Server Issues are getting worse

[Ruca]

I play SHO for some time now and like all the players here already know that the server has serious issues.

Impressive it's the fact that the connection issues allways happens when at critical situations during single missions, when we are about to fire and we can miss the opportunity to complete the mission if we don't attack at that moment, or situations when we are avoiding being rammed or DCed by escorts and at Spy missions that happens and then when we manage to enter the game again so much for remain undetected.
At wolfpacks the yellow plugs and red Xx shows up all the time and players keeps being booted over and over again.

Above are known facts by active players and I'm aware of that but I'd like to add something. Here follows:

At weekends the server gets so bad that sometimes the game gets unplayable but seems it's getting worse everyday and not only at weekends. Lagging, yellow plugs that wont disapear for minutes, constant red Xs followed by boots and loading screen and/or contacting server taking a lot of time and giving error over and over again.

Known fact that the development has came to an halt and there is no plans to resume it but t least something about these issues should be done.
I'm not sure how can be done but I bet there's Players/Users even Moderators and Administrators knowing more than me about this and how can be done. So I think we should unite and do something to call the attention of the game/server responsables(Not the Moderators and Administrators) and make them to see what's going on, that it's getting worse everyday and somehow convince them to do something about it.

With this post I'm not asking for us to start a revolution but at least try and do something usefull about the game that all of us like and woudln't like to see it disappear.

This post has no inttention to offend anyone or start some kinda of any kind of disturbance.
Comments are welcome but please follow the forum rules, keep it clean and polite.

Thank you!

[HammerheadShark]

Hi Ruca .


First: Thank you for helping on a portuguese WIKI.

That should be appreciated. Welcome to the club :-))))
Volunteers are hard to find, especially for a game like SHO which bears a heavy fate.
But with your help, portuguese or spanish/esperanto maybe brazillian players are now able to follow these instructions. Great.


Server issues....

A revolution sounds funny. I just imagine a bunch of people with pitchforks and sickles, hammering on the gates
of UBI/BB or Sproing...ROFL
But you are right. Connection problems are our worst enemy.
I´ve lost many subs during my campaign with the help of plugs,1009er, 1216 and so on.

If there was a way to get rid of that problem, i´d be the first one to help. But i´m neither a millionare nor a developer.
I don´t know what causes these issues... and i also wish it could be fixed somehow (at least).


But i respect all players who still stay with us and fight since SHO war broke out ...loyalty till death do us part.
I hope there are some good news for us in the near future.....




Boa noite, adeus por agora ;-)



Greetings

HammerheadShark

[kapitanbill]

I agree with all you've said, Ruca.

As a businessman, what I see is a company that has already decided not to continue developing this game, but also one which is not willing to give up the revenue stream generated by those of us who pay in gold for some or all of our fun here.

Again as a businessman, I will categorically state that the only way to entice the parent company into deciding to at least improve these things which are broken, is to cut off this revenue stream which we continue to provide them.

If somehow all of us could agree not to spend any more real money in SHO, they would be forced to make one of two decisions:
A) Fix the server problems
B) Take the final step, and discontinue SHO completely. (Of course, anybody reading this hopes that is not the choice they make!)

As of right now, we are told this game is in a state of permanent-beta. Personally, I object to this label. Beta-testing implies that development is being worked on. The truth is, development has been abandoned, and I feel there is an important distinction there. Today, the parent company is getting away with providing a broken product, but we the customers are still paying the price. While it's true that SHO is technically free to play, many of us spend real money in here, and I'm one of them.

I for one, would be willing to stop buying gold in this game, in order to force a choice on the company's part. If this means I have to leave my fleet sitting idle in the bunker, while I ride around in an aux sub as I wait for the suits to make a decision, then that's what I'd be willing to do.

I'm not naive enough to believe that everybody or even a majority would be willing to band together and follow this temporary boycott of paying for gold, so I suppose we will each continue until we get annoyed enough to just move on to another game, provided by a parent company who does not feel the need to tie the hands of their support and development teams.

Okay, rant is over. I will give thanks to our wonderful support team! I know they catch a lot of flak for things that are completely out of their control. I am quite certain they share my desire for this game to be allowed to be maintained and even developed further!

Happy hunting!

[Bordegar]

The model for most of these browser games are not European or American and have a servitude ethic, one that ties you to ownership of pixels and routine logins. The support team are the best I have come across bar none and there is a within the limits of communications via text a good community spirit present.

I have an odd idea for setting up say mission limits in an Aux boat and areas of patrol (campaigns) Only Aux boats in general (long haul to get good officers and crews) .. IID for longer patrols as guest boats.


