test content
  • Games
  • Social
  • Arc News
  • Support
  • Zen
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Forums > Home› Neverwinter Discussion › General Discussion (PC)

Randomness of server shutdown times

evrisaevrisa Member Posts: 40 Arc User
in General Discussion (PC)
A quick complaint ... I am getting a bit frustrated at the randomness of the time that the servers actually shut down for announced maintenance. At 15 min before the server was scheduled to shutdown, the admin message popped alerting players that the servers would go down in 15 mins. Ok, cool. I continue doing my quick invokes on my various characters. Four mins later .... I am changing characters .... "Server Unavailable" ... the server shuts down on me. Not 15 mins, but 4. Usually you cannot change characters within the last 5 mins or you get kicked out. But wait, sometimes it's the last 6 mins or 7 mins. Today there were 11 mins left before the scheduled time. Why is it so difficult to shut the servers down on the announced time? My frustration isn't that I didn't get to complete my tasks, it is the continuous inconsistency of this weekly event.

Comments

  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,092 Arc User
    It isn't inconsistent. Had you stayed on the one character you would have had the 15 minutes. The login server is taken offline prior to the game servers. Generally within 10 minutes of the projected downtime you cannot switch characters.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
  • golemjoe#7652 golemjoe
    golemjoe#7652
         Member Posts: 8 Arc User
    If the maint starts at a different time than what's posted, yes it is inconsistent. There's nothing about "10 mins prior for login servers.. " at least that I've seen posted. Not the end of the world by any means but I do see what the OP meant by inconsistent and slightly annoying/frustrating.
  • kadven#5862 kadven
    kadven#5862
         Member Posts: 55 Arc User
    Noticed some months ago that it seems to be fairly normal for the login servers to be shut down a little before the main closure.
  • greywyndgreywynd Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 7,092 Arc User
    golemjoe#7652 said:

    If the maint starts at a different time than what's posted, yes it is inconsistent. There's nothing about "10 mins prior for login servers.. " at least that I've seen posted. Not the end of the world by any means but I do see what the OP meant by inconsistent and slightly annoying/frustrating.

    Maintenance starts when posted. The game servers go offline at that time.
    I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
  • evrisaevrisa Member Posts: 40 Arc User
    I have been used to 5 mins before shut down do not change chars. But then the next week its 4 mins, then 7, then 5, today 11 mins. Inconsistent. While I acknowledge the difference between login shut down and server shutdown (tho this is the first and only game I have played that has this difference), the inconsistency of the login shutdown is unnecessarily haphazard.
  • golemjoe#7652 golemjoe
    golemjoe#7652
         Member Posts: 8 Arc User
    greywynd said:

    golemjoe#7652 said:

    If the maint starts at a different time than what's posted, yes it is inconsistent. There's nothing about "10 mins prior for login servers.. " at least that I've seen posted. Not the end of the world by any means but I do see what the OP meant by inconsistent and slightly annoying/frustrating.

    Maintenance starts when posted. The game servers go offline at that time.
    Not for those who are trying to connect it doesn't. If you are running a service, your maint starts when you block access to that service. Let's say you go to a bank .. if the door is locked 15 mins before closing time, closing time is effective at that time. It doesn't particularly matter to you that there's a line of people in the bank who got there 5 mins earlier. That's still an inconsistency when it comes to the stated time.

  • minotaur2857minotaur2857 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,141 Arc User
    Yup I went in to do a round of invokes more than 10 minutes before (I think 12-13), should be plenty of time, it's usually around 5 minutes before they cut off logins, today they cut it off REALLY early.
  • evrisaevrisa Member Posts: 40 Arc User
    I can accept that there are multiple servers and I even can accept, begrudgingly, that systems admins cannot coordinate their respective server shutdowns. But what I cannot accept is the randomness of the login server shutdown time. It feels like the person responsible is just sitting around, looks at their clock and thinks "Hmm, yeah this is good enough" and enters the command to shutdown that server. It would be nice if they would coordinate the login server shutdown and the server shutdown with a simple code entry.
  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,208 Arc User
    edited April 2018
    The message should be clear and consistent.
    It should be something like:

    login server will disallow login to character at T minus N minutes and the server will be shutdown at T.

    or:

    login server will disallow login to character at T and the server will be shutdown afterward.

    or:

    login server will disallow login to character at T and the server will be shutdown at T + N minutes.
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • ilithynilithyn Member Posts: 452 Arc User
    plasticbat said:

    The message should be clear and consistent.
    It should be something like:

    login server will disallow login to character at T minus N minutes and the server will be shutdown at T.

    or:

    login server will disallow login to character at T and the server will be shutdown afterward.

    or:

    login server will disallow login to character at T and the server will be shutdown at T + N minutes.

    Something like this would be nice.

    Now this is from STO not Neverwinter, but over there the servers did go down 10 minutes before schedule. No I wasn't changing characters. I'd just got on a character a minute before, was running around in the game doing some last moment stuff, got the "server goes down for maintenance in 10 minutes" message and boom, got kicked to log in screen.
    So, don't know about Neverwinter since I was in the other game, but yeah over there we did get kicked ten minutes early. Nor is it the first time that's happened.
    Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it.
Sign In or Register to comment.