Spot the Retards on Dawnsong

[Xavier]

So, I logged in earlier today to see a big argument in Arwic on Dawnsong.

It seems that a group of people from one of the larger guilds, Divine (remember kids, because they're the biggest they know best too) had just crashed the server trying to re-merge a huge number of their members simultaneously. I observed a couple of users standing against a re-attempt (honorable mentions to Keltoi and Maxavi) but unfortuantely the "educated" persisted and took the server down again.

Since that time the machine has bailed a further four, yes thats right FOUR times, several of which were a direct result of their continued attempt to faff with structure, rather than waiting to speak to the hosts tomorrow. I'm sure the 100-strong guild are quite happy to inconvenience the other 400 players, which have been unable to play since 3pm, I mean after all, it's vital they get optimum XP/Ranking/Whatever, isn't it?



So, if you're wondering why you can't play today guys, now you know, and if you're considering joining divine, or are already a member, I'd vote with your feet and topple the cretins at the top before their desperate megalomaniac measures totally destroy the game for everyone else.

 

[Azimov]

It is bad that the game cant handle, what is a relatively small number of people changing patrons.

That said once it becomes clear that your allegience is the definate cause of server problems, then you wait dont you.

How do you know they would be able to speak to the hosts tommorow btw?

Also suprised that Divine is only lvl 36, when I met a lvl 45 the other day.
Guess they just have good recruiters

 

[lojik]

Yes what a clever bunch they are. Some where genuinely proud of the achievment with comments after the 1st crash like "ho ho ho we just managed to bring down the server". Oh how everyone laughed!

 

[Xavier]

there are a few level 50's around, Furos or something was one I spotted.

No, it's not good the code can't handle it, but continuously repeating the task, albeit in different ways is NOT the responsible way for the 'largest' guild on the server to behave.

On the matter of the hosts, they'll be working 9-5 like the rest of us, so yes - they had ample option - it was only impatience and possibly greed which has caused this rather severe outage.

 

[Xavier]

Originally posted by lojik
Yes what a clever bunch they are. Some where genuinely proud of the achievment with comments after the 1st crash like "ho ho ho we just managed to bring down the server". Oh how everyone laughed!

Don't forget, they spend a tenner each in subs, so that obviously gives them full rights to screw with £30K of kit and everyone elses gaming time.



No, REALLY!

 

[Azimov]

And there it goes again

As much as im annoyed at Divine for their continued attempts to reorganise, im as annoyed with Turbine for what must be some suspect code.

The load on the server is less than 500 people, where as a DAoC server can take 3k+ and still be stable with just soem more lag.

This assuming the Euro servers arent run on 486's, should leave ample processing power/memory to just shuffle a basic tree structure about.

So you have to assume the code for handling it must be suspect, as manipulating a 3D world is alot more complicated than upping a few peoples ranks.

 

[Xavier]

it's not just ranks though, the server has to work out the XP of those individuals before, work out any deferred vaules, calculate the XP for every member concerned in the last 24 hours (a fair bit of logging) and then finally push that data to the connected users. Simply put joining 120 odd accounts like that in any database would be a nightmare :/

Camelot is a much simpler game - with none of the allegiance/xp tree stuff and no such logs, they rely on backups when they rollback whereas Microsoft are able to step back through transaction logs which is much better for all imo.

 

[Azimov]

Why does it need to calculate the XP for loast 24 hours?

When u break shouldnt it just start afresh from that point?

Understand massive database access can be a problem, but number crunching calculations is what computers are good at.

Whatever the cause, if you build something into a game thats integral to its structure, you should bloody well make sure it works under load!

BTW makign this post as DS has nosedived yet again

 

[Xavier]

So it has... :/

 

[GDW]

well ive cancelled my subscription to the game. I had high hopes for the game but it turns out below the icing on the cake there is nothing much to write home about. Ill maybe try it again in 6months to see if it has improved.

 

[Xavier]

Really? whats putting you off? If you're still in your free month come join Bym and me sometime - we're having great fun

 

[Azimov]

Acording to server status page on AC2HQ DawnSong been down for 4 hours now today

Almost tempting to go play on a Yank server

Surely this cant be Divine every time?

Just getting silly now, perhaps the server itself is suspect?

 

[Xavier]

Over 6 hours today - and so out subscriptions tick away - anyone wondering what MS will do to compensate?

 

[Deathwatch]

Appearantly MS/Turbine are working on fixing it. It is related to the Divine allegiance appearantly, with the servers crashing at the moment something changes in it, like someone leaving or joining. Several people have contacted MS and they are looking into patching the issue. Hopefully this will be done in the next day or so.

If they are indeed the cause, I find it a shame. Partially it's not Divine's fault that the server breaks, but MS/Turbine's code having a bug in the allegiance system where it can't handle massive breakup of allegiances.

Unfortunately, the way it was found is only because of greed. Divine is preparing it's allegiance for special items which might appear later on in the game which require high allegiance ranks. The top members of their allegiance are thus always able to use those items. Also they are trying to maximize the xp people get from their vassals.

Both reasons aren't really bad, but if they know it crashes the server they shouldn't touch it anymore, and try to contact everybody in their allegiance not to do so. (this has been done appearantly)

Hopefully these crashes will not continue, cause if they do, I hope MS/Turbine will do something in return for us who are paying customers and are dealing with a broken server.

Oh, if anyone cares, my name is Etemenanki on Dawnsong - lvl 29 healer at the moment.

 

[GDW]

Xavier there just isnt enough content in it yet to keep me interested. Im a part time player, so until the content is beefed up Ill save up my £9 till then.

Also I believe each server can host up to a maximum of 2000 people. Since there are on average 500 on at the moment at any time the world is just a bit sparse for my liking.

Even in a world of that size 2000 cap is a little low for my likeing. When I played AO there were on average 20,000 on line at any time and the AO world wasnt that much bigger. I guess what Im saying is that the community at the moment is very very weak and hopefully this will improve with time.

Also the whole downtime scenario just fecks me write off.

Finally when I cancelled my account I still had 5 days free trial left...and did they let me have those 5 days ....nope. Once you cancel thats it there is no consideration of the time left on your account. Ive a brother who also canceled after one week into his paid subscription and he lost 3 weeks. In addition you loose your character (in fairness they do warn you) other MORPHS usually keep your character for a few months should you decide to rejoin.

In short MS have you by the short and curlies...either pay up or f**k off. No consideration taken for those like myself who intend to return when things improve. That coupled with censored forums = no community for partimers = poor value for money.

 

[Xavier]

although they do say they terminate your character too, they don't - it's kept for 6 months

 

[Bym]

I don't think some people are giving the game a chance - there is plenty to do if you just look for it, without the group-mob-kill mundanity of games such as DAoC (however much fun it was at the time). I have never come across a game with so many interesting and worthwhile quests to complete at every level, and a storyline worth listening to (the cutscenes are a good idea imo). It just takes a bit of getting used to, and I must admit that the servers are a little lonely at the moment. I also find the chat system a little cumbersome at times, and its not at all easy to meet and group with people - you just have to broadcast a message and ask around, hoping for the best. I am used to nagging people to death in my guild.....

After playing online games such as Ultima, AO, etc, for years it must be a massive change to try a new game, as these took up your life for so long. I think I'm getting used to the idea now though....gradually.