Voice chat issue

[MattScott 15242]

Hi everyone,

Here is a quick update about the ongoing outage with our Voice chat system.
On or around August 24th while my team was at Gamescom, Vivox experienced some network issues and shutoff the APB voice servers.
I took us a bit to diagnose the problem, but I reached out and spoke with their President and engineers to see what happened.
At the time we were told they could have our production servers back up in 24-48 hours.

However now they are indicating that a solution on their end *may* not be as simple as they thought. I am still waiting for next steps or an ETA. Hopefully they can resolve it soon. Otherwise we may be asked to take a break from Unreal 3.5 to integrate the PC version with their new service. Unfortunately that leaves all our console players without voice service till we can get a patch approved by Microsoft and Sony.

I apologize for this disruption with the game. I know it is an important feature for team missions and our Social district.
We are working as quickly as we can to resolve this.

Thanks,
Matt

Update: We got a follow up from Vivox saying that they now feel they can recreate our servers in a new datacenter (possibly) by the end of the week without any changes from us.

Update 9/12: Voicechat is back online. Vivox took care of the issue with brand new servers on their new platform.

Edited September 12, 2018 by MattScott
Update

[evergIade 24]

That really sucks.

Hopefully this gets resolved soon.

[ChellyBean 200]

Meanwhile, the community lets out a collective sigh of relief that we won't have to listen to people screaming on the microphone or blasting awful music

(Seriously tho, I appreciate the transparency! It feels much better than if this all happened under the old company, who would likely just remain silent. Thank you!) 

[Skeleton 6]

8 minutes ago, MattScott said:

It appears that we may be asked to take a break from Unreal 3.5 to integrate the PC version with their new service, but that leaves all our console players without voice service till we can get a patch approved by Microsoft and Sony.

 

:(

[ittibitium 33]

I wouldn't put a hold on the UE3.5 upgrade, as every delay you announce is going to cost alot of nerves, maybe even trust to some.
But you are the CEO, you gotta decide what has to be due when, as stated above, cool transparency!

[Keshi 436]

11 minutes ago, MattScott said:

However now they are indicating that a solution on their end is not as simple as they thought. I am still waiting for next steps. It appears that we may be asked to take a break from Unreal 3.5 to integrate the PC version with their new service, but that leaves all our console players without voice service till we can get a patch approved by Microsoft and Sony.

U can't do that to us. we have been waiting since 2014
Everyone is using discord and teamspeak  

[Nite 261]

21 minutes ago, MattScott said:

Otherwise we may be asked to take a break from Unreal 3.5 to integrate the PC version with their new service. Unfortunately that leaves all our console players without voice service till we can get a patch approved by Microsoft and Sony.

I apologize for this disruption with the game. I know it is an important feature for team missions and our Social district.
We are working as quickly as we can to resolve this.

I don't know about how the console playerbase feels about all this but I'm confident in claiming most of the PC base would rather you just disable the Vivox service on PC, if rectifying the issue is gonna come at a cost of manhours spent working on the Unreal 3.5 transition. PC already has Discord, Teamspeak, Mumble, and numerous other existing alternatives to get our voice comms game going, we can live without Vivox.

We cannot live without the Unreal 3.5 upgrade though, not any longer than is strictly neccesary....

[Yeedman 134]

Yeah, everyone already uses discord etc. i have personally never even used the ingame chat

[vsb 6171]

rip random pug teammates yelling at me to stop ruining the mission while they bottom frag

[Keshi 436]

43 minutes ago, Nite said:

I don't know about how the console playerbase feels about all this but I'm confident in claiming most of the PC base would rather you just disable the Vivox service on PC, if rectifying the issue is gonna come at a cost of manhours spent working on the Unreal 3.5 transition. PC already has Discord, Teamspeak, Mumble, and numerous other existing alternatives to get our voice comms game going, we can live without Vivox.

We cannot live without the Unreal 3.5 upgrade though, not any longer than is strictly neccesary....

my vivox has been disabled ever since 2012 ... and basically as u said... i am sure 85% of pc players don't give a damn about ingame voip. But if Matt says they gotta do it, then they gotta do it

Then again i've been waiting for the engine upgrade since it was announced in 2012 tho Edited September 4, 2018 by Keshi

[AgentWatson 85]

Obviously I can't speak for console players as a PC player if it's really that vital for Vivox to be working. But personally I don't think I'm too bothered by the issue of Vivox not working, if I want to communicate with someone on PC as other people have highlighted already in this thread we're spoiled on choices exclusively on PC and I also don't think fixing Vivox is either going to attract people back to the game. 

