Scheduled Maintenance for Game Update 1.4: September 26th, 2012

[Jarlgon]

I guess everyone saw that coming. Having no normal maintenance this week was a dead giveaway.

 

 

 

They always take 6 hours (except the recent downtime for the server consolidation, which came in at around 12 hours (edit, and hopefully before too many people complain) there have also been shorter ones, but 6 hours is really the standard timeframe for routine maintenance). IIRC it was explained once on some Q&A or blog entry, with some hints to the time it takes to have a controlled shutdown, routine DB-, hard- and software maintenance (backups?), patch installation, quick QA run, etc. There's probably quite a bit of slack in there to account for some less-expected surprise features too.

 

All in all, I prefer a well-planned and issue free 6-hour downtime to a slapdash 3-hour job, and so far that seems to be working well

 

1.2 took about 14 hours remember? they killed the game trying to impliment the Legacy system and some other things.

[well]

Oh man!I see how you are.I going into the hospital tomorrow and you patch.See if you get a Christmas card from me!:mad:Just kidding.DAV driver shows up at 6:15 so I won't get much of a look.I will be looking forward to the changes.Hopefully crafting missions improved...hint hint...

[Kophar]

Subtle difference between you and people like me: we've been on the PTS even before we had level 50 char and tested the changes with a range of various classes and different levels.

 

Good for you, so have i been on PTS before i had my character copied over on 1.3, reached lvl 20-30ish with some chars there. I dnt have to test out the changes to know i like them. Its the same story with the changes that were made to sorcerers on 1.1. Everyone was throwing themselves from the 7th floor because of them and i said backhan that they were just and that we sorcerers just had to adapt to the mechanic change and guess what, were still the most OP healing class in PvE and ive encountered several sorc healers in PvP that are pretty hard to kill.

I tell you even 1 more thing before i just unsub from this post and put you on ignore, in 1-2 weeks after 1.4 there will be raging posts to nerf sorcers to the bone, just watch and see.

Every change outthere was well thought and I agree to them all.

 

And guess you are also speaking about yourself, so how better is your feedback than mine or say all who took the extra step to write down their feedback on the PTS?

 

The difference is that im expressing MY point of view and speaking for myself, i aint speaking for others and thinking my opinion is the reason. Since u insinuated that everyone felt like you, im telling you that i dnt, so u arent speaking for everyone that were on PTS, since ive seen lots of posts saying that agreed with the changes.

Edited September 26, 2012 by Kophar

[Deewe]

Here's a bit more detailed look at 1.4

 

 

The good:

• A new Flashpoint
  
• A new Operation
  
• Nice shadows
  
• Gear matching for companions
  
• Head slot toggle for companions
  
• Recall back to origin from instance, and choose when to travel to the instance
  
• Shift + right click = equip an item to a companion
  
• Trading items to eligible players 2h after pickup.
  
• Setting characters mood (TBH don't care at all for this one, even as a RPer)
  

 

 

The bad:

• Recolorizing the already lame 1.2 gear (not even new textures) vs ditching it once for all.
  
• Increasing crowd control in PvP. Stun Wars FTW
  
• Nerfing Commandos and Consular skills due to "PvP" balance. (Commandos and Mercs will suck even more from now)
  

 

 

The failed:

• No new quickslot bar
  
• No gear set bonuses transfer
  
• No dual specs
  
• No chat bubbles
  
• No UI improvements
  

Edited September 26, 2012 by Deewe

[JaiusTheSwell]

Please make sure this actually gets applied to APAC servers for this round of patches, or don't bring them down for no reason like last week.

[Jakobpoop]

Here's a bit more detailed look at 1.4

 

 

The good:

• A new Flashpoint
  
• A new Operation
  
• Nice shadows
  
• Gear matching for companions
  
• Head slot toggle for companions
  
• Recall back to origin from instance, and choose when to travel to the instance
  
• Shift + right click = equip an item to a companion
  
• Trading items to eligible players 2h after pickup.
  
• Setting characters mood (TBH don't care at all for this one, even as a RPer)
  

 

 

The bad:

• Recolorizing the already lame 1.2 gear (not even new textures) vs ditching it once for all.
  
• Increasing crowd control in PvP. Stun Wars FTW
  
• Nerfing Commandos and Consular skills due to "PvP" balance. (Commandos and Mercs will suck even more from now)
  

 

 

The failed:

• No new quickslot bar
  
• No gear set bonuses transfer
  
• No dual specs
  
• No chat bubbles
  
• No UI improvements
  

 

New flashpoint? now there's something i've missed.

