Does BB know what 'Hotfix' means?

From Wikipedia:

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A hotfix or quick-fix engineering update (QFE update) is a single, cumulative package that includes information (often in the form of one or more files) that is used to address a problem in a software product (i.e., a software bug).[1] Typically, hotfixes are made to address a specific customer situation.

The term "hotfix" originally referred to software patches that were applied to "hot" systems; that is, systems which are live, currently running, and in production status rather than development status.

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If you have to take the servers offline to apply it, then it's not a hotfix, it's a patch or an update. I've run live-ops for games and I have never heard of a hotfix that involved any downtime beyond maybe a restart.

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Originally Posted by IainC

From Wikipedia:



If you have to take the servers offline to apply it, then it's not a hotfix, it's a patch or an update. I've run live-ops for games and I have never heard of a hotfix that involved any downtime beyond maybe a restart.

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Welcome to bb.
With bb terms are:
upgrade = Normal game update, including 6h offline in what time they fix one bug adds 5 bugs and install new things.
Hotfix = fixing 2 bugs installing 9 taking 50% new stuff away as they didint work and usualy means 9+h downtime.

and all u really need to know is: backend of tso is written with Java( yeah really bad and old decicion and really cant do much and uses a lot of resources)
Database, no one knows, bb has newer told wich database engine they run. probably one based microsoft acces 95.
frontend FLASH so after u have read those lines u understand the miracle that whole game and its existence are.

In fairness, when I were a lad, Java and dBase/FoxPro were the future and everything would run them everywhere. AWS and Hadoop were unheard of. The idea of spinning a VM up in seconds with a tested, pre-configured image to improve service or quickly restore service was non-existent.

Sadly for us, most other companies updated, migrated or renewed. We, on the other hand, will be gameless in a couple of years when the browser authors finally nail the coffin lid shut on Flash. BB's statement that they're not even considering moving to HTML5 is something you should consider next time you're toying with the idea of buying a gem pit that last 2 years.

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Originally Posted by Umine

Welcome to bb.
With bb terms are:
upgrade = Normal game update, including 6h offline in what time they fix one bug adds 5 bugs and install new things.
Hotfix = fixing 2 bugs installing 9 taking 50% new stuff away as they didint work and usualy means 9+h downtime.

and all u really need to know is: backend of tso is written with Java( yeah really bad and old decicion and really cant do much and uses a lot of resources)
Database, no one knows, bb has newer told wich database engine they run. probably one based microsoft acces 95.
frontend FLASH so after u have read those lines u understand the miracle that whole game and its existence are.

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had to laugh at this

i am now getting frustrated with this game :D

Not even sure they know what fix means let alone hotfix

I get as frustrated as everyone else but as the administrator of test environments for a large company I know how despite the best efforts sometimes bugs get into production and fixes are not that easy in some situations. And as an ex full-time programmer I know how touching a piece of code over here can produce amazing results way over there in a section you didn't have any idea wasn't even connected. As far as choice of tools go, you can use a screwdriver to open a can of beans but it's not the best tool for that and probably will end up breaking at some point (it's often not the tool, it's the application of the tool). But also sometimes the right tool can't do it's job because something else underlying isn't how it should be. All in all - sometimes, it's a nightmare to keep it all working.

That being said and waving one flag in support of the complexities involved with managing something like this, I do wish they would use a different term then "hot fix". When we "hot swap" a disk that means no outage because one of the spare disks will take over the work for a while. We use "down time" when the users will have to be logged off. I think that's the industry standard just like the definition posted above shows.

I still like playing despite the burps that happen from time to time.

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Originally Posted by Xibor

I know how despite the best efforts sometimes bugs get into production and fixes are not that easy in some situations.

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The problem with this game is that there were multiple situations that make you question whether there were 'best' efforts to maintain certain level of quality, or any efforts at all.

Especially from a standpoint of someone who is involved in development, where some of the problems or the explanations to those problems provided by BB make you laugh out loud.

Its part of the fun :) Like events, its not a real event until we have downtime for some fix or other. Hotfix, update, whatever, just part of the experience.
One time it was down so long I had to go outside for a short while.

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Originally Posted by sparkz

The problem with this game is that there were multiple situations that make you question whether there were 'best' efforts to maintain certain level of quality, or any efforts at all.

