A quick letter to the Devs

[Tadok]

<DIV><FONT size=2> <P>This is an open letter to the Developers. It is written in the interest of making the test server a bit better for all of us. Parts of this letter may be very rant like however this is not the intention of this letter.</P> <P>Hi there. My name is Labb Accident, a level 33 Guardian, 28 carpenter, and full time test player. I play on test to help test this game and try and make EQ2 the best game possible. I do this for fun and the sense I am doing something to help. I dont post on fan sites, I dont share information with players on the live servers, and I dont have characters on the live servers. I dont expect anything special because I play on test. But there are some things I need to help me and others test better. I personaly, and I believe many others, need more feedback from the developers. We who play on test are trying to help you out and we need better info to do that.</P> <P>We need the developers to let us know before changes are going to be made so that we can gather data before the changes are made for compairson. For example, before the combat changes were put on the test server it would have done a lot for us to have had a day or two warning so we could parse combat before the changes. We'll need much the same when the new healing system and caster system is put on the test server. Giving us a day or two heads up will allow us to parse the current effects of heal, spells, combat, so we'll have numbers to provide you with better feedback. I am sure you would much rather have info with specific numbers rather than info such as, we cant do it like we used to. Putting up a post in the testers only forum on tuesday letting us know that the upate on friday will have changes to the healing system will go a long way towards helping us help you get real testing done.</P> <P>Secondly, we need more feedback from you the developers. When we post in the tester only forums about issues or bugs we are not doing it to get other players input, we need input from you. I realize you are all very busy and posting on the forums takes away from the time you have to actualy fix stuff, yet if you could give us even a small amout of feedback we can test better. Even a post saying that something we found is working as intended will let us move on from that particular issue. Nate is doing a great job on the server trying to get us feedback in game and getting from us issues as they happen. But many times his only response is for us to post the issue on the forums. When we dont get an answer of any form we wonder if what we are doing has a point. We can do a lot more to help you if you put forth a little effort to help us. </P> <P>Finaly, judging from the comments made by Scott Hartsman in the Testing feedback forums, you are looking into ways to try and increase the population on the test server. I completely agree this would be a very good thing. But what about keeping the people that are alredy on the server. We currently have a few people who cant log in some of their characters for some reason. This happened on a friday and the only response we got when we posted on the boards is that the issues would have to wait untill monday. Yet its wensday and still nothing has been done. Had this been a live server you would have had people pulling overtime weekend shifts to try and get this fixed. Dont forget we pay for our accounts too. I know of several people, myself included, who feel like what we are doing is unimportant to you. With the complete lack of responses on the tester only forums we dont feel like we are doing anything to help. Much of what we /bug is not fixed before it goes live, making much of the live population question if the test population does anything at all. While we know what we do, it will be difficult to defend our position by telling the live population we do our job and get ignored and yet ask more people to come to test and help out. I am well aware you cant fix everything nor can we catch everything. Yet having you come right out and say we were informed of this problem by the test server yet due to the need to get other fixes included in this patch we have to send this problem live, it will be addressed as soon as possible will take some heat off the test server population and let people know that yes you can make a difference on the test server. </P> <P>On a personal note, I really am enjoying EQ2. I like the direction the game is going and I hope it continues to grow while keeping true to the things that make the current game so much fun. There are some things that need to be looked into but hopefully they will be addressed. I thank you all for the work you are doing to make this game and keep it going. Please continue the hard work.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P>Labb Accident</P> <P>32 Guardian</P> <P>28 Carpenter</P> <P><Children of War></P></FONT></DIV>

[Zindicatt]

Good post.  I wholeheartedly agree to every point. 

[EtoilePirate]

Hear, hear.  Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Rondari]

<DIV>Totally agree</DIV>

[Torali]

<DIV>I'm completely behind Labb on every point he made. Thank you Labb</DIV>

[Sebastien]

This is a good post and I would like to build on it a bit. This relates to feedback, and letting us know of changes ahead of time.. but I'm going to use the more general term "information." SOE has seemed very reluctant to explain the mechanics of the game to us.  This has been a consistent pattern, and to some extent, I understand wanting to keep certain kinds of developer-privileged information from us because the knowledge of them might equate to spoilers or cheats. But understand that it is VERY difficult to test things if you do not know how they are supposed to work. For example... I devoted a number of hours to trying to gather feedback on the defensive impact of ver 2.0 of the combat revision.  My intention was to gather basic data on AGI, avoidance, etc, and take a look.  I couldn't do that very well, though, once I realized how completely you had changed things.  In particular, there were crazy changes made to the way armor effects avoidance. I call them "crazy" because there was no discernible rhyme or reason to them.  Several testers patiently invested their hours, too, in talking to me, providing data, and attempting to figure out a pattern.. why were some people receiving a -1% penalty for light armor gloves, while others received as low as -6% avoidance and as much as 6% avoidance??  Armor con color? nope.  Quality tier?  nope.  Level?  nope.  Slot?? nope.  It appeared to be totally haphazard. Due to a lack of communication on your part, SOE (mechanics devs / dev / whomever), I have no idea what your intentions were with those changes.  Should light armor give a bonus to avoidance?  A penalty?  Did you mean for it to scale based on a certain factor?  I can't provide you with any feedback as to whether the changes were "working" other than to say "they were changed, and in what manner, I have no idea." Why don't you feel you can explain that to me?  It's not like you are telling me how to build the best shadowknight or how to defeat the biggest raid mob.  I don't expect you to tell me such things.  But I do expect to be explained, completely, the rules of game before I play.  This is common sense, and if the game is well-made, then understanding the rules should actually make it more challenging and fun, not less.  Perhaps the act of explaining them would be helpful to you as well.  (sometimes the only way I make progress with problems in my own life is when others ask me for advice and I have to try to explain things to them) But regardless of your level of disclosure to the general subscriber base, you really need to be forthcoming here.  Understand that I pay in order to play your game.  When I come here, though, I am trying to perform a service for you.  Gathering all that data and taking an hour to calculate and format and type of a chart is work, not entertainment.  I do not mind doing it, because I enjoy the idea of being closer to the development cycle.  But you need to work with me. Most times I have logged into Test to gather data, I am trying to figure out rules that could have just been explained to me in the first place, so that I could be more productive with my time. Tell us what the intention is here.  Should green mobs be hitting us (a) often (b) sometimes (c) hardly at all.  Just tell me how you think it should work, and I can tell you whether the mechanics are working as intended.  Tell me exactly how you would like armor to effect avoidance.  Tell me how AGI should scale.  How do avoidance and mitigation figures scale as mob level deviates from white con?  What is some of the math involved? Again.. I do not see how understanding combat mechanics should negatively impact my gameplay.  I should be able to understand them, and use that knowledge to appreciate the game even more.  If that isn't the case, then maybe the mechanics need to be looked at some more, as we are doing. So, can you open up a bit more explicit dialogue with us?  If we are going through all these mechanics changes, why are we not seeing posts from mechanics devs? <div></div>

