Aradune Update 6/10/20

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by dreamweaver, Jun 10, 2020.

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  1. phaeril Augur

    lol, ok... rather than make up some random number let's take only last night for a sample. Of 10 people in our little group trying to farm Fear for a couple hours, Two crashed without warning or zoning. I crashed on zoning, and we lost another person that finally got to character select only to crash zoning in 2 hours later.

    So that's 4 out of 10... that's not made up numbers out of nowhere, that's 40% of our group yesterday. All of these people gave up and walked away for the night. The 90m seems to be honest, so do you wait around knowing that your group/raid/camp has moved on? Does the group wait for you?

    It absolutely affects the people that are on, how they play, it influences their decision to play longer, to suggest the game to friends.

    People are walking away, they lowered the population cap so the queue came back. So we've both lost people and gain the queue back. Awesome.

    This is not a debugging session about crashes, I can assure you that my irritation with this situation is not ignorance related to troubleshooting buggy software. I'll even contribute to how people can tell if their connection is slow or just failed. You can check the file, Logs/dbg.txt and see the "Failed to connect to zone" when it happens, even though the client just sits there. My theory is that it is a problem that affects CoreMessaging.dll in many 64-bit builds of win10 since https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4025342/windows-10-update-kb4025342 . Remember the old crash reporter? It's dying there when the crash happens to people are left thinking the server is slow when their connection really died and the game never seems to attempt to reestablish the zoning connection.

    Again, the crashes (irrelevant to how much in game stuff you've turned off or just don't use) HAPPEN EITHER WAY. In my experience playing with people on the server every single day, throwing people into a queue has only changed zone times (and negligibly at that) which were less bad than the queue times since the crashes exist.

    It's all bad, I mean we're sitting here being irritated at which garbage solution they pass off as good. I think that 20m load times with a crash and no time to reconnect is better than a 90m connection time when the load times and crashes still suck. If you ask around with people that have had their friends be unable to play with them (or the other way around) for more than a few minutes since launch, I suspect you'll find others that agree at least in part.

    Or at least are very mad that this is being even suggested as a solution.
  2. Name2 Augur

    Chill. I don't know who you are. I have no idea how capable you are of troubleshooting software bugs. By and large, the EQ player base is pretty incapable of what you or I might call basic computing. It's probably why they cling to this game, the skill gap is super low when compared to modern games and this is the game that makes them feel like they can "accomplish something."

    Not all of the crashing that occurs happens when zoning. I shared some ideas for how people might be able to bypass some bugs. I agree with you that this is bad. Saying just fix it is unrealistic for this company and this game. I'd report your theory as a bug if you haven't, it sounds reasonable, maybe it will help figure out how to mitigate the crashing issues. If they were to cave to complaints and reverse course again that would be a really bad look for management and make them look like they don't know what the hell they're doing and just reacting.
  3. Darafel Journeyman

    Yeah here we go. "Its the players fault."

    It never fails. Every time, EVERY TIME, something catastrophic happens thats completely the fault of the studio, some people will displace blame onto the players. Its the blame-game switcheroo and it happens like clockwork. I've seen it in No Mans Sky, seen it in Fallout 76, seen it in Destiny, seen it in literally dozens of other games where the fault lies clearly at the hands of the deveopers or publisher. But in some way, members of the community will try to shift the blame onto the fans.

    Its the fans that caused the patch to break more stuff, its the fans that made the dev go back on their promises, its the fans that ruined the itemisation, its the fans that caused the publisher to nickle and dime the playerbase, and its the fans that caused the server problems.

    But here's the bottom line. Even though some of the complainers overstep the line at times, even though some of them irritate me, I know one unrefutable fact. Without them banging on and on, things would either be exactly the same, OR WORSE. (Because change won't come from staying silent - and this rings true in life as well as online).

