How about consistency in server downtimes
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Evergnar✭✭✭✭✭
✭"There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old things we don't know."
-Ambrose Bierce0 -
Graelock✭I too, agree with the OP. I understand there was an "unexpected" server downtime the Saturday before last, which was highly annoying, seeing as though it was my first Saturday with the game and I had planned that segment of my morning for it, but consistency is key. We plan our times to set aside (at least we adults do). It would be like owning a highly popular shop and closing up shop for 3 hours, at random...and we all know you don't do that, as a shop owner, unless there is an emergency.0 -
Cogo✭✭✭✭✭
✭Its 2014, most of players does have windows in some form. Some mac players.
How much screaming are you doing to Microsoft when they push out patches on tuesdays, that requires a restart to work?
Patch and maintenance downtime is to IMPROVE the game.
Isnt that what 99% of ALL you posters are keep screaming about?
Zenimax is improving the game, and you scream again?
I understand if the common player does not know whats going on in datacenters, software, databases, hardware updates or hardware addons.
But WHY is there not ONE question about what are they doing that needs to have server downtime? Why can they not give a specific time? Why are maintenance sometimes 30 mins, and sometimes 6 hours?
NOT ONE QUESTION ABOUT THIS. Just whining.
Do you not want to know?
Zenimax isnt taking servers offline just to have fun you know.Edited by Cogo on June 9, 2014 2:00PMOghur Hatemachine, Guild leader of The Nephilim - EU Megaserver
Orc Weapon Specialist and Warchief of the Ebonheart Pact - Trueflame Cyrodiil War Campaign
Guildsite: The Nephilim
"I don't agree with what you are saying, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"
-Voltaire
"My build? Improvise, overcome and adapt!"3 -
wrlifeboil✭✭✭✭✭LadyDestiny wrote: »LOL, everytime it is maintenance, it is time to grab a bag of popcorn and read the forum. Life goes on, people won't die from this, I mean seriously....It's the same stuff week after week on the same topic every time it is maintenance, as if people are so surprised it is going to happen. So they went down a couple hours early...it is not the end of the world.
Ordinarily I'd agree but today's was affected by the patch. The anomaly farmers in Craglorn were counting on those two extra hours to get more xp before the nerf that was included in today's patch. When the servers went down two hours ahead of the regularly scheduled time, they lost that easy xp.0 -
Tosalius✭✭I'm not opposed to the downtime at all. I just want to be properly informed and for them to commit to what they tell us. That's part of the service I pay for and expect.1
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Enkil✭✭✭✭✭
✭Its 2014, most of players does have windows in some form. Some mac players.
How much screaming are you doing to Microsoft when they push out patches on tuesdays, that requires a restart to work?
Patch and maintenance downtime is to IMPROVE the game.
Isnt that what 99% of ALL you posters are keep screaming about?
Zenimax is improving the game, and you scream again?
I understand if the common player does not know whats going on in datacenters, software, databases, hardware updates or hardware addons.
But WHY is there not ONE question about what are they doing that needs to have server downtime? Why can they not give a specific time? Why are maintenance sometimes 30 mins, and sometimes 6 hours?
NOT ONE QUESTION ABOUT THIS. Just whining.
Do you not want to know?
Zenimax isnt taking servers offline just to have fun you know.
@Cogo.. I give you the benefit of the doubt most of the time despite you being a hopeless fanboi sometimes.. I love the game too but this is just common sense.. We totally understand the need for maintenance.. that's not the issue at all...
If you are going to take the servers down early.. INFORM US!!! This is quite simple.. no one gives a *** why they are taking the servers down..
You live in Scandanavia.. it's us over here on the other side of the globe in the Pacific/Australia region that it impacts...
Edited by Enkil on June 9, 2014 2:52PM2 -
I think our American compatriots general lack of empathy about this issue is well established. I could only imagine the thread volumes were server downtime to be from 7.30pm through to 11.30pm twice a week. Sorry yankies but it's grown a tad boring from you guys on this.
Someone attempted to draw a parallel to Microsoft - Microsoft don't lock you out of your computer for two to four hours twice a week, perhaps try another analogy.
