Update September 20, 2016: After a delay to allow the developers to “include key elements”, Ubisoft has announced The Division’s public test server – or ‘PTS’ if you’re cool – will now hit on September 26.
Try The Division patch 1.4 in the PTS now.
The PTS, if you’re unaware, is a way of letting players test out forthcoming patches so they can be polished and preened ahead of general release.
It had been due to go live on September 13, but Ubisoft pulled it at the last minute – along with a planned livestream of Update 1.4 – to get it up to scratch. Now an update to the forum post detailing the PTS roll out confirms September 26 is the new date.
“The PTS will open publicly on Monday, September 26,” reads the update. Short, sharp, sweet.
As previously stated, players who want to make use of the PTS will need to download the entire The Division game client again, though characters from the live game will reportedly transfer over to the PTS. “Your character data will be imported from the live servers to the PTS regularly, and overwrite your current progress on the PTS,” the forum post clarifies.
Update September 12, 2016:Ubisoft have today postponed the release of The Division’s public test server, along with tomorrow’s planned livestream.
The developers say they had to postpone the livestream because things just weren’t far enough along, meaning they couldn’t show a sufficient amount of 1.4 footage.
“We mentioned last week on State of the Game that we would be hosting a Special Report for Update 1.4. tomorrow (Tuesday the 13th). We will need to delay this show as at this stage we wouldn’t be able to show all of the content we would like to,” reads The Division forum post. “While the Special Report format demands that we be more complete in the type of things that we show, we’ll be using our weekly State of the Game to give you some more concrete solutions that will be present in Update 1.4.”
Ubisoft had previously stated that the public test server would go live this Thursday, but that’s also been postponed, giving the developers more time to “include key elements that are critical to the overall Update 1.4 experience”.
“Transparency is something that we know our community wants, and something that we aim to deliver every day,” adds the post. “In this instance, it does mean that we need to share our schedule and intentions that are subject to shifting throughout the process. The alternative of ‘leaving you in the dark’ is not something we see as an option! We’re very eager to get this update out to all Agents while bringing you into the development process as much as we can and as soon as we have more information, we’ll let you know.”
Original Story August 31, 2016: Last weekUbisoft pledged to fix The Divisionbefore they release any more DLC, and a public test server could be a major step in the right direction, letting people test out upcoming patches so they can be fine tuned before proper release.
Ubisoft have even extended an invitation to the community to fly out to Sweden and help them get the game up to scratch. It seems they’re throwing everything at it.
Update 1.4 is an incoming patch that aims to improve the core of the snowswept shooter. Ubisoft have been trawling the internet for feedback, and one thing keeps popping up: the need for public test servers.
“As many pointed out after we announced Update 1.4, a great way to involve you would be to let you try the update before its release,” says the Ubisoft blog post. “Good news! We are thrilled to confirm that we will be opening a public test server on PC for The Division in the near future.”
There’s no date for this, but with the big fixes planned to land in October, I’d expect it some time in September, giving the developers time to react to the data.
Changes coming with Update 1.4 will be detailed in a Special Report livestream on September 13, so we’ll probably get a date then.