Reducing server demand during Faction Events by changing the time an open mission remains open.
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And the change to the number of unique faction mission is being made as an effort to reduce server lag during events. We will evaluate the effects and make changes as necessary.
I think that DB doesn't properly assess changes before making changes. This discussion is an attempt to explore a possible change, that will reduce server demand. This regarding the effect to and opinions of DB's customers.
When a faction mission is opened it has a Time To Live (TTL). This time counts down and, if the mission is not launched, the mission is deleted. Whilst this mission is 'live' it takes up an entry (space) in the database which affects the server load. Reducing the number of open missions reduces server load.
I am looking for opinions as to whether this TTL should be reduced (for Faction Events only) from the current value of 12 hours and if so to what amount of time? What differences would that make to you. Why should DB leave it as it is? Would the number of open missions be reduced?
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That being said, scaling up due to demand should have been the next step, as more demand should be resulting in more paying players and AD watchers.
Perhaps all open missions should close at a point after which the 2hr 30 min dilate could result in normal return, I.e. half an hour before the end of an event.
I don't see that the number open towards the end of an event being an issue . If it is however then a pan event reduction in TTL would reduce total numbers of missions at the end of an event.
Would you like a 1hr, 3hr, 6hr TTL or do you like 12 hrs as it is? Can you think of another way to reduce server load at the start or end of an event?
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It's not just server, but database and other aspects. Lol frankly this could all be databases without proper indexes for all we know.
Specialists from end to end analyzing.
I'm sorry but this doesn't make sense to me. If the goal is to get better server performance, and there is no causality to think that TTL helps nor hinders, what weight does the discussion have? It's like, hey we want our boats to sink less, lets try painting them purple!
I think, basically, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Leave it be at 12, unless there is a compelling reason to change.
True that.... but so you would want DB to figure out their issues and solve them. We are not going to do it nor would I want to without getting paid. I think DB clearly decides to put money and effort in some aspects of the game and not in others.
I'd give them some of my expertise for a buttload of DS9 Packs
(Course it would take hundreds to guarantee a FF Niners Sisko....)
I could get behind that. The dynamic change of the opened missions, once they fix the refresh issue, would actually be logical.
Not having a jumpstart is not a major issue - reducing down shuttle choice and making it harder for players to find a good fit amongst the shuttles with respect to their individual crew is.
Based on experience, I don’t think TTL is the issue, but rather the RNG that picks the shuttle missions trying to find a mission that is not already open. It feels like it is pinging and pinging until it finds one that is not open. At first, opening missions isn’t too bad... then when you have 9 out of the available 10 open it feels like it takes an age to find that 10th mission. With everyone doing that at the same time to get a jumpstart you get the lag...
ASIDE:
Whilst we are talking about shuttles I’d really love to see a ‘reset honoured status’ button for each faction for normal shuttle missions. Effectively allowing the user to reset a faction to 0 difficulty. This would allow the user to manually reset the difficulty whenever the faction is at honoured status and for them to build the difficulty back up again. It would help players of all stages by allowing farming of some of the less likely to drop items. If DB want to limit it, maybe only one faction could be reset per day or something...
Time to climb the ladder m8'$
Just to make sure: faction reputation has no bearing on shuttle difficulty. Difficulty adjusts with successes and failures and has no causal relationship with reputation.
First thing to do is revise how success is calculated to give similar odds of success regardless of crew size. 5 man missions should get better odds of success than 3 man. It cuts the need to search out minimal crew missions.
Second would be to put a cool down timer after opening each 4 or 6 shuttles. It would be horrible from a player perspective but definitely discourage opening 10 to 20 missions per go.
Agreed. I wouldn’t have to keep 6-16 extra missions open if everything was a 2-3 seater with compatible skills. The only reason to keep missions fully opened is so you can keep running the same 4 shuttles each time quickly. That’s something that wouldn’t be necessary.
Above is your first answer.
To reduce the number of open missions thereby reducing server load, this because customers are cherry-picking the easiest missions, increase the rewards or success rate as the number of crew increases.
To reduce the server load at the start of a faction event allow customers to open (but not send) for a period prior to the start of an event. 1 hour say.
While I agree that could be useful (esp if I can also recall a mission without rewards for free or a small, non dil, cost), that would likely have no improvement on the server load.
The event would start at 12:00 server time Wednesday. Any player starting after 12:00 on Thursday would only have until 12:00 on Monday to complete. Any starting before 12:00 on Thursday would be given exactly 96 hours, and then have to wait for the results on Monday.
This would help players in some time zones, and the whales would still compete strategically.
Even a one or two hour buffer instead of a 24 hour buffer would help.
Adding features to reduce load rather than taking away flexibility is always more preferable, if the same goal is achieved. Adding features increases the number of strategies a player may employ.
Any measures to remove the kick-start strategy is ill-advised. Measures to ameliorate the server load of the kick-start strategy is what is required.
My current thoughts are that the best plan would be to have a one hour pre-event phase where missions could be opened but not launched. This would be followed by progressively increasing rewards for 2 - 5 crew missions over the base of a 1 crew mission. When the event starts there will be a load resulting from people sending missions but this would not be in conjunction with a significant load caused by people opening missions.
I do want to hear more ideas however.
A strategy implies choices and options. When it comes to the jump start, there are no other options. It doesn't deserve to be elevated to a strategy.
The strategy of picking and choosing shuttle missions has, however, changed. Choices have been reduced. This has not only changed the quick start but reduced the choices you have once the event is running.
However, it is unknown how badly this will affect players because we don't know whether there will be changes to how they assign crew slots to shuttles. At the moment, I only ever use 4 out of 10 / 20 / 30. So it may have some small impact but I'll still have 18 missions to choose from.
So it matters a bit how the shuttles are set up. Opening six and sending four will save me transmissions, and merits (over opening 10 and sending four). But if those missions are rubbish, I might end up opening 12 to pick the best four, costing me more.
Which will be annoying, but, it will also make a difference into what faction items I harvest and also the 'winning faction' results - which impacts the shuttles for the next four days but very little else, unless DB decides it is going to do something based on the fact a faction wins.
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Is this meticulous selection of shuttles the deciding factor on whether you attain a top 1000 rank or not? It isn't for me, so I just pick the faction with the best items and take what I get, minus 5 seaters. If you're in the same boat, I'd suggest saving yourself stress and merits by doing the same.