Test Server Access?

[Flappers]

Perhaps you should go and look at the beta 1.1 forum in the archives and see just how many of those bugs were reported both on the forums and in ticket form. Here is a 6 page topic on the showstopper Collision Bug, complete with video. There were also other topics on it dating back as far as day one of the 1.1 beta test commencing.

The problem with major bugs getting through to live in v1.1 was not to do with lack of reporsts, it was entirely due a completely inadequate ticket system where nobody got any feedback as to whether their ticket had even been looked at. Thankfully this time around FDEV's new forum based bug reporting system seems to be paying dividends, we can all see the issues being reported, the QA teams responses and the large list of fixes coming with each new test build. Will any major issues make it to live? Sure it's a possibility but it's much less likely now they've moved away from the inadequate ticket system.

As to the access for non-beta users, it's not like they need any more as there is in excess of 100,000 users who have access should they choose to use it. FDEV did however plan to have an upgrade path, this was outlined by Michael Brookes in the Development Update - 15th Jan thread:



However in the very same thread there were a very vocal minority who claimed that FDEV should be paying them for beta testing instead of expecting them to pay in order to gain access. After such heavy criticism from a few self-important individuals is it any wonder that there has been no mention of an upgrade path to beta any time since?

Hit the nail on the head with this one.

OP, you make it sound like you are desperate to get into beta testing, thinking that you can make an actual difference.
Fact is there are so many players, testing the current build, having one more person really wouldn't make any difference in the slightest.

There were a number of issues reported with 1.1 that did not get fixed. There were tickets (that were closed before the issue was fixed) and numerous threads with video evidence and the likes.

The issue isn't with the number of people reporting issues. The issue is with frontier to act on those reports and get things fixed before release.

They received a huge burn with releasing 1.1 in the state that it was in, and I believe that they have learned their lesson from it, as they openly addressed us saying that it wasn't in a state that it should have been in.

At the end of the day, the beta testers who are playing did pay more for the game. This is one of the perks they receive.
They have helped shape the game to what it is now, and to deny them exclusivity to further beta testing as previously promised - because a few people are desperate to try stuff out a week before it's actual release - would be extremely bad press.

Sorry you didn't hear about the game before, sorry you didn't have the chance to pay more for the game when you had a chance, but the fact is, there are a ton of players already helping test the new build of the game. The 1.2 forums are lit up with issues and bug reports, and I'm certain there are a number of tickets open too.

What is actually needed, is not extra players, it's time for FD to act on the reports and get certain issues fixed before releasing it to the public.

 

[blitzspear]

I believe Michael or another Dev stated they were considering 're-opening' registrations to Beta (allowing more people to pay to get access), if they needed it.
Perhaps this will come until then, there isn't much you can do about it.
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I don't do much in the beta at this point as it stops progress for me in the real game.
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Don't see it as a negative think of it as an opportunity to get ahead a little over the 'beta players' who are not progressing in the live game due to 'testing in the beta'.

 

[Armour]

I would think that FD keep the beta access limited so that they don't have to duplicate enough infrastructure to potentially cater for the entire player base every time they put out an update. Rather than throwing away that kind of money on the kind of stab-in-the-dark testing largely carried out by QA volunteers, I'd prefer that they devote it to development.

As for "more testers = less bugs", that's not some fundamental law of QA. Statistically, code review finds more bugs than testing. Automated testing is more efficient in resources/bug terms. Human testing is necessary, but largely for the purposes of user acceptance, observation of metrics for resource and gameplay tuning purposes, and generally making things idiot-proof - with the beta tester taking the role of idiot.

Besides, this isn't Pokemon - you can't catch them all. Killer bugs, zero-day exploits, and all manner of other flaws are still found regularly in the various pieces of software (and firmware) that provide our global IT infrastructure, "tested" by billions of users daily over many years. Bugs will make it through every testing process, whether you have five thousand idiots or 5 million.

I assume there is a "critical mass" for a test group beyond which it becomes more trouble than it's worth. We might like to think we are all unique snowflakes, but we're not - most will just report the same few easily-discovered bugs using slightly different language. Nothing much will likely be gained in terms of finding new bugs over the results of a smaller testing crew in that case, and the requirement for professional QA resources to sort and deduplicate the reports will probably result in worse results overall.

 

[Tiamat]

OP wants a permanent test server from the sound of it rather than the temporary beta access backers are getting. The issue with that as far as I can see is money. The beta servers are only spun up when needed and there are almost certainly fewer server instanced in the beta clusters due to the lower player counts. It is a benefit to FD to splurge a small amount of cash for a week or so to get extra eyes on major patches to catch things FD have missed. Having a permanent test server as OP wants will incur a constant cost for the extra server instances that make up the test server cluster and whilst it would be nice to give the players it does not provide any benefit to FD. It would just be unnecessary expense.

 

[Dubber]

I didn't read it that way at all