Suggestion : Maintenance week

[DarthVengeant]

Because somehow Party Jawas and Fireworks are much more important than fixing tons of bugs that have been around since day 1. I have a very valid suggestion to Bioware.

 

I can't count the amount of bugs I keep running into every single day doing things now. I have bugs that are there in my game every....single...day. I could log in my game right now and see two right off the bat. The past 3 weeks of guild runs has been one bug problem after another. Tonight was nearly a complete disaster because of bugs. I could list a pile of them right now off the top of my head. Nearly every Flashpoint I do has some bug in it somewhere and quite alot of boss fights have become glitchy. It's to the point where me and some of my guild mates are ready to hang it up. So no, it's not just me experiencing these bugs.

 

Furthermore, this Life Day Cartel "event" cash grab made us feel like we got slapped in the face for subscribing to this game. As if that's all Bioware could think up to say thank you. None of us see any of this "event" as any kind of a celebration at all.

 

At this point Bioware needs to take the game OFFLINE for 1 week, or more, to rehaul and bug fix. Examine the coding. Then, bring it back up recoded (because it seems they just break more of the game code with each new patch) and 10 times better. I'm sure the gamers would rather have the game offline for a week if it meant a stable and quality product. I would welcome it. Just give us all 500 Cartel Coins or something for the wait. During this week Bioware could take some time to reflect and think of how to give subscribers things they really want. Start actually reading feedback and taking it to heart. Not adding "to tide you over" things like Party Jawas and Fireworks. We'd all love a more fixed and more fully functional game much more.

 

The more you keep adding to this game, the more becomes broken. You cant mess with code in one area and not have it effect something in another. That has been proven with some of the horrible bugs that only pop up after new patches. Maintenance week. Please. This game is nearly broken.

Edited December 15, 2012 by DarthVengeant

[Nanglez]

I suggested this months back.

 

Its not viable, and here's why. From the moment a patch goes live, BW is already on to the next patch, for the following tuesday maitenance (or if they're taking a week off, the week after that).

 

It means that they're actually spending the 7 days in between working on the Developer Build of this game, which once 'patched' with the updates they wish to push live, the code is then copy and pasted on to the servers.

 

So maitenance night isn't actually BW sitting down and fixing bugs, instead, they're just sitting there watching a loading bar/or are in bed, because its like 6am or something in America when they start loading a patch on to the game server's.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Nanglez

[Totaltrash]

Cartel Market = measurable $$$ profit

Bug fixes = cost overhead (you gotta pay those programmers to do it)

 

Accounts, MBA's and especially stockholders don't care for bug fixes, they care for revenue!

 

(on a personal note, I agree with you, fixing all the bugs would be great and worth the downtime)

[DarthVengeant]

Then they need to hire some new coders. Not people to create new code, but to fix what is there. Because the coding in this game is broken. I fully understand no game is bug free, but it's getting quit bad. It's effecting the over all quality of the game, playability, and performance. Edited December 15, 2012 by DarthVengeant

[deltadt]

it would be good if they did this. it would mean less players getting mad at the constant bugs.

[Ezstar]

They need to make Cartel market stuff Bind on Legacy cos getting a customization for a companion for Republic and getting it on a Empire side and cant send it via mail or sell it or put on GTN sucks donkey nuts

[ElectricMethod]

Actually, they need to take this game offline for much, much more than one week. More like 6 months. They absolutely need to do 2 things. 1.) replace the hero engine and 2.) optimize this game properly. Heck, I'd have to dig for it, or if someone else has the link..., one of their own devs said that the Hero engine for this game NEEDS to be replaced in a public interview.

[Suzina]

I support this idea, if it helps.

[Heroen]

No idea what you mean..

 

I seldom run into bugs and even if I do there so minimal it doesnt affect my gaming experience at all (and I have been playing since beta, so I didnt just start)

 

I've never seen a bug in a OPs or Fp, or at least I cant recall I did.