[Eelyen]

<P>I agree with some of the points.  But the reality is, they don't tell you the math because it's supposed to be immersive regardlessly.  If they told the test server, it would most likely leak to the live servers.  </P> <P>They did the same thing in Everquest 1 and it worked out fine.  We don't need to know exactly how everything works.  Agreed some very simple basics wouldn't hurt and I'm not against information.  </P> <P>The only thing I would like hearing more about is their direction and more specific areas they want to hit with changes.  Generalized stuff but more details basically.  </P>

[Shunidar]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Tadok wrote:<BR> <DIV><FONT size=2> <P>Finaly, judging from the comments made by Scott Hartsman in the Testing feedback forums, you are looking into ways to try and increase the population on the test server. I completely agree this would be a very good thing. But what about keeping the people that are alredy on the server. We currently have a few people who cant log in some of their characters for some reason. This happened on a friday and the only response we got when we posted on the boards is that the issues would have to wait untill monday. Yet its wensday and still nothing has been done. Had this been a live server you would have had people pulling overtime weekend shifts to try and get this fixed. Dont forget we pay for our accounts too. I know of several people, myself included, who feel like what we are doing is unimportant to you. With the complete lack of responses on the tester only forums we dont feel like we are doing anything to help. Much of what we /bug is not fixed before it goes live, making much of the live population question if the test population does anything at all. While we know what we do, it will be difficult to defend our position by telling the live population we do our job and get ignored and yet ask more people to come to test and help out. I am well aware you cant fix everything nor can we catch everything. Yet having you come right out and say we were informed of this problem by the test server yet due to the need to get other fixes included in this patch we have to send this problem live, it will be addressed as soon as possible will take some heat off the test server population and let people know that yes you can make a difference on the test server.</P> <P> </P> <P>Labb Accident</P> <P>32 Guardian</P> <P>28 Carpenter</P> <P></P></FONT></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Couldn't have been put better.  I think that last paragraph needs special emphasis as players on live think that we had not reported any of the bugs related to SoW or to the guild window and are clamoring for the ability to copy.  I would also love to see some more fiscal responsibility regarding the test server.  Bugs happen, but it would be nice when things like bugged prices on heritage items and woodworker totems were treated with the same sence of urgency as on live server.  Basically, if you want us to perform similar to a live server and give feedback like a live server, we deserve the same respect a live server would recieve reguarding it's economy and critical bug fixes.  If you expect people from live servers to come here and play, they need to feel like thier accomplishments mean something.</DIV>

[Silverdrop]

Agree wholeheartedly with the Tadok. Information is crucial for us to do our testing well. <div></div>

[Heattanu]

<P>I agree with the OP completely.  Being new to the Tester Only forum, I am disappointed, if not entirely surprised, that there is no more Dev communication here than on any of the other public boards. Maybe less. As someone who is new to testing,  the following would be helpful</P> <P>1) A factsheet for new testers. Set up expectations for a player on Test and give tips and techniques on how to effectively test new content and game changes. Examples of what kind of feedback is the most useful, and maybe examples of what not to do. What the categories in the bug reports mean.  I read the Test Server FAQ, but that just tells you how to make a character on Test, not how to test game content.</P> <P>2) An intro to the Test community. It took me a while to find out about the Test and TestTrader channels. It also took me a while to find out about this forum. Something in the MOTD message would be helpful to those who create a new character on Test.</P> <P>3) More specific direction from the devs with new patches. Especially ongoing feedback, what changes need more testers, what bugs need further testing to clarify the problem. </P> <P>Test obviously has a dedicated community that wants to contribute their time and brainpower. With a little guidance, its seems like devscould get much more useful information and testers would get much more satisfaction that their efforts are worthwhile and appreciated. It really shouldn't take that much time or effort to get things rolling. </P> <P> </P>

[Kwoung]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Heattanu wrote:<BR> <P>I agree with the OP completely.  Being new to the Tester Only forum, I am disappointed, if not entirely surprised, that there is no more Dev communication here than on any of the other public boards.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>The benefit of posting in this forum, is knowing that there is a 100% chance that what you reported will be read by a dev and it will addressed if need be. While you may not see a lot of dev posts here.. read the threads, you will see that a great number of the fixes, changes, tweaks to the came came straight from feedback given here.<BR>