View Full Version : Explorers/geologists bugged
frenkzmacolo
23.09.14, 09:21
Since maintenance, all of my eplorers and geologists are bugged. If i send explorer on treasure search, search time is displayed correctly as long as i stay on home island. If i leave or refresh browser, all search times are maxed out (skills that reduce search time dont work either).
Same here, all have a reduced time when sent, but leaving the island, logging out, not only removes the reduced time, but removes the reduced time from skills, resetting the search time to default settings. All my explorers are now taking LONGER to do their searches than normal. Not a happy kitty :(
Geologist search is bugged too. When searching gold deposit skills are not respected and... take longer time too.
Just noticed no reduced times on bean or artefact search, they are a form of treasure search so not sure why these searches are not reduced.
Also, sometimes you don't get the message in the news tab, whether or not a geologist found a new deposit.
Just noticed no reduced times on bean or artefact search, they are a form of treasure search so not sure why these searches are not reduced.
as mentioned by ravel in the info thread, rarity and artefact searches are not included, and stay the same
Ozzymandeus
23.09.14, 10:00
Pretty sure I am also suffering this on artefact searches which I started at least an hour before maintenance began. My book choices mean that they should last only 10h 12m, which means they should have finished by now, but they are still showing as having well over an hour left to go.
Just noticed no reduced times on bean or artefact search, they are a form of treasure search so not sure why these searches are not reduced.
Rarity and Artefact searches won't be faster.
Limit: 2 weeks time limit
Description: Treasure, Adventure and Deposit search actions are 20% faster.
Geologists will find deposits faster
Explorers will search faster for treasures
Explorers will search faster for adventures
Searches that are already sped up (through skills) will also be affected
Rarity and Artefact searches won't be faster
I got mail that my geologist found hidden coal stash but he has still 51 minutes to finish the search.
I would almost bet on that we'll get a second maintenance this week
Looks like that the bug is only visual - geologist found deposit in time.
frenkzmacolo
23.09.14, 11:26
It's not only visual. Tested on iron/marble/stone/copper deposit search, as soon as page is refreshed search time will be maxed out.
Ozzymandeus
23.09.14, 11:41
It was definitely not just visual for my artefact searches.
I didn't get buffs in the mail until 'extended' search time had elapsed
The issue has been reported. Thank you, all, for your comments as they made it easier to reproduce and report the problem! :)
Please make sure you also contact support (as it makes it easier to estimate the amount of players affected).
Beside the bug..
Seriously, stop messing with search times!
This game is about planning. This "Exploration Week" is not appreciated as it mainly messes up the planning.
If you want it to be a feature, add it to premium, but drop the idea of "Exploration Weeks".
(Sorry for posting here, but there's no feedback thread about this "feature".)
Yep, not only visual.
Currently the bonus time is calculated by adding the 20%, instead of subtracting.
It was definitely not just visual for my artefact searches.
I didn't get buffs in the mail until 'extended' search time had elapsed
Artefact search isn't affected by that speed bonus
Ozzymandeus
23.09.14, 13:00
Artefact search isn't affected by that speed bonus
No... but if you read my first post here (http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/threads/29239-Explorers-geologists-bugged?p=265972#post265972) you will see it is affected by the bug... searches started well before maintenance started (around Midnight BST), that should have taken 10h 12m with my skill choices, took around 12 hours to finish. (Mails received around Midday BST).
Q. When is an "offer" not an "offer"?
A. When it's a bugged feature
The text on the log in page is incredibly misleading.
Mentioning the current medipack offer and a picture of a jolly and an exp. explorer really does give the impression these are for sale in the limited offers too. However it seems the "offer" is in fact a "feature" and a bugged one at that.
Is it really that hard to use the test server to check these "offers" do in fact work before they go live?
Is it really so hard to write a description that does not mislead (unintentional or otherwise)?
Ozzymandeus
23.09.14, 13:04
Is it really that hard to use the test server to check these "offers" do in fact work before they go live?
But that would ruin the surprise! /sarcasm
On further reflection, it seems to me that this "offer" might, in fact, be a test run for future changes to geos and explorers as part of the 'rebalancing'.
If so, I really do question what the point of the test server is. Are they interested in any testing/feedback other than server load?
(Sorry for posting here, but there's no feedback thread about this "feature".)
Since there are now [Feedback] threads with no [News] and [News] with no [Feedback] threads this might be a good time to review and/or rewrite the now agéd News Feedback Rules:
News Feedback rules.
Hello,
Because we wish to have more clarity for game feedback and also have a cleaner forum, you will no longer be able to create a thread in this section.
