 What's up everybody, I'm the Mangus, you are awesome, and as promised, I'm going to be following up on the August update with some more lengthy in-depth videos about specific topics, and today is Predecessor's Turn. I wasn't able to participate in the stress test, so the footage you see today was graciously provided by Windu the Mace. Check out his YouTube and Twitch channel linked in the video description below. As I mentioned before, the stress test weekend they held didn't go great for Omeda. It wasn't game ending bad or anything, it's just that the tests showed that their systems aren't quite ready to handle the big heavy load that the player base had in store for them. The servers actually held up well, but something in the back-end support for the game failed. I was a bit hesitant to frame the failure in a negative light, however, there are two reasons why I did. For one, it really wasn't that big of a deal. As many people pointed out, it's much better that something like this happens during an alpha test than after they bonk high that shit. And B, I like to think that I've built a reputation of honesty in the community and no matter how you slice it, the alpha test did not go nearly as well as it could have. Predecessor has been and still is my favorite of the Paragon successors, but if I were to sit here and tell you guys that a turd is a candy bar just because I liked the ass that it came out of, then I would lose all credibility. Anything good or bad that I've said so far about any of these studios would be null and void. We all owe it to these studios to call them out when things go wrong so that we can be trusted when we praise them for things that go right. If you were completely unaware of what happened, Ameida Studios held a stress test where they invited as many people as possible to come play Predecessor to see if they could handle that many people at once. They couldn't. Some players were able to get in on one maybe two games before something broke, still not sure exactly what, and then no one was able to connect to a match for the rest of the weekend. Many people that weren't part of the first wave of players ended up not being able to play at all. I've been trying to find out what exactly failed as I've been told that the servers actually held up, but Ameida has understandably declined to tell some random dipshit YouTuber about their inner workings. All we really know is that something went wrong enough that they weren't able to fix it over the weekend. Now, some people will say that the test was successful because it was designed to find out if the game could handle the mass amounts of players, and they indeed discovered the answer and identified the problem. I say nay, just because you got results from a test doesn't mean that the test was a success. If I install new breaks on my truck and then test those breaks, I don't expect them to fail. What I expect is that my new breaks will work as intended and stop the damn truck. However, I also wouldn't test those breaks by taking the truck out on the road immediately. I would set up a controlled environment so that if there was a failure, the damage would be minimal. That's exactly what Ameida did. They didn't wait until the game was fully released and tested the game for max capacity. They did so in an alpha test. The backlash from one single alpha weekend that people were allowed to participate in for free has been minimal and they got the data they needed to improve. The obvious comparison here is the launch of FALSE Early Access that was played by the same issue. However, people paid for that shit with the expectation that they were buying a stable game that they could play for as long as they liked and they were understandably far more pissed off. While the test may not have gone well, Ameida did the right thing by conducting it in the first place. So what are the implications here? Nothing big really. The game will probably be delayed a bit while they fix the issue if they haven't already. They'll have to do another stress test to see if they have fixed it and that's a bit more time added to one before we get the full release. This was just one small necessary step in the development process. Yeah, it didn't go great, but fuck, it's one weekend. A year from now, no one will even remember that this happened. This isn't cause to lose faith in the skills of Ameida. This isn't a portent of doom for predecessor. It's just a test that didn't go as well as it could have. And there is a pretty big silver line to all of this. There is obviously a huge amount of interest in predecessor. The fact that there are so many people disappointed that they didn't get to play bodes well for the future of the game when they can get everything working as intended. I think it's great that so many people on Reddit and Discord were cheering Ameida Studios because nobody booze an insignificant player. Also, the people that were able to get a few matches in all report that the game runs smooth and is incredibly fun. That lines up with my past experiences with the predecessor for sure. While they aren't trying to make a one for one remake of Paragon, they've come the closest, in my opinion at least, of recapturing the spirit and feeling of the game. Now, there were some people legitimately pissed off that they weren't able to alpha test the game. Not many, really, but a few. And to that I say, know your fucking role. This ain't some big budget AAA studio that can afford to hire playtesters to ensure that everything is perfect for their alpha test. And I say alpha with a heavy dose of sarcasm, because we all know that AAA studios only use the word alpha to excuse themselves when they have bugs in a finished game. No, this is an independent studio building a spiritual successor for a game they loved. They need us to help them test and improve their game. They've extended this opportunity for free and expect some respect and understanding in return. If you sign up to alpha test the game, you're volunteering your time to work for the developer. Expect that there will be bugs and actually report those bugs when you find them. Of course, you know, be disappointed if you don't actually get to play, but you have zero right to be pissed about it. I have a strong suspicion that one successor's biggest critics are another's biggest fans. That applies to all of them. Word of advice, if you have to push others down to prop yourself up, you'll just fall harder when those others stand up on their own. All in all, this was just one step in the development process for Predecessor. I have full faith that they'll rebound from this and provide the community with an even better experience because of it. Predecessor also had a pretty shit alpha weekend all the way back in, was it, March of 2018, 19? Fuck, I don't remember. No one really remembers because they improved so much since then. It sucks that so many were disappointed, but I'm happy to see that there was so much interest in the game that I fully believe in. I hope you enjoyed today's video, but for now, this is the Mangoo signing off. You guys, have a good one. Mangooos.