Uninspired Confidence
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I saw this game was having a free weekend so I decided to download it. After getting into character screen with a laggy log in time, and creating a character I was greeted with, paraphrasing, "were sorry but were at capacity as we , over time, increase the amount of people allowed on our server for a stress test". Fair enough, I get it. So i waited until the next day, today, to log in and was greeted with a "under maintenance can't log in" window. So I waited again....for 8 hours, having no eta on your time of deployment I just overestimated. Then I patch your game, log in, click my character and I get another window telling me I will not be able to play as you have ended the free weekend abruptly due to technical difficulties with a "we'll tell you why tomorrow" sticker on it.
Let me preface this with 'I understand server and technical issues, I work on servers and get that sometimes things just happen' but this is ridiculous. It's one thing if I could even log in and while playing notice instability issues, lag, what have you but I couldn't even do that. So I'm stuck wondering "what could have made the server crash so hard that it can't even be played on right now" but then I read the rest of your statement. Paid people can still play but not the free people you promised 3 days too and abruptly ended without warning or explanation. So then it's not a hard server issue its a "you guys clearly weren't remotely ready for a test", at least thats the way all of this comes off as. It's quite frankly a kick in the face and seems like a pr stunt whether that is your intention or not. You get a bunch of new people to make accounts to bolster your account numbers and create buzz only to kick them to the curb when its inconvenient for you, the people who invited us in.
Now I can't say for sure everything is on the dev team fumbling the ball here. Maybe its something out of your control maybe it's not. The problem here is that you've offered no reasoning or logic behind your abrupt cancellation other than "we'll tell you later". Imagine being invited into someones home and then abruptly getting the boot before you have done or said anything only to be told "you'll know why sometime later in the future if you stick around". Why should I stick around?
You started this weekend with an expanding server capacity, which is probably the smartest thing the team did, and then ended it with a cliff dive off the deep end. You have no offer of when you might reinstate the promised 3 day play but bank on people being understanding that it's a server issue with no real understanding of what type of server issue while simultaneously allowing paid players to play; which throws shade on whether or not you are being truthful.
Note: In case it's not clear. I know that they SAID its spatialOS but my intention here is to state that this whole process makes me wonder if it really is that; it's not to say that they don't actually know. It's the way they've displayed the information and don't seem to give a real reason or give this "it's not us its them" logic.
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@Specter said in What happened to the test?:
The devs were unable to figure out what's the issue with the server so they're waiting for the SpatialOS engineers to look into it on Monday. That's why the servers are down for the time being. Once the issue has been resolved the devs are planning to host another stress test weekend, hopefully before Christmas.
This is what Specter said to someone else ^
you will be getting another free test as soon as they have fixed the issue, the server was playable before this so its possible a packet issue, and the more people the more the server is struggling with what ever the error is.
the servers are fine when only 20-30 people are online (the paid players have paid 100s for this privileged)
and you will get another free test as soon as the problem is fixed - no point runing the server in to the ground and letting everyone have a horrible experience, just to let the three day test run its course, when the server currently has a unfix-able issue
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That's great and all but that's not really my issue. My issue is not "guess we don't get another stress test". It's "it really seems like they weren't even remotely ready to begin with" and got a bunch of sign ups under their belt that they can now use to gain investments or make claims with. Again, whether thats their intention or not I do not know for sure but this is how it seems to me.
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@Zetskey said in Uninspired Confidence:
That's great and all but that's not really my issue. My issue is not "guess we don't get another stress test". It's "it really seems like they weren't even remotely ready to begin with" and got a bunch of sign ups under their belt that they can now use to gain investments or make claims with. Again, whether thats their intention or not I do not know for sure but this is how it seems to me.
They already have investors, and enough money to fund the game.
The test just failed , thats the point in tests, if all tests where 100% successful there would be no need for tests, the game is in alpha development atm, and this is the first ever time more then 30-40 people have been on the server at the same time.
they found a server killing bug, yeah its frustrating especially for them , I imagine they would have much rather it went smoothly .
but IMO this is the point of the test, and im glad its happening now and not during open beta stages
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Again, I have 0 problem with them finding a bug. I expected as much anyways. If what you say is true about how the server only had 30-40 people tops then they shouldn't even have had this stress test to begin with. You shouldn't even be having a server stress test for your game until you have a stability with at least 70-100 people. Partly cuz if you offer a 3 day free wekeend you're gonna get atleast 100 additional people. That's ~350% increase in player base on a server you have no idea will be stable or not if your normal is 30 people. That only reinforces my understanding that they were not even close to being ready for this kinda of test.
