Greetings! We figured it’d be an excellent idea to do periodic recaps of Sanctum’s progression, and this will be the first installment of that. We’re coming up on one week live (tomorrow), and we’ll be discussing what we have seen so far, some of the issues we are currently working on, as well as some peeks into things in the pipeline for Sanctum going forward.

Observations

First and foremost — wow! Sanctum was fortunate to even have days where we would surpass 10 or more testers during our BETA phase, yet we have already peaked at 50 simultaneous clients with limited advertising. We’ll move well beyond that peak as we gain more stability and social reach; more on that in a bit. Regardless, that number this early in our life is truly remarkable, especially when you consider the aforementioned lack of advertising, two account limit, and the populations of other shards at this time with higher or absent limits. Not many would have given Sanctum much of a chance, but we’re beating the odds.

It was entertaining, as Staff, to get together for our launch and watch new faces stream into the community. Personally speaking, I much prefer a gradual increase in population than immediate chaos. Thank you to everyone for being a part of this and spreading the word. Having such a substantial amount of players come together so rapidly is paramount to increasing the enjoyment of all of those on this shard. If you’re enjoying yourself, please pass the word along.

Complications

Patches, Crashes, and Bugs: We would like to apologize for the frequent network drops and patches we’ve been applying to correct nagging or recurring bugs. The architecture of RunUO can be likened to that of a house of cards. It literally collapses (in our case crashes or dysfunctions), if any single piece malfunctions. Over the weekend, we implemented a daily server reboot to counter the issue with a timer that causes the server to “hang” on a 24 hour cycle. We’ve also been combating other nagging issues such as the FromMilitia error displayed on guard lists within the militia stone. Little things that we’re trying to iron out.

It is just as frustrating for us as it is for all of you, I assure you. We’re literally losing sleep at night worrying that perhaps the server will throw an unexpected crash and we won’t be around to repair it for you all right away. The light at the end of that tunnel is every time we experience an issue, we’re that much closer to extended stability.

Thanks to all of you, we’ve been able to uncover many things that we were not able to see during BETA. Our list has been growing daily. It’s actually a bit overwhelming at this point even for the four of us working on this shard. Right now, that list includes issues and changes with citizenship bonuses, hero capture hiccups, improvements to our artificial intelligence and more.

Please continue to use [feedback and/or post on the forum (we prefer the latter, however). This information is vital to us and in improving the shard. Thank you everyone who has been utilizing the feedback command to provide us further insight. You can use it to describe any issue you may be having, but be sure to give as much detail as possible. It can be anything from loot tables being too high compared to other dungeons, to suggestions for the map. When sharing feedback on the forum, use screenshots whenever necessary, as well as X,Y locations for bugged tiles, items, etc.

Coming Ahead:

We’re betting it’ll make a few folks happy to hear about some of the stuff we’re also working on in addition to the reported bugs and other complications. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the changes you will see in the coming days/weeks:

PvM Rewards System
We’d like to implement a reward system that will allow players to accrue “points” for killing AI throughout Atria. The stronger the creature, the more points that are earned. At the end of each week (or perhaps bi-weekly / monthly), winners will be declared (top 3), and awards given to those three players. It’s simplistic enough to be harmless to PvP, but intriguing enough to provide some depth to PvM. We’re also contemplating allowing players to use the points they earn to purchase other medium rewards between cycles.

Automated / Staff Managed Events
Despite having Vorshun, we’re interested in adding a few automated events, as well as manually managing others. We have a slew of events some of you will be familiar with such as traditional CTF, Paintball, and more.. while we have a few other unique events known as “Bomberman” and “Skull Ball” in the works. Not all of these events will have the option of being automated, but nevertheless, we’d like to get the community involved in some entertaining games.

Limited Boat Travel + Fishing / Cooking Content
We’re evaluating our options for limited boat travel, as well the possibility for inclusion of new fish and the ability to create some special foods from those fish. We’ve already implemented new mobs and possibilities of treasure with fishing, but we’re interested in adding more.

Additions to Alchemy
Using alchemy to boost combat-related content for the alchemist is not really in the spirit of a “crafting” skill, therefore we’re looking to add abilities that would create some interdependence for them. Just spitballing ideas here, but we’re considering adding the option for alchemists to “transmute” potions (combine heal/refresh), or perhaps create rare potions that can trigger spawns, etc.

Re-Introduction of Hireling NPCs
For those unfamiliar with them, these NPCs can be hired to accompany you on your adventures. Perhaps you are a miner and wish to have protection against enemies and surprise spawns, or you want someone at your warrior’s back as you attempt to slay a difficult creature, or maybe you merely need a sparring partner. We’re not quite yet decided on whether we’d allow the sparring aspect, but we could certainly find use for other currency (such as Platinum / Silver) for hiring these NPCs.