 

"It’s up to your team to close the Ancient Hypergate, opened by the deadly and malicious Dread Masters". Is the wz coming aswell?

Edited September 26, 2012 by Jakobpoop

[Samoth_Nomad]

No new flashpoint

No new WZ

Edited September 26, 2012 by Samoth_Nomad

[spectreclees]

I thought there was going to be a new warzone with this patch. Guess that got dumped?

[Samoth_Nomad]

I thought there was going to be a new warzone with this patch. Guess that got dumped?

 

Wasn't on the PTS, so I'd doubt they would include it without testing. Probably coming in 6 wks.....

[Durasturan]

Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performing scheduled maintenance for six hours on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 from 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST). All game servers will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than six hours, but could be extended.

 

Travel to the Gree controlled planet of Asation, where you’ll join others in an intense series of battles leading up to a final face-off against an unyielding enemy. It’s up to your team to close the Ancient Hypergate, opened by the deadly and malicious Dread Masters, and destroy a galactic goliath before it destroys the galaxy! Learn more about Game Update 1.4 here!

 

After this maintenance is over, restart the game launcher to patch to Game Update 1.4.

 

Scheduled Maintenance

 

Date: Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

 

Time: 2AM CDT (12AM PDT/3AM EDT/8AM BST/9AM CEST/5PM AEST) until 8AM CDT (6AM PDT/9AM EDT/2PM BST/3PM CEST/11PM AEST)

 

All game servers will be offline during this period. This maintenance is expected to take no more than six hours.

 

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

 

You really shouldn't include a mention to the Ancient Hypergate in the maintenance update unless it's actually going to be in 1.4 tomorrow. Otherwise it's a blatant lie.

[DarthSabreth]

WOOT that patch looks awesome. BW has been listening to their community, allot of what we were asking for is in this patch.

 

TY BW you are awesome, keep up the great job.

[drrobb]

+one more dissappointing month following another. Could you please leave a little bit of the enjoyment that was this game, behind while you tear away and "make improvments". Let me just tell you, your attempts to improve game players satisfaction have all failed completly and miserably. I am referring to all the servers being consolidated together so that at the very least ppl had to rename existing characters or guilds. A problem of a larger note, is now there are commonly 100+ ppl running around in the starter zones. This makes one of two things happen 1) ppl have to wait around for quest targets to respawn, or 2) the mob spawns ontop of the player and causes a wipe. Some would argue that with increased numbers of ppl on the planet that grouping up to do quests other then just the heroics that require it is strongly encouraged. I say to you as a subscriber and an genuinely anti-social individual, that this will result in less paid subscribers in total, esp after you release free 2 play (yet another wingnut idea that will lead to ur failure i.e. LOTRO)

[Ditolus]

WOOT that patch looks awesome. BW has been listening to their community, allot of what we were asking for is in this patch.

 

TY BW you are awesome, keep up the great job.

 

i know right. we were all begging for facial emotes. the game is now incredible.

[Caligari]

(yet another wingnut idea that will lead to ur failure i.e. LOTRO)

Umm...LOTRO did amazingly well with the F2P switch, and is in fact often quoted as the standout success story for F2P. So, yeah, I really hope SWTOR follows suit.

[MOPSFounder]

i know right. we were all begging for facial emotes. the game is now incredible.

Rofl THIS.

 

This patch is more feature-heavy like the last patch, and it's been 90 days since we ever got anything. EAWare seems like they are in fact trying to kill their own game.

[Shinigami_Josh]

You really shouldn't include a mention to the Ancient Hypergate in the maintenance update unless it's actually going to be in 1.4 tomorrow. Otherwise it's a blatant lie.

 

you do understand that what is mentioned in that paragraph is the plot of the operation, as the final boss is a cuthulu-esk monster coming through a hypergate?

 

 

the new wz and rest of the ewh gear is the next content update and this was mentioned before 1.4 hit the pts

[hillerbees]

Am I the only one not excited about this update? For non 50 characters who enjoy the storyline all we are getting is stupid expressions and the chance to tidy up their companion. Earlier in the year we were lead to believe we'd be getting the story update, the cathar and HK-51 and now it appears that these are gonna be drip fed to us.

 

I am grateful that some sort of update is forthcoming but its the first time I feel deflated instead of elated over a game update.

 

That said - I have bought a 2 month time card so I am not losing faith, just disappointed.

