Schedule of Pain

Volunteers wanted

from GalCiv2 Forums

According to the universal code of PC game launches game developers must ensure:

All games, products, and or services that are distributed or rely on a digital/on-line component (e.g. the "Internet") must have a disastrous first few days of availability to ensure that the entire release is tainted.

The level of disaster and general failure of said service must be inversely proportional to the amount of time, effort, and testing that went in to trying to avoid the mandatory fate.

However, the rules do not specify WHEN this disaster must occur.  So there's some wiggle room.  So rather than having the "disaster" and "nightmare" be on Galactic Civilizations II's release date we would like to move it back to be a week BEFORE the release.

So here is what we have in mind:

Tomorrow, February 14th we will open the doors to allow all the existing beta users to begin pre-loading the game. You won't be able to play it as it's just grabbing all the big data files. But it will make sure that on release date your download is only a couple of megs.

For your convenience we will go ahead and create the appropriate posts which will be entitled:

  • "Download woes"
  • "Stardock sucks"
  • "Yet ANOTHER problem! HELLO?!"

On Wednesday, February 15th, ALL users who pre-ordered will then have their orders processed and be able to begin preloading the game as well.  New forum threads will be created:

  • "Where's my email?!"
  • "Stardock drops the ball...AGAIN!"
  • "Class-action lawsuit may be needed"
  • Yep, it's a cluster you-know-what!
  • Didn't they test this?!?!!?111
  • Game is d0med!!!!1

The major issues on Tuesday will be making sure that the updated Stardock Central works, that it handles existing customers well, and that our new server farm is doing what we expect it to (i.e. not timing out on downloads, extracting the files properly, etc.).

The major issues on Wednesday will vary between people who don't get the email with the serial #s and links, can't get their serial #s to work, and of course the people who didn't read any of this, download the thing and are mad because when they click on the icon it thanks them for preloading the game and that the actual final EXE will be available on February 21.

As far as we can tell, everything should go smoothly.  We've gone over it over and over again.  But with thousands of users suddenly jumping on at the same time and with all the different levels of network connection and of course all the people who have 3 different email addresses (i.e. we have two accounts - the Stardock.net account which lets you get on the forums and your order account, we keep them seperate because your order account has order info and that is not allowed by our internal policy to be used outside our store -- we keep that info under lock and key).  So just bear that in mind, if you ordered using one email address and have a different email address here, you may need to do a lookup (Which we'll have available here for you to do).

But the guidelines are clear: No electronic launch can be smooth.  So we figure it best to get it out of the way so that the actual release day is nice.

Strictly voluntary of course.  On Thursday, the floggings begin but there will be a sign-up sheet for that. My skin is very tender... !FROGCARE!

 

17,225 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks again for your awesome dedication to your customers. I can't wait!
As Bruce keeps singing: "It's gonna be alright!"

BTW, cute froggy!
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

DireFog: Yep, that's exactly what we're doing.  The Big chunks are basically streamed ZIPs.

P2P is something we hope to use if we get enough of an installed base.  It works great for things like WoW. Not so great if you don't have a ton of users.  We want to make sure users can download this thing at 300k per second if we can.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
sounds great - so can you tell me the best way to hack into it so i can run it early please:
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just make a wild mix of the downloaded files and an archived Beta and you'll be able to play... - something.

(No, kids: Don't try this at home! )
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
This has probably been asked before over and over again, but: what about a P2P distribution system like BitTorrent? Share the pain a little?

Stardock should at least consider making the data available as one big ZIP archive or creating a streaming protocol (perhaps tar?). Most of the download time is wasted on protocol overhead for all those little, packed files.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

As the next step in the schedule of pain, I am going to be publishing the Stardock Central 2.29 build this evening.

The initial installations with it are more or less the same, though it has some new code to try and failover to other servers in case of errors. It's major new addition revolves around how it handles updates in the future, which should be a lot faster to determine which files need to update and to attempt to get them from another server if it has problems with one.

