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April 2023 Outage Discussion Thread

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  • crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,115 Arc User
    What amazes me (and I've been playing various MMOs since EQ in 1999) - at this point you would think they'd just do a rollback to the last client that worked and move on from there looking at the issue but ALLOWING PC users to play in the meantime.

    What? Did they fire/layoff/loose to other game companies the people who wrote and support their change control system too?
    Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012
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    PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
  • rocketman33#0665 rocketman33 Member Posts: 95 Arc User
    I suspect the Temporal Police don't want people messing with the first contact timeline. When we get back in, I'll verify it with my Section 31 captain if I can find him.
  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,916 Arc User
    I thought they'd extend the Voth event for those who need it. Thank you BMR.
    Now a LTS and loving it.
    Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
    I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything. :D
  • startrekaeorrostartrekaeorro Member Posts: 21 Arc User
    edited April 2023



    What amazes me (and I've been playing various MMOs since EQ in 1999) - at this point you would think they'd just do a rollback to the last client that worked and move on from there looking at the issue but ALLOWING PC users to play in the meantime.

    What? Did they fire/layoff/loose to other game companies the people who wrote and support their change control system too?

    I've had mixed feelings about roll-backs. This is something that might work, but would need to happen very quickly, otherwise you have people who lose all their recently attained items and accomplishments, getting even worse the longer you wait.

    Also, keep in mind that this is an older game. I would be very surprised if they still had any of the original team members, or anywhere near the same number of developers and programmers working on it. Add in the "Frankenstein's Monster" that all the updates, patches and expansions have created over the years, and it's a wonder this game actually runs as well as it does.

    “Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning. ”― E. Rommelvn1d8jtiy2sg.jpg
  • treking2treking2 Member Posts: 159 Arc User
    Actually, I continue to update the GNN threads as well.

    I stand corrected. Thank you very much. :-)
  • themariethemarie Member Posts: 1,055 Arc User


    What? Did they fire/layoff/loose to other game companies the people who wrote and support their change control system too?


    Also, keep in mind that this is an older game. I would be very surprised if they still had any of the original team members, or anywhere near the same number of developers and programmers working on it. Add in the "Frankenstein's Monster" that all the updates, patches and expansions have created over the years, and it's a wonder this game actually runs as well as it does.

    Long ago and far away I had two friends on the inside that worked on the actual technical side of things.

    They have long since moved on to other things. One now works in a recycling plant turning PET soda-bottle-waste back into useful materials, the other is IT Services at a regional credit union. I myself have a vastly different job than when I started playing STO all those years back.

    As I understand it, and I may have a few facts wrong or out of place, the game was developed by one company, bought by Cryptic, ported to their engine, then due to industry churn, internal job politic and general time-and-tide, a lot of the old hands have moved on. There are still a few in the company, but there has been considerable turnover.

    I'm told this is why things like the tray issue can't be fixed -- that portion of the code is black-box at this point. No one has any working notes on how it all ties into the whole, and attempts to work on it have gone nowhere.

    I am also told this is why DOFF missions never get updated... the people who built the DOFF system did not document the code involved, so no one wants to work on it at this point, lest they break something.

    Same with the Reputation system -- we won't be getting any new reputations because no one knows how to modify that portion of the code anymore.

    And the Admiralty system as well.

    This is why the game is so focused on lockboxes and bundles -- literally the only part of the game they have complete control over anymore is "adding new ships to the game" and the associated sales mechanics.

    If this is actually the case and not someone feeding me a line of excuses... the game needs to be sunset and redeveloped. I've put a LOT into the game over the years from a financial standpoint, but I could stomach starting over if that got us a new engine with proper development and coding practices.

    IF that's the case.

    I suspect some of what I was told was excuse-mongering and bafflegab. At least I hope so, I'd hate to think people are so petty as to not document their code to "F-U" the next guy who works on it.



  • foxeatingwolf#7316 foxeatingwolf Member Posts: 27 Arc User
    themarie wrote: »


    What? Did they fire/layoff/loose to other game companies the people who wrote and support their change control system too?


    Also, keep in mind that this is an older game. I would be very surprised if they still had any of the original team members, or anywhere near the same number of developers and programmers working on it. Add in the "Frankenstein's Monster" that all the updates, patches and expansions have created over the years, and it's a wonder this game actually runs as well as it does.

    Long ago and far away I had two friends on the inside that worked on the actual technical side of things.

    They have long since moved on to other things. One now works in a recycling plant turning PET soda-bottle-waste back into useful materials, the other is IT Services at a regional credit union. I myself have a vastly different job than when I started playing STO all those years back.

    As I understand it, and I may have a few facts wrong or out of place, the game was developed by one company, bought by Cryptic, ported to their engine, then due to industry churn, internal job politic and general time-and-tide, a lot of the old hands have moved on. There are still a few in the company, but there has been considerable turnover.

    I'm told this is why things like the tray issue can't be fixed -- that portion of the code is black-box at this point. No one has any working notes on how it all ties into the whole, and attempts to work on it have gone nowhere.

