Beta: Testing

[NewSith]

Quoting myself from some other thread:

Originally Posted by NewSith

I can only suggest making first stages of beta a general bugfinding/balancing stage, so every created character starts at maximum level. Then after the first wipe you can remove the max-level char creation to test character progression and start solving some more delicate issues. Personally I don't understand why nobody makes it like that, though it's far more efficient.

[Tikuto]

Must has. I see how bug-cleaning and performance-checking with maximum character ranks would help to better refine Balance thereafter.

[Geist]

Originally Posted by NewSith

Quoting myself from some other thread:

Sounds like common sense. Now to see if SOE has that virtue.

[Warborn]

It depends on what they want to do with the beta. Isn't really a "correct" way to do it in general.

edit: by this I mean, they may not be concerned about getting player feedback for balance and could instead keep the beta fairly limited, interesting themselves only with technical issues that arise, server load, and so on.

[Mightymouser]

I'd imagine they'll have something similar to what they did on the PS1 test server; which is they have XP fountains before playtests where everyone in the SOI is given mounds of XP...

I don't honestly remember what they did for PS1's beta

[Lonehunter]

The problem is they need to test what the game will be like at launch, not a year from then. While I do see a need for some kind of rapid advancement to test the "max level" capabilities, I think most of the testing should involve the progression before the max level. Free to Play games usually have more people low level/no $ paid then they do high lvls/pays a lot.

[Crator]

It's a good question. I would like to know myself how they did PS1 beta. I was in open beta for PS1 but that was just load testing. Was open beta the only thing PS1 had?

[Warborn]

Originally Posted by Crator

It's a good question. I would like to know myself how they did PS1 beta. I was in open beta for PS1 but that was just load testing. Was open beta the only thing PS1 had?

There was random invite-only testing for PS1 also if I recall correctly.

[Azren]

I am sure we will all begin with br 1 (or 0?) character. In order to test out all the beginner features of the game, this is a must. It is far more improtant to have a very enjoyable start, than what the balance will look like after 6 months of gameplay (max level).

Once we have fully tested the noob stuff and the devs fixed all the bugs, we will probably get high br characters to test endgame.

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by Lonehunter

The problem is they need to test what the game will be like at launch, not a year from then. While I do see a need for some kind of rapid advancement to test the "max level" capabilities, I think most of the testing should involve the progression before the max level. Free to Play games usually have more people low level/no $ paid then they do high lvls/pays a lot.

That is why, I'm suggesting only first stages to be like that.

By balancing I mean - if everybody has everything, you can easily see which weapons are the OP and are getting overused, alongside with what weapons are underused.

Same thing with bugs - with all unlocked you can reach more places on the map aswell as being able to test everything in every condition.

[WaryWizard]

I see no problem with everyone being max for the first.... month maybe? Depends on how long the beta is going to be in its entirety. I'd say no more than 20% of the total beta time. If that is too short then just give everyone a 5x(maybe more if that is slow) boost to certting and xp and such.

[Azren]

Originally Posted by WaryWizard

I see no problem with everyone being max for the first.... month maybe? Depends on how long the beta is going to be in its entirety. I'd say no more than 20% of the total beta time. If that is too short then just give everyone a 5x(maybe more if that is slow) boost to certting and xp and such.

Let us do some math here:
Max level for 1 month.
Max level for 20% of total.

You seriously think beta will last 5 months?

Beta will probably look like this:
A few beta weekends with very limited number of users. These will include, but not be exclusive to high level tests.
One week of stress test called closed beta (where everyone with beta code can enter).
After this, only open beta is left, which nowadays is same as full release, since there is no wipe at the end.

[Coreldan]

5 month beta isnt even uncommon nowadays. Besides, rather a long beta than crappy final product. It just comes down to how long can they afford not getting revenue from it.

[Hmr85]

Start everybody at BR 1 and test all the beginner crap out first. There is no need to jump straight to max level. Besides there is always the select few people who feel they have to try and attain max level within the first two or three weeks so they can go around saying they where the first.

So don't be surprised to see some people maxed out pretty quickly because they live in their parents basement.

[Geist]

Originally Posted by Hmr85

Start everybody at BR 1 and test all the beginner crap out first. There is no need to jump straight to max level. Besides there is always the select few people who feel they have to try and attain max level within the first two or three weeks so they can go around saying they where the first.

So don't be surprised to see some people maxed out pretty quickly because they live in their parents basement.

The thing about this game though is that there is no beginner crap. You start a character, your fighting everybody. No beginner zones, no bolsters, just you, your gun, and your skills.

Start everybody off at 50 and you can start work on buggy skills, buggy weapons, buggy vehicles, all the important stuff. After you fix all those problems, you can start looking at the problems with leveling a character from BR1 to max.