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New dev blog: EVE Launcher Issues

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Skera
Century Mining Corporation
#41 - 2012-03-16 10:52:45 UTC
Im actually frustrated with the pice of crap to be honest... The new launcher makes the starting of my eve experience lengthy to put it mildly..

Launching 6 accounts before was only a matter of single clicking my icon 6 times, and then 6 clients would ramp up on my screen and load up..

Now i have to wait for EACH client to fully load before i can click again, or i will get a warning that there can only be one launcher instance of the game at any given time...

That means that in stead of taking maybe 30 seconds to launch 6 clients, i now have to spend almost 2 min to launch my clients...

Unhappy camper with the change..
CCP Unifex
C C P
C C P Alliance
#42 - 2012-03-16 11:32:43 UTC
Vyktor Abyss wrote:
You suggest you'll be able to push out more regular but smaller fixes etc...

My question is how will you manage version control and backups/rollbacks?

Suppose you introduce a fix that has a consequence of creating a new bug or issue (for example deleting all mine blueprints) which isn't picked up and flagged by the players for a few days later, during which time you've then deployed several other small fixes.

How do you go about restoring or rolling back since presumably your backups are daily during downtime? Do we players then have to wait days/week with the issue (for example having no mine blueprints) while you work out a method to restore without losing too many incremental patches?

I just sense you're only seeing the positives of being able to deliver patches quicker and not considering the potential drawbacks of less version control.

Already I had to download the launcher, then a patch for the launcher, then restart, then patch eve, then restart.... I'd rather be playing the game.


Many of the quick, small updates we are looking at involve things like crash fixes rather than in-game content although not exclusively. This blog from a while ago shows you some of the tools we are putting in place for this. What we found was that getting those "One line fixes" for these problems out to our players was tying up huge amounts of resources due to our old method for pushing out updates. The size of the updates was often much larger than they will be with the new launcher system. This way we can react faster and have more people working on the things they should be doing.

The potential problems you list are still things we need to be very careful about but we are moving much more to a model where we can support small regular updates as well as the more traditional large expansions which happen a couple of times a year.

Executive Producer
CCP Unifex
C C P
C C P Alliance
#43 - 2012-03-16 11:34:06 UTC
Skera wrote:
Im actually frustrated with the pice of crap to be honest... The new launcher makes the starting of my eve experience lengthy to put it mildly..

Launching 6 accounts before was only a matter of single clicking my icon 6 times, and then 6 clients would ramp up on my screen and load up..

Now i have to wait for EACH client to fully load before i can click again, or i will get a warning that there can only be one launcher instance of the game at any given time...

That means that in stead of taking maybe 30 seconds to launch 6 clients, i now have to spend almost 2 min to launch my clients...

Unhappy camper with the change..


The team are looking at this and other threads for feedback just like this and I'll go over and prod them now to take this into account. I know they have been looking at multiple account users already.

Executive Producer
Lenore Leelu
Obsidian Dynamics
#44 - 2012-03-16 12:00:49 UTC
One Issue with the launcher that I have not seen addressed is this:
None of the images or areas that are clearly intended to be links open up in a browser when clicked.

They open a blank page in IE on Windows 7 (64 bit)

They open fine however in Safari on OS X Lion.
TheLostPenguin
Surreal Departure
#45 - 2012-03-16 12:34:49 UTC  |  Edited by: TheLostPenguin
Skera wrote:
Im actually frustrated with the pice of crap to be honest... The new launcher makes the starting of my eve experience lengthy to put it mildly.

Launching 6 accounts before was only a matter of single clicking my icon 6 times, and then 6 clients would ramp up on my screen and load up.

Now i have to wait for EACH client to fully load before i can click again, or i will get a warning that there can only be one launcher instance of the game at any given time..

That means that in stead of taking maybe 30 seconds to launch 6 clients, i now have to spend almost 2 min to launch my clients..

Unhappy camper with the change..


Stop running the launcher every time then, it's just wasting your time.
Open up the shortcut you use for EVE and change the path to run "[appropriate path]\CCP\EVE\bin\ExeFile.exe"
This assumes you run all your instances of EVE from the one install (which it sounds like you do), it will run the client directly taking you straight to the login screen w/o touching the launcher. Just bear in mind that if there IS a patch needed the client will annoyingly try to reinstall the launcher for you as i mentioned above, you can just close the client and run the launcher to get patched.

