24/7 Beta or "Weekends"? - Page 2

Otleaz · 2012-07-11, 02:23 AM

Originally Posted by Furber

Exactly my thoughts. I know Hi-Rez has done 24/7 beta testing with Tribes: Ascend and Smite (currently in beta). Both games are Free to Play, maybe this is the way F2P will beta test? We can only hope!

Or maybe just match based arena games?

It is a safe bet to say that GW2 did their beta the way they did to stop players from exhausting the content before the game even started. The same wouldn't be an issue for Tribes, Smite, or PS2.

Mr DeCastellac · 2012-07-11, 02:57 AM

A lot of betas do weekends, the most recent one I can think of is Guild Wars 2.

It works well for them, supplying them with a lot of data (servers get packed because everyone gets excited for the weekends), then gives them a month or so between them to work with it.

I think a 24/7 beta (with maintenance breaks every so often) would be the best for Planetside 2, since it's a consistent game with so many customizations and sidegrades for people to test out and help balance.

Zidane · 2012-07-11, 03:12 AM

I think doing both will be the best for PS2.

EVILoHOMER · 2012-07-11, 03:32 AM

weekends would be better when you have more people in and you're forcing everyone to be in at a specific time to stress test.

Rabaan · 2012-07-11, 03:44 AM

Yea I'd like a 24/7 beta, if not that, then something that lasts longer that 1 or 2 days at a time, 1 week on 1 week off would be reasonable, imo

Voltar · 2012-07-11, 04:04 AM

i think beta weekends tend to encourage a higher volume of player at one time since the timeframe's so confined. i don't think that will be an issue with ps2 since there's (iirc) a 2k (total of all 3 factions) player cap per continent and one continent being tested atm. they will have no problem getting 2k per server for several servers. that's my logic for open beta (24/7)

Celsian · 2012-07-11, 04:27 AM

SW:TOR had beta weekends, see how well it worked out for them?

There's no content to hide in PS2, the game is PVP driven. I have faith that SOE will make the right decision.

Bruttal · 2012-07-11, 04:58 AM

24/7 some of us dont work a mon-friday schedule

Dart · 2012-07-11, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by Notser

Honestly, it probably will take two to three weekend tests for them to just invite everyone from ps1 and all the keys they sent out.

I suspect the waves will be slightly more separated than that. The first few squads worth will likely be asked for targeted feedback and the sessions will be a matter of hours. Then as the weeks go on more and more people will be invited and the testing will become more and more expansive until we have fully live servers. Just a hunch tho...

LegioX · 2012-07-11, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by Bruttal

24/7 some of us dont work a mon-friday schedule

Thank you. I work 3 weekends out of the month. Show me some love.

Jomo · 2012-07-11, 06:55 AM

I think we'll likely see a combination of the two. A game like this will benefit from scripted events where they lock us down to a certain region and have us fight it out (stress tests on locations and bases). While they'll want us roaming the entire world, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Monday-Friday of us being able to explore the entire world and fight it out everywhere, and then on the weekend, they bring more people in and do more of an 'event'.

Each base should have it's own event so we can try to break it.

Exmortius · 2012-07-11, 08:18 AM

hopefully they leave it 24-7 for those of us working during the day. can see what we can break at night time after regular work hours :P leave em notes on how things are going with certain items that way they fix broken stuff during regular hours when all those guys are there tweakin :P

kertvon · 2012-07-11, 08:25 AM

I couldn't see them not eventually doing 24/7 testing. The success of PS2 will hinge heavily on the integrity of the servers. If they do stress test in the beginning, let's hope they actually keep the servers up and running for a good week 24/7 or so at some point.

BillyBob · 2012-07-11, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by Celsian

SW:TOR had beta weekends, see how well it worked out for them?

SW:TOR also had a closed 24/7 beta (offline on occasion to switch builds) which started roughly a year prior to launch.

The SW:TOR beta weekends, which came much later, were just an added "beta layer" to the already ongoing permanent one.

As for the PS2 beta, who knows?

From a developer perspective, both setups have their own respective pros and cons.

They could of course also go for any combination of the two.

We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

/BB

wasdie · 2012-07-11, 08:36 AM

It won't be 24/7 for quite some time. They need focused testing where they can maximize the amount of people on and the amount of SOE staff to monitor.

After they are certain all of the systems are working well enough under stress and all of the features needed for 24/7 player are implemented, then we'll see 24/7 beta.