Excessive maintenance is starting to piss off the casual, non-raiding players.

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Originally Posted by PharisHanasaki

The game is japanese, they have to do maintenance during japan office hours.

Yes, we can wish none of us were affected by maintenance, but you'll have the dude that comes complain saying they can only play from 2am to 6am each day. Truth is, no time would satisfy everyone. We've had this conversation every odd year where maintenances stack up.

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Yes I know there's nothing to be done here. I was just expressing how it sucks to be pretty much barred from playing once a week in my case. I've been playing since 2014 and I'm pretty sure 4hr maintenances used to be far less frequent in the past though.

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Originally Posted by Petite

Yes I know there's nothing to be done here. I was just expressing how it sucks to be pretty much barred from playing once a week in my case. I've been playing since 2014 and I'm pretty sure 4hr maintenances used to be far less frequent in the past though.

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More frequent actually. We've gotten progressively less maintenance as the game has aged

Regardless of actual opinions on maintenance, anyone else think the original post is just bizarre? Especially that last paragraph lmao
Your friend missed out on a day of gathering so you make a post on behalf of a group you say you aren't a part of, discount your own opinion and experience twice, and somewhere in all of this... We're apparently having excessive maintenance and someone, somewhere is pissed off I guess? Super weird

Anyway I also don't care about the maintenance lmao

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

And then you have a game like GW2 where it stays online during just about all patches and what not. It's quite nice.

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FFXIV actually has had a fair number of minor hotfix/patch instances in the past where they do keep the service live. I excluded them from the list of maintenance windows I compiled because they weren't downtime (and if there's no service interruption they don't even seem to post it on Lodestone).

We do know they used to have a 'safety net', as it were, for testing purely server-side fixes; they had basically test servers in each datacenter where they could deploy the new version of any purely server-side software, try bringing it live by adding those to the server pool and watching to see if things worked, and if it did then they could do a rolling deployment (take some servers out of the instance pool, update them, add them back in)... and if it didn't, they could remove the test hardware from the server pool again without having to roll anything back on the 'real' servers.

However, we also know that when we had that unforeseen influx of new players last summer, it ate all the hardware that had been earmarked for expanding capacity for Endwalker. So when the login servers were dying at Endwalker launch, one of the things they mentioned they did was repurpose all that 'safety net' into actual live servers... which meant they were able to increase capacity a bit despite not being able to get server hardware, but no longer having that safety net does mean a full shutdown to deploy things -- even for changes that don't require it -- becomes a lot more advisable.

Which may also be a factor in why it feels to some folks like maintenance windows are more frequent than they used to be.

(Obviously, any change that requires a new version of the client requires the service to go offline for the update; old clients wouldn't talk to the new server software, and vice versa. So you need to update all of the server-side software and get all the users to update the client so that everyone's on the same page, as it were.)

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

And then you have a game like GW2 where it stays online during just about all patches and what not. It's quite nice.

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The problem with Gw2 was, at least back when I played it, there were no hot fixes. If a game breaking bug was found (back then it was an issue with the ice dragon world boss), and a fix found and tested, it would not be applied until the next planned update. Which was like 2 months away.

For a fight that was made impossible to complete by the bug if it happened.

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Originally Posted by Petite

Yes I know there's nothing to be done here. I was just expressing how it sucks to be pretty much barred from playing once a week in my case. I've been playing since 2014 and I'm pretty sure 4hr maintenances used to be far less frequent in the past though.

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Don’t think you’ve played very consistently since 2014 if you think we get more maintenance now than we did then. They’d break something constantly back then.

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Originally Posted by Petite

Yes I know there's nothing to be done here. I was just expressing how it sucks to be pretty much barred from playing once a week in my case. I've been playing since 2014 and I'm pretty sure 4hr maintenances used to be far less frequent in the past though.

