ESO+ or not. Bypass mail completely, as I suggested in my original post. But these changes might require a lot of coding and testing, and I figure it's easier to ask for a small change instead of asking them to commit to a larger one.

jimmulvaney · June 2019

I just get a bit annoyed when I only get 4 of the 5 hireling deliveries for Character A, then when I log in on Character B the 5th one meant for Character A appears in addition to the other 5 meant for Character B, and sometimes 1 or 2 emails show up late in this fashion as I log in and out of toons, rolling over to the next toon. Finally when I am done logging all my toons, 20 mins later I get the remaining deliveries... smh So many pet peeves in this game would be fixed if it all ran on a universal timer for (in my case) 2AM EST. Like how our pledges reset. The random dungeon timer, hireling deliveries, daily rewards, mount timers, coffer rewards, research timers... all of it should be on ONE universal timer, per server.

Instead of the alternative which is I got my tank's random dungeon done easy, this dps took me 20 mins to find a group, but this dps took me 45 minutes to find a grp (because I was off pve'ing), so now in 20 hours I can que for my Tank but I have to wait 20hr 20 mins, on this one and 20hrs and 45 minutes on this one...

it would be so much less annoying if I could just say "oh 2 Am well when I wake up I can run all my random dungeons, dailies, can I feed my horse? Yup. Never once needing to run all over hell checking if things are available or if a timer is still running AAAAAND I know I have 24 hrs to do it all so I can plan my day accordingly, instead of missing out on ESO content for the day because I have chores or groceries to do.

Iarao · June 2019

Shaie wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

The timer isn’t 24 hours though. It’s 12 hours between mails with passives fully unlocked.

It's supposed to be, but I do not get two mails in any 24 hour period anymore. It's been that way for months.

you have to log in every 12 hrs to get the mail. you only get when you log in and the specific timer has passed.

rumple9 · June 2019

Try Ulrich's hireling timer add-on.

Sylvermynx · June 2019

Y'know.... I'm ready to get rid of the hirelings. Lordy I don't NEED anything they send. I have so many mats on both accounts. I could use those skill points a lot better elsewhere....

Pevey · June 2019

Sylver,

You really might enjoy biting the bullet and joining in the trading game. With your army of crafters I see in vivec all the time, you would be rich.

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

With the login issues continuing I wanna bump this thread.

Earlier on I was asking for the minor tweak of 24 hours -> 20 hours (and 12h -> 10h).
But with severe login issues it may also be a good time to examine the issue of timers and, in the case of Hirelings, of having timers at all. An automated no-login-required daily materials drop right into the Crafting Bag (whether ESO+ is active or not) would be a great idea.

Same with auto collection of the Daily Login Reward, especially if people are missing that because of login issues -- missing a few days could potentially mean missing out of the special later-in-the-month rewards.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

PlayStation service interruption -- yet another reason for the Hireling Timer to be re-examined, and possibly overhauled into something more convenient, such as a no-login automatic dump of materials into the Crafting Bag.

FlopsyPrince · June 2019

ZeroXFF wrote: »

If we could just collect all hireling mails on the first char we log in, it would be perfect. I don't even care if they change the timer then, because I won't waste half an hour of my play time just relogging.

Having to "touch" each character is very annoying with all the delays built into the login/logout/login/etc. process. Very tedious and slow just to touch everyone on a regular basis and get the stuff I spent skill points on.

ghastley · June 2019

It certainly would make sense to have all the "once in every 24 hours" things step on at the same time each day, and the "one day cooldown" be 20 hours or so. It seems like the hireling mails are neither fish nor fowl for this, because of the passive level that doubles the deliveries. The closest compromise seems to be having a 20/10 hour cooldown.

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

ghastley wrote: »

It certainly would make sense to have all the "once in every 24 hours" things step on at the same time each day, and the "one day cooldown" be 20 hours or so. It seems like the hireling mails are neither fish nor fowl for this, because of the passive level that doubles the deliveries. The closest compromise seems to be having a 20/10 hour cooldown.

Or have the third level not be two mails but a single mail with more materials. A half-day schedule is its own kind of inconvenience

Mettaricana · June 2019

Or untie it entirely from log in amd let it deliver into mail regardless of log in

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

Bumping this thread. As more and more people experience login issues disrupting their schedules, the Hireling timer as well as other timers could use a review.