However, you will still be able to comment on the feedback threads I will be creating for every single News.
Hope you understand and please stay on topic.
BB_Dantesama
It's getting rather messy.
Is it really that hard to use the test server to check these "offers" do in fact work before they go live?
.fr, the new guinea pigs in place of .pl, had this bug or a version of it. Be nice if thiings caught on the live first-out-of-the-gate servers didn't go global. Looks like there may be a patch for it, coming here... soon?
Is it really so hard to write a description that does not mislead (unintentional or otherwise)?
People said the same during the earlier "Explorer Week[s]", it really would benefit from a little more clarity.
I timed it for my geologists and it is not visual. They should take 4 minutes to finish and I set a timer. They were not even close. Thank you for a gift that is not working. You messed up the timing for my explorers. I will now get less stuff than I otherwise would have.
Ozzymandeus
24.09.14, 00:17
Beside the bug..
Seriously, stop messing with search times!
This game is about planning. This "Exploration Week" is not appreciated as it mainly messes up the planning.
If you want it to be a feature, add it to premium, but drop the idea of "Exploration Weeks".
(Sorry for posting here, but there's no feedback thread about this "feature".)
Like SmurfAsH, I have to question the wisdom of temporary changes to search times. However, more than that I really do have to question how such a minor change can kick up so much lag. Somewhat ironically, I usually get a minor dose of it during the day after maintenance. However, today has blown my usual levels of post-maintenance lag out of the water. Prolonged hourglasses when opening the Trade Office, buffs failing to show up properly (both when placed by others on my island and me placing them on others buildings) and even simple, basic functions such as scrolling across my island seem to be impossible without intermittent freezing today.
I contacted support about my issues with the explorer searches and the basic gist of their reply was along the lines of:
'we are aware of the problem, but we don't know how to fix it yet'.
Well.. I know one way you can fix it:
Undo whatever changes you implemented during maintenance and don't try to introduce them again until they have been properly tested...
You have a test server.... USE IT!
15 of my explorers are skilled up for medium treasure search that i send out 4 times a day, well i was sending them out 4 times a day until this latest debacle now it takes them 6 hours to return instead of 4-4½hours.
You have really outdone yourselves this time BB
Sir_Killemall
24.09.14, 08:14
Lag is horrible indeed, demolished a building instead of a mine due to some sort of freezing lag when scrolling
Worse thing is it seems to keep going back in time a few seconds then racing to catchup, so things like upgrades disappear, settlers running all over isle
(checked on 2 pcs and 2 connections so its not my pc or internet connection)
Ive had this lag before and its very very frustrating
Nice usual buggy changes from BB, good idea, terrible implementation, normal service delivered.
As it seems there is no immediate fix for this problem and it is affecting all players, I would like to ask for the special offer to be turned off. It is not benefiting anyone and is making game play worse. I understand this was meant to be a gift to players but it is not working, and having your explorers taking longer than normal is extremely annoying.
So please, please BB, can you just get rid of it?
frenkzmacolo
24.09.14, 08:24
It's safe to assume that bug affects most, if not all players, and has been known for over 24. In this time they were unable to post something about it, fix it or simply revert changes...
I have also experienced similar issues - It mainly requires refreshing to rectify and appears to be a graphical bug (primarily).
1. Send out explorers/geologists - times shown should be reduced by affecting skills and extra bonus 20%.
2. Leaving island or refreshing causes timer to reset/ show time without bonus reduced times from event and/or affecting skills
3. Explorers/Geologist return at the reduced time (loot appears in mail/deposits become available) but specialist remains busy in star menu with timer bar still incomplete.
4. Refreshing at this point should clear the graphical error allowing you to resend specialists on their next task.
Hope this helps.
Mine is not a graphical error at all, I know when my explorers normally come back, and have it all timed, so have been able to keep an eye on what they are doing. They are not sending loot mails at an earlier time, or their usual time, but when the extended timer finishes and deposits are found only when the geologist finishes. The only way I can get the searches to work is if I do not leave my island at all, so only useful on the short searches such as stone, copper and marble.
frenkzmacolo
24.09.14, 09:15
Its not graphical bug. None of my eplorers/geologists return at reduced time, in fact, instead of 13h for extra long treasure search before, it now takes 16 hours with lucky explorer. Same goes for geologists.
I have also experienced similar issues - It mainly requires refreshing to rectify and appears to be a graphical bug (primarily).
