[Organised Testing] CURRENT TIME SLOT: 6:00PM-12:00AM - Capture the Flag, US S4

[Reilnur]

In order for all the game modes to be sufficiently tested, as is our job as beta testers, I would recommend that we attempt to organise our attempts at testing.
I've seen several people playing on, say, the Conquest server, and only dueling. That's great fun, and I joined in, but it doesn't help to test the functions of the Conquest game mode. I have rarely seen more than a few people on anything but a Battle server, or a DM server, and while those are good servers for testing general gameplay, I can guarantee that there are more unknown bugs in Conquest, Capture-the-Flag and Siege than we will find in general combat, at this point.

So, what do you, testers, feel about such a plan? Too draconian? Consider it a good idea, but probably will not participate? Needs refinement?

Let's iron out the kinks on how we will test, and then, we will be able to properly iron out the kinks in the beta.

EDIT: Added poll

EDIT 7:00PM Sept. 25th
From my post on page 2:

Alright, I would like to implement the following schedule for the upcoming week as a trial run. If you are in favor of such organised testing to give the devs a better idea of what the game's issues are, please try and adhere to this schedule. (All times are ET)

Friday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Free time. At the end of the week people are thinking more about unwinding than testing, which is perfectly understandable.
Saturday 10:00AM-6:00PM - Capture the Flag, U.S. Server 4
Saturday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Siege, U.S. Server 7
Sunday 10:00AM-6:00PM - Conquest, U.S. Server 6
Sunday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Capture the Flag, U.S. Server 4
Monday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Free time. We'll hopefully have given the devs plenty of work with our testing during the weekend.
Tuesday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Conquest, U.S. Server 6
Wednesday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Battle, U.S. Server 8
Thursday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Team Deathmatch, U.S. Server 5

Let's see how it works out.

 

[Regendur]

Hmm hmm. Seems like a good idea, although I doubt everyone will go for it. It just seems too rigid. (It has no free time.)

However, this would probably give a lot more info to the devs. Which is our purpose... hey, I'll go for it. I just would like to have some fun at the same time. (Not that beta testing isn't fun... but yeah, you get my drift.)

 

[Johnny Morphine]

I think I was in on that one, and I showed up late in the game around the same time Commodore Frank did, and someone actually tried to kick him for capturing the damn points.

I doubt that trying to schedule testing would actually have any effect on people unless the specified test servers were the only ones open during those times, in which case many people would be turned off from playing entirely.

Duels like that, anyway, would have been much more appropriate on a bloody deathmatch server - not Conquest. This was the first time I'd ever even seen more than two people in that mode, so I was anxious to actually test it out. Of course, under those circumstances, a functional test was impossible.

Institutionalized testing would be nice in an ideal world, but this is the real world, which is far from ideal.

If organized groups of people would quit trying to take over servers for their own attempts to show off or otherwise please themselves in such a masturbatory fashion, disappointments like tonight would probably never happen.

 

[Commodore_Frank]

Yeah, tad silly that they wanted to kick me for playing the map the way it was intended. What made even less sense is that the team deathmatch server would work better for dueling, yet it was empty until I brought it up during that game.

I'd be all for playing all of the gametypes at given times to help with the testing.

 

[Skot the Sanguine]

Ah, we were only going to kick you because everyone was trying to duel on a manual block server and it was the only quiet one we could get a hold of.  I don't blame you for shooting at us...but at the same time we all agreed to practice our blocking and combat skills and you were going against the flow, even if you technically were playing the game right.  Besides, it was going to be a kick...a slap upside the head....not a ban

 

[Wu-long]

Ah, we were only going to kick you because everyone was trying to duel on a manual block server and it was the only quiet one we could get a hold of.  I don't blame you for shooting at us...but at the same time we all agreed to practice our blocking and combat skills and you were going against the flow, even if you technically were playing the game right.  Besides, it was going to be a kick...a slap upside the head....not a ban

Agreed!

