Request for a change in hireling timer mechanics

Curragraigue · July 2014

I haven't bothered to get the 3/3 and have just stopped with 2/3. If I'm lucky I might be able to log on twice in a day on the weekend but otherwise it is just not possible.

ZOS you release that to pay an ongoing subscription for entertainment I need to work right? I agree with other posters that two mails when you log on would be a better mechanic for this.

Or if you offered a phone app and I could 'log on' using my phone to access the mail I could live with that. Being able to do research through a phone app would also be a great time saver.

xaraan · July 2014

I've submitted bug reports for not getting deliveries before and was recently told this was a known problem and would be addressed in a future patch. Granted, that's what they always say, so maybe it was just form letter BS, but...

I have missed countless deliveries, the last response I sent in on my help ticket had about twenty+ deliveries I never received. (Yes, I know about having to relog, having to be online, etc. - trust me, I'm on the game plenty and should have no problem getting all my deliveries).

They definitely just need to have two set times to deliver everything everyday. Allow two deliveries to build up until sign in and then if you are offline for a week you wouldn't get all those deliveries, but if you signed in and played for a bit at least once a day, you'd still get all your deliveries.

But it's really annoying considering I didn't make eight alts and have hirelings sending me stuff since day one like many others and build up mats until they nerfed it. I actually am often in need of deliveries and hoping I get something decent.

rootimus · July 2014

I don't understand why we don't get the mails every x hours, regardless of whether or not we login. That's what the tooltip says and it's the only design decision that makes sense - most of us can't plan our lives around a video game.

IceDread · July 2014

The current system is retarted, yeap.
They should simply check have you got your hireling mail this day when you log in then send it all.
Right now they are making it an annoyance.

Bazzakrak · July 2014

Now to beat a somewhat dead horse.

Dear @ZOS_GinaBruno‌ @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ and others at ZOS.

Could we please get a responce to this topic.

I have in the last week written down the times of when I got the first mail on my characters and then the time of when I took out all the mails on 1 of them.
And from the 19th of July to the 27th, the time has managed to move 12 minutes.
The movement in time I suspect is due to some sort of lag/connectivity issue to the game.
I have also noticed that even if I made sure that all 8 chars were to recieve their hireling mails at the same time, after a few days, I could log in and then get materials from woordworker/blacksmith/clothier, but not the mats from my provisioner. To get the last mats I had to log out and in again, and this off course again moved the time a little.

So basicly it seems that the mails are moved about 1 minute each day, may not seem much, but after 2 months it would be 1 hour later, and basicly I dont get my mats every 12 hours.

Below are the times just as an added information.
It is set up like this
<Date> - <Time I logged in>/<Time I collected the mails>

19/7/2014 - 08:16/08:23
19/7/2014 - 20:17/20:23
20/7/2014 - 08:18/08:24
20/7/2014 - 20:18/20:24
21/7/2014 - 08:18/08:24
21/7/2014 - 20:18/20:26
22/7/2014 - 08:21/08:26
22/7/2014 - 20:22/20:29
23/7/2014 - 08:22/08:31
23/7/2014 - 20:22/20:32
24/7/2014 - 08:23/08:33
24/7/2014 - 20:23/20:33
25/7/2014 - 08:23/08:34
25/7/2014 - 20:24/20:34
26/7/2014 - 08:24/08:34
26/7/2014 - 20:25/20:34
27/7/2014 - 08:24/08:35
27/7/2014 - 20:25/20:35

I have 3/3 hireling provisioner on all 8 chars.
For woodworker/blacksmith/clothier I have 2x3/3 and 6x2/3
So I was picking up the bulk of the materials in the morning and the second time in the evening.

Qalie · July 2014

I know this was *sort* of a necro, but I really have to agree. This is definitely a major fault to the crafting system. In fact, it's the only one that I can really think of beyond provisioning ingredient numbers. Is this something thats being worked on? The crafting system in ESO is excellent, but this just sorta makes me bang my head against a wall.

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2014

Hey guys, no problem with the necro. We are currently looking at how the hireling mechanics work, and are planning to do some revisions in the future. We'll let you know what we have in store as soon as it's more fleshed out.

zhevon · July 2014

@ZOS_GinaBruno‌
Thanks for the info - another hireling question - I have been told that after awhile the hireling "stories" essentially end. Hasn't yet happened to me but I really enjoy the hireling emails. Is that intended and if so are there any plans for them to start up again? Thanks again for the update.

ChuckyPayne · July 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey guys, no problem with the necro. We are currently looking at how the hireling mechanics work, and are planning to do some revisions in the future. We'll let you know what we have in store as soon as it's more fleshed out.

