Lighthouse_NA

This morning's server maintenance went very smoothly and was over in only 2 hours time. All servers are up and available for play.

[ QUOTE ]
If you some how crash, get disconnected unintentionally while these lock outs are in effect. Will one have priority in the queue? I'd hate to be doing a RWZ or something and not be able to get back in.

Guess I'll have to resort to regular missions.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is not a queue to enter a locked server. What will happen is the server will go grey and unavailable once it reaches a certain player count threshold. As people log off and the server player count falls below another threshold, it will then go back to being available and allowing log ins.

The threshold for locking the server is configurable on the fly without a server restart, so we will be watching and adjusting as necessary. I do want to reiterate that we hope to be able to accommodate everyone who wants to play. The work that has been done over the last months to build up to this point should pay off in that regard. But we won't really and truly know until everyone piles on and starts playing.

Please use this thread to discuss the below announcement:


Hi everyone,

I wanted to discuss with you the latest in our efforts to have the servers in tip top shape for this coming Double XP weekend. As we announced in the 2008 State of the Game, we recently made a considerable re-investment back into the game through upgrading our server hardware. The upgrade process has been completed and the servers are all running smoothly. On Thursday, February 7th, we will have an additional maintenance period (as announced here) to make some additional optimizations in preparation to turn on Double XP on Friday.

For those who haven’t been around for previous Double XP weekends, these events have great turn out – a significant portion of our subscribers turn out to play, and they play for longer periods. The above improvements have been done in part to prepare the servers to handle the expected load. Ideally, we want everyone to be able to log into the server of their choice and have a great time playing the game. However, the servers still do have upper limits. We expect that we can accommodate more players than we have ever before, but if, for example, 10,000 players all decide that Freedom is the place to play, the server simply wouldn’t be able to hold them all.

With that in mind, we want to let you know that it may become necessary for us to lock servers should they reach player counts that result in a degradation in performance. We will be watching the servers closely throughout the weekend and if gameplay starts to suffer because of load, we will lock them from additional players logging onto them. We want you to be aware of this; especially those who are planning on playing on the Freedom and Virtue servers. It may not become necessary - and we hope so with the improvements and work done.

We’ll keep you informed of the situation as the weekend progresses. As always, thanks for your continued support and patronage!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to discuss with you the latest in our efforts to have the servers in tip top shape for this coming Double XP weekend. As we announced in the 2008 State of the Game, we recently made a considerable re-investment back into the game through upgrading our server hardware. The upgrade process has been completed and the servers are all running smoothly. On Thursday, February 7th, we will have an additional maintenance period (as announced here) to make some additional optimizations in preparation to turn on Double XP on Friday.

For those who haven’t been around for previous Double XP weekends, these events have great turn out – a significant portion of our subscribers turn out to play, and they play for longer periods. The above improvements have been done in part to prepare the servers to handle the expected load. Ideally, we want everyone to be able to log into the server of their choice and have a great time playing the game. However, the servers still do have upper limits. We expect that we can accommodate more players than we have ever before, but if, for example, 10,000 players all decide that Freedom is the place to play, the server simply wouldn’t be able to hold them all.

With that in mind, we want to let you know that it may become necessary for us to lock servers should they reach player counts that result in a degradation in performance. We will be watching the servers closely throughout the weekend and if gameplay starts to suffer because of load, we will lock them from additional players logging onto them. We want you to be aware of this; especially those who are planning on playing on the Freedom and Virtue servers. It may not become necessary - and we hope so with the improvements and work done.

We’ll keep you informed of the situation as the weekend progresses. As always, thanks for your continued support and patronage!


To discuss this announcement, join us here.

On Thursday, February 7th starting at 4 AM Pacific (7 AM Eastern) the servers will come down for maintenance. We expect this downtime to last for 4 hours and the servers to return to service at 8 AM Pacific (11 AM Eastern).

This unusual maintenance period is to conduct additional maintenance in preparation for the coming Double XP Weekend. By conducting this maintenance now, we can minimize the duration of the maintenance necessary on Friday to start up Double XP. There will still be downtime on Friday, but that should be brief and is only necessary to start the Double XP period.

To discuss this announcement, join us on the Technical Forums.

If you haven't visited the NCsoft Jobs Page, now might be the time to take another look.

