Upcoming Patch Tomorrow, February 9th, 2012

[TECHTRONICS]

Firstly I would like to congratulate the game developers for creating a beautiful game.

 

On every Tue you bring down the servers for maintenance. I can understand this is a requirement as the company must uphold their agreement for bringing us fixes for the content they make available to their paying customers. What I disagree with is their late notice to "patch" dates.

 

let me draw your attention to this and if the link is not working, go to the forums and on the main forum page you will notice under community news, the upcoming patch for ... TODAY!

 

let me remind you that a patch is to be delivered on the Tuesday as per server maintenance agreement. and not on a weekday as per your waste of time method. in my opinion and in my opinion only, you are bringing down servers to apply 1 patch to fix a bug that can wait till the scheduled patch date/time. if I am incorrect and you are applying more than 1 patch, please specify this on your news update. this is not the first time I have noticed this, in-fact this is my very first post, which should highlight my utmost regard for this issue.

 

Please do not sweep this under the rug and forget, I know I am just 1 person, however if this is affecting more people, please respond. constructive critism only please.

 

I am not asking to be re-imbursed and I am not asking for trolls to tell me to ****. I believe as a paying customer I have a right to my opinions and that my opinions much like everyone elses, deserves to be heard.

 

in closing; if you are going to bring down a server for 1 patch that can wait. do it on the sched maintenance days. if it is urgent, do not bring down "all" servers for 4hrs, im sure an urgent patch requires urgent attention, but you could micro manage the servers a bit better and apply them 1 by 1. and if you are applying patches and you want to inform us, please do so with as much detail as possible, it is sometimes very difficult to trudge through countless forums to find a list of the upcomming bug fixes.

 

Thank You for your time in reading this rant.

 

P.S. love the game

[ycat]

lmao.

[TECHTRONICS]

lmao.

 

As I said, please keep this as constructive critism. saying lmao does not give insight into what you are lmao'ing about. if you have an opinion and would like to share this. please feel welcome, but do so with more than 1 abbreviation.

[SpaZMonKeY]

Here's the facts:

 

There is no "Server Maintenance Agreement". lol. They can bring the servers down 3x a day every day of the week if they want too. In fact if you read all the TOS agreements (Or any MMOs TOS for the matter) you'll notice they pretty much say they can do anything they want at any time to any server or any account, without warning.

 

This "little" patch may not effect you, but IMO it should have been emergency patched ASAP, and not sometime tonight. A lot of us want to get our Ilum daily done, and we cannot do it properly without this fix.

 

Trust me, this emergency patch fix is so far down the list of complaints to BW, it isn't even noticeable.

[TECHTRONICS]

Here's the facts:

 

There is no "Server Maintenance Agreement". lol. They can bring the servers down 3x a day every day of the week if they want too. In fact if you read all the TOS agreements (Or any MMOs TOS for the matter) you'll notice they pretty much say they can do anything they want at any time to any server or any account, without warning.

 

This "little" patch may not effect you, but IMO it should have been emergency patched ASAP, and not sometime tonight. A lot of us want to get our Ilum daily done, and we cannot do it properly without this fix.

 

Trust me, this emergency patch fix is so far down the list of complaints to BW, it isn't even noticeable.

 

I will choose to disagree with you, although you have atelast given constructive cristism. your opinion on this patch:

 

• Killing players on Ilum will now consistently grant Valor and mission credit as intended.
  

 

is not and should not be of high priority, it does not affect your ability to play the game and it does not affect your ability to earn other rewards. clearly the dev do not see things as I do and they unfortunately agree with you. but please note, in doing so have further removed your ability to aqcuire said rewards for a further 4+ hours and that is if they fix things correctly not to mention the servers will be going down as per sched maintenance period. I do not see how this is favourable in your eyes, but I digress.

