Patches... Europe low priority?

[Phazed]

Highya's!

Yes. I'm at my work, bored silly and totally unwilling to do anything usefull like working. So lets post some more. And the subject for today issss: patches!!

Why oh why is it taking ages to get the Europe servers patched properly? Everyday I'm drewlin' on my keyboard when I read all the changes in version 1.51... hastebuff for Wardens no longer chant, better heals. Not to mention low-level RvR zones! My god, that would be nice... *dr00l*

But lately I'm realizing more and more this ain't gonna happen anytime soon. Excuse my n00bishness.
Within a week playing: a big patch to 1.45! I thought happily: "That's 10 euro's well spent every month; a game that evolves while you play it!"

Hell... now I'm afraid the low-level RvR zones are goint to arrive when I'm 45+.

To the point, and without the ranting: does anyone know when to expect 1.51

Any why does it take Mythic ages to patch the Europe servers
Ok... so I read they are translating Camelot into French and German. But they are "90% done" with that... now where are them goody goody patches we've all been waiting for

Questions and no awnsers, as allways!

Greetings to all you fellow Hibbies out there.

Phazedh
<Silvamor>
lev 30 Warden

 

[- Pathfinder -]

Heh you ARE aware of the fact that GOA, and not Mythic, run the Euro version? Mythic has licensed DAoC to GOA, who in turn run it here; and translates it into German/French

As to when we get 1.51; I'd prefer never, but a few months, probably

 

[Phazed]

Woa, quick reply!

Hmmm that is as I feared... months untill 1.51. Then I'll probably be around level 50...

Great, just in time to annoy me!

Noone has any more info on this subject. A more exact ETA?

 

[Aeiedil]

an eta for 1.48 is midweek

as for anything past that i have no idea im afraid, ive heard nothing

 

[Alrindel]

Oh God not this again.

No, there are no ETAs except for the next patch, 1.45 to 1.48, which should happen "in the middle of this week".

What has to happen for each patch that GOA rolls out on the european servers is:

- GOA picks a target version (will the next patch be 1.49? or skip straight to 1.50? probably 1.49 which introduces darkness falls but we won't know until they decide and announce it)

- Mythic provides binary patches, language files and database migration tools to GOA to patch version X to version Y.

- GOA translates the language files into German and French. This can be the most time consuming process as there can be a lot of text to translate and GOA don't seem to have a very efficient translation system in place.

- GOA does a trial run on Gorre and reports back gameplay bugs to Mythic for them to fix. The translation mistakes they fix themselves.

When all this is done the patch is ready to go live on the play servers. It's a slow process, there are a lot of variables, and there is no fixed deadline. They will be done when they are done.

 

[Phazed]

Thanx for the info Alrindel. No wonder it's taking so long: that process sounds quite burocratic.

Well, I knew it was gonna take long. And I also know they don't announce the patches until the last moment. But there's allways someone on a forum somewhere with an awnser...

I guess its useless to start guessing already for the eta's of the 1.50 / 1.51 patches. Thanx for the eta on 1.48, Aeiedil.

Ok. I'll shutup now. Someone else post something quick! Else I'll have to get to ~~~work~~~!

/em shudders in fear and bewilderment



Greetings,

Phazed
<Silvamor>
Lev 30 Warden

 

[Alrindel]

Having said, "it will be ready when it's ready," it is nevertheless expected that the 1.49 patch with Darkness Falls will not take as long as the 1.45 to 1.48 patch took. Here's hoping!

 

[Aeiedil]

i would hope 1.49 is next, because over the next few versions there is a lot to translate.

1.49 : level 43\50 epics, darkness falls
1.50 : realm abilities

 

[Armolas]

Yes but there was originally a promise that patching would catch up to within a week of the US version, wasn't there?

I con only see that happening if 1.50 is done and live in a month or so's time, then 1.51 about a week after it goes live in the US.

Not that I expect to see this happen, but it would be nice.

 

[old.Laryssa]

i heard 1.49 is a sbig as 1.36 - 1.45 was ... so we will enter DF on xmas eve

 

[old.Zuljin]

well.. if they are going to give us 1.49 after 1.48 i wll hit em really hard because it will be faster to translate the 1.51I than it will to translate 1.49, then 1.50, 1.51, 1.51b and so on.
but i still cant wait for DF to come so we can go down and "kill" Legion

 

[censi]

patching

Aye, this is a good post and it needs to be said....

1) I can understand, in a way, why its easy for GOA to maintain a set of servers that are all running the same versions on DAOC.

this means less "Game related" queries for them, and means they dont have to consider what server a player is on with regards to a particular query...
Theres a other reasons to but I cant be bothered to type them...