I often hear ppl complaining about things in the game I never encountered myself so I dont know either I'm a lucky son of a **** or there just crying for no reason

 

Anyhow I dont want to see my fellow gamers suffer so Ill support it, take down the server for a week ( please do so when I'm gone for work tho )

[Elear]

Here is a crazy idea: if you want to spend next week away from SWTOR, then just do it.

Unless you really believe keeping servers online has negative impact on fixing bugs, then there is no hope for you.

[AshlaBoga]

Then they need to hire some new coders. Not people to create new code, but to fix what is there. Because the coding in this game is broken. I fully understand no game is bug free, but it's getting quit bad. It's effecting the over all quality of the game, playability, and performance.

 

AGREED. They don't need to fire anyone, but they do need to borrow people (whether I consider EA incompetent or not, they've got to have at least some skilled IT people) from another section of the company and have them fix some of the bugs that have been there for months.

 

Examples:

1. Invisible Soa - sort of fun to fight him when he's enraged and invisible, but it's a wipe if you're not overgeared

2. Kaon chairs of death - you touch the theater chairs and you don't get gum on your hands, you drop dead

3. Corellia Loading Screen - Currently I go directly to the BH District because going via Corellia involves a 40 second loading screen (the only one of it's kind - why is this the only super long one?)

4. Companions have WAOD, aka Weapons Always Out Disorder

5. Ashara Zavros Has. No. Skin:eek:

.....

123. Dreadtooth's stack stay on him even when Section X is empty (I checked both factions to confirm this)

[Radzkie]

No idea what you mean..

 

I seldom run into bugs and even if I do there so minimal it doesnt affect my gaming experience at all (and I have been playing since beta, so I didnt just start)

 

I've never seen a bug in a OPs or Fp, or at least I cant recall I did.

I often hear ppl complaining about things in the game I never encountered myself so I dont know either I'm a lucky son of a **** or there just crying for no reason

 

Anyhow I dont want to see my fellow gamers suffer so Ill support it, take down the server for a week ( please do so when I'm gone for work tho )

 

My main character is glitched but in a way that I can still use him. And if you haven't come across bugs in an operation, then no offense, but you haven't been in many. The last patch introduced lots of bugs, some into TfB HM... glaring ones being the mini boss is missing along with add spawns on the last boss. There's threads about these bugs and devs have posted in them.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Radzkie

[feefty]

Take a look at the "known" bugs post. If I had that many problems in my line of work I would have been terminated a year ago....

[DAMossimo]

I'd be all for this...

 

...if I actually believed they would work on bugfixes instead of squandering the time recoloring armor sets to sell in the Cartel Market.

[DarthVengeant]

No idea what you mean..

 

I seldom run into bugs and even if I do there so minimal it doesnt affect my gaming experience at all (and I have been playing since beta, so I didnt just start)

 

I've never seen a bug in a OPs or Fp, or at least I cant recall I did.

I often hear ppl complaining about things in the game I never encountered myself so I dont know either I'm a lucky son of a **** or there just crying for no reason

 

Anyhow I dont want to see my fellow gamers suffer so Ill support it, take down the server for a week ( please do so when I'm gone for work tho )

 

Well, then you aren't doing raids and HM flashpoints nearly every day. There is no "crying" going on here. And im frankly sick of hearing people who have valid opinions and problems with this game being called stupid names like whiners and being told it is crying.

 

As I said above. my guild and I are experiencing bugs in EVERY SINGLE thing we do now. Stuff just happened today in fact causing us to wipe multiple times. We finally just gave up. Read my next post....

Edited December 17, 2012 by DarthVengeant

[DarthVengeant]

Here is a crazy idea: if you want to spend next week away from SWTOR, then just do it.

Unless you really believe keeping servers online has negative impact on fixing bugs, then there is no hope for you.

 

Here is an idea. Instead of being a jerk why don't you not comment if you can;t be logical and respectful.

 

Taking everything offline for an extended period would do EVERYTHING good. Period.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

In the twisted way this forum works I'd wager that for every person happy that the devs were taking bug fixes this seriously there would be a person raging how the devs suck because they are depriving them of playing the game.

