Last night we had suffered another server down, yes, the 4th server down in 5 days.
Any explanation is weak, our incompetence and ignorance lead us to hurt the user experience time and time again. During these several server failures, we have found and fixed various problems, but last night, the CCU reached 36,000 and it failed again. We conducted an in-depth analysis of the architecture of the game and confirmed that the entire game needs adjustment.
The fundamental problem is that under the current structure, each player has one self-built sect, and each sect is equivalent to a small server. The average statistics are 2 people per sect, 36,000 online, equivalent to 18,000 small servers online at the same time, which has far exceeded the coping ability under the current architecture.
Yes, it seems like a stupid design now. In our previous tests, the highest one was the Steam GameFes, where the PCU reached more than 1200, and the server experience at that time was very smooth. We also did some marketing at that time, but it seems that there are not many players interested in our game. We expect that the PCU will reach several thousand at most after the release, and 10,000 is something we can't imagine. We have also done tens of thousands of PCU stress tests in a simulated environment with the most optimistic imagination, but this simulated environment is far from reality.
Now, we need to make a fundamental architectural change to the game, during which we will be working on a temporary solution, as follows:
[Temporary plan] There will be a limit on the number of sects that can be activated this time. If the limit is exceeded, you can bring your own character data to join other sects. When the number of simultaneous online sects reaches the upper limit, a prompt will pop up to remind players that they can join other sects. If they choose to continue to wait, it may take a very long time. If you choose to join other sects, backpacks, equipment, levels, magic weapons, moves, and spells will be brought to the new sect, and items in the sect cannot be carried. Personal sect data will be retained. We will temporarily turn off the delete button to prevent the new sect master from kicking people maliciously.
[Follow-up] The new version after changing the structure will be released in early May, the PVE mode will be changed to offline online mode, and the PVP mode will be changed to pass mode.
The server will be launched before 03:00 PDT today, and a temporary plan will be activated.