Would Like to Copy Live Toons to Open Test

[Beajay]

<p>I did some serious complaining about the lack of a new slot for the new sarnak race and was told to make a sarnak on the test server. Well I made a sarnak, joined a great guild, and now I am ready to settle down on test for the rest of my EQ2 career. Test has to have the best community in all of EQ2 and my family and I love it here.</p><p>The problem is we have spent a lot of time leveling up toons on our old live server and we are very fond of them. We would like to copy some of our toons over to test. They would help flesh out our guild and provide an extra set of crafters for those playing in non-prime time.</p><p>I understand it has been awhile since you allowed players to copy to test and I was thinking that this would be a really nice holiday gift for those of us who would like to make test their new home. Hope you will consider our request. We have already done a /testcopy add to our toons. It will probably get them copied to the pvp test server but they are all packed and ready to move when /testcopy add works with open test.</p>

[ke'la]

<p>They have never and will never allow people to /testcopy to the standard test server. They have in the past opened up a Temperary server to Test specific content, in wich they did allow players to copy to, however that server is currently off-line as they have nothing that requires that kind of testing.</p><p>That said if you like the Test Community as much as you say, and want to stay thier SoE does have a Caractor Transfer service that would MOVE your caractor to Test, however it's very expencive($50) and I beleave currently off-line.</p>

[Kethaera]

<cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>They have never and will never allow people to /testcopy to the standard test server. They have in the past opened up a Temperary server to Test specific content, in wich they did allow players to copy to, however that server is currently off-line as they have nothing that requires that kind of testing.</p><p>That said if you like the Test Community as much as you say, and want to stay thier SoE does have a Caractor Transfer service that would MOVE your caractor to Test, however it's very expencive($50) and I beleave currently off-line.</p></blockquote>Transfer does not currently include the Test Server, nor has it ever. They have in the past allowed copies to the standard Test Server for certain events, like testing Fallen Dynasty, but the copied characters were deleted after the event was done. With the addition of the PvP Test Server, they no longer do copies to the standard Test Server.I'm assuming the reason they do not allow transfers to the Test Server is because they would not be able to allow transfers off. Test has an innate XP bonus, which some would exploit by transferring here to level, then transferring back to Live. I guess they fear a customer service nightmare if they allowed people to transfer to Test, and then people realized their characters were "stuck" there if they could not transfer off.I, like many others, wish there was some other alternative, but I do not know what it would be.

[Eriol]

<cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>That said if you like the Test Community as much as you say, and want to stay thier SoE does have a Caractor Transfer service that would MOVE your caractor to Test, however it's very expencive($50) and I beleave currently off-line.</p></blockquote>I'm reasonably certain (though not positive) that even with that service you can't take people to test, or off either.  The Off makes sense, as you can level faster on Test than on live servers (there's a permanent exp bonus there IIRC), but I can believe that there would be people that would want to permanently move there.I would be against copies though.  I've heard from people I know in EQ1 what happened to their test server when they allowed copies, and it wasn't pretty.  Moves OK, copies bad.

[Beajay]

<p>I can see why transfers wouldn't be allowed from Open Test to a live server but I don't understand why we can't copy our live toons to test. As it stands now it is really hard, if not impossible to test raid material as there aren't enough high-level toons on at any given time to do large raids.</p><p>I'm not sure why copying over to test should prove a problem to the established test community either since there is no pvp on Open Test. Prices on sales stuff is already exhorbitant so I doubt fresh blood would somehow adversely affect the economy.</p><p>Regardless, I am leveling up my new test toons as fast as my little hands will allow. I've only rolled a few alts so I will still have plenty of room left if SOE ever does allow us to copy existing toons over to test.</p>

[Enochia]

<p>At 10:45pm. est. on Saturday night, there were 59 players on the open test server of which about 12 were 50+. Some players were anon so they were added to the 50+ number.</p><p>As previously mentioned by Beajay, that isn't enough players for raids which means raids may not be getting tested properly. Allowing players to copy to test should help increase the 50+ player base so players can test raids.</p><p>I've played other MMORPGs and I think they all allowed copies of live characters to their test server(s). I'm not sure why Sony doesn't allow copies. I wish they did because I have some characters I would like to copy over to test so I could test some of the higher level content while leveling up my test-born characters.</p>

[Emo]

god forbid that lvl 80 players would be allowed to actually test raid content. i soo loved when test player felt offended and said they were doing their job in testing for the first time EH mid august2007 and that they had reported bugs...

