Launcher version 0.1.30 will be available shortly. In our last release, we introduced a feature allowing players to scale down the number of connections used by our launcher to download game files. This was designed for lower power PC's, slower internet connections, and consumer routers with small NAT tables that couldn't effectively handle bulk connections.
In this latest release, we automate that scaling behind the scenes to ensure players don't get failed download/retry messages and instead, the launcher will auto adapt and scale down connections as needed.
Hopefully this helps those users that were affected by this issue.
A new version of the launcher - v0.1.29 - will be available shortly. This version adds the following features:
Downloading of Unity assets now takes place in our launcher, rather than in the game client. Due to the multithreaded nature of our downloader, this should significantly increase the speed with which new asset files are delivered to you. The client path remains as a fallback.
Two new options in the 'Settings Cog'. One is the option to preload assets, on by default (supports the previously mentioned feature.) The other, 'Download connections', supports decreasing the number of attempted connections to support slow connections and older PC's.
If you're having issues with the launcher downloading files, please try decreasing this number. We suggest trying '4' instead of '16'. Once changed, click the run button next to 'Validate game files' just above it to restart the download process.
Please note this fix needs a server restart to fully deploy, and cannot deploy retroactively to pets that unstable themselves between now and the restart.
Please note this fix will require a server restart to fully deploy, which will happen roughly 2.5 hours from this news post.
As part of this restart, we're addressing a couple of concerns with the launcher. If you have left your launcher logged in, please click the settings cog and validate files before logging in again.
If you have exited your launcher, it will pick up the new files anyway when you start it - nothing to do in this scenario. Moving forward, we'll look to improve the launcher so we can automate this for you.
In addition to the requirement to reset your password (go to https://accounts.shardsofbritannia.com to do so) please note the following:
Patch notes:
Earlier today we detected and removed unauthorized software running on one of our backend servers. This server was not a game server, nor was it our accounts server, so no player credentials were compromised.
The source of the issue was a cryptocurrency mining bot — a common type of malware that hijacks server processing power to mine crypto. This kind of malware is not designed to access or steal data.
Even so, your account security comes before convenience. As a precaution, we're:
What you need to do: go to https://accounts.shardsofbritannia.com any time after seeing this message and attempt to log in. You'll be asked to reset your password. Please note the launcher itself will not tell you this outright, so hopefully you're reading this message now!
In addition, we are rolling out some patches to our launcher which include a new native Linux launcher that is in 'beta' for now. It's important you all exit your launcher (find the taskbar icon near your clock and right click/exit) and start it again to ensure you get the latest update to v0.1.26.
As for the security concern - our monitoring systems caught this quickly and shut it down, and we're taking every precaution to keep your account safe.
We will be back online in the next 30 minutes, but in the meantime you can reset your password right now. Thanks for your understanding — see you in Britannia. ⚔️
— The Shards of Britannia Team
Another small launcher patch is being pushed out. This one is just some inner stability fixes, nothing visible. You'll get prompted to restart when it's ready.
Another quick launcher patch:
Note that to address this issue, a button will appear in the launcher, directing you instead to our website to login - that login will also do a Captcha check which, if successful, will correctly log you in.
This launcher patch will appear on your launchers shortly after this message. Please restart your launchers when you can.
A small patch has been released for the launcher. If you don't immediately see the offer to restart the launcher with the patch, exit from the launcher and reload.
Fixes:
We're coming back online now. Restart your launchers and you should receive our latest launcher. Then login with your new global account from https://accounts.shardsofbritannia.com and you'll be good to go.
We'll still be restarting at tonight's maintenance window about an hour from this message. No avoiding that sorry!
We're running a little long on the login server migration, it may be up to 2 more hours. Apologies for the inconvenience.
We are offline for the login server migration. This will take up to 4 hours, the maintenance window is 2am UTC - 6am UTC / 10pm US Eastern - 2am US Eastern.
TL;DR:
Our login server migration will go ahead at the time shown below this post. During this time, the game will be offline for up to 4 hours while we finalise and validate all the moving pieces to make this happen.
We appreciate that the mentioned time might fall within your play window, however we are unable to schedule an alternative time due to staff availability.
Once the migration is complete, you will need to restart your existing launcher and it will automatically download our new launcher. Once that is done, you will log in with your new SoB Global Account (the one you created at https://accounts.shardsofbritannia.com and matches the email you used to /verify with)
As part of this change, on launch the game will send you directly to the character select screen, and on logout the client will be closed. We are investigating putting you back at the character select screen on logout instead, however that may prove challenging. For now we chose to move ahead so that we have direct control over our login server and any outages, of which we hope there will be none!
Thank you all for your patience during this time. While we have extensively tested all elements of the new system, we expect there may still be some bumps along the way. The best way to raise concerns with us will be via #emergency-support-threads in Discord, or via https://uo4.life/ticket
The login server is currently offline and thus the game is not accessible at this time.. We have contacted Citadel to have this addressed. Apologies for the inconvenience, we'll advise as soon as it's back online
UPDATE: The login server is back online and the game is accessible again!
The time has come folks. All going well, we will migrate to our new login server over the weekend of 11/12 July.
We understand and appreciate that these types of changes being done over a weekend may be disruptive, however it's also the only time where key staff members can be present to support the initiative. Such is the nature of a volunteer-led game.
Remind your friends to /verify ASAP and ensure you've reviewed all the details at https://uo4.life/verify - this will result in an easy migration for you all. After the login server migration, we'll also share details on how to get access back if you missed the /verify boat.
We'll announce a specific time for the actual migration closer to the date, however we expect the server to be offline for no longer than an hour while we put what we need in place.
Please note this patch has been reverted and is no longer active - we'll continue to work on this feature in the background and hope to have it available to you again real soon.
And we are back online!
Unfortunately, there are currently issues with the server. We need to wait for additional support from the team. As soon as we have an update, we will share it here. Sorry :-(
The server is back online.
We've temporarily rolled back the recent Account Bound Item Recovery patch while we investigate it as a potential cause of this week's instability. We'll be monitoring closely and will re-introduce an improved version of that change once we're confident it's stable.
To the community: we know crashes and downtime are frustrating, especially when they're happening with some regularity. We want to be transparent -- when multiple people are contributing changes to the server, tracking down the root cause of an issue isn't always straightforward. It takes time to isolate what's actually responsible, and we take that process seriously rather than guessing.
The people working on Shards of Britannia are volunteers. We have day jobs, families, and lives that don't pause when the server goes down. We're not always available the moment something happens, but we do get to it as quickly as we possibly can and we care deeply about this community and this game.
Thank you for your patience -- it genuinely means a lot to us.
-- The Shards of Britannia Team
Unfortunately the server is offline at the moment whilst we investigate what caused the crash. apologies for the inconvenience.
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