Notice Fleet Carrier Update - Known Issues

And not just the bugs. Frontier has properly made a mess of the UI, for no good reason at all, and I'm not impressed. Did they hire Jony Ive? I haven't been this annoyed with a UI change since iOS 7!
If you'd bothered with the betas, you'd already have been intoduced to it, not Frontier's fault if you couldn't be bothered...
ETA: I didn't like it then, my opinion hasn't changed... feels like they adopted it from some console game - maybe it is to attract the next generation PlayBox crowd?
 
Does any one else have this issue?

I managed to buy a FC in Skeggiko O but cannot add services to it. The buttons are greyed out as is the button for settings. If I use Carrier Management in the right panel I can open the Galaxy map but if I try via the Carrier itself that button is also greyed out. No access to livery etc etc.
 
Does any one else have this issue?

I managed to buy a FC in Skeggiko O but cannot add services to it. The buttons are greyed out as is the button for settings. If I use Carrier Management in the right panel I can open the Galaxy map but if I try via the Carrier itself that button is also greyed out. No access to livery etc etc.
Put some money in the account
 
Just thought I would share last night’s hilarity....
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If you'd bothered with the betas, you'd already have been intoduced to it, not Frontier's fault if you couldn't be bothered...
ETA: I didn't like it then, my opinion hasn't changed... feels like they adopted it from some console game - maybe it is to attract the next generation PlayBox crowd?

To be fair, "bothering with the betas" isn't something everyone had time for, so this will be the first time the UI changes have been seen by that set of people. I don't like what they've done at all either.
 
To be fair, "bothering with the betas" isn't something everyone had time for, so this will be the first time the UI changes have been seen by that set of people. I don't like what they've done at all either.
There were 2 betas, even if it was for just a cursory glance around at what was to come it would only have been a 'waste' of a couple of hours...
Had more players 'bothered' with both betas (I'll be optimistic here) maybe more bugs would have been spotted and reported before yesterday's 'interesting' launch :)

Even though my buying a FC is a couple of months away (at a guess) I still made time to get in and play it, confirming the bugs I did see during play.

I'm not debating your point, just wondering why any player with an active interest in this game (not, for example, Space Engineers) wouldn't consider participating - but is happy to complain post-patch :)
 
Does any one else have this issue?

I managed to buy a FC in Skeggiko O but cannot add services to it. The buttons are greyed out as is the button for settings. If I use Carrier Management in the right panel I can open the Galaxy map but if I try via the Carrier itself that button is also greyed out. No access to livery etc etc.
Yea, yesterday I couldn't get any services installed, seems better today, but can't install armoury.
But I can for some reason, rearm, and buy limpets.
 
And also had to make this video as the FC wins the title of fastest ship in normal space...

Source: https://youtu.be/VNP5Cqvgs9U

LOL. I had this this morning about 4.30am too. Went to visit someone else's FC that was 35000 LS from a star in , near nothing. Exactly the same, constant boost to 400 in my ASP and he just got further and further away. No idea if the owner was on board, but if not , self destruct will be the only way back, The driveable FC bug!!
 
Not criticising you here,

good, since gp seems to have some experience in deploys, unlike you. let's see: first of all, consider that any such update has the following requirements in descending order of priority:
  1. not to corrupt existing data
  2. not to disrupt crucial services
  3. reduce the downtime to a minimun
also, some systems do hot deploys which reduce downtime to zero. this is cool but requires a very sophisticated process and is sometimes not possible, and anyway the integrity of the system and its continuing operation is far more important than a short downtime. this is why in most cases a downtime is due, and in any case there must be a contingency plan in place to restore the system to the previous working state if the update cannot go through as planned for whatever reason.

but it’s a flawed idea on various fronts I’m afraid.

now let's analyze what you consider flaws in his assertion:

  • there were already complaints about the game being down for the update

this one has no relation whatsoever with the issue.

  • rolling back would mean the game being down for everyone for the rollback, and it being down for everyone again when the update is then redone

correct. this is simply the cost of a failed update. how is it a flaw in his assertion? note that a short downtime is always less important than loss of integrity. so if an update fails you have to reverse it, delay it and wait. that's what backups are for.

  • the game is working fine on some fronts, so what happens to things people have done between the update and rollback?

that's the provider violating requirements #1 and #2 for the sake of 3#. technically, that's not a failed update, that's a completely arxed up one which failed to preserve integrity on all levels. may be fixable (maybe not) but likely at a huge cost of effort, time and user disruption.

