City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Where do we find news about unexpected maintenance

beyeajus

By beyeajus,
Posted on: 2009-07-15 05:20 in Player Questions

 

Posted


Ok, so I understand about the need for regular maintenance on Mondays & Fridays. Its right in the middle of my peak game time but thats just my bad luck for living on the wrong side of the planet I guess. I can anticipate & adjust.

But when we get the server down times on other days/nights, thats really annoying - especially because it seem so hard to find out WHY I'm missing out on my vent-work-day-frustrations-by-bashing-things time!

I only get a few hours each week that I CAN play. When I lose that time as well it starts to make me wonder if I the time I've got left is worth the subscription cost.

Is it too much for the server status page to have a message about why extra maintenance happens?

Is there some other place I can look to see why I can't be logging in and enjoying my subscription?

Knowing WHY these things happen would go a long way to reducing the regular frustrations of unexpected maintenance.

It would also go a long way toward keeping my girlfriend happy too now that I've got her playing. Surely we all know how valuable that is to nurture along!

L50 as a Tank, Mastermind, Soldier, Blaster, Defender & Brute so far. Still trying testing alts in search of my 'main'. So many possibilities!

 

Posted

No, the maintenance days are Monday and Friday. Every other day is a possible maintenance day, but the regular maintenance occurs only on Monday and Fridays.

Patches are more common on some specific day as well, but they do not occur every week. Maybe Wednesday is the usual patch day? Can't remember

 

Posted

Emergencies occur when game breaking bugs are found. The Devs rarely announce those fixes, but they are a nessasary evil. Normally they are good about announcing patch updates, as usual monday and fridays are the normal days.

FYI game patches can occur throughout the week, but are normally announced.

GL w/ the GF, Took a year to get my wife into the game. She loves it now and its a great way to spend time with her.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I thought the maintenance days were Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays anyway?

[/ QUOTE ] Nope, just Monday and Friday, although we do experience downtime on Tuesdays or Wednesdays from time to time for patch applications.

Scheduled Server Downtime for City of Heroes/Villains
[ QUOTE ]
City of Heroes and City of Villains undergo server maintenance daily from 8:00 am to 10:00 am Central Time. During this time, the servers are not accessible as we perform maintenance and make any updates to them. We may also perform maintenance on additional game-related servers, such as the web servers, message boards, or login servers.
----------
On Mondays and Fridays, this maintenance always includes restarting all North American game servers. However, maintenance does not always include "server downtime," the servers may also be restarted on days other than Monday and Friday, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis.
----------
Please note: While we are reserving this daily two-hour period for maintenance updates, they will not necessarily require the entire two hours and additional updates may be scheduled outside this time-period as needed. Also, the maintenance window may sometimes need to be extended. Deviations from the normal maintenance schedule are typically posted on the official news page, patch notes, and/or message boards.
----------
We appreciate your patience as we work during these time periods to provide our players with the highest quality of service in City of Heroes and City of Villains.

[/ QUOTE ]

Referencing what I highlighted in Red, I agree with the OP... them announcing what downtime is for is hardly "typical". We aren't asking for specific information regarding what bug they are fixing or anything, but even a little message saying "Please wait while we fix a bug/exploit" would go a long way.

IIRC, there was a thread like this last month, and it got Dev response saying they would look into being a little more informative in this regard. The next downtime was then revealed on the main site, but that was the only time. lol

 

Posted

Say bye-bye to Hami farms!

 

Posted

You have to realize that the server maintenance that we get, during US hours, are before office hours at NCsoft. The people shutting down the servers and applying/fixing updates are the tech people.

From what I know, the tech people are able to start the countdown timer and shut down the server, but any official announcements website and forum related have to come directly from the division heads.

As to why they don't post what happens and why: if there is an exploit that needs to be fixed tomorrow, they aren't going to post that the servers will be down 24 hours from now because, over the next 24 hours, people will try to take advantage of the exploit, possibly breaking the game further.

Unfortunately server downtime affects people during all times zones. It stinks, but it's something we have to live with...

But it does make me happy that I have an EU account just for this very reason :P

*edit* - EU servers down too... means that there is a patch a coming.

pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Say bye-bye to xxxx farms!

[/ QUOTE ]

Do NOT talk about exploits my friend. We've already been warned. Not everyone is hip to them (yes xxxx is rampant..., but you can't openly talk about it unless you're /bug reporting it).

That said... I hope xxxx is fixed by having bonuses removed or having them worth Rikti Monkey rewards. They're a nifty thing to have available (bonuses be darned).

Thank you, City of Heroes, for giving me a superhero social network combined with amazingly smooth game play. Petitions signed with realistic expectations.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately server downtime affects people during all times zones. It stinks, but it's something we have to live with.

[/ QUOTE ] This.