 

An "URGENT" patch would include: the inability to play the game (i.e. continual crashing, unable to load the game, graphic glitches that prevent seeing anything, black screen, no sound etc). the ability to not acquire a daily credit IMO would be in comparison to a benign mosquito (not contaminated with anything deadly) in an african jungle of issues, sure it's annoying and you would like to squash the bug, but you gotta worry about the bigger and more important things. (Triage)

 

Thank you for your response, I appreciate all insights into this and would appreciate more opinions on this issue.

[AJediKnight]

These repeated downtimes are absolutely ridiculous. Prioritize or get out of the business, Bioware.

[pursang]

What is the point of this thread, again? OP you obviously disagree with actions of the developers of this game (for whatever reason). What do you hope to accomplish by making such a thread? In the vain hope that they'll take your advice - out of all of the "advice" given on a daily basis - to heart?

 

Help me out here.

[Marcuspasnicus]

I agree with the OP. They so blindly ignore all of the pvp issues and bugs in this game (still havent fixed wins not counting) and yet this issue is worthy of "emergency maintenece? Could have waited.

[Mashy]

These repeated downtimes are absolutely ridiculous. Prioritize or get out of the business, Bioware.

 

maybe a lil harsh there but I have to agree on this. These downtimes are really starting to piss me off.

[Sangnz]

Frustrating to say the least but you can't please everyone.

Maintaining an MMO is very much a damned if you do damned if you don't situation.

Either they bring down the servers to try fix something up in a out of the normal patch if they feel the issue warrants it and have people complain about the additional down time

OR

they wait until the scheduled maint night rolls around next week while copping abuse from people saying they never fix anything in a timely manner or it's not good enough that it isn't being patched immediately.

 

Personally I just use times like this to catch up on reading, play some of my neglected games or go out.

[Kandorr]

OP, you have wasted your time addressing this issue to Bioware. They do not read the forums and they do not care that you are unhappy with their business model. They have 1.699999 people that are apparently happy with the game in it's current state.

 

Don't be surprised if there is more downtime later this week to fix the problems they create from tonights patch. This ongoing issue seems to be included in their business model however.

[TECHTRONICS]

What is the point of this thread, again? OP you obviously disagree with actions of the developers of this game (for whatever reason). What do you hope to accomplish by making such a thread? In the vain hope that they'll take your advice - out of all of the "advice" given on a daily basis - to heart?

 

Help me out here.

 

Well done pursang, you caught me. I am trying to start a riot and instill fear in those that are the sheep and not the shephard. NO that was a joke, what I am trying to do is bring the community to the attention (which they already are) and with the numbers gathered, raise an eyebrow of the dev. Yes I would like them to take my advice and I'm sure others have started similar threads, but if we just close our eyes and pay no attention or if we just "let things be" we will never get a response. 1 person cant change the world, but many can.

[TECHTRONICS]

OP, you have wasted your time addressing this issue to Bioware. They do not read the forums and they do not care that you are unhappy with their business model. They have 1.699999 people that are apparently happy with the game in it's current state.

 

Don't be surprised if there is more downtime later this week to fix the problems they create from tonights patch. This ongoing issue seems to be included in their business model however.

 

once again Kandorr you miss my point, read above response. thank you, come again.

[wesmarshall]

I will choose to disagree with you, although you have atelast given constructive cristism. your opinion on this patch:

 

• Killing players on Ilum will now consistently grant Valor and mission credit as intended.
  

 

is not and should not be of high priority, it does not affect your ability to play the game and it does not affect your ability to earn other rewards. clearly the dev do not see things as I do and they unfortunately agree with you. but please note, in doing so have further removed your ability to aqcuire said rewards for a further 4+ hours and that is if they fix things correctly not to mention the servers will be going down as per sched maintenance period. I do not see how this is favourable in your eyes, but I digress.

