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Oto Mustam and Thanatena are shutting down.

By [Ankama]DOFUS - ADMIN - July 20, 2021, 16:00:00

We're committed to updating and improving game modes and features to maintain the most satisfying in-game experience for as long as we can. Unfortunately, this commitment to an uncompromising in-game experience means that we sometimes have to eliminate modes and features that are no longer sustainable and that no longer offer much interest for players.

That's why, after 13 years, we've decided to permanently shut down the heroic servers on September 21, 2021.

The number of players currently using these heroic servers no longer warrants maintaining them as part of our technical architecture. We've had numerous discussions and done various calculations to arrive at the decision that has led us to make this announcement today.

This decision wasn't an easy one, but the numbers don't lie. So, in the spirit of complete transparency, here's a look at the population on these servers over the past three months:

This graph shows the active population of a classic server (in yellow) compared to Thanatena's active population (in green). Unfortunately, the Oto Mustam server's population is so low that it doesn't appear in the graph.

We're aware that some players on the heroic servers firmly believe that the server would have been massively popular if we had committed to certain specific developments. However, in reality, these developments would have turned the heroic servers into a separate game in its own right, completely different from DOFUS, with its own mechanics and its own rules and different updates from the main game.

Completely adapting the game mechanics from DOFUS to the heroic game mode would have been doomed to failure. We couldn't realistically afford to devote any time to it in light of the low population on these servers. In addition, after a variety of experiments we've tried over the past few years, we've come away convinced that this game mode primarily appealed to a very limited number of passionate fans and that it would never reach the critical mass needed for an optimal in-game experience.

Of course, we're well aware that this news will disappoint the small number of hardcore heroic server fans. Still, we have to be pragmatic in our approach to managing the DOFUS project as a whole in order to ensure that we can keep improving and maintaining the game.

All players on the heroic servers with active accounts that have logged in to one of the two servers at least once in the last 6 months before this shutdown announcement will receive the title "Victorus aut Mortis", which will be linked to their accounts.

What happens now?

Starting on July 27, 2021, gifts pending in the gift interface can no longer be credited to the Oto Mustam or Thanatena servers. Likewise, the services to change classes and transfer a character to another account will no longer be accessible for these servers.

It will also no longer be possible to use the in-game lottery or to use a code for an item to be withdrawn in-game.

At the same time, it will no longer be possible to use the in-game shop on Oto Mustam and Thanatena.

Once the shutdown takes effect on September 21, 2021, all resources, items, and equipment will be deleted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will you allow for my character to transfer to a classic server/Shadow server?

Characters evolve at a different pace on Heroic servers than they do on other servers, so it won't be possible to have the characters transfer to another server from a Heroic Server.

I will still have a lot of subscription left. Can I get a refund?

If you have an ongoing subscription by the time the servers close, and if you only play on either Oto-Mustam or Thanatena, you must reach out to the support team to have your case evaluated.

Because a DOFUS subscription is for the game itself and is not linked to a particular server or game mode, you are more than welcome to go and play on the classic servers.

What about my purchased ceremonial items or rare titles? Will those be returned?

If the items were claimed from your gift interface and attributed to your character on a heroic server, they won't be returned. The items that you have left in the gift interface unclaimed can be allocated to another character on another server after the heroic servers close.
Any item your character has in game (for example ceremonial items or titles) will not be given back to you once the heroic servers close.
The reason for this really boils down to technical restrains. The item ownership is not straight forward on SH, considering certain items purchased in the shop can be lost when losing a fight in-game.
Additionally, and aside from a tremendous amount of duplication bug exploitations on Oto Mustam, we are talking about a tremendous quantity of data for both servers, from which we couldn't in good conscience engage ourselves to peruse at the risk of not being able to return all items to all the people. Establishing a time limit from when we would return items wouldn’t be fair towards the whole community of players.

Why weren’t we told before now?

