Map Servered.. How many until calling it a day?

[Troo]

I can take one or two.. after that I'll go do something else.

 

 

[Techwright]

Depends on the length of the outage as well.

[Glacier Peak]

Time to move to Indomitable!

[Techwright]

Has anyone made sure the Excelsior hamster is okay?

2 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Time to move to Indomitable!

 

Actually, Torchbearer just spiked.

[Argus_The_Risen]

I literally got done with one of my best costumes, and it timed out. Lame.

[PainX]

answered 3 but sort of hard to answer if each one takes 15min then yeah no only experienced one though maybe i got lucky and there have been many this month dont know

[Apparition]

Zero.  I don't play on Excelsior.

[TheZag]

I figured it out.... 

 

Combine this thread with the one about salvage prices going up.  The market is wonky because the farmers cant stay online.

 

And then i put the picture that i use when excelsior is having excelsior problems...

 

And then i say transfer to torch 😛

 

[Doomguide2005]

Meanwhile I sigh, read forums and think *Soon* I will be able to once again experience a mapserver or server down ... 😪         🤪

[DoctorDitko]

Mapserver... Mine ancient foe!

 

I'm playing via SpaceX Starlink, so my network drops for 2-3 seconds every 20 minutes or so as my antenna switches satellites.

So I have a guaranteed minimum of 3 mapseverances an hour. I am by necessity fault-tolerant.

 

(In theory, once Elon's fricking laser network between satellites is operational, these transfers will proceed smoothly, with no interruptions. I will believe it when I see it.)

 

But back here in Paragon City, RI, the vast majority of these don't kick me back to the login screen; my teammates wonder why my banter stopped, I often get killed, but my game isn't terminated, just interrupted.

 

But last Tuesday on Torch, a very patient leader led a "Kill most and smell the flowers" ITF, and I felt like I was mapsevered every 5 minutes. It was very frustrating, and I applaud my teammates -- and especially Silver Snowflake, the leader -- for putting up with me. Even witty banter can only take you so far!

 

Is there a way to diagnose whether mapseverances are happening client-side of server-side. I'm thinking along the lines of https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

 

[Turric]

Not a problem on Indomitable. Rumor is we give out free cake and tummy zurbits!

[Troo]

9 hours ago, DoctorDitko said:

Is there a way to diagnose whether mapseverances are happening client-side of server-side. I'm thinking along the lines of https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

 

would netgraph show enough to determine? maybe a m0r3 techie has a good way.

 

or

 

 

Edited June 19, 2022 by Troo

[Troo]

poor poor Excelsior

[TrelNargil]

   More and more I am suspecting that this is a server side issue, more then a client side one. I mean really; we all can't be having internet issues all at the same time, can we (unless the Gremlins have invade all our PC's of course lol). However, being the fairly suspicious person that I am, I also can't help but wonder if the GM's (or whomever actually has the physical server in RL) didn't downgrade to a "lower spec one", for cost reasons. I mean, the awesome GM's are not making any money running this great game of ours, and someone has to be fronting the bill for it. So maybe its just getting a bit too expensive to run the game now day in and day out?

   I don't know, as I haven't a clue on server make-up's, specs, or what it costs to run one, but one thing is certain... something fishy is going on here, and it is not us. I haven't had this many issues mapserving ever, but now its at least 2-3 times a day, with a complete server "down" message at least once a week. So it ain't us, and it more then likely ain't totally a "program" issue either; that's why I am thinking "hardware" now. But of course, everything could be just fine; it's just as the population increases, the GM's do not have the equipment to handle such a grown market situation. Me? I'm looking at Gremlins now as the cause until further notice...

   And of course playing another game for now (Sifu anyone? 😄 )...

 

Peace...

[Troo]

nah, no downgrading happening.

