Accurate compensation for captains crashed from rank & Mirror Troi
·§ë· For the Many
✭✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
A blanket apology Picard to every player (or honour refund) is not compensation for those who were impacted by the server crash at the end of Mirror Troi's event. Those impacted most are still short a Troi or final Janeway.
A same-same compensation works for a general "Sorry this month was plagued with issues, at least some due to stretching ourselves thin while still trying to maximize profit on vacation". It doesn't work for situations where some players were affected more than others, since it doesn't change our positions relative to each other.
Regardless of what one thinks of the strategy of crafting and cashing in at the end to overcome the ranked reward situation (which could use some restructuring and rebalancing to help alleviate this) - it's within the advertised period of time, and these captains shouldn't take the fall its shortening.
I think rewards from one category above where you landed post-crash would be appropriate. It would also go a ways toward earning, repairing confidence with many of STT's most enthusiastic and active captains.
A same-same compensation works for a general "Sorry this month was plagued with issues, at least some due to stretching ourselves thin while still trying to maximize profit on vacation". It doesn't work for situations where some players were affected more than others, since it doesn't change our positions relative to each other.
Regardless of what one thinks of the strategy of crafting and cashing in at the end to overcome the ranked reward situation (which could use some restructuring and rebalancing to help alleviate this) - it's within the advertised period of time, and these captains shouldn't take the fall its shortening.
I think rewards from one category above where you landed post-crash would be appropriate. It would also go a ways toward earning, repairing confidence with many of STT's most enthusiastic and active captains.
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Comments
Voyage Estimator Tool thread
How is that fair on everyone? Those players who dropped potentially thousands of crons to keep their place in the top 1000 will get a couple of one shot portals while those who were in the level below who might not have finished in the top 1000 will get a legendary character and get to keep their crons.
Trying to jump a bracket in the last few minutes is a high risk strategy and a server crash is one of those risks.
Giving everybody the rewards of the next boundary would benefit people who were unaffected by this because they were tapped out of crons or were unable to play at that time
Scott
- but who might have -
Not if they were also dropping those potentially thousands of chrons to stay in top 1000 and missed it because of the crash, as was the case of some captains I know of.
According to DB responses (so make of that what you will), the server crash this time wasn't due to increased player activity. & I remember many crashes in the beginning of events, but not the finish. Being a risky strategy doesn't mean that the player is at fault, when the error was not on their end. Or that it isn't a necessary strategy, at some ranks.
Unfortunately in this situation nothing will be perfect - we can only try to what's most fair which I think is to give the benefit of the doubt, since it's unknown exactly who was doing what at the time.
There are many captains who were also spending thousands of chrons, even claimed batches of sorrytons, to keep themselves from falling out of 1000 (and did fall out) when it crashed. There are several examples of this in our fleet alone.
I'll gladly take an extra one shot portal or nothing at all, if it means the captains who potentially missed out on a Troi or their final stars of Janeway while tapping furiously and shouting "noooooooo" during the crash would get comped for +1 more meaningful category.
~· Fly with the Subspace Eddies! ·~
Yeah, I think there is this assumption that people in spots 800-1000 were just going to stand still and wave as players passed them by. I was ranked 830 when the crash occurred and had 90 or so rares to turn in. To think someone was going to pass me, but was thwarted by the crash, is a bit naive.
I'm not saying people weren't affected. But, this idea that everyone ranked 1000-1200 was just going to swap spots with those ranked 800-1000 is wishful thinking.
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It may very well be but it as close to an educated estimate as can really be done without Q's powers. And neither us nor DB has those when it comes to reading the minds, situations on every one involved.
It would be very safe to assume that SOME of those group would be and some would not be successful. Its equally naive to think that all of the 800-1000 were online and not standing still.
As well even if not standing still those coming up from behind may have had greater momentum or rares saved.
This is not what's being assumed at all. (and I've never seen anyone here say that everyone rank 1000-1200 were going to swap spots with those rank 800-1000)
They wouldn't have passed by you, if you were also turning in rares. They would have passed by the people who were 800-1000 who were not turning in rares.
~· Fly with the Subspace Eddies! ·~
One of the worst aspects of this is that here we are all arguing. For those of us negatively impacted this makes a bad situation all the more frustrating by having to repeatedly explain why/how we are negatively impacted.
"this idea that everyone ranked 1000-1200 was just going to swap spots with those ranked 800-1000 is wishful thinking." - This is a straw man.
@DB: Do Better For The Many ·§ë· already explained the difference between what we are saying and what you are saying we are saying several times above.
But, hey, two can play this game:
I think there's this assumption being made that nobody would have switched brackets in the last 5 minutes. That's wishful thinking.
Voyage Estimator Tool thread
And you should get the achievement of rank one as well because... if we’re going to ask for the Moon might as well go all the way right?
100 percent agree.
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Yeah, my bad as I probably wasn’t articulate enough in my post. I’m not contending that people weren’t negatively impacted. I believe that some certainly were. I think they should submit a ticket and be awarded fair compensation.
