Whats going on? How come AV cant get new servers? Is there a problem? What?

Originally posted by tro44_1

Whats going on? How come AV cant get new servers? Is there a problem? What?

they can get new servers any time they want to pony up some money for another. they don't even own the servers, they are just renting them from GNi....so for them not to make another server cluster active is beyond me.This launch is spiraling quickly out of control. And i can make a fairly good assumption that there are no more than 15k - 20k people who bought the game....

What he said was:

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Originally posted by miagisan

 
they can get new servers any time they want to pony up some money for another. they don't even own the servers, they are just renting them from GNi....so for them not to make another server cluster active is beyond me.This launch is spiraling quickly out of control. And i can make a fairly good assumption that there are no more than 15k - 20k people who bought the game....

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Translation: He doesn't know either.

Truth is, no one really knows. It's been stated they are short of funds; also that they are taking their time because they want to make sure they open the next servers up with more things ironed out. Another guess has it that they are keeping demand high for the game and that they are just bad at planning. Could be any of these or a combination of them.

Again no one knows for sure except Aventurine.

Tasos would have to buy another laptop if he wanted to give df a new serv. And considering how clueless about mmos hte people from av are it'll prolly take a year or two until they realise that you cant run 40k+ people on their serv and try to buy a new serv.

Here's one thing to consider: if they teamed up with a third-party company to handle payments, there could be a 1 month ( or even more ? ) delay before they get the sales funds transferred to their account ?

Originally posted by Nyast

Here's one thing to consider: if they teamed up with a third-party company to handle payments, there could be a 1 month ( or even more ? ) delay before they get the sales funds transferred to their account ?

I've never seen, read, or heard of that ever being an issue. Funds are usually transfered within a week. Now, depending on the size and scope of the servers being rented, it could take an additional few weeks to setup the system. Another potential problem that could happen (but usually doesn't unless the company is really terrible at planning, ie AV) is if they try and land a large deal last minute, their provider may not have enough available server resources to put it into effect immediately.

However, usually if it's a company renting servers, and they have a well thought out business agreement, the provider will try and deliver the service ASAP. Business' give them not only large orders, but they also tend to keep buying their service over a prolonged period of time.

Originally posted by tro44_1

Whats going on? How come AV cant get new servers? Is there a problem? What?

The answer to this question was posted by AshenHand in a different topic:

Originally posted by AshenHand
The current subscribers are funding the next set of servers. They don't have the operating cash to open up the servers they need for a full retail release, and they didn't have the cash to properly stress test their servers.

The problem is funds. Wich will be resolved by the current paying testers.

Come now. You can't expect Tasos to magic new Commodore 64's out of thin air.

Originally posted by TalRasha

Originally posted by tro44_1

Whats going on? How come AV cant get new servers? Is there a problem? What?

 

The answer to this question was posted by AshenHand in a different topic:

Originally posted by AshenHand
The current subscribers are funding the next set of servers. They don't have the operating cash to open up the servers they need for a full retail release, and they didn't have the cash to properly stress test their servers.

 

The problem is funds. Wich will be resolved by the current paying testers.

I don't understand this. If you have 7.000 peple playing. Plus around 5.000 people pissed off about queues. Plus what... 40.000 people willing to actually pay you 50$ each? that is 2 fucking milion dollars? And you say no no.. lets put that people on hold.. don't really want 2 milion dollars now. Really? You don't go to ING and tell them dude give me two more servers so i can  get 2 milion dollars and then I pay you?

Plus 600.000 dolars the next months.

Originally posted by altairzq

Originally posted by TalRasha

Originally posted by tro44_1

Whats going on? How come AV cant get new servers? Is there a problem? What?

 

The answer to this question was posted by AshenHand in a different topic:

Originally posted by AshenHand
The current subscribers are funding the next set of servers. They don't have the operating cash to open up the servers they need for a full retail release, and they didn't have the cash to properly stress test their servers.

 

The problem is funds. Wich will be resolved by the current paying testers.

I don't understand this. If you have 7.000 peple playing. Plus around 5.000 people pissed off about queues. Plus what... 40.000 people willing to actually pay you 50$ each? that is 2 fucking milion dollars? And you say no no.. lets put that people on hold.. don't really want 2 milion dollars now. Really? You don't go to ING and tell them dude give me two more servers so i can  get 2 milion dollars and then I pay you?

Plus 600.000 dolars the next months.

The only logical answer would be that they don't have that 2 milion dollar anymore. Probably used to pay debts.

I don't know, just guessing here. If they had the money, then they would have done like you suggested here.