    I am also told this is why DOFF missions never get updated... the people who built the DOFF system did not document the code involved, so no one wants to work on it at this point, lest they break something.

    Same with the Reputation system -- we won't be getting any new reputations because no one knows how to modify that portion of the code anymore.

    And the Admiralty system as well.

    This is why the game is so focused on lockboxes and bundles -- literally the only part of the game they have complete control over anymore is "adding new ships to the game" and the associated sales mechanics.

    If this is actually the case and not someone feeding me a line of excuses... the game needs to be sunset and redeveloped. I've put a LOT into the game over the years from a financial standpoint, but I could stomach starting over if that got us a new engine with proper development and coding practices.

    IF that's the case.

    I suspect some of what I was told was excuse-mongering and bafflegab. At least I hope so, I'd hate to think people are so petty as to not document their code to "F-U" the next guy who works on it.



    If what they say really is true, this is a truly alarming state of affairs if they cannot even touch such key systems in this game. You might as well compare the code of this game to the lower levels of Drozana station in the spectres arc :P, I mean, we all kinda knew it was true... But wow! I just hope the content drought is because, maybe,,, they are taking a good long time to replace some of these systems completely for a total overhaul of old code. It would make sense with the new owners to do this.
  • kiriseekirisee Member Posts: 446 Arc User
    I'm having the same issue as everyone else, games crashes on start. current time is 12:42 PM Pacific Time
    "If everyone used Macs, we'd be working on how to get to Alpha Centauri rather than how to get to Mars."
  • doctorstegidoctorstegi Member Posts: 1,221 Arc User
    I posted last night 8.30pm EST its now the next day 4.04pm EST and I'm still not able to log into the game and no ETA in sight...
    C-Store Inc. is still looking for active members on the fed side. If you don't have a fleet feel free to contact me in game @stegi.
  • themariethemarie Member Posts: 1,055 Arc User

    If what they say really is true, this is a truly alarming state of affairs if they cannot even touch such key systems in this game. You might as well compare the code of this game to the lower levels of Drozana station in the spectres arc :P, I mean, we all kinda knew it was true... But wow! I just hope the content drought is because, maybe,,, they are taking a good long time to replace some of these systems completely for a total overhaul of old code. It would make sense with the new owners to do this.

    Funny you mention Spectres! They wanted to do an overhaul pass on that one and the Breen arc to make them fit the overall storyline better and give them a visual update. Turns out they weren't coded the same way to the same standards using in-house practices/processes, they were sort of thrown together. There is no way short of redoing them entirely from scratch to overhaul them.

    Wasteland has similar problems, that's why it's not part of the Federation arc proper, even though storywise it should fit into the Romulan plot thread.


  • bigb3bigb3 Member Posts: 42 Arc User
    edited April 2023
    themarie wrote: »

    This is why the game is so focused on lockboxes and bundles -- literally the only part of the game they have complete control over anymore is "adding new ships to the game" and the associated sales mechanics.

    Is this why no new ships have been added to the Zen store ever since too? :(
  • ussvaliant2#1952 ussvaliant2 Member Posts: 402 Arc User
    Bit disappointed at this outage. Replacement PC came through yesterday and want to stress test the i9-13900KF (switched from the AMD Ryzen9) and RTX 4080 to see if it's worth keeping
    https://i.imgur.com/r6F7yxj.jpeg
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,661 Arc User
    Bit disappointed at this outage. Replacement PC came through yesterday and want to stress test the i9-13900KF (switched from the AMD Ryzen9) and RTX 4080 to see if it's worth keeping

    Game Pass is a great way to try a bunch of different programs without spending much money. But I do understand wanting to play STO not a substitute.

    Fallout 76 is much, much better than its terrible launch state years ago. It's now fun and has a good amount of single-player story as well as the TFO-equivalents and daily grind activities.
  • doctorstegidoctorstegi Member Posts: 1,221 Arc User
    Bit disappointed at this outage. Replacement PC came through yesterday and want to stress test the i9-13900KF (switched from the AMD Ryzen9) and RTX 4080 to see if it's worth keeping
    LOL STO surely will not stress test either your CPU or your Graphics Card. You will have more stress testing playing Fortnite to be honest.

    C-Store Inc. is still looking for active members on the fed side. If you don't have a fleet feel free to contact me in game @stegi.
  • ussvaliant2#1952 ussvaliant2 Member Posts: 402 Arc User
    Bit disappointed at this outage. Replacement PC came through yesterday and want to stress test the i9-13900KF (switched from the AMD Ryzen9) and RTX 4080 to see if it's worth keeping

    Game Pass is a great way to try a bunch of different programs without spending much money. But I do understand wanting to play STO not a substitute.

    Fallout 76 is much, much better than its terrible launch state years ago. It's now fun and has a good amount of single-player story as well as the TFO-equivalents and daily grind activities.

