The point I'm getting at is that they'll give maintenance estimates based on what they're having to do and most times, it exceeds the actual amount of time it takes to do such tasks--presuming everything goes without a hitch. However, things do happen, and sometimes they happen with more frequency than others. If you say "just grossly overestimate the maintenance estimate and then everyone will be happy!", you'll also get those that say "wow, THAT long for an estimate, how idiotic!!"
People will always complain about delays, there's no solution to that.
But that's not the real issue here, the issue here is that delays and pushbacks are becoming commonplace. It's looking pretty obvious that there's some sort of new problem with Cryptic's patching, the hardware the server host is running, or the communications between the two. Nearly every recent maintenance has suffered pushbacks or delays, and then often still had server issues for at least a short period of time once the servers were up. While Cryptic's server patch/maintenance track record is hardly stellar, this wasn't how it always used to be, the fact that there's no communication makes it all the more frustrating for players. For all we know this is just the way it's going to be from now on.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about communication along the lines of "Working on hardware issues, servers will be back soon." Because while that's something, and would help in the short-term, if it's used 3 out of every 4 maintenances then players will quickly translate it to actually mean, "We realize our hardware sucks, but we're too cheap to replace it. Screw you, give us more money." The communication I'm talking about is addressing the fact that issues exist and committing to fixing them with a reasonable timeframe in which to expect those fixes.
That, or you know, don't communicate anything but implement a fix for whatever the problem is and get back to having infrequent maintenance day issues rather than routine ones. The complaining still wouldn't stop, but it would greatly lessen, as would the frustration.
Honestly I don't mind spending quality time here with my favorite mod. They can take their time and hopefully get everything out bug-free. I have aaaaaallllll day.
Two hours isn't an uncommon estimate across ALL PWE games, though. As I've come to understand the process over my time moderating PWE forums, one department handles ALL patch deployments for PWE's entire stable of games. That being said, how do we know those discussions aren't being held? We can only speculate. However, they choose to hold fast to their original estimates.
We don't know. but.. see. Is it not a problem for you that we don't know whether they even consider their consistent inability to meet the expectations that they themselves are setting is an issue? It is for me. I get it takes time, sometimes a lot of time, to fix things and one of the hardest things to fix in any company are workflow and work process flaws. But, at least having them come out and acknowledge that they're HAMSTER up their deployments too much and they're working to find ways to ensure they meet the expectations they're setting. Maybe a patch should be 4 hours instead of 2? OK - whatever, just be honest and meet the expectation. Don't tell me it's 5 hours and take 1, because that's not meeting expectations. It's clearly sandbagging, especially if it happens 3 out of 5 times.
The problem here is that we're not being treated as customer. Sure, there's a lot of 14 year olds here... ok, I get that. But there's also 40-year-olds with decades of experience working in IT-related fields like me who understand the difficulties and appreciate being treated like adults.
You know what I'm sick of...waiting.... I wanna play! Also...lay off, it is getting old. Eleven minutes to go and counting down...
Go play on preview if you're that antsy
Me, I had a HAMSTER ton of work to do, and as much as I've moaned and groaned on the forum all day -- I actually got a lot of work done, had 3 phone meetings that I was actually concentrating on (har har) and the result being I freed up my afternoon to play Neverwinter. So........ all my rants today notwithstanding, it's actually worked out ok for me today. heh
I'm a relatively new return player. I remember back in 2013, it was just assumed by most players that the actual down time would be 1-2 hours longer than the posted estimate. So as kvet says, it's pretty obvious there's a persistent problem (either poor quality hires or poor quality hardware) that PW is unwilling to fix.
I only recently joined the ranks of the paying customers, and am just shocked at how expensive most items are. On other games, people don't usually pay more than $100 for the base game and DLC, and I've heard of people spending over a grand on this game. So can someone with intimate knowledge of this industry speak to the profit margins the development companies are seeing? I'd like to know if they're making a ton of money and are just cheaping out on development costs, or if even with the expensive price of most things in the zen market, they still aren't making enough to actually provide good customer services.
Me, I had a HAMSTER ton of work to do, and as much as I've moaned and groaned on the forum all day -- I actually got a lot of work done, had 3 phone meetings that I was actually concentrating on (har har) and the result being I freed up my afternoon to play Neverwinter. So........ all my rants today notwithstanding, it's actually worked out ok for me today. heh
LOL I got home from work 2.5 hrs ago and have been patiently waiting to play myself.
0
drkbodhiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,378Arc User
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ROLL TIDE ROLL
Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?
PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
I'm a relatively new return player. I remember back in 2013, it was just assumed by most players that the actual down time would be 1-2 hours longer than the posted estimate. So as kvet says, it's pretty obvious there's a persistent problem (either poor quality hires or poor quality hardware) that PW is unwilling to fix.
I only recently joined the ranks of the paying customers, and am just shocked at how expensive most items are. On other games, people don't usually pay more than $100 for the base game and DLC, and I've heard of people spending over a grand on this game. So can someone with intimate knowledge of this industry speak to the profit margins the development companies are seeing? I'd like to know if they're making a ton of money and are just cheaping out on development costs, or if even with the expensive price of most things in the zen market, they still aren't making enough to actually provide good customer services.
Some guys in Grievance did a complete calculation on what it would take to buy your way from a new character to fully BiS under mod6 assuming 500 AD/Zen. The result was somewhere around $10,000.