Originally posted by TalRasha

Originally posted by altairzq

Originally posted by TalRasha

Originally posted by tro44_1

Whats going on? How come AV cant get new servers? Is there a problem? What?

 

The answer to this question was posted by AshenHand in a different topic:

Originally posted by AshenHand
The current subscribers are funding the next set of servers. They don't have the operating cash to open up the servers they need for a full retail release, and they didn't have the cash to properly stress test their servers.

 

The problem is funds. Wich will be resolved by the current paying testers.

I don't understand this. If you have 7.000 peple playing. Plus around 5.000 people pissed off about queues. Plus what... 40.000 people willing to actually pay you 50$ each? that is 2 fucking milion dollars? And you say no no.. lets put that people on hold.. don't really want 2 milion dollars now. Really? You don't go to ING and tell them dude give me two more servers so i can  get 2 milion dollars and then I pay you?

Plus 600.000 dolars the next months.

 

The only logical answer would be that they don't have that 2 milion dollar anymore. Probably used to pay debts.

I don't know, just guessing here. If they had the money, then they would have done like you suggested here.

What I mean is that those 2 milion dollars are in the pockets of the people that want to buy the game and can't right now. I imagine they being 40.000, for a total of 50.000 players, counting around 10.000 that bought the game already.

Originally posted by altairzq

 

What I mean is that those 2 milion dollars are in the pockets of the people that want to buy the game and can't right now. I imagine they being 40.000, for a total of 50.000 players, counting around 10.000 that bought the game already.

Ah okay, I misunderstood.

But they can't let more people create accounts without the extra servers. Else people would really get outraged with the login queue.

So they would need the servers first before they can accept new customers.

One would say that it's a solid bussiness case and that they could easily get someone to invest in this. Apparently they can't.

Originally posted by TalRasha

Originally posted by altairzq

 

What I mean is that those 2 milion dollars are in the pockets of the people that want to buy the game and can't right now. I imagine they being 40.000, for a total of 50.000 players, counting around 10.000 that bought the game already.

 

Ah okay, I misunderstood.

But they can't let more people create accounts without the extra servers. Else people would really get outraged with the login queue.

So they would need the servers first before they can accept new customers.

One would say that it's a solid bussiness case and that they could easily get someone to invest in this. Apparently they can't.

Let's not forget that their initial investors waited quite a long time for a return on their investment.  They finally are going to get paid and they are not going to be inclined to sink more money into the company until they see if tehy are just throwing good money after bad. 

Similarly new investord are not going to put money into the company if there is already a slew or original investors waiting to get paid ahead of them.

 They could always ask the deicated fans to pay in cash. Money in a suitcase is a bit more flexible if you have creditors breathng down your kneck.

 The official answers are (emphasis mine):

We won’t try to support more users than we can guarantee a good gameplay experience for, and if demand is higher than supply, then we will move to a structured release. It’s also not a matter of simply throwing up a few more servers to meet increased demand. Darkfall being a sandbox, real-time, seamless world able to support over 10 thousand concurrent users requires considerably more infrastructure and support in place than your average MMOG. We will do what is necessary to support the demand, but it’s not going to be instantaneous. (Source)

and

03-13-2009, 04:30 PM

Tasos Darkfall Developer   Join Date: Jan 2003

Friday March 13th The queue times players are experiencing during prime-time hours the last couple of days are only temporary. They are due to the large number of new players that have entered the game this week. This made us reach a threshhold. Everyone wants to be online a lot, and to add to this, the starting areas are congested. It does help to bind away from the starting areas but currently during prime-time hours this isn't enough to avoid the queues.  We expect to have queuing issues this weekend especially around prime-time hours, but starting next week you will see a vast improvement as we considerably upgrade the capacity of our server cluster.  We apologize for the queuing and we want you to know that we're working non-stop to eliminate it. In the meanwhile we won't offer more copies of the game until this is resolved early next week.  We continue to aggressively detect and permanently ban exploiters using third party programs. We would like to assure the player-base that we're committed to protecting the game from these kinds of exploits. If you install and use one of these programs you will be permanently banned.  Thank you, The Darkfall Team __________________ Last edited by Tasos; 03-13-2009 at 04:31 PM..

Then, there are other issues like:

Running guards have been replaced by guard towers because they are more effective and also because more NPCs in the world just take up player spots.

I suspect the quote above is why there are very few NPCs and no fauna in the world, in other words, why many players have reported the huge, gorgeous world feeling "barren".  Additional NPCs and fauna might take up player spots, too.  If this is an issue, it doesn't speak well to Aventurine's ability, in general, at least for sizing their optimum concurrent server population.  Using the "but it's a PVP game, not a PVE game" mantra is just a crutch, since right now there are too many players taking up player spots.  The players stuck in queues are definitely not experiencing the guaranteed "good gameplay".