 

[Kleidophoros]

Ah, we were only going to kick you because everyone was trying to duel on a manual block server and it was the only quiet one we could get a hold of.  I don't blame you for shooting at us...but at the same time we all agreed to practice our blocking and combat skills and you were going against the flow, even if you technically were playing the game right.  Besides, it was going to be a kick...a slap upside the head....not a ban

Agreed!

stfu

and on topic, i am all for it.

 

[Gobblecoque]

Ah, we were only going to kick you because everyone was trying to duel on a manual block server and it was the only quiet one we could get a hold of.  I don't blame you for shooting at us...but at the same time we all agreed to practice our blocking and combat skills and you were going against the flow, even if you technically were playing the game right.  Besides, it was going to be a kick...a slap upside the head....not a ban

You kicked a fellow because he was playing correctly, on the grounds that he was "going against the flow".

Your logic is unfathomable.

 

[ares007]

Ah, we were only going to kick you because everyone was trying to duel on a manual block server and it was the only quiet one we could get a hold of.  I don't blame you for shooting at us...but at the same time we all agreed to practice our blocking and combat skills and you were going against the flow, even if you technically were playing the game right.  Besides, it was going to be a kick...a slap upside the head....not a ban

Agreed!

stfu

and on topic, i am all for it.

wth is your problem? 

And by the way, I think this is a good idea. I doubt I'll have the time to participate, but I think it would definitely help the developers out.

Ah, we were only going to kick you because everyone was trying to duel on a manual block server and it was the only quiet one we could get a hold of.  I don't blame you for shooting at us...but at the same time we all agreed to practice our blocking and combat skills and you were going against the flow, even if you technically were playing the game right.  Besides, it was going to be a kick...a slap upside the head....not a ban

You kicked a fellow because he was playing correctly, on the grounds that he was "going against the flow".

Your logic is unfathomable.

while this is a bit off-topic, I want to know how much communication there was. Did you tell him what you were doing and etc?

 

[Orion]

"House rules" are fine as long as you warn people about what you're doing. If you kick someone just for showing up, or going against your rules before you told them what they were, well...

Anyways, I don't like the rigid time setup because I think it would just alienate more people. I'll play in a conquest server if there are even a couple people there, and I'll play CTF under the same circumstances.

 

[Gobblecoque]

while this is a bit off-topic, I want to know how much communication there was. Did you tell him what you were doing and etc?

Are talking to me or Skot? I wasn't there, I'm merely providing my thoughts on the situation.

 

[ares007]

while this is a bit off-topic, I want to know how much communication there was. Did you tell him what you were doing and etc?

Are talking to me or Skot? I wasn't there, I'm merely providing my thoughts on the situation.

whoever was there

but this is really quite off-topic

 

[Johnny Morphine]

Yeah it is off topic, but let me continue (haha...)
I came on at the same time he did, and I didn't see any announcements about it either. So deep into the next round we both realized that no one was actually going to "conquest" anything and left.

Since I see that a lot of people think this is a good idea, I'll keep an eye out for players on those servers at any posted times when I'm available. I'd love to test out how the other modes work, with everyone there for the purposes of testing instead of showing off or exploiting known bugs for the sake of being an ******* with a good ratio. So far the only modes I've had any meaningful experience in is the deathmatches, sieges, and of course battles.

If this gets enough support, having it as a sticky with updated testing times would certainly add the legitimacy factor to it.

 

[Faranox]

Sounds neat. Maybe switch the schedule each week?

 

[Reilnur]

Sorry about being so late to reply, I had a busy day.

The schedule is not so much to force people to ONLY play that game mode in that time slot, but rather to encourage the more active players (Regendur, Orion, Gobblecoque, Booya, Styo, Sero, CommodoreFrank, Test, etc.) to join those servers during that time slot because people tend to gravitate towards the servers with more people.

I'd like to get feedback on how you'd like this schedule to be set up, and perhaps we can start implementing it on Friday.

