431 replies to this topic

[Fitzmonster]

why can't i login to the public test.

[Spiritwalker_]

Had such trouble even getting a match, error 63 and now they shut the PTS down early ...damn wanted to give it a test run

Edited by Spiritwalker_, 10 April 2019 - 08:35 PM.

[Nachtsuchen]

I haven't made a forum post since the Beta, and it's a shame this is my first one, but...wow...I just found out about this event yesterday (the 9th). I spent the whole day downloading it (the 10th), of which I had plenty good enough bandwidth on my end to do so yet still spent the day doing so. I spent the majority of today into tonight (midnight of the 11th) trying to log in and was met with Error 63 and the other error and didn't get to see a single thing past the login screen. I genuinely, honestly wanted to participate and was very much hoping to get this event reward, as I'm a free-to-play player and am always starving for MC and 'Mech Bays.

If I couldn't get past the Error 63, is my account still eligible? Pretty, pretty please tell me somehow I -- and the many others in my same predicament -- weren't left out despite trying how we could. I know it sounds ungrateful, as it's supposed to be more of a "thank you for testing" rather than an incentive, but I still can't help but feel extremely annoyed if myself and others weren't given something for spending our time trying to do this with nothing to show for it but wasted time. I understand it's not exactly easy, if not possible, to track an account that wasn't even able to log in, but I can't help but feel pretty ticked off. I'm still grateful for everything PGI does, especially trying to accommodate everyone they could for this, even if it was a moot point for the majority of people who couldn't participate to begin with. Maybe at least extent the event more than four days? That'd be really, really awesome, especially for those of us who don't have the free time during the week day?

denAirwalkerrr, on 10 April 2019 - 05:27 PM, said:

...Mechbays and MCs aren't that desirable anymore...

I hope you're speaking strictly for yourself, friend, 'cause not all of us exactly have the ability to procure a 'mech bay when we'd like. MC and 'Mech Bays are very, very much welcome.

Edited by Nachtsuchen, 10 April 2019 - 09:01 PM.

[Vellron2005]

So, I spent the whole afternoon trying to get the PTS to work on my laptop and desktop, and only managed to get it to patch and work on the laptop..

Then I finally got into the PTS but could not find a match..

Aaaaanyways..

One question though.. What will be the difference now between loyalists, mercs and freelancers now that each "FP event" makes you pick a faction to fight for?

Basically everybody's a merc now?

How will loyalism work?

P.S.

Also got Error 63 on trying to start the PTS.

As directed in the original PTS post, just tried again a few times and got in.

Edited by Vellron2005, 10 April 2019 - 11:05 PM.

[Lith Dael]

Nachtsuchen, on 10 April 2019 - 08:46 PM, said:

Maybe at least extent the event more than four days? That'd be really, really awesome, especially for those of us who don't have the free time during the week day?

Well, at least you are all set to go for Round II, which seems to be lurking somewhere in the near future... GL mate!

[Lexandro Wolf]

Test is ending...?

[Bishop Six]

Paul Inouye, on 08 April 2019 - 01:49 PM, said:

What we need tested:
- Can you see the story unfold across phases. (You have a 6hr window for each phase for this test)
- Does the game mode change between phases?
- Play in various sized groups if possible. From 12-man to 2 man.
- Does the War Log counter increase with your faction's wins?
- Does the faction with the most wins actually win and the story progresses accordingly?

1. I read different stories for different phases
2. Yes
3. I was only Solo sorry
4. War Log works
5. I think so, but not sure.

Thank you ButPaul! Waiting for the next PTS.

One thing i learned: IS vs. IS is very cool again!
You should think about ISvsClan - ISvsIS - ClanvsClan queues, but i admit that i dont know in which cases. Maybe when Queue is overloaded on one side after a certain time.

Edited by Bishop Six, 11 April 2019 - 12:21 AM.

[Eatit]

I have a couple of questions just for my edification.

We currently use a 2 bucket system for FW IS vs. Clan?
We are switching to a new 2 bucket system IS vs. IS or IS vs. Clan or Clan vs. Clan?