There's also the "it's only a niche game - they're an indie developer" mantra, for which I call shenanigans.  Who releases a game that has been at least 8 years (total) in the making to a single game world with a max concurrent population of 10k users?  That's not a niche game, it's a private server.  A niche MMO would have a small population, yes, but not that small.  Wizard101 is a niche game (designed for kids and with unique gameplay) by an indie developer (ex-Shadowbane developers who formed their own studio) who got their game out the door in < 3 years, have added servers and who recently announced and celebrated their millionth unique account after being live for about 6 months.   Yes, it doesn't have a huge, beautiful, empty world that can hold thousands of players.  So what?  KingsIsle, Inc is an indie developer who proved they could deliver.  Aventurine is still trying to do so.

What truly caused the problems? None of us, outside of Aventurine employees, know for sure.  Those of us who have experience in business, especially those of us who've worked for companies that ran of of money/went under (I worked for two such companies - the first time I was caught by surprise, the second I was able to recognize the signs and protect myself before they went under) feel like we are "seeing the writing on the wall", because we recognize many of the same symptoms:  poor communication, promises, sudden changes in policy (announcing pre-orders 1 week before the original go live date, when previously Aventurine stated they hoped they wouldn't have to do pre-orders), rushing the product out the door (it clearly wasn't properly stress tested).  All that being said, is it a certainty that Aventurine is having financial difficulties?  No, but there's a good probabllity.  Hopefully, they can iron their issues out--financial, or not--as quickly as possible. Personally, I really want them to succeed.

~Ripper

Originally posted by popinjay

What he said was:

 

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Originally posted by miagisan

 

 
they can get new servers any time they want to pony up some money for another. they don't even own the servers, they are just renting them from GNi....so for them not to make another server cluster active is beyond me.This launch is spiraling quickly out of control. And i can make a fairly good assumption that there are no more than 15k - 20k people who bought the game....

---

 

 

Translation: He doesn't know either.

Truth is, no one really knows. It's been stated they are short of funds; also that they are taking their time because they want to make sure they open the next servers up with more things ironed out. Another guess has it that they are keeping demand high for the game and that they are just bad at planning. Could be any of these or a combination of them.

Again no one knows for sure except Aventurine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do know, Aventurine is more broke than a soup cracker. Tasos released his game still in its beta just like all the other mmo's that did the same thing who ran out of cash. The goal is to make cash with your mmo, its a business, Tasos does not care about you or anyone. Do not think that Tasos is taking his time bringing you a great game, after all they had close to a decade to do so. Tasos is nothing more than a bullshit artist. I am sure it will not be long before Aventurine goes under either selling the game off or just closing it down. I wonder how many people's credit cards will get charged after Aventurine closes shop. I am sure Tasos will give no word to his community before doing so just to steal the extra cash.

 It will be intresting to see if   "considerably upgrade the capacity of thier server cluster" actually scales in the way they anticipated. Of course not doing proper  stress testing (probablly not any unless you believe the AI robot nonsense) does not bode well.

this is almost becoming comical to watch. AV just keeps shooting their foot repeatedly.

And where did that 27 mil of investor money go? and yes, copying the world DB and opening up a second server cluster IS that easy, most COMPETANT mmorpg companies can get other servers online in 24-48 hours.

Originally posted by miagisan

this is almost becoming comical to watch. AV just keeps shooting their foot repeatedly.

And where did that 27 mil of investor money go? and yes, copying the world DB and opening up a second server cluster IS that easy, most COMPETANT mmorpg companies can get other servers online in 24-48 hours.

I used to think they secured 20 million euros (27 million USD at the time) in investor money, but I'm not sure that's the case.  Here's a quote:

Established in 1863, Lambadarios Law Of?ces has had an
encouraging year advising Chandris Hotels on a bond loan to
?nance the construction of a new hotel in Thessaloniki for €40
million, acting for Aventurine in relation to its issue of a €20
million convertible bond loan with Mar?n Bank.

~Ripper

Originally posted by beaverz

Tasos would have to buy another laptop if he wanted to give df a new serv. And considering how clueless about mmos hte people from av are it'll prolly take a year or two until they realise that you cant run 40k+ people on their serv and try to buy a new serv.

it's not a laptop, it's a Commodore 64

and it takes a while to load the DF server from a tape drive, so given them a chance!! sheesh!!!