Sign in to follow this  
Enki

Wurm Service Announcements

Recommended Posts

WSA.png

Internal Shakeup

 

 

 

Today I had to remove one of our Game Masters for violating our internal code of conduct concerning actions they had taken in the past.  I had only recently been made aware of the action committed, and while the action itself was outside of the game and ultimately resulted in nothing as far as I know, the fact that it happened was not something I could support one of our team members doing.

 

I have long held internal guidelines of conduct to which I hold our team members to a higher standard than I do our players.  The action that took place I would not have even concerned myself with if it had been a player that committed it. 

 

It is public knowledge what happened now, so I can say that the action that was committed was that one of our members who was a brand new Game Master at that time in 2015 was given access to a third party kingdom forum by one of their disgruntled members.  Their regular member forums were accessed by him.  He did not hack, he did not break any rules, he simply did something that had the potential to gain an advantage over an adversarial party in game.  As I said, had this just been normal people I would not have cared one bit.

 

His work with us has been solid in his Game Master responsibilities and I have nothing but good admiration for the energy and effort he has provided us.  For now though, he understands his mistake and accepts the consequences. 

 

To stop the rumors... NO, he is not banned from Wurm Online.  NO, he has not been "fired"   He violated no rules, he only committed an out of game act that I could not support and as a consequence I have removed him from his responsibilities.  Perhaps down the road he might be willing to return with a better understanding of what I expect of our team members.  For the time being other team members are stepping up to help cover all the internal management and duties that he performed for us.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 32

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Forum Reporting vs. Support Tickets

 

 

 

I have been receiving a number of complaints from a small number of people concerning our Moderators and Game Masters telling people to report their issue on the forums instead of telling it to a moderator to report it.  These people seem to want to think that the Mod team is simply being lazy and not doing their job or just not interested in helping them.

 

The truth is that most of these individuals just like to waste our time with complaints, but I felt it was worthwhile to explain to everyone again why we ask you from time to time to post your non-sensitive issues to the forums.

 

For fact, we of the team are few and you as members of the community are a lot.  The Support Ticket system is there for you to contact us with sensitive issues, and if we can render immediate aid we will, but if we see it is not something we can help with due to no reimbursement policies or is a general mechanical situation that we have no power to correct and is non sensitive in nature, then we will ask you to post it on the forums and close out the ticket.  This significantly reduces the number of duplicate reports, allowing everyone with legitimate information to participate in a single forum thread instead of many individual tickets for the testing and correction of the issue.

 

It will not always be obvious to you what we can and cannot correct immediately, but when we do ask you to post in the forums it is not out of ‘bias’, ‘laziness’, or ‘uncaring’.  After all, you know your issue the best.  You know what you did better than we do.  You are in a far better position to detail what happened for testing and replication which allows Alectrys, who heads up our Murphy’s Law dept., to follow up with you on the situation for details that we likely would not think to collect so that the developers can correct the situation in a future update.

 

If we spent our available time investigating non-sensitive issues that you already know better than us, so that we could report it instead of you, then we would never get through our work each day.

 

We do this out of respect and desire to help, so please understand that we are not just pushing your issue to the side, it really is important to post such issues to the forum so that the Development team can review the issue and leave the in game support ticket system for ‘sensitive issues’ or  problems that we can work to correct immediately.

 

I hope this drills home the significance of why we ask you to post non-sensitive mechanical issues on the forums instead of going through the mod team.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 31

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Freedom to Epic Incomplete Skill Transfer

 

 

 

A lot of people are trying Epic with this new update and a common issue faced by people returning to Epic is that some of their higher Freedom based skill levels did not cross over to the Epic cluster.  In most cases this is a result of having died or lost skills and have the 3x modifier in effect on Epic on those skills.

 

You must work to remove that modifier form the skills you want to transfer, then go to Freedom, and cross back to Epic.  That should result in your higher Freedom skill level being added to your Epic level.  Contact support if this fails to resolve it, but in most all cases this is the solution.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 8

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Epic to Freedom Transfers & Adjustments

 

 

 

During today's update we performed the one time skill transfers from Epic to Freedom. During that transfer, it appears some accounts may not have copied correctly. The majority of cases were corrected in subsequent downtime, but there may be a few edge cases in which a skill did not copy across.

