June 2024
Welcome back Auraxians! As May was coming to a close, we wanted to take more time to craft this letter and address a recent patch issue. Today’s topics include information on what happened with the recent release of the Sunderer Rework to the live client, what we are doing going forward to address future issues in a promptly manner, and details on our work on a new Alert and Warzone capture system. The Sunderer Rework update is in a much more polished state and can be tested on the PTS server. Learn about the new additions and changes to the Sunderer here.Regarding The Unintentional Release of Sunderer Rework
Last month, parts of the Sunderer Rework were unintentionally released to the live client. We reverted this patch the following week, but it should have been addressed sooner. This resulted in a major disturbance for many Auraxians that weekend, and we are terribly sorry for the frustrations this caused. There are many moving parts when it comes to multi-client updates, and we missed disabling parts of the update to the live client. We learned quite a bit where the flaws in our release process lie and are doing our best to adjust them to avoid a repeat of that weekend. We have also revisited the process of rolling back a previous live build should such a major issue happen again.Double XP For All
We are scheduling a Double XP For All event starting from 6/11 through 6/16. Thank you for your patience and continued support.Looking Ahead: On Alerts & Capturing Warzones
One of the ways we feel the game has room to grow is with the Alert and Warzone capture system. Ideally this system is there to represent a snapshot of the "campaign" where players must cooperate and anticipate their opponents' actions, making decisions about what objectives to prioritize and how much to commit to them. The alert system and the way warzones are captured have several key issues:- The system is rigid, with only a single alert able to be active at once.
- Only a single alert outcome can lead to the capture of a warzone.
- Much of the diversity of the system has been removed with, other than some special events, only meltdown alerts remain.
- There is a lack of interesting decision-making on a map wide scale, currently which base to attack or defend is the only decision of consequence.
- It creates **dilemmas** that present interesting choices to players on a group and individual level.
- It encourages coordination between faction members.
- It gives players more immediate purpose and direction.
- It prevents losing factions from despairing by opening up avenues for catch-up mechanics.
