How Fast do these betas usually go?

[Kungfu Joe]

So, the beta is slated to (hopefully) start Monday or Tuesday. I wasn't a PS1 vet (but I did get a key from Twitter), so I'm guessing I won't be among the first wave.

Based on general heuristics and personal experience, how fast do these betas usually move? How frequently will more waves be added?

Yes, this thread is speculation (seeing as how I can't very well directly ask the question). Why bother with the speculation? Because it makes me feel better. I'm so insanely excited for this game that it's not even funny (ok, maybe a little).

My guess? Well, if everything goes relatively well throughout the beta (which it most assuredly will not...that's the point of a beta), I would guess new waves once a week. I would postulate that half of the purpose of this beta is to stress-test the servers...so, after a given week, if things aren't completely borked, I'd think they'd want to up the numbers to really pile on the stress.

Thoughts?

[Emperor]

Beta times vary depending on the game and what the dev team is looking to get out of it. We've heard this will be an actual beta, not a marketing promotion labeled as a beta, which seems to imply it won't be as short.

[Sephirex]

Tech test invites rolled out pretty quickly and from what I'm hearing they want to roll out Vet and Key invites even faster.

I'm betting invites every day or two if thing's are running smoothly.
Once all the vets and keys are in, it might die down to once a week.

[Kungfu Joe]

Beta times vary depending on the game and what the dev team is looking to get out of it. We've heard this will be an actual beta, not a marketing promotion labeled as a beta, which seems to imply it won't be as short.

I've heard this as well, and have participated in a couple. Slow moving is fine. I just hope they ramp up the player count pretty fast (and have a good bug-reporting system)

[Hosp]

Depends entirely on the game. I'd say an average multi-player FPS closed beta is about 1-2 months. But that's just speculation from the Betas I've been in.

[SpcFarlen]

According to SOE "soon" means 8 weeks. So...

[The Degenatron]

I think that within the first two weeks they will want to be up to their 2000 player limit on the first "live" server. Since not all players are on at once, you can expect that means somewhere between 2500~4000 players activated depending on participation.

Once they start hitting their pop limits on the first server, they may want to bring a second and third server online to test load balancing on the login server. Then they'll bring the population up on those servers as well.

Also keep in mind that they will likely mirror this on the European servers as well.

So I'm guessing that within the first two months they should be up to around 10,000 active players in the US and another 10,000 in Europe.

[dafuq]

natural selection 2 - in beta for almost 2 years now :D pre ordered it 2010 december

[Shogun]

the first waves will do some hardcore testing for sure to squish the worst bugs and complete gamesystems that are glitched or not ready yet.
no idea how long this will take.

if there are no problems regarding the population, they will scale up.
but i am sure when it comes to balancing, they want to go with full servers!

my hope is, that the servers are stable enough to master the first waves and soe starts to scale up immediately.
but i am really looking forward to test out specific things for the devs and get into situations we will never experience after release. like everybody on the map using a tank ;-)

[Coreldan]

Well, they will be doing schedule test sessions that help with this, but generally speaking if you are talking about 2k people online at the same time, you are looking at approximately 20-25k active players in the pool, since not everyone is online at the same time.

However by gating the testing schedules, they will achieve higher number of concurrent users with smaller pool, the above theory is a bit more so for 24/7 testing.

[Harasus]

Pure speculation, of course, but a month to get all the invites sent out, and then 2 months of beta after that?

[The Degenatron]

natural selection 2 - in beta for almost 2 years now :D pre ordered it 2010 december

Pffft - I rage quit NS when they refused to direct port NS1 to the source engine. I understood they wanted to do things not possible in Source with NS2, but I just wanted NS1 in Source for better effects and mapping options.

All that said, could you imagine NS in Forgelight? 1000 marines vs 1000 Kharaa on a huge 64 square km base? You could do an entire Hadley's Hope scenario.

[BlueSkies]

it'll probably last a few months. that said, I am sure this conversation will pop up after launch:

DbagSupreme: I can't believe I'm paying to beta this game!!1!!1
Random: dude... its f2p
DbagSupreme: shut up!

[Papscal]

Once a mmo thats uses a persistent on going world and map reaches beta, it never leaves beta. If its going to be properly maintained that is.

[Timealude]

Well I know they are aim at the end of the year assuming beta goes good...so im gonna say they will be going very quickly with the invites, since they are planning on doing an Open Beta as well.

[james]

Its not clear but it seems they want to have all vets and keys in within the month.

[goneglockin]

I was in the Face of Mankind beta for whole thing, I think it was 6 months.