Especially from a standpoint of someone who is involved in development, where some of the problems or the explanations to those problems provided by BB make you laugh out loud.

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I am getting curious. Can you name those situations and also why those are making you lol?

im really impressed with how well it worked too

https://prnt.sc/hefgtn

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Originally Posted by IainC

From Wikipedia:


The term "hotfix" originally referred to software patches that were applied to "hot" systems; that is, systems which are live, currently running, and in production status rather than development status.

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Originally Posted by Kistelek

something you should consider next time you're toying with the idea of buying a gem pit that last 2 years.

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gem pit lasts 1 year + walking time

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Originally Posted by Loomy

I am getting curious. Can you name those situations and also why those are making you lol?

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Over the course of 3 years the CM on one of the other language versions was repeatably asked if they could change the pack size in barracks from 25 to some other number (which effectively means reconfiguring max value of a slider input). The response was always the same - there are some technical issues preventing us from doing so.

Which I personally find funny knowing a thing or two about input elements in some poppular frameworks, and how they can easily be configured without changing underlying logic, and knowing the game already had other sliders with different max range.

Then, after some time, a solution is introduced, based on not addressing the actual problem, but instead introducing another slider. Of course the second one doesnt face the technical limitations first one did. I guess times change.

Ended up being a joke among few of my fellow developers who used to play this game.

Other things I personally like is stuff like every new general introduced between 2013 and late 2015 (I think) consumed a building license when placed on home island. What I find amusing is that :

- after being fixed once it still kept happening, even for the same kind of generals (when second MoD got introduced it had the same bug that was affecting the first one earlier)
- popped out all of sudden for generals that havent had the problem before (indicating some kind of regression)
- it doesnt make any sense. I mean, how bad of a mess in the logic one has to have to apply restrictions that are unique to buildings (and only some buildings for that matter), to objects that are clearly not a building ?

I would probably find a few more, but these stand out.

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Originally Posted by Loomy

I am getting curious. Can you name those situations and also why those are making you lol?

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Just look back in the forum archive of the bug creation server (tsotesting.com).
many's the time there were pages and pages of unanswered bug reports, and at the end of that particular testing phase, they were batch moved to the "No Bug" section and some game-stopping disasters went "Live".
Searching these forums for "Parrot Exploit" should enlighten you too.
Did you play the Halloween event? The golems failed to appear last year as well.
After spending months providing evidence and successfully replicating certain bugs, is it any wonder that the phrase "We thought that had been fixed" makes me want to drown someone in a convenient duck pond? ;)

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Originally Posted by sparkz

Over the course of 3 years the CM on one of the other language versions was repeatably asked if they could change the pack size in barracks from 25 to some other number (which effectively means reconfiguring max value of a slider input). The response was always the same - there are some technical issues preventing us from doing so.

Which I personally find funny knowing a thing or two about input elements in some poppular frameworks, and how they can easily be configured without changing underlying logic, and knowing the game already had other sliders with different max range.

Then, after some time, a solution is introduced, based on not addressing the actual problem, but instead introducing another slider. Of course the second one doesnt face the technical limitations first one did. I guess times change.

Ended up being a joke among few of my fellow developers who used to play this game.

Other things I personally like is stuff like every new general introduced between 2013 and late 2015 (I think) consumed a building license when placed on home island. What I find amusing is that :

- after being fixed once it still kept happening, even for the same kind of generals (when second MoD got introduced it had the same bug that was affecting the first one earlier)
- popped out all of sudden for generals that havent had the problem before (indicating some kind of regression)
- it doesnt make any sense. I mean, how bad of a mess in the logic one has to have to apply restrictions that are unique to buildings (and only some buildings for that matter), to objects that are clearly not a building ?

I would probably find a few more, but these stand out.

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It's the lack of "collision detection" gets my goat. Sick of losing expensive and sometimes irreplaceable items because a rogue collectable or general landed on top of it and deleted it from the game. One collie has even created a "dead zone" 1x1 in size which stops anything ever being built in that locality despite all the surrounding pixels being shaded green.
We went for years with returning generals landing safely but the day collectables were introduced they turned into potential nukes.

