In my opinion, the recent rounds of testing on the PTS for clan lasers were a (mostly good) example how proper feedback and community listening is supposed to be done.
- At the beginning, the goals of the testing were laid out in broad strokes. Not everyone is going to agree with the broad strokes, but it does give a baseline for where the heads of the developers are, and where to go with proper feedback.
- A PTS was made, to attempt to see what these changes look like. Big changes need feedback before they go live.
- They used feedback on the first few test servers to create more than 1 PTS iteration. The tarrogato thread on Laser Burn time absolutely led to PTS 1.1 (where it consequently died, due to it not only being un-fun, but not meeting any of their goals either) Without that PTS, discussions around using burn time as a primary balancing factor would still be raging.
- The developers were Flexible in their goals, and open to improvements outside of them. Note that they KNEW that the major heat change in PTS 2.1 (And eventually live) Would not accomplish their original goals. They said as much on the results
post (Section on PTS 2.0 and 2.1) they made after the rounds were finished. Despite Knowing that, they discovered from player feedback and testing, that the heat change was fun for most. Since it was a general improvement even outside of their original goals, they still pushed it live.
I'd like to see more of these kinds of PTS servers, probably one of them every few months. Some examples of interesting ideas, that the community has had from time to time that may be worth a PTS test -
- A PTS testing out different LRM models, (for example, a faster traveling, faster locking, but much higher spreading, and thus lower DPS model instead of what we have.)
- A PTS round that makes clan Autocannons a single slug, lower DPS/Ton (but much higher alpha/Ton) alternative to IS autocannons.
- A PTS round for the Ultra AC's that removes the jam chance entirely, but replaces it with a dramatically longer cooldown, Removing RNG, but making them a less desirable pure DPS choice.
Now, i'm not saying that all of them would pan out. PTS 1.1, used a community suggestion of using longer burn times as a balancing factor instead of lowering the damage of clan lasers in PTS 1.0. It was... not very fun, hurt lots of stuff that didn't deserve to be, and managed to not even hurt the stuff that needed it, all at the same time. Some of these kinds of changes may be the same way. But, it WAS worth a test, and those are the ways you keep a community engaged and interested in what's new.
Edited by Daurock, 04 December 2018 - 08:53 AM.