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Star Citizen PTU FAQ

This is a collected bundle of information on how to Enable & Download the PTU and how invites work as well as general FAQ information from the RSI Support Section.

If you have been invited to the Public Test Universe (PTU), you can install the PTU Launcher and game. These are different and separate than the current LIVE Launcher and game. When installed, they will create a PTU folder for each.

INSTALL AND JOIN THE PTU

The following steps have been best for downloading, installing, and logging in:

  1. Visit the RSI website and click Account. Login with your Login ID and password. Click Settings to open your account.
    PTU_AccountProfile.png
  2. Click the Public Test Universe tab.
  3. Click Copy your account to the PTU. Following this step, you should receive an email with your PTU-specific password.
    Be patient: It can take some time for the email to arrive.  It will arrive from no-reply@robertsspaceindustries.com with the subject “RSI Test Account Copied to Public Test Universe”. The servers are handling a high number of requests.

  4. Log in to the RSI Launcher and then select the PTU build from from the drop down tab in the top left.
  5. Click Install to download the latest build.
    Launcher_Window.png

ACCESS AND LOGINS

The PTU uses your Login ID and a special password we send via email after using the Copy account to PTU link in your account Settings page under the Public Test Universe tab. If you copy your account again, your previous password will become invalid, so wait for that email before attempting to log in again. You can also change your password anytime:

  1. Visit the PTU site.
  2. Click Account and login with your Login ID and the special PTU password (from your most recent account copy email).
  3. Change the password through the account area.
    Note: Your PTU account exists in a separate “sandbox” environment from your standard RSI account, so changes made on your PTU account do not happen on your normal game account. Any changes you make on your normal RSI account will not automatically transfer to your PTU account until you perform another account copy.

If you get locked out or forget your password, you’ve got two options:

  1. Use the Account Recovery through the PTU site.
  2. For a more thorough PTU account reset, you can use the Copy account to PTU option from above to completely reset your account. You will receive another email with a new password, and any changes or events that happened on your account in the PTU will be reset.

MORE INFO ON THE CURRENT PTU

You can also check in our PTU forum for possible issues and solutions discussed by other players. You can also post there for additional support from the community and staff.

The Public Test Universe, or PTU, is a replica environment of all servers needed to operate the game and the platform. This environment exists to allow public testing phases of unreleased patches of the game and platform. This environment will be publicly available to players, but under tight access control.

Access to the PTU requires an invitation, handled in waves, to control the amount of players in the environment based on testing needs. The PTU also includes the Evocati Test Flight group, an advance team of player testers.

HOW DOES THE PTU WORK?

The PTU will be started up when a patch is nearing task implementation lock. Development Operations (Opds) will select the best working build and deploy it to the PTU servers. Then players and internal staff (QA, Development, Ops) will access the environment for testing.

The PTU is managed by testing “phases”. A testing phase includes a date range for testing, set features per release and build, and wave invites for required account badges. The PTU is not always available. We only open the PTU servers when we have release candidate builds to test for an upcoming release.

PTU INVITES AND WAVES

The PTU is designed to be a staging environment where we can deploy builds for external players to test before it goes to the Live servers and general availability to all alpha players.

These early release candidates are builds with new features, new ships, bug fixes, and in-progress updates to existing features. Be advised of the following:

  • These early builds are not complete and require extensive testing. To help with player feedback and aid in stress-testing performance, features, and fixes, we push the builds to the Public Test Universe servers and open invite waves as needed for that testing.
  • These builds are not ready for prime time, Live access. They require multiple rounds of code revisions, internal tests, and bench marking to find the right mix of difficulty, performance, stability, and play-ability.
  • We may push builds to the PTU daily to weekly. Depending on updates from design, development, and QA verification, we may update the PTU servers and game code as needed. When you run the Launcher, it will check for updates.
  • Updates may require wipes of PTU accounts. If you push your account to the PTU, you will not lose credit for your reports to Issue Council. These may not be in your report links. Don’t worry, we still see them linked to you internally.

EVOCATI TEST FLIGHT

We determined having a small group of technically-minded players hammering away on the early builds would provide far more accurate data to focus development and testing efforts. This group became Evocati Test Flight, lovingly called Avocados.

The Evocati are a small group of testers we’ve selected from the top players participating in Star Citizen: contributing to Issue Council, racing, running missions, and more. When joining the Evocati, we require a signed NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and work through the process to add members to the Evocati Organization.

They can access the in-progress builds deemed “not quite ready for normal PTU” either due to issues in-progress, features being considered for release, and verifying updates before general release that might be removed depending on how the testing goes.

PTU INVITE WAVES

Once a build is stabilized and features are completed, we then roll that build out to a wider audience. The current PTU release format is as follows (numbers will change per PTU):

  • Evocati (800-2,000 invites): Our smallest group of testers who help us get our releases ready for a proper public viewing more quickly! Picked from Issue Council posters with multiple submissions or contributions and from our most active PTU testers.
  • Wave One (6,000 invites): Approximately 1,000 accounts from participating on Issue Council with one New Report and one Contribution, plus 5,000 accounts who have played more than five PTU builds in the last three months.
  • Wave Two (12,000 additional invites, 18,000 total): 12,000 accounts who have played three to five PTU builds in the last three months.
  • Wave Three (16,000 additional invites, 34,000 total): 16,000 accounts who have played two PTU builds.
  • Wave Four (80,000 additional invites, 114,000 total): 80,000 accounts who have played one PTU build in the last three months.
  • Wave Five: Open to all.

THE PTU IS LIVE AND I GOT AN INVITE! WHAT DO I DO?

When a PTU is live, we post to a new forum in Spectrum. This post will provide information on the play test, links and instructions for any special Launcher and game installation, and any special information you need on the play test.

Copy your account to the PTU environment.

  1. Visit our site and login to Account.
  2. In your account page, click Public Test Universe.
  3. Click Copy account to PTU to copy your current account information.

If you add ships or make changes to your Live account, or you have issues in PTU, you may need to erase and recopy your account to the PTU. When you do, any Issue Council entries on the PTU Issue Council won’t show up on your account. Don’t worry, we still see them associated to your account.

We provide a PTU RSI site for:

  • PTU account access if you need to change your password through Account Recovery
  • PTU Issue Council
  • PTU Spectrum for chat

When you copy over your account to the PTU, your ships, equipment, and account information transfers from your Live account. The following items do not carry over to PTU: Authenticator settings, rentals, REC, UEC, and flair items. Anything you earn on the PTU does not carry back over to Live.

RECOPYING YOUR ACCOUNT!

During the course of PTU testing, you may need to recopy over your account from Live. You can do this anytime through the Live RSI site. This will send a different password. Your entered Issue Council reports may not be linked to your account anymore, but don’t worry! We still see you as the reporter in our systems.

I WANT TO TEST, HOW DO I GET INVOLVED?

These are the best ways to get involved to receive invites:

  • We accept testing reports on Live and PTU. As you find bugs, issues, and crashes with the RSI Launcher and game, you can use the Issue Council to report them!
  • Watch for Spectrum posts requesting help and information on specific issues from CIG.
  • Play the game, extensively, deeply, for enjoyment but also to provide insight back to CIG on gameplay.

We track all involvement to determine our invitation lists for Evocati and PTU waves!

HOW DO I GET A PTU INVITE?

When the PTU is up, we will create a forum and post information in Spectrum. We keep a forum post updated on PTU invites and waves. Please check that post for updates on the PTU! We also post known issues, test requests for the community, and Issue Council links we may need for specific player involvement.