As stated in the announcement, we have had numerous discussions and done various calculations prior to reaching this decision and it wasn’t an easy one. We didn’t want to wait and we decided to announce our decision to you as soon as possible.

Crocabulia is also empty! When are you going to merge it with Echo? Will any other server be closed due to having a low population?

The population of Crocabulia is substantially higher than the heroic servers. The discussion of a server merge between Echo and Crocabulia, or between two servers that are themselves the product of a past server merge, is not the order of the day but we will once again remind you of our previous statement on the matter: merging two servers that are the product of a server merge isn’t as easy as it might sound and there are a lot of different elements that restrict such actions.
With regards to the future of all other servers, we want to be abundantly clear: there are no discussions being held in Ankama about closing any other server. For those asking about the future of the Shadow server, we can assure you that we deem the population to be healthy and sufficient to keep it open.

So a player that invested time and money for years will lose everything? Are we getting a compensation?

No compensation will be given. The title "Victorus aut Mortis" is a gift to all those who experienced the Heroic server adventure and not an attempt to compensate players for the decision.

If we can’t get our items, will we get an XP potion?

No XP potion will be distributed. The way XP is gained on heroic servers differs a lot from classic servers and wouldn’t equate fairly.

The community has made suggestions over the years. If those were implemented, the Heroic community would have thrived. You just gave up!

We have always stated that we were not in a position, nor was it our desire, to develop exclusive content for the heroic server. Last year, after another bug exploitation that had a significant impact on the server’s economy, we included the community in the decision process and we released Thanatena.
Any new server attracts a lot of attention but, over time, we saw the server population dwindle down dramatically.
While we understand this is a sad day to the Heroic server players, our numbers are very clear: even among all the accounts that connected on both heroic servers over the past six months, a minute percentage actively played on the server and it is a clear indication to us that the community of players at large prefers other game modes than the one offered by Oto Mustam and Thanatena.

What do we do with everything we gathered on the servers?

That is up to you. The servers are still online and will remain accessible until September 21.

First Ankama intervention

[Ankama]DOFUS - ADMIN - July 21, 2021, 11:18:55

Replying to Nubletcublet

Hi, Nublet.
The Heroic servers' game mechanics and progression are very different from those on classic servers. Allowing a server transfer could disturb the economy of the server they are going to.

Hey, IAMONEOFAKIND.
I can assure you that there are absolutely zero discussions in Ankama at the moment on the possibility of closing any other game server, be it Shadow, Echo or any other. The Heroic server population was simply extremely low and doesn't compare to any other server.

See message in context

Reactions 34

Score : 373

Nubletcublet#1083 - SUBSCRIBER - July 20, 2021, 16:23:39

Well that's lame i really liked this server as well, i am sure people that played it and were higher up there are going to be quite mad though and will probably quit since everything they've worked on and for is apparently getting deleted. Why not offer transfers from heroic to say echo or a server of their choice? so their time wasn't a total waste.

Score : 4280

IAMONEOFAKIND#9421 - SUBSCRIBER - July 21, 2021, 10:14:04

If there's no other added compensation or other alternatives besides the title. It will be a sneak peek of what they will do for future servers through Shadow, Echo, etc. Ilyzaelle will be the last remaining mode combined with Temporis seasons.

1 reply

Score : 32

zoehere#1292 - FORMER SUBSCRIBER - July 20, 2021, 16:52:32

What is a "Victorus aut Mortis" ?

Score : 17500

Angelsnow#6707 - SUBSCRIBER - July 20, 2021, 17:38:10

Latin for "Victory or Death"

So it will be a title scroll given to the players which grant the Title "Victorus aut Mortis"
(Title is green coloured text that appears under a character's name when hovered over a character.)

