Open letter to the Vanguard Dev’s

[Florinda]

Originally Posted by Darkmoore

Character copies will only work if the test servers are only opened up when you want specific things tested. (i.e. World of Warcraft)

I disagree.

There are a number of people who would be on Test had it launched at the same time as Live. As it is, they spent a month or so getting invested in their Live characters before Test was available. They may still be willing to come to Test if they can keep their now-loved characters. Even if it's only a handful of people per server, that would still give our ailing population a much-needed shot in the arm.

Give that handful a chance to copy their characters to Test, I say. Let them keep their stuff, even (sweeten the pot). Naked transfers or copies aren't going to lure anybody, especially since they know replacing their stuff will be more challenging on Test than on Live. Let them keep their stuff.

That said, people coming from Live need to adjust their mentality. It's a great deal like pioneer mentality. Whatever you can do for youself, you need to make an effort to do. Because of the low population, you need to be a fair sight more self-sufficient on Test than you ever need to be on Live. It's a good idea for crafters to be able to harvest their resources, for example, because you WON'T find resources for sale on the brokers. Logging on to Test and complaining continuously about how we don't have this or that which you are used to on Live -- well, that will just awaken the sleeping dragons, who will fry you up for lunch. (down Fre, down!)

We do need to do something to build up the population and create a viable community.

[Naiya]

/me hides the bottle of ketchup

What? *innocent look*

[SwordMage]

Originally Posted by Florinda

I disagree.

There are a number of people who would be on Test had it launched at the same time as Live. As it is, they spent a month or so getting invested in their Live characters before Test was available. They may still be willing to come to Test if they can keep their now-loved characters. Even if it's only a handful of people per server, that would still give our ailing population a much-needed shot in the arm.
...

I think there is a distiction being made between character moves to test (one time transfers to the test server as a change of home) and the type of open character copies that occur in some test environments (where people can copy their characters over to test for a few days and then go back to continue playing their original characters on their live homes).

The first would, I am sure, be welcome as a good way of adding to the community on test. People who use the second are less likely to settle in to be part of the community.

One of the reasons that the sense of community

[Elfiwolfe]

I am divided between floredyl (rp server) and test.

and I have reason to be on both.. one as a conduect of info between diplomacy devs and people on server and to test on test.

But everyone I knew on Floredyl seems to be gone now so I have less of a tie down to it.

But if I move to test and test gets shutdown, is one reason why I wouldn't want to move to test.

choices, choices.

[Naiya]

<cue darth vader voice> Elfi.... test is your server. Look into your heart and know the truth </darth vader voice>

[FEDS-91]

Originally Posted by Darkmoore

I am completely against buff bots for a very large reason. Just take a look at what happened to Star Wars:Galaxies. "Blue frogs" RUINED the TestCenter over there. Ruined it so bad, they took it down and released a "clean" galaxy.

I could not agree in any way shape or form more with this. Those stupid blue frogs were a blight in the entire TC. Seemed like they were idiot magnets, but powered by ignorance. So they'd draw the idiots in, then simply feed off each other. Ugh. Second worst thing ever put in that game. I'll let you folks guess which takes the #1 spot.

[Tcal]

Has the Test server helped the game? do we have you on test to thanks for a very easy game?? I see notes going up on testserver then its the same on Live. So pretty please why would i want to move to test, it's not gonna change a damn thing.

[Ysharros]

Originally Posted by Tcal

Has the Test server helped the game? do we have you on test to thanks for a very easy game?? I see notes going up on testserver then its the same on Live. So pretty please why would i want to move to test, it's not gonna change a damn thing.

*snort* Damed if we do, damned if we don't.

People who play on test have pretty much nothing to do with the actual direction of the game -- all we can do is test stuff out that's been put in and find out how and where it doesn't work, and then report on it.

When a Test patch says "Bards can now scratch their noses without using their hands" what we do is try it out. If it uses hands, we report it. If this gets fixed, the Live patch notes will still say "Bards can now scratch their noses without using their hands" -- the only difference is that it'll work as advertised.

Many, many things are being tweaked or downright rumbled around right now, and staff simply can't find all the holes that can be punched in the structure when you toggle WidgetA to Notch8 instead of Notch7. THAT is what a test server is for.

But you're right. If you don't grasp that, you probably don't want to play on Test.

[Naiya]

Originally Posted by Tcal

Has the Test server helped the game? do we have you on test to thanks for a very easy game?? I see notes going up on testserver then its the same on Live. So pretty please why would i want to move to test, it's not gonna change a damn thing.

I would hazard a guess you're not watching notes on test server very carefully then. Brotherhoods have been on test TWICE. Neither time have brotherhoods made it off test server. Both times, as Ysh said, those on test have punched holes in them that you could drive semi's through

Has test server helped the game? Absolutely - the bugs you DON'T see are the ones we caught. Sometimes the ones you DO see were caught by us too, it just happens that the devs are swamped with fixes/content/etc as have to prioritize what they fix.

Off the top of my head I can think of a few things that test server has been instrumental in fixing - a bard ability (thank you corlin), brotherhoods not making it to live in their current state (thank you whole server cause lots of us tested them), the revised death/CR mechanic not making it to live (while test was not the only ones who chimed in AGAINST the idea - we were able to provide concrete numbers because we TESTED the mechanic. So thanks to everyone who was vocal and thanks to those who died over and over testing the thing).... just to name a few off the top of my head

[Aredhel]

To put it even another way:

Test is an extension of the devs and QA. When things like what Ysh and Naiya have mentioned need a good romping to see if it can be broken (because not everyone approaches a problem the same way) or maybe need some tweeking to make it better, that's what the test "dummies" (sorry...couldn't resist) are for. Right down to understanding the instructions and then the direction taken to get there....if one person out of 20 has a problem, and can still reach but not achieve the goal, then it needs to be checked out.

So, yes! The Test server does help you a lot more than anyone ever thinks. It's what goes on behind the scenes to make a game better!