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Originally Posted by Kistelek

will be gameless in a couple of years when the browser authors finally nail the coffin lid shut on Flash. BB's statement that they're not even considering moving to HTML5 is something you should consider next time you're toying with the idea of buying a gem pit that last 2 years.

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Saqui made a comment a little while ago saying, settlers has no plans of going anywhere and will be around for a long time to come :)

I have figured out why they call it a hotfix. It's because the cooling in the serverroom broke down, so now they have to wear enviromental suits to enter it. Furthermore for security reasons they have dissabled remote imput to the servers, so now they have to manually type in every change. Imagine dooing that wearing environmental suite!!!

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Originally Posted by vigabrand

Saqui made a comment a little while ago saying, settlers has no plans of going anywhere and will be around for a long time to come :)

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Saw that one, but not sure how far it will go when flash is finally killed off

I was wondering why there is no hotfix after the last update but got satisfied when they did it today :) , because It seems to become a normal thing to come with an update and then hotfix.

Well, that's good, the weather is so cold, hotfixes make us warm :D

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Originally Posted by vigabrand

Saqui made a comment a little while ago saying, settlers has no plans of going anywhere and will be around for a long time to come :)

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They can say all sorts of thinks like that, what we actually need to know is how they intend to keep it going post-flash. ie what steps are being taken. After all there will be no-one to say ''Oi you said this would still be working' to when we cannot login.

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Originally Posted by lordloocan

They can say all sorts of thinks like that, what we actually need to know is how they intend to keep it going post-flash. ie what steps are being taken. After all there will be no-one to say ''Oi you said this would still be working' to when we cannot login.

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I don't think we need to be concerned with what their plans are post-flash, since that will be a change to many layers of many platforms and emulators can be put together and other workarounds. But my logic suggests:

With the assumption BB is making some profit on this game (I think a fair assumption given the fact that expansion of content keeps happening - if you are going to drop a platform you don't pay developers to keep adding to it). Then.....

You would not just 'sit there' and watch your income stream vanish. BB is much more than Settlers and as a profitable software developer Settlers would be included in cost/profit analysis and the needs to compensate for changes in browser support, operating systems, graphics standards (in other words, pretty much the ongoing changing computer world that we know).

All in all I have faith that it is making money, and you wouldn't be pouring R&D cost into something that you planned to deprecate.

what Xibor said :)








... He's very clever aint he

Today's hotfix is the reason that will make answer to OP question, No! they don't know, does it really critical issue to make a hotfix 2 hours down time 2nd in 1 week during event time, just for licenses issue?!

If things stay like that, seems hotfixes will be daily based soon.
1 update and 2 hotfixes in 1 week!

I'm not sure what is going on in BB, but seriously BB, if you don't see any issues with last year, you need to sit down and just see the archive of this game updates and fixes!

to be honest, I'm not surprised, and I believe things will be worse by the time.

I know what Ubisoft is :)

I don't see why they couldn't just give everyone 1 building licence and then fix the issue on a weekly maintenance, that way there’s no down time

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Originally Posted by Steve9800

I don't see why they couldn't just give everyone 1 building licence and then fix the issue on a weekly maintenance, that way there’s no down time

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Indeed, 1 license giveaway or just lend 1 then they can return back this license later!

Personally i would prefer to lose 1 licence than to have event interruption like this.. Moreover having bought the Mary Gen and tried her out I would return her If I could. Time to reevaluate all these events and do something new with them before they lose the few players they have left

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Originally Posted by sparkz

Other things I personally like is stuff like every new general introduced between 2013 and late 2015 (I think) consumed a building license when placed on home island. What I find amusing is that :

- after being fixed once it still kept happening, even for the same kind of generals (when second MoD got introduced it had the same bug that was affecting the first one earlier)
- popped out all of sudden for generals that havent had the problem before (indicating some kind of regression)
- it doesnt make any sense. I mean, how bad of a mess in the logic one has to have to apply restrictions that are unique to buildings (and only some buildings for that matter), to objects that are clearly not a building ?

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hehe

I can't seem to find any info on it happening for the MoD, nor the MMA, which I could have sworn it happened with as well. However, I do know that the license bug happened with Lord Dracul as well as the Quartermaster General and Quartermaster Claus.

Even assuming these are the only previous cases, one does have to wonder how many more times the exact same problem is going to crop up before someone learns to catch it before it hits the live game.