Good bye testserver

[Wulfkiller]

I'd like to wish everyone well that's playing on test server. The continual crashing to desktop I keep getting no matter what I do has finally made me say enough. After completely reloading and repatching did nothing to resolve the problem on a complete reformat and reinstalled OS I've still crashed cutting trees, crafting or even going down a path.

The live servers are not even an option as I get no crashing but I keep getting tells and mail from gold sellers.

Now a major point I feel need to be addressed is the lack of crafting communication between the test server and the crafting devs. Why bother to put new crafting code on the test server if no one from that section reads the tests server "Official Forums"?

Vanguard has a lot of promise, if it can deliver on that promise in the future I may come back and try again.

Franc 24 cleric/23 armorer
Flyt 18 ranger/25 carpenter ship builder of Thestran Sloops for test server
Flyter 30 druid/25 tailor

[capricious]

So sorry to see this post Franc, you will be sorely missed

[Naiya]

awww Flyt you will be missed man

[Ysharros]

Wish I could say I blame you. Sometimes supporting the fly-ridden bloatiness that is Vanguard feels like a huge mistake. But hey, adding stuff sure beats fixing what's currently wrong (yes, I know that's facile, but I've been crashing in Vanguard since last SEPTEMBER so this is not a new issue). I can't understand how an issue which has made so many people quit in the last few months hasn't been visbily given priority other than the usual mealymouthed "Oh, we're working on it, honest." Fixing the bug 50 people are experiencing is all very well, but on the other side of that are 500 who left because they weren't willing to accept that crashing 3 times in a half hour is normal gameplay. Hrmph.

Pop back in a few months and see how it's going!

[Purr]

*hugs Wulfkiller*

Mur~ and me can't blame you either.

We play a little bit on Infineum, but not even half as much as we did with EQ/EQ2. The gold sellers don't bother us since we usually have /tell off (got smart after getting killed once to often while looking at a dumb tell).

Test is out for us since we crash about once every 15 minutes while on Inf the only crashes we experience happen when chunking while grouped. And then rarely...
We also appreciate being able to buy stuff via broker without having to visit all continents as well as grouping even at our crazy times. And yes, I like the crafting system in Vanguard, but I'm not up for making one of each flavor again myself. Been there, done that.

The only possibility for us to come back to test would be if the class/race choices would be relaxed (I'd love to get a Kura Bard, BM or Shaman going) AND the constant crashes would get fixed. Wiping all the chars never played since open beta would sure be a plus too, but mostly it's the crashes that we just don't want to deal with anymore. And before somebody gives us the smart lip about Test being Test: We played EQ1 and EQ2 Test since it launched, we know what Test Servers are like. Vanguard has a long way to go in that regard, and seriously, some of the posts from SoE staff let me doubt that it will get there soon.

Nevertheless we hope *crosses claws* only for the best for this game. We love the wide, open world, the flying mounts etc. - We hope SoE get's the game to deliver what it sure has the potential for.

Mur~ and Purr~

[Ysharros]

There aren't many who will give lip about Test being Test in response to a well thought-out post. Oddly enough, I crash *less* on Test than any other server. Go figure.

Anyway I thought this might be of interest if Flyt is still checking in -- at least here -- now and then:

We are also working on improving performance across the board. Programming is working on optimizations while Art is optimizing all the NPC humanoids. When the latter is completed, you should see a significant boost in performance whenever you see NPC’s. The Design department is fixing bugs as fast as they can in addition to adding Raid content to the game.

It's from Dave Gilbertson's Producer's Letter over on the Official forums. It's not a magic crash-fixing bullet, sadly, but I'm not sure one of those actually exists. If they can optimise and spread the load so that crashing is at least significantly reduced, especially for those of us experiencing 2-6+ crashes on an average day of play, it would certainly be a help.

[Aredhel]

Something must be wrong with me.

I can still count the number of times I've crashed out of VSoH on one hand...any server!

[Naiya]

Originally Posted by Aredhel

Something must be wrong with me.

I can still count the number of times I've crashed out of VSoH on one hand...any server!

it's the avatar - it scares the server... I mean LOOK at it!

[Kulak]

I've said this more than once but I'l repeat it, well because I can.

Crashes to Desktops. I use multiple computer with different configurations so I get lots of feedback in reguards to what works and what doesn't. It's much better than just having one.

In every case I have I can stop repeated crashes in the same area (not chunking but just staying in the same chunk) by just changing the texture quality. Apparently in some areas some textures just don't work. Therefore someone who plays on Medium Quality Texture would just have less crashes and can not understand why this other person crashes all the time.

Originally I had 3 computers that crashed all the time. I would go into dungeon and 2 of them would crash at the exact moment. Or I would turn a corner and BAM 3 computers bite the dust. But wait, I have more than 3 computers, why didn't the other 3 bite the dust???

Turns out texture quality was the answer. Yes the computers run slower and have some hitching issues but CTD are down significantly. I now only CTD if I decide to run across a few zones and I'm pretty sure that's a memory/resource allocation problem that is outside my control (well other than camping every few changes in chunks.)

I hope this information helps some people. I know it works. Doesn't solve everything, but still is significant.

[Ysharros]

It does work Kulak, to a very large extent. But it doesn't seem to stop them all, and of course it doesn't stop the dreaded memory leak. Between your texture advice and the stuff Naiya posted I actually managed to play for 6 hours in various chunks without a single crash -- that's got to be a first. That was, however, on Live. On Test, since the last patch, it's been pretty nasty again. :|