Aram_Darksun Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 (edited) DarthDemens, The problem is PTS is always going to be weighted towards level capped players looking for something to do. The people at that level would tend to still be working on their live toons. Your premade character suggestion though is intriguing. Edited February 11, 2012 by Aram_Darksun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthDemens Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 DarthDemens, The problem is PTS is always going to be weighted towards level capped players looking for something to do. The people at that level would tend to still be working on their live toons. Your premade character suggestion though is intriguing. Agreed. But CharCopy gives at least the chance of having a correct level character for a mid-range mission test. People always seem to forget that Premade characters don't have to be max level with max gear (I blame a certain other MMO). You can create a premade for exactly what needs to be tested. Granted, its a little bit of extra work on BWs part, but the option is there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavrath Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 In either of those situations, its expected that people who are of the appropriate level/class will test the content. To put your questions another way: Am I going to level from 1-35 on the PTS just to test a level 35 quest change? No. I'm not willing to spend several hours just getting to the point where I can test one thing. More importantly, I'm not willing to do that knowing that the next change might involve a level 30 quest, and I get to re-do all that work again. With a CharCopy, I can bring over characters of varying levels from Live (or other players can, if I don't have the right level/class combo) to test it in a minimal amount of time. As it stands now, if they put out a patch on Thursday that changes a level 35 quest, that gives me 4 days to level to 35 on the PTS and test that content. That's most of my playtime for the weekend, and I'm not willing to give up 4 days worth of playtime to test one quest. So, it doesn't get tested. So bugs go through. CharCopy is the best way to allow a maximum amount of testing in a minimal amount of time. Alternatively, if they change a class quest (Say, they fixed one of the bugs affecting the final boss of the BH Act 1 quest) they could offer pre-made level 32 BH Mercs and Powertechs on the appropriate quest so that people could log in, test, and get their feedback in in a matter of minutes or hours, instead of taking days. If you read my suggestion, then you know that I never suggested that people level characters on the PTS, quite the contrary. While I agree that character copy is a necessary first step, it is just a band-aid. Character copy is a mechanism that HOPES that enough testers will have an appropriate class, level, faction, alignment combination to test the content. It is not proactive, it is simply a wing and a prayer. The only way to guarantee that EVERY tester can test EVERY patch is to be able to create a character at any class, level, faction, and alignment combination that they wish. If Bioware patches a bug that happens only to level 35 troopers, then every tester on the PTS should be able to immediately create a level 35 trooper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b-morgan Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Character copy should be the top priority addition to the PTS. In a perfect world, the ability to pre-make any level character would be a useful feature in addition to character copy. Of course, the ability to start a new character should remain an option. If there is a limit on the number of character copies, it should not prevent a new copy each week. I'm happy with a limit to the number of characters on the PTS and can delete characters to make room for a new copy each week. Release notes are available for each week's build. When necessary, add a list of "needs attention this week" for changes that you might not want to explicitly identify. For example "Eternity Vault, 8-man, boss <X> needs attention" as opposed to a release note detailing the change. As for incentives, if you can keep the identity of the original server and character that the copy was made from, enhance the ability of the in game mail rewards system that already exists to send rewards back to the original server and character. A token number of credits for testing could be incentive enough. I'm not suggesting that the mission rewards get transfered, just use the mechanism that currently exists with some missions to send a follow up mail to send a special reward because its on the PTS. As an example, if a Flashpoint needs testing on the PTS, offer 10,000 credits to the original server/character for completing the Flashpoint on the PTS. Limit this to a daily or a weekly type reward and it shouldn't be exploitable or economy breaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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