I know that this suggestion will appear selfish but still.
When server will be nearly ready for release, what about making closed beta test for former players. You still have our chars so we can use them for testing all things that tester team missed. It also can help with trying server under higher load. After all, the server was in closed development for nearly a year and i'm not naive to think that all scripts were flawless and so all things that worked before are still working.
And why i suggest to invite only old players instead of making open beta? Because if it reveals any major and gamebreaking bugs, it will not destroy hype that was already maded. I'm convinced, that all old players that want to return will be tolerant and will not denigrate the server, because they know, that it was good year ago and so when these potential bugs are fixed, it will be good once again.
When server will be nearly ready for release, what about making closed beta test for former players. You still have our chars so we can use them for testing all things that tester team missed. It also can help with trying server under higher load. After all, the server was in closed development for nearly a year and i'm not naive to think that all scripts were flawless and so all things that worked before are still working.
And why i suggest to invite only old players instead of making open beta? Because if it reveals any major and gamebreaking bugs, it will not destroy hype that was already maded. I'm convinced, that all old players that want to return will be tolerant and will not denigrate the server, because they know, that it was good year ago and so when these potential bugs are fixed, it will be good once again.