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Elite: Dangerous server goes haywire, creates instant billionaires [Updated]
The Elite: Dangerous server has had a relatively smooth launch since it released just over two weeks ago, but all that changed last night when the server went absolutely haywire. A suspected transaction server failure caused a whole slew of bizarre bugs for those playing the game last night, from benign errors like players getting disconnected to catastrophic failures like deleting a ship's entire cargo, rolling back ship upgrades, and deleting credits. The worst problems involved players having ghost cargo that could be sold over and over again, allowing them to rack up millions of credits in minutes. Though the problems were reported promptly, the server wasn't rebooted until its usual maintenance period over six hours later. In a feat of remarkably bad timing, the server problems happened on a national holiday in the UK, and so the developers at Frontier were taking time off to celebrate the new year. There has been no official announcement on the problems yet, and players are speculating on the damage that would be caused or reversed if Frontier performed a server rollback. Reports from the Elite forum suggest that developers may not be back to work until as late as January 5th, at which point it's unlikely that developers will roll the server back. The damage from last night's errors continues to cause problems today. One player was left shipless and unable to log in when the server reversed a ship purchase transaction, and another's ship teleported back across the galaxy and is being held hostage at a station with no shipyard. Dozens of players have reported broken cargo holds or missing cargo and credits, and one player logged in this morning to find 5 billion credits sitting in his wallet. These events have naturally prompted a resurgence of complaints about Elite's always-online gameplay, as players have found themselves unable to play without problem even in solo mode. We have reached out to Frontier for comment.
ArcheAge servers are back up; Trion is sorting out in-game timers
If you're following the ongoing saga of ArcheAge problems, you probably know that the game had all of the servers shut down over a holiday weekend, which could theoretically solve the game's exploit issues in the same way that setting fire to your house solves any problems you have with your wallpaper. The server issues were stated to be a result of emergency maintenance, with community representatives denying that it was connected to servers overheating, DDoS attacks, or exploits. The good news is that out of the game's 21 servers, 16 were up and running last night, with the last five brought online early this morning. Players are promised compensation, which will be revealed later today. Unfortunately for players who had taxes due, the timers for all services continued to roll while the servers were down, so crops, housing plots, and the like were all still affected by time during the lengthy maintenance cycle. Trion says it is "definitely aware this is an issue for players with taxes due and is talking with XLGAMES about the best way to resolve it while the servers are offline." A server rollback is not in the cards. But at least the servers are back online. We'll have more updates on the compensation for players when it is announced.
Star Wars: The Old Republic hit by DDoS attacks
If you were playing Star Wars: The Old Republic yesterday, you may very well have been hit with some lag and disconnections. The good news is that it's not a problem with your ISP; the bad news is that it appears to be yet another installment in the ongoing saga of irritating twits with nothing better to do than try to damage servers. Yes, it looks like this was another DDoS attack. Community manager Eric Musco's last update on Sunday night indicates that most of the issues should be resolved now, but it's possible that players may still experience intermittent connection difficulties. The representatives from BioWare have not officially stated that it was a DDoS attack, but it lines up perfectly with a DDoS attack made against Electronic Arts servers, leading to the accepted conclusion. [Thanks to Leiloni for the tip!]
Upcoming NBA 2K15 patch to address MyPark, other issues
2K Sports submitted an update to Sony and Microsoft for certification to patch issues with NBA 2K15 in the "coming days." The publisher's support team noted on Twitter that the patch will address a number of issues, including the game's MyPark mode. Since the game launched last week, players have been regularly booted from the online mode. NBA 2K15 is the latest in the publisher's annual pro basketball series, and was generally met with critical approval last week. The game also received a card-battling companion app this week on iOS and Android. While the details of NBA 2K15's patch are not yet known, here's hoping it alleviates the nightmarish results of its face-scanning feature. The game is available for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. [Image: 2K Sports]
Latency and connection issues on all US Realms
On logging into my US World of Warcraft client, I was greeted with the following screen. The Breaking News section informs players that, due to technical issues, they may experience latency or loss of connection on all realms. Blizzard Customer Support has also confirmed that the issues are being investigated: We're looking into the #WoW server stability, folks! Our technicians are on the case! Updates to follow. - BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) December 19, 2013 The responses to the tweet imply that the lag is the most problematic part of these technical hitches, with players reporting very high MS on their connections. However, not everyone is affected, as my latency is only 70 MS, which while higher than usual is far from problematic. Blizzard's tech team are working hard to rectify these issues.