What's the difference? It seems to me that a 2 bucket system is a 2 bucket system.
How will wait times improve?

Can it be made so that you don't have to pick a side, creating a 1 bucket system?

I guess that will make it hard for players that don't have a drop deck for one of either faction. But the new system eliminates those players with 2 out of 3 of it's buckets. If I don't have a clan drop deck I can't play clan v clan. If I don't have an IS deck I can't play IS v IS.

It seems to me that creating a new 2 bucket system that eliminates players without proper drop decks for 2 of the 3 modes will make the wait time even longer than it is now. Did I miss something here? Fewer players able to play and equal number of buckets.

[Sixpack]

Paul Inouye, on 10 April 2019 - 04:48 PM, said:

Bleh....

I'm going to throw in the towel here for a bit. I'm going to have PTS shut down. There is no point if the game is locking players out with this Error 63 issue which appears on external servers but not internal (which is where QA tests) servers. I don't have an ETA on when it will be back up, this Error 63 HAS to be fixed before I'm willing to give it a thumbs up for a re-try.

That being said, when it comes to the rewards and event, I'm making the following change to the requirements:

- As a thank you to everyone who tried to help out with testing (we did get some good data), anyone who went through the motion of logging in will receive all rewards outlined in Matt's post about PTS and the number of matches played requirement is getting chopped. This includes anyone from Monday 4PM when we put PTS online, onward to today.

I want to thank everyone for their efforts on trying to get us performance/feature data. We do have data showing us how the 12v12 teams were assembled in terms of group size and how it dealt with group sizes and making teams in descending team size order. We also have data on what transpires on a phase change and that seems to be working okay outside of this Error 63 spam.

For transparency, the Error 63 spam I'm talking about is something that is going wrong after a phase change and it's causing a major hit on the backend database. This spam (almost like a DDoS) is locking threads and tables which causes the erratic behavior of kicking people/not allowing logins etc.

I apologize for the up and down status of PTS and will notify as soon as I get more information as to the cause and potential fixes for this problem.

-Paul

Got no clue what I am talking about but:

1) Thanks for the test and trying to get things to work. Especially the communication cycle is appreciated as otherwise I only ever realy see PGI staff working from a distance instead of a more personal approach.
2) Were there any other changes done to the Test Server other than the new system which could have led to the error 63 issue?
3) Do you also have an older build before you did any changes that could be used for cross referencing.

Note: I think you already got all of those and you tech wizards have probably done this, but might as well ask these questions anyway.

Edited by Sixpack, 11 April 2019 - 02:46 AM.

[Oor Wullie]

Eatit, on 11 April 2019 - 01:40 AM, said:

I have a couple of questions just for my edification.

We currently use a 2 bucket system for FW IS vs. Clan?
We are switching to a new 2 bucket system IS vs. IS or IS vs. Clan or Clan vs. Clan?

What's the difference? It seems to me that a 2 bucket system is a 2 bucket system.
How will wait times improve?

Can it be made so that you don't have to pick a side, creating a 1 bucket system?

I guess that will make it hard for players that don't have a drop deck for one of either faction. But the new system eliminates those players with 2 out of 3 of it's buckets. If I don't have a clan drop deck I can't play clan v clan. If I don't have an IS deck I can't play IS v IS.

It seems to me that creating a new 2 bucket system that eliminates players without proper drop decks for 2 of the 3 modes will make the wait time even longer than it is now. Did I miss something here? Fewer players able to play and equal number of buckets.

From my understanding and I could be wrong, this was the new event mode for FW. This is what they will use when doing events on FW which they thinking of doing more. Players wanted more lore involved so they have a reason to fight for their side. I hope I am this is the case cause 1 hour or 2 hours of just 1 mode type will kill FW for good.

The MM is meant to put equal sized groups against each other first then failing that use other groups and solo players in to help. It also meant to match pug group vrs pug group based on psr.

