Complaint about BETA

[Seljdon]

I've taken part in multiple BETAs and every single time that I have been apart of them 100% of "new material" is present. The point of BETA is to test all aspects of the "new content" Not to cause people to think they are testing something when they aren't.

It's a rip off for the people who payed the 15 dollars to have the BETA access for this game. The only things that are being tested are "patch" worthy thing. They constantly "lock" the new stuff so it's not played in the "BETA". It's a ruse to get more money out of the people that's it. The BETA should include the new Thargoid stuff and any other new nuances. I seriously question them that why do they need a BETA if they can "perfect" the "locked" content without having it BETA tested? What are you actually testing? The Game has already been out for X amount of time and the server load tests should already be done, not RE TESTED!

Now I know many of you that may reply to this will be fanboi's of the company "can do no wrong and if they do it's got reasons behind it and it's still okay." and " You just want to see the spoiled stuff." But you're missing the point here. This isn't about seeing the "new" stuff. This is about testing everything to make sure it's up to speck and report any bugs. If they don't need it BETA tested then why even have a BETA for anything? They can do the same perfection they do for the "locked" stuff to the patches as well. It's fools gold with no shine.

Knock it off Frontier or stop doing the BETAs or it's just a glorified "Early access but lose your data after X day/weeks/months". Which IS NOT a BETA.

I don't hate Frontier I am saying I disagree with their approach. I do realize that none of us own this game but have a license to play it. That Frontier owns it and they can do whatever they want with it and they can use the word/term "BETA" out of definition and practice as they want. But it doesn't mean their practice is right just because they "do it" and haven't been forced to stop through lawsuit (not a threat just saying).

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

You do know that there will be other updates to the game that are not thargoids. Like the last beta, my main testing was the mission system and I will test it again this time.

 

[Seljdon]

You do know that there will be other updates to the game that are not thargoids. Like the last beta, my main testing was the mission system and I will test it again this time.

You didn't read everything I wrote you skimmed it.... Most of the patches that have come out have not had BETAs. Only the ones this year have had BETAS (not talking about 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3)

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Not sure what you are complaining about.

You want FD to put the Thargoid story content in, so on the first day of beta everyone with access will post spoilers of what is coming for non-beta players?

 

[Seljdon]

Not sure what you are complaining about.

You want FD to put the Thargoid story content in, so on the first day of beta everyone with access will post spoilers of what is coming for non-beta players?

yes because its content that needs to be tested for bugs. If they can perfect that without beta testing then they don't need to test anything else because they can do the same with it as well. It's a facade. Read the whole thing, don't skim it.

 

[PiLhEaD]

... They constantly "lock" the new stuff so it's not played in the "BETA".

It's a ruse to get more money out of the people that's it...

Sorry to hear you're upset, but in order:

No they don't (you'll have needed to have played more ED betas to know this), and the Thargoid story arc isn't a game mechanic that needs testing, it's a storyline, and that can't really be beta'd

All FDEV has done is listen to the new joiners who wanted to take part in betas and offered to pay. Simple.

E. For to avoidance of doubt I did read your whole post.

 

[Devari]

I've taken part in multiple BETAs and every single time that I have been apart of them 100% of "new material" is present. The point of BETA is to test all aspects of the "new content" Not to cause people to think they are testing something when they aren't.

Sorry, but if you're playing the 2.4 beta to see the Thargoid content that's not really what it's for. It's for any new 2.4-related features and any new (or recurrent) game bugs that accompany the 2.4 patch. The point is not game "balancing" of the Thargoids.

Also after seeing how FD has handled "beta" testing for the past 2.5 years, why would you even consider the betas useful at this point? Any major bugs or balance issues that are brought up in the "testing" are rarely if ever changed in any significant way. It's not like FD has a great track record on doing a useful beta test at any point since Elite launched so complaining that you don't get to see new Thargoid stuff early in the 2.4 beta tells me you don't really have any interest in the "testing" aspect of the beta at all.

 

[Seljdon]

Sorry to hear you're upset, but in order:

No they don't (you'll have needed to have played more ED betas to know this), and the Thargoid story arc isn't a game mechanic, it's a storyline, and that can't really be beta'd

All FDEV has done is listen to the new joiners who wanted to take part in betas and offered to pay. Simple.

wrong you can test the story because it's coded into the game. If certain effect doesn't happen right it could crash the game, or maybe a dying thragoid ship doesn't blow up and causes you to be stuck or something like that. They won't know if that happens unless its BETA tested. ALL MMO game that do BETA (which is the majority) test 100% of all of their stuff with their testers. Or they don't do it at all.

