On Hangs and Game Freezes

madwren

@brigby, are the developers aware of the frustration caused when we, as players, lose ribbons due to server instabilities? If so, are they planning on addressing the issue of a person losing the game in the node due to no fault of their own? If not, why do they not care? This happens repeatedly to people during events, yet nothing has been done about it.

Just now, for example, another perfect run down the tubes because the game wouldn't finish loading. After 15 minutes of staring at an empty background of dragon horns (without any sort of "retry or cancel" message ever appearing), I opted to close the app. Voila! Game and node lost.

Now, I realize that if a game crashes partway through, it's hard to discern that from a person quitting.  However, while I'm by no means a coder, it sure seems like it'd be simple to check and see if any matches/moves have been made in the game at all, and if not--as in this case--to simply restore the matchup and let me actually play it.  What logic is there behind causing us to lose the game for the game's mistakes?

Or, can someone with coding experience--shteev? Ohboy? Octal?--illuminate why this is an impossible request/wish?

Machine

I've experienced the same issue and took the effort to file a support ticket. It was weeks ago and still haven't received a clear answer nor a compensation for the loss of my ribbons, which would have caused me to be in a higher tier for rewards.

I am really curious for Brigby's answer.

UweTellkampf

I wrote already three tickets about the issue on three different occasions with three different answers (Reinstall the app / We can't do anything about potentially won ribbons / We will be investigating further, sorry for the inconvenience). 

shteev

Shush. The only problem with the game right now as I see it is there aren't enough types of currency in it. Hire more programmers!

Brigby

Hi @madwren. Yes. The developers are aware of the frustration players are experiencing when they encounter freezes/hangs/crashes/etc. This is a major reason why they decided to delay Booster Crafting, in order to devote time to improving the stability and infrastructure of the game; subsequently ensuring the system can successfully be implemented without any major issues. 

When it comes to the ability to reconnect to games, unfortunately I am not a developer, so I can't speak for either the simplicity or complexity of implementing such a feature. I will be sure to pass this feedback along to the team though. 

madwren

Thanks, Brigby. I wanted to make sure it was on their radar. I know that other games use a bookmark system that can return to the failed game state. While that doesn't necessarily solve the "game didn't even complete loading" problem, I know it's theoretically possible. It'd be a huge quality of life improvement for all of us.

Dologan

Here just to echo the sentiment about this. I had a shot at staying in the top 50 for a rare in ToA. Then the exact same thing as described by madwren happened to me, and the match was lost. 

What is particularly frustrating is that I remember distinctly that, at some point, matches appeared to get "ticked off" only when the "versus" screen was shown, and not before, since I had crashes that occurred after tapping the Fight button that didn't result in a lost node. At some point in an update, this was changed so that if anything goes wrong after hitting Fight, the node will be lost. Things are going in the wrong direction!