As part of our commitment to provide excellent service and a quality play environment, the Community Team is hiring additional moderator positions. If you sort the jobs listing, you will see the open positions in Mountain View and find the Online Forum Moderator positions.

Click here to vist the NCsoft Jobs Page

The Forum Moderator positions are located at the NCNC Studios in Mountain View, CA. They are entry level positions and relocation packages are not available for them. They become available starting in April, 2008.

If you are interested in these positions, please fill out the online application via the NCsoft Jobs Page.

Thanks!


PS. Since I've had a few inquiries via PM I'll just post here to say that, while these moderator positions have very flexible working hours, they are not available to be done remotely. We want you to actually come in and do your work in the NCNC studio location in Mountain View, CA.

Great stuff! Very nicely done

Wow, that's a great piece! Even on my widescreen monitor, it's hard to do it justice with so much to see in the image!

All servers are up and available for play!

At 11:55 AM Pacific (2:55 PM Eastern) the West Coast Servers will come down for emergency maintenance. This includes:

Justice
Virtue
Guardian
Protector
Champion
Training Room

We are working to have the servers come back up as quickly as possible and anticipate the downtime will last no more than 1 hour. Our apologies for the interruption in service.

As part a result of the extended maintenance of January 29th, as posted about here, users will not be able to post to the City of Heroes message forums starting at 6 AM Pacific. We anticipate that posting ability will resume by 7 AM Pacific.

We will be performing extended server maintenance on Tuesday, January 29th starting at 6 AM Pacific (9 AM Eastern). Below is the schedule of server availability (all times in Pacific):

6 AM – All servers come down

7 AM – West Coast Servers should come back online

This means the East Coast Servers will remain offline for the remainder of the maintenance window. The servers that will be down include:

Freedom
Pinnacle
Liberty
Infinity
Victory
Triumph

12 Noon – All servers available.

Servers Locked Until End of Maintenance
As maintenance is concluded on each of the above server they will show up green in the server select window. However, you will not be able to proceed past the character select screen, as the server will be locked. When a server is locked, users can expect to see the following message

[ QUOTE ]
Account <name> is not allowed on this server. Reason: This server is currently locked from public access while maintenance is completed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Our apologies for the length of this maintenance. This should conclude the downtime needed for the server improvements.

To discuss this announcement, join us on the Technical Forums.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
They usually run from Friday at noon (EST) to Sunday at noon (EST).

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think it has ever ended in the middle of the day on Sunday. It always goes at least until midnight. I think it usually goes until the scheduled maintenance Monday morning.

[/ QUOTE ]

Every event I've been in for the past few years in the game starts and ends with the maintenance cycles, whether its holiday or double xp.

[/ QUOTE ]

The above is correct. Usually, these events are triggered around the maintenance cycles.

However, the specific times of the event that we say will definitely be Double XP will be included in the promotional e-mail that will go out to support the event, so watch for that.

Anything outside of those times (if any) is just an added, unannounced bonus.

[ QUOTE ]

...will inactive accounts be reactivated? &lt;.&lt;

[/ QUOTE ]

No, there is not a reactivation component to this event.

[ QUOTE ]
Lots of fun! Will the Valentine's event be active then, or afterwards?

[/ QUOTE ]

Silly! Look at a Calendar Valentine's Day isn't until February 14th!

Please use this thread to discuss the below announcement:


Villains, prepare to plot your take over of the world in double time! Heroes, clean the streets of scum twice as fast! The ever popular Double XP weekend returns!

Starting on Friday, February 8th following our weekly maintenance period, all defeat rewards, including experience, prestige and influence or infamy will be doubled! This will continue through the weekend and conclude the night of Sunday, February 10th.

Villains, prepare to plot your take over of the world in double time! Heroes, clean the streets of scum twice as fast! The ever popular Double XP weekend returns!

Starting on Friday, February 8th following our weekly maintenance period, all defeat rewards, including experience, prestige and influence or infamy will be doubled! This will continue through the weekend and conclude the night of Sunday, February 10th.


To discuss this announcement, join us here.

We have a pretty exciting maintenance period tomorrow. As we’ve announced previously, we have a 6 hour server maintenance period scheduled for Thursday, January 24th starting at 6 AM Pacific (9AM Eastern). The maintenance being performed is being done on our West Coast Servers, however there will be service impacts of other related game services because of this.