Score : 6009

Lost-Worldz#5344 - SUBSCRIBER - July 20, 2021, 18:12:55

I hope the same doesn't happen to the Epic server, Shadow :/ we have a lot of dedicated players

Hopefully it is active enough to avoid this

Score : 4280

IAMONEOFAKIND#9421 - SUBSCRIBER - July 21, 2021, 09:55:59

When statofus website was still working.. Shadow population was dangerously low and below Oto Mustam several times according to the monthly charts. That has changed dramatically ever since the alliance dynamics finally shifted from that one alliance dominating for years. I don't think there will be a closure on Shadow anytime soon since a part of the heroic population will also naturally migrate into Shadow. It will be the only special evolving permanent server that mirrors closely in terms of permanent death and experience multipliers.

1 reply

Score : 338

Blumenstock#6014 - SUBSCRIBER - July 20, 2021, 20:15:38

Noooooooooooooo wtfffffff, have you thought of a way of compensating the players that have spent thousands of hours on it?

Score : 4280

IAMONEOFAKIND#9421 - SUBSCRIBER - July 21, 2021, 10:00:06

There needs to be a valid compensation and the title itself won't be enough. Whether it's a combination of P2P, experience potions of characters, and items. The trickiest part will be where to and would it destroy other server economies with a high amount of items and kamas transferred over?

Score : 4280

IAMONEOFAKIND#9421 - SUBSCRIBER - July 21, 2021, 09:50:08

I'm crushed by the news. There's definitely more to it.
The best solutions are to reset Thanatena and Oto Mustam OR Create a 3rd new heroic server and have active moderators throughout the entire server's existence. Before you do either of these 2 options again make sure you have most of the main solutions to all the previous problems brought up over the years on the forums.

Have one oversee the first 12 hours of peak time and the other during the quietest times every single day. Do everything to limit the power of multi-account proxying in PvP (Pretend it's Ilyzaelle or Mono Retro Boune), bot aggro, and to find the absolute answer to open the Kama with Ogrines market. Having it not opened hurt the server's potential to play on the server consistently and to make the server accessible to F2P players.
If Shadow can be accessible to F2P as a special evolving hardcore server, then Heroic Servers should also have the same treatment. This gives people an opportunity to test it out and learn more about the server easier which results in higher chances of a long term conversion to the population. If it's too much work or effort to prevent multi-accounting in PvP through Proxy, make it 100% legal for everyone to do, and remove the restriction. This will bring more PvP battles often and the playing field is more even with everyone having an opportunity to do it while making it an allowed practice. This one reason alone can make a major difference in an increase of population. Why? So you can stand a higher chance against 5 characters in a battle you normally wouldn't have when no one else is online.

The next is to take player's ticket requests regarding abuse on the server seriously. This means escalating the punishment according to the crime committed. Temporary bans are not enough when it comes to other players dying as a result of a cheat. That is a game-changing move that is out of the other player's control. As time continues on, this infects other players' mindsets that it is not wrong to cheat since the consequences are not severe enough to reconsider the action. When many people adopt the cheating mindset, this scares people away from the server slowly until there is a few remaining left.
The server population did not become low for natural reasons. For people that play heroic server only, they are forced to P2P with real money to access the server which benefits you guys greatly. Why would you want to turn that away? Another solution to bring high population on heroic servers again or any Dofus servers in general is to listen what the players have to say and take it into deep consideration.
Bring back community polls where we can vote what should be changed, added, or deleted on a weekly or monthly basis. This was popular back then and always ended up with 1000-3000 votes depending on the issue or event.
Then you know what the players want and can make adjustments accordingly.

Score : 146

ohrwurm#5845 - FORMER SUBSCRIBER - July 21, 2021, 11:19:48

I spent over 10.000 hours on these servers and you just gonna delete it? Are you completely on drugs? i hope this is a bad joke

Score : 1737

karakum1#8756 - FORMER SUBSCRIBER - July 21, 2021, 13:33:14

Closing those servers sounds fair.

I did not play Heroic for any serious amount of time so what I say is not motivated by selfishness.

