** Update 2 **
Some of the hardware for the new server is having delivery delays, as such, the maintenance is canceled for the time being, we are aiming at Thursday but specific time will be provided with an update as soon as were sure.

** Update **
Due to some delays in getting the hardware setup, the maintenance will be delayed 8 hours. The various timezones at the bottom of the post have been updated accordingly.

As previously mentioned on a blog post, Star Sonata will be addressing some of the server lag issues with new servers. I am happy to announce that on November 30th, at 9PM Eastern, the servers will be going down for upgrades! The downtime is expected to last until 7AM Eastern, with more announcements being made as it is known to us.

We understand some players will be inconvenienced during the downtime, but we are expecting the servers to operate at twice their current speed. To help mitigate some of the lost playtime, we will be hosting the following event upon the server coming back up until Sunday night!

Event

50% Increase to Augmenter Drop Chance
100% Increase to Bindomite Drop Chance
100% Increase to Prospecting Node Respawns
Crystal AI Invasion

Hello Sonatians!

I am delighted to announce that our Community Manager Kilando is stepping up to the rank of game admin. This is going to make your lives better and more fun in at least three ways:

1. Regular game events. Kilando has been in charge of planning our game events for a while now, but with his admin powers he’ll be able to orchestrate them without any assistance. He’s going to get creative and put on some new events you’ve never seen before, and most importantly he’ll make sure that we stick to a regular schedule.
2. Live admin assistance. Part of Kilando’s new role is to provide admin assistance on the ground during any particularly busy or stressful moments of the game, such as the Universe Reset Rush. If you accidentally start the new universe in an engineless Thatch or dock all your ships in Lunacy, Kilando is your first call.
3. New leadership in chat moderation. Kilando is now officially in charge of all chat moderation (in game and on Discord). He’ll soon announce more details on the common sense changes he’s going to drive, and I’m certain that his leadership here is going to make the chat experience a lot more informative and enjoyable for everyone.

I feel strongly that the community manager must play the game actively in order to stay up to date with player priorities and concerns. Whenever a game admin is also an active player, we must take special precautions to head off any potential conflicts of interest. Here’s a rundown of the precautions Kilando and I have set in place:

1. No game diplomacy. Kilando won’t participate in any diplomatic intrigue that his in-game associates may drum up.
2. No PvP or wars. Kilando won’t participate in any player-versus-player activities.
3. No admin actions relating to self or team. Kilando won’t take any administrative actions that relate in any way to his own player characters or those of his teammates.

I’m personally very excited to see Kilando’s plans unfold over the next few weeks and I know that he’s going to stay laser focused on what the community needs. See you all in the chats!

[Bugs]

• Fixed bug with bases being able to be captured when another team owns the galaxy. You can only capture bases when you are the same team as the galaxy or the galaxy is unowned. Note: Radding to force abandon and docking to demolition is still allowed via this change.

[Bugs]

• Fixed bug with transference resistance that prevented healing. (Example: Warp Beacons)

Because of poor experiences with recent massive BvB battles, we are temporarily suspending the availability of BvB slots. There are a couple problems with the current BvB slot design. First, the meta encourages 100 versus 100 base battles. Second, the server currently can’t handle so many bases all in one galaxy.

In the coming two weeks we are going to drastically reduce the number of BvB slots before re-enabling the slots, specifics to be determined. The long term goal is a major redesign of wild space and a new layer, but for now we want to get a system in place that is more manageable.

In addition, to address the server lag issues, we have ordered three new servers that will be delivered next month that, combined, are roughly five times faster than our current server. Actual performance difference to be seen, but it shouldn’t hurt.

We apologize for allowing the current toxic BvB meta to persist as long as it did, and we thank you for your patience and continued support of the game.

[Bugs]

• Fixed bug with mobile drones desyncing on warping through wormholes or /f.

It’s time to celebrate! Ten years ago today, 12th November 2011, our brave pilots stepped into a brand new universe. After years of work Star Sonata 2 was ready to be released, and while the road may not have been the smoothest, we have made some great strides in that time.

10 Years Event

To celebrate, we’re hosting an event running from 12th November, 18:00 UTC (13:00 server time) until 23rd November at 05:00 UTC (00:00 server time). During this time we’ll have a whole slew of bonuses running. Anyone who logs on during this time will receive a commemorative holoprojector, Sonata, Second Impression, in recognition of the event. Each day (that is midnight to midnight, starting on the 13th at 05:00 UTC) players who login will also receive a new, special item, a visage kit. There are a total of ten, one for each day, to collect. The ten visage kits coming with this event span the tech ranges from tech 1 to tech 22. More will be coming in the future.

The bonuses for the event are increased augmenter (50%) and bindomite drops (10%), increased chances on mod rolls for dropped items and loot (10%), and prospecting node refill rate (10%) and amount extracted (10%), and comet drops (50%) until 22nd!

Visage Kits

Visage kits are a new type of item. They can be combined with the item listed in their description to alter the appearance of that item. The item you are combining it with must be unequipped. Once combined the item becomes neurobound (so use your Bindomite before combining), however you can reverse the process at any time by selecting Dismantle from the right click menu on that item.

[Universe Changes]

• Fixed Apex and Artillery Fleet instances within the Empyrean zone.
• Re-added Healing Revamp missions to Shadow. They will expire permanently at the end of this universe.
• Drastically increased respawn time of the AI in the new connecting gals (Mimir, Arawn, Cosmic Sea and Gwydion) within the Empyrean zone to prevent players being locked in.
• Fixed a bug with Kalthi Armada Commanders not teleporting correctly.

Just a quick heads up that while most of the world has now come out of their DST (or entered it, for countries following DST in the southern hemisphere), the US and Canada do not come out of DST until the day after the universe reset.

That means it’s one of those rare occasions where for a lot of us the universe reset is at a different hour to normal. To reiterate, here’s the countdown timer and the times for a few timezones;

Server Down for Emergency Maintenance due to a large bug. We are currently researching the issue.

More information will be posted on the SS Discord. We have no ETA at this time.

Edit: Issue was resolved.