 

player actions + internet shenanigans, most likely

 

Edited June 19, 2022 by Troo

[TrelNargil]

😲

   Holy Crap-Balls_batman! The Shard has a... Queue. Wow! How is that even possible, considering that it's the... Shard? I didn't hear of anything going on today/tonight in there. Maybe it just means that the Shard dimension is about to explode into the "normal" CoX one, and another invasion is about to begin lol (wouldn't THAT be fun!). However, please educate me on something here, as I have very little knowledge on how the mechanics of how AE is run; how would anything involving it, affect the server at all if even the population on the entire server didn't? And how would it affect other servers as well, considering that people from others have also expressed problems as well (though not as severe as Excelsior of course)?

 

1 hour ago, Troo said:

nah, no downgrading happening.

 

player actions + internet shenanigans, most likely

 

 

   And thank you very, very much for posting that @Troo (It was a interesting read and look "under the hood" so to speak; and I can't help but respect that the GM's are so above board with the finances and showing us where things go, not to mention how much. Very cool! 👍 However when you say "player actions + internet shenanigans, most likely", could you please specify what player actions & internet shenanigans you mean by giving a few examples? I only ask because if the server was as stable and functioning right server side as it is supposed to be, little on what we could do on our end in CoX could cause the many issues we have been having (unlike some other games I could mention). I only ask because I am very curious about this whole process, and what could throw such a monkey wrench into its works. 🙂 Thanks...

 

Peace...

[Troo]

5 hours ago, TrelNargil said:

could you please specify what player actions & internet shenanigans you mean by giving a few examples?

 

Internet shenanigans = The usual network outages, updates, malware, re-routing, solar flares, hackers, denial of service attacks, etc..

 

Player actions = All sorts of things that could include email storage, buying a billion in super packs & opening them as fast as possible, multi-boxing, large auction house actions, AE related issues, giant exotic bases, PvP, Regen being too strong, etc.

 

All speculation, not to be confused with accusations or facts. Pvp is tossed in as a joke. And it is an older game.

[Ukase]

For me, the mapserving can certainly be annoying, but I do have characters on other servers, so I can switch gears and play on those servers if Excelsior is down. 
But, that said, as for how much is too much, it depends on how long each dc lasts. If I'm able to instantly get back on, I can handle those fairly well. The longer it takes me to get back on, if I get back on and DC again, I'm likely to only suffer one per session until I move to a different shard until things get stabilized. 

[Bionic_Flea]

It depends on the time, duration, and period between mapservers. 

 

If I was going to log off fairly soon anyway, one is all it takes.  If I have hours of free time left, I'll come back if it's only a few minutes in duration. 

 

If it takes too long to get back online I might get distracted by or busy doing something else. 

 

And if I have several back to back I am more likely to just give up but less likely if they occur over a longer period.

[High_Beam]

This is where I sit.  Are they a pain in the buttocks, sure.  But the fact is I have a CoH server to play on that has a pretty decent number of players on to where I find more teams than I did on live (Freedom).  Now the spamming of farming requests and such are annoying but a few mapserver incidents I can deal with because the HC people aren't doing this as their full time job.  Now am I saying I am not moving a few of my more seasoned alts to another server so I can play when Excelsior goes Tango Uniform again, I am not.  Most of the mapserver incidents were short, much shorter than the guy who decides to go AFK in mission just before completion or takes a billion years to zone for a TF start.

[TrelNargil]

   Ok, as most of you on Excelsior know, the server went down yet again, with only 681 people on it, and a total of 1363 people in the game at the time period. And while we are all blessed that this game we love is here and (semi) running by these selfless GM's who are generally pretty amazing and all, I find it the pinnacle of irony that on a day of server maintenance, this major mapserver issue is not only still not resolved, but might be in fact getting worse (at least for Excelsior). And just to let you know, I upgraded my internet and PC speed, giving me higher ping and internet speeds/connectivity, so it is most assuredly NOT client side that is the issue, but server side.

