Patches and scheduled downtime

[TeganLaron]

That's logic based on information you do not have. I'd imagine that depending on the servers region, there is a very clear difference to when players actually login to play. They could use that information to select a time that typically sees the least amount of effect to players. This is, in fact, a game that is funded by players. The point of having region based servers is not simply to assist players so they have others who play at similar times, there are many other purposes including to better schedule patch times.

How on earth could they get that information? Everyone has a different schedule. For example the next maintenance in my timezone will be from 6-10am. So sure, most people will be at school or work. But people who work nights or might have the day off will still be missing out.

No matter when they schedule the maintenance someone somewhere will be stopped from playing, you're only complaining because in this instance it happens to be you.

[Lithera]

This particular maintenance coming up is out of the FFXIV team's hands because it is a result of maintenance on the Account Mangement servers. It sucks but it happens. FFXI gets around that because it uses POL but FFXIV does not have that go between so when the Account Management servers are down for their monthly maintenance then the game has to come down too. As for times and schedules...they DO pick the lowest populated time, and when they can they do separate maintenances for each data center if you've noticed. Even when they were doing the absolute lowest pop. time on the NA server people STILL complained so they've been shifting them a little (from 9 PST start to as late as 1 am PST).

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Seems like a rather pessimistic way of looking at things.Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's like saying "It's what you get, deal with it.", no? Doesn't that put Square Enix into an almost untouchable position that cannot be criticized?

What I'm saying is, the best way to reach a common ground for community problems is trying to balance things out. Maybe make the server maintenance different for the servers depending on the region; perhaps try to reduce the frequency of the maintenances, I don't know. Saying there is no solution isn't exactly helping the people who are feeling troubled about it, but it does seem like the easiest thing to do.

Yes, that's exactly the only thing to say in this case.
-there are 2 data-centers: japanese, and american. Europeans connect to the US datacenter, so if they set that maintance in a good hour for americans, all europe get screwed. Just like they did in FFXI, where every maintance was in my primetime, 9:00pm to 12:00 am
-also, not everyone connect to a datacenter near him, americans can connect to japanese datacenter and vice-versa, and so all the rest of the world
-aside the urgent hotfixes, like the security breach in the market ward or others urgent issues, maintances are usually 1-2 per week, they are not nearly as frequent as people try to make. "Nearly all nights downtimes"...yeah...
So let's say, they shift maintance time in a good hour for japaneses? US get Screwed.
They shift time in a good hour for US? Europe get screwed.
They shift time in a good hour for Europe? Japanese get screwed.
The world is round: there's no way to fix that, so i suppose every hour you choose will always end hitting someone. How people think it's possible to fix it, it's in the realm of sci-fiction.

[Raskbuck]

The world is round: there's no way to fix that, so i suppose every hour you choose will always end hitting someone. How people think it's possible to fix it, it's in the realm of sci-fiction.

I really can't disagree with that, but what about giving people options? I mean, if people want to play in a Japanese server and get a different maintenance schedule, it's their choice. As it stands right now, you either get black or white and nothing in between.

Why not make some servers have maintenance times for Europe, others for US, others for the eastern countries, and so on? All I'm saying is, give people different options to decide. If they don't like it, then they can reach another alternative that accommodates them instead of just telling them to "shut up and keep playing, or quit."

Rask, I already addressed that.

I know, it was just one of many hypothetical solutions.

I still don't think it's fair to leave people in the dark and give them no solutions whatsoever. Personally I don't have the problem since it accommodates my timezone, but I can't deny I'd be discouraged or disappointed if it happened to me.

[Taliph]

Rask, I already addressed that.

Hot fixes and patches cannot be scheduled separately for the different data centers. Exploits would be exposed and abused in the time between data centers

[yukikaze_yanagi]

I really can't disagree with that, but what about giving people options? I mean, if people want to play in a Japanese server and get a different maintenance schedule, it's their choice. As it stands right now, you either get black or white and nothing in between.

Why not make some servers have maintenance times for Europe, others for US, others for the eastern countries, and so on? All I'm saying is, give people different options to decide. If they don't like it, then they can reach another alternative that accommodates them instead of just telling them to "shut up and keep playing, or quit."

Because cost more money making them separates. Also, what Taliph said.

[Lithera]

Why not make some servers have maintenance times for Europe, others for US, others for the eastern countries, and so on? All I'm saying is, give people different options to decide. If they don't like it, then they can reach another alternative that accommodates them instead of just telling them to "shut up and keep playing, or quit."

They can't do that server by server even if they wanted to. They have to do each datacenter as a whole. Everything is interconnected. As I mentioned earlier they DO try to give each data center its own maintenance time for the regular server reboot but for things like patches they simply CAN'T. Things have to go live on ALL servers at the same time or someone is going to cry "NO FAIR" when the players on the other datacenter get things first, plus the fact mentioned earlier that a major exploit fix would be exploited further in the gap between maintenances. There are two things though that will never happen and that's a regular maintenance on Jap servers that hits Jap prime time or NA servers during NA prime time simply because it would likely crash the servers when everyone and their brother tried to log back in at the same time. HELLO 1017.

[Linadae]

Very intelligent things

Thank you for being a voice of reason and logic in a thread that has very little of both. Time zones have been the bane of people ever since the advent of speedy world travel. SE has done there best to put maintenance at a time that hopefully effects the playing of the fewest possible people. Unfortuately you fall into that narrow band. If moving to a better time zone is not an option then. Perhaps I can suggest a hobby like weaving or knitting. If that does not appeal to you, then make that night movie night, or the night you explore Hulu or Netflix for a new tv series to enjoy.

Beyond that all I can say is suck it up and be an adult.

[Raskbuck]

Because cost more money making them separates. Also, what Taliph said.

What about trying to reduce the maintenance frequency? And if that's not possible due to the current structure, why not try to fix that first?

Guys, I understand what you're saying, but sitting there and saying "nope, it's not possible. Keep moving." is almost neglectful in my opinion. -Something- has to be done, and the best way to reach that in my humble opinion is listening to people and talking about it, instead of closing the doors and turning a blind eye to potential problems.

[Taliph]

Rask, it's pretty simple, the maint is always scheduled during the worldwide low population times... That is the only effective way to minimize the number of players affected. Realize that those players get all the off peak time benefits when they do play. For instance, no login queues ever, and actually being able to see the fate mobs they are aoe spamming.

Edit: forgot to mention that they also get a distinct lack of instance lag ie Titan hard

Edit 2 feel free to post more of those many possible solutions, I'll feel free to poke holes in them...

Like less frequent maint. If they don't patch exploits as soon as they have a solution for them, the exploits are abused longer. This situation would necessitate server rollbacks... How many more people would complain when their progress is removed because SE didn't fix things when they could have?