End of Closed Beta Week 2 - CB3 around the corner, new invites will go out as soon as CB3 is live !

Closed Beta Build 3 Status
Unless our QA catches anything unexpected - we presume we will release Closed Beta build 3 (technically build 67) at the start of the week. As soon as that happens, we have queued up another 10,000 new invites to the updated beta to be sent out along with the release of CB3. That doubles the population from 10,000 now, to 20,000 as soon as we go live.

If everything goes as planned (and most of the performance lag spikes are confirmed as fixed in this build) then tentatively this MIGHT be the last major Closed Beta build except a few minor balancing fixes and possibly some progression updates, while the team now focuses on Open Beta and all the new components that are a part of the Open Beta (including the entire purchase sequence, which of course has a lot of interesting issues that we need to deal with and work out), as well as a lot of new functionality.

The European datacenter status
We have engineers continuing to work this week (just as they were last week) in Continental Europe to finalize all the server configs in the EU datacenter. As soon as that's up and running and all systems are "go" - we will then go live with the EU focused tests. The original plan called for March 15 for start of the EU test, but given the amount of work left after last week's heroic efforts by the team (generally until 3am every night), I am ready to bet its going to be a few days later than that. So a more conservative estimate brings that to March 22-23 or so start for the EU CB release and performance test. But if it CAN be done before that date - then we would of course proceed as quickly as possible and invite everyone as rapidly as we can.

In the meantime - below are the CB3 (build 67) patch notes. With these latest balance and performance updates, we are getting very close to prime time (ie the time when we START the very long process of testing out all the new game modes, districts, progressions modes etc that will come to define the game for the long haul)!

Til the next status update
/TechMech

1.4.3.67 (Closed Beta 3) - Release Notes

General

• Fixed server performance spikes in in death camera code (should remove most remaining server-lag spikes).
• Removed client and server frame times from latency calculation to better estimate network latency and response (can be seen using /fps and /fpsdetail).
• Added new HUD markers and text to distinguish between tainted and fresh targets (i.e. graffiti points that you need to guard vs. graffiti points that you have sprayed).
• Altered HUD markers colours, and switched HUD markers to be more noticeable. Markers are now outlines when player has line of sight and solid when not.
• Moved Checkpoints in Wilson LeBoyce spawn area to new Construction site out back.
• Fixed Cement crucible having an incorrect texture in newly-added construction area behind Wilson Leboyce.
• Fixed an incorrect reward package.

Vehicles

• Cost of Muscle Car Increased.
• Reduced Balkan Kolva Population in both districts down to 1% (Still need to remove a couple of spawners in future builds)

Weapons

• LTL Ammo cost reduced.
• Explosive Ammo Cost Reduced.
• Most weapons now come with more ammo on initial purchase.
• STAR: Bringing the accuracy back up again, but not to the extent it was originally.
• Colby PMG: Increased Base Accuracy, Fire rate slightly increased.