EDIT:Why when forum reloads a draft post (after eating it first time around) must it delete certain bits of punctuation?
CCP Atropos
C C P
C C P Alliance
#46 - 2012-03-16 12:54:43 UTC
TheLostPenguin wrote:
Skera wrote:
Im actually frustrated with the pice of crap to be honest... The new launcher makes the starting of my eve experience lengthy to put it mildly.

Launching 6 accounts before was only a matter of single clicking my icon 6 times, and then 6 clients would ramp up on my screen and load up.

Now i have to wait for EACH client to fully load before i can click again, or i will get a warning that there can only be one launcher instance of the game at any given time..

That means that in stead of taking maybe 30 seconds to launch 6 clients, i now have to spend almost 2 min to launch my clients..

Unhappy camper with the change..


Stop running the launcher every time then, it's just wasting your time.
Open up the shortcut you use for EVE and change the path to run "[appropriate path]\CCP\EVE\bin\ExeFile.exe"
This assumes you run all your instances of EVE from the one install (which it sounds like you do), it will run the client directly taking you straight to the login screen w/o touching the launcher. Just bear in mind that if there IS a patch needed the client will annoyingly try to reinstall the launcher for you as i mentioned above, you can just close the client and run the launcher to get patched.

EDIT:Why when forum reloads a draft post (after eating it first time around) must it delete certain bits of punctuation?

This works for now, but when we push out a patch, you still have to start the Launcher regardless.
CCP Atropos
C C P
C C P Alliance
#47 - 2012-03-16 12:57:27 UTC
Skera wrote:
Im actually frustrated with the pice of crap to be honest... The new launcher makes the starting of my eve experience lengthy to put it mildly..

Launching 6 accounts before was only a matter of single clicking my icon 6 times, and then 6 clients would ramp up on my screen and load up..

Now i have to wait for EACH client to fully load before i can click again, or i will get a warning that there can only be one launcher instance of the game at any given time...

That means that in stead of taking maybe 30 seconds to launch 6 clients, i now have to spend almost 2 min to launch my clients...

Unhappy camper with the change..

How have you got your install setup? Do you have one install that you run 6 times? 6 separate installs? Where is it installed? Program Files? Somewhere else?

I'm really curious about your configuration, since one of the issues we've encountered, is that without official support for multiple account holders who love to multibox, everyone has gone out and in a lot of cases, rolled their own solutions. I've seen people using batch scripts to launch multiple clients, bypassing and going straight to ExeFile.exe versus people installing to multiple drives, and then others using hard/softlinks or junctions. Each one poses different problems, so the more information you can give us on your setup, the better we can understand what you're doing and why, and come up with an appropriate solution.
Divi Filus
New Xenocracy
#48 - 2012-03-16 13:25:00 UTC
Posting this here, because CCP apparently cba to check their own thread in the appropriate forum, and apparently this is of too little concern for the issues thread: Mac users are still stuck with launcher version 1.04, which does not give us the option to bypass the launcher unless there is a patch. When can we expect this feature?
Vanessa Vansen
Vandeo
#49 - 2012-03-16 13:40:33 UTC  |  Edited by: Vanessa Vansen
Divi Filus wrote:
Posting this here, because CCP apparently cba to check their own thread in the appropriate forum, and apparently this is of too little concern for the issues thread: Mac users are still stuck with launcher version 1.04, which does not give us the option to bypass the launcher unless there is a patch. When can we expect this feature?


And as mentioned before, there is no option for the launcher window to stay open for mac.
At the moment I have to re-start the whole app, instead of just clicking play to run another instance of the actual eve client.

And, as mentioned above by Skera, it would be great to just click "Play" x-times and have x eve clients a few seconds later, instead of having to wait that one client is up and running before being able to start the next one.
taintedms
ArB Llc.
#50 - 2012-03-16 15:18:23 UTC
Alright, so good decision or not here is the only issue i am seeing ATM.

I have a junction setup (as per suggestion from the eve wiki about how to dual box). The path it created for the second client ends up being C:\CCP\EVE and C:\CCP\EVE2

If i launch both clients at the same time it attempts to install the update for both, causing both to break. The only way to fix this is to run the repair tool on both.