There is liable to be a side-effect to this new update code, it's going to want to fetch some files for updates for already installed components even though they are already installed. Once its done that the first time, it shouldn't ask in the future.

Please CC problem reports with the new Stardock Central bits to [email protected] and [email protected]. We will be working on tweaking anything necessary in the coming day or two.

 

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
The Three Laws of Game Releases

1. A game may not launch smoothly or, through inaction, allow a smooth launch to come to be.
2. A game must obey programming given it by designers beings except where such programming would conflict with
the First Law.
3. A game must protect its profitably as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
So does "February 14" begin at 12:01 AM for Stardock ?
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Anyone got a wet Noodle ??


Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

We're targeting 2pm EST tomorrow.

Our IT department is currently under their desks in the fetal position.

T-man aka "Scotty" is scared about the new Stardock Central release because it's been getting so many updates to support the new server farm and to try to decrease support issues but it's not been widely tested (i.e. where thousands of users are pounding on it at once).

So sit back and enjoy the ride.  Tomorrow is going to be interesting...

Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
We're targeting 2pm EST tomorrow.


So is this a Valentine's Day gift to us who pre-ordered? A day of crashing servers and obnoxious posts? Thanks, Brad. I'll send you some dead roses...

Take me down little Susie, take me down
I know you think you're the Queen of the Underground
And you can send me dead flowers every morning
Send me dead flowers by the US mail
Say it with dead flowers at my wedding
And I won't forget to put roses on your grave
No I won't forget to put roses on your grave


That was from the Rolling Stones. A song called "Dead Flowers".

Gotta love it.

I'm ready for the worst! But I guess I should get some sleep...

NAW.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Only the beta testers get the beatings tomorrow.

Other customers get in on that action on Wednesday.

Nothing like a nightmare download day to eat up all the good will. Then at the end, there's no actual game yet until Feb 21.

It would make a great ad "All the pain and downloading of a major release but with no pesky reward at the end."

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Keep us posted on developments.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Only the beta testers get the beatings tomorrow.


Dang. And I wasted a perfectly fine Rolling Stones song...

::sigh::

Oh well. Guess I'll stay up late and sleep through the next few days. Anybody got NyQuil? I'll need a couple of bottles.

Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
That's great news.
One question: can I still play the beta i have on my computer once I start downloading the new files? I'd like to keep playing around with it, to pass the time... it makes the waiting easier...
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
I remember the initial release of Galciv 1, I was one of the lucky people whose operating system got fried. I hold no grudges and bravery... or maybe stupidity more likely is pushing me forward. Goodluck, though hopefully you won't need it.

Another benefit of your beta process is all us betas have got to know you guys as almost human or something. So, I am sure we will be almost moderate in our curses and whining throughout the craziness that may or may not happen. I will be anyway.

Goodluck,

.JG.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Citizen Nastavnik ...

That's great news.
One question: can I still play the beta i have on my computer once I start downloading the new files? I'd like to keep playing around with it, to pass the time... it makes the waiting easier...



I asked Brad this same question a few days ago. here is his response...


Yea, it will overwrite the beta.

Though if you really want to spoil yourself, you could save your galciv2.exe
and your lib3d.dll from beta 5 and then download the stuff and then copy
those back in. I have no idea what will happen but in theory you would be
able to play beta 5 with updated graphics. I'm not recommending this mind
you, I'm just saying.....
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top

Please do not try and mix and match files from the beta and the pre-load. It's not a buffet. As Brad says, it's not clear what would happen.

If you were to move your existing beta directory to a new location, you should be able to continue playing with it. While letting the pre-load content come down for a fresh install.

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
langev : thanks for the info
Nakor: Thks for the warning too. I'll do as you say. Even if it is only a beta it's still great and it would be a pity not to have it at least to pass the time until the 21st.
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
The update for GC2 to 1.0.004 took about 25 minutes, I had to set the Stardock Current Server to US - 4 to get things going but it went smooth after I did that.