    So I'm gonna take a gamble here, since its the most sensible thing to do. I won't complain about the complainers, and I'll let them do the hard work for me. Because there's a better chance of change with them, than without them.
  4. Sikkun Augur

    Not sure how you get “it’s the players fault” out of that. The company released a product due to customer demand that shouldn’t have been released yet. Is your argument that there wasn’t customer demand for new servers? Or that there wasn’t demand that they should accelerate the time frame after they were announced for late summer?

    Was there customer demand? Yes.
    Should it have been released? No.
    Who’s fault is it? DPG

    Hence the best thing they could have done is ignore the demand and not release the server.

    Players can and do demand anything, it was the companies responsibility to ignore them and deliver a satisfactory product. Stating that isn’t “blaming” players, it’s not an excuse for the company. There was a failure to deliver, I know exactly who failed to deliver.

    Yes, DPG would have got heat for not releasing in March (oh wait they did), they would have got heat if they didn’t release in May. We would have kept having posts every day about how it’s “biggest missed opportunity”, “they should all be fired”, etc. That’s true, we saw it before March, we saw it everyday until they were announced. We still saw it after a date was given because it was not fast enough.

    But that doesn’t matter, players can be dumb. The company should not have released a product they were not ready for and that is their fault.
  5. Grant Joy New Member

    Why are you even commenting then? We are discussing ways to address the problem, either try to help or get out of the way. I disagree with the chosen solution and I'm expressing why I think they are making a mistake.
  6. Name2 Augur

    I have every right that you do to comment on these forums. Like I said, I'm a prospective customer worth 3x anybody following the rules on Aradune to Daybreak. Sorry that you disagree with the approach that they took. I am trying to help by being realistic about the challenges that they are currently facing, and to reduce the random chatter asking Daybreak to perpetually switch back and forth on their approach. It's not going to happen.
  7. Grant Joy New Member

    You're worth 3x anyone following the rules on Aradune, and you aren't a customer. What does that even mean?

    Of course they are going to change their approach, the current situation is not going to work long term. It's a very temporary fix.
  8. Grant Joy New Member

    LMAO you think you are inherently worth more as a potential boxer and you don't even have an active account. Sorry, but the reason the server that is less boxing friendly is overcrowded is because people like you are in the minority. You are not worth more because you are in the minority. You really have an inflated view of your value.
  9. DamastaShonuff Journeyman

    MIGHT see a queue... like you had doubts there would be one at all? Well there is a 28 minute queue right now at 1pm. Not during peak times like you thought MIGHT happen. Stop downplaying key things like this.
  10. Tilly New Member

    I am happy Darkpaw Games finally acknowledged there is a problem with Aradune. That is a start. It's 4:00 p.m. EDT on a Thursday and there is a 33 minute queue. I can log on at 4:30 p.m. because I work from home and have no commute. The queue will grow to 90 minutes or move very quickly. There will be people who are paying $15.99 per month to not be able to log in or if they can play only a short period of time.

    How about letting people who want to move their characters to Rizlune? I know, the server's only been life what, 2 weeks? But a lot of people worked really hard to max level their toons and really would rather not start all over. Allowing or even encouraging people to move to Rizlune would help alleviate the server capacity problems while Darkpaw attempts to fix the issue. It's a win-win as far as I am concerned. I'm sure they'd rather move toons to a different server than lose potential customers when they quit in frustration.
  11. Name2 Augur

    Don't twist my words. I don't think I'm worth any more than anybody else. What I meant was that I represent potential money to Daybreak, and that allows me to post on these forums as a prospective customer that is concerned with the circus that Daybreak is running and therefore isn't currently subscribing. Not trying to be a jerk or put myself on a pedestal.
  12. Redgnome1 Lorekeeper

    There is no need for them to do anything because the population issue will work itself out over time.

    How could you expect this many players to jam the server up on launch?

