Public Test Universe (PTU) FAQ

The PTU (Public Test Universe) 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, but under tight access control.

Access to the PTU requires an invitation and is 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 Public Test Universe will be started up when a large patch is nearing task implementation lock. Development Operations (Ops) 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 and attempting to login when it is not active will give an error. We only open the PTU servers when we have release candidate builds to test for an upcoming release.

PTU Testing Expectations

The PTU is designed to be a staging environment where we can deploy builds for players to test before they go 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 playability.
• 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.

As part of this process, we learned that the signal-to-noise ratio for the early iterations of a build was far too low. Sifting through the mountains of data on our forums that thousands of players would provide in order to find information that would help us make the build better was a logistical nightmare.

This led us to create the Evocati Test Flight organization and test group. We then schedule waves of invites to the PTU for Evocati and players-at-large, increasing access as needed by development, designers, QA, and operations to test all aspects of the release candidate builds.

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 (ETF), 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. Typically these not ready for general PTU are dubbed EPTU or Experimental Public Test Universe.

Beware!  Should you be selected to join the ETF and accept, builds that are opened only for them are not for the faint of heart.

PTU Access

Once a build is stabilized, more volunteers are needed to test the game on a larger scale, and we then roll that build out to wider audiences.

We’ve updated the PTU wave release format as of August 2023 to achieve new testing standards. The aim with this change was to focus on updated player concurrency-over-time goals to properly stress-test our entire ecosystem throughout a full PTU life cycle. Our previous model had grown into a single massive group of one-day testing which was ineffective for our multi-day PTU test needs. This hampered any extended PTU campaigns and we needed to change our strategy to match our current testing needs.

Our new model stretches out our PTU population and testing over multiple groups and multiple days to hit our concurrency goals. This will assist in our efforts to deliver both improved PTU access and playability as well as a more complete gaming experience on the Live service.

PTU Access Waves

Evocati: 

Our smallest wave of testers under NDA that help us get our releases ready for a proper public viewing more quickly! Chosen from active Issue Council users with multiple submissions or contributions and from our most active PTU testers.

Wave 1:

• Legatus Navium Concierge Backers.
• Subscribers.
• Top active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles.

Wave 2:

• Praetorian Concierge backers.
• Second most active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles.

Wave 3:

• Wing Commander, Space Marshal, and Grand Admiral Concierge backers.
• Third most active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles.

Wave 4:

• High Admiral Concierge backers.
• Fourth most active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles.

Wave 5: 

• All backers with an active Game Package.

The PTU is live and I got an invite! What do I do to copy my account?

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 your RSI Account.
2. Click on your user icon in the upper right.
3. In the Settings box, click on Manage your settings.
4. Select Public Test Universe from the list of options on the left.
5. Click the Copy account to PTU button to copy your current account information to the current PTU environment.
6. In your RSI Launcher, select the PTU option from the drop down and Download the PTU client.

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.

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've encountered a bug/error/crash/etc. on the PTU.  How should I report this?

This is the only method of reporting that should be used as RSI Support Staff will not be able to assist with any problems that our PTU testers run into while they are helping test the build. 

This includes issues with installing and launching the PTU game client, as any trouble with that needs to be addressed by our development and Player Experience teams before the patch can be released to Live servers.  Placing a support ticket to report a bug or problem found on the current PTU build will result in a response directing you to the Issue Council and Spectrum.

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!  We also post known issues, test requests for the community, and Issue Council links we may need for specific player involvement.

The PTU has been opened to everyone!  Why can't I access the servers?

Assuming that there are no technical issues with your game install, then there are two requirements that must be fulfilled to be granted access to the PTU servers to help us shape the future of the game:

1. Your account must own a Game Package.  A pledge for a standalone ship or a ship/weapon skin will not work.
2. You must be a backer.  To be considered a backer, your account must have made a monetary pledge to support the game.  An RSI account with only gifted pledges received from other players is not considered a backer account.