You still don't have a proper patch management in place. Many of us work in IT and software development and can only shake our heads in regards to your monthly patch mayhem. A couple of suggestions. Why do you patch test 1 week before live? Why dont you patch test 3 weeks before live? There is no reason - especially after you horrible track record of 'being on time'. Next time you patch the test server, EQLive will not be patched 1 week after but 5 weeks after - and you actually have time to read and patch the feedback you get. I just took 5 minutes and read your notes about the current patch. Seriously - you should be nothing but ashamed to bring this level of software 'quality' to your paying clients with your current expansion. You have a test server. Why don't you actually use it? I If you have a test + production enviornment - which i was port of - all we did was swap test with live commit in the SVN - it worked 99% of the time. Your patch track record? Right. Oh Mangler has focus effects? Where is your checklist when you restart your custom servers? I understand the servers run on some kind of OS. Not sure if its Windows or Linux. But apparently that patch environment could use some love. We all appreciate the fact that the OS itself needs some updates at times and those take extra time. But from what we can see - you guys seem to be totally surprised that the OS patch has an impact on the application layer. Again - you guys have a a TEST server. Do you need help? At this point - no one understands the 6h patch window + 3h extra patch because of some unforeseen issues - because - yes - you got a test server. But you choose not to use it to properly. Why? If you need help organizing all this - and this is honest - send me a PM and we can work things out. Free of charge.
Test isn't very helpful so I'm not sure it would matter if patches were on test sooner. Just look at any significant change. You'll see like 2 or 3 people talking about concerns on the forums at most. It's not till it goes live that the vast majority of people will notice or care.
If you check the test forum - there are plenty of feedback threads with tons of replies - which not get answered most of the time. Which again raises the question - why do we have test? Todays downtime is all the evidence we need.
This is about Daybreak and their inability to properly delivery a satisfying customer experience. Are you honestly trying to tell us that annoucing a 4h patch and then delaying it for an additional 5+ hours is ok ? In my book it isnt.
And there were exactly zero posts in the bug thread from when Test received ToV last week. The first post that noted that the quest NPC in EW is missing was Wednesday afternoon after Live had already been updated. Very helpful.
Right and this was the first and only thread? Seriously? All the other 100 threads in there with 100+ posts ? You just chose to ignore them ? Before you reply next - did you actually read the post title? It's about the last 20 years. History repeating.
Yes there is a test server. Do you use it? Will you be using it in the future now to help the Test Team find these problems you are complaining about? Or will you just keep complaining there is a Test Server and "someone" should be using it?
Ok i give up - you guys seem to totally enjoy the fact that after 20 years no one at this company is actually refining the processes in place and everyone is happy that the 4h scheduled patch is taking 9 hours and there is still no ETA. My bad.
Here's the thing. Thank you for keeping the game alive and thank you for patching it so that it works. With that being said you have a large player base. I'm sure that this player base if asked could help you tweek and tune your code, patches, etc for free. I am not suggesting to take away anyone's job. I'm just saying that if you asked your playerbase for some "volunteer" help I am sure that you can get it.
Players use test mostly because they get gold status at no cost. I haven't played on test but I'm curious, are there requirements to send feedback? If not something should be implemented that requires players to submit bugs or some type of feedback every few hours of play. Make a form pop up that must be completed to unlock play again.
Not sweating this, I know they'll get it under control. Truthfully I'm surprised the servers stayed up a whole day after the release on Wednesday. Doesn't that little Irish guy named Murphy have an office in the executive suite at DBG?
I am not sure what org you think you work in where test matches production and there are 0 issues when promoting code between environments.
To be fair they didn't give Test the actual zone access, only the level unlock, they didn't even give test the expansion zone access until the day after it launched on live
