The Great Migration

The Great Migration was a major change to the site which took place on October 3rd, 2018. The site was migrated to new servers, the interface was changed, and many aspects of the game were completely altered and re-balanced.

## Pre-Migration

The new version of the site was announced and teased for several months, with no exact date specified. In preparation to the migration, a news article was posted on August 22nd, requesting for volunteers to become part of one of three groups:

* ***Rudakai Counters:** Experience with math, love spreadsheets, min/maxing, fighting large number of monsters to figure out drop rates, testing new numbers to see if they are working, numbers, numbers, and more numbers. We’ll be sharing raw data about our monsters, items, and quests and asking for your ideas and help to fine tune our formulas and balance out the exploitable loopholes of the 4thewords economy. If you are good at math, spreadsheets, or love playing with numbers and testing drop rates, quest balance, and item prices - this is the group for you.*

* ***Lorsa Snipers:** We won’t be sharing source code with you, or asking you to write code, but instead we’re looking for anyone who has programming knowledge, from HTML to Vue (what the new 4thewords is written in), to help us do a more in depth bug hunt. You don’t have to have a deep knowledge of programming languages, simply knowing how to open the browser console and identify error messages would help us a lot. So if you know your way around websites and programming, and are willing to bug hunt with us - this group is for you.*

* ***Yala Scribes:** A more open call for volunteers, we’re looking for people with direct knowledge of building or maintaining a Wikia. For years you’ve been asking for a 4tw Wikia, and with the new site and economy around the corner, the time has come to build it! The new 4tw Wikia will be built in Fandom, have a direct link from the main site header, and have a range of information from: how to navigate the site, drop rates for monsters, and updates we’ve made. We’re looking for volunteers who will lead and prepare the 4thewords Wikia so that we can start filling it with information once the new site launches. If you love building “how to” guides, have built or heavily use other Wikias, and want to help us build and maintain the new one - this group is for you.*

Members of the third group were the ones who originally set up this very wiki!

## Migration

The migration date was announced on September 21st - the site went offline at midnight CRT on October 1st, and came back online at some point on October 3rd. An announcement was made on the official 4TW Twitter account when the site came back online.

Dust Warriors who were present during the legacy period before the migration received a Special Edition Wardrobe item. A special forum badge was added in 2019.

**4 Necklace**
Wardrobe item**Great Migration Survivor**
Forum badge
## Major Changes

* All writing, items, wardrobe and other achievements were preserved. All streaks have been automatically fixed, and streak rewards for the downtime period were automatically distributed as well.
* The story line was altered - Dust Warriors were placed at roughly the same position they were in the game before the migration (*if you had completed about 30% of Mama Tree, you’ll be at around 30% of Mama Tree now*). It was also possible and very much encouraged to reset the game, and do all quests from the very beginning. The Caravan area was removed.
* A new navigation menu was added, along with a better mobile view and a streak calendar.
* Some previously available items were completely removed, and replaced with coins. The most noticeable item to be removed were Purple Crystals, which were a secondary purchased currency to Core Crystals, used for travel between areas.
* Monster sizes and drops were altered, and Luck based drops have been improved.
* A 10-monster battle queue was added, so that several creatures could be fought consecutively and automatically.
* A Battle History view was added, to track past battles and drops.

## Post-Migration

The migration introduced many new features, but also many new bugs which had to be fixed. The process of fixing most of the bugs took several months, and updates were regularly posted in the news. One of the most common complaints about the move was the proximity to NaNoWriMo, though players managed to enjoy the event despite the bugs.

Due to the nature of the migration as a major change, there was a large wave of negative reactions in the forum by users who were unhappy with different aspects of the redesign, general changes and particularly bugs. As attested by people who served forum mods, it was a difficult time for the community, with much polarization. The downvoting feature in the forum was removed as a result.

Many more improvements occurred over time, leading up to another interface change in October 2022.