112 replies to this topic

[Kmieciu]

Karl Berg, on 24 June 2014 - 11:40 PM, said:

The window was chosen to coincide with the production servers north american peak time, as per http://mwomercs.com/...test-24jun2014/

Unfortunately, even though we had very high population levels on production at the time, the turnout for public test was quite low. I'm sure there will be a lot of analysis as to the distributions of players who logged in, and how we might improve for the next time we run a population sensitive test. I will also pass your feedback on as well.

Thanks!

There's a first ever C-bill sale going on (https://mwomercs.com...original-4-sale), so naturally most of the people are grinding C-Bills and only those who already have all those mechs were willing to do the testing.

[Corbenik]

I wouldnt mind if you offered even exclusive PTS tester Cockpit items to make people join or a Camo or colors (like something used on Protoypes or experimental craft) would be awesome and make people go "hey i wanna get that stuff no one can get unless they PTS"~!

[MischiefSC]

Karl Berg, on 24 June 2014 - 07:50 PM, said:

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update on today’s public test, and the new matchmaker changes we were attempting to trial. Unfortunately PTS population levels were far too low for us to fully test the new system. We saw less than 10% of the turnout that the Clans PTS drew a few weeks ago.

The release valves built into the matchmaker kicked in and performed mostly as expected; and the matchmaker continued producing games despite the highly constrained queue sizes. We were able to monitor the matchmaker using our new analytics dashboard, and we gathered some extremely detailed metrics on the usage and performance of the new systems.

Part way through the test I softened the matchmaking rule set to relieve pressure on the group queue. During this process, I was able to test several of the realtime configurables, and examine their impact on a responsive user base. With 5+ groups, exact weight class matching, and game mode selections in play, groups really need to fit together like puzzle pieces in order to produce a match.

To wrap up, I would like to thank everyone who participated. Despite the population sizes, we did gather some very useful data points, and we were able to verify that the release valves built into the new matchmaker performed as expected.

Thanks!

Need more lead time. I'd have made time for it but I've still got about 41 patches to download on the PTS client - it'll take hours and I didn't have time to get it up to date in time.

We going to have another test run? Saturday maybe?

[Zuesacoatl]

Cavendish, on 24 June 2014 - 09:44 PM, said:

Me and a lot of other europeans would have loved to log on the PTS and help, but for some odd reason you placed this test really late at night.

Imigo Montoya, on 24 June 2014 - 10:49 PM, said:

IF you had allowed us europeans to help out it would not be so depopulated on the test server.... but you choose now live with it...

BladeXXL, on 24 June 2014 - 11:33 PM, said:

You wanna more ppl joining the test?
So try some viable times! :-)

1 am to 5 am european time ... realy?
Can you clear up the mwo playerbase quota for the time zones PST, EST, CET (other major?) please? ^^

Karl Berg, on 24 June 2014 - 11:40 PM, said:

The window was chosen to coincide with the production servers north american peak time, as per http://mwomercs.com/...test-24jun2014/

Unfortunately, even though we had very high population levels on production at the time, the turnout for public test was quite low. I'm sure there will be a lot of analysis as to the distributions of players who logged in, and how we might improve for the next time we run a population sensitive test. I will also pass your feedback on as well.

Thanks!

Get over it Europeeps, they wanted the test done during NA peak times, if they did it during Euro peak times, then it would still have been an issue because they would have missed the NA peak times, they stated it clearly in the lead up to the test as to why they did it this way. With the way they run the PTS at present, there is no good time for them to focus on, and right after a pre-order goes live, that was a big no no as well.

[Noober]

GMT player here, would have loved to have been able to take part. One thought for the future - if you want good turn out, give incentives to players - give c-bills or xp to the live accounts, or have some kind of exclusive sneak peak at something the average player is interested in (eg. Clans). This test in particular needed groups, have a PGI group advertised as dropping, drop a couple of times during the night, giving out premium time to opponents!

[QuaxDerBruchpilot]

Just have a look at other games for god's sake! It's really astonishing that you are dissapointed by the test server population given the fact that you are running a test server for just a few hours at a freakin' time of the day (at least for a large part of the community).

Make the test server available for some days, and offer some incent as already suggested. New content, maps, ... that is available only on test server. I never played due to the incompatible time slots .. but is there e.g. unlimited C-Bills for buying, configuring and testing mechs on the test server?
And for those who are playing a significant number (feel free to define!) of matches on the test server, in addition offer some real bonus like a free mech bay, a cockpit item or the like.

That's at least how it's done at other games ...

[John Archer]

I think the issue they have with letting folks play test the Clans on the PTS is how they clone the Live server account over to the PTS.

