Early Enrollment Release Cadence

Now that we have begun Early Enrollment we are going to be changing to a more regular schedule of releases of content, blog posts, release notes, etc.

Release Cadence

We are going to begin shipping a new major build every 2 weeks, but the first couple of weeks are going to be a bit disrupted as we move to this plan.

We are currently running v1.1. The ".1" release was an unscheduled update to fix an issue related to Companies joining Settlements.

War of Towers Begins

Next Wednesday (14 January) we are going to turn on the War of Towers feature. There may be a ".2" release to enable that. The War of Towers begins with all Towers in an uncontrolled status which means that they have a 24-hour PvP window open as the day begins at 10:00am (Pacific). That means that there will be unrestricted PvP in about 1/3rd of the Hexes until the Towers begin to be captured. It will be pretty wild for a day or two!

You can read all about the War of Towers in this blog from the Alpha. The game systems remain unchanged at this time so all the content in that blog about the War of Towers remains current.

Test Server Reopens

Next Thursday (15 January) we will be turning the Test Server on. The Test Server is going to become a very unusual environment. One of the biggest challenges that MMOs have is getting good testing of new features before they are deployed to the live server. We have a long term plan to evolve the Test Server in ways that will help us improve on that problem.

The Test Server is going to be as parallel, persistent game world just like the live game. Characters created on the Test Server will gain XP just like their counterparts on the live server. When it re-opens it will feature the top 1/3rd of the Early Enrollment world map but if time and resources permit, over time we may build a special map just for the Test Server.

Players on The Test Server

All of our Alpha Accounts will always have access to the Test Server. We are renaming the Alpha Account package to "Platinum" since we're no longer in Alpha testing and that term is a bit confusing. You can purchase a Platinum account or upgrade any other account type on the Store.

We will be distributing invitation tickets to the Test Server to the Platinum account holders like we did for the Alpha test. The Platinum account holders will be able to distribute those tickets to whomever they wish, and those invitees will be able to access the Test Server as well.

We are going to distribute invitations to the Settlement leaders and those people will also be given some invitations.

From time to time we will have promotions that will allow other players to gain access to the Test Server.

With the exception of the Platinum accounts, all these tickets can be revoked and reset as we determine necessary. Our objective over the long term is to reach a viable population of characters on the Test Server that will allow the Test Server world to develop real interactions but we know that is very much a long term process. We don't want to take the focus off of the live server and we want to keep channeling players primarily into the live game.

Our hard & fast rule that we will protect the XP characters have earned on the live game will not be as rigorously enforced on the Test Server. We may decide for a variety of reasons to alter character XP on the Test Server. Such alterations do not have any effect on characters on the live game.

Account Perks & Packs

Currently we don't have a plan to separate Test Server accounts from Live accounts. That means that any perks that are bound to your account will be consumed for both servers when used on one server. You could use your Destiny's Twin perk on the Test Server, and it would be unavailable thereafter on the Live Server.

The same rules apply for things like New Player Packs. If you assign one to a character on the Live Server, you will not be able to assign it to a character on the Test Server.

Note: The characters will be separate on the Test Server and the Live Server. You can make 3 characters on the Test Server and 3 characters on the Live Server and they can be completely different, earn XP differently, etc. They don't share reputations, Vaults, or any other information.

Settlements on the Test Server

There are about 10 Settlements on the Test Server map. Since one of the objectives of the Test Server is to have a functioning world those Settlements need to be active. We are going to develop a plan to operate those Settlements. As the Test Server opens, none of the Settlements will be turned on. Over the long term we want the Test Server players to be in control of the Settlements but we know there will need to be a period of bootstrapping before that happens.

Testing on the Test Server

On Thursday (15 January) we will deploy v2.0 to the Test Server. This update reflects the work the team has been doing for the previous two weeks.

When we push the new code to the Test Server we will publish release notes on the goblinworks.com forums in a special Test Server forum. We are not doing a blog with those notes so that the media or the general player population won't have any confusion about what features are on the Live Server.

Updates to the Test Server will thereafter happen every other week on Thursday, with a release note post to the Test Server forum. v3.0 will go onto the Test Server on 29 January, etc.

Accessing the Test Server

In order to play on the Test Server you'll need a version of the client that is in synch with the software on the Test Server. That will be different than the version of the software on the the Live Server. So you will need to install the game twice - once for Live, and once for the Test Server.

Update to Live Server

After a week of testing on the Test Server, the Live Server will then be updated. The first update will be on Thursday (22 January). Release Notes will be published on a blog when the server comes up after downtime (approximately 10:00am Pacific) after that update. The publication of that blog will be the notice to the public that the game has been updated.

Updates to the Live Server will thereafter happen every other week on Thursday, with a corresponding blog post. v2.0 will go live on 22 January. v3.0 will go live on 5 February, etc.

Design & Information Blogs

With this cadence of releases on Thursdays, we should be able to return to a schedule of releasing Design and Information blogs on every other Wednesday on the week we deploy a new build to Zog. For those kinds of blogs we will also keep the community updated on conventions and events, promotions, and other Goblinworks activities.

While we'll try to have a blog on these dates, it is going to be likely that we'll miss a few due to focusing on other tasks. We'll try to let the community know if there won't be a blog that week.

It is our intention to blog next Wednesday about our overall plan for development in the first quarter and give everyone a sense of our roadmap for the next several months.