Server Maintenance, Patches and Announcements

Anex

ThePonzzz wrote: »

I was thinking the exact same thing.. especially as it is taking longer this time than usually -_- I'm BORED. I was hoping to get at least another hour (or the two that were taken from me) in before I have to get my spawn from school -_-

NateMiddleton

Elki_Wilderglas wrote: »

NateMiddleton wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

NateMiddleton wrote: »

There is some good ideas being discussed here and I agree with most of them on the side of more info. Like ETSR (Estimated time of server return) would be great!

No, it wouldn't.

When they give an ETA, people will flip out as soon as the servers come back a minute late or early. It's why most companies never give an estimate on server downtime.

From what I have seen I agree with you, however if it was updated on a rolling scale like when you download a file... 4 minutes to download....2 minutes to download...8 minutes to download EH! lol

What sort of rock thumping australopithicines do you take TESO subscribers for? If they know they're going to run OT 5-10 minutes prior to the "deadline" the courteous thing to do is update the appropriate page (and tweet), set a new ETA, if possible explain what may be causing the delay, excuse the inconvenience. And in the background log the ETA overtime & cause, work out the additional % the OT is in addition to the spent time, work that specific OT % into the amendable buffer I mentioned earlier to raise it. It would need to be either averaged out if the OT was because of something recurring (or likely to frequently recurr) or assigned to a specific task which precipitated the delay.

They are more like Ardipithecus wabbajack I mean Ardipithecus kadabba

wllstrt75b14_ESO

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

NateMiddleton wrote: »

There is some good ideas being discussed here and I agree with most of them on the side of more info. Like ETSR (Estimated time of server return) would be great!

No, it wouldn't.

When they give an ETA, people will flip out as soon as the servers come back a minute late or early. It's why most companies never give an estimate on server downtime.

What zenimax should do is say hey we are patching expect longer server down time then normal..always under promise and over deliver. Listing whether a patch is being implemented or not will help in some ways for players, to determine when the servers will be back on line. We all know that if they are patching they will be down for a while and break something so dont play for a day..lol(sarcasm...a little)

Elki_Wilderglas

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Elki_Wilderglas wrote: »

Twitter

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

I have no idea why you would suggest using Twitter to distribute information instead of the official site (where we already get the info).

And they're never, ever, ever going to give an estimate for the total downtime. It's a dumb move for any company to do that, because the instant that they go over or under the time, these forums will be inundated with posts from people screaming about how ZOS lied about how long maintenance would take.

Twitter= Convenient alert which can be sent to mobile devices while people are at work/uni. Not everyone is signed into the forum while at work/uni. Personally the only reason I have a twitter is to get ZOS announcements. Sad but true. Not sure what the problem two of you people here have with "Why do we have to have TWO sources of information?!"


I'd like to give TESO subscribers more credit than to assume most of them don't understand the definiton of the word "estimate." The game has been online for over 2.5 months now. By now they're starting to get into the swing of things. They know that a small maintenance on Thurs night should go for an hour. Why not tell us in advance. They know a big patch takes about 4.5-5 hours, A slightly smaller one takes 4. I'm sure they're tracking the downtimes in the backrgound and comparing them against the sizes of the fixes included in the various gen maint, hotfixes, patches, and should at least be able to project some basic downtimes based on the size of the work being done on the megaserver. Factor in a safety net of what they would consider to be an approptiate margin of time(eg. 12.5%) in case something goes wrong, and they have a slight buffer to work with.

If you want Twitter notification, go ahead. I don't use the platform, and I wasn't aware that so many people would consult it before consulting the official forums.

And I'd love to give subscribers more credit too. But let's be honest. The majority of people are looking for a reason to complain. If that reason ends up being that an estimated downtime was incorrect, they will use it to blow up the forums. This happens regularly with every other game, and this forum community has already shown itself to be worse than pretty much every other MMO forum I've ever seen. When you can't start a thread without it getting hijacked by the "Game is going f2p zomg!" crowd, do you really think that a missed maintenance ETA wouldn't cause a backlash?

There's always going to be THAT % of people who complain for the sake of complaining without anything constructive to say.. Luckily the ragers have died down in number from what I've observed. Guess they decided Wildstar was more for them.

I think you may have been right about ETA responses maybe a month and a half ago, but not really anymore. I think if the ZOS team went about it in the way outline in OP and in my previous comments, there'd be very few who would complain.

