Game Client and PTR Client

[Abhorsen]

Hello - as a teen, I used to play World of Warcraft (WoW). Their team has a great method for testing all new features before it was release to the main game client.

- Have 2 clients of the game. The base game that everyone is playing now. The testing client - PTR (Public Test Realm).

- Any potential new patch that contributes to any types of changes to attack or defense values, new features, or current bugs I.E. like the replay fixes. They would go straight to the PTR client for 4 to 6 months of testing.

- The PTR was open only during new patches being deployed. They invited all players to be on the PTR. They would get a default character with a max research and skills.

- They don’t have to pay any testers. They just use the free labor and reports from all the player base that is designated to their testing team only.

- The PTR would be open for 4 to 6 months before releasing a patch until all the bugs were corrected before released to the open player base client.

- PTR is open to any player that wants to test it for free.

There many pros to this idea.

- you don’t have to pay the testers as it’s all the player base. They normally are interested in the new content and finding any bugs.

- the testers find all the bad coding and bugs for you in advanced. You can focus more of your staff time and energy on the bugs at hand. They bring all their knowledge and experience to your team. Since we play the game everyday. We know the ins and outs.

- opening it to everyone for testing allows for a larger sample size of people and finding the bugs quickly.

- the player base is happier on release day as most of the bad coding and bugs are ironed out before release day.

All feedback goes to a forum channel only that is designated for public test realm issues The forum channel is closed after the patch is released until the next patch is ready for testing.

Cons: more money for servers to allow the people on the client. It’s something you may need to budget for in a new fiscal year.

Hope that helps your team members.

Thanks,
Abhorsen

@Harlems369th

 

[Harlems369th]

Hello - as a teen, I used to play World of Warcraft (WoW). Their team has a great method for testing all new features before it was release to the main game client.

- Have 2 clients of the game. The base game that everyone is playing now. The testing client - PTR (Public Test Realm).

- Any potential new patch that contributes to any types of changes to attack or defense values, new features, or current bugs I.E. like the replay fixes. They would go straight to the PTR client for 4 to 6 months of testing.

- The PTR was open only during new patches being deployed. They invited all players to be on the PTR. They would get a default character with a max research and skills.

- They don’t have to pay any testers. They just use the free labor and reports from all the player base that is designated to their testing team only.

- The PTR would be open for 4 to 6 months before releasing a patch until all the bugs were corrected before released to the open player base client.

- PTR is open to any player that wants to test it for free.

There many pros to this idea.

- you don’t have to pay the testers as it’s all the player base. They normally are interested in the new content and finding any bugs.

- the testers find all the bad coding and bugs for you in advanced. You can focus more of your staff time and energy on the bugs at hand. They bring all their knowledge and experience to your team. Since we play the game everyday. We know the ins and outs.

- opening it to everyone for testing allows for a larger sample size of people and finding the bugs quickly.

- the player base is happier on release day as most of the bad coding and bugs are ironed out before release day.

All feedback goes to a forum channel only that is designated for public test realm issues The forum channel is closed after the patch is released until the next patch is ready for testing.

Cons: more money for servers to allow the people on the client. It’s something you may need to budget for in a new fiscal year.

Hope that helps your team members.

Thanks,
Abhorsen

@Harlems369th

This is something that we still would like to do, but may not be quite as wide as the previous ETBs. We had a very small group of players that worked with us on Detachments.

Creating a separate Test build takes a lot of work for a team our size, so these smaller controlled environments like we did with Detachments is likely something we'll be doing more of. I've expressed the need for these Rebalance updates, and other features to have this sort of player feedback sessions. Hoping we get more!

 

[Abhorsen]

This is something that we still would like to do, but may not be quite as wide as the previous ETBs. We had a very small group of players that worked with us on Detachments.

Creating a separate Test build takes a lot of work for a team our size, so these smaller controlled environments like we did with Detachments is likely something we'll be doing more of. I've expressed the need for these Rebalance updates, and other features to have this sort of player feedback sessions. Hoping we get more!

I agree. It’s harder for smaller companies to do some of these features when compared to AAA gaming companies, but I think you’re in the right direction especially with detachments. The team just needs to keep trying. We believe in you guys. Thank you for all you do for the community. We do love this game and want to see it successful.