20 hours of maintenance?

Displaced_Salad · February 5

outlander95 wrote: »

It's a total pain; I'm a newish player yet but this game sure goes under a lot of maintenance. But maybe I'm just used to FFXIV which doesn't do maintenance for 20 hours more than once every three years to implement an entire expansion lol.

What I'm wondering is, is this common?

Yes. Maintenance extensions are quite common. Not every time, but regularly enough. And, unfortunately, yes, the extensions are often quite long.

Rittings · February 5

Still no word on provisions for UK/EU based players? Especially those of us based in the UK but who play on the NA servers (when I started to play I was living in Tennessee.... ).

There's no way I'm staying awake on a work night till like 2am to get my daily rewards/endeavours etc...

jrfk2 · February 5

As a retired software developer for over 40 years .. I have gone through a lot of s/w deployments. And I realize that beyond internal testing and the test server for players to play test updates, with something as complex as ESO and the billions of combinations of things .. you have to have a rollback plan .. as you start getting closer to the end of the original maintenance window someone has to make the call to rollback to the previous level and delay this update until it can be fixed and deployed later.

You can't leave your customers, many of them paying customers, in limbo like this.

alternatelder · February 5

RedTalon wrote: »

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TechMaybeHic wrote: »

So like...what are the upgrades? Add some teraflops to the megahurts machine? A few more tubby-bits? New dual core hamsters?

Triple core mini giant space hamsters with any luck

Thanks, you made me read this in his voice.

Squeex · February 5

RedTalon wrote: »

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Squeex wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Holycannoli wrote: »

What would cause it to be this damned long?

We are working on some upgrades and those are taking longer than anticipated. So we need the extra time to make sure everything updates properly and we have proper time to test before we open the servers again. We know this is frustrating, but thank you for your patience while we work on this.

This couldn't have been done on a test environment prior to just pushing it to production?

They are talking hardware not software backend often is code for replacing and upgrading hardware not something you do in a test setting sadly

Not necessarily. Backend is generally a database, it doesn't have to be a physical piece of hardware.

Vraedlich · February 5

This is a sad times.

Carcamongus · February 5

Here's a leaked picture of the hardware upgrade.

Vraedlich · February 5

rothan117 wrote: »

Won't be getting that final daily reward this month.

Is this an EU server thing? Should be possible on NA servers..

RedTalon · February 5

Squeex wrote: »

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RedTalon wrote: »

Squeex wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Holycannoli wrote: »

What would cause it to be this damned long?

We are working on some upgrades and those are taking longer than anticipated. So we need the extra time to make sure everything updates properly and we have proper time to test before we open the servers again. We know this is frustrating, but thank you for your patience while we work on this.

This couldn't have been done on a test environment prior to just pushing it to production?

They are talking hardware not software backend often is code for replacing and upgrading hardware not something you do in a test setting sadly

Not necessarily. Backend is generally a database, it doesn't have to be a physical piece of hardware.

True but after the data center issues a bit back and the extended time likely some hardware stuff going on with this one and doing backups also transfering data and what not, but either way backend can't do in test settings

RedTalon · February 5

Carcamongus wrote: »

Here's a leaked picture of the hardware upgrade.

Hopefully it does not go for the eyes.

twev · February 5

silentxthreat wrote: »

to be fair a daily reward shouldnt be a thing anyway

I'll bet a fair number of people log in daily just for the daily rewards, and if good reward is closer to the end of a month - those players can't miss many days.

The metrics don't look good for a game if they can't claim that a sizable number of players log in every day.
Daily rewards are a way to entice more daily log ins.

TheRoamingSpirit · February 5

DenverRalphy wrote: »

This month the last reward is 3 Riding Capacity skill books. I'm sure there's more than a few players who'll be bummed they're gonna miss it.

