Prime Time Maintenances?

Jonnymorrow

I cant believe they are doing this again, Whats so hard about not doing maintence for our server in our main playtime. And how vague is their ETA on it. Serveral hours.................

So basically If you have a job and live in the EU you cant play today, for a game I pay to play. I got no problem paying subs for games I actually prefer it. But I expect a decent level of service for my £9 a month and taking 4+ days of playtime a month of me isnt good service.

We are paying you a lot of money from the EU so put the manpower in to do our maintence out of peak hours, Or you will lose subs I guarentee that.

Theres no excuse, I have played a lot of p2p mmo's that did maintence around 8am-10am or even in the early hours of the morning GMT, so why cant you ZoS?

Valn

You guys realise this game is like a week old? And that they have to fix major bugs ASAP. Like they said before, they don't want to do it in primetime, but later on they should fix a good schedule.

cazlonb16_ESO

Mera_Luna wrote: »

Aside from the timing which IMO is extremely poor planning, the other thing that worries me is the statement that they are pushing a "small" patch and expect the down time to last several hours. This being the case how long is the server going to be down when they decide to push a "big" patch? Days, Weeks?

I suspect that they are using this maintenance window for some hardware tweaks as well and that is what is taking so long.

Ojustaboo

Eris wrote: »

If you are talking about the maintenance happening right not, it is 7:30am where I am, hardly prime time. It's always prime time somewhere, but it's also always dead time somewhere else. So maintenance at any time is inconvenient to someone.

While that is true, I wouldn't expect the US servers to go down for maintenance at the most inconvenient time possible for US players.

And I also don't expect the EU servers to be taken down at the most inconvenient time for them either.

If I lived outside of those two areas, I would reluctantly realise that whichever server I chose, I am likely to be screwed at some point due to maintenance being done when it inconveniences the EY or US most.


It's common sense.

And again with no notice.

So in the last 6 days, Wednesday evening, EU taken down for unplanned maintenance
Thursday evening, EU servers taken down for planned maintenance although they hadn't told any of us it was planned, again with zero notice.

And now Monday. no notice yet again, and a message saying

We are bringing down the European megaserver at 3:30 PM BST for maintenance. We are pushing a small patch, and expect the maintenance to last several hours. The North American megaserver will undergo the same maintenance once the European megaserver is re-opened. We will provide patch notes shortly.

I can understand last Wednesdays. There was zero excuse for us not knowing in advance about Thursdays.
And today's is not scheduled, I hope it's to fix a major exploit because if it isn't, they have no excuse for doing it at this time of day (had they estimated say 30 mins downtime, that would be different, but to say they expect it to be down for hours).

Yo can argue about it until your blue in the face, most US players don't expect their server to go down at prime time, and most EU players don't either. There's already a lot of annoyed players over the subscription debarcel, it's as if Zenimax don't have the first clue about running a mmo.

I love the game, but it doesn't matter how great a product is, people have only got finite patience and if people in the EU get home from work and find this after the long queues to sub and all the problems many had with it, well as I've said before, a three year old could work out the response Zenimax is going to get,

steveb16_ESO46

I don't mind it being mid afternoon - I just want to be told about it more than 25 minutes in advance. I want to be told 35 seconds after the decision is made so I don't make game plans and then have them over-turned.

And I'm assuming that ZMO don't work on the basis of 'hey guys - how about we do a patch in 25 minutes. Wouldn't that be cool and not annoy anyone? Huh, huh?'

Atwa

Twistedmind wrote: »

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

I'm sorry that I have to post this, since actually I deeply appreciate the game and enjoy it to the extent of having taken vacation for it.

In that case they should extend the maintenance to few days and fix all the needed things...

It's hours, not days... really... Whining because of hours?

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

Please don't make people quit

They are fixing things... really that makes people quit?

I know a lot of ppl quit. o,o

rawne1980b16_ESO

I'm confused.....

First it's "fix these damn bugs Zenimax"....

