Swirve Blog

The Blog is a day early today as it contains information many of you have been requesting. Please post comments in the Forum as usual:

Hi All,

The attacks against Utopia over the last ten days or so have left us with no option but to permanently retire the old code. Genesis has already ended and WoL ends at midnight BST tomorrow (Wednesday).

This turn of events has forced us to change our plans for the roll-out of the new code. In this blog post we want to clearly specify the new plans so we all know what’s happening next.

1) WoL will restart next week on the new code. We will import all Accounts, Credits and Kingdoms into the new code. When WoL freeze period starts on the new code all transferred accounts will have the option of re-joining their kingdoms from the previous age. WoL freeze period will start next week (targeting Wednesday 21st) and WoL will end 12 weeks later (middle of January). Freeze period, protection and tick time will all be normal lengths.

2) The new age of WoL will be primarily based off age 42 as per here. Undeads will NOT be there. However, we propose re-introducing Avians for this age. Adding a race is quite self-contained and can be done relatively quickly. As a starting point for a discussion on what mod values Avians should have please see this thread.

3) Bug reporting will be done via the forums. The current bug forum section will be cleared (existing threads will be archived). We’re already receiving more bug reports every day than we can handle, so we need to change the system. Bug reporting instructions and etiquette will be posted in a sticky in the Bug Reports forum.

4) Genesis will not restart for the time being. The original plan was to start with Genesis on the new code, but due to these attacks we’ve had to take down WoL. WoL is the lifeblood of Utopia and must remain available. We are left with no viable choice but to run WoL on the new code first.

The new code will remain in beta. While this is nothing more than a label, it is an indication that some aspects are still a work-in-progress. We will continue fixing bugs while WoL is running, but we will be deploying those fixes less frequently and will give advanced notice of any significant scheduled downtime.

Thanks,
Brian

A bit later today comes the new Blog from Sean. Please comment Here as usual:

Hi Everyone,

Wow, what an eventful week. The beta has been going well, with lots of activity, and the bug count finally beginning to come under control. Those of you playing will have noticed that we put a bit of work into cleaning up the layout. So far the feedback on the changes have been quite positive, which is great.

The real news of the week however is what has happened with the old codebase and the currently running ages of Genesis and WoL. Most of you will have received by now the announcement from Jolt that, as well as Genesis being ended on Thursday as planned, WoL will also be ending in one week’s time. Although we’ve been focusing on the beta code, we’ve also been tangentially aware of what’s been going on with the existing game, and can offer some comment on it. In short, it has been under attack from multiple locations on the internet, causing the site to run extremely slowly and for a lot of different kinds of errors to surface as secondary effects. The folks in Jolt have been doing a huge amount of work trying to keep the game up. Unfortunately, beyond the steps that they have already taken to try to mitigate the attacks, there’s nothing more they can do without a significant investment of time. To make the old codebase secure against these attacks would take a great deal of work, and wouldn’t be possible to complete any time soon. However, as it stands right now, it is unplayable for a lot of people, and at the mercy of unknown assailants. As a result, Jolt have taken the decision to retire the old code early. In our opinion at Front Square, they had no other sensible choice. Perhaps this was the attackers’ intention all along.

The bad news is that the new code isn’t up to a sufficient standard yet to be officially launched. So, next Wednesday when the current WoL age ends, the next WoL age will not be ready to start on the beta server. Instead, we will restart the test age on the beta server at the end of next week, so that people who want to join in now can do so on an even footing. The game will then remain in beta until we think its of sufficient quality to start a real age on it.

When we leave beta, everyone’s accounts, credits and kingdom groupings will be moved over, so that you can access any credits you previously had, and choose to remain with your former kingdom if you like. At this point, everyone will be notified, so if you have just taken a break for a while you’ll know when to come back.

We’re going to continue to think about how to make this transition as easy as possible for everyone, given the less-than-ideal circumstances. Please let us know through the forums any constructive suggestions you have for Brian and I.

Thanks,
Sean