Any chance to delete hireling mechanics? It do more harm than good. (Almost every player exploit=8 low level character for hireling). This is the way do nothing (almost nothing) and get everything, like in other games the daily login rewards. I don't like it, disappointing. In addition, if it were not more skill points remain

instead it, other idea: How u can get this? Do something if u want something.
- Daily dungeon reward
- Daily trial reward
- Daily Dark Anchor reward
- Daily PvP reward
- Daily Fishing reward
- Story reward, Main story reward

etc. etc.

zhevon · July 2014

t.laszlo.zoltaneb17_ESO wrote: »

Any chance to delete hireling mechanics? It do more harm than good. (Almost every player exploit=8 low level character for hireling). This is the way do nothing (almost nothing) and get everything, like in other games the daily login rewards. I don't like it, disappointing. In addition, if it were not more skill points remain

Since they made their change awhile back my hirelings generally give very poor returns for the character unless they are levelled significantly; heck even when I have 2 points in the hireling I sometimes get like 3 iron ore and 1 moonstone. In fact even before the change it was never the gravy train many pretended it was.

Rodario · July 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey guys, no problem with the necro. We are currently looking at how the hireling mechanics work, and are planning to do some revisions in the future. We'll let you know what we have in store as soon as it's more fleshed out.

@ZOS_GinaBruno‌ hey, thanks for the update! Looking forward to reading about the specifics. I hope it'll include the mails being received at a set time, regardless of logins. Crossing my fingers for options 1&4 of the original post

Neferath · July 2014

Rodario wrote: »

Receiving a delivery on the first login that happens at least 24 hours after the last chest was received means it's almost impossible to receive a chest every day. No matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to log in/relog at exactly the same time every day, thus the delivery receival will shift to a later time every day, until you have to skip a day entirely.

If the hireling tier three was actually meant to address this, and not to receive two deliveries a day, i can accept that, but I'd want a "working as intended" confirmation.

Otherwise, my suggestion is the following:

1. Send deliveries at a fixed time e.g. 12AM (both simultaneously for tier 3) regardless of player logins. That way, as a bonus, players also wouldn't be punished for going on a vacation w/o access to a computer.

Failing that:

2. Take the refresh timer from above, but leave the login obligation (The deliveries will be overwritten by the following one, if not claimed). At least this way it wouldn't shift if you log in an hour later than usual.

Thanks for reading. Discuss.

EDIT after reading the comments:

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

4. Additionally to any option chosen, make all characters' deliveries appear when logging in with any characer. No more relogging 8 times to receive all mail. This would mean the mail is already generated in the inbox while offline, not sent upon login.

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

Could'nt agree more to the OP.

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2014

zhevon wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno‌
Thanks for the info - another hireling question - I have been told that after awhile the hireling "stories" essentially end. Hasn't yet happened to me but I really enjoy the hireling emails. Is that intended and if so are there any plans for them to start up again? Thanks again for the update.

There will be new hireling mails and stories in the future, yes.

zhevon · July 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

zhevon wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno‌
Thanks for the info - another hireling question - I have been told that after awhile the hireling "stories" essentially end. Hasn't yet happened to me but I really enjoy the hireling emails. Is that intended and if so are there any plans for them to start up again? Thanks again for the update.

There will be new hireling mails and stories in the future, yes.

Thanks for the heads up!

Grim13 · August 2014

Haven't received my 2nd shipment from any of my 3rd tier hirelings for 4-5 days now... kind of getting annoyed.

Grim13 · August 2014

Grim13 wrote: »

Haven't received my 2nd shipment from any of my 3rd tier hirelings for 4-5 days now... kind of getting annoyed.

Still not receiving my 2nd delivery.

Chuggernaut · August 2014

Grim13 wrote: »

Grim13 wrote: »

Haven't received my 2nd shipment from any of my 3rd tier hirelings for 4-5 days now... kind of getting annoyed.

Still not receiving my 2nd delivery.

Same.

Bazzakrak · August 2014

Dear @ZOS_GinaBruno‌ and @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ another small comment from me on this matter.

And with todays patch, my hireling times will now be moved, until after the EU server is up, I can download the patch, install it and log in.

So to get it back to being around 08.30am again, I will have to skip 1 day of mails, which wouldnt happend if the mails simply would be delivered at a certain time of day.

IceDread · August 2014

Yes as it is right now it's extremely annoying.

There should simply be a check if one has received the hireling items that day or not and then get them, the 24h system is very player unfriendly and not well thought out.
Please fire the one that made this the way it is today.

KenCleanAirSystem · August 2014

The way the system works now I, personally, will never purchase the 3rd rank in any of the Hireling skills. There is no way I can justify the skill points for something I only might get to take advantage of a maximum of twice a week (my days off). Even on my two days off a week I don't always have time to login at 12 hour intervals to receive in-game mail.

The current system punishes anyone who actually has a life away from their PC. I can generally devote at least a few hours a day to playing, but certainly not enough to collect hireling mails on an 'every 12 hours' schedule. Since hirelings are, unfortunately, the best way to accumulate enough high level improvement materials to craft epic or legendary gear, those of us who can only realistically login an average of once per day are put at a disadvantage in this respect.

Anu_Saukko_Tutkija · August 2014

i want every hireling item to be on my email everyday even if i am on holiday.. hireling sends mail.. does not make sense that mail just disappears when im off like 3 days. i have hired guy to find and send me loot. when the boss is on holiday workers still work. not immersive like it is now, thats how i feel

c0rp · August 2014

This needs to have some more push behind it, because I feel like my points in hirelings are pretty much wasted as its usually every 24 hours I can log in.

