Hireling Timer Addon - does one exist or tips for creating one

[zgrssd]

Something recently asked for something like this on the ESO Forum. And it has been bugging me for some time, even if I only have one Character with hirelings.

Nothing among the existing Reserach or Crafting Addons seems to track "how long you have to wait till hireling will trigger again". And a serach on the forum brought nothing up. If somebody could point me to such a Addon, it would be the ideal case.

But chances are I propably have to go and make one. Wich raises a few questions:
What is the prefered way to get the currrent time & date, with not more precision then 1 second? How about adding 24 hours to a datetime aquired this way?
Anybody know if the "Hireling" mail has some obvious telltale? Any way to figure out for wich character it was destined? (in case a race condition occurs with a user logging out before the mail is received due to server load).
I propably also have to track skill changes (respec and increase of 1st Skill/Hireling Skill for every profession).

Near as I can tell the current rule is:
[timeframe] hours after taking the skill while not having the cooldown.
or
[timeframe] hours after last getting a mail from this hireling/profession
And when logged in with the proper Character.
You get a hireling mail. Afaik logging out/back in is not nessesary. Except it might fix a minor bug with Mail delays (unconfirmed).

[Halja]

I have not noticed any add-ons attempting to track that yet.

There is no visible API for the add-on developers to use for an exact time. There are strange rules especially with the three tier of 12 hours cycle. No you don’t have to logout the character to get the second delivery but you do have to zone/portal around the expected time. The time drifts on server reboots and maintenance windows too. You can pick up the delivery on another character but I think you still have to switch to the intended delivery character to get the timer to start. I not 100% sure on the later but it sure seems like you have to switch. Skill line respect could come into play on the timing like they may on the research lines.

There are an events on mail delivery and opening. So, rough timers could be built using a savedvariables file at the account level. The question becomes more complicated when you have multiple hirelings. The deliveries are to your @account and have no labels/tags to know which character they are for. I’m not sure how you discern that when you can have duplicate hirelings across characters. Noting stops you from having a provisioning hirelings on all characters if you want them. There are people with 32 hirelings.
--halja

[zgrssd]

Actually Craft Store just did add hireling timers with 1.08. So I do not have to make it myself anymore.

[Halja]

I just saw that myself too.....

[Tonyleila]

Well Craft Store is nice but coud we get an addon only for this maybe? A timer at the mailbox window? I don't need a wohle Craft Store for it :S

[zgrssd]

Originally Posted by Tonyleila Well Craft Store is nice but coud we get an addon only for this maybe? A timer at the mailbox window? I don't need a wohle Craft Store for it :S

I have been thinking abut making a Cross Character data collector addon for some time now. It would deal with all the plumbing of getting such data, leaving other addons to focus on whatever GUI they want.

But it is a long way before I get to hirelings. Even craft store currently requries the user to start the timer.

[QuadroTony]

Craft Store and MailTime deleted from the site now
i think we need new addon now

[Kraeius]

Originally Posted by QuadroTony Craft Store and MailTime deleted from the site now i think we need new addon now

QuadroTony and his endless addon requests

[QuadroTony]

i think i can rewrite/update MailTime
i have this addon on my machine

but dunno if eShinobu give me permission for that
he hates me

[Ayantir]

Originally Posted by zgrssd I have been thinking abut making a Cross Character data collector addon for some time now. It would deal with all the plumbing of getting such data, leaving other addons to focus on whatever GUI they want. But it is a long way before I get to hirelings. Even craft store currently requries the user to start the timer.

That won't be hard to do this, except I never coded in XML as for now I was thinking on a frame displaying all chars of an account with timers. My char got the 4 crafts with the 12hours timer and I can easily manage an level 4 alt to rush some points in craft ... and yes, it a mandatory that you need to receive the 1st mail to the addon start it's timer. then it's just a add + xxhours and reading how much points you spent on skill X/Y/Z

Does someone know if the timer start when you receive mail or you pick up materials from attachment? I really think it's time of when the mail come into your mailbox (which isn't same as the one the server triggers the event, i know it..).
Generally it's almost same, but if someone already searched for it.

zgrssd, if you want to try, I let you do, anyway if I wasn't at all motivated to code for now, release come next week and I was thinking about a whole week end of code on pts.

BTW, if i'm starting an addon like this it's mostly because in my guild, there are ~10 guys with :

There are people with 32 hirelings.

and when seeing their logins/relogins, it's always make me smiling

Originally Posted by Kraeius Originally Posted by QuadroTony Craft Store and MailTime deleted from the site now i think we need new addon now QuadroTony and his endless addon requests

lol, so true

[QuadroTony]

and when seeing their logins/relogins, it's always make me smiling

just a macro, man
or relogger soft

[merlight]

You can't get this right, unless ZOS adds something to the API, or to the mails. IMO it's a complete waste of time to even try.

Last time I checked, I had two blacksmiths with hirelings, let's call them HighIronMan and CountQuicksilver (they had blacksmithing level 2 and 8, respectively). I logged HighIronMan, /camp, logged CountQuicksilver and ding, hireling mail with High Iron Ore received. There was no information in that mail that would tell it was sent to HighIronMan by his hireling. /camp, logged another character and ding, full mailbox. No add-on would know about this second hireling mail with Quicksilver Ore until I deleted some mail (which in my case can be weeks later; yes that's my own problem, and also the reason this add-on would be useless to me even if it actually worked; I just wanted to show that sometimes you can't see all received mail).

Unless ZOS puts actual recipient character name in the mail -- which would only be logical, I wonder from the start why the hell system-sent rewards for deeds of a specific character (veteran rank congrats, cyrodiil rewards) always name the currently logged one, who did nothing to earn that reward -- so until then, the best you can do is guess.

Originally Posted by Ayantir Does someone know if the timer start when you receive mail or you pick up materials from attachment? I really think it's time of when the mail come into your mailbox (which isn't same as the one the server triggers the event, i know it..). Generally it's almost same, but if someone already searched for it.

It's when the server generates the message, you don't have to pick it up. I have almost permanently full mailbox (client-full, as in more than the API can access, but less than the server can hold), and when I go and delete some, hireling mails from several days ago pop up.

[Anex]

Originally Posted by QuadroTony Craft Store and MailTime deleted from the site now i think we need new addon now

I saw this! And I'm ever so sad! I use Craftstore! I really like it! And they were working on improvements. This makes me all kinds of sad and tracking traits is gonna suck now