An in-game mail is being sent out with 750 Chronitons and 1x Voyage token
Thank you for rediscussing it with the team. Highly appreciated!
Wir, die Mirror Tribbles [MiT] haben freie Plätze zu vergeben. Kein Zwang und kein Stress, dafür aber Spaß, Discord und eine nette, hilfsbereite Gemeinschaft, incl. voll ausgebauter Starbase und täglich 700 ISM.
An in-game mail is being sent out with 750 Chronitons and 1x Voyage token
We are going to need more effort than this. It impacted the event scores for some of us who are working hard to stay in the top 1500. Chrons don’t buy faction event points.
1. Why did a Facebook outage cause an issue for those of us playing on an iPhone?
2. Why do in-game apology messages now come with a 7-day expiry to collect the goods?
3. What direction is being given to C/S, should they start receiving a barrage of emails from players who wind up missing out on their target rank tier, due to this outage? I woke up at 3:30 am to receive 8 shuttles and send out at least 5 more, but I wound up missing 2 waves of shuttles (3:30 - 6:30 am & 6:30 - 9:30 am), which would be at least 33,600 points (going 4/5 each wave, as a minimum).
1. Why did a Facebook outage cause an issue for those of us playing on an iPhone?
2. Why do in-game apology messages now come with a 7-day expiry to collect the goods?
3. What direction is being given to C/S, should they start receiving a barrage of emails from players who wind up missing out on their target rank tier, due to this outage? I woke up at 3:30 am to receive 8 shuttles and send out at least 5 more, but I wound up missing 2 waves of shuttles (3:30 - 6:30 am & 6:30 - 9:30 am), which would be at least 33,600 points (going 4/5 each wave, as a minimum).
1. I am mildly curious about this too, but I suspect the folks that have posted detailed internet-related things in the wall/privacy posts can answer that quickly enough. Whatever the reason, I'm filing it under "sometimes the internet breaks".
2. Yeah, 7 day expiration is atypical, but odds are that there will be a chron-dependent event next week, so just claim it for that. If this becomes a pattern, then someone can start the drumbeat of questions.
3. THIS is the main issue. Voyage token - yes, quite appropriate. Chrons - much appreciated, thanks. Lost play opportunities during a timing-based event - something needs to take that into account. I lost 1hr of shuttle time, but others were far more affected (such as Webberoni). Gauntlet - some folks were impacted there too (not me though - I was still only getting green items from my 24/27/30-streak this AM - Red Angel is clearly avoiding me for the foreseeable future). There is precedent for adjusting the rank tiers. I would suggest that a 1-tier adjustment would be reasonable.
Hi Shan! Thank you for the compensation about the game downtime. But I am still confused how can Facebook problem cause a problem when playing with iPad (iOS)? Thank you
Most apps, like our game, have a Facebook component. For instance to allow to sign in with a Facebook profile.
It can happen that an outage affecting said component can negatively affect the game, this is what happened in this case.
As for the expiration date on the in-game mail, I've followed the instructions I've received for this compensation.
Keep in mind that this did not affect everyone, it was not a global outage as such there are limits to what compensation we can offer.
As for player support, they will assist as they have done in the past when this kind of issue occurred.
Thanks for explaining the Facebook thing.
Hate knowing they have that much influence on all our lives (because their data security has a few flaws), but your explanation makes sense to a person who has no idea how the internet works.
You had a very busy day today. Hope you get a chance to relax this weekend.
Most apps, like our game, have a Facebook component. For instance to allow to sign in with a Facebook profile.
Yes, it was Facebook's mistake. However, with your* decision to incorporate the Facebook SDK into your app, you made "their mistake" your mistake. (*your = TP/DB's in this sentence)
TP has the task to provide this service to its customers. It has decided to delegate some of the work to Facebook. That does not remove the responsibility from TP. Thus, still, TP failed its customers here.
