Widespread Chat Bug... anyone have any suggestions?

[Vyder]

I have also had this exact problem for years, and know several people in our guild and friendly guilds that also get this problem.

I don't worry about it at all, we got discord, we have server wide discords that anyone can access, or lock down however they like. the voice quality makes several people go from completely not understandable, to perfectly fine when we use discord over the in game voice chat.

it seems that people that live farther away from Boston get the problem more often, had a guildy living in Santiago, Chili that had the problem nearly every single day for 30+ minutes at a time, when I get the chat bug from the pacific northwest, it happens for 3-5 minutes at a time.

however, my friends that play in new zealand and australia have the problem less or speak about it less than some others, however, there is no real reason to even worry about it for us, cause we just use discord.

I live 20 minutes from Boston and loose chat fairly often. Most times it comes back within a few seconds but not always.

[Krelar]

Can confirm. In our tiny guild of 4, the person who lives in MA never has this issue. Guildy who lives in Midwest...happens occasionally. I live in the west coast, happens at least once a play session sometimes more.

I also live on the west coast and could probably count on my fingers the number of times I've had this bug in my 13 years of continuous playing. I don't think it has occurred to me at all in the last year or so.

I can totally see how the devs have a really hard time with this as, so far, there does not seem to be any obvious common traits between those that are affected regularly and those that are not.

[Arkat]

I also live on the west coast and could probably count on my fingers the number of times I've had this bug in my 13 years of continuous playing. I don't think it has occurred to me at all in the last year or so.

I can totally see how the devs have a really hard time with this as, so far, there does not seem to be any obvious common traits between those that are affected regularly and those that are not.

Probably a routing issue regarding the chat server somewhere.

[DYWYPI]

I would happily invite a SSG Engineer in person to my residence for 30-minutes; I am certain beyond reasonable doubt I could get this specific error to occur several times. It probably wouldn't even take 15 minutes of me (or them) trying. I'd give them "step-by-step" advice and specialist training of how to increase or speed-up the chances.

The error certainly behaves like "congestion collapse".

Question: if Titus "magically teleported" herself and her machine to the USA, to a person's home whom rarely has this issue. Then connected to their home network would she still be able to as easily observe the issue?

The SSG Company network maintainers' are purposely dodging such questions. From the public perspective there has been very little 'commitment of resources' on SSGs behalf regarding fixing this specific issue over the last year or more.

This week I have had well into the double figures for this error maybe getting close to three digit figures. It's so prevalent that I didn't even bother mentioning the text within the Lamannia screenshot I took yesterday: CRASHING to desktop all the time! Anyone else having the same issue?, [Post #54].

If you look closely at the image, you'll see the latter part of the Chat server error text appearing on the first line. As a reminder of the exact message:

(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.
(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.
(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.
(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.
(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.
(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.
(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.

This thread is mostly focused upon a specific error message: "(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.". Rather than other unrelated generic Chat server issues. Also the 'Friends List' doesn't populate when this specific scenario occurs.

Note: the only possible way (using the DDO in-game messaging system) when this occurs for 'you the player' is via /tell as also voice is impacted. You will not be able to hear other people that are in a PUG Raid talking, for example. You won't see any: General, Party or Guild chat, either from yourself; or (to or from) others in the local vicinity or same shared channel type. You become both "deaf and dumb". :-/

At least the quest "progress erasure and rollback" issue SSG introduced around U55 is far less common. ;-)

You can't dodge your responsibilities by saying they don't exist!

[Belzidar]

For the last 3 days I have followed the same routine in an attempt to recreate this bug. So, below is the way I have gotten this chat bug occur.

Thursday 7-7-2022 around 5pm CST
Log into game, get to character page
Do not log in a character but exit game
Wait 5-10 minutes
Log into game again, go to character screen
Pick a character and log into the game.
Chat was out for approximately 4 minutes.
This was the first time I had logged into the game that day.

Friday 7-8-2022 around 5pm CST
Log into game, get to character page
Do not log in a character but exit game
Wait 5-10 minutes
Log into game again, go to character screen
Pick a character and log into the game.
Chat was out for approximately 4 minutes.
This was the first time I had logged into the game that day.

