Survey Hirelings

ClevaTreva · September 2021

Just a suggestion for the Devs, nothing more...

Would it be possible that we could either 'employ' a Hireling to carry out Surveys and Treasure Maps on our behalf OR reassign one (or more) of them to do the grind instead and slow the gradual pile-up of these things. For example, when reassigned, they could do one survey every three days (and not doing mats that day).

I get that surveys and treasure maps are effectively free and that we don't have to do them but with so much going on in the game; questing, daily writs, RND, Trials, Endeavours, BGs, Events, levelling, crafting and not to mention those of us who work for a living, they are a valuable commodity piling up and using up space when there could be a mechanic whereby Hirelings do them for us (at a small cost or hireling reassignment perhaps)?

I'll get me coat

I_killed_Vivec · September 2021

It's been mentioned before, so I don't think you have a chance that they will do it. But it's a nice idea - have my hireling do some work and give me some useful mats rather than the usual rubbish...

Particularly with enchanting surveys. I'd like to see just one kuta, and I'm so frequently disappointed :'(

Jamdarius · September 2021

I once thought about having a guild house/ player house akin to a small settlement / pocket oblivion with which you could charge mine/farm/woods/garden/enchanter tower with those surveys and for example when you sleep your toon would farm 1 of the resources but considering how many problems exist already I would rather they not touch anything and leave it as is.

The thing is they created such things to make it seem zones are not as empty and will probably never change it.

Sarannah · September 2021

Let's see, I have 50-60 of every survey stored. Let's say 100 different types, that makes for 5000 surveys. As you propose, a survey done by a hireling would take three days. Which comes down to 15000 days, excluding surveys I will still get. Which in turn comes down to a little over 41 years of sending a hireling to do my current surveys.

I'd rather have a merchant which can buy all of our surveys and treasure maps for a 30% cut. Meaning we would get 70% of the materials(survey) or loot(treasure chests). So in exchange for winning time by not having to do those surveys/treasure maps, we lose out on a percentage.

Amottica · September 2021

I agree with @I_killed_Vivec that there is a low chance this or a similar idea will happen. I have also found they do not take much time to do.

trackdemon5512 · September 2021

There are too many variables that go into the collection of survey materials, or really any node/chest that make this an unappealing process.

For general nodes it’s things like will this enchanting node become a Psijic portal? Or will this node drop housing material as well. Will this ore node also drop some jewelry material? What will the contents of a node be?

That last one is perhaps the most difficult. Depending on your character’s crafting level, how many skill points they have in, what the CP allocation is, what zone they are in, etc., you then have RNG on top of RNG dictating the results of any node.

Now you want to turn that into a background but active process on any toon at a time? When can you use the survey assistant? Is there a time process to it and it’s not instant? If it’s instant can it be done in battle, thus unnecessarily taxing the server? If it’s over time what happens if you change your CP or skill points while doing it?

There is so much that goes into it that people don’t understand and yet assume it’s just a quick “get my mats” and save me time.

Just do your own surveys. They only take 30 seconds max apiece.

whitecrow · September 2021

It kills me how people think these things are a huge chore. Look, if you don't want take a few minutes to figure them out the answers are on the internet.

Gundug · September 2021

We already do have material gathering assistants through passives who provide small amounts of materials through email, so it’s not a huge stretch to expand that, but I would prefer a revision of how surveys are harvested instead.

I would ask that instead of six scattered nodes per survey, we instead get one large node that takes around 30 seconds to harvest per survey. If the player has four surveys, that’s two minutes of harvesting animation. I would expand this system by making survey nodes become a visible harvesting location to nearby players, and they could contribute to the harvest by also working the node, reducing the harvest time by 10% per additional player, to a maximum of 50% faster per survey. These extra harvesters would take in perhaps 10% of the amount of material that a survey holder would receive as a reward per survey completed - although this would not have any effect on what the survey holder is taking in - the survey holder always receiving 100% of the materials they are entitled to, regardless of how many helpers are at the survey.

joerginger · September 2021

Just mulltiply the yield by the amount of surveys we have in our inventory. The riding to and fro to make the survey respawn is so incredibly tedious.

tmbrinks · September 2021

why even have "surveys" then? Just return the 15 max level mats and 10 random (doing max level writs) that you get when you DON'T get a survey and call it a day.

I'd be all for you being able to turn in a survey to the "non-survey" reward instead.

But collecting surveys is already, quite literally, the most time-effective way to make wealth/gold/mats in the game, especially when you stack them up, since can very quickly reset them... you don't buff what is already the absolute best.

Folkb · September 2021

Jewelry crafting hireling pl0x.