Adjust Server Restart Times for EU Players

Taneroth

Dear Intrepid Team,

Since most European players finish work and start playing around 7:00 PM CET (10:00 AM PT) on weekdays, I believe that the 90-minute server restarts would be better scheduled earlier or at a different time (if this daily restart schedule continues).

Currently, the maintenance windows seem to fall at the worst possible time for the majority of EU players. I understand these hours might align with your work schedule, but perhaps there’s a way to adjust this or even consider separate restart times for European and American servers. Otherwise, many EU players are losing valuable time for testing.

From my guild alone, I know several people who start playing at this time and have a limited amount of playtime (a few hours) due to personal and daily obligations.

It would be reasonable to consider adjusting the timing of daily maintenance breaks on European servers.
Otherwise, some European players may lose 30-50% of their daily playtime.

Thank you for your understanding, and I hope Intrepid Studios can take this into consideration!

Piran

It's really good point.
I personally am one of the people starting around 6:00-7:00PM.

I'm sure that most of the EU testers would love different restart schedule.

dirich

We're in the middle of development, and usually a restart is also a time for some maintenance and patch updates, so it needs to have people monitoring, which is something that the studio might not be ready for quite yet.

Still, once we reach release, avoiding weekly restart/maintenance during prime time is kind of a must.

Wents

I'm also be thankful if you change update hours

EnderXi

yeah this is prime time EU gaming window, work finishes and you take the servers down for 2 hours, I been waiting all day for my fix of copium and I am denied, begging you to change the window

EnderXi

dirich wrote: »

We're in the middle of development, and usually a restart is also a time for some maintenance and patch updates, so it needs to have people monitoring, which is something that the studio might not be ready for quite yet.

Still, once we reach release, avoiding weekly restart/maintenance during prime time is kind of a must.

But for instance midnight CET is 15:00 PT so still within the working day but outside peak EU and USA gaming times or if you go for 23:00 CET thats 14:00 PT so plenty of time for patching during afternoon rather than the time they pick now.

Highborn

seconded

kadimir

dirich wrote: »

We're in the middle of development, and usually a restart is also a time for some maintenance and patch updates, so it needs to have people monitoring, which is something that the studio might not be ready for quite yet.

Still, once we reach release, avoiding weekly restart/maintenance during prime time is kind of a must.

Reminder that this is a testing enviroment, not a live service game. Right now we co-benefit from their testing, but their testing and work is more important than our convenience.

I work 12 hour shifts, so I wake up at 530am and get home about 8pm. I then have to do everything I need to do to be a regular human until about 9pm before I have to get ready for bed. On top of this, my schedule inverts every week - so one weekend I work friday saturday and sunday, next weekend I dont.

so every other weekend I get maybe 1-2 hrs a night at best of quality play time(essentially half of the alpha time everyone else has) So the patches they deploy seem like a very very minor inconvenience in comparison to real life - but I don't expect them to change their schedule for my life any more than I do expect them to change it for yours. If you are that worried about progression, everyone in your time zone has the same problem.

dirich

EnderXi wrote: »

dirich wrote: »

We're in the middle of development, and usually a restart is also a time for some maintenance and patch updates, so it needs to have people monitoring, which is something that the studio might not be ready for quite yet.

Still, once we reach release, avoiding weekly restart/maintenance during prime time is kind of a must.

But for instance midnight CET is 15:00 PT so still within the working day but outside peak EU and USA gaming times or if you go for 23:00 CET thats 14:00 PT so plenty of time for patching during afternoon rather than the time they pick now.

Any time before 3 in the morning is gonna get me and a bunch of other night owls very unhappy. Especially during alpha when you only play on weekends and thus playing late isn't a problem.

For now, to be fair, they can do weekly restarts while servers are not open - unless it's emergency restarts for patches, which is the only kind of restart that I've seen happen over the past two weekends.

Taneroth

@dirich, you bring up a valid point about the importance of monitoring during maintenance, especially in the alpha phase. However, scheduling restarts at a slightly later time, such as midnight CET (3 PM PT), would still allow the team to monitor during their work hours while avoiding EU prime time. It’s not about eliminating restarts but optimizing their timing for broader player participation, which ultimately benefits testing by providing more data during peak hours.

@kadimir, I understand that this is a testing environment, not a live service. However, effective testing relies on having active participants. If a significant portion of EU players can’t contribute during peak hours due to restarts, the quality and scope of the data collected might be impacted. By shifting the restart window slightly, Intrepid Studios could maximize feedback and testing productivity without compromising their workflow.

@EnderXi, your suggestion for midnight CET is spot on. It’s a reasonable compromise that aligns with US working hours while respecting EU prime time. Such adjustments would make a huge difference for players with limited gaming time on weekdays, like many from my guild.

Andi

If you want the restart times adjusted for EU player, then I'd ask for an Asia/Oceania restart time, too.