And? What is the big deal with logging in to upgrade your mount with in-game gold? You can make like 5K gold per day from daily writs, Exploring delves and selling gear to in game merchants make you a bit of gold too, looting treasure chests in game give gold, Stealing gives gold if you steal the higher quality items, Etc. I honestly prefer to upgrade at a stablemaster cause it's more immersive that way. I usually log into ESO to play the game anyway, Riding books just allow me to save some gold every now and then, But I don't rely on them.

gresiac · February 5

Haven’t played for 1,5 years. Still this absurd maintenance….
This wants me quit again.

cyclonus11 · February 5

Hopefully this will fix the weird delays I've been experiencing since the power outage

DenverRalphy · February 5

TheRoamingSpirit wrote: »

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DenverRalphy wrote: »

This month the last reward is 3 Riding Capacity skill books. I'm sure there's more than a few players who'll be bummed they're gonna miss it.

And? What is the big deal with logging in to upgrade your mount with in-game gold? You can make like 5K gold per day from daily writs, Exploring delves and selling gear to in game merchants make you a bit of gold too, looting treasure chests in game give gold, Stealing gives gold if you steal the higher quality items, Etc. I honestly prefer to upgrade at a stablemaster cause it's more immersive that way. I usually log into ESO to play the game anyway, Riding books just allow me to save some gold every now and then, But I don't rely on them.

It's not a cost to upgrade thing. It's a Time required to Train issue. When it takes 60 days to open up all those inventory slots (180 if you do speed and stam first), it's nice to be able to speed up the process. Even if it is by a fraction, because those fractions add up.

Me? I don't much care. But I can at least understand why some players may be bummed out when they miss an opportunity due to outside influence.

DenverRalphy · February 5

Ttree wrote: »

[snip]

Just gonna let that one sit there. LOL!

[edited to remove quote]

James-Wayne · February 5

Server back up in Australia during the day.... perfect timing, can get all my daily's done! Thank you, ZOS!!

Sythen88411 · February 5

So will it Really be up at 8pm?....ima just watch highschool DxD

Sythen88411 · February 5

My japanese craft hall pure custom pc na

Willow pond

DrogB · February 5

when your boss decides to switch from MongoDB to MariaDB....

justinsmithskisb14a_ESO · February 5

Khajiit must find other things to do today.

thinkaboutit · February 5

jrfk2 wrote: »

As a retired software developer for over 40 years .. I have gone through a lot of s/w deployments. And I realize that beyond internal testing and the test server for players to play test updates, with something as complex as ESO and the billions of combinations of things .. you have to have a rollback plan .. as you start getting closer to the end of the original maintenance window someone has to make the call to rollback to the previous level and delay this update until it can be fixed and deployed later.

You can't leave your customers, many of them paying customers, in limbo like this.

I work as a network engineer, there's no way i'd be able to get away with requesting a 12 hour let alone a 20 hour outage. Seems like the scope of work is something beyond a simple 'backup'.

Not trying to come off as negative, but I don't think we're getting all the information here

SeaGtGruff · February 5

Iriidius wrote: »

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alternatelder wrote: »

Some of you need to get outside of playing just one game. Are you afraid you might not actually miss ESO and enjoy something else for a while?

Playing other games insteat of or additional to ESO would be easier if ZoS did not use daily rewards, daily rewards, event shines/boxes and now golden pursuits to keep players artificially depended because of fear of missing out(FOMO).
And even if you play other games besides eso you might still feel obligated to login daily because of FOMO (rewards).
However ESO consumes so much time you better not spend time on other games.

But most of the time, it doesn't take very long at all to do these things you're talking about.

Daily login rewards? Log in, then accept the reward. It takes perhaps a second to claim the reward; it actually takes longer to log in than to claim the reward.

For many of the events, it takes very little time to earn the daily tickets and golden event coffer-- case in point, during the last event you could just kill one of those random mini-incursions that spawn at specific locations on overland zone maps, and get the tickets and golden coffer by looting the "boss." I mention those in particular because they're usually easy for new players to solo, as compared to a world boss. If you want to spend more time than that farming purple event coffers-- well, that's your choice, but it certainly isn't required.

