What is the purpose of MMO “maintenance”?

Question

EVE Online performs "maintenance" daily, and World of Warcraft performs it weekly. What goes on during it, and why is it necessary?

Asked by Nick T

Answer

It's also a question of cost and predictability.

MMOs are relatively low stakes, and tolerant of downtime (particularly with region specific downtime windows). Google gets heavy traffic 24/7, but a MMO like WOW will fluctuate massively throughout the week. The impact of brining down servers during those valleys of usage is disproportionately lower than it is in other businesses with more regular activity periods.

By implementing regularly scheduled maintenance windows they also gain predictability. I would hazard a guess that, if they wanted to, 90+% of what happens in regular maintenance could be moved concurrently. They might still have some downtime windows occasionally for big things (replacing core network infrastructure, upgrading major patches, etc).

However there are some trade offs. They would still need occasional maintenance windows (when do you schedule them? Would people be more upset by occasional random maintenance windows than a predictable, consistent one?) Would the systems be much more complex? Would it be much more costly to add new features, innovate and maintain?

Also think about the nature of the servers in an MMO vs other online games like Starcraft 2. In Starcraft 2 the games are pretty much happening between two players. The servers have to coordinate the games, but there's a lot more fault tolerance and less need for global synchronization. Starcraft seems much more like a tradiontal website architecture than WOW, which is a more unified system. In WOW everyone needs to be in instant lockstep.

Basically the short answer is that there are dozens of reasons that a maintenance window can be used for, and the reasons for not doing one with an MMO specifically are pretty slim. The whole MMO software system can be much simpler and more predictable if they schedule and use a regular maintenance window, giving you a better game cheaper.

Answered by chmullig

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Does alacrity affect GCD in swtor?

Question

Does the alactrity or "activation speed" stat decrease GCD in swtor?

Answer

No, the global cool down is not effected, except in the case of cast-time abilities.

Source: http://sithwarrior.com/forums/Thread-Alacrity-and-the-GCD

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What are the best practices in theory crafting around generating an optimal spell/ability rotation in an MMO?

Question

When SWTOR rolls out, I'd like to have a firm grip on how to approach the theory crafting of working out my DPS rotation during encounters.

How do I determine and model things like spell coefficients, management of cool downs, haste, and buff procs?

In the past, I've simply consumed data produced by sites like elitistjerks, but I've really never had a handle on HOW they approach modeling these issues.

Answer

The basic formula is: DPCT = average_damage * modifiers / effective_casting_time. (DPCT = Damage Per Cast Time)

average damage usually is easy: (min + max) / 2. min and max are given in the abiliity description. For dots (damage over time effects), sum all the damage it will do during its lifetime.

effective casting time frequently is easy as well: just read the ability description, and subtract bonusses from talent trees.

modifiers usually are the hard part. The descriptions of modifiers might be clear, but it seldomly is clear whether they are additive or multiplicative when combined.

And even if the description from the game is clear, it might be wrong. Tooltips are not always updated the same patch as the code that does the calculations. As SWTOR recently has had a beta with lots of balancing changes, it's a safe bet that some tooltips will be wrong!

Let me give an example: if two effects each increase damage by 10%, the combination could be 10% + 10% = 20% (additive) or 1.1*1.1 = 1.21 = 21% (multiplicative).

Not much of a difference, but elitistjerks will want to be as exact as possible. This is where things get time consuming: use the ability 1000 times, parse the combat log, and see whether it is closer to 20% or 21% on average. A basic knowledge of statistics might be required to know when you've parsed enough log files.

A quicker trick might be to observe the maximum possible. If the maximum hit is e.g. 100, and there are two 10% increasing effects active, a hit of 121 is a clear indication that the modifiers are multiplicative. If you are able to rule out other causes (other modifying effects, crits, level difference with target, ...).

It gets even harder when effects are coupled: e.g. a very good ability with a cooldown of 12 seconds, but only usuable when another effect with a chance of 25% to happen is active. One cannot assume that this ability will be used every 12 seconds, as that other effect might not be active when the cooldown is finished.

In those cases, it might be easier to simulate a combat. Repeat the simulation many times and take the average. Again: a basic knowledge of statistics might be required to know how many times the simulation should be repeated.

Those are the basics.

For more details, just read the elitistjerks posts. WoW is a complicated games, and has many effects, both multiplicative and additive, so formulas can appear to be complicated. However, the basics are still the same.

Once you grasp each and every detail of the simulations, and as a proof have written some simulations yourself, you might consider to change your job :). Those skills are highly wanted by e.g. banks and insurance companies...

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Are there any MMOs with a pay-once subscription model? [closed]

Question

I believe Guild Wars pioneered this model, where you purchase the game and then receive unlimited play for free. I know Guild Wars 2 will have this same pricing system.

