Hi everyone, it pains me to write this email, but we have a big glitch that has affected a lot of wizards. I'm sorry we have not been more communicative about this, but over the last few days we've been investigating the rash of reports that people were missing badges.

This is a definite bug and we finally discovered the root cause of this. It looks like it affected a good chunk of players (somewhere between 500 and 2000 players). The good news is that we are pretty sure we're going to be able to restore all the missing badges, but it's going to take us about a week.

[b]The one exception is the Holiday Spirit badge. If you collected all 9 ornaments and don't have the badge, you just need to cast 1 more time. You get the badge on the next cast.[/b]

First, a short explanation: there was one place in our code where, in the process of loading & then saving your game state, some people's game badges were corrupted. The badges could not be saved so the game just discarded all of them. (This should not have happened, but it did.)

Fortunately, we have backups. We are reloading up everyone's game from backup from before this problem started occurring. Then we're going to scan through the old saved game and re-award you all the missing badges.

We anticipate that this will take us about a week to fix. Our goal is going to be to try and have them all restored by next Wednesday.

We're really sorry about this! We know that you all put a lot of time into playing and building up your characters! It's very important to us to do everything we can to recover this; to bring you back to where you were before and avoid this ever happening again!

While we're working on this, we realize that re-playing quests that you have already completed isn't very fun, however you *can* continue to play if you'd like. Any gold or silver that you earn or plants that you grow, or new badges that you earn--all of this will remain. When we finally fix this all we're going to do is re-award you the old badges.

Sorry again, thanks for being understanding as we remedy this.

Regards,
Keith the All Seeing

Good Luck!!

Thanks for heads up!! Looking forward to new and exciting quests!!

Good to hear, as it was I was stuck in the middle of a quest but couldn't buy the seeds I needed to actually complete it. Just hope it will not ruin my chance to do the sesonal stuff.

Thanks for the update Keith! It has got to suck to deal with this over the holidays. >_< Im sorry it hit now.

(Oh man, and the grammar-nazi in me cringed, so I just have to be the brat and point it out..."This should not HAVE happened"

Okay okay, I'll shush up now and let you work. That one just gets me every time I hear it....

Good luck!

@kairae lol with the grammar nazi...I sometimes think that keith is so busy making our island amazing that he sometimes slips up...but I swear, it's not my fault! They just jump out at me, I can't help it! But so far I have refrained from mentioning them because it's just an announcement usually.

anyways, I'm glad that you guys figured out the problem finally! Even though it seems like a horribly daunting job, just remember that it could have been worse (imagine if there was something wrong with the backups!) At least it is fixable!

The island population is rising, EI was mentioned in the Chicago Tribune...and my sister finally joined last night after 4 or so months of me being afraid that if I brought her here myself she would think I was being nerdy and obsessed. So as far as I can tell, things are going great! I'm so proud to be a part of this all! :D

not sure if i'm posting in the right area, apologies if not. I just completed the holiday spirit quest and my badge hasn't come up either, nor has my tree lit up... but, i did get my last plant and the ornament from the very last seed. So i have cast one more seed, but not a seasonal sprig. So not quite sure if this is a bug, or if i need to cast one more seasonal sprig to complete?

... me too but thank you for your efforts in fixing the bug. my tree looks pretty, can't wait till it lights up...

happy christmas time to everyone xx

Thank you very much for your work!

I thought I had sone something wrong :( >>>No tree light up, no badge ...I thought "what have I done"... so it may not be me but the game ...when will we know if it is some thing we have done wrong and not the game ??? I thnkyou for all the hard work you are doing ...yours Jenny xox and also a Merry Christmas to one and all :) XOX

@ariel Heehee, I know I shouldnt bug 'em - I dont point out grammar mistakes usually online. That one is just so....ACK!!

But WOW, EI was mentioned in the Chicago Tribune?? Do you have the link? WTG Keith!!

Hi All

I believe you need to cast one more festive sprig to get the badge and have your tree light up ~ that is what I had to do.........

thanks for the help..good luck and happy christmas. :D

Thanks grammar nazi's :) I like my grammar to be correct, so I never mind, I'm not just particularly good with grammar.

