City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Discussion: Dbl XP Weekend and Server Performance

Agent_X

By Agent_X,
Posted on: 2008-02-06 19:48 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion

 

Posted

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Lighthouse is only warning us of the possibility. With the server upgrade, they just don't know what it's going to be like.

Forewarned is forearmed, drop the doom.

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What he said.

And Bradders: I know you're not including Pinnacle in that whole "craphole servers" thing. So I'll let it slide.

Positron: "There are no bugs [in City of Heroes], just varying degrees of features."

 

Posted

Do they still reactivate old cancelled accounts during these events to attempt to get people to resubscribe?

 

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Yeah....this won't end well. I forsee about half the population of Virtue logging on Friday morning after maintenence, and AFKing in bases and missions when not active so they won't have to worry about being locked out. Truthfully, I'll probably do the same...

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This is one of the biggest worries around, outside of gold farmers.

I only play on Virtue. I only have characters that I wish to play on virtue, and while I hope that the server locks don't happen. For those with limited playing time, they will probably be locked out.

Not only that, but I"ve still been seeing lots of mapserver issues with Virtue during regular loads there, let alone the DB server errors.

Now add on that lag issues could arise due to a person's ISP or a bottleneck anywhere out in the net, and what is the requirements to lock down the server. Too much lag Vs. Population? I s there a baseline that the Devs are going to run off of? What is that baseline? What if the server load shows low but you are still getting compalints of Lag problems? What about gold farmers? What about people who have not been able to upgrade their video cards to the latest and greatest so they don't get video lag?

These are just a few of the issues with locking down servers, and for players who have lag issues, not to mention those of us that do play only on 1 server.

I can understand the idea of warning us this /might/ happen, and I appreciate that. It just seems like too general of a warning for a population that could see the lock downs used as a way to try and entice people to switch off Virtue or Freedom and to another server.

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

 

Posted

Very interesting. Numbers wise, 140,000 / 10000 = 14 servers required for us all, evenly distributed, if we were to all want on. Not including teh Devs, who are above us all. So 15 servers, just to be safe.

But we have 11. Sounds to me like some new servers are in order. I propose the following:

Anarchy
Despair
Malaise
Destructor
Pain

I threw in a 16th for expansion. And of course, these additions are CoV instead of the do-gooder CoH names of the current 11 servers. Although, technically, Pinnacle, Victory, Triumph and Infinity are perfectly usable in CoV, I suppose, being not 'virtuous' by default.

I freely release myself from any rights to these proposed server names. They'd be boss to see, though. Oh, and I propose also a free set (yes *set*. as in, oh, 4.) of character transfers from any current server to any of the 5 new ones. ONLY to the new ones, and ONLY from the current ones. You get 1 free extra for moving one character from either Virtue or Freedom, but that'd a one shot deal, for a total of 5 freebies. For 2 months after the new servers are up, then you're done, they expire. Use them or lose them. That way, tis totally up to you. Thoughts?

----

I do have a good question, methinks... Do the server load indicators, which range from green to yellow to red to grey, change dynamically on the login screen? In other words, could I sit there and wait for it to go from grey to red, then get in? Or is it updated as you display the screen, and then it has to be bounced in and out to update it?

Thanks!

August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012

 

Posted

Seriously I have to agree with DJ here. I think Lighthouse needs to be more specific. Yes there have always been constraints on server population meaning if the server population reaches X then the server will be grayed out. However he is stating that if the Devs feel that a server is stressed out they will manually lock it. Exactly what constitutes this stress. I think you OWE us an answer. We are after all paying to play this game.

 

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Lighthouse is only warning us of the possibility. With the server upgrade, they just don't know what it's going to be like.

Forewarned is forearmed, drop the doom.

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Actually, to me, Lighthouse is telling us about new functionality, or at best functionality which has never been used before.