1. Send out explorers/geologists - times shown should be reduced by affecting skills and extra bonus 20%.
2. Leaving island or refreshing causes timer to reset/ show time without bonus reduced times from event and/or affecting skills
3. Explorers/Geologist return at the reduced time (loot appears in mail/deposits become available) but specialist remains busy in star menu with timer bar still incomplete.
4. Refreshing at this point should clear the graphical error allowing you to resend specialists on their next task.
Hope this helps.
I timed some geologists, it's not purely graphical. They did not find the mines at the promised time. It took longer.
Why they do not just remove it instantly is beyond me.
Sir_Killemall
24.09.14, 10:00
I dont think its even consistent, I sent 2 exps on gold deposit searches and one took something like 45 mins longer. Both were jollys, and the faster one was actually slightly lower skilled.
I think the lower skilled one got his bonues and the 20% bonus, where as the higher skilled just got the 20%
I live in country, that was under Soviet regime 20+ years ago so I do hate the star sign already. Now, again, the star sign making troubles for me in the game. Do I have to ask: when Stalin's character will be introduced?
And to not be off topic: I do have 2 fully and equally skilled jollys for gold deposits. Both finish searches at the same time, but I got different results in every time. At the deposit's tooltips there are missing "Ore collector" skill, or missing "Speed bonus" or both.
I believe that all are reported statuses form the server(and should be or the game could be cheated) so there is something going on at the server. Hope that this bug will be solved soon.
djnelson99
24.09.14, 11:18
Mine are definitely bugged. Luckys normally take 11h8m for Vlong search (with book upgrades), but yesterday took 16hours (the usual no-upgrade with books time).
It's time for them to just remove this crap again. They don't need to find the bug and fix it. They just need to remove it. That shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes work to just patch on the version of the game that was used before the last update. Then they can sort the other bug fixes out the next week.
Ozzymandeus
24.09.14, 12:07
They don't need to find the bug and fix it. They just need to remove it.I just sent a mail to support suggesting they do exactly that and I would suggest anyone else who feels the same does likewise.
I just sent a mail to support suggesting they do exactly that and I would suggest anyone else who feels the same does likewise.
I've sent two mails telling them that already. I'm considering sending a couple more.
This is beyond a joke! Im not even taking advantage of these reduced times for treasure/adv searches as I only search artefact or beans with my 21 explorers.
What should be 10 hr 12 min for my 15 savage is now 12 hrs, what has gone on there?
I don't ever bother to send mail's to support as like ozzy said they haven't got a clue how to fix it!
Is there any word on a solution yet?
Dangermouse69
24.09.14, 16:42
i'm not being notified at all when the geologists have found a deposit. no message or sound effect.
my savage normaly yake 22h on VLtresure search , now they take 24h
Here also.
Normally my savage scouts takes 10h12m for atifact search.
When i log out and log in again it resets it self to 12h.
Why is this?
Why take it more time then normally
BB are you kidding us? Every player is affected by this bug. DON`T FIX IT, JUST REMOVE IT...
All my upgraded scouts are taking max time for searches thanks for that
If a bug has been reported why to contact support? All active players use geologist and explorers, you just have to check the number of active players. If some of them did not realised the time is now more than the "special offer" that does not mean they have not been affected.
sk_setttler
25.09.14, 06:24
Deposits are found in time (at least here), but treasure searches are maxed out like all the others pleayrs experienced this...I've just sent my explorers:
3x experience - when I sent them approx. 11h 30m -> after logout and login it's now 15h 47m -> even without the special event my experienced are back in approx. 14h 34m
14x savage scout - when I sent them approx. 17h xx min - after logout and login it's now 23h 17m -> even without the special event it takes only aprox. 21hours and one of them is fully skilled so he usually need only 18h
EPIC fail this special week.
PS - I will setup an alarm and I'll check after 11h if the experienced got back in approx. 11h 30m but I doubt that....I will update this post once I know more.
Prediction: Fix will be rolled out with lots of "Thanks for your patience" next Tuesday. They will extend the feature for another week in compensation. Patch will not work properly and may even make things worse. We will have even longer to suffer this manic situation.
topgearfan
25.09.14, 07:33
A proper and fitting compensation for this bleeping poo is a full week of free full books refund when resetting skill tree of specialists. It has been long overdue and needed since the introduction of invest x books in single specialist main quests after you could fully upgrade specialists.
I have this problem too. With this special week -20% explorers time my searches takes longer than before :-(
Why on earth has this not been deactivated yet? Its been 3 days now! The lag makes the game nearly unplayable atm. I especially like the 3 or 4 second pauses every 30 secs as when I get control again ive managed to nearly delete a building or have a display of one come up 3 times in succession.