Now, TP obviously could say to its customers: We made a decision that caused this outage, but we don't care at all, so **tsk tsk** you. In that case, TP shouldn't wonder that the customers get angry and become not-anymore-customers.
On the other hand, TP can say: We made a decision that caused this outage, but we want to compensate this as good as possible.
So, what to do now?
Back in April/May ("A Marginal Victory" event), there was a small mistake that caused that some part of the players had an advantage of the others depending on the platform on which they were playing the event.
TP reacted fast and reasonable by changing the ranked reward table before the end of the event. That way the compensation was administered automatically to everyone and the customers were satisfied by being treated appropriately.
Now, a previous development decisions (using Facebook SDK) caused that some part of the players had an advantage of the others depending on the platform on which they were playing the event.
So, same problem as above. It would be reasonable to administer the same wise reaction like in April/May.
Keep in mind that this did not affect everyone, it was not a global outage as such there are limits to what compensation we can offer.
Actually, that makes the problem worse. If all had the same problems, there would be less need of a compensation. However, the problem has the same level of scope (players on some platform are disadvantaged against players on some other platforms) as the problem from April/May mentioned above. Thus, taking the same level of compensation, is appropriate.
As for player support, they will assist as they have done in the past when this kind of issue occurred.
Player support refused to offer any help. So once again you had a partial outage, caused by incorrect implementation in your software (it tries to contact Facebook even when the user does not log in using Facebook), in the middle of an event, and refuse to offer anything to help with it.
The chronitons and voyage token are a joke. I have uncountable thousands of chronitons; 700 more won’t help rank in a faction event.
If you submitted a ticket because you are concerned about the negative impact this will have on your ranking, player support cannot do much as long as the event is ongoing.
However, once the event has ended it will be easier for them to work with you and assess the situation.
So if you have submitted a ticket, wait for the event's end and update your ticket and explain how you were impacted, in a concise manner so Support can have a clear picture of the situation.
I was aiming for X, I spent Y.
That kind of thing.
If you submitted a ticket because you are concerned about the negative impact this will have on your ranking, player support cannot do much as long as the event is ongoing.
However, once the event has ended it will be easier for them to work with you and assess the situation.
So if you have submitted a ticket, wait for the event's end and update your ticket and explain how you were impacted, in a concise manner so Support can have a clear picture of the situation.
I was aiming for X, I spent Y.
That kind of thing.
Despite some back-and-forth on the ticket, I got nowhere with customer support. They tell me that they are refusing to provide any sort of compensation for this outage.
Why wasn't this treated like the last event where one platform was given an advantage over another? There was a Skirmish where you raised the threshold for the new 1/5 from rank 1500 to 2500 after giving PC users a brief advantage in the event. That seems like it would have been the appropriate response here.
But it feels like hostility that your company can cause this outage (through incorrect implementation of the Facebook portion) but refuses to help the affected players.
If you submitted a ticket because you are concerned about the negative impact this will have on your ranking, player support cannot do much as long as the event is ongoing.
However, once the event has ended it will be easier for them to work with you and assess the situation.
So if you have submitted a ticket, wait for the event's end and update your ticket and explain how you were impacted, in a concise manner so Support can have a clear picture of the situation.
I was aiming for X, I spent Y.
That kind of thing.
Despite some back-and-forth on the ticket, I got nowhere with customer support. They tell me that they are refusing to provide any sort of compensation for this outage.
Why wasn't this treated like the last event where one platform was given an advantage over another? There was a Skirmish where you raised the threshold for the new 1/5 from rank 1500 to 2500 after giving PC users a brief advantage in the event. That seems like it would have been the appropriate response here.
But it feels like hostility that your company can cause this outage (through incorrect implementation of the Facebook portion) but refuses to help the affected players.
It had nothing to do with an incorrect implementation on our end.
Did you request an escalation so that your ticket may be reviewed by a Team Lead?