NateMiddleton

Elki_Wilderglas wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Elki_Wilderglas wrote: »

Twitter

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

I have no idea why you would suggest using Twitter to distribute information instead of the official site (where we already get the info).

And they're never, ever, ever going to give an estimate for the total downtime. It's a dumb move for any company to do that, because the instant that they go over or under the time, these forums will be inundated with posts from people screaming about how ZOS lied about how long maintenance would take.

Twitter= Convenient alert which can be sent to mobile devices while people are at work/uni. Not everyone is signed into the forum while at work/uni. Personally the only reason I have a twitter is to get ZOS announcements. Sad but true. Not sure what the problem two of you people here have with "Why do we have to have TWO sources of information?!"


I'd like to give TESO subscribers more credit than to assume most of them don't understand the definiton of the word "estimate." The game has been online for over 2.5 months now. By now they're starting to get into the swing of things. They know that a small maintenance on Thurs night should go for an hour. Why not tell us in advance. They know a big patch takes about 4.5-5 hours, A slightly smaller one takes 4. I'm sure they're tracking the downtimes in the backrgound and comparing them against the sizes of the fixes included in the various gen maint, hotfixes, patches, and should at least be able to project some basic downtimes based on the size of the work being done on the megaserver. Factor in a safety net of what they would consider to be an approptiate margin of time(eg. 12.5%) in case something goes wrong, and they have a slight buffer to work with.

If you want Twitter notification, go ahead. I don't use the platform, and I wasn't aware that so many people would consult it before consulting the official forums.

And I'd love to give subscribers more credit too. But let's be honest. The majority of people are looking for a reason to complain. If that reason ends up being that an estimated downtime was incorrect, they will use it to blow up the forums. This happens regularly with every other game, and this forum community has already shown itself to be worse than pretty much every other MMO forum I've ever seen. When you can't start a thread without it getting hijacked by the "Game is going f2p zomg!" crowd, do you really think that a missed maintenance ETA wouldn't cause a backlash?

There's always going to be THAT % of people who complain for the sake of complaining without anything constructive to say.. Luckily the ragers have died down in number from what I've observed. Guess they decided Wildstar was more for them.

I think you may have been right about ETA responses maybe a month and a half ago, but not really anymore. I think if the ZOS team went about it in the way outline in OP and in my previous comments, there'd be very few who would complain.

I am not on here that much but when I am I mostly read. What you speak is utter truth. And yes I think your post sums it up nicely. *bow*

Elki_Wilderglas

Thank you for your thoughts and comments. Now we play the waiting game.

Heishi

Not sure what notification people need. Someone had mentioned the big red box at the top of the page. It said yesterday that the server was going down at 6am.... so.. they gave a days notice.

Someone had said the needed notice 3-5 days in advance of maintenance time changes. Seriously. Then people want more venues of communication. Why? I know this is an age of convenience and the lazyassitis disease runs rampant, but how long does it take to load a website? 15 sec tops even from mobile or dial-up? Maybe you have to login first, so.. 30 sec?

So basically what I hear is people's days are so packed or are so lazy that they can't spend less than a minute to open a tab and check the site? Then later spend much longer than that writing a thread/post about not knowing the server was going down early.

Chrome and Firefox make it easy, you can just pin a small unobtrusive tab that will automatically load the site when you open the browser. You don't even have to do all that tiresome work of opening the tab and entering the address/click the bookmark.

If there's a patch, they pretty much always post the new patch notes. No new patch notes, assume it's regular maintenance. During beta and early access, they tried the giving an eta bit, and people flipped out (as some others noted people would).

Zeni can be blamed for a number of things. Bugs that should have been fixed, passives that don't work, classes too over/underpowered. However let's at least try not to blame them because we didn't feel like loading a website XD

Elki_Wilderglas

Heishi wrote: »

Not sure what notification people need. Someone had mentioned the big red box at the top of the page. It said yesterday that the server was going down at 6am.... so.. they gave a days notice.

Someone had said the needed notice 3-5 days in advance of maintenance time changes. Seriously. Then people want more venues of communication. Why? I know this is an age of convenience and the lazyassitis disease runs rampant, but how long does it take to load a website? 15 sec tops even from mobile or dial-up? Maybe you have to login first, so.. 30 sec?

