2n- Anniversary of TR... Hail! Hail! Hail!

[DrGTO]

To all players of THE REINCARNATION,

Once again it is time for an annual review. On May 15th THE REINCARNATION server will be online for 2 years. Devs and Admins have spent hundreds of hours and countless weekends to work on this game.
This post wants to give a review of the current status, the problems and future plans.
As last year, your host during this show is DrGTO (in case you are wondering… it’s a real PhD you are looking at).

The Past
Still there is the whispering of an ancient word in the air. Archmage! I think we all agree that we crossed the line. We are the better! TR is no clone of Archmage.
Over the last months we have welcomed back many, many old players. Additionally there are many new faces, new stars arising.


The Present
1) Project Status:
Looking at the game, we think the basic framework is done!
We have a good looking portal with all essential parts. A tutorial has been added, giving newbies a first impression of major parts of game play. A (huge) manual is provided.
The supporting guild feature is well accepted in generates a nice donation income to keep the server running. The layout of the game interface has been modified, several ingame functions for guilds have been added.
Of course there are some parts, that still need work but with introducing Armageddon the last gap has been closed.

We therefore announce a first release version 1.0.
The release version 1.0 will result in several changes in the server structure.
After the past problems while introducing major changes to the game, we have decided to launch a pure beta test server. This beta server will be used for testing new features. After successful tests on beta server, changes will be transferred to the other game server.
The code on the release server will not be changed, except for bug fixing.
So far we are focusing on the following server settings:
- Guild Server (10 min/ turn)
- Apprentice Server (15 min/turn)
- Blitz Server (5 min/turn), alternating Blitz Solo and Blitz Guild
- Beta Test Server (switching turn rates depending on test settings, short resets)

Armageddon will be activated on Guild and Blitz Server. If players don’t break the seals after 3 months, the machine will start Armageddon countdown.

2) Dev Team Status:
As mentioned earlier, the Devs spent a huge amount of their free time on this project. Two team members are currently on a break, concentrating on their career and personal life.
On this occasion we are happy to welcome a new Dev in our lines, helping us to continue working on new features.
Taking into account the increasing amount of work the Dev and Admin team has to deal with, we are looking for volunteers.
Several old and new positions need to be filled with skilled people.
We are specially looking for people who are no longer focussing only on playing the game, but to be an active part of the developing community.
You think you experienced every detail of the game. No challenge left? Then switch sites and be an active part of future game features.
There will be a special announcement about free positions for volunteers.



The Future
1) Details on Beta Server:
Beta Server will be a closed server with 500-1000 mages.
Beta Server will have a separate UBB with portal login system (as part of the test system).
There will be an official registration process for beta testers. We are looking for very active and experienced players. For the beginning we are planning to reintroduce portal login and skill system. Portal login will be only valid for Beta UBB and Beta server though.

2) Task force for Beta Server
The Dev Team appreciates the input and game suggestions from the community to improve the game. Unfortunately we are currently outnumbered to evaluate all suggestions made.
For the further development of the game and as an input for Beta Server we are planning to form a task force for evaluating game suggestions and working out new features for the game based on these suggestions. Task force will be working as link between community and Dev team.

3) Power balance problems:
Due to the past changes on game parameters we are experiencing an increasing balance problem comparing Apprentice and Ultimate servers like Guild or Blitz.
With the end of the upcoming reset we will adjust several settings on Apprentice server to balance the server.


We want to thank all players, donators and friends for their support and their loyalty over the last two years. TR has become a major part of our lives everyday its a new pleasure to come back here and spend time on the project.

Thanks a lot!

DrGTO and the Dev/Admin Team