I've been reading the shoutbox messages the last couple of days and have noticed that a lot of players are not happy with the current way of handling the downtime (and future problems). These are a couple of items I think could be improved upon. Here are a couple of problems i've noticed in these past days and possible solutions to these problems. Delegating work onto other developers Since i'm quite new at this server i'm not familiar with the whole staff. I've read a lot of posts about Kevin and how he's a 'programming rockstar'. I've also read that Kevin is the only programmer who is working on fixing the server, which is baffling to me seeing that there are more developers on the staff. The downtime could have been reduced significantly if the whole team was put to work. How this could be fixed I do not know why Kevin is the only programmer working on fixing the server, my best guess is that he is the only one familiar with the new code base. A possible fix for next time could be that before there is a major release, every developer should have familiarised him/herself with the changes. This would be beneficial not only on reducing the downtime of the server but also preventing from releasing bugs. It is always better to have multiple developers look at the source code, it prevents making mistakes. Transparency As a player who did not create a forum account since a couple of days ago, I was not able to read the shoutbox messages or shoutbox announcements. I was in the dark on what was happening with the server, read more about that here https://royals.ms/forum/threads/shoutbox-announcements.87216/. Even with having a forum account I wasn't aware of what was happening and why the server was offline, we got very vague messages on what was happening like 'Kevin is fixing the server'. How this could be fixed I suggest using a tool like Trello (free). Trello allows for the staff to organize everything that has to be done and the players to look what the process is on specific points. Players could even vote on what they would first want fixed. There are other tools like this but I have experience with Trello and I strongly recommend this. https://trello.com/ Another possible solution is having daily updates on the forum during a downtime like this. Just a simple post where someone posts what problems they encountered, what problems are fixed and what the status is. I think a lot of players would like to know how things are going and it would prevent from raging in the chat. Let me know what you think about these concerns.
Its not just Kevin that is working on the fix, although that is what seems to be implied. I'm sure that when they planned to transfer the new source over, everyone involved with its creation was as informed as they could be. For something of this size at least. As well as the fact that they gave an opportunity for everyone to help find bugs to fix. From what ive seen so far, I feel as though they have been as transparent as needed due to the fact that when it freezes, they don't know immediately what the problem is. Also there have been a couple updates on what has been fixed, and im sure there will be more as soon as they have finished. Also as long as here is downtime, there will be rage. https://royals.ms/forum/threads/patch-notes-05-01-2017.87186/page-4#post-458270 https://royals.ms/forum/threads/new-source-update-1-06-01-17.87258/page-2#post-459693 https://royals.ms/forum/threads/new-source-update-2-07-01-17.87311/
Which is beyond ridiculous since most of the people angry have absolutely zero idea unable to understand what is taking place right now with the ugprade to new source. Matts told them, apparently its just another language to most of the angry folks.
