Game Update 5.4a

[Deewe]

Hey everyone,

 

I want to start by apologizing for the unexpected and prolonged downtime today. This isn’t something we ever want to happen, but when it does, we take it seriously and do everything we can to resolve the issue or issues. We are adding additional processes to try and prevent this particular situation from happening again. Here’s essentially what took place today and what’s behind the long downtime:

 

What happened? Wasn’t this tested?

The issues we encountered were fairly complex, and having more than one just made things complicated. The first problem was the patch for our BitRaider and SSN launchers were inconsistent and ended up causing different issues after we took the servers out of maintenance. As a result, some of you actually received a game patch, while others didn’t get anything. You’d think we would catch that in our normal tests, but it was an oversight in our process which we have since corrected. The big issue was part of the patch that should have been included was missing data, so it was pulling information from 5.4 instead of 5.4a. The net result was a variety of issues – including some of the patch changes didn’t seem like they were deployed.

 

Although we extensively test all of our updates at all stages of the process, the missing parts just caused enough oddball problems, we had to take the game down again to figure out what was going on. In reality, had I been a little more patient, we would have caught the issues beforehand, yet the long downtime would not have been avoided. In addition, not everything we had planned to fix is actually included. For example, we have resolved the exploit with the Umbara Stronghold, but it didn’t make it in the 5.4a patch. Therefore, we have our normal infrastructure maintenance planned for next Wednesday, so our current plan is to deploy the change at that time. We implore you to not participate in this exploit as we don’t want any further disruptions in your game play.

 

Players lost time today, especially in the EU, is anything being done?

Losing playtime is always painful, especially when there is a “double” event running and Dailies awarding crazy high CXP. I’m kicking around a variety of options with the team, as we want to apologize and reward your patience. Some of you have asked to have our Double XP/CXP event extended and others have asked us to keep the current CXP amounts for the Daily Areas. Others have asked for different compensation, and we’re looking at all options as the last couple weeks have been tough on all of us. We’ll lock down what exactly we’re doing and let you know in the coming days.

 

Again, thank you all for your patience today.

 

--Keith-

I don't see any mention of giving CC or pets to players who did not get them contrary to the couple of lucky people that might not even be subscribed.

Edited September 1, 2017 by Deewe

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Hey everyone,

 

I want to start by apologizing for the unexpected and prolonged downtime today. This isn’t something we ever want to happen, but when it does, we take it seriously and do everything we can to resolve the issue or issues. We are adding additional processes to try and prevent this particular situation from happening again. Here’s essentially what took place today and what’s behind the long downtime:

 

What happened? Wasn’t this tested?

The issues we encountered were fairly complex, and having more than one just made things complicated. The first problem was the patch for our BitRaider and SSN launchers were inconsistent and ended up causing different issues after we took the servers out of maintenance. As a result, some of you actually received a game patch, while others didn’t get anything. You’d think we would catch that in our normal tests, but it was an oversight in our process which we have since corrected. The big issue was part of the patch that should have been included was missing data, so it was pulling information from 5.4 instead of 5.4a. The net result was a variety of issues – including some of the patch changes didn’t seem like they were deployed.

 

Although we extensively test all of our updates at all stages of the process, the missing parts just caused enough oddball problems, we had to take the game down again to figure out what was going on. In reality, had I been a little more patient, we would have caught the issues beforehand, yet the long downtime would not have been avoided. In addition, not everything we had planned to fix is actually included. For example, we have resolved the exploit with the Umbara Stronghold, but it didn’t make it in the 5.4a patch. Therefore, we have our normal infrastructure maintenance planned for next Wednesday, so our current plan is to deploy the change at that time. We implore you to not participate in this exploit as we don’t want any further disruptions in your game play.

 

Players lost time today, especially in the EU, is anything being done?

Losing playtime is always painful, especially when there is a “double” event running and Dailies awarding crazy high CXP. I’m kicking around a variety of options with the team, as we want to apologize and reward your patience. Some of you have asked to have our Double XP/CXP event extended and others have asked us to keep the current CXP amounts for the Daily Areas. Others have asked for different compensation, and we’re looking at all options as the last couple weeks have been tough on all of us. We’ll lock down what exactly we’re doing and let you know in the coming days.

