17 replies to this topic

[Tier5ForLife]

Lack of players/testers.

We managed 4 games last night before some of us gave up. And I see some players asking for a 12 v 12 when you can't do a 8 v 8.

Here is a "problem" and a idea for a solution.

The problem, besides a lot of player not knowing about it is why should they do it? Personally, I have Mechs to work on to Master. It is a waste of time to do the PTS. Plus the fact it often takes so long to never to find a match. And then players quit it and never come back and poof, your test is over.

And right now there is a Event going on with loot bags so why would anyone go to the PTS? Let's be honest, 96% of people do things out of self interest. Very few people are going to do something "for the common good" and that not only does not benefit them, it hurts them time and play wise.

Players need a incentive to use their time on the PTS instead of the real game and life in general.

So give us a little reward. Like the GXP you make in the PTS transferring over to the game. And how about Supply Caches? Supply Caches are a plus for MWO. We players have to pay MC for "winning" a 19th Large Laser.

Make playing on the PTS a small event. Give some prizes and have a web page so players can go and see if they won the color blue or something, lol. That brings "excitement" which brings players which makes the PTS playable and gives MWO a serious test.

That sounds like a win-win for all of us.

[Bud Crue]

Its like this every time:

PGI says it will run a PTS on a new feature.

They run the PTS with no rewards or other incentives.

They make sure to run a decent to really great event on the live server while the PTS is going.

The initial enthusiasm to try the new feature quickly dwindles as the casual player...already irritated at the 3 hour download of the PTS...waits interminable periods of time waiting for a match and then gives up.

Then the 20-30 people with real dedication keep at it. Then those 20-30 people who were dedicated enough to stick with it post their views.

This then leads to a general outcry from others -some have predetermined bias, intransigent points of view and/or a chips on their shoulders- who then join in the commentary.

Then PGI adds an unexpected additional feature to the PTS, whereupon a whole new crew of commentators start posting -but with opinions that are often no longer relevant since they are unaware of the new changes.

Then the forums, reddit and even Russ's twitter feed all erupt in a boil of confused indignation which evolves into the usual two camps of "PGI sucks because they listened to the whiners" or "PGI sucks because they don't listen to legitimate criticism".

Then Russ comments and both camps say "SEE!".

Meanwhile those 20-30 actual PTS participants sit there and think "why did I bother with this?"

Then PGI announces another PTS.

[Nesutizale]

Allready thought that PGI might take the shortcut and just put things live and balance according to their data because as people above allready said.

PTS has nearly no players and the view comming around have a hard enough time finding a match. It just took me forever to download and after 30min of finding a match I just quit. I will try again later but if it takes me another 30min I don't feel like I should bother with the PTS and just go by what is written and try to figure the mode out that way.
At least make the mode "playable" with some AIs standing around. That would be even better then not finding a match at all.

[C337Skymaster]

I have nothing useful to add, but came to the Forums to echo everything that has been said in the above posts, so I'm adding my voice to the cacophony.

[Oberost]

Europe, 16:30 GMT.

8 people on the PTS server.

Probably the rest of the people is on the live servers, where there is a good event running...

[Tier5ForLife]

Well said Bud Crue! 100%

WTF would you run a good event DURING a PTS? It is almost like you do not want it to work.

What I'm suggesting seems like a pretty good idea and let me add, that as it is, it is not working.

About the only way to get matches is something that will be "redacted" if I say it. (your use of the word redacted just cracks me up)

I'm going to go try again because MAYBE on a weekend day I might get a match. But this will be the last 35-40 minutes I waste on this.

[Tier5ForLife]

Here is a perfect example.

I just watched a episode of "The Walking Dead" while waiting for a match.

And now I'm quitting it.

Edited by LikeUntoBuddha, 25 March 2017 - 11:19 AM.

[shopsmart]

PTS needs incentives to play it for most people. Need to pull the cotton out of ears.

[Cato Zilks]

I understand that there should be rewards for using the PTS. I also get that these wait times are retardedly long. I agree 100% on these. I think we should earn 15 MC per match.

But I will not back away from saying that this PTS needs to be 12 v 12. ED and skill tree were weapon and mech balance questions that could be evaluated with fewer players. Game-mode-balance requires that we have the correct number of players, other wise the gathered data is useless. If that means waits are longer, so be it.

[Tier5ForLife]

If we cannot get 4 vs 4, how can we get a 12 vs 12?

[Tier5ForLife]

I wonder if anyone is reading these besides ourselves.

