A Note On Oceania

[UODevTracker]

Original Thread

To view the original thread, please click here.

 

[Cal_Mythic]

As you’re aware, we’ve been making plans to upgrade hardware over the last few months, which included needing to move servers out of our Australia facility.

I alluded to the fact in the end of December producer’s update that we were in Japan to take a look at how to better connect that hemisphere, but Australia has been increasingly tricky. We ran some investigations but did not expect pings to be as bad as they are.

We will keep investigating solving the problem of Oceania and its location and pingtimes.

I would request players try, as a test, to connect to other servers in your region and let us know how you’re doing.

- C

 

[Cal_Mythic]

We are not done. The H/W upgrades were exactly that. We were on old Dell 1850 Chassis and moved to BLADE servers with more memory and CPUs.

While we did need to move the shards, we had no idea that it would have this level of impact.

We are honestly looking into getting some resolution where you can receive reasonable ping times, and capacity to play the game. (And by that it means day before we made the moves and each day since.)

I have noticed that you have more than a few supporters, and other players from other servers have come to play on the shard. I understand this does not help the situation, but we are in daily discussions on how to recover from the relocation.

 

[Cal_Mythic]

Perhaps it all comes down to hosting cost, let's help Cal to decide whether it is still cost effective to keep Oceania off-shore in Australia, or keep it in Los Angeles.

Maybe Equinix wasnt really helping their 12-years customer when there was a lag issue on their switch/network card on servers gone berserk and charging $180/hr just to take a look. After all, they are an international public-ly listed company, it costs an arm and a leg for a collocation hosting and Verizon Game Hosting package looks so good and it fits the budget.

Here are some facts about Australian gaming.

The two biggest ISP in Australia are Telstra (also known as Bigpond) and Optus, followed by some minors such as Internode, TPG and iinet.

Whirlpool is a technology forum that's been around since I can spell in-ter-net, and they have a list of game server providers that's worth looking at.
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/australian_game_server_providers

Telstra/Bigpond is partnering with Game Arena and even offering free metering (doesn't count towards your download) if you play in Game Arena servers. It offers some five-stars game servers such as: Battlefield and Call of Duty

Perhaps there is a licensing agreement can be forged between Mythic and Game Arena in terms of licensing their game for private shards, so the option is there to gain revenue.

Having Oceania hosted in Game Arena will also give Ultima Online an exposure to Telstra/Bigpond large customer base (the biggest ISP in Australia).

Considering even World of Warcraft doesn't have a local server in Australia, Ultima Online can once again, take over the reign of MMORPG in Australia, if there is a proper advertisement in place, like $2 DVD that World of Warcraft sells at game shops (even Electronic Boutiques, David Jones and Harvey Normans sells them, at the counter! Can hardly miss anything displayed at the counter, it attracts new customers as they purchase things).

Take the chance now, and get some share of that $1billion Australian gamers spending every year. (as per Australian Gaming Market Grew by 47.8% in 2008 - DS News | MMGN Australia)

Ultima Online was the first MMORPG ever created, I was a teen when i bought my first T2A box in 1999, now my 5 years old is having fun playing polymorph spells to be a demon or a gorilla. The game is still good, lots of World of Warcraft players return to play Ultima Online for its uniqueness to PVP/RVR concept, in-game house decoration, NPC vendoring, close tight community, wide-range skills from crafting, fishing, monster-bashing or just simply being a chef. It is now in good hands of Mythic Entertainment, creator of DaoC and Warhammer Online. Even warhammer online can be found in Electronic Boutique, why can't we find a $2 DVD for Ultima Online.

Could it be our wish this easter? Please bring our server back, we love Ultima Online.

No need for a wishlist for Easter ... and we're already on it. Dealing with this as well as other servers beyond Oceania. But it is of our top three priorities including mid-term publishes, and sorting out delivery for pub 70.

Thank you so much for being civil to everyone in this thread. I do honestly appreciate it.

Also, you mention a few things in this thread that have been mentioned more than in passing, many of them came up during our Town Hall.

In any case, we have much to do between now and then.

Yes today is a holiday here in the States, but I've been watching the threads and want you to know it's not left my mind.

- C

 

[James_Mythic]

Hey folks,

We're interested in what ping rates you are seeing between Australia and the Japanese shards in their current location.

If you can, check out a couple of the servers available and post your ping-rates here. Please note we're not at all considering replacing Oceania with a Japanese shard but want to understand if the facility located in Japan allow for a better connection than the US facility.

Here's a list of shards for your convenience:
Izumo
Sakura
Asuka
Yamato
Formosa

Thanks all, the info you provide can help us to continue to improve the situation.

Best,

 

[Cal_Mythic]

Please define 'needing'.

BTW, servers are easy enough to host. My god, someone could host one in a large closet if they so wished.

True. And I joked about that with our server guys. But it's not that easy. The security policies and the limited number of lines to Australia, as well as Australia's infrastructure (as seen by lag issues BEFORE the server was moved) complicate things immensely.

- C

 

[Cal_Mythic]

I know everyone is waiting to hear about the state of moving the server back to a location that will bring better ping times and wanted to provide an update before the weekend.

We are still reviewing all of our options and waiting for additional information which will allow us to move forward. I will share more soon, but first we want to make certain we can give you a complete answer instead of a mid-term steps that could ultimately hurt the player base. This is not a small decision, and want to do all we can for a solid long term solution.

 

[Cal_Mythic]

After some investigation we’ve come up with a short term solution and are investigating a long term solution for players on Oceania server.

We recognize our messaging could have gone better. In the flurry of messages about the server migration, the specifics about Australia were missed. There will be more details about the upgrades in our video blog we’ll be releasing soon.

In the short term we will be moving players back to the shard in Australia before the end of the week. In addition, Mesanna and the EMs will have some events focused specifically for our Australian players.

Please understand that we will need to address the server issue again in a few weeks. We are working during this time to find a long term solution that will serve all of our needs.

Thanks to those who waited for us to resolve the problem with the facilities. Australia is a tough nut to crack, and we want every gamer in Australia to know UO lives on!


You should see a message on the Herald today.

- C

 

[James_Mythic]

Hey folks, I've updated the post but wanted to let you all know that the ETA for Oceania is 4:00PM EST (8:00AM Australia)

Thanks all!