Update 1.76: New Horizons was rolled out on Tuesday, July 5 on the Pandora and Rubilax servers. Maintenance was first announced a week in advance and then again the day before on our official platforms. The servers were turned off at 8:00 a.m. (Paris time) to start the first operations, and a backup was made before running the script routine to continue our pre-opening tests. The servers reopened at 12:16 (Paris time) in version 1.76.
What happened?
As soon as the servers opened, we received the first in-game reports alerting us that the bonuses granted by the boosters were not available. In addition, others reported receiving auras (now linked to an achievement because they are no longer linked to their relics) that were impossible to receive. Finally, the incantation recipes were not all there for the Handyman profession.
When our testers run their tests prior to opening, they "boost" (with a classic booster) their accounts by entering an admin command. This tells the WAKFU server that a booster is being used. This is different from the boosters that players buy in the shop. When players log on, a different server is queried to determine if they have specific subscription rights. The issue was that, when we updated our calls from the WAKFU server toward this specific server, a problem struck: the booster validity date had been set through 1970, but we're in 2022. Players therefore didn't get their bonuses because they'd expired in 1970…
We had no choice but to turn off the servers and prepare a patch to fix it ASAP. At 1:40 p.m., the servers went back into maintenance and the team still hadn't had the slightest break. Then, a rollback was decided to cancel the play time since the reopening of the servers at 12:16 p.m. (Paris time) to prepare a healthy in-game environment for the next reopening. Compensation has already been announced.
It was a long wait…
Our teams remained stuck at their desks to prepare a new patch to fix the issues: version 1.76.2. This time, the pre-opening tests were run by the staff who were still there. At 8:28 p.m., the servers reopened and we thought everything was good.
When we got home, we received a report that certain machines were giving out unlimited amounts of items and equipment. Calls were placed and a weighty decision was reached: the servers would have to close for the night. At 9:10 p.m., the servers were turned off.
And the next day?
The first steps were taken at 8:00 a.m. and at 9:00 a.m., the two servers were back to their saved version from Tuesday morning prior to running the routine. We were still in the process of preparing a corrected version at 10:24 a.m. when we discovered that some machines still had free items despite the first fix on our internal test server.Operations on the production servers (Pandora & Rubilax) were able to restart at 11:28 a.m. and the first scrip routine was run on Rubilax at 11:46 a.m. to be able to start the pre-opening tests. The script routine for Pandora started a little while later and the tests there ended at 12:12 p.m.
The servers finally reopened at 1:40 p.m.
For the problem with the machines, we had tried to update our internal entry tool, but residue from the old code was still lurking in the corners. That pointed to lost data.
Compensation!
Now that the servers are running on a stable version 1.76.2, we can focus on the compensation:- From Thursday, July 14 at 0:01 a.m. (Paris time) through Wednesday, July 20 at 11:59 p.m. (Paris time), a +25% loot and combat and profession experience bonus will be applied on the Pandora and Rubilax servers.
- Three (3) booster days will be distributed for free on Friday, July 15 starting at 9:00 a.m. (Paris time) to all active accounts that have logged in at least once since Monday, June 6 at 0:01 a.m.
If your account already has active boosters, the free compensation days will be added to your current time. If you don't have any active boosters, it'll be an opportunity to enjoy one for an entire weekend! Please note that the injection may take some time, and the duration of your booster will only start when it's been received.
We are deeply sorry for this exceptional situation that we've survived together, and we hope to have many more thrilling (and much less frustrating) adventures with you in WAKFU! We want to adequately make up for the frustration and wait, and we thank you – we can't thank you enough – for having been so incredibly patient during this whole ordeal.
You've been very understanding on our social media and shown unflagging enthusiasm for the release of this update despite the trials and tribulations, which, for us, more than makes up for our hours and hours of hard work (and the amount of coffee drunk).
The purchases I made on Tuesday haven't been credited. What should I do?
We ran the transactions again on Friday, July 8 so that all purchases made between 12:10 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 5 have been delivered. No further action is needed on your end. We've simply credited the items that weren't received by players due to the rollbacks.