August 25th 2008 AIMbot Woes: The AIMbot is currently malfunctioning right now (and has been for a bit). We're in the process of fixing it so stay tuned.
August 25th 2008 Advertisements: You may have noticed that we now have advertisements on the game and forum page. Do bear with us as we try to work out the kinks of the new system. I've already had to remove one...less than appropriate advertisement, and I'm hoping there won't be anymore.
August 11th 2008 Missions for Flight School: Flight School has been granted the same mission footing as all other factions. Do be on the lookout for the new missions and inform us if you run into any problems. Additionally, the 'Teach us of ...' line of missions should now no longer appear for Flight School members.
July 25th 2008 Rest in peace, Randy: Our professor and mentor, Dr. Randy Pausch, died eary this morning after months of battling with pancreatic cancer. Each of us learned a great amount from him. For more info about Randy and his legacy, check his Carnegie Mellon site via http://pausch.skyrates.net .
July 25th 2008 An extremely sad day: Perhaps you've seen on the news today that our friend and teacher Randy Pausch has lost his fight with cancer. This game would quite literally not exist without him, and we will all miss him terribly. I'll post a link or two in the announcements forum.
July 17th 2008 Where'd the ads go?: I think yinz clicked on too many ads that you weren't actually interested in; Google disabled our account a few days ago. We're appealing now, trying to get reinstated. If they let us back on the team, please don't treat the ads like a tip jar--we'll try to get an actual one of those up eventually.
July 8th 2008 The Unity of Green: The Emerald Republic and Merchant's Guild declare to the people of Skytopia that they march again under a common banner, The Jade Hand. May the Jade Hand ever guide the path of Skytopia, grasp unbreakably that which it holds, and in all things, in all actions, profit.
July 5th 2008 Covering Expenses: Hey Skyrates. In an effort to help pay for the server, we've added Google ads to the site. FYI: If you're interested in following an ad, you might want to middle-click in order to open it in a new window.
July 2nd 2008 Missions Fiddlings: Treasure hunts should now be appearing much more infrequently. Additionally, the 'Generosity' mission should be reappearing.
June 16th 2008 Stillness...: The platforms have disappeared just as fast as their appearance... It remains to be seen for how long.
June 16th 2008 Dangerous Air: Be wary Skyrates, I have been receiving reports that the Unknown Platforms have been reappearing across Skytopia. Use caution when engaging.
June 11th 2008 Final Legacy Results: The results of the Legacy Operation have been posted in the General Forum. Congratulations to everyone who participated! Additionally, first place winners of the individual contests will be awarded a forum title.
June 9th 2008 New Subforum: The forum has a new area called 'Developer Discussion.' That is where we will post things that we want the players' feedback on. There is currently a thread about resetting influence on skylands to pre-legacy numbers. Go weigh in!
June 9th 2008 Fiction Contest: Life as a Skyrate: The winners for the fiction writing contest have been announced in the Legacy thread on the General Forum. To all individual contest winners, your selection for what faction, and what area your points will be given to is due by 12:01 EST PM on June 12th.
June 7th 2008 Civil Rebuilding: The people of Arcadia, Earthbreach, Getty, Jordan, Uurwerk, and Lhasa have begun to rebuild. Although they look to the factions with a still uneasy eye, their respect in individual skyrates has been restored by your noble actions in the last few weeks.
June 7th 2008 End of Legacy Missions: Congratulations everyone who took part in the legacy event! It was quite an experience for the developers and we've learned a great deal from it. We're still tallying results (and judging the fiction contest) so do be patient!
June 3rd 2008 Treatise on the Factions: The winners for the treatise contest have been announced in the Legacy thread on the General Forum.
June 1st 2008 Server Work Seems Done...: Server work appeared to have been finished early. Try combat and see if the bounty cut off amount is fixed now.
June 1st 2008 Server Work Imminent: Server work will begin in roughly 30 minutes at 7:00 PM EST. Server will then be going up and down for 1-2 hours. I'll leave a news post when things are stable again.
May 31st 2008 Server Work Tomorrow: A little bit of work will be done on the server tomorrow. This should cause no more than 2 hours of down time Sunday evening (EST).
