• The State of SAGA Today •

10 September 2008

Over the course of the last two days, many players have experienced frustrating lag and patcher problems, and we feel that you, the players, deserve an explanation of what went on.

We have had a period of intense expansion over the last several months, where our programmers have concentrated on bringing you exciting new features. As soon as the Undead were finished, we decided to work on improving a lot of the little things that our players have found frustrating in the past.

Networking:

Problem-

The first item on our list was to improve players' connections to our servers. This required an overhaul of a portion of our code, which was part of the 1.44.1 patch on Monday. All internal tests and even external tests went smoothly, but because of the nature of networking, when that patch was pushed live, problems became apparent that we hadn't seen in our tests which were due to some differences between the various internet service providers and connection types (some players experienced intense battle lag and the chat servers sporadically disconnected). Other players had no problems at all, and their connections were greatly improved. The programmers worked all Monday night and discovered the problem - Tuesday's patch (1.44.2) resolved this issue, and the new networking system is now in place and working great.

Resolution-

The new networking now in place is in all respects superior to the previous system. It will decrease load times (battle loading time is decreased in most cases by 600% or more), disconnections, and lag across the board for most players.

Patcher woes:

Problem-

Networking woes would have been enough to keep us busy for two days, but unfortunately, the networking problem was compounded by issues with our patching system. Many experienced errors while trying to patch; Some players had to re-download 7,000+ files while others received write-access errors. The two errors were caused by separate issues. The first issue was due to a change in the patch-making process that will streamline the implementation of content in the future. The second has been resolved - it was a problem with one of our patch servers, hosted off-site by a company who after this weekend we will no longer be using.

Resolution-

The Patcher is fixed. Some players may need to re-install SAGA. To do this, players should run the uninstaller, then delete their SAGA folder. After that, players can download a fresh installer from here.

So what does all this mean?

Most of the staff here at SAGA are gamers, and we appreciate the frustration of having to deal with these issues. In appreciation for your continued support, we will be distributing a free booster pack to all SAGA accounts later today.

Is this sort of crap going to happen every patch?

No. The patcher is being re-done. Changes for the next few months will be minor adjustments and fixes, and we've implemented new testing policies which will help assure smoother patches.

The Future

The rest of our offices will be focusing on bringing you new content: Brand new quests (and new kinds of quests), brand new units (which will blow your socks off, honest), and lots of them!

Later today, we will be posting an in-depth look at the new quests coming next patch. Next week, we'll give you lots of details about the new units that are on their way.

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