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If you're mentally comparing to Shadowbringers, it might leave that impression. COVID emerging toward the tail end of 5.1 and disrupting the development schedule for 5.3 left us with a lot more time where no maintenance was needed. It happened at the end of Shadowbringers as well when they pushed the release date back a little longer than normal compared to the release of the X.5 patch.

But if you go back prior to 5.2, you'll see that maintenance was the same frequency then as now if not more often. Not only that, the down time was usually longer in the past. It used to be almost every patch maintenance was 24 hours. Now some of them are only 8 hours.

I agree if you're stuck to a set schedule and that means it conflicts with one of the few days a week you're able to play but it's unavoidable. It's always going to conflict with someone's schedule. They've picked what they feel is the best schedule to avoid disrupting the fewest number of players. If they were to do it 11p-7a Pacific, it would be occurring during JP prime time (which they're not about to do).

I remembered some recommended reading for next maintenance: "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... and It's All Small Stuff"

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At the following time, in order to address issues, emergency maintenance will take place on several areas of all Worlds. During this period, the areas listed below will be unavailable.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for our customers and thank you for your understanding.

[Date & Time]
Sep. 14, 2022 10:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. (PDT)
* Completion time is subject to change.

[Affected Areas]
- Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks
- Ul'dah - Steps of Nald
- New Gridania

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15 minute maintenance coming up.

Annoying, but necessary I guess

https://a.pinatafarm.com/768x894/f9b...-no-anyway.jpg

Unexpected things happen, even if you test them 1000 times before going live.

Other games get more and more broken over time, and I'm not talking about MMOS.

Look at Breath of the wild, it became more broken over time with things that were never intended but just happen to work in weird ways because how could programmers have known these things, even if they tested it?

Maintenances are there to fix bugs, to add content etc.

If you're bothered by them adding things and fixing things, then i really fail to see the problems here

Haven't read any of the responses in this thread but I hope no one replied seriously when you have this gold mine here:

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Originally Posted by SeiyaSoiya

It is acceptable to fuck over raiders since they are not worth anything to the game, but pissing off the casual, paying audience is going to paint a really bad picture of the game to them.

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Wait hold up

"My brother in Hidaelyn, you telling me raiders play this game for free?" *Dumps casual gear and slaps on pentameldes crafted raid gear* "Ayo, where dem savage raids at?"

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Originally Posted by SenorPatty

Haven't read any of the responses in this thread but I hope no one replied seriously when you have this gold mine here:



Wait hold up

"My brother in Hidaelyn, you telling me raiders play this game for free?" *Dumps casual gear and slaps on pentameldes crafted raid gear* "Ayo, where dem savage raids at?"

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Ayo right over there, go straight to the shield that says „toxic raiders“ then go left across the street to the Pf/Static house and viola…

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

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[Date & Time]
Sep. 14, 2022 10:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. (PDT)
* Completion time is subject to change.

[Affected Areas]
- Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks
- Ul'dah - Steps of Nald
- New Gridania

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15 minute maintenance coming up.

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Rumour is that one was a bug that let you fly in the main cities.

Too bad so sad. Play more hours then. If they didn’t do the maintenances, this community would cry about that instead.

I somehow survived that 15 minutes that I couldn't go to Limsa last night. It was rough, but I did some mining instead of afking at the Aetheryte plaza. I was finally able to resume afking after 10:15 however and which point I went to bed.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I somehow survived that 15 minutes that I couldn't go to Limsa last night. It was rough, but I did some mining instead of afking at the Aetheryte plaza. I was finally able to resume afking after 10:15 however and which point I went to bed.

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Hey, it really ruined it for all the people who spend their subs afking around the aetheryte!

These maintenance times consistently line up with when I get in from work, and they never seem to do it at a different time to inconvenience another timezone for a change. The issues they resolve are also usually related to super niche bugs that most people didn't notice (a furniture light being tilted; an animal sanctuary pet wandering past a fence), or some minor potency tweaks; even if it's a necessary fix, it's hard not to think "eight hours for this?" when I read the notes. That said, there's so little to do right now anyway, that it doesn't even bother me at the moment. They also gave a couple of days notice iirc, so I just logged in before work to do my island stuff.