They would have to write some incredible scripting that is separate from the billing, and Live system to inject Clan mechs into every single account that /might/ log in. I.e. they would have to do this before the PTS went online.

I imagine that is an extreme work load on their hardware.

Now mind you, I have no idea if the PTS accounts get wiped after the PTS is taken offline...if I had to guess I would say they are not...they are over written by cloning from the Live server. Thus, see above.

Just my thoughts.

Now then.. logging everyone who helped PGI with their testing and rewarding their Live account should be an easy task for them.

I would like to see that. After all, we are basically helping them debug their product. <ducks!>

[Zuesacoatl]

I do agree with the fact that if PGi truly wants to test their patches pre patch day, they do need to open the door to both NA and EU time slots for more than just one day. This allows for people to "flex" into the pts if they find a spare moment to help out. Both regions have different styles of players, and because of that, both regions can offer a grander view of what the overall server pop will give you in the end. The use of incentives will bring even more players in.

Now, being an NA player myself, I hate to admit that most NA players are a "give me give me give me" kind of crowd, and in most games I play with PTS or PTRs, the EU players honestly do most of the selfless play testing. I know that it is not a pleasant idea to keep peeps around the office to watch for more than a few hours or on the weekends, but I still think your best bet to get better pts pops would be to include more EU players.<waits for NA flamers lol>

[Thorqemada]

The announcement for that PT was very short timed - i got aware of it a few hours b4 the PT happened and if i would not have slept i still would have avoided the download for expecting to miss most of the PT anyway.

[Legend_]

Incentives and sneak peeks is definitely the way to go if you want to promote high activity levels on the test servers.

As much as people want a lot of these sorts of features in game and such, they couldn't care less about spending time on a test server where they gain nothing so by giving them an incentive to do so you're making it more likely for them to actually load up and install the test server.

[BladeXXL]

Zuesacoatl, on 25 June 2014 - 02:07 AM, said:

Get over it Europeeps, they wanted the test done during NA peak times, if they did it during Euro peak times, then it would still have been an issue because they would have missed the NA peak times, they stated it clearly in the lead up to the test as to why they did it this way. With the way they run the PTS at present, there is no good time for them to focus on, and right after a pre-order goes live, that was a big no no as well.

LOL ... another guy who thinks USA is the center of the universe?
Not about to destroy your idyllic world, but here are some population stats from wiki:
Canada: 35 Mio
USA: 318 Mio
EU: 505 Mio
Russia: 143 Mio
And a lot of Millions in other European countries between EU and Russia!

You may think Europe is not the potential main target audience, but it's not up to you! :-Þ
PGI asks for suggestions for more partitipation ... and we gave some... so STFU!

[Zuesacoatl]

BladeXXL, on 25 June 2014 - 03:08 AM, said:

LOL ... another guy who thinks USA is the center of the universe?
Not about to destroy your idyllic world, but here are some population stats from wiki:
Canada: 35 Mio
USA: 318 Mio
EU: 505 Mio
Russia: 143 Mio
And a lot of Millions in other European countries between EU and Russia!

You may think Europe is not the potential main target audience, but it's not up to you! :-Þ
PGI asks for suggestions for more partitipation ... and we gave some... so STFU!

Ohhh nooo, someone put on their big boy panties beforing coming to fight on the interwebs....

Reread the post and see that it states that they wanted it done to catch the NA peak times, if they moved it to the EU peak times, they would have missed the NA which would cause the same issue with population because you are missing one peak or the other.

Quote

With the way they run the PTS at present, there is no good time for them to focus on, and right after a pre-order goes live, that was a big no no as well.

Read further down and you will see another post from me as well.

Now I do understand that you took the time to hike up those big boi drawers of yours to try and single someone out for your misguided rage, but please, make sure you are not going to look the fool before you post, it saves you from the part of actually looking the fool.

[CyclonerM]

Karl, i believe i have a solution. Just shut the live servers down for the duration of the test!

It makes sense: many may be disappointed, but if you can play in the live servers you can play in the test server, and if you want to play you have to download the test client

Personally i do not need such costraints: i always join the PTs when i can (and this means when it does not start at 1 AM )l.

[Stickjock]

Karl Berg, on 24 June 2014 - 11:40 PM, said:

The window was chosen to coincide with the production servers north american peak time, as per http://mwomercs.com/...test-24jun2014/

Unfortunately, even though we had very high population levels on production at the time, the turnout for public test was quite low. I'm sure there will be a lot of analysis as to the distributions of players who logged in, and how we might improve for the next time we run a population sensitive test. I will also pass your feedback on as well.

Thanks!