  • some issues may well just be down to the abnormally high levels of activity after the update, and these always settle down once playing patterns return to normal.
  • some issues may just be server side and fixable via hotfixes.
  • most critical issues can typically be fixed in a small patch which will involve much less downtime than a rollback and then redo of the update.
  • small patches will then typically fix most of the remaining issues, again with much less downtime than a rollback and redo of the update.

these are just speculation and subjective opinions that are completely beside the point gp is making. he did clearly allude to a point where the update is deemed not successful. that's a complex decision neither he nor you get to make, and neither will i. although we're all entitled to our opinions! you might disagree but that still doesn't make your disagreement a flaw in gp's assertion. i've had a quick glance over the failures and it's pretty impressive for my standards (even for frontier standards) and could merit a rollback but, again, that's just my opinion. however, you saying "hey, it will just go away with a few patches and waiting for server warm up" doesn't really float ... in a professional sense.

Edit - also the ‘no one goes home till everything is working’ - you presumably have some actual tolerances on that or at least accept that it’s sensible to have variable tolerances depending on the criticality of the service in question. So what exactly constitutes ‘everything is working’? 100% of users having zero issues whatsoever? And how long would you actually try and bar people from sleep before you accepted that all you were doing was impairing performance to the point that things were going backwards instead of things getting fixed?

well, this comes down to work ethics. it's admittedly a bad situation, very bad, a typical arxe up. granted, it's not the same to stall a business, a hospital, a national election or a game. the response will vary with the perceived importance, possible consequences and the resources available. but note that this is already beyond the point of admissible failure, where every due process has failed. yes, it is not uncommon for tech professionals to be sleep deprived on these occasions. comes with the job and, if these occasions are anything but very rare exceptions, it's time to look for another job.

look, it's not really rocket science. you simply:

1. test the new version in parallel in an environment as similar as possible to production.
2. you back up, and close shop
3. you swap versions and test live internally
4. if all goes well you have succeeded, you open the gates for users and keep the back up handy just in case
5. if not, and if you can't fix it immediately, you restore to previous state and reschedule

it's just that frontier either doesn't know and observe this basic professional behavior that would be expected from any serious software developer, or doesn't give a damn about ... you, the customer. you filthy gamer you! if you're fine with that, that's perfect (i guess), but trying to lecture people who do have a background in these procedures with your ignorance is just ... embarrassing.
 
There were 2 betas, even if it was for just a cursory glance around at what was to come it would only have been a 'waste' of a couple of hours...
Had more players 'bothered' with both betas (I'll be optimistic here) maybe more bugs would have been spotted and reported before yesterday's 'interesting' launch :)

Even though my buying a FC is a couple of months away (at a guess) I still made time to get in and play it, confirming the bugs I did see during play.

I'm not debating your point, just wondering why any player with an active interest in this game (not, for example, Space Engineers) wouldn't consider participating - but is happy to complain post-patch :)


I appreciate you're not debating the point, but just for the sake of example, during those two Betas, I had a set of work circumstances that meant having very limited free time. I imagine I'm not the only one, and then what does one do with the limited time available? Download and play-test a set of new software that may or may not be enjoyable, looking out for bugs, with maybe the admin of taking notes and writing bug reports, or spend time getting away from the PC for an hour before bed? Maybe with a glass of something pleasant 🍷 :) I don't think it helped much that the beta was specifically positioned as "Fleet Carriers"; if one didn't have any interest or ability to own an FC*, it didn't look like there was anything in the beta to check out anyway. I know that there were some quiet additions, like the UI changes, but I think one could be forgiven for not knowing they were in it in amongst the FC related discussions.

I don't think highlighting pain points is invalid, either during or post-patch, regardless of whether the beta was played. It also seems like there are a number of bugs that no one in the beta noted anyway, e.g the ring hotspots not highlighting, surface installations missing, tourist beacons vanishing :) Though they may not have been there during the beta, to be fair - it's possible that was all introduced as part of the live build process, but who knows :)


*There should be another abbreviation for them really. I can't help re-reading that and thinking it looks like I'm talking about the ability to own a football club, which unless one is Elton John or Roman Abramovich, is highly unlikely :D
 
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