The question is, how many shuttles/VP could u have missed cause of it,
4/8/12(with time boosts)? And then if the additional max VP would have made a difference regarding the final rank threshold. I can see how it‘s hard to figure out for CS, since they have to make sure nobody abuses this accident to get a free e.g. ranked Legendary crew.
It had nothing to do with an incorrect implementation on our end.
Actually, it had, from the point of view of software development - and definitely from the point of view of a customer. And legally again, the fault is on your side.
There is the customer and the app. The customer wants the app to start. This has nothing to do with Facebook. Rule number one in software development: If you don't need it, don't call for it. Note, that we don't talk about the Facebook login or anything that really needs Facebook to be included in this task. The task is just between the customer and the app. And the app developer decided to bring Facebook SDK in.
So, calling the Facebook SDK at this time, can be considered an incorrect implementation. That incorrect implementation may be the result of an already bad business decision (eg "instead of doing it ourself, we delegate the task to facebook and we pay them by selling out the user's data to facebook").
But in any case: the customer requested an action from the app that has nothing to do with Facebook. So, if you unneccarily include Facebook SDK here, and Facebook SDK fails, it is just plain your fault.
So, from an objective point of view, it is clearly a mistake on your end.
And denying your responsibility here, only damages your reputation by undermining any trust we put into you. If you deny your mistake even in this absolutely obvious case, how can we trust you in other cases where it is not so easy to check that it was indeed your fault?
Live long and prosper,
Doctor8472
PS: "you" in this text stands for the company (TP/WRG/DB?) behind it, not Shan as a person. Eg: It was clearly not Shan that made an implementation mistake.
Comments
Thank you for rediscussing it with the team. Highly appreciated!
Not at all, let's stay on topic please - thanks.
We are going to need more effort than this. It impacted the event scores for some of us who are working hard to stay in the top 1500. Chrons don’t buy faction event points.
1. Why did a Facebook outage cause an issue for those of us playing on an iPhone?
2. Why do in-game apology messages now come with a 7-day expiry to collect the goods?
3. What direction is being given to C/S, should they start receiving a barrage of emails from players who wind up missing out on their target rank tier, due to this outage? I woke up at 3:30 am to receive 8 shuttles and send out at least 5 more, but I wound up missing 2 waves of shuttles (3:30 - 6:30 am & 6:30 - 9:30 am), which would be at least 33,600 points (going 4/5 each wave, as a minimum).
1. I am mildly curious about this too, but I suspect the folks that have posted detailed internet-related things in the wall/privacy posts can answer that quickly enough. Whatever the reason, I'm filing it under "sometimes the internet breaks".
2. Yeah, 7 day expiration is atypical, but odds are that there will be a chron-dependent event next week, so just claim it for that. If this becomes a pattern, then someone can start the drumbeat of questions.
3. THIS is the main issue. Voyage token - yes, quite appropriate. Chrons - much appreciated, thanks. Lost play opportunities during a timing-based event - something needs to take that into account. I lost 1hr of shuttle time, but others were far more affected (such as Webberoni). Gauntlet - some folks were impacted there too (not me though - I was still only getting green items from my 24/27/30-streak this AM - Red Angel is clearly avoiding me for the foreseeable future). There is precedent for adjusting the rank tiers. I would suggest that a 1-tier adjustment would be reasonable.
It can happen that an outage affecting said component can negatively affect the game, this is what happened in this case.
As for the expiration date on the in-game mail, I've followed the instructions I've received for this compensation.
Keep in mind that this did not affect everyone, it was not a global outage as such there are limits to what compensation we can offer.
As for player support, they will assist as they have done in the past when this kind of issue occurred.
[/quote]
Thanks for explaining the Facebook thing.
Hate knowing they have that much influence on all our lives (because their data security has a few flaws), but your explanation makes sense to a person who has no idea how the internet works.
You had a very busy day today. Hope you get a chance to relax this weekend.
