KMS does this.
CMS does this.
Not sure if SEA does this.
The point is, why don't we try to have every player get involved in contributing to the game so that when a huge update comes online, such as Override, we can at least minimize the number of bugs in the game? This will for sure minimize this ridiculous amount of "Unscheduled maintenance" that we are currently facing.
Nexon, be serious, you cannot just let your players wait every single time. You know that this is extremely disappointing right? Not to mention that GMS makes many "unique" decisions such as not to import rebirth flame where everywhere else has this feature, and having our version of the game be the slowest among all the servers around the world.
They would have to do a pretty picky process of picking people. We used to have a Tespia just like the others, but people kept exploiting it and not reporting bugs or exploits...then using them in the live server. I would totally go through a JOB LIKE application process for Tespia to be re-implemented.
While I wish to be a part of this testing process (like many others), I don't believe it should be a full public access, but rather a program you can register for. The selection parameters could be forum activity with reference to bugs, active accounts with significant veteran status (high levels on multiple characters or exceptionally long play time on one specific character). Bug reporting tickets.
If they did implement a player test server, users should have more of a checklist of tasks (or content) to look at. I.e. someone has to try out Dojo, collect monster collection rewards, be willing to sit down and fight a boss in a server where your progress is null. Even if the players do not find any bugs, as long as their process is thorough and helps cover content in the game then it may be an appropriate parameter for repeat selection.
The appeal of a testing server should be enough for would be candidates to be more diligent in finding and reporting bugs in the live server, in order to join in on the test server. Which should overall lead to a more positive environment to which more bugs will be identified and weeded out in a more timely manner.
They would have to do a pretty picky process of picking people. We used to have a Tespia just like the others, but people kept exploiting it and not reporting bugs or exploits...then using them in the live server. I would totally go through a JOB LIKE application process for Tespia to be re-implemented.
If this is the case, choosing to have test server completely private would not change a thing. People will just exploit straightly in the live server which keeps happening all the time. I'd say bring this Tespia back and pick different players every time a big update comes. Or have some other strategy in picking people. Or punish those who go to test server and try to make profit from bugs, like ban their main or something.
Either way, avoiding it completely will not make our game better. The V update early this year already made a huge amount of players quit due to high lag and dc. At least I don't wish to see our server gets to an end this way.
While I wish to be a part of this testing process (like many others), I don't believe it should be a full public access, but rather a program you can register for. The selection parameters could be forum activity with reference to bugs, active accounts with significant veteran status (high levels on multiple characters or exceptionally long play time on one specific character). Bug reporting tickets.
It should also depend on the quality of testing these players can provide i.e those who currently well document and report in game bugs. If they did implement a player test server, users should have more of a checklist of tasks (or content) to look at. I.e. someone has to try out Dojo, collect monster collection rewards, be willing to sit down and fight a boss in a server where your progress is null. Even if the players do not find any bugs, as long as their process is thorough and helps cover content in the game then it may be an appropriate parameter for repeat selection.
The appeal of a testing server should be enough for would be candidates to be more diligent in finding and reporting bugs in the live server, in order to join in on the test server. Which should overall lead to a more positive environment to which more bugs will be identified and weeded out in a more timely manner.
Tespia...at least back when we had it...you could get auto 200 and stuff...I didn't ever get into it but I only heard about some of the benefits. Again, I would go through the process because I really want to do my part...somehow. (I have been writing job essays and test resumes in school for Nexon since Middle school...)
While I wish to be a part of this testing process (like many others), I don't believe it should be a full public access, but rather a program you can register for. The selection parameters could be forum activity with reference to bugs, active accounts with significant veteran status (high levels on multiple characters or exceptionally long play time on one specific character). Bug reporting tickets.
If they did implement a player test server, users should have more of a checklist of tasks (or content) to look at. I.e. someone has to try out Dojo, collect monster collection rewards, be willing to sit down and fight a boss in a server where your progress is null. Even if the players do not find any bugs, as long as their process is thorough and helps cover content in the game then it may be an appropriate parameter for repeat selection.
The appeal of a testing server should be enough for would be candidates to be more diligent in finding and reporting bugs in the live server, in order to join in on the test server. Which should overall lead to a more positive environment to which more bugs will be identified and weeded out in a more timely manner.
I totally agree that a register process is necessary. By public I really mean this actually.