So basically what I hear is people's days are so packed or are so lazy that they can't spend less than a minute to open a tab and check the site? Then later spend much longer than that writing a thread/post about not knowing the server was going down early.

Chrome and Firefox make it easy, you can just pin a small unobtrusive tab that will automatically load the site when you open the browser. You don't even have to do all that tiresome work of opening the tab and entering the address/click the bookmark.

If there's a patch, they pretty much always post the new patch notes. No new patch notes, assume it's regular maintenance. During beta and early access, they tried the giving an eta bit, and people flipped out (as some others noted people would).

Zeni can be blamed for a number of things. Bugs that should have been fixed, passives that don't work, classes too over/underpowered. However let's at least try not to blame them because we didn't feel like loading a website XD

Could you please read the comments already posted by other users in their entirety? You have repeated a number of them, (and have gotten your information incorrect i.e 24 hours notice was in fact TWO hours notice if you are going by the red notification box) in your bid to complain about user laziness. All of your queries/quarrels have also been answered in the previous comments which you didn't read.

Cogo

I do love technology! Even more, I like development and advancement.

But I do wonder what it has done to people. I mean in general now, so no person here specificly. (I cant spell, I know, sue me)

Have we really gotten to the point where we demand that everything we are interested in and wants to know, has to appear on your screen right away when you turn on your computer, phone, mac, Blehpad.

I do not think it has anything to do with lazyness. I wonder if the mindset, Hmm....where could this info be? Not here? Ok, I check that site, ask a friend.

Hell, lets google and see what comes up.

This seams so not exist.

On the other hand, I have to say, from someone who used computers since the early 80ies, people do KNOW what they want. And they want it NOW.

How about some old fasion patience, and listen a bit to those players who been through many of these MMOs lifecycles.......

Elki_Wilderglas

Cogo wrote: »

I do love technology! Even more, I like development and advancement.

But I do wonder what it has done to people. I mean in general now, so no person here specificly. (I cant spell, I know, sue me)

Have we really gotten to the point where we demand that everything we are interested in and wants to know, has to appear on your screen right away when you turn on your computer, phone, mac, Blehpad.

I do not think it has anything to do with lazyness. I wonder if the mindset, Hmm....where could this info be? Not here? Ok, I check that site, ask a friend.

Hell, lets google and see what comes up.

This seams so not exist.

On the other hand, I have to say, from someone who used computers since the early 80ies, people do KNOW what they want. And they want it NOW.

How about some old fasion patience, and listen a bit to those players who been through many of these MMOs lifecycles.......

Oh for pete's sake. Recapping OP and comments since which keep getting ignored/misread:

Point of thread:
-Consolidate information already available and release it earlier than one or two hours before the server comes down (or in the case of the existing Twitter alert system - currently alerting us as the server comes down/comes back up)
-Release more information at an earlier time to allow subsciribers to schedule their in-game and out of game activities.

Again. Consolidate. Organise. More information (read OP for spec). More reasonable alert times. Consistency.

I swear it's like you people stop reading at "Twitter".

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

Elki_Wilderglas wrote: »

Not to mention, historically Mondays are usually patch days. Sometimes regular maintenance. It's hard to tell when there's no advanced notice anymore.

ZOS have said, repeatedly that not all maintenance slots will be used, so if you don't come HERE where they post about it you're bound to miss it.

Cogo

How about this! Zenimax stops maintenance! Great eh! You can play whenever you want! Why didnt anyone think of that?

Elki_Wilderglas

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Elki_Wilderglas wrote: »

Not to mention, historically Mondays are usually patch days. Sometimes regular maintenance. It's hard to tell when there's no advanced notice anymore.

ZOS have said, repeatedly that not all maintenance slots will be used, so if you don't come HERE where they post about it you're bound to miss it.

Again, two hour notice via the red boxed notification isn't enough for most people. As another commenter pointed out it was two hours this week, less last week for the past two Monday maintenances which were both pushed ahead of the scheduled time. Where is the repetition of the maint slots not being used? There's nothing on the Regular Maintenance Times & Days post...

Not everyone is sitting at a computer hitting refresh on their browser. Hence prior knowledge and alerts being a more viable option.

Elki_Wilderglas

Cogo wrote: »

How about this! Zenimax stops maintenance! Great eh! You can play whenever you want! Why didnt anyone think of that?

Heh you're about two months too late and on the wrong thread to be recycling that.