Info Needed [BUG] Research on spells making ZERO progress

Discussion in 'Bug Reports' started by Daryx, Apr 6, 2020.

  1. Daryx Well-Known Member

    I've been having this issue for over a year and I see no pattern, but it happens a lot. I have a character Fiolair on Maj'Dul who I last logged on March 23, and started research of Elemental Avatar to Grandmaster at that time. I just logged him on, and the spell showed zero progress. In addition, it showed 57 days and 6 hours to completion. So I changed to another spell, which showed 0 seconds would be credited, and then back to Elemental Avatar to Grandmaster. It now shows 56 days 16 hours to complete.

    As I said, this happens frequently and I've bugged it since it started. Is nobody else having this issue? This is beyond frustrating with all the time that has been wasted over numerous characters. The one time I petitioned I got a 7-day reduction potion, which by no means made up for several weeks worth of wasted time.

    It's happens with both ascension and regular spells/CAs. It happens across all tiers of spells and with characters of all different levels. It's always zero progress and when I switch to a different spell to reset it it's always 0 seconds credited.
    Tyger, Svenone, Twyla and 4 others like this.
  2. Faelynn Active Member

    I think I have a new angle on this: is it possible that this is occurring because of the rule that spell research cannot progress if not an active member -- in the case of a lifetime member, the combination of this with the longtime bug of not showing membership after claiming monthly DBC (i.e. after claiming monthly 500 DBC, it doesn't give the next date it can be claimed but instead says become a member, even though lifetime member).

    I have been experiencing similar issues on several alts recently, with seemingly mixed results. I've seen at least two cases where I've lost at least a full month or more of time; other characters that i haven't caught being affected (perhaps because I let them sit complete for a long time so I didn't notice a difference on that character); most recent example I happened to catch, I had started the research on 6/28 7:31 ET for a duration of 30d, so should have been completed 7/28 7:31 ET, but when I checked it on 8/28 19:45 ET (30 days after it should have been done!!), it still had 5 days 23 hours remaining! Not "zero progress" as in the OP's case, but still, clearly suffered one or more long pauses to its progress.

    I hope the devs can pick up this suggestion and consider the possible combination of these two factors being a problem, and if I'm on to something, perhaps up the priority of fixing the lifetime member bug.
    Juraiya, Twyla, Beee and 1 other person like this.
  3. Daryx Well-Known Member

    That's an interesting thought, Faelynn. I had not seen the bug in a few months but last month I saw it several times again on different characters. I'm also a lifetime member, and I had an issue (reported in the DBC telling you to become a member thread) that lasted three weeks. It only cleared up on the 2nd of August after showing "add time to become a member" for three weeks. Unfortunately I didn't think of this angle so I can't swear the 0 research happened at the same time, but it's almost certain.

    That yours did progress but with added time at the end is also interesting. I never tried tracking when I actually started research since I have far too many characters for that, but next time it happens I will definitely look at the DBC issue.
    Twyla likes this.
  4. Jaeded Well-Known Member

    Bug alive and well! I keep a spreadsheet with all my characters to track research, training etc. and today I logged to a toon whose research should have been completed on 9/27 but instead of being able to claim it, it is showing I now have 62 days 16 hours remaining. LOL, it was only 57 days to begin with. I had this happen a month ago on a different toon and I opened a support ticket. C/S made it right.
    On a side note, I pay monthly so I don't think it is related to the lifetime membership.
    Of note I also have had several where just a few days are added. Like my another one that should have been completed yesterday, is now showing3 days 6 hours
    Twyla likes this.
  5. Tyger Member

    I had a bunch of alts that were researching that I didn't look at for a couple of months. When I logged them in, they had not progressed at all.
    Twyla, Svenone, Tedra and 1 other person like this.
  6. Jaeded Well-Known Member

    It seems to happen to me if I don't 'claim' the upgrade on the day it is supposed to be completed. The days it adds seems random. I have had 2 character where the research was reset to more than what it was originally and 4-5 where a few extra days have been added, so far it has been anywhere from 3-6 days.
  7. Praetorian Well-Known Member

    As of the August 10th game update:

    SPELL RESEARCH
    • In progress research will now be paused if Membership lapses while researching a tier that requires it. It will continue where it left off when Membership becomes active again. Switching to a different spell to research while paused will still incur normal time penalties.
    Twyla likes this.
  8. Daryx Well-Known Member

    I just had it happen yesterday, and as stated I am a lifetime member. Also, this was outside of the possible yearly window when my membership used to renew, and I did not have any issues with claiming the all-access bonus last time.

    And the note above is interesting but not applicable. As I stated in my original thread (not going to go look it up), when I switch to a different spell it ALWAYS has said 0 seconds will be applied. And as I stated in my original post for this thread, the time for the total spell research is ALWAYS wrong when this occurs, excessively wrong.

    The only thing I can add this time is when I saw the research was at 0 yesterday, instead of immediately changing to reset the spell, I zoned. The counter reset to the correct total time but the time researched was still at 0.

