Proposal: Community Beta Testing Team to Improve Updates

[_Tilly-Tony_]

Hey everyone,


I wanted to bring up an idea that I think could benefit both the developers and the player base. As we’ve all noticed, each update tends to come with a lot of bugs, and we often have to wait an entire month before they’re fixed. This can make the game frustrating to play, and I’m sure it’s not ideal for the devs either.


To help improve this, I’d like to suggest that the developers consider forming a community beta testing team. Here’s how it could work:

• A small group of dedicated and experienced players could get access to updates before they go live.
• These players would test new features, look for major bugs, and provide feedback to the devs.
• This way, critical issues could be identified and fixed before the update is released, leading to smoother gameplay for everyone.

Many other games have successfully used community-driven testing to catch issues early, and I think it could really help here as well. If the devs are open to it, I’m sure plenty of players would be willing to volunteer their time to help make the game better for everyone.


What do you all think? Would you be interested in a system like this? Hopefully, the devs will see this and consider the idea!


Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

[DistortAMG]

This is a good idea, partly because it's opt in. The current system is not opt in, it's default for everyone, which isn't good. I paid to play, not paid money to QC, so did many people.

Atleast if there is a good amount of people, willing and wanting to opt in (I am sure there are) this will make the experience better for everyone on all sides.

Bugs get fixed.

Players who just want play can play on a relatively bug free experience.

The developers still get community driven QC, as I am sure costs played a part in their decision in the first place. They still get the benefits of that, this is just in a way that doesn't annoy most of their player base.

 

[_Tilly-Tony_]

I 100% agree that QC should fully be on Frontier but we can both see that bugs are a real issue at the moment and if Frontier just cant afford to fully tests each update because of time or money, i think a good solution would be to ask the community.

A small, hand picked team from here and Steam, each tasked with a list of things to test and try.

 

[DistortAMG]

I 100% agree that QC should fully be on Frontier but we can both see that bugs are a real issue at the moment and if Frontier just cant afford to fully tests each update because of time or money, i think a good solution would be to ask the community.

A small, hand picked team from here and Steam, each tasked with a list of things to test and try.

I think you mis read what I put. I'm on board with this because it's opt in by the player. Whereas the current system is not.

 

[_Tilly-Tony_]

My apologies.

My reply was mostly about your comment " I paid to play, not paid money to QC".

 

[Valdo82]

I 100% agree that QC should fully be on Frontier but we can both see that bugs are a real issue at the moment and if Frontier just cant afford to fully tests each update because of time or money, i think a good solution would be to ask the community.

A small, hand picked team from here and Steam, each tasked with a list of things to test and try.

The process and the back and forth also costs a lot of money/time. It is probably not even, that they don't test, but stuff seems rushed. Slowly down the process by inserting another quality mode, doesn't speed things up.

For example: We got this speed build vid before and the screens regarding this update and you can't tell me, that anyone didn't notice a few common things regarding that update. So i dont even think that it is actually testing, but fixing seems more the issue.

Also there is somewhat meaningful QA at work: most of the updates are very stable and run really smooth, this is probably not by chance but by testing. For example, sometimes it happens that a game runs not that smooth on some branch of gpus/cpus or that either a console edition doesn't run smooth and so on.

So yes: long story short. I think it is more of a time/fix issue than a basic testing issue.

 

[Wagi]

Just hope they don't just go with the usual content creators and game reviewers like those who posted just before release that PC2 was the most amazing thing since sliced bread and darn near perfect. As the blurbs Frontier used in advertisements and press releases all claimed.

We know how that turned out...

While I still enjoy their projects, when it comes to their 'honest reviews' I take them with a large grain of salt.

 

[rct-uwe1]

Generally, I think that quality control should be done by Frontier themselves by 100%...
Outsourcing it to the users might help to reduce releasing new issues, but then they might feel validated that crappy work is worth the full price for AAA titles.

I don't know if beta testing by the community would make them reworking a scheduled update, but if it would help, it should be done without media content creating, at all.
And there should be a forum section where betatesters could share their experiences and which would be readable by the whole community.

 

[_Tilly-Tony_]

Generally, I think that quality control should be done by Frontier themselves by 100%...
Outsourcing it to the users might help to reduce releasing new issues, but then they might feel validated that crappy work is worth the full price for AAA titles.

I don't know if beta testing by the community would make them reworking a scheduled update, but if it would help, it should be done without media content creating, at all.
And there should be a forum section where betatesters could share their experiences and which would be readable by the whole community.

The player base is really low right now so i can understand Frontier wanting to get as many eyes on content as possible.

look at content creators more as a necessary evil. If we want the game to be updated for as long as possible, people need to be playing and Youtubers help bring in new players.

I think we can all agree that even tho the game needs a ton of work, its not a terrible game and i think Youbers showing it off in good light can only be good for the player count.

 

[Kvvame]

this seems like a fantastic idea tbb

 

[rct-uwe1]

The player base is really low right now so i can understand Frontier wanting to get as many eyes on content as possible.

look at content creators more as a necessary evil. If we want the game to be updated for as long as possible, people need to be playing and Youtubers help bring in new players.

I think we can all agree that even tho the game needs a ton of work, its not a terrible game and i think Youbers showing it off in good light can only be good for the player count.

They might create fresh money (which is good), but I don't think that it would be helpful while beta testing...

 

[Wagi]

I sure have no problem with creators showing off the GOOD things, but when PC2 first came out some of them seem to totally have missed the things that were WRONG. That very well have been because of limited playing time, but still the fawning reviews that came out at first in light of the problems that quickly showed up left a rather sour taste when it comes to relying on some of their opinions as well as Frontier's honesty about the state of the game back then. It tends to make many question the state it's in now even after many improvements. So more of the same won't help. No, it's not a terrible game, but it has a less than stellar reputation at the moment. If those who test the game give HONEST opinions - as several have certainly done in the past - then that's wonderful if it helps further improvements from Frontier..

And yes, the game needs a better player count, 100% agree.