 

If this affects you, please log a support ticket, and we will arrange for an Arch GM to correct it.

 

This may take some time depending on the amount of players affected, but we will work on addressing everyone's issues ASAP.

 

Please note, this only affects you if your Freedom skill is affected.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm working on a fix, rather than have the GM team correct them all by hand.

 

Current issues found thanks to your help:

 

Freedom skills are less than they were.

This is the result of skills that were very close between Epic and Freedom. I inadvertently used the new calculated Epic value instead of the Freedom value. I know the cause of this and have a plan to fix everyone affected during a future downtime. You do not need to log support tickets now for this issue. It will be corrected.

 

Stats have been reset after going to Freedom or Epic

The important part of this so far is it's just stats that appear to be affected. I do not know the cause yet, so please feel free to submit a ticket for this. If you are certain this has happened to more than just stats, please indicate that on the ticket. 

Update: So for stats, I'm finding it's first-time transfers doing this. So if you've never been to Epic or Freedom before, it seems to be blanking out your stats. I do not have a fix yet, but please be aware of this. If you've been between both clusters before, you should be fine and not lose any stats. If you still lose stats and you know you've been between clusters, please indicate that in your ticket.

 

I brought a reduced skill back from Freedom to Epic

This is another one that I have not found a cause for yet. Please log tickets and make sure to include what servers on their respected clusters you traveled between. Also include the skills you notice are lower. You do not need to include values as I have snapshots of everything and can verify what you had so long as you include the server names.

 

If you notice anything that does not fit these descriptions, please both PM me on the forums and submit a ticket so I can easily find your affected character. Remember: Server and skill names are important. Values can be omitted. You can submit notes against a ticket if you need more space. 

 

Lastly you may not get a reply regarding your ticket. I've been assigning them to my Dev account in-game (Rizi) and keeping them open for tracking purposes. I will reply if I need information, but seeing as this is affecting at least a dozen people so far, I do expect to be fixing everyone at the same time. When the patch is ready and released, I will close the tickets.

 

Thank you for your patience. I know this isn't as smooth as I had hoped and I know that it can be disappointing to be hindered by these issues, but I am working on this as quickly as possible.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 10

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Update!

 

We are aiming for an update late Tuesday the 14th to address these skill issues. We should be able to fix everyone up without much fuss. I'm still testing the fix for Freedom skills having been reduced as I want to ensure that anyone who has gained skill over the last day has that gain applied to the amount. This is why it's not going to be first thing in the morning.

 

As for stats, these will likely be just a matter of reverting to the original higher value rather than the reset 19.5 values.

 

The same goes for reduced skills brought back from Freedom. It should load the higher Epic skill after the restart, but any gains made will not be applied.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Post-patch Update

 

Hi all,

 

The fix yesterday seems to have resolved issues for most people. I've gone through all open tickets and I do see some residual edge cases that I am investigating after fixing the skills. These do seem to be edge cases, meaning they're not likely to affect a lot of people.

 

If you notice weirdness with skills, please submit a ticket as I said before. Servers are important if you're going between the clusters. Skill names help. Please be aware that you may not get a reply right away on these tickets. I will be checking often and pulling the information for research.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Zig-Zaggers Beware

 

 

 

I have received a missive from the Wagoners United union concerning a few of the new roadways:

Quote

 

Dear Sir,

I am the public representative of the Wagoners United and I am writing to you to express our anger and complete disdain for the way our members are being harassed.  Today we lost another 400 plus horses to the ungainly conditions that your settlers have created.  I refer specifically to this disturbing practice of zig-zagging the cats-eyes on your roads.  This practice has caused horrific delays in service, dead horses, exhausted wagon masters, and skyrocketing maintenance costs on our wagons.

 

Do you not realize it takes a wagoner four times as long to travel a zig-zag as it does a straight line!  The horses are constantly breaking down due to the extreme turns they are forced to make.   The wagons burn through axle grease like it's home-style butter,  which some of our wagon masters have resorted to using out of desperation as it grows harder to keep a fresh supply of live pigs on hand to squeeze for axle grease!  For the love of Vynora, we respectfully request that you put a swift and forceful end to this practice!   The piles of dead horses keep getting larger each day!

