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.
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
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 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.
The server will be coming back online shortly. Please note that due to a data integrity issue, it was necessary to roll back to approximately 15 minutes before the crash.
We apologise for the inconvenience - as always, we do everything in our power to avoid rollbacks, however it was not possible to avoid it at this time.
The server is currently offline. We're investigating and will restore it ASAP.
Bound Item Rescue — Soulbound, account-bound, and Patron reward items are now auto-saved to your bank instead of being lost to house/IDOC decay, ground decay, or monster corpses; adds rescue notifications and a right-click "Destroy Bound Item" option.
Earlier today, while testing our new mass-mailing system, we accidentally sent a test email with the subject "[TEST] Your Shards of Britannia account isn't verified yet" to all players instead of just our staff. Sorry about that!
Shortly after, we sent the real verification status emails to all addresses we have on record.
A couple of things to be aware of:
We may have email addresses on file that aren't your login email (such as a Contact Email). If one of those received a "not verified" notice, that's expected — what matters is whether your actual login email is verified.
If you know you've already completed /verify, you can safely ignore any email saying you haven't.
Please take this moment to double-check that your /verify is complete and that all of your accounts are linked under a single email address. If you haven't verified yet, please do so as soon as possible to avoid disruption.
Full instructions: https://uo4.life/verify
Need help? Log a ticket: https://uo4.life/ticket
Update: As you know, we will be moving to our own login server. That date is fast approaching, and we've noticed a couple of issues that a few players have had with using the /verify system.
First, PLEASE ensure you read https://uo4.life/verify in detail and understand it. Ensuring you do that means you'll have a painless transition when the time comes.
Second, we've noticed quite a few players /verify against the same email address that each account they have already uses. The idea is to /verify all of your accounts against a SINGLE email address. When the new launcher comes along, it will let you log in using the email/password, then pick from a list of your accounts.
If you either used the wrong email, or didn't /verify against a single email, log a ticket at https://uo4.life/ticket and we'll get you sorted out!
Lastly, don't worry if you miss the boat or get it wrong. We'll have a backup process which we'll announce after the transition - however, that process will be manual and will take time.
A new progression system has arrived! Craft or purchase a Gem Mastery Necklace and socket it with up to 30 Mastery Gems to gain permanent stat bonuses. Gems come in four materials (Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz, and Obsidian), each with a randomly rolled effect covering combat, healing, harvesting, barding, and follower bonuses.
Earn Mastery XP by defeating monsters and level up to grow your power over time. Head to the Test Center vendors to try it out and let us know what you think!
Wiki page on Gem Mastery
Wiki with all the tests we need help testing
Test Center Discord Channel
Hail, brave citizens of Britannia! The feathers have settled and the clucking has ceased! After a fierce and glorious battle in the arena, the winners of the Chicken Fighting Tournament have emerged victorious! Final Standings: 🥇 1st Place: Cappie — Champion of the Pit! 🥈 2nd Place: xsite — A worthy challenger! 🥉 3rd Place: Copernicus — Fierce competitor! Let us give a mighty cheer for our top warriors and their mighty feathered gladiators! May their names be remembered in the halls of legend. A huge thank you to all players who donated to the prize pool! We are currently sorting it all out and will start rewarding players very soon. Thank you to everyone who participated and spectated — may the next tournament be even bloodier (and cluckier)! For Glory and the Grandest Rooster! ~ The Shards of Britannia Team
We're currently experiencing higher ticket volume this week, so please expect longer response times than usual.
Email tickets: Currently taking 5-7+ days to respond to, depending on queue depth.
Discord emergency tickets: Prioritized, but may take 2-3 days during heavy periods like this.
We're working through everything as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience!
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