Scheduling Server Downtime - why not middle of night?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Deux, Apr 4, 2023.

  1. Deux Corpse Connoisseur

    When scheduling downtime...particularly extended downtime...it seems like it would make sense to maybe consider doing this at midnight PT to minimize player impact. Sort of like road construction in the middle of the night instead of during prime time?

    Definitely do appreciate the regular updates and continuous game fixes! Would be nice if that was done during while we're asleep though :cool:
    Claan and Fenthen like this.
  2. Tarvas Redwall of Coirnav, now Drinal

    Because it's when they work and can fix things in real-time I imagine.
    kizant, minimind, Yinla and 6 others like this.
  3. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    But your not in the only time zone in the world. Others may be the opposite of you and when you sleep is when they are awake. Shoot even in your time zone there are players that play the opposite hours that you do

    This has been posted so many times in the past that it makes this post look suspicious considering your knowledge and tenure on these forums. :cool:
    Rijacki likes this.
  4. Fenthen aka Rath

    The middle of the night avoids roughly 90% of the EverQuest community, so that would be ideal. What's not ideal is having < 24 hours notice that the game is randomly being brought down for (to us) unscheduled maintenance.
  5. zleski Augur

    Having engineers working when they're tired is not a good idea. Fatigued people make mistakes, and nobody wants mistakes to be made. Performing maintenance during the day means people are fresh and alert.
  6. Gorg00 Augur

    6AM PST is honestly probably their lowest population time as well. At least IME it seems most people log on in the afternoon-evening and log out sometime later that night. Morning crew is always a skeleton crew.
    Rijacki likes this.
  7. Shredd Augur

    They want us to get off the keyboard and experience weather
    Nennius and Rijacki like this.
  8. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    I assume because they need staff on hand and that means during their work DAY not the middle of the night?
  9. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    They patch on a schedule that works for them and the people doing the work. They used to do patches in the middle of the night but overtime they moved away from that. Honestly would you want the updated happening in the middle of the night when they are tired and not fully awake or when they are more fully alert?
    Rijacki likes this.
  10. Tucoh Augur

    6AM worker-time is pretty optimal from a bunch of perspectives, including the playerbase. Somebody is going to get screwed by some semi-scheduled downtime, 6AM PST is probably close to their least populated time, I'd wager it is less populated than midnight PST, and I say this as someone who was playing EQ at 6AM this morning!

    To the workers getting their butts up at 5AM tomorrow morning, here's to you!

    [IMG]
    Corwyhn Lionheart and Rijacki like this.
  11. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]

    Even if only a small crew; or just an automated script can in theory do the update, if something goes wrong it's better that as many people that know the system are on hand to fix it.
    klanderso likes this.
  12. Act of Valor The Newest Member

    The obvious solution here is to not permit the Daybreak employees to sleep.
    Fenthen, Annastasya and Syylke_EMarr like this.
  13. Eaedyilye More stonehive bixies.

    No, I play in the middle of the night.
  14. Syylke_EMarr Augur

    The other piece, speaking from experience in an environment where middle-of-the-night updates are the norm, is that your folks doing the work may be more inclined to rush things if they're doing it at night so they can finish it quicker and get (back) to sleep. On top of that, if something does come up afterwards, they have all gone to bed now and are going to be even less alert to fix the problem.

    Whereas doing the updates at the start of their standard workday means they have no reason to rush and are going to be available immediately for any unforeseen issues.

    Simply put, updates during standard working hours are preferable from an impact standpoint. They may not be preferable from a system accessibility perspective, but we have to take the lesser of two evils.
  15. Nennius Curmudgeon

    What! Go outside and face the....SUN!

    Nooooooooooooooooo
  16. Rijacki Just a rare RPer on FV and Oakwynd

    Big blue room with glowing white ball of eeeeeeevil. (Though it is a nice change from rain once in a while.)
    Corwyhn Lionheart and Nennius like this.
  17. Xyroff-cazic. Director of Sarcasm

    Tomorrow between 6 a.m. and noon PT is the only time I had off work for my entire life. I specifically scheduled these 6 hours to try the massively multiplayer online role-playing game EverQuest for the first time.

    I will be leaving a review with the Better Business Bureau and I expect that in my next lifetime, small gaming companies will schedule their employee shifts around my personal schedule.
    Kaenneth likes this.
  18. DillyBar Augur

    Is it the 3rd Wednesday of the month already?
  19. MyShadower All-natural Intelligence

    Middle of the night? Pffft. Sell the sell maintenance and patch scheduling rights to the highest bidder each month.
  20. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    For me this is 2pm in the afternoon.

    I'm not convienced the announcement is 100% accurate. Usually when it says


    you can still play IF you were logged in prior to the services going down.

    If I can't play tomorrow, I have food shopping and house work, the garden and a few other things I can do, including watching a couple of TV series.