Servers affected: Champion, Guardian, Justice, Protector, Virtue

While the above list of servers will be offline, we will also have interruptions to global services, including:

[*] Character Rename Service [*] Character Transfer Service [*] Global Chat [*] Consignment Market in-game Auctions [/list]The interruptions will be brief, but for anyone playing on the East Coast Servers that will be available during the maintenance window you may experience them, including:

[*] Disconnection from Global Chat Channels and/or a reset of your Global Chat Channels [*] No access to the Character Rename and Character Transfer Services [*] Inability to access items stored on the Consignment Markets, or to view or place bids on items for sale or place items up for sale. [/list]Again, these interruptions should be brief, but we want you to be aware of them so they do not take you by surprise.


West Coast Servers Locked
At the tail end of the West Coast Server maintenance period those servers will show that they are up, however the public will not be able to log into them. You will be able to connect to the server and get to the character select screen, but once you choose a character, you will not be able to log into the game.

This is for final testing of the new server hardware. Our apologies for any confusion this causes and in all of this our thanks for your understanding!


To discuss this announcement, please join us on the Technical Forums.

As we announced in the 2008 State of the Game post, we are in the process of re-investing in City of Heroes through upgrading our server hardware. With the prospect of another Double XP weekend coming and record numbers of players logging in to enjoy the game, we want to have everything in place to support a great play experience! To reach that goal, we've broken up our server maintenance schedule into several downtimes over the next two weeks and split the work across the different servers in an effort to minimize the impact of the work. Here are the details of what is happening this week:


Tuesday, January 22nd – West Coast Servers
West Coast Servers will be coming down for maintenance starting at 6 AM Pacific (9 AM Eastern) on Tuesday, January 22nd. This includes:

Champion
Guardian
Justice
Protector
Virtue

We anticipate the downtime will last 2 hours.


Tuesday, January 22nd – Training Room
The Training Room Test Servers will be coming down for maintenance starting at 11 AM Pacific (2 PM Eastern) on Tuesday, January 22nd.

We anticipate the downtime will last 2 hours.


Wednesday, January 23rd – East Coast Servers
East Coast Servers will be coming down for maintenance starting at 6 AM Pacific (9 AM Eastern) on Wednesday, January 23rd. This includes:

Freedom
Infinity
Liberty
Pinnacle
Triumph
Victory

We anticipate the downtime will last 2 hours.


Thursday, January 24th -West Coast Servers
West Coast Servers will be coming down for maintenance starting at 6 AM Pacific (9 AM Eastern) on Thursday, January 24th. This includes:

Champion
Guardian
Justice
Protector
Virtue

We anticipate the downtime will last 6 hours.


We likely will have some final work done during next week, which we will detail soon. To be clear, our objective is to have the server improvements completed before the end of January. This should allow us sufficient time to let the new stuff settle in before we run the Double XP Event and the Valentine’s Day Event. We will be announcing the details of those two February events in the near future as well, so stay tuned!

To discuss this announcement, join us on the Technical Forums.

And...we're back! Our apologies for the extended downtime today as well as the corresponding period where you could not post to the forums. We'll have additional details about the server hardware improvements and what else we have to do for those upgrades soon.

All US game servers will be brought down for maintenance on Monday, January 21st, starting at 6 AM Pacific (9 AM Eastern). We anticipate a 6 hour downtime. This extended downtime is needed as part of the server hardware improvements that were announced in the recent article: The 2008 State of the Game.

The Virtue Server is back up and available for play!

The Virtue Server is currently down for Emergency Maintenance. For updates on the server's status, visit the Server Status Page to see when the server is back up.

The Virtue Server will be coming down for Emergency Maintenance starting at 6:15 PM Pacific (9:15 PM Eastern). We anticipate the downtime to last up to 2 hours. Our sincere apologies for the continued interruption with Virtue. We are working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.

Billing note: as of Monday, January 7, 2008 we no longer accept JCB (Japan Credit Bureau) cards for payment. If you have any questions on this matter please be sure to contact our Account Support team by going to http://support.plaync.com. Then click the on the "Ask A Question" link at the bottom of the page.