Unscheduled Maintenance Today All Live Servers!
By
Ael Rhiana,
Posted on: 2007-07-26 13:05 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
**Open the door, steps outside**
"What is this.....strange place?!"
**Momentarily tries to cast Personal Force Field**
Thx for the tip, just needed a minute I guess. 
Servers: Up. Continue: Fighting.
<QR>
Random thoughts on lag.
One thing that is not immediately obvious is that the server's upstream bandwidth load is an order n-squared quantity.
Meaning if you double the number of people in an area, you quadruple the server's upstream bandwidth requirement.
This is why, for example, reducing the maximum headcount in the hive to 50 had such a dramatic effect. Dropping from 200 to 50 doesn't reduce the bandwidth needed by a factor of four, it reduces it by a factor of sixteen.
What this means is that the huge crowds of people that can collect in an invasion zone around a heavy Rikti spawn (*) can have a serious effect.
(*) note that due to the way that Rikti chose where to port down, cause and effect are very hard to distinguish in these cases.
All of the above said, props to the devs for looking into this. The invasion is tremendous fun, and if this patch makes it run smoother, so much the better.
Scrappers are just like chainsaws. Somewhat hard to handle, EXTREMELY dangerous, and by far the most fun when wielded by the slightly insane.
@Alissara - an Angry Angel
The Angry Angels. When it absolutely positively has to be spanked today.
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Starting at 1 PM PST/3 PM CST/4 PM EST the servers will start the spin down process to have an unscheduled patch applied to all live servers.
The patch will begin at 1:30 PST 3:30 CST & 4:30 EST.
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Never any love for us hicks in the Mountain time zone. I was a Liberal Arts major. Any of you smarter folks in the other time zones help a poor lettered rube know what time the servers are coming back up?
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Mountain time is directly between Pacific and Central times, so either add an hour to Pacific or subtract an hour from Central and you have Mountain. Unless you are in one of those odd places that have Mountain time part of the year and Pacific time other parts of the year, in other words, no Daylight Savings Time.
To put this in the current context, that last time given would would be 1:30 Pacific, 2:30 Mountain, 3:30 Central, and 4:30 Eastern.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
I am still getting a can't connect to Dbserver error, I can log in but when I click on freedom server, it hangs for about 20 seconds then gives me that error. Any ideas? The server has been 'up' for 10 minutes.
curse you for making me finish this floor beam to cast-in-place concrete wall connection detail!
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If they fix the lag, what excuse will I have for my shortcomings?
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Genetics?
Can't wait for the day to end so I can try it out... I10 is wonderful so far, even with the lag, for me! Thanks, Ex Libris!
Some days I just wake up cranky. Today might be one of those days...
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I am still getting a can't connect to Dbserver error, I can log in but when I click on freedom server, it hangs for about 20 seconds then gives me that error. Any ideas? The server has been 'up' for 10 minutes.
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When in doubt reboot.
Get back to us if you are still having trouble.
Ex
Yes, I did reboot, still same problem. I must be the only one having this problem, still getting the "cant connect to DBserver" error. I am able to sign on and get to the server selection page, but click on any server and get that error after about a 20 second hang. This is the first time I am trying to connect at school on my laptop, any magic fix anyone knows of?
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Yes, I did reboot, still same problem. I must be the only one having this problem, still getting the "cant connect to DBserver" error. I am able to sign on and get to the server selection page, but click on any server and get that error after about a 20 second hang. This is the first time I am trying to connect at school on my laptop, any magic fix anyone knows of?
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hmm, 1st time on school network might mean a firewall blockage. surprised it would get that far if that was the case, though.
No Invasions on Pinnacle yet.
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Yes, I did reboot, still same problem. I must be the only one having this problem, still getting the "cant connect to DBserver" error. I am able to sign on and get to the server selection page, but click on any server and get that error after about a 20 second hang.
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Actually, I got the same thing for several attempts. Waited a half hour, tried again, and everything was copacetic.
@Glass Goblin - Writer, brainstormer, storyteller, hero
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one day
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We would love to hear your feedback on how this patch affected your play and optimization.
Thanks again for your support.
Ex
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Well Ex, I play on Champion Server, and before the patch shutdown, I wasn't getting any lag in the RWZ while I was hunting some Crey & Nemesis - just seconds before the shutdown, actually.
But once I got back in, Super Jumping throughout the Zone (not at all close to the ship or any pylons), I experienced some lag & rubber banding. I thought, at first, that it was on my end only, but another couple of people said they felt the same issues.
About 30-45 minutes after that, I joined a raid team, and I had a bit of "strobelight" lag while on the ship, but not to the point where (yesterday) I couldn't really fight without getting a headache.
