he sands of time are running fast, and again, another year is almost over. While 2013 is slowly coming to an end, it is time for us community managers to take a look back at what happened during the last twelve months.

In January, CipSoft moved to a new office. We are still located in Regensburg, but we have a bigger office now with a lot more space. You will find some pictures of our new residence in this article.So, we already celebrated Tibia's 16th anniversary in our new office. Many of you joined the celebration in a Caption This contest.
Also, another contest was done in January. We asked you to write questions to one of Tibia's monsters or NPCs. We CMs and the content team chose our favourite ones and answered some of the letters in the following featured article.

In February, we started a new initiative to foster the feedback exchange between our players and the developers: The Tibia Council. Selected players were invited to give their feedback and suggestions on a new board section and to discuss their ideas with our devs there. In the very first Council group the content team and players worked on improving several hunting grounds in Tibia. The results of this productive and constructive discussion were implemented later this year, and due to the success of the first Council project, further ones are likely.
In addition, we made an adjustment players had been waiting for for a long time. We increased the respawn rate in order to make hunting more exciting and challenging again, especially for lower populated game worlds.

In March's featured article we presented you the results of the feedback form If you could change one thing... which we asked you to fill in at the end of November 2012. It was for sure an interesting read, and it provided valuable input.
Furthermore, we implemented the brand new Facebook Linkup.
This feature makes it possible to connect your Tibia account with your Facebook profile for a faster login. Also, as you can see, we revamped our landing page together with this implementation.
Besides, we had a small content patch in March. Among some other adjustments, we added unique monster corpse graphics to the game.
Once again, the world quest Colours of Magic took place. To make it more interesting and more funny, we added some changes to this event. Now you can gather bonus points and exchange them for Zaoan chess figurines, made of jade and obsidian. The whole set is not only a must have for chess players, but also for everyone who likes decorations, collections, and light sources.
Another contest was done in this month as well. We asked you for distinctive catch phrases that capture Tibia's core features and describe what you like about the game. Out of all constructive submissions, our product managers and the marketing manager chose some phrases that can now be found on our landing page. For example:"Tibia unites adventurers since 1997!" or "What others can't do with 3D Tibia does with 2D."
Then, it was finally time for the long-awaited PvP Preview which was launched on Aurora and Aurera on March, 19. During the preview, you had the option to give your feedback concerning the new PvP to our lead product manager Craban who tried to explain the new system and answered a lot of your questions in the corresponding feedback threads.

After this busy month, April started with a surprising announcement.We introduced you to new ways to die.As usual, the majority of our players figured out very quickly that it was only an April fools' joke. Still, some players let us know that they would like to have some of the mentioned ways to die in Tibia, and if it was only for the RPG factor.
After that little joke, we had a real new feature for you. The browse field function. Thanks to this new system, depot and loot trashing are now things of the past.
Furthermore, we started a new featured article series, the Knightmare Stories. In the first edition, our famous content designer Knightmare told you about the genesis of the genesis.
In the middle of the month, we added free blessings to the game to alleviate the negative impact caused by connection problems, and we surprised the community with some days of double experience and double skill time.
Last but not least, we finally implemented the results of the first Tibia Council into the game: Hunting Ground Changes.

May had a calm start. After another Tibia city guide and the world quest Demon's Lullaby, it was time for a new contest. We asked you to create your own storyteller NPC. The winner was rewarded with 360 days of premium, and a CM token. The NPC he created, The Spirit Speaker, was implemented with the summer update later this year.
At the end of the month, additional death information was added to the game to provide you with more details in case of your character's death. We also started with the update teaser series for the summer update which was split into two separate parts for the first time in Tibia's history.

In June, we continued with the teasers for the first part of the summer update. Besides, we published the second part of our literary series Knightmare Stories. This time, Knightmare talked about how to bring the lore of Tibia to the players.
Finally, we released the New PvP Rule Set and set up two new Hardcore PvP worlds, Calva and Calvera. The feedback we have received since the release shows that the majority of our players is not satisfied with the current version of PvP. We are fully aware of the fact that we still have a lot of work to do.

On July 17, the first part of the summer update was released. Ab'Dendriel and Drefia received a revamp and along with some new creatures, we also implemented smooth walking animations for all player outfits. Last but not least, we improved the raid system, and added numerous new raids, so that they are now taking place more often in Tibia.

At the end of July, we loosed the restrictions for Premium Scroll transfers which makes it now easier for you to bring your scrolls into the game.

In August, we published the third part of the Knightmare Stories. Then the worst time of the year started. A challenge for all of us. We suffered from malicious DDoS attacks for several weeks. Those attacks made it almost impossible to play the game, and we worked hard for a solution. To keep you updated about our measures and the situation, our lead product manager Craban opened a dedicated thread to answer your questions and to explain our further plans.

So, almost the whole August and even parts of September were overshadowed by the ongoing DDoS attacks. Once we had activated a temporary proxy solution together with a well-known specialist in DDoS mitigation, we tried to make amends for the losses and frustration you had to put up: Vouchers for Premium Time and Double XP/Skill Time. Right now the situation is much better already and the final setup with Prolexic will soon be completed for all game worlds. At this time, we would like to thank you once again for your unbelievable patience and support. THANK YOU!
September was also the month we released the second part of the summer update 2013.We added a new hunting ground area, a new reward system and monster AI to the game. Furthermore, we adjusted some world changes, and put a new graphic option into Tibia, to turn antialiasing on or off.
Furthermore, we asked you in a special feedback form: "If real life was just like Tibia, which vocation would you choose? Why?". Currently, we are working on the results, and we will publish a feature article about them next year.

While October was a quiet month without any really important changes, we released another feature at the beginning of November: The Smart-Click Feature for the Tibia Flash Client which allows players to choose between different mouse controls. Now, it is even possible to customise your mouse, and to create your own control set.
Furthermore, we published a featured article about Tibia's 2D pixel look. The article is definitely worth a read and, to quote from it, "... a declaration of love!"
November was also the time when the world quest Lightbearer took place once again. Unfortunately, another bug occurred this time but we were able to fix it quickly. Besides, we started with the teasers for this year's winter update.

So now that we have already published all teasers, and the test server is closed, we are eagerly waiting for the winter update which will be released later in December.All in all, the year started quite good, but did not proceed as we expected and had hoped. As said, we are still waiting for the final step concerning our protection against DDoS attacks. Also, we are taking your feedback concerning the new PvP seriously and we will do our best to consider your concerns when working on adjustments and the next steps. Of course, this is not the only topic that will keep us busy in 2014. The fight against cheating is still one of our highest priorities. Furthermore, we plan to work on a new client during the next year. There is not much we can tell you about this project right now, but we aim to unite the advantages of both existing clients. So be curious, we are as well.

Now, with the winter update and the winter holidays being around the corner, it is time to take a deep breath and to enjoy what lies ahead of us. Be it in Tibia, or the time many of you will spend with your families and friends.
There is only one last thing left to say:

Thank you for bearing with us. In good times and in bad times.
Your Community Managers