Why do test server patches get pushed after the live servers get updated?

[ccarro]

<p>Why is it that the live servers receive a patch, then often within the next few days that patch gets put on the test server. I have a great new ground breaking idea...put patches on the test server FIRST, work the bugs out, then push to live. I know it's a risky move, but it might actually improve the gaming experiance for the paying customers.</p>

[PhabiusBile]

<p>have no clue what you are talking about most of the patches on test get posted to live servers after they hit test for a couple of days. </p><p>As a matter of a fact .....most of the information i get about upcomming patches to live i get from reading the test update notes days in advance.</p>

[Nrgy]

<p>I also noticed this .. but it only happens once in a Blue Moon so I wouldn't worry too much about it becoming the norm rather then the exception.</p><p>Not to mention that with the huge amount of Hot-Fixes in the last week that they really don't need to 'Test' the reversal/correction to many of the Item stats or Graphic links.  Updates to game mechanics go to Test before Live the majoy majority of the time, but content adjustments can flow in either order as long as the two systems are in sync.</p><p>Just to add: Posts/Corrections/Reversals/etc.. like the ones found in (<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=506375">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=506375</a>) thread don't need to be tested, they just need to be fixed.  No-harm, No-Foul as long as they keep the systems in sync.  It would be a terriable oversite if they fixed these in Live .. then made other unrelated game changes to Test and then pushed Test to Live without having them in sync first.  You'd end up with the exact same issues as before and on top of that you'd look pretty foolish.  </p><p><cite>Omougi wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The appearance issues in this thread have been addressed internally.  The changes will be hotfixed live as soon as possible.</p></blockquote>

[ccarro]

<p>I've noticed it has happed more just recently then in the past. And the results were pretty bad and had many bugs that could have been caught on the test server. Go back and look at the update notes...you'll find many times where the live servers were updated a day before or the same day as the test servers.</p><p>Probably not a huge deal or anything, but I just don't see what the harm would be to put these patches on the test server for at least a day, just in case.</p><p>To be honest, I really think the test server should go away, and the free to play servers should be used for testing. At least there are people there to test some of the content. Just my opinion.</p>

[Sikbik]

<p>because its prolly a really needed urgent hotfix that had internal testing. They were prolly really busy making the patch for live servers first because there are like 20x more live servers than test servers, and im sure they have to code certain perameters if it is test vs live. so therefor test servers would get these urgent hotfixes either the same day or the following depending on how stressed the dev team is.</p>

[ccarro]

<p><cite>Sikbik wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>because its prolly a really needed urgent hotfix that had internal testing. They were prolly really busy making the patch for live servers first because there are like 20x more live servers than test servers, and im sure they have to code certain perameters if it is test vs live. so therefor test servers would get these urgent hotfixes either the same day or the following depending on how stressed the dev team is.</p></blockquote><p>No kidding, you've said the obvious. But, it would still make more sense to test these patches first and avoid bugs, additional patches, and additional server downtime. That is the purpose for the test server, afterall.</p>