ZeroXFF · June 2019

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

ZeroXFF wrote: »

If we could just collect all hireling mails on the first char we log in, it would be perfect. I don't even care if they change the timer then, because I won't waste half an hour of my play time just relogging.

First of all it might flood your mailbox, and I've experienced incidents where there wasn't room in the mailbox and I never got that Hireling mail after I cleared the mailbox.
Imagine if the first time you opened your mail it was already full or near-full with Guild Store sales. You might lose all your Hireling deliveries for that day, on all your toons.

Also, I think they coded the structure badly to begin with and it'd take more than tweaking a couple of constant declarations in the code. Just the fact that the timer starts when you first get the skill suggests they did it toon-specific.
They'd have to tear out that structure and that requires debugging … because you know for sure it's gonna be buggy the first time around.

If they committed to doing that, then a wider dialog on what's the best replacement should definitely precede it.

Wrong, the mails don't disappear, they will just arrive after you opened the ones you already received. This happened to me multiple times, it's not an issue. Worst case scenario they will have to increase mailbox size from 50 or whatever it is to 5*max. char count + 5*30 (5 hireling mails for every character possible + 5 guilds with 30 listings on each), so 240. You're making the problem appear bigger than it is.

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

ZeroXFF wrote: »

Wrong, the mails don't disappear, they will just arrive after you opened the ones you already received. This happened to me multiple times, it's not an issue. Worst case scenario they will have to increase mailbox size from 50 or whatever it is to 5*max. char count + 5*30 (5 hireling mails for every character possible + 5 guilds with 30 listings on each), so 240. You're making the problem appear bigger than it is.

I don't know what platform you're on or if you're making up nonsense but my mailbox size is 30 max and my personal experience is the mail just didn't get through after I cleared my mailbox.
If it's not an issue for you great. But it is for enough people.
Thanks for bumping the thread with your post.

ZeroXFF · June 2019

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

ZeroXFF wrote: »

Wrong, the mails don't disappear, they will just arrive after you opened the ones you already received. This happened to me multiple times, it's not an issue. Worst case scenario they will have to increase mailbox size from 50 or whatever it is to 5*max. char count + 5*30 (5 hireling mails for every character possible + 5 guilds with 30 listings on each), so 240. You're making the problem appear bigger than it is.

I don't know what platform you're on or if you're making up nonsense but my mailbox size is 30 max and my personal experience is the mail just didn't get through after I cleared my mailbox.
If it's not an issue for you great. But it is for enough people.
Thanks for bumping the thread with your post.

I'm literally relogging every day 12 times, with 5x11 + 1 hireling mails. I do not take them all with each char, I leave them in the box until I have them all and collect them all with the last char. So the mailbox can retain AT LEAST 56 mails. I only see the message telling me that my mailbox is full if I have something like 70 mails (don't know the exact number). I clear my mailbox, change the zone, and I'm getting the mails I was missing. That is how it works.

Also, why are you so defensive? This part of the implementation of my suggestion would be downright trivial.

Nerouyn · June 2019

In their current state hireling mails are tedious. I can't be arsed with that degree of micro management.

For me and I suspect many others, a key part of the charm of Elder Scrolls games is being able to play just one character. Every moment that I'm on an alt for any reason is sucking joy out of the game.

Sadly crafting writs are worth doing so I do typically cycle through my alts once a day but I'm not going to do that twice a day and timed precisely to catch as many as possible.

ZeroXFF wrote: »

I clear my mailbox, change the zone, and I'm getting the mails I was missing. That is how it works.

I don't think you need to change zones. I occasionally go over my max and just switching from the mail looter tab (after looting all mail) then back to my inbox brings in the overflow. Then back to mail looter tab again to loot.

macsmooth · June 2019

Personally they should put hirelings including that one Npc that will remain silent on the reset time of crafting writs so that way it doesn’t matter what time you login throughout the day they reset at one point in time

As an example if your reset time for crafting writs is 7am then all hireling should be set to 7am and the extra skill points just changes the amount of mats so at full 3 points you get at 7am the amount of mats that you would have gotten for two 12 hours of the current hireling

This should make it not so demanding that a person needs to login twice a day and only needs the once a day login, once a day is enough for Zos stats to show they have a game people login into daily

Dusk_Coven · June 2019

Bumping this thread. A change to how the Hireling mail is handled would be a profound Quality of Life change for everyone.