26 replies to this topic

[Captain Caveman DE]

Hey there.

I really think that public testing is the way to go for anything, at least in games, today. so I'm VERY puzzled that you shutdown the server right BEFORE people have a lot of time to test there.
2 days of testing (or in case of germany and other countries 3 with a holiday after the weekend) simply not put to use.. pls change that in the future.

also, your whole policy on "things being done right now" really needs a redo. what's the hurt in simply telling people from when to when the server will be on? what's the hurt in doing constant testing?

see, here's the thing. you are a company, and you have a product.
you have lots of customers who want to help you improve your product, for no additional cost.
use that!


related and a simple suggestion:
do more public tests. do them all the time. maybe in 7days steps so there ALWAYS is at least a weekend in it.
use some form of survey to quickly gather the data out of it that you want/need. example:
after every game, a survey pops up with "how do you like the change we put in this weeks test? a) great b.) too good c) too bad d) don't care e) "here's what I like/don't like...[]"

maybe give ppl a bit of extra for that like a 10mc-key per test&survey or a supply-cache-key. ppl will do way more testing and you get a ton of data out of it.
costs you nothing or at least next-to, improves your product, shows tons of good-will and makes the customers happy.
don't make life so hard on yourselves.

Edited by Captain Caveman DE, 29 April 2017 - 06:28 AM.

[oldradagast]

But it IS done!

Don't you love the skill maze? Isn't the clunky UI pretty? How about those dead nodes you're stuck buying, or how the arrangement of nothing in the maze makes any sense? Oh, and let's not forget the respec cost, which is such a great idea in a game where customization is supposed to be a key part of the fun! Finally, there's the quirk removal / killing of most IS mechs feature, the mobility nerf in engine decoupling, and so forth.

No, no - the skill maze is clearly ready to go live. I mean, sure, it sucks and is a gross failure of basic video game design principles and looks and behaves like something out of a mediocre 90's game. But, by golly, PGI has said this is how the game is supposed to be, so there you go.

Edited by oldradagast, 29 April 2017 - 06:07 AM.

[Kotzi]

No event this weekend. People might try the PTS. We dont want that do we?

[Amsro]

This is the cherry on top of the skill tree cake. No testing for you people that have stuff to do during the week.

[Coolant]

i don't think testing, except for bugs, is the way to go. people are too biased toward what they expect the game to be or how it can buff or nerf their personal playstyle to be neutral in their opinions.

put up a testing server and give us real bug reporting software or a website so we can post bugs, but not opinions.

Edited by Coolant, 29 April 2017 - 07:20 AM.

[Shifty McSwift]

Coolant, on 29 April 2017 - 07:20 AM, said:

i don't think testing, except for bugs, is the way to go. people are too biased toward what they expect the game to be or how it can buff or nerf their personal playstyle to be neutral in their opinions.

put up a testing server and give us real bug reporting software or a website so we can post bugs, but not opinions.

I think the feedback is just part of it though, the other side is collecting physical data from players in game, particularly for bugfinding/exploits etc.

[Captain Caveman DE]

Coolant, on 29 April 2017 - 07:20 AM, said:

i don't think testing, except for bugs, is the way to go. people are too biased toward what they expect the game to be or how it can buff or nerf their personal playstyle to be neutral in their opinions.

put up a testing server and give us real bug reporting software or a website so we can post bugs, but not opinions.

Shifty McSwift, on 29 April 2017 - 07:28 AM, said:

I think the feedback is just part of it though, the other side is collecting physical data from players in game, particularly for bugfinding/exploits etc.

that's the whole point;
you have to get many ppl to testing, so the masses even out those who praise/damn without cause. and you get statistics from testing; while interpreting numbers is a thing on it's own, those numbers don't lie and aren't biased in any way.
it's about getting those numbers in the first place.

example (and not the point of the thread, which is 'how to do tests'):
if we had more ppl testing the incursion mode (and somebody who listened to them *hint*), it's flaws could've been spotted and kitted before it's introduction into regular play; I -really- like the idea/attempt behind incursion, but there are so many ways to NOT play it and 2-3 very obvious ways to ruin "the spirit" of that mode.. some very easy to spot alterations would have made the mode the fun it deserves.
testing, feedback and statistics will show you quite fast where the problem(s) lie.

so: take the easy way and test. better yet: let the testing be done for you. I'm sure the community is happy to help - if you let them / give them reason to.