Saturday 7-9-2022 8am CST
Log into game, get to character page
Do not log in a character but exit game
Wait 5-10 minutes
Log into game again, go to character screen
Pick a character and log into the game.
Chat was out for approximately 4 minutes.
This was the first time I had logged into the game that day.

Each session I did not swap toons at all and chat worked during the entire session. Each session was about 3 hours. Luckily I didn't have any of the usual load screen dc's.

I asked someone in our static group to try the same routine this morning( Saturday 7-9) when they logged the first time. They did and their chat was not out when they got into the game. This person does have the same chat bug issues when swapping toons, they swapped a toon this morning for a raid and their chat was out for approximately 4-5 minutes.

I am in Texas, the guildy that tried this is in Mexico.

I will try the above routine 1 more time tomorrow and see if it repeats itself.

One last thought, and I preface by saying I have little to no knowledge of programming, etc and I'm sure I use the wrong terminology at times. But the thought is this, since we didn't have this issue prior to the extended maintenance that was done 2 years ago. Would there be a way to go through a checklist of the work that was done then and see if any of those changes could help narrow down this issue to the root cause?
Again, I really don't know if something like that is feasible or not. Or if programming actually works that way.

Hope some of this helps.

[DYWYPI]

Cordovan, honestly the requests for information seem far too vague. It almost seems as though your colleagues having you doing all the technical testing. No requests for: Account details, Hardware credentials or software logs, etc., seem to have been specifically asked for. We can ignore video. I find that highly irregular.

Suggesting it's the Daybreak Company network and infrastructure or Character Account integrity causing the bottleneck problem rather than anything specific at our end.

Router> enable
Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# interface fastethernet 0/0
Router(config-if)# no shutdown
Router(config-if)# ip address 172.16.10.1 255.255.255.0
Router(config-if)# ip helper-address 10.1.1.1 redundancy vrg1
Router(config-if)# standby 1 ip 172.16.10.254
Router(config-if)# standby 1 name vrg1
Router(config-if)# end

I could provide fresh screenshot examples of: "(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable." (all with authentic unique log stamps) on a daily basis...

If you sent me 500 DDO Points every time it occurred, it wouldn't take that long until I'd be handing out premium items like: Otto's Irresistible Boxes to passersby. I'd be swimming in DDO Points.

I feel I am talking to a wall.
We gave you every information we can think of. It is your turn to ask follow-up questions!
Titus.

I also find the messages that the walls' echoes convey to me so ambiguous; I envy SSG the clarity with which they speak to them.

Well, we have managed more feedback than: Question for the Devs: Why isn't Stealth Supported in Reaper?. Thirty-eight pages without response from Team DDO.

So I wouldn't hold your breath in getting practical responses from SSG if they wish to stay silent on this Chat server issue.

Incidentally I've already had the: "(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly." once today, so far... Would posting that screen shot help?

A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.

[Belzidar]

Day 4 of attempting to recreate the chat bug

I followed the same routine the previous 3 days and have had the chat bug occur each time. They are listed in a post earlier.

Today I did one thing different. I waited 15 minutes in between the first log to character screen and the second log to character screen. Previously I had waited only 5 minutes.

Today I did not have the chat bug occur when I logged into the game. So something about the time in between logs seems? to have made a difference? I believe that has been mentioned before.

I will be switching toons a lot today cleaning up bank space, that usually triggers the chat issue after 3 different log-ins. I think I will log 3 in succession with little time in between and see if that causes the issue to show up.

If it does, maybe 3 in 15 minute intervals and see if that changes anything

[TitusOvid]

Someone over on LotrO posted a video about game crashes. He mentioned that since he switched to Linux he had no more chat disconnects. I do play on Win 10. Does anyone who doesn't play on Windows can give feedback concerning this?
Thank you.

Cheers,
Titus.

[GelatinousCubist]

Someone over on LotrO posted a video about game crashes. He mentioned that since he switched to Linux he had no more chat disconnects. I do play on Win 10. Does anyone who doesn't play on Windows can give feedback concerning this?
Thank you.