 

We have drawn up public support statements in the event that we must go on strike to get our demands met.

"Zig-Zag is Evil"

"Zig and Zag, we won't go!"

"If you zig-zag we will hunt you down and move your house!"

"Just say no to zig-zag"

"No more zig-zag or no more travel"

"Give us straight and steady, no more zig or zaggy!"

"Zig-zaggers eat dirt!"

 

Our members demand justice!  I implore you to do the right thing and put an end to zig-zagging cats-eyes as our wagoners are lawfully bound to follow them no matter how ziggy or zaggy they are.

 

Thank you for your time,

Rowdy Festus Ben Haus McCain

President, Wagoners United

 

Well, you heard the man... The Wagoners are threatening to go on strike if they do not get straight path cats-eyes.  While I am all for anything that helps with this horrid equine infestation of our lands, I do hate to see such fine quality wagons get needlessly abused.  So from here on, no more zig-zag or other complicated cats-eye patterns on the roads that connect between way-stones.  Please make them a single straight row.

 

If you find one of these roads to have a zig-zagging cats-eye pattern and there are too many to repair and straighten yourself, please put in a support ticket and we will come look at it.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 30

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Slain Affinity

 

 

 

Greetings twentyeighteenians of Wurm!

 

In this new year we have a change coming for those of us who enjoy the PVP side of things.   It is no secret that there are those abusing various alternate player avatars for meta-PVP fight skill, and there is also the issue of abuse pertaining to killing alternate player accounts purely for affinities, so called 'affinity farming'.  Changes are coming that will counter that activity very soon with the upcoming updates to the game.

 

The new system will introduce measures against extreme abuse as well as create a new way for players to gain affinities both on PvP and PvE servers. These changes are expected to come into the game by the end of January.

 

Until those changes are enacted we will be watching for anyone orchestrating ‘meta-PVP’ slayings for fight skill and affinity farming.  Anyone found to be doing this vile ‘meta-PVP’ activity shall be banned!

 

We have never been too thrilled with the ways a few people find to ‘game’ the system such as making deals with people to farm them for their affinities, or using VPN’s or proxies to the same ends.

 

If it is not genuine PVP activity then do not expect us to look on it very fondly.

 

As I said above, anyone working these kinds of ‘meta-PVP’ schemes for fightskill and affinity farming will be immediately banned from Wurm Online.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 84

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

A Toxic Prophecy Fulfilled

 

 

 

Attention!

 

If you allowed the one formerly known as Propheteer access to your avatars, change your passwords immediately or permanently lose them.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 23

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Full PvP ban is lifted.

 

Thank you,

Wurm Online Team

 

If you find yourself falling to your death, please take a moment and choose carefully where you will die while on the way down.  If you find your life flashing before your eyes on the way down and cannot see to choose a good place to die, then be comforted by the fact that you must have had a good and full life and are now free to respawn and enjoy the benefits of a new one.  If on the other hand, you do not have time to reflect on your current life, then rest assured your death was quick if not painless.  (this has been a service announcement from the the Wurm Safety and Health Administration)

  • Like 8

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Full PvP Ban - 12/18/2018

ENDED - 12/23/2018

 

 

 

A Full PvP Ban is in effect until further notice.

 

It seems mine doors have become very choosy about who they let in, including their own owners.  Anyway, until these snobbish mine doors are taught their place in the grand scheme of things all PVP is prohibited.

 

A public list of PvP/Raid directives can be found here.

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/137025-pvpraid-ban-directives/

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 5

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Rituals Are Banned - 12/19/2018

ENDED - 12/23/2018

 

 

 

For the time being until an investigation into the mechanics of Rituals like Right of Spring is completed by the Developers, all ritual casts are forbidden on all servers!

 

We appreciate your patience while we iron out these complications.

 

A public list of PvP/Raid directives can be found here.

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/137025-pvpraid-ban-directives/

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 5

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

See here: https://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/168510-wurm-service-announcements/&do=findComment&comment=1705310

 

This situation has been addressed.