So yeah, speaking as a casual player. Do I find the maintenances annoying? Mildly. If I were in a later timezone, I probably wouldn't notice them at all though. They give enough notice to plan around them, and the game's utterly barren of casual shit to do atm anyway, so who cares.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Rumour is that one was a bug that let you fly in the main cities.

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What rumor? It was magical seeing those people flying around the cities, lol.

Still dont see why we cant fly around cities, at least outdoors.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Rumour is that one was a bug that let you fly in the main cities.

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Didn't they acknowledge that it was?

Makes me so sad though. I wish I could've messed with the bug a bit... It seems benign enough.

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Originally Posted by MrPresident

Don’t think you’ve played very consistently since 2014 if you think we get more maintenance now than we did then. They’d break something constantly back then.

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I have been playing consistently. But now that I think about it, it might be because of my work schedule which forces me to raid during maintenance windows. So basically I'm being overexposed to them and that skewed my perspective. Oops.

Still sucks to be in that position.

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

The issues they resolve are also usually related to super niche bugs that most people didn't notice (a furniture light being tilted; an animal sanctuary pet wandering past a fence), or some minor potency tweaks; even if it's a necessary fix, it's hard not to think "eight hours for this?" when I read the notes.

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Anything else aside, I will note that the aurochs/grand buffalo wandering past the pasture fence was extremely hard to ignore when it happened. ;P

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Originally Posted by Xaruko_Nexume

Still dont see why we cant fly around cities, at least outdoors.

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If you examine the actual geometry data for the city, a lot of buildings are almost certainly one-sided facades and such; if you can't get to an area, it doesn't matter if you can see 'behind the curtain', as it were. Anything else aside, to allow flight they'd either need to add a bunch of new stuff to the actual city geometry (so that you couldn't see through/behind things into the Void Beyond the Map, where C'thulhu-like renderer bugs live and feed upon the unwary), or slap on a flight ceiling so low people would complain that flight was pointless.

I am so casual, I was unaware of these excessive maintenance sprees.

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Originally Posted by Xaruko_Nexume

Still dont see why we cant fly around cities, at least outdoors.

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Perhaps because the Limsa Lominsa Aetheryte plaza is crowded enough without mounts?

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Perhaps because the Limsa Lominsa Aetheryte plaza is crowded enough without mounts?

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This is the real answer. The cities were designed way too small for mounts to be viable there with how many actively use LL as a hangout/come in and out for the close MB access/general traffic from quests. They would have to remake LL to be on the same par as SWTOR main cities for it to actually work (which I would be all for ngl)

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Perhaps because the Limsa Lominsa Aetheryte plaza is crowded enough without mounts?

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Flashbacks to the brief window of time I played WoW and having mounts in cities...

It'd be the whole thing with afk people on their mounts on top of the Island Sanctuary NPC, but multiply that by like, hundreds more people in a city. No thanks.

Hi, I'm a non-raiding player with a casual playstyle and I like it when they take their time to fix bugs or add new stuff. :) And I definitely prefer it over having to deal with the bugs.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Perhaps because the Limsa Lominsa Aetheryte plaza is crowded enough without mounts?

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Probably this, but also because everywhere else in cities would end up empty. People idle at a few other notable spots but for the most part, any time you see someone else in a city they're usually running through it for quests or whatever else.

Probably wouldn't hurt aethernet shards but there'd be a difference.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

And then you have a game like GW2 where it stays online during just about all patches and what not. It's quite nice.

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This isn't GW2 nor having their infrastructure. Plus they're pretty far behind, didn't they just recently implement dx11 support for their game which isn't much older than 14.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

The problem with Gw2 was, at least back when I played it, there were no hot fixes. If a game breaking bug was found (back then it was an issue with the ice dragon world boss), and a fix found and tested, it would not be applied until the next planned update. Which was like 2 months away.