Website Improvements
We’re constantly striving to determine the best way to present all of our information so that you have access to it. We’d rather not spend our days linking to the information, so if you have any suggestions or ideas for what we should add, let us know. We’re currently hard at work cleaning up and revamping parts of the main site, so keep an eye out.

We’ve got a long way left to go here on Sanctum. Thank you for being a part of this with us and thank you for being so remarkably supportive and positive about our shard thus far. Remember to vote for us daily, notify us of new sites to potentially list ourselves on, and spread the word about Sanctum!

For the next week or so, we will be utilizing an auto-restart method to reboot the server at precisely 9pm EST every night.

We’re using this as an opportunity to monitor a timer glitch that has reappeared since BETA (which we thought was fixed). A quick alert will be displayed before the reboot and downtime will always be minimal (just a few minutes at worst).

We apologize for any potential inconvenience. Tonight’s reboot will be manual, and subsequent reboots will be automatic starting tomorrow evening.

Tip: You can see Sanctum’s current time, in-game, by using the following command: [Time

Sanctum was officially launched at 6pm EST.

Log in and begin your journey today!

As Open BETA dwindles to a close, we will be closing the server at 1am EST until later tonight night for the official launch at 6pm EST. For your local time for launch, check here:
http://www.timeandda…1210T18&p1=3705

We’re excited to get Sanctum online and allow you all to get started on a journey where your accomplishments will finally matter instead of having them wiped with BETA. We hope to have a reasonable turnout, but please be aware, advertising has come slowly and SEO has not been our best friend in recent weeks. You, the players, will be our biggest advertising asset. Alya and I will both be available for any immediate questions following the official launch at 6pm, here on the forums.

With that said, I wanted to share a few reminders and updates.

Future Development
Despite being officially “launched”, we will continue to push out future “publishes”, much like EA. I will likely open a new section on the forum specifically for publish logs. You can expect (at the least) monthly publishes, but we’re aiming for bi-weekly. This means there will be reboots for each publish, which will also allow us to ensure server/network stability by doing these reboots.

Sanctum is NOT bug-free
I loathe communities that attempt to claim they’re bug-free. It’s not possible. Somewhere, somehow, someone will encounter a bug or find new ways to break something. In no way is that intended to be disrespectful to our players; it’s simply a reality. What I am trying to convey, is that we will not promise you that you will not encounter any bugs post-launch, but what we can promise, is that we will work diligently to resolve the issue, no matter how big or small. Depending upon the severity of the bug and the impact it may or may not have on game-play, you may see publishes earlier than expected.

Future Donations
We will continue to run promotions for holidays and major milestones (such as one year online), and not every package will be the same. Some may be rare aesthetics for a low price, or value packages for enormous prices like our Platinum Package (now expired).

Contacting Staff post-Launch
Throughout Open BETA I’ve tried to make myself as available as possible. Post-launch, players will need to rely more on forum posts unless there is a dire emergency (such as the server being offline for any reason), in which case you can contact myself or Alya directly. We will be hiring a few Game Masters and Counselors to oversee page queues and other day-to-day duties. Not to say I don’t enjoy individual conversations, but I may not have the time to reply directly in which case I don’t want to offend anyone.

Anti-Rail System
Please be aware that the reprieves granted to players wanting to “test” the functionality of the system during Open BETA, are no longer available. With launch, if you are jailed as a result of failing the test, our No AFK-Gathering policy will be enforced as necessary. If you have a macro running and need to minimize, walk away, or anything of the sort.. turn the macro off.

See you all later this evening!

We are extraordinarily excited to announce an official launch date for Sanctum, to everyone that has been following our progress. That day will be Tuesday, December 10th at 6pm Eastern Standard Time.

We will continue to keep the BETA test open for the next few days to allow further testing on any upcoming changes. We will then take the shard down to prepare for our launch. All accounts, characters, houses, items and so forth will be wiped. Sanctum will be launching with an entirely blank slate.

This does not mean we’re slowing down with our development, despite the lack of recent patches. We’ve got so much more in store for Sanctum’s future; both currently in development progress and exciting new concepts. We will continue to reveal these to everyone in the coming days, weeks and months. We have no intentions of slowing down with our perpetual improvements and fixes to the shard.

We had to force ourselves to draw a line in the sand to get geared up for this launch due to a few recent bugs we’ve encountered. We are all just as impatient to watch you play here and see the fruition of our hard work as you all are to play it. Thank you all for being a part of this with us, and your patience. Keep checking back for more information and we’re all looking forward to seeing you on the 10th.

– Sanctum Staff