Then it's "how dare you try and fix these bugs Zenimax"....

Now i'm off for a beer ... and then i'm going to shout at the barman for selling me alcohol.

raglau

It's not an issue it was difficult to find. It's that it wasn't announced. So unless one happens to be reading the forum non-stop (which no one with a remotely demanding job or study would be doing), then we're not going to come across it.

So whilst your facetious comment ('wasn't', being the appropriate term, as in past tense, prior knowledge) is true in terms of 'finding', the other key factor in actually absorbing the information - timely warning - was strangely missing.

Overall maintenance is a good thing for a failing game, but warning is pretty useful too. I only found out when I went to login on and got a 5 min countdown which kept repeating. I am not sure why it's set at a repeating 5 mins either.

AngryNord wrote: »

squicker wrote: »

The main issue I have with this, is that I cannot seem to find the announcement on the forum for planned maintenance now.

Was it actually announced?

It wasn't really that difficult to find... http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/71556/eso-maintenance-4-7#latest

amiga85b16_ESO

It doesn't matter what time everyone is saying it is at their place, be it "7.30 am" or "10 am" or whatever some people said.
It's called the European Megaserver, and most europeans are playing on it.
And right now, it's EU Prime Time, so it's a fact that it's a poor choice for a server maintenance.

I appreciate very much that a patch IS coming, it's lovely, and I'm enjoying the game tremendously. So much in fact, that I would really love for this patch to NOT be in the hours that I would like to play... Prime Time! :-)

So thank you for the patch and thank you for patching at another hour next time :-)

raraz

yvanbroeckpreeb18_ESO wrote: »

I have to agree with you. This does happen at the worst possible time.

I wonder if this'll continue once the EU Megaserver switches to the European location.

Any idea where the European server is located now? Just curious here.

adlplumbingb16_ESO

Twistedmind wrote: »

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

I'm sorry that I have to post this, since actually I deeply appreciate the game and enjoy it to the extent of having taken vacation for it.

In that case they should extend the maintenance to few days and fix all the needed things...

It's hours, not days... really... Whining because of hours?

may be but no notice, and lot people have just finished work.

Twistedmind wrote: »

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

Please don't make people quit

They are fixing things... really that makes people quit?

but people do quit for this sort thing, lot`s people quit swtor, for things like this, and then because of that more people quit, due empty servers (should not be issue, on this game though)

nlw140589b16_ESO

The little concern towards the people who are unable to progress through the game due to the menagerie of bugged quests, in this thread astounds me.
Hopefully this maintenance will fix a lot of these problems.
Personally I have been stuck on the quest to get into Veteran content for 2 days now. Waiting another 2 days for a scheduled maintenance would have been unacceptable.

Ojustaboo

scruffycavetroll wrote: »

Well, I was wondering how long this was going to take. I disagree with you as to the timing.

It is 1036 am est as I write this and a few minutes earlier I got a message that the server would be coming down in 1 minute for maintenance. I normally would be working right now like the majority of people so I wouldn't be effected by it and would come home to a working game but I took a 4 day weekend to play this, I'm not annoyed, you shouldn't be.

Most MMo's bring down during the workday...also school is in session now, so most people are working / in school. it is the perfect time to do the maintenances.

so long as they're done, done on a regular basis and with content fixes, updates, tweaks, etc, I'm totally OK with it. It's all part of what we are paying for! : D Now it's off to blow some stuff up in BF4 for a few hours.

the one issue is the 1 minute lead time...10 / 15 please.

Did you not read the bit about the EU servers being taken down now, I't not 10:36 am in any part of the EU, they are coming home from work right about now.

steveb16_ESO46

Duccea wrote: »

And if people voice their disagreement with those maintenance times and their unwillingness to accept those on the long run, here's hoping this will be heard by the Devs and helps them with picking maintenance times which affect less people in the future.

We've already told them, at great lengths, that Sunday morning is an absolutely dumb time to do EU maintenance. Nothing has changed as yet. We also spoke at great length about telling us well in advance about what are obviously planned events like patches.