3 of us where on the Test for a while last night... one of the guys with us continually crashed as we played... after about the 6th time crashing out we all dropped and hit the regular Live server to see if it was the Test causing him to crash out or not... "seemed" to help and we went on to run 3-4 drops before calling it a night...

[Lily from animove]

Karl Berg, on 24 June 2014 - 07:50 PM, said:

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update on today’s public test, and the new matchmaker changes we were attempting to trial. Unfortunately PTS population levels were far too low for us to fully test the new system. We saw less than 10% of the turnout that the Clans PTS drew a few weeks ago.

The release valves built into the matchmaker kicked in and performed mostly as expected; and the matchmaker continued producing games despite the highly constrained queue sizes. We were able to monitor the matchmaker using our new analytics dashboard, and we gathered some extremely detailed metrics on the usage and performance of the new systems.

Part way through the test I softened the matchmaking rule set to relieve pressure on the group queue. During this process, I was able to test several of the realtime configurables, and examine their impact on a responsive user base. With 5+ groups, exact weight class matching, and game mode selections in play, groups really need to fit together like puzzle pieces in order to produce a match.

To wrap up, I would like to thank everyone who participated. Despite the population sizes, we did gather some very useful data points, and we were able to verify that the release valves built into the new matchmaker performed as expected.

Thanks!

The issues:

No.1: announced too shortly.

No.2: Clan test begun at 19:00 GMT+1 and were aktually workign at like 21:00-22:00 So totally the European primetime and it was on a friday? and Sunday.
Now you were hitting midweek at 1am CEST, so Europs on the servers? probably not.

No.3 Steam summer sales - many people play and live this atm, menaign they will rarely have a look at the Forum and farm badges or play the new games they bought . Like me for example.


How to attract a laod of people?
What about giving every account a maserati package on the testservers? This way you attract everyone not having a Clanpack on the live servers to come to the test.
And announce this early enough, maybe mail notification? At least I would like to get some optional emails for this, I can not check all the Forum all the time, (mostly because of reason No.3 I missed that there was even a Test.)

Edited by Lily from animove, 25 June 2014 - 04:16 AM.

[Sky Hawk]

BladeXXL, on 25 June 2014 - 03:08 AM, said:

LOL ... another guy who thinks USA is the center of the universe?
Not about to destroy your idyllic world, but here are some population stats from wiki:
Canada: 35 Mio
USA: 318 Mio
EU: 505 Mio
Russia: 143 Mio
And a lot of Millions in other European countries between EU and Russia!

You may think Europe is not the potential main target audience, but it's not up to you! :-Þ
PGI asks for suggestions for more partitipation ... and we gave some... so STFU!

Ich stimme dir Teilweise zu, aber,.. (und ich will auch nicht deine "idyllc world" stören.. ) Was glaust du, wie viele Menschen haben internet, stark genug PC für MWO, oder haben irgenwas je von BT gehört, sagen wir hmm.. ein "bischen östlich" von Deutschland?

[Prezimonto]

MonkeyCheese, on 24 June 2014 - 07:58 PM, said:

Great to see you actually got useful data from the test for the matchmaking.
Next time bribe people with a new map or a free mech bay or something.

I await a post on the fall damage now as it felt like a complete slap in the face to light mechs.

There is the new module that negates 80% of the damage lights take from falling as well. I suspect the intention is that jump jet lights will pack that on as well.

[Stickjock]

Lily from animove, on 25 June 2014 - 04:15 AM, said:

How to attract a laod of people?
What about giving every account a maserati package on the testservers? This way you attract everyone not having a Clanpack on the live servers to come to the test.
And announce this early enough, maybe mail notification? At least I would like to get some optional emails for this, I can not check all the Forum all the time, (mostly because of reason No.3 I missed that there was even a Test.)

I think even easier would be to just have every mech available on the Live server be available on the Test server... with the amount of C-Bills and GXP they give us (and they could always up that) anyone could then get ANY Mech they want to play or have been wanting to try out... win win all around...

[Lily from animove]

Stickjock, on 25 June 2014 - 04:18 AM, said:

I think even easier would be to just have every mech available on the Live server be available on the Test server... with the amount of C-Bills and GXP they give us (and they could always up that) anyone could then get ANY Mech they want to play or have been wanting to try out... win win all around...

Well, yes and maybe no, the current PTS build does not have buyable clans in it, it could make the testenvironment fishy if this is added.

Also what about this: participate in 5 Testserver matches and get a 1 day premium on Live servers. would be a bit compensation for the people spending their time on PTS. Not much, but still a small addition.

[N0MAD]

Just run the sever 48 hours..for a test.