Last night I was running FSC with some friends and something went goofy with my client - it almost seemed like my character had been shifted in one direction by half the screen and different "layers" were not aligned properly. I've had this happen a number of times (e.g. zombies running around in space off the floor or off the edge of the screen) but it usually resolves itself in a minute or two. This time the game froze after a few seconds and then I was disconnected. I reconnected immediately but rather than be sent back to my party I was dumped into Haven and was unable to join them because of where they were in FSC.
Sorry for the long winded explanation...I'm getting there.
Not being sure sure what to do, I submitted a support request to get the assistance of a GM. This was at 9:28 pm (game time). The response came at 4:14am, most definitely too late to get me back into the party.
I haven't used support too many times, but in my very limited experience it seems like the response time used to be much faster. I can remember situations where bosses didn't spawn correctly or gates got stuck and GMs were on the scene in minutes, allowing us the option of waiting to be saved rather than abandoning the run.
This is in no way a complaint of the existing GMs - I think they do a great job. Perhaps the game population has grown and accordingly the number of support tickets has increased to the point that response time is slower. Then again, maybe the intent was never to have real time in game support and I was just lucky.
My recent experience was a little irritating because I lost out on some heat and the chance to get some more Almirian Seals, but it's certainly not a big deal. I can imagine situations for lower level players though where it would be much more aggravating if response times are longer.
Another option to adding GMs (which I'm sure are hard to find) would be to make some kind of priority support requests for in game help. I'm sure it would be abused, but maybe it would help overall to prioritize support tickets.
Browniebear
Three Rings can't exactly get another Game Master ON THE SPOT. I'm not sure where but in some forums posts it shows that people have to go through a test of some sort to become one. So yeah, it would take a while to do something like this. Don't expect something like this too soon. Though yes, this would be helpful.