[Phoeniixx]

You guys think replacing engine is easy. It is not. It's like replacing bricks on a house, it is impossible without taking it down completely.

 

Also hiring new devs to fix the code. This project is at least 4 years old. You can't just hire someone, give him code and tell him "fix this bugs". It would take few months for him to get into it.

 

Just 2 cents from reallife developer.

[DarthVengeant]

Since people don't seem to believe me.

 

I'll give you an example of just today.

 

Tonight, SOA was bugged out all to heck, again (there has been a bug with him in some form in every single fight I have done with him the past few weeks). He was absolutely untargetable for me. Utterly invisible and not on my screen at all, I couldn't fight the boss at all. All I could do was kill the Mind Traps. There was also another bug in the boss fight another person was getting. And during the first part of the fight one person was actually suspended in mid air for no reason and we had to extricate him to get him back in the fight. This kind of crap is happening in pretty much everything I do in this game now that involves boss fights and ops or even HM Flashpoints. It's to the point where I am about fed up.

 

Again, that was just today. This kind of stuff has been going on for weeks in every single thing I do now.

 

So. I will list some bugs i keep getting as proof.

 

- SOA Hard Mode being invisible, untargetable, in bottom floor of fight. Caused us to wipe. Two times.

 

- SOA. During the part where you fall on platforms everyone died in one second about half way down. (Causing a wipe) We were going normal speed down the pillars as always, nothing out of the ordinary, other than of course, the bug.

 

- Annihilation Droid knocking you into the left turret and you being stuck (glitched) in turret unable to move. Happened to two people in one fight. Caused us to wipe.

 

- GHARJ boss fight. During first phase where rocks appear and you are to move to next rock section, they disappear the GNARJ glitches staying in one spot. Happens at least 1/4 timesyou fight him.

 

- Not being able to view my companion in the Ctrl-Left click preview. Only their legs show up. That's it. Furthermore, I cannot sift through my companions in that screen. Only the ship droid will show up if I move to another companion, and then it is stuck at the droid and wont go to another companion.

 

- Bioware screwing my name up causing gibberish letters. And, after creating a ticket and finally given the opportunity to rename I did so. However, upon logging out and back in I was AGAIN promoted to rename even though I already had. This same glitch also happened to a guild mate of mine. What we did is just leave the character alone for the next day and the name we chose finally stuck.

 

- When trying to inspect other players it shows my gear on them. Not theirs. So, inspecting them is pointless.

 

- Doctor Lorrick in Lost Island HM. 6-8 red circles popping up all at once, instead of the normal 3 or 4, causing Green virus stuff literally ALL over the floor caking the entire area like carpet...causing us to wipe.

 

- Exiting Section X in a group causes crash to desktop if the entire group.

 

- Enemy group just before Zorn & Toth in EC SM causing the other groups far off to the left to aggro at same time even thought they were nowhere near us or the enemies. We have done this tons of times and it never had happened before. Happened two times in a row. This was just yesterday.

 

- Terror From Beyond. Portals appearing again (after you have already killed them) when getting of your FT bike and heading towards the door. This happens if you have wiped fighting Kephess or TFB. It's happened to us 3 times now in various times doing it. Not supposed to happen.

 

- Terror From Beyond. Tentacle fight. Unable to target add's who pop up because tentacles keep getting in the way. It happens almost every single time I do this boss fight.

 

- Terror From Beyond. Mini boss just before Ciphas, Heirad, and Kel’Sara (Dread Guard bosses) utterly gone, not there. Happened just yesterday.

 

(I have actually never killed the end boss in Terror From Beyond, not once. I have done this end boss fight at least 80 times or more. I am sick of it. Something ALWAYS goes wrong. My character is a 21K HP DPS well geared Sorce, it's not me)

 

- Horrible lag spikes ruining the Karagga the Unyielding boss fight. Causing us to wipe 4 times in a row.

