Uptime? What's uptime?

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

There's nothing I hate more about DayZ standalone then the lack of uptime. Constantly seeing the red message on my screen and being pulled from the virtual world, having to wait while the sandbox gets raked clean. Even worse, people have this tendency to move to another server. If I just sit there and wait until I can rejoin the same server, I'll often find myself in a near empty server for a long time. So, I'm almost forced to jump to another server, but then that server restarts soon after, pushing me on to another, and then another.

 

I know, I know, persistence is coming and loot needs to be respawned with server restarts. But, the lackluster up time of the servers still hurts the players experience in huge ways. Players shouldn't have to make the extra effort to keep playing the game, they shouldn't be pulled out of every moment. It's hard to lose yourself in the experience and forget you're just playing a video game when those big red letters keep reminding you.

 

I also fear that when they do get item persistence going, it'll be looked at as a fix for this. People will think that restarts suddenly won't matter, everything stays where it was, problem solved. Except the disconnection between players are the worst results of these frequent restarts. The goal for DayZ should be an uptime of weeks or months, not the minutes or couple hours it is now.

Edited September 10, 2014 by bad_mojo

[R0B3RTF1SH3R 66]

the beauty of DAYZ is unlike other games. hordes of empty servers that communities put up and have little or no use until the game dies.

with the ability to play as a hive and hop servers with your character literally eliminates this.

meaning ANYONE can put a server up and it will get some use. 

[Parazight 1594]

There's nothing I hate more about DayZ standalone then the lack of uptime.

.....

But, the lackluster up time of the servers still hurts the players experience in huge ways.

Really? That's your biggest issue? Not the carnival of bugs or all the cheating clowns? I'm glad to hear it!

The game isn't really set up for strong user experiences right now, and it shouldn't be. Personally, I'd rather have to deal with these sort of problems than wait longer for the game to be released because they're tying up resources making an alpha more playable.

[Evil Minion 943]

I know, I know, persistence is coming and loot needs to be respawned with server restarts.

I believe loot is already respawning during uptime and not on restart. Now frequent restarts server two purposes: allowing to better test persistence and clearing all this rubbish on the server ensuring a smoother gameplay. However its annoying as...

 

I would like to see server restarts becoming very rare at some point. My idea is actually to have every DayZ server running on a 24 hour cycle (as real life also runs on a 24 hour cycle and most players will choose servers around them adjusting the server speed/time offset allows most if not all of the players to play during daytime anyways) and restarting at midnight only (and maybe not even every ingame day). This allows for undisturbed gameplay during the daytime hours (when most players are active) while also allowing to play in the dark if you want to.

 

To hell with those 2h restart 24/7 daytime servers! They are not needed (and they are also detrimental to game dynamics - keep them on private shards). If I want to play during daytime I can always join a server during daytime. And if I want to be kicked by a server restart... wait, I don't want this.

[q.S Sachiel 470]

Maybe i'm misinterpreting your words, but i'm going to guess that you enjoy frequent crashes and rubber-banding sessions, and other features failing or malfunctioning?  I think there's a bottom line for playability that many people out there expect, and that BI appears to be trying to promote with the recent .49 'holdback' (or lack of release on this current patch day).

[Cpanther 221]

I find someone shooting me in the back of the head for no reason very disconnecting . the "you are dead" screen with the "respawn" button kills the immersion of the game.. but...what to do...

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

Really? That's your biggest issue? Not the carnival of bugs or all the cheating clowns? I'm glad to hear it!

The game isn't really set up for strong user experiences right now, and it shouldn't be. Personally, I'd rather have to deal with these sort of problems than wait longer for the game to be released because they're tying up resources making an alpha more playable.

 

Why shouldn't the game be setup for strong user experiences right now? That's kind of the whole point behind DayZ. Or it was, back when I purchased Arma2 years ago.

 

So, you're okay with a broken game that drives itself into the ground so quickly that it has to be restarted hourly? That's nice and all, but a lot of us have waited a long time for this game already, and we don't mind waiting a bit longer. The DayZ Mod has better up time than the standalone, that's just not right.

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

Maybe i'm misinterpreting your words, but i'm going to guess that you enjoy frequent crashes and rubber-banding sessions, and other features failing or malfunctioning?  I think there's a bottom line for playability that many people out there expect, and that BI appears to be trying to promote with the recent .49 'holdback' (or lack of release on this current patch day).

 

Of course I don't want those things. But, to me it seems like DayZ standalone developers are ignoring those problems and just sweeping them under the rug by forcing these frequent restarts on us. If they continue to rely on frequent restarts, the problem is only going to get worse. It's like a heroin addict trying to quit doing heroin, the longer they wait, the more they rely on restarts, the harder it's going to be to ever wean themselves off them. Is their end goal to have such frequent restarts? I doubt it.

