Editing Announcements - 2000/03 - Darkness Ascendant (section)

== State of the Code ==

{{Microsoft Zone
 |  Link = <nowiki>http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ashenewscodestate1.asp</nowiki>
 |  Date = March 20, 2000
 | Title = State of the Code
 |  Text =
<font color=#FFFFFF>'''My character is gone!!!'''</font>
<br>
Don't panic! Due to maintenance and our minor game update (see below), we needed to reset the AC worlds a few times in the last two weeks. Each time we did so, we saw a rise in the incidence of characters that appeared to be missing. This used to be a rare occurrence that we had dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but now has become much more common. As a result, we have suspended our non-urgent maintenance schedule until we fix the problem.
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All characters that fell victim to this bug are safe and will reappear soon. They are not deleted; they simply have lost their connection to your Zone ID in the database. We are restoring these characters every day, and will have them all brought back as soon as possible. For more information, please carefully read the system message on the character list screen, and follow its instructions exactly. We're deeply sorry for the inconvenience.
<br><br>
We are already testing a fix that will prevent this bug from haunting us again. The fix will be implemented on or before our major update in the first week of April.
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Please note that characters that are deleted due to the actions of a user -- including the actions of a hacker who gains entry by one of the “Trojan horse” account-stealing programs that are becoming popular -- will not be restored. Protect yourself: thoroughly virus-scan all software you use from anything less than a completely trustworthy source; use “firewall” software or make sure your computer security is at its maximum; and do not have your ZoneID be automatically saved on your system. Unfortunately, the Internet still presents many security challenges beyond our control, but “safe computing” practices will protect you from almost every threat. Learn more at
<font color=#FFFFCC><nowiki>http://www.microsoft.com/insider/internet/articles/security2.htm</nowiki></font>.
<br><br>
<font color=#FFFFFF>'''I seem to have “time warped” back since the last time I was playing!'''</font>
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Some players have reported that they enter the world to find that their characters have “warped back in time”: they have the experience points, items, and location that they had minutes or hours before the time when they last left the game. In this way, recently acquired items can be lost. This will happen to a small degree, a few minutes' worth, if you are online when the world is reset. Therefore, always try to leave the world as soon as you see a broadcast message in the game asking you to do so. However, some players report having lost much more than a few minutes. We are making headway on this bug, and apologize for the loss.
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<font color=#FFFFFF>'''My items lost all of their mana charge!'''</font>
<br>
On March 16, when we performed maintenance that restored many characters that went missing (see above), the process had the unexpected side effect of draining many items of their mana. We are investigating this to assure it will not happen again.
<br><br>
<font color=#FFFFFF>'''Why has AC been “out of service” so much lately?'''</font>
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We've had a run of bad luck lately, and this forced us to keep the worlds out of service much more than usual. We did so in order to restore missing characters (see above), improve our database system, or do a minor update (see below). From the day that it shipped in November, AC has had a reputation for very little downtime, and we will earn that reputation again. Please know that we take a world out of service only when it is in the best interest of the players, and we wring our hands for every minute that Dereth is not available to you. We promise to do better, and get back to our previous pattern of only going out of service for a few hours each month in order to perform major updates.
}}