Those of you waiting on the Holiday Spirit badge, that's the one exception--that is not actually a bug, you just have to cast 1 more time on the seasonal sprig.

Thanks for the update Keith. I knew that you would figure out the problem but that it would take time.
Thanks again for all the hard work.

Thanks so much for being on top of this and letting us know it will be fixed.

thanks for the response guys :) read it just a few minutes ago and continued to cast fire seeds, next thing i kew there was a Holiday Spirit pop up from Kendral congratulating me on collecting the ornaments. And i hadn't cast any more seasonal sprigs. Just wanted to let you know for your own knowledge collecting purposes lol
And great idea with the free gifts, nice touch.
Happy Holidays!!!

I did the next cast after collecting 9 ornaments and Kendral appeared. However, she just noticed that the tree lighted up with candles.

I continue to cast 4 times more but no badge's still appeared in my profile. Is this just a delay or a bug?

I really like the ornament design, especially the Fairy, and satisfy with the warm lighting Christmas tree and white candles now, but think I waste a lot of Sprigs seeds, or gold (at least 400) for the bugs in this premium quest.

Anyway, thanks for your afford to celebrate and fix errors as well in order to bring us a happy-casting Christmas.

Merry Christmas, all wizards!

Let's please keep this topic just for discussing the bug issue. If you have questions about the Holiday Spirit quest, please use this topic. It helps us to stay organized be responsive to everyone:
http://theenchantedisland.com/topics/6972

I am so glad to hear that we will get a fix and our badges back. I didn't want to start over! As it is a busy week for most people...I'll just return in January.
Merry Christmas! and Happy Holidays!

Ok, bug issue. I have started using bulb seeds and at first everything worked just fine, I got the badge and Pursten gave me the herbal task, but ever since yesterday I have been having problems with them. I cast and nothing happens. When I switch to another type of seeds everything works just fine. Please tell me what's going on cause I cannot complete the task with herbs.

i completed many quests, but now again i'm asked to do from the beginning.. i was in the quest after fang seeds. please help

Thank-you for the information regarding this newest bug. I hope it's not too difficult to fix. Would it be best not to pursue the quest I was before the mix up? Will the system even recognize when I have made a necessary cast? If not, I can always work on increasing my three of a kind sales.

Thank you Kieth good luck fixing this problem for everyone who got caught in the glitch. Hope your holidays are happy.

Would the bug affect the quests that we're currently working on? Example I'm nearing the end of the fun with colours quest, and I really don't wanna waste gold to find out that the quest has restarted. :) Thanks for fixing this!

Hi, I'm not new here, I just stopped playing for a while, and my question is, that how can I earn the family jewels, if i already should have some of them (for example I've done the basics already some month ago, when there were no family jewels at all, still I don't have the specific jewel)?

I am on the third part/level of the brimswood celebration,
and I was affected by this bug. Now I am afraid to cast because if I grow the plant I need to complete the level, I don't know if the pop-up will come up or not.

Oh good, I was afraid I would have to earn all those badges again.

missing town celebration and shell badges. not much new happening on here.

also, dont get the unicorn thing at all. he comes around, yet nothing happens.

YAYY we have not been abandoned. *laughs* Thanks Keith for investgating the problem. I'm gonna be looking forward to the day it gets fixed. Thank you for your hard work!

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!^^
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¸.·´´¯`··._. εїз hehe. nothing. was just trying to see if I can ride the unicorn.
I think I can't. =_=

========================================================
PS: I was also really afraid I had to do everything all over again. The badges were part of why I wanted to stay, because I wanted to achieve them and have that happy feeling when you finally earn the badges, but when they disappeared, I was like~"AHHHHHHHH"

So, is no news bad news or good news? Still no badges. Still not able to buy fire seeds.... just round and fuzzy.

@Terri There is probably no new news as the elders are on holiday and aren't devoting much time to the island at present. As soon as they are back they will probably set to work on sorting it out.

Thank you for your work on this. I am one amongst the many with missing badges. I was using Fang seeds for the Spider Beast Tamer badge. Of course, Fang seeds are not available to me now. If it would help any, I can tell you the sequence of events that I think helped to put me to where I'm at now. But then again, it may have nothing to do with the glitch. Let me know if you want the specifics of what happened in my situation. Thanks again for your work on the glitch and getting us back to where we were!

