About ARR release.

[fmonkey13]

I will wait and come back, but i do wish they had let us keep playing 1.0 longer. Just hoping to get into the alpha testing for entertainment in the mean time.

[Sartori]

Well i just wanted to see what people think about this.
They said Beta was gonna come end of January early Febuary
which i'm thinking means (correct me if i'm wrong) that ARR will come around summer
somewhere in June.
Won't people loose all interrest in the game or go to other games
if ARR comes in like 5~6 months from now???
I'm just saying, 5~6 months is just too much with such a big
MMORPG market out there.

Hello Yuri, how are you And yes they are going to lose people with that long of a wait... I still don't understand why they had to take all the servers down, people still could have played during the beta test, you can do the beta testing on the new seperate severs that they made...

[Sanctus]

this is the one issue im scratching my head at myself, if they are really 8 weeks behind schedule why are they taking 1.0 down now, I know they probably lose money on it every month, but they've kept it on for 2+ years most of which not receiving any revenue so that doesnt seem to be the reason for the take down. The only thing I can think of is that they are planning on getting a lot of people into alpha in a few weeks and then allowing us to use our characters in beta and have the data save. Because think about it, if the beta WASNT going to save data into release, why would it be such a priority for them to shut down 1.0 and get our character data transferred over asap. If it didnt matter we could have beta chars for the weeks it took to transfer our character.

Its not all adding up here

[Niota]

this is the one issue im scratching my head at myself, if they are really 8 weeks behind schedule why are they taking 1.0 down now, I know they probably lose money on it every month, but they've kept it on for 2+ years most of which not receiving any revenue so that doesnt seem to be the reason for the take down. The only thing I can think of is that they are planning on getting a lot of people into alpha in a few weeks and then allowing us to use our characters in beta and have the data save. Because think about it, if the beta WASNT going to save data into release, why would it be such a priority for them to shut down 1.0 and get our character data transferred over asap. If it didnt matter we could have beta chars for the weeks it took to transfer our character.

Its not all adding up here

This I agree with. As they are indeed 8 weeks+ behind schedule, why tear down 1.0 so soon? Why not let us keep it those extra two months? If they do allow beta test data to get transferred over sometime during the beta testing it makes more sense. So lets hope...

[Colvin]

this is the one issue im scratching my head at myself, if they are really 8 weeks behind schedule why are they taking 1.0 down now

This is very likely a data scrubbing issue. They are going to have ALOT of data to sort through and run ETL process on in order to translate it to the new database structure. With all the talk of how different the game is, it is very likely that much of the previous databases were scrapped entirely. They are going to have to have time to translate the data over, then test it to make sure there isnt any issues.

They also told people you would be able to change race, so if you have any of the race specific starting gear on, there would have to be triggers written to go though and change the equipment you have equipped if you choose to change. This has to be done on the fly because they don't know who you will change to in the end.

Lastly, there is data wherehousing to talk about. They are going to want to have a standard set of initial parameters to work from and the more people keep using it, the longer they have to wait to have a final data-set. If they pic a date and work with it, then if something goes wrong, they will always have that specific copy.

I would have thought you would need to freeze accoungs 2-3 months out bare minimum if you want to go through this process with the tiny team they have at SE.

[Sanctus]

This is very likely a data scrubbing issue. They are going to have ALOT of data to sort through and run ETL process on in order to translate it to the new database structure. With all the talk of how different the game is, it is very likely that much of the previous databases were scrapped entirely. They are going to have to have time to translate the data over, then test it to make sure there isnt any issues.

They also told people you would be able to change race, so if you have any of the race specific starting gear on, there would have to be triggers written to go though and change the equipment you have equipped if you choose to change. This has to be done on the fly because they don't know who you will change to in the end.

Lastly, there is data wherehousing to talk about. They are going to want to have a standard set of initial parameters to work from and the more people keep using it, the longer they have to wait to have a final data-set. If they pic a date and work with it, then if something goes wrong, they will always have that specific copy.

I would have thought you would need to freeze accoungs 2-3 months out bare minimum if you want to go through this process with the tiny team they have at SE.

Theres no doubt about that, but it was planned for in the initial roadmap and they had said it could take up to a month to accomplish. For arguments sake lets say it takes twice that. That would put character data being transferred by no later than when the beta is slated to be released.

Now, if you were SE and you weren't going to allow the data recorded in the ARR beta to carry over into release, you wouldn't be worried about having the character data ready in time, in fact they would likely give us beta characters to work with similar to the alpha. I think this is what is going on here though it hasn't been confirmed, it seems the only logical explanation as to why they had to take servers down now and are rushing to transfer data in time for when beta starts. We may very well be looking at more of an "exclusive early release" rather than a beta in late jan / early feb though they will call it a beta for sure, and a few things may not be in the game until the "official" release

[Abriael]

You'll be saying "hmm ya that Yuri guy might've right" when u log in ARR and theres 3 people left from your old LS.
I'm just saying.

What you're "just saying", is actually "just nonsense", considering that everyone that ever played the game will receive at least a free month at release without needing to buy the game again.

If you think any sizable percentage of the userbase will miss the chance to try a new AAA MMORPG for free just because they had to wait a couple months longer, you're absolutely delusional.

You would be making any sense if previous subscribers were required to pay anything to play the game at its launch, but since there's absolutely no entry barrier for past subscribers, arguing that any sizable number of people will just refuse to use their free time is as ludicrous as it gets.

I suggest the use of logic before opening a thread, next time. Flying in the face of realism on a whim is never a good idea.

[Colvin]

As an aside... I personally would rather it take longer... they have more time to put something in to the marketing... and it comes out right than it comes out sooner. I can use the extra time to get back to the gym and loose some of this MMOMGIMFAT

[Colvin]

it seems the only logical explanation as to why they had to take servers down now and are rushing to transfer data in time for when beta starts. We may very well be looking at more of an "exclusive early release" rather than a beta in late jan / early feb though they will call it a beta for sure, and a few things may not be in the game until the "official" release

Oh the idea of the game having a release beyond Feb is all speculation at this point. If you look at the original PDF, they had the release date to be January 2013... so even at 8 weeks it is still possible to be end of Feb early March. We really don't know WHERE they are on it.

[Abriael]

Oh the idea of the game having a release beyond Feb is all speculation at this point. If you look at the original PDF, they had the release date to be January 2013... so even at 8 weeks it is still possible to be end of Feb early March. We really don't know WHERE they are on it.

We actually do. They are "2 months and 2 weeks behind schedule", so, according to the data we have, feel free to shift the roadmap 2 months and 2 weeks ahead.