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<p>In this week’s blog, we want to take a small step back from the game to tell you about our plans for this summer’s Gamescom, something that we’ve been asked about many times in the past few weeks. Yes, we will be attending Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this August (no surprise there, eh!).</p></br> [/parsehtml]Read more at: http://www.taleworlds.com/en/Games/Bannerlord/Blog/108
Dev Blog 02/05/19
- Thread starter Callum
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FBohler said:
I don't think I've heard of a beta starting so small, even to begin with.
A lot of people are being pessimistic about their chances of being invited to the beta, but remember it's in Taleworlds' best interest to include many people with a variety of experience with Mount and Blade MP. More beta testers equals more man hours to find bugs and discover exploits and metas. While it's important to get the feedback of skilled players, it's also useful to get the perspective of someone with little experience, since that's going to be the skill-level of the majority of players on release day.
And I'd also be surprised if big servers aren't included in the beta.
You'd think they'd want to test if the servers handle large amounts of players well.
Especially now that captain mode exists. I imagine they'll want to stress-test that on a large-ish scale.
You'd think they'd want to test if the servers handle large amounts of players well.
Especially now that captain mode exists. I imagine they'll want to stress-test that on a large-ish scale.
kylelopezwms
Recruit
Old time player sitting here patiently. Lol I bought the mount and blade collection way back on CD in 2013. Really excited to see bannerlord coming into beta and hope to see some videos. Really interested in seeing gameplay! Keep up the good work m8s
Davic said:
Most of the 5000-10000 multiplayer hour players I know, many of whom have been playing since launch and have been over the course of the past 11 years been at the time the best players in the world in their 'category', aren't getting keys (including myself). As far as I am aware the first wave of people getting keys have already been informed and the only other players will be the players who have won certain tournaments. Just my 2 cents from what I've seen posted on these boards.
I'm gonna say that's a no.Eladon said:
Just a minor point here - inexperienced players are not really helpful testers: they tend to post bogus bug reports and contribute very little otherwise. So, they are more trouble than worth.Davic said:
Also veteran MP players with attitude problems, while able to contribute, may equally be disruptive and waste everyone's time with their antics. You don't need that if you are responsible for running the beta test.
Maybe you are not in the first wave? Even I got one, but they made me promise to delete my forum account by the end of the week.Orion said:
Eladon said:
I'd say since TW's hasn't released any info about the beta outside of that there will be one. But that's just my 2 cents.
Orion said:
Agreed, no indication whatsoever of this being true.
Orion said:Considering their flagship game mode for Bannerlord is 6v6 and they've said it will feature in the beta, I'll take that bet.
6v6 is good,
how about 24v24,
player is the weak side with rubbish equipment,
when the player game over, the beta account become invalid,
if the player win, they join another winner to fight next level,
as a result, the best player is the one who can lead the team and fight at the same time.
Rodrigo Ribaldo said:
I don't see how someone being inexperienced at Warband MP would cause them to make poor bug reports. The only real experience that one might want of a beta tester is lots of previous involvement in other betas. With that being said, it would be difficult to fill a beta of just players with lots of experience and still thoroughly test the game.
My point of the importance of including unskilled players is that their complaints will reflect the majority of the complaints seen the weeks after release. That's not to say those complaints are valid, but if a new players says something is too weak or too strong, while skilled players are saying it's fine, that insightful to the new player's experience of the game. Maybe the tutorial isn't thorough enough or it can only be countered via mechanics skilled players use, but that's still useful information one would not have with only experienced players. Ultimately, including unskilled players contributes to making casual multiplayer better, which is necessary if you want a healthy and large competitive scene.
Davic said:
Any healthy beta program, the same as any healthy research study, will include a spread of participants resembling the estimated playerbase. I doubt it'd be meaningful to only have veterans betatest the SP campaign, because players of varying experience interact differently with the game, thus leaving a chunk of potential issues unrevealed if one segment of the userbase isn't represented and interacting with the beta.