A title as compensation is not nearly enough.
If I was Heroic server player I would probably ragequit Dofus for good.

Yes, even if all active Heroic players quit, Ankama would only loose about 10.000 EUR per month in subscriptions which is negligible to a big company especially if you consider server upkeep.
But this is the problem. It should not be just about cutting the losses, it should be about fairness to people who poured their time and soul in a game they like.

I understand that item transfer is out of question (it would majorly break economy of every classic server) but complete and full deletion is really not acceptable.

So here are a few options to consider:
- transferring 1 character per account with their one equipped set and no kamas
- offering a compensation based on roughly calculated account value or playtime (in format of what you did with "Forgotten Reflections")
- adding subscription time equal to playtime spent on Heroic

Score : 319

Moonagiv44#4112 - FORMER SUBSCRIBER - July 21, 2021, 21:11:06

As a long term heroic server player trust me when I say we thank all you white knights for trying to petition for server transfers of our characters, but they honestly mean nothing to us. We're used to dying and releveling, we love the thrill and adrenaline of risking our characters and thus sometimes the risk out weighs the reward, but we also don't mind death and releveling any true heroic server player will tell you this. We do not want to be able to transfer/transition into normal servers. We have lived for so long with the heroic ruleset that it's become all that we know and all that we want to know.. it's like taking Tarzan from the jungle and trying to modernize him.. We will not fit in on normal servers and I still doubt any of us will go to Shadow, it's not the same. We will all simply quit and you all make jokes about there being only 50 ~ 100 of us so it's not worth it, but you're wrong. Even with Ankama neglecting the ever living crap out of heroic server we still easily have thousands of accounts subbed EASILY. Which I can tell you right now outweighs the cost of the server upkeep. Ankama simply just doesn't want to keep them running even if it's profitable to them. I think this is a disgusting decision and I wish they'd outsource the server to a team that cared or something. This is a beautiful project that could be fruitful in the right hands and us heroic players have accepted we'd never get our "perfect vision" of heroic server fulfilled by ankama, but we were at least content with the server we had and now they want to even take that away from us? I wish they would of found some solution other than obliterating our server. I whole heartedly agree that Oto should be closed, but not Thana. Close Oto and keep Thana.

Score : 373

Nubletcublet#1083 - SUBSCRIBER - July 22, 2021, 16:58:29

IAMONEOFAKIND#9421|2021-07-21 02:14:04
If there's no other added compensation or other alternatives besides the title. It will be a sneak peek of what they will do for future servers through Shadow, Echo, etc. Ilyzaelle will be the last remaining mode combined with Temporis seasons. I really hope not, i dislike ilyzaelle and am into Jahash more. If they shut down Jahash id definitely quit the game. I enjoy shadow just as much as jahash as well.

[Ankama]DOFUS - ADMIN - July 23, 2021, 17:02:42

Hello,

The news has been updated with the FAQ section.

Score : 2728

Roumo#4013 - SUBSCRIBER - July 24, 2021, 07:12:33

I hope this will help Ankama to place even more focus on the existing game modes/servers. And maybe even though for now this era is over, there are opportunities for new and similar game modes to Heroic - or even a Heroic element somehow incorporated into the main servers (like cursed pvp equipment that is stronger than average but you'll lose it if you get defeated).

Score : 992

Saldaacokste#8150 - SUBSCRIBER - July 24, 2021, 19:11:49

GJ, u fcked everything in this server, with the tracking, appearnce changing plant, allowing 1 alliance to control everything, alliance vs alliance was completely waste in mode like this. GJ and now no wonder ehy u r shuting it down. Idiots!! show graph of how many players played before AvA and how it all fcked everyting. How come u don't see that u r the ones that made the best mode to be the worst

Score : 357

smiskaans#2417 - SUBSCRIBER - July 26, 2021, 10:04:52

What a great way to fu*k us all, who've spent so many hours into this server, just so we could be DELETED. To top it - random title? who will get everyone now? What is the requirement? log into the server? biggrin

everyone can do this.