 

An "URGENT" patch would include: the inability to play the game (i.e. continual crashing, unable to load the game, graphic glitches that prevent seeing anything, black screen, no sound etc). the ability to not acquire a daily credit IMO would be in comparison to a benign mosquito (not contaminated with anything deadly) in an african jungle of issues, sure it's annoying and you would like to squash the bug, but you gotta worry about the bigger and more important things. (Triage)

 

Thank you for your response, I appreciate all insights into this and would appreciate more opinions on this issue.

 

Because of this bug, thousands of people have had days of their play ruined. So, in your opinion, these people should just **** and keep playing illum for no valour for another five or six days because you'll be slightly inconvenienced for four hours in the middle of the night. Get real.

[Edryk]

I'd accept a downtime in the middle of the night every night if they got some of these bugs fixed. In fact I request it.

 

It affects as few people as possible and improves the game.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Edryk

[TECHTRONICS]

Because of this bug, thousands of people have had days of their play ruined. So, in your opinion, these people should just **** and keep playing illum for no valour for another five or six days because you'll be slightly inconvenienced for four hours in the middle of the night. Get real.

 

I do not see this as constructive. you attack my opinion once again without fully understanding what I have written, you do not deserve a response, however I will assist you in understanding.

 

playing 1/100 of something is not 100/100 of anything. if you fail to see how this is a small and insignificant issue then there is no hope. please understand there are people out there that unlike me are actually having difficulty playing the game due to (crashes and black screens and no sound). getting a credit is hardly in contrast to being able to play the game. I would see this bug as a high priority and your "credit" as a speck of sand on the beach.

 

once again, let me assist. if you are unable to get credit for something on Ilum. go somewhere else. why bring down a server for 4+ hrs for the benefit of a credit.

[wesmarshall]

Obviously you are guilty of the very thing you are accusing me of. I'm sorry if you can't go a precious four hours without playing on your spaceman, and I am very aware of the bugs you are addressing, I play on a very budget PC and don't even have a video card. Let me put this another way.

 

Say that the patch last Tuesday, instead of disabling awards on Illum, disabled awards for high level PVE flashpoints and quest rewards. Would you just PVP instead for the next week and say "Oh well, I guess that PVE Isn't 100% of the game anyway." Or would you hope for a quick patch that would indeed result in a short amount of downtime (Four hours is not very long) so you could continue playing the content you enjoy? I don't understand why you feel you're being treated unfairly.

[Ansultares]

Keep at it BioWare; drive off everyone who is on the fence with your constant downtimes patching in more bugs or totally random and unnecessary changes.

[Kandorr]

once again Kandorr you miss my point, read above response. thank you, come again.

 

I haven't missed the point. You are asking for the community to stand as one to fix an issue that Bioware hopefully cannot ignore. But if BW don't read the forums then it doesn't matter if the community stands on the moon and collectively yells at them to fix the issue. They simply go on with their daily lives.

 

It's not as if the people of this community have been sitting idly on their hands not requesting/demanding/QQ'ing/Whining about issues on a daily basis. You just have to read through the thousands of pages to see that most things go unnoticed.

[Ojaix]

How about including a patch to fix the patch that was supposed to fix the patch for the patch to fix WZ wins not being credited?

 

Or how about fixing the numerous WZ exploits like the ability to have more than 8 people join a WZ or the objective exploits?

 

What are they fixing really? Are they fixing this so people can go back to kill trading for valor or is it really broken? You can complete the daily without killing a single person, so it isn't game breaking.

[Marcuspasnicus]

Because of this bug, thousands of people have had days of their play ruined. So, in your opinion, these people should just **** and keep playing illum for no valour for another five or six days because you'll be slightly inconvenienced for four hours in the middle of the night. Get real.

 

LOL at the hypocrisy of this post. Almost no one plays Ilum in the scope of total subs. Its a small part of the game. My group are all pvp'ers and still we only go to that crap planet to do dailies and leave.

