9 replies to this topic

[Rhent]

Its a poor design decision to call the game in "BETA" and to then use what amounts to the release server as your defacto Test Server. Why is it a poor design decision? Because people are coming to the franchise for the first time, try it, deal with the bugs and wildly out of balance gameplay mechanics and permanently leave.

Everyone at this point understand that the developers are skewing the game towards missiles, ballistics, energy and ecm at various times to test out some rather interesting takes the lead developer has on "game balance". However, when you introduce someone to the game for the first time and its PPC Warrior online and they die in 2 minutes of game play with no clue what they did wrong, you loose that player, often times forever.

Put out a Test Server, and look at the data and you'll understand what a game decision will do to the game. Its better than releasing some of the worst game decisions I've seen in a "BETA" to date. People are churning, its horrible for your ROI. Put out a Test Server and use that for major game decisions, and then tinker with it there to get it mostly right before releasing to everyone to deal with.

[Cyke]

Now there's a thought.

Put up a test environment with limited resources (maybe just enough to run half a dozen or so concurrent games to reduce computing and bandwidth costs for these tests), where players voluntarily register to play here. You can use your 'Mechs from the normal environment, but games here give no C-Bills or XP.
Have tons of warnings that come up during registration that this is a TEST SERVER, and is not meant to be enjoyable (unless you actually enjoy testing game balance, that is. You sick puppy, you).

Players here are instructed to win at all costs, and report their opinion and findings.
Useful feedback should be compulsory. Failure to provide feedback if PGI asks would be grounds for removal from the test program. Of course, the actual wins and losses, kills and deaths, cross-referenced with weapons, 'Mechs and equipment usage produces even better data.
When they have the time, PGI staff should play on these games on a regular basis.

All sorts of stuff from machine gun DPS increases, PPC heat increases, jump jet fuel bar nerfs, missile damage, ECM behavior overhauls.. everything and anything goes.. whatever PGI needs to test, they can configure it on this test environment in 10 minutes and let it loose and see how it works out.
They can even set periods of time where the test environment will only run one map, or only allow a certain type of 'Mech, or make it compulsory to equip a certain type of weapon, or anything that would normally be considered "boring" or "not fun". Only people serious about it should be in the tests anyway, so if PGI wants to test something in a "not fun" way, the testers should comply anyway.

Tournament winners should be encouraged to come try out all the potential changes undergoing testing to see if they can find any overpowered broken combinations.

Edited by Cyke, 09 May 2013 - 12:52 PM.

[Hammerfinn]

The Devs have already said that this sort of thing is in the works; I think they're calling it a Private Testing Realm or something like that--where planned changes are implemented and debugged by volunteers. I just did a quick look and can't immediately find a link, but they're supposed to be working on it. Think it's with UI 2.0, maybe a little after.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Here's a passage from Ask the Devs 37 (Answers):

Team Leader: How can we apply for a spot on the public test server? Will we be able to adjust weapon stats on the fly as a "host" in a server, live testing changes? Will there be sliders for damage, duration, recycle time, heat, projectile speed, etc? Respawn allowed in the test server?

A: We’re still deciding exactly how this will all work. Public Tests will be open to all during specific short time slices, say 4pm-6pm. They will test specific changes, say weapon balance, or matchmaking. Players will not have control over these changes. Standard game rules will be in place.
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So, they will be having some sort of Public test server for the Community to test changes en masse.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 09 May 2013 - 12:57 PM.

[Bad Design]

Hammerfinn, on 09 May 2013 - 12:53 PM, said:

The Devs have already said that this sort of thing is in the works; I think they're calling it a Private Testing Realm or something like that--where planned changes are implemented and debugged by volunteers. I just did a quick look and can't immediately find a link, but they're supposed to be working on it. Think it's with UI 2.0, maybe a little after.

Well one of the mod posts were about how they were going to automate the testing process to help with bugs. Soon as I read that and seen how they run the public server as a test server, it became apparent why there are such huge swings in balance and major hotfixes.

[Syllogy]

The devs are already waaaay ahead of you.

[Rhent]

Syllogy, on 09 May 2013 - 01:13 PM, said:

The devs are already waaaay ahead of you.

I can't think of any game that I've ever played that didn't have a Test Server in BETA. It was typically closed, but they would put in people who tend to be to the right of the bell curve to see how much they could abuse/break a change. Heck, this is the first BETA in a long time, I'm not stuck with a pop up window to answer at the end of a task.

This doesn't feel like BETA. this feels like a release where they are having paying customers and free customers to act as their QA department, but they didn't really give us good tools for bug reporting and we have no /stuck command to get out of stuck spots. The whole development process of this game is bizzare compared to the other 3 BETA's I've done.

[Corvus Antaka]

Prosperity Park, on 09 May 2013 - 12:56 PM, said:

Here's a passage from Ask the Devs 37 (Answers):

Team Leader: How can we apply for a spot on the public test server? Will we be able to adjust weapon stats on the fly as a "host" in a server, live testing changes? Will there be sliders for damage, duration, recycle time, heat, projectile speed, etc? Respawn allowed in the test server?

A: We’re still deciding exactly how this will all work. Public Tests will be open to all during specific short time slices, say 4pm-6pm. They will test specific changes, say weapon balance, or matchmaking. Players will not have control over these changes. Standard game rules will be in place.
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So, they will be having some sort of Public test server for the Community to test changes en masse.

This.

Second, it is beta, so technically you are on a test server now.

[Cyke]

Colonel Pada Vinson, that's technically true, but it's also release because the beta is open and financial transactions have long since begun.

Nevertheless, back on topic, I'm glad PGI is setting up a test environment!
Once it's up, I'm confident their response time (to observe issues, plan what to do about it, test the changes, and implement them into the live environment) will become much faster, and as a whole the game will improve a lot!
Better fine-tuning in game balance, and greater possibility for major gameplay changes to appear.

[Multitallented]

+1

They need this test server asap so we don't get ******** game balance like this on the live server. So many people have left as a result of the current state of the game.