Greetings Islanders,
As many of you may be aware, we are preparing to rewrite much of our codebase; known to most community members as the "recode". We're not starting over, but there's going to be a lot of changes. We'll delve into what all this means in more detail below.
Why are we doing this?
As many of the veteran players may remember, there have been features introduced into the game that were sadly removed. Unfortunately, things like this happened due to rapid implementation causing more bugs and crashes than the new gameplay mechanics it provided. Our current foundational code severely limits our ability to balance combat and add new, more complex elements to the game. So much of our original codebase will be rewritten to provide gameplay experiences and features that are exciting as well as stable. Like a bandaid, we've just gotta rip it off!
How long will this take?
While we cannot accurately provide an exact timeline, we are estimating a few months. We're focusing on introducing a solid, quality implementation so we won't run into the same issues we've experienced thus far. We're going to take the time we feel is necessary to do this right. Everything we're doing, is for you guys. Making our jobs easier is just an added bonus.
So, what does that mean for you, the community?
During the recode we will not be pushing many (if any) builds to the Live servers. We know, it's a super bummer! But do not fear, production is blazing along full speed behind the scenes! In addition, we'll be updating you all in a transparent fashion like we've never done before. So you can all expect much more insight into our development process, not less. So here's to progressing to the next level!