 

Again, thank you all for your patience today.

 

--Keith-

 

Great update and admission of fault around the impatience is nice to see and entirely forgivable of course. I'm sure you will learn from your mistakes as we all do.

 

Nice also to see you are thinking of some sort of apology payback as too often in the past it's been "this is fixed goodbye" before. If you do decide to keep the daily issue please apply it to ALL dailies so we can do older planets too, that would be cool.

[AnnieLightJedi]

I don't see any mention of giving CC or pets to players who did not get them contrary to the couple of lucky people that might not even be subscribed.

 

Keith acknowledged that others were asking for different compensation, it's right there in what you quoted. He said the Dev Team was considering it as an option. So they've obviously read our posts and are looking at what compensation is most appropriate. Maybe they will find a multifaceted solution. Maybe it's just rhetoric. But this is my first time in the forums, and I think they have handled the issue fairly well thus far.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Sorry, but his tone was. He as always didn't hear what people said and went all "FINE, MOVING ON." The way this was done was downright insulting, and I happen to feel insulted.

 

How was his "tone" insulting or huffy? What nonsense, it's the bloody internet, you are CHOOSING to take it that way.

 

Fact is if you read over what was happening at the time most were saying "something for all or nothing at all" and he followed the majority as not to piss people off since "something for all" was not within his control or power to do.

 

If Eric's posts managed to insult you I suggest you take a bit of a reality check.

[ThEeLcOnDoR]

I don't see why people are demanding a bucket of Cartel coins as a recompense for the maintenance.

Another week of the double rewards, the Daily missions still really high, those seem fair to me. As much as Cartel Coins would be lovely, I don't see why they should shower everyone's accounts with them just to say sorry for a day's worth of maintenance.

[AnnieLightJedi]

I don't see why people are demanding a bucket of Cartel coins as a recompense for the maintenance.

Another week of the double rewards, the Daily missions still really high, those seem fair to me. As much as Cartel Coins would be lovely, I don't see why they should shower everyone's accounts with them just to say sorry for a day's worth of maintenance.

 

Ok, I take back all the nice things I said about BW. This guy is just being a straight-up D-BAG for no reason. Yellow text means BW staff, right? If so that's one of the most unprofessional things I've ever read from a game studio. Possibly ever worse than CPP.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I don't see why people are demanding a bucket of Cartel coins as a recompense for the maintenance.

Another week of the double rewards, the Daily missions still really high, those seem fair to me. As much as Cartel Coins would be lovely, I don't see why they should shower everyone's accounts with them just to say sorry for a day's worth of maintenance.

 

It's the self entitlement crowd at work, if there is a chance they can get something for free they'll damn well give it a go.

 

I think personally if I were BWA I'd look to add 1 day subscriber time to all subs (if possible) and leave it at that, that after all is ideally the only paid part of the game people have missed out on.

 

People whinging about missing out on a code are just being rather pathetic imo and it sucks because they effectively have ruined it from ever happening again.

 

One of the coolest downtimes I remember was when it started out as codes and developed into quiz questions to win prizes ... now all the SJWs with their "it's not fair if we don't all get it" have ruined that from happening, what a shame.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Ok, I take back all the nice things I said about BW. This guy is just being a straight-up D-BAG for no reason. Yellow text means BW staff, right? If so that's one of the most unprofessional things I've ever read from a game studio. Possibly ever worse than CPP.

 

Look I get you are new to the forums and probably only showed up because the game is down but I sure hope you are joking.

 

Otherwise I suggest you realize people can post in any color font text they want which seems a strange oversight for someone whose first post read ... "I'm a programmer (C++, C#, Java, Python, PHP, JS, Ruby on Rails etc.) "

[ThEeLcOnDoR]

Ok, I take back all the nice things I said about BW. This guy is just being a straight-up D-BAG for no reason. Yellow text means BW staff, right? If so that's one of the most unprofessional things I've ever read from a game studio. Possibly ever worse than CPP.