    I'm rather particular about the games I play so will just have to wait for this game to come back up. I'd still be playing 1999's Birth of the Federation if the AI was challenging and the turn 50 slow down bug was fixed.
    https://i.imgur.com/r6F7yxj.jpeg
  • ussvaliant2#1952 ussvaliant2 Member Posts: 402 Arc User
    Bit disappointed at this outage. Replacement PC came through yesterday and want to stress test the i9-13900KF (switched from the AMD Ryzen9) and RTX 4080 to see if it's worth keeping
    LOL STO surely will not stress test either your CPU or your Graphics Card. You will have more stress testing playing Fortnite to be honest.

    I know it's complete over kill. I could have gone for something less than half the price of this rig but thought, nah I'm in a position to push the boat out for the 1st time in over a decade why settle for good enough. I've been using good enough a late 2013 iMac for the last 8 years. Hopefully this machine will serve me as well
    https://i.imgur.com/r6F7yxj.jpeg
  • fred26291#2759 fred26291 Member Posts: 1,303 Arc User
    Dissapointed in the game today. Not waiting any more. Start fresh tomorrow AM. Good luck all who continue to wait for the game to come back tonight.
  • megacharge07megacharge07 Member Posts: 476 Arc User
    Yeah I also cant log in. I get a message that says "Unable to start game client: client quit unexpectedly".
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  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,916 Arc User
    We won't be able to get ingame till they fix whatever is wrong with it. BMR has said he will update us as soon as he gets word that it's fixed.

    Until then, we won't be able to get ingame.
    Now a LTS and loving it.
    Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
    I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything. :D
  • baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,897 Community Moderator
    echatty wrote: »
    We won't be able to get ingame till they fix whatever is wrong with it. BMR has said he will update us as soon as he gets word that it's fixed.

    Until then, we won't be able to get ingame.

    She. 😊
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  • knockedup#2486 knockedup Member Posts: 32 Arc User
    From what I hear, a lot of players if not most can't get into the game. I'm sure they're not lounging at Cryptic but working hard to find a solution. And BMR thankfully relays the twitter-messages here, thank you so much for that!
  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,916 Arc User
    echatty wrote: »
    We won't be able to get ingame till they fix whatever is wrong with it. BMR has said he will update us as soon as he gets word that it's fixed.

    Until then, we won't be able to get ingame.

    She. 😊

    My apologies :)
    Now a LTS and loving it.
    Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
    I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything. :D
  • captan2er0captan2er0 Member Posts: 837 Arc User
    Bit disappointed at this outage. Replacement PC came through yesterday and want to stress test the i9-13900KF (switched from the AMD Ryzen9) and RTX 4080 to see if it's worth keeping
    LOL STO surely will not stress test either your CPU or your Graphics Card. You will have more stress testing playing Fortnite to be honest.

    Cranking the renderscale up is about as closes as I think you'd be able to get to stress testing with STO. I can get to rendersdcale 6 with a 6900XT at 5120x1440 before the game crashes. I think it's over a certain resolution that the game can't handle. At renderscale 5, I play the game still. But long story short, STO, won't really stress test a newer system.
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  • qultuqqultuq Member Posts: 989 Arc User
    It is unbelievable that there is no information about this on the website or here. Really what is the point of having a community manager if they aren't communicating with the community.
  • baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,897 Community Moderator
    Thanks, foxman! Couldn't get to it for dealing with trolls. 🫤
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    Views and Opinions May Not Reflect the Views and Opinions of Gearbox/Cryptic
    ----> Contact Customer Support <----
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  • jonnyrocket#1627 jonnyrocket Member Posts: 14 Arc User
    edited April 2023
    Started playing just over a month ago WAS really getting into the game Spent a bit of real money already too Now I was wondering if that was a mistake Don't mean to be negative just real. Hope they do get it fixed soon cuz i wanna play Still . But if the game is broke....idk I like doing the quest some great story lines
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 5,051 Arc User
    Started playing just over a month ago WAS really getting into the game Spent a bit of real money already too Now I was wondering if that was a mistake Don't mean to be negative just real. Hope they do get it fixed soon cuz i wanna play Still . But if the game is broke....idk I like doing the quest some great story lines

    Don't worry too much about it. Issues like these are very rare.

    The last time the game was unplayable for everyone must have been years ago, I can't even remember when it happened to be honest.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 58,582 Community Moderator
    Maybe everyone will get a complimentary title or something. "First Contact Survivor". :D

    Joking aside... All we can do is be patient. We're all Trek fans, and we all love the game. While it is frustrating when things go sideways... shtako happens. We've been lucky that these sort of events are rare. And for a game as old as STO... I hope that we come back stronger than ever. Just like Starfleet.
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    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • jonnyrocket#1627 jonnyrocket Member Posts: 14 Arc User
    Started playing just over a month ago WAS really getting into the game Spent a bit of real money already too Now I was wondering if that was a mistake Don't mean to be negative just real. Hope they do get it fixed soon cuz i wanna play Still . But if the game is broke....idk I like doing the quest some great story lines

    Don't worry too much about it. Issues like these are very rare.

    The last time the game was unplayable for everyone must have been years ago, I can't even remember when it happened to be honest.

    Ok thanks
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