Would you support a permanent beta\test server?

[drzdeano]

In light of recent "updates", do you think a permanently running beta/test server would be a useful to speed up the balancing and debugging process.

Once a fortnight or a month, a new set of balance "experiments" could be tested.

To reduce the potential for unintended effects,
I would prefer the focus to be on removing bugs and getting the balance correct, rather than testing out new content.


If you had 3 changes/tweaks you could test in a beta environment, what would you choose?



I'm sure there would be extra running costs for such a server. There are many benefits that would outweigh it's expense!

The tweaks and changes are still at Frontiers discretion, not the communities constant requests.

 

[Mohrgan]

Many games do just that, but I'm not sure what kind of extra expense would be required. I am not sure if the benefit would outweigh the costs, considering E|D is not built like the common games out there.

 

[Midian27]

Why? They don't even fix half the things that get brought up in betas as is.

 

[bitstorm]

To be honest I'm not sure. Though after the last few days I'm leaning towards no.

In the end, a portion of the community tends to feel one way, and another portion another.

In a way I would rather Frontier go with *their* vision and introduce the changes *they* deem correct. It's Frontier that take the long view and it's Frontier that have the best interests of the game in mind. Many many players seem to take a short term view, do not see the full picture and often seem to focus on easy cash.

Having a priliminary server I think would just encourage more folk moaning for something being the way *they* want it, every change would be argued to death because people would feel the point of the server is to decide if I as an individual deem a change acceptable, which really would not be the point.

In the end the community are not the gatekeepers. A large number of comments I see on here are really not helpful at all, many comments are just unconstructive negativity for the sake of it. I'm honestly starting to feel Frontier should not be listening too closely to the community.

 

[drzdeano]

This wasn't to pander to people's requests, it was to try and give frontier a bit more room to experiment with various options as THEY saw fit.

 

[dynamicbob]

Great idea, but Fdevs release / testing / PR / Marketing hype cycle probably wont be compatible

 

[drzdeano]

In a way I would rather Frontier go with *their* vision and introduce the changes *they* deem correct. It's Frontier that take the long view and it's Frontier that have the best interests of the game in mind. Many many players seem to take a short term view, do not see the full picture and often seem to focus on easy cash.

.

100% agree but frontier don't always get it right.

For some reason the saying "no plan survives contact with the Enemy" seems appropriate

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Typically in deploying applications there is a "staging" or pre-prod environment where the application is run for a period of time before being pushed to live. Access is granted to a limited number of people and they give their feedback, which is then patched at a faster rate than production. With decent release management/configuration management procedures it is possible to do this efficiently.

If Frontier want to consider this, I have 20 years experience in configuration and release management across a variety of industries

 

[Dortmunder]

Beta's clearly do nothing.

Look at 2.2...

It was "tested" and still came out as a buggy mess. Will take them a year to fix some of the issues it introduced. If ever.

 

[drzdeano]

Do nothing..... Don't dramatise....

imagine the 2.2 release without the 7 different versions they went through.

For a forum full of complaints about quality control the results surprise me.

 

[Red Anders]

The problem with beta servers is that a large proportion of players will always use them to just about rather than testing and providing feedback. That would be no less true with a permanent beta server than with the way beta testing is done now.

 

[Hessfire]

And what, pray tell, do you think gives you the right to dictate another's software development process??

As a former developer/QA Manager/Software Architect I can answer that in one word --- NOTHING.

Were anyone at ANY of my former career incarnations (save for my DIRECT Reporting IT Management) tried to even suggest that I change my way of operating I would tell them - politely - to sod off.

As for the current state of the game, they are doing very well in my book and have been responsive and attentive - even when being presented with sketchy and anecdotal information from this often hostile and abusive community.

Cut the guys a break, while you may be momentarily inconvenienced - all they see are tons of individuals trashing them, their work ethic, and their current life's work.

Take your time FD, and let those of us that are actually listening know what information we can provide constructively to assist in eradicating the problem. Thanks again for your efforts and patience in dealing with us trying to backseat develop your product.

 

[Dortmunder]

And what, pray tell, do you think gives you the right to dictate another's software development process??

