They do pause if you log off, but they run continuously when you're logged in, even if you're not in combat or anything. So it's effectively 8 hours of playtime.
The bit they don't mention is the nature of the game means you won't usually get the full benefit of the skill bonus if you do a lot of ground missions. The maths is something like this:
Skill bonus adds 20% to skill points gained.
Most ground mission enemies give one point. So 1.2 points including bonus.
Game rounds off. You get one point.
Hence there is no appreciable effect to having this active during a ground mission (aside from the end mission reward) unless (I assume) you run at a higher difficulty rating (which I think gets you more points per mob? Correct me if I'm wrong.)
The bit they don't mention is the nature of the game means you won't usually get the full benefit of the skill bonus if you do a lot of ground missions. The maths is something like this:
Skill bonus adds 20% to skill points gained.
Most ground mission enemies give one point. So 1.2 points including bonus.
Game rounds off. You get one point.
Hence there is no appreciable effect to having this active during a ground mission (aside from the end mission reward) unless (I assume) you run at a higher difficulty rating (which I think gets you more points per mob? Correct me if I'm wrong.)
A dev explained this a while back. On the backed, 1 point for us is 100 points as far as the math is concerned, and 1.2 is 120, and full counted and stored. So even though it looks like it's rounding to 1 point, it's simply a visual thing. You get the full 1.2 points for defeating a 1 point mob.
Comments
Skill bonus adds 20% to skill points gained.
Most ground mission enemies give one point. So 1.2 points including bonus.
Game rounds off. You get one point.
Hence there is no appreciable effect to having this active during a ground mission (aside from the end mission reward) unless (I assume) you run at a higher difficulty rating (which I think gets you more points per mob? Correct me if I'm wrong.)
A dev explained this a while back. On the backed, 1 point for us is 100 points as far as the math is concerned, and 1.2 is 120, and full counted and stored. So even though it looks like it's rounding to 1 point, it's simply a visual thing. You get the full 1.2 points for defeating a 1 point mob.