[ke'la]

<p>The reason why they don't allow copies to the Test sever is very simple. Copied toons almost never test anything. They are thier to preview content, NOT test it. All you have to do is look at ANY open beta, beta buffed zone, or copied server(when they activate "PvP" test), and you can see that what they want tested almost never gets tested, and the few times it does are when it just so happens that the REAL reason the toons are copied and the test are the same... such as:</p><ul><li>When PvP-Test was first activated for testing Major PvP changes, all the PvPers copied thier to see what SoE Broke with thier class, wich is what SoE wanted.</li><li>When they allowed people to beta buff to "load test" the Isle of Maria, people sat on Mairia's Docks and /dueled each other in beta buffs they don't normally play(wich put an extra load on the server).</li></ul>

[Emo]

so i guess it s totally OK to have TEST starting to test emerald hall mid august 2007 when it had been cleared and "tested" on live. this debate will never end, it sound simple to allow guild to be copied and then to delete them after 2 weeks in there but i dont know the doability of such a thing. i dont care what players on test say about having leveled their toon on test etc etc, the fact remain that they arent doing their job properly in the part of the game i m interrested in.

[Jahiah]

<cite>Eriol wrote:</cite><blockquote>I would be against copies though.  I've heard from people I know in EQ1 what happened to their test server when they allowed copies, and it wasn't pretty.  Moves OK, copies bad.</blockquote>i actually did the eq1 copy.  it was great not even close to bad at all, so not sure who you heard that from.  they also had /testbuff that would allow you to create a new toon and buff it to lvl 20 for a headstart at leveling to test.  i have and always will be FOR testcopies of other server toons.  i play on butcherblock 100% and for me to create, level, TS level, save money, etc to test stuff for my chars that are 70+ and 45ish on test server is not only a waste of time but really should not even be an issue.  allowing us to copy our main chars WILL bring in some that just want to preview stuff and all the other bad things that people say.  but it will ALSO bring in those of us like me, that REALLY want to test out stuff like TSing, solo/duo content, how stuff works, is it working right really, etc etc.  i tested tons when i played eq1 and miss that more than i can even begin to explain in eq2.

[Aela@Test]

<cite>Emoec wrote:</cite><blockquote>so i guess it s totally OK to have TEST starting to test emerald hall mid august 2007 when it had been cleared and "tested" on live.this debate will never end, it sound simple to allow guild to be copied and then to delete them after 2 weeks in there but i dont know the doability of such a thing.i dont care what players on test say about having leveled their toon on test etc etc, the fact remain that they arent doing their job properly in the part of the game i m interrested in.</blockquote><p>Actually as a person who was part of the EH test... we tested EH for the sole purpose of testing the "zone in, zone out" saved persistence lockouts.  That was what was asked, so we did it.  We were not "clearing" EH.  Those types of tests occured... in the beta for EoF.  And, at that time, raid guilds were copied over to test it. </p><p> Test doesn't have the numbers of the correct classes to be at the "top end" of raid content.  Raid guilds do that better then we.  When a zone that is a raid zone is already on live...it doesn't NEED to be tested on test.  It was, in most cases, tested in the beta...and is now being explored on live.   When it's a new raid zone, ie. the New Tunaria Instance, SoE opened PVP Test so raiders COULD test it.</p><p> While i would love to see more numbers on the test server, allowing people to pop in and play for two weeks... only to disappear for the rest of the time, isn't the answer and would slove niether problem.   </p>

[Finora]

<cite>Emoec wrote:</cite><blockquote>so i guess it s totally OK to have TEST starting to test emerald hall mid august 2007 when it had been cleared and "tested" on live.this debate will never end, it sound simple to allow guild to be copied and then to delete them after 2 weeks in there but i dont know the doability of such a thing.i dont care what players on test say about having leveled their toon on test etc etc, the fact remain that they arent doing their job properly in the part of the game i m interrested in.</blockquote><p>You are missing the fact that EH was part of the EOF expansion, and was tested during the beta. If you have problems with bugs and what not in that zone, blame the beta raiders not the folks on Test Server who had nothing to do with that. They tested (as Aela said) the workings of EH as a persistant instance, which was something new, not the content inside of the zone. Same with the vast majority of the other raid zones in game. They were available & tested in the beta's. Test Server wasn't responsible for any problems that went live in those. You know that Test doesn't get new expansion content before live servers either right?</p><p>That's what test server is there for. Testing new content added & changes made to existing content.</p><p>When changes happen that directly affect raid instances & mobs there in or new ones are added the devs get people over to test it ( be that using the PVP test server or some other method).</p>

[RoadkillUSA]

