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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Beta status update - midnight

So - the very first "mini-wave" of 2500 invites went out six hours ago. Mostly we first targeted US and/or West Coast (but not ONLY West coast) players that met certain minimum requirements.

We instantly saw a spike on the CDN side, with one of our CDN providers presuming we were being DDoS-ed as people performed the update/patching process. But that part of the systems generally seem to have held up well.

As we cycle through various systems, we did see an issue in one of the "world servers," and we think it may have been a memory allocation issue, and it forced us to shut it down to reconfigure and restart it to see if it is quickly resolved, or if it will require major surgery in the morning (or if it's an previously un-identified bug)

Now - if overnight things seem reasonably stable - then we will increase the number of players DAILY. There has been speculation that we would wait a long time. That's not the case. We'd like to ramp up as quickly as possible.

In fact, we'd like to send the new wave of "account enabled" messages Wednesday again (of course unless something is wrong or buggy under load with any current core systems, in which case we will hold off).

The current plan is to slowly increase the CCU count (simultaneously connected players) from a few hundred (what it is now) to just over 2,000 simultaneous players this week (which means close to 20,000 actual invitees). If THAT holds up fine, then the next really big wave is to go to 100,000 players and 10,000 simultaneous - though that leap might take a bit longer.

In the meantime we are also processing data and monitoring information as quickly as we possibly can.

And - as a fun fact - we had a team in India (10,000 miles away from LA) just test the game, and it turns out it is SORT OF playable with 180ms-200ms ping times. Certainly not fantastic, but clearly playable. So - if we want to go really wild we COULD enable the game globally to reach LA, but at the moment that is not the plan (at least not yet).

If anything drastic happens overnight I will post here, otherwise the plan is to slowly turn up the heat until things croak (right now we are at a "1 of 10" and we're trying to get to "11 of 10" :) )
 

46 comments:

  1. I've been refreshing this page since the server went down. Any reasonable estimate to how long the restart would take, assuming it goes well?

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  2. It's already back. If you are unable to log in - let us know (or post on the message boards, since it's not always we monitor the blog comments with the same frequency).

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  3. WOW. That was impressively fast, and thank you for the immediate response. BRAVO gamersfirst.

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  4. No problem. All the credit really goes to the IT team during this stage (esp our Lead Scott who is on call dealing with this tonight). But we have lots of devoted team members that are really happy to be here to oversee the transition to an operational game as quickly as possible.

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  5. Is there a chance to get the activation key to the end of the week? I have no idea when Poland will be able to play.

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  6. Dang I can't believe i missed the sign up :(..Been waiting for this over 6 months now and BOOM I'm out of town for a month for work :( any1 got an ex key. woudl love to have it

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  7. Look guys, you can't get an extra key, because the keys just let you fill out an application. If they accept your application, then your account is activated and you can download and play.

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  8. great job you guys are doing GamersFirst! the game looks more promising this time and hopefully yall wont let the game die a 2nd time. I'm excited to finally be able to play the game again, keep up the good work!

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  9. I played WoW with 800ping conecting to thier EU servers and im in australia, so 200 is plenty good enough for me

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  10. Hey all, I'm from Europe. Have not received any email regarding server information, yet. But I just hope and wait for it :) Congrats to our friends from the US who can already beta-test the game! Enjoy and please report any bug you find!

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  11. U can use my key.

    Good job gamersfirst.
    Thanks a lot.

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  12. I have been having massive issues with signing in on the forums. It wont recognize my login information on the actual forum, but it recognizes my info on the gamerfirst website. I have no way to contact you guys for troubleshooting and it is driving me insane! Please assist.

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  13. Bjorn about your first comment, not everybody that is in closed beta can view the closed beta forums and the ones that can view them can't post in there. So this will lead to people breaching the NDA until something is done about it.

    Don't know what or even if you can do anything about that but have a bunch of people telling me that either they can't see the closed beta section or they simply can't post in there.

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  14. @shameleez can u aim me @ usoajackass?

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  15. Overnight, will that mean at the morning when you get back to work
    And will europe get a try then?

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  16. Thanks for keeping us up to date, it always sucks to be left in the dark though at times it's understandable. Thanks for taking the time to let us know at what stage things are and how they will progress.

