Question on Hireling

So I have put 3 points in the hirelings in BS and Provisioning but how do they really work?  It seems like when i log in in the evening I only have 1 mail per hireling?  Souldn' I get 2 apiece? Or can you only have 1 per trade in your mailbox at a time so basically you need to log in every 12 hours to get the full benefit?

It's not 2 per day, it's 1 per 12 hours so you basically have to be in game twice a day 12 hours apart to actually get 2 a day.

So you log in at say 6pm, you get a bag.  Your timer starts, the next time the game sees you online after 6am the following morning you'll get your next bag.  So say you log in at 11am, you get your next bag, timer starts, next time the game sees you online after 11pm that night you'll get your next bag - and so on.

Damn, that is a strange way of doing it. Would be nice just to get mail twice a day but I could see the issue if someone was on an extended vacation.  Probably should have gone with the alt hireling exploit/oversight while it was good.

Yeah.. not very happy with the hireling system at all.  It makes for plenty of wasted time switching between alts and whatnot.  Others would argue that it's a free service so why quibble?  But it's not really a free service since you are subbing to receive it.  And because of that, the hireling system should be a bit more 'user friendly', as it were.

I think I understand it better. I usually log in at 7 or 8pm and log out around 10. What time during the day would I need to log in for my next bag 7 or 8am or wait till 10am?

Yeah, hirelings are a pain in how they work.  Then again, outside Provisioning, they merely provide a small amount of goods with a small chance of being valuable.  Provisioning is the only one where certain crafting recipes require goods from the hirelings.

12 hours from when you got your last bag - so assumng you log in at 7 or 8pm and get your bags mailed at that time, you'll want to log in at about 7 or 8am.

That's a bit goofy, but I can see how they want to limit those who get the skill, then just let the bags pile up in their mailbox while they play other characters or sleep, work, play other games, whatever.  Its an economy thing, I get it, it does make sense.

It reminds me a little of early versions of EvE Online, with the offline skill training mechanic. You set a skill training while you were offline, but had to log in to set up another once the existing one had finished - of course, this was before the newfangled queue system that they have now (known as "Skill Tetris"). Since offline training directly affected character progression, players would end up logging in at awful times - from every 5 minutes for low level skills, to the middle of the night for higher level (=longer) skills, just to avoid the terrible feeling of panic that followed the realization that "oh noes I'm not training anything! I'm so behind!"

Here's hoping ZOS doesn't ever decide to follow that model. Every 12 hours is something I can live with. Although I'm tempted to not bother for Provisioning as my Provisioner hireling is still sending my level 40 Provisioner 1 Dripping or 1 Corn Mash. So underwhelming.

I am okay with only getting one loot box a day per character per craft, even though some of the crafts have 12 hours cool down.

But don't like the fact that everyday the time is pushed out a little.  Would have been nicer if the cool down was 20 hours like the horse feeding deal.

I haven't find any good material from my hirelings lately. I have all 3 points skill there and only got the raw material and the motif stone

I would say for the past five days my hirelings have been slacking. Not sure maybe a stealth nerf.

Mine haven't slacked.  I got purple and yellow enhancing materials out of them.  That don't happen every day, of course, but about once a week I get a better haul in either those nice yellows and purples or like 5 items of things stuffed in my bags.  I just reached rank 3 on my hirelings so will see how they do now.

One thing I do know is that you really should open the mails with the right character if you have more than one because it can get quirky if you don't.  Not sure why.  Just safer that way.  At least the always empty 3 point hireling bag got fixed during testing.  That was downright annoying.  Still think it does stupid things at times, so be sure to open on right character and bug report empty bags.