The only thing that seems to work are the reduced geologist search times. Some special week this is!
Ozzymandeus
25.09.14, 11:25
...with lots of "Thanks for your patience"...
I have gotten that very sentiment from support already.
I am also getting the distinct impression that the front line support team are as fed up of this whole situation as we are.
Can you STOP this "Explorations Weeks" please???
It makes ALL our schedules a MESS, as it make our Geologists and Explorers SLOWER!
Thanks for your "gift", but no thanks. :(
Finally an update. They'll turn the game off for three hours to get it working again. I still don't get how they have the guts to still have the original news on the front page. It's blatant lie. They should have changed it instantly to something about the feature being bugged and that they are working on it. Keeping it up is just an insult.
sk_setttler
25.09.14, 13:24
Why on earth has this not been deactivated yet? Its been 3 days now! The lag makes the game nearly unplayable atm. I especially like the 3 or 4 second pauses every 30 secs as when I get control again ive managed to nearly delete a building or have a display of one come up 3 times in succession.
The only thing that seems to work are the reduced geologist search times. Some special week this is!
Completely agree.
The update is now one and a half hour late. I guess it was too convenient to update in the middle of the day so they'll just have to wait until the afternoon so the downtime can affect the maximum amount of players. Why shut the game down if it isn't prime time?
Ozzymandeus
26.09.14, 01:57
A HOTFIX will be deployed this afternoon
....
Changes: It is planned to fix the recent performance issues and the search times of geologists and explorers.
Well, I decided I wasn't going to 'hold my breath' over the unscheduled maintenance that aimed to fix the problems and it seems that was a wise course of action. Whilst, as far as I can tell, the issue with the explorers and geologists timers going haywire seems to have been fixed, I must confess I haven't really devoted a great deal of time or energy to testing that too thoroughly, as I have been too busy uttering obscenities through gritted teeth when the game freezes for the umpteenth time.
From my perspective, the "hotfix" has made absolutely no difference to the "recent performance issues" and it is now time for "The Exploration Weeks" to be removed from live servers, before Blue Byte goes home for the weekend.
topgearfan
26.09.14, 11:43
before the hotfix i didnt notice any performance issues at all. now its horrible.
Of course the fix coincided with the release of PvP on the test server, reinforcing my suspicion that the test server and euro servers share hardware.
i think im in the right topic for this:
http://i.imgur.com/dFEPhHD.jpg
geo using this skill tree:
http://i.imgur.com/c0XvPLE.jpg
i think it has something to do with the time (possible lagg issues) that they didnt find the deposit. however, after 2.5 minutes (what it takes to find the deposit) the deposit became available. after 1 minute the geo came back with 'see first picture'.
topgearfan
01.10.14, 19:52
the time things arrive is pretty much random these days. if its less than an hour off its probably "working as intended"
rathbone93
02.10.14, 00:14
I've had no problems with timing myself (at least since the first couple days of this special)...
... but none of my geologist 2-in-1 searches have returned 2 iron mines since this discounted time thingy was first launched. I have a 16% bonus on that, and the chance that 40 searches would never return a 2-in-1 is... pretty low!
Not sure if it's truly bugged or just a display bug.
I have noticed that when explorers come back, the skills seem to work but there's no list of the relevant skills like there usually is.
If the explorers brought back pumpkins, this would be a major kerfuffle for the event if the bug is really real. As it is, it's just par for the course and we can all keep smiling grimly and carry on!
It's been a "display bug" all the time, thou often you won't get any system message for arrivals and have to reload the island to make things work (to actually see if a specialist has arrived as it should instead of being lost for some more time as the timer tells), so the impact of this is bigger than what's expected from an ordinary "display bug".
My explorers all have the same time, there is no skills at all, whats funny - Lucky explorers are like ordinary explorers
The bug is back and it is NOT a display bug!
Explorers have bug on timer now... have all explorers upgraded for faster searches.. send them out and see time shows normal.. log out and back in game and timer start to count as i havent upgraded any explorers at all..
And now i can say after 2 rounds of collectables i still havent seen any pumpkin spwn as collectable on my home island..
Please BB can u fix this bug before the weekend gets here, its really annoying having explorers upgraded for a specific search, then to find out those books are not working and your back to using a normal explorer again! No pumpkins spawning on islands either!
I am in the same boat plz fix
The bug will be fixed with next maint
Sent one explorer for a search, the reduced time was displayed. Then got the "connection lost" hammering guy on the screen.