 

https://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/167044-patch-notes-20dec18/

 

Clarification: The reason global rite spells may be seen frequently for a time:

  • This was caused by a large pool of favor being accrued from Rite of Spring not being cast for a long time. Once the changes came through, the restrictions required in order to cast it were loosened. This meant that players were able to cast several times in succession.
  • This may occur a few more times on other servers, but afterwards the favor of the deity will be drained and it will not be able to be cast again until the requirements are met again.
  • This isn’t a bug but instead a side effect of the changes being made without clearing the existing favor of deities.

 

Thank you,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A new issue has crept up....  stay tuned for updates.

The ban on rituals will remain in effect.

 

Thank you,

Wurm Online Team

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Transfers of Faith, Chaos to Freedom

 

 

 

Please be advised that the free faith transfer DOES NOT move your Chaos faith to another server.  Using the free one time /transfer command allows you to switch deities but only with the faith level that you have on the server you are currently on.  It does not pull your Libila or other faith numbers from another server just because

you switch to that deity elsewhere.  If you do switch deity on one server with a lower faith and then go to a server with the higher faith of the same deity you will lose that higher faith.

 

This is the current way that the /transfer command works.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There are some issues still to be worked on regarding religion, but the reason for the temporary ban on rituals has been corrected today. 

The ban is lifted.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Raid Ban - 01/17/2019

ENDED - 1/30/2019

 

 

 

Until further notice a Raid Ban is in effect on all PVP servers.  An exploit has been uncovered that allows attackers to bypass reinforcements in caves.  This was a fixed issue in the past and we are now investigating how it was possible to accomplish now.  Until we have resolved the exploit the Raid Ban will remain in effect.

 

Keep an eye on this thread for further details.

 

A public list of PvP/Raid directives can be found here.

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/137025-pvpraid-ban-directives/

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 13

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A reminder that this raid ban is still in effect until further notice.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Full PvP Ban - 01/24/2019

ENDED - 01/30/2019

 

 

 

Effective immediately I am putting an immediate halt to all PvP related activities.

 

The reason for the implementation of a Full PvP Ban at this time is in part due to a large number of complex appeals we must sort through, as well as a few challenging cases that have proven to be uglier than first thought, and most importantly some internal changes to our policies and directives that must be updated.

 

This Full PvP ban will remain effective for an indefinite time or until I say otherwise.  There will be a 24 hour warning when we are prepared to suspend the ban.

 

A public list of PvP/Raid directives can be found here.

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/137025-pvpraid-ban-directives/

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 5

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

UPDATE: This Full PvP ban shall conclude in 24 hours.  Presumably by Jan 31 @ 00:00

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 6

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Full PvP Ban is now lifted.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Public Letter - Retrograde 'Abuse of Power' Claims

 

 

 

This is an open letter in response to a number of 'abuse of power' claims made against Retrograde our Community Relations Coordinator as a fair number of people have some very misguided ideas about what transpired in some specific situations.

 

Rolf has been investigating these 'abuse of power' claims and has requested that I as Head Game Master investigate years worth of logs in detail for context on every issue that he indicated.

 

After a very in depth review I have been asked to make known to the public the results of this investigation.

 

1 - Horse with good gear taken from one person and returned to its owner.

Claim – Retrograde is accused of abusing his powers to take a horse from someone and return it to someone that he is friends with.

Status – False

Origin – In December of 2018 one or more of the servers had to undergo multiple restarts. These restarts were necessary but not planned and caused a player to lose a horse with a lot of high quality gear as they did not have a chance to secure, tame, or brand the horse during these restarts. By the time the player had managed to log back in someone else had obtained the horse and the gear on it. Following precedent in this situation, I retrieved and returned the horse, as it was lost by no fault of the player due to extenuating circumstances. Retrograde was not involved in the return of the horse to the player.

 

2 - Summer Hat

Claim – Retrograde gave a Summer Hat to a friend of his.