To answer some questions:

If you look at your profile and you're missing badges then that most likely means any quest that you were in the middle of got reset back to the beginning. When we are done fixing everything will be caught up again.

This means, for example, if you were in the middle of the Fun with Colors quest, and you notice that you're missing lots of badges on your profile, then please wait to continue the Fun with Colors quest. However, if you want to start a brand new quest, such as the Seasonal Sprig / Holiday Spirit quest--then go ahead. Anything new you start will be preserved even after we are done fixing everything.

Lastly, if you are missing some family jewels because your quest badges are missing, these family jewels will be granted to you when we are done with this fix.

Dude is working hard to get this fixed, hopefully we'll be done with it within a couple days. Our goal is to have it fixed by this Wednesday.

Thank-you for the update Kieth. Good to know I should stop casting for Draft of Defense quest. Hope the repair isn't too hard.

I didnt get my fairy quest badge after completeing it ive tried everything what do i do now ...the same thing happened after the last quest i finished but someone gave me a link to recieve it and i dont remember who it was or how to find the same place again Help please

Glad you found the problem but it's wednesday mid afternoon here and still no badges/quests/seeds - - can't do anything other than use up the ones I have or buy the first 2 seeds - - can't work on new quests cause can't buy the seeds, can't finish quests I started cause can't buy seeds, can't get the new seed cause it won't recognize that I have the gloves - - Please help - haven't been able to do anything but spin wheels since Nov!!!! as I was away on holidays and when I came back the gremlin's bug had got me!!!! getting very discouraged!!!

PS I really really wanted to have a tree to decorate for xmas too - -

I've just finished recovering everyone's lost badges. Please, post here if you are still missing badges. We recovered the badges from a daily backup, so it's possible you may still be missing a badge that was earned later in the day after the backup was taken. We'll do our best to fix any badges that are still missing by hand.

Please post here if you lost your badges, had them recovered, and have a problem with any quests. I think everything should be fine, but we combined any badges that you had before (from the backup) with any badges you've earned since then (for example if you replayed some quests or played some of the premium seed quests). It is unlikely, but possible, that combining the badges might confuse the game a little. If so, I'll fix any bugs you discover as quickly as possible.

Finally, we're terribly sorry about this... hopefully, everything is back to normal now! As I write this I'm going through my list of affected players and I'm giving you all a special gift. It doesn't make up for the bug, but it can't hurt. ; ))

Hello, I have a little different problem: I don't miss any badges, but I miss family jewels, witch should have come with the badges. I earned those badges before there were family jewels in this game.

Could you please help me?
thank you

I'm still missing badges.
I'm still don't have:

Fang Mastery
Autumn Kernal mastery

Draught of Defense
Fairy Adventure
Spider Beast Tamer
Brimeswood Celebration

I forget whether I had the quest associated with the autumn kernals done or not.

I'm really disappointed though. I've not been able to work on my square seeds for over a week. And I was all excited to be able to start working on my quests again today :/

I hope you get this straightened out soon.

@puruttya, there's a link in the original family jewels announcement that can help with that. it had the words "fix jewels" in the URL.

I can finally post a reply on this computer - thanks to FireFox! Sorry for sending a scroll to you Dude. Will repeat what I wrote to you here, for your convenience.

Am missing the following badges still, might be because I redid some of the quests:

Smoking Sprout Mastered
Faceted Seed Mastered
Spectral Mastered
Festive Grain Mastered

Winter Welcome Potluck

Spirit Summoning (was in the middle of redoing this quest)
Divination Basics

Indulge the Old Men
Discover Your Magicstone

Thanks so much! :)

Oh forgot to mention that I was also one or two plants away from completing the Fun with Colors quest when the bug occurred. Thank you! :)

Hi,
Im still missing my badges. Please Help.
Thanks

Hi, I'm still missing badges too.

Thank you so much! Mine are all back to where they should be. Good work - you must have all worked hard to fix that one and it is much appreciated. x

wow, thank you very much, ariel, it worked!

I am missing quest badges "Brimswood Celebration" and "Terrific Topiary". I was able to buy bulb seeds before missing the badges. Thanks for the help!