I don't wanna press so much on you and your development team Matt but 3.5 UE is pretty much vital right now to maintaining not only the active fanbase but attracting new players and older players back to the game, I've sort of fallen in and out of interest of this game in the last few months because even though you've hustled and done a lot with the mess you've been given, weapon balance and new anti-cheat aren't going to be enough to attract new people. Game balance only matters to people who actively play the game and it's the same with the abundance of cheaters.

Vivox is just another one of those issues that exist in the game and does nothing to revitalize the game by adding it back. It's a distraction of talent and I hope you don't consider pouring man hours into more needless distractions. 

Edited September 4, 2018 by AgentWatson

[GavidaR 15]

also this should get fixed https://clips.twitch.tv/TastyUnsightlyVelociraptorMau5

[Knite 158]

2 hours ago, MattScott said:

Vivox experienced some network issues and shutoff the APB voice servers.
I took us a bit to diagnose the problem, but I reached out and spoke with their President and engineers to see what happened.
At the time we were told they could have our production servers back up in 24-48 hours

They didn't inform LO in any way, and you had to figure it out yourselves? Top-tier service provider.

2 hours ago, MattScott said:

Otherwise we may be asked to take a break from Unreal 3.5 to integrate the PC version with their new service...I know it is an important feature for team missions and our Social district

I would prefer this not to happen, should it come to pass; for years Vivox was disabled on my PC because it introduced mouse lag, but eventually that stopped happening and I started using it again.

For the years that it was disabled, my friends and I would just use Ventrilo or Teamspeak, and now with Discord (or PS/Xbox party chat), there are even more options; in-game chat is more of an annoyance and novelty than strictly necessary, IMO, but don't take my word for it.

[Keshi 436]

9 minutes ago, Knite said:

PS/Xbox party chat

console's got other options too
But then again new players on pc and consoles always use VOIP talking to other players regardless if we have it off or not
But VOIP aint gonna attract new players tho Edited September 4, 2018 by Keshi

[killerskull 111]

TBH this whole ingame voice chat needs a fix. Its really stupid how I can hear my enemies talk to each other in proximity. If you disable that, I think a lot more people will use it. 

[Blushie 2]

I personally would rather seen an engine update than voice fixed first... 

[Lato 188]

nobody cares about vivox..do something big for this game or it's gonna go back to 400 players on at its best..

[Fasalina 163]

For the love of everything that is holy just throw vivox into the trashbin where it belongs and continue on with the development of EU3.5.

No more spastic screeches. My ears are safe now. 

[Kempington 295]

Sadly, this is what happened last time. Other things kept getting in the way of the 3.5 upgrade. 

I'd say put it to the side for now, since the process will take a while. The engine upgrade is far more important. Most players just use 3rd party voice comms anyway, such as discord, teamspeak etc. If you still want to fix it, do it after the engine, if possible.

[CookiePuss 5379]

I'd like to say LO should spend some time in game, especially in bronze districts talking to the actual player base before making a decision.

Also, do we have any idea how long of a break from the EU this would require?
Seems like an important detail.
Hours? Days? Weeks? Months?

Edited September 4, 2018 by CookiePuss

[Lucidy 21]

Still no response on what happened to 2FA supposedly being planned before 3.5?

[Hexerin 1140]

36 minutes ago, Kempington said:

Sadly, this is what happened last time. Other things kept getting in the way of the 3.5 upgrade. I'd say put it to the side for now, since the process will take a while. The engine upgrade is far more important. Most players just use 3rd party voice comms anyway, such as discord, teamspeak etc. If you still want to fix it, do it after the engine, if possible.

@MattScott This is the correct course of action, you need to prioritize correctly. The extreme minority of Vivox users will get pissy, but overall game health will be much higher for it.

[Helix Reloaded 102]

I'd rather the engine upgrade first. Any delays that aren't crucial (we have other ways to communicate) will just make the players less hopeful about the fabled engine upgrade.

[ShaiShai 130]

1 hour ago, Hexerin said:

@MattScott This is the correct course of action, you need to prioritize correctly. The extreme minority of Vivox users will get pissy, but overall game health will be much higher for it.

i agree with everyone saying that they shouldn't postpone the eu, not like i want the eu anyway tho but it has been promised since 2012 and we still haven't gotten it, its kinda unfair that you (LO) seem to be falling into the same track as G1 where they just kept postponing stuff to the point that it never gets done, im afraid that is what it sounds like is gonna happen sadly

[Keshi 436]

UE3.5 can bring people back and new players as well if well executed 

Edited September 5, 2018 by Keshi