The following is a note from a fellow geek / sys-admin, addressed to the IT and development groups. Its a bit dry for most audiences. Fair warning.
I have been in the shoes of the developers before. I had a VERY large program, distributed to over 200 servers, and it too had a memory leak. The start up allocation took quite a while. Downtime was lost money, and it would go down regularly. We were under intense pressure like you are today.
We too took the steps of assigning a lot of development resource, putting in a lot of debug info in the logs, writing parsers to track allock and dealloc.. Watching memory and file handles. etc. There were MANY fixes. Most leaks are not simple leaks, they are path leaks. A - B - C - D works but A-B-C-E doesn't.
The OTHER thing we did was simple, we worked on scripting the restart to be as fast as possible. Because the database loads on start up were huge, we had pre-cache files built that would be loaded on start up, instead of flooding the databases with conflicting locks. We had scripts time the start up and monitor each stage. We got the "restart" down to about 4 minutes, from a single command on one server. It was a distributed script dealing with Windows and Linux servers, using ssh and powershell. Not the most elegant script but it covered a rather complex start up, and handled the re-tries and error states. It has grown over the years but we still use it.
It IS possible to get even the most convoluted, heterogeneous, and data intensive systems to be more automated, and a little automation can go a long ways towards helping your start up efficiency, and saving you a great deal of man hours, as well as frustrated customers.
We continued with the debugging effort, but the simple scripting and optimization of the restart has proven invaluable. The problems were fixed, but eventually with more functionality came new problems. Stability comes and goes. Its unfortunate, but a fact of life in distributed complex systems that change. Don't just concentrate on today's fix. Make your system easier to manage, and it will pay you back greatly.
I have been playing lots of MMO's and I must admit this is one of the worst for disconnections and problems and one of the most unreliable games i have played, just saying.
Everyone stop buying anything from this game for atleast 2 weeks, even if you are a paid monthly STOP, don't go in to your account for 2 weeks, EVEN IF you need to add time. Make them suffer with out cash for 2 weeks so that the investors they use will force them to fix the stuff correctly. This is how you solve the issue. You ban together. Lower there profit margins. Make the people getting the profit hurt and watch them put people on fire for it lol SIMPLE!!!
Everyone stop buying anything from this game for atleast 2 weeks, even if you are a paid monthly STOP, don't go in to your account for 2 weeks, EVEN IF you need to add time. Make them suffer with out cash for 2 weeks so that the investors they use will force them to fix the stuff correctly. This is how you solve the issue. You ban together. Lower there profit margins. Make the people getting the profit hurt and watch them put people on fire for it lol SIMPLE!!!
Here's the problem with that, even assuming that over half the people who read this pay attention, you get two problems.
1. Only a small fraction of players read the forums meaning that even if the entire forums stopped playing over 70% off the playerbase would keep buying and playing.
2. Lowering the amount of people playing will actually fix the server issues temporarily and make it harder for them to track down the database error responsible. Thus making them take even longer to fix the errors causing the constant crashes.
Here's the problem with that, even assuming that over half the people who read this pay attention, you get two problems.
1. Only a small fraction of players read the forums meaning that even if the entire forums stopped playing over 70% off the playerbase would keep buying and playing.
2. Lowering the amount of people playing will actually fix the server issues temporarily and make it harder for them to track down the database error responsible. Thus making them take even longer to fix the errors causing the constant crashes.
Not to mention that reducing the income to a game like this won't solve anything, it'll just cause even more hassle in the long run.
I'd like to know what server crashes are happening that people keep on about, i have had 1 disconnect in about 6 months.
The server has been crashing on pretty much a weekly basis on a sunday for the past month or 2 as well as at least one other time a week.
The other week Rehpic made a post about the fact that it is a database error causing the issues and not a hardware problem here.
Cheers for the explination and link, i was just wondering what people were on about as i'm on dailly and usually logged in at least 5-8 hours a day and have only ever had 1 crash due to server timeout/server disconnection.
I just want to know why I can't log in, or can't even post a ticket for my problem, even though I can log in/post on the forum w/my same login & pass as the game. Somebody please help.
less than an hour of the server being down and the kids are on to whine and gripe and be unpleasant to the developers who are probably having to abandon family etc on a holiday weekend.
Considering this is the first server crash in a week or maybe two I'd say to shut the hell up, quit complaining and realize that the server will be up when it's up. You B*tching and griping about it wont bring the server up any faster. It's not as though the developers all get together and think "Now would be a good idea to crash the server because mikey's about to get his prototype engine tech after getting the optional on cure space elite". They're probably thinking "This job is the most thankless piece of TRIBBLE I do".
So, to all of the people who think it's as easy as resetting a super nintendo, ITS NOT and you obviously know nothing about maintaning servers.
Even WoW, which is over seven or eight years old has maintenance and crashes.
On the plus side, the whining does one thing...
It gives me something to laugh at as I wait for the server to come back up.
To quote Shatner "Get a life already people!"
less than an hour of the server being down and the kids are on to whine and gripe and be unpleasant to the developers who are probably having to abandon family etc on a holiday weekend.
If the game would happen to be down through a whole holiday weekend the devs might not have jobs to return to after Monday... Just stating the facts on subscriber loyalties in today's economy.
If the game would happen to be down through a whole holiday weekend the devs might not have jobs to return to after Monday... Just stating the facts on subscriber loyalties in today's economy.
is this caitian atrox carrier available for all your fed characters or not it doesn't say anything about it...?
thanx :eek::(
C-point purchased ships are account-level, so they are available to every character. Dilithium ships purchased at the ships vendor are single-purchase only, leaving them only available to that character.
So, to directly answer the question: Yes, the Atrox is an account-level purchase, available to all characters on your account.
