Greetings!
As we announced it earlier on our Facebook page we are now about to merge two Arcane Online AOS game servers, Eldine and Draco,between Tue.29th and Wed. 30th November.
The merge was initially scheduled a month ago, but has been delayed till now and the released of level 60+ content.
Eldine is the first server we opened back in May, dedicated to players living in Oceania. The server is physically located in Sydney and set on the AEST time zone for all events. However the server population is not high enough and some of the key systems like Siege War, Duels, Battlegrounds are quite ‘broken’ due to that.
Meanwhile we opened Draco server in July, and located the server on the west coast. The population on Draco is currently about 3x times higher than Eldine and its physical location is also good for players login in from the Oceania and SEA region.
We do believe both servers will benefit from this merge, as any other MMORPG the more players the better! Even if the servers opened at different times, they evolved differently and Eldine server evolution was slower due to the low population.
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?
AOS servers ‘Eldine ‘and ‘Draco ‘will be merged. Since Eldine will physically merge into Draco server, to avoid misunderstanding and else we will keep the name ‘Draco’. Players from ‘Eldine’ can enter ‘Draco’ server to find their character(s).
Except ‘Eldine’ and ‘Draco’, all other servers are not affected by the merge!
When this is going to happen?
The merge process will start on Tue. 29th November on Eldine only, and on Wed. 30th for other servers during the maintenance (expected to last 4h on Android, could be extended if needed during our tests). The expected schedule will be as follows:
- Tue. 29th, 4:30PM AEST: Close Eldine server due to the server being 16h ahead (to avoid database being messed up after the merge) and start to transfer DB files to America server.
- Wed. 30th, 0:30AM CST / 7:30AM CET / 4:30PM AEST: Close all other servers for the Weekly Maintenance and start the Account Merge process.
- Wed. 30th, 4:30AM++ CST / 11:30AM++ CET / 8:30PM++ AEST: Reopen all AOS game servers with 3 servers: Chaos, Draco and Nergal. The process is complex and could be delayed.
NOTE: This means the game will be down for over 24h for players of current Eldine server because of the time difference.
Why these two servers?! They didn’t open at the same time!!
‘Eldine’ and ‘Draco’ are the lowest populated on Android. For players from Oceania, it is also best to play on a server physically located on the West Coast in USA to minimize latency issues.
Besides, even if Draco opened 2 months later there isn’t much gap between the 2 servers contrarily to what one may think.
A few stats as of Nov.25 (Eldine vs Draco, including inactive players):
- #Players 60+: 15 vs 7
- #Players 55+: 44 vs 37
- #Players 50+: 117 vs 202
- #Players 45+: 219 vs 442
- # Players with 250k+ Power: 1 vs 0
- # Players with 200k+ Power: 10 vs 8
- # Players with 150k+ Power: 23 vs 23
- # Players with 100k+ Power: 67 vs 99
What will be the new ‘Draco’ server time zone?
The new ‘Draco’ server will stay as it is, and keep its server time set on CST (Central Standard Time, UTC-6). ‘Eldine’ was set on AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time), 16h ahead of CST.
What time will be the daily event and reset compared to Eldine server?
For players from Eldine, the events will now start at the following time:
CST(current Draco time) / AEST(current Eldine time)
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Daily Reset: 00:00AM / 04:00PM (Day+1)
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Battlegrounds: 11:30AM / 03:30AM (Day+1)
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Duels/Abyss: 12:00PM / 04:00AM (Day+1)
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Duels/Abyss: 07:00PM / 11:00AM (Day+1)
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Siege War: 07:00PM / 11:00AM (Day+1)
-
Battlegrounds: 09:00PM / 01:00PM (Day+1)
We understand the time of some events won’t be ideal for players from Oceania (which was the primary reason to open a server in Sydney initially). Still we firmly believe the benefits from the merge will outweigh the issues, as anyway several of these events are already currently ‘broken’ on Eldine due to low population (i.e. Siege War).
2. CHARACTERS
I have a character on both servers, what will happen?
In that case, you will get access to both characters from your character selection screen with 2 character slots! VIP, items, etc are still character bound though, not account bound.
TIP! Since the system will only create thisextra character slotfor accounts which have a character on both servers, if you do want to open an extra slot, do create a character on the other server! However if you delete the second character later, you will lose the slot!
(Note that in the next major update, early next year, it will be possible to have multiple character slots on one account actually)
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 (if both players have same levels, then the system will check the one with more experience points).
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. 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. You may see a Power decrease in that case, but no bug here 🙂
What about my mails?
Mails will be kept.
For Eldine player, due to the 24h+ downtime, they will be extended by 48h so you won’t lose any mail which was about to expire. Best is still to 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. For Eldine player, due to the 24h+ downtime, the WB Legacy will be extended by 48h to avoid issues.
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.
NOTE1: The maintenance will last slightly longer than usual, so please make sure you extended your Legacy before the maintenance!
NOTE2: Players from Eldine were not used to PK, do swap your top gems from Legacy, if any!
NOTE3: We will be sending a 6h Guardian Protection on that day, please use it at first if you want to avoid PK :p
What about my Emblems?
In the same way, all Emblems (Heroic/Relic) will be kept
For Eldine player, due to the 24h+, they will be extended by 48h.
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, Guardian, Constellations, Bestiary, Runic Altar, Battlegrounds, Storage, Auction House, Fund, Farm. 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 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!
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.
6. 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.
Sincerely,
-the Arcane Online team