Perhaps Rare should begin to utilize the Founder, Pioneer, & Insider programs to populate specialized Test Servers, prior to releasing patches to the Live Servers. The last few updates have had a few issues, and instead of having to take servers down for unscheduled maintenance, the patches should be tested before-hand.
It could prevent a lot of headaches that arise from errors/bugs/etc.
@wodyo yeah they do, but its scheduling issues, besides running a side server for testers is a big toll, overwatch can pull it off because its blizzard, they know their game stuff, rare is using the unreal engine for the first time, I say let them warm up to it for a while.
@urihamrayne Fair points.
There are a lot of other online/mmo-style games that use test servers. The biggest challenge, I think, would be setting up a separate set of servers, and pushing out the test-patches. It would [definitely] add to the routine workload of the development teams, but it could be beneficial to ease the amount of animosity every patch day.
@musicmee said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
And you ain't telling me you aint ever seen a pubg bug ;)
No, I'm saying I've seen a ridiculous amount of pubg bugs, but they do beta runs all the time and it works well for speeding up bug fixing.
@ve111a Hehehe yup... Not visited their forums though or experienced one of their weekly updates so not sure how it goes down for them.
@gloog I'm not sure, rare is clearly much more careful when it comes to the game working, more so than the devs at the pubg, I'm sure rare could pull off test servers, but thing is they probably wont happen in the near future.
@gloog said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@musicmee said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
And you ain't telling me you aint ever seen a pubg bug ;)
No, I'm saying I've seen a ridiculous amount of pubg bugs, but they do beta runs all the time and it works well for speeding up bug fixing.
Aye!
I don't expect Test Servers to solve every issue in the game immediately, or before release. PUBG is far from the only example of buggy games, lol. WarGaming uses Test Servers, and there have been a plethora of bugs in their games as well. Adding the extra layer of testing at least addresses the game-breaking bugs before being released to the public.
@UrihamRayne maybe their "plate is full" right now, with the workload of adding new content. But wouldn't it be wise to make sure that new content works as intended, before releasing it?
@wodyo "But wouldn't it be wise to make sure that new content works as intended, before releasing it?"
absolutely, but rare actually has a competent internal test team, I'm pretty sure it was because of them rare managed to patch out the weapons skins randomly changing on 1.0.5. Though I'm not against public testing environments on sot, I just think that rare can't afford the distraction.
@wodyo truth be told, 1.0.6 was a clusterf... of a patch, probably with a public test environment the big issues would have been detected earlier.
Though if I am to be completely honest, there is only a handful of pioneers/founders I actually trust to be able to play the game and playtest it for real. I don't trust myself so I don't count.
@wodyo To be fair you make a valid point but it would mean delaying the release of the patch. Also I suspect they pay people to test patches and don't want to waste that money. Also what might work in a test environment might not work in the live servers. I do agree though that what's the point of having an insiders programme if you don't use it.
As I said in the other thread, what company would not want free voluntary QA testing? It would be worth their effort to add a feedback form when you quit the game, and if you don't participate in feedback of some kind (not junk feedback...actually trying to help), they lock you off the test server. Probably worth their time to implement this. I will say in my own experiences, this has saved my team a ton of headaches and escalations the day after a patch.
@wodyo On the other hand, the server was down for only an hour after launch, and the bug has been fixed about 3 hours after the patch was live.
I can't think of another online game where the dev reacts so quickly to remove a game breaking bug. Coming from the fighting games community, we sometimes have to wait months before an infinite or unblocable is patched.
This is seriously great work from Rare right there.
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
Perhaps Rare should begin to utilize the Founder, Pioneer, & Insider programs to populate specialized Test Servers, prior to releasing patches to the Live Servers. The last few updates have had a few issues, and instead of having to take servers down for unscheduled maintenance, the patches should be tested before-hand.
It could prevent a lot of headaches that arise from errors/bugs/etc.
Patches are rolling out too fast to test server thoroughly. Most studios dont roll out weekly patches.
@rattlyfob
Patches are rolling out weekly, right now, because of bug fixes and minor suggestion implementations. Having a Test Server for the larger patches (such as the 3 content patches we've been told about) would make perfect sense, wouldn't you agree?
@OnigiriZangief I agree that Rare's quick response to today's patch was in good form. But I didn't login at the time to see just how unplayable the problem was? I'd certainly Hope that any development team would shut down their servers, and quickly correct a game breaking patch. Otherwise, real money is going to be lost.
@AlPhAcEnTuRiOn2 Simple... keep on paying the in-house team, and have them lead the Test community. I don't see how you could possibly think adding free-testers into the mix would be a waste of money? Just like @Monkeychow01 said, "what company would not want free voluntary QA testing?"
Even if all of the testers do not provide quality feedback (I don't see a real issue if they don't), giving the community the ability to assist would help to dispel a lot of the grievances that keep arising.
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@rattlyfob
Patches are rolling out weekly, right now, because of bug fixes and minor suggestion implementations. Having a Test Server for the larger patches (such as the 3 content patches we've been told about) would make perfect sense, wouldn't you agree?
