Excessive Maintenance

As a person who is unable to play FFXIV during mornings, afternoons and early evenings due to work and relationship commitments, I find that FFXIV is down a lot on the few nights when I can log in. I don't normally come on here and complain about things but I feel like I'm paying for a service that's only partially available. I've tried to overlook this for a while and just consider it my bad luck but it keeps happening over and over, month after month. Logging in, seeing the purple maintenance text and figuring out how much time I have until the servers go down has been a defining characteristic of my experience with this game. Tonight it's happening again.

If anything can possibly be done to improve the game experience for late evening players concerning this matter, please consider. Thank you.

maintenances are a necessity and I don't think SE has the time to change everything in terms of organization to accommodate to a handful of people - out of a thousand others

The fact is, that they have been tending to schedule these maintenances during primetime for EU players, as well as the normal time for second-shifters.

These hours are the times that my FC is most active, of the entire day. why cant we just space them out a bit, to the other time zones as well?

Speaking as someone who doesn't finish work until usually right when a maintenance starts, I can understand where you're coming from, but from Square's perspective, they have to try and do the maintenances when it will affect the fewest people.

As annoying as maintenances tend to get, they're a necessary evil. Figuring out the best time to do them without affecting the majority of players is probably difficult, given that we all have such varying schedules. They have all the information on who's logging in and when so they probably just make the best call they can.

A few maintenances ago we determined that it has nothing to do with when it will affect the least people, as it's the middle of JP prime time every time as well. It likely has to do with something else entirely, like when the staff is in the office, right after they leave, right after some big meeting, etc.

The real question is why we have to get these every single time either on Tuesday or Wednesday following a patch. You'd think by chance they'd have gotten one executed flawlessly by now.

I'd rather have a maintanence to fix lag issue's, and other detailed issue's, than to play a bugged game.

They do maintanence at roughly 5-7am my time, which is actually when im awake, and im from the UK, so it does not only affect you, but you also have about 100 other square enix game's that are avaliable also :)

So you would want a unstable server versus a server where you can have most of your problems solved.



Okay.

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Originally Posted by Steve_UK

I'd rather have a maintanence to fix lag issue's, and other detailed issue's, than to play a bugged game.

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The last 'emergency maintenance' we had was to make an item freaking dyable. It is honestly a little ridiculous unless what they fix are core system problems that prevent the game from running.

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Originally Posted by Tsukino

A few maintenances ago we determined that it has nothing to do with when it will affect the least people, as it's the middle of JP prime time every time as well.

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Isn't JP primetime like 4AM PST? That'd be right after maintenance ends.

They're not going to schedule maintenance around one person's schedule, unfortunately for you. Maintenance is usually for a short period of time in the least congested hours, which it seems like is when you play. I dislike it as well since I've lately been playing only during the wee hours of the morning, but there's nothing we can really do about it.

are people really complain about maintenance after everyone is rushing back to try the new patch? smh

FFXIV actually to me seems to have a less intensive maint schedule than other games like WoW.

WoW has maint EVERY Tuesday for like most of the day, yes it isn't during NA prime times mostly but its every week.

FFXIV can go a couple of weeks sometimes with no maints unless there is a new patch of content, and yes sometimes after patches you will get another maint close by due to errors that they cannot foresee.

With how much code and content they add sometimes, it is surprising there are not more errors, humans are not infallible, and they can check, recheck, and test till the cows come home but they may miss something because it requires some kind of outlier conditions to cause it to error. A sequence of unfortunate events maybe.

I don't like maint either, I like to play, but there is no point in complaining about the maint they need to do to keep the game updated with content and running well.

Maybe OP is getting unlucky and nights he is able to play is usually maint, but that means you really do not get to play much, and you are getting unlucky or stuck on days they usually do maint if they need to. This is not really the games fault, since it is up and running 95% of the time, just you are not available to access it.

I'd like to see a couple of things:

1. Scheduling maintenance at the time when the fewest people log in. I'm not sure when this is on the NA/EU servers.

2. Possibly scheduling maintenance at different times of the day so different groups are inconvenienced.

Patch 2.51 maintenance was at 9 PM pacific, tonight's NA maintenance was 11PM pacific, and it seemed like our server was pretty busy. 7AM GMT is probably great for people on GMT (unless they play all night or before breakfast) but couldn't it be shifted a bit later, like during the work/school day?

