waisted menkey

...reproduced in proper meme form.

There's been a MASSIVE spike in player base. I didn't think it was an actual issue, but too much use on the server that holds our character data. Logging out and back in and back out and back in and back out and back in can't possibly help that situation. Mind you, I know nothing about servers, but if they're experiencing heavier than expected character data retrieving, and the server is bogged down, spamming it with data requests can't possibly help the situation. It seems to vary based on time of day. I usually get in game almost immediately early in the morning. Often, times like now, when I'm just getting home, I can be stuck at that screen for litterally 10+ minutes. As long as I don't see the red-broken-chain icon, I always eventually appear in game. When you get that red-broken chain icon, that's when I seem to appear in debug forest.

installed the Auto-Updater? do you mean the install tool pinned at the top here?

same thing here as well. i was able to find resolutions for all the other install issues i ran into (like starting steam as admin and ensuring OA is launched via CO)