Collectibles Timing

[Xibor]

My wife Diwata and I are perplexed about the timing of the collectibles. We can tell they come every 8 hours, but we can't figure out why the particular times? We both start playing at the same time every day, find all the collectibles usually at about the same time, and stop playing about the same time (ok - yeah, we're a little crazy).

But mine come at approx 07:15, 15:15 and 23:15 and hers come at 02:00, 10:00 and 18:00. The minutes vary slightly, but it's very close to that - and we almost always find all of them pretty quick. I sometimes do the 23:15 ones, she never does the 02:00 ones, but the pattern never seems to change.

Any idea how those times originally got set? And is there any way to move the cycle? I tried not finding one on purpose to see if the next ones fell at a different time but it doesn't seem to make any difference, nor does taking a long time to find them all.

It's made us curious. We are GMT +13 currently if that has anything to do with it. Any ideas? Thanks

[Durin_d]

I believe that the timer reset when the collectibles spawn or if you are offline when they should spawn the spawn happens when you do your next login.

[Nihilista]

Haven't thought about it, and have no clue, but can it have something to do with at which time you registered your accounts?

EDIT: The only way I can think about to get you synchronized is if you both to go offline for a few days so your islands goes into "sleep-mode", then login at the same time.

[JJahorn]

I wouldn't be suprised it it did groups based on your user name - or some such thing. That the database doesn't all have to be touched at the same time.

[Xibor]

Thanks for the responses. I think a test last night (this morning) proved something.
I happened to wake up about 04:30 and decided to have a look - I finished all collectibles at 04:45.

Today I checked at 13:45 and they were there again, which is earlier than usual. I can't prove it, but I'm convinced they would have been there at 12:45 (8 hours from finding them all). I will find them all soon as and then I should have them tonight earlier as well.

So it appears that it's 8 hours from when you find the last - and if not all are found - 8 hours from when the last ones showed up. It seems you can control the timing to an extent.

[Iolanthe]

I believe that the timer reset when the collectibles spawn or if you are offline when they should spawn the spawn happens when you do your next login.

Yep.

It doesn't matter if you find them all or not, they should still reset every 8 hours based on your initial login for the day. (Barring random TSO hiccups, as usual.) If you've left the game running overnight the timing will carry over until you do log out long enough to change it.

Xibor, if the first set appeared at 04.30 the next was likely there at 12.30, give or take the odd minute. If the game is open on your home island at the right time, even if you're afk, you can check in News for "You have received a new quest!" at the expected time. Might help clarify.

[Norton_C]

I thought after reading the anouncement that the time was hard set at 8 hours between spawns. Which seemed to be the case at first. But then the spawn times started to shift, so hard set 8 ours theory did not confirm. Other than that I didn't have time to analyse what is actually happening, but am curious to find out also. That hard set 8 hours would suit me well regardless of the spawn times I think as it makes it predictable and easy to follow........... Will check to confirm if it works as Durin_d and Iolanthe suggest.

[Norton_C]

Eh, all my fault. I just can't count. Must have been very tired. And nobody noticed. - Post deleted. Ignore me.

[Iolanthe]

Sorry, have to ask. Have you refreshed lately? If you haven't and try it, might be worth noticing if you need to reenter your login info. That's a wild guess, on the whole mine have been ridiculously consistent while the few hiccups I have seen look like they might have been caused by the game logging me out without mentioning it. Possibly.

If you have refreshed recently and are comfortably and completely logged in... that's definitely awkward.

Edit re Edit: I plead timezones Glad it sorted.

[Alayne]

Collectibles spawn every 8-10 hour.
See #5: http://http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/threads/25789-Guide-Collection-System-and-Collectibles
If you have been getting them every 8th hour you are just lucky