Not sure how well you got to test the MM as when i was on it was always 1 sided so as soon as the other team got 12 players it just started. Maybe you had better luck with the NA prime time. But the 8 sec timer seems way to short i feel like it should be increased to a min of 2mins.

Most of this is in the other thread, but yes PGI could have explained things better at the start, but hey we should be used to this by now.

Edited by Nr1Noob, 11 April 2019 - 03:14 AM.

[SmokeGuar]

IS vs Clan is normal bucket, and reason is simple: not enough active population to support others.

IS vs IS and Clan vs Clan are for special events, during those times IS vs Clan might be shut down. Hopefully in future events this would not be case for loyalists and and larger groups that chance sides bit slower during events.

[Fryepod]

ay that's fine paul thanks for trying. by the time i got the PTS back up and running it was down and sleeping. But that's alright, can see this has been a stress test on some anyway, seemed like that phase clock should of been reduced for such a short test time anyway so hopefully won't be an issue around next time.

*Given there is a next time on the same test* particularly if there is some event incentive around it, just give us a bit of preemptive time guys. You got many players who do come out of the woodwork when they see the potential for improvements to the game...

It's just that it seems like you need to be actively playing MWO to be getting and receiving any news end of MWO, might possibly be the first time i asked to be spammed *more* via email by a company but i feel like my emails are empty when it comes to not marketing. I wouldn't mind email giving a heads up the launch or prelaunch of events and PTS openings. Can see my lack of forum posts since early 2012 except in key areas despite having the most hours played into any video game of my lifetime, by a factor of nearly 4.

At least this way, those of us who extend the olive branch in good faith as you have can have some time to organize and confirm there will be enough people queue, specifically if you're going to be dropping solo que.


And many of us asked for ISvsIS to stay in place but before that, you need players. IS vs IS FP is IMO the funnest matchmaking possible in the game, the last events for them saw a lot of players as well. However, when it comes time, and the update has been out for awhile.... middle of the night drops that might just make it to a 12 vs 12, this whole ELO thing won't really matter all that much. I guess I don't mind if the other ELO is used, it's just that people have a defacto-winning argument to be made which is: a tier 1 could of totally gained that tier in quickplay alone. Maybe a good player... but dropping into FP is another animal, rebuilds of your mechs are certain if you want to be able to hold any weight for your team.

Edited by Fryepod, 11 April 2019 - 05:33 AM.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

so.. in the next iteration of the PTS..
I WANT THAT AIRHORN

@ButPaul, ButSrsly:
would be cool if we could have a sound "outside" of MWO when we get a lobby (and later when we get a match); most of us are tabbed out during the waiting-time, and a "got a lobby" sound etc would be _VERY_ helpful.

[Tiger Dad]

Hi Paul, thanks for giving the rewards. I didn't get to log in because of error but I hope to help later if it's back up.

[SilentScreamer]

A little feedback on PTS:

- the 10 second Solaris-style countdown gets a little annoying, especially after 10 or more countdowns. I simply took off my headphones, but I think players might actually not queue till they see enough other players in queue to guarrentee a match. Maybe a 30-60 second would be more appropriate for faction play?

- Several times I was told my group was "next in queue" with sufficient population on both sides for a match. When the timer hit 0, both populations dropped by 4 or 12, but I was not given a match. I assume tnat because I was a group of 1 ( PUG) the matchmaker let a larger group "cut-in". Is there a way this behavior could be limited to only skip a player once? Or see my LFG suggestion at the next bullet.

- LFG was not used while I was on Tuesday night. I used faction chat to request a group and only got one reply indicating their team was full. I really think that entry into LFG should be done automatically for all players, PUG or 10-man, when they enter Faction Play.

Fryepod, on 11 April 2019 - 03:46 AM, said:

At least this way, those of us who extend the olive branch in good faith as you have can have some time to organize and confirm there will be enough people queue, specifically if you're going to be dropping solo que.

Asking PGI to "confirm there will enough people <in> queue" is not realistic. Paul did post suggested timeframe for "peak" activity, I believe it was 5pm to 8pm PST. He was dead-on Tuesday night, by 8:30ish I could not even get a scouting match.

