Posted late today on the AC2 beta boards:

"AC2 BETA HALTED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE"

Hehe well it's about damn time! I dunno how many of you people have been trying to play AC2 beta the last few days since the big wipe/patch on Friday (excellent day to do a patch/wipe, btw, right before a major holiday weekend) but it's been well, just so much fun! Lemme see, the beta already had about 10k people in it with servers erm make that server (as in game world not subserver) that could accomodate at most maybe 3000 people online at once. Ok. So, what do they do? They do a wipe, so everyone has to start over. That means 3000 people online at once in the newbie dungeons. Ok but not only that, it's not just a wipe, it's a patch! Yes! A patch! Hooray! A really big patch that takes over an hour to download on cable! Not only that but a buggy as hell oops we put bugs back in that were fixed in the last patch patch! A "if you loot certain monsters the server will crash" patch. Before the last patch I could usually play for an hour or so without crashing. And my mouse worked! (One of the recent patches broke USB mouse support and it was "fixed" but not really fixed in the most recent patch.) That is no longer true.

Here is how my weekend went. Log in late Friday, download patch at 3k/sec for over an hour on cable modem. Make newbie character. Crash in newbie dungeon. Try to log in again. Newbie won't load due to being stuck in portal. Create new character. Get through newbie dungeon to newbie training area. Get character up to about level 7. Server crashes. Server comes up, try 50 times to login. Give up for an hour. Try again. Yay! Load newbie character. Character is now at beginning of newbie dungeon, level 1. Bang head against wall. Train newbie up to level 5 again. Server crashes. Wait awhile. Try again, load newbie up. Character is now back to level 2, but at least outside the newbie dungeon. Get tired of playing a lugian. Decide to make a human archer, knowing full well every archer I've created so far is bugged. Create character. Stuck in portal. Ok. Wait awhile. Try again. Log in, get character through newbie dungeon, get out and level her to level 5. Server crashes. Call it a night.

Saturday. Try all day to log in. Server is either down or crashes within minutes of logging in. Timewarps all day long, can't gain levels, every time I get a decent weapon or armor, I crash. Give up. Try again Sunday. Pretty much same thing. Did manage to get lugian to level 8. Monday, holiday yay no one will be on! Hmmm ... server down for a restart ok. Wait. Friend says "servers up", login. Stuck in portal. Client locks up. Reboot. Try again. About 30 times. Give up. Try again later. Log into Arwic vault area, oooh fellowship forming for quest cool. Manage to actually do quest ... well almost ... during movie play client locks up. Reboot. Try to log in. Server is full. Grrrr . Try later. Get in. Take 3 steps. Lock up, link dead. Server crashes. Wait. Manage to login again. Crap, timewarp grrr. Play for about 5 minutes trying desperately to get outta Arwic subserver cuz that's my crashing problem right? Server crashes. Time warp. Try again, this time lifestone just outta Arwic, it saves at lifestones right? Run about 5 clicks, server crashes. Manage to log in again, timewarp back before lifestone wtf? Grrr ... try again to run outta Arwic. Server crash. Wait, manage to login again. Stuck in portal. Disconnnected. Give up. About an hour later, decide to try again ... load launcher ... hmmm ... new message ... "AC2 BETA HALTED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE". So, there ya go. My guess is they'll do another wipe so I will get to start over again for the umpteenth time maybe this time I'll make it past level 12 which is the highest I've managed to get a character so far and that was before this last patch. And dammit they better fix the mouse issue I need my USB scrolly mouse back <whimper>

BTW, the funny thing about this whole AC2 beta is, you'd think they'd have been prepared. They knew they were gonna invite all 10k or so current AC subscribers to the beta, they knew a major gaming magazine would be out early September with another 10k or so testers, they knew GameSpy was gonna have a download available with another who knows how many testers ... so why, I ask WHY is there only ONE server? And why did they release a major big buggy patch right before they added all these new testers? And why oh why did they lift the NDA? Hehe I'll bet someone is getting spanked for that timing. But yannow, they really really shoulda known better, after all AC2 is AC2 it's a sequel, you know, as in "we've done this before". I had the pleasure of beta testing the first Asheron's Call game during the closed beta a couple years ago, and it was probably the most bug-free, smoothly run beta I've ever done and I've done a lot (I've tested almost every online RPG out there in the last 7 years, as well as a bunch of non RPG online games.) This beta is the complete opposite. It is the second most poorly run/buggy beta I've ever done. I won't mention the worst but its name also started with an A, followed closely by one that started with an M. Anyway, now I know AC2 is very complex and very graphically intensive judging from the massive strain it's putting on my video card. Hehe. Can we say "help me I need an additional cooling fan"? But, sheesh, gimme a break. Even in AC1 beta, they had more than one server before they opened the gates to 10k users. And they had 6, yes SIX servers by the time open beta started. AC2 has as many testers I'd guess as AC1 open beta had but only one barely functioning server. And the code is totally borked. I think someone somewhere musta gotten their versions messed up cuz it seems that bugs that were gone last patch came back this one and bugs that weren't in before the last 2 patches there now. But hey, they finally fixed the map! Uhm ... well, except for the fact it crashes the server if ya click on it. Hehe. Ooops. Ok, well, not every time ya click on it. Anyway, I'm glad they finally halted this ugly beast of a beta. I can now let the wounds on my badly banged head heal while I go do something else more productive than clicking on a launcher for hours a day hoping to be one of the lucky few who gets in and can play for 1/2 an hour before the server croaks again.

Now, if they'll only block all those CGM and GameSpy testers from the beta till they get it working or add new servers. Hehe yeah right. Wishful thinking. <sigh>

[ 8:08:00 PM ]   Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!