 

I could go on.....

Edited December 17, 2012 by DarthVengeant

[Taltal]

game core bugs take a lot longer to fix and u need professional coders to fix it.. not just hire new people who are not familiar with game coding and it would take months. So no 1 week is not enough. Do i want this game to shut down for month or more... ofcourse not. none of the in game bugs are game crashing experience for me...

[Fornix]

 

- SOA Hard Mode being invisible, untargetable, in bottom floor of fight. Caused us to wipe. Two times.

 

A bug which isn't related to just SOA, the third boss in TFB HM also has the tendency to do this to some players randomly. However, that's the problem with bugs, they're unpredictable, and as such they may be hard to resolve.

 

- SOA. During the part where you fall on platforms everyone died in one second about half way down. (Causing a wipe) We were going normal speed down the pillars as always, nothing out of the ordinary, other than of course, the bug.

 

The question is whether this is a legit bug, or whether this is an issue of lag, where differences in position prior to start of lag and after the end of lag didn't simply result in death due to fall damage, as the server believed you fell down rather than walked.

 

- Annihilation Droid knocking you into the left turret and you being stuck (glitched) in turret unable to move. Happened to two people in one fight. Caused us to wipe.

 

Annoying yes, however such things aren't specifically coding bugs or engine issues in general. If there's a "hole" in an item somewhere, you may get through, or better yet, get stuck in between. To a game engine, you're simply a dot on a certain location, and a dot can easily fit in between the 1 mm gap between a ledge and a block. So it may be a thing for the design team needing to return to.

 

- Not being able to view my companion in the Ctrl-Left click preview. Only their legs show up. That's it. Furthermore, I cannot sift through my companions in that screen. Only the ship droid will show up if I move to another companion, and then it is stuck at the droid and wont go to another companion.

 

I've never had this happen when I try to display something on my companion what he/she ought to be able to wear. However, if I'd want a male companion to put on for example the slave dancer outfit, stuff like this occurs. Which to me make it appear like less of a bug, but moreso less of a required feature to deny that preview.

 

- Enemy group just before Zorn & Toth in EC SM causing the other groups far off to the left to aggro at same time even thought they were nowhere near us or the enemies. We have done this tons of times and it never had happened before. Happened two times in a row. This was just yesterday.

 

Never had unpredictable aggro pulls there, also not quire sure which pack you mean with "far off to the left".

 

- Terror From Beyond. Portals appearing again (after you have already killed them) when getting of your FT bike and heading towards the door. This happens if you have wiped fighting Kephess or TFB. It's happened to us 3 times now in various times doing it. Not supposed to happen.

 

Never occured to us, unless of course if the raid leader resets the instance, or roughly 2 hour time limit passes. Any more specifics to it?

 

- Terror From Beyond. Tentacle fight. Unable to target add's who pop up because tentacles keep getting in the way. It happens almost every single time I do this boss fight.

 

Tab target or click, a tentacle blocking your view is hardly a bug.

 

Certain things are questionable to being true bugs, and certain things which truly matter aren't just as simple to resolve as taking down the servers for a week to work on it. But rather will need one of those rare Eureka! moments.

[DarthVengeant]

Certain things are questionable to being true bugs, and certain things which truly matter aren't just as simple to resolve as taking down the servers for a week to work on it. But rather will need one of those rare Eureka! moments.

 

You kept saying "I have never had this happen". That's fantastic for you. I fail to see how that is relevant. It;s almost as if you are saying since it doesn't happen to you, then it's not real. I wasn't alone in most of the ones mentioned. And there are piles more I could type. I am sick of nearly every single thing I do in this game having a bug. It is utterly unacceptable at the levels of glitches now in the game. There are always bugs and glitches, but this is getting out of hand and effecting my everyday gamplay and performance.

 

And frankly, most of your "explanations" aren't at all relevant. You weren't there.

 

Such as you saying "Tab target or click, a tentacle blocking your view is hardly a bug."