Cheers,
Titus.

Hi! I play on MacOS via CrossOver and have also experienced the Chat Server issue. Lucky us I found this thread on the Windows Subforum (despite a previous thread having been closed). My main trigger point for "chat server unavailable" issues seems to be following a teleport failure and forced closure and relaunch of the DDO client. I pretty much expect the chat server to be unavailable for 5+ minutes after reconnecting. I am not patient enough to take a 15 minute walk before trying to relog.

As for other recent troubleshooting info around this, I am located in California. I have toons on every server and tend to frequently swap between servers/toons, but the most reliable chat server issues seem to follow a failed teleport.

Perhaps fixing failed teleport issues might help solve for the chat server issues? Who knows. I am but a simple caveman.

[Micki]

I don't switch toons much and I rarely have this issue - I did experience it on Lamannia, though, and on HC.

It seems that when ppl DC in game, from a for example load screen crash, when they log back their chat isn't working. We usually wait it out and it comes back after a number of minutes. While the chat isn't working, you can't write (or read) in party, userchannels or guild, you can, though, send tells. If I am not mistaken, before you made the change that if the chat server is unavailable you can't send messages - before this you could send your message but others didn't see it. At least now it's easy to spot that your message isn't going through.

I would assume, and easy way to replicate this is to pull your internet cable while you're logged in, wait for your connection to turn red, plug the cable back in, kill your client and log back in. Note, I haven't tested it, but when I got red connection on Lammania, when I came back my chat wasn't working.

[Epicsoul]

I don't switch toons much

This is typically when it occurs for me. It rarely happens when first logging in. It happens when I'm swapping toons and sometimes it just doesn't reconnect to the chat server for several minutes.

[MichelOue]

How many time do we set priorities in performance process ctrl+shift+ESC ...

The option overbearing the gameclient is the sound setting allow software to take exclusive control (of sound hardware).
make sure game client starts first before any communication software with default settings, a downer.

remove option of interruptions during ring, communication settings.

I access these by control pannel- small icons- sound- and adjusting decibels to loud, every one can turn down volume.

(the no understand here bug issue, is windows prioritizing sound for communication, in an airport controls manner, the priorities are not set)...

I even had a blue tooth headset close the game client during play, when powered off. Definitely an identifier as to who's boss of the sound card. "communication priorities" [details bluetooth 5.0 BT68(headset BT-68 hands-free AG audio (says default))]


feel free to message me

[MichelOue]

Cordovan, ... distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.

Arf language barriers eh, my ISP just crashed canada wide, and we got some vague answer as to why there update caused failure 48hrs no emergency calls for 24hrs

I got an e-mail.... error messages (suggestion ditch chat service-delegate to other software platform.. savings in DATA . You can reproduce it gygabite sound cards are fantasting 192kbts multitasking video and audio, with game... Overboard I listen to video news as I play sound in game off and so what chat up down have other things to do completely oblivious. [what copy wright do we have to buy?]

Good luck all you programmers in logic, intuitive thinking

[DYWYPI]

Unfortunate enough to succumb to the ravages of this hideous bug, the poor wretch had been cast from her home and banished into the cave to live out her final days in solitude and misery, far from anywhere she might be able to infect others of her community.

Titus, Tyrost mentioned in the first post that testing had been done on Windows and Linux (WINE) and the error message "(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.". The message seemed to occur just as regularly regardless of OS.

It happens, regardless of server, and that includes: Hardcore and Lamannia. It's not the generic: "The chat server has lost connection." message. It's lack of connection in a timely manner.

Cordovan, I will presume there isn't an ongoing legal dispute (or NDA) that is restricting feedback from SSG regarding this ongoing problem. I am also confident you don't want us to go down the legal proceedings route either. :-)

We've supplied more than enough adequate information of how to recreate this specific error (and its frequency of occurrence) and a sample of requested video evidence. Also various screenshots and logs and timestamps have been provided.

Unless I'm mistaken SSG has the capability to both remotely log and trace the occurrence of this error in real-time and send it to a report server?

