Increased XP for Test players?

[Tybr]

Hello all,

I was wondering if Vanguard Test was planning to have double XP as the norm.

(Similar to other Test servers that shall not be mentioned.)

I understand being on the bleeding edge is reward enough, but as the server is starting a bit late, it will allow us to get ahead of the current "average level" of most playing Vanguard now.

Just a question/idea.

[Lilith]

Increased XP may or may not be a good idea.

At the moment I think they're still balancing the XP amounts, so it'd be silly to increase the XP rates before they're "final"

That being said, I think a better alternative once XP rates are finalized (or even before then really) is to provide a BuffMaster that will take a number as an argument in a /say command and automatically make your character that level. (could be higher or lower)

So you'd do a /hail buffmaster 47 and it'd make you level 47 - even if you were level 50.

This would allow precise testing of content at any level and not force testers to play solely on the test server just to be able to test higher level content.


The downside of course is that such an option might draw a number of people who only want to play around at level 50. (Really, if you're on a PvE server why not just move to test and make yourself level 50 and just raid there.) A counter to this could be frequent character wipes, but doing that would erase equipment and make it hard to test certain things out.


So I don't know, its both a good and bad idea to make leveling easier than on live servers. Of course people are paying the same price no matter where they play...

[MooKitty]

A test server should be about testing. So being able to pick your level and request gear is needed.

If you ran across a bug at a certain level on live, and wanted to recreate it on test, you shouldn't have to play a character up 20-odd levels just to test that broken quest you remember.

Another example is the heroic crafting tools not being recoginsed. Who's going to test out that gear if they have to grind work orders to get those items? No one will, and things like that won't get tested.

One way would be to have all items in game on the exchange for 1 cp. Eve Online does it this way on their test server.

Then you could recreate your live character's gear and test properly.

[Tybr]

You both make valid points but I have noticed in my previous testing that the bugs are often found in the mundane everyday type of goings on. Naturally being able to pick your level or having the buff master bring you to a certain level would be benificial to test major updates, suspected bugs etc.

However I "think" the Dev's would also want us doing thigs as mundane as buying utilities for our crafting.

It would be nice if the server set up were known...

[SwordMage]

Originally Posted by Tybr

You both make valid points but I have noticed in my previous testing that the bugs are often found in the mundane everyday type of goings on. Naturally being able to pick your level or having the buff master bring you to a certain level would be benificial to test major updates, suspected bugs etc.

However I "think" the Dev's would also want us doing thigs as mundane as buying utilities for our crafting.

It would be nice if the server set up were known...

I know the philosophy on other, unnamed test servers was to have a real, organic server community that, in a limited way, acts like a live server. A place where the developers can go to try out new ideas and mechanisms.

In general, I would think that most of the focused testing that needs to be done to test fixes to specific bugs would be done by Sigil internal testing. From what I have seen in said, unsaid games, many bug fixes never even get pushed to a test server before being pushed to live; its the new features and behavior changes that need the exposure to a set of real player testers, who are looking at the whole game and not focusing on the pieces (as players, not development staff).

[Tybr]

^

I truely hope your correct. I like the idea of a "real" Test server.

[Iendan]

my guess would be that its just gonna be a normal server until the noob areas are so perfect you dont need to test them anymore (that'll be awhile ) then theyll add some way of skipping ahead. kinda like eq1's testserver had /testbuff after awhile (im assuming it wasnt always there...)

[Darkmoore]

Figures I would see this after starting a similar thread. I am a dork.

[Pirotess]

Originally Posted by Darkmoore

Figures I would see this after starting a similar thread. I am a dork.

No worries it was tucked away in Sound, Arts & Graphics so wasnt quite in the right place. I moved it up to the general level.

[Ysharros]

Originally Posted by Darkmoore

Figures I would see this after starting a similar thread. I am a dork.

Since I do this on a regular basis, I'm probably dork squared.

Revel in your Dorkness!

More on-topic, it will be useful to find out what Sigil have in mind for their test community. If it's a focused-testing environment then I'd support the insta-level NPCs and the like. If it's supposed to be more like a standard community that's intended to test in a more general way, I wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I'd love to be able to jump to level X with item-set Y... but on the whole I prefer the "genuine community" type of test server. They tend to be more helpful in general, more tightly-knit, and not just a place where you can come and check out "next week's patch" before it's out.