Well, I have to admit this. None of us was expecting this to happen.

Yes folks, after 2 and half years, we have a patch. Here is what Thanatos announced on the forums and the launcher.

"This patch is not a content patch, but a technical patch to increase the security of Neocron's network traffic. These changes will break all known cheat programs.

Neocron now also requires newer Visual C++ runtimes. Odds are that another game or program has already installed these on your PC, but if Neocron does not start after applying the patch, you will need to go to Microsoft and download and install the vcredist_x86.exe at the bottom of the page."

So hopefully the cheaters will be gone, but it's not clear if this patch addresses the current stability (Such as mini-rollbacks etc) issues with Neocron.

Update: 23:41 - By Brammers: It looks like there is an issue with the patch.

"Unfortunately we haven't been able to resolve the issues with crashing on zoning yet. We'll keep working on it but right now it looks unlikely we'll be able to fix it tonight."

I've have tried to connect, but it fails to connect to the server. I am assuming Reakktor have stop the server to stop anyone patching or playing until they fix the problem. News of patch 170 and 171 will be posted here as soon as I hear about it.

Update: 16:33 9th July - By Brammers.

Another hotfix (172), and all the servers are back online.

Update: 11:10 12th July - By Brammers.

Looks like the problem wasn't fixed, and I have mis-reported that the servers are back online. My apologies for this.

This is the latest news:-

"Hey Community,
I'm not happy to tell you that we've decided to keep the server downtime during this weekend. We've tried fix the problems but we don't have any progress on that right now. We want to be fair so now you have to choose the second best choice for this weekend.

To be honest: This patch was tested without any problems on our local machines. This behaviour was a big surprise to us. So please excuse these unexpected changes.

We will not stop digging - if we have new information we will give it to you."

There is a thread open here.

Update: 18:32 12th July - By Brammers.

Another hotfix (173) has appeared on the FTP server, however no NC for us to play. This was the last update posted by Thanatos

"Unfortunately we haven't been able to get rid of the world crashes yet so we'll need to keep the servers down until at least tomorrow. "

Update: 21:14 13th July - Brammers.

An update from Thanatos. Sadly, it's still a no-go.

"Unfortunately we'll still have to continue our work tomorrow, so the servers will have to stay down for another day."

Update: 08:00 15th July - By Brammers.

No more news has been released since the last update,

Update: 23:53 16th July - By Brammers

The servers are online, however they do appear to be very unstable. My recommendation (And I mean mine personally, not the THN) is to be very careful. However, if you do have any comments or bugs reports, please contribute then here.

Update 12:57 17th July - By You know who.

Servers are down again until at least Monday, while the devs work on the issues.

Update 12.14 20th July- By the man with the Golden Zsusun

Servers are up, and it's seems to be looking better, however play with care! If you get any crashes or issues, please report them in this thread .

Due to a DNS issue, some Neocron players have not been able to play Neocron for the last few days, while some have players have been fine. Also the Neocron forums have not been accessable.

However this morning I was able to access the forums, and Nidhogg has just posted this update.

"There was a major DNS switcharound and it can take a couple of days to filter the changes around all the servers. Had we been informed in advance that this was going to happen we'd have posted a warning, but sadly we weren't. :/

The DNS problems should be resolved now but it's possible there are geographies where people are still unable to see us.

Sorry about that, all. "

So if you can't connect now, my advice would be to try a little later. If you can't still connect, feel free to leave a message on the THN forums.

This little announcement has appeared on the forums, by Snowcrash.

"All servers will be shut down for a major hardware exchange on Thursday, 25th at about 03:00 PM GMT. Due to technical circumstances the downtime will be about two days, means that we expect to have the servers back online on Saturday, 27th at around 01:00 PM GMT."

Yes folks, the hamsters are getting "exchanged!" (I'm joking to anyone who is taking my last comment serriously!)

Update: 30 Mar 12:44 BST - Sorry for the lack of updates here, I had not realise the servers were not back. As things stand, the servers are not back. I'm not able to find any ETA anywhere. However Hoder did give this very amusing update .

Update: 30 Mar 17:18 BST - An update from Nidhogg "There was a pretty serious network infrastructure issue yesterday that we're still waiting to be resolved. Damn pipes. Sorry, all!"

It has been report that the game launcher page is up, but the game servers are not available

Update: 31 Mar 16:45 BST - No further updates have been released by KK

Update: 1st April 15:30 BST - No updates, but we do have uncomfirmed reports that the Hamsters are at the ESA to be shot to the moon in an old Sojus space capsule...

Update: 1st April 16:23 BST - Opps, I've been pulled over by the copbots and told there was an update. This was posted by Snowcrash here.

"Unfortunately we have to inform you that the Neocron servers are not yet operational. During the hardware exchange technical issues arised that were not predictable. As if this would not be enough, we are experiencing issues with the internet connection of the servers. We strive to bring the servers back online as soon as possible but still cannot give you an ETA.

And no, this unfortunately no April’s fool."

Update 6th April 10:26 BST - As expected more news, but there was a little update yesterday to say nothing has changed from Trivaldi.

"Today (5th April 2010) is Easter Monday in Germany which is a national holiday, due to this the earliest likely update would probably be some time tomorrow. However, please appreciate this is not a guarantee of an update.

Once we know the latest, you guys will be first to know.

Your continued patience is appreciated."

Update 8th April 11:02 BST - By Brammers - No change in status, except this small update from Nidhogg in this post yesterday.

"P.S. The Easter break put a crimp in our plans. Hopefully not too long to go now... "

So it's now been 14 days since the servers went down, and 11 days since they was expected to be back online. The THN will do it's best to keep NC fans up to date.

Update 9th April 11:52 BST - Good news from Trivaldi.

"Some servers may currently appear online however if you do get logged in please be aware they may drop out again, stay tuned for further information.

Once we know the game is good to go, an official announcement will be made."

So steady as she goes...

Update 9th April 13:58 BST - Looks like there is a minor issue with the server names being the wrong way around. Looks like Mars and Terra are the wrong way around.

Update 9th April 15:05 BST - This update in from Trivaldi and the official announcement has been updated.

"An issue has occurred during the re-configuration of the servers which has resulted in a mix-up of database data.

This has happened as the servers have been completely re-installed which has not happened for quite some time. Our IT department is currently working hard to bring the servers back online in their correct state.

Please appreciate this will take some time and we cannot guarantee the servers will be back online today."

So it's SNAFU and a bit more downtime is needed to swap the DB's around.

Update 9th April 16:38 BST - Another updates, servers back online and in the right places.

"The issue relating to mismatched character data has now been resolved; characters should now be available on the correct servers in the state they were in previous to the downtime. We apologise for the extended nature of the downtime but the servers are now back up and running for your enjoyment.

Mars is currently online as a four character slot server, for the time being please do not use these additional slots while we obtain an official confirmation that the server won’t be returning to a one slot server. Should the server be reduced back to one slot no compensation will be given for characters made after the downtime and then lost from these new slots."

So don't use those extra slots on Mars! If Mars does become a four slot server, we will let you know.

Snowcrash has posted this news about a period of extended server downtime .

"We have just received notice that our data center provider is going to make several adjustments to their hardware infrastructure which will result in an extended downtime of the Neocron 2 servers. Due to an internal communication issue at our data center provider, we have not been informed about this action early enough.

The servers will be therefore taken down at 10:30 AM CET. We expect them to be back online on Friday morning latest.

We apologise for this inconvenience and ask you for your understanding."

So to be clear, the servers are down now until the morning of Friday 27th March, we will post an update when the servers are back up and running, so you all can go and find Secret again.