If you don't apply such testing then of course you won't notice the problem; it's just denial and neglect of responsibility.

In which case, having us send screenshots wouldn't be strictly necessary anyway. It only makes SSG look even more stupid in public by not answering that question.

The video evidence asked for is far too ambiguous. Neither have your team explained how to create in-game videos when it was requested or where to send them. Refer to: [Post #53].

Like I mentioned previously a video wouldn't be all the exciting unless it also showed comprehensive traffic logs (or virtual server details).

We've even invited you to visit us in person; admittedly you probably don't want to risk me being a serial killer and there would be risk assessment. It's also likely beyond the scope anyway but the offer was in fact genuine.

Nonetheless I am pretty sure some of the effected people would be willing to join a private PUG group. So you could personally experience them having this error strike whilst they were in a party with a SSG official.

You have people pretty much bending over backwards to communicate or assist with your research on this problem. The DDO community have even been giving logical suggestions of some basic tests SSG could carry out. Yet those people are being dismissed as being far too resource heavy to be bothered caring about.

Ethically a company should always acknowledge the complaint in a time frame where it's deemed reasonable to do so in the circumstances.

Clearly some of the rascals over at the parody forum that rhymes with DDO and Vaunt seem pretty enthusiastic over this thread. No doubt they've already attempted to add some of their creative and colourful input.

Nonetheless I don't believe it is in SSGs interest not answering some of the questions posed. The people reporting the error: "(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly." seem genuine. We are not being unreasonable wanting to uncover the truth.

Cordovan I understand you might have to enquire with your Legal department about what you can say publicly. Albeit so far the Forum communication; it has been rather one-sided and very little goodwill or positivity has been shown publicly to the victims of this error by Team DDO.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

[TitusOvid]

I have personally done as you have described several times without any repro or issue uncovered. That's why we'd appreciate any information that can be provided by people who - are - experiencing the issue. It could be the key to getting this issue fixed.

Are you the only one who has tried to reproduce this?

[...] As with everything, the work needs to be scheduled, done, tested, and deployed, an that process is not immediate, especially when dealing with a so-far-not-reproducible bug like this. We do appreciate continued actual information being provided, [...]

How about a rough timeframe? One month?, 6 weeks, more?

Or a direct person to work with?


Titus.

[Belzidar]

On Sunday 7-10, I logged 6 separate bank toons cleaning up inventory. Chat worked on each toon each time I logged. Exited the game and didn't relog until 4 hours later and logged my main. Chat was working
Played approximately 30 minutes and disconnected due to getting stuck in a load screen. I normally type /quit when those happen but I let it run it's course this time.
I relogged the same toon, I did not wait 5 or 10 minutes before relogging. Chat was out 4-5 minutes.

I think next time I disconnect during gameplay, I'll wait 10 minutes before relogging and see if chat works then. I agree with the comments in another post about chat not working when returning from a disconnect (stuck load screen, freeze while playing, etc)

It seems to occur more from those situations than just logging different toons. Although at times just cycling through bank toons will cause the chat issue to happen.


On a side note, It would be helpful if management would respond to some of the info that is being provided. This thread is quickly starting to look like the last one that was closed. Players offer up info about the issue and we don't get any feedback on whether or not it is helpful. Or if the information is actually being put to use.

[DYWYPI]

As if she had rubbed a cloth over the canvas on which they had both been painting, the colours merged and ran. The rivulets of paint reformed themselves into new patterns until slowly there emerged a picture of a high mountain peak, where the wind blew the loose snow into great clouds of coldness. The sun and the moon hung together in the icy sky.

We as players have pretty much documented about every single type of normal game usage scenario which will reliably cause the "(Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly." to occur. That list has more or less been exhausted.

Cordovan, it maybe would be an ideal opportunity (for you) to setup an in-game Party like I mentioned prior. Since you claim, you personally have difficulty reproducing the error. Possibly with someone that can easily trigger the error, and also maybe video themselves in the party. Thus you could be observer of both sides of the same video. SSG would be recording and so would the other party. As it would be semi pointless the effected machine (account) just recording. They'd be losing: Chat functionally and the Friends list anyway... If your team aren't prepared to do such things then it's unlikely any progress will be ever made.