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Originally Posted by UltimateAoe2

So you would want a unstable server versus a server where you can have most of your problems solved.



Okay.

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^ This. Please think about what you would rather have before you complain. Broken servers or the occasional inconvenient maintenance to fix it? And before you ask, yes, this is my normal playing time too. To be honest, SE's servers are actually far more stable than some triple A games I could name. There's several that go down off and on for a week after a major patch. We get what? One...two small emergency patches after a major content update? If that?

Im glad they are having maintenance it means more people came back to game then they expected! I love seeing friends i havnt seen in months, and i know it sounds stupid but i love seeing the golden saucer full it brought new life to the game!

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Originally Posted by Avenger

I'd like to see a couple of things:

1. Scheduling maintenance at the time when the fewest people log in. I'm not sure when this is on the NA/EU servers.

2. Possibly scheduling maintenance at different times of the day so different groups are inconvenienced.

Tonight's NA maintenance was 9PM pacific, and it seemed like our server was pretty busy. 5AM GMT is probably great for people on GMT (unless they play all night or before breakfast) but couldn't it be shifted a bit later, like during the work/school day?

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Actually, tonight's maintenance began at 11:00 P.M. PST. It's not exactly primetime for NA players, especially since it's a Thursday, lol. If this was on a Friday or the weekend, you'd be onto something here, but as it stands... Maintenance usually takes place at around this time or a little sooner during the week when it's not as packed anyway.

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Originally Posted by Krr

The last 'emergency maintenance' we had was to make an item freaking dyable. It is honestly a little ridiculous unless what they fix are core system problems that prevent the game from running.

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Err, it was? I thought it was to perform necessary emergency maintenance on the server, and while they were at it, they uploaded a small patch to make an item dyable. Just because that was the only change to the game code doesn't mean that's all that was done during maintenance. Rebooting servers, applying OS updates, updating firewall settings - it could have been any number of things that they have no need or desire to tell us about.

Saying they could have just not done the maintenance or that they could have done it at a different time is making a loooot of assumptions...

Are you seriously complaining about maintenance timing? Even if the maintenance time was suitable for you, It won't be for someone else living in a different time zone.
You're just unlucky..

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Originally Posted by Miste

FFXIV actually to me seems to have a less intensive maint schedule than other games like WoW.

WoW has maint EVERY Tuesday for like most of the day, yes it isn't during NA prime times mostly but its every week.

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I think the key is to not have maintenance during prime time. Maintenance did seem a lot more frequent for the period after FFXIV's launch, to the point that basically gave up on FFXIV for a while since maintenance seemed to be magically synchronized with the times I was available to play...

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

Err, it was? I thought it was to perform necessary emergency maintenance on the server, and while they were at it, they uploaded a small patch to make an item dyable. Just because that was the only change to the game code doesn't mean that's all that was done during maintenance. Rebooting servers, applying OS updates, updating firewall settings - it could have been any number of things that they have no need or desire to tell us about.

Saying they could have just not done the maintenance or that they could have done it at a different time is making a loooot of assumptions...

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Yeah, they don't include the specifics regarding how they go about handling server stability in the patch notes. The patch notes contain in-game stuff, like that item that was made dyeable. Just because that's all you see in the patch notes doesn't mean that's all that was done, but many are quick to assume that (especially if they really have no experience running a server).

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

Just because that was the only change to the game code doesn't mean that's all that was done during maintenance. Rebooting servers, applying OS updates, updating firewall settings - it could have been any number of things that they have no need or desire to tell us about.

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It was an emergency maintenance "to apply a hotfix." There are pre-scheduled, weekly maintenances that do what you describe. If an emergency maintenance is to address server stability, it is mentioned in the notes. This happened repeatedly at launch.

If the FFXIV servers need multiple "emergency maintenances" a month on top of their scheduled weekly ones to be stable, across two completely different server host sites (one in JP, one in NA), whoever is managing their server architecture needs to be fired.

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Originally Posted by TetsuyaHikari

Actually, tonight's maintenance began at 11:00 P.M. PST. It's not exactly primetime for NA players, especially since it's a Thursday, lol. If this was on a Friday or the weekend, you'd be onto something here, but as it stands... Maintenance usually takes place at around this time or a little sooner during the week when it's not as packed anyway.