[Parazight 1594]

Why shouldn't the game be setup for strong user experiences right now? That's kind of the whole point behind DayZ. Or it was, back when I purchased Arma2 years ago.

 

So, you're okay with a broken game that drives itself into the ground so quickly that it has to be restarted hourly? That's nice and all, but a lot of us have waited a long time for this game already, and we don't mind waiting a bit longer. The DayZ Mod has better up time than the standalone, that's just not right.

The game isn't so broken that it *needs* to be reset every hour.

My point was that this is an alpha. They are working on the problems. The developers should not be focusing on a strong user experience, they should be more concerned with implementing mechanics and doing exactly what they're doing.

So, you're comparing a finished project (mod) to a game that's in alpha production (SA) and you want the alpha to perform like a completed game. Your comments lead me to believe that you don't fully understand what 'alpha' means.

[JPWiser 251]

My friends and I have this issue as well, we can join 5 servers in a row and log a total of 10 minutes of playtime and about 15 minutes of waiting time ... Server reset timers should be 4 hrs minimum... Some of them seem to restart every hour or less

[q.S Sachiel 470]

Of course I don't want those things. But, to me it seems like DayZ standalone developers are ignoring those problems and just sweeping them under the rug by forcing these frequent restarts on us. If they continue to rely on frequent restarts, the problem is only going to get worse. It's like a heroin addict trying to quit doing heroin, the longer they wait, the more they rely on restarts, the harder it's going to be to ever wean themselves off them. Is their end goal to have such frequent restarts? I doubt it.

sorry OP.  didn't quote parasight and someone got a post in before me :(

yeah it was meant for him and you already gave him my point, your own way :)

 

(@zight) Fair enough in that they should be dumping in features in, but you still need a base level of stability to work from.  It would drive people more nuts than witnessed here if the 0.46 issues of frequent char reset/heavy rubber banding/crashes to desktop/whatever persisted through the development cycle.  It would also drive away pre-orders/alpha participants if word got out that there was zero point in joining early save for maybe getting an undercut price and supporting the company.  Also think about marketing events like E3 and Pax prime.  The dedicated build would need more work put into that specifically than just fixing a little for everyone then tweaking what you gotta.

 

Saw someone list Planetary Annihilation's $90 tag before release a while ago as a prohibitive price to weed out people as being only the 'serious testers'.  Maybe that was the case, but i see that as just price gouging.  It's now 1/3 that price.  DayZ started and remains at a fraction of that kind of price, but they've got the numbers.  They're gonna lose some resources to early stabilisation if those tweaks are broken into the future, but I mean it shows that they have some respect for their community, and it may even be helpful in training/general understanding of their platform, especially for the new guys out there they've hired.

Edited September 11, 2014 by q.S Sachiel

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

The game isn't so broken that it *needs* to be reset every hour.

My point was that this is an alpha. They are working on the problems. The developers should not be focusing on a strong user experience, they should be more concerned with implementing mechanics and doing exactly what they're doing.

So, you're comparing a finished project (mod) to a game that's in alpha production (SA) and you want the alpha to perform like a completed game. Your comments lead me to believe that you don't fully understand what 'alpha' means.

 

You're seriously trying to say the Arma2 DayZ mod is/was a finished product? Did you even play the DayZ mod? I'm not talking about Epoc or some other DayZ spin off that has had lots of further development & fixes. I'm talking about the vanilla mod that Rocket built and abandoned to work on standalone, that mod is by no means a finished product. But, the thing is, back when I played lots of the mod, some servers would run for over a week without a restart, that kind of up time is unheard of in the standalone.

 

Technologically speaking, there is no reason why we have to have such frequent restarts in this game, it all boils down to it not being a priority yet. I'm here making this thread to say it is a huge priority for me as a player, and the lack of up time ruins my enjoyment of this game, on a regular basis.

 

Edit: I've brought this topic up in the past, I saw this coming 9 months ago, I hoped it wouldn't, and pleaded for change, but alas, nothing changed. http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/158528-please-eliminate-server-restarts/

Edited September 11, 2014 by bad_mojo

[Parazight 1594]

The people have spoken!

I guess I don't find it to be a problem. If it's a major issue for you, than who am I to stop you from voicing your opinion?

Squeaky wheel and all.

I guess I consider the mod to be at 'finished product' state because they've finished all the work that they're going to do on it.

[Bororm 1156]

Restarts are too often for sure.  They'll get longer.  They've tested longer restarts on experimental before, the game just isn't in the state yet where it's reliable.

 

As mentioned, servers get really bogged down and have to restart to keep things running smoothly right now.  If you want to see this for yourself, throw an object on a full server that's been up for over an hour, compared to one that just restarted.  Also, listen to all the glitch sounds etc that accumulate the longer a server has been up.  There hasn't been enough optimization yet to avoid that.  As well, even with persistence and loot respawn, the world either becomes devoid of loot or just full of trash at the moment.  Until loot respawn is fully implemented correctly that's how it would continue to be.  Even though loot respawn is currently enabled and persistent servers exist, I still find myself preferring non persistent servers because those are a crap shoot for finding items.

