Weekly Update 7/10/06

Frelorn · 07-10-2006, 01:15 PM

Hello there everyone. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I would like to start this update off with a heart felt thank you. Due to scheduling conflicts and a very serious family issue, I have not been here as much as would have like over the last few weeks. Hopefully all of that is behind us, and things can get back to normal… Well as normal as things can be around here.

I am not going to try and sugar coat things at this point. It would be an insult to everyone’s intelligence for me to do that. The big issue right now is the current state of the Authentication servers. As I write this update the team is still investigating the issues. Now I know alot of people are sitting back saying, “It’s been a week! Why hasn’t this been fixed yet?” Since I am not well versed in the world of operations, all I can tell you is what has been told to me. What I know is that everyone that is able to help with this, is working on it. Looking at every possible reason this might be happening, from hardware to code to everything in-between. No one here is taking this lightly, and everyone is working as hard as they can to get this solved as quickly as we can. Other projects are getting pushed off so that we can solve this before going forward with anything else.

We all greatly appreciate all of your understanding with us through this difficult time. We know this is not something that is easy to get past, when players want to get in and play, they expect to be able to do that whenever they want to. We know this and I will say it again. We are doing everything in our power to get this issue fixed.

Now we know some players have already begun asking for some form of compensation. At this point we have brought it up, but we will not seriously discuss it until we have the issues resolved.

Other than the big subject of the week, the team has been working hard to get the July event done. The testing is in its final phases and so far everything is going well. Since I am a week or so behind, I am going to do my best to get the monthly teaser images as soon as I can this week. I just have to find the time while trying to catch up on everything that I have missed. They have also completed writing the content for August and have begun implementation and testing of that content.

That is about it for now. Right now all of our focus is on getting the login issues resolved as soon as we can, so that everyone can back to playing AC and enjoying the content the team rolls out each month.

Have a great day, and see you all in Dereth!

Lokania · 07-10-2006, 01:23 PM

Is there a tentative date for the patch?

Micky · 07-10-2006, 02:12 PM

Why are you having a July update as many of us still can not log on? I would prefer you skip whatever high level content you plan for July and use the people to fix the log in issues.

Paraduck · 07-10-2006, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micky

Why are you having a July update as many of us still can not log on? I would prefer you skip whatever high level content you plan for July and use the people to fix the log in issues.

I doubt that the people designing the content are the ones working on the authentication issues... I would imagine those people would be Ops, Engineering, and QA.

But yes, a tentative date on the July patch would be good.

Xanius · 07-10-2006, 02:14 PM

Micky, the dev team for the game have nothing to do with getting the auth servers fixed. There's an entire seperate team for fixing servers.

Frelorn · 07-10-2006, 02:30 PM

At this point the tentative date for the July update the 18th. However, this date may need to be changed based on the current authentication issues. We will know more in the next couple of days.

Heideggar · 07-10-2006, 03:03 PM

"Other projects are getting pushed off so that we can solve this before going forward with anything else. " - Frelorn

Ugh, and new stuff is getting pushed back. You guys are doing a bang-up job of trumping all the good things that went on this month with issue after issue.

- So we bite our lip, and get through the hardware upgrade, which frankly, made no noticeable difference to me, or anyone else I've talked to.

- Authentication Issues... ugh. Over a week of spending tons of time simply to log in. I personally have to log out to clear memory leaks your client makes, so... yeah, blizowz for me when dealing with these issues I guess.

- Then potentially fun stuff you guys were working on gets put off, for what i can only imagine to be months, if not forever, due to pre-planned development scheduling.

When someone asks me about the month of June to July, of content, I think of this more and more, instead of the fun dungeon(s) (I liked the N'cathrardrillcantspellittosavemylife), Shard Live Events where **** loads of people went PK tearing it up, time triggered multiple town invasions, advancement of storyarc, found out Borolean (omfg seriously lol, I'm not joining the WB ever now) was the WB's leader, etc.

Compensation Compensation. Yeah Yeah. Do something fun with it. Yeah, the past several weeks have blown ***, but that doesn't mean you can't flip things around.