Reloaded the game, check the time remaining for the sent explorer and it is the regular time showing, not taking into account the books reducing the search time.
I'll check later today at what time he'll be back.
I often get a mail telling me that an explorer has found something, but on the star they're all still out searching (possibly for the remaining time excluding book skills - I haven't calculated), then after refreshing they're back! This may be an aspect of the same bug or possibly a different one.
grampajaws
17.10.14, 13:23
all my explorers are taking the full amount off time to do there search's treasure and adventure and rarity and artefact its like they got no books in them
Bugged here also , Artifact men taking the 12 hours instead of the 10 hours 12 mins that they should take.
Also Map frag explorers are same as un booked explorers.
I sent my my buffed up experienced explorer out for a long treasure hunt at 7:45 this morning, should have taken 9 hrs 16 minutes, still going now, it is as if the books have no effect.
Yep have the same problem. I have a combination of different explorers with different skill levels but they all do the exploring in the same time, even though some of the timings shown are about 4 hours apart. The only ones that are different are my lucky ones who seem to do things in the correct time.
PS see this thread http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/threads/29239-Explorers-geologists-bugged
I experienced the same problem when the Halloween event 2014 started.
Above three posts were moved here from another thread
So the bug from the explorer event is back. Visiting an adventure island will mess up the timer on the explorers and geologists. The explorers deliver on time but are shown to still be out in the star menu. You need to reload the game to sort it out. Same thing with geologists.
So the explorer event is still haunting us. Thanks for nothing BB. Would you please leave the game alone? Your programmers are apparently not competent enough to handle simple tasks so how about you stop introducing new features until you get a new set of programmers that can handle basic maths.
Ozzymandeus
18.10.14, 16:17
Rolling a bug like this out onto live servers is annoying but understandable if dealt with promptly and properly... rolling out a repeat of a previous bug is stupid, irresponsible and warrants a proper apology.
I know there are rules of conduct regarding behaviour and language on these forums, but rubbish like this being thrown at us repeatedly without any humility or admission of wrong doing from Blue Byte constitutes a big, foxtrotting slap in the face, especially towards paying customers.
By my reckoning it's about quarter past time you got your act together, #BugByte.
Visiting an adventure island will mess up the timer on the explorers and geologists. The explorers deliver on time but are shown to still be out in the star menu. You need to reload the game to sort it out. Same thing with geologists.
It's not visiting an adventure island (or any other island) that messes up the timer. It's a strange "sync call" from server doing it.
One reload will not sort it out, but by doing that now and then will shorten the glitch between when a specialist has arrived as he should (on server-side) and then it shows up on client-side.
Thou for search longer than 12h it seems like a correcting sync call never will come.
As of today with no special offers or anything.
If I send explorers off it tells me one time, but if I then log off and log back in all times are extended.
I sent 2 luck explorers on medium treasure search shoul have finished at 21:00 today they are now saying at 20:00 that they will complete in 3:45 mins. a full 2 and 3/4 hours longer than they should. This has been happening for at least 2 weeks.
My explorers just came back which is interesting since I can not have sent them away 22 hours ago because I was not at home then. The odd thing is that my lucky explorers seems to be on time.
The next time the devs wants to do something for the community. Please consider fixing a bug first. New features is apparently beyond the capability of the programmers so please let them fix all the old stuff they have broken instead of letting them introduce new things that are broken.
This should be fixed during tonight's maintenance.
Please don't hesitate to report it in here if you notice further issues in this regard.
This should be fixed during tonight's maintenance.
Please don't hesitate to report it in here if you notice further issues in this regard.
I just found another interesting little bug. I sent my two lucky explorers out on medium searches this morning. One recently came back but the other didn't. It turns out that the other still has over 6 hours left on his medium search.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b23/Zotamedu/Untitled-2-1.png
That's quite interesting since a full medium search should not take 6 hours. How is it then possible that I still have 6 hours left? I have tried refreshing and clearing cache but it's the same.
It seems like the explorer bug now causes search times to be more or less random.
No it should be fixed a month ago and then again a couple of weeks ago. It shouldn't be fixed again now. This bug should not have been reintroduced yet again. Maybe it's time for some of the devs to show their faces around here to explain what on earth they are doing.
This should be fixed during tonight's maintenance.
Please don't hesitate to report it in here if you notice further issues in this regard.
I expect all specialists already sent (right before maintenance) won't be affected by any fix..
Reports received on this issue tell that the bug fix was successful.
Please let me know if everything is working as intended now or if there are still problems.
Thank you!
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