In-game chat [Investigating]

K1NGY

I know this is a super old bug but one that seems to never get fixed.  I have sent tickets for this bug a couple of times and on one occasion after messaging them with all information needed I gave up due to the same silly responses. More information required what platform screenshots etc. At this stage which by memory was the 5th reply back to support after a week back and forth with them and all the info they required. In game chat will either duplicate messages or people simply can not see any new messages by other team mates sometimes for days. I know most top tier alliances use Line as there communication method but not everyone likes to use that method. So this can be frustrating in game for those that don’t hook up on line. Will this ever get fixed as it is a very old bug and one that never seems to get addressed. I left one alliance due to this annoying bug and them not very keen on line chat. 

//Edited Title -Brigby

Brigby

@K1NGY Hmm that's certainly peculiar. Does this occur randomly or have you noticed any sort of pattern as to when this issue occurs?

K1NGY

Brigby said:

@K1NGY Hmm that's certainly peculiar. Does this occur randomly or have you noticed any sort of pattern as to when this issue occurs?

@Brigby I’ve asked my alliance team mates also about this because at first I thought it was just something that happened on my platform etc iOS. They have also said that they have the same problems with this happening with there devices and the only way to rectify the problem so that recent posts show in game for alliances was to force close the app then enter game and the messages would then appear. On one instance recently I purchased gold then 5 minutes later another 3cp message appeared in game chat with a different time stamp to my purchase, so I thanked alliance for the 3cp after the fact of my 3cp to members , force closed the app went back in to game chat and the 2nd message had disappeared in other words I thanked myself which was in all honesty quite funny at the time. I hope this all makes sense.

Brigby

Hmm I see. Well I personally am unable to figure out exactly what's going on, however fortunately for players, the developers are much more adept at deciphering bugs than I am.

I'll be sure to relay this information to them, so they can figure out what's going on. Thanks for the info!

K1NGY

@Brigby Thank you kindly.

DeNappa

To my knowledge, the in-game chat synchronization has been buggy ever since it was introduced. The 'problem' is that it's hard to pinpoint, because most of the time chat works as it should. But at unexpected times, messages from others sometimes suddenly fail to appear until much later or app restart.

jredd

i miss chat messages all the time. i suspect i see maybe 50% of what is posted. 

Infrared

It seems to me like the chat loses sync if the app is suspended into the background for a while, and later resumed. Messages that were posted while the app was inactive are likely to be lost. And even after the app is resumed, only some of the newly posted messages will get picked up. The chat only stays in sync if the app always launches from scratch and/or is never suspended.

Forcing a hard restart on the app makes it do a proper refresh and the missing messages will suddenly appear. However, a hard restart also causes you to lose seed teams and retaliation queues in Versus events, so you lose out either way.

Thalfen

I know this is an old thread but the issue is still a problem. Chat never works properly and not just missing messages until days later, it is not a truely well coded messaging system period. For example, many basic iOS features do not work:

1) autocomplete is non existent 
2) autocorrect does not work
3) tap to select when trying to change mistakes will not give you the proper zoom in if you press and hold where you wish to insert your changes

and these are all in addition to the previously mentioned issues of late or duplicate arriving messages. It does not directly impact the playability of the game, but it makes teamwork inside the app harder...

any update on whether the devs intend to do anything about these basic issues?

Bowgentle

Never.

Use LINE or Discord, like everyone else.

DeNappa

• Not 'everyone else' uses LINE or Discord
• The chat is a game feature, and it should work properly

Infrared said:

It seems to me like the chat loses sync if the app is suspended into the background for a while, and later resumed. Messages that were posted while the app was inactive are likely to be lost. And even after the app is resumed, only some of the newly posted messages will get picked up. The chat only stays in sync if the app always launches from scratch and/or is never suspended.

Forcing a hard restart on the app makes it do a proper refresh and the missing messages will suddenly appear. However, a hard restart also causes you to lose seed teams and retaliation queues in Versus events, so you lose out either way.

I can confirm this is seems the most common cause. I have also observed app suspension often breaks chat refresh. (iOS here).

abmoraz

@Brigby

I can replicate the alliance chat losing or not displaying messages easily.  You just have to use multiple devices.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Get 2 devices with your MPQ account on them.

2. Log into the first device.  Check the Alliance messages.  Have an alliance mate add a message and verify that you can see it on device #1.