<p>I am against copies to test server but I would not be against permanent move to test though. I would imagine they could code the game so it would flag characters non-movable after the move to test. </p>

[Beajay]

<p>After much discussion for and against allowing toons to be copied to Test I have come to the conclusion that it is probably better not to allow copies. Apparently established guilds have enough problems with people rolling toons, joining their guilds, using up resources, and then leaving to go back to their live servers. Copied toons would just compound the problem as there would be no way to determine who was a serious tester and who wasn't. </p><p>I only really wanted to copy over some toons so I could skip the miserable 20s. Some game design sadist decided to reduce the root spawns in all the lvl 20 areas making the 20s the absolute pits for those of us who love to craft.</p><p>To add insult to injury they have upped the aggro range of the 20s mobs making it even more miserable to harvest in those areas. By the time I finish a couple hours of trying to harvest I have a tension headache and need to lie down. </p><p>Obviously this isn't a pleasant way to spend my free time so I hoped I could copy toons over to avoid it. Since that isn't going to happen I'll just have to see if my physician will give me a 30-day prescription for Valium so I can get all my baby toons through this miserable period.</p>

[DeathEater024]

<cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>The reason why they don't allow copies to the Test sever is very simple. Copied toons almost never test anything. They are thier to preview content, NOT test it. All you have to do is look at ANY open beta, beta buffed zone, or copied server(when they activate "PvP" test), and you can see that what they want tested almost never gets tested, and the few times it does are when it just so happens that the REAL reason the toons are copied and the test are the same... such as:</p><ul><li>When PvP-Test was first activated for testing Major PvP changes, all the PvPers copied thier to see what SoE Broke with thier class, wich is what SoE wanted.</li><li>When they allowed people to beta buff to "load test" the Isle of Maria, people sat on Mairia's Docks and /dueled each other in beta buffs they don't normally play(wich put an extra load on the server).</li></ul></blockquote>Actually when the test server first opened they did allow one way transfers to test. Yes the regular test server to help get the community started.  I don't see a problem with one way transfers  to test as long as people understand those characters will never be able to leave the test server. It will bring some people on the fence to the server, but I really doubt that there would be a huge number of people that would even think about the opportunity.

[DeathEater024]

<cite>Larc@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I am against copies to test server but I would not be against permanent move to test though. I would imagine they could code the game so it would flag characters non-movable after the move to test. </p></blockquote>Right on brother I am against being able to make copies as well but permanently moving characters should be allowed. I would move my toons in a heartbeat. I think it would work just like a station exchange you can do a one way transfer for free and you cant move from the server. That way if you decide not to play on test anymore guess what your back to retail with no toons.

[Traxor]

<cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>They have never and will never allow people to /testcopy to the standard test server. They have in the past opened up a Temperary server to Test specific content, in wich they did allow players to copy to, however that server is currently off-line as they have nothing that requires that kind of testing.</p><p>That said if you like the Test Community as much as you say, and want to stay thier SoE does have a Caractor Transfer service that would MOVE your caractor to Test, however it's very expencive($50) and I beleave currently off-line.</p></blockquote>Exactly why everything is, and ALWAYS will be broken. Fix bugs before you put it out for a change. ps. I want my pocket golem back.

[Valdaglerion]

<cite>Aela@Test wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite><p>Actually as a person who was part of the EH test... we tested EH for the sole purpose of testing the "zone in, zone out" saved persistence lockouts.  That was what was asked, so we did it.  We were not "clearing" EH.  Those types of tests occured... in the beta for EoF.  And, at that time, raid guilds were copied over to test it. </p><p> <span style="color: #ff0000;">Test doesn't have the numbers of the correct classes to be at the "top end" of raid content.  Raid guilds do that better then we.  When a zone that is a raid zone is already on live...it doesn't NEED to be tested on test.</span>  It was, in most cases, tested in the beta...and is now being explored on live.   When it's a new raid zone, ie. the New Tunaria Instance, SoE opened PVP Test so raiders COULD test it.</p><p> While i would love to see more numbers on the test server, allowing people to pop in and play for two weeks... only to disappear for the rest of the time, isn't the answer and would slove niether problem.   </p></blockquote>That is precisely the argument made higher up in this thread. If the intent of the test server is to allow players to try out and test new content, the people who are going to do that best are the players that will play that content live. Allowing live toons to copy to test and actually try out new content would certainly ferret out a lot more bugs and oversights than is being done now. And by no way should that statement reflect poorly on those who play on test but it is a direct reflection on the lack of population on test and the overall ability to test in mass in a short amount of time. Just my 2 cp.