We've agreed with NOA that the US version can increment from 1.01 to 1.03 to avoid this confusion. When the updates arrive - likely first on NOA - everyone gets the same stuff.
@Ronobono I hear what you're saying, and on these forums you guys could take an informed decision to take the 1.02 update and not worry about multiplayer for a while. But what about the less informed player? The Terraria player base spreads far and wide beyond these boards. If they get an update that damages part of their experience, it's harder for us to reach out to them and explain the situation. If there was a way to let the hardcore download a 'beta' version of the update, we'd absolutely let you. But the platform doesn't permit it, and it's obviously terrible practice for us to send out an update that we know has issues.
Don't get me wrong: every game has bugs. With every update for every game, the developers are fixing a lot of stuff but they're never fixing everything. Some stuff isn't damaging to the experience so goes down the priority list. With Terraria, there are a heck of a lot of moving parts. There is SO MUCH stuff to test. So many variables. So when people post on here and say 'hey, I got a drop in a place I wouldn't have got it on PC' I understand how that can happen. Our players will test more combinations of variables in a week than our test team can manage in a month just because of the sheer weight of numbers. No bug is ever 'okay', but stuff like that is understandable so long as it doesn't break anything fatally.
This multiplayer issue is a completely different beast, however. There is NO EXCUSE for us to have missed that. It breaks something fundamentally and quickly, and we at 505 Games should not have allowed that to happen. I'm embarrassed about it, and sorry to have let the community down. The delays involved aren't huge, but I appreciate 100% that even a one day delay feels like forever for something you're invested in like this game. We've made changes to our process to ensure it won't be repeated, but I appreciate that is scant consolation. It's infuriating for me personally too: we worked so hard to make a 3DS version that we were told was impossible not only possible, but great to play. So stuff like this is a kick in the teeth.
But it's fixed now, just a shame the lead time on getting it to you is so long.
