Hello, everyone! As you all may know, one of the most impactful development resources we have is the direct feedback coming from all of you. This includes the player behavior data we receive from the latest builds in the Public Test Universe (PTU). Whether it's pushing the servers to their limits under heavy load and luring bugs out of hiding, to putting a new feature through its paces in focused test cases - you're an essential part of the process. The PTU is a replica environment of all of the necessary components that make our universe work. It is in this environment where both community members and Cloud Imperium staff alike test as we hone in on a Release Candidate (RC). Access to the PTU has historically been granted in waves to control the number of players in the environment based on testing needs. More often than not, a new feature or build will benefit from a gradual increase in concurrency, rather that a floodgate of traffic. This allows us to monitor at varying degrees of scale, to ensure that once content makes it onto the live servers, it will be performant. For the last four years, we haven't changed the PTU wave system, which regulates who has access to the test servers and when. Over time, more and more players have gained access to various waves, which has ultimately led us away from our initial goals with testing waves. We have also come to notice that many players only log in once per PTU phase to briefly inspect the latest features or new ships before waiting for the live release. This led to very high player loads in the first hours of each wave release, combined with comparatively high server costs and download provisioning, but not the sustained playtesting we would have preferred. As a consequence, towards the end of a PTU phase, we sometimes lacked the necessary numbers of testers to put the servers under pressure once the most significant bugs had been fixed. For this reason, the team has decided to restructure the PTU's waves to focus on player activity. Now, the more often you play and the more experienced and familiar you are with the game and its mechanics, the earlier we'll invite you to enter the PTU. To support this and the players that would like access to the PTU, we'll review the activity-based wave allocation several times a year to ensure we have the most active testers within the first waves. So, if you have been following development more from the sidelines recently, don't worry! Hop back into the pilot seat, as future activity will lead to earlier PTU access in a relatively short time. Naturally, we also want to continue to open the door for everyone who has supported us. For this reason, we'll continue to accommodate Subscribers and the various Concierge levels throughout the new wave program. We're looking forward to this new approach, as together we'll gain even more data from the PTU phases and, as a result, a better experience on the live servers in the long run. Below, you'll find the new restructured waves for the PTU: Evocati Test Flight group: - Hand-selected players under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Very experienced volunteer testers chosen based on the long-term provision of constructive feedback, quantity and quality of bug reports, and overall activity Wave 1: - Top active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles - Subscribers - Legatus Navium Concierge-level backers Wave 2: - Next top active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles - Praetorian Concierge-level backers Wave 3: - Next top active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles - Wing Commander, Space Marshal, and Grand Admiral Concierge-level backers Wave 4: - Next top active players rated by hours in the previous two major patch cycles - High Admiral Concierge-level backers Wave 5: - All backers with an active Game Package Thank you!