    Can't wait for the Euro wave :) The more I hear about beta the more my anticipation to play APB again is growing. I was already considering what weapon I might buy from the leased list hehe

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  17. (Wave 1 USA West and few players of Europe and South America), I don't get any invite, so I think I'll have to wait more maybe for wave 4 (Brazil).
    This is sad because I want play against people from other countrys to see the real ping. I hope that Gamersfirst can invite some Brazilians to play with another countries in the CloseBeta.
    Thanks Gamersfirst for update us with informations about the Closebeta.

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  18. when will the europeans going to get ''green light''?, i can't wait :D

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  19. When are you guys inviting canadeins?

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  20. Please continue that way G1
    If you could control problemes quickly,don't overcheat the Item shop and listen to the players,this game is on way to become legendary !
    Can't wait to see if I get the acces (I'm French)

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  21. i have 2 spare keys:
    01Z1-TVEQ-06P2-EBJ9
    4BLH-RW9N-RNWL-SFDW

    feel free to use them but please notify in a comment for other people to know if the keys are taken or not

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  22. I dont have aim.
    Just send me an email

    shamelesz@googlemail.com

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  23. What wave will norway be in?

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  24. guys, when the european wave is coming? cant wait hope i get to CB

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  25. @adrianp90 : Are you serious? Havent u read the blogg? Forum? Do you know if Norway are in US-west,Eu or US-east?

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  26. @tomas i believe it is Asia.

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  27. Cry...on the west coast(kind of..Arizona?) and didn't get an invite...been waiting for the day to jump back into APB for a while. hopefully I get caught in the next waves!

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  28. Again Games First Out For America i can't believe and we in Europe for some time to check which means that I did not even have to hope that I can play this game while waiting for the seven months then I wanted to buy the game and the servers started to shut down and then I refrain to play again and now I wait because once again America has some sort of advantage just do not know which?

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  29. LOL i am from Denmark, and it is so funny to se people eager to play. Why not wait till you guys get the invite??? i really do think Gamersfirst ignore people that kips trying to get in the Closed BETA, you will get a go when you get in, plz be patient.

    Good to se the first wave is going on G1, i really like the updates you provide us whit ;) kip it up, and APB:R will NOT go down this time :), really love this game.

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  30. damn all are talking about the game
    and i will play but haven't
    any key or account :(

    plz mail me one...
    E-mail: lex_de_best@hotmail.com

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  31. Yet Congratulations you have purchased and erected again at the feet of this game [you've revived] so great is that you have completed so quickly and I can not wait to get a key [I hope to get the key] and i wish you all good go with a game ... and now something in my language:Svaka vam cast sto ste oziveli igricu i nadam se da cete je brzo zavrsiti da da ce ljudi igrati I HVALA VAM STO STE OZIVELI THE BEST GAME EVER

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  32. Wow sounds like a successful trial run. Can't wait to get in, im so jealous im on the east coast.

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  34. Benny I'm not trying to get the key but just keep track e-mails and blog site youtube watching all just to see if someone got a jetty or something I'm not angry at gamersfirst we have not yet sent the key to the test I have reported all properly inserted configuration, and more precisely I would like to thank gamersfirst because it revived my favorite game ...

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  36. Is there any chance that you guys can tell us when the europe wave will come? will it come this week?, im swedish and i am waiting like hell forward to the beta :) i've got the key , i just wait for the download inv :D

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  37. That waiting make me go crazy =/
    I wish i could play it until weekend,
    but it seems that i only get into the
    open beta in a few months... *cry*

    Hugs, Myrothas

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  38. Also still looking for one...niteongb@hotmail.com

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  39. Sort of playable at 200ms? It's perfectly playable. I played the old RTW APB at ~300ms and it was fine. Please enable us Aussies ASAP.

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  40. Hi,I'm still wondering does Singapore has the chance to test out the closed Beta?

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  42. Great job guys! The download is slow here from SF. But I'm sure it'll be well worth the wait. Invest in this game, I still feel it's one of the most formidable and fun games today. Keep stacking those efforts to make it better. A loyal Fan Base has your back!!

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  43. why is the download in nj like snail slow?

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  44. jus got new pc and was wondering when new applications will be sent.... really want to play!

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  45. Hello, I played in the Beta and Live Original APB religiously and I'm trying to get into the Reloaded Beta desperately.

    I went by the Character name Scopes on La Rocha and was wondering how I can register with that account for the beta because I heard you were prioritizing Veteran APB players and I feel that I'm a very observative and rational fellow with an obsession for balance and would be HONORED to test the game for you.

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