Hi KI, Love the game, met some great players that have helped me and I have helped. Recently though the games has been down more than up for me which is a little frustrating given I pay to play the game via a monthly subscription. There seems to me more and more downtime for maintenance. I have the added disadvantage of my time zone where the downtime is my prime playing time. Two or three hours maintenance from 3.00am Central US Time is 8.00pm here in little ole NZ so when it is down for 3 hours I basically can't play that night and tonight it is down at the same time which is 2 days in a row. This is not a complaint but it is frustrating.
Is there a way you can rotate the maintenance times?
Not too sure what other options you may have but thought it would be worth looking into.
That seems like an amazing idea. Usually, for my time zone, it doesn't effect(or is it affect? I always get those confused) me much. But I am sure this must be frustrating for you. Hopefully Kingsisle will take the rotating time zones into consideration. However, it would be a bit odd, considering it may take a few add-ons to see which time zone you would be in. Also, the game would change at different times all over the world. Kingsisle can either face the trouble and try it or you will just have to face it.
I doubt they would do that. You see, since their company is located in a certain time zone, it would not be wise to switch times. If it's 3AM your time then it would be in a very busy time of day (for the game) in the US. Since a majority of their players do come from the US it's not a good idea to do that.
I do understand what you mean though! I'm sorry this is your situation, but i'm not sure if they can do anything about the monthly pay thing. They can't really do anything because, since you choose the time of day you play...
I love the game but NZ wizards seem to be penalized by all the site maintenance that coincides with best playing time here (8pm). it means that any long dungeons cant be done unless its a really late night and there's generally no one online to help bny then. I find it annoying that wizards I have been training with are now moving way ahead of me becasue of the time zone difference and the constant interruptions to my playing time. i have to wait for weekends to do dungeons and reckon we should get some compensation for the reduced playing opportunity we get.
Oran dragonblade.
camoandlace01 wrote:
Hi KI, Love the game, met some great players that have helped me and I have helped. Recently though the games has been down more than up for me which is a little frustrating given I pay to play the game via a monthly subscription. There seems to me more and more downtime for maintenance. I have the added disadvantage of my time zone where the downtime is my prime playing time. Two or three hours maintenance from 3.00am Central US Time is 8.00pm here in little ole NZ so when it is down for 3 hours I basically can't play that night and tonight it is down at the same time which is 2 days in a row. This is not a complaint but it is frustrating.
Is there a way you can rotate the maintenance times?
Not too sure what other options you may have but thought it would be worth looking into.
Hi again, To TheodeL nice to see its not just me and someone else from NZ is playing. We should meet in the game sometime.
Well the downtime is becoming more frequent and I am sure it has been down at the same time 4 of the last 5 days. Didn't record actual downtime but I think it was 4hrs, 2hrs, then 2 x 1hr (latest one is tonight).
To jameson143, thanks for support
For phreshkidd1, I had thought about the the time zone thing for KI and that they would probably schedule maintenance at a time that would least affect the majority of players which is probably the US. It was merely an option that they could think about.
To answer you comment about choosing what time I play. I work during the day my ability to play is limited by the the hours in a day ie. leave for work at 7.00am, get home 5.00pm - 6.00pm, log in and start playing. Finish playing anywhere from 10.00pm to 1.00am this usually depends on whether my battle or dungeon is a long one. So as you can see my prime playing time is 6.00pm - 10.00pm Mon-Fri. If I could play all day and into the night I would and have done on my days off.
Although I didn't say it TheodeL did, when it comes to paying customers who receive a service or product where you don't receive 100% of what you pay for, you would normally receive or be offered reimbursement, compensation, discount or something. This has happened for me with our power company, pay TV and telephone service and in a previous online game I played I and many others received items for the game when the game went down or you experienced issues or errors which prevented you from progressing.
I didn't say this on purpose because I really do like and enjoy playing the game and didn't want to come across as a moaner with nothing better to do than complain. I have no doubt that maintaining the game is a complicated exercise and that updates can cause other small errors to occur and these need to be rectified. As a player in an odd time zone its just frustrating.
I was hoping KI had something in place for these things and was waiting to see if a moderator / administrator would respond.
Sorry for the long burble and thanks for listening
First and foremost, welcome to the Spiral! I hope you enjoy wizarding as much as I and so many others do.
Second, the frequent maintenance downtime has been a recent occurrence. I think this is a combination of 3 factors: New content, new international clients, summer break.
There is always a little maintenance during the month post-release of a new world. In addition to technical tweaks, there are often server overloads due to excitement over the new content. Many wizards can attest to lag in-game, long connection to server waits, and sometimes long log-in sessions due to patches. However, this time we have a bigger issue.
I'm thinking that a portion of the problem stems from the recent influx of customers from around the world :) It seems that KI's success around the globe has created a premium of server space over much longer periods of time than new content spikes.
There is also usually a spike in populace in the Spiral at this time of year, as the US wizards are just out of school for the summer. They gather and flock to the Great Spiral, especially Wizard City, in great droves during the summer months.
I do hope that KI will find a way to rotate maintenance times, as you suggested. It is a new problem, this juggling of world-wide time zones, an influx of new wizards 8) , and the usual flock of young'uns in the summer, and I'm sure that someone at KI is cogitating on the puzzle as I type this post. They're a pretty good group that way.
In addition to what others have already stated about new content, KI routinely conducts maintenance early Thursday mornings every week. These are simple routine checks, cleaning, etc.
