Greetings!
As we evoked it in the past, we are now about tomerge the 2 Arcane Online game servers: Draco and Werewolfon Wednesday 17th May, from 00:30AM, during the weekly maintenance.
Both servers are physically located West Coast in the California, are set on the same time zone CST and have a very similar active user base (in terms of number, levels, power).
Many game systems in Arcane Online are best enjoyed when many players can participate, and we do believe both servers will benefit from this merge. At this stage there is no real benefit in keeping 2 separate servers in the same location, as the population on those servers is not high enough to justify it (the game is meant for 2x to 5x times more players per server). We also contacted several guild leaders in the past for feedback, which was overall positive, with some concerns that we hope we mostly address below.
Please read our FAQ below which should answer most of your questions or concerns.
Note that we may edit the FAQ with new questions we receive or with topics we might have omitted.
1. GENERAL
Which servers are being consolidated?
The servers‘Werewolf‘and‘Draco‘will be merged. Following the merge, the new server will be renamed to either Asura, Hellflame, Nergal or Marvas depending on the votes from the community on our Facebook page.
Note that Chaos and Balrog servers are not affected by the merge!
When this is going to happen?
The merge will happen on Wednesday 17th of May during the weekly maintenance starting at 00:30AM, and is expected to last 5h (could be extended if needed during our tests. The schedule will be as follows:
- Wed. May 17th, 00:30AM CST / 7:30AM CET / 4:30PM AEST: Close all 4 servers for the weekly maintenance and merge.
- Wed. May 17th, 05:30AM CST / 12:30PM CET / 9:30PM AEST: Reopen all game servers with 3 servers: Chaos, Balrog and the new merge server.
Note that it is possible we can reopen Chaos and Balrog earlier, although this is not confirmed at this stage.
What will be the new merged server time zone?
The new server will keep the same time zone, with a server time set on CST (Central Standard Time, UTC-6), like Chaos server. The server will be hosted in the same physical location than Draco and Werewolf so there will be no change in terms of ping or else.
Will there be more ‘lag’ after the merge?
The server will be hosted in the same location, so there will be no network change and as such it shouldn’t affect anything regarding network lag or latency.
However the population of the server will be doubled compared to Draco/Werewolf, and will roughly equal the other US server Chaos. With more players in the open world, it is possible that on lower spec devices it affects the frame rate in events like World Bosses, but for most users it shouldn’t be noticeable, especially on devices with more than 2GB RAM.
What is the power balance on each server?
The 2 servers are currently pretty similar in terms of active users, levels and power. Here are a few stats as of Thursday midnight in the top 100 or so (Werewolf / Draco):
– Power 400k+: 3 / 3
– Power 350k-400k: 5 / 4
– Power 300k-350k: 13 / 16
– Power 250k-300k: 20 / 29
– Power 200k-250k: 30 / 56
– Level 65+: 22 / 35
– Level 60+ 72 / 121
Note that not all those players are active at the moment.
2. CHARACTERS
I have multiple characters on both servers, what will happen?
In that case, you will get access to all the characters from your character selection screen with up to 8 character slots eventually!
However if you delete characters, you will lose the extra slots until you come down to 4 slots.
Will I keep my character name after the merge?
The server merge means that two characters with the same name can end up on one server.
In that scenario, the player with the highest level will keep his name while we will add the server name behind the name of the player with the lower level and send him a Codex of Name to change the name (i.e. a character could be renamed "Supermago(Draco)")
In the exceptional case that 2 characters share the same name and same level, then the priority will go to the character with the highest EXP, and if the EXP is the same (nearly impossible), the oldest character will keep the name.
Note that nothing forces to change the character name if it has been renamed automatically, however due to the extra length of the character name it will appear broken in several UI, so it is probably preferable to use the Codex of Name to rename it.
What about my character titles?
The titles obtained from Achievements, Quest, VIP will be preserved in the title list.
However the titles obtained from the Arena ranking and Hall of Fame will be reset during the merge and given after the first server daily reset, as only one player can get those and they can’t be duplicated. If you were using one of these titles prior to the merge, then you will have to choose another title after the merge until you obtain it again.
What about my mails?
