Entries in additional instances cannot be launched (1)
Additional Instances Cannot Be Launched
Posted by iTZKooPA on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 23 Comments Tags: Instances, additional instances cannot be launched, annoying bugs, blue posts, bug fixes, call of the crusade, dungeons, patch 3.2, raiding, vrakthris, wryxian
The inability to launch instances this late in Wrath of the Lich King has always been odd to me. Like many of the people in my guild, and likely a large part of the WoW populace, there is almost no reason for me to enter any 5-man dungeons. That isn't to say that I don't do it here and there, but my frequency in no way compares to Solidsamm's marathon sessions during the early days of level 80. I am sure many of you agree (that is until Call of the Crusade drops with its Emblem changes), and yet, just as many of us continue to get the dreaded "Additional instances cannot be launched" when trying to open an instance. This is an especially painful message after having just attacked a raid full of Horde.
Logic would state that if less people are running dungeons there should be more "room" on the instance servers. According to Vrakthris it isn't that cut and dry. But one should never apply logic to system architecture and computer programming. There are a numbers of reasons why this isn't a one-to-one situation. For example, if instances are given some sort of weight (5-man = one, 10-man = 2, 25-man = four) depending on how stressful they are on the hosting machine, then the server could theoretically be just as full as ever.
Whatever the real design flaw is, it appears that Blizzard's architecture people have found a solution. According to Wryxian, over on the EU forums, the recent extended maintenance and server restarts are directly related to fixing the instance problem. Wryxian explains that "each group", presumably each Battlegroup, has to come down not once, but twice for the fix, and that things do not always go smoothly.
I haven't located a post that mirrors the undead crocodile's statements on the North American forums, but it's probably safe to assume the same thing is happening here. After all, my server was down for some extra time this morning, including a reboot during my Drakuru battle (I died!). With Call of the Crusade's background downloading initiated, the fix may come just in time.
I've had to deal with it more and more recently, but the wait hasn't broken my spirits. Getting a group still remains far more difficult. How bad has the stubbornness of the instance server been on your realm?