Now, this would be acceptable to us the paying punters if the rate at which they patch the game (IE did the translation) was reasonably fast. Unfortunetly for us "the paying customers" the rate is extremely slow.

Why have they been able to get away with this??

1) a lot of people are new to the game and dont know to much about this whole patching thing and how it effects them

2) We let them get away with it. IE one post on an affilated forum is not gonna get them panicing to get the patches out faster.

What can we do about it???

1) Send them an Email. saying you will cancel you account unless you have specific implentation forcast dates for the next 3 big patches that will be published on the DAOC europe site. Send them this Email 3 times a day untill you get a reply.....

Other than this we could demand/request that they fully patch the UK servers as no translation for this is required.........

-------------------------------------------------------------------
One things for sure. Last time we all started kicking up a fuss about the servers being down and that there was no information about outages. I have seen a view statements on the DAOC europe web site with regards to server outages.... One even contained an apolagy for the distruption to service...

So we know that GOA do listen to a certain extent. Yes they still run a cheap skate halfass outfit thats probably understaffed and tries to minimize costs where ever possible (hence the non exsitent customer facing support) But at the end of the day they cant afford to piss everyone off to the extent that we all just leave.

So I say it once more, send them that Email.... They have to get the ball moving faster with this patching issue and this is the only way we can get them to do it faster

nn.

 

[Avi N'dor]

I used the rightnow system to give GOA feedback about their patching slowness. I got a very friendly and understanding reply that they are aware of the problem and are doing some major reorganization etc. Next patches will be faster they said. I sure hope this proves true!

I suggest you all (politely) express your dissatisfaction through the official channel, i.e the rightnow system.

 

[censi]

dooh

Rightnow, just generates an Email and sends it to support@goa.com

saves me time just mailing that address rather than loggin onto rightnow

I have had many in game issues that have not been covered in the FAQ's. I have sent so many valid queries. I have only ever managed to get one reply (and that was some pathetic preformatted apolagy)

 

[Phazed]

Good good. I knew my ranting would lead to a usefull conversation eventually!

Below is my email to GOA. Anything I forgot? You guys send an email too, we might just have an impact.

My email to GOA support.
------------------------------------------
Hello people of GOA,

First of all I'd like to express my symphaties and appreciation to the person reading these emails. A daunting job that must be. Keep it up! Some of us appreciate human contact and awnsers to our questions.

Now to the point: I've noticed that the patching progress isn't what I, and many others, expected. I'm aware you are probably understaffed, overworked and facing a huge job translating all of DaoC. This also brings us to my question:

Why dont you guys patch the English servers seperate of the French and
German servers?

I know this will cause difficulty for the few players who play both Enlish and German or French servers, but this can be solved the same way as the Gorre testserver patch differences.

Furthermore it is my wish and hope you guys will provide a bit more info on www.camelot-europe.com about patchdates, downtime and other info concerning us DaoC-addicts. Don't tell me you guys ain't got a planning of some sorts. So you CAN give a aproximate date when a patch will be applied. Ofcourse we'll understand if the date isn't accurate or changed at the last moment.

Those were my 2 cents, hoping you guys will understand and use it. Don't forget to awnser my question. Its appreciated!

Yours faithfully,

PhazeD

P.S.: This message isn't just for me. There are many others who share my feelings on this subject. Check out the barry'sworld forum concerning the excalibur server it you got time: http://forums.barrysworld.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24743 . We're talking about you all the time.
-----------------------------------------

Now ain't I a sweetmouthed ranting whiner?

 

[fade-]

Re: patching

Originally posted by censi
So we know that GOA do listen to a certain extent.

arn't GOA a french company? so they'd have about a 6 month delay b4 they get ne of this translated and be able to understand it

 

[Avi N'dor]

Re: dooh

Originally posted by censi
Rightnow, just generates an Email and sends it to support@goa.com
saves me time just mailing that address rather than loggin onto rightnow

But in that case your feedback doesn't show up in the issue log on your personal pages. It's just another rant from someone. Somehow I feel that using the right channel provides better results. I know it from my own job as a programmer, it doesn't help a bit if I whine to my boss or his boss via e-mail. But if I use the correct feedback channels at least I got the issue written down somewhere and it goes further up the foodchain

Originally posted by censi I have had many in game issues that have not been covered in the FAQ's. I have sent so many valid queries. I have only ever managed to get one reply (and that was some pathetic preformatted apolagy)

Yeah, it's a pity But try to hang on and use the rightnow no matter how stupid it seems to you.

I have had better luck with GOA so far, I've sent 2 game questions and one complaint about patches. I input all of them thru rightnow and got a reply in next 1-2 days. None of which were generated messages.

Fight on fellow DAOCers