3. Exit the game on device #1.  Log into device #2.  Open Alliance chat.  Your mate's message will not be there.  Have him/her make another message.  Verify you can see that message on device #2.

4. Log out of device #2 and go back to device #1.  When you log in you will see your mate's first message (as it was before you logged out) but will not see the second message.

Brigby

abmoraz said:

Brigby

I can replicate the alliance chat losing or not displaying messages easily.  You just have to use multiple devices.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Get 2 devices with your MPQ account on them.

2. Log into the first device.  Check the Alliance messages.  Have an alliance mate add a message and verify that you can see it on device #1.

3. Exit the game on device #1.  Log into device #2.  Open Alliance chat.  Your mate's message will not be there.  Have him/her make another message.  Verify you can see that message on device #2.

4. Log out of device #2 and go back to device #1.  When you log in you will see your mate's first message (as it was before you logged out) but will not see the second message.

Thanks for passing along those steps to reproduce the issue! Question for due diligence though: Does force closing the game in between devices cause the messages to correctly sync?

abmoraz

Brigby said:

abmoraz said:

Brigby

I can replicate the alliance chat losing or not displaying messages easily.  You just have to use multiple devices.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Get 2 devices with your MPQ account on them.

2. Log into the first device.  Check the Alliance messages.  Have an alliance mate add a message and verify that you can see it on device #1.

3. Exit the game on device #1.  Log into device #2.  Open Alliance chat.  Your mate's message will not be there.  Have him/her make another message.  Verify you can see that message on device #2.

4. Log out of device #2 and go back to device #1.  When you log in you will see your mate's first message (as it was before you logged out) but will not see the second message.

Thanks for passing along those steps to reproduce the issue! Question for due diligence though: Does force closing the game in between devices cause the messages to correctly sync?

Dunno.  I never force-close anything.  I just hit the "Back" key at the main screen and go to desktop.

Tombstone

@abmoraz
Just wanted to jump in here real quick and remind everyone playing on multiple devices to always force close one device before switching to another device. Not doing so will likely lead to data loss. Please see the following link detailing how to properly switch between devices:

https://d3go.helpshift.com/a/marvel-puzzle-quest/?p=all&s=save-game-questions&f=retrieving-backed-up-save-data

DeNappa

RE: multiple device reproduction steps

I just want to note that multiple devices are not an issue for me (I just play on one device). My impression is that some kind of refresh thread or timer can die when suspended.

Thalfen

Force closing does not always cause a correct sync of messages. I have had days go by without messages showing where I have force closed multiple times and suddenly the messages will show up. The chat feature needs some serious rework. 

And to to the guy suggesting using Line, that is fine for some, I don’t need another app to make this game work right. I just want the game features to work. It’s not too much to ask. 

ThaRoadWarrior

I don't think I've had mine take days to show up, but i would say that at least as often as not, messages send the little red notification and never actually pull the message down until it's not relevant. Hard closing doesn't help me in those situations either.

Thalfen

To be honest It is pretty normal for it to take days, and at the same time they can also come out of order. For example, multiple messages come through that I don’t see, then someone buys something and the message of a free command point pops up. I might get some newer messages at that time. (Not always) Then later more messages come through that are older and show up in line where they should have been earlier. It can be quite frustrating. 

Thalfen

Oh, and I only play on one device, so multiple devices is not my issue. 

abmoraz

Tombstone said:

@abmoraz
Just wanted to jump in here real quick and remind everyone playing on multiple devices to always force close one device before switching to another device. Not doing so will likely lead to data loss. Please see the following link detailing how to properly switch between devices:

https://d3go.helpshift.com/a/marvel-puzzle-quest/?p=all&s=save-game-questions&f=retrieving-backed-up-save-data

Your link goes to restoring Save Data from Facebook on a new device.  It has nothing to do with force-quitting/closing the app nor how to do it.

Seriously, though... why isn't there a "Sync MPQ local data with server and close app" button?  Why is there some rigamarole with force-quitting?  With what I know about developing android (which is admittedly several years out of date), force-quitting the app would absolutely preclude it from syncing with the servers, as using the active-apps list to clear an app wipes all it's data from the memory outside of the apps' execution thread(s).  This would prevent it from syncing, not force it to sync...

The only way I could see this working (again, my knowledge of Android OS is from circa 4.1) is if it left hanging data files that, when the app is next loaded, were detected and synced upon boot.