Party Chat & Custom Servers preparation update
UPDATE: The below now applies to ALL regions.
As we get closer to our SwarmTastic Update, we are starting to introduce parts of it to our public network. We're starting today with a rollout to the Asia region.
Custom Servers - Staff / Partner Beta
In today's update, live only on the Asia region, we've introduced the required changes for Custom Servers. These servers, which will be initially launching with Swarms, allow you to control many aspects of a game. For example, you will be able to tweak (or disable!) the Leap delay in DeathRun, the shop prices in Treasure Wars, set the theme in Just Build, and much more.
Custom Servers will be in staff beta until testing finishes. After this, we will grant access to our Hive Partners. General availability will come with our Swarms update.
Party (& Swarm) Chat - Generally Available
This update also contains our Group Chat backend, which in turns enables Party Chat. We want to stress that party chat is not, and should not be used as, private chat. Most notably:
- Party chat is only available in parties of 3 and more
- Party chat is subject to the exact same rules as game chat
- Party chat is monitored by the exact same filtering & monitoring system as game chat
Final Notes
This update might not seem like much (yet), but this is one of the biggest hurdles out of the way for our upcoming Swarms update: it contains most of the (backend) code it relies on. Because of the complexity of the changes, we will be closely monitoring this update. If all goes well, we hope to bring the above changes to the other regions next week.