EA deploys Battlefield 4 patch on PS4 to combat crashing
EA has issued an update for Battlefield 4 on the PS4 just now. This update is primarily aimed at curbing the rampant crashes players have been experiencing, but also addresses single-player campaign save file corruption issues and a particular connection bug involving PlayStation Plus. Battlefield 4 has had a rough go at it on PS4. Since the console's debut, the PS4 version has suffered from numerous crashes. This resulted in EA announcing a fan appreciation event for this coming weekend, where all online players will get double XP and a special M1911 pistol scope previously only available for use by the DICE team.
Square Enix resumes Final Fantasy XIV online sales
In the wake of server issues, queue struggles, and player complaints, it looks as though Square Enix is feeling a little better about the operational state of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn -- so much better that the game is once again available for purchase in digital form from the official Square Enix store. Sales were halted soon after FFXIV's re-launch due to server instability and quite a few other problems. Those who were lucky enough to snag a copy before sales went offline have been suffering through login restrictions and other emergency measures put in place to help even things out and keep the servers from exploding. With sales back online and more people rushing into the fray, Final Fantasy XIV seems to finally be moving forward, one Chocobo-sized step at a time. [Thanks to everyone who sent this one in!]
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's launch week
It's been a week now since the start of early access in Final Fantasy XIV, and it's been a weird launch. Partly because it's not really a proper launch, it's a relaunch of a game that hadn't been playable for several months and is now back in a form that has changed so much that it's almost unrecognizable. And partly because the servers have sort of been a force of unfettered malevolence; that's definitely an issue as well. Playing the game this week has ultimately been a verbal tug-of-war between two separate but equally important groups. There are the players who can't get in and hold very strong opinions about not being able to get in, and there are the players who can get in and are just playing the game. So it's impossible to talk about the launch week without talking about the launch issues and the servers... which also requires a bit of perspective on MMOs as a whole.
Final Fantasy XIV dev talks new servers and access restrictions
It's no secret that the long-awaited re-launch of Final Fantasy XIV hasn't gone very smoothly. In fact, the servers are taking such a beating that Square Enix has temporarily shut down online sales of the game. Despite the game's current woes, the FFIXV team wants fans to know that it is working overtime to get things running smoothly. In a lengthy forum post, producer and director Naoki Yoshida (aka Yoshi-P) outlined what steps have been taken to stabilize FFXIV's game world. Yoshida noted that all Final Fantasy XIV servers now have login restrictions to prevent a flood of logs and re-logs from causing them to crash. Login restrictions are most likely to be implemented during peak times, which Yoshida says are between 9:00 p.m. and midnight. Each server can support a theoretical maximum of 5,000 concurrent players.
Final Fantasy XIV's Yoshida issues an apology to players
Final Fantasy XIV's Early Access period hasn't been a smooth ride if you're playing in North America or Europe. The server cluster dedicated to these players has had to undergo several periods of maintenance and unexpected downtime, with several players entirely unable to log in on Sunday. Producer/director Naoki Yoshida took to the official forums to issue a personal apology to players affected by these issues, explaining the problems faced by the team and the steps being taken to correct them. Yoshida states that several of the load-related issues are still persisting, so the team is currently placing restrictions on logins to try to relieve some congestion and better identify server failure points. He goes on to apologize to players for any wait experienced and asks for patience as the team strives to deliver the best possible experience for all players. There's no word on how long these restrictions will be in place or what form they will take, but with the official launch tomorrow, we can only hope that the issues are largely sorted out soon.
