Hey everyone!
What's happening
It's been a rough launch, and we want to thank you all for your patience. The game itself was ready but launch surfaced issues we hadn't encountered before, and we know how frustrating that's been.
We had moved to a new backend architecture between the demo and EA, and it couldn't handle the unforeseen player count. Phil also only just received the Kickstarter funds, and am in the process of hiring a full-time backend developer. Although I'd been accepting applications for the role for a couple of months, the timeline (Playtest > Demo > Kickstarter > EA) left no breathing room to actually onboard a new dev.
Trade Lock
We are aware how frustrating it is to not being able to use one of our most important features in-game which is trade and vending. We know how needed this is and we are doing our best to get both systems fixed as soon as possible.
We're also using this time to tackle one of the biggest causes of lag: the Auction House. The AH is being reworked, and because we need to preserve everyone's data while doing so, working on it this way is a far better solution than shutting down the servers for extended maintenance. We're working on this nonstop.
Server Upgrades
We want to sincerely apologize for the lag spikes and freezes. We know how frustrating they've been, and you have every right to expect better from us.
We also want to be upfront about the cause. Many of you have suggested adding more or better servers, and we appreciate the feedback, but capacity isn't the issue. NA 1 never reached 100% CPU even on launch day, and with the additional servers, load is lower than ever.
What's next
We're focused on fixing the major issues (lag spikes, party issues, vending and storage issues) and improving the backend architecture, while continuing to look for more help. Thank you for sticking with us we'll keep you updated as things progress.