 

[cael]

are you a tester with any knowledge of the programming involved in the fix of any bug you have found. a tester doesnt just play the game they find things and then tell them how to fix them quickly. what you paid $15 to see some of the things they want out. another thing about the new content that you have said you dont care about. they dont want to let that out before the patch because you know people will "leak" the new stuff. this isn't fanboying this is having friend who are game testers most of them are given one level if that to work on for months. no beta test is a beta test but in this game it is so damn big that you actually cant test everything. they have found the things that will break the game and have the paid testers to work on it and make it work well. what you guys are doing is seeing if for some reason when they change the shading of a thargoid ships point at a 75 degree angle does that pull a sub process that then makes a planet into a cube, or make all of the stars change colors. this is still a test and trust you are lucky they didnt just put you and your ships into a single system to test for the next month and never able to leave it that is what a tester does.

 

[Seljdon]

Sorry, but if you're playing the 2.4 beta to see the Thargoid content that's not really what it's for. It's for any new 2.4-related features and any new (or recurrent) game bugs that accompany the 2.4 patch. The point is not game "balancing" of the Thargoids.

Also after seeing how FD has handled "beta" testing for the past 2.5 years, why would you even consider the betas useful at this point? Any major bugs or balance issues that are brought up in the "testing" are rarely if ever changed in any significant way. It's not like FD has a great track record on doing a useful beta test at any point since Elite launched so complaining that you don't get to see new Thargoid stuff early in the 2.4 beta tells me you don't really have any interest in the "testing" aspect of the beta at all.

Not what I said, read the whole thing or don't comment and move on.

are you a tester with any knowledge of the programming involved in the fix of any bug you have found. a tester doesnt just play the game they find things and then tell them how to fix them quickly. what you paid $15 to see some of the things they want out. another thing about the new content that you have said you dont care about. they dont want to let that out before the patch because you know people will "leak" the new stuff. this isn't fanboying this is having friend who are game testers most of them are given one level if that to work on for months. no beta test is a beta test but in this game it is so damn big that you actually cant test everything. they have found the things that will break the game and have the paid testers to work on it and make it work well. what you guys are doing is seeing if for some reason when they change the shading of a thargoid ships point at a 75 degree angle does that pull a sub process that then makes a planet into a cube, or make all of the stars change colors. this is still a test and trust you are lucky they didnt just put you and your ships into a single system to test for the next month and never able to leave it that is what a tester does.

Then it's not BETA testing it's limited early access with the title of BETA.

 

[Devari]

wrong you can test the story because it's coded into the game. If certain effect doesn't happen right it could crash the game, or maybe a dying thragoid ship doesn't blow up and causes you to be stuck or something like that. They won't know if that happens unless its BETA tested. ALL MMO game that do BETA (which is the majority) test 100% of all of their stuff with their testers. Or they don't do it at all.

Have you actually been playing Elite for the past 2.5 years? Because if you think a storyline "bug" is a priority for FD you clearly haven't been paying attention to all the bugs and other issues the game currently has. The mission generation system has been broken for months, they still don't have that fixed and the current CG factions don't even hand out massacre missions properly. FD has such a long list of bugs to fix that the idea that they would spoil the storyline to "test" the content is just ridiculous.

Sorry, you don't get the story early. You just get the bugs early, which will still be there when 2.4 launches, so I really don't know what you were expecting if you've actually been playing the game and seen how FD does these patches.

 

[Arindor]

OP, there's no need to be upset because you can't see Thargoids soon enough. I agree that it's nice to test all the new shinies asap, but you have to realise that betas are about testing, not early access to content (your save gets wiped remember). A few weeks ago or so, FD did state that the core of the game is being re-worked, therefore it's logical that there's going to be tonnes to test. They even said that, when the 2.4 beta is released, they will state exactly what needs testing. Like you OP, I've also tested a lot of betas, but I was disappointed that there where spoilers for the alien ruins story. So I'm glad Thargoid content isn't in the 2.4 beta because of that.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

yes because its content that needs to be tested for bugs. If they can perfect that without beta testing then they don't need to test anything else because they can do the same with it as well. It's a facade. Read the whole thing, don't skim it.

Oh, 100% certain the Thargoid content will be bugged to hell, but i think better that than spoiling the new content before its released for general consumption. We've had plenty of bugs with released materails before even with beta tested content. Nothing new here, its just life playing ED after updates. Sometimes months after updates.... or years.

You kind of get used to it.

 

[Devari]

Then it's not BETA testing it's limited early access with the title of BETA.