But, I think just moving everyone up a tier does reward players at a certain level they would not have achieved regardless of the crash.
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The outage helped those that were done playing the event early, and it hurt those that still had resources to play the event to the end. So yeah, you bet a lot of players would've switched brackets in those last 10 minutes. An unannounced early finish is 100% DB's fault. It is now impossible to determine who would've made the next reward tier and who wouldn't. Apparently those that were done playing early got the benefit of the doubt from DB by being allowed to keep their ranked rewards, while those that planned for a swift rise to the top close to the end got the shaft.
Tuesday was a work day for me, and I pulled over to log in with plenty of time to get my Troi, not to mention the hours and hours of tapping away to 623k VP in advance, and all that time went to waste because DB can't afford more servers? Their fault! They owe me! They advertised incorrect finish time, and now they refuse to rectify their mistake.
What's more concerning is that they don't understand the impact of this treatment. It's not like I'm about to go pull 10-20 event packs and get my Troi that way. I'm now more inclined to do the exact opposite - cease all spending and play less or not at all. How is that not common sense for Erin and her staff? And then the Picard insult made things even worse, of course. It's like they're trying to lose players.
Apology accepted.
I think it's splitting hairs somewhat whether DB chooses to compensate everybody for the bracket uncertainty like OP suggests or whether they do it only for those submitting tickets. I'd be okay with either.
The former (algorithmic bracket bump) seems like it might be easier, at least (some dev resources, but less CS resources, and less player hassle too). It'd also help those that for whatever reason didn't bother to open a ticket.
It's kind of interesting that what you're saying here against "blanket" compensation across entire brackets is basically the same as the outcry about Picard comp being inappropriate (aside from the FF issue). It's a matter of degree. Bumping brackets would be far more "appropriate" than giving every single player a Picard.
I think I've suggested before elsewhere already that it doesn't have to be entire brackets, nor every every bracket. There might be some compromise that minimizes unhappiness around ranks 1-3k (plus a bit below 3k). The top tiers function pretty differently and don't move as rapidly. Yes, I realize that.
So far (to my knowledge) nobody has gotten a Troi from CS. I've had an open ticket about it since before Picard was sent out as "compensation" (CS's words). I even suggested up front that I would also accept a refund of the sorrytons I opened before the crash specifically to get Troi.
Voyage Estimator Tool thread
Wow, that doesn't even come close to fair. I would never accept a resolution like that, even if they tripled the amount of refunded chrons. I spent my time playing. You can't get that back no matter what. Next reward tier or no deal.
I agree that it's not fair. I was willing to take an unfair outcome to avoid drawing this out, etc.
Voyage Estimator Tool thread
The server crash is entirely on the content provider, not the content consumers. In retrospect, what may have been the best course of action, and one we can push DB to adopt as a universal rule in the future, is to have paused the event - meaning if the game goes down at any time (specifically the end), just have the event pause (they've done this before if you remember Prime Directive) and wait for the servers to stabilize and for all players to be able to log in without lag. Put it up in the MoTD that the event is paused and will resume at XX:XX time, and the end of the event will be 15 mins later. That, to me, seems like the most proactive and fair to all treatment should this ever happen again.
Sadly, that won't fix what happened Monday. I can't offer any help other than to say I support you guys in your struggle/quest to get what you feel is just.
Indeed! And coincidental as finishing first in an event is my last game goal. But seriously if they moved everyone up a bracket I have to admit that it’s not an accurate assessment of every players situation. As I said before I most likely benefitted from the crash. To give me the rewards of the reward tier above me would be to give me something I am not entitled to. I would take them for sure but I will go on record here as being an honest person and saying I don’t deserve it. Please don’t take it as me saying others don’t because I am not at all. I’m sure there are people who could have rose a tier and they should be upset. However the raising everyone a tier solution is something made up by players on the forum. It was never suggested by the company. I am pretty sure they are not even coming close to considering doing it
We all know the swirling icon of death could happen at any time. This and oversleeping to the point where I miss the chance are the reasons I don’t wait to claim the rare rewards. You never know if something will happen and you don’t get a chance to turn them in
All good! I agree that ideally everyone would be compensated (or not) more precisely. Unfortunately, many captains have already sent tickets for it and been denied and given up, or for other reasons are under the impression that they won't be compensated, and will just be disappointed but stay anyways or walk away. Most probably don't read the forums to know.
If it's either/or - I'd rather that some captains get rewards that they might not have earned, for the sake of other captains getting covered for what that they did and sorely miss - than both not.
Maybe a good solution would be for it to communicated in an in-game announcement and-or mail, so that the word gets out to more players who are in the dark about it -- that they can write in, verify rank, and receive appropriate comp. It would take more time but I think it's the right thing to do. (and maybe will encourage DB to not do server pushes during events and so forth)
That was the intent, that it might be our best compromise between what's appropriate and what's most resource efficient, while avoiding shutting out players for not writing tickets (or keep battling requests already denied).