May 31st 2008 Art & Craft Design Contests: Results have been posted in the Legacy thread. Congratulations to all the winners, and we thank everyone who participated for an excellent showing!
May 30th 2008 Legacy Results So Far: The latest Legacy results have been posted in the General Forum. The fiction writing contest deadline will be tomorrow at 12:01 PM EST.
May 26th 2008 A challenge!: Think you're some kind of ace pilot? Well, Sky-whelps, care to put your money where your mouth is? I'll be cruising around lookin' for challengers, so if you think you've got the stuff, let's give it a whirl! And tell you what, win or lose, I'll let you treat me to a drink at the tavern! Ha ha ha!
May 25th 2008 Combat Changes: Combat has been fiddled with a bit. Do let us know if you run into any problems.
May 23rd 2008 Contest Deadlines: This Saturday (the 24th) is the deadline for the Art, Treatise, and Plane Design competitions. Look for the appropriate threads in the Skyrate Created Content Forum.
May 23rd 2008 Missions...Fixed!: Missions should be checking their requirements correctly again. Sorry for the trouble!
May 22nd 2008 Combat Fixed!: Combat should be behaving now. Clear your cache and refresh to make sure it's all clear.
May 22nd 2008 Changes to Arc Missions: The Arc line of missions have had their cargo req upped to 200, and now require Trade Prestige 4. If you have a lower cargo, or lower trade prestige, you will not see these missions.
May 20th 2008 Changes to Arc Missions: On May 23rd sometime in the morning (EDT), the Arc line of missions will be changing. Their cargo requirement will be moved up to 200, and their skill requirement will be Prestige 4.
May 20th 2008 Arc Missions Poll: A poll about the arc missions can be found in the suggestions forum. Please do go and weigh in.
May 19th 2008 Retrieving Chat: We've added it such that when the server goes down, you can click on the disconnect screen to bring up the chat window. This will make sure that people don't lose their chat record in case of server downage.
May 19th 2008 Arc Missions: To let people know (if they haven't heard of them yet), there are a series of Legacy missions that will only appear if you have 150 cargo space or more. These missions carry a good amount of influence, so be on the look out for them if you can take them.
May 19th 2008 Mission Rebalancing: Legacy Missions have had their values played with a bit. Go forth and discover!
May 18th 2008 First Week Standings: The first week's standings have been posted in the main Legacy thread in the General forum.
May 11th 2008 Legacy Missions: The Legacy RP Missions are now active and appearing at all skylands. The 'Skyland Trust' skill should help you find combat missions, and 'Trade Prestige' for cargo missions. More information can be found in the General forum.
May 7th 2008 The Legacy Operation: The next world roleplay event has been announced. Look for details in the Skyrates General forum. Legacy Missions have not been released yet, but a news post will be made when they are active. Good luck!
May 6th 2008 Civil Unrest...: The populace of Arcadia, Earthbreach, Getty, Jordan, Uurwerk, and Lhasa appear to be going through a strange period of instability...it may be wise to cease taking missions to or from those Skylands.
April 28th 2008 Back to class...: We've discovered the bug that caused crewmates to go from level 9 to level 10 far quicker than they should. Some of you should expect to see your level 10 crewmates dropped back to their correct level.
April 21st 2008 stuff: Your friendly neighborhood dev-types have been at it again. Some small new stuff might be showing up here and there, including bugs. Let us know, and expect strange combat errors for a bit.
April 17th 2008 Change in the Air: The skies seem cleaner...as though a lingering presence was cleaned away.
April 8th 2008 Our professor Randy: He taught us in class, and he's still teaching us in life. Tomorrow (April 9) ABC will be airing a program on his last lecture and what he's been up to since. Tune in if you'd like to learn more about the man who co-founded the program where we all met.
April 5th 2008 The Invisible Fleet: Be wary Skyrates. I have been informed that pilots are once again encountering the X planes, but now I have also heard reports of strange floating platforms. Be cautious of their guns, the platforms boast impressive firepower.
April 5th 2008 Downage: Some server downage today to do a bit of work.
April 2nd 2008 Combat Back: Combat appears to be functional again...although the invisible fleet seems to have vanished. For now at least. Stay tuned.
