Okay, my team has had yet another meeting to discuss how we are going to proceed with the server and after some ideas and a little bit of arguing we all agreed on these methods and changes.

First, for those players who have been helping us test do not be alarmed as your accounts and characters will be safe. I am going to describe in detail how things are going to proceed so just try to relax.

We discovered we made a few errors on how to actually open our server and present it to the world; I have some people on PMfun forums to thank for pointing them out.

The first big mistake we made was appearing out of nowhere saying "Here is our server, come and play!". There was no prior advertising or beta testing, we just opened the doors and asked people to join.

Second mistake was not being prepared to present our server properly. This is mainly because we do not have a working website yet, nor is our custom anti-bot system finished; all we gave the public were some forums.

Now, with those two large mistakes pointed out I am going to describe how we are going to proceed. As I said, to those players who have been with us so far have no fear.

We are going to have two open Beta periods: Beta 1 and Beta 2: PTS.

Beta 1 will last for two weeks, then we will close the server for a week to perform any critical fixes reported and the database wiped. Current players DO NOT PANIC, JUST READ ON!

Beta 2: PTS and this will last for another two weeks. We will close it again for another week to perform any fixes that will be reported before wiping the database again.

This is going to begin on May 2nd so the server will continue to run as it is now until then. During that time anybody who has been with us or will join before May 1st will have their accounts and characters backed up.

When we go live on June 13 the original 10x database will be restored so anyone who was with us at the beginning can pick up right where they left off. Since we did not have any custom functions such as a GM Shop or NPC Buffer players going after June 3rd cannot say you has some sort of advantage.

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BETA 1: May 2, 2011 - May 16, 2011

Rates:

XP/SP: 100x
Adena: 100x

Features:

Limited GM Shop;
"S", "S80" and "S84"armor and weapons
"A" and "S" Grade Soulshots & Spiritshots
SA Crystals "Stage 11+"
Test Server NPC - Class Changing (All 3 Class changes will be free)
Dual Boxing Allowed- 2 Clients per PC with 4 maximum

--------------------------

BETA 2: PTS: May 23, 2011 - June 2, 2011

Rates:

XP/SP: 100x
Adena: 100x

Features:

Instant level 84
Test Server NPC - Class Change (All 3 Class changes will be free)
Monster PTS Madness System - Mobs will be massing in Giran and drop S80 and S84 items when killed

There will be no NPC Buffer as we need players to test their class skills on their own during both beta periods. Players will also have to do the quest to become Nobless as this option will not be available at anytime.

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June 13, 2011: WE OPEN LIVE!

Rates:

Same as the original 10x with the following exceptions;
Sealstone: 2x
Repeatable Quests: 3x Adena / 2x Items / 3x XP / 3x SP
One Time Quests: 4x Adena / 2x Items / 5x XP / 5x SP

Features:

No Test Server NPC (All 3 Class Change quests must be completed)
No auto pickup
No auto learn skills
Retail-like World

The original 10x database will be restored before opening live on June 13, 2011 so all the original players who helped us will have their accounts, characters, items, pets, etc back and start where they left off. This is our way of thanking the original 10x testers for helping out.

We hope this will be acceptable to everybody as everyone on the Hybrid L2 Development team feels it is the best way for present our server to the world. Of course players are free to comment in the General Discussions topic.

The forums will remain open the entire time.

I'm glad that you changed your mind.

I have one question though, how many testers you have so far approximately?

At most we had 40 testers on helping us out but it was always going up and down. However the people who have been playing have been saying good things about how our core operated.

I would often log into the game and chat with players, asking their opinions and I never got any negative feedback.

The most common things players would say were:

"No lag", "Smooth gameplay", "Geodata and pathfinding is amazing"

But the one that made me chuckle the most was "An actual working retail Community Board!" I had no idea how many people liked having this feature. lol

That's because a bunch of server were exploited through the community server, but I don't know how though (sql injection?).

I thought you were only wanted to restore test characters back after live start is to inspire players to stay and test things because there were no tester but you have ~40 which is quite impressive for beta purposes.
Although some might say it's not fair that they'll have their characters restored after live for various reasons, for example at server start every little bit of adena is needed for clan hall bids, in which case testers would have major advantages. Or players with subclass/noblesse quests ready could easily be heroes way faster than the rest (especially if the server is opening at near the end of a month).
If it was up to me I'd only give 1st/2nd class change quests and some accessorys to testers anda big thanks max, but it's not up to me.
Anyway, I hope even if you restore their characters at least check their inventories/wh's/etc for highly unlikely items, which could only be made by some sort of exploit.

Even though generally I'm too lazy to test servers I'll definetly come to the beta.

Yeah, I was pretty impressed at how many people decided to help us for the short time we have been open. Our forums had 61 people logged in at one time not long ago.

Yes, we will look over the existing accounts carefully before going live but nobody that is testing is over level 40 so far and the adena rates are not going to change from how they are now.

We have tested our Community Board quite extensively and so far nobody has been able to exploit anything from it. Everything a character does in our system is logged, from chatting to dropping an item someplace in the game.

If all goes well in the future we may open another server, high rate PvP since players always seem to be looking for a stable PvP system.

Thank you Lord

Now, now ... I am not he, but I will answer to supreme being if needed, or you can just give me money and I will worship you. Lol

big fat +
im in!(most likely with my lads!)

It sounds too good to be true

+1

Well, time and player comments will tell if our network will be a hit or a miss. Hopefully what we have to offer the private server world will last for a very long time.

But as I said before we are not perfect so expect bugs and problems on occasion because nothing is perfect. All we want to do is bring a good, stable and working server to the players.

What you choose to believe or think is yours to decide, we just hope you have fun.

+1 vote from me at hz

not much of a difference since you can feed yourself with untagged chars

Not possible, we have an IP check system that will prevent duplicate IP's from competing with each other.

i think he meant noblesse chars which are not "clanned"