Huxley Beta

[Billin]

Anyone have a clue when beta is coming out or if it is alrdy out?

[Lexion]

Nope not out, were all waiting for E3 for more info.

[TheCox]

hurry up already E3 damn lol

[Murvel]

Hi Billin and welcome to the Huxleygame.com forums. As you probably can understand this question has popped up alot of times already, so use the search-button if you want to find more info about it.

Summary in short:

The beta-testing will probably begin within a couple of months now and unfortunately the testing can be somewhat restricted in ways such as the regions that are allowed to test.

Once again, welcome.

[SalmonellaSam]

Originally Posted by Murvel

unfortunately the testing can be somewhat restricted in ways such as the regions that are allowed to test.

What is the reasoning behind the restriction?

[connnnn]

They obviously haven't stated (that I've seen) the exact reasons, but I'm willing to guess it has to do with server logistics.

For an MMO hybrid such as this you can bet that there will be at least 2 or 3 separate server clusters for North American, European, and possibly Asian players. This is because internet lag will play such a huge issue.

Now if you were running a beta of a game and had to decide which of those areas to run servers around, you would probably choose the one that's geographically closest to your developing team. Thus, we'll probably see a beta running on a Korean server. They mentioned limited testing in North America... this (again I'm just guessing) might not even be on the NA servers. It could either be on the same Korean servers, or they might just wait until relatively late into the beta cycle when they are setting up the other regions' servers to be used at retail. Either way I think the North American beta testing will mostly be a marketing thing, to see what kind of response the NA players have to it (since apparently they are interested in the NA market just as much as European and Asian). There's simply no reason to spend twice the amount of money on two sets of servers when the early testing will mostly be basic issues.

My total guessed projection: early-to-mid beta work done in Korean servers by Korean players (and possibly a few North Americans, Europeans, Australians, etc mixed in). This will mostly be finding major bugs in the server and client programs, netcode, etc. They don't need a ton of people for this, and it doesn't really matter what market they're catering toward for those things. Then, toward the end of the beta period they'll probably want more non-Korean opinions on the game and how it's shaping up; gameplay issues like weapon/race balance, etc. For this they would be more interested in having opinions from other regions, so they will likely add people to the Korean server beta for awhile until they get North American servers running, and then will suggest that NA players move to those servers. After all, any fps game plays MUCH different with a lower ping, and NA->Korea will be extremely high latency compared to NA->NA, even if it's across the country. There's not much to gain by them having NA players beta test the game with super-high pings, and it's logistically easier to handle early-beta server issues if they can physically access the servers more easily and deal with people in person. Thus, the Koreans will likely get most of the beta time, with a little left for North Americans (no clue about other regions since they haven't mentioned them at all).

Korea is probably the biggest MMO market, and NA is the biggest console market, so that might explain the regional choices. Of course, Europe is pretty big on PC FPS games, so Idunno...

[Saint]

Yeah they need to run a beta in europe aswell, although they did say they'd only be running them in asia and US.

This is most probably because this is where they have offices.

[Insomnium138]

are they going to do that thing like most mmos are now doing where you have to pre-order it in order to play the beta, and theyll liek give you a beta key so you can play.

[Knighty4]

I'm sure they'll have pre-order box beta keys, but I would be suprised if they didn't have limited invitation closed beta invites.

We'll know more after E3 really.

[Jowy]

Most likely they will have closed Beta, Its a part of the sequence of things... Closed Beta for a few months open beta then retail... Though there is every possiblity they may say screw closed and just go with open or say screw open and just go with closed.

[Insomnium138]

god i better get my hands on it

[Xane]

When and where is E3 this year? give me a date

[Knighty4]

It "begins" on May 9th.