There needs to be a mechanic built in that identifies if another instance of the launcher has been opened, and if so do not attempt to patch (perhaps notify that only one client can be open while patching). At the least this will save time by not having to run the repair tool, and will allow us dual box guys to still open both clients at the same time without worrying about breaking the launcher update process.
CCP Cascade
#51 - 2012-03-16 15:54:47 UTC
Hi all,

At 14:20 GMT today (16 march), we released the new version of the Launcher 1.11. There is no update for Mac and we will be looking closer at Mac over the next couple of days and potentially releasing an update to it next week.

Launcher 1.11 Patch Notes:

  • Numerous fixes to the Launcher self-update mechanism
  • Fixed an error where the browser process spawned by clicking links in the Launcher inherited the file handles of the Launcher itself, causing permissions conflicts while patching.
  • Properly managing paths with a variety of unexpected characters such that the Launcher doesn't assume that a process is running from the folder under its purview.
  • The Launcher needlessly held onto the handles of processes that it suspected were running from the directory under its purview. This has been corrected.
  • Added logging of HTTP Headers such that we're better able to debug Firewall/Router/Antivirus interference.
  • Forced the Launcher's embedded browser to log to the EVE/launcher folder, reducing interference with the patching process, and removing clutter.
  • Changed the method by which we delete old files before they're successfully patched.
  • Reduced the amount of time we wait for the Launcher to attempt to send logs to a hard limit of 3 seconds.
  • We now request non-cached copies of all meta-data files from the web, which should reduce instances of the Repair Tool or Launcher erroneously patching to a previous version.
  • The Launcher has been further hardened to closure during various stages of execution.

Associate Technical Producer - Core Technology Group
TheLostPenguin
Surreal Departure
#52 - 2012-03-16 16:08:19 UTC
CCP Atropos wrote:
TheLostPenguin wrote:
Skera wrote:
Im actually frustrated with the pice of crap to be honest... The new launcher makes the starting of my eve experience lengthy to put it mildly.

Launching 6 accounts before was only a matter of single clicking my icon 6 times, and then 6 clients would ramp up on my screen and load up.

Now i have to wait for EACH client to fully load before i can click again, or i will get a warning that there can only be one launcher instance of the game at any given time..

That means that in stead of taking maybe 30 seconds to launch 6 clients, i now have to spend almost 2 min to launch my clients..

Unhappy camper with the change..


Stop running the launcher every time then, it's just wasting your time.
Open up the shortcut you use for EVE and change the path to run "[appropriate path]\CCP\EVE\bin\ExeFile.exe"
This assumes you run all your instances of EVE from the one install (which it sounds like you do), it will run the client directly taking you straight to the login screen w/o touching the launcher. Just bear in mind that if there IS a patch needed the client will annoyingly try to reinstall the launcher for you as i mentioned above, you can just close the client and run the launcher to get patched.

EDIT:Why when forum reloads a draft post (after eating it first time around) must it delete certain bits of punctuation?

This works for now, but when we push out a patch, you still have to start the Launcher regardless.


Indeed you still require running the launcher to patch, but the rest of the time it's quicker and easier to run the exe directly, hopefully you guys aren't planning to spam patches every other day or anything like that, running the launcher once per week if you've sent out a patch sounds fine, and faster startups the rest of the timeBig smile

ps if there is any consideration to abandon the current weekly schedule for patch deployment please reconsider, it's annoying when you have to push out patches more frequently to fix serious breakages, but entirely understandable. Please don't think that because it got easier from your end to deploy stuff that players want to be waiting for patching every day.
Achaiah7
Perkone
Caldari State
#53 - 2012-03-16 16:17:45 UTC
Sturmwolke wrote:
Live deployment with no Plan B ... or Plan C. What happened?

Those users facing patch issues could have been given the option for manual download and have the launcher bypassed altogether. The repair tool should remain independent of the launcher processes in cases where the launcher may/would fail - its more mature in terms of use.

Now, I've noticed that each time you start EVE (through eve.exe shorcut), it actually latches onto the launcher (presumably to check for updates), even though you've set the launcher to "Only display launcher when there is an update". This to me, looks like an Achilles heel .... especially when your code is still immature.

An option to COMPLETELY BYPASS the launcher to start the game (after making sure repair has updated it) should exist.


+1 on this. I have not had a successful patch process yet. My PC client deleted all of my settings and I had to re-do every keyboard shortcut, window layout etc. for all of my chars. :( :( :( My Mac client patched correctly then died and now I cannot launch EVE at all... the launcher comes up but when it tries to launch EVE, the game crashes without warning.

