Give Us the Ability to Actually Test:

[Aegorian]

I'm just gonna throw something out there that's been bugging me about test servers for the past number of years that i've tried to get involved with them:

I understand why devs like Test Servers functioning as a Live style server with its own community and economy, etc., but i personally believe that this is a flawed mentality for a few reasons:

1) The test server will rarely, if ever, be a high populated server where people can get the true Vanguard feeling that they're looking for. Just the fact it's called a "test" server drives people away from it as they would rather play on "live" servers.

2) The server has potentially much more downtime than a normal server. This also limits the population from growing in that no one wants to play on a server that's down X nights out of the week to apply a new patch.

regardless... onto my thoughts to remedy this:

Allow it to remain as a live environment that can serve as the home to whoever wants to participate. If they want to, not an issue. Me personally, i was a test server player back in the EQ days and i wont do it again. HOWEVER, I still WANT to test. Is is possible that a mechanic can be developed such that we can dynamically create characters based on the patch content that need to be tested? For example, lets say a huge nerf to a main level 30 paladin ability needs to be tested. At that point, i wander to the test server, and create a level 30 paladin. He would come created at level 30 with a baseline set of gear (low-mid end for his level chosen by the devs). At this point i can hop in game and head off to some level appropriate content and actually test the change to give feedback on how it impacts my character. Same thing applies to testing new areas. If a new level 20 area opens up, i pop on and create a level 20 of class X with the standard baseline gear and begin testing it.

The main issue that i see with a test server is that if you dont have a full population that encompasses ALL the various aspects that a game can offer, the testing on certain changes could possibly lack... and tremendously. It kidna pains me to see changes/nerfs/etc. go live that piss a group of people off to no end just to have the change tweaked a few weeks later because it wasnt the intended effect. Or, new zones release that everyone wants to play, but they're so buggy that you literally have to wait a month after release to actually play them.

Bottomline... Give us the ability to actually test whatever needs to be tested. I have a feeling you'd get A) A lot more people just randomly popping on to test certain mechanics and B) A lot more useful feedback on mechanics that need to be tested.

just my 2cp. Thankd for reading.