For a fight that was made impossible to complete by the bug if it happened.

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Nowadays they do same day hotfixes. Been doing that for years now

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Originally Posted by Packetdancer

Anything else aside, I will note that the aurochs/grand buffalo wandering past the pasture fence was extremely hard to ignore when it happened. ;P



If you examine the actual geometry data for the city, a lot of buildings are almost certainly one-sided facades and such; if you can't get to an area, it doesn't matter if you can see 'behind the curtain', as it were. Anything else aside, to allow flight they'd either need to add a bunch of new stuff to the actual city geometry (so that you couldn't see through/behind things into the Void Beyond the Map, where C'thulhu-like renderer bugs live and feed upon the unwary), or slap on a flight ceiling so low people would complain that flight was pointless.

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Didn't stop them from adding flying over map exit paths not designed to be seen up close in ARR or how ridiculously half assed the areas outside the walls look.

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Originally Posted by ReynTime

Didn't stop them from adding flying over map exit paths not designed to be seen up close in ARR or how ridiculously half assed the areas outside the walls look.

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I might be in the minority, but I still feel that adding flying to ARR areas was a huge waste of time. Especially since players had access to those riding maps.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

I might be in the minority, but I still feel that adding flying to ARR areas was a huge waste of time. Especially since players had access to those riding maps.

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With all the odd paths you can skip, you're probably the only one that feels that way. :p

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Originally Posted by Sotaris

This isn't GW2 nor having their infrastructure. Plus they're pretty far behind, didn't they just recently implement dx11 support for their game which isn't much older than 14.

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Obviously this isn't GW2, but it doesn't hurt to acknowledge when the competition does things well. Lets not pretend that XIV is the pinnacle for outstanding infrastructure and implementation.

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Originally Posted by Deveryn

With all the odd paths you can skip, you're probably the only one that feels that way. :p

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I played ARR before 5.3 for the first time and I can't say I miss having to navigate through the Sylphlands on ground...

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Originally Posted by SeiyaSoiya

For example, one of my friends missed out on getting his island bike mount because he couldn't retrieve granary materials or animal droppings in time to start the new cycle this week due to last week's maintenance.

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To be honest, this sounds like poor planning to me. You can schedule a cycle over a week in advance. There's even a window you can bring up to show you the deficiencies that you have for the next two weeks. That gives you at least one week to set up and ensure that you have the materials required to keep the workshop running. Maintenance or not, there was no reason for your friend to miss out on starting the cycle.

Besides, if your friend is a casual as you claim, then they shouldn't mind getting their bike mount on the following day. It's not like the bike window is limited. As soon as he gets the cowries, he can buy the bike. He's honestly not missing out on much.

Finally, it's not acceptable to screw over anyone, regardless of the content they enjoy. I don't raid in this game beyond the roulette, but I completely understand the need to hotfix bosses from time to time for the sweaty tryhards who tend to be more passionate about this game than the average player. I don't mind taking a night off here and there to go play other games or spend a little extra quality time with my wife. I honestly don't feel like anyone is being screwed over here.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

Obviously this isn't GW2, but it doesn't hurt to acknowledge when the competition does things well. Lets not pretend that XIV is the pinnacle for outstanding infrastructure and implementation.

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"You can't compare this game to other MMOs because they're not the same" is a very common argument people have.

Like Skivvy said, they're not the same game, obviously. But you can still learn from your competition and see what you can implement into your own game if they themselves have a good idea. Some structures and implementation does overlap, or at least is comprehensive enough for you to convert to your own game.

People wanted Transmog. Well, we don't have that, but we have similar and it can be further improved upon. Hell, it GOT improved, we didn't have a glam dresser.

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

Hell, it GOT improved, we didn't have a glam dresser.

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What a Godssend that was, too.