April 2nd 2008 Combat Bugginess: Speaking of combat...we're doing some work on it so it might be a bit buggy until I announce all clear.
April 2nd 2008 More Hostiles...: The invisible threat has increased. My operatives have sighted dangerous platforms in the sky firing on all who approach them. Be forewarned.
March 30th 2008 Stability at Last: Those of you who have grown tired of the server's stability, breathe a sigh of relief. As of this past week, the bug related to this was found and finally (we hope) put to rest. Fly well, Skyrates!
March 30th 2008 Unknown Aircraft..: Skyrates have reported seeing strange invisible planes attacking their aircraft. Be on the watch for them...
March 5th 2008 New Options: The team has added two new choices to your options: one which allows you to opt out of the new trade insurance, and another to grant you more control over your autoresolve battles.
March 4th 2008 Day of Silence: This Thursday, all radio communication will be silenced in remembrance for those lost in the Great Upheaval. Let us give thanks for our good fortune. The forum shall remain active, as will those who work to keep the world running.
February 23rd 2008 Oh, also...: We totally missed you guys while we were away. There were real concerns about the new hardware becoming sentient. Speaking of which, we'll try to reign in the inexplicable lag problems ASAP...
February 23rd 2008 GLEEMIE FTW!!!: Wizards of the Coast awarded us a Gleemie at the IGF ceremony on Wednesday night. We were honored, and want to thank Wizards for recogition and the opporunity to be there. It was inspiring, even humbling in the presence of such amazing talent, indie and otherwise (Valve, Irrational, Sid Meier, OMG, etc.).
February 19th 2008 new digs: We've swapped to a new box. This should mean a few things: Hopefully it will be faster. Secondly, there is bound to be a few things broken. Queued actions and combats may be wonky for a little bit. We'll try to squash any bugs that persist. Thanks guys!
February 17th 2008 Trade Insurance: Some skyrates have lost large amounts of money on bad trades. To combat this, we have modified the server to reject queued purchases of unusually expensive goods. Please do be cautious when buying & selling goods, and don't leave a queue to repeat a particular route more than is necessary.
February 1st 2008 Queue Server Outage: For those of you who are new, you don't know yet the terror of the queueing server going down. Your skyrate may have skipped some commands you gave them, and you may be in a wierd state when you first login. Make sure you refresh once first, and then you should be good to go again!
January 28th 2008 New Loader: Hey guys, if you're getting stuck a 1/3, make sure you try clearing your cache, you might have an old flash file.
January 28th 2008 Yet more changes: We're slowly but surely working out the all the kinks, thanks for stucking with us and helping out! If you have aim notifications on, please go add 'skyratebot' to you're buddy list. Also, we've added an RP channel for storytelling and roleplay. Lot's more to come, with another dev-a-thon next weekend!
January 23rd 2008 Meeting with Eltsina: Guildmistress Dasha Eltsina of the Merchant's Guild will be meeting with factional representatives this Friday at 8 PM EST. Tune into the radio at that time to take part in the festivities.
January 20th 2008 Major Server Changes: Okay, we spent the past couple days really working hard at fixing a lot of the bugs you guys have been seeing. Of course, as usual, it'll take time to get the kinks worked out. Thanks ahead of time for your help!
January 19th 2008 Welcome jayisgames!: While the server might not be happy to see you, the rest of us are! Sorry about the frequent restarts. We're working through some memory issues, in the meantime please bear with us.
December 23rd 2007 Mission Balancing: You may notice mission rewards have been changed a bit based on collected info. As always, feedback is welcome.
December 20th 2007 Winter Olympics: The 2007 Skytopia Winter Olympics will begin in a 'few days,' pending some server improvements. Head over to the forum for details.
December 11th 2007 Weightless Cargo: In fixing the bug that made mission cargo stick around, we made it take up no weight ever. These bugs *should* be fixed now. Missions you took before might still have 0 cargo reqs, but future ones should behave correctly.
December 10th 2007 Changes!: The upgrade pages have been redone, and we've done some working on the server side to smooth out your play.
November 19th 2007 E-mail & Missions: The kinks of the email notification system appear worked out. Enable it on your options page to have your skyrate e-mail you a personal note when they finish a queue. A number of missions have also been readded. We're still balancing them and we look forward to you all trying them so we can track numbers.