 

No, yellow text means I just changed my text colour to yellow. Kind of like this. And like this.

 

They give me the option to type in yellow and that is what I like. That is all. I am in no shape or form a representative of their body.

[Vigilanis]

Ok so it says servers are back up yet all I get is an empty server list? it says "ERROR Unable to retrieve Server List". I had a patch earlier today and one less than an hour ago..... Am I missing something?

[DarthDymond]

Ok, I take back all the nice things I said about BW. This guy is just being a straight-up D-BAG for no reason. Yellow text means BW staff, right? If so that's one of the most unprofessional things I've ever read from a game studio. Possibly ever worse than CPP.

On the assumption this is a genuine and honest mistake: No, s/he is not a BW employee.

 

Gold text is an indication that someone is a BW employee posting (although anyone can do it, I think they take down posts that are using it to masquerade as BW staff) but such employees also always have the BW logo as their profile image and an actual person's full name as their handle (just look at Eric or Keith for examples). The person you quoted is just someone who liked the yellow color for their font.

Edited September 1, 2017 by DarthDymond

[Baletraeger]

The first problem was the patch for our BitRaider and SSN launchers were inconsistent and ended up causing different issues after we took the servers out of maintenance.

 

Any chance you will consider getting rid of Bitraider?

[AnnieLightJedi]

No, yellow text means I just changed my text colour to yellow. Kind of like this. And like this.

 

They give me the option to type in yellow and that is what I like. That is all. I am in no shape or form a representative of their body.

 

Well that makes more sense. I didn't check out the PHPBB options, I saw all devs posting in yellow and assumed that it was reserved for them to differentiate posts. A fair assumption after a few beers I would think. And my apologies sir.

Edited September 1, 2017 by AnnieLightJedi

[ThEeLcOnDoR]

It's the self entitlement crowd at work, if there is a chance they can get something for free they'll damn well give it a go.

 

I think personally if I were BWA I'd look to add 1 day subscriber time to all subs (if possible) and leave it at that, that after all is ideally the only paid part of the game people have missed out on.

 

People whinging about missing out on a code are just being rather pathetic imo and it sucks because they effectively have ruined it from ever happening again.

 

One of the coolest downtimes I remember was when it started out as codes and developed into quiz questions to win prizes ... now all the SJWs with their "it's not fair if we don't all get it" have ruined that from happening, what a shame.

 

See, I agree. Though I would not be moved in the slightest if I did not get Cartel Coins, or Sub time at all. I much prefer the in-game rewards like 2x XP, 2x CXP and the other increments. I even suggested earlier in the thread about holding off on said maintenance incoming in a few days, and delaying it for the week after, as a good recompense.

[ThEeLcOnDoR]

Well that makes more sense. I didn't check out the PHPBB options, I saw all devs posting in yellow and assumed that it was reserved for them to differentiate posts. A fair assumption after a few beers I would think. Any my apologies sir.

 

Apology accepted, Captain Needa. (Red for Vader!) No harm done! I post is a light yellow and they in a darker yellow. Just for the future lookout!

[Pietrastor]

People whinging about missing out on a code are just being rather pathetic imo and it sucks because they effectively have ruined it from ever happening again.

Reminds me of a certain whale whining on the forums day and night about Slot Machine cutting into his profits and thus effectively ruining the chances of more Slot Machines for different old reputations and items happening again, along with essentially removing Cartel Certificates as an in-game currency all-together

[sithfatherruiz]

Hey anybody on the Dev!!

 

It was posted that the fix for the 5.4a exploit was not implemented, and we should avoid the exploit.

 

What in the holy hell should I avoid??!! I have no clue what was wrong. I logged in earlier this morning, and 5.4a did NOT install. The servers went down all day, then when I can finally log in again, 5.4a installs.

 

Am I screwed because it installed? Should I just not play until the fix for the "exploit" is implemented? What am I supposed to do???