To be fair, you're not really a "beta tester" either. You just paid to get access, you weren't "invited" based on your involvement in game development or forum suggestions or any other criteria that would make you a "good" beta tester for FD to want to use to test content. You just paid FD $15. In many other games beta testing requires invites, NDAs and many other requirements to ensure that the beta testing is useful and not just a bunch of players looking to get everything early by paying a small fee. FD has decided to monetize their "beta" access as DLC instead of running a proper beta so you get what you pay for in this case, which isn't much, but you also don't have any responsibilities or expectations to do any real "beta testing" for them either.

 

[PiLhEaD]

.....A few weeks ago or so, FD did state that the core of the game is being re-worked, therefore it's logical that there's going to be tonnes to test...

As my rubbish memory serves, this was the next season (in whatever form it takes) FDev was talking about, not 2.4.

 

[Seljdon]

Have you actually been playing Elite for the past 2.5 years? Because if you think a storyline "bug" is a priority for FD you clearly haven't been paying attention to all the bugs and other issues the game currently has. The mission generation system has been broken for months, they still don't have that fixed and the current CG factions don't even hand out massacre missions properly. FD has such a long list of bugs to fix that the idea that they would spoil the storyline to "test" the content is just ridiculous.

Sorry, you don't get the story early. You just get the bugs early, which will still be there when 2.4 launches, so I really don't know what you were expecting if you've actually been playing the game and seen how FD does these patches.

You obviously didn't read very much of anything I posted. The point is clear, FDev needs to change what they are doing one way or another. Meaning stop doing BETAs or Fix the way they are doing them. BETAs catagorize bugs so that when full release is done the bugs are fixed. If they are not fixing anything then there is no point to the BETA as I already stated and they need to stop because it's a gimmick.

 

[kpmop]

Beta testing is just pre-release testing. That's it. Testing before the main release. It doesn't imply anything beyond that. I've done a few betas for a few different games and none of them has been full-scope testing, especially like this where a story-line content is involved, that'd be tested in-house to avoid spoiling the main release.

If it was 'early access' you might expect to get everything, but it isn't.

 

[Seljdon]

To be fair, you're not really a "beta tester" either. You just paid to get access, you weren't "invited" based on your involvement in game development or forum suggestions or any other criteria that would make you a "good" beta tester for FD to want to use to test content. You just paid FD $15. In many other games beta testing requires invites, NDAs and many other requirements to ensure that the beta testing is useful and not just a bunch of players looking to get everything early by paying a small fee. FD has decided to monetize their "beta" access as DLC instead of running a proper beta so you get what you pay for in this case, which isn't much, but you also don't have any responsibilities or expectations to do any real "beta testing" for them either.

Then it's simple stop doing BETAs or do them correctly (the whole point of this thread), if they won't then stop calling it BETA at least because it's not.

 

[Seljdon]

Beta testing is just pre-release testing. That's it. Testing before the main release. It doesn't imply anything beyond that. I've done a few betas for a few different games and none of them has been full-scope testing, especially like this where a story-line content is involved, that'd be tested in-house to avoid spoiling the main release.

If it was 'early access' you might expect to get everything, but it isn't.

lmmao!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Clearly you haven't BETA tested for MMO games then. I am not talking about single player games or console games like call of duty type multiplayer. I am talking about MMO games that have BETA tests for their expansions and such. I could name several that when they BETA test everything (INCLUDING STORY) is on the table. And it's the vast majority in fact all of them do this.

 

[Devari]

You obviously didn't read very much of anything I posted. The point is clear, FDev needs to change what they are doing one way or another. Meaning stop doing BETAs or Fix the way they are doing them. BETAs catagorize bugs so that when full release is done the bugs are fixed. If they are not fixing anything then there is no point to the BETA as I already stated and they need to stop because it's a gimmick.

I've read what you posted, and I explained why your expectations don't make any sense if you've actually played the game during it's beta "periods" of the past few yeawrs. It's followed exactly the same pattern, they've monetized "beta" access as DLC, players report numerous bugs which don't get fixed and then FD spends 2-3 months after each patch trying to fix everything that the new patch broke. In your case you don't seem to care about this at all, you just want all the shiny Thargoid content early. Yet you claim you're a "beta tester" in other games. Really? Then why is your post focused on the lack of early access to game content in the 2.4 beta instead of all the game bugs we've been dealing with? I would think the last thing you would want in a beta is early spoilers for content when we have so many other games issues to fix.

In fact, just to make my point, can you link any bug reports you've actually posted? If you're so focused on beta testing I'm guessing there are at least a few. If you can't do this then it pretty much confirms you have zero interest in actual "beta testing" and just want early content.