Red 5 CEO details Firefall fixes, apologizes for open beta issues
Firefall jet-booted into open beta on July 9th, but the transition ended up being a bit trickier than Red 5 expected. Tutorials broke, crafting crashed, abilities vanished from hotbars, and logins were jammed. CEO Mark Kern offered a letter to Firefall players today apologizing for the problems encountered and detailing all the fixes the team has put in place. According to Kern, login errors are resolved, server capacity is raised in all regions, instances are stabilized, tutorials are un-stuck, and calldown menus function again. Additionally, dropships are cruising along the correct flightpaths and the game's crafting and customization menus are smoother, faster, and more responsive. Kern conceded that Firefall isn't perfect (or even finished), but wants players to know that he and his team are working on it: Please accept our apologies for the rocky start, and while we are not past all of it yet, things have improved tremendously and we are working on resolving the remaining issues. Meanwhile, please join us for a series of new content and features that are rolling out regularly. It's been an incredible experience and only made possible by you, the community. Thank you and see you in Firefall. Red 5 has an open beta Firefall tournament scheduled to start this Sunday, August 4th.
The Daily Roundup for 03.08.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Path of Exile hands-on: The sequel Diablo II deserved
Like many gamers in their mid-20s, I spent countless hours in my teenage years smashing through dungeons and hunting for loot in Diablo II. The deep itemisation system made building effective characters a real challenge, and periodic ladder resets kept the loot-hunting economy fresh. Fast-forward 10 years and the highly anticipated sequel Diablo III was released to some serious complaints. The servers were unstable for weeks at launch, the always-online DRM caused a stir, and the endgame item grind was severely underwhelming. Indie developer Grinding Gear Games aims to beat Blizzard at its own game with its new free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile. The game boasts a dark art style and an unprecedented level of character customisation that lets players build truly unique characters. Each skill is itemised as a gem that can be slotted into your gear and augmented with dozens of different support gems. The sprawling passive skill system is better described as a "skill octopus," with millions of different ways to build a character. I've spent the past few weeks smashing up monsters in the Path of Exile open beta and absolutely loving it. Read on to find out why I can honestly say that Path of Exile is the sequel Diablo II deserved.
PlanetSide 2 players score a double XP weekend
Are you a bad enough dude to capture territory for your chosen faction in PlanetSide 2? Quite possibly. But a lot of players have had difficulty even logging into the game due to usual launch week issues. That hasn't stymied the game's popularity any, but if you were hoping to get some sort of compensation for your trouble, you're in luck. The team has announced via Twitter that players will get double the XP this weekend as a reward for sticking out server instability. But wait! You already have an experience boost applied, you don't want it to go to waste! Not to worry; it's also been confirmed that players with a 10% boost active will still benefit from both boosts at once, resulting in even faster gains. So whether you've been heavily impacted by the launch issues or not, you can take pride in leveling faster over the next couple of days.
Leaderboard: Poor planning or poor circumstances?
If you missed playing Final Fantasy XIV on Saturday, well, you're not getting to play again for a while. The world sort of ended. Unfortunately for the people who were playing Saturday evening into Sunday morning, attempting to actually play during this world-ending event resulted in frequent disconnects and server crashes from the sheer number of people teleporting hither and yon. The epic finale before the trailer wound up mostly just being a confusing mess on the server. Final Fantasy XIV isn't the first title to implement a huge live event that caused a server-breaking mess. Today, our question centers on magnanimity vs. culpability. When these sorts of server events happen, is your first reaction that the development team should have planned for this popularity instead of letting the whole thing go cross-eyed? Or do you say that the team probably did everything possible and that there's a certain point past which planning doesn't help?
All Points Bulletin slays lag and improves matches
The relaunch of All Points Bulletin has brought with it quite a bit more buzz than the game had during its first go-around, but there are still issues to be addressed and kinks to be worked out. Fortunately for the devoted players of the game, the team behind the shooter has been working diligently to try and hammer things out as fast as possible. That starts with the ugly issue of server-side lag, which the most recent developer post claims to have slain for good. That's in addition to NVidia SLI support, a good thing for players who want to run the game at truly breathtaking settings. Beyond the technical side, however, there have been some adjustments and re-examination of the game's threat level system. The rating system is meant to ensure that players fight against other players of roughly equal skill, but due to some issues with the data the average players wound up being pushed into a handful of tiers, resulting in a few tiers with huge variances in levels. The blog entry outlines the changes being put into place to fix the issue, as well as future updates for the game in its current incarnation.