Are there any other MMOs, existing or forthcoming, that are "pay-once, play-forever".

Answer

The only other MMO I know based on this principle is Global Agenda. They used to have a monthly model, but dropped it for pay-once play-forever.

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What caused Dark Age of Camelot to lose popularity?

Question

Dark Age of Camelot was a game released in 2001. It was a very unique game (MMO) with a rich background, popular following, and even a game changing approach to player versus player combat that made the game incredibly fun to play. It was well on it's way to becoming a popular and sustainable MMO in the market. Now it is a niche game that seems to only have a few very diehard fans. What happened to cause such a precipitous fall and disfavour?

Answer

I think that's an easy one. "Mackey" and Trials of Atlantis. Mackey (sorry I don't recall his real name) was probably one of the most abrasive and downright hostile community relations individuals that has ever been at Mythic (or pretty much any gaming company for a position like that). Also, Trials of Atlantis did so much damage to the game that it never really recovered:

• It introduced a type of grinding that was not wanted by the player base
• It promised to "not have a significant effect on RvR" which is not in the slightest bit the case
• It strayed significantly from the mythos of the game (WTF does Atlantis have to do with the Arthurian Mythos?)
• The expansion never received a thurough beta testing. Team Leads, members of the internal boards, etc. were kept in the dark pretty much right through release.

Another factor (and Mackey played a part in this) was the innability (or unwillingness) of Mythic to deal with buffbots. These started gaining popularity around the time that ToA came out, and the issue may have overwhelmed them (or Mackey was probably just being his usual prickish self when that issue was brought up by others). If you look at the MMOData.net site, you see that DAoC was happy and healthy right up until the release of ToA. That was the start of the downfall.

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What caused Dark Age of Camelot to "implode"

Question

Dark Age of Camelot was a game released in 2001. It was a very unique game (MMO) with a rich background, popular following, and even a game changing approach to player versus player combat that made the game incredibly fun to play. It was well on it's way to becoming a popular and sustainable MMO in the market. Now it is a niche game that seems to only have a few very diehard fans. What happened to cause such a precipitous fall and disfavour?

Answer

I think that's an easy one. "Mackey" and Trials of Atlantis. Mackey (sorry I don't recall his real name) was probably one of the most abrasive and downright hostile community relations individuals that has ever been at Mythic (or pretty much any gaming company for a position like that). Also, Trials of Atlantis did so much damage to the game that it never really recovered:

• It introduced a type of grinding that was not wanted by the player base
• It promised to "not have a significant effect on RvR" which is not in the slightest bit the case
• It strayed significantly from the mythos of the game (WTF does Atlantis have to do with the Arthurian Mythos?)
• The expansion never received a thurough beta testing. Team Leads, members of the internal boards, etc. were kept in the dark pretty much right through release.

Another factor (and Mackey played a part in this) was the innability (or unwillingness) of Mythic to deal with buffbots. These started gaining popularity around the time that ToA came out, and the issue may have overwhelmed them (or Mackey was probably just being his usual prickish self when that issue was brought up by others). If you look at the MMOData.net site, you see that DAoC was happy and healthy right up until the release of ToA. That was the start of the downfall.

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Looking for an old space trading web game

Question

I am looking for an old space trading web game (I hope it still exists)

General description: You had a space ship and went system to system to trade goods. You could also make starbases too. There was different kinds of galaxies and wormholes. It took some kind of fuel to move around and you got large amount of fuel per day. It had a 'dynamic economy', every time you traded with a system, the prices would get worse. So you would have to move on and find different systems after several trades. I think it was a MMO game.

When I played it last: Sometime in the 90's I think

Platform: Web game. Very simple, text only, no graphics at all.

Interface: It usually showed a short line or two about the system you are currently in, a handful of common actions and a text box to enter commands(quicker way to play once you know all the commands).

Answer

Was it Trade Wars?

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How do I block a person in Fiesta online?

Question

I have found HOWTOs about how the system works, but not a single article how to actually block someone.

(Not-helping guide)

Answer

Options are available by right-clicking on individual users in the chat window: whisper, add as friend, party invite and block. If you choose to block a player, you'll no longer receive any messages from them.

Right click them in the chat window and choose block.

http://fiesta-online.gamigo.com/first_steps/interface/

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What's up with RF Online? Can't even register on the website

Question

What's up with the game? I just found the link (I know...it's an old one) and wanted to try it out.

However, I can't even register. It throws different (non-sense) error messages. The emails won't arrive, and once when I successfully registered ... it won't let me in.

The game has been shut down?

Answer

The game is no longer available in North America and Europe due to contract issues between CCR and Codemasters. It may still be available in Asia. (Source)

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