Ours was removed due to abuse; players would find bugs, but not report them so that they could abuse them later on in-game. I believe there were several other issues which contributed to the removal as well.
Ours was removed due to abuse; players would find bugs, but not report them so that they could abuse them later on in-game. I believe there were several other issues which contributed to the removal as well.
Is there at least a private test server? Large patches such as this one always seem to have catastrophic results. It gives me the impression that the Global team doesn't even have the opportunity to test out their own changes on any large scale.
Ours was removed due to abuse; players would find bugs, but not report them so that they could abuse them later on in-game. I believe there were several other issues which contributed to the removal as well.
Is there at least a private test server? Large patches such as this one always seem to have catastrophic results. It gives me the impression that the Global team doesn't even have the opportunity to test out their own changes on any large scale.
We've seen in many streams that they have shown off a test server. However the effectiveness or large scale testing done is not known at all due to the lack of transparency, most likely due to potential issues.
That still doesn't make it excusable that a fluster of bugs appeared in Override. Something has to change.
Ours was removed due to abuse; players would find bugs, but not report them so that they could abuse them later on in-game. I believe there were several other issues which contributed to the removal as well.
And so what if some people abuse it? They're ignorable. There'll still be people that care about the game and will report bugs. At this point, the ability to communicate with Nexon to fix problems with this game is more necessary than ever. Better to leave it open and occasionally abused than not open at all.
Is there at least a private test server? Large patches such as this one always seem to have catastrophic results. It gives me the impression that the Global team doesn't even have the opportunity to test out their own changes on any large scale.
There is, I played on it when I visited Nexon during the community summit (to try out the Damien fight and the revamped Aran/Evan, which hadn't been released at that point), and Arwoo was playing it recently on the Livestream to show off the new 5th job skills. I have no knowledge about what the full capabilities are, but I know it exists.
Some bugs are difficult to test without a live server, however. A test server also does not account for server traffic, difficulties in the network, and so on. In addition, some things work fine in a test environment, but break when they go live for no apparent reason. There is no sure-fire way to test a game for all possible bugs, and there are a variety of different methods game companies use to test their products.
People can help alleviate the bugs by filing detailed reports and being helpful when dealing with them. It can be frustrating, but questioning the QA tester's abilities isn't going to help anything.
Or you can apply to help out yourself. There are currently three QA positions available at Nexon; a live tester, a QA lead, and a QA analyst.
Other than that it's best to calm down and work with people to get things fixed, rather than fight them on why it's not fixed already.
So ultimately, a public test server would help out in discovering potential problems before a patch goes live. The issue is that previous testers were too intent on furthering their own goals instead of trying to improve the game as a whole.
And unfortunately, my career path is way too different to let me qualify as a QA guy.
So ultimately, a public test server would help out in discovering potential problems before a patch goes live. The issue is that previous testers were too intent on furthering their own goals instead of trying to improve the game as a whole.
And unfortunately, my career path is way too different to let me qualify as a QA guy.
More or less, the general consensus is that the abusers ruined it for everyone.
A public test server can help identify possible issues, but isn't a guaranteed better option. It's just one of the variety of techniques devs use.
We can, however, work with what we have right now to help improve the game as best we can. It might not be perfect either, but nothing really is. Better to use what we have than not use it.
So ultimately, a public test server would help out in discovering potential problems before a patch goes live. The issue is that previous testers were too intent on furthering their own goals instead of trying to improve the game as a whole.
And unfortunately, my career path is way too different to let me qualify as a QA guy.
More or less, the general consensus is that the abusers ruined it for everyone.
A public test server can help identify possible issues, but isn't a guaranteed better option. It's just one of the variety of techniques devs use.
We can, however, work with what we have right now to help improve the game as best we can. It might not be perfect either, but nothing really is. Better to use what we have than not use it.
You could make good use of a test server if we limited access to players with positive histories, such as being active on the forums or something. I'm not exactly sure what the qualifications would be, but with other regions and games as the example, there are a lot of positives that can come from having a test server.
Making the test server public is just not going to benefit the game. A test server is supposed to be developer access only since there are many features still full of bugs and so weak, and by giving 'early access' players can get their advantage of the weak and buggy features which gives them the ability to abuse (if not in the test server, maybe somewhere else). It's understandable that not everyone is here to abuse, since it only gets you banned 9/10 times. But still, it's the department of developers and in my opinion it should stay like that. A factory isn't going to give access to it's customers to see the test room of it's products either.