Yes, if you cannot be online during those hours it could be frusterating, but the only step I see that PGI could take to improve player population would be to shutdown the PTS server during non-peak hours. I'd say no MWO player wants that.

[SilentFenris]

Lexandro Wolf, on 11 April 2019 - 12:20 AM, said:

Test is ending...?

Paul Inouye, on 10 April 2019 - 04:48 PM, said:

Bleh....

I'm going to throw in the towel here for a bit. I'm going to have PTS shut down. There is no point if the game is locking players out with this Error 63 issue which appears on external servers but not internal (which is where QA tests) servers. I don't have an ETA on when it will be back up, this Error 63 HAS to be fixed before I'm willing to give it a thumbs up for a re-try.

That being said, when it comes to the rewards and event, I'm making the following change to the requirements:

- As a thank you to everyone who tried to help out with testing (we did get some good data), anyone who went through the motion of logging in will receive all rewards outlined in Matt's post about PTS and the number of matches played requirement is getting chopped. This includes anyone from Monday 4PM when we put PTS online, onward to today.

I want to thank everyone for their efforts on trying to get us performance/feature data. We do have data showing us how the 12v12 teams were assembled in terms of group size and how it dealt with group sizes and making teams in descending team size order. We also have data on what transpires on a phase change and that seems to be working okay outside of this Error 63 spam.

For transparency, the Error 63 spam I'm talking about is something that is going wrong after a phase change and it's causing a major hit on the backend database. This spam (almost like a DDoS) is locking threads and tables which causes the erratic behavior of kicking people/not allowing logins etc.

I apologize for the up and down status of PTS and will notify as soon as I get more information as to the cause and potential fixes for this problem.

-Paul

Yes, PTS is intentionally down early.

***edit***

On the good side, reward selection is up - https://mwomercs.com/profile/content

Edited by SilentFenris, 11 April 2019 - 07:22 AM.

[Bloodwitch]

Paul Inouye, on 10 April 2019 - 04:48 PM, said:

I apologize for the up and down status of PTS and will notify as soon as I get more information as to the cause and potential fixes for this problem.

No need, that's what the PTS is for after all.

On that note, the matches i had on PTS have been fairly enjoyable. Although, might not be the matchmaker but the influx of people who don't usually play the gamemode.
Naturally, the games got chaotic (and sometimes frustrating when teammates had virtually no clue what to do) but overall i have to say that the few games i could play have been enjoyable.
I'd really, really see a reasons for players to join the "normal" FP on the live server.

It be came very appearent that It's a simple equation, more people = more fun. Regardless of skill level.

So please, please take this into account as well. Make faction play more accessable.
New and abstinence players alike probably would like to grab some of the goodies and rewards faction play has to offer.
Much like solaris, if you don't have the "right" mech (mech+loadout+skillnodes) it's not a pleasant experience.

So long story short, how about a functional (tailored towards faction play) "semi trial" deck which works without skillnodes or has a useable skill template unlocked.

[Fryepod]

SilentScreamer, on 11 April 2019 - 05:34 AM, said:

Asking PGI to &quot;confirm there will enough people &lt;in&gt; queue&quot; is not realistic. Paul did post suggested timeframe for &quot;peak&quot; activity, I believe it was 5pm to 8pm PST. He was dead-on Tuesday night, by 8:30ish I could not even get a scouting match.

Yes, if you cannot be online during those hours it could be frusterating, but the only step I see that PGI could take to improve player population would be to shutdown the PTS server during non-peak hours. I'd say no MWO player wants that.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, was poorly worded. I wasn't suggesting he pitch us some ballpark player pool expectation no. I meant just a few more days advanced notice, since as you said... we generally speaking know peak hours. We'd be a bit more prepared on our end.

[Warschnuffel]

DL the PTS Client for 4h was wasted time. I thought i could still manage it. I understand the decision tho, just a bit mad i didn't make it

[Jagd Wolf]

Any chance of extending the test? I was a little surprised to see it finished early without mention.