Due to major issues we have been unable to fix, we will, unfortunately, be postponing today’s Pre-Alpha test session for Alpha pledges. Due to the complexity of the issue, we will need more time to evaluate and resolve the issue before we are able to commit to a new testing date, which will be as early as possible in the new year.
The underlying issue has to do with our Persist system. In its current state, the game will not be able to perform under the increased server load with the amount of new testers who have signed up to test today.
We understand that this is heavy news, and the decision was not made lightly. The reaction to being able to bring in Alpha pledges to this test was above and beyond what we expected, which has made this decision even more difficult. We sincerely apologize to all of you who have been looking forward to logging into Pantheon for the first time today.
We will keep you informed as we work through the current issues and are able to set a new date for our Alpha pledges to join a Pre-Alpha testing session. Our current Pre-Alpha testers will be able to resume regular Pre-Alpha testing later today and will be playing on the current version. A character wipe has been performed.
Saw this coming as soon as they said they were going to let people finally play. Fail sauce. THIS is why people are asking for refunds. Seriously... what were you expecting? 10 or 15 people to redeem their keys and create their accounts? Again, fail sauce. So here is how it should go. You guys bow your heads in shame for your total ineptitude and lack of using your brains and then you fix your $hit and get this going. 9 years and you're still in pre-alpha. Can anyone else say Star Citizen?
Been waiting for an alpha that was promised since 2018 and 5 years later you still can't deliver on that. I don't know why I expected any different now.
I've removed the rest of my commentary because it simply does not matter at this stage.
so, 10 more years???
After waiting for so many years, you say you're surprised so many people would want to join this testing session? That statement in itself, is worrisome. Did you really think that only a small number would want to play it? Failed leadership
Are you kidding me? I pledged 6 years ago, and finally had a 24 hour window to login for the 1st time in an MMO. You can't make a world to login and persist in 10 years?
I cancelled a trip, and planned around testing. It is my own fault for thinking anything you guys say is true.
How on Earth are you going to convince people to play in 2-3 months during the next one?
Have a Merry Christmas, and thanks for the coal.
10 minutes to the start ... not the best way to manage a community.
We know that you are armatures, so we can't really be upset. That said ...
You managed to get a lot of people to pledge for alpha for this test.
So you profited and canceled 10 min prior. Let people conclude what they want of it.
Did you want to do this test - for sure. You have people who really try. Did you have people who tried to profit from it without transparency and unethical greed - I think so too.
In my opinion, you knew you had too many people earlier than 10 minute prior to the test. And you just wanted to get more alpha pledges. To the very least just do not raise an eyebrow when people throw again words like fraud or scam. Getting money for something that people expect at a certain time, and you already know you can not deliver at that time (but later) could be that. So think well when you knew you had too many users and did not tell the community.
Honestly, while disappointing, this happens and sadly, best laid strategies can never 100% predict what "might" happen. This was a big leap and what the dev team will learn from this, will help in the future. Sometimes, in order to move forward, you have to fall back.
I hope that you are able to resolve this issue and implement a sound plan to prevent this from happening again.
Cheers and best of luck
Callixtus
Beyond disappointed. Which I think will be the standard response by most of the player base.
Even if the game was broken at this point and we were able just to log in and start seeing some things I think the BULK of us would have been ok with that. Being part of the process as someone who donated money to this campaign is basically what most of us are asking for. We understand this is a prealpha tag game and we understand that there should be some bugs and crashing as part of this process.
I have been part of Alpha and beta tests for many games. I have never seen a game extend this far into any development cycle with so little returns to its investors.
I'm a software engineer by trade and while I do work on very different type of products. From the time that I invested in this project to today we have already delivered a fully functional system and turned it over to our customer for use.
Edited to add -
In your statement above you basically said - Hey our preAlpha testers will continue accessing the system and be allowed to continue doing what they are doing..
Why again cant the Alpha group access the same content and play what they are playing? What is the thought process behind that?
Awww fudge! Well the game IS in a testing phase to find issues, so here we are. Some of us realize that VR doesn't have the deep pockets the likes of other major software developers and things are going to take a bit more time. No point in complaining about it as it serves no purpose to fixing issues. Keep up the the good fight VR, most of us have faith it'll get sorted out.
This is Pre-alpha, this was a load TEST of pre-alpha done prematurely in hopes of a give back for the 247 mistake. We should all have expected problems!
VR, I can see your already taking a lot of hate over this but trust that not all of us don't understand. I hope you got some good info on the crowd sizes and what needs to be done with the Persistent system to make the next TEST go smoother. Looking forward to the first of the year and seeing some improvement. As one of your often times more critical pledges, glad I can finally be of assistance in debugging the game. (what we were supposed to be doing, not early access)