Everquest and its Developers need YOUR help!

Test, alive and kicking, come join the fun.

Greedy raid leader wants a twin-cast eye, so it's a pahty in rof right now:

It seems silly indeed that expansions are no longer offered free on Test. That was always an important part of the attraction.

Test is a fun server to play on. The removal of the most opportunistic players from the economy (by design) makes for a good environment.

I logged onto test tonight for the first time since Feb 2015 after the devs killed their asset, our current content test guild Legions of Blackburrow.

it was a dismal place to be. I respect what Primal Brood is trying to do but it isn't enough. Devs, please consider bringing back free expacs on test like it was for many many years if you want it to truly be useful as a test environment for current content.

Plenty of people playing on Test at all hours of the day/night. You likely just logged in at a bad time. Also... since a lot of the server is in PB, general chat can be quiet at times... we try to keep General active, but most of us use guild chat.

Also, we have flying lizards testing housing bugs!



Lizards with Snakes sticks!



And Hludwolf's horse's a$$.



Come be an integral part of Everquest testing and development, and have a good time doing it!

My main thing is it doesn't seem like what is commented about or reported with things on Test get actually changed or looked at. Things go into Live still buggy when reported over and over that it is broken or what not.

What's the point?

You'd have to ask the devs and coders that question. It could be way worse if there was no testing done but it could also be more efficient if they had a bigger QA team to work with us in a more efficient and effective manner.

My guild keeps getting messed up on Test.

What happened? Your wizards all quit over the nerfs?

We have 3 or 4 main wizards and they are in that list. Kizant, Gooshy and Gorlgona and I think we may have one more. We've grown so much in a short time that I am not sure who else may main a wizard. Our raid leader also has a wizard box he tends to take everywhere with him.

I'm working on a Zerker.

People often ask me, "Do bugs reported on Test actually get fixed?"

Yes, they most certainly do! Developers prioritize bugs based on a number of different criteria. What may seem like a game-breaking bug at the time may be minor in comparison to other bugs currently on the list of things to fix. Bugs that are properly reported in the latest bug thread often get fixed. If something seems more "minor", it should also be reported in the DGC issue tracker.

Let's take a look at some actual examples of critical bug fixes that have happened in the last few months:

- Dupe bug. Fixed within 4 hours of being reported.
- Permanent shroud bug/buffs staying after death. Fixed (on test) within hours of being reported, rolled out to Live the next day.
- Agents of Change "deleting" entire accounts of characters placed into their Dynamic-Zones, requiring a server restart to make them re-appear.
- Critical internal server updates being tuned until stable enough to be rolled out to Live. Through accurate and consistent reporting, Test was able to aid the Development Staff in getting these updates into a usable state.

There have been many more, too numerous to list here. Bugs that get properly reported do eventually get addressed. Please note that proper, detailed, and clear bug reporting is essential to this process, and it's always important to remember that the Developers are busy folks; they will prioritize bug fixes in a way that makes sense for the game as whole. Catching these bugs and reporting them early is one of the most important things players can do to help the development staff. In some extreme cases, it saves the Live server players a tremendous amount of heartache and tears.

Let's take a quick look at this process in action, live from the Test server:



I think that sums it up nicely.

Test server: We're here to kick bug-a** and chew bubblegum. And we're all out of bubblegum.

Cute post @gotwar

But I do recall the forums blowing up from many bugs and problems that were reported on the Test server dealing with TBM that went into Live.

But hey, you like it on Test that's cool. For me, I don't.

I think the systems team does a great job at responding to straight forward bugs. Things like stability, crashes, exploits. Very cut and dry functionality stuff. Where things get messy is with design "bugs". Things that we don't know exactly how things should work and where the designers could think we're just wanting things more powerful. Issues that are interpretive versus functional. Examples of these are abilities/spells not working to perceived levels or at all, itemization, quests/tasks bugging out balance issues, etc.