November 15th 2007 Phantom Wind Redux: More weirdness happened last night. You may have noticed some trade/flights that didn't behave well last night. People stuck in the air should be unstuck however.
November 14th 2007 E-mail Notification: A number of small changes went in (clear your cache to see them), but a big change is e-mail notification. Under Options, you can make it so your Skyrate will e-mail you whenever your action queue completes. Test it out, let us know if you run into problems.
November 13th 2007 The Azure Wind: Recovered: Through the combined efforts of the people of Skytopia, Lawrence Islo's craft has been recovered. The Voyager was not found aboard, but some artifacts were found. Stay tuned!
November 13th 2007 The Azure Wind: At 10 PM EST tonight, some members of the Blue Faction will be attempting to board/rescue the Azure Wind. The event will proceed over radio.
November 13th 2007 Phantom Winds...: The server was affected by some phantom winds last night causing some bizarre flight plans/bugginess. We're still in the process of squashing these. If you are still having troubles today, post it to the bugs forum
November 12th 2007 Radio Mishaps: The radio is acting a little ornery right now. We're in the process of figuring out, but for some time, you may be experiencing radio silence. We'll try to get this fixed quickly!
November 4th 2007 I have your missions!: ...and I won't give them back for any less than, hrm, 20 bucks! Although, seriously, I'll see about getting them back in in the next couple days. They need work still.
November 3rd 2007 Unfortunate Flight Clearing: Skyrates suffered a bug from Daylight Savings Time causing a huge amount of people to get stuck in the air. As such, flight queues were cleared for everyone to alleviate the problem. It was an unfortunate necessity. Our apologies.
November 3rd 2007 Missions, Possible: New breakthroughs in radio technology have allowed more skyrates to communicate their needs. Look forward to new missions appearing throughout today!
October 31st 2007 Server Back Up!: The foundation for a bunch of future changes has gone in (more this weekend!). You can now use emotes in chat again. Missions may seem a bit sparser for now, but stay tuned for some new missions.
October 30th 2007 Server Still Down: Server work will continue for longer than originally planned. Will be up by tomorrow early morning.
October 30th 2007 SERVER DOWN IN 30 MINS: Server will be down for about an hour and a half 30 minutes from now. Flight queues will not be deleted (God willing)
October 29th 2007 Server Work Tomorrow: A bit of server work will be going down tomorrow afternoon and evening. It'll be announced on the radio and News 30 minutes before it starts to happen. Expect some downtime.
October 28th 2007 Redo Your Flightplans!: Last night we had to make some changes to flight planning structure. As such, people's queues had to be cleared. Additionally, /me and /em are disabled for the time being as we add some support to chat. Sorry for the trouble!
October 26th 2007 Ears forward Skyrates!: Guys, I'll keep it brief: Keep your language clean and the radio friendly and open. I like you all, but a few of you are hurting the experience for other people. We can't watch you, so we're asking you to watch yourselves as a courtesy to us. This is a great community, and we want to keep it that way.
October 26th 2007 Clean up that radio chatter!: Word in the air is a few bilgerats are turning the sky bluer with uncouth dialogue. Me own granny flies these skies, and she won't be having with that language. Remember, there be Skyrates of all ages so keep the chatter clean, lest ye get me angry!
October 18th 2007 ...psst!: Don't let Gil steer you completely to the straight and narrow! A bright navigator can also help you LOOK for trouble. You didn't hear it from me though...
October 18th 2007 A New Class: Echo Flight School has just graduated a class of fresh faced navigators. I'm sure many of you could use their unique talents of avoiding trouble to benefit you. Treat them well!
October 17th 2007 Combat Loading: We're trying a new method of loading the combat. You can now cancel out of it, and an unsuccessful load won't erase the combat now. You may need to clear your internet cache to load the new client, and do report any bugs found!
October 16th 2007 Power Outage: Our server suffered an unfortunate (although thankfully brief) power outage. Sorry if you found the site inaccessible for a bit of time.
October 15th 2007 Engineering Breakthrough: A cache of new schematics has recently been discovered, revolutionizing existing designs. Upgrades and craft sales have shifted across Skytopia. Check your Discoveries page!