 

I know how to tab target or click sir, I do it 2000 times a day. When there is no tentacle on my screen (because the camera is turned away from it to view the adds spawning) and I try to click the blasted add spawn and cannot until it is nearly right on me, then its bugged.

 

Or you saying "I've never had this happen when I try to display something on my companion what he/she ought to be able to wear. However, if I'd want a male companion to put on for example the slave dancer outfit, stuff like this occurs. Which to me make it appear like less of a bug, but moreso less of a required feature to deny that preview."

 

Again, not relevant. I cant even preview the companion customizations or gear specifically for them only.

Edited December 17, 2012 by DarthVengeant

[Galbatorrix]

Again, not relevant. I cant even preview the companion customizations or gear specifically for them only.

 

 

This has to do with your companions current customization. You have to remove the equipped customization from the companion and then you can preview armor and new customization just fine. It's definitely a bug, but there is that work around for now.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Galbatorrix

[Malastare]

Okay, I know how much this forum hates people who actually know what they're talking about, but I'm going to take a moment out of my day as a professional developer to explain some stuff:

 

At this point Bioware needs to take the game OFFLINE for 1 week, or more, to rehaul and bug fix.

 

This is silly. It's not like Bioware only writes code during the downtime. They are always writing code and fixing bugs. They don't need to down the servers to work on code. I guarantee you they have dozens of test servers that they work on in the background.

 

The only thing that your suggestion would do is rob players of a week of play time. It won't help the developers one bit.

 

Its not viable, and here's why. From the moment a patch goes live, BW is already on to the next patch, for the following tuesday maitenance (or if they're taking a week off, the week after that).

 

This is closer to reality, but the truth is that they are probably working on bugs two or three weeks ahead of release. Some bugs or features will be assigned to the highest priority and be put out in the very next patch. Most probably spend one week in development and one week in testing before release. This allows developers to adopt a gentler flow (as they aren't all in the release-day-rush) and allows for gradual integration of multi-week fixes/features.

 

It means that they're actually spending the 7 days in between working on the Developer Build of this game, which once 'patched' with the updates they wish to push live, the code is then copy and pasted on to the servers.

 

I'm hoping that your use of copy/paste was as a silly metaphor. The reality is far from that simplistic, and the SWTOR codebase isn't like a webpage that can be fixed by Ctrl-C from the working copy on your thumbdrive and Ctrl-V to the server's hard drive. Their would be a build process, a validation process, deployment steps, data cleansing, self-tests, and live tests.

 

They don't need to fire anyone, but they do need to borrow people (whether I consider EA incompetent or not, they've got to have at least some skilled IT people) from another section of the company and have them fix some of the bugs that have been there for months.

 

Not necessarily. Every decent software person learns at least this truth: Dumping coders into a project doesn't speed it up, it slows it down and usually decreases the quality of the result. UI coders don't know how to fix network code. Database developers don't know how to fix memory issues. The fastest and best way to fix bugs is to have them fixed by developers who've been working on that code the longest. Adding new people to the team just means that the best coders are stuck trying to teach new people about the codebase. This really is Software Engineering 101, but it's not intuitive to people who aren't familiar with development. It's common enough that there are loads of books out there that spend entire chapters trying to teach MBAs not to try this with their development staff. It doesn't work. It's a bad idea.

 

I know I'm going to get people calling me a fanboi and a Bioware apologist --sorry, an EAware apologist. That's fine. I'm over it. Either you care what an actual developer tries to explain to you about the standard way the profession works or you don't. I'm not going to flash my credentials and the list of languages I use or the number of lines of code or numbers of customers served. If you don't want to believe me, that's fine. Just take a moment to think about your coding credentials before you start insulting me.

Edited December 17, 2012 by Malastare

[DarthVengeant]

This has to do with your companions current customization. You have to remove the equipped customization from the companion and then you can preview armor and new customization just fine. It's definitely a bug, but there is that work around for now.

 

Again, not relevant. The companion doesn't HAVE any customization.