Honest question: What is the point of the test server and Live updates

[Demothis]

<DIV>Ok, Im not trying to be rude or walk around with a know it all aditute here? but what is the point of having the test server?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Every time there is a update or a patch that comes out the test server gets it for 1 day before going live. Every time. I can see 1 day being enough on these little patches, there are some minor changes, things can get addressed and everything works as intended. But on these Live updates, again the test server only gets it 1 day. How can all the bugs that are introduced to a minor revamping of the entire game be tested, feedback goten, and bugs fixed in 1 day? And they aren't, obviosuly as they are getting out to the live servers and causeing major issues when they hit.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also,the dev team dose so well when they intoduce fixes in small steps, then with these huge whoping updates which cause havoc. This makes scence being that the more you change in a programs coding at 1 time the more unexpected conflicts can happen, and thats with simple programs, Why not just fix things as you get to them instead of droping 1 big patch?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Again, I'm not trying to to tell folks how to do thier jobs or anything, just trying to understand the logic behind this type of activity.</DIV>

[Dimidri]

<P>I agree that they shouldn't be so rushed with the updates and be more thorough, but it's not 1 day... it was longer than that for the Live Update. The small patches are obviously much shorter, those are one day sometimes. Unless you can prove me wrong, it had to be at least like 5 days of testing for the second part of the live update, longer for the first half.</P> <P>Also, no matter how long they keep the live update on test, they probably won't catch all of the bugs. The test server population is SMALL like you wouldn't believe. Sometimes it takes a larger population to catch the bigger stuff.</P> <P>I think their approach is to get all of the big bugs they can while on test and iron out the smaller bugs on live. That may be why they don't take their time. I'm not for or against that, as long as they take care of those bugs in a timely manner.</P>

[Demothis]

<DIV>It was more then 1 day? It seams thet moorguard always has the test server updates 1 day, and the following day it hits the live the next day and on the offical updates. I may have missed somthing on that last update though.</DIV>

[Dimidri]

<P>Well, we got Live Update #5 on 3/21, the only update before that on Test was 3/18, and that was making changes to the stuff already implemented I think. I don't pay attention to that much though, too busy whining over class balance, it's fun =D</P> <P>I wonder how many 1 star ratings I'll get for saying that.</P>

[Aethn]

<DIV>In Truth.  Test Server has 150 people on it that play daily/nightly, thats it.  150 at any given time on a really GREAT login day.  150 people is not even 20% the population needed to Test anything.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There are less then 30 active lvl 40+ characters on the server.  Of those 30 or so people they are fragmernted amongst 6-7 guilds.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A good number of the 150 active players on Test Sever cant really even be counted as players.  A portion, I will toss out 20%, of the server two boxes due to lack of population to get even a basic simple grouping ability.  A segment of hte server is anti population, they think Test is a personal playground and rant and rave anytime it is suggested SOE boosts the server count.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There is one DEV/QA that is visible on the server for the most part.  He is pretty good about checking in on the chat channel, test.test  As for the other members of the team, they are pretty much inaccesible.  Very few times there is a direct link to Dev / QA, except for the one noted above.  On EQ1 Test Server, Dev was visible, and always accessible for immediate discussion about bugs found.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In short.  EQ2 Test Server as it stands today is not a viable testing platform for finding and fixing bugs.  Population is termianlly to low, by 1000 people.  Dev is hard to contact for immediate and critical bugs.  Parts of the population view Test as a live server were they can play on a soo server.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Until SOE realizes this, we have our hands tied on Test Server in regards to finding and having things fixed.  Nearly all the major bugs in update #5 were /bugged and discussed in test.test days prior to release.  Spell cancelling, Invulnerable mobs, lag issues with Bloodlines, etc etc a whole host of items that were pointed out but stil went live.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Changes need to be made and made fast, or the few people struggling on this server to stay here will leave.  Leaving almost no testing being done on a daily basis outside SOE's internal staff.</DIV> <P>Message Edited by Aethn on <SPAN class=date_text>03-27-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>08:41 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by Aethn on <span class=date_text>03-27-2005</span> <span class=time_text>08:42 PM</span>