Cataclysm is live ... except not quite [updated]
It is after midnight on Dec. 7, 2010, and that can only mean one thing: Cataclysm is live in the United States! Except ... um, it's not. At least, not everywhere, and not on every server. There are currently widespread reports of servers not being "turned on" to Cataclysm yet (with level 80 characters still unable to earn experience, for example) and further reports of people being unable to even log in. Experiences seem to vary from server to server, so don't panic if you're not able to log in. You're not alone, and the problem's not on your end. We'll provide updates here and provide you with news as it develops. Update (12:30 a.m. PST): It appears that XP gains have now been turned on. Happy leveling! Update (12:54 a.m. PST): Blue poster Bashiok has confirmed on the official forums that XP gains are on universally, so long as you read "not" as "now." The official Blizzard customer service Twitter account says XP gains are active as well. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Fallen Earth fan: "Don't play Fallen Earth"
You should most definitely not be playing Fallen Earth. How can you tell? Why, because Bio Break recently posted a long article explaining exactly why you shouldn't be playing it. And this isn't coming from a fan who's just disgruntled about a certain update or class rebalancing (though the latter would be pretty funny) -- it's from one of the game's most adamant fans who has no shortage of good things to say about the game. So why would he tell you not to play the game? One of the best things a fan can have is perspective. In his piece, Syp outlines all of the reasons that most players, even if they've been enamoured of the game's press, might want to use extreme caution stepping into Fallen Earth for the first time. Technical problems such as the server instability issues, of course, are likely to be improved -- but the game's unforgiving character-building system, its dwarfing sense of scale when the players get started, and the survivalist attitude that the game tacitly enforces are all part of the charm of the game. Of course, he's not suggesting that the game is bad -- but giving everyone a much-needed dose of perspective on a game that's really not well-suited to everyone.
Login issues reported this evening
WoW.com has been getting a massive number of tips in regarding problems people are experiencing when trying to log into the game. There is no official Blizzard word yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see one soon.The problems seem to be originating from people who have not yet merged their World of Warcraft accounts with their Battle.net accounts. To do so, go into the account management page and select the appropriate options.There have been some stability issues with the login servers the last few days, and this seems to just be the latest.If you can't get in, check out our Guide to Patch 3.2 - we're expecting the patch to drop within the next few weeks. And if you haven't heard already, the Warcraft Movie has landed a director - Sam Raimi. It's World of Spidercraft, baby.Update: Now there is an official Blizzard response to the problem, although there is no ETA on a solution.Update #2: For those wondering, the issue was fixed overnight.
Some realms suffer extended downtime [Updated]
Bornakk hopped on to the forums to confirm the fears of many players who don't happen to have their World of Warcraft clients handy to tell them the same thing: some realms are going to be down for a while and Blizzard doesn't know when they're coming back up. According to Bornakk, they are experiencing "additional issues" with some realms as well as issues with the launcher being unable to update game clients. They currently have no estimate for the return of the realms, which do not appear on the game client's realm list, but will provide more details at around 2:30 3:30pm PDT. A complete list of affected realms after the jump.[UPDATE: Nethaera reports that Blizzard "encountered a serious error" with the listed realms and are working towards a resolution. Unfortunately, there is still no estimate for when the realms will come back up and more details should be available at 5:30pm PDT. The situation has a small silver lining, however, as Blizzard is considering "appropriate compensation" for the additional downtime experienced by players on those realms. Stay tuned to WoW.com for further updates.][UPDATE 2: Nethaera updates her post to explain that the network improvements intended for all realms resulted in a connection error which has taken some time to identify and fix. While she notes that the connection error itself has for the most part been resolved (which is why some of the affected realms now show up on the realm list), the affected realms have yet to undergo the regular weekly maintenance and patching procedure. This means a much, much longer downtime than anticipated. Nethaera hopes to give further updates by 7:30pm PDT. Time to reroll, I guess.][UPDATE 3: Looks like they're doing a little more work tonight on all realms to address a few issues. More information in our post here.]
