What is the expectation of BETA?

Elizabeth O'Malley

Elizabeth O'Malley

Pirate
As an older, experienced, long time player of the original POTCO, I was super excited to be apart of this journey. I was part of ALPHA as of July 1st through September 19th, and found the game stable although limited in what you could do. I was super looking forward to BETA and the ability to have all game options available.

I have kept a log throughout my play time, both on alpha and beta.

I started "playing" beta on December 15, 2016. Because I do not have a key, I register for 3 day windows each and every day. It is difficult because of my responsibilities, but I cut a certain window of time out of my day to log in and play.

In the eight days that I have played my average crashes range above 40. That means that for every 180 minutes, I'm crashing about every 4 -5 minutes. I have never been online for longer than 20 minutes in total. Every time I enter a building, get on a boat, tp, enter an enemy lair, etc, I crash.

It has not improved. It is consistent and regardless of time of day.

I use Razer and other tools on my new pc to optimize my computer. In game settings I've removed all high memory options, such as music, front end display, etc. I even have graphics on Medium settings.

I'm getting the impression that there are a lot of other folks out there in my same situation. Yet, I see, when I'm able to actually land on an island, that there are players with notoriety upwards of level 10... even in the low 20's... I cant figure out how that can be when you're crashing all the time. I am disheartened and considering giving up BETA.

I can not understand why the game would be open when stability is so fragile. Every time I log in, I notice updates and am encouraged by the possibility that perhaps the stability of the game has increased. Yet, just today, I had the worst 3 hour session since I've been on beta. I was unable to maintain a connection and achieve a quest item or attack an enemy. I crashed over 52 times in 3 hours.

Is this the expectation of BETA?
 
There are a lot of factors that play into crashes. It takes time to figure those out and implement fixes. Beta is Beta for this exact reason. Honestly, everyone should expect some amount of difficulty because it's widely known that the game is still being created. I'm afraid two weeks isn't enough time to judge progress in Beta.

In short, be patient. Improvements are coming! They just take time.
 
Elizabeth reading over this it does seem like you crash way more then other players. I crash maybe 3 times in a 3 hour session. It is Beta of course and people experience more difficulty then others but if I were you I would look at all the tips and other discussions posted by the the developers and support members. For sure changing some settings might minimize crashing.
 
MisterLee said:
Elizabeth reading over this it does seem like you crash way more then other players. I crash maybe 3 times in a 3 hour session. It is Beta of course and people experience more difficulty then others but if I were you I would look at all the tips and other discussions posted by the the developers and support members. For sure changing some settings might minimize crashing.
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I am constantly reading the forum for help, which is why ive taken the steps I already have taken. One thing that's new of late is this "vsync"... I will turn it on when I'm next able to play and see what that does.

Thank you for the suggestion!
 
Elizabeth O'Malley said:
Yet, I see, when I'm able to actually land on an island, that there are players with notoriety upwards of level 10... even in the low 20's... I cant figure out how that can be when you're crashing all the time.
Click to expand...

Most people don't crash every 5 minutes. Don't assume that everyone does just because you do.
 
My first beta game I crashed maybe 6 times more or less. I'm sure I could view the log but it's not important.
I have experienced far fewer crashes the next 2 beta reserve slots, so I do see improvement.

In response to your query;
Elizabeth O'Malley said:
Is this the expectation of BETA?
Click to expand...
I would venture a guess that the purpose of beta is to observe performance of the game itself and make improvements over time to perfect it even more.
So, in the affirmative, yes, this would be one of the expectations of beta, because without your perhaps frustrating personal experiences, the devs would not know all the issues they need to fix.

I think it is imperative to understand that we players are "test subjects" of sorts in that our experiences in the beta test game are invaluable to improve the overall performance.
So while it may seem frustrating to crash and have glitches, they do help everyone. So, thank you for your experiences and keep it up and eventually the bugs will be addressed.
Good Luck & Have Fun!!!
 
Toothless said:
My first beta game I crashed maybe 6 times more or less. I'm sure I could view the log but it's not important.
I have experienced far fewer crashes the next 2 beta reserve slots, so I do see improvement.

In response to your query;

I would venture a guess that the purpose of beta is to observe performance of the game itself and make improvements over time to perfect it even more.
So, in the affirmative, yes, this would be one of the expectations of beta, because without your perhaps frustrating personal experiences, the devs would not know all the issues they need to fix.

I think it is imperative to understand that we players are "test subjects" of sorts in that our experiences in the beta test game are invaluable to improve the overall performance.
So while it may seem frustrating to crash and have glitches, they do help everyone. So, thank you for your experiences and keep it up and eventually the bugs will be addressed.
Good Luck & Have Fun!!!
Click to expand...
Thank you for taking my post in the intention it was meant. Hopefully myself and others who are experiencing this constant crashing will improve our settings so that we could help beta developers and not overwhelm them with these initial game problems. Perhaps someone could post a "Do these things FIRST, before you start to maximize play time" to help those get over this hurdle!
 
I know it's very frustrating and I understand, trust me.
There are a few "hints" and advice for how to improve performance in the game, but they don't all work all the time or for all people and glitches.
If you search the forums though you might find some useful advice.
One that comes to mind and helps many players is to enable vsync.
Another is to unistall the game, download the latest version, reinstall, reboot and try it out. Someone else suggested right clicking on the game icon on the desktop and using the windows compatibility wizard.
There are several more options as well and I certainly hope you can find the ones that work for you.
Good Luck and keep me posted!
 
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