All About The Test Server (Singularity)

Even when you fit a new ship in Pyfa or EVEFit, you never really know how well it's going to work for what you've made it for. Sometimes it's best to fit it in game, and test it out where you want to actually use it, but this isn't always feasible with newer pilots. This is where the test server comes into play.



About the Test Server

The test server is always a great place to test ships, and even test your fits in various in-game situations. The best part is, that the test server is usually only occupied by about 100 players aside from event times, and even then they are usually in the PvP test system. This means if you want to test missions in a fit somewhere around Jita or Amarr, you are most likely the only person in that area. Not only that, the test server rules forbid players from attacking other players on the test server. This means you can test anything in-game without having to deal with any other players.

Some times you may notice that the game itself looks a bit different on the test server, and this is because the test server's main objective is to allow actual game testers to test the new versions of EVE Online before they are public on the Tranquility server (where everyone actually plays). This gives you a great time to try or test the new upcoming features, and sometimes ship balancing. It's always good to test your ships to make sure they are still good to go after an update that has changed the traits of your ships.

Things to Know

Mirror Copies

There are a few things to know about the test server before you start to use it. First off your character's skills only reflect the skills you had since their last "mirror" copy. Basically CCP copies all the data from the Tranquility server to the Singularity server (SISI), around new patches. Anything that happened after that date on the Tranquility server, will not show on SISI until the next mirror. This may seem troubling at first, since you will lack certain skills you trained since the last mirror, but there are ways to remedy that. Keep in mind these mirrors also overwrite your test server inventory, so don't get too attached to your test ships, and make sure to save the fittings. NOTE: If your character wasn't created when the last mirror was done, you will have to wait until the next mirror to use the test server.

Dollar Store Prices

Before I forget to mention, in every major trade hub everything sells for 100ISK. Yes, 100, as in 100.00ISK. This makes for easy fitting even if you lack ISK. If you don't even have 100ISK, a simple level 1 mission could allow you to fit pirate battleship completely (I know, right!?). So don't ever worry about ISK on the test server, because it's simply a lost cause. I won't recommend the insurance fraud on SISI. It's highly frowned upon, but thought I would at least mention...

Mass Test Events

If you have ever looked in the in-game calendar before, and noticed events labeled "Mass test on Singularity", this is in fact a public "Mass Test" that CCP does periodically on test servers. These tests invite players to log into the test server at a certain time, and do whatever they want. These events usually only last for an hour, and is done to test the load on the server with a mass amount of players. The reason I bring it up is that this is your remedy for missing skills, or even to test skills out. Let me explain. If you log in to the test server during the mass test, CCP will give your test character 1 million SP to play with on that account. For every mass test you go to, the amount accumulates. With that extra SP you can simply train your skills in a matter of seconds, and probably train more than you had to begin with. This is a great way to test short-term skill plans.

Getting Started

It is now time to get the test server running. Before I tell you how to get the server ready, let me give you couple links to information you'll want to read while your new client is updating.

Test Server Rules READ THESE BEFORE LOGGING IN
Test Server Information Link This link shows information like when the last Mirror was done, among other information
How To Create Bug Reports If you find a bug on the test server, this is how to report it
Reporting Rule Violations There will be times when players may break the rules, and usually by podding you. You can report these violations here.
How to Connect to Singularity Go to this link if you are having trouble getting your test client working from the instructions below.
Test Server Forum Where you can find all these links

Setting Up on Windows

Ok, let's start. If you are on a Windows system, simply copy your EVE folder to another location (i.e. C:\EVEtest). We want to create a completely separate copy of the game in another folder; if we don't you will update your EVE folder, and will not be able to access the Tranquility server.

After the folder is done copying, go into your new folder, and find the EVE.exe file, right-click it, hover over "Send To" and click "Desktop (create shortcut). Now find the new shortcut on your desktop, and right-click it, and choose "Properties". With the properties window open choose the "General Tab". Change the name of the shortcut to "Singularity", by changing the text next to the Icon as shown on the right.

Next we want to go to the Shortcut tab, and add some additional flags to the target. We start by adding /server:Singularity to the end of the command as shown on the right.This tells the client what server to update from, and by adding /server:Singularity, it tells the client to update from the SISI server, instead of the default TQ server.



Once you are done with the shortcut, simply click the new shortcut to start the new client. This shortcut will always start the new client, and connect to Singularity. At the top part of the launcher, it should show that it is connected to Singularity as shown on the right. Right after connecting, it will start updating your client files to update you to the server build the Singularity server is using. Now is the time to start reading all of those links.

Setting Up on MacOS X

Setting up the test client on a Mac is a bit different, but the concept is the same. CCP recommends using the Test EVE Online Tool to do this, but that requires you to download the entire game all over again. Instead, I'll give you a quicker way of accomplishing the exact same goal.

From your Applications directory, make a copy of your EVE app file, and rename it Singularity. Go to your Applications folder, and open the Utilities folder, then open Terminal. From the terminal, run the following command:

open /Applications/Singularity.app --args /server:Singularity 

Like the Windows test server, we are telling the new copy to start, and connect to Singularity. This will start the launcher, and start the updating process. In the meantime, read the links above, and then you can work on making an icon to start the test server, instead of the Terminal. You can of course skip the reading, and move to the icon which I will discuss further below.

To make it easier to start, we can make a script to start the client so we don't have to open the Terminal every time we want to go to SISI. To do this we need to use one of the system's built-in editors, since TextEdit can't handle this task (TextEdit cannot format the script correctly).  While we're in a terminal, let's switch to the Desktop folder first by typing 'cd ~/Desktop', and then type 'pico' to open the editor. We want to type the following into the editor:

#!/bin/bash
open /Applications/Singularity.app --args /server:Singularity

After you have that typed in, exit Pico by pressing Control X. It will ask if you want to save, choose "Yes", and name the file "Singularity.command". If all went well, you should have a new icon on the desktop called Singularity, with an icon that says "SHELL". You can then Get Info on the new icon, and remove the ".command" in the name as shown on the right.

You can change the icon to whatever you want, or just make it the EVE icon. If you want the EVE icon "Get Info" on your Singularity app, click the icon, press "Option C" to copy the icon, "Get Info" on the script, click the script icon, and press "Option V" to paste the new icon.