I really did used to laugh at the concept of getting in line to be able to log on to the server on which you wanted to play and I really did used to think that CoH was different in many respects, a prime example of which was no-wait servers. Previous to this, I have never heard of CoH server that was up but to which you could not log in.

I don't think that I specifically have been running around yelling doom, and I certainly have not meant to come across that way. If I have, I apologize for the miscommunication. To me there are two non-doom but interesting things going on that I think are worth comment:

1) We were told that the servers were being upgraded and that there was a hardware "reinvestment" going on. And shortly after that we were told that servers would cap out and not allow people to log in when they reach some level of logged on players. When I heard about the server upgrades, server lock downs were probably the last thing that I would have guessed would have resulted from that. Hence an observation of cognitive dissonance from myself.

2) An expression of concern that I will not be able to play on the two servers that I consider my 'main' servers and into which I have put my scarcest resource (time) in developing bases and the heroes I am currently playing. Concern is not doom. It is a fact that I don't know if I will be able to play on them or not this weekend and it is also a fact that I will be disappointed if I cannot.

 

Posted

This... is disappointing.

I foresee that a lot of prime-time players will be locked out purely by virtue of not getting home in time from work to beat the 'rush'... or if they have to log out due to familial aggro... no matter how you look at it, they'll be out of luck.

Lighthouse, if this is going to be the policy for double-XP or holiday events, then I fail to see what the point was with buying the new shiny in the first place.

We KNOW that the RMT crowd's going to be throwing a lot of resources this weekend,cos it basically means their returns/hour ratio is halved... I suspect a lot of PLAYERS will be bumped just because some gold-farm outfit overseas is tossing a hundred of their people into the game just to grind.

So guess what? I'll be playing that other game, since y'all don't really want us to degrade the systems... not like I wanted to level my characters up THAT much anyhow.


"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."

 

Posted

since when did a possibility become a certainty?

most recent 50 - psy/mm blaster

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
since when did a possibility become a certainty?

[/ QUOTE ]

Since when did "I foresee..." or "I suspect..." become "It's a certainty that..." ?

Sometimes people just mean what they type.

 

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since when did a possibility become a certainty?

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Considering the ammounts of people playing, and the fact that we have not been told if they are activating old accounts, plus the number of RMT gold farmers, plus we have no clue what the cap or situations where the cap would be enforced are, to be safe you have to make the assumption that the servers will be locked at some point.

There are just way too many variables that have not been adressed for a locking of the servers not to happen, at least for some undetermined length of time. Also it seems to be a subjective thing, locking servers.

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

 

Posted

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Seriously I have to agree with DJ here. I think Lighthouse needs to be more specific. Yes there have always been constraints on server population meaning if the server population reaches X then the server will be grayed out. However he is stating that if the Devs feel that a server is stressed out they will manually lock it. Exactly what constitutes this stress. I think you OWE us an answer. We are after all paying to play this game.

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Wait...they OWE you an answer? Nobody owes you anything. Your montly fee doesn't guarantee that you'll be able to play anytime and anywhere you'd like. See the fine print if you think I'm wrong. We are playing an ONLINE game. One that is subject to every hindrance and obstacle that comes with that, namely server load. You play on Freedom or Virtue exclusively. Ok, fine. That was your choice, and you'll have to live with the consequences of making a home on the busiest servers. Other chose to play on less populated servers for various reasons, and they live with the fact that there just aren't as many people around at any given time to team with.

Lighthouse has told us as much as we need to know about what's coming this weekend...probably as much as the devs know at this point. What good would it do to know exactly how many people it takes to lock the server? LH stated that the number can change, and probably will as they examine the stress on the new hardware. There was no proclaimation that locking the servers WOULD HAPPEN FOR SURE, only that it MIGHT HAPPEN IF THE PERFORMANCE WENT TOO FAR SOUTH, BUT WE ARE HOPEFUL THAT OUR UPGRADES WORKED AND WE WON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING BUT ENJOY THE WEEKEND.


