There are good weeks and bad weeks. This one was a bad one...it didn't feel like I had the chance to get much "done" as I would like...or even close. Many small fires to put out leaving very little time to really focus on the issues we have been trying to work through for far too long. It is a good thing that I am not the only one on this team.
The rest of the team has been hard at work on the Daily Missions, working through the profession nanos (there are a LOT of them), Breed Change and associated difficulties, this year's Christmas goodies and of course...the new engine. It sounds like a lot...I guess because it is. We are hoping to bring the new Christmas content to the Test Dimension on Tuesday to get it to Live as soon as possible...after which the Daily Mission system will quickly be deployed to TestLive to be tested until we are all happy that it will launch as smoothly as the new mail system has.
Today's brief downtime for Atlantean (RK1):
There has been a persistant (though rare) server crash issue related to database connectivity. A possible fix to the issue has been deployed to RK1 only that we will be watching closely over the next week. Excellent reason for a quick downtime...if it performs as hoped it will be deployed to all dimensions and bring us very close to the 100% solid server performance we have all been wanting. We are very close now it will be great to finally exorcise the very last of the AO server demons
The Professionals Program:
Kintaii would like me to remind you that voting will begin Monday next week for the Professionals to represent each profession in the community. The nominations are closed...again voting begins next week.
The German Server:
It is safe to say that the time I asked for to implement programs to help boost the population on the German server has finished. While I still have hopes for the sponsor system that will be coming to the live servers soon, it is unfair to ask for more time at this point as the German community has been more than patient and unfortunately seen very little action on this issue. Discussion began this week on the practical/technical issues of offering server transfer to players on the German dimension. As the process becomes clear information will be made available to the German community as soon as possible. Population has been a concern on the German dimension for years now and is far from being a recent discussion...as much as I wanted to maintain a German only population the game experience for our German customers should not be held hostage while we wait for new programs to be implemented in hopes of future success. I appreciate the patience and cooperation shown by the German community in the last few months and look forward to a smooth transition for those players to a more populated server where you will no doubt be welcomed with open arms.
Have a great weekend everyone, we will see you next week.