All mails will be kept, but like any other maintenance, make sure you do not have mails about to expire.
What about my World Boss Legacy wings?
The Legacy Wings equipped by players will be kept.
It means after the merge there will be more than 10 Legacy wings for each class in the game world. However once they expire or return to the boss after a PK, the Legacy won’t drop until there is less than 10 in the world.
And what about all the other systems?
There will be no change to the Character status/stats/items/gear, Gold/Ruby, VIP, Avatar Collection, Mounts, Buddies, Guardian, Constellations, Bestiary, Runic Altar, Battlegrounds, Storage, Auction House, Fund, Farm, Extra Storage. You will just find all these as it was before the merge.
3. GUILDS
What happens to guilds during the merge?
Guild members, level and everything else will be transferred during the merge, so there is nothing to worry about here. But just keep in mind that some of your guild members may change their name after the merge.
What about guild names?
The same rules used for the character names will apply to guild names, and a Guild Renaming Decree will be sent to the guild leader if the guild had to be renamed.
Guild level, then guild EXP, then guild creation date will determine the guilds which will keep their name and the guild which will have the server name added behind.
We do have an exceptional case already here as 2 of the top guilds on the servers share the same name: "Syndicate" and the same level 18… Following the merge, the guild with the highest EXP will keep the name and the other one will be renamed "Syndicate(Draco)" or "Syndicate(Werewolf)" [we do not know which guild has the highest EXP at the moment, so please do not ask, we just can’t answer :)]
And the guild ranking?
The guild ranking will be updated after the merge with the new guild list.
Any other changes with the guilds?
Again, everything will be kept as it was prior to the merge; however the pending requests waiting for approval to join the guild will reset. If you have some pending requests, make sure to approve them before or ask the player to send the request again after the merge.
4. HALL OF FAME, DUELS & ARENA
What about the Duel Tournament?
The ranking and score in the Duel Tournament will reset, meaning for that week the overall ranking will be based on stats from Wednesday to Sunday.
However the Duel Class which is based on the accumulated score will be preserved.
And what about the Arena?
The Arena will completely reset after the merge as well, it means this week the Arena will be calculated only on the battles between Wednesday and Sunday midnight!
So what does it mean for the Hall of Fame?
The Hall of Fame ranking will then be calculated after the merge with all the players who login on the server.
5. SIEGE WAR
What does it mean for the Siege War?
Since there is a guild owning the castle on each server at the moment, the Siege War will have to be reset after the merge.
It means once the merge is completed, no guild will be owning the Castle of Hilberk anymore, and as such won’t get the benefits until they take over the Castle again.
We already applied for the next Siege War, did we lose our points?
Applications from Monday till just before the merge will be kept, so no worries here.
However the two guilds currently owning the castle will have to apply after the merge is completed (and before Thursday midnight)!
We are currently owning the castle, what about our Ruby rewards for the missing days?
We will send the Rubies that should have been received by mail. For the Guild members, since the guild leader has to allocate the rewards on a daily basis, we will distribute it evenly to all guild members. However if the guild leader contact us and give us the breakdown for the remaining days, we will distribute the rewards accordingly.
If possible you can try to distribute the rewards on Wednesday morning after the reset and before 00:30AM 🙂
Also do not forget to apply for the next Siege War!
6. DOMINION WAR
How will the merge impact the Dominion War?
Since the applications close on Tuesday midnight, the applications will be kept.
However since only 6 guilds can be selected, in case more than 6 guilds applied once the servers are consolidated, then only the 6 highest applications will be selected (there could thus be a discrepancy with the system message confirming the selection of the guild, in case a guild is not in the top 6 highest bids after the merge).
7. MISC
As you can imagine, a server merge is quite a complex process technically, and although everything has been well prepared, there could be some hiccups 🙂
We thus thank you in advance for your patience and understanding here.
We sincerely hope the communities from the 2 servers will appreciate meeting and competing with new players, and that the increased server population will lead to better Battlegrounds, Duels, Arenas, Dominion, Siege Wars and Devildom; and HOPEFULLY, in the interest of everyone, no issues and/or inappropriate messages in world chat! 🙂
Note that we will also have the 1 year celebration events starting on that day and from Thursday in particular!