Why 9 hours downtime ?

Ascendingbike42

Ascendingbike42
MickyG1982 said:
I've never had a problem with steam, though I did buy in when steam gave you actual keys as opposed to this electronic stuff that it does now.
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It was pretty fast and easy with the keys. But the new system without the keys takes a lot longer than it should I spent about 3 hours helping my friend to get his copy working
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Must be lots of new players - would have thought more of the oldies would have been pointing out patches are usually this long :)

Month Patches tend to take all day. Only subsequent smaller bug fixes can be faster (I would call them point patches, but now we're using the dumb <Month> Patch format that makes zero sense 🤦‍♀️ )
 

Requiem Mortis

Requiem Mortis
I'd just like to point out I'm not complaining, I was just hoping to get some insight in to why they've advertised such a long change window, I understand they have to leave enough room to apply it, and do some sanity testing before going live, and still have enough time to back it out if necessary ( if that's even possible). Personally I think the major time consumer is going to be the update, reorganisation and validation of the cosmetics database.

A big thank you to all who posted constructively.
 

Taimaru

Taimaru
It's always been around 7-8 hours of downtime for an update and I'm sure they do regular backups of the databases.

For an update they have to backup the code levels of the servers, update the code levels on all of the servers, make any re-structuring of the databases, update the client code on the update servers and do full testing before they go live. Plus drink lots of coffee.
 

Villany

V
Requiem Mortis said:
There must be some serious database maintenance going on to require 9 hours, surely a minor software patch doesn't require this length of change window.
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I'd say the in-game strore is a pretty big update, all of a sudden, the game has to be ready to deal with real-world money stuff (Arx), and that's nowhere near trivial. I am certain there are a ton of security concerns that need to be addressed, and also making sure that you actually get what you paid for in a timely manner.

No previous update put money at stake, if it did not work properly, then what, roll out a hotfix and it's fixed, no lasting harm done (apart from reputation). And suddenly, money is at stake, if it's screwed up, Fdev can easily find themselves in the middle of PR disaster land and refunds because ppl did not get anything for their money due to some error.
 

Gibbon

Gibbon
Why nine hours to install it? Probably because today is deadline day, and nobody has actually written any code yet, so they need to get on with it before lunch. I reckon six hours to write the patch, two to install it. Certainly match the quality of their previous releases
 

TiberiusDuval

T
And real downtime for players is by the way likely longer than 9 hours. At least my experience this far says that trying to play on patch day is pretty useless. It is likely bogged down and system throws you out multiple times.
 

Cmdr Snuffler

Cmdr Snuffler
Agony_Aunt said:
Because that's how long it takes.
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No it doesn't. The actual update only takes two hours... The reason they say it takes 9 is because of two reasons...
1. They have an in house wager at how many "9hrs?!!!!" threads will be created. Zac won £120 on this during the last update!
2. They can have a relaxing day in the pub without having to deal with support tickets like "I drove a shield less e rated conda into a planet 90% of the way to colonia while flying without insurance... I want my money and ship back!"
 

Phoenix_Dfire

Phoenix_Dfire
Because the Stellar Forge spreadsheet is really really big now and needs to be backed up.

Oh, and the server's hamster wheel needs replacing. Poor thing wore it out after the last Interstellar Iniative.
 
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