Suggestion to devs regarding MP rollout, opinions welcome.

[Alkix]

As a MP player, how would you feel about the following MP rollout change.

Before the beta branch can be moved to stable, it must pass the MP beta test. During this time, the MP servers are updated and players can only play MP on the beta branch. This lasts at most a week, in which case the MP beta test is either a success, or it's considered a failure, in which case the beta branch will not be moved to stable, but the MP servers are reverted to the stable version and MP resumes until the problems are addressed. This process is continued until the MP beta is a success, in which case the branch can be moved to stable.
Consequences:
1. SP updates aren't released until game breaking bugs are removed from MP.
2. MP is "guaranteed" to not be busted on a stable branch update (This is huge from a development standpoint. TW really messed up on this one.)
3. MP players are forced to beta test.
Reasons why this can still go wrong:
1. What does "pass" even mean?
2. What's stopping SP content from continually affecting MP in the beta branch and the MP devs never being able to catch up?
3. MP players get salty anyway and just not play during the mandatory testing week.

 

[marcusuno]

I have over 1k hours in multiplayer. I used to play daily until the latest update. Now I play to check once a week if the servers have gotten any better. Been waiting for months now. I can't be the only one. They took the NA servers down for a couple of weeks, we begged them to put them back up, and now they are back and operate worse than ever.

Edit/Suggestion: Seasonal, quarterly, or biannual state of the game blog post. Transparency. Roadmap.

 

[Namakan]

while beta testing needs to be done, forcing players to do it won't work.

just put up some god damn beta servers and ask for feedback, TaleWorlds. maybe offer a reward. bit of loot or whatever. thanks.

 

[Alkix]

while beta testing needs to be done, forcing players to do it won't work.

just put up some god damn beta servers and ask for feedback, TaleWorlds. maybe offer a reward. bit of loot or whatever. thanks.

In a sense, because MP beta isn't a thing anymore, players are already "beta testing", but with no option to go back to stable because "stable MP branch" doesn't exist. I'm effectively suggesting that TW protect their MP stable code by using the system they already have in place, even if it requires them to force players to unstable every so often.

 

[Greedalicious]

while beta testing needs to be done, forcing players to do it won't work.

just put up some god damn beta servers and ask for feedback, TaleWorlds. maybe offer a reward. bit of loot or whatever. thanks.

Double or tripple the loot that transfers afterward, easy

 

[Namakan]

In a sense, because MP beta isn't a thing anymore, players are already "beta testing", but with no option to go back to stable because "stable MP branch" doesn't exist. I'm effectively suggesting that TW protect their MP stable code by using the system they already have in place, even if it requires them to force players to unstable every so often.

Yeah, no. Forcing people onto unstable will just foster hostility. It might still work for casuals, but the competitive scene will absolutely run amok.

 

[RubbingMyAxe]

Swapping back and forth between beta and live branch is not going to keep people playing, a lot of people are not going to bother with that.

Not releasing SP updates until MP is in a stable state is probably not an option for TW. SP has way more players and is their primary focus, so holding back updates for weeks while their smaller MP team tries to fix stuff is not going to make people happy.

To me the answer seems to be, make MP its own completely separate build from SP. At least for now. That way if you get some updates for SP in the core modules that need to go out, you can release them and it won't affect MP. And if you release an update for MP that completely breaks something, you can roll it back without affecting SP. It's more work to maintain separate branches and merge changes between them, but at least the current situation wouldn't happen again.