Feb 11th and still no new news

[AdorraEloom]

I actually think we'll get invites either the day of the live letter or after then get a two or three days to download the beta for limited access to start on monday. So we might get the invites by friday? This seems to fit the middle of the month plan. And remember phase 1 and 2 are not 24 hour long testing time. I expect for us to have about 5-8 hours at longest for the 2 weeks. I'm honestly more excited about the community of the beta forum than the beta right now since I know we won't be getting 24 hour access and life as a college student does not permit much time away from studying. I really only get the occasional browse on the forums.

Where did you hear that phase 1 and 2 will not be live 24 hours a day, estimated at 5-8 hours per day? I looked at the road map for phase 1 and don't see anything regarding that statement. Was it posted some where by a dev>? If so could you link? Here is the phase 1 road map outline as stated by SE.

- Phase 1 characters will be deleted at the start of phase 2.
- The data center will be located in Japan.
- Between 5 and 10 Worlds will be available.
- All races and genders will be playable.
* Certain customization options will be unavailable until phase 3.
- The level cap will be set to 35.
- Eorzea time will be implemented (morning, afternoon, evening, night, etc.)
- All Legacy status holders qualify as testers in phase 1.
- The following will be implemented for testing:
Main scenario (partial) / Sidequests / Class quests / Full Active Time Events
Hunting Log / New behest / Dungeons (up to level 35)
Opening event (excluding CG movie) / Cutscenes / Player Search
Markets / Item Search (text strings, HQ, materia, etc.) / Other
- In addition to the above, the following is also scheduled:
Fall damage testing / Alpha feedback revisions (part I)
Alpha UI feedback revisions (part I) / Graphical tweaks
Performance optimization

[Seirra_Lanzce]

Where did you hear that phase 1 and 2 will not be live 24 hours a day, estimated at 5-8 hours per day? I looked at the road map for phase 1 and don't see anything regarding that statement. Was it posted some where by a dev>? If so could you link? Here is the phase 1 road map outline as stated by SE.

- Phase 1 characters will be deleted at the start of phase 2.
- The data center will be located in Japan.
- Between 5 and 10 Worlds will be available.
- All races and genders will be playable.
* Certain customization options will be unavailable until phase 3.
- The level cap will be set to 35.
- Eorzea time will be implemented (morning, afternoon, evening, night, etc.)
- All Legacy status holders qualify as testers in phase 1.
- The following will be implemented for testing:
Main scenario (partial) / Sidequests / Class quests / Full Active Time Events
Hunting Log / New behest / Dungeons (up to level 35)
Opening event (excluding CG movie) / Cutscenes / Player Search
Markets / Item Search (text strings, HQ, materia, etc.) / Other
- In addition to the above, the following is also scheduled:
Fall damage testing / Alpha feedback revisions (part I)
Alpha UI feedback revisions (part I) / Graphical tweaks
Performance optimization

The beta test will be divided into four phases. During phase 1, the game will only be available for a few hours on specific days, but availability will be increased in subsequent phases. A more detailed testing schedule will be posted on the Beta Tester Forum.
http://entry.ffxiv.com/beta/detail_en.html

[AdorraEloom]

The beta test will be divided into four phases. During phase 1, the game will only be available for a few hours on specific days, but availability will be increased in subsequent phases. A more detailed testing schedule will be posted on the Beta Tester Forum.
http://entry.ffxiv.com/beta/detail_en.html

Thanks, Did not realize that piece of info, that changes everything for me! was planning on booking some time off work, But I guess I don't have to anymore due to this new piece of information I learned today ^^

[Kirito]

Where did you hear that phase 1 and 2 will not be live 24 hours a day, estimated at 5-8 hours per day? I looked at the road map for phase 1 and don't see anything regarding that statement. Was it posted some where by a dev>? If so could you link? Here is the phase 1 road map outline as stated by SE.

