Important: Release information and next steps

[Asid]

Important: Release information and next steps



Release plans
1. We are planning to stop the servers for the preparation for the release on Sunday morning 17th January. They should have been stopped earlier but we wanted to give a chance for a last pre-wipe "Trafalgar event"
 
2. Servers will be down from 17th until 19th of January for preparing the release databases. All character data will be deleted and wiped. This will be the last XP (rank) reset and in the future your XP will be saved and safe. There might be drops or increases in rank if the testing shows that xp will have to be rebalanced, but your earned XP will always stay. 
 
3. All current owners of the game will be able to start playing before Steam early access opens. Head start date is set on 19th of January. Everyone will receive several exceptional vessels for participating in the testing of the game. To receive the exceptional vessels you must login and create a character during head start. Only created characters will receive ships.
 
4. There will be a long maintenance on the night between 20 and 21 January.
 
5. Release date is 21 January. The release date depends on the time it takes for Valve to approve the release. It usually is done in under 3 days but sometimes can take longer. It will all depend on Valve now.
 
Short version
1. 17th Jan - Servers stopping
2. 18th Jan - Data wipe
3. 19th Jan - Head start
4. 20th Jan - Long maintenance (approx 9pm CET till 9am CET next day)
5. 21th Jan - Several exceptional ships given to all captains who logged in from 19-21
6. 21th Jan - Release (tentative on valve timing)
 
Of course we know that most plans don't survive when the meet reality. We do not discount the possibility that something might change. The riskiest date is the release date itself. If Valve is slow the date will be moved forward.

Discussion: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F8353-important-release-information-and-next-steps%2F