Does anyone still play on test?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by svann, Jan 19, 2018.

  1. svann Augur

    Test notes show the cactus mission retune was on test for 8 days before it went live. I think this is the mission most often run on live. Did no one run it on test?

    edit: or was the version on test not the same as what went live?
  2. Bobsmith Augur

    Now that people don't get the latest content for free on test the pop has gone down I'm sure. And the ones that did test it probably aren't the ones needing it to be easy mode.
  3. AnzoRagespirit Augur

    People do test it, but for the most part they're not really reportin much. And if the test players are mentioning concerns about stuff, then it's being ignored. What's the point in a test server if everything goes live even after the test players say it's not right.

    Same goes for Beta, but...meh not really anything g we can do.
  4. CrazyLarth Augur

    no idea but I know Test raided some old content on test last Fri and will try some COTF raids this Fri.
    facebook group
    EverQuest Test Server Players
    Gyurika Godofwar and svann like this.
  5. Intenso Augur

    dont think so with the state of the cactus mission tuning lol
  6. Gyurika Godofwar Augur

    Don't blame the Test server population for Daybreak's mistakes. The assumptions here are way off base and very misinformed.
  7. Gyurika Godofwar Augur

    We're doing Dead Hills 1 & 2 in 3 hours and if we get them down we'll try Neriak 1.
  8. mmats Augur

    Test server never got the latest content for free. Always one expansion behind unless you pay normal rate.
  9. mmats Augur

    Test players mostly report bugs, not overtuned missions. Even if it was reported, odds are it wasnt seen by a dev.
  10. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    I logged in to test, when the last patch went on there, but that was only to look at the guild manager.

    Couldn't find a guild so joined the EQ one in the Guild Lobby, couldn't test a lot, a couple of things I reported still made it to live.
  11. Funk Augur

    You and your group should /testcopy from Bristle, change to test version on your launcher (only takes a few seconds) log onto test and run the mission. Seems not enough are doing that and it literally only takes a minute to change over on launcher and patch, if you have test as it's own folder just copy your current UI over to that folder and it's nearly a seamless transition to quickly test a mission.

    Edit : And like stated earlier RoS is not granted on test so it needs live players with the expansion to help out.
  12. Goodn Augur

    If you have 6 single players, trying a /testcopy isn't that difficult. If you are boxing and using (3rd party software for window memory management only), it's not quite that simple. Moving over to test in my windows just sometimes fails for me and I have to go back and just log an account by itself. I've also had issues with /testcopy syncing. And if you don't get your UIs right, it's really hard to test edge content due to button pushes. If you are just checking whether the enchant conflag platinum abilities now mem, that's easy (and I did). But on a mission that at least for me, required serious prep, I spend ~an hour trying to get it to work and then went on to...actually play and do another mission before the change.

    As others eluded to, the biggest problem with Test and Beta right now is that the Devs are not listening to what is posted and bugged. We still don't have a fix for assurance overwriting druid skin and cleric symbol. That was mentioned in Beta forums and bugged. Mentioned in Live and Test bug threads...and still no fix for what has been something in the game since the beginning.

    Whether the workload is just too much, communication lines are broken...whatever...Devs aren't responding to player feedback. And if I am not getting a sense that you are taking what work I do in Test or Beta seriously, then I'm not going to bother. My time is valuable.

    It also doesn't help that some decisions they have made this cycle have been puzzling. I was all set to help with Beta this time. I spend my month in HH Seb gearing my toons, worked on my spell/ability rotations for maximizing dps, healing, control. And then as I've already started copying over and getting UI files ready to play in Beta, I find out that you will need EoK t2 group armor to do anything with RoS t1 group armor...and I don't have that. So instead of helping in Beta, I spend the 5ish weeks grinding in EoK T2 zones getting my sets of t2 armor (which were never used...because I had the HH Seb) so I'd be ready for RoS. Turns out it didn't matter that much because drop rates were very low and the tradeskill stuff is almost t2...but I'm glad I spent my time on Live rather than Beta given all the bugs that I saw in the forums that were never even acknowledged.

    I am very appreciative of all the work ANYONE does on the Test and Beta servers for EQ. Too bad I don't get the sense that the Devs are responding the same way.

