Downtime regarding Role Play vs Non-Roleplay Servers

[Psignosis]

I have a Complaint.

( *puts frown face on* )

When I played Planeshift a while ago, as I had routinely every month or so out of enjoyment, I was told I had to ' Go to the other Server '. I was told of the new rules and that there's a Role Play Server and a Non-Role Play server. Well, even though it was a bit frustrating having to move across to the other server and start all over again, I understood the rules and thought sure. For my gaming pleasure, I really just wanted to play and do my own thing rather than end up being hastled all the time.

Now that Im playing on what appears to be an Official Non-Role-Play server, its constantly going down all the time. I've lost track over how many times I've dropped something on the ground or put it into a Furnace only to relogin and have it all vanished again. Usually, I just login the next day and everythings fine.

In this instance, the servers been down for at least 12 hours and according to the Stats on the ezpcusa page, its not the only time. There is a fair bit of downtime on this server ( not to mention the reboots and such ). Its a tad frustrating to sit down over Christmas to play a game only to find out your ping says, ' Failed '.

The thing is, I understand developers need a test box. The problem is one of thus...

1. IF this is a development / test machine thats designed for constant rebooting, downtime and such then is it wise to call it an 'official non-roleplay server'. Its almost like those who dont want to role play have been relegated to the 'bronx'. Thats discrimination. Its not that I dont like the atmosphere but when I play, I just get annoyed at the constant harrassing from GM's which just ruins the fun. Not to mention, Im not really a foreplay type of guy... personally, I'd rather just get into it.

2. IF the 'official non-roleplay server' is deemed to be unstable and Im told that I should play on the other server, then fine. I then attack the notion that everybody needs to foreplay. I dont want to foreplay. If I ended up on the main server then the GM's would be harrassing me every five minutes which drives me crazy. When I sit down to relax and play a comfortable game, the last thing I expect is to be abused for trivial things by GMs.

Now, to let you know how serious I am, Im going to do a frownie... here ---->   

Okay, there's my frownie. Now you know I mean business.

So take that... all you... people... yeah... and another... here --->

Anyway... just something for consideration I suppose...

[verden]

You should have been on there the first day that server was active. That being said, I find the "bothered by a GM every five minutes" a tad dramatic.

[Vakachehk]

Well, even though it was a bit frustrating having to move across to the other server and start all over again, I understood the rules and thought sure.

I thought if you asked a Developer they would simple move your character over.

I just get annoyed at the constant harrassing from GM's which just ruins the fun...If I ended up on the main server then the GM's would be harrassing me every five minutes which drives me crazy. When I sit down to relax and play a comfortable game, the last thing I expect is to be abused for trivial things by GMs.

Some GMs are pretty abusive and do like to use their great powers to get their own way, if you have an issue with a GM feel free to give Talad, Acraig, or HaniX a complaint, I don't think you can still send in a complaint to Vengeance (Veng) as he has quit.
Probably best to send an email to Acraig at acraig@planeshift.it  BUT FIRST please read the bottom of this page http://www.planeshift.it/abuse.html
_________

For the rest of your complaint, sorry but I hate OOC non-roleplayers on the RP server, they tend to destroy peoples good ideas for RP and get in the way with their Out-of-Charaterness

[Psignosis]

I just get annoyed at the constant harrassing from GM's which just ruins the fun...If I ended up on the main server then the GM's would be harrassing me every five minutes which drives me crazy. When I sit down to relax and play a comfortable game, the last thing I expect is to be abused for trivial things by GMs.

When I was last on the role play server, I got into trouble for my description. I had said something like, ' I am dark way. As I walk, my shadow drains the life out of the grass beneath me. ' or something like that. I recall that it was a fairly casual description, if possibly, a bit non-planeshiftish. Nothing terrible.

Now, I had this Dwarf guy racing around me like a strange person. He was saying, ' Im crystal way. I hate dark way. ' and challenging me for a dual every five minutes. I refused. It wasnt anything personal, I just couldnt be bothered at the time ( I was waiting for somebody ). I basically told him in a nice way to, ' go away '. He proceeded to say, ' If you dont dual me, I'll go off and tell a GM. '. I thought, who cares?

What happened next totally surprised me. I get a message from a GM out of nowhere telling me that my description was ' Out of Character '. I was like huh? Actually, it wasnt the fact that he said it but more how he said it. He was extremely offensive. He'd constantly be interjecting with, ' Are you there? I know your there... Have you changed it you? Im going to kick you / ban you etc '. So, I decided to logoff.