I can appreciate there are reasons for stepping outside of scheduled times, some communication about it would be nice.
On a positive note, take it as a sign of peoples passion for the game that they would make the effort to complain about it being unavailable at a time they wish to play.2 -
Woolenthreads✭✭✭✭mulcherman wrote: »
How about 6PM at night? 8AM USEST is 6PM in Bangladesh, 6AM USEST is 6PM in Perth, Australia, Beijing and Hong Kong.
It's OK I understand, the games companies are overcharging us for games in the first place and since we're a small market we deserve to have our night games interrupted.
IMO 8AM was perfect. It meant that I got 2 hours to actually play at night rather than no time at all, on a Monday.
#1 edit: If you don't see where I'm coming from let me put it this way, at an 8AM dt you lose part of the morning in gaming. At a 6PM dt (6AM USEST) I lose my entire night. I was willing to wear 8PM dt as being only slightly unfair but a 6PM dt I see as Grossly unfair
#2 Edit: My only alternative if "6AM" becomes a regular thing is to transfer across to the EU server. I would suggest every other Perth Player consider doing the same.Edited by Woolenthreads on June 9, 2014 11:21PMOooh look, lot's of Butterflies! Wait! Butterflies? Get out of here Sheo, stop bugging me!
Having issues with Provisioning Writs? A list of problem Writs and people willing to help in game can be found in this Thread0 -
I said that yes, you all do get the short end of the stick. I wish there was a server for that area of the world. I don't think that the US should be treated special or not care that this happens to you folk in that area. It sucks. I have no clue what a solution would be.
I just think it is a business decision.
There are 19 million people in New York State alone and 17 US States in the eastern time zone. It works out (I had to do math) to 147 million US folks in the EST. That doesn't included Canada of course.
I think they choose 8 am and 6 am (to get the patch out and over in the EST) for this patch to impact the least amount of folk. I have already agreed they should have posted it was at 6am.
Perhaps those that live in the impacted areas can request for maybe one or two maintenance a month to be switched time wise?0 -
SecuFox✭GrimlockSaves wrote: »It is 2014... How about no server down times? Having downtime makes no sense with the current capabilities of technology and data center infrastructures.
I have to agree. Eventhough I'm not familiar with most modern MMORPGs, maintenance downtimes that take several hours (and several times per week) seem extremely backwards to me.
They really have to work on beeing able to perform maintenance and patches while the server is up and running - so a short reboot is all that it takes for the changes to go live.
Those frequent maintenance downtimes (often without announcement - and always without ETA) are actually amongst the few things that really bother me about ESO.0 -
GrimlockSaves✭✭✭ozgod22_eso wrote: »GrimlockSaves wrote: »It is 2014... How about no server down times? Having downtime makes no sense with the current capabilities of technology and data center infrastructures.
Most MMOs tend to have some form of downtime so that standard maintenance, fixes, patches and other things can be applied to the server.
The more stable a game becomes, the less fixes need to be deployed...server downtime is only then needed for maintenance usually. And the more expertise a developer gets at it, they start figuring out ways of deploying fixes via hotfixes which don't require downtime or just require server restarts. Blizzard moved from having lengthy maintenance which was often extended for hours, through to today where they can push out hotfixes any time and you can go weeks with just a server restart.
I don't mind the down times as long as things are getting fixed. I agree it's annoying to plan your calendar and play time around communicated maintenance hours only to have them changing those times on a regular basis with minimal communication. They did mention it on the launcher but not everyone looks at their launcher all the time when playing. Best to stick with a time so everyone knows when it is.
"Most" MMOs, but not all. It is simply a matter of expertise, redundancy, and overall planning. As you say, "the more expertise" and apparently the lack thereof has been made manifest.
When the method of pushing hot fixes and content has already been pioneered, it doesn't take a genius to follow a standard operating procedure that dictates best practice.
Everything they have done seems very 2007-ish, and my only guess is their hardware and infrastructure abides by the same principles. Imagine if Google, Facebook and Amazon needed scheduled maintenance? Downtime should be contributed to an outage which is virtually impossible, given they were responsible enough to use a tier 4 data center and followed established practices.Edited by GrimlockSaves on June 10, 2014 7:35AM2 -
How do you know when they first came out they didn't?