Yes about matter of degree. + for a game-wide "oops sorry for all the issues this month" apology surprise, I don't mind something that everyone can use, regardless of how much individuals participated - like dilithium or a good batch of honour (and I hope by now it's clear that if it's to be a mega-event legendary, only at the very beginning of the month).
That would be a separate thing, not instead of actually compensating a more specific group of captains affected by an issue.
I think that's better than entire brackets if possible.
~· Fly with the Subspace Eddies! ·~
Dear CS,
Apparently those that were affected by the outage are not getting the proper compensation for being unable to play the event to the end. Still, I will attempt to present my case, so here goes nothing.
My final rank was 1037. The victory points amount required for rank 1000 was slightly over 628,000. My event participation was interrupted by the outage at slightly over 623,000 victory points. Having claimed a 1,000 chroniton email with 10 minutes remaining in the event, my placement in the top 1000 was practically guaranteed. I could've easily built 5 complete recipes and would've cashed in 15 rare rewards in those 10 minutes. That would've amounted to at least 10,000 extra victory points. And if that proved not enough for rank 1000, I would have been able to craft a few more recipes have I been given until 12:00pm eastern time, as that is when the end of the event was announced.
The entire Mirror Mega Event I played in preparation for the finale, leveled bonus crew, timed my sessions between family and work, all to be able to win a worthy character at the end. Mirror Troi seemed to have good enough gauntlet stats for me to persist in the final event through the holidays. I spent hours upon hours acquiring victory points for rank 1000 or better. I was well on track for my desired rank.
Your servers cut my participation short. A failure on DB's part cost me my Mirror Troi. While the Mirror Picard compensation sent out to absolutely everyone might have made some people happy, it was not a fair compensation for the time and effort I invested into the event. The outage prevented me from completing the event at my desired rank with plenty of resources left to achieve it. This is unacceptable to me.
All the players that have ended their event participation early and remained in the top 1000 because of the outage were allowed to keep their rewards. In final 10 minutes of a galaxy event a lot of people lose their rank unexpectedly, knocked out by the players that play to the end, yet DB gave those players the benefit of the doubt, and those that planned to push at the end were not given such benefit.
Please understand what this means. Not only my time and effort amounted to nothing, my desire to play the game is at an all time low as well. You're alienating your most dedicated players by not recognizing their efforts in the event. The server crash ended the event early, and the entire 120 hours of competitive event play went down the drain for some players. We were not competing for Mirror Picard, we were ignoring our families, jobs, and the holidays for Mirror Troi.
Please consider my request to exchange the emailed Mirror Picard for a Mirror Troi. I have no interest in Mirror Picard. I wouldn't have wasted my time on Mirror Picard. It is not fair for you to make that choice for me, especially when everyone else got the exact same compensation.
We are well into the next event, yet this issue is still being actively discussed on the forums. That is because no appropriate compensation has been issued for players that aimed for top 1000, and were well on track to get there, if not for the outage. I urge you to reconsider the decision to ignore similar requests. By awarding us fair compensation in the form of Mirror Troi you could still earn the respect of your players.
I don't make empty threats like ceasing spending on the game. In fact, I have already done that. A negative response, however, will further undermine your integrity as a developer and as a business, and I believe you've already hit rock bottom as far as that goes. But if you honor my request and follow suit with a few more dozen players that were affected by the outage in a similar way, all three of my accounts will go right back on the monthly card, and I'm sure others would appreciate the gesture by increasing their spending. I do hope you make the right move here and restore the players' faith in DB as a great company.
Frank is right, DB should implement a procedure like that in case of server outage during the end of an event. While we can all catch up (with some discomfort and effort) if a disruption appears in the middle or at the start of an event like in the last hybrid faction/expedition event, there's no way to catch up if it happens at the end of the event.
It would assure players to know there are some procedures in place to resolve problems as they appear instead of receiving some apologetic gift that doesn't cover for the wrong received.
Just to be pedantic: a copy of 5* Picard which wasn't ranked reward doesn't cover for missing out on specific ranked rewards: 5* Troi and 4* Janeway.
Instead the situation right now is that we have to overshoot a rank goal in case of a major screw up, losing sleep and resources and for many also money, or to lose interest in the game and play casually or not at all so we can't get angry if another major problem comes up.
In the meantime we're reaching the end of another event and in my fleet some are still waiting for adequate compensation for the previous one. DB "encouraged" us into joining fleets to be more competitive instead of running solo. Good job, we now have a place to build a community. It doesn't mean only upgrading core stats and proficiencies, it also means taking actions together and to show solidarity one another in cases like this. Fleets working as intended?
I agree with what Frank did say. I don't agree with what he didn't say. Underlining added above.
He said that pausing the game would be the most fair solution. He didn't say pausing the game would be an absolutely fair solution. Too many variables. There would always need to be considerations for individual situations, but the idea is a great place to start.
I don't think there will be a completely fair solution ever that will work across the board, but if you can catch most then its doing a really good job.
Proud Former Officer of The Gluten Empire
Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
How was the big pause handled in the infamous first galaxy?
I was only there for the resume and I was a new player not sure wth was going on....