October 15th 2007 Tortugan Monument: The Tortugans have unveiled a new monument dedicated to the generosity extended to them during their upheaval. Reconstruction efforts continue to go as planned.
October 10th 2007 Flight Shop: I will be hosting the first-ever live balancing session tomorrow evening. See the Suggestions forum for details, and see you in the shop!
October 8th 2007 A New World: Welcome back! If you're new, check out the Tutorial at the bottom of the page. Trade-in values for planes now take installed upgrades into account. Licenses are needed to fly to all skylands and trade in all goods. Questions? Contact us at beta@skyrates.net
October 7th 2007 Forum Change: Forum logins have been changed from your Skyrates login to your avatar name. This was done to accomodate multiple characters per account. Your password remains the same.
October 7th 2007 Round 3 Open: Welcome to round 3, we'll be posting changes as we remember them... things might be unstable, and as the first crop of testers, we're hoping you can help us out with those. See you in Flight School!
September 26th 2007 The Next Reset: This beta round is coming to an end. We're looking forward to a couple fun new things for the next iteration, as well as some more balancing. The server will be coming down this Saturday and will be down for a week as we sync and test. See you next round!
September 25th 2007 Crewmate Reunion Services: The CRS is making it part of their duty to ensure the bonds formed between captain and crewmate are not forever severed. Have a favorite crewmate you don't want lost forever? Register them in the General forum before the end of Friday the 28th
September 25th 2007 Crew Shifting: We're trying some new things with the crew system, in particular their leveling. All crewmates have been placed at level 5 for now. Try them out, see how they level.
September 25th 2007 Unification: To those whose banners fly the bold colors of deepest crimson, I extend to you my congratulations. Once more Skytopia is unified under a common flag. But do not take this time to rest upon your laurels, for the seeds of insurrection shall attempt to find root even in barest stone.
September 16th 2007 Minor Changes: Crewmates will now split mission booty. The range circle bug has been squashed. Economy errors will be a bit more descriptive. Timeout for dropped server info has been increased. Support for new features on the way has been added. Post to the bugs forum if you notice anything fishy!
September 16th 2007 Flight Changes: Some changes were made to the underlying way flights are handled. As such, player flight queues had to be cleared. Sorry for the inconvenience, but change is on the wind...
September 15th 2007 Upcoming Reset: This round of the beta should be coming to a close soon. In the next week or so, you may notice some instabilities as we test things, followed by an upcoming reset.
September 12th 2007 Server Outage: Our apologies for the unforeseen server outage. If this has caused any bugs to your experience, plase contact us in the Bug section of the forum. We'll see what we can do to make things right again.
August 17th 2007 Great Hunt Results!: Congratulations to Burrito Loco of the Azure League and Drah'k'mar of the Crimson Armada! More details can be found in the forum. Also, * 3,955,000 G * has been raised and donated to the people of Tortuga. Look for construction there in the future!
August 10th 2007 Tortugan Marathon Hunt: The Echo Flight School is sponsoring a hunting competition around Tortuga with many delightful prize winnings. Check the 'General Skyrates Talk' section of the forum for more details.
July 19th 2007 Histories Revealed: To the populace of Skytopia: from the documents recovered from Tortuga, I have discovered a more complete history of Skytopia. Check the skyland log page under logistics for more information.
July 12th 2007 Phantom Wind Passing: The Phantom Wind has now passed and we've found the source of it. Some individuals may still be feeling the lignering aftereffects. If you're stuck in the air/have cargo that won't go away/combats acting up, do let us know on the forum and we'll make it right
July 11th 2007 Phantom Wind Redux: In an effort to fight off the phantom wind, a number of skyrates had to be forcefully landed. As such, some of you may have to remake your flight queues. Sorry for the inconvenience.
July 10th 2007 Phantom Wind: We had a little server hiccup. If you're stuck in the air, report it in the bugs forum and we'll get a few rescue vessels out to find you.
July 7th 2007 Crew Changes: Diplomats should now be boosting your mission rewards, Mechanics should take upgraded armor into account, and a more detailed crew log can be found on the web log page.