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@Zetskey said in Uninspired Confidence:
Again, I have 0 problem with them finding a bug. I expected as much anyways. If what you say is true about how the server only had 30-40 people tops then they shouldn't even have had this stress test to begin with. You shouldn't even be having a server stress test for your game until you have a stability with at least 70-100 people. Partly cuz if you offer a 3 day free wekeend you're gonna get atleast 100 additional people. That's ~350% increase in player base on a server you have no idea will be stable or not if your normal is 30 people. That only reinforces my understanding that they were not even close to being ready for this kinda of test.
how do you get more people on the server to test stability with out opening the server up to the public?
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@Zetskey This was never the intent. The developers weren't expecting these kind of server issues to happen. They've tried to fix the issues throughout Friday well into the night and then some more on Saturday. In the end however none of those fixes worked, so now they have no choice but to wait for the SpatialOS engineers to look into it on Monday. I don't know why the login message mentions the alpha 2 testers have access because right now the servers are down completely.
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You have 40 people, you offer them one free 3day key to a friend (maybe 2). Now you've at most increased your possible player count by 200% which is a good max for early stress testing. Then once you find out it's stable at ~100 people you open a larger stress test. That's one of a few ways I can think of. @Xzoviac This game is still alpha so a small stress test like that makes perfect sense.
Basically you don't throw your game into the deep end as your first server stress test if you're new to server administration &/OR MMO creation. It's just asking to run into major issues. It would have been easier and less of a nightmare for them if they did a small test first. Otherwise you get frustrated people like me who honestly thought the game looked cool and the design was neat but can't trust that these people know what they're doing for me to give them my money at any point down the road.
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@Zetskey The servers worked fine until the number of players reached 300+. It was certainly stable with ~100 people.
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@Specter Great they should have tried 100 people first before jumping into the deep end with this disaster weekend. That only furthers my point about doing a smaller stress test before this cliff dive.
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@Zetskey They did. There were certainly more than 30-40 players in the alpha tests. Also, as I've said before the server didn't start having issues until the number of players reached 300+.
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@Zetskey said in Uninspired Confidence:
@Specter Great they should have tried 100 people first before jumping into the deep end with this disaster weekend. That only furthers my point about doing a smaller stress test before this cliff dive.
Must be nice being Captain hindsight
@Specter said in Uninspired Confidence:
@Zetskey They did. There were certainly more than 30-40 players in the alpha tests. Also, as I've said before the server didn't start having issues until the number of players reached 300+.
yeah sorry i was just guessing at numbers.
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@Specter Like I said. There's two people now making conflicting claims and I still don't have any confidence in either being correct. Doesn't change the absolute disaster this is. I had to spend time downloading this game cuz at&t is absolute garbage where I am so I couldn't do anything online really while this downloaded. I then couldn't log in cuz they werent 'slowly expanding the amount of players over time', then I had to wait for maintenance for an unknown amount of time with literally no ETA, then I get told that the whole thing is cancelled and only paid for accounts can play at this time, and I am told that the reason for all this will be said 'tomorrow' instead of today. I can't know for sure any of what you say is true, regardless I still don't get the sense that this game is going to go anywhere with how this particular situation was handled. Every response from the dev team to this issue seems to be handled on the spot with no preparation for this kind of possibility.
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@Xzoviac said in Uninspired Confidence:
Must be nice being Captain hindsight
It's not captain hindsight it's literally doing this in my own life. I've ran servers with larger groups before and have stress tested servers. It's not "oh hindsight is 2020" its called experience and looking at history where other game devs have failed and succeeded in similar endeavors. But sure, lets just make fun of me. Now i certainly want to join a community where criticism is met with heckling.
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@Zetskey said in Uninspired Confidence:
@Specter Like I said. There's two people now making conflicting claims and I still don't have any confidence in either being correct. Doesn't change the absolute disaster this is. I had to spend time downloading this game cuz at&t is absolute garbage where I am so I couldn't do anything online really while this downloaded. I then couldn't log in cuz they werent 'slowly expanding the amount of players over time', then I had to wait for maintenance for an unknown amount of time with literally no ETA, then I get told that the whole thing is cancelled and only paid for accounts can play at this time, and I am told that the reason for all this will be said 'tomorrow' instead of today. I can't know for sure any of what you say is true, regardless I still don't get the sense that this game is going to go anywhere with how this particular situation was handled. Every response from the dev team to this issue seems to be handled on the spot with no preparation for this kind of possibility.