 

[Johnny Morphine]

Since we have people from all time zones from Australia to California playing this game, a rotating schedule would be nice to get more people involved.
Also, some people have go to school during the day and others have jobs at any time day or night, on varying days of the week.

Do you think a poll or at least a thread dedicated to when people will be most commonly available would be in order? If people could post their availability in standard GMT format for each day of the week, someone could compile that information and, by that, determine when would be the best time to get the most important tests done with the most players available.

 

[dedhero]

This is something we need. I have noticed after reading quite a few threads that some folks take this as just the time they get to play the game before most people. We have been selected to test the game and we should have the respect to do so. I am not advocating monopolizing any testers time, however I do think we should log onto the test servers with an eye towards testing. Sure we need to practice, for example, one can't find out that lances don't work correctly until you can actually hit with the lance.

What we need is organization and this is a good start. Another point I'd like to bring up is communicating on the servers. If you're on a server with the intent to test heavily, announce that regularly so that everyone knows. Now obviously this is not going to give one carte blanche to do as they wish but it can go a long way towards avoiding any confusion and hard feelings.

So if you're on and looking to find someone to test with hit me up. I am in the U.S. central time zone and will be on the servers anytime after 6pm. I am a willing test subject (read pin-cushion/moving target) for anything in the game. I'll be under the name dedhero.

 

[Skot the Sanguine]

while this is a bit off-topic, I want to know how much communication there was. Did you tell him what you were doing and etc?

Sorry for the off-topic reply, but just to clarify....of course we gave warning, and I didn't start the vote either.  When 8 or so of us are trying to do something specific like dueling, and our requests that the person joining comply or go to one of the other occupied servers is ignored, that is when the kick vote started.  Obviously the ideal would be to have a private server, but those are not present now.

Johnny, I know we gave warning, usually when we realized that someone new joined.  Typically an arrow flies through the air and then is followed by a couple "We are dueling" or "No Bows" in the comment bar.  We wouldn't kick willy-nilly

Gobble, we all have moments of questionable logic.  I find the logic of coque gobbling shaky! 


ON TOPIC:  I will take part in whatever organized testing is agreed upon, it is a good idea.  As Johnny said, it would be smart to rotate the times and probably get a feel for what time of day is best for the majority.

 

[Johnny Morphine]

Johnny, I know we gave warning, usually when we realized that someone new joined.  Typically an arrow flies through the air and then is followed by a couple "We are dueling" or "No Bows" in the comment bar.  We wouldn't kick willy-nilly

...

ON TOPIC:  I will take part in whatever organized testing is agreed upon, it is a good idea.  As Johnny said, it would be smart to rotate the times and probably get a feel for what time of day is best for the majority.

Neither of us noticed it, but I know from past experience that sometimes while you're playing it's hard to catch every little thing that goes on in the lower left corner of the screen, so I'll let Frank know that next time I talk to him (probably a half hour from now, as soon as I finish this video of a bug I was trying to run some tests on earlier)

I'm really looking forward to some organized testing. I'm going to try to get on a bit later tonight. Is anyone going to be online for an active test, by any chance? If so, I'll look for you.

 

[Reilnur]

Alright, I would like to implement the following schedule for the upcoming week as a trial run. If you are in favor of such organised testing to give the devs a better idea of what the game's issues are, please try and adhere to this schedule. (All times are ET)

Friday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Free time. At the end of the week people are thinking more about unwinding than testing, which is perfectly understandable.
Saturday 10:00AM-6:00PM - Capture the Flag, U.S. Server 4
Saturday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Siege, U.S. Server 7
Sunday 10:00AM-6:00PM - Conquest, U.S. Server 6
Sunday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Capture the Flag, U.S. Server 4
Monday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Free time. We'll hopefully have given the devs plenty of work with our testing during the weekend.
Tuesday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Conquest, U.S. Server 6
Wednesday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Battle, U.S. Server 8
Thursday 6:00PM-12:00AM - Team Deathmatch, U.S. Server 5

Let's see how it works out.