That's working out real well for us so far.

Furutre

The game has just been released, and the maintances are fixes thats fixes alot of problems with quests and *** right now! Get used to it the first two weeks. If you cant do something else in the 1-3 hours a maintance takes, then i feel sorry for you ; p

Hiro0874

How about the people saying "its not prime time where they are located right now" post your location? Well country I mean.

Cause I know the EU is big, but talking about the big portions of the EU the main time difference is max 3 hours (all the way up to Russia). So for lets say 80% of the actual EU it is around or close to prime time right now...

Twistedmind

Atwa wrote: »

I know a lot of ppl quit. o,o

It's their pick, I could not give a *** if they are playing or not... If someone would quit because of this it just shows how sad is the state of mmo players.

adlplumbingb16_ESO

roll another character whilst waiting, for them to be fixed.
and have the game maintained at sensible times

FishMonkey

urgh.. guess I wont get chance to play before work today then

Harleyquincey

Twistedmind wrote: »

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

I'm sorry that I have to post this, since actually I deeply appreciate the game and enjoy it to the extent of having taken vacation for it.

In that case they should extend the maintenance to few days and fix all the needed things...

It's hours, not days... really... Whining because of hours?

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

Please don't make people quit

They are fixing things... really that makes people quit?

I am sorry if you do not possess the simple decency to attend basic discussion rules, as in being polite, but if this has please you in any manner - be my guest.

Regarding the actual content of your post - there has been no "whining". If you had read my statements carefully, that much should become obvious. I am far from whining. I am asking to reconsider since I have seen things like this escalate and turn to a massive loss in subscribers (SW:TOR comes to mind, as one recent major example)

Also, I have adressed the "fixing things" issue in a second post. It is also bad habit to cut off a sentence just to make it fit your own idea. The sentence you tried to quote adresses that this is a choice, not a necessity (refering to the time of the downtime). That the downtime itself is needed is apparent and it's totally fine with me. The time however, is not, for aforementioned reasons.

If you persist on trying to derail this, I will simply ignore any further comments of yours and regard them as is necessary in that case.

Jonnymorrow

Valn wrote: »

You guys realise this game is like a week old? And that they have to fix major bugs ASAP. Like they said before, they don't want to do it in primetime, but later on they should fix a good schedule.

Don't care how old it is, Its in retail not beta and people are paying to play the game. There is no excuse for the random unplanned maintence always being right in the EU prime play time.

If they didn't want to do it at this time they wouldn't, end of.

Atwa

Twistedmind wrote: »

Atwa wrote: »

I know a lot of ppl quit. o,o

It's their pick, I could not give a *** if they are playing or not... If someone would quit because of this it just shows how sad is the state of mmo players.

Hmmm no, that the ppl have life and works, its the difference of you xD

Shidapu

On the EU Megaserver, i've noticed there are less people online at between 00.00 - 08.00 GMT+1.. Maybe Zenimax need's to discuss this internally?..

raglau

Isn't this back to front? A few hour admin window running into EU primetime started while the US is not in primetime. Then kicking off US in their primetime by which time half the EU is asleep?

So the EU, which is a larger consumer of MMOs than the US, gets kicked off for what is I am sure a much needed patch, only to then follow suit with the second largest consumer of MMO, the US.

Do they need a new project manager out there, we can supply one for a good rate ;-)

KariTR wrote: »

I was simply responding to the announcement, which states that the US server will only be taken down after the EU maintenance is complete. It makes sense for US to be down now during offpeak hours. It wouldn't have made sense to perform maint to EU first, if they were only to be doing one server at a time.

Valn

Jonnymorrow wrote: »

Valn wrote: »

You guys realise this game is like a week old? And that they have to fix major bugs ASAP. Like they said before, they don't want to do it in primetime, but later on they should fix a good schedule.