Musing over

Kind regards
Bordegar

[BB_Wolfberry]

I just wanted to chime in to give a bit of information and also request to refrain from calls to boycott, or I will have to close the thread.

Will it improve server performance when all our players boycott the game by not spending credits? Absolutely not:

http://forum.silenthunteronline.com/...-Status-Update

As long as we have a sufficient number of active players, the hunting of the wolfpacks will continue.

Plainly spoken, the servers do not run from merely love and air and no maintenance and running of servers can be guaranteed if we can not pay for it.

So far SHO is doing well on that regard, just look how long ago the announcement was made.

And this is thanks to this supportive communtity with it's great spirit and helpfulness also in game chat and forum. I can never thank all our supportive players enough for their continued support and for all their patience when the waters are rough

That said, I wish to remind you that

Silent Hunter Online will not be receiving additional game updates but the game will still be live and receiving regular maintenance. While we are disappointed we won’t be able to continue providing you with new content, you will still be able to continue playing the game as it is now. We will still be present on the forums and support portals for any issues players may have and all communication channels will remain open and active for discussions, questions and help requests.

I highlighted one part there, which brings me to the wolfpacks. The game went into development-on-hold state as a beta still. Wolfpacks are a beta feature and thus still suffered some flaws when the development went on hold. One of them we posted about on forums:

http://forum.silenthunteronline.com/...-6-players-max (the advice there goes for boats and players alike).

So unfortunately wolfpacks can get bugged or unstable, which can lead to disconnects and red plugs and other issues. If a wolfpack starts to act erratic, I would recommend to make a new one to prevent from crashing.

That aside, we are constantly keeping an eye on the servers and recently had a thorough investigation of possible performance and stability issues on server side which we could address. We have found no evidence or indications for acute server-side issues which could be adjusted permanently by our IT by adjusting the server structure. Not every disconnect and every performance lag must have it's origins on our servers but can be related to other factors as well, among them general internet issues, when for example package losses occur due to a level 3 backbone caving in and other stuff.

So we can only react to immediate and acute server malfunctions when they happen. On top of that we run regular maintenances to improve server stability and performance again after the game was running about 2 weeks without a restart.

This week we have to postpone that maintenance to next week due to organisational reasons.

As for

Impressive it's the fact that the connection issues allways happens when at critical situations during single missions, when we are about to fire and we can miss the opportunity to complete the mission if we don't attack at that moment, or situations when we are avoiding being rammed or DCed by escorts and at Spy missions that happens and then when we manage to enter the game again so much for remain undetected.

I can assure you this is not intentional and there is no evil red plug just waiting for you to run a dangerous mission before it pops up. It is just bad luck that the connection caves on such a point. If you have the chance to stop your dangerous activity and wait until the hiccup recovers, please do so. If you do not have the chance to and suffer losses due to these technical issues, this brings me to:

Our support staff

Who will always try to help to the best they can to get you back any losses due to technical issues and try to help you around any bugs you might come across while playing which might block you (as examples: crashing in a wolfpack/stuck on loading screen, torpedo slots seem to lock, aux subs are not delivered, tech levels for parts not unlocking correctly etc.).

Our support has many procedures established to assist you as fast as possible.

They are working from oldest to newest ticket through the waiting queues, so sometimes you have to be patient for their reply, depending on how many requests are in queue before you. Also if you send in a ticket and wait for a response, make sure to regularly check the spam filters and junkmail folders as well, as sometimes our answers might end in there. Tickets we replied to and await further input from players automatically close after 72 hours, if no response is received. But you can always re-open the case by answering or sending a new ticket.


I can only really thank you for the continued support of this great game and community. The game is like a rough diamond with flaws and edges, but it is one of a kind! I would not have it any other way as being here with and for you all

[KnightzVonCross]

"Well, I will still be here This Capt. will go down with his ship"

Quote from 02.03.14
Thread: [Discussion] Silent Hunter Online - Status Update

This was quoted well over a year ago, and it's due to 2 things,
a wonderful community and brilliant support, and I stand by this quote even today.

Sincerely
KnightzVonCross

[captainobVus]

well said wolfberry!

[demoneyes11]

thanks for letting me know

[Astro-baarn]

well, about 2 hours (I guess) with changing mood here
first a "normal" page where stated there is maintenance on servers
than after some time I refresh and there is no page at all, just blank
when the page was still mentioning "maintenance, see forum" there was no message about anything, jsut about something happening on June 3
also a note you can look on Facebook, also nothing

so, maybe there is some extra problem/maintenance/downtime whatever, please make sure to mention that on forum and/or Facebook
now nobody knows nothing

[BB_Wolfberry]

Should be back to normal now, Captain Astro-baarn, sorry for that. Some unforeseen technical issues forced an emergency maintenance on us.