Wow had maintenance EVERY WEEK that lasted four several hours every Tuesday. They did this up til I stopped playing right before Mists came out and after that I couldn't speak for it. The majority of the time it was NOT for any patches. It was just maintenance. Wow also went down just sporadically.
Eve Online goes off for about an hour every morning (EST time) which I kinda liked as it was just a bit at a time instead of a big chunk. Rift when it first came out was having downtime frequently to fix issues (almost daily for a while.) Lets not even mention other online games having server issues and downtime.
So this is not particularly unusual as you seem to imply.1 -
Necropost...
Did I miss something, have they changed the NA server maintenance times again!?
Two Monday's in a row at a 6am EST nuke, huh?
*slaps right dorsum on palm of left hand* eh!?Edited by thageecub18_ESO on June 16, 2014 12:26PM2 -
camknox✭✭✭Not impressed. I specifically checked for announcements in the announcement section before I played today and nothing.
The world doesn't revolve around USA and Europe. It may not be much of an inconvenience in the USA to run maintenance at 6am rather than 8am, but running them for Australians at 8pm instead of 10pm has quite a significant impact - especially when it's on a public holiday.
Please be cognisant of people's needs outside of the USA. And if there is an absolute need to shut down two hours early, then please plan forward well enough and ANNOUNCE it.
As the OP has posted, the idea was to be consistent with server down times. Since I've started playing consistency has been extremely poor.
Spare a thought for those of us in WA where it's always been 8pm (not 10pm like the east coast). Today's downtime having been brought forward to 6am (6pm) cripples the west coast horribly. Although if they are short downtimes it should allow a bit longer before hitting the sack.2 -
LakrendSoul Shriven
Spare a thought for those of us in WA where it's always been 8pm (not 10pm like the east coast). Today's downtime having been brought forward to 6am (6pm) cripples the west coast horribly. Although if they are short downtimes it should allow a bit longer before hitting the sack.
Completely understand. That would be very ordinary.
Seems ZOS hasn't taken anything from this thread.
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Thunderchief✭✭✭I really don't understand why this server isn't brought down when it is european peak times. They wouldn't be affected because they are on the other server.0 -
Montanabum✭✭Get with it ESO, please stick to your own published downtime schedule or update the schedule! Some of us work our schedules to play early mornings.. Thought I had a good 2 hours to play.. NOPE.Edited by Montanabum on June 16, 2014 10:48AM0
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vanillexhope✭✭✭I'm not saying it doesn't suck, but the fact is that Australia has a population of around 23 million. The US has a population of around 313 million.0 -
Thunderchief✭✭✭vanillexhope wrote: »I'm not saying it doesn't suck, but the fact is that Australia has a population of around 23 million. The US has a population of around 313 million.
ESO is sold in Australian stores.0 -
Tabbycat✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Those of us who enjoy playing before work... it affects us to.
I'm sure they have their reasons for pulling the servers down earlier than scheduled. I do wish they would let us know.Founder and Co-GM of The Psijic Order Guild (NA)
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Enkil✭✭✭✭✭
✭vanillexhope wrote: »I'm not saying it doesn't suck, but the fact is that Australia has a population of around 23 million. The US has a population of around 313 million.
And we don't all live on the mainland... population includes Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa. 6am Eastern = Midnight Hawaii time. The schedule is for 8am (2am Hawaii time)... if they want to change it they need to announce it.0 -
I don't think any of us have an issue with weekly or even bi-weekly downtimes (at least it means they are working on the game)...but the erratic nature, lack of warning, and unknown durations are simply unprofessional.
If I'm paying for a game, I expect a schedule regarding when I can or can't play....or at least a projected status on the forums when the game gets unexpectedly and suddenly shut down during my play schedule.1 -
dormaxSoul Shriven*sigh* And, of all mornings, this is the one where both of my crafting researches finished during the night, so was planning to log in and set new ones before heading off to work.
I get the need for maintenance and the need, sometimes, for emergency restarts/patches (I'm a software developer - so I really do get it). Understanding why/how this can happen doesn't make it suck any less though.0