I have read several of DStahl's Ask Cryptic but so far I haven't figured out which forum thread to post any of my highly important and burning questions which one or ones would it be?
I have read several of DStahl's Ask Cryptic but so far I haven't figured out which forum thread to post any of my highly important and burning questions which one or ones would it be?
I would presume that in the F2P Q&A Section would be the best place for you to post.
EDIT: Actually, Perhaps The Academy section of the forums would be a better place for your questions. Oops!
There was some original, and understandable, panic at first, when rumors where afloat that Perfect World had downsized the servers after taking over. Queues of over 10,000 people waiting (moving at a rate of ca 3 positions per 10 minutes) seemed to support that. And people -- including myself -- feared that this was essentially the end of the game as we know it.
Pro Tip: Do as CCP does for EVE Online, and keep people informed as to what is happening! Everybody gets that a new Expansions comes with hiccups. It's when the devs are silent, and there's queues over 10,000 platers waiting, when people are getting nervous, as the silence is suggestive of 'Working as intended.'
Comments
I have been in the shoes of the developers before. I had a VERY large program, distributed to over 200 servers, and it too had a memory leak. The start up allocation took quite a while. Downtime was lost money, and it would go down regularly. We were under intense pressure like you are today.
We too took the steps of assigning a lot of development resource, putting in a lot of debug info in the logs, writing parsers to track allock and dealloc.. Watching memory and file handles. etc. There were MANY fixes. Most leaks are not simple leaks, they are path leaks. A - B - C - D works but A-B-C-E doesn't.
The OTHER thing we did was simple, we worked on scripting the restart to be as fast as possible. Because the database loads on start up were huge, we had pre-cache files built that would be loaded on start up, instead of flooding the databases with conflicting locks. We had scripts time the start up and monitor each stage. We got the "restart" down to about 4 minutes, from a single command on one server. It was a distributed script dealing with Windows and Linux servers, using ssh and powershell. Not the most elegant script but it covered a rather complex start up, and handled the re-tries and error states. It has grown over the years but we still use it.
It IS possible to get even the most convoluted, heterogeneous, and data intensive systems to be more automated, and a little automation can go a long ways towards helping your start up efficiency, and saving you a great deal of man hours, as well as frustrated customers.
We continued with the debugging effort, but the simple scripting and optimization of the restart has proven invaluable. The problems were fixed, but eventually with more functionality came new problems. Stability comes and goes. Its unfortunate, but a fact of life in distributed complex systems that change. Don't just concentrate on today's fix. Make your system easier to manage, and it will pay you back greatly.
:eek:
Here's the problem with that, even assuming that over half the people who read this pay attention, you get two problems.
1. Only a small fraction of players read the forums meaning that even if the entire forums stopped playing over 70% off the playerbase would keep buying and playing.
2. Lowering the amount of people playing will actually fix the server issues temporarily and make it harder for them to track down the database error responsible. Thus making them take even longer to fix the errors causing the constant crashes.
Not to mention that reducing the income to a game like this won't solve anything, it'll just cause even more hassle in the long run.
I'd like to know what server crashes are happening that people keep on about, i have had 1 disconnect in about 6 months.
The server has been crashing on pretty much a weekly basis on a sunday for the past month or 2 as well as at least one other time a week.
The other week Rehpic made a post about the fact that it is a database error causing the issues and not a hardware problem here.
I blame the lockboxes.
Cheers for the explination and link, i was just wondering what people were on about as i'm on dailly and usually logged in at least 5-8 hours a day and have only ever had 1 crash due to server timeout/server disconnection.
Considering this is the first server crash in a week or maybe two I'd say to shut the hell up, quit complaining and realize that the server will be up when it's up. You B*tching and griping about it wont bring the server up any faster. It's not as though the developers all get together and think "Now would be a good idea to crash the server because mikey's about to get his prototype engine tech after getting the optional on cure space elite". They're probably thinking "This job is the most thankless piece of TRIBBLE I do".
So, to all of the people who think it's as easy as resetting a super nintendo, ITS NOT and you obviously know nothing about maintaning servers.
Even WoW, which is over seven or eight years old has maintenance and crashes.
On the plus side, the whining does one thing...
It gives me something to laugh at as I wait for the server to come back up.
To quote Shatner "Get a life already people!"
So far...
If the game would happen to be down through a whole holiday weekend the devs might not have jobs to return to after Monday... Just stating the facts on subscriber loyalties in today's economy.
Good companys wouldnt have that problems.
Jesus get a life folks
Your own flat at least NOT momi basement
Your own wife and at last one kid NOT your hand
real work with income NOT some party time loser job
.... and car will help to your own not dady old car or car that momi buy you
Sometimes i em "off" for mounths because life, then I go back a I em always like .... Waoooo so many nice and now thinx in game GOOD
OR
Do at least some decent foundry missions
OR
shut your trap
..... have nice day
thanx
C-point purchased ships are account-level, so they are available to every character. Dilithium ships purchased at the ships vendor are single-purchase only, leaving them only available to that character.
So, to directly answer the question: Yes, the Atrox is an account-level purchase, available to all characters on your account.
I would presume that in the F2P Q&A Section would be the best place for you to post.
EDIT: Actually, Perhaps The Academy section of the forums would be a better place for your questions. Oops!
That link goes to an announcement about Ferengi Lockboxes, which is stickied at the top of the information section. http://p1.portal2sounds.com/36
"You can't read my mind, because i can't spell it."
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
@ZetBuster
Pro Tip: Do as CCP does for EVE Online, and keep people informed as to what is happening! Everybody gets that a new Expansions comes with hiccups. It's when the devs are silent, and there's queues over 10,000 platers waiting, when people are getting nervous, as the silence is suggestive of 'Working as intended.'