If I did this when working for an ISP I would have been canned after the first 2 times this happened it shows failure to plan ahead on their part in rolling out any changes. Granted this is game is freemium but they should be testing this out and fixing the main issues prior to a bug fix on the main servers for the public. Some may say they are doing so but if they were the consistent issues with rolling fixes out wouldn't be akin to an etch a sketch pad being used to draw by a person with the shakes.
Elemental Evil is the best module ever it fixed all the bugs!
Update 1: Maintenance extended until 10:00am PDT (1:00pm EDT / 19:00 CEST).
Update 2: Maintenance extended until 11:00am PDT (2:00pm EDT / 20:00 CEST).
Update 3: Maintenance extended until 12:00am PDT (3:00pm EDT / 21:00 CEST).
Update 4: Almost done. Estimated time is until 12:30pm PDT
Took me all morning to notice strumslinger is posting timely updates under the OP. I wonder how many people fuming didn't notice it either. Thanks for the updates.
Hopefully not , battle for the bridge is one of the most mind numbing cta there is , only slightly above pit fight , the only positive is that it is really fast to run.
Some guys in Grievance did a complete calculation on what it would take to buy your way from a new character to fully BiS under mod6 assuming 500 AD/Zen. The result was somewhere around $10,000.
Some guys in Grievance did a complete calculation on what it would take to buy your way from a new character to fully BiS under mod6 assuming 500 AD/Zen. The result was somewhere around $10,000.
Including things like campaign completions and SW pack for erynies etc...?
really some ppl dont cares for that when you cant make a game to work so do you asking for ppl to lose there heads and i can understad then after 5 hours waitting time
Comments
People will always complain about delays, there's no solution to that.
But that's not the real issue here, the issue here is that delays and pushbacks are becoming commonplace. It's looking pretty obvious that there's some sort of new problem with Cryptic's patching, the hardware the server host is running, or the communications between the two. Nearly every recent maintenance has suffered pushbacks or delays, and then often still had server issues for at least a short period of time once the servers were up. While Cryptic's server patch/maintenance track record is hardly stellar, this wasn't how it always used to be, the fact that there's no communication makes it all the more frustrating for players. For all we know this is just the way it's going to be from now on.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about communication along the lines of "Working on hardware issues, servers will be back soon." Because while that's something, and would help in the short-term, if it's used 3 out of every 4 maintenances then players will quickly translate it to actually mean, "We realize our hardware sucks, but we're too cheap to replace it. Screw you, give us more money." The communication I'm talking about is addressing the fact that issues exist and committing to fixing them with a reasonable timeframe in which to expect those fixes.
That, or you know, don't communicate anything but implement a fix for whatever the problem is and get back to having infrequent maintenance day issues rather than routine ones. The complaining still wouldn't stop, but it would greatly lessen, as would the frustration.
Okay, Panic.
We don't know. but.. see. Is it not a problem for you that we don't know whether they even consider their consistent inability to meet the expectations that they themselves are setting is an issue? It is for me. I get it takes time, sometimes a lot of time, to fix things and one of the hardest things to fix in any company are workflow and work process flaws. But, at least having them come out and acknowledge that they're HAMSTER up their deployments too much and they're working to find ways to ensure they meet the expectations they're setting. Maybe a patch should be 4 hours instead of 2? OK - whatever, just be honest and meet the expectation. Don't tell me it's 5 hours and take 1, because that's not meeting expectations. It's clearly sandbagging, especially if it happens 3 out of 5 times.
The problem here is that we're not being treated as customer. Sure, there's a lot of 14 year olds here... ok, I get that. But there's also 40-year-olds with decades of experience working in IT-related fields like me who understand the difficulties and appreciate being treated like adults.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Go play on preview if you're that antsy
Me, I had a HAMSTER ton of work to do, and as much as I've moaned and groaned on the forum all day -- I actually got a lot of work done, had 3 phone meetings that I was actually concentrating on (har har) and the result being I freed up my afternoon to play Neverwinter. So........ all my rants today notwithstanding, it's actually worked out ok for me today. heh
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
I only recently joined the ranks of the paying customers, and am just shocked at how expensive most items are. On other games, people don't usually pay more than $100 for the base game and DLC, and I've heard of people spending over a grand on this game. So can someone with intimate knowledge of this industry speak to the profit margins the development companies are seeing? I'd like to know if they're making a ton of money and are just cheaping out on development costs, or if even with the expensive price of most things in the zen market, they still aren't making enough to actually provide good customer services.
I took this from the launcher apparently the downtime got pushed back because before it said 7-12 now it says 7-11:30
LOL I got home from work 2.5 hrs ago and have been patiently waiting to play myself.
LMAO... server response issue while performing maintenance.
Posts inquiring about "why was my post removed/deleted/moderated/etc. are in violation of section V of the RoC. As such, they are subject to immediate removal without comment or notice.
If you have a question about moderation, use the PM system or support website, as we will not publicly address moderation concerns.
Do not respond to this message in any fashion--responses will be removed without comment. Instead, as noted above, use the PM system.
Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?
PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
Some guys in Grievance did a complete calculation on what it would take to buy your way from a new character to fully BiS under mod6 assuming 500 AD/Zen. The result was somewhere around $10,000.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Took me all morning to notice strumslinger is posting timely updates under the OP. I wonder how many people fuming didn't notice it either. Thanks for the updates.
Hopefully not , battle for the bridge is one of the most mind numbing cta there is , only slightly above pit fight , the only positive is that it is really fast to run.
So don't buy your way to BIS.
That's a lot of imps in the system.
Including things like campaign completions and SW pack for erynies etc...?
Hey if you think you can kill or capture imps and release them back into the wild better than they can then i suggest you become an impcatcher.