   As a friend of mine suggested recently, maybe it's time for the GM"s to have another "emergency fund raiser drive" so they can get enough money together so they can upgrade their hardware to be able to handle running things, because as it stands now, it's not looking all that good. Or maybe, just maybe, have a GM or two contact some of the great people here with experience and technical knowhow to be able to help fix things, because again, it's not getting better as today's issues clearly show (especially on a maintenance day). It only takes one person with a good idea to maybe see what the problem is, and maybe, just maybe, its someone here. 🙂

   But just sitting around and waiting for things to get fixed, when it's clearly not, and with even less communication by the GM's on the matter, isn't good either. However, there is definitely one positive thing that has come out of this can of worms, and it is this... it has sorta quieted down all the "talk" (arguments) about the server's being joined, because after all, if the hardware can't even handle the load that we have now, how is it gonna handle the load when there is only one or two servers? 🙂 So at least that's is one way to make lemonade out of lemons lol...

 

Peace...

[Troo]

5 hours ago, High_Beam said:

Excelsior goes Tango Uniform

 

Winner

[Apparition]

11 minutes ago, TrelNargil said:

   Ok, as most of you on Excelsior know, the server went down yet again, with only 681 people on it, and a total of 1363 people in the game at the time period. And while we are all blessed that this game we love is here and (semi) running by these selfless GM's who are generally pretty amazing and all, I find it the pinnacle of irony that on a day of server maintenance, this major mapserver issue is not only still not resolved, but might be in fact getting worse (at least for Excelsior). And just to let you know, I upgraded my internet and PC speed, giving me higher ping and internet speeds/connectivity, so it is most assuredly NOT client side that is the issue, but server side.

   As a friend of mine suggested recently, maybe it's time for the GM"s to have another "emergency fund raiser drive" so they can get enough money together so they can upgrade their hardware to be able to handle running things, because as it stands now, it's not looking all that good. Or maybe, just maybe, have a GM or two contact some of the great people here with experience and technical knowhow to be able to help fix things, because again, it's not getting better as today's issues clearly show (especially on a maintenance day). It only takes one person with a good idea to maybe see what the problem is, and maybe, just maybe, its someone here. 🙂

   But just sitting around and waiting for things to get fixed, when it's clearly not, and with even less communication by the GM's on the matter, isn't good either. However, there is definitely one positive thing that has come out of this can of worms, and it is this... it has sorta quieted down all the "talk" (arguments) about the server's being joined, because after all, if the hardware can't even handle the load that we have now, how is it gonna handle the load when there is only one or two servers? 🙂 So at least that's is one way to make lemonade out of lemons lol...

 

Peace...

 

 

It's been explained by Homecoming staff on the Homecoming Discord that hardware issues have been ruled out.  The hardware is fine, as it's shared among all of the shards and only Excelsior is having issues.  What appears to be happening is that too many people consolidated on Excelsior and the shard has occasionally become more active than the Freedom server was on live.  As a result, Excelsior is occasionally hitting hard City of Heroes database limits as Cryptic Studios never planned for a shard to have as many people nor as much activity as Excelsior.

 

It isn't a coincidence that Excelsior seems to be going *boom* more often when a Hamidon or mothership raid is being run or recently ended.

[TrelNargil]

   Oh ok, cools. As I don't use Discord, I did not know about the Hardware not being the case... supposedly. The only reason though that I still have my "semi" doubts, is because the issue is NOT confined to just Excelsior as others I have seen talking in chat have experienced the same issues. The problem may not be to the extent that it is on Excelsior (most likely) due to the population differences, but it is still happening. And as they say, where there is smoke, there is fire, so something is going wrong; it's just not clear what exactly it may be (or even several things at once even as has been said already... like the Hami raids for example... thanks for that connection @Apparition).

   I just wish we could help in some way "technically speaking" ya know? Seeing as the GM's have done so much for us and all in this great game of our's (let alone provide it to us again). I am sure someone here would have a few ideas' in their back pockets "if" they knew what was going on behind the curtain so to speak. Thanks again everyone for your input... 🙂 

 

 

Peace...

Edited June 22, 2022 by TrelNargil
Dang spelling errors... :(

[Arc-Mage]

Yes, It would be nice if the "Homecoming staff on the Homecoming Discord" would pop by the forums and say that themselves.