I mean I dont think 24 hours notice for a sale that has been delayed for months and then gets insta delayed again followed by radio silence and the website being trashed half the day isn't praise worthy communication or planning. So I wouldn't say its better than their old communication

Oh, that's unfortunate. I haven't heard about the SoE updates. The event isn't relevant to me so I've only seen their official announcement about the release and hadn't been following it.

Since the subject keeps coming up on the forum here is my less than two pennies worth:

I think is the matter of planning ahead vs. those who wait until last minute to make a move. I for one, used the last couple long weeks SoE delay to study the map, and to put aside some savings for the purpose of purchasing my settlement; no matter what unforeseen event or expense real life threw at me.

So, to me, an announcement a week ahead or one day ahead, wouldn’t and didn’t make any difference since I was ready to get on with it, long ago.

Besides, thanks to our active community, and thanks to technology, if the issue was just informing people ahead of time? I’d say even if they informed us an hour ahead of time most people would have been aware of it very quickly.

On the other hand, I am guessing (and is only a guess), from CoE point of view, perhaps the short notice was a deliberate strategy of not wanting to overload the system at once. And that’s another story by itself, which am not going to get into... Especially, considering that the service was disrupted anyhow due to whatever reason(s).

And that’s why, I am of the opinion that CoE should go live with any and all testing phases sooner than later.. and get community involve in it all... Because no matter, how good you are, no matter how clever you are, and think you have foreseen and covered all the angels, technology and other factors, will always have the upper hand and will find something to throw at you, to make your life difficult. So is better, to walk the walk with the community when possible rather than thriving for perfection and then?... this or that happens.

Having said all this, I still think CoE has come a long way, and is dealing with all this or at least has the vision now to deal with all this in a much better way. And I do sense they are making an effort to get away from the old unproductive habits, even if at times it does not seem so to certain portion of the community at large.

Things happen and I'm fine with things being pushed back.. But don't push it back 2 hours, 1 hour and torture me all hours of the night. When you miss the mark just tell me to check back later (no time/date) and you'll continue to work on this as fast as possible until it's fully tested/vetted, ready for launch and when it resumes I will be given plenty of notice. When I hear "shortly" I think 30-35mins not 5 hours or the next day. It's verbiage like this that keeps us "tuned in" to static and noise when I should feel comfortable tuning out until things are resolved.

The community outcry for "no dates" was due to a repeated inability to meet previously set dates. The same is happening now with these delays and I still feel the same way, don't tell me a launch is delayed 2 hours unless you are 100% convinced that it will resume in 2 hours. Each person that wants to get first pick at the auction is held hostage for hours and now, days on end until a resolution is found.

Please be clear with communication and in situations like this, where a launch date/time must be given, be respectful of my time. If a launch needs to be postponed can it be postponed a minimum of 24 hours? So you can do a full RCA and thoroughly test and I don't have to keep running back to my computer every hour or so, being disappointed every time I'm asked to check back?

This has been misrepresented for months now.

The community didn't ask for "no dates".

The community asked that SBS stop giving dates for releases until they had sufficiently tested everything, and were confident the event/product they were releasing was actually ready to go.

It seems they have evidently still not gotten that small little detail, as they have continued to make releases without adequate testing or verification that their release worked.

To wit...SoE 1.0 and 2.0.

SBS has been very considerate in providing us all with meme materials. Let's all take a moment to appreciate this through this hard period with the coronavirus and the stock market crash, they are trying really hard to make us laugh.

Posted By Marovec at 02:48 AM - Sat Mar 14 2020

(...)The community asked that SBS stop giving dates for releases until they had sufficiently tested everything, and were confident the event/product they were releasing was actually ready to go(...)

I'd rephrase that just a little: The community asked that SBS stop giving dates for releases until the community had sufficiently tested everything (in multiple access phases), and were confident the event/product they were releasing was actually ready to go. Then announce releasing a week later, to grant people ample time to prepare.

@Logain

I included community testing under the umbrella of "sufficiently tested", but yes.

However, the emphasis on community testing has always been a result of their internal testing being insufficient.

Granted, internal testing only is almost always insufficient, which is why public, large scale, testing is done. So to me, it's just all part of standard "testing".

For example, prior to their original launch time for SoE 2.0, they had not done any public testing.

Surprise, there were problems.

Then, after the first delay, they started getting just a small group of testers on it (the mods/ambassadors). They found issues in, what, 30 minutes?

Then this supposed "soft launch"...which resulted in people finding more issues.

Yes, the purchase issues likely wouldn't have been able to be identified until under load or something.

However, the fact remains that they, once again, tried to do a full, official launch, with no public testing. Once again, they are in a situation where they are doing testing, and "soft launches", and read only access, AFTER THE FACT.

Why, for the love of God, didn't they just plan for testing, and read only, and a soft launch, from the get go?

Especially after they admitted these EXACT flaws with SoE 1.0.

I REALLY want to believe SBS is trying to improve, but how can I do that when they keep making the SAME choices resulting in the SAME mistakes?

Tell me about it.

Announcement for SoE got announced then delayed due to bugs that probably should have been tested out. Months later it is re-announced with about 24 hour notice (come on seriously, let people prepare for these things). Only to have it bugged out again and face more delays.

Then it goes back up for an unannounced "soft launch" to be brought back down and the people that purchased shit didn't even get to purchase shit at that time because payments were bugged. Then it got launched again with an announcement at time of launch without even protecting those initial purchases.

Get your shit together SbS this is a ridiculous and pathetic show you're putting on.

@Developing

Little extreme there...

They did, it seems, eventually get launched, and it appears they were able fix the most egregious bugs. Time will tell if they got them all.

I just wish they would have avoided the community (and their's, I am sure) frustration, bad PR, and crunch time, stress, and extra hours on their staff, by simply tacking on another week.

Say, instead of trying to launch on Thursday, they had opened up RO to A1/2 testers on Thursday, identified and fixed all the bugs they could, opened RO for the whole community on the following Monday, soft launch on Tuesday, live launch on Wednesday.

Ultimately, it would have fully launched...4 days?...later than it ended up launching, and it would have done so without the stress, they would have looked like champs to the community for doing exactly what they have been asking for, they would have started improving their reputation and professional image, and everyone wins.

Instead, well...

Honestly can't wrap my head around it.

Edit:

Just to preemptively address anyone who might say "I am sure SBS was very confident, or they wouldn't have planned it like they did - unforeseen stuff happens, you know?"...

Yes, unforeseen stuff does happen, thus the extra room in the timeline I presented for the "fudge factor".

However, for the sake of argument, let's assume it was actually perfect. They could have launched as planned on Thursday, not a bug to be found.

Adding that extra week for testing would still have been a brilliant move.

Why, you ask?

Because it would have still demonstrated to the community they were listening to feedback, and doing the extra testing the community wanted.

Then, if everything was perfect, they could breeze through the testing phases a bit faster, looking like rockstars, and then, gasp, launched early!

Man, how might the community have reacted to that, eh?

What better way to roll into the State of Elyria blog post, and the big new year of testing, demonstrating how they have changed and improved?

I know I would have praised them.

I would have praised the fuck out of a process like that.

A lot of people have been saying "no more dates", but the more serious issue is that their testing is sub par for a game development studio and it's negatively impacted their and our experience multiple times now.