Catan Universe News

Hello Catanians, 🏝️


Our team has been working hard to make further significant improvements to the game and servers: We analyzed and fixed inefficiencies in the way you connect to the servers when logging in with your account. These caused issues during rush hours when many Catanians joined the game. This had a cascading effect, as poor performance led to users logging out and logging in again, making the issues worse. 📉

We understand that many of the issues you report that are very hard to reproduce and only happen intermediately are related to "calls" (requests for information between the game, server, and other players) that are not processed in time.
To alleviate this problem, we have furthermore significantly decreased the workload on our servers from calls not directly related to the (multiplayer)-game. This redesign of the login process and account system will hopefully result in a significant boost in overall performance and reliability, without any major changes for you. 📈

We are now in the final stages of testing the new client and server update and plan to release it next week 📅. Once again, thank you for your patience and understanding during this process. Exact dates for server maintenance and update releases will be announced as soon as possible.

Hello Catanians, 📢


This week's developer update will focus on the learning we had from our latest client update. As many of you know, update 2.3.3 was released on May 24th. It was a significant step forward in making sure we can identify underlying online performance issues more easily.✅


As expected, we did encounter some inefficiencies that caused the servers to struggle during peak hours, resulting in issues with payments, matchmaking, Elo display, disconnects, and so on. 🤬


🎉Fortunately, we were able to roll out an update to our servers beginning of last week that addressed the majority of these inefficiencies. Based on our statistics and your feedback, we've seen an overall improvement in performance and reliability. 🎉


🧑‍💻Our team is committed to continuing to work on improving the game's infrastructure by replacing inefficient code with more modern solutions. We understand that these inefficiencies can sometimes only become apparent when we have a large number of concurrent users or when we're integrating new features. That can make it harder to pinpoint the actual root cause of an issue at times. 🧑‍💻


Our team is hard at work on the next version of the game, which will include improvements to reduce the amount of data sent to clients upon login which will further decrease the workload on the servers. 📶


We plan to release this update in the coming weeks. After its release, we will assess its performance before moving on to bringing back some beloved features. 📆




Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to make the game better for all Catanians.

Dear Catanians,

Today, May 24th 2023, we are releasing update 2.3.3 Please note that from now on, you will always need the latest client version to log in. If you try to log in with an outdated version 2.3.2 and lower, you will see an error message and a notification in the login screen.

Changelog:

- Older client versions can no longer connect to the server. Please update to 2.3.3 to log in.
- Optimizations to game actions in multiplayer
- Optimizations to increase overall stability
- Increased reliability for matchmaker and filters

Hi Catanians, 🏝️

we are happy to share some more news with you all in the latest Developer Update XVIII. Our team has been working to make further improvements to the game, and we are delighted to report that we have successfully resolved the display issues for “Prestige Ranks” at the end of matches. 🎖️

We understand how frustrating it can be when things don't work as they should, and we want to assure you that we are keeping a close eye on the situation. We will continue to monitor the loading times of the results as well as the correct display of all other statistics to ensure that everything runs smoothly.🛠️

We're also happy to announce that we are planning to do a client update next week. Version 2.3.3 will introduce some new changes that we believe will provide a smoother overall experience. We know how important it is to have a seamless gaming experience, and we can't wait for you to try it out!📱


Please be aware that these upcoming changes will directly impact you.

The release of version 2.3.3, which is currently scheduled for next week, will prevent you from logging in with outdated clients. As a result, you may receive error messages. If you do see these messages, there's no need to worry. Just update your client and the errors will disappear. 🚨(This will only take effect with the upcoming update) 🚨

We had to take this step since we saw that still 5% of all CU users are playing on outdated clients and these are causing issues with the servers for everyone else.

We will inform you once the new update is available!

On top of that, we have come up with a plan to address the problem of block lists becoming too large, which has been causing issues with matchmaking. When block lists are excessively long, it slows down and becomes inefficient. 🚫

To tackle this issue, we will be limiting block lists for new accounts to 50 entries. If you already have an account with less than 50 entries on your list, you'll be able to add up to 50. However, if you have over 50 entries, you'll be able to keep them all but won't be able to add any more. If you need to add more entries, you'll need to delete some first.🚦

🚨Please note: Since not yet all of the accounts have migrated yet we will have to block some spots on your lists for these accounts. 🚨

Hi Catanians,

In this Developer Update, we provide you with information on known issues and ways to reduce their impact. We will also update you on the steps we are taking to address these issues.

Thank you very much for your feedback on client version 2.3.2!

Our team is currently addressing some display issues with the prestige ranks at the end of the game. We understand that this has caused some confusion and frustration, but rest assured that we are actively working on a solution. Once the fix is implemented on our servers, you won't have to worry about seeing everyone as a Grandmaster anymore. There's no need to download a new client as this will be a server-side fix. We'll keep you posted on the progress and let you know as soon as the prestige ranks are displayed correctly again. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

We have received reports of a trading glitch in Singleplayer games where the A.I. does not wait for the human player to respond. If you encounter this issue, kindly exit the game and reload the savegame for that scenario. The A.I. will function correctly again afterward. We are working on a solution for it in the meantime.

We recently found out that some older versions of the game were causing some issues. But no worries! We're working hard to improve the platform and we've got a solution. After the next client update, we'll only allow the latest version of the game to connect to the servers. So, if you have an older version, just make sure to update it before you play to avoid any problems in the future.


Our team is currently focused on reducing the amount of time it takes to find a match, and we will keep you updated on our progress. As a result of the migration, our block lists have drastically expanded, leading to slower matchmaking times. Some Catanians have block lists with over 240 entries. Our ultimate objective is to create a stable and enjoyable platform for our users. This means we will have to make a decision on how to handle this in the future.