Now that I have that off my chest, I have a suggestion for those on Freedom and Virtue:

If you have more than one account running at the same time during this weekend (and both/all logged in characters are on Freedom/Virtue at the same time), maybe it would be in your best interest to just stick to one at a time, so that others who might have the potential to be locked out would get a chance to play. I would imagine much drama and nastiness would ensue if people found out you had account A, B, and C logged in to farm when someone's plans for the weekend got thwarted when their friend couldn't log in at all. Now, if there are actually others playing those accounts themselves (like a sibling or child), there's nothing to be done about that, but if its just you, it may not go so well for you.

Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.

 

Posted

*sings the doom song*

Doom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoom

@MrsAlphaOne
Member of the [url="http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=171543&TabID=1451954"]RIMC[/url]
[url="http://www.freewebs.com/mrsalphaone"]DA![/url]
[color=red]Official Beer Wench of PWNZ[/color] Arc 452196 When Madness Reigns over Reason. Play it and PM me your constructive criticism on what I can tweak before Oct 20th. <3 U all

 

Posted

Um, has everyone forgotten already that the main point of this thread is that server performance is expected to be improved over previous 2X-XPs? That along with a reminder that any server has a limit (which, really, need not be said)?

The devs did the right thing by telling us that things should go better but are not infinitely perfect. It's a shame that some here don't want to be told about reality or haven't got past "I want everything to go MY way, and I want it NOW!" I myself am happily looking forward to improved server performance this weekend.

 

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since when did a possibility become a certainty?

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Since when did "I foresee..." or "I suspect..." become "It's a certainty that..." ?

Sometimes people just mean what they type.

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wasn't aiming that at you, just some of the responses in general.

most recent 50 - psy/mm blaster

 

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Hunh. I said: "I don't think that I specifically have been running around yelling doom, and I certainly have not meant to come across that way. If I have, I apologize for the miscommunication."

and you said:

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*sings the doom song*

Doom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoom

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...not sure how to have a value added, content focused, conversation with you. But I guess if your song makes you happy, that's a good thing.

 

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hey I'm sorry if I come off snarky... just... it seems we're being handed a treat with one hand and smacked with the other.

I know what it's like to have to monitor new systems and stave off performance hits (I have a few war stories about the SuperBowl and all the performance counters we had running on our servers for THAT) ...


... but telling paying customers that "oh by the way, if we get too much response to this party we're throwing, it'll be standing room only, you might not get to see the show after all" is a surefire buzzkill, especially those that already have problems connecting, staying connected, or have little opportunity to take advantage outside of prime-time hours (when world+dog is expected to be on).


"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."

 

Posted

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Um, has everyone forgotten already that the main point of this thread is that server performance is expected to be improved over previous 2X-XPs? That along with a reminder that any server has a limit (which, really, need not be said)?

The devs did the right thing by telling us that things should go better but are not infinitely perfect. It's a shame that some here don't want to be told about reality or haven't got past "I want everything to go MY way, and I want it NOW!" I myself am happily looking forward to improved server performance this weekend.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am just being realistic about the situation. If someone gives a warning like what Lighthouse has given us, then it is time to brace for the worst, and hope for the best.

Since the introduction of IO's the amount of gold farmers present in game has been noticeably larger, and as Soul Train pointed out earlier, this weekend gives them the biggest bang for their time. They will more than likely be the ones that do cause servers to close down, Especially Freedom and Virtue, since those would be the biggest populations and places for them to get the influence for anyway.

Now, I have not noticed any serious lag issues on previous Double XP Weekends, but I"ve always been working higher levels, and just going into missions. With the lag that places like Talos get from Wentworths, I"m sure that there are going to be lag complaints all over the place this weekend.

No matter what happens, there are people that are going to be unhappy. For myself, I have 2 live DJ shifts that I prefer to do from the server the station I am a part of represents. LAst time I was doing missions with listeners during my shifts, since we go out of our way to have live DJs all double XP Weekend long. Locked Servers could put a crimp in that, and is something else I now have to come up with an alternative plan for.