[Freebrewer Bmore]

LikeUntoBuddha, on 25 March 2017 - 06:13 AM, said:

Players need a incentive to use their time on the PTS instead of the real game and life in general.

I'd also note that the cost for the PTS is not just the ridiculous time spent waiting in queue (itself a function of insufficient PTS incentives), but also the hassle of downloading the PTS and/or patching it (obvs), and (less obvs) restoring your game settings, control bindings, weapon groups, and sometimes reconfiguring mech builds.

LikeUntoBuddha, on 25 March 2017 - 06:13 AM, said:

So give us a little reward. Like the GXP you make in the PTS transferring over to the game. And how about Supply Caches? Supply Caches are a plus for MWO. We players have to pay MC for "winning" a 19th Large Laser.

Because the up-front time investment is so substantial, I'd say the PTS needs to not only offer some token incentive, but in fact PTS rewards should EXCEED those of the live server. E.g.: ALL C-Bill/XP winnings from PTS matches should be added back to each player's live account, PLUS some special bonus (PTS-specific cockpit item, pattern, color, cache keys, MC, whatev; ScottAleric's crash-test dummy pattern idea sounds really cool to me).

Nesutizale, on 25 March 2017 - 08:06 AM, said:

Allready thought that PGI might take the shortcut and just put things live and balance according to their data because as people above allready said.

Yeah, I think they might as well just go ahead and dump new gamemodes on the live server even if they're clearly still a work in progress. They'll get some useful 12x12 data guaranteed, and if the mode turns out to be terrible people can just vote it down until it gets fixed or withdrawn. One experimental mode in the mix at any given time won't break the whole game like the Infotech, Energy Draw, or Skill Tree tests would have.

LikeUntoBuddha, on 26 March 2017 - 06:52 PM, said:

I wonder if anyone is reading these besides ourselves.

Yeah, it'd be encouraging if PGI would acknowledge that these things (lack of PTS incentives, inadequacy of 4x4 or 8x8 testing, and oh yeah lack of substantive match rewards for teamwork/objectives rather than damage inflicted) are longstanding problems and explained to us what obstacles have stopped them from resolving them...

[tokumboh]

No disrespect to the OP but this is pretty old hat. You will find the same complaints about previous PTS's I am not sure how you fix it but I have even sent a personal email to Alex regarding this

Yes you would have thought it would be simple give everyone whom plays 25 games on the PTS server 25 Million C bills
what are they going to spend it on or give them XP what does anyone have to lose. What worries me is that they do not actually test the game properly and thus go down a rabbit hole that is difficult to get out of.

It feels as if we are dealing with a stubborn child at times, I would even accept an explanation asto why they cannot do it at this juncture but what we have is silence

What amazes me is that they have spend a huge amount of resources on this game mode, I would have thought you would want to get the best feedback possible

In my view if you give space bucks you could get people to answer a questionnaire and give written feedback then they could have data to share with us.

[Admiral Brad]

I say that some changes, such as new game modes, can be made directly to the live server when necessary. I see no reason that they cannot just include incursion straight into the drop queue as long as they launch a few quick bug fix updates and tweaks. It should also be relatively easy to tell the servers not to offer Incursion mode if things aren't going well and they need to stop it due to critical flaws.

For more complicated things such as Energy Draw and the Skill Tree I could see this type of "just add it" mentality not working, but for maps, game modes and similar the option to add and remove it with either a quick patch or some server side control would seem quite appealing. They would get huge swaths of data were previously they would get a very small data dump.

[Tier5ForLife]

Could someone give us a sign that we are being listened to?

I remember listening to a podcast where two leaders of two Units were listened to, but almost no one else was allowed, invited or given any credit.

Regular people also play this game and give you money.

Personally, I still say charge us $20 a month and give us more content and take away the PT which is, "pay for better play". And the fact that you TELL players this at the end of every game is telling.

[Nesutizale]

LikeUntoBuddha, on 29 March 2017 - 07:38 PM, said:

Could someone give us a sign that we are being listened to?

Maybe they would give a sign if we bomb twitter to the ground so it becomes useless and they finely turn to the forums. To hell with twitter. 140 characters aren't even close to whats needed to be said let alone haveing a good conversation and explanations.

[Almond Brown]

They have Events weekly. When an event is cancelled, or just doesn't happen, lots of noise about WHY?

Now imagine the NOISE if PGI announced "No Event, please go to the PTS this weekend and Test current new game mode! Thanks."

Just imagine...