Patches and weekly events will continue to be weekly.
There could be a private test server under an NDA that we dont know about. So again the minor weekly patches cant be play tested as they are rolling out too fast, and beyond that most developers dont release major content updates to the public prior to the launch of the content. For all intents and purposes, this is the test server if you report the bugs.
@rattlyfob The weekly events haven't started yet. Before they do, I think it would probably be wise to test that system out (on a public test server) before releasing it too!
Of course, bug patches and (once they're implemented) weekly events are not logical to run a PTS for (every single week, again, after they begin). But these larger patches, with game-changing features, should be tested more.
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@rattlyfob The weekly events haven't started yet. Before they do, I think it would probably be wise to test that system out (on a public test server) before releasing it too!
Of course, bug patches and (once they're implemented) weekly events are not logical to run a PTS for. But these larger patches, with game-changing features, should be tested more.
The larger patches you are refering to are part of the weekly updates, again being done too fast for it to be practical. Unless you are refering to large content drops such as the hungering deep which, again, would not be a good idea to release publicly before the release date as it would undermine the release hype.
The immediate response to the bug tells me that they did test it and knew that the bug might occur and were prepaired to roll it back in case it did happen (and it did). All of this including last weeks patch being rolled forward to this week is indicitive of testing.
Edit: for every bug we see there are probably 4-5 that are screened and caught before release.
If you want to be part of the solution, report every bug you see at the end of each game.
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@rattlyfob
Then they need to simply slow it down. And, as others have mentioned, they can place the Test Community under NDA's so the hype isn't lost. Don't be so obstinate ;P
If the test server is under NDA we wouldnt know about it... ie there probably is one.
Slowing it down is not the game plan and while it results in bugs, they are short lived and as a whole the game-bug relationship has been significantly improved.
@rattlyfob
That's not necessarily true, that we wouldn't know about it. SoT was in testing for years, but that doesn't imply that nobody in the world knew it was coming. An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is not the same thing as something being completely 'Top Secret.' We all know it's coming. We already have a general idea of what to expect. NDA's typically block streamers & bloggers from discussing the details of what is coming. They don't forbid testers from saying anything is coming at all.
They need to do something, whether that be slowing down patches, and/or providing a public test server, to assure that bug fixes and new implementations are working as intended.
There are still a lot of bugs to be found in this game. A lot of these bugs have been claimed to have been fixed already (or were fixed weeks after the initial claim of their being fixed).
Rare claims that they're "kind of test freaks," according to their Now Hiring listings. If that is the case, then there's no reason they wouldn't like this idea.
@rattlyfob said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@rattlyfob
Then they need to simply slow it down. And, as others have mentioned, they can place the Test Community under NDA's so the hype isn't lost. Don't be so obstinate ;PIf the test server is under NDA we wouldnt know about it... ie there probably is one.
Slowing it down is not the game plan and while it results in bugs, they are short lived and as a whole the game-bug relationship has been significantly improved.
And now all the reports of Almond Beard errors? This is why a Public Test Server is needed.
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@rattlyfob
That's not necessarily true, that we wouldn't know about it. SoT was in testing for years, but that doesn't imply that nobody in the world knew it was coming. An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is not the same thing as something being completely 'Top Secret.' We all know it's coming. We already have a general idea of what to expect. NDA's typically block streamers & bloggers from discussing the details of what is coming. They don't forbid testers from saying anything is coming at all.
Yes, but who wants to brag about testing under an NDA, how many alpha testers did you see talking about it before the open beta. Think about it. Again, there could be a testing group and we would have no clue.
They need to do something, whether that be slowing down patches, and/or providing a public test server, to assure that bug fixes and new implementations are working as intended.
Slowing down patches :o you want to stop progress! Thats crazy.
There are still a lot of bugs to be found in this game. A lot of these bugs have been claimed to have been fixed already (or were fixed weeks after the initial claim of their being fixed).
Fixing bugs sometimes leads to more bugs, and as a whole the gameplay is a lot smoother with very little actual bug experiences on a day to day basis.
Rare claims that they're "kind of test freaks," according to their Now Hiring listings. If that is the case, then there's no reason they wouldn't like this idea.
Testing is different from public testing.
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@rattlyfob said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@wodyo said in Test Server Prior to Patch Release:
@rattlyfob
Then they need to simply slow it down. And, as others have mentioned, they can place the Test Community under NDA's so the hype isn't lost. Don't be so obstinate ;PIf the test server is under NDA we wouldnt know about it... ie there probably is one.
Slowing it down is not the game plan and while it results in bugs, they are short lived and as a whole the game-bug relationship has been significantly improved.
And now all the reports of Almond Beard errors? This is why a Public Test Server is needed.
Considering Almondbeard is a network connection error, making another server or servers dedicated to it would result in an overall degridation of the server status. Just treat it like a test server and report bugs every time they occur. It helps them know the frequency and the cause of the bugs.
