Greetings,

This is a general update on our current work in game development.

It is expected that tomorrow will be the final day of server security development. We have worked hard in the recent time and we improved:
-Servers security
-Servers stability
-Servers speed

Tomorrow we will be implementing the final changes on security part which are expected to further help (considerably) all the thee sections mentioned above.

This means we will be free to focus in things that make the community happy, like Player Suggestions (although for us, the background work is more important).
Other GOOD news are that we have extended the heavy development period and it now includes November. This means we will be able to do a lot more things from Player Suggestions. The main reason for this decision is that there are a lot of worthy player suggestions that have to be implemented for the improvement of the game. We also feel obligated to do so due to the massive support and faith we have received all this time from you; Think of it as our way to say thanks.

As for the sequence we will follow:
-Bug Fixes
-Player Suggestions Implementation
-Other Improvements
-New Universe

Some other details that are of great interest:
-ACS attack will not be enabled in Standard Universe and X-TREME Universe. The main reasons for this decision are:
*ACS attack is a very large feature that affects many current game files. It is very difficult to implement this in such lively servers without problems. It would also require a great deal of downtime. We do not want to damage our reliability reputation by risking with such a difficult implementation.
*These universes are successful as they are now. ACS attack implementation is a feature that would definitely change the current balances. As a result, we cannot take this risk that could damage universe activity.

-The new universe will have ACS attack.
-The new universe launch day will be (probably, as it will heavily depend on development) in November. Perhaps late November because the new universe will need Beta Testing before its launch.
-The new universe main characteristics will be SPEED and ACS Attack. The speed will be at least 5x (Playerbase will help for final decision) for: Fleet Speed, Construction (Buildings,fleet,defense), Research and 4x for production. As a result, it's name will be SPEED. Finally, there will be characteristics of the new universe (such as map size and planets allowed) that will be decided together with the player base.

-X-TREME universe will get new building/techs/ships in order to remain interesting. Our objective is to keep X-TREME universe heavily active as it is and in fact increase the active playerbase by at lease 1/3 of current. These implementations will be PRIOR of the new universe (In October)

-Standard Universe will not get these new buildings/techs/ships but it may get them in the future if they prove beneficial. Same goes for the new universe.


You may join discussion thread for this post at:
http://www.zorgempire.com/forums/viewto ... f=8&t=5419

No one from us wants to see a single player leave but unfortunately we cannot please everyone.
At this present time, we will implement ACS attack on the new universe and test it there. This is expected to happen in November.

Once a month of flawless operation passes (in the new universe, so minimum time to occur is December), we will put a site-wide voting poll in both existing universes. Each player with playing time of over 15 days will be forced to vote. If a 65% votes in favor of ACS attack, we will implement it.

This is the best and the most fair solution for everyone.

After all, it would be a suicide to universe reliability if we implemented it untested (Beta Server testing is less than enough). So there is no better option either.

Critical security updates started in both Universes...
There may be momentarily downtime and some lag.

Finished operations succesfully. The new changes are expected to also limit random lags caused by malicious attacks.

We will now focus in bug fixes.