Moving to a new alpha details

Word on the grape vine is A20 will be releasing to streamers this weekend and public experimental the following Monday. However take that with a pinch of salt as it may be the weekend after or later, however i thought i'd explain the migration process so players know what to expect.

First up is some basics, most players here will already know these but for the sake of completion i'll explain them anyway. When a new major alpha version is released current worlds and saves will no longer be compatible. So a new map and save is required, that's just the way it is. New major alpha versions always release in experimental first. This means your game won't update if you're currently opted out of betas (the default in steam) To get it to update to the experimental version i'd recommend launching the game with "show game launcher" first and use the "clean game data" option in the tools tab, i'd then uninstall. At this point you can right click the game in your library and click "properties" then in the betas tab select from the dropdown A20 Experimental (note this won't be available until it's released on the monday)

Next up is how i manage major version changes here. When the streamer weekend begins the main server will go offline while i archive it to another machine. Once it's setup it will be available to play on until A20 is publicly available, after that it will only be accessible to donators. The Dead Is Dead server doesn't get archived and will run until sunday the day before public release. That server will get completely wiped on sunday ready for A20.

The pimps are in a much different timezone to me, so they usually release quite late in my time. As long as it's not to late i should be able to get a server up on the same day, if not the next day. The A20 Dead is Dead server will be the first and only server up during experimental, which usually last 2-4 weeks. This is because it requires significantly less work to set up and it may be needed during experimental to do a full wipe due to updates during that period. It's also a great server to play on during experimental as you won't be likely to make it to end game and spoil your a20 stable time.

While we're in the experimental phase i'll have my hands full converting mods and prefabs, testing and benchmarking. So if you have any questions now is time to ask.

Finally once A20 goes to the stable branch, you opt out of all betas in the betas tab in steam and that will download the latest stable version. The main server is significantly more work to get set up so it may be a couple days until that's ready. Sometimes if experimental goes smoothly and I've finished all my work during experimental i can get the main server up shortly before it goes stable, it just depends.