The Current Server Situation

[The Real Xtro]

First of all I want to thank the Neocron Team you are working hard to maintain a game we all love.

I would like to make a sugestion that is going to upset some and cause me to be flamed.
As we all know the latest patch has caused a few problems that has ment the server being put in "test mode" and since that has been done the numbers logging on has dwindled.

I know the GM's have done this too find the bugs and fix them but at current server numbers the bugs could take a long time to find them all.

My sugestion is to reset titan back to prepatch hence ending all the problems on that server.
Next take a snapshot of titan in the prepatch state load that onto the test server to test the patch first .......... yes i know we can't get people on the test server to test (this is where i get flamed), to make people test the patch shut down titan till you feel that everything has been tested tell people that its in there interests to test so that we can have titan back sooner.

As it is now we still have no eta of a stable server and as i have allready noticed numbers are falling atleast this way people will know who helps who don't then when people complain we can turn round and say hey you never helped test so screw you.

[devilstriker]

Take down the Retail server, for getting more people on the Testserver looks like a good idea. So you can test the workload of the testserver with the new patch and can see what the database is doing. but you should do it only for some hours when the patch has been tested from the few heroes that goes on it. Make a event on the test server and the people would login there. the neocrack from testserver is better than no neocrack
so think about this evaluation idea of a new patch. take down retailserver (titan) to get more logins on testserver (vedeena). take downfor a few hours the community will accept it, i would do it.

[Sausage Jockey]

/signed.

Next time, before you patch, shut Titan down. This will force everyone to Vedeena.

The reason people don't log on the testserver is they feel they fall behind others who are still playing Titan. If titan's down, that's not a problem.

This way, when problems like this arise, Titan ain't fucked up and people are more likely to log on and test since they have unlimited access to capped characters and gear. People ain't gonna log on Titan and test when their only char is /42 and un-equipped, for example.

[Dribble Joy]

Info.

[Kame]

Why take the time to make the import to vedeena if titan is already in test mode, and in yor proposition you want to block access to titan...

The proposition is essentially making dev work extra for same results.

[Mokoi]

There was the need to apply the patch much earlier than we had wanted and thus without the obligatotry stress test on vedeena we had scheduled for this month.
Please do not conclude that this is the normal modus operandi from now on. There is good reason why we aim to perform extensive tests of patches before we touch retail servers.

In this case however, security vulnerabilities of extraordinary magnitude had to be addressed without any delay. We knew the risk of patching untested changes to retail, but at the same time we also knew the risk of keeping the forementioned vulnerabilities unpatched. We opted for an emergency patch and I still think the decision was largely right. Now back to fixing Titan - we're almost there I think.

[Sausage Jockey]

Why take the time to make the import to vedeena if titan is already in test mode, and in yor proposition you want to block access to titan...

The proposition is essentially making dev work extra for same results.

Next time, not now.

There was the need to apply the patch much earlier than we had wanted and thus without the obligatotry stress test on vedeena we had scheduled for this month.
Please do not conclude that this is the normal modus operandi from now on. There is good reason why we aim to perform extensive tests of patches before we touch retail servers.

In this case however, security vulnerabilities of extraordinary magnitude had to be addressed without any delay. We knew the risk of patching untested changes to retail, but at the same time we also knew the risk of keeping the forementioned vulnerabilities unpatched. We opted for an emergency patch and I still think the decision was largely right. Now back to fixing Titan - we're almost there I think.

Fair enough. Good news.

[hatmankh]

I like the idea of shutting down titan for an hour or two the next time a new patch has to be stress tested on vedeena, we just can't get the numbers to do it right without doing that.

A few people might complain but 1 or 2 hours messing around on the test server to make sure a patch is safe for Titan is better than we saw happen with #179/#180, if we have to shut Titan down to achieve the necessary numbers on Vedeena, so be it.

[The Real Xtro]

I can only hope as an addition that the current speed problems will be also be sorted as part of the problem solving although i doubt that it will be.
In which case i can only hope that you can't fix the problems and have to roll back to prepatch coz i actually think that even if the bugs you have found with inventories are fixed i believe the game to be in a worse state (PVP wise) than with the current patch at least you could hit the target you were aiming for prepatch some of the time.