Defiance Dev Blog Update

I’ve asked myself this question 3,289 times today. Don’t get me wrong. Most territories and platforms are mostly doing great by now. I know very well some of you still have outstanding issues, bugs or customer support tickets waiting. I didn’t say everything was perfect. Then we’d be playing all day ourselves.

But little time for that. There are problems to be solved, this is what we signed up for, gaming is what we love doing and we’re incredibly sorry that you have to go through these issues now with us. That’s why we don’t have problems sitting here now on a Friday night hammering through this still. We want to live up to your expectations and in some cases, we obviously aren’t. And I’m sorry for that.

But the world is conquered by eating an elephant in small bites accompanied by martinis. And here are todays bites, some of which are stuck in our throat:

• US XBOX – Our battle with this server cluster continues. I’d put swearwords here but I think you can hear me in your head right now. You will have noticed some great server moments in the last 24 hours, some not so great. We continue to re-configure, deploy fixes, roll some back, try something different, measure, analyze. There’s just so many of you shooting so much. If you could just be nice and all get along. Hellbugs have feelings too you know. This is by far our top issue. We’ve thrown a ton of more hardware at it (we had reinforcements ready), changed client-server protocol to remove load balancing setups to have less moving parts and a host server code changes.

• Game Server Crashes – These are the service not available and service timeouts you see. Today’s server code update alone had 9 different game server crash fixes. Some happened rarely, others were quite frequent. It all adds up. You should see less of service not available and the timeouts now although just tonight we’ve spotted a few other ones

• Connectivity and patching – This one is still on the list. There are so many new players joining us and we even have a few of you which are still patching. We’ve deployed patches, reconfigured contend distribution networks and continue to do so based your reports of where you are in the world having problems.

• Chat & VOIP – Back on the list again, we have some fixes for this, both that we can do server side but also client side. Unfortunately client patches of this nature can’t be deployed till the 15^th as mentioned yesterday.

I’m not listing here individual gameplay items, such as general balance, mission changes, enabling or disabling missions or side-missions (such as due to exploits). That doesn’t mean they aren’t important, it’s because this is always important and constantly going on with a dedicated team. I did list Arkfalls, simply because that affected so many of us. Now to the happy part. We all enjoy happy endings. Like in the Fifth Element. Always makes me cry.

• What’s our DLC plan? – I’ve seen a lot of you mention this and this is material for an entire blog post because there is so much I want to talk about. However, let’s be short. There are at least 5 DLCs this year. They all have a free and paid component. We do not want to segregate our playerbase so we always want everybody be able to participate and play with friends. The free part is features and content, the paid part is essentially, say, access to a new playable species with a bundle of stuff with it. The upcoming TV tie-ins aren’t DLCs that cost either. It’s all yours.

• More updates enroute – Today fixes some disappearing item cases, more Arkfall loot love, mission and side-mission updates in addition to all the optimizations and bugfixes we deployed to improve the server crashes. Our patch around the 15^th is in testing and on its way into certification. We anticipate to update our servers with code updates daily. XBOX of course more frequently till we fix it. Which we will.

• Another big patch? It’s Friday night and it’s tricky to rock a rhyme that’s right on time. We have a patch around the 15^th but we’ve already started work on the massive patch that’s coming roughly 2 weeks later. There are so many things we can’t fix, add or improve right away and have to be part of a larger client patch. That’s why we have two planned. After that you should see a nice shiny DLC.

The summary is, we have the cavalry out, we’re not giving up till we make this an awesome experience for you and as I mentioned yesterday, figuring out a way to make it up to you. When I find a way to make it all work, I’ll let you know here first. Promise. Besides of course just fixing the damn thing.

hope I’m not still in your head swearing. That wouldn’t be very nice of me. Especially on a Friday. If it was Thursday, it would probably be fine.

Again, our apologies. After 5 years of creating this, it saddens us and frustrates us that you aren’t getting the great experience we strived to create. The upside is that it makes us quite determined to get you there.

Defiance: State of the Game

This day has been long coming. Sometimes you hear sayings like “it takes 9 months to have a baby” and “9 women can’t make a baby in a month”. Those more familiar with the matter have pointed out to me that this was closer to “9 months of giving birth”, hit me over the head and said I should stop using sayings I don’t really understand. It’s the Icelander in me, sorry.

This first day of launch of Defiance, a PC-PS3-XBOX360-massively-online-tv-show-connected-third-person-open-world-shooter, has been as awesome as we expected it to be. And by awesome, I mean we’re neck deep addressing all the issues that come up when you scale something up to a million people from a test environment of thousands.