    Give them a break, if you aren't happy step back for a month and come back it will be smooth I promise * You wont miss anything its a 20 year old game *
  13. Rando1234 New Member

    S.H.I.T. S.H.O.W. -- this company is terrible and makes horrible decisions
  14. Xhieron Elder

    I think they get a pass for a lot of things--the fact that the software is older than some of the people working on it, the fact that the company has rapidly developed a bad reputation for mismanagement in the years since DBG, and the fact that they're sorely understaffed and underfunded. Those aren't the actual developers' faults. Some of that is institutional, some of it is history. People have to make a living.

    I'm less sympathetic when it comes to foresight. Anyone could have predicted that launching a new TLP in the wake of Brad's death during the middle of a pandemic with lots of people stuck at home would draw a huge crowd--at least as large as Selo's and Mangler's combined, probably more. On top of that, having one truebox server instead of two means that the bulk of that population is on the one server. The fans all saw it coming. The development team probably saw it too; the unfortunate reality is that they may have been just too cash- or manpower-strapped to do anything about it.

    Doesn't change the reality.

    I'm posting again to say that the current strategy isn't working. --again, anecdotal, but I've got time to write because after waiting through a half-hour queue and playing for about a half hour, I've crashed to desktop.

    Now the queue is 59 minutes and climbing.

    Point being, if you wanted to reduce capacity in order to increase stability at the expense of a queue, that's a reasonable choice even though I think it's the wrong one. If, on the other hand, you reduce capacity, resulting in a queue, and yet don't even manage to improve connection stability, all you're doing is adding insult to injury.

    Also, I just today noticed that the backdrop of the character select screen appears to be a photograph of some wooded foothills and not geometry in front of a skybox. Weird.
  15. faberin New Member

    We all know that this isn't their first time doing a TLP server, so chances are that the demand greatly exceeded their expectations from previous TLP servers. I would wager that they are planning on users tapering off naturally within a certain timeline based on data collected on previous TLP launches, where theres a big nostalgia spike in the beginning and then users drop off en masse within the first few months. Since we don't have access to the concurrent user data from previous iterations of TLP servers this is just a shot in the dark, but chances are they are wanting to avoid throwing extra hardware/dev work at a problem that could resolve itself over the next couple weeks.

    It's a garbage solution but would definitely be a management pleaser, "We made $X with Aradune and didnt have to buy more hardware!"
  16. Thygrym Elder

    "Since launch we have been working on solving the issues with server performance that has affected game play for many of you. In the interim we have reduced the server capacity slightly as a short term fix"

    In other words, your servers are garbage, your programmers couldn't program their way out of wet paper sack and you have no clue how to actually fix your own game. No worries though, the queue and population issues will fix themselves as scores of players quit and cancel their subs... you know.. lost revenue because of your incompetence.
  17. Wwoody New Member

    Maybe you should have made two servers Aradune1 and Aradune2. Any way my question is this: Can you remove people from the server who have been afk for more then 30 minutes or maybe 60 minutes. I was wondering because when I used to play and was not at my keyboard for a while it automatically put me as afk. So it should be able to kick you from the server if your afk for a long period of time so that people who want to play can. Or just completely remove boxing period and run it like project 99 with benefits. I Would definitely play on that server. If it is as popular as it should be you will probably have to make two servers. I think this is what a lot of us really want. No boxing period!! it would bring the Magic back.
  18. Wwoody New Member


    Chill man it is not the end of the world. Venting is good but Ever quest has a history and a lot of it sucked especially when new expansions or servers came out. its a good thing the server is so busy it means people are interested in EQ again maybe.
  19. Darafel Journeyman

    Crashed to desktop zoning into PoK just now. And this wasn't even a TLP server. I see there's no escaping this mess.

    What are you doing, Daybreak?
  20. Kastore New Member

    105+ min queue.... Yep, that about does it for me. You lost a sub and future customer. Upper Management should be overhauled. Public reputation will be hard to get back, rough start Darkpaw Games.

    Yes you can have my stuff.
    loaks and Thygrym like this.
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