    As an aside...I would very happily Test or Beta anything that the Devs feel would help them. They just need to ask (and I'm sure a lot of group level folks would do the same). But Devs would have to respond to our feedback as much as they would a Raid Guild testing Raids. Because if I'm just doing for the sake of doing, I'd rather just do it on Live.
  13. Vanrau Augur

    Goodn, they started out beta way behind. This is why some feedback was never addressed. They responded to quite a bit of issues in beta but couldn't get to all that needed to be fixed. They can't respond to everyone that posts everything, they just don't have the resources for it. Add on top of that, players who were in beta were mainly raiders. So once they finished group progression, most were just logging in for raids. I hardly saw anyone on beta outside of raids after the first three weeks.

    Maybe it was the design of the expansion that set them way back. I think they included too much content in the design but clearly didn't think through on how much time it would take to finish it all.

    As far as the test server goes. We need more live players copying over to help test. The test server doesn't have the big testing community it once had. So if people are really concerned about the health of the game, you'll help the test community out.
  14. svann Augur

    If I had to talk 5 people into jumping on the test server with me AND then test everything they change then we would never have time to play on live! You cannot expect the players on live servers to test group content on test server. We spent over a month on beta testing this stuff, but clearly no one wants to make this a full time permanent gig. And thats not the players fault. The fault lies with whoever assumed something like that would happen. It didnt. It wont. Why would it?

    You had a valid test server at one point. IIUC from the comments you ran the test server population off. Either bring them back, or dont even bother putting it on test. By putting it on the test server you literally gained nothing and lost 8 days. What was the point?
  15. Goodn Augur

    I understand about feedback and not having time to spend to respond to every suggestion/comment. But they ignored BUGS. Things that were broken or did not work. We know this because they made it to Live. If they didn't respond but Live had fixes, it would be great. But it does seem like the only things that got attention are the things they responded to. Beta forums are gone, but if you looked at the responses, it really felt like they were taking the lowest hanging fruit possible or things that only certain people commented on and working on them.

    I do agree with your assertion that there seem to be pressure from above about this expansion and releasing it regardless of condition was a foregone conclusion. But I don't think that absolves the Devs for mistakes that honestly, we've seen before. I do think the EQ producer needs to have her name mentioned as much as the Devs for problems though.

    I feel for the Beta and Test folks that are just regular group level players. I know you are trying to make EQ a better place. I am willing to come over to Test and actually test something any time I am able and if giving enough warning, specifically make time for the testing. But after my history with the game, I need some assurance that I'm not just typing feedback and bug reports to the ether.

    I'm a senior officer in a large family guild on Xegony and I spend a good deal of time talking to newly returning players, inviting them to our guild, answering the best I can questions folks have, logging alts to find gear/quest items/tradeskill stuff, buffing, etc. (...and to be clear, all of our officers and long time players help folks out just like me...we're an awesome team). I probably only spend 20 percent of my time in game...actually playing the game. I think that's where my time is best spent for the overall good of the game...having folks want to stay around. It's definitely why when I come on these forums I am passionate about my views because I think a lot of non-power players just want to play the game and not have to hit roadblocks because of bugs or poorly thought out decisions from very skewed viewpoints.
  16. Slippry Augur

    Test isn't for testing content anymore. It's to check that nothing is catastrophically wrong, and that patches are mostly stable before sending them to live servers.
  17. Gnomeland Augur

    Test actually has more players now than it did before, and it will have more players in the future, as people move off live because they're no longer willing to pay for a broken service.

    The problem was never Test's population, in any case. It's that developers don't listen to what Test says in the first place. When was the last time a release was changed between Test and Live, that didn't explicitly involve a developer asking for people to go to Test? Test is only used now as a place to stage a release to make sure it is stable. They don't listen to Test players any more than they do Live players.
  18. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    I think the problem here is the expectation of someone else to test something you have an interest in.

    Sometimes people will post stuff publicly that they find, often times they just let their guild / friends know. I spend a lot of time myself on Test checking for upcoming expansion bugs / issues for TLPs but the information I get I don't readily disseminate to everyone because I'm doing the effort for my guild, not for theirs. If I find an extreme bug (hello port to Qeynos DoDH mechanics) I'll report those to Daybreak and hope they get fixed before it becomes an issue.

    I also feel like I'm in the minority of players that see upcoming test changes and bothers to patch over and see how things are actually going to start working the next week. As Slippery said above, most test server changes are exactly what Live is going to get, it's just a check to ensure that they are stable enough to not crash the servers.
    Funk likes this.