Most of the highly visible reports we feel like are ignored are design. Issues reported against patches on test. Issues with expansions seen in beta.

I think the removal of free expansions from test points to the types of reports they value. They value systems type reports. The types of things they do respond quickly to. You don't need current content to test that stuff. You don't need to be told what the design intent was to know you're seeing a real bug. You don't need to debate with a designer and show logs, parses and dig up old threads to prove you have a point.

When you absolutely must get Hludwolf's attention the moment he comes into work on Monday:

Yes, it's true! That's not a troll. Well, it is a Troll, but not a Troll trolling. Primal Brood is once again bringing the Carnival of Tears to the Everquest Test server to celebrate the end of the summer months, the announcement of Everquest's newest expansion, and to promote the Test server!

We'd like to make this seasons Carnival even bigger and better than ever, with more prizes, more events, and more fun!

If you have any ideas for events to add to the Carnival please post them here! While we'll still be running our standard Trivia Contest/Naked Race Across Karanas/Testbuffed arena PVP events, we plan to add more and would love to get some ideas from the community.

Stay tuned for more details and scheduling!

Thread necro incoming.

While the Test server's population has bounced back to acceptable levels in recent months following the horrific periods of instability during the database updates, people are still encouraged to join! If you are a returning player or new to the game and just want to check out what EQ has to offer these days, the Test server is an excellent way to get back into the swing of things. You can find out just how much an All-Access account really gives you on Live and you never know - you may like it so much you stay!

Would also like to take a moment here to go a bit off-topic. Over the past few months, we've had players from all servers and all guilds, from Antonious Bayle to Xegony, copy to Test and join Primal Brood raids on Saturday. I want to offer my sincere gratitude to anyone who takes the time out from their busy weekend to come raid with us. Whether you just raid one night or decide to be there every week, I cannot thank you enough for your contribution to the Test server and the Everquest community. While Primal Brood is an ancient guild with enough members to make any Guild Leader's head spin, we are the epitome of casual. Our raid force is small and without your help these brave souls who have made their homes on Test would probably not be seeing raid content at all.

Thank you guys and gals (you know who you are!) for helping to give the Test community a fun night to experience raid content every week. It's good for the health of the server and, as I've said before, what's good for Test is good for EQ!

Here's a happy Froglok saying thanks!

Test is fantastic. It is my new home! The people are friendly, almost always something going on. I have had more groups in the past few weeks than I can remember.

W

We should do this again sometime in the next few weeks.

The people from Test who post here seem to know so much more about esoteric things like mercenary mitigation and such. It's intimidating.

One comment was that F2P players can play on Test in unlimited fashion, except for the most recent expansion.

While F2P players are less likely to be dedicated EQ players, add in the current expansion and it might be a huge draw to F2P players.

As for All Access players, time on Test or Beta is time lost on live. There is no incentive. It also seems that most of the debugging happens AFTER something goes live (patch of the patch of the patch...).

last beat, there was no NDA. If this is continued, why have a Beta and a Test server? Why not combine them?

If more Testers are needed, how about some actual incentive?

Ideas?

* DB Cash on Test and Live will be separate markets/totals. Call it Test Cash? (no monetary value, nonrefundable, etc.)
* 1 Test Cash for every new quest completed on Test
* 2 Test Cash for every new Achievement completed on Test
* Double monthly Test Cash for All Access players on Test (10) -- F2P get the standard 5
* GM awarded (GM determines amount, from 1 to 5) Test cash for participation in testing events/quests
* Access to Test Server-only Test Cash Store, where reward items can be purchased with Test Cash (and once purchased, they go to Claims and can be claimed on any toon, any server on that account).
* Items would be things that were only available as a bonus item with one expansion or another... or as a Beta Reward in the past.... or as LON from a Loot Card... or the Ornamentation set for recruiting people to play EQ.... or items you can now only buy for ridiculous prices from that wandering rare loot vendor...

Just rambling some thoughts........