Stopped reading there. Rest is probably similarly idiotic.

We're paying customers. Dictate is the wrong word to use here, criticize is the word you're looking for.

 

[Spacecat]

Isn't that what this is?

Seriously, though, it's a game in progress.

 

[Hessfire]

No, it was not idiotic, and your loss for not reading it.

Dictate was EXACTLY the word I was going for in this instance. The attitude that because you are a paying customer does not allow you to even have a seat at the table of the man clearing the litter in my book.

Again, if anyone not in my direct reporting tree came to me to TELL me how to do my job I would tell them to sod off - internal or external customer makes no difference. I have even been known to tell those above me - respectfully mind you - why they were wrong in their opinion or directive. An internal or external customer - won't waste my time with even discussing it.

Thanks for your input, but I don't need someone trying to second-guess my words when they won't even bother to read them.

 

[Ben Ryder]

I think a permanent beta test server would be a waste of time, resources and would have no pay off in quality. There are bugs in the live game being played by everybody. These bugs are reported and are often not resolved for a long time. A beta server would not fix existing bugs and would take resources away from that task. Having a beat server would just mean that existing bugs would still be unresolved and there would be less resource available to fix them. Any fixes made to the live game woud also have to be made on the beta which means an additional drain on existing resource.

Here's a very simple example erm Ithink.

Say you dont like an apple because its green and you only like redish apples. You are handed an apple that is green . You dont want it. Mean whiel some folk are handed a variety of apples to decied if they like them. You are left with the green apple until they make their mind up. They do. They decide they want a green apple. After a long wait you are handed a very green apple because you as the customer were not involved in the testing process.

 

[Wylie28]

No one ever plays the PTS of any game.

Stopped reading there. Rest is probably similarly idiotic.

We're paying customers. Dictate is the wrong word to use here, criticize is the word you're looking for.

Theres criticism, then theres being an . Ill give you an example of each

Criticism: I found a bug. When I do x, y happens. Please fix it.

Being an (most of the forum community) screw you the game is completely broken and unplayable because I cant do x. You are the worst dev team in the history of the world. Ive stopped playing, but played for just 5 minutes to find this bug which completely breaks the ENTIRE game. (with no mention of what happened to replicate the bug and even though the game is perfectly playable)

 

[Dortmunder]

Criticism: I found a bug. When I do x, y happens. Please fix it.

Yeah, sorry. That's not criticism at all. That's informing them there's a bug.

Criticism would be: "I think what you have done to [insert game mechanic here] is terrible and it should be changed".

 

[Red Anders]

Take your time FD, and let those of us that are actually listening know what information we can provide constructively to assist in eradicating the problem. Thanks again for your efforts and patience in dealing with us trying to backseat develop your product.

Oh my days, wipe your chin.

 

[drzdeano]

The problem with beta servers is that a large proportion of players will always use them to just about rather than testing and providing feedback. That would be no less true with a permanent beta server than with the way beta testing is done now.

That is the major down side I could see, but as long as they submitted reports and documented stuff, still could be helpful

- - - Updated - - -

And what, pray tell, do you think gives you the right to dictate another's software development process??

As a former developer/QA Manager/Software Architect I can answer that in one word --- NOTHING.

Were anyone at ANY of my former career incarnations (save for my DIRECT Reporting IT Management) tried to even suggest that I change my way of operating I would tell them - politely - to sod off.

As for the current state of the game, they are doing very well in my book and have been responsive and attentive - even when being presented with sketchy and anecdotal information from this often hostile and abusive community.

Cut the guys a break, while you may be momentarily inconvenienced - all they see are tons of individuals trashing them, their work ethic, and their current life's work.

Take your time FD, and let those of us that are actually listening know what information we can provide constructively to assist in eradicating the problem. Thanks again for your efforts and patience in dealing with us trying to backseat develop your product.

Who are you talking to and why did you come into this thread which such attitude, go and harssas the posters that are doing what you mention, it seems you posted this in the wrong thread.

I didn't demand anything?

I posed a question if people would support a permanent beta server?