- Phase 1 characters will be deleted at the start of phase 2.
- The data center will be located in Japan.
- Between 5 and 10 Worlds will be available.
- All races and genders will be playable.
* Certain customization options will be unavailable until phase 3.
- The level cap will be set to 35.
- Eorzea time will be implemented (morning, afternoon, evening, night, etc.)
- All Legacy status holders qualify as testers in phase 1.
- The following will be implemented for testing:
Main scenario (partial) / Sidequests / Class quests / Full Active Time Events
Hunting Log / New behest / Dungeons (up to level 35)
Opening event (excluding CG movie) / Cutscenes / Player Search
Markets / Item Search (text strings, HQ, materia, etc.) / Other
- In addition to the above, the following is also scheduled:
Fall damage testing / Alpha feedback revisions (part I)
Alpha UI feedback revisions (part I) / Graphical tweaks
Performance optimization

Yep what seirra said. I mentioned this previously just to make sure no one got there hopes too high by the beta test because they forgot this rule. I estimated 5-8 hours because it will likely be while yoshida and his team are at work. A general work day is about 8 hours. Second there is the cut off of time used to extract any important data they get from the test. There is are also bound be maintenance times to add new patches and the like. It makes sense as more kinks are worked out there will be less to fix and provide patches for and thus longer game time.

Live letter? or Written letter?
I can see the speculation that it won't start / get announced until the live letter presuming Yoshi has to be back in Japan for beta release, but does he?



This Friday? or the Friday following the Live Letter? (22nd).



Source for this? First I have heard that it is limited access. By "limited access" I would assume a 1-2hr downtime daily if they did mention this.. Remember that Legacy accounts are world-wide (not country specific), so such a small uptime would conflict with half the world's time zones. I very much doubt this. I could imagine if it was country specific - as they would simply run beta during the peak times associated with that country but not a world-wide beta.


*edit* nevermind that source.



Hmm I missed this. Well thankfully I am only 1hr in front of JST.. Let's all hope they cater more to the JP's trololol

You have a good point about the different time zones. It is likely that they might cut down only one or two servers at a time so there will always be one server for the eight hours. I highly doubt it will last any longer than that unless yoshida's team has overtime for whole month, in which case then they can probably keep the servers running for longer. But at least for phase 1 and most of phase 2, I doubt the servers will be running without the team monitoring it since they will probably get the most data to work on at the very beginning.

[AdorraEloom]

Yep what seirra said. I mentioned this previously just to make sure no one got there hopes too high by the beta test because they forgot this rule. I estimated 5-8 hours because it will likely be while yoshida and his team are at work. A general work day is about 8 hours. Second there is the cut off of time used to extract any important data they get from the test. There is are also bound be maintenance times to add new patches and the like. It makes sense as more kinks are worked out there will be less to fix and provide patches for and thus longer game time.

Ya 8 hours seems to be a reasonable time frame per day, hopefully some of that falls into other time zones, would be tough playing at like 2 am during the week if they kept it open only during business hours JST.

Edit:
If I have to though I will make it work XD

[Altena]

You have a good point about the different time zones. It is likely that they might cut down only one or two servers at a time so there will always be one server for the eight hours. I highly doubt it will last any longer than that unless yoshida's team has overtime for whole month, in which case then they can probably keep the servers running for longer. But at least for phase 1 and most of phase 2, I doubt the servers will be running without the team monitoring it since they will probably get the most data to work on at the very beginning.

Yeah it is all speculation and only time will tell. I was surprised to hear that it will be time restricted in the first phase, as I presumed they got a lot of the data they need regarding servers / back line testing done in alpha.

I really have no idea what a software/gaming company does during a test phase on the back line though, so once again just speculation.

My opinion of beta was that it was more of a gameplay / mechanic test - rather then a server/system test. Though, I may be completely wrong..

Where is that person on these forums that works for a low key gaming company? They might have a more informed opinion.