SirAndy · August 2014

Initially during beta, hireling timers were set at the time of day when you spent the first skill point for a hireling.
While a bit awkward (different hirelings had different delivery times) the fact that you had predictable delivery times was very helpful.

I think out of all the suggestions, having new shipments arrive at the players local noon time would be ideal.
No matter when you log in after noon on any given day, your mail will be there.
;-)

Bazzakrak · August 2014

SirAndy wrote: »

Initially during beta, hireling timers were set at the time of day when you spent the first skill point for a hireling.
While a bit awkward (different hirelings had different delivery times) the fact that you had predictable delivery times was very helpful.

It is still set by that rule.
But the times will move a little every day, since you cant log in at the exact same time due to RL, lag, patch etc etc, and as such after a while you will actually not be getting 1 or 2 mails a day as you should according to the tooltip in the skill.

SirAndy wrote: »

I think out of all the suggestions, having new shipments arrive at the players local noon time would be ideal.
No matter when you log in after noon on any given day, your mail will be there.
;-)

Yeah that would most likely be the best way to do it, according to the players local time or server time, just as long as it is a fixed time of day I think many people would be happy.

SirAndy · August 2014

Bazzakrak wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

Initially during beta, hireling timers were set at the time of day when you spent the first skill point for a hireling.
While a bit awkward (different hirelings had different delivery times) the fact that you had predictable delivery times was very helpful.

It is still set by that rule.
But the times will move a little every day, since you cant log in at the exact same time due to RL, lag, patch etc etc, and as such after a while you will actually not be getting 1 or 2 mails a day as you should according to the tooltip in the skill.

My point being that the times did *not* move depending on when you logged in back then. They were set once to whenever you spent the first skill point and then stayed at that time slot regardless of when you logged in.

The current system is fairly new (for those of us that have been around for a while) and was only implemented shortly before launch.

Gyudan · August 2014

I like the system as it is. I work 8-10 hours a day. Sometimes I come home for lunch, sometimes I don't, but I still manage to get 2 mails a day most of the time. I think people are whining too much about it.

Athas24 · August 2014

Oevaag_Bur wrote: »

I'm noticing additional weirdness to this problem lately.

They should have the mail arrive at fixed times of the day. I think someone already suggested 11am and 11pm. If you miss picking up the morning one before the next morning one is due you lose it as it is now (for what ever reason is in Zeni's head :P ). Ditto for the evening one.

Edit. Exactly the same again just now. 3:39pm before I noticed. Log alt and back in and there's the mail ^^

I've had this happen before too. I've also had like 2 days go by on an alt (logging in each day) where she didn't get any mail from her hireling. It's happened randomly like 3x to that toon in specific.

Rodario · September 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey guys, no problem with the necro. We are currently looking at how the hireling mechanics work, and are planning to do some revisions in the future. We'll let you know what we have in store as soon as it's more fleshed out.

@ZOS_GinaBruno‌ I don't mean to harass you, but it's been quite a while now. Are there any news to be shared on the subject?

SpAEkus · September 2014

It is still set by that rule.
But the times will move a little every day, since you cant log in at the exact same time due to RL, lag, patch etc etc, and as such after a while you will actually not be getting 1 or 2 mails a day as you should according to the tooltip in the skill.

The way it is working for me since my first 3/3 hireling last month has been the same - the hireling timer starts over from the time the mail hits your inbox and gives you the mail receipt sound.

This has no connection to what the mailbox says when you received the mail. The game/your PC time when you login and receive that mail with the boing is the start of a new 12 hour timer.

After I started getting more and more 3/3 hirelings across different crafts I also had mail coming in at all hours. All I had to do to sync all of them was to sacrifice one night of mails all the way past the next 12 hr hack and the next time I logged in all of them started receiving at the same time.

Depending on whether I take the time to look at attachments I can get all 7 characters mail delivered within 5-6 mins depending on the server lag.

I try to set them for 8AM and 8PM but you have to login after the last delivery time by at least 30sec~min, so, that time starts moving and in a week or more I have to sacrifice another set of mail if I want to re-set the delivery times.

You will always get both mails if you stay up/get up at the proper time to get them. Only if you skip them all the way past the next scheduled time will you lose a mail. Otherwise you are just pushing the timers around 12 hrs at a time.

A warning to going through them as fast as you can!

No matter how you log-in/out, make sure you roll over each new mail and change it from flashing new to solid delivered. You don't have to take the attachments, just click on it. The reason is, if you don't you will get the new mail delivered sound for all mail that has not been rolled over to change from flashing.

And you won't get another actual new mail sound until you close/open the mail box and actually receive more new mail.

If you go by the sound to believe all new mail is delivered you may log out without actually having received new mail on timer. Then you will have new timers for that character the next time you log in to it.

Soloeus · October 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey guys, no problem with the necro. We are currently looking at how the hireling mechanics work, and are planning to do some revisions in the future. We'll let you know what we have in store as soon as it's more fleshed out.

Please let us know, because many players who have 3 points in hireling aren't being rewarded for their third point because they can't log in at 12 hour intervals to claim the second delivery.