As I'm sure you have already noticed, the overall stability of the game interacting with the servers hasn't been optimal lately.
Some of you already know that since we are a small company, we have to outsource many of our services in order to be able to bring our games to life. One of the things that we trusted to 3rd parties is the backend (the servers). The reason for this is simple, we need to be able to focus on releasing games rather than code our own servers, which would delay us quite long due to its complexity.
Said that, we know that it's been quite a while since the last update, but there's a reason for that: we have been working hard on releasing this new build which will mainly has completely changed the way we connect with the servers. So we are currently switching to a different backend services company which hopefully will offer a more suitable solution for our requirements.
We believe we are a company which really cares about its customers, and the fact of not being able to react inmediately and fix right away anything that happens due to the fact of relying on 3rd parties isn't something we really like, that's why we need a change is needed.
There will be a few changes that must be taken into consideration:
1 - There's going to be a data migration, which means that the servers will be a few hours completely down. Hence, you won't be able to log in the game at all. There's an exception: those logging in via a mobile device will be able to play (in offline mode) but beware! Once the migration is finished, the data that will be in the new servers will be the one read just before the shutdown, so if you advance playing we can not grant you there won't be a data rollback.
2 - This is going to be a soft migration, which means that we will first launch it in specific platforms, just to make extra sure the transition is smooth. Our temporary schedule is: first Facebook & Kongregate platforms, followed by Android (probably the day after), and a week later iOS. This means that if any of you play on an iOS device and doesn't want to wait until the release is done we strongly suggest to link the game to Facebook, so you can keep playing with your browser while Apple reviews and accepts the submitted build (usually takes from 4 to 5 days).
3 - There's also good news. The new servers come with a few cool features that we didn't have before, like real time events. This means that all the connectivity with the server will be faster. For instance, PvP movements will arrive immediately to the player no matter the device or browser you are playing in, we will also have faster chats responses, etc...
4 - In addition to all this, we have added some cool features such as:
- 4.1 - A bunch of new Push Notifications which will notify the players about their current guild raid progress, etc... (only for mobile users)
4.2 - Increased security purchasing products to avoid hacking.
4.3 - Auction House stability fixed.
4.4 - Rewards system is now a complete automatic system which will add the rewards to the players account from the server instead of from the client's device.
In addition, all the rewards (PvP, Dungeons, Guilds, Raids) will be shown in a "Loot" icon in the map, specifying to which feature of the game corresponds each reward.
4.5 - In addition, we have significantly reduced the bots amount in PvP. Depending on the player rating, the bots will have much lesser chance to appear, to none.
5 - Also, bear in mind that the Auction House will be shutdown 6 hours before the migration and will be reopened in the new servers.
We are confident that this update will allow us to keep focusing on creating games rather than fixing issues every week and we want to sincerely thank you for your patience to all those who managed to stay in the game and helped us every day by reporting every issue we have had.
We will announce the exact date of the migration to start soon, but it's scheduled for some day before September, stay tuned for more info!
Kind Regards,