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Sorry, I was thinking of the patch 2.51 maintenance, which was 9pm - posted before finishing editing. Tonight mog station was down at 9pm but game maintenance was 11pm pacific. But lots of people who have work or school play in the evening rather than during the day.

MMO Forums, the only place where people complain about things getting fixed

It just seems to me that something's not right when for some players the game is only up with no threats of maintenance about 75-80% of the times they're able to sit down and play. I hope SE can identify this as an issue worth looking into if they haven't already. Multiple maintenances per week at the same times shouldn't be considered acceptable if there's a way to do it better. Whether or not there is a better way, only SE can make that determination.

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Originally Posted by Anemone_Valesti

MMO Forums, the only place where people complain about things getting fixed

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Are you sure the OP wasn't complaining about the timing rather than the fixing itself? I don't think she's imagining that maintenance timing is frequently bad for many people in pacific-ish time zones, and it can be irritating when the same time zone is hit two times in the same week.

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Originally Posted by Tauu

Multiple maintenances per week at the same times shouldn't be considered acceptable if there's a way to do it better. Whether or not there is a better way, only SE can make that determination.

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I like the idea of rotating the maintenance times to spread the impact over multiple time zones, if that's possible.

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Originally Posted by Anemone_Valesti

MMO Forums, the only place where people complain about things getting fixed

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That should be on a shirt... or at least a magnet.

I am sorry that this maintenance is inconvenient for you personally OP, but might I suggest doing some chores or something so that you have extra time to play once the servers are up again?

Speaking of which... *hears the washing machine play its ''yay the clothes are all clean'' jingle; and scurries off*

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Originally Posted by Avenger

maintenance seemed to be diabolically synchronized with my free evenings!

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Diabolos server... so THATS the reason for inconvenient maintenance times!

Several posts seem to be suggesting that the OP is foolishly complaining about maintenance existing at all rather than the legitimate issue of it being repeatedly scheduled around the same time, instead of (for example) rotating times, which might do a better job of spreading the inconvenience over multiple time zones. I ran into the same problem after launch, and it was so disappointing because I really wanted to play the game but maintenance seemed to be diabolically synchronized with my free evenings!

Think I can understand OP concern regarding this. We do have to admit that majority of maintenance happens in same time frame, like that 7 AM - 10 AM GMT which we really experience alot. I do admit this makes quite disadvantages to players with that time range as their prime hours, regionally speaking. Even we all have to admit that we're having way too many same time range for maintenance.

Maybe next time need to rotate them as to benefit other region players, say having 7 PM to 10 PM aside from having 7 AM to 10 AM. Kinda unfair for certain region keep having their prime time cut out more often than the other region. ^^;

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Originally Posted by Avenger

Several posts seem to be suggesting that the OP is foolishly complaining about maintenance existing at all rather than the substantive issue of it being repeatedly scheduled around the same time, instead of (for example) rotating times, which might do a better job of spreading the inconvenience over multiple time zones. I ran into the same problem after launch, and it was so disappointing because I really wanted to play the game but maintenance seemed to be diabolically synchronized with my free evenings!

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This. I felt he was upset about the timing and not the fact that we have maintenances. It's a reasonable concern for those who don't have any other time to play.

It ain't that bad.

It's roughly once a week - occasionally they skip a week or 2 - and they are fairly short with the occasional emergency maintenance when something unexpected breaks.

You want maintenance hell? Go play WoW. 8 hour maintenances are routine. Patch days can go up to 12 hours with the occasional "extended maintenance" dragging it to 16 hours.

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Originally Posted by Bishop81

You want maintenance hell? Go play WoW.

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Fixed that for you. :p

Though 16 hour "extended" maintenance... <No, thanks!>.....

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Originally Posted by Avenger

I think the key is to not have maintenance during prime time. Maintenance did seem a lot more frequent for the period after FFXIV's launch, to the point that basically gave up on FFXIV for a while since maintenance seemed to be magically synchronized with the times I was available to play...

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I think you maybe did not read my whole post and only selected the first part so....

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Originally Posted by Miste

Maybe OP is getting unlucky and nights he is able to play is usually maint, but that means you really do not get to play much, and you are getting unlucky or stuck on days they usually do maint if they need to. This is not really the games fault, since it is up and running 95% of the time, just you are not available to access it.