Don't care how old it is, Its in retail not beta and people are paying to play the game. There is no excuse for the random unplanned maintence always being right in the EU prime play time.

If they didn't want to do it at this time they wouldn't, end of.

How exactly do you play a game when some bugs stop your progress? I assume this is your first MMO. Clearly you don't understand the word maintenance. And actually, people aren't paying, it's 30 days free game time.

Atwa

Valn wrote: »

Jonnymorrow wrote: »

Valn wrote: »

You guys realise this game is like a week old? And that they have to fix major bugs ASAP. Like they said before, they don't want to do it in primetime, but later on they should fix a good schedule.

Don't care how old it is, Its in retail not beta and people are paying to play the game. There is no excuse for the random unplanned maintence always being right in the EU prime play time.

If they didn't want to do it at this time they wouldn't, end of.

How exactly do you play a game when some bugs stop your progress? I assume this is your first MMO. Clearly you don't understand the word maintenance. And actually, people aren't paying, it's 30 days free game time.

U have to play others mmorpg :S

thilog

Atwa wrote: »

flameweaver wrote: »

Atwa wrote: »

Oh, and please, DEVS can put the announcement onf forum? ,,|,, ,

I'm actually seeing two announcements on the forum, one in German and one in French. I'm (supposedly) using the English version of the forums, so how come I don't see the maintenance announcement in English ?

I don't see nothing xDD

I don't know why you're not seeing the messages. First is in german, then french, then english. And no offense.. but if you can't understand the sentence in either german or french.. it's highly likely that you won't understand the english either. It doesn't take much intelligence to work them out.

And this also points to why the game is maintained during our peak play time. The patch comes out from the USA, it's patched to the US server, it is then reworked to work correctly on the german and french versions, once the localisation is done, it can be patched to the EU server, it makes sense therefore that our server will be patched slightly later.

What's important, is they are maintaining the server and fixing the bugs.
So stop (insert swearwords here) complaining about it.

And stop being so naive and selfish. Our peak time, is when others sleep, so you want the maintenance when we're asleep, that's their peak time. Better we accept the downtime, than force it on someone else.

Duccea

nlw140589b16_ESO wrote: »

The little concern towards the people who are unable to progress through the game due to the menagerie of bugged quests, in this thread astounds me.
Hopefully this maintenance will fix a lot of these problems.
Personally I have been stuck on the quest to get into Veteran content for 2 days now. Waiting another 2 days for a scheduled maintenance would have been unacceptable.

I think you got the OP wrong here. At least I, and I think also a lot of others posting in this thread, do see the neccessity for a fast patch to fix the issues with uncompletable quests and such.
While the downtime right now is inconvenient enough, not being able to complete quests and progress is indeed the bigger issue here and needs to be adressed asap, on that I agree.

But I am also worried about the announced regular maintenance schedule, which should not be about fixing game-breaking issues but are still scheduled to be pretty much at primetimes. I don't see a reason why those maintenances shouldn't be done at a time which is less busy for EU servers.

Twistedmind

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

I am sorry if you do not possess the simple decency to attend basic discussion rules, as in being polite, but if this has please you in any manner - be my guest.

I guess I have low tolerance for whining, and I was not even rude yet.

Harleyquinceyeb17_ESO wrote: »

Regarding the actual content of your post - there has been no "whining". If you had read my statements carefully, that much should become obvious. I am far from whining. I am asking to reconsider since I have seen things like this escalate and turn to a massive loss in subscribers (SW:TOR comes to mind, as one recent major example)

Stated in other threats. This is not normal maintenance. I am happy that they make it for various reasons but I guess others like the fact they are fixing things.

Ojustaboo

AngryNord wrote: »

squicker wrote: »

The main issue I have with this, is that I cannot seem to find the announcement on the forum for planned maintenance now.

Was it actually announced?

It wasn't really that difficult to find... http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/71556/eso-maintenance-4-7#latest

Look at the time that was posted, 8 minutes before I got the server is coming down in 15 mins message across my screen.