Seriously CCP, please release beta versions or test your stuff more before plunging head-first into a new setup. E.g. option of bypassing the launcher would have been a very nice feature for those of us who are having issues.
Daniel O'Sullivan
Blue Lotus Industries
#54 - 2012-03-16 16:23:01 UTC  |  Edited by: Daniel O'Sullivan
Noticed launcher said no players online (despite the fact im on line!)SO closed the launcher to restart it and now i'm getting this error.....

"No connection could be made to the content server. Please make sure that your Internet connection is up and restart the Launcher."


Never mind resolved itself...........
Jaxun Shadoweyes
Ordo Ars Scientia
#55 - 2012-03-16 16:23:57 UTC
Launcher feature request: please let me use the launcher as a sort of password locker.

Instead of a single Play button, I would like to have separate Play buttons that I can associate with each of my accounts, so that I can avoid typing so many passwords when I sit down for a few minutes of quick multi-toon mission-running squeezed in before falling asleep.

(Were there already command-line params that would help with this? Were they made obsolete by the launcher?)

To make this more "secure", the launcher could optionally have a single password that I enable if I'm anticipating that anyone else could access my computer.

Thanks!
E man Industries
SeaChell Productions
#56 - 2012-03-16 16:36:21 UTC
none of these issues but the launcher has made opening 2 clients much harder.
Have to open one fully and close the launcher then open the other rather than just selecting both from my start menu and they both load to log in.
Silenciel
Penguins at school
#57 - 2012-03-16 17:09:50 UTC
My little personal case.

Two accounts and two directories.

The first was "correctly" patched.
The second has failed both with patch and repair.

So delete the second and copy the first, then ok.


Why "correctly"' ?

Because the patch is not enough applied from a second place (in document and setting) but only in the game directory.
The consequence was my hard disk yelling at moon. My C and D are not on the same hard disk and before this patch, patchs were quietly installed.

Please, let us set the place of the destination and application patch !

For two directory, it's boring, too. Patch the first, ok, second directory : go quickly in options, import the patch from the first directory and let's patch, wich erase anything done until patch import... It was really more simple before.

Sorry for my bad english, not my first langage.
MRohCRACKER Kriewald
Dream RuCorp inc.
#58 - 2012-03-16 18:20:19 UTC
Ok, I solved this issue where the full installer was broken and did manually install it but now another issue has arise and that is, When I go to update my EVE client the update downloads and then finishes then the same update reappears as if i never downloaded it. So ultimately I'm stuck in a loop.

Any Advice or help would be nice.

Thank you.
Alnurial
One-Corp
#59 - 2012-03-16 19:13:57 UTC
Lenore Leelu wrote:
One Issue with the launcher that I have not seen addressed is this:
None of the images or areas that are clearly intended to be links open up in a browser when clicked.

They open a blank page in IE on Windows 7 (64 bit)

They open fine however in Safari on OS X Lion.


I also have this problem on Windows 7 (64 bit). My default browser is Opera. Why is the Eve Launcher attempting to use IE rather than the default?
Skera
Century Mining Corporation
#60 - 2012-03-16 19:40:39 UTC
CCP Atropos wrote:
Skera wrote:
Im actually frustrated with the pice of crap to be honest... The new launcher makes the starting of my eve experience lengthy to put it mildly..

Launching 6 accounts before was only a matter of single clicking my icon 6 times, and then 6 clients would ramp up on my screen and load up..

Now i have to wait for EACH client to fully load before i can click again, or i will get a warning that there can only be one launcher instance of the game at any given time...

That means that in stead of taking maybe 30 seconds to launch 6 clients, i now have to spend almost 2 min to launch my clients...

Unhappy camper with the change..

How have you got your install setup? Do you have one install that you run 6 times? 6 separate installs? Where is it installed? Program Files? Somewhere else?

I'm really curious about your configuration, since one of the issues we've encountered, is that without official support for multiple account holders who love to multibox, everyone has gone out and in a lot of cases, rolled their own solutions. I've seen people using batch scripts to launch multiple clients, bypassing and going straight to ExeFile.exe versus people installing to multiple drives, and then others using hard/softlinks or junctions. Each one poses different problems, so the more information you can give us on your setup, the better we can understand what you're doing and why, and come up with an appropriate solution.


I use the same client for all 6 instances. And its located on a seperat disk, an ssd actually. in k:\games\eve-online.

And yes i was running the eve.exe in the main folder.