Otherwise we can happily keep "going round in circles" upon the forums for several more years to come...

Player: I can reliably create this error daily and here is the authentic evidence, see: Exhibit A (screenshot, video or whatever).

SSG: We cannot recreate the problem or don't want to fix or run 'diagnostic logs' for the issue, etc. Give us the exact same evidence; it'll help with our investigation. Or else the default: silent treatment. [Possibly nothing is being done; it's (player feedback) entering a black hole].

That of course would wear down the moral(e) of any reasonable and sane person whom is a victim of this Chat server issue. Then "labels" start getting applied; SSG then EASILY claims a completely hollow victory by DOING NOTHING, that is a near certainty, and nothing ever changes. ;-)

I could post screenshots till the cows come home. I could easily today, change my forum signature to: (Error): The chat server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly. Do you think I am that stupid though?

It's unreasonable to expect us to solve the issue for you, for a problem caused by SSGs actions (whether intentional or not). It involves you also doing your part to help.

Personally I believe many of us would have been happier to hear: "We have no intention of resolving this specific Chat server issue." It'd save us ALL a lot of time and effort. At worst a few people would grumble, if you said you won't fix it, but I'd be reasonably happy with such a statement. ;-)

The birds, high above, looked on with expectant interest.

[Cordovan]

The current status of this is that it is in a list of priorities for engineers to continue to look at, and there is a lot of competition currently for their time. We do very much want to correct this issue for you. We can't currently provide an ETA, but when one becomes available we'll let you know.

[Tyrost]

Cordovan, thanks for the update, though I wish we could have had a little better outcome. I don't recall this bug starting out after any reported changes to the chat server as far as the reported release notes will relay, so no clue why initially caused it to rear itself.

I do wish I had more info to report, but everyone's pretty much covered it ad nauseum, and thank you one and all for the additional info posted to this thread.

I will say that I saw no improvement or escalation of this bug during your filter changes to chat some months ago. I still get a few words that are comically blocked, especially those of quest names. (I never needed to turn off the chat filter, but it was getting hard to communicate in-game after that last pass especially about quest objectives or what we wanted to run, so off it went!)

As I had said in the OP, I'm not an active forum poster, average browser, but avid player. So, my apologies for not replying again sooner. Sadly, I just have nothing new to add.

It's clearly still a very widespread issue. It appears everyone I group with has had it in the last few weeks, but I will say we've had excellent luck in the 5-minute logout solution (when it occurs, get out of the game for more than 5 minutes, then log back in).

Again, Windows 7, 11, and Linux Mint. Connections through aDSL, and multiple cable providers. Eastern and Central Time zone gamers. Accounts with 3-4 total characters as well as accounts with 14-20. TR characters, non-TR characters. Just don't see any smoking gun.

Ridiculously easy for any of us to reproduce: log in with character A, logout of character A, log in character B (who may or may not have the bug), logout character B, log in character A, wa-la, welcome my old friend chat bug!

We're just relegated to the fact that this is a permanent "feature" if we intend to keep playing this old game after 12+ years. We're not ready to give up on it yet as long as we have work-arounds.

Please keep this thread open as long as you can. I'm sure we're eager to add to this if we find any suspicious pattern or new related spin-off feature/bug, but I'll do my best to keep off the "bumps" to keep it open.

Good luck all!
-Tyrost

[TitusOvid]

The current status of this is that it is in a list of priorities for engineers to continue to look at, and there is a lot of competition currently for their time. We do very much want to correct this issue for you. We can't currently provide an ETA, but when one becomes available we'll let you know.

Thank you.
I would appreciate updates, if you have some; even "behind the scene" ones. This disturbs the game in a tremendous way, especially when someone hosts raids. And the quality of the voice chat is unreliable.
And you don't show up on the WHO list, can't be invited, etc etc. I can't underline the impact of this bug.

Cheers,
Titus.