Most of the time, it doesn't take long to 3/3 of the daily endeavors, and sometimes it's possible to combine 2 or 3 of them into a single activity. And as for the weekly endeavors and golden pursuits, you've got several days to get them done, and on some days you can do a daily endeavor and have it count toward completing a weekly endeavor or golden pursuit.

There are days when I spend maybe 2 or 3 hours total playing ESO-- on 2 servers-- and then log out to play 5 or more hours of Daggerfall or Morrowind. And that's during an event, and the main reason it took that long was because of playing 3 matches of Tales of Tribute against the NPCs on each server.

Then there are other days when I spend maybe 8 or more hours playing ESO because I'm having so much fun-- and it's usually doing stuff in Cyrodiil, unrelated to events or endeavors or golden pursuits.

Conclusion: ESO's daily login rewards, daily and weekly endeavors, golden pursuits, and events don't keep me from spending time on other games that I enjoy playing.

aussie500 · February 5

James-Wayne wrote: »

Server back up in Australia during the day.... perfect timing, can get all my daily's done! Thank you, ZOS!!

I would not thank them till they actually get the server back up. Considering it went down at 4pm (AEST) and if lucky it might be back by 12pm next day, I see nothing to thank them for. They should just lower their sights to server maintenance they can actually complete in a reasonable time.

MidniteOwl1913 · February 5

thinkaboutit wrote: »

show previous quotes

jrfk2 wrote: »

As a retired software developer for over 40 years .. I have gone through a lot of s/w deployments. And I realize that beyond internal testing and the test server for players to play test updates, with something as complex as ESO and the billions of combinations of things .. you have to have a rollback plan .. as you start getting closer to the end of the original maintenance window someone has to make the call to rollback to the previous level and delay this update until it can be fixed and deployed later.

You can't leave your customers, many of them paying customers, in limbo like this.

I work as a network engineer, there's no way i'd be able to get away with requesting a 12 hour let alone a 20 hour outage. Seems like the scope of work is something beyond a simple 'backup'.

Not trying to come off as negative, but I don't think we're getting all the information here

EOS is suffering from cash cow syndrome. It is an old game. The people doing the work don't have enough resources to perform quickly. Other games that don't seem to have these long (and over 50% extension to boot!!) because the money is spent to insure smooth quick maintenance. As long as the 20 hour outages don't result in a noticeable player loss (that impacts the bottom line) nothing will change.

LadyGP · February 5

Ttree wrote: »

[snip]

Tell me you've never done IT maintenance without telling me.

[edited to remove quote]

Taucheranzug · February 5

In the EU, we just received the following message from our community manager:

“The work is largely completed, and the servers are now in the hands of QA.”

Whatever that means...

SkaraMinoc · February 5

@ZOS_Kevin brings pizza to the Database team after a long night

Wiseau · February 5

Not so surprising with Zos anymore, and yet, somehow this still baffles me that you have to extend the maintenance by a whole day? We got taken down at 9PM PST last night, and now you're projecting to not be done until 8PM PST TOMORROW? This kind of takes away from the praises we all gave you for the event. You're screwing over everyone out of doing their dailies. How are we going to be compensated? Oh, right. By some 50% XP scrolls and Crown Refreshing Drinks.

Gotta say, it's getting harder and harder to justify playing this game. 1 step forward, 2 steps back...

TaSheen · February 5

alternatelder wrote: »

Some of you need to get outside of playing just one game. Are you afraid you might not actually miss ESO and enjoy something else for a while?

Heck no. I'm massaging my Skyrim install in prep for a boatload of mods a friend is sending me this week (the ones I don't have the data to download myself....)

And once I'm done with that, I'm going to do a clean reinstall of Oblivion since my old one's not happy on this new machine.

And once those two games are back to normal (whatever that is....) I'll be playing all three - ESO in the morning, and the other two later in the day, which one depending on how I feel on any given day.