ED - A Lesson in Frustration

Grumpy181155 · Sep 15, 2016

So 30 minutes ago I get home from work and start ED looking some relaxing mission running. The first thing I see is the message that the servers will close down in 30 minutes for some maintenance so I decide to finish the delivery missions I had open from last night and then make some dinner while the servers are getting a grease and oil change.

I only have about 8 open missions and they are all in the one system at three bases fairly close together so there is no problem I think. So I jump to the system and run the 2,500ls to my targets and land fairly quickly at the first but that is when the problems start. Firstly it takes forever to load the Mission screen and then it is blank with an error message about can't get an updated list from the server and then another error message about some other problem but then I am in and I hand in my missions at this base and fly off to the next where the same litany of error messages is repeated but with the addition of an Adjudication Server Error which means I have to restart the game.

The end result is after 30 minutes I have only managed to hand in about half the missions I had open and I am left frustrated ....... again! in my opinion the servers don't need maintenance they need a complete bloody overhaul!

The end result is I won't be playing ED again tonight but instead I'll play something that does not have these continual server connection problems.

Crimson Kaim · Sep 15, 2016

I would be fine with actual servers in general. Servers need checks every week. And it's announced and it's always at the same time. Can't really blame FD for that. I can tell you that in one year, the time will also be fixed at the same place and repeat every week. So in one year you can plan not to do missions.

resonic · Sep 15, 2016

The servers are not ED servers but rented Amazon AWS machines. No publisher out there has his own servers in his basement, they are all rented. Usually its a bunch of virtual instances so you can scale up quick when you need more processing power.

Tigerhawk71 · Sep 15, 2016

So you're complaining about the servers undergoing maintenance, but in the same post complain about the fact the servers seem to have some stability issues that could... perhaps use some maintenance...

Grumpy181155 · Sep 15, 2016

Tigerhawk71 said:
So you're complaining about the servers undergoing maintenance, but in the same post complain about the fact the servers seem to have some stability issues that could... perhaps use some maintenance...

Are you suggesting that after this maintenance all of these connection problems will go away? If they do I will gladly come here with my hat in hand and apologise but you know what; I don't think I will have too.

Adept Geraden · Sep 15, 2016

Regular weekly PowerPlay processing. Happens at the same time every week (except once when it fell off the rails and a lot of people got very riled up). There's even a post on the launcher and in Galnet 24 hours ahead of the event.

wenkman · Sep 15, 2016

i'm partly with the OP. the message "maintenance in 30 mins" suggests that the servers are going offline in 30mins.

it is frustrating if within these 30 mins the servers are slow and bugged as if it's not a hard maintenance shutdown, but a slow dying till the start of the maintenance window.

SlugwormX · Sep 15, 2016

I am somewhat ambivalent about the inclusion of the extra data added to the mission pages. In particular the inclusion of the Avatar has meant, for me at least, a wait of some times 15-30 seconds or so to bring up the mission board. Couple this with the increased Adjudication and Mission Server cannot be contacted errors, running missions can be a bit frustrating. I understand where the OP is coming from.

Why doesn't the client generate both the missions and the avatars from a seed delivered from the server? Let the client do the work. Its almost like FD have the system backwards with P2P for instancing and Server based downloading for something that could adequately and more quickly be handled by the client. *Shrug* I'm treating it like SC, something that I could really do without and gets in the way of the real game.