Ex. Imo, if it weren't for the shadows disrupting the mana ley lines in the seven shadow towns in order to bring the Shadow Vortex for Grael... we might not have had so many Authentication Issues. Maybe some NPCs can come into the game and thank the players for ending Grael's disruption of Portal Space (Authentication Issues)?

Ex1. - LttP -
Last month we saw many of our friends experience horrific encounters within portal space. The forces of Dereth were less frequently bolstered by their allies. The Aun have managed to fight back with their own knowledge of Portal Space, and all those affected by the Portal Space disturbances last month have noticed their time in order to complete quests reduced. (1-2 weeks perhaps?)

I know you guys aren't really thinking about compensation, but majors, double xp weekends, and things like that are totally wasted on someone like me. Now... questing...*questgasm*

Dews_Pistol · 07-10-2006, 10:58 PM

Frelorn,

We appreciate the effort and around the clock efforts goig into resolving the log in issues. I hope all is well on the home front, after all no job (and I mean no job) is worth the sacrifice of your family and the time they need with you.

Now onto the July teaser ...

I am one of the site administrators for our allegiance William the Bat, The largest monarchy on MT. We would absolutely LOVE to have a teaser pic to put up in our news. Is this possible?

If not I understand ... I mean after all we are the brightest and smartest in Dereth on MT and could possibly "solve" the teaser pic before it even goes live muuuwwaahaaahaaaa~~~! (j/k)

Our home site is www.asherons.net

My email is Dewspistol@asherons.net and i'll keep my eyes peeled for a turbine email with your lovely lil teaser - should you cave into my begging and actually give me one

(it never hurtssss to ask!!)

Schpank you very much in advance (should you feel ok with sending me one

)

PS: Frelorn should you want one of our nifty email Addy's just post over on the Forum and post here:

http://www.asherons.net/zforum/view_topic?topic_id=116

It's niftier than some silly Turbine addy isn't it?

Erica · 07-11-2006, 07:31 AM

Frelorn, thank you for the update, was needed. But speaking only for myself, the July/August patch at this time mean nothing to me. I had actually forgotten about the patches, and have been more focused on just trying to log in the game. Thats all I'm hoping for anyway, I want my ToD....

Imus · 07-11-2006, 08:16 AM

Your are to be commended for your Raah-Raah team spirit, but alas the truth has become self evident, you folks just cant run a business. You manage to maintain access to my credit card with your technology, while continuing to deny your customers access to the game, sorts of like sitting down to a dinner at a resturant, getting a menu, placing an order, waiting to dine, then having them serve you the check instead of the meal..........

HEY !! I am wrong !! So SORRY !! You guys can run a business, perhaps you guys run EXXON on the side !!

Where there was 4 accounts there now are 3, next subscription renewal there may be less. Such a shame to slowly choke the life out of one of the best on-line games in existence.

Kid · 07-11-2006, 08:26 AM

Everytime I see Frelorn say that they are working on the next months event and event after that (in this instance, August), I think to myself "already?" and then when it's patch day I'm not suprised at the lack of content. You would think it would take you guys longer to develop content for each month's event considering you have a smaller team but I guess not /shrug

Gustaive · 07-11-2006, 09:52 AM

JHC, how long are you people going to cry about content when they have stated several times the reasons for this:

SMALL DEV TEAM, SMALL BUDGET.

Accept it or move on. Really.

"but but Ibn said such and such in 2004"

Kid · 07-11-2006, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gustaive

JHC, how long are you people going to cry about content when they have stated several times the reasons for this:

SMALL DEV TEAM, SMALL BUDGET.

Accept it or move on. Really.

"but but Ibn said such and such in 2004"

I was just saying...

your really starting to turn into Maddy.

MaddyFF · 07-11-2006, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kid

your really starting to turn into Maddy.

Good, we need more people that can understand the truth and apply common sense.

Niobe · 07-11-2006, 10:24 AM

Although I have now stopped panicking when I try to log in and aren't able to, I still get in within 5 minutes (usually a lot less) I'm still enjoying the game.

I bet people wouldn't complain as much if Decal didn't boot people out so they have to try and log in multiple times.

Blame Decal!! Fix Decal!

w00!