Status – True

Origin – Game Masters, Developers, and Team Volunteers are given an item or a coupon for each years Christmas as an appreciation of their service to the community. These items must be approved by the Head Game Master after a review of their affect on the game or community to avoid any overpowered or improper items being allowed in. Retrograde's last Christmas wish was a Summer Hat which is a gift that Rolf handed out once in the past to Game Masters. Team Members are allowed to use their gifts or coupons as they wish, including giving them as gifts. I approved the Summer Hat for Retrograde's Christmas gift and after that he was allowed to do with it as he saw fit.

 

3 - Dragon Shoulder Pads

Claim – Retrograde gave dragon shoulder pads to someone

Status – True

Origin – For the purposes of advertising and promotion within the Vynora Entertainment Network, Retrograde did in fact create a pair of dragon shoulder pads that were given away during a streaming event. I found no illicit activity involved in this matter as the event and giveaway were public and anyone interested in participating had a chance to win them.

 

4 - Finding creatures during unique hunts

Claim – Retrograde used his powers to locate dragons for his friends.

Status – False

Origin – Mainly just coincidence. Myself, two Developers, and Retrograde had been monitoring some peculiar situations regarding unique creatures. I can see very clearly who tries to use any powers to interact with creatures and when. Retrograde used his access five times in the last 2 years and during each instance it was for official business and did not coincide with any hunts that he or his friends were involved in.

 

5 - Retrograde hired a friend as a Game Master

Claim – Retrograde added a close friend as a Game Master and a Community Relations member.

Status – False

Origin – We have a team member who is connected to Retrograde who came up through the ranks and was given a green light for training as a Game Master. Retrograde has no authority to add Game Masters to the team. I added this team member to training on the recommendation of six of my most active Game Masters at the time. Their assessment was based on that members activity and positive record of good responses and quick responses and I agreed with their assessment. It is true that this team member is also part of Retrograde's community relations work. I have no issue with that at all, as we even have a Developer who is also a forum moderator.

 

This is the bulk of the main points brought forward by those who feel Retrograde had at some point abused his powers to help his friends. Because of the nature of these claims Rolf asked me to look through years of logs and look for any irregularities. After a lot of sleepless nights reviewing line after line of logs and comparing to events and official business we have identified every single thing Retrograde has used his powers for on the live servers. Every item, every lamp, every brick, every teleport, and so on, I can point to an official action or event and have found absolutely no abuse of his access to create items or assistance for his friends.

 

The single most important thing that must be maintained by all of us is that if we cannot be public and transparent about an action that we take, then we are doing something that we should not be doing. In one fashion or another, that has been a guiding principal to my actions as Head Game Master, and every team member from Rolf on down should always keep this idea in mind when we are working on anything.

 

It is this very principal that allows me the freedom to post the results of this lengthy investigation for public consumption in the interest of quelling these false narratives about Retrograde. Retrograde himself, as our Community Relations Coordinator has been pushing me to be more transparent with our community, which has not been an easy battle with all the years I have spent protecting confidential information so that you could enjoy the game without us spoiling it for anyone.

 

With very few exceptions, our Community Relations Coordinator has always done his best to keep me informed of his plans regarding promotion of Wurm Online and Wurm Unlimited, especially when he needs certain items or creatures and has kept me appraised of his activities, usually to request permission to act, before I even review the logs.

 

With transparency in mind, this is how our team is currently setup.

Rolf is at the top of the food chain as CEO of Code Club AB, and then there is Budda who is our Project Manager here for Wurm Online and those are the only two with the authority to investigate me should any claims be brought to them. As Head Game Master it is then my job to oversee anything that is done on the live servers by any avatar from our players on up including our Community Relations Coordinator. This means that no one may use any powers without my knowledge or ability to review.

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 55

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

WSA.png

Raid Ban - 02/17/2019

ENDED - 02/18/2019

 

 

 

I am placing a temporary raid ban on all PvP servers until a fix for kingdom chaining is implemented.  This should be a short ban as the fix is planned on the next restart.

 

The issue is that deeds are not chaining causing them to suffer unintended damage penalties when they should be properly chained.

 

A public list of PvP/Raid directives can be found here.

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/137025-pvpraid-ban-directives/

 

Thank You,

Wurm Online Team

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sign in to follow this