 

The main question asked in this thread that most are missing the point of is, how does this issue require an emergency patch when theres bugs everywhere? Why no emergency patch to fix wz wins not counting? Or any of the other issues that plague the minority.

[Chaede]

Because of this bug, thousands of people have had days of their play ruined. So, in your opinion, these people should just **** and keep playing illum for no valour for another five or six days because you'll be slightly inconvenienced for four hours in the middle of the night. Get real.

 

Actually this is a false argument. It affects 1 aspect of the game for maybe a 10 to 100,000 players that actively daily engage in Illum. So a 5 or 6 days of not being able to play a small part of the game for a No. of players that really care about Illum, versus 4 hours of play for people that may have those hours as peak time (not everyone lives in the US, no you have no greater right to convenient play times to any other paying customer).

 

So oyur saying that it is better to inconvenience all the player base for 4 hours by removing play then upsetting a tiny % of player that my only play Illum in SWTOR from getting exactly the right amount of valor for every kill. Yeah that makes good sense.

 

This is a small bug, it affects a minority of player in a minor way. Illum is still playable, valor is still earnable for this minority player aspect. Instead you think it is better business wise to make it so no one even has the option of playing the game for 4 hours.

 

This is just dumb on something that could have waited for regular maintenance.

 

While there is no maintenance agreement per se, there is an expectation that the game will have only 1 regular maintenance a week except in case of emergency such as addressing critical stability issues. Its a reasonable expectation that unless there is an exploit or issue making the game unplayable for a group or people that it shouldn't be brought down.

[TECHTRONICS]

Obviously you are guilty of the very thing you are accusing me of. I'm sorry if you can't go a precious four hours without playing on your spaceman, and I am very aware of the bugs you are addressing, I play on a very budget PC and don't even have a video card. Let me put this another way.

 

Say that the patch last Tuesday, instead of disabling awards on Illum, disabled awards for high level PVE flashpoints and quest rewards. Would you just PVP instead for the next week and say "Oh well, I guess that PVE Isn't 100% of the game anyway." Or would you hope for a quick patch that would indeed result in a short amount of downtime (Four hours is not very long) so you could continue playing the content you enjoy? I don't understand why you feel you're being treated unfairly.

 

Ok you can provide constructive critism. I apologise for being rude. I now understand where you are coming from, you are at a point in the game that requires you to play on Ilum and for this I understand it is aggravating you as there is content you cannot get. But please also understand where alot of other players are coming from. you said in your previous post [thousands of people have had their play ruined], but wouldnt it ruin, yes even for 4 hours thousands more? not to say you are selfish and only thinking of a small percentage of people playing the game, but aren't you selfish for thinking of a small percentage of people playing the game? yes it is only for four hours and yes I can do other things much like everyone else, but with their constant interruptions. 4hrs here 4hrs there 8hrs here 8hrs there. it all adds up. I do have other games I can play, but this is not about that. this is about reducing downtime by consolidating issues and rolling them out. today it could be Ilum, tomorrow it could be Hoth who knows who cares. downtime is all that remains and downtime is all that people remember. keep the masses happy, reduce the downtime and prioritise issues.

 

Once again, I thank you for your opinion.

[Chaede]

LOL at the hypocrisy of this post. Almost no one plays Ilum in the scope of total subs. Its a small part of the game. My group are all pvp'ers and still we only go to that crap planet to do dailies and leave.

 

The main question asked in this thread that most are missing the point of is, how does this issue require an emergency patch when theres bugs everywhere? Why no emergency patch to fix wz wins not counting? Or any of the other issues that plague the minority.

 

Pretty much this.

 

Although lets face it, we'll be pissed for a few hours we can't play during our preferred times and then get over it until the next time BW makes an equally dumb decision. Just means we will get frustrated with the game sooner and move on sooner when another MMO like Secret World or GW2 etc get released.

[VorpalK]

lmao.

 

Indeed. "agreement" there's no social contract on patch times OP. There's no "agreement".