[Rumblepit]

put it this way, players are the content. they wont be able to test said content until the game can handle the content. so they will be increasing server pops as often as they can so they can optimize the server. once its able to handle 6000 online people is when true beta will begin. they are still doing tech test and will continue to until the server is full.

longest beta i was in was mortal online. ran for 9 months. avg beta will run for 6 months. they wanted a 12/12/12 release date, but they said they are not going to be in a hurry to get out of beta. look for a early 2013 release

[SFJake]

Well, I hope a "priority beta keys" gets you in relatively quickly. I don't consider 2-3 months quickly. :/

[Rumblepit]

Well, I hope a "priority beta keys" gets you in relatively quickly. I don't consider 2-3 months quickly. :/
those keys should be in within 30 days.

[Sephirex]

https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/228309689522335744

Posting this again. Hoping within a month. But as Smedley keeps saying, its still up in the air if anything goes not to plan.

[Rivenshield]

But as Smedley keeps saying, its still up in the air if anything goes not to plan.

Overenthusiastic manager + big mouth = headaches for the dev team + buttraeg from the user base. Meaning us.

/crosses fingers

[Sikee Atric]

Actually, for the first time, it's a boss who does seem to have a handle on things. He seems to be listening to the dev team, the playerbase and the reviewers and he does seem to be giving honest answers. He doesn't seem to be hyping it either.....

It's quite a refreshing change.

[Trip]

usually not over 60 km/h. They try to keep at or under the posted limit.

[Vanath]

The beta will go as fast as they need it to go. The only thing that could really change that is if the Executives start pushing for them to wrap it up but until then it's the Dev's choice.

[Bittermen]

natural selection 2 - in beta for almost 2 years now :D pre ordered it 2010 december
Hell yea... What name do you play under?

[james]

Overenthusiastic manager + big mouth = headaches for the dev team + buttraeg from the user base. Meaning us.

/crosses fingers

He is a nice guy, but he really says far to much then he should. As much as i hate hiding stuff but sometimes it better to just wait till you know for sure, than seem like a fool

[Littleman]

We're two to three days from closed beta, and really, it's not like each wave of invites requires smashing through boulders with one's fore-head.

[Hamma]

I hope beta goes on until the game is ready ;)

[Solidblock]

I hope beta goes on until the game is ready ;)

/agreed

[Pimsley]

I hope beta goes on until the game is ready ;)

I hope people know what a beta is for and report bugs/issues accordingly. Most have forgotten the true purpose of beta testing it seems.

[Tseralith]

I hope people know what a beta is for and report bugs/issues accordingly. Most have forgotten the true purpose of beta testing it seems.

Can you blame us? I bet we're all eager to finally try out the game. :D

[PhoenixDog]

Can you blame us? I bet we're all eager to finally try out the game. :D

I think he mostly means console players coming to PS2. People using it as a demo just to play it rather than testing the mechanics and trying to intentionally break the game.

[Sephirex]

I've yet to see a beta without people rabid to play, and people tut-tutting at the people who want to play.

It's all part of the natural cycle.

[Drakkonan]

I just hope it's an actual beta, and not another name for the post-soft-launch development phase (a la Minecraft). Being a free to play game I'm afraid they're going to eventually let everyone and their mothers into "beta", institute character persistence (no character wipes on release), and have an 'official' release date 2 years from now when nobody cares since they've already played the game.

[AzureWatcher]

I just hope it's an actual beta, and not another name for the post-soft-launch development phase (a la Minecraft). Being a free to play game I'm afraid they're going to eventually let everyone and their mothers into "beta", institute character persistence (no character wipes on release), and have an 'official' release date 2 years for now when nobody cares since they've already played the game.

It will. All confirmed by Smedley himself. They will have dedicated tests of tanks vs. tanks, tanks vs. reavers, etc. (according to Higby)

There will be an open beta near the end (I think. Not sure if confirmed or not).

All accounts will be wiped (except for Station Cash spent) upon release.

They want an official release before the year is out.

[Hamma]

I hope people know what a beta is for and report bugs/issues accordingly. Most have forgotten the true purpose of beta testing it seems.

Mostly because of companies like EA using them as marketing gimmicks and not actual tests :\

[Hamma]

Yea and EA always leaves a huge pile of bugs in the game they claim they will fix at release and most of them are still there. :lol:

[Rivenshield]

All accounts will be wiped (except for Station Cash spent) upon release.
Can vets reserve their names? Do we know, yet?

[Vanath]

They said in an interview that they were considering a system in Beta to allow people to reserve player and Outfit names for release.

[krnasaur]

Id rather have the beta go on for too long and come out with a perfect game, then too short and have a buggy mess on release