And we expected to be doing that. All our team is here, 150 people, all on it and will be in the next weeks because that’s what you do with massive online games. Keep the team, update, patch, fix, improve. We notice, we listen, we honestly do. Of the issues that we are working on right now, these are an example of the highest priority for us.

• Connectivity – Being able to connect, patch and play. This has a number of things that can be plaguing you depending on platform and what version of the game you have. We’re on it like a shark during winter solstice.

• Pre-order items – WHERE ARE THEY?!?!? We have a number of cases where they aren’t being delivered to you. We know. They haven’t disappeared nor will they. They might pop up suddenly over the next hours, the next time you log on or tomorrow.

• Bosses and Arkfalls – They might be very difficult as they scale and the rewards not in any sane correlation to what they should be, being this difficult. You’re right, it’s not right. On it.

• Chat and VOIP – This isn’t broken, we just believe people should use their psychic abilities more. Can you hear what I’m saying to you right now? Yes, exactly. We’re working on it.

But one thing which you may or may not be accustomed to. We may take down our servers to deploy patches or improvements to them. We do this far more frequently than others. This may be frequent and annoying during the first days of launch but believe me when I say this, we’re doing it to make your experience better.

“You may ask yourself, “where is my issue on this list of yours you inbred viking trying to fool me with humor and shark?” Don’t worry, we have a long list of issues logged based on your feedback through Customer Support, Forums, stalking you in-game and server data. But those four are an example of those that are affecting the largest number of people. You can however comment further here or provide further detail to help us out with those issues.”

At the end of the day – which btw, our day never does, we’re here 24/7 – we reach around each other and are happy. Happy that our voyage is just beginning, from today, with you onboard. We appreciate the trust that you are showing us by coming with us and we will address all these issues.

Ave Arkhunter,

Nathan Richardsson

Defiance is now Live!

Defiance is a science-fiction-themed Persistent world MMO third-person shooter from Trion Worlds. Defiance takes place on a terraformed Earth several decades into the future. It is a tie in to the Syfy show of the same name.

Game Overview:

Join the futuristic online open-world shooter where thousands of players scour a transformed Earth competing for alien technology. Hunt alone or with others as you improve your skills and level up, unlocking powerful weapons that will help you survive the massive battles that await.

Shoot the way you want, with a multitude of weapons, armor, and special abilities that evolve with experience. Custom character creation means you can play as human or alien, modifying your appearance to become a unique citizen of the Defiance world.

Fight for survival in a constantly evolving environment with regular content updates and dynamic events. Play solo, or join tens of thousands of simultaneous live players in a futuristic San Francisco Bay Area that’s a fully-realized open world. You’ve never imagined a 3rd-person shooter this huge.

Experience dynamic missions, massive co-op battles, and endless exploration across a gigantic game environment. Plus, brought to you by Syfy, the Defiance TV series is a revolutionary weekly drama that impacts the game, and gives you the chance to change the show.

What is an ARK Hunter?

In the world of Defiance you play the role of an Ark Hunter, a specialist in survival, combat and tracking who braves dangerous frontiers to locate and retrieve lost relics of alien or advanced origins in return for great financial rewards.

Ark Hunters are specialists at salvage. Valuable alien minerals and technology scattered by the orbital destruction of the Votan planetary arks now encircles the earth in the Ark Belt. This debris occasionally rains down in dangerous events called arkfalls. Ark Hunters must fight off other competition both human and alien if they wish to claim the rare minerals and Arktech from the heart of an arkfall for their own. The life of an Ark Hunter is exciting, dangerous and profitable … while it lasts.

Noted for their uncanny skills at finding Arktech and renowned for going where others fear to tread in search of their prize, Ark Hunters are greatly admired and employed by those who require their specialized talents. Many Ark Hunters work alone, searching for that valuable Arktech discovery that will allow them to retire to a comfortable life in Antarctica; others contract their services to individuals or corporations for a hefty fee, using their resourcefulness to locate specific items or information for their employers. Their expertise at finding nearly anything and surviving in the most dangerous situations and locales makes them valuable allies and formidable foes.

Ark Hunters are hardy, and almost never found without a variety of alien and human weapons at their disposal. As an Ark Hunter contracted by Von Bach Industries, you will receive support from the most technologically advanced company in the new world. This benefit begins with the implantation of the EGO, an alien nanotechnology that fuses with the body to provide extraordinary abilities not normally available to any human or Votan. These enhancements will make any Ark Hunter a force to be reckoned with. Your alliance with VBI also grants you a free ride across the new frontier, a Wild West beyond the Storm Divide, where arkfalls are plenty and Ark Hunters become scrip millionaires by working for the locals or seeking artifacts for personal gain.

The game is released for Windows, Steam, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.