TP has the task to provide this service to its customers. It has decided to delegate some of the work to Facebook. That does not remove the responsibility from TP. Thus, still, TP failed its customers here.
Now, TP obviously could say to its customers: We made a decision that caused this outage, but we don't care at all, so **tsk tsk** you. In that case, TP shouldn't wonder that the customers get angry and become not-anymore-customers.
On the other hand, TP can say: We made a decision that caused this outage, but we want to compensate this as good as possible.
So, what to do now?
Back in April/May ("A Marginal Victory" event), there was a small mistake that caused that some part of the players had an advantage of the others depending on the platform on which they were playing the event.
TP reacted fast and reasonable by changing the ranked reward table before the end of the event. That way the compensation was administered automatically to everyone and the customers were satisfied by being treated appropriately.
Now, a previous development decisions (using Facebook SDK) caused that some part of the players had an advantage of the others depending on the platform on which they were playing the event.
So, same problem as above. It would be reasonable to administer the same wise reaction like in April/May.
Actually, that makes the problem worse. If all had the same problems, there would be less need of a compensation. However, the problem has the same level of scope (players on some platform are disadvantaged against players on some other platforms) as the problem from April/May mentioned above. Thus, taking the same level of compensation, is appropriate.
Live long and prosper,
Doctor 8472
Player support refused to offer any help. So once again you had a partial outage, caused by incorrect implementation in your software (it tries to contact Facebook even when the user does not log in using Facebook), in the middle of an event, and refuse to offer anything to help with it.
The chronitons and voyage token are a joke. I have uncountable thousands of chronitons; 700 more won’t help rank in a faction event.
However, once the event has ended it will be easier for them to work with you and assess the situation.
So if you have submitted a ticket, wait for the event's end and update your ticket and explain how you were impacted, in a concise manner so Support can have a clear picture of the situation.
I was aiming for X, I spent Y.
That kind of thing.
Despite some back-and-forth on the ticket, I got nowhere with customer support. They tell me that they are refusing to provide any sort of compensation for this outage.
Why wasn't this treated like the last event where one platform was given an advantage over another? There was a Skirmish where you raised the threshold for the new 1/5 from rank 1500 to 2500 after giving PC users a brief advantage in the event. That seems like it would have been the appropriate response here.
But it feels like hostility that your company can cause this outage (through incorrect implementation of the Facebook portion) but refuses to help the affected players.
It had nothing to do with an incorrect implementation on our end.
Did you request an escalation so that your ticket may be reviewed by a Team Lead?
4/8/12(with time boosts)? And then if the additional max VP would have made a difference regarding the final rank threshold. I can see how it‘s hard to figure out for CS, since they have to make sure nobody abuses this accident to get a free e.g. ranked Legendary crew.
There is the customer and the app. The customer wants the app to start. This has nothing to do with Facebook. Rule number one in software development: If you don't need it, don't call for it. Note, that we don't talk about the Facebook login or anything that really needs Facebook to be included in this task. The task is just between the customer and the app. And the app developer decided to bring Facebook SDK in.
So, calling the Facebook SDK at this time, can be considered an incorrect implementation. That incorrect implementation may be the result of an already bad business decision (eg "instead of doing it ourself, we delegate the task to facebook and we pay them by selling out the user's data to facebook").
But in any case: the customer requested an action from the app that has nothing to do with Facebook. So, if you unneccarily include Facebook SDK here, and Facebook SDK fails, it is just plain your fault.
So, from an objective point of view, it is clearly a mistake on your end.
And denying your responsibility here, only damages your reputation by undermining any trust we put into you. If you deny your mistake even in this absolutely obvious case, how can we trust you in other cases where it is not so easy to check that it was indeed your fault?
Live long and prosper,
Doctor8472
PS: "you" in this text stands for the company (TP/WRG/DB?) behind it, not Shan as a person. Eg: It was clearly not Shan that made an implementation mistake.