Next time I logged in ( few days later ), I ended up with another GM pouncing on me. It was almost like there had been an auto-responder or something which black flagged me. Quite politely, a GM with a different name said something like, ' Ive heard you need to change your description. ' or something. This harassment continued two more times until eventually, I just quit.

Since moving to the non-roleplay server, I couldnt be happier. My only gripe has been in the server downtime, reboots six times a day yadda yadda. I totally concur, that there have definitely been GM's abusing their power on the role play server. At least, back then there was. Im not sure about today. Not having played on the role play server for over a year, I really cant say.

I dont mind which server I play on really so long as Im not forced to foreplay, and Im not being harrassed by GM's that just wont leave me alone to do my own thing. Now, which server is that? Thats ultimately the question. The non-roleplay server which is effectively a development server ( rebooting all the time ) or the roleplay one where Im told you gotta foreplay or GMs boot you?

Its very confusing this game... ;p

[weltall]

I don't really see all these downtimes.
ezpcusa is mostly down as much as the roleplaying server, you just had the bad luck that there were issues at the data center yesterday so the entire machine was not available. This brought distruption to internal resources (eg the developer registration site), external resouces (non roleplay server, pswki) and crash reporting facilities. Nothing we could do actually . plus ezpcusa is not a development server that thing sits somewhere else. (with a ping lower than zeroping for me, i'd go nuts if the dev server from which i've to generate the update data had really 250 to 400ms of ping)

[Earowo]

From what I understand, the LAST time sombody from the non-rp server complained about 0.5.0 being tested on EZ, the Laanx server soon got switched to skylab or somthing, whereas Laanx was made the developer server, skylab was switched for zeroping, i think its funny though, zeroping for me generally has around 400 ping XD

Anyways, not sure if this is true, but its what ive heard

[weltall]

laanx is not the development server.

[Vakachehk]

laanx is not the development server.

Yes it is. All servers would be classified as development servers imo. The Laanx or known as the old fragnetics server I believe is the testing server.

@Psignosis I believe a description is describing what your character (the person you are playing) looks like from another person view.

It's like a book when an auther is telling you what a character looks like, that is simple the characters description. But remember you aren't writing a story of your characters past and about their likes and dislikes, fears, and what have you, that comes in roleplay when you tell others stories of your character.

[weltall]

laanx is not the development server.

Yes it is. All servers would be classified as development servers imo. The Laanx or known as the old fragnetics server I believe is the testing server.

@Psignosis I believe a description is describing what your character (the person you are playing) looks like from another person view.

It's like a book when an auther is telling you what a character looks like, that is simple the characters description. But remember you aren't writing a story of your characters past and about their likes and dislikes, fears, and what have you, that comes in roleplay when you tell others stories of your character.

so you are telling me that you know better what is being done on that server?
right now nothing is running on it except a cron rebuilding msvc files.

and for me development server is where the game is being developed and that server is not public. All the other servers get the updates streamed from that server.

[Psignosis]

From what I understand, the LAST time sombody from the non-rp server complained about 0.5.0 being tested on EZ, the Laanx server soon got switched to skylab or somthing, whereas Laanx was made the developer server, skylab was switched for zeroping, i think its funny though, zeroping for me generally has around 400 ping XD

*laughs* Someone named their server ZeroPing? Isnt that like naming a Poodle ' Killer ' or something ( or a pet goat named Jihad ).

and for me development server is where the game is being developed and that server is not public. All the other servers get the updates streamed from that server.

Ah, sounds like setting that up would have been more interesting than playing Planeshift itself (Server farms are cool - Electricity is cool). Its totally awesome that Talads doing ingame meetings with 'The Dev Team' now. I can see that building a developer community. I'd imagine there being people on the sidelines who dont have the time to learn all this stuff but wouldnt mind helping out in some odd way if assistance was provided. This game will probably end up taking off like a rocket.

Planeshift sorta reminds me of CircleMUD with GUI.

Anyway... I cant really think of anything to complain about today.  I've tried and failed... time to play...

[Sarva]

 The meet the Devs meetings, held twice monthly now, are a chance for players to meet members of the Dev team and to ask questions or make comments. To get an idea of what one of these meetings are like read the log of the first one at http://www.planeshift.it/graphics/events/meet_the_devs/meet_the_devs_1.txt