[Dimidri]

<P>I agree... I tried to play on test... I really did. It's hard to do anything when there are 5 people in CL during prime time though. And no economy. I would play on it if more people joined, but as of right now, it's not enough people. I'm all for the low population thing that the Testers like, but face it, you NEED a somewhat good amount of people to play on your server. Otherwise, there isn't a point.</P> <P>I'll get one-starred, booed, and insulted by testers by this most likely (okay, they're almost all civil, but still), but I think that first, SOE should allow character copies. HOWEVER, first, people have to sign up for it, and SOE picks a certain amount of people, so as to not dramatically increase Test and make it super heavy population. Less than the population of live light servers, people do like the server for its low population. Also, pick people based on levels that you need. That would at least get the server started, I bet more would join from there. The only downside I see would be a bit of inflation, but as of right now, hardly and coin is being exchanged by players in test anyway.</P> <P>I'm sorry, but when a /who all shows less than 100 people, it's just wrong.</P>

[Jan It]

Do some reasearch and you´ll see that soon there could be a change to the test servers that won´t go live at all. It´s about putting mainly/solely soloable stuff into the big areas of the game. And for the live updates the test server always has it several days before the other servers. So it has a purpose I think. <div></div>

[Aethn]

<DIV>Are you reffering to the R&D this week for T2 and T3 zone mobs?? Because you need to reread it then.  If they find it to be a successful change it will indeed go live.  It is not only a change for Test Server.</DIV>

[Demothis]

<P>Yea, I guess there is a few days for the big patches, still dont think they give enough time  for things to get ironed out on the test server though, specialy with so few people on it anymore. Also a few people did note in the thread that issues where posted and it still went live:smileysad:</P> <P>I would still be playing on it periodically cept I just dont have time for it on top of my live characters and real life. </P>

[Daffid011]

<span><blockquote><hr>Aethn wrote:<div></div> <div></div>  <div>Until SOE realizes this, we have our hands tied on Test Server in regards to finding and having things fixed.  Nearly all the major bugs in update #5 were /bugged and discussed in test.test days prior to release.  Spell cancelling, Invulnerable mobs, lag issues with Bloodlines, etc etc a whole host of items that were pointed out but stil went live.</div> <div> </div> <hr></blockquote>Having more people would not have changed this.   Having  100 more people bug them same thing doesn't change the deadline for the expansion or make more time to code.  On this flip side I agree with you that the server could use more people to play here.  From all aspects of testing to player enjoyment even though I don't share your grim outlook of the server.  </span><div></div>

[Aethn]

<DIV>I dont have a grim outlook, unless its comming across like that.  I am just pointing out that the server is not functioning well for the purpose it is created for.  SOE needs to address this to help themselves more then us. </DIV>

[DevlDeg]

<div></div>I think test server is only a final test before release.   You have to believe that SOE has multiple servers inhouse that are not public that they perform many hours of testing.  They release upon test server to get a taste of feedback from the population.  More for PR then anything. <div></div><p>Message Edited by DevlDeggs on <span class=date_text>03-28-2005</span> <span class=time_text>07:05 PM</span>

[Jan It]

<span><blockquote><hr>Aethn wrote:<div>Are you reffering to the R&D this week for T2 and T3 zone mobs?? Because you need to reread it then.  If they find it to be a successful change it will indeed go live.  It is not only a change for Test Server.</div><hr></blockquote>Don´t have to reread it, just interpret my (not so clearly written) reply as I meant it as comment to the above poster who said everything on test will go live anyways. I just wanted to point out that the change in solo mobs will be on the test server for testing the gameplay and fun, and not only for bug reporting, hence no good change = not going live.</span><div></div>

[Daffid011]

Grim was just a poor choice of words on my part.  I hear what your saying though <div></div>