Weekly Update 5/30/06

Frelorn · 05-30-2006, 02:04 PM

Hello there everyone. I hope you all had a nice weekend, and for those of us in the US, a nice long weekend. Let’s get right into what’s going on this week.

As most of you know already Digital Distribution went live last week. While I won’t give out the numbers, let’s just say that from what I have seen so far, the launch was a big success. So now you may ask… What is next? What is in store for Asheron’s Call now? Well that’s what I am here to tell you all.

In the coming weeks we will be launching an advertising campaign for Asheron’s Call. You will be seeing ads for the game popping up in many places it has never been. When the time comes that these ads are out there and live, I will do my best to point them all out so you can see what we are doing.

Is that it? Not hardly!

We want to prove to you, our loyal players that we are committed to this franchise and its longevity. One of the ways we can do this is improving server performance. So, on June 8th, 2006 we will be doing major hardware maintenance on the Database server. This means that the worlds will be down for an extended period of time. As of right now the downtime is going to be from 4am EST - 6pm EST. We know this is a long time for the worlds to be down, but this maintenance is the first step towards improving performance across all worlds.

What do you mean the first step?

You also may recall that not so long ago we did a hardware upgrade to Darktide. Well now all of the other worlds will be getting this hardware upgrade. We will be doing this upgrade on June 15th, which is also the tentative date we have scheduled for the June event, From the Darkest Depths. We do not expect any complications from this upgrade, since we have done it already, but to be prepared we are going extend the downtime window on that day to 8am EST – 6pm EST. When players log back in on the 15th, the upgrade will be completed.

There you have it. We have alot of things in store for Asheron’s Call in the coming weeks and months, and I will do my best to keep you all informed as to what is happening and when.

Well that’s about it for now. I hope you all have a great week, and see you all in Dereth!

Retread · 05-30-2006, 02:17 PM

I am impressed and surprised. Some good decisions Turbine and thanks.

Vitae Boy · 05-30-2006, 02:22 PM

Very nice. Woot for advertising

Uzi-El · 05-30-2006, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Well now all of the other worlds will be getting this hardware upgrade.

The secret to the upgrade? We're moving up to two hamsters in the wheel instead of just one

Sledge · 05-30-2006, 02:52 PM

WOW...

Advertising

New DB Servers

New World Servers

This is great news to start the week.

Bring them on!!!!!

Good Hunting out there.

Paraduck · 05-30-2006, 02:53 PM

Good news, thanks!

ShaRhee · 05-30-2006, 03:21 PM

I have hoped for a long time that my faith in Turbine was not misplaced...glad I never lost trust in you guys, you really do have an incredible game here, and I would love to see a great influx of truly newb players, they are so exciting to be around! Advertising! Yippee!!!!!!!!

Crimson-Ghost · 05-30-2006, 03:57 PM

Great news, looking forward to the next patch and hardware upgrade!

Erica · 05-30-2006, 04:07 PM

Finially! Looking forward to the upcoming changes.

Hectorb911 · 05-30-2006, 04:23 PM

Great News!!

I guess the numbers from DDO made some rethink the AC franchise...

Synnah · 05-30-2006, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sledge

New DB Servers

New World Servers

that's definitely not what the OP says...

good to hear about the updates but I'm curious what "major hardware maintenance" actually is?

Zenato · 05-30-2006, 04:40 PM

Since I'm still sub'd through the middle of June I'll continue to harass err inform err comment err ok harass this board.

Advertisement? I'll be beside myself if this advertisement is actually just for AC1 only or a side bar in a much larger Turbine advertisement campaign for their newer games (i.e. joint ads with other titles like DDO with some mention of AC or ads with just AC). Perhaps it doesn't matter, but will be interesting nonetheless on how this is portrayed.

What is this great news people keep mentioning? They mention they're going to do database maintenance and a hardware upgrade and this is great news? The question you should be asking yourself is WHY has the performance been so horrible with only a fraction of the server population from years ago? Was there some hardware take away or server consolidation a few years ago that they're simply just putting back in anticipation of a higher player base in the future? All I know is the performance of the servers didn't seem to change much between 2,500 active players or 200 (mostly bot) players. Should this be seen as a good thing? Perhaps, but I'll wait to see the net effects of the improvements before commenting further.

What Turbine really needs to do in this database maintenance (which they won't mention out of some built up fear) is to clean the database of DEAD unsubscribed accounts and free up the associated housing. This would probably shrink the database considerably and allow it to be run on a Commodore 64 (thats 64k not 64-bit mind you). Come on Turbine why not do this since you're going to be doing database maintenance anyway? Why can't this be done? We were told this was totally possible once you owner billing. You've owned billing for a couple of years now. How about it?

Hectorb911 · 05-30-2006, 04:42 PM

Syn,
DT did get new HW.
The OP (Frelorn) says very clearly that all worlds will now get what DT got.

So the last part seems correct.

I would hope the DB servers are getting a SAN upgrade.
Probably just some off-line defrag to reduce DB whitespace.

Fenshi · 05-30-2006, 04:42 PM

I like this weekly update. Thanks for the info, Frelorn.

JJC · 05-30-2006, 05:07 PM

> You will be seeing ads for the game popping up in many places it has never been.

Which is just about anywhere.

> I will do my best to point them all out so you can see what we are doing.

Dare we ask what Turbine is going to use as a selling point for AC?

> You also may recall that not so long ago we did a hardware upgrade to Darktide. Well now all of the other worlds will be getting this hardware upgrade.

There are two ways to read this. Either we all are going to get new hardware or everyone is going to play on DT. Either way, it shall be an interesting month.

JJC