All in all, I'd say that the patch helped those of us that have "sub-par" computers right now. 
I hope that there's going to be another patch someday that'll address the stability more like this one. I wouldn't care if it were 50 patches given every twenty days; baby steps still count
**EDIT**
I just remembered, right before I logged the invasions started back up on Champion. The RED TEXT OF DOOOOM has returned. Grab your foil hats and hide in the tub, everyone! 
745pm Thursday - Virtue Server
Playing a lvl 7 Tanker on Team of 4 in Skyway City Invasion
- Lag's MUCH better. Pretty smooth until more than 30 folks show up, and the sonic effects start flying. But great improvement.
- XP however sucks. I've been clocking the rewards for every kill and already I've had over 20 kills pass me by with no XP whatsoever. Two kills gave me 1 experience.
Can someone explain to me why I'm not getting ANY XP? Are there lvls restricted to certain zones for certain invasions? I honestly don't remember this being an issue on Test - what am I missing?
XP for the kills gets diluted by the number of teams involved. Unless you manage to kill a Rikti mob all by your lonesome, you'll get proportional XP based on the amount of damage you or your team did to it. In an event like this, with dozens of heroes attacking the same mob, you generally end up getting very little XP. Server events are for badges more than XP.
Good Guys: Touch of Gray, Cap'n Lil
Bad Guys: Maduro Man, Ghostbound, Amish Cyborg
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XP for the kills gets diluted by the number of teams involved. Unless you manage to kill a Rikti mob all by your lonesome, you'll get proportional XP based on the amount of damage you or your team did to it. In an event like this, with dozens of heroes attacking the same mob, you generally end up getting very little XP. Server events are for badges more than XP.
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Ah.
Update: So we're in KR (still team of 4: 2 lvl 7, a 4 and 3) away from the big group. We *are* seeing Ritki drops (ie foot soldiers) but they are extremely slow to kill.
Minions drop about 6xp.
Lieutenants drop about 12-13xp.
However, 1 lvl 50 just ran right up to heal us and our XP dropped to 1xp for minions and 3xp for lieutenants. We had to ask the 50 to leave but by then it was too late. So we gave up and went into our mish.
I guess my naivety is that the XP rewards for Ritki invasions would work just like fighitng giant monsters - regardless of other player levels, you earn your XP reward based on your damage contributions. Doesn't seem to be the case here though - so why should I strive to join an invasion party if I'm just going to get my XP sucked away by others fighintg in the immediate proximity?
Sorta feels like the ultimate kill-steal opportunity.
The lag still kills me. I was in Talos. Didn't knock me off line. But what's the point if you are staring at your frozen toon and unable to move? I think I got XP for like 3 of them. I couldn't even log off because my system was that bogged down by it all.
Also, I had a bomb I was working on by my lonesome, got it to about half when I was knocked back. By the time I was on my feet and to the bomb again and resumed smacking at it, (solo) a full team had jumped on it and so I hardly got anything (I think about 20 XP), even though it was halfway down when they got to it. Something's not right there.
See my system stats in my sig file below.
I know for me, the rubberbanding has gotten worse - and there have been times I've been in a battle, and all of a sudden my character freezes for 5 or 10 seconds. This wasn't happening before the last patch.
EDIT: I might add, this is not invasion-related, this is encountered in regular missions.
I play on Protector, Guardian, and Victory servers. 8 Level 50's so far (and counting).
View all of my characters at City Info Tracker.
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All in all, I'd say that the patch helped those of us that have "sub-par" computers right now.
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Well, your subpar must be better than my subpar computer. :P At least I didn't get mapservered, but I might as well have. I had to guess and mash buttons and hope that whatever was targetted I was near to while looking at a nearly still toon that changed position maybe once a minute. I tried going to Menu/Quit but the game was so lagged it wouldn't even bring up the menu.
Hey Ex,
Would a DXDialog report from those folks STILL having lag problems help for stuff like this?
Ok, fought in three different invasions tonight. Skyway city and Galaxy City were fine. Lots and lots of people, no real lag problem. The third stop on our tour was Steel Canyon and it was the same as yesterday, slideshow effect, etc etc. And everyone was experincing it. So it looks like the patch did help but Steel Canyon still needs some work
Yeah, I tried some redside, and as the fight went on it got worse and worse. Powers showing recharged yet they weren't, major lag etc...
Defcon 0 - (D4 lvl 50),DJ Shecky Cape Radio
@Shecky
Twitter: @DJ_Shecky, @siliconshecky, @thecaperadio
When you air your dirty laundry out on a clothesline above the street, everyone is allowed to snicker at the skid marks in your underoos. - Lemur_Lad
You mean I'll now be able to see more than just bright flashes of light?
Hurray!