[pkick]

Murphy's law is alive and well. I.E. stuff happens.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Reminds me of a certain whale whining on the forums day and night about Slot Machine cutting into his profits and thus effectively ruining the chances of more Slot Machines for different old reputations and items happening again, along with essentially removing Cartel Certificates as an in-game currency all-together

 

I think you'll find what ruined the chances of another slot machine from coming back again was once they nerfed it and the precious self entitled players utterly flooded the forums with rage after they couldn't handle the fact it wasn't a money tree anymore.

 

As for cartel certificates you can still earn them from the old slot machine and I just gained around 40 from the recent gate keeper pack but hey don't let the truth get in the way of your cool story right?

 

Edit: Oh just saw you were one of those entitled people whinging about the codes being given, guess I struck a nerve. Truth hurts eh?

Edited September 1, 2017 by MeNaCe-NZ

[ThEeLcOnDoR]

Hey anybody on the Dev!!

 

It was posted that the fix for the 5.4a exploit was not implemented, and we should avoid the exploit.

 

What in the holy hell should I avoid??!! I have no clue what was wrong. I logged in earlier this morning, and 5.4a did NOT install. The servers went down all day, then when I can finally log in again, 5.4a installs.

 

Am I screwed because it installed? Should I just not play until the fix for the "exploit" is implemented? What am I supposed to do???

 

Please avoid summoning other players inside the trader's lounge on Odessen. Also, please avoid any summons that direct you to Odessen, just to be a bit more in the clear.

Can't go wrong with that.

[DarthDymond]

Hey anybody on the Dev!!

 

It was posted that the fix for the 5.4a exploit was not implemented, and we should avoid the exploit.

 

What in the holy hell should I avoid??!! I have no clue what was wrong. I logged in earlier this morning, and 5.4a did NOT install. The servers went down all day, then when I can finally log in again, 5.4a installs.

 

Am I screwed because it installed? Should I just not play until the fix for the "exploit" is implemented? What am I supposed to do???

If you have not yet bought access to the room on Odessan that you can only unlock with the new currency from the Umbara Flashpoint, then do not accept any Guild Summons invites that will teleport you into that room.

 

If you have unlocked that room, don't use the Guild Summons feature to transport any guild members who have not done so into that room.

Hey folks,

 

There is an exploit which was introduced in Game Update 5.4 that we want to make you aware of, so that you avoid it. Currently, it is possible for someone to use the Guild Ship Summon feature to bring you into the room where you buy the Stronghold, therefore subverting the process of gaining access to the room. This is not intended and is considered an exploit. Do not participate in this exploit. This bug will be fixed in 5.4a tomorrow.

 

Following the bug being fixed we will begin to investigate the impact of the exploit and what action is required. I will post a follow-up once that has occured. We take exploits very seriously and want to ensure that SWTOR remains an even playing field. Thank you to the vast majority of you, who avoided this exploit.

 

-eric

Edited September 1, 2017 by DarthDymond

[sithfatherruiz]

To all above,

 

Thank you for clarifying. Much appreciated.

[Arstechnica]

This is unacceptable. We pay you guys to be professionals, to perform a patch means doing all the necessary implementations to avoid screw ups going live. Either you are professionals or you are not.

 

Compensation for this needs to be in the form of money, in this case cartel coins; 1000 - 2000, would be bare minimum for the error on your part!

[MeNaCe-NZ]

This is unacceptable. We pay you guys to be professionals, to perform a patch means doing all the necessary implementations to avoid screw ups going live. Either you are professionals or you are not.

 

Compensation for this needs to be in the form of money, in this case cartel coins; 1000 - 2000, would be bare minimum for the error on your part!

 

You never lost any cartel coins, why do you need cartel coins? Nonsense post.

[Sagitaralz]

Since you brought it up. I asked the other day. Still haven't seen a response. on a scale of 1-10 1 being the least and 10 being max. What is the acceptable level of bugginess do you release?

 

Last time i gave you a 6. Today i guess 5. 5 being when you release content you are okay with half of it working. Do you find this to be a true statement?

 

How this can be? Acceptable level of bugginess? Only half of the content works and it is acceptable?

This may be 5/10 or 6/10 but still unacceptable