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They cannot change maint schedules around a few people who only login once every few weeks and I say once every few weeks cause maint is like once a week at most and sometimes only once in 2-3 weeks, unless there is a major content patch (every 3 months) then there may be a couple extra maints that week to fix issues. So I do not know how you happen to be logging in every time to play and there is maint.

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Originally Posted by Avenger

Sorry, I was thinking of the patch 2.51 maintenance, which was 9pm - posted before finishing editing. Tonight mog station was down at 9pm but game maintenance was 11pm pacific. But lots of people who have work or school play in the evening rather than during the day.

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Patch 2.51 was a major content patch, they usually start maint for major content patches earlier in the evening like 9PM PST, but this only happens once every 3 months...all other maints are usually 11PM PST or later. So...what you are saying is you'd rather them not have new content because of the maint required :/

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Originally Posted by Avenger

I like the idea of rotating the maintenance times to spread the impact over multiple time zones, if that's possible.

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Yeah they could rotate timezones but they still gonna end up in some groups prime time, maint really does not happen that often. The game is up like 95% of the time. If you are somehow landing in that 5% every single time you login...I don't think anything can be done about that.

Uh . . . . just be glad this game HAS maintenance. Do you realize how many games out there, subscription or otherwise - don;t fix anything? The fact that this game constantly fixes stuff is one of the reasons that I DO play FFXIV.

EDIT: I forgot to add: You are right about one thing - real life commitments are priority and I respect that. You should always consider that if your real life schedule does not allow you to play a game, you should either find a different game or find another activity which you can actively share with your family or something.

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Originally Posted by Miste

Patch 2.51 was a major content patch, they usually start maint for major content patches earlier in the evening like 9PM PST, but this only happens once every 3 months...all other maints are usually 11PM PST or later. So...what you are saying is you'd rather them not have new content because of the maint required :/

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1. They have been scheduled starting at 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2... but as you note it's often around 11, which is bad for a lot of people in pacific-ish time zones who like to play at the end of the day. In my own experience, our server seems pretty busy at the above times.

2. No, it's a mistake to conflate timing with the existence of maintenance - they're not the same thing. I am trying to explain why OP has a legitimate point, which is simply that the same people will tend to get hit by maintenance repeatedly since it's scheduled at similar times. This seems unfortunate and unfair, which leads us to...

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Yeah they could rotate timezones but they still gonna end up in some groups prime time, maint really does not happen that often. The game is up like 95% of the time. If you are somehow landing in that 5% every single time you login...I don't think anything can be done about that.

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3. Rotating could spread the pain over multiple time zones. Most people play at similar times during the day, so this reduces the likelihood of inconveniencing the same players over and over. I think we are actually agreeing that it's certainly annoying when maintenance repeatedly hits your preferred game time, and that rotating could possibly mitigate the problem.

I'd be willing to bet that an entire total of 0 resumes have been submitted to SE by people who complain about maintenance. I mean if it's so easy to run the game without it, someone who clearly knows how to do it better would be an invaluable person to have on the team right?

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Originally Posted by 314159265358979323846264338327

I'd be willing to bet that an entire total of 0 resumes have been submitted to SE by people who complain about maintenance. I mean if it's so easy to run the game without it, someone who clearly knows how to do it better would be an invaluable person to have on the team right?

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OP has a legitimate point, which is that scheduling maintenance around the same time of day is likely to affect the same people/time zone repeatedly. This can be frustrating if you're one of those people.

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Originally Posted by tocsin

The fact is, that they have been tending to schedule these maintenances during primetime for EU players

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Since when is 7-10am prime time? The maintenances are during when most Europeans are at work or studying, definitely not our prime game time (and I thank SE for it). :)

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Originally Posted by Faelandaea

Uh . . . . just be glad this game HAS maintenance. Do you realize how many games out there, subscription or otherwise - don;t fix anything? The fact that this game constantly fixes stuff is one of the reasons that I DO play FFXIV.

EDIT: I forgot to add: You are right about one thing - real life commitments are priority and I respect that. You should always consider that if your real life schedule does not allow you to play a game, you should either find a different game or find another activity which you can actively share with your family or something.

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I am pretty sure all of us appreciate maintenance and game upgrades, but if you're in the wrong time zone you might wish that SE would mix it up a bit more as far as picking the time of day for said maintenance and upgrades.

stop work and break up with the gf
problem solved