    This has been going on for at least over one year, probably more on two. I bugged it in the old system numerous times and nothing was ever done. Maybe with more people coming out here and posting their issues it will finally get looked at.
    Tedra likes this.
  9. Miragian Well-Known Member

    The lifetime membership thing might be related but I'm mostly guessing.
  10. Jaeded Well-Known Member

    so this is still an issue, if the research is on an alt that rarely gets played, either the research seems to restart, sometimes with a day or two added (yes greater than the original research time) or it adds a random number of days. I keep spreadsheets on this and know when each characters research should be completed. It is always a disappointment to log onto the character when research should be completed or a day or two later and see you still have 6,7,8 or sometimes 59 days to go. I have a theory that is might be related to the last time I logged onto that character, as in, if I haven't logged it in since research started it starts again from scratch (had this happen 4 times so far) if I have logged it in it adds the number of days since I last logged in or the time between I started the research and the next time I logged on that toon. My spreadsheet needs more columns.
    Doobius40504 likes this.
  11. Ratalthor Developer

    Can anyone provide any additional information to help us investigate the issue? Please PM me your character name, server, spell being researched, and any approximated timestamps you can provide. Thanks!
    Twyla likes this.
  12. Miragian Well-Known Member

    At the very least there is definitely a display problem in that frequently the research appears paused. It doesn't update until/unless you zone.
    As to if this is related to it just stopping for some people I dunno :(
  13. Daryx Well-Known Member

    Ratalthor, I presume you mean by PM the "start a conversation" option since that is the only direct way I see to contact people on here.

    I just had this happen yesterday or the day before and unfortunately, I logged every single character yesterday for Frostfell so I didn't pay attention to the specific one. However, it was the usual situation I described above: spell showed 0 progress, the total days needed to complete was over what it should be, and selecting another spell to research showed "0 seconds will be applied" even though it had been over 24 days since I logged that character. When I zoned, the total time needed was correct and the counter started but from ZERO, and did not reflect the days that character had not been on.

    I will send you the direct info when it happens again. (I'm sure it will....) Or if I can figure out which character it was that it just happened on.
    Twyla likes this.
  14. Jaeded Well-Known Member

    Sent a PM with details as this is still happening.
    Twyla likes this.
  15. Daryx Well-Known Member

    I have just started a conversation with you Ratalthor with details on this issue as it just happened to me today. I've also sent you one with details on the issue with the problem with daily objectives resetting when they haven't been completed and you zone.
    Twyla likes this.
  16. Faelynn Active Member

    I have a bunch of characters (40+), lifetime membership, and most characters I login to rather infrequently. Every time I actually check spell research (maybe about once in a month or two), I almost always notice that for any spells whose time isn't yet up, most of them still have longer left on them than they should. Today I saw several alts that seemed to be short about 2 to 3 days in how much progress they should have had. Then I ran into one very egregious case.

    On my character Tsunamijurai on Skyfire, I have logged that I started research on the spell Photosynthesis VIII (Ancient) on Monday, 5/23/2022 22:42 Eastern (so would've been 19:42 server time), and was to take 38 days, 16 hours to complete, which should have put its finish time at 7/1/2022 14:42 Eastern (11:42 server). Today (7/2) not only do I find that this research is not complete, but it shows ZERO progress, and with MORE time remaining than the first time: it now shows it will take 41 days, 16 hours to complete. This is the most outrageous example of this I have seen to date!
    Twyla and Breanna like this.
  17. Svenone Well-Known Member

    I wish I could add something concrete, but this problem seems random as far as when it occurs. I have a number of different things that occur. One of the following will occur: Note: I keep a spreadsheet to track the times for both spell research and mount/merc training.

    1. Best case situation: Everything works as expected. Happy days!
    2. *Sometimes* the expected time gets extended by the game - from 1 to 7 days added, usually, but once the game acted like I had forgotten to start the research (but it was active when checked). This might have been a case of #3.
    3. Sometimes the research/training completes and *automatically* starts the next level.

    #1 is great, and #3 is generally OK, but #2 is a problem.

    I can't give a character name because this apparently happens to any and/or all of them, seemingly randomly.
    Breanna and Twyla like this.
  18. Jaeded Well-Known Member

    ok, so I'm back. The whole reset for more time than original research would take. This time they suggested I /bug report it and post on the forums (like I haven't done that several times already). Anyway, I can't upvote this again, so just adding a new post out of frustration.
    Twyla likes this.
  19. Faelynn Active Member

    Another example occurrence of this: on character Lerris of Skyfire, I have Aura of Power researching to Grandmaster, which was to take some 60 days 8 hours (might've been longer, but that's what was left at the time I marked it). That calculated out to being due to be completed 12/22/2022 18:49 (Eastern time). However, I come to check it today, 12/25/2022 at around 11:15 AM Eastern and it still has 3 days 6 hours left to go, which would have it completing now at 12/28/2022 17:16, so very nearly 6 whole days inexplicably lost. Lifetime member, so not even possible to have a lapse in membership. Still suspect this has to do with claiming monthly DBC, and time from then until the new month's grant kicking in holding research suspended. Whatever it is, PLEASE get this figured out & corrected!
  20. Faelynn Active Member

    Skyfire.Sasami, research of Polar Fire (Ancient) started 10/25/2022 06:46 for a duration of 60 days 8 hours, was due to be completed 12/24/2022 14:46. Checked today 12/25 13:36, still has 2 days 2 hours remaining, so now would be complete somewhere around 12/27 13:36. Nearly 3 days lost on this one, as opposed to the 6 days loss on Lerris. Rather curious, that. (Times are Eastern).