Everybody has different schedules. I'm on the East Coast, and happen to work from noon to 9pm Eastern time. Playing in the morning before work is perfect.. except on maintenance days. lol
The downtime can affect anybody, based on their own work schedules.. not their timezone.

I guess for me it doesn't matter as much because I seem to spend more of my time in these forums anyway. The only problem is when I have to log in to get accurate data for a post, and I have to wait for the server to come back up. haha

 

Posted

Hi Guys,
well, for whatever reasons the servers are down this time, that makes three straight days we have been affected by maint/other server activity.
Yes, yesterday must have been an unexpected emergency but is it too much to expect some mild apology to their customers for the denial of services caused by it along with a brief notice of intentions about todays downtime! This event must be pre-planned. Communications both ways please!
Cheers

Edit: two mins after this post servers now back up.

So many cats - So few recipes!

Age is of no importance,
unless you are a cheese!

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Say bye-bye to xxxx farms!

[/ QUOTE ]

Do NOT talk about exploits my friend. We've already been warned. Not everyone is hip to them (yes xxxx is rampant..., but you can't openly talk about it unless you're /bug reporting it).


[/ QUOTE ]

You have to be kidding... It takes all of logging into AP on any server for a total of about 30 secs to know about this one. This ain't no secret.

 

Posted

Nothing needs to be pre-planed, especially when it comes to fixing back end parts of the game. You can't expect that things will break, which I'm sure they do everyday.

If the game needs to bo down 2-3 hours for 5 days in a week, they don't owe us anything, because in the EULA that we agree to, by clicking "I Agree", we state that we know that server downtime can happen at anytime due to any reason.

Nothing more needs to be done that slap a 30 minute countdown timer, and if need be for an EXTREME reason, a 5 minute countdown for server shutdown.

If it makes the game better, allows new costume purchases, game updates/fixes, then I'm all for it.

Back in my day... ( :P ) when the game was still new, the servers were down up to 4 hours a day for a 3-4 days a week when it came to server fixes or updated.

pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
You have to be kidding... It takes all of logging into AP on any server for a total of about 30 secs to know about this one. This ain't no secret.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doesn't matter, it's still a forum rule to not mention any exploits, even if it's widely known. Just because it's widely known, not everyone knows.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=0#Post13752588

pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Say bye-bye to xxxx farms!

[/ QUOTE ]

Do NOT talk about exploits my friend. We've already been warned. Not everyone is hip to them (yes xxxx is rampant..., but you can't openly talk about it unless you're /bug reporting it).


[/ QUOTE ]

You have to be kidding... It takes all of logging into AP on any server for a total of about 30 secs to know about this one. This ain't no secret.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's actually against forum rules to announce bugs. Doesn't matter how well known the bug is to the pbase.

On another note, its kinda funny watching the server page spaz out. Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, been doing this for about 30 minutes now lol

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

Scheduled Server Downtime for City of Heroes/Villains
[ QUOTE ]
City of Heroes and City of Villains undergo server maintenance daily from 8:00 am to 10:00 am Central Time. During this time, the servers are not accessible as we perform maintenance and make any updates to them. We may also perform maintenance on additional game-related servers, such as the web servers, message boards, or login servers.
----------
On Mondays and Fridays, this maintenance always includes restarting all North American game servers. However, maintenance does not always include "server downtime," the servers may also be restarted on days other than Monday and Friday, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis.
----------
Please note: While we are reserving this daily two-hour period for maintenance updates, they will not necessarily require the entire two hours and additional updates may be scheduled outside this time-period as needed. Also, the maintenance window may sometimes need to be extended. Deviations from the normal maintenance schedule are typically posted on the official news page, patch notes, and/or message boards.
----------
We appreciate your patience as we work during these time periods to provide our players with the highest quality of service in City of Heroes and City of Villains.

[/ QUOTE ]

Referencing what I highlighted in Red, I agree with the OP... them announcing what downtime is for is hardly "typical". We aren't asking for specific information regarding what bug they are fixing or anything, but even a little message saying "Please wait while we fix a bug/exploit" would go a long way.


[/ QUOTE ]

I have no problem with the servers going down for regularly scheduled backups as I understand this is a necessary evil with interenet, but today it was at 7:00 AM central.
If you are going to post a general message on the boards and make it a sweeping gesture, at least make it broad enough that ALL of your general maintenance times fit within your time constraints.

 

Posted

jacktar wrote:[ QUOTE ]
Edit: two mins after this post servers now back up.

