Fans of Wayfinder have had a rough go of it over the past few days, but it seems to pale in comparison to the problems the development team have encountered with the influx of players after their Early Access launch. As we’ve recently reported, the past few days have been a rollercoaster for both the developers and the players as server stability has been anything but stable, and a vast majority of players have indicated they couldn’t login, stay connected, or reliably quest in Wayfinder. Airship Syndicate, the game's developer, recently released a series of posts addressing the myriad of issues they've faced since the launch on the 17th.
Early (Non) Access
The sentiment was clear in a post in the official Discord and announcement on the official website by Airship Syndicate’s team: "Yesterday sucked." Players who had purchased the Founder’s Packs found themselves unable to play, a situation that was equally disheartening for the developers. In addition to simply not getting into the game, some players, notably those with the Exalted Pack that were able to get into the game, didn’t receive any of their in-game items. The team had successfully run several Beta tests leading up to Early Access, but many players were disappointed that the server issues encountered had marred the game in ways that some feel the team may never recover from. The Discord has been rife with frustrated comments from players wondering if and when they will finally get into the game.
Server Woahs
Despite the technical tests and betas across multiple regions, the influx of players was unprecedented. More players were trying to log in every minute than had played during the entire Beta phase. Their queue system, designed to manage player traffic, collapsed under the pressure. Efforts to stabilize the login experience have not actually fixed the issue as of yet. The team had to resort to capping the number of players on the server, leading to a widespread 'Maximum Player Limit Reached' error.
Digital Extremes, the publisher, acknowledged the server and login issues, expressing their disappointment and apologizing for not meeting player expectations. They reassured the community of their commitment to ensuring long-term stability throughout the early access period.
Wayfinder Discord Announcement
Wayfinder Discord Announcement
Founder’s Packs Unpacked
Adding to the server issues, a segment of players did not receive their Founder’s Pack items. Airship Syndicate is treating this as a priority, urging affected players to contact support at playwayfinder.zendesk.com for a resolution. Unfortunately, many players may not realize their items are missing, especially when they can’t reliably get connected and play the game. This process may be ongoing, and it’s unfortunate at this time that players will need to be responsible for putting in tickets in order to obtain the goods they purchased in their Founder’s packs, while the team continues to figure out a resolution.
Monetization Concerns and Compensation
Feedback from the community highlighted concerns about bundle pricing. The developers agreed with the feedback and are revising the pricing to be more player-friendly. Most notably, the pricing is situated to where players who purchased Runesilver in one of their packs, were just shy of purchasing the items in the store, requiring they purchase more Runesilver, and having more left over. They also plan to compensate players for the lost time and inconvenience caused by the launch issues.
A Gloomer of Hope
Despite the setbacks, the developers are taking proactive measures. A server-wide hotfix has been implemented to address the missing Founder Pack items. Currently, some players have detailed that some of the missing Founder’s Pack items have been credited to their account, but those that still notice missing items should still put in a ticket.
The team has also been tweaking the game's queue system to allow a steady flow of players, with plans for further optimizations in the coming weeks.
Today, Airship Syndicate took the step of temporarily disabling logins and then re-enabling them at a slower pace to manage the traffic. Players have reported long queue times in the tens of thousands. It's worth noting that these numbers are a combination of PlayStation and PC players. Data from Steamcharts indicates that Steam players peaked at just over 22,000 since the Early Access launch, with far fewer currently in game at the time of this article, indicating that PlayStation players may be the vast majority of players logging in at the moment.
For more context on these issues, readers can refer to our previous coverage on the early access server issues, the early access launch, and our impressions of Wayfinder at end game.
