19 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

Greetings MechWarriors,

We will be rolling out a hot-fix on Friday March 20th, scheduled for release at 10:00 AM PDT (17:00 UTC), with the following changes:

• We are reverting the 'Unknown Failure' fix from the March 17th patch.
• Map selection for Community Warfare Planets is now randomized.

CHANGE DETAILS

Unknown Failure roll-back

The fix we released on March 17th was a temporary measure to resolve an error that a relatively small number of players have been experiencing.

However, the increased connection and save times for all users that came as a by-product of this fix have turned out to be unacceptably long in the live environment.

As a result of this roll-back, your usual connection and save times will be returning to their original duration. Unfortunately, this also means that the 'Unknown Failure' issue will likely return for those players who had been affected by it prior to Tuesday's fix.

Support services will continue to work with those players affected by the issue in an attempt to minmize or work around the issue.

A complete fix for the issue is being worked on, and will be released in a future update.

Randomizing Community Warfare Zones/Maps

Each Planet in Community Warfare is comprised of 15 Zones. Each of the (currently) four Community Warfare maps are assigned to specific Zones:

• Zones 1, 5, 9, and 13 – Boreal Vault
  
• Zones 2, 6, 10, and 14 – Sulfurous Rift
  
• Zones 3, 7, 11, and 15 – Hellebore Springs
  
• Zones 4, 8, and 12 – Grim Portico
  

Under the original system, if a Planet had just gone up for contest you would always be dropping into the first Zone of that Planet. The first engagement on that Planet would thus always be Boreal Vault.

Once that Zone was cleared, you would then move on sequentially to Zone 2 of that Planet (Sulfurous Rift). Once the first four Zones were cleared, the map selection would cycle through again in the same sequential order; Zone 5 would be Boreal Vault, Zone 6 would be Sulfurous Rift, and so on.

New Community Warfare maps are assigned to a Zone subject to that sequential order. Our latest map, Grim Portico, was thus assigned to Zone 4, Zone 8, and Zone 12, respectively.

Under the new system, maps will still be tied to the same Zones as before, but the Zone drop order will no longer be sequential (1, 2, 3, 4...). The Zone drop order will now be randomized (for example, 4, 1, 3, 2...).

This system will allow for a more balanced frequency of map selection, and will help to ensure that players have better chances for access to all Community Warfare maps.

The estimated downtime for this hot-fix will be approximately 1 hour.

When services are restored you will be required to apply a small patch.

[Jman5]

Can you guys make the map selected more transparent? Even with this announcement, few people know that zone numbers are tied to specific maps and even fewer know the proper order.

[Alexander Garden]

Jman5, on 19 March 2015 - 02:25 PM, said:

Can you guys make the map selected more transparent? Even with this announcement, few people know that zone numbers are tied to specific maps and even fewer know the proper order.

One of the April patches should include an adjustment to the match countdown screen that will display the name of the map you are dropping into.
Hoping for April 7th, but I can't guarantee that just yet.

[Jody Von Jedi]

Just remember, Cold, Hot, Canyon, Grim.....repeat

[delushin]

Any time frame on the memory leak, dx compatibility or nvidia driver CTDT fixes?

[zudukai]

Clan CASE fix too! please hot patch that!

[slide]

I like the idea of randomizing the drop zones. Just didn't expect it so soon. Good job PGI.

Might need a little longer to change drop decks though. We shall see.

[Banditman]

slide, on 19 March 2015 - 08:11 PM, said:

Might need a little longer to change drop decks though.

Agree. Two minutes seems like a good place to start.

[mp00]

No extra time for changing drop decks... having multiple drops decks to choose from...and being able to label them please...

Boreal heavy attack deck
Boreal attack deck light rush
Boreal defense deck
Grim medium attack deck
Grim assault attack deck
Grim defense deck
etc..

[Karpundir]

zudukai, on 19 March 2015 - 06:28 PM, said:

Clan CASE fix too! please hot patch that!

Seems like all that needs to be done here is code the "weapon explosion" as an add-on with "ammo explosion" for CASE protection. Copy, paste, edit. Easier said than done, right?

[VXJaeger]

Alexander Garden, on 19 March 2015 - 02:31 PM, said:

One of the April patches should include an adjustment to the match countdown screen that will display the name of the map you are dropping into.
Hoping for April 7th, but I can't guarantee that just yet.

Great! Even in IRL war nobody goes into battle blindfolded without adjusting their gear for requirements of that specific mission & enviroment.

[nehebkau]

Alexander Garden, on 19 March 2015 - 02:31 PM, said:

One of the April patches should include an adjustment to the match countdown screen that will display the name of the map you are dropping into.
Hoping for April 7th, but I can't guarantee that just yet.

Then, logically, wouldn't you wait to put in a change in game mechanics to the point at which you actually have the items that support that game-change in place? Randomizing maps should have waited until you had better drop-deck management/multiple drop-decks and/or the changes to the match countdown screen.

Unless there is something internally I am not privy to. (and to be fair this method is better than total randomization)

Edited by nehebkau, 20 March 2015 - 09:12 AM.

[Desintegrator]

Thanks for the fix !
The saving times in the Mechlab were really long...especially if you do a lot of re-building of the new Mechs.

[DANKnuggz]

Bah... of course downtime during a grab bag event .... Not like my prizes have been good anyway... almost done with the regular mission types and I have 1 day premium and 295mc to show for it .... heh now I'm wasting an hour of the premium I won sitting here reading forums instead of lasering faces

heh I don't really count the cockpit items since I really didn't want those and the C-bills are nice but I earn a lot just playing so those aren't anything to get excited about.

Edited by DANKnuggz, 20 March 2015 - 09:17 AM.

[Mole]

mp00, on 20 March 2015 - 08:37 AM, said:

No extra time for changing drop decks... having multiple drops decks to choose from...and being able to label them please...

Boreal heavy attack deck
Boreal attack deck light rush
Boreal defense deck
Grim medium attack deck
Grim assault attack deck
Grim defense deck
etc..

This. This, this this. I am so tired of having to A. Try and scramble to change up my drop deck to fit the map and then not have all the modules correctly applied to my 'mechs or B. Make a general purpose drop deck that tries to cover all roles with four mechs.

Edited by Mole, 20 March 2015 - 09:20 AM.

[Ridir Semii]

and once again PGI fails to initiate a patch with no issues, this is the 2nd patch to the 3/17 patch now.... seriously, time to get a clue

[VXJaeger]

Uminix, on 20 March 2015 - 09:30 AM, said:

and once again PGI fails to initiate a patch with no issues, this is the 2nd patch to the 3/17 patch now.... seriously, time to get a clue

It's not that you **** up, it's what you do afterwards. PGI is trying to do best they can and are getting better in it, and it's inevitable that fuckups will appear. Worst would be that they hide under their beds sucking their thumbs crying, and this ain't even close to that.

[Tedarin]

Please revert the weapon geometry for the Jagermechs while you're at it... ...and the catapults, hunchbacks, centurions and every other mech that got "fixed" (neutered).

Thanks .

[Setizar]

So pre rollback patch I never had the Unknown Failure message. Now I do. Wonderful.

[Wild Hamster]

After the fix my ping seems to keep fluctuating between my normal (200) and 1000s.. zzzzzzzzzzzzz can't play shiat