Dear Humans and Elves,
In the last couple of months, we have executed and complete a very complex chapter migration targeting some players located in the initial chapters of the game. Today we would like to conclude this topic by sharing with you a reflection on this whole process.
Some history, for context
At the end of 2022 we updated the technology tree in the early chapters of the game. The objective was to improve the experience for new players and offer a more smooth and fun access to Elvenar.
It was a very successful change, and all new players from that moment started to experience the game with the updated technology tree.
We still had some players with the old version of the game because they started to play before this change, but we believed that over time they would have progressed quickly above chapter 5.
This didn’t really happen for all of them, and we still had players stuck in the not optimized version of those initial chapters.
That’s why we had the need to migrate those accounts to the new system in the last couple of months. We really wanted everyone to experience the game in the best possible way.
A very complex migration process
From a technical point of view, it was very complex to execute this migration. This is also the reason on why we did it in multiple steps, with a lot of tests on the beta server. We wanted to minimize any possible problem.
Overall, we managed to complete the migration and not have a lot of problems, but some issues still happened.
One of the most annoying one was linked to the Spire not being immediately accessible after one of the early steps of the migration. We were able to quickly correct this. Thanks to our staggered approach it was possible to limit how many players experienced this problem and to improve the migration process before it got further deployed.
The second annoying problem was about the order of production in the Magic Academy. This happened both on Beta and Live, in different moments. The first couple of times, it was an unexpected event, and it was not possible for us to warn you in advance.
The last time, when we noticed it on Beta, we have been able to fix it before it reached the Live version of the game, and we informed Beta players in advance about the correction.
We recognize this last problem was quite frustrating, even if limited to a single production cycle of those items, and we apologize again for the confusion it generated.
We also had few additional very limited issues. Like one affecting some players in the Netherlands server where they got moved to an incorrect chapter. We were able to quickly correct those anomalies.
What’s next
Following this migration, we have reflected on the whole process, and we’ll update our internal workflow to make similar complex technical procedures smoother in the future.
We also want to keep improving how we communicate to you. We shared information about the migration in advance, but it was not always possible to give you an adequate notice period. In the future we’ll aim at sharing that information earlier and more precisely.
We’ll also better evaluate, in case we’ll do other changes to chapters in the future, when it will be the best time to apply those changes to all players. Waiting for months, like we did this time, was probably not the ideal scenario.
An additional thank you
This migration was a very intense task for the whole team working on the game. We truly appreciate your support, feedback, and we hope you will also appreciate this message from us on what we have learned and on why the migration happened.
Thanks for being on this journey with us. Elvenar is a special place thanks to you. We are very grateful of this unique and supportive community you are part of and help building day after day.
Kind regards,
Your Elvenar Team
In the last couple of months, we have executed and complete a very complex chapter migration targeting some players located in the initial chapters of the game. Today we would like to conclude this topic by sharing with you a reflection on this whole process.
Some history, for context
At the end of 2022 we updated the technology tree in the early chapters of the game. The objective was to improve the experience for new players and offer a more smooth and fun access to Elvenar.
It was a very successful change, and all new players from that moment started to experience the game with the updated technology tree.
We still had some players with the old version of the game because they started to play before this change, but we believed that over time they would have progressed quickly above chapter 5.
This didn’t really happen for all of them, and we still had players stuck in the not optimized version of those initial chapters.
That’s why we had the need to migrate those accounts to the new system in the last couple of months. We really wanted everyone to experience the game in the best possible way.
A very complex migration process
From a technical point of view, it was very complex to execute this migration. This is also the reason on why we did it in multiple steps, with a lot of tests on the beta server. We wanted to minimize any possible problem.
Overall, we managed to complete the migration and not have a lot of problems, but some issues still happened.
One of the most annoying one was linked to the Spire not being immediately accessible after one of the early steps of the migration. We were able to quickly correct this. Thanks to our staggered approach it was possible to limit how many players experienced this problem and to improve the migration process before it got further deployed.
The second annoying problem was about the order of production in the Magic Academy. This happened both on Beta and Live, in different moments. The first couple of times, it was an unexpected event, and it was not possible for us to warn you in advance.
The last time, when we noticed it on Beta, we have been able to fix it before it reached the Live version of the game, and we informed Beta players in advance about the correction.
We recognize this last problem was quite frustrating, even if limited to a single production cycle of those items, and we apologize again for the confusion it generated.
We also had few additional very limited issues. Like one affecting some players in the Netherlands server where they got moved to an incorrect chapter. We were able to quickly correct those anomalies.
What’s next
Following this migration, we have reflected on the whole process, and we’ll update our internal workflow to make similar complex technical procedures smoother in the future.
We also want to keep improving how we communicate to you. We shared information about the migration in advance, but it was not always possible to give you an adequate notice period. In the future we’ll aim at sharing that information earlier and more precisely.
We’ll also better evaluate, in case we’ll do other changes to chapters in the future, when it will be the best time to apply those changes to all players. Waiting for months, like we did this time, was probably not the ideal scenario.
An additional thank you
This migration was a very intense task for the whole team working on the game. We truly appreciate your support, feedback, and we hope you will also appreciate this message from us on what we have learned and on why the migration happened.
Thanks for being on this journey with us. Elvenar is a special place thanks to you. We are very grateful of this unique and supportive community you are part of and help building day after day.
Kind regards,
Your Elvenar Team