[VanderII]

Here's a bit more detailed look at 1.4

The good:

• A new Flashpoint
  
• A new Operation
  
• Nice shadows
  
• Gear matching for companions
  
• Head slot toggle for companions
  
• Recall back to origin from instance, and choose when to travel to the instance
  
• Shift + right click = equip an item to a companion
  
• Trading items to eligible players 2h after pickup.
  
• Setting characters mood (TBH don't care at all for this one, even as a RPer)
  

That's what we'll see with this patch: http://www.swtor.com/gameupdates/1.4-terror-from-beyond

 

• OPERATION: TERROR FROM BEYOND
  
• NEW PVE ENDGAME GEAR
  
• GROUP FINDER EXPANDED FEATURES
  
• EMOTES IMPROVEMENTS
  
• COMPANION CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS
  

[chaosmadness]

weeeeee....today after work gonna rush to home ^^

[Savro]

I say to you as a subscriber and an genuinely anti-social individual, that this will result in less paid subscribers in total, esp after you release free 2 play (yet another wingnut idea that will lead to ur failure i.e. LOTRO)

 

SIimply 2 things:

- if you are anti-social it is your problem but your request to focus on single player in a MMO is hilarious at best. They must focus on heroics, FPs, wzs and OPS simply because it is a MMO. single player experience come from the fact that it is almost impossible to have people always grouped to complete content so a , not little, part of the game has to be single player focused. But for single player focused games exist already alot of single player RPGs, and swtor is not one of them!

- probably (or surely) F2P will produce less payd subscriptions, what's the matter? Many people will pay cash for cosmetics and cool mounts and xp rest boost, and whatsoever, many games doubled their income going f2p, the game you mentioned tripled its income, so.... and that game is also still alive after many years...

[Savro]

Am I the only one not excited about this update? For non 50 characters who enjoy the storyline all we are getting is stupid expressions and the chance to tidy up their companion. Earlier in the year we were lead to believe we'd be getting the story update, the cathar and HK-51 and now it appears that these are gonna be drip fed to us.

 

I am grateful that some sort of update is forthcoming but its the first time I feel deflated instead of elated over a game update.

 

That said - I have bought a 2 month time card so I am not losing faith, just disappointed.

 

BW simply has different departments, reducing the effort on facial emotes would not improve the development of more urgent things (simply because each time knows his part of code and it is impossible to be able to operate everywere when you have a so huge amount of code like in an MMO). So the question is not: "do we focus on facial emotes or on HK-51 (for example)", but it is "Do we develop facial emotes (requested by rp players) or do we rest and we do not develop anything?", what do you prefer?

[Gawlron]

Companion Customization Options

Now you can customize your Companion's outfit to match their chest piece and turn off their helmet with "Hide Head Slot", ensuringe they are dressed for success!

Typo

 

Well... at least Corso won't look like a douche, too bad he's still be a douche.

[Aerich]

Am I the only one not excited about this update? For non 50 characters who enjoy the storyline all we are getting is stupid expressions and the chance to tidy up their companion. Earlier in the year we were lead to believe we'd be getting the story update, the cathar and HK-51 and now it appears that these are gonna be drip fed to us.

 

I am grateful that some sort of update is forthcoming but its the first time I feel deflated instead of elated over a game update.

 

That said - I have bought a 2 month time card so I am not losing faith, just disappointed.

 

You're not alone. I was interested in this game because it was promising a story driven game. In fact I was happy back in beta when they were saying there would be no raid system in TOR so that they could stay focused on the story aspect. And now here we are with a "content" patch with nothing substantial in it but a raid. Weee.

 

Soooo.. Bioware? The ACTUAL content patches will be coming.. when..? New stories, new quests, new companions, etc in your vaunted Story Driven MMO? Oh right, that will be in the expansion. Which you've already said will NOT contain any new interactions with our companions and may not even expand on our personal story.

 

The decision to balance the classes around PvP performance is another bitter pill to swallow but I can feel a little better knowing that a large (or at least a vocal) number of PvP'ers feel you're doing that horribly too. It's nice when PvE'ers and PvP'ers can hate a third party instead of each other. Helps bring the community together!

[canpiper]

Probably not the first to complain but probably not the last.....shutting down the servers at 12am on West Coast...like always...No matter the update. Is there really THAT many of us who play before work? 9am to 12pm? I've been here from the start, its finally gotten to me and I am sorry for whoever will troll this but I could careless because I wont read it =) Peace

[Awiow]

Very good Edited September 26, 2012 by Awiow