Specter is a mod his numbers will be correct, I was just guessing at numbers as I can only tell from people i bump in to and who is speaking in chat in game (I am a player) , anyway im off 2 sleep have a good night.
@Zetskey said in Uninspired Confidence:
@Xzoviac said in Uninspired Confidence:
Must be nice being Captain hindsight
It's not captain hindsight it's literally doing this in my own life. I've ran servers with larger groups before and have stress tested servers. It's not "oh hindsight is 2020" its called experience and looking at history where other game devs have failed and succeeded in similar endeavors. But sure, lets just make fun of me. Now i certainly want to join a community where criticism is met with heckling.
lmao cya then
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If you think this experience as a disaster, then you probably shouldn't join any stress tests for any game whatsoever.
It's not really a free demo of the game for you to enjoy, that's just a bonus if everything works.You don't know how a server will run when put under stress before actually trying it,
and encountering any problems that you should probably fix before launch is the whole purpose of a stress test,
hence the name.As it is, I'd say the test was very successful: they certainly found problems to fix in the foreseeable future.
This will most likely make for a better player experience when the game finally launches fully.
Keep up the good work! ^_^
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@Jikap Having the server down for the latter half of the first day and then abruptly ending the stress test is one of the worst stress tests ive ever seen for any mmo or game release. I even played archeage from early closed & open beta during every stress test and for how bad that was it never crashed and then abruptly ended in the first day. I keep having to repeat myself that I have 0 problem with them finding bugs, I have 0 problems with the server crashing, I have 0 problems with them taking the server down for the unknown eta, I have tons of problems with their mishandling of the situation. It's not ONE thing that i have a problem with its everything coupled with their seemingly off the cuff response to the issue and problem.
im not trying to piss off individual people. I'm giving my opinion of the situation and why that situation has pushed me to not having confidence in the dev team. Can they get better? sure. Is this game doomed to fail period? No. Do I personally think, based on what I've seen from this situation that this team inspires confidence? No. Can that change? Sure. I haven't called anyone names, I haven't said the dev team is trash, I haven't done anything but give my critique on the problem and it's specific reaction from me. Probably not the nicest critique but it's not like I'm sitting here trash talking individual developers.
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i suspect they severely underestimated how many people would try the test out and thus they were greatly under-hardwared.
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@Zetskey have you ever thought that maybe they just don't have a good response so they are telling you what they know in that period of time? If they don't know the answer they can't give you on so they are working on an answer. If you're interested in the game and development, that should be good enough for you.
I have been waiting months for this game and I have been tossing back and forth if I wanted to buy into it this early. This was the first real chance I was given to play the game and make a decision if it's something I wanted to buy into.
Does it suck? Sure. But stuff like this happens and its exactly why these weekends are there and exactly why there are testers playing the game finding these issues. I'd rather this get fixed now than during later stages or even when it's live.
The problem is that you immediately came out and started attacking them as a company. Grow up. You sound like an immature twat. If you're a "professional" as you say - then you should know this stuff happens all the time and even still happens to the big giant MMOs. I know WoW Classic even had issues at their launch. ArcheAge just rebooted and they had similar issues with servers crashing, excessive queue times, games dropping, etc.
This stuff happens.
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@Zetskey i really don't understand your rant about the need to stop the test.
That was the first Stresstest ever for this game.
We all expected it can happen, that it fails.
And it failed, for whatever reason.
But thats exactly why they needed to do a stresstest, to look if the server can handle more than 100 people at the same time.Btw. just to say, if they had in previous tests just 100 people spikes, that means concurrent, that does not mean, they just have 100 people who play the game in this early state.
Also, imagine how much stress this upcoming problems with the server stability was causing by the the developers itself.
Specter was trying to inform all people. He did that even he is "just" a Volunteer.
He did a great job to stay online, to give answers and to care for the community.
And i am sure, that the developer also did a great job to find the problem.I am very suspecting that your experience for making games is not that big as you want to make us believing.
Weird attitude to think, they just lie about the reasons.
To be honest, i am following the developement of Fractured since 2017, and the Dynamight guys always was honest.
They maybe don't hanging around all the time in their social medias (forum, discord, reddit...) and maybe could have better communication skills, but i have seen worse communications by studios.
Also, i like more that they concentrate on the game instead of chatting with people.
