BitCraft Online News

BitCraft Early Access - Day 1 Update from the team

[p]Hey Everyone,[/p][p]First off, Thank you to all of you who have supported and been playing BitCraft. We are very happy to see many people enjoying the game despite the hiccups of the first day of launch.[/p][p]I wanted to give an update for more transparency on how we are planning to continue improving the game over the coming days.[/p][p]The team has been super hard at work squashing issues and keeping everything running as smoothly as possible[/p][p]Today (Sunday June 22nd) - for the subset of the team which is online/on-call today our primary focus is:[/p]

[p]Continue to debug the server issues that are resulting in sporadic poor performance (this manifests in many other player facing issues)[/p]
[p]Fix the issue causing disconnections[/p]
[p]Fix issues with the login server (Error 503) making it hard to log back in[/p]
[p]Fix simple content issues (such as the town banks not being movable or some achievements being incorrect) [/p]

[p](and of course keep communicating with all of you about how things are going) [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This week (6/23-6/27) - with the whole team in the office we can ramp up tackling a wider array of bugs and improvements:[/p]

[p]Issues with onboarding (belt equip quest not completing, cart knowledge not being awarded)[/p]
[p]Client Performance (Memory leak, client FPS)[/p]
[p]Bugs (Cannot target things while in water, getting stuck "in combat", losing travel energy when teleporting doesn't complete)[/p]
[p]UX Improvements (being able to mute players without reporting, annoying to interact with dropped items under resources)[/p]
[p]Balancing (cost refined items for higher tier settlement buildings, traveler voucher costs)[/p]

[p]I've had some time today to read through a lot of player feedback and we are starting to work on some larger improvements based on this feedback and also data from all the progress you've made.[/p][p]One major thing is the progression of player made towns. We believe that right now it's too hard for player made towns to be competitive with the ruined towns and that should change. We are looking into some changes that would make it easier for T2 settlements to be able to get setup more quickly to attract players out of the ruined towns. Primarily this comes down to access to travelers, a bank and a market. We'll be looking at making some balance changes to these to nudge this in the right direction in the coming days.[/p][p]We appreciate your continued patience and enthusiasm as we continue to make BitCraft into the awesome game we envision! [/p][p]- Minch (Game Director) and the BitCraft Team[/p]

New sandbox MMORPG with one giant, shared world gets surprise early Steam launch

The shared-world experience of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, FF14, Runescape, and Guild Wars 2 is what makes them truly special. Even if you're someone who prefers to quest solo, seeing other players going about their daily business and living their lives around you brings a magical spark that can never be replicated by computer-controlled NPCs. Newcomer Bitcraft Online is taking things a step further. Pitched as a 'true single-world MMORPG,' developer Clockwork Laboratories has been playtesting Bitcraft Online since 2022, and has now launched it into early access on Steam even earlier than previously planned.

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BitCraft Online: launched into Early Access!

[p]Hello everyone, [/p][p]We are very excited to announce that BitCraft Online has officially launched into Early Access! We look forward to seeing you all in-game in the world of Starfell. Thank you for joining us on this journey. We hope you'll continue with us on the road to launch.

From everyone at the Clockwork Labs, thank you all.[/p]

BitCraft Online: Will launch Saturday June 21st

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p]First of all I would like to apologize for the inconvenience related to launch date changes. We are doing our best given the stressful situation. That being said, I have some good news.
[/p][p]Steam just approved our build and we have run our pre-release checklists.
[/p][p]We have decided to launch BitCraft Online on Saturday June 21st 9AM EDT / 3PM CET (NOT June 27th). This is one day after our originally planned date, but hopefully still enough time for players to plan and prep.[/p][p]For context, we were caught between several terrible choices on the BitCraft launch timing and we needed to pick the least bad option. Our options were:[/p]

[p]Launch on June 27th - This was always a horrible date for the launch as it is during the Steam Summer Sale. However we needed to give Steam a week in case there were further issues with the approval. Now that we have our approval, proceeding with this date would essentially be suicide as it would not give us any opportunity to reach the front page of Steam or be picked up in the Steam algorithm. After 7 years of development we don't think this would give BitCraft a fair shot.,[/p]
[p]Move the release to Tuesday June 24th - This is still close to the sale, but it's also in the middle of the work week and many people who requested time off from work to play on launch day (and then subsequently moved their time off to the 27th) would be rightfully furious that they still wouldn't be able to play on launch day.,[/p]
[p]Move the release to Saturday June 21st - In this case, most people will be able to play on launch day as it's a weekend, even the people who requested time off from work on the 27th. The major downside being that we're changing the date yet again, which is understandably frustrating, but at least you'll be able to play BitCraft this weekend.,
[/p]

[p]We believe the last option is clearly the best option for the game.
[/p][p]Thank you for your patience. It's been a very dynamic situation, and at the end of the day we want to do what is best for the long term health of the game and the community.
[/p][p]I hope you all enjoy our game.

Edit CL-Lutra: Time 9AM EDT / 3PM CET [/p]

BitCraft: Delayed Till The 21st Of June

[p]Dear BitCraft fans,[/p][p]We have some unfortunate news to share with all of you. We have to delay the BitCraft Early Access date to June 21st [/p][p]Unfortunately our Early Access build which was initially submitted weeks ago has not yet been approved by Steam and we can’t risk waiting until tomorrow to see if the build will be approved. I sincerely apologize for this issue and to those of you who were looking forward to tomorrow's launch. We recieved a rejection about 5 days ago, and although we addressed the issue immediately, it seems Steam will not be able to process the re-review of the build in time for our original launch date.[/p][p]We have been in contact with and will continue to reach out to Steam for clarification and remain hopeful that the build will be approved very soon.[/p][p]We know this is frustrating, and I really would have liked to have you all back in game tomorrow, but without an approved build we are forced to delay.[/p][p]The date change will be reflected on Steam shortly, but we wanted to give you all a heads up that this is happening.[/p][p]Sincerely,[/p][p]Tyler (3Blave)

Edit CL-Lutra: Dates Changed.[/p]