Do the dev's owe us an answer, of course not. Are there a ton of factors that can go into the decisions? Heck yes, and while I don't think even the Devs can have firm ideas on all of the factors, the baselines they need to have in place before the start. Add on that noone can think of everything, so I have tossed out factors that maybe the Devs had not thought of.

I am getting ready for the worst, which is unfortunate, and hopefully I'll be wrong.

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

 

Posted

&lt;qr&gt;

It's the negative and somewhat hostile responses like some I've seen in this thread that make the development team and its representatives less than excited about communicating anything to the player base. It's "damned if you do and damned if you don't" - if you have concerns, I understand - just try to take the announcement in the spirit in which it was undoubtedly intended: information for us to have BEFORE the event.

What if they hadn't told us there was any possibility of servers being locked if they reached whatever threshhold has been determined? What if they'd simply locked the servers and when you tried to log in on Friday night you were greeted with grayed out servers? Some of you would be here screaming bloody murder why is my server down! And then, when told "Oh, we locked it because it reached a pre-determined threshhold" these same people would be screaming "You never TOLD us you would be doing that!! You have no right!"

By announcing this ahead of time, IF the situation occurs, you'll know WHY the servers are greyed out and to keep checking.

I do wish they would put a queuing system in place now that they have the means to lock servers, as it does seem more fair to me that those who MIGHT get locked out get to access the servers in the order in which they got in line once they become available again. I really hate when I'm 5th in a line of 8 in a grocery store and another lane opens, taking the people who got in line behind me and checking them out before me....

As for those of you who plan to AFK in missions until you are really ready to play - well, I can only observe that it must often be very difficult to be so much more important than everyone else...

Storm

Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm ...

 

Posted

i'm not worried about it. if virtue is locked, i'll either wait or just log onto another server. got a few projects scattered on champion, pinnacle, victory, &amp; triumph.

most recent 50 - psy/mm blaster

 

Posted

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Hunh. I said: "I don't think that I specifically have been running around yelling doom, and I certainly have not meant to come across that way. If I have, I apologize for the miscommunication."

and you said:

[ QUOTE ]
*sings the doom song*

Doom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoomDoom doom doom doomdoomdoom

[/ QUOTE ]

...not sure how to have a value added, content focused, conversation with you. But I guess if your song makes you happy, that's a good thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

obviously not an Invader Zim fan...

/doomy doomy doom

August 31, 2012. A Day that will Live in Infamy. Or Information. Possibly Influence. Well, Inf, anyway. Thank you, Paragon Studios, for what you did, and the enjoyment and camaraderie you brought.
This is houtex, aka Mike, signing off the forums. G'night all. - 10/26/2012
Well... perhaps I was premature about that whole 'signing off' thing... - 11-9-2012

 

Posted

amid all the doom crying, one thing has been overlooked.

they don't *have* to do these double Xp weekends for us.

most recent 50 - psy/mm blaster

 

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amid all the doom crying, one thing has been overlooked.

they don't *have* to do these double Xp weekends for us.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly.

@MrsAlphaOne
Member of the [url="http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=171543&TabID=1451954"]RIMC[/url]
[url="http://www.freewebs.com/mrsalphaone"]DA![/url]
[color=red]Official Beer Wench of PWNZ[/color] Arc 452196 When Madness Reigns over Reason. Play it and PM me your constructive criticism on what I can tweak before Oct 20th. <3 U all

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
amid all the doom crying, one thing has been overlooked.

they don't *have* to do these double Xp weekends for us.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know, Marketing apparently loves these things. The Marketing Department might show up with baseball bats if they don't have them.

 

Posted

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since when did a possibility become a certainty?

[/ QUOTE ]

Since when did "I foresee..." or "I suspect..." become "It's a certainty that..." ?

[/ QUOTE ]
When it's followed by definite terms like "will", rather than terms like "may" or "might".