Let us speculate on when the servers will be back online

[Elaguila]

It might be the case, but still even if they delayed the patch for 2 weeks that doesnt mean they will delay the operation of the servers as well since its not related

I hope they pass their tragedy soon

I do think it's related. Why would they let SE offices run with electricity, and not let them fire up their servers?

next week it's back. Monday.

Nope.

Why can't they fire up a new server in the EU or US? It's a roomful of computers how much can something like that cost to SE?

Hauling the hard drives from their current location to an airport and flying them out of the country to then set them up in a foreign server farm is expensive and impractical.

All your replies are in this format! It's delightful!

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I don't think it's gonna be as long as the pessimists think. Once they get the Nuclear Reactors under control they should be alright to roll back in with the servers.. TO my knowledge Tokyo wasn't that massively hit that they're even being affected by blackouts.. They're just re-routing the conserved energy elsewhere? So.. By that logic as soon as they get some temporary substitute in order we should be back in business. Which I doubt will be too long. Japans stock exchange is falling, they're losing work time, money, etc.. It's another crisis coupled with what's already occuring so I'd have thought they'd want Tokyo back up and running ASAP.

So long as the people fleeing like a WHM1 from a HNM come back

The financial sector is bleeding, and they need their businesses to function, or they will be facing a financial meltdown as well, within a few months.

But the temporary substitution is what worries me, as it will take a long time for them to sort that out. Loading a reactor (e.g. one of the reactors that was offline for maintenance) takes weeks.

[whoopeeragon]

@Abraxia: -hugs-

Well, the power grid will take some months to fix, but the short-term problems of electricity and power should be fixed in a month-maximum for use to resemble back to before the disaster, perhaps a bit minimalistic. Perhaps once they got either one of the leftover 53 plants to run, the problem will be gone mostly.

Right now, my wishes to those in the vicinity near the radiation, and to all of those affected in general.

[Raim]

SE is a very large scale, resourceful company. They will find a way to have the issue sorted within 1-2 weeks. If not, we at least now have confidence that they are working diligently on the next couple of patches and will have them prepared.

[Betelgeuzah]

They've figured out something in a week. I think if there are extensions to the week it's because there will be delays with the back-up plan, not because the electricity problems at large.

[Mikita]

Unfortunately most of the remaining reactors are in western Japan, which operates at 60Hz, while eastern Japan is on 50Hz -- so sending power from many of the operational reactors is not possible.

Most of central Tokyo is not on the planned black out list, but we are being hit by a cold spell and that means power requirements for heating are way up. TEPCO is warning that even with the rolling black outs, a uncontrolled power failure may hit central Tokyo.

Everyone is doing their best to cut down on energy usage. Trains are running at 70% schedule or less (some lines are completely shut down), most stores that are even open have a lot of lights turned out.

I hate to say it, but I think the server shut down is going to be much longer than just 1 week. We are still in really bad shape over here and far from the end of this crisis. ><

[Abraxai]

@Abraxia: -hugs-

Well, the power grid will take some months to fix, but the short-term problems of electricity and power should be fixed in a month-maximum for use to resemble back to before the disaster, perhaps a bit minimalistic. Perhaps once they got either one of the leftover 53 plants to run, the problem will be gone mostly.

Right now, my wishes to those in the vicinity near the radiation, and to all of those affected in general.

Couldn't agree more.

As well as what the guy two posts above says.. Square Enix is resourceful, and at the very least even if the servers aren't back up and running at least development is continuing. For all we know if it turns out to be down for 2 months we could come back to Patches 1.17 and 1.18. Imagine how cool that'd be?

But no.

[whoopeeragon]

How many reactors were on the eastern side, Mikita? Or better question; how many run on 50Hz?

The weather's not doing much better to the already bad crisis over there...

[TessaJalloh]

Unfortunately most of the remaining reactors are in western Japan, which operates at 60Hz, while eastern Japan is on 50Hz -- so sending power from many of the operational reactors is not possible.

Most of central Tokyo is not on the planned black out list, but we are being hit by a cold spell and that means power requirements for heating are way up. TEPCO is warning that even with the rolling black outs, a uncontrolled power failure may hit central Tokyo.

Everyone is doing their best to cut down on energy usage. Trains are running at 70% schedule or less (some lines are completely shut down), most stores that are even open have a lot of lights turned out.

I hate to say it, but I think the server shut down is going to be much longer than just 1 week. We are still in really bad shape over here and far from the end of this crisis. ><

it's nice to hear from a player over there right now, i hope you weren't hit too hard by the quakes and tsunami.

my best wishes to everyone there at the moment and i hope things can be resolved quickly, not so i can get back in game, but so that people can return to a somewhat normal life.

[Galamantyl]

And who'll power them? Poor personnel already tired from dealing with the impacts of the disaster? Or get a few horses and cows to run around in circles around a generator with leashes tied to them?

It can be done! Assemble 5000 hamster cages, connect their wheels to alternators, route circuits to a power hub, then simply bypass the existing provider of electricity.

Before you say "5000 hamsters isn't enough" - this tactic requires 4 hamsters (two wheels) per cage, with hamsters switching on and off duty every 4 hours, for a grand total of 20,000 hamsters of which 10,000 are working simultaneously to power only the most necessary computers in the offices for development.

100 or so hamster cages must be reserved for breeding more hamsters in case another earthquake occurs.

[Mikita]

How many reactors were on the eastern side, Mikita? Or better question; how many run on 50Hz?

I'm not sure how many reactors are in each location, but if you look at this map the following plants should be on the 50Hz eastern Japan side:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ja...plants_map.gif

Tomari (very far north in Hokkaido)
Onagawa (maybe offline due to location? no news coverage though)
Fukushima 1 (offline)
Fukushima 2 (offline)
Tokai (reported to be offline)
Kashiwazaki
Hamaoka

All the other reactor locations would be on the western 60Hz side of Japan.