In case this actually get's added it has to be very restricted to certain people, that prove their loyalty and honesty towards the server. Giving everyone access is just asking for problems.
Comments
Imagine if they added some form of reward if a player found a new bug and reported it in. It could be great.
If they did implement a player test server, users should have more of a checklist of tasks (or content) to look at. I.e. someone has to try out Dojo, collect monster collection rewards, be willing to sit down and fight a boss in a server where your progress is null. Even if the players do not find any bugs, as long as their process is thorough and helps cover content in the game then it may be an appropriate parameter for repeat selection.
The appeal of a testing server should be enough for would be candidates to be more diligent in finding and reporting bugs in the live server, in order to join in on the test server. Which should overall lead to a more positive environment to which more bugs will be identified and weeded out in a more timely manner.
If this is the case, choosing to have test server completely private would not change a thing. People will just exploit straightly in the live server which keeps happening all the time. I'd say bring this Tespia back and pick different players every time a big update comes. Or have some other strategy in picking people. Or punish those who go to test server and try to make profit from bugs, like ban their main or something.
Either way, avoiding it completely will not make our game better. The V update early this year already made a huge amount of players quit due to high lag and dc. At least I don't wish to see our server gets to an end this way.
Tespia...at least back when we had it...you could get auto 200 and stuff...I didn't ever get into it but I only heard about some of the benefits. Again, I would go through the process because I really want to do my part...somehow. (I have been writing job essays and test resumes in school for Nexon since Middle school...)
I totally agree that a register process is necessary. By public I really mean this actually.
Ours was removed due to abuse; players would find bugs, but not report them so that they could abuse them later on in-game. I believe there were several other issues which contributed to the removal as well.
Is there at least a private test server? Large patches such as this one always seem to have catastrophic results. It gives me the impression that the Global team doesn't even have the opportunity to test out their own changes on any large scale.
We've seen in many streams that they have shown off a test server. However the effectiveness or large scale testing done is not known at all due to the lack of transparency, most likely due to potential issues.
That still doesn't make it excusable that a fluster of bugs appeared in Override. Something has to change.
And so what if some people abuse it? They're ignorable. There'll still be people that care about the game and will report bugs. At this point, the ability to communicate with Nexon to fix problems with this game is more necessary than ever. Better to leave it open and occasionally abused than not open at all.
There is, I played on it when I visited Nexon during the community summit (to try out the Damien fight and the revamped Aran/Evan, which hadn't been released at that point), and Arwoo was playing it recently on the Livestream to show off the new 5th job skills. I have no knowledge about what the full capabilities are, but I know it exists.
Some bugs are difficult to test without a live server, however. A test server also does not account for server traffic, difficulties in the network, and so on. In addition, some things work fine in a test environment, but break when they go live for no apparent reason. There is no sure-fire way to test a game for all possible bugs, and there are a variety of different methods game companies use to test their products.
People can help alleviate the bugs by filing detailed reports and being helpful when dealing with them. It can be frustrating, but questioning the QA tester's abilities isn't going to help anything.
Or you can apply to help out yourself. There are currently three QA positions available at Nexon; a live tester, a QA lead, and a QA analyst.
Other than that it's best to calm down and work with people to get things fixed, rather than fight them on why it's not fixed already.
So ultimately, a public test server would help out in discovering potential problems before a patch goes live. The issue is that previous testers were too intent on furthering their own goals instead of trying to improve the game as a whole.
And unfortunately, my career path is way too different to let me qualify as a QA guy.
More or less, the general consensus is that the abusers ruined it for everyone.
A public test server can help identify possible issues, but isn't a guaranteed better option. It's just one of the variety of techniques devs use.
We can, however, work with what we have right now to help improve the game as best we can. It might not be perfect either, but nothing really is. Better to use what we have than not use it.
You could make good use of a test server if we limited access to players with positive histories, such as being active on the forums or something. I'm not exactly sure what the qualifications would be, but with other regions and games as the example, there are a lot of positives that can come from having a test server.
In case this actually get's added it has to be very restricted to certain people, that prove their loyalty and honesty towards the server. Giving everyone access is just asking for problems.