Attention: EA Game Advisors, EA Test Engineers, EA Devs, EA QAE, and EA PMs!
Im sure that many of you have lost coins after being outbid, maybe not only once but many times. I myself lost 78K, 2K, and 9K in just two days. Well, the sad part is - EA team does not seem to bother to look into the issue. I have open a case and no one from EA seems to bother.
Ok to cut the drama short, here is how to replicate the problem and it is complicated because of the erratic LOAD being send to the server at a certain point of time (technical stuff).
Procedure:
1. Bid on a card - I recommend a player with high bidding activity!
2. Wait till someone outbid you.
3. Once you are outbid, go to the MY BID tab and check on the card! DON'T TAP IT YET.
4. Wait till the AUCTION HOUSE cuts your connection erratically, this is when people are trying to OVERLOAD the server - attention Performance Engineer you should have seen this coming.
5. If you are lucky enough to go back to MY BID tab, TAP THE CARD to get your bid back.
- Here is where the problem occur, IF AFTER YOU TAP THE CARD AND THE APPS SENT YOU A TIMEOUT ERROR then GOODLUCK - Your coins are now part of the past! this is the same scenario when I lost my coins.
What happens here is that the server sends you back the coins BUT SINCE THERE WAS A TIMEOUT ERROR, THE TRANSACTION DID NOT PUSH THROUGH, BUT ON THE SERVER SIDE IT LOGS A SUCCESSFUL TRANSACTION and ON THE CLIENT SIDE IT IS FAILED- Probably the apps has no mechanism to TELL the server that it receives the coins succesfully!
SOLUTIONS:
1. CHANGE THE BIDDING PROCESS
2. OR Add a procedure on the client side that will tell the SERVER THAT the coins was received back successfully!
3. OR If there is do a code review on the said procedure and do more regression and load testing!
WORKAROUND FOR THE PLAYERS:
1. PLACE YOUR HIGHEST BIDS THE FIRST TIME, once outbid get it back when YOU FEEL THAT LOAD OF THE SERVER IS AT A NORMAL RATE - You can tell this when you access the auction house many times and not being prompted by a timeout error.
2. Or JUST TAP THE BUY NOW Button.
FOR NOW, IT IS EITHER YOU GAMBLE TO LOSS YOUR COINS OR PLACE YOUR HIGHEST BID ONE TIME AND IF SOMEONE OUTBIDS YOU, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.
Hope this helps AND I HOPE TO GET THE ATTENTION OF THE EA TEAM.
Oh by the way, A Kam Chancellor ToTW elite card will do! lol!