 

Bottom line is, you're not wrong and I'm sure if you look hard enough some where the devs said they want longer restarts too.  It's planned, but like all things in DayZ right now it's just not there yet.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Bororm

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

Played some dayz tonight, loving the new changes, but the server restarts are still killing the player interactions far too often. Two of the three people I spoke to tonight were taken away by the red letters.

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

This is still the number 1 reason I don't play more DayZ. I'm sick of playing this game a half hour at a time.

 

I feel like if the servers can't run for more than an hour without needing a restart, then that's a major problem that really needs to be addressed.

[Funkmaster Rick 373]

One day, people will learn how to read, and they'll suddenly understand that this game is in alpha, and it will be a glorious day, with beans and AS50s for everyone.

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

32 minutes ago, Funkmaster Rick said:

One day, people will learn how to read, and they'll suddenly understand that this game is in alpha, and it will be a glorious day, with beans and AS50s for everyone.

Some day you're going to realize that alpha isn't an excuse to ignore huge glaring performance issues. Stuff like server uptime, or you know, FPS issues, like the one they've been working on fixing for the past... year?

 

But, yeah.... it's alpha, so I should be overjoyed with being disconnected every half hour, just like I was overjoyed with getting 15fps.... because it's alpha right?

[Funkmaster Rick 373]

On 19/05/2016 at 0:26 AM, bad_mojo (DayZ) said:

Some day you're going to realize that alpha isn't an excuse to ignore huge glaring performance issues.

Uh, well, you see, that's where I disagree with you. In fact, I believe that that is exactly the point of alpha-stage development. You implement features. In beta, you fix those features so they work.

It's alpha, so you should get over being disconnected every half hour. Because it's alpha.

[Etherious 907]

On 5/19/2016 at 11:26 PM, bad_mojo (DayZ) said:

Some day you're going to realize that alpha isn't an excuse to ignore huge glaring performance issues. Stuff like server uptime, or you know, FPS issues, like the one they've been working on fixing for the past... year?

 

But, yeah.... it's alpha, so I should be overjoyed with being disconnected every half hour, just like I was overjoyed with getting 15fps.... because it's alpha right?

Performance issues? That was fixed with .60. Also, the current experimental servers going down constantly is due to a bunch of factors. If you can't handle playing on a unfinished game, go play something else. Patience is key.

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

Sigh, I knew I shouldn't have engaged with the Alpha screamers. Ya'll are a toxic part of this community, do you not realize that? People give their opinions on a work in progress and you guys jump right into defender mode and scream ALPHA at the top of your lungs. It's actually part of the reason I stopped coming to these forums, there is rarely a discussion, it always just devolves into defenders screaming alpha at people.

 

Funkmaster, clearly you missed the point I was making, or more likely you chose to ignore it. Like DJ SGTHornet pointed out, the FPS issues have been fixed in .60..... but, it's alpha. Does it blow your mind that they fixed a performance issue to make the game more playable? I mean, according to your definition of alpha, that's not allowed, they have to wait for beta to do that.....because Funkmaster Rick said so. So, my point is that your idea of what can happen in an alpha is nonsense, so please stop policing what people can complain about, it really just makes you look like some kind of irrational fanboy defending his favorite game.

 

Instead of dismissing me outright, how about you enlighten me as to why you believe server uptime isn't a priority for DayZ? And I don't mean like, fixing this and that is more important than fixing uptime, I mean, why is uptime something that should be put on the back burner? Why does server uptime not matter to you guys? I welcome a difference of opinion, I just can't stand having the discussion dismissed outright by screaming ALPHA.

Edited May 21, 2016 by bad_mojo (DayZ)

[emuthreat 2837]

All this talk about uptime, and nobody gives a thought to updog, SMH...

[Noctoras 409]

If Uptime is your primary concern, why on earth do you play experimental instead of stable? You deliberately choose a branche, where servers are bound to crash, yet complain when they actually do?

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

11 hours ago, Noctoras said:

If Uptime is your primary concern, why on earth do you play experimental instead of stable? You deliberately choose a branche, where servers are bound to crash, yet complain when they actually do?

Who says I only play exp servers? I'll admit that playing .60 reminded me many times why I hate those red letters. But I posted this thread in sept 2014, and I haven't seen any improvement since then no matter what branch I play on. I have other concerns when it comes to DayZ, but this uptime issue is responsible for driving me away from it, other things I can overlook, but it's hard to overlook being pulled from the game abruptly.

[Noctoras 409]

11 hours ago, bad_mojo (DayZ) said:

Who says I only play exp servers?.

0.59 just is not prone to crashing, so I assume you are talking about 0.60 when complaining about uptimes.