But in reality, this really saddens me, cause heroic was the only server that could give the thrills of Dofus. And if we remember times before AvA, these servers thrived with people. If you are so desperate to save money, just make 3 servers. One for all the classic dofus players, one for mono, and one for heroic. Done - 3 servers so you can actually moderate them as well.
Heroic was the only server who could get me back to the game, without it. Farewell Dofus!

Score : 129

tofugalore#4136 - SUBSCRIBER - July 31, 2021, 03:00:19

Agreed!

Score : 29

Wolfiee27#5556 - FORMER SUBSCRIBER - July 26, 2021, 23:54:19

Lol, I quit, i m done with Ankama support and the company, Always money oriented rather than caring about the players

Score : 129

tofugalore#4136 - SUBSCRIBER - July 31, 2021, 03:00:00

I think a lot of people are going to think like you smile

Score : 2326

Zargabanth#9067 - SUBSCRIBER - July 29, 2021, 15:29:21

Servers should have been shut when the game was updated to 2.0 or later with the world PvP changes to alignments. As it was made clear the mechanic was not viable back in 2012, the similar concept from when the game moved away from neutral PvP attacks on characters where ganging was not popular.

Score : 129

tofugalore#4136 - SUBSCRIBER - July 31, 2021, 02:59:24

Maybe people like you forgot why you first joined the game LMAO

1 reply

Score : 129

tofugalore#4136 - SUBSCRIBER - July 31, 2021, 00:26:16

I told support how much this stinx. I have a player that I worked very hard to level up to level 192 and another that I got to 135. My main character died a few times, but I was persistent to keep playing... even when I lost everything, as you do when you die. However, it never occurred to me that all my hard work was simply going to be pissed away by someone who decided that server will be shut down. I spent over 15000 ogrines on things like dragoturkey mount stuff. I worked twice as hard on collecting resources and making stuff to seel in order to be able to buy expensive items like onwe wand I paid 15 million kamas for I even saved hard to get some full sets... now it all just disapears! Yeah this stinx 1000%

I used to play Solar, then they changed it to Rushu... then they changed it to Echo Do you people ever get tired of fucking with us? I came on Oto a long time ago because sudden death is more of a challenge and a way to hone your skills. Dofus managed to amalgamate other servers into one.... like how they created Rushu... then Echo... So why can't you do the same with Heroic servers? Even if you put Oto on a shitty cheap server is better than just deleting everyone. When you take it upon yourselves to simply delete a server, the only message players receive from that is that you simply don;t give a shit. Imagine if someone like Amazon.com didn't give a shit about their customers... word spreads fast and the next thing you know "you are out of business." Food for thought. Make a little effort " and care."

Score : 304

-El-Patron-#9031 - SUBSCRIBER - August 25, 2021, 19:06:32

? Change AvA already been saying this for years . It’s like you want the game to fail with this stupid shit system you developed and haven’t changed for years .

Score : 738

DofuLloyd#4004 - SUBSCRIBER - August 27, 2021, 13:46:04

You can beat around the bush all you want, Heroic server is an hardcore experience, what they got there wasn't easier to get at all. Simply annihilating their characters just like that, with ZERO compensation, ZERO options, ZERO alternatives, is a complete disaster of a move. You can throw all the "technical problems" and "exploitations" bullshit you want, those people spent literal years playing them and you're leaving them with absolutely nothing. Their case will be "evaluated" by the support? Yeah sure, I can already see those subscription refunds coming, of course... I am so sad for those fellow players who were totally let down by Ankama, money more or less stolen included. We all knew they always sucked at customer care, but this is on another level.

Score : 146

ohrwurm#5845 - FORMER SUBSCRIBER - September 01, 2021, 15:29:04

only a matter of time till this happens to other servers. i rather quit now than wasting more money and time at this game

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