Hi, everyone – We wanted to get you an update on all that’s important before the week was out.

Auroria’s Release

We know how much many of you prepared for, and were looking forward to, Auroria this week. Like you, we do wish it would have gone more smoothly. For those who aren’t aware, there was a communications bug in our build that included the Auroria release. This bug was causing disconnections in the North America release. We caught and fixed it before Europe saw it.

For those of you who were affected by it: You deserve better, plain and simple. We share your disappointment. We’re working hard to make sure something like that can’t happen ever again.

Unfortunately, it was a bug that only shows up at full, live scale. We test builds over multiple days internally, and this one never reared its ugly head. We wish as much as you do that it would have, so we could have caught it early.

As a result, by the time Auroria shipped in North America, the servers were steadily around 80% of the population we would have expected. The game was playable; it just wasn’t at all the smooth experience it was supposed to be. For that we apologize, and we promise to do better.

The disconnection bug initially presented as if it was a problem with the systems that are used to patch files to your computer, systems which are under our management. Like most developers, we immediately assumed the problem was on our side, and not a problem in the game itself. At the time, we were confident that that was where the problem lay, because the game tested out perfectly well in prior days. That was our error. Words don’t exist to describe how sorry we are for missing that diagnosis.

By the time the bug was properly diagnosed, people had already made significant progress. The Auroria build itself was so complex that there was no reasonable way to go backwards to give everyone a second try. Even pausing the action by suspending the servers would not have changed the outcome at that point.

Among the things that we’re doing to avoid this in the future, we have accelerated our plans for a Public Test Server. It will be in place before the next major build is released. While we can’t guarantee that it would have caught this issue, we know that it would have had a higher chance of happening there, and as such, getting that new Test Server out there is among our highest priorities. Stay tuned over the next couple weeks for updates on the new Test Server.

Auroria’s Land

During the release we were supervising the land claims using both modern and old-school methods - watching data in real time, as well as monitoring activities on servers ourselves and investigating as people were being called out on servers. It was important to us to make sure that our recent protections against people using 3rd party software have been working. We’re happy to report that, by and large, they have been.

I won’t link to the hacker forums here, but those of you who read them have seen that the two biggest 3rd party programs were taken offline with the release of Auroria. We apologize for not being able to announce that ahead of time. We’re happy to say that now, instead of solely being reactive to them and banning them after the fact, we’re also able to protect against them before they can do any harm.

How did the land work out? There are tens of thousands of new, legitimate land owners in ArcheAge.

There were under 20 people, out of everyone online that day, globally, who ended up with more land claims than would have been reasonable. The overwhelming majority of land was claimed by to people just like you, who play the game legitimately and are here to be great members of the ArcheAge community. We were able to verify many as being guilds who coordinated extremely well. We are continuing to investigate the rest, and will action and remove their gains as necessary.

While this was an important positive step, the fight continues. There will be more tools built in to the client over the coming days and weeks to handle illicit modding as well as protect against future potential hacks. Keep in mind that we generally are only able to talk about them once they’ve launched and have proven effective, as giving bad actors a heads up as to what’s coming specifically often reduces the effectiveness of the things we do. Stay tuned for those releases!

In general, we do ask that you keep in mind that bad actors remain a minuscule fraction of the entire Archeage population. The majority of what we investigated as reports of “hacks” or “illegal land grabs” were people playing legitimately and coordinating well by maximizing their use of in-game classes, strategies, and tools available - which is much of what a winning strategy in ArcheAge is.

As ArcheAge is a competitive game, we know that missing out hurts more than in a typical PvE game, but very few of what people report or perceive as “hacks” actually turn out to be that. More people understanding that will only help the game’s community in the long term.

What Worked Well

On a more positive note, we’ve heard from many of you that the play was exactly what you had been hoping for, and that you did get to experience some of the best gameplay that ArcheAge has to offer.

We saw rival guilds work together to hold chokepoints against hundreds of people. We saw honor guards sacrifice themselves to protect their miners in the race to mine the Anya veins. We saw massive player-driven politics and team-based PvP exactly as it’s supposed to play out. We saw pirates band together to help out “the little guy” guild in the face of what would otherwise have been overwhelming opposition.

The best part about that, is this kind of play has only just begun.

The Era of the Siege Dawns

We know some guilds feel like they missed out on the chance to get their castle. But the whole point of ArcheAge’s siege system is that castles can be taken.

Soon the Siege Declarations for every claimed zone will appear on the auction house. Those guilds powerful enough (and wealthy enough) to bid on them will compete for the right to lay siege to whichever castle they choose. And then the real fun begins.

This is the high-level pvp we’ve been waiting for. There is no zerg strategy in siege. You think your crew is worth a dozen of theirs? This is your chance to prove it. To sweeten the deal, you’ll be fighting for the most important prize of all: land, and all the benefits that come from its ownership.

Surrounding each guild’s Archeum Lodestone is a special housing area, known as a castle area. It is reserved for the ruling guild to place their houses and construct their fortifications. If you take the lodestone in a siege, the castle zone is yours… along with all the land inside. The Lord of each castle gains the right to destroy unwanted houses in that area, making room for his or her loyal guildmates, and forcing the defeated army out into the cold.

This means that a large housing area in each claimable zone is ALWAYS there for the taking—assuming you have the strength to do so.
Keep stockpiling your stone and lumber. Keep those Anya ingots handy. And prepare for the best that ArcheAge has to offer.
The real fight is just beginning.

Two Other Updates

We also have updates for you on a couple other topics that we know you care about – Spam and Patron Discounts.

In additional good news, Trion’s learning spam filter also arrived in this build of ArcheAge. You can report spammers in game, as you always should have been able to, and the system will learn how to smartly block them over time. Many of you have noticed this and have been reporting away, and we definitely appreciate it. Keep feeding that filter – it’s hungry for your clicks! It takes a week or so to learn, and we look forward to being that much closer to a spam-free future. This was the last big step to getting there.

And lastly, the 10% patron discount will take effect in the form of a 10% bonus to Credit Pack purchases beginning later today. In addition, the 10% bonus credits from any Credit Packs purchases made after Head Start while you were a patron will be granted later today. This is something we’re able to roll out independently, without adding more workload on the game’s developer. As such, we’ve agreed that this is the best way to get a great benefit into your hands as rapidly as possible. Details on how this will work and the reasoning around it will be elsewhere in the forums soon.

Thank you very much, and we really appreciate your patronage in ArcheAge!

- Victoria