[/ QUOTE ]
Gypsy_of_Paradox wrote:[ QUOTE ]
On another note, its kinda funny watching the server page spaz out. Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, been doing this for about 30 minutes now lol

[/ QUOTE ]

For some reason, the Server Status page keeps refreshing back to yesterday afternoon (Check the date and timestamp in the bottom-right corner of the page). The servers are not actually up yet.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Scheduled Server Downtime for City of Heroes/Villains
[ QUOTE ]
City of Heroes and City of Villains undergo server maintenance daily from 8:00 am to 10:00 am Central Time. During this time, the servers are not accessible as we perform maintenance and make any updates to them. We may also perform maintenance on additional game-related servers, such as the web servers, message boards, or login servers.
----------
On Mondays and Fridays, this maintenance always includes restarting all North American game servers. However, maintenance does not always include "server downtime," the servers may also be restarted on days other than Monday and Friday, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis.
----------
Please note: While we are reserving this daily two-hour period for maintenance updates, they will not necessarily require the entire two hours and additional updates may be scheduled outside this time-period as needed. Also, the maintenance window may sometimes need to be extended. Deviations from the normal maintenance schedule are typically posted on the official news page, patch notes, and/or message boards.
----------
We appreciate your patience as we work during these time periods to provide our players with the highest quality of service in City of Heroes and City of Villains.

[/ QUOTE ]

Referencing what I highlighted in Red, I agree with the OP... them announcing what downtime is for is hardly "typical". We aren't asking for specific information regarding what bug they are fixing or anything, but even a little message saying "Please wait while we fix a bug/exploit" would go a long way.


[/ QUOTE ]

I have no problem with the servers going down for regularly scheduled backups as I understand this is a necessary evil with interenet, but today it was at 7:00 AM central.
If you are going to post a general message on the boards and make it a sweeping gesture, at least make it broad enough that ALL of your general maintenance times fit within your time constraints.

[/ QUOTE ] Since this is not even a regular maintenance day (Monday/Friday), it's probably for a patch or fix of some kind, and it falls into the "unscheduled" category. There is also a clause that states: [ QUOTE ]
additional updates may be scheduled outside this time-period as needed. Also, the maintenance window may sometimes need to be extended.

[/ QUOTE ]

We've even had downtime in the middle of the afternoon, and in the evening a couple of times. It sucks not being able to play when we think we will be able to, but that doesn't bother me as much as not knowing WHY. lol

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
jacktar wrote:[ QUOTE ]
Edit: two mins after this post servers now back up.

[/ QUOTE ]
Gypsy_of_Paradox wrote:[ QUOTE ]
On another note, its kinda funny watching the server page spaz out. Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, been doing this for about 30 minutes now lol

[/ QUOTE ]

For some reason, the Server Status page keeps refreshing back to yesterday afternoon (Check the date and timestamp in the bottom-right corner of the page). The servers are not actually up yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

OMG I didnt even see that, mine says last updated 6/24/09! Feel like i'm in Ouroborus!

 

Posted

All servers are showing as up... Bad part is, its not showing yesterday as the date... Oh no. Its showing,
Updated: 2009-06-24 13:05:02 UTC

Ummm... WTF?

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]


For some reason, the Server Status page keeps refreshing back to yesterday afternoon (Check the date and timestamp in the bottom-right corner of the page). The servers are not actually up yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

OMG I didnt even see that, mine says last updated 6/24/09! Feel like i'm in Ouroborus!

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, at least then I can ace my interview I had on July 7th.

Guardian server is Life!

Founder and Leader and all around greatest member of the Solo-SG, The Charybdis Clan.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
All servers are showing as up... Bad part is, its not showing yesterday as the date... Oh no. Its showing,
Updated: 2009-06-24 13:05:02 UTC

Ummm... WTF?

[/ QUOTE ] ROFL
I guess I don't know what day today is either. I just knew that it was wrong.

Ok.. I think I may need to take a small nap before I go to work... I can't play anyway. haha

 

Posted

Pity us Australians, for whom server maintenance occurs in the late evening. The Friday maintenance is particularly galling as it starts 11pm on Friday night.

I guess we're being punished for winning the Australian-American War

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Nothing needs to be pre-planed, especially when it comes to fixing back end parts of the game. You can't expect that things will break, which I'm sure they do everyday.


[/ QUOTE ]

Catastrophic faults will always happen and we accept that completely. However, if as a consequense of that fault further downtime is required, then that by definition will be pre-planned, albeit with differing implimention time scales.
They, the Dev's/techs et cetera knew they were taking the system down and so could and should always tell us, even if just by way of an ingame countdown and better still backed up by a notification on these forums. Must be all of two mins work and worth every second in customer relations!
Cheers

So many cats - So few recipes!

Age is of no importance,
unless you are a cheese!

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Pity us Australians, for whom server maintenance occurs in the late evening. The Friday maintenance is particularly galling as it starts 11pm on Friday night.

I guess we're being punished for winning the Australian-American War

[/ QUOTE ] My old work schedule was 5am-2pm. Maintenance at 11pm would have been perfect for me as I was in bed by then. I'm sure many other people are to at that time.

Again, time zone isn't as important as how it relates to your own schedule.