MP beta however, is probably different in that the focus is probably more on map space/timings, predicted meta and balance - not bugs and issues (MP has a limited scope, less moving parts, so the amount of bugs and issues probably isn't that high anyway). The meta in competitive games is often dictated by the veterans, and players of varying skill level often imitate that meta. At any rate, the aimed balance is probably based on how pros would play the game, and the balance could be very different in low level play. If TW gets serious about establishing BL as a recognized esports title, the balance in low level play is obviously of lesser importance than that of pro level play. Thus, if we assume that they do indeed focus more on balance and meta in their MP beta testing program, players of lower skill level are not as much of a priority. Could even end up giving conflicting feedback (than the veterans) that would only serve to mud the waters.
Anyway, who knows how it'll end up being.
orgrinrt said:
Competitive scenes are a reflection of the casual scene. Veterans don't just appear, they are naturally fed into the competitive scene via the casual scene. If you look at the largest E-sports currently, all of them have massive casual fanbases. Neglecting casual play will stunt the growth of new competitive players. Every veteran's first experience with a game is the casual scene, if that experience is confusing or frustrating, they likely won't stick around long enough to develop into a good player. I would argue having a fun and rewarding casual experience is as important as having a balanced and fair competitive experience for this reason. That would be the purpose of including new players in a MP beta, to ensure the first few hours everyone experiences are enjoyable so that they may eventually develop into skilled players who will benefit from the balanced high-level play.
I don't think beta tests are public polls or academic research into player populations. They are focused on finding bugs and addressing balancing issues of a game that is almost finished. Veteran players are much more efficient at this.
While watching newbies play to get your tutorial right may sound useful, it's not the only way to make a good tutorial and it's certainly not most efficient. TaleWorlds had plenty of player feedback from the previous titles and can make a perfect tutorial based on that experience only.
You can't avoid common questions on how to play the game as some features won't be intuitive or the feedback from the game may be lacking at times (or lazy players won't read your in-game help text because millennials or something). This is best addressed with FAQs and relying on spontaneous forum activity.
As for trying to make the MP combat more newbie-friendly, it shouldn't be at the expense of nuance that make the difference at higher skill levels. So we are talking about UI and cosmetic improvements here (like visual hints for your optimal swinging distance etc.)
It's true that veteran players are unlikely to suggest such improvements as they may be set in their ways, but newbies won't come up with cool UI solutions either.
I had some experience with beta testers for SP mods I was working on and I'll sum them up here:
- running a beta test takes a lot of your time, as you have to manage the test team, give them directions, answer their questions and process their reports; it's not something you should (or could) do in addition to your normal dev things
- veteran players who know the game well are great at fine-tuning the game and finding bugs, and this is generally why you want to beta test
- newbie players are a waste of time - they will report features as bugs, miss real bugs thinking they are features, and to make it worse, make plenty of suggestions on what features they want to see implemented
While watching newbies play to get your tutorial right may sound useful, it's not the only way to make a good tutorial and it's certainly not most efficient. TaleWorlds had plenty of player feedback from the previous titles and can make a perfect tutorial based on that experience only.
You can't avoid common questions on how to play the game as some features won't be intuitive or the feedback from the game may be lacking at times (or lazy players won't read your in-game help text because millennials or something). This is best addressed with FAQs and relying on spontaneous forum activity.
As for trying to make the MP combat more newbie-friendly, it shouldn't be at the expense of nuance that make the difference at higher skill levels. So we are talking about UI and cosmetic improvements here (like visual hints for your optimal swinging distance etc.)
It's true that veteran players are unlikely to suggest such improvements as they may be set in their ways, but newbies won't come up with cool UI solutions either.
I had some experience with beta testers for SP mods I was working on and I'll sum them up here:
- running a beta test takes a lot of your time, as you have to manage the test team, give them directions, answer their questions and process their reports; it's not something you should (or could) do in addition to your normal dev things
- veteran players who know the game well are great at fine-tuning the game and finding bugs, and this is generally why you want to beta test
- newbie players are a waste of time - they will report features as bugs, miss real bugs thinking they are features, and to make it worse, make plenty of suggestions on what features they want to see implemented
We had Frank/Lust at some point as a beta tester for TLD
Davic said:
+1
Well I, for one, continue to be hyped
If you read callum's post about how they're doing the beta, it seems they'll be doing it in two phases, phase one being much more closed and intense (probably with the vets), then open it up (probably to stress test, with lower "quality" players).
No guarantees, but based on this info that's how I read it.
No guarantees, but based on this info that's how I read it.
