I started wondering why I should play and test on this server. Sure its freaking awsome and I´m pumped to play all the new stuff, Look at the bases, try this new system. But on the longterm, I have no motivation to take the time and test. As long People aren´t lvl 100 and fully certed, i guess they wont spend a lot of time on this servers. But maybe you can push them a bit to do. So some Ideas how you could at least motivate them a bit. The longer you play (hours) on this server, you will get some "special" Decals,Camos,Weaponskins, EXP Boosts on real Server, Titel etc. So give the people a reason to play there, beside testing your cool new stuff! For example. For every minute you actually Play on this server. (so combat aktion and stuff) you will gain a 50 % XP buff on the normal servers, eaquel to the time you played on the test server. So if you play 60 minutes, you get 60 minutes long more XP If you have played more then 5 hours on this server, you will gain a new Weapon-Camo. ...... And so on, and so an. What do you think? Top or flop? Bring your own Ideas
if they have trouble getting players for their tests... they may try something... at present I doubt they'll have much difficulty there... especially with a free 10k certs for playing with.
as Ronin Oni said already the 10k certs to start with are really good, i myself made a Vanu character and played most of the time with my certed Magriders to find out how it is, meanwhile testing the new Battle flow system, it's like an enhanced version of the VR you wanna try out something of your faction / enemy one in real live fights aswell as helping the developers by supporting the Public Test Server with your presence and by reporting bugs? there you go!
Make the bonus something immaterial and based on usage. The top X players on the test server each day get and account wide 24 hour 20% exp boost. Change X as needed depending on how many people you want on the test servers that day. If the test server is going to be an ongoing thing with active player feedback once a month give the top player 3 "wishes" these would be simple balance changes that player could request that don't require major coding changes like changes to weapon and vehicle variables. These 3 wishes are applied to test server and discussed by the players. They would be left on the test servers for "up to a month" if the person suggest some really dumb things that make gameplay unfun they could be removed sooner but not shot down outright. I know I would play on the test server a lot more if I had the chance of seeing "double the health of everything" become a reality on the test server even if only for a week. Would also be cool to do the same thing with a reddit style up/down vote system for the players to decide.
I remember when people were happy to test games for the sake of improving them rather than personal gain. Those were the days, huh?
A cert reward every peroid of time x played. Nothing too fancy though. Ultimately though, do it as you want the game made betterer.
How about just straight up adding the xp you get from the test server to the normal server? Or earning like 1-2 station cash for every cert you gain on the test server?
Test server should be there for those that want to TEST .. and help the game develop to be the best it can be .. If that isn't a big enough reward, then maybe Testing isn't for you
The problem with all of these ideas is that they're warping the incentives to play on the server. People should be looking for problems with the game, not trying to enhance their experience on one server by putting time in on another.
This x100. Seriously, wth do you want, your actively shaping how the game will be made and preventing issues found in the test server from popping up after updates.
If there has to be a reward for playing on the test server, just give us some decals and titles (and maybe armor/helmet options) for X amount of time played. EDIT: To clarify, if I played for 4 hours I'd get something like a decal, 8 hours would get me some cool tester's armor, 12 would give me a helmet, and 18 would give me some unique camo, while 22 would finally give me a title. This would encourage people to test on the test server because they're getting cosmetics for "free" all the while investing their time in the server to help find bugs and the like.
As mentioned before test server is for testing. Not to gain benefits and/or free stuff to the live servers. EVE Online has a test server and special test events. Participating on those gives you some bonus xp to your test server character and not affecting the live server in any way. It's like SOE would give like a 1000 certs or something ON THE TEST SERVER which has wipes as the EVE Online server has.
To the haters - You have to remember, We could be playing on our actual accounts. Or doing better things with our time. I did spend the last 2 hours of my life, and probably $10 in bandwidth downloading this darn'd thing. Something that proves the Dev's care for our help would be fantastic. Nothing too gamebreaking or big, just something that says "I participated in the Test Server!". I'm surprised and dissapointed there wasn't really one for Pre-Launch players. I'd be cool with, say, a neat Armor/Weapon/Vehicle cross faction camo. Something similar to this - Would make me Inanely happy. Possibly changing the colors around every month, or making it only availible for the first week of PTS launch to keep the numbers low. Gotta be unique, it just becomes boring if everyone has it. Give it unlimitedly to any player who plays for 60+ minutes on the test server. Just a nice little shout out that the Dev's appreciate your help and time.
How about no reward so we can weed out those who aren't really here to improve the game, but are only interested in themselves. Seriously, you get to help shape the future of the game by finding bugs and identifying balance issues before they go live. This is already incentive enough. And as others have pointed out 10k certs right off the bat to try anything you want. Friggin greedy kids these days with their "gimmie gimmie gimmie". Back in my day it took 5 days and three credit cards to download a game, and another credit card and two more days for updates. And we were happy! *grumble grumble*
I'm doing it just to help out. I honestly play the game to have fun and in no way am against improving it just for the sake of improving it. I greatly anticipate and any all introductions to the game and will be open to test any and all aspects. A reward is not necessary for me, but I can see other players who have not reached a decent level in the Live Server being hesitant to test on this server... then come back feeling like they gained nothing. Everyone loves to help, but nobody likes to feel like they made 0 progress.
a character created on the test server starts with 10000 certs. at the worst, you could think of it like a VR room that allows you to try stuff in actual combat without it costing your anything or being recorded on your stats. you'd still be providing the data they're looking for, at least at the moment anyway.
well, there is only one test server. If they cant fill it that would be sad, id expect as people get the test launcher DL'd it will have queues to get in a lot of the time.
