This is a short update on our current activities.
The issue holding back a patch we were planning to put out this week is the setup of an internal cluster designed to improve our testing capabilities, patching times and turnaround. This server cluster is made up of 30 large servers containing more than 100 processors total. Setting up infrastructure like this takes some time but it will give us the capability to clone NA and EU servers and will considerably improve the efficiency of our testing process. Patching downtime will be greatly reduced and several problems we have faced in the past during and after patches will be preventable.
We have not been working on the patch all this time. As patches go this is not a very large one and it has been ready development-wise weeks ago. It remains to be tested on the new configuration. The old configuration is being integrated into the new one and cannot be used at the present time. This is why the patch is delayed. Once the new cluster is up and running we'll need some time to test the patch before we can deploy it. Our current ETA for the patch is next week.
The people working on setting up the server cluster are hardware engineers and system administrators working around the clock. They are not Darkfall developers. Darkfall developers are mostly working on the next patches, on the next expansion, and on Darkfall 2010 which is a parallel development setup, as substantial as that of a new game.
All our developers are fully engaged with these activities and we're aggressively hiring more. Each week a good number of experienced developers from all over the world go through our evaluation process at our offices or over the internet.
Our marketing, support, and administration personnel are equally as busy setting up and supporting our free trial and engaging into numerous activities which we will discuss in a community-developer interaction due out sometime next week.
For the time being we would like to dispel the notion that we're all huddled over the next patch, give you an idea of the amount of work going on around here, apologize for the delays, and thank you for your patience and for your valuable feedback. This is our busiest time since the game's release and it will become apparent once we are able to release more information and assets.
Thank you for reading