Seriously... twice today. I tried changing at 2 minutes before shut down and couldn't change skills. The warning the world will close is great, but we get no warning when the skills are shut off.
I think my point got mistaken for a petty complaint, or hurt feelings. It wasn't. If the capability is there to say 'the world is closing in 10 minutes'... why can't that be, 'the world is closing in 10 minutes, the skills are closing in 5 minutes.'
The point being that the two items are not closed at the same time. It was the first time I encounter the variance, and I wasn't the only one caught out by it. It was a shock, so I put the idea out there. There is no way I'm going to be convinced that it's too difficult or out of order to request some warning before the various parts of the world are shut down.
i think yesterday's closing was a bit different than the ones in the past. Myself I can't recall a distinctly different "skills closing" time. Maybe the game server stayed up longer then it was supposed to? That's more like what it felt like.
As for countdowns, I didn't notice GOD's 60 second countdown this time either. That warning usually sets off people's panic button with enough time to set skills. So the shutdown was odd in that way, too.
I'm sure the devs heard the comment for what it was, but I'd probably wait and see what the "new normal" is through the next test or two before calling for any game changes.
Yesterday had the skill starting bug which sounds like the problem being 2 minutes out. The cutoff seems to me to be when the 60-second timer starts. Although it'd be simple for god to add 'start a skill now' to the usual test-ending typing. It's not something that should be coded into the game since shutdowns won't be a part of the released game.
@Travinara I am with you on this %100
While we have an option to be able to continue to learn a skill between openings. It would be great that they were kept open long enough to actually set it up. Are we to guess when god is going to come a calling? I have missed out TWICE yesterday in setting up mining2 :(
@Travinara while the capacity may exist, I don't believe the shutdown is an automated process. I think it's pretty manual. Just like the updates to the @isglitchopen tweetstream (those really get out of time :-P) Since the closing of the game is what happens during alpha, I don't know that it's a good use of dev time to build some kind of timer/announcement system. Also, given the trials and tribs this last round, I wouldn't read much into it. I've been able to select a skill after game close once. If it's any comfort--in a schadenfreude-y kinda way--I couldn't even get the time to START on a skill. We all got it bad (or not.)