Hello Descendants!
Pomona here to let you know we’re gearing up for server side auto hunt!
During downtime this week, we will be prepping our servers and our databases for server side auto hunt – officially! Next week, Wednesday March 27th, is the target release date for auto hunt changes.
Now, we know we’ve kept you waiting for an update on offline auto hunt for a while now. We used that time to prepare our tech, solicit feedback, and run load tests on our test environments. Based on all of our findings, we have determined that the offline auto hunt feature will need to be a tiered, slow rollout.
To begin, next week we will be rolling out the new and improved code for auto hunt game wide. That new code runs auto hunt through our server instead of relying on the client state. This will greatly increase the stability of current auto hunt functionality for everyone! No more randomly dropping while you’re connected and hunting, it will basically be a sturdier version of the auto hunt you’re used to.
However, I do have to let you know that only a portion of the player base will also be granted the ability to continue auto hunting while being disconnected from the game, AKA “offline”. We hope you can understand that this is a game changing update, especially to the backend, and we need to be extremely cautious with how this can impact the game’s infrastructure. Last month we saw too many errors when we tried to start the roll out process, and we need to avoid the potential of that happening again.
So, with that in mind, the initial ability to hunt offline will be rolled out only to accounts with a total lifetime spend of at least $1,000 USD. That entry-point is retroactive, meaning if an account already has a spend of at least $1,000 from the time the game was created to now, then that account will have access to offline auto hunt after we release the feature. Additionally, if an account reaches a $1,000 lifetime spend after server side auto hunt is released, that account will also gain access to the extended offline feature. We intend for the dollar value of that entry point to be lowered as we gain long-term confidence in the new system.
tl;dr: changes to auto hunt will be next week, everyone will get a more stable auto hunt afterwards, only those who have spent at least $1000 USD over the entire history of the game will get offline auto next week, and if it works properly we’ll lower that entry-point in the future.
I understand this is a large shift from previous conversations surrounding auto hunt, and I truly appreciate the patience and understanding needed here in advance. I’ll be responding to feedback and questions in Discord as time allows, so if you haven’t already then be sure to join the conversation there! https://discord.gg/rbNMexEzSk
Warmly,
Pomona