Edited by Captain Caveman DE, 29 April 2017 - 09:04 AM.

[Shifty McSwift]

Yeah for sure, agreed.

[C E Dwyer]

It's a clear indicator that it's either going live next month, or it's being dropped, the choice is with P.G.I and if they think it's critical to the new tech, if not, they may go in the direction they think will cause them less pain in the account.

I don't really care myself

[vettie]

Kinda puzzled on this myself.

No event, weekend open - good time to get many testers imho

PGI obviously has other plans....

[MechaBattler]

Couldn't find a match anymore. I doubt the weekend would have helped anyway.

[Cy Mitchell]

I was disappointed to see that it is down already too. I had Mastered and tested 11 Mechs and wanted to do a few more. Most of my testing however was done in Testing Grounds because there was almost no one on PTS after the first couple of days as usual. They only have two weeks to make whatever changes they still intend to make before the patch and actually it is a lot less than that because the patch has to be finalized well in advance. That is probably why it is done already.

[El Bandito]

Lack of population was probably the reason.

[Napoleon_Blownapart]

i downloaded pts yesterday, respecd 1 mech couldnt find a match then the server went down.

Edited by Gorantir, 29 April 2017 - 10:45 AM.

[Deathlike]

It's going live whether you whined about it or not.

It's already a documented PGI MO.

[Bishop Steiner]

Shifty McSwift, on 29 April 2017 - 07:28 AM, said:

I think the feedback is just part of it though, the other side is collecting physical data from players in game, particularly for bugfinding/exploits etc.

and tbh, this part is far more useful, even if also often skewed (afterall, those "useless" nodes? How often do you think those who consider them useless actually tested things like the Sensor Tree with LRMs, etc? Thus, data in those areas is still skewed), then the actual posts often put up, which are often just blind confirmation bias. Or worse, yes men who are jsut echoing what their pet Forum Diva says, without actually testing things themselves.

[Bulletsponge0]

Coolant, on 29 April 2017 - 07:20 AM, said:

i don't think testing, except for bugs, is the way to go. people are too biased toward what they expect the game to be or how it can buff or nerf their personal playstyle to be neutral in their opinions.

put up a testing server and give us real bug reporting software or a website so we can post bugs, but not opinions.

its more than just for finding bugs..

they can collect data on what the most popular skill unlocks are.. it one particular path is chosen an inordinate amount compared to other paths... what skill categories are the most popular/least popular so they can tune values, tweak node locations etc.

cutting the test short deprives them of a lot of useful info

[Bishop Steiner]

Deathlike, on 29 April 2017 - 10:47 AM, said:

It's going live whether you whined about it or not.

It's already a documented PGI MO.

Yes the previous Skill Tree PTS Community Hostage Crisis, Info War and Energy Draw definitely support your conclusion.

Hyperbole much?

[Deathlike]

Bishop Steiner, on 29 April 2017 - 10:55 AM, said:

Yes the previous Skill Tree PTS Community Hostage Crisis, Info War and Energy Draw definitely support your conclusion.

Hyperbole much?

In that situation, they were whined about above and beyond PGI's ears want to listen to.

This is closer to the minimap debacle that even when told it was bad, it was going live anyways (which resulted in a hotfix soon after for obvious reasons).

PGI's comments suggest closer to what I'm talking about. I don't think there has been enough "complaints" to warrant "rethinking" the entire tree in any semblance (whether it's refunds or how the tree functions).

Edited by Deathlike, 29 April 2017 - 10:59 AM.

[SuomiWarder]

At this point I think most feedback will be influenced by personal bias. People with an ax to grind will find reasons to hate it, white knights will mainly see the things that are good, etc. I can only guess that in the first few days of testing they discovered (through metadata, comments or such) something integral to the set up that they want to change before trying again. Somethin that would make more testing pointless until they make that change.

Only a guess of course, assuming PGI is using rational logic about all of this. The other possibility is some sort of timeline where the work fir various projects planned out over their human resources means this gets done fairly soon or something down the road is dropped / pushed back. That can be rational depending on how important the other projects are compared to a skill tree.

Now its anyone's guess if rational thinking or some knee jerk, emotional response is at play here.