An Open Letter to Star Vault AB (publ)

[crectrach]

Google Docs version


to: Star Vault AB (publ)

from: Nikita Volodin a.k.a. crectrach




An Open Letter


Dear Star Vault AB (publ), developers of Mortal Online & Mortal Online 2. This is an open letter from me, a player, also a customer/consumer of your product — Mortal Online 2.

I’m not entitled nor demanding any answers or an answer at all, but over past week some questions have arisen regarding Mortal Online 2 as a game in general and specifically – launch-related problems.

Over the course of development and early access Henrik Nyström, CEO of your company, stated that the game can hold up to 100’000 players simultaneously as well as a final stress-test of early access has been more than successful with approximately 10’000 concurrent login attempts and you’ve quadrupled servers infrastructure.

Nonetheless, on January 25th, 2022, during official “release” of the game, servers could barely hold up to a demand with enormous queues, lags in-game, crashes, etc. Steam charts counted almost 10’000 players during post-release peak which supposedly should’ve been a walk in the park.

Taking into account all which’ve been already said (not excluding many lesser problems which we’re all aware of) I, on behalf of community, want to ask you several questions:

Question №1. Release was obviously rushed. Are you, as an independent company, able to give us some information about reasons for doing so?

Question №2. Can you give us some transparency with your internal data: concurrent login attempts, peak player count (on Myrland and Haven separately), average queue times?

Question №3. Why haven’t you implemented an AFK time-out system since that was clearly an easy solution for, at least, some of the player base to be able to actually play the game?

Question №4. According to lots of — to say the least, controversial — feedback on queue experience of players, logging in (after server restarts, patches, etc) simultaneously but with much differing outcomes: some are able to enter the Nave virtually in no time, others wait of 40+ hours of running client. Can you explain to us technically what is the queue system, is this a queue at all?

Question №5. Who is responsible for public relations in your company? Decisions about official releases/updates/announcements as well as personal replies of staff/mods/GMs in Discord server is, by far, underwhelming. Continuous mistakes of your PR specialists/lead devs in communicating with players led this situation directly to letters of mine, which, believe me, I’m not really enjoying to put together.


I think like I’ve briefly covered most of mostly shared question of this community and I’m really looking forward to your reply — if one follows.


Since English isn’t my native tongue, I’m sorry for mistakes I could’ve possibly made writing this letter.


With best regards,

Nikita Volodin a.k.a. crectrach

Mortal Online 2 player

 

[finegamingconnoisseur]

@crectrach
I'm currently compiling all the updates that I've been able to find from SV in one thread (one of few): https://mortalonline2.com/forums/threads/updates-on-launch-day-issues.4893/

This latest update below I believe specifically relates to some of the questions you asked in your open letter: https://mortalonline2.com/forums/threads/updates-on-launch-day-issues.4893/#post-51837

On Jan 31, 2022 at 15:15, Robmo said on the Announcements section on Discord:

We had announced the that the server has the capacity of 100k players, what does that look like?

Regarding the number with 100k server capacity, this is what the hardware can support. This support includes both Myrland and Havens. We wanted to ensure a smooth experience with Haven and we clearly have ran into issues with the server nodes and the login sequence.

What is happening when you’re in queue? Also, what is happening with the queue, what is causing the long wait times?

The queue is in fact a queue. However, there are a few functions to help players that crashes that have a cache to get a chance to get back into the game as mentioned earlier. This new feature, along with the player logout/remain system have an issue. This is what is going wrong. We are going through this system as we speak, and our plans are to have a updated queue system that handle this correctly, including a queue number to show progression.

Is there anything a player can do on their in the make getting in easier?

Sadly there is not much players can do on their side to improve this currently, we simply need the time now to sort the queue once and for all, using a traditional queue system.

 

[crectrach]

@finegamingconnoisseur
I'm aware of that and many other posts/replies of devs and staff. Sadly that's not specific at all — I'd like to hear direct and more explanatory answers to questions stated above.
Fact: devs have led our expectation down during the "release". In order to regain at least some of playerbase's trust, as I see it, they should really reach out this time, sincerely and on point, not with typical PR statements.

 

[Darqsat]

I'm with you crectrach.

I believe we are no longer a teenagers who can eat anything and roll other games. The open letter is a mature communication way and I hope Starvault could find time for that mature communication.

To make it clear (Starvault) - you did a wonderfull game, and this game for many of us is the only source of PC gaming. Many of us, currently, has no other interest in gaming and prefer to allocate their free time to your product. We know that you struggle to deliver it to us so any clear and mature communication would be respected. This is not about 40$, so let's avoid a high discussed opportunity of refunds. We are beyond that. I want to speak from those who's expectations was ruined, and for mature guys with families and work, the time and expectations is much more critical than 40 buks.

Thank you

 

[Alocrin]

open letter

I do hope we get some answers here, however SV has stated that they aren't really able to answer questions or DM's for the moment. This I agree with. I would like them to focus on fixing the problem. Afterwards we can go over the issues with a fine tooth comb and find the root cause, and hopefully prevent similar mistakes in the future!

 

[Jackdstripper]

Lmao. You guys kill me

Fine tuned comb to find the root cause. Never hapen again.

this is exactly a repeat of MO1 launch. Same bs PR from Henrik. Same overhyped and overpromised features. Same crappy coding that persisted throughout all of MO1 and its evolutions. Good luck though on your getting a detailed apology.

 

[LoPing]

Questions 1-5 are simply none of your business or anyone else's for that matter. They told us on the 29th it was going to take a few days to get things sorted out and they did bring in outside experts to help. So it will be Tuesday or Wednesday before a patch. Since Henrik does a twitch stream on Tuesday that's what I am betting on

 

[crectrach]

@LoPing

Attitude like this is what slowly brings current state of whole gamedev industry to an imminent, even more gruesome end. You either take that and swallow it up "as is" with nonsense like "they know what they're doing // that's none of your business" or at least try to maintain a discussion. Problems are as exposed as they get and "feeedback" is simply not there, much needed during such fallout.

If you truly believe that server-sided huge problems, a crippled foundation of a MMO, would be fixed in "couple of days" and you'll get a nice and easy seamless 100k players experience on one server — well, I suppose I can only appreciate that pink goggles of yours.

 

[Vagabond80]

I get the thoughts behind some of those questions they just seem pedantic and I’m not really concerned with the answers.

I’m more concerned with theQs and how they seem to not even know what’s wrong. They say the Q is a real Q but it’s obviously provably NOT a real Q. So they are wrong, if they are wrong why are they wrong?Likely they don’t know they are wrong or they are also being pedantic and Ignoring the real issue with the Q.

it’s broken. It may look like a Q in the programming and act like a Q from a certain angle of view, but it isn’t a real Q. Some people can get in some can’t. My entire clan is in the ‘can’t’ group. We haven’t been able to play since Thursday evening. I’m not trying to exaggerate the Q time I’m not trying to flame the devs. We can’t play period. I’ve logged probably 20 hours of Q time this weekend. 6 Friday night, 8 Saturday and probably 6 Sunday (Sunday I refreshed Q every 30 mins or so between matches of another game).

I was originally against a wipe. I’m quickly changing my mind. The initial land rush is almost over from what I can see of the online map database and the PvP fights posted there. That’s a very important fun dynamic part of the game we completely missed out on that isn’t coming back. Especially with the current siege system.

 

[Eldrath]

Lmao. You guys kill me

Fine tuned comb to find the root cause. Never hapen again.

this is exactly a repeat of MO1 launch. Same bs PR from Henrik. Same overhyped and overpromised features. Same crappy coding that persisted throughout all of MO1 and its evolutions. Good luck though on your getting a detailed apology.

Probably should have demoted Seb to come up with names for weasels.

 

[Merkaba]

Google Docs version


to: Star Vault AB (publ)

from: Nikita Volodin a.k.a. crectrach




An Open Letter


Dear Star Vault AB (publ), developers of Mortal Online & Mortal Online 2. This is an open letter from me, a player, also a customer/consumer of your product — Mortal Online 2.

I’m not entitled nor demanding any answers or an answer at all, but over past week some questions have arisen regarding Mortal Online 2 as a game in general and specifically – launch-related problems.

Over the course of development and early access Henrik Nyström, CEO of your company, stated that the game can hold up to 100’000 players simultaneously as well as a final stress-test of early access has been more than successful with approximately 10’000 concurrent login attempts and you’ve quadrupled servers infrastructure.

Nonetheless, on January 25th, 2022, during official “release” of the game, servers could barely hold up to a demand with enormous queues, lags in-game, crashes, etc. Steam charts counted almost 10’000 players during post-release peak which supposedly should’ve been a walk in the park.

Taking into account all which’ve been already said (not excluding many lesser problems which we’re all aware of) I, on behalf of community, want to ask you several questions:

Question №1. Release was obviously rushed. Are you, as an independent company, able to give us some information about reasons for doing so?

Question №2. Can you give us some transparency with your internal data: concurrent login attempts, peak player count (on Myrland and Haven separately), average queue times?

Question №3. Why haven’t you implemented an AFK time-out system since that was clearly an easy solution for, at least, some of the player base to be able to actually play the game?

Question №4. According to lots of — to say the least, controversial — feedback on queue experience of players, logging in (after server restarts, patches, etc) simultaneously but with much differing outcomes: some are able to enter the Nave virtually in no time, others wait of 40+ hours of running client. Can you explain to us technically what is the queue system, is this a queue at all?

Question №5. Who is responsible for public relations in your company? Decisions about official releases/updates/announcements as well as personal replies of staff/mods/GMs in Discord server is, by far, underwhelming. Continuous mistakes of your PR specialists/lead devs in communicating with players led this situation directly to letters of mine, which, believe me, I’m not really enjoying to put together.


I think like I’ve briefly covered most of mostly shared question of this community and I’m really looking forward to your reply — if one follows.


Since English isn’t my native tongue, I’m sorry for mistakes I could’ve possibly made writing this letter.


With best regards,

Nikita Volodin a.k.a. crectrach

Mortal Online 2 player

MO Version of CAN I SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER! WOOP WOOP Get a life fam, go get laid, drink some faygo. FAMILY FAMILY!

 

[Alocrin]

Lmao. You guys kill me

Fine tuned comb to find the root cause. Never hapen again.

this is exactly a repeat of MO1 launch. Same bs PR from Henrik. Same overhyped and overpromised features. Same crappy coding that persisted throughout all of MO1 and its evolutions. Good luck though on your getting a detailed apology.

Here's the the thing if you don't believe it's going to get better and you don't believe it can. Why are you here? Being negative and isn't going to get you anywhere in life. If you don't think things are gonna change get a refund and let those of us who do figure it out.

 

[Tzone]

Here's the the thing if you don't believe it's going to get better and you don't believe it can. Why are you here? Being negative and isn't going to get you anywhere in life. If you don't think things are gonna change get a refund and let those of us who do figure it out.

This is the wrong attitude. You should hold people accountable because its the right thing to do. If you dont make them regret what they did as much as possible then you are just ensuring the next time things will he worse.

What we say cant hurt you, but what we say is defiantly putting pressure on the industry in general to do the right thing.

 

[Crowfin]

Question ¹3. Why haven’t you implemented an AFK time-out system since that was clearly an easy solution for, at least, some of the player base to be able to actually play the game?

This could be used in exploit combat. Thats why.

 

[Najwalaylah]

Here's the the thing if you don't believe it's going to get better and you don't believe it can. Why are you here? Being negative and isn't going to get you anywhere in life.

Being truly negative would lead a person who had actually concluded that a situation would not and could not get better to leave it. Those who are here must have some positive expectation of something, some unfulfilled desire that they think can be filled. I think the ones most common right now (for those who otherwise genuinely have no more patience or expectations of solutions) are

• wanting to know details of what went ('irrevocably') wrong
• wanting to have been right all along
• wanting to kill off Star Vault and see it die (you know, there are such people)
• wanting to mourn the loss of the game they wanted, which is made difficult by the fact that it's not quite dead yet
• wanting to be heard.

Being negative in life can sometimes get you out of bad situations and relationships. so there's a time for it.

 

[Tzone]

Question ¹3. Why haven’t you implemented an AFK time-out system since that was clearly an easy solution for, at least, some of the player base to be able to actually play the game?

This could be used in exploit combat. Thats why.

I dont see how a 5 minute AFK kick could exploit combat when its a 2 minute log out unless you are grey and then its a 4 min log out.

5mins is a bit much should be a 15min afk kick in game which would only really get rid of people who forgot to log out. Macro'rs with still be around but you could get rid of a % of the players you just forgot about the game.

 

[Alocrin]

Being truly negative would lead a person who had actually concluded that a situation would not and could not get better to leave it. Those who are here must have some positive expectation of something, some unfulfilled desire that they think can be filled. I think the ones most common right now (for those who otherwise genuinely have no more patience or expectations of solutions) are

• wanting to know details of what went ('irrevocably') wrong
• wanting to have been right all along
• wanting to kill off Star Vault and see it die (you know, there are such people)
• wanting to mourn the loss of the game they wanted, which is made difficult by the fact that it's not quite dead yet
• wanting to be heard.

Being negative in life can sometimes get you out of bad situations and relationships. so there's a time for it.

Right but you kinda took that out of context, I quantified what I meant by negative by saying "Here's the the thing if you don't believe it's going to get better and you don't believe it can. Why are you here?"
By this i mean the Devs have stated they arent going to be responding to much until the problem is fixed. Whining to everyone else who has no control over this game instead of offering constructive feedback is self defeating. Also some people are here just to express their displeasure and spew toxicity. That is the nature of the internet. Thats why I am reiterating myself by saying that if you want something different then prove it by expressing yourself as an adult and saying "Hey this is my problem with whats going on" and not "OMG THE DeVS SUCK U SUCK THE GAME SUCKS"

Taking a step back you are confusing being assertive with being negative. Establishing boundaries and saying 'no' is not being negative.

 

[Tzone]

Right but you kinda took that out of context, I quantified what I meant by negative by saying "Here's the the thing if you don't believe it's going to get better and you don't believe it can. Why are you here?"
By this i mean the Devs have stated they arent going to be responding to much until the problem is fixed. Whining to everyone else who has no control over this game instead of offering constructive feedback is self defeating. Also some people are here just to express their displeasure and spew toxicity. That is the nature of the internet. Thats why I am reiterating myself by saying that if you want something different then prove it by expressing yourself as an adult and saying "Hey this is my problem with whats going on" and not "OMG THE DeVS SUCK U SUCK THE GAME SUCKS"

Taking a step back you are confusing being assertive with being negative. Establishing boundaries and saying 'no' is not being negative.

Dont bother they havent even bought the game and will just talk nonsense for days. If you make them angry they will randomly tag you in random post and spam you constantly.