The time it is taking for a purposed server down time of 5 hours is insane. The servers have been down for 8.5 hours. What is the heck takes so long?
1. Bug fixed and patch is ready 2. Server down (4:30 am) and add patch 3. Test server back up to check new patch didn't break anything 4. Server goes live This should not take this long unless new patch broke something major and need to be fixed (every single time?) or DB needs more testers to speed up the process.(If this is a case let me know I will write you a better test plan)
You would think they'd be right before initiating the actual patch, but you have to remember that live servers and the environment servers they use to create and test patches are different and as such many things can happen out of the blue. But I agree this is taking a while and you'd think they'd be able to give us an updated estimation by now, it's been hours since the last update ( which didn't have a time frame). Honestly, I liked that this time they gave us a weeks notice about the patch, and they were pretty quick during the normal patch time to give us a heads up that it'll take longer. But no further communications from them since, not really responsible...
Most likely. Communication could be improved I suppose, but having the patch work as expected ranks higher in importance for me.
They should just tell you it’ll be down all day, then when it’s not, you can be surprised. Would that make it better for you?
I agree with Makudonarudo Patching process could be delayed time to time but every time? DB should look into their patching process. And liaison probably has nothing to say cause DB themselves have no idea when server will go up. Guess they think it's useless to keep on saying 'We have no idea when server will go back up and thank you for your patience."
under promise, over deliver. that way when a 4 hour patch that takes 12 hrs is seen as welcome relief when it's been promised in 24.,..
Yea it should be right when pushed out. If only we had a server just for testing where bugs are discovered before going live.
It's amazing that after 20ish years, folks are surprised when the servers don't come up on time. They didn't back in the day when they were fully staffed, sure not gonna happen these days w/ a skeleton crew. Sure, it can happen on occasion, but after all these years playing eq, extended downtime is the norm. My hope for patch day is that servers will be up by 630-7pm cst when I get home and settled in from work. Anything sooner is a nice surprise. Took too many vacation days on patch days past and was disappointed every effin time.. lol. Good thing league of legends doesn't share the same patch day as eq.. haha
To be fair the quality control with EQ is pretty crappy. They need to stop this 1 week test patch nothing gets tested that fast and nothing gets fixed even if you find something broke unless its seriously game breaking. They need to switch to a better system. Patch test 1 month before the live patch so you actually have TIME to idk test it ? Make changes fix unexpected bugs ?
ok EQ code 20% of it is new code, 40% is not new but not outdated code, 30% of it is outdated, 10% of it is so deprecated its not even funny, because of this when they mess with the code it means errors and lots of other nasty things they then have to fix and find work a around for so it takes extended time when dealing with stuff like that. Now they could update all the code to new code for the whole game and then patches would take less then an hour every patch. however to do so your looking at 3 months of downtime. so be happy for the extended downtime the alternative is no everquest for what will seem like eons.
It would just be nice to keep people in the loop is all. I get there can be problems and most likely will be but to just not say anything is frustrating.
So many armchair game makers. Its not that simple to update the code to modern standards. It would cost them as much as making a new game which is not cost effective for EQ. It's old code, old database structure. Updating it would cost tens if not hundreds of millions just like making a triple A title. That would be revenue they would never get back. This has been discussed time and time again and I never cease to find many hours of amusement in the comments from people that have no idea what they are talking about during patch time. This means that EQ servers are updated old school style. Very difficult to predict or test how it will all come together. The test servers you say? Well they look good on paper but in reality most folks go on the test server to see all the new stuff/changes and don't bother to look for bugs or even submit them when they do find them. As far as DB communicating more. That's a damned if they do damned if they don't. If they